The main purpose of a personal digital assistant (PDA) is to act as an electronic organizer or day planner that is portable, easy to use and capable of sharing information with your PC. It's supposed to be an extension of the PC, not a replacement.
PDAs, also called handhelds or palmtops, have definitely evolved over the years. Not only can they manage your personal information, such as contacts, appointments, and to-do lists, today's devices can also connect to the Internet, act as global positioning system (GPS) devices, and run multimedia software.
Types of PDAs:
1. Traditional PDAs:
Today's traditional PDAs are descendents of the original Palm Pilot and Microsoft Handheld PC devices. Palm devices run the Palm OS (operating system), and Microsoft Pocket PCs run Windows Mobile. The differences between the two systems are fewer than in the past.
2. Palm PDAs:
Most Palm devices are made by palm one. Known for their ease of use, Palm OS PDAs have:
1. A vast library of third-party applications (more than 20,000) that you can add to the system
2. An updated version of the Graffiti handwriting-recognition application
3. Synchronization with both Windows and Macintosh computers using the Palm Desktop
4. Smaller displays than Pocket PCs to accommodate a dedicated Graffiti area on the device.
3. Pocket PCs:
Pocket PC is the generic name for Windows Mobile PDAs. Their standard features include:
1. Pocket versions of Microsoft applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and Outlook
2. Synchronization with Microsoft Outlook on a Windows PC.
3. Three handwriting-recognition applications: Transcriber, Letter Recognizer (similar to the new version of Graffiti), and Block Recognizer (similar to the original Graffiti)
4. A virtual writing area, which maximizes the display size
5. Windows Media Player for multimedia content
4. Smart phones:
A smart phone is either a cell phone with PDA capabilities or a traditional PDA with added cell phone capabilities, depending on the form factor (style) and manufacturer. Characteristics of these devices include:
1. A cellular service provider to handle phone service.
2. Internet access through cellular data networks.
3. Various combinations of cell phone and PDA features, depending on the device (for example, not all smart phones offer handwriting-recognition capabilities)
4. A number of different operating systems, including Windows Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition, the Palm OS, the Blackberry OS for Blackberry smart phones, and the Symbian OS for smart phones from Panasonic, Nokia, Samsung and others.
PDA Features:
Here are some additional details about these basic features.
1. Handle Standard PIM Functions
All PDAs come with some kind of personal information management (PIM) software that typically handles the following tasks to keep you organized:
1. Store contact information (names, addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses)
2. Make to-do lists and Take notes
3. Track appointments (date book, calendar)
4. Remind you of appointments (clock, alarm functions)
5. Perform calculations
2. Run Application Software
PDAs can run specialized software applications:
• Windows Mobile devices come with Pocket versions of Word, Excel, Internet Explorer and Outlook, along with Windows Media Player and voice memo recording.
• Most Palm OS devices include applications such as Documents to Go, Media, e-mail software and web-browsing software.
• All types of devices can run other kinds of software including games, multimedia, expense, diet and exercise, travel, medical, time and billing, and reference.
3. Synchronize With PCs
Because PDAs are designed to complement your PC, they need to work with the same information in both places. If you make an appointment on your desktop computer, you need to transfer it to your PDA; if you jot down a phone number on your PDA, you should upload it later to your PC.
4. Common PDA Functions
Today, most PDAs incorporate wireless and multimedia functions of some type. Functions found on most (but not necessarily all) devices include:
1. Short-range wireless connectivity using Infrared (IR) or Bluetooth technology. Bluetooth wirelessly connects to other Bluetooth-enabled devices, such as a headset or a printer.
2. Internet and corporate network connectivity through Wi-Fi and wireless access points
3. Support for Wireless WAN (Wide Area Networks); the cellular data networks that provide Internet connectivity for smart phone devices
4. A memory card slot that accepts flash media such as Compact Flash, Multimedia Card, and Secure Digital cards (Media cards act as additional storage for files and applications.)
5. Audio support for MP3 files and a microphone, speaker jack and headphone jack
5. Bells & Whistles
High-end PDAs offer multimedia, security and add-on features not found on less expensive devices:
1. A Secure Digital Input/Output (SDIO) card slot for add-on peripherals contained in an SDIO card, for example, a Bluetooth card, a Wi-Fi card, or a GPS (global positioning system) card
2. Built-in GPS capabilities
3. A built-in digital camera for snapping digital images and capturing short videos.
4. Integrated security features such as a biometric fingerprint reader
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