PDA's
Welcome to the PDA page, this is our guide to buying a PDA online in the UK, it features PDA's with advanced features such as GPS, Internet connections and multimedia capabilities, there are lots of brands that offer PDA's including HP, palmOne, Palm Tungsten, Acer, Sony, Toshiba, Compaq and many others.
PDA stands for Personal Digital Assistant and a PDA is intended as an electronic organiser that is portable, easy to use and can communicate with your PC, a PDA is intended as a companion for your computer and not a replacement for it as PDA's do not offer all of the features offered by a PC. There are several different types of PDA (also called handhelds and palmtops) available, there are the Palm devices, Microsoft Pocket PC's, mobile phones with PDA functionality built in and lots of others. PDA prices are also quite cheap these days, they can cost similar prices to mobile phones so getting a cheap PDA is quite easy. There are also many brands that offer PDA's including HP, Palm Tungsten, palmOne, Sony, Acer, Toshiba, Compaq and many others.
All PDA's have basic standard personal information management, can run software and connect with computers, the personal information management allows you to store contact information such as names, addresses, e-mail addresses and phone numbers. It also allows you to make to-do lists, take notes and give you reminders for important events using a clock and alarm. The software that can be run depends on the model, Microsoft Pocket PC's can run most Microsoft software such as Word, Excel, Outlook and others, Palm PDA's can run lots of software which you can find online. PDA's also synchronise the information with your computer, this means that it will transfer any information that is on your PDA to your computer and vice versa, this means that all information is backed up and can be viewed on either device. The connection with the computer will be via infrared or bluetooth, infrared needs a clear line of sight like a standard remote control and bluetooth uses a radio frequency so can be anywhere within range of the computer.
The first type of PDA is the Palm versions, the Palm PDA's run the Palm OS operating system and has thousands of third-party applications available for it. Palm PDA's also have a Graffiti handwriting-recognition application, this lets you write on the PDA and it will recognise the letters and convert them into digital format. Palm PDA's have a smaller display than the Microsoft Pocket PC's as they need room for the Graffiti feature, some Palm PDA's have a virtual Graffiti system which allows for a larger display. Plam PDA's can connect to any Windows or Macintosh computer so that you can transfer information or files.
The Microsoft Pocket PC is Microsoft's version of the PDA, it runs the Windows Mobile operating system and can run mobile versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, and Outlook. Microsoft Pocket PC's also offer a larger screen size as they have a virtual writing area and can also play media with Windows Media Player such as MP3's and video clips.
Another popular type of PDA is the mobile phone with PDA capabilities, these are sometimes called smart phones and are basically a mobile phone and PDA combined. They are quite large as the screen has to be larger than that of a normal mobile phone but they are still quite sleek, a smart phone will allow you to use all of the features of a standard PDA as well as making calls. These smart phones also nearly always offer Internet access as they already have a connection to the mobile phone network, the rest of the features depends on the model as some smart phones lean towards the normal mobile phone features and some lean towards the PDA set of features, you simply have to decide which are more important to you.
A great feature that is available with some PDA's is GPS, this stands for Global Positioning System and is sometimes known as satellite navigation. GPS basically finds your location with a satellite and then works out how to get to where you want to go from that information, this means that it is very easy to travel if you are using a GPS system. All you have to do is enter the location you wish to travel to and the GPS system will work out the directions, as it knows where you are it can then guide you to the location step by step and even correct any mistakes. Some GPS systems also have a visual guide on the screen using a map to make it even easier to navigate.
There are also lots of other features available with a PDA, a popular one is the multimedia capabilities such as listening to MP3's and watching video clips. Some PDA's also have a built in digital camera, this allows you to take photos and view them on the large PDA screen. PDA's that have a digital camera generally also have a memory card so that you can transport and store the photos separately to the PDA, you can still transfer the photos to your computer from your PDA using the infrared or bluetooth connection though.
Another cool feature with PDA's is wireless capabilities, this allows you to access wireless networks so you can transfer files and access the Internet from your home wireless network, they also give access to Wide Area Networks which are the data networks which provide Internet access for smart phones. Some PDA's also have security measures installed, one of the best security measures is the biometric fingerprint reader which scans your fingerprint to allow access to the PDA, this is a very secure method of security as it is extremely hard to break.
So there are lots of things to consider when buying a PDA, do you go for a Palm model, a Microsoft Pocket PC or one of the other brands such as HP, Compaq, Toshiba, Palm Tungsten, Sony, palmOne, Acer or one of many others, or do you go for a mobile phone with PDA technology included? Also what features are you looking for, do you want GPS technology, a digital camera, multimedia capabilities so that you can use MP3's and video clips or do you want wireless technology? Also if you want a cheap PDA then have a good shop around, many of the shops offer cheap special offers or just good cheap prices, we have included links to the top shops at the top of this page.
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