Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) have a lot to offer, whether you are a businessman, student, or just someone who wants to keep up with the latest trends in mobile media technology. There is a huge selection of PDAs on the market, and the range of prices and performance options offers something for everyone to choose from. With such a wide variety of choices available, you need to have a firm grasp of what you need in order to choose the PDA that is right for you.

Contents

• PDA Operating Systems
• What to Look for in a PDA?
• Popular PDA Brands

PDA Operating Systems

Windows Mobile and Palm OS are the two main operating systems, and both do a comparably good job with core functions: calendar, address book, memos and to-do list, etc. Readers are a third type of system that differs substantially from the other two. Each format has its strengths and weaknesses, and choosing the system that is right for you will depend upon your unique needs.

Palm OS is, unsurprisingly, the operating system for the Palm line of PDAs. Palm OS is known for being exceptionally easy to synchronize with other Macs and PCs, allowing you to always have access to all of your work and home information while on the go. The newest version of the Palm OS brings enhanced performance, particularly in the area of multimedia features, closing what had been a gap with Windows Mobile. Palm OS also features an outstanding library of applications from third party developers.

The Windows Mobile operating system was designed with performance and multimedia applications in mind, and the fact that it resembles the Windows OS that consumers are familiar with from home and the office has been used as a selling point. In fact, Windows Mobile has been optimized to work seamlessly with other Microsoft programs, including Outlook and Word. Windows Mobile also has three handwriting recognition programs, compared to one for Palm OS.

Readers are a different case altogether, and offer much different functionality from traditional PDAs. Readers are used to download and access written media: books, magazines, newspapers, and other documents. Readers operate very similarly to one another; the primary distinction between brands is the content that they provide access to.

What to Look for in a PDA?

Overall Size – If you have no problem sacrificing performance for portability, go with a smaller model. However, even the largest PDAs are designed with portability in mind, and are a fraction of the size of netbooks and laptop computers.

Screen Size – If you will be using your PDA professionally, or with heavy use of multimedia content, a larger screen will be better, both for convenience and performance. If you are simply trying to stay organized and in touch while on the go, a smaller screen will be fine.

Memory – 16MB of RAM is standard and works for most consumers. Multimedia enthusiasts will certainly want to upgrade to 32MB. For storage space, you will want to use plug in memory cards – 1GB is normal, 4GB is the high-end for users with large video and music files.

Battery Life – Most PDAs last for days on a single charge, but if you anticipate power-hungry usage of your device, look for a model that offers above-average battery endurance.

Popular PDA Brands

Windows Mobile is supported by a number of PDA manufacturers. Motorola, HP, Toshiba, and Dell are all familiar names; these manufacturers offer devices at every level of price and performance. Acer and Asus are two newer manufacturers that are making their mark with bargain-priced entry models.

Palm makes the most popular PDAs that feature the Palm OS, but there are a number of solid third-party manufacturers as well. Palm offers a extensive selection of PDAs for all levels of users, from bargain-priced entry models to high-end devices with all the bells and whistles.

For readers, the two most popular brands are the Amazon Kindle series and the Sony PRS series – check for content availability when making a decision on purchasing a reader.