Palm Pilots

Just wondering if anyone here uses a Palm Pilot. We are thinking of buying one, but I don't know a heck of a lot about them at all. We are looking to use it for my husbands small business for things such as email, minimal internet use, and storage of notes/addresses/ etc.

Do you pay an additional fee for internet use such as a wireless fee or something? Does it store quite a bit of info?


Advice or info from anyone here would be much appreciated!

I bought the most basic model when I bought mine because I was unsure, too. I ended up using it a lot. I have all the info (including driving directions) for every school in our district (about 200 schools) on there. I also use the calendar/date book. Hey, Daniela, I also found a WW journaling program on the net for my Palm. I did ALL my journaling on it. You can also download food points and restaurant info from Dotti's.

My principal has a much more advanced Palm than I do. I am ready to upgrade mine, actually.

I use it to sync the calendar from work...I love it.

Katie

My Palm is my Mind!

My husband gave me mine as a Christmas gift two? three? years ago. I though "Oh, that'll be fun", but within a couple of months I had no idea how I had ever coped before!

I have all my datebook stuff, personal and business; all my address book, personal and business; shopping lists; umpteen utilities and database applications; as well as at least one book. I'm reading The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown at the moment. Many of these applications have alarm capability on them, so I get a reminder at a useful time, no matter where I am -- for my next meeting, to pick up milk on the way home, to look out that book for somebody, and then to remember to take it with me tomorrow.

Mine is a pretty plain jane version (the M105), so I can't speak to the internet aspects, and actually those are less important to me, anyway. As for capacity, mine is 8 MB, and I've still got 3.6 MB free. The newer models have more memory and also it's expandable with memory cards similar to the ones used in digital cameras.

They're VERY easy to use. If you can use a computer, a Palm is a breeze. It doesn't take long to get accustomed to the graffiti used for entering stuff. I'd say, if you're thinking in that direction, go for it!

Mine's an M105 too. I would recommend a model that is rechargable, and one that you can expand the memory on.

I bought a Palm Zire 71 a few months ago- not the fanciest- (didn't want to buy the most expensive as in case I lose it)
I love the fact it takes photos- (always make sure I have a few of the cats).
I synchronise it to my work computer Outlook diary- have become fairly dependent on it - don't use it for email- but great for taking notes during meetings.
The downside is occasionally I've let the battery go flat before I've synchronised it to my computer- lost everything I hadn't saved to my main computer!
Would recommend it
Cheers
catherine

Fantastic! I think I'm going to get one for sure now.

Thanks for all the info, guys!

My boss bought me an Ipaq 4155 as a bonus at the end of last year.I had been wanting one so bad but would never have been able to afford it. It's the best gift I ever received. It has a wireless card and bluetooth capabilities. I don't pay extra for internet because my boyfriend set up a wireless network at home and I can connect at work. SOme places, like Starbucks, us T-Mobile wireless internet and you can subscrive to that for $20-30 a month I think. But some other cafe's etc. don't charge. I use it as an MP3 player when I go jogging, use it for email, contacts, shopping lists, store pictures on it. It has word and excel on it so I can actually type papers for school on it. (I got a mini-keyboard with it) It has a microphone feature and I can use it to record lectures. It's awesome. You can buy sd cards that hold alot of memory. I have a 256 mb one. It just fits right into a slot on top. Just make sure to invest in a hard case for it, as you don't want to scratch it up or drop it.

Daniela - they are GREAT. I just got my first hand-held organizer a few months ago, and it makes it SO EASY to co-ordinate between working from home and the office with the sync funtions!!!!!!!!! You can put birthdays in there and set it up so it reminds you about them in advance - EVERY YEAR. I use it not only for work now, but for the cat's meds, etc. Now I have an organized phone book - and a back up, again, because of the sync function!

I was using Outlook, though, so instead of a Palm, I got a Pocket PC. I went with the Compaq - I don't need the mp3 player, because I only use it to carry around Word and Excel files I need in addition to the calendar and contact info.

The difference between a Pocket PC and a Palm is that a Pocket PC uses "Windows CE" as the operating system, and you can link directly with Outlook and other Windows stuff - with Palm or other operating systems, you have to use their organizer software. If you want to sync with your inbox and you use Outlook, I'd really recommend going with a Pocket PC instead of a Palm. If you want to be able to surf, you do have to purchase a separate wireless access package - I think it's like $9 a month or something. Just make sure you have enough memory (that's what bumps up the prices though) so it's not real slow, and make sure it's wireless ready. With the iPAC I bought, adding wireless would be something that goes in the memory expansion slot, though I think there was one already wireless capable. I've got 64mb of RAM - it's been more than enough for all the crap I carry around in it, although I don't surf with it nor do I store mp3 files on it, so I don't know about that.

Go for it and have fun!!!!!!!

BTW - Blackberry now makes a PDA that is both Pocket PC operating based (using Windows CE operating system) AND a phone - so not only do you have your contact info and all the other stuff, the phone will dial for you and it's got a larger screen for text messaging and surfing. It's called a Blueberry. I have no idea what it costs - I expect a lot though. There are several phones now that are PDAs, though most are Palm software based. Compaq makes one called the i700 - it's a Pocket PC version combo phone and PDA, ready for surfing, etc.

Happy hunting!

For what it's worth, I BELIEVE that the Palm OS does sync with other desktop software. I use the Palm interface, because I really like it, and I refuse to use Outlook (but that's my own prejudice). But, I'm pretty sure that several of my colleagues sync their PDAs (and at least one of these is for sure a Palm) to Outlook (that being the default system in this office).

Fran - I expect you're right. Given the Microsoft monopoly, Palm would have to sync with it, wouldn't it?

Daniela - whatever you decide (or decided ) to do, I hope you'll have lots of fun with it! (And get lots of work done too, LOL!)