Quick PDA review
The major function of a PDA (personal digital assistant) is to operate as an electronic organizer that is transportable, easy to use and capable of sharing information with your computer. It's thought to be an extension of the computer, not a substitution. PDAs have evolved over the past years. Not only can they handle your private information, such as contact lists and appointments, they can also connect to the Internet, operate as a GPS device, and run all types of programs. What's more, companies have combined PDAs with other devices like cell phones and other electronic elements. As its capabilities continue to develop, the PDA is changing. Today's conventional PDAs are descendents of the original Palm Pilot and Microsoft Handheld computer devices. Palm PDAs run the Palm OS, and Pocket PCs run Windows Mobile.
Palm PDAs
Palm operation system PDAs have:
- A huge library of different applications that you can include to the system (most of these elements come with email and multimedia software)
- Smaller displays than Pocket PCs to contain a dedicated area for a picture on the device. Some new Palm devices now include a virtual Graffiti zone in the display.
Pocket PCs
It’s the general name for Windows Mobile PDAs. Their features include:
- Pocket versions of Microsoft programs such as Word, Excel, and Outlook.
- Synchronization with Microsoft Outlook on a Windows computer - email systems other than Outlook or with Macintosh computers need extra software.
- Three handwriting recognition programs: Transcriber, Letter Recognizer and Block Recognizer.
- A virtual writing area, which maximizes the display size
- Windows Media Player for multimedia content
Smartphones
A Smartphone is either a cell phone with PDA capabilities or a conventional PDA with extra cell phone facilities, depending on the style and manufacturer. Characteristics of these elements include:
- A cellular service provider to handle phone service. You normally buy a cellular plan and Smartphone from the service provider.)
- Internet access through cellular data networks.
- A variety of combinations of cell phone and PDA characteristics, depending on the gadget.
- An amount of different OS, like for example Windows Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition, the Palm OS, the Blackberry OS and others.
PDA Functions
Nowadays, most PDAs integrate wireless and multimedia functions of some sort. Functions found on most of these devices consist of:
- Short range wireless connectivity using Infrared or Bluetooth. Infrared is found on most devices and need a clear line of sight. It's usually used to synchronize with a notebook computer that has an Infrared interface. Bluetooth connects to other Bluetooth devices, such as a cell phone, a camera or a printer.
- Internet and corporate network connection through Wifi and access points.
- Support for Wireless Wide Area Networks: the cellular data networks that provide Internet connectivity for smart phone devices
- A memory card slot that accepts flash media such as Compact Flash, Multimedia Card, and Secure Digital cards (Media cards work as extra storage for files and programs.)
- Audio support for MP3 files and a microphone and headphone jack.
Like standard desktop computers, PDAs are powered by processors. The processor is the brain of the device, and it organizes all of the operations according to planned instructions. Unlike desktop computers and laptop computers, PDAs use smaller, cheaper processors. Although these microprocessors tend to be slower than their PC counterparts, they're enough for the tasks that PDAs do. The benefits of the size and price compensate the cost of slow speeds.
PDAs do not have a hard disk. It stores basic in a read only memory chip, which remains the same way even when the device shuts down. Your data and any software you put in later are stored in RAM memory. Information in RAM is only accessible when the device is on. Due to their design, PDAs keep information in RAM safe because they continue to send a small amount of energy from the batteries even when you turn the device off.
