pda's aren't good for anything, ugh... get a small laptop... pda's are as pointless and worthless as camera-phones
I think both have their place. PDA's can do calendar, to-do and small note taking reasonably well, while weighing around 5-10% of a light laptop and fitting in a suit pocket. Camera phones aren't much good yet, but when the next gen camera phones arrive with improved resolution, there will be a niche where they are useful. When you want to remember something, a visual thing or an idea, or to have proof of some action, inferior quality picture can be enough. For instance, someone hits your car in traffic and runs, your passenger takes a picture of the offending car (including licence number) before it can get away, then you pull over, and take pictures of your own car to document the damage that was inflicted. When the camera phones get good enough, you don't have to carry a separate camera to be able to do all this. Naturally you'll still want to take the vacation photos with a real camera.
Unfortunately, the killer app for the PDA never came through - because Apple stubbornly refused to join the party and nobody else knows how to do it right.
And that killer app was websurfing. (Hear me out first!)
The PDA should have been about the power of the internet in your pocket.
But not the whole net, as the small screen negates any possibility of doing that right. And not the trimmed down 'clipping' version of sites, which was always rather silly.
Rather, I like to think that if Apple had come aboard, they would have 'Sherlocked' the Net for PDA's. Specialized sites that need to be used on the go.
411, Headlines, Stocks, Flights, ATM locator, Movies, Restaurants, Weather, Mapquest and more with a quick, easy to use interface for the small screen.
They already had the tech, and with the Google bar in Safari, Sherlock on the desktop wasn't going to be upgraded much anyway. Maybe with a 'Sherlocked' PDA you could even send and pickup email from your .Mac account. Along with the Calendar and Address Book features, nobody would have wanted to be without a PDA.
And the Sherlock Channels would have given a compelling reason to buy one.
But instead, we have Palm, trying to sell PDA's with complicated, unintuitive internet capabilities with complicated, unintuitive rate plans to match.
And nobody wants that.
Anybody want to mockup what a 'Sherlocked' PDA screen would look like?
They still have that stupid graffiti don't they? It seems like Palms haven't changed since they first came out 6 or 7 years ago. When will you just be able to write without that damn Graffiti! I tried a Palm once and wanted to stab it to death with the stylus. I have a 12" PowerBook too and take it everywhere. What can a Palm do that an iPod and a PowerBook can't. Any day now...iPod with handwriting recognition...you know it's coming!
actually, they are really good now, I picked up a Tungsten E at an apple store when I got my new ibook a few months back. they now come with 'graffiti 2' and it uses regular letters, its a lot better. it also supports writing on the screen now instead of just the lower area.
well do you want stereo audio to headphones? The palm only has mono, and no built in mp3 player. I would check cliesource.com if their is any probs with mac syncing with the sony, cuz if it cant sync i don't think you would want to keep it.
palm looks more business orientated, sony looks more fun.
some palms do MP3 and have Stereo headphone jack, mine does.. but i Never use it. have ipod for that
I think both have their place. PDA's can do calendar, to-do and small note taking reasonably well, while weighing around 5-10% of a light laptop and fitting in a suit pocket. Camera phones aren't much good yet, but when the next gen camera phones arrive with improved resolution, there will be a niche where they are useful. When you want to remember something, a visual thing or an idea, or to have proof of some action, inferior quality picture can be enough. For instance, someone hits your car in traffic and runs, your passenger takes a picture of the offending car (including licence number) before it can get away, then you pull over, and take pictures of your own car to document the damage that was inflicted. When the camera phones get good enough, you don't have to carry a separate camera to be able to do all this. Naturally you'll still want to take the vacation photos with a real camera.
so then camera phones are good for when you have accidents... lol... it's a pain to even browse through pics with a phone... and then it drains your battery life,... then you don't have a phone. lol
pda... use a pad of paper and pen, or just remember... pda's are just toys. nothing more.
so then camera phones are good for when you have accidents... lol... it's a pain to even browse through pics with a phone... and then it drains your battery life,... then you don't have a phone. lol
pda... use a pad of paper and pen, or just remember... pda's are just toys. nothing more.
deunan
In that case, even computers and phones in general are toys, hey what's with color screens on phones for?... we don't need that... we don't even need color screens on our computers.... it's all a gimmick, a toy...monotone green text on computer monitors read fine... oh better yet, let's all go back to pen and paper... no, even that is a gimmick... let's all go back to the cave age... no more progress, no more technology...
technology progress... bah!... who needs that... it's just a toy..
