Hey guys, Im looking to purchase a PDA within the next couple months (mainly because Im a computer 'geek' and It would be nice to have a little computer to do my little things on). Im by no means Donald Trump or Bill Gates, so I dont have tons of money to spend on a PDA. Was wondering what you guys recommend for a good, cheap PDA and some of the software that comes bundled with them. Thanks in advance.

the palm m100/m105 is pretty cheap i think, handspring has a cheap one too....

quote:Originally posted by Trav2003:
the palm m100/m105 is pretty cheap i think, handspring has a cheap one too....

Yep, those are the lower end of the new Palms. The m100 is a has 2MB of memory and will cost around $130. The m105 has 8MB and is closer to $200. The cheap Handspring model is the Visor (non-deluxe), has 2MB RAM and probably costs comparable to the m100. I personally have a Visor Deluxe (8MB) and love the extra ram.

quote:Originally posted by Pinky:
Yep, those are the lower end of the new Palms. The m100 is a has 2MB of memory and will cost around $130. The m105 has 8MB and is closer to $200. The cheap Handspring model is the Visor (non-deluxe), has 2MB RAM and probably costs comparable to the m100. I personally have a Visor Deluxe (8MB) and love the extra ram.

Just curious, what types of things do you do with your PDA? And Ive noticed alot of the additional software for PDAs cost $$$, are there any good, free PDA software sites out therE?

quote:Originally posted by Killer1nstinct:
Just curious, what types of things do you do with your PDA? And Ive noticed alot of the additional software for PDAs cost $$$, are there any good, free PDA software sites out therE?

I use my Visor for stuff from keeping all my contacts and memos to reading offline web news with AvantGo (which is a free piece of software from www.avantgo.com - it's great!). I keep my class schedule and any appointments in the Date Book. I use some document readers like TealDoc and MobileDB to read all kinds of docs on it from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to The Declaration of Independence. Those programs are free. If you want to view/edit Word and Excel documents, Documents to Go is a great program that lets you do just that. It isn't free, but it isn't expensive either. I also use it for a doodle pad, a scientific calculator (the Visor models come with a greatly enhanced calculator built in) a shopping list manager, and also play games on it, downloaded for free of course.

Check out sites like www.palmgear.com to find thousands of free programs and utilities for PalmOS.

A PDA is a great tool for a student. I'm going into my junior year in college and used my PDA all last year. It's an organizer with soooo much more.

I have the Visor Deluxe, which cost me 200$ at CompUSA including a free dialup modem. I scoured the net looking for a cheaper price, but $190-$200 is it for the Deluxe.
I bought it mainly for the datebook and adress book funtionality.

Since I am a freelance web dork, I paid $35 more for software that syncs to MS Money for Business so I could keep track of all my expenses (BTW Money is an awful, awful program...it has a terrible invoice system and is unpleasant to look at...and it is riddled with ADVERTISING! GGRRRR! I should have bought Quicken).

The modem makes a nice paperweight, since as far as I can tell it only works with like 5 now-defunct ISPs. Anyone know how to make this thing work?

I'll just list some one-liners here:
*battery life is so-so... you get about 3-4 weeks out of 2 AAAs

*The "ice" color is rad

*I am 10 times more organized now that I have a fun gadget to play with

*The screen got all scratched up in the grafitti-character area. This is a bummer.

*The screen is large and legible, Grafitti is easy to learn, I have no complaints about the included software.

*You need to find some sort of screen protecter to avoid the scratches

*Go ahead and factor in 25-50$ for a case if you don't carry a shoulder bag or briefcase. I am fine with the included plastic cover since I carry my courier bag everywhere.

If you go to BJ's you can get a M100 with an extra blue faceplate pakaged as a DayRunner (I think) with software for $99.

My brother and I picked up a Diamond Mako/Psion Revo for $99. I don't know where he ordered them from. I just told him to order one for me ($114 including tax/ship)

quote:Originally posted by 13kft:

*You need to find some sort of screen protecter to avoid the scratches

The WriteRight screen protectors by Fellows work great.

Screen protection is a must -- at least in the graffiti area. I'd recommend getting the screen protectors designed for color devices since they don't have that weird texturing that the protector for the Visor has.

As far as battery life is concerned, check out http://www.extendcomputer.com -- they make a rechargeable battery replacement that also acts as an AC adapter for the Visor. There is also another brand out there, but I can't recall their name. http://www.visorcentral.com is an excellent resource if you own or are thinking about owning a Visor.

All i have to say is VISOR VISOR VISOR Deluxe!!!! Get it has 8mb great expandability. I had a palm IIIe and then got this visor deluxe it is soooo much better.!! There is tons of software out there if you want just look for it. I got palm print so i can print directly from my palm to my hp1215 printer !! Go visor. And a must is the palm protetion for screen Writeright is the name of it its not cheap like 20 bucks for 12 and you will probalby on need to change it aobut once year, but beats heak out of 100 bucks for new screen. Plus comes with software to sync to outlook.
GET A VISOR DELUXE!!!!

Funny, I thought that one of your fellow Linux Hippies would have recommended the Agenda VR3. Since it uses Linux as it's OS, you'll probably be able to customize it to your liking. Sure, it's $250, but that's a small price to assist the open source movement, right?

Check it out: http://www.agendacomputing.com/prod_vr3.html

quote:Originally posted by Killer1nstinct:
Hey guys, Im looking to purchase a PDA within the next couple months (mainly because Im a computer 'geek' and It would be nice to have a little computer to do my little things on). Im by no means Donald Trump or Bill Gates, so I dont have tons of money to spend on a PDA. Was wondering what you guys recommend for a good, cheap PDA and some of the software that comes bundled with them. Thanks in advance.

Rex 6000 micro pda. True shirt pocksize PDA.

Out of this world, heh ?

From what u discribed you have 4 choices:
Handspring
Visor-$130 2mb of mem, limited speed.
visor deluxe*- $170 The best choice 8mb of mem, ok speed.
Palm
M100-$130 2mb of mem, limited speed
M105-$200 8mb of mem, ok speed

my dad asked me to get him a PDA for under $200 and from reading what you all wrote i'm going to get him a Visor Deluxe (8MB) they are at frys refurbished for $99 and $189 new.

do you think my dad should spring for the extra $89 for a new one or do you think a refurbished one will do fine?

I would go with the new, but the refurbished should be fine.