Shopping for Handheld Gadgets
What can a Handheld do for you?
Handheld computing is a competitive gadget market space with so many powerful options it can be a bit intimidating shopping for these devices for the first time. To start, it's helpful to define for yourself exactly what you're looking for in a handheld, once you match your needs to options that are out there (and learn of many options you might not have realized existed) and you begin to appreciate the choices available.
The handheld market was born from a need to back up business people's day planners. Not so long ago the arsenal of choice for business people on the move was the Franklin or Day Runner, little more than pen and paper notepads that played the role of personal organizer. Alongside the Day Runner might have been a pager.
The first Palm handhelds came as standalone personal organizers. The Palm operating system had a slick linear navigational method and ease of use that caught on, making the Palm OS one of the most popular handheld systems to date. This was a significant step up from many handheld computing devices of the day that tried to be mini-computers and ended up being overly complicated to operate for most users. The Palm OS gives you the ability to synchronize data to your desktop PC - this more than any other feature made the Palm indispensable from the very beginning. The hand-written Day Runner couldn't be backed up and Palm gave businesspeople an easy backup system for all their valuable data.
The classic pager is a one-way instant messaging device that communicates only a handful of numeric characters, like a telephone number. A quantum leap for the humble pager occurred when the RIM created the Blackberry, giving us two-way instant messaging and email from anywhere. The powerful messaging functionality of the Blackberry is here to stay; with over-air voice and data services you have a real-time mobile email client that doubles as a telephone.
Handhelds today don't stop as organizers or communications devices. The Pocket PC is a fully functional PC that fits into your back pocket. Many Pocket PCs are powered by the Windows Mobile operating system that emphasizes ease of use and the ability to get the most functionality out of only a few buttons. Pocket PCs can present larger screens than most other handheld devices and feature resolutions up to 640x480 on transflective LCD displays up to 4" in size. The Pocket PC can function as a media device, play movies and run Office applications.
The Smart Phone is newest kid on the handheld block and seems the final merger of the Blackberry pager's sensibilities with the Palm's organizer. These powerful devices give us telephony services like voice, instant messaging and wireless email anywhere merged into the linear intuitive operating system like the Palm OS or Win Mobile.