(no subject)

[ewt]

Again I'm thinking of getting some sort of pocket PC/PDA thingummy. I have a filofax, but it can't be backed up and it won't beep at me to remember to do things. Yes, I can get into the habit of using it, but this lasts for a few weeks and then goes out the window again because it's too big to carry around with me all the time (and small ones are too small for me to write down everything. I'm doing a music degree and two jobs).

There are loads of them on eBay but I'm not sure what to get. I want something that can sync happily with Purr, my Win98 laptop.

I'd be very interested in a PDA that also has a sensible amount of memory and acts as an mp3 player, since I've been hankering after an mp3 player for a while.

Recommendations?


I'd kindof rather have a spinning wheel. But yeah. Maybe for my birthday.

Comments

[martling.livejournal.com]

I've been very happy with various varieties of Palm over the years. Palm got the basics for a PDA down very well, and the core software (calendar, todo lists, memos, contacts) has barely changed since the early versions. This means you can pick up nice old models for cheap, or go up to shiny new things. I'm currently using a Treo 600, which doubles as phone and MP3 player.

[hennes.livejournal.com]

I second that. I used an palm III in the old days of win98 and as long as the batteries lasted it was great. Never palms have fixed that problem and have enough storage for MP3's.

[mstevens.livejournal.com]

I have been pondering this too. Currently I am leaning towards a filofax or something.

I like devices with keyboards, which doesn't give me much choice these days :( Syncing to a Mac is also a problem.

[vampwillow]

I used to use a Palm, then a Visor running Palm ...

now I do it with my phone; I can download/upload my diary on it including alarms and stuff (and it plays MP3s and has a radio). Could that also be an option?

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

That could be an option. I've considered it before. Here are my reservations:

I really hate the interface for my current Motorola phone 'diary' thing and didn't much like the one before, which was a Sony Ericsson. I don't want to be locked into software I don't like. One advantage of a separate PDA would be that I could change to other software (such as this (http://www.addplanner.com/overview.html), which although I'm not ADD looks like it would be about right for my needs) if necessary, whereas with a phone I'm probably locked into one interface.

I also do a fair amount of scheduling 'on the go' and suspect that the funky stylus things are going to be faster than a phone keypad for things like moving piano lessons around. The drawback to this, of course, is the risk of losing said funky stylus things.

Another problem is that I often need to be able to talk on the phone and look at my schedule at the same time, and I'm not a huge fan of the handsfree stuff available for phones (fiddly). This is important on average once or twice a week for teaching and at least once a week for booking busking slots, and while I have a landline now I can't guarantee I will always be able to use it to organise these things.

I'm thinking that something with a fair amount of storage would be sensible for mp3 purposes and am not sure whether such a phone exists. Most of the ones I've seen only come with 32MB. Something closer to 1GB would be tempting, though.

I'm a bit squeamish about buying something and then having to get the right memory sticks or whatever. This is an issue even with many of the PDAs out there, though, so I shouldn't discount phones based on that.

[tijntje.livejournal.com]

The funky stylus things can be had for a few quid in a package of four ;)

[redcountess]

I have a Zire 72s - it has 32 meg of memory, can take mmc cards for playing mp3s and other media and sd cards, has bluetooth and a 1.3mb camera built in. I bought mine as "B" stock from Expansys, but you do see them on eBay. Don't buy the blue one (just called the Zire 72) though, they are more expensive and the enamel comes off, apparently!

[flannelcat.livejournal.com]

I gave penguin_worship a Palm V of mine AGES ago and she never used it. I think it's still sitting under the desk. You could always prod her about it, meybbe?

[reddragdiva]

From my experience, get the ABSOLUTELY BIGGEST SD/MMC card you can. I bought 512MB and wish I'd bought 1GB. (Morgan's have Kingston 1GB SD cards for under 50 quid.)

[qadira.livejournal.com]

My husband says that Windows 98 is an unsupported platform at this point for all intents & purposes, so if you need something compatible with that, your best bet is to find a used PDA. He then said a bunch of things about different models, which got all garbled up in my head because they sounded the same. :/

[phelyan.livejournal.com]

The MDA Compact that t-mobile does (Orange do their own version as well) looks promising. Fully featured PDA with tri-band mobile capabilities.

Catteni

[korpora.livejournal.com]

has a M130 that she's not using, shout me on A2 for more info, don't think it plays mp3, but is otherwise a nice little palm.

[kosai.livejournal.com]

I'm waiting a month or two for the Nokia 770 (http://www.nokia.com/770) to be released. Yay, WiFi and Linux.

- C.