Need help in choosing a PDA for someone....please! :)

[kantonburg]

My girlfriends mother is buing her husband a PDA for xmas. Her nor I have the first clue about these things. She said she would spend $250 on one but there are so many to choose from.

They have Palm OS, Windows CE, Color and that greenish color. Whats the best OS? Is color "that" much of an advantage?

He was just elected President of the Policemans Union where he works and we figured this would be ideal. Any ideas where to start looking and also where is the best place to buy one? Good prices. We are off to Best Buy just to look around for now.


We figured we would get him the PDA, a HotSync cradel and maybe a game. Anything else he might need?

thanks

 

[NFS4]

For $250, I'd get a Visor Deluxe. You ain't gonna get a color PDA for $250 so stick with the PalmOS based devices.

 

[geoff2k]

Sounds like a Palm IIIxe is what you're looking for price-range wise. Check out the usual suspects for pricing ... pricewatch, etc.

 

[kantonburg]

Geoff yea the PalmIIIxe is $249 is buy.com (just pricing)

NFS4 whats the advantages of PalmOS over WinCE?

 

[NFS4]

The PalmOS is good for simple task management, scheduling, etc. Just your basic stuff. The PocketPC OS/WinCE 3.0 is for the hardcore freak like me that does everything in one little unit (everything the Palm does + color and tons more functionality).

 

[kantonburg]

OK were back from BB.

She fell in love with the Compaq iPAC. $499 but she loved it and knows he will too.

We also decided that if we go with anything other than the iPAC it will be the Handspring Visor instead of the 3Com Palm unit.

Anybody know where I can pick up the iPAC?

 

[NFS4]

I own one, but I ain't selling it!!! Good luck finding one

 

[Xzaver]

I'm selling mine

 

[kantonburg]

^

 

[billandopus]

I would check out the Handspring Visor series.

 

[loup garou]

I just picked up a Palm IIIxe for my dad for Christmas from mercata. I used the 20% off mercata$ and 20% MS Passport deal to get it for just over $150 shipped. Not a bad deal, IMO! (retails for $249) Unless he's a techfreak (as NFS is ), the Palm should be more than he needs for organizing, etc. If you're interested in that deal, there's plenty of info in the *gasp* Hot Deals forum.

 

[Muadib]

Get the Visor. The iPAC looks cool, but he will get more use out of the Visor. Do a seach on software for both the Palm OS, & Windows CE. You will quickly see which one to buy.

 

[Passions]

good luck on finding an ipac, most are going for $600-700 on egay.
My roommate has one, its pretty damn nice! Incomparable to the puke colored palms.

 

[Damaged]

Sharp PV 6000

I just bought one of these. Very cool. Very functional. I use it as a PDA and for mobile platform to access via terminal. Quite nice. A little more that what you were looking to spend, and possibly larger than what you were looking for, but it suits my needs quite nicely.

 

[Eug]

<< My girlfriends mother is buing her husband a PDA for xmas. >>

Eh?

For $250 I'd go with a Visor Deluxe or a Palm IIIxe. For $299 I'd go for a Visor Platinum, which I think is the best out of all of them. It runs OS 3.5 like the IIIxe, but it is MUCH faster, and it comes with the USB cradle already. The IIIxe comes with a very slow serial cradle. (A serial cradle is extra with the Visor and the USB cradle is extra with the Palm.) The PocketPC machines are way out of her price range. The colour Palm machines (IIIc and Visor Prism) are too expensive as well, and do not offer much increase in functionality.

If you go with a Visor, a backup module is also nice to have if he goes away to a conference or something without a laptop. However, it's another $40.

Look at my sig for more Visor info, but I haven't updated the FAQ yet to include the Visor Platinum.


<< The PalmOS is good for simple task management, scheduling, etc. Just your basic stuff. The PocketPC OS/WinCE 3.0 is for the hardcore freak like me that does everything in one little unit (everything the Palm does + color and tons more functionality). >>

As NFS4 already knows, I don't agree with that. The PocketPC DOES have slightly more functionality, but I find that it has a lot of useless features as well that you're forced to pay for. (eg. colour, MP3 capability-if you're willing to spend even more money on CompactFlash, etc.)

 

Palm IIIxe. I don't like the Visors much. I have yet to see any expansions that excite me.

 

[NFS4]

<< As NFS4 already knows, I don't agree with that. The PocketPC DOES have slightly more functionality, but I find that it has a lot of useless features as well that you're forced to pay for. (eg. colour, MP3 capability-if you're willing to spend even more money on CompactFlash, etc.) >>


All stuff that I use so it's great FOR ME. Forced to pay for color? I'd GLADLY pay for color over peas soup any day Besides, an MP3 player for the Visor is like $250! The same price as the damn unit itself

 

[Eug]

<< All stuff that I use so it's great FOR ME. Forced to pay for color? I'd GLADLY pay for color over peas soup any day Besides, an MP3 player for the Visor is like $250! The same price as the damn unit itself >>

Yep. Makes sense for you since you're actually gonna use it. However, most people (like kantonburg's future stepdad... j/k ) have no use for an MP3 player or colour. I personally do like MP3, and I actually own over two hundred MB of CompactFlash (for my camera), but I still would rather spend money on a separate portable CD/MP3 player than a Visor MP3 player, an iPaq, or a standalone, since 100 MB of CompactFlash holds all of 2.5 CDs - I'd get pretty bored with that on vacation.

 

<< an MP3 player for the Visor is like $250! The same price as the damn unit itself >>


That's the problem with the Visor. Grafting functionality onto PDA is pointless. If I am going to blow $250x2 on a do-it-all device I probably would get an iPac. PDAs are for simple tasks, PocketPCs and the like are for &quot;computer-like&quot; functionality.

 

[NFS4]

See the thing is, I can do both at once. No need for two seperate devices. I plug in either my 80MB or 32MB CF cards and jam along while doing work on my PDA. With 206MHz to play around with, I can surf Avantgo, write documents, etc while playing MP3's with no skipping. And the sound quality is great coming through the speaker or stereo headphone jack.

Oh, and PocketTV is great for MPEG playback and Microsoft's new media player allows you to play back .asf and .wmv files along with streaming video from the web.

 

[64bitloopy]

go with the palm3xe or visor. It's a PDA for christs sake.

 

[Doggiedog]

You probably will have a hard time finding the iPaq. I hear the color Visor is excellent though. The screen is supposed to be much better than the Palm IIIc.

 

[Xzaver]

Well I'm selling my ipaq if your interested.

 

[kantonburg]

Well if we do get the iPAC it will be for $499 store price. Sorry X.
$499 is steep if you ask me. BB is getting a shipment tuesday (supposedly) so she is going to go by.

 

[Rogue]

Friend got his iPaq for $345 at Staples. He bought the demo unit for $300 and paid another for an extended warranty (part of the salesman's deal for selling so low). Damn the luck.