In that case, even computers and phones in general are toys, hey what's with color screens on phones for?... we don't need that... we don't even need color screens on our computers.... it's all a gimmick, a toy...monotone green text on computer monitors read fine... oh better yet, let's all go back to pen and paper... no, even that is a gimmick... let's all go back to the cave age... no more progress, no more technology...
technology progress... bah!... who needs that... it's just a toy..
I didn't say that we should go back into the stoneage. i just think that pda's are worthless---they're not good enough at doing any one thing to make itself useful. kind of like how camera-phones suck at taking pictures and hi-jack the cellphone battery life, or how mp3-watches suck at storing mp3's ... PDA's seem fun to play with---the writing-on-screen with a pen is innovative and all, but not practical enough for things that it was designed for... ie, jot notes or chat with a friend or browse on the internet. you can then say that you could get a keyboard-attachment, but then that would justify my notion that a subnotebook would work out better.
If you need to jot notes, just use a pen and paper, or even memorizing helps. for all the other features a pda has, a real computer would be much more practical.
I didn't say that we should go back into the stoneage. i just think that pda's are worthless---they're not good enough at doing any one thing to make itself useful. kind of like how camera-phones suck at taking pictures and hi-jack the cellphone battery life, or how mp3-watches suck at storing mp3's ... PDA's seem fun to play with---the writing-on-screen with a pen is innovative and all, but not practical enough for things that it was designed for... ie, jot notes or chat with a friend or browse on the internet. you can then say that you could get a keyboard-attachment, but then that would justify my notion that a subnotebook would work out better.
If you need to jot notes, just use a pen and paper, or even memorizing helps. for all the other features a pda has, a real computer would be much more practical.
deunan
Well there is a reason why PDAs are still around... people find them to be useful products.
The consumer speaks with his/her wallet, if a product is useless, it simply will not sell well. iPods sell well because people find them to be a good product, and also they find them as a useful device to carry their MP3s around.
MP3 watches, well, we don't see many of those around so obviously they don't appeal to buyers or are simply just not very useful or good products.
PDAs like those made by Palm and Microsoft's PocketPCs obviously are selling well because people find them useful. Be it just simple PIM or specialised uses like GPS or WiFi surfing.
That's why PDA owners buy them in the first place; to avoid all the pen and paper or even memorising, I also don't think some people enjoy fumbling with scrapes of paper, losing them or their paper filofaxes without a backup on the PC.
There were many PDA makers before Palm who tried to make machines that would appeal to buyers. But many failed to gain widespread acceptance, including Apple's Newton. But Palm manged to sell their original Pilot because they were useful and simple to use machines, it didn't hurt when they cost much less than the Newton.
So PDAs do serve a purpose. Yes they were gadgets when they first appeared, but they have become more utilitilian recently and more of a everyday business or personal tool as opposed as just being a toy.
And I don't want to switch on a computer and wait a few minutes for it to finishing booting, when all I need is just a phone number. A PDA has the advantage of the instant power on.
The same applies for camera phones. Consumers find them to be a useful addition. Why else would people adopt them so readily in Japan and in many parts of the world? The camera in the phone does more than taking pictures. It serves a social function. Taking quick snaps of friends or as another person has pointed out, even accident photos.
Whether or not convergence devices will work only time will tell. In the meantime, market demand for PDAs and camera phones clearly show that consumers are buying... and using them.
Well there is a reason why PDAs are still around... people find them to be useful products.
The consumer speaks with his/her wallet, if a product is useless, it simply will not sell well. iPods sell well because people find them to be a good product, and also they find them as a useful device to carry their MP3s around.
MP3 watches, well, we don't see many of those around so obviously they don't appeal to buyers or are simply just not very useful or good products.
PDAs like those made by Palm and Microsoft's PocketPCs obviously are selling well because people find them useful. Be it just simple PIM or specialised uses like GPS or WiFi surfing.
