PDA Devices
Personal Data Assistants, a 90's technology gadget given new life with innovation
PDA stands for Personal Data Assistant. PDAs are handheld computing devices also called Palm Tops; they can also encompass the Pocket PC category of handheld device.
The humble PDA started off as electronic personal organizers, an electronic replacement to the old analogue (hand-written) style Day Runner or Franklin. The biggest advantage to the electronic day planner was that it could be synchronized with your PC and therefore all your notes would be backed up and replicated, never to be lost as any notepad is extremely susceptible.
- Personal Organizer
- Clock
- Date Book
- Calculator
- Address Book
- Tasklist
- Memo Pad
And, of course, they've almost always included some sort of rudimentary games.
Today's Personal Data Assistants run powerful handheld operating systems depending on the type you buy.
The most popular include:- Blackberry
- Palm OS
- Windows Mobile
Palm OS and Blackberry are operating systems that were designed for intuitive ease of use, giving the handheld user a maximum of options with a minimum number of clicks. Both systems employ a "select" button system and an escape. The Blackberry uses its wheel to toggle through options. Palm devices use a touch screen that allows you to press the desired on-screen button with a plastic pen called a stylus. The stylus is a pointer designed to press on the Palm's touch screens without damaging it. You could, of course, use your finger to press any of the touch-sensitive buttons on the Palm's screen but that would lead to smudges and fingerprints on the screen.
The Palm OS runs on many different devices by other manufacturers, including the Sony Clie, Handspring Visor and Tapwave Zodiac. The Windows Mobile operating system is an extension of the Microsoft Windows operating system and can run on a wide variety of PDA devices known as Pocket PCs, a slightly different class of PDA that has almost all the same features.
Besides Pocket PCs, Blackberrys and Palms there are a variety of gaming-oriented PDAs as well. While not the gaming powerhouses the PSP might be, devices like Nokia's N-gage and Palm's own Tapwave Zodiac merge the PDA organizer with high-resolution screens and controls for playing games.
Today's palmtops or PDA devices have come a long way since their origins as a personal organizer. Today they come with the ability to communicate wirelessly to networks with wi-fi, allowing the handheld access to any VPN, while Bluetooth gives the handheld abilities to communicate with peripheral devices like hands-free earpieces. Some, like the Blackberry, specializes in wireless voice and data connections, allowing them to send and receive emails, browse the web and act as a mobile phone.
Most PDA devices today are pushing the limits on storage capacity, although only a few have so far ventured into the micro-hard drive territory which greatly expands the storage capacity, making PDAs potentially every bit as powerful and flexible as a desktop PC.