PDAs - How To Choose The Right One, Not The Wrong One

Buying a PDA is not the cut and dried event everyone seems to think it is you know.

You can't just wander into your local gizmo shop off the street, blithely announce you want the latest Fandango Whatchamacallit, stuff it into your basket and march up to the checkout!

Well - you can actually but you really shouldn't.

Why not?

Because the range, scope and ability of the humble PDA has grown ten fold since it was first introduced in 1992 by - who else but Apple.

From the early days of having one operating system that linked to sod all else - the breadth of operating systems alone can ruin your new choice within seconds of getting it home.

If it won't synch to your pc at home or work - you're throwing money down the tubes, fast.

So step 1.

Before you venture out of the house to your favorite electrical outlet or jump on-line and head to www gadgetsrus dot com, pause, breath in and out slowly and curb your urges man!

What do you want your PDA to do for you? Will it be a simple toy, barely used but produced whenever you want to impress over a snifter or two?

Maybe it is for real use by you for your private business and personal "stuff".

Or maybe you want it to be an integral part of your work.

Each three options have a bearing on what you need to buy and should be looking for.

If it is purely a posing piece - don't worry about features and functionality too much, just go for shiny. Should help you climb to the top of the herd for that week,

If you want to use it for your personal "stuff" then you need a more Home based package. If it is a stand alone then try and find a PDA that emulates the applications you have already and give yourself something familiar to work with.

For work - most important is to ensure you choose a PDA that allows you to seamlessly link to your current PCs operating system (i.e. is the same) and share info and contacts between the two.

But hold one second.

You now have an option you know - ditch a PDA all together.

Yup, forget a PDA and go for a Smart Phone instead.

Smart Phones have most all the functionality of a PDA plus phone built in as well. They allow you a degree of flexibility and freedom you'll be hard pressed to get just from a PDA.

And best of all?

A smart phone, being two in one, means less to carry or lose! With today's busy lifestyle and intense pressure - anything that can be made simpler has to be a clear winner!