That's why PDA owners buy them in the first place; to avoid all the pen and paper or even memorising, I also don't think some people enjoy fumbling with scrapes of paper, losing them or their paper filofaxes without a backup on the PC.
There were many PDA makers before Palm who tried to make machines that would appeal to buyers. But many failed to gain widespread acceptance, including Apple's Newton. But Palm manged to sell their original Pilot because they were useful and simple to use machines, it didn't hurt when they cost much less than the Newton.
So PDAs do serve a purpose. Yes they were gadgets when they first appeared, but they have become more utilitilian recently and more of a everyday business or personal tool as opposed as just being a toy.
And I don't want to switch on a computer and wait a few minutes for it to finishing booting, when all I need is just a phone number. A PDA has the advantage of the instant power on.
The same applies for camera phones. Consumers find them to be a useful addition. Why else would people adopt them so readily in Japan and in many parts of the world? The camera in the phone does more than taking pictures. It serves a social function. Taking quick snaps of friends or as another person has pointed out, even accident photos.
Whether or not convergence devices will work only time will tell. In the meantime, market demand for PDAs and camera phones clearly show that consumers are buying... and using them.
put your computer on sleep, if it's such a big problem---it won't drain battery life, since 'sleep'd computers will have enough power to last about one month. If you want to store someone's phone-number, just use your cellphone. Camera-phones are wack. Accident photos... is that the only reason for getting a phone-camera...??? Maybe i'll start a new post about it.
You should never base usefulness of something on whether or not people buy it---especially Japanese people. Tickle Me, Elmo and Tomagotchis were one of the most popular things around---it doesn't mean sh!t in terms of usefulness though. I'm talking about whether or not somehting is a quality product. PDA's to me are not worth the quality that they provide. Take for example, Sony's line of PDA's. they range from 200-600 bucks a pop, and for what? 103mb of mp3 and picture storage? oh let's not forget the 3 hour bucket of battery life. Oh wait, upgrade your pda's memory to 1Gb---for only 500 bucks more. Do you call that practical? But wait no, i can write down someone's phone number too, and take a really sh!tty quality photo of them, and then email it to my friend, so they can b!tch about how crappy the quality of the picture is.
You might as well save a bit more money and get a nice 5 mega-pixel camera, than a some half-ass'd machine that does poorly at whatever it is that it was really designed for.
put your computer on sleep, if it's such a big problem---it won't drain battery life, since 'sleep'd computers will have enough power to last about one month. If you want to store someone's phone-number, just use your cellphone. Camera-phones are wack. Accident photos... is that the only reason for getting a phone-camera...??? Maybe i'll start a new post about it.
You should never base usefulness of something on whether or not people buy it---especially Japanese people. Tickle Me, Elmo and Tomagotchis were one of the most popular things around---it doesn't mean sh!t in terms of usefulness though. I'm talking about whether or not somehting is a quality product. PDA's to me are not worth the quality that they provide. Take for example, Sony's line of PDA's. they range from 200-600 bucks a pop, and for what? 103mb of mp3 and picture storage? oh let's not forget the 3 hour bucket of battery life. Oh wait, upgrade your pda's memory to 1Gb---for only 500 bucks more. Do you call that practical? But wait no, i can write down someone's phone number too, and take a really sh!tty quality photo of them, and then email it to my friend, so they can b!tch about how crappy the quality of the picture is.
You might as well save a bit more money and get a nice 5 mega-pixel camera, than a some half-ass'd machine that does poorly at whatever it is that it was really designed for.
deunan
oh wow... just because something's not useful for you means it's not useful at all??!
oh wait... I forgot, why use a computer to store your phone numbers and do work on it... maybe you should just stick to pen and paper... these things take up zero power... maybe you should just write on sand... go all natural and stop killing trees... oh wait... maybe we should stop driving cars, walking is so much healthier... why use any tech stuff...??
maybe you are not very convincing at all... if your main point of contention is that something is not useful just because you think it's not?
Using price is silly, since these machines cost money, be it a computer or PDAs or phones or whatever... like I said many times, why do you use a computer in the first place? You should stick to paper and pen, uses zero power and cost next to nothing...
