Comments on: an electronic filofax

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 13:39:34 +0000

Sorry, didn’t mean to be cryptic, I was having commenting problems again.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 01:17:12 +0000

Your Mileage May Vary

By: Helen

Helen — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 23:35:55 +0000

so what does that mean???

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 23:31:11 +0000

YMMV

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 22:34:06 +0000

hmm, so would a notebook – although more extravagant be a better option [would have to upgrade handbag as well!!]

By: Tim

Tim — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 20:58:30 +0000

Aha. Was going to say that whatever you choose is some kind of a compromise. For me, I don’t think any PDA would satisfy, so I will settle for an email equipped, web browsing, Java enabled mobile phone, and use a laptop for everything else.

I understand Palm Tungsten Es are good – and under ?140, that is probably what I would be inclined to try out first off.

By: Helen

Helen — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 18:14:10 +0000

can’t find it any of the usual spam traps

By: Tim

Tim — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 12:13:30 +0000

I thought I posted another comment??

By: t-bird

t-bird — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 10:31:00 +0000

Windows PDA or Palm would both do the trick, which you go for very much depends on which one you think looks nicest Both will dock with your PC, both will share files and appointsmens etc (but check with Palms, not sure if they talk to MS stuff or not, never tired!) Pocket Office is basic but will do a simple spreadsheet (won’t do really complicated formulae), Word can do you pretty much most of the stuff you would ever want to create a document, there is a way to write e-mails ready to send as soon as you dock and you can download web pages to browse off line. Not played with Palm yet so I can’t comment on that but they are popular so must be okay!
Windows PDAs seem to have more handy bits of software and little games etc available.
Either way you can use a stylus to either “scribble” (write slightly stylised letters which the software converts to proper type) or tap on an on-screen keyboard to “type” which is reasonably quick once you have the hang of it.

A basic one is well udner ?200 last tiem I looked, cheaper on EBay obviously. Expect them to last 2-3 years before getting weary (Duke is on his second but then he hammers his and they still last 2+ years) If you can get one with blue tooth you could get a blue tooth GPS thingie at a leter date if you flet the need adn it can tell you where to go (in the nicest possible way!)

By: Tim

Tim — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 23:46:16 +0000

Depends very much what you are trying to achieve with it, but there are a lot of phones which are natively capable of doing this. My current Sony K750i can, and there are a huge range of apps that can be added to any Java capable handset Getjar has a list, but I am assuming you would do most of the work on your pc and transfer it via Bluetooth or cable. BTW T-Mobile Web 'n' Walk is a good way to reduce the financial pain of mobile email/data charges. But if you are really looking for a pocket office then you would have to spend ?100s for a PDA which is still going to be a fiddle to work with. For that kind of money, you could probably acquire a highly capable phone and a cheap laptop to keep in the boot of the car for if you ever do have to do any real typing. BTW, the Sony Ericsson K750i is superb, I have a K800i which is the top of the range camera phone and needs to go in for repair - the K750i is a better tool in all sorts of ways, more pocketable and very capable.