Dear Neil,
It’s unexpected that you inquired of me about handheld business. PDAs might be nothing more than luxurious toys but actually it all depends. Newly released products are often equipped with high speed processors (the highest currently being 624MHz! Notice that it is for a handheld!) and large amount of RAM and ROM alike (the highest being 128M both). Multimedia performance like audio playback and video support is a piece of cake for these models. Some new ones are preinstalled with a display that supports VGA definition, say, 640*480 pixels. Imagine how brilliant their display effect may be.
You don’t bring your DC with you everywhere you go, do you. It’s too heavy, and bulky to carry. You may miss some beautiful scene or girl that you would otherwise be able to take pictures shortly and surreptitiously. :D What about a PDA with a built-in digital camera? PDAs are a daily tool that can make your life well organized and well scheduled, so you may find you have to have it in your pocket all the time (as do I. :P) The integrated camera is merely an addition to its functionalities. Therefore it’s unfair that you compare the quality of a PDA-taken photo with that taken by a professional DC. It’s simply good enough to capture what seems important to you or of real use to you.
Of course modern handhelds are of wireless connection capabilities. Thanks to those clever scientists, now people can get rid of all those cables and threads when making date transmissions or connecting to Internet. Doesn’t it sound fantastic? The major two technologies are Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. A Wi-fi enabled PDA can share data with others (or with other devices which also have Wi-Fi) or directly go to Internet, not to mention manage your emails, wherever AP (Access Points) are available such as hotels, airports, restaurants, or shopping malls. Unfortunately here in China AP’s are rarely available now, but I am sure in Canada it’s more popular. Bluetooth is a short-range wireless connection enabling users to have short range data sharing or make synchronization with your desktop, theoretically up to ten meters without obstacles. Also, with a bluetooth enabled cellphone, you can enlarge the usability of both your PDA and cellphone.
PDA stands for Personal Digital Assistant, so it can’t be more obvious what a PDA can do. Aside from the fact that it’s a competent daily life assistant, it’s also a qualified tool for language study. Take for example the PPC version Mdict. A free software, Mdict has quite a few fantastic dictionaries: Collins Cobuild, Oxford, 21st Century, Advanced Chinese Dictionary, and so on. Each is worth any amount of money, and is comparable to its desktop version—but you are not carrying a desktop, nor a laptop, with you all the time, are you. For its further information you can go to this website: http://www.octopus-studio.com. The real kicker of PDAs is their unparalleled portability. With the perfect English handwriting recognition application Calligrapher, you’ll find English inputting on PPCs a delight! Try and you’ll know I am not overblowing. You may find out what Calligrapher can do here: http://www.phatware.com/calligrapher/index.html. I put highlight on these two applications because they are especially useful for us English learners. Another good thing for English learners is that PPCs have powerful book-reading applications. Most of these readers have easy-to-use interface and are able to make a quick search by giving it a few letters. It’ll come in especially useful if you are in the habit of taking notes of new words and new expressions. My favorites are Al-Reader and Team One’s Reader. These two are the best ones you’d ever find.
I seem to be able to talk about PPCs for days on end. :D For further information, please go read a few of my articles as follows:
Reasons for PDA purchase:http://publish.it168.com/2004/0423/20040423011001.shtml?cChannel=23&cpositioncode=318 Review on ASUS MyPal 620:http://publish.it168.com/2004/0106/20040106005401.shtmlReview on Calligrapher:http://club.mypda.com.cn/sp.asp?tid=22941&bcp=1&loc=2
You asked for recommendations. Well, it’s hard to say, as you didn’t tell me how much you are going to spend for the gadget. Products from HP are usually and well-acknowledged of good quality and performance but they are fairly expensive (the newest model 4705 costing nearly seven thousand yuan, close to a laptop!). They are not cheap, huh, but good things seldom are. Dells are often much reasonable. PPCs from TaiWan company ASUS are of good quality, too, but for a lower price. Mine is an ASUS 620 as you may find out.
So, my recommendations are:http://shop.mypda.com.cn/show_product.asp?productid=667http://shop.mypda.com.cn/show_product.asp?productid=484http://shop.mypda.com.cn/show_product.asp?productid=424http://shop.mypda.com.cn/show_product.asp?productid=409http://shop.mypda.com.cn/show_product.asp?productid=400
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Ok, take your time. Hope this article helps.
Feast your eyes on them and enjoy! (Come to me if you get lost, :D)
Panpanpan.