But I digress, since each person has different needs, and they find different tools to serve their needs, be it using a computer or PDA or even using a camera phone... whatever... it dosen't matter, as long as it serves their needs or... gasp... they find it useful???
People use PDAs and camera phones because they find them useful. And they are hardly in the same category as Tomagotchis or Tickle Me Elmos so you have to try harder to find a better example to support your point.
And if you don't like using them, more power to you. It's your choice.
But saying PDAs and camera phones are useless just because you think they are, seems like a weak point and hardly rational since they are used by many people, be it for both personal or business needs.
I find the PDA haters just to be kind of stupid. Many say, "just carry a small laptop". What a stupid suggestion.
I'm at work, I'm all over my department doing 4 things at once, I need a phone number so ....
Finding phone number with a Small Laptop Method:
I pull out my mini laptop out FROM WHERE(my pocket?) try to find a flat place to put it down where it's not going to be in someone else way, wake it up, start an application, find a phone number, dial phone, while holding phone with shoulder fold mini laptop up and put back WHERE? Let's hope the person I'm calling doesn't want a number from me.
Finding phone number with a PDA Method:
Pull PDA out of any pocket with one hand, hit button with phone on it, hit down button to find number, dial phone with free hand, put PDA back with one hand.
I guess if you don't need to be somewhere, call a lot people, have access to a lot of information or anything like that a PDA seems useless.
I find the PDA haters just to be kind of stupid. Many say, "just carry a small laptop". What a stupid suggestion.
I'm at work, I'm all over my department doing 4 things at once, I need a phone number so ....
Finding phone number with a Small Laptop Method:
I pull out my mini laptop out FROM WHERE(my pocket?) try to find a flat place to put it down where it's not going to be in someone else way, wake it up, start an application, find a phone number, dial phone, while holding phone with shoulder fold mini laptop up and put back WHERE? Let's hope the person I'm calling doesn't want a number from me.
Finding phone number with a PDA Method:
Pull PDA out of any pocket with one hand, hit button with phone on it, hit down button to find number, dial phone with free hand, put PDA back with one hand.
I guess if you don't need to be somewhere, call a lot people, have access to a lot of information or anything like that a PDA seems useless.
Why would you not have someone;s phone number on your cell phone... There's something called a phonebook feature..
Why would you not have someone;s phone number on your cell phone... There's something called a phonebook feature..
Because I'm at work and don't cary my cell phone around? I work in a hospital and cell phone use is not allowed (for not good reason of course) besides the fact that I no one can get a signal? Tell me how you look up a number on your cell phone and read it someone you're talking to on your cell phone?
Because I'm at work and don't cary my cell phone around? I work in a hospital and cell phone use is not allowed (for not good reason of course) besides the fact that I no one can get a signal? Tell me how you look up a number on your cell phone and read it someone you're talking to on your cell phone?
Plus I use a PDA for more than just numbers.
Next?
lol so you're unfortunate enough to not be able to carry a cellphone around. I'm still a student and storing numbers on a cell is well-justified. i think it's just different for me, ... living on a campus which is entirely wireless, whose also number one in computer science... it's hard to argue in favor for a PDA. Everybody just uses laptops...
oh, and you can just look at your cellphone's phone-book while talking to somebody, and then just tell them the number... ... why do you even bother asking such simple questions... - -;
So I'm talking to them and I say, "Hang on let me find that number ..." then keep them hanging for 10-15 seconds while I find a number. Real professional.
Besides ...
How do I keep my appointments on a cell phone? How do I keep my bus schedule on a cell phone? How do I keep a map on a cell phone? When I need a calculator at work how do I do that on a cell phone? How do I do a spreadsheet on a cell phone?
Comments
Originally posted by deunan
pda's aren't good for anything, ugh... get a small laptop... pda's are as pointless and worthless as camera-phones
I think both have their place. PDA's can do calendar, to-do and small note taking reasonably well, while weighing around 5-10% of a light laptop and fitting in a suit pocket. Camera phones aren't much good yet, but when the next gen camera phones arrive with improved resolution, there will be a niche where they are useful. When you want to remember something, a visual thing or an idea, or to have proof of some action, inferior quality picture can be enough. For instance, someone hits your car in traffic and runs, your passenger takes a picture of the offending car (including licence number) before it can get away, then you pull over, and take pictures of your own car to document the damage that was inflicted. When the camera phones get good enough, you don't have to carry a separate camera to be able to do all this. Naturally you'll still want to take the vacation photos with a real camera.
