Are PDAs dead?

[geepondy]

My sister was asking me about PDA info. I have casually kept track of them thru the years but never wanted one quite bad enough to purchase one. Upon revisiting the subject upon my sister's inquiry, I see on the Palm home page, only the Palm Treo phone. Likewise upon visiting the Sony website, I don't see any Clie's nor Dell Axioms (not sure about spelling).

Did these new smartphones kill the PDA? I know they are nice and serve their need particularly for business users but also come with hefty contract fees that put off the casual users such as myself and I would think perhaps a $200 PDA that doesn't require a contract to use might still have it's place.

 

[coloradogps]

I think that smartphones did kill off PDAs.

If you didn't want a contract with a smartphone, go with the iPod Touch.

All the PDA features, calender, contacts, alarms, WiFi, etc....

No contract.

 

[bullfrog]

Absolutely.

My blackberry killed my palm about three years ago.

It does everything and more.

 

[ackbar]

Unfortunately the traditional PDA is dead. With most smartphones being able to do 100% of the tasks of a PDA 80% as well, most people won't be willing to spend the money and carry around an extra device.

I think that palm dropped the ball. If they had made a super durable budget PDA back in the day, I'd bet dollars to pesos that we'd be seeing a whole generation of school children with them. Think of the utility. whole volumes of books being carried around in a device that is less than 100g.

I for one won't forgive them for the shafting they gave me with the TX. The damn thing had a 50% chance of crashing when connecting to wifi :F

 

[LukeA]

The smartphone is the device the PDA wanted to be 5-10 years ago.

 

[StarHalo]

Yes, PDAs have been dead for some time now, though if you've really got to have electronic organization without phone capability, there's always the Apple iPod Touch, which is essentially a really powerful PDA..

It should be noted that while Palm has been superseded into obscurity by Apple/iPhone and Blackberry, they are about to release a brand new phone, the Pre, which according to iPhone-fanboy reviewers may actually have a better OS than the Apple, so stay tuned..

 

[WadeF]

PDA's never seemed to do what I wanted them to do. I never used them as much as I thought I would. Then I got an iTouch and loved it so much I went for the iPhone since it added more capability. I see no need for a separate PDA now, since it basically is one with a phone.

 

[carrot]

PDA's did it all before the internet became a must have for any sort of personal computing platform. Back then I loved my Handspring Visor, but by the time I got a Palm T|X the magic was gone -- not only did Palm let the platform stagnate, they failed to keep up with the times and got left behind. I carry an iPhone and a small paper planner with me nowadays and it takes care of everything the Palm used to... plus a heck of a lot more.

 

[LuxLuthor]

I still use my two Sharp Wizard OZ-9600-II deluxe models with their whopping 512KB. Back-up/transfers with cutting edge infrared windows, password protected. These are the shizznit.

 

[Big_Ed]

I still use my two Sharp Wizard OZ-9600-II deluxe models with their whopping 512KB. Back-up/transfers with cutting edge infrared windows, password protected. These are the shizznit.

I had one of those! I think it's packed away somewhere in a box in my storage unit. It hasn't seen the light of day in at least 10 years.

 

[LuxLuthor]

You better change the Lithium CR2032 backup battery. If it leaks....

It's funny to see all the old contact names, phone numbers, birthdays, lists that are still there.

 

[xcel730]

I'm still using a PDA.

I have the HQ Travel Companion for about 2 years now. I use it to keep track of all my finances, play games, listen to music, and watch movies while traveling and I use the built-in GPS. It comes with TomTom Navigator, but I didn't really like it too much, so I purcahsed the Oncourse Navigator.

 

[worldedit]

"Take the ipod touch if you dont want a phone..."

You can get any smart phone and dont use it as a phone. I dont like apple products.

 

[TKC]

I am still using my Palm TX. I have had MANY a Palm over the years, and feel that the TX is the best Palm, Palm ever made.

 

[Crenshaw]

I had a T2 at one point...where to even BEGIN with the problems....


-It never synced properly
-It always crashed
- Crashing meant that everything was deleted, therefore i never used it to keep important contacts or notes.
- there was a LOUD inductor whine for some reason
- the screen became unresponsive
- the tap never happened where you wanted it to, even with the calibration
- terrible battery life.

Needless to say, i stopped using it.

Crenshaw

 

[ackbar]

I am still using my Palm TX. I have had MANY a Palm over the years, and feel that the TX is the best Palm, Palm ever made.

Are you kidding? The TX is far from the best palm. My TX would have a 50% of crashing when connected via Wifi. The Digitizer constantly needed to be recalibrated. How about the defective power switch?

I will say that the Palm III series was the best IMHO. It would run weeks at a time on a pair of AAA cells. worked perfectly as a PDA and not one of those monstrosities that try to do it all. Hell.. we still can't get a device that does it all the RIGHT WAY now. As much as I hate Palm now, I do have to say, their PIM apps are the best that I've ever used. I can't wait until GVM finally comes out of beta for the Maemo devices. Knowing my luck.. they'll just drop it after the last beta.

 

[gorn]

My PDA isn't dead, it's in the other room next to my 8 track tape recorder.

 

[LuxLuthor]

My Sharp Wizard has never crashed. It has never failed to transfer files to IR backup utility. It has a 100% error free track record. Of course, I have a set of the deluxe 512KB OZ-9600II models.

It is the Shizznit.

 

[Starlight]

I have had an HP 6945 for a long time. Cell phone, camera, PDA synchronized to computer, Wifi, Bluetooth, GPS and plug in 2G SD card all included. It works perfectly and has never given me any problems.

 

[2xTrinity]

I used a Dell Axim X50v for a few years. This was the first PDA with 640x480 resolution at anything close to a reasonable price. I'm somewhat obsessed with having high resolution/high dot pitch... unfortunately most companies don't like to sell high dot pitch screens as the number of people (like me) willing to pay more for them, are far outnumbered by the number of people who complain "the letters are too small!!!1"

My main purpose was to be able to use it for word processing and notetaking without carrying around a full computer, as well as looking up reference materials like books, searchable dictionaries etc. For doing reading/word processing, particularly on such a small screen, having good resolution was a high priority. I also used it for viewing and editing digital photos.

The only difficulty is it was a major PITA to actually do almost anything. The Windows Mobile OS was never really meant for full computing, and even getting basic tasks to work properly required lots of messing around with kludgy software hacks. That meant while it was fun to play with but codln't really be trusted for any serious work...

Now I'm considering gutting the 640x480 screen to use in a makeshift laser projector project...