After a day of trying to fix my 5 year-old Palm Tungsten T I am just about to throw in the towel. In my haste, I made a bid on ebay for a used Tungsten T for US$25, but now I am wondering if I did the right thing.
What should I be really looking for at this point?
Lately it seems that the productivity market for PDA’s has been ignored, and what has come into vogue is a massive case of feature creep with PDA’s being “augmented” by any electronic tool that can be found lying around. Today we have the following list of options:
- PDA + cell phone
- PDA + camera
- PDA + GPS
- PDA + iPod/mp3 player
- PDA + video camera
- PDA +HD radio
- PDA + ebook reader
- PDA + Gaming device
- PDA + browser
- PDA + IM’s
- PDA + SMS
- PDA + Television remote (no kidding)
And of course, there are various combinations of the above optional items.
Over time, the “PDA” portion of each device has shrunk in favor of the new “bling-bling,” giving less space and resources on the device to the management of time demands. in the advertising, the important has given way to the entertaining and frivolous. As a result, it’s become harder to find a PDA that is devoted to productivity.
After looking around a bit, it’s hard to find a company that is even thinking of productivity in the terms that we use them here at 2Time — managing time demands to increase peace of mind and user productivity.
I am open to recommendations, but a bit taken aback that in the last five years since I bought my Tungsten, no progress has been made in designing PDA’s that more closely fit the needs of users. (I have the same complaint about Microsoft Office, which has essentially changed only its color scheme between XP and 2007 versions.)
I’d love to find a company that is serious about building productivity software and hardware around the actual needs of users, taking into account the fact that users must deal with an increasing number of time demands in an effective way. I think that the first company to come up with a system that is more than just a conglomeration of disconnected features is likely to do quite well.
In the meantime, my search continues. As I indicated earlier, I am open to suggestions, but I think that I’ll be limiting my search to Palm OS devices, given the number of programs I have purchased based on that OS. That limits my choices tremendously, but if I get my PDA working again, I think I’ll nurse it along until someone comes up with a better device.
3 users commented in " Choosing a New PDA "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI completely agree with you.
I’ve been struggling with managing my tasks using a Moleskine so I decided to go back to my old HP 5550 Ipaq. I even went and bought special software for it so that I could sync it with my Mac. I’ve had it out of storage for 2 weeks now and haven’t touched it once since the initial set up. The pre-installed software (Microsoft’s task manager) doesn’t do what I want and it just feels so cumbersome in comparison to a notebook.
Saying that though, when I did use it extensively for task management (about 3 years ago) it did work pretty well as it’s just a basic PDA with wireless & bluetooth - no major bells and whistles. I would however recommend Pocket Informant task management software over Microsoft any day.
Good luck in your search!
Just as Alfred P. Sloane observed that “Safety doesn’t sell” when it comes to marketing cars, it’s pretty obvious that productivity doesn’t sell when it comes to PDAs. Most people who purchase these devices just use them for the calendar and contacts. The problem for companies is that it’s easier to market a device whose new feature is YouTube support than more categories in Tasks.
While I do have some third-party apps on my Palm Centro, I only use the built-in apps for tasks management. I just need a simple calendar, list manager and memo pad. I don’t do email on it, since batch that in a focused session at the desktop rather than chip away at it on the street.
This week I’m switching to a paper system. Now that I’m self-employed, I don’t have the synchronization issues that compelled me to maintain a digital PIM. But it’s really just an experiment. Maybe the new iPhone will finally have a decent list manager.
Does Palm still produce devices with the Palm OS, are are all devices running on Windows nowadays?
I am in the same situation as you, with a Palm Zire 31 having calibration problems. In my opinion, PDA’s haven’t advanced the past years, and things actually got worse. My hopes are also on the iPhone, and in the mean time a switched to the Hipster PDA.
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