And that killer app was websurfing. (Hear me out first!)
The PDA should have been about the power of the internet in your pocket.
But not the whole net, as the small screen negates any possibility of doing that right. And not the trimmed down 'clipping' version of sites, which was always rather silly.
Rather, I like to think that if Apple had come aboard, they would have 'Sherlocked' the Net for PDA's. Specialized sites that need to be used on the go.
411, Headlines, Stocks, Flights, ATM locator, Movies, Restaurants, Weather, Mapquest and more with a quick, easy to use interface for the small screen.
They already had the tech, and with the Google bar in Safari, Sherlock on the desktop wasn't going to be upgraded much anyway. Maybe with a 'Sherlocked' PDA you could even send and pickup email from your .Mac account. Along with the Calendar and Address Book features, nobody would have wanted to be without a PDA.
And the Sherlock Channels would have given a compelling reason to buy one.
But instead, we have Palm, trying to sell PDA's with complicated, unintuitive internet capabilities with complicated, unintuitive rate plans to match.
And nobody wants that.
Anybody want to mockup what a 'Sherlocked' PDA screen would look like?
Originally posted by Aquatic
They still have that stupid graffiti don't they? It seems like Palms haven't changed since they first came out 6 or 7 years ago. When will you just be able to write without that damn Graffiti! I tried a Palm once and wanted to stab it to death with the stylus. I have a 12" PowerBook too and take it everywhere. What can a Palm do that an iPod and a PowerBook can't.
actually, they are really good now, I picked up a Tungsten E at an apple store when I got my new ibook a few months back. they now come with 'graffiti 2' and it uses regular letters, its a lot better. it also supports writing on the screen now instead of just the lower area.
Originally posted by Ti Fighter
well do you want stereo audio to headphones? The palm only has mono, and no built in mp3 player. I would check cliesource.com if their is any probs with mac syncing with the sony, cuz if it cant sync i don't think you would want to keep it.
palm looks more business orientated, sony looks more fun.
some palms do MP3 and have Stereo headphone jack, mine does.. but i Never use it. have ipod for that
Originally posted by deunan
pda's aren't good for anything, ugh... get a small laptop... pda's are as pointless and worthless as camera-phones
deunan
I hate camera phones, but pda's do have their uses.
Put the bible on it, when you go to church its more portable, adjustable font sizes,ect..
Digital photos. put em there so you dont need em in wallet.
checking account transactions and balances,ect. they can be useful.
video games on a tight mass transit right where laptop would take too much room...
i'm posting this from my brand spanking new zaurus sl 6000 !
this thing rocks !
i just walked outside located a wireless access point and connected... now im surfing the whole internet with opera !
wireless pdas are a very cool thing (this is my first)
Originally posted by The General
some palms do MP3 and have Stereo headphone jack, mine does.. but i Never use it. have ipod for that
yea I just ment the TC
Originally posted by Gon
I think both have their place. PDA's can do calendar, to-do and small note taking reasonably well, while weighing around 5-10% of a light laptop and fitting in a suit pocket. Camera phones aren't much good yet, but when the next gen camera phones arrive with improved resolution, there will be a niche where they are useful. When you want to remember something, a visual thing or an idea, or to have proof of some action, inferior quality picture can be enough. For instance, someone hits your car in traffic and runs, your passenger takes a picture of the offending car (including licence number) before it can get away, then you pull over, and take pictures of your own car to document the damage that was inflicted. When the camera phones get good enough, you don't have to carry a separate camera to be able to do all this. Naturally you'll still want to take the vacation photos with a real camera.
so then camera phones are good for when you have accidents... lol... it's a pain to even browse through pics with a phone... and then it drains your battery life,... then you don't have a phone. lol
pda... use a pad of paper and pen, or just remember... pda's are just toys. nothing more.
deunan
Originally posted by deunan
so then camera phones are good for when you have accidents... lol... it's a pain to even browse through pics with a phone... and then it drains your battery life,... then you don't have a phone. lol
pda... use a pad of paper and pen, or just remember... pda's are just toys. nothing more.
deunan
In that case, even computers and phones in general are toys, hey what's with color screens on phones for?... we don't need that... we don't even need color screens on our computers.... it's all a gimmick, a toy...monotone green text on computer monitors read fine... oh better yet, let's all go back to pen and paper... no, even that is a gimmick... let's all go back to the cave age... no more progress, no more technology...
technology progress... bah!... who needs that... it's just a toy..
Originally posted by grey_max
In that case, even computers and phones in general are toys, hey what's with color screens on phones for?... we don't need that... we don't even need color screens on our computers.... it's all a gimmick, a toy...monotone green text on computer monitors read fine... oh better yet, let's all go back to pen and paper... no, even that is a gimmick... let's all go back to the cave age... no more progress, no more technology...
technology progress... bah!... who needs that... it's just a toy..
I didn't say that we should go back into the stoneage. i just think that pda's are worthless---they're not good enough at doing any one thing to make itself useful. kind of like how camera-phones suck at taking pictures and hi-jack the cellphone battery life, or how mp3-watches suck at storing mp3's ... PDA's seem fun to play with---the writing-on-screen with a pen is innovative and all, but not practical enough for things that it was designed for... ie, jot notes or chat with a friend or browse on the internet. you can then say that you could get a keyboard-attachment, but then that would justify my notion that a subnotebook would work out better.
If you need to jot notes, just use a pen and paper, or even memorizing helps. for all the other features a pda has, a real computer would be much more practical.
deunan
Originally posted by deunan
I didn't say that we should go back into the stoneage. i just think that pda's are worthless---they're not good enough at doing any one thing to make itself useful. kind of like how camera-phones suck at taking pictures and hi-jack the cellphone battery life, or how mp3-watches suck at storing mp3's ... PDA's seem fun to play with---the writing-on-screen with a pen is innovative and all, but not practical enough for things that it was designed for... ie, jot notes or chat with a friend or browse on the internet. you can then say that you could get a keyboard-attachment, but then that would justify my notion that a subnotebook would work out better.
If you need to jot notes, just use a pen and paper, or even memorizing helps. for all the other features a pda has, a real computer would be much more practical.
deunan
Well there is a reason why PDAs are still around... people find them to be useful products.
The consumer speaks with his/her wallet, if a product is useless, it simply will not sell well. iPods sell well because people find them to be a good product, and also they find them as a useful device to carry their MP3s around.
MP3 watches, well, we don't see many of those around so obviously they don't appeal to buyers or are simply just not very useful or good products.
PDAs like those made by Palm and Microsoft's PocketPCs obviously are selling well because people find them useful. Be it just simple PIM or specialised uses like GPS or WiFi surfing.
That's why PDA owners buy them in the first place; to avoid all the pen and paper or even memorising, I also don't think some people enjoy fumbling with scrapes of paper, losing them or their paper filofaxes without a backup on the PC.
There were many PDA makers before Palm who tried to make machines that would appeal to buyers. But many failed to gain widespread acceptance, including Apple's Newton. But Palm manged to sell their original Pilot because they were useful and simple to use machines, it didn't hurt when they cost much less than the Newton.
So PDAs do serve a purpose. Yes they were gadgets when they first appeared, but they have become more utilitilian recently and more of a everyday business or personal tool as opposed as just being a toy.
And I don't want to switch on a computer and wait a few minutes for it to finishing booting, when all I need is just a phone number. A PDA has the advantage of the instant power on.
The same applies for camera phones. Consumers find them to be a useful addition. Why else would people adopt them so readily in Japan and in many parts of the world? The camera in the phone does more than taking pictures. It serves a social function. Taking quick snaps of friends or as another person has pointed out, even accident photos.
Whether or not convergence devices will work only time will tell. In the meantime, market demand for PDAs and camera phones clearly show that consumers are buying... and using them.
Originally posted by grey_max
Well there is a reason why PDAs are still around... people find them to be useful products.
The consumer speaks with his/her wallet, if a product is useless, it simply will not sell well. iPods sell well because people find them to be a good product, and also they find them as a useful device to carry their MP3s around.
MP3 watches, well, we don't see many of those around so obviously they don't appeal to buyers or are simply just not very useful or good products.
PDAs like those made by Palm and Microsoft's PocketPCs obviously are selling well because people find them useful. Be it just simple PIM or specialised uses like GPS or WiFi surfing.
That's why PDA owners buy them in the first place; to avoid all the pen and paper or even memorising, I also don't think some people enjoy fumbling with scrapes of paper, losing them or their paper filofaxes without a backup on the PC.
There were many PDA makers before Palm who tried to make machines that would appeal to buyers. But many failed to gain widespread acceptance, including Apple's Newton. But Palm manged to sell their original Pilot because they were useful and simple to use machines, it didn't hurt when they cost much less than the Newton.
So PDAs do serve a purpose. Yes they were gadgets when they first appeared, but they have become more utilitilian recently and more of a everyday business or personal tool as opposed as just being a toy.
And I don't want to switch on a computer and wait a few minutes for it to finishing booting, when all I need is just a phone number. A PDA has the advantage of the instant power on.
The same applies for camera phones. Consumers find them to be a useful addition. Why else would people adopt them so readily in Japan and in many parts of the world? The camera in the phone does more than taking pictures. It serves a social function. Taking quick snaps of friends or as another person has pointed out, even accident photos.
Whether or not convergence devices will work only time will tell. In the meantime, market demand for PDAs and camera phones clearly show that consumers are buying... and using them.
put your computer on sleep, if it's such a big problem---it won't drain battery life, since 'sleep'd computers will have enough power to last about one month. If you want to store someone's phone-number, just use your cellphone. Camera-phones are wack. Accident photos... is that the only reason for getting a phone-camera...??? Maybe i'll start a new post about it.
You should never base usefulness of something on whether or not people buy it---especially Japanese people. Tickle Me, Elmo and Tomagotchis were one of the most popular things around---it doesn't mean sh!t in terms of usefulness though. I'm talking about whether or not somehting is a quality product. PDA's to me are not worth the quality that they provide. Take for example, Sony's line of PDA's. they range from 200-600 bucks a pop, and for what? 103mb of mp3 and picture storage? oh let's not forget the 3 hour bucket of battery life. Oh wait, upgrade your pda's memory to 1Gb---for only 500 bucks more. Do you call that practical? But wait no, i can write down someone's phone number too, and take a really sh!tty quality photo of them, and then email it to my friend, so they can b!tch about how crappy the quality of the picture is.
You might as well save a bit more money and get a nice 5 mega-pixel camera, than a some half-ass'd machine that does poorly at whatever it is that it was really designed for.
deunan
Originally posted by deunan
put your computer on sleep, if it's such a big problem---it won't drain battery life, since 'sleep'd computers will have enough power to last about one month. If you want to store someone's phone-number, just use your cellphone. Camera-phones are wack. Accident photos... is that the only reason for getting a phone-camera...??? Maybe i'll start a new post about it.
You should never base usefulness of something on whether or not people buy it---especially Japanese people. Tickle Me, Elmo and Tomagotchis were one of the most popular things around---it doesn't mean sh!t in terms of usefulness though. I'm talking about whether or not somehting is a quality product. PDA's to me are not worth the quality that they provide. Take for example, Sony's line of PDA's. they range from 200-600 bucks a pop, and for what? 103mb of mp3 and picture storage? oh let's not forget the 3 hour bucket of battery life. Oh wait, upgrade your pda's memory to 1Gb---for only 500 bucks more. Do you call that practical? But wait no, i can write down someone's phone number too, and take a really sh!tty quality photo of them, and then email it to my friend, so they can b!tch about how crappy the quality of the picture is.
You might as well save a bit more money and get a nice 5 mega-pixel camera, than a some half-ass'd machine that does poorly at whatever it is that it was really designed for.
deunan
oh wow... just because something's not useful for you means it's not useful at all??!
oh wait... I forgot, why use a computer to store your phone numbers and do work on it... maybe you should just stick to pen and paper... these things take up zero power... maybe you should just write on sand... go all natural and stop killing trees... oh wait... maybe we should stop driving cars, walking is so much healthier... why use any tech stuff...??
maybe you are not very convincing at all... if your main point of contention is that something is not useful just because you think it's not?
Using price is silly, since these machines cost money, be it a computer or PDAs or phones or whatever... like I said many times, why do you use a computer in the first place? You should stick to paper and pen, uses zero power and cost next to nothing...
But I digress, since each person has different needs, and they find different tools to serve their needs, be it using a computer or PDA or even using a camera phone... whatever... it dosen't matter, as long as it serves their needs or... gasp... they find it useful???
People use PDAs and camera phones because they find them useful. And they are hardly in the same category as Tomagotchis or Tickle Me Elmos so you have to try harder to find a better example to support your point.
And if you don't like using them, more power to you. It's your choice.
But saying PDAs and camera phones are useless just because you think they are, seems like a weak point and hardly rational since they are used by many people, be it for both personal or business needs.
it's even useful on occaision.
I like my PDA because I enjoy using it...
it's even useful on occaision.
I have a pen and paper, it's on my desk at work where it's very useful...
but for some strange reason I'm not compelled to take it home with me or on trips or anywhere in fact.
I'm at work, I'm all over my department doing 4 things at once, I need a phone number so ....
Finding phone number with a Small Laptop Method:
I pull out my mini laptop out FROM WHERE(my pocket?) try to find a flat place to put it down where it's not going to be in someone else way, wake it up, start an application, find a phone number, dial phone, while holding phone with shoulder fold mini laptop up and put back WHERE? Let's hope the person I'm calling doesn't want a number from me.
Finding phone number with a PDA Method:
Pull PDA out of any pocket with one hand, hit button with phone on it, hit down button to find number, dial phone with free hand, put PDA back with one hand.
I guess if you don't need to be somewhere, call a lot people, have access to a lot of information or anything like that a PDA seems useless.
Originally posted by Scott
I find the PDA haters just to be kind of stupid. Many say, "just carry a small laptop". What a stupid suggestion.
I'm at work, I'm all over my department doing 4 things at once, I need a phone number so ....
Finding phone number with a Small Laptop Method:
I pull out my mini laptop out FROM WHERE(my pocket?) try to find a flat place to put it down where it's not going to be in someone else way, wake it up, start an application, find a phone number, dial phone, while holding phone with shoulder fold mini laptop up and put back WHERE? Let's hope the person I'm calling doesn't want a number from me.
Finding phone number with a PDA Method:
Pull PDA out of any pocket with one hand, hit button with phone on it, hit down button to find number, dial phone with free hand, put PDA back with one hand.
I guess if you don't need to be somewhere, call a lot people, have access to a lot of information or anything like that a PDA seems useless.
Why would you not have someone;s phone number on your cell phone... There's something called a phonebook feature..
Originally posted by deunan
Why would you not have someone;s phone number on your cell phone... There's something called a phonebook feature..
Because I'm at work and don't cary my cell phone around? I work in a hospital and cell phone use is not allowed (for not good reason of course) besides the fact that I no one can get a signal? Tell me how you look up a number on your cell phone and read it someone you're talking to on your cell phone?
Plus I use a PDA for more than just numbers.
Next?
Originally posted by Scott
Because I'm at work and don't cary my cell phone around? I work in a hospital and cell phone use is not allowed (for not good reason of course) besides the fact that I no one can get a signal? Tell me how you look up a number on your cell phone and read it someone you're talking to on your cell phone?
Plus I use a PDA for more than just numbers.
Next?
lol so you're unfortunate enough to not be able to carry a cellphone around. I'm still a student and storing numbers on a cell is well-justified. i think it's just different for me, ... living on a campus which is entirely wireless, whose also number one in computer science... it's hard to argue in favor for a PDA. Everybody just uses laptops...
oh, and you can just look at your cellphone's phone-book while talking to somebody, and then just tell them the number... ... why do you even bother asking such simple questions... - -;
deunan
Besides ...
How do I keep my appointments on a cell phone? How do I keep my bus schedule on a cell phone? How do I keep a map on a cell phone? When I need a calculator at work how do I do that on a cell phone? How do I do a spreadsheet on a cell phone?
Next?