HELP need choosing a PDA!!

[blossom2]

Does anyone have a PDA and if so, can you advice me on what i should be looking for.

Its DH's birthday on Monday and thats what i'm getting him!
He is on Lotus Notes (so diary must be compatible), some colour, some games and a good sized memory.

Any thought/recommendations !?!?!

Many thanks

what is a PDA?

Is Lotus Notes still a supported product ? DH didn't think anyone still used it.

DH recommends the HP Ipaq & the Dell Axim (?) one.

DH says that he'd be better with a pocket PC rather than a PDA. ie something that supports Windows Pocket 2002/2003 op system as opposed to Palm OS (Tungsten, HandSpring etc). A pocket PC is more compatible with other hardware and has more functions, is generally more useable.

It think its one of those palmpilot things but with more technology ... not too sure myself.!!!

even more stupid question, whats a palm pilot?

I'm no expert, but you probably want a PALM based one rather than a windows one - on NO ACCOUNT go into PC world.

thanks Nomdeplume .. Dh's email/diary is Lotus based, i think.

where's the best place to get a pocket PC and are there any websites i can look at??

misdee - its one of those gadgets that has everything (diary, address book, place to write notes etc). A bit of a boy's toy really but its the only thing i can think of that DH needs/wants ...

I can't got to PC world because i'm in France!!

DON'T GET A PALM BASED ONE !!!! He'll find a palm one frustratingly restrictive, they are not compatible with a great many things due to not being windows based.

I have an 02 XDA and its brilliant - for diary, for synching with Outlook etc, not sure if it would be compatible with Lotus notes - you would need to check.

harrogatemum - is that from O2, the mobile phone network people??

I have an HP IPAQ and love it. Although its a few years old now so not sure about the more up to date ones.

for websites have you had a look at pixmania.com. I think they are French, well they ship their things from PAris. Very good prices from things I have bought from them.

I like my recently bought iPaq too
Have finally retired my poor old Betamax Psion 5

I had a Psion as well, before my Ipaq. I loved the keyboard with it.

I wouldn't advise not to get a Palm. They're cheap, fast, simple, and arguably crash less often than PDAs with mobile Windows on.

If he's very kind to you and regularly buys you flowers, you might consider a Treo which combines a mobile phone and a Palm PDA in one so dh has less to carry and a great toy. NB it is larger than a normal mobile, and thicker, but it does have its fans...

On the same link above you will see the new Palm E2 which was announced today I think. It has bluetooth so can be used alongside a bluetooth phone to access e-mail, Web sites etc. Can also take a WiFi stick (IIRC) to enable him to surf the Net at home or work wherever there is a wireless network present.

If he's VERY Lotus Organiser / Notes-centric, the most important thing will be stellar compatibility between his PDA and his desktop application or Notes server at work... I would google which platform (Windows or Palm) looks best at doing that particular task and choose from there...

HTH

oooh... if he enjoys thinking outside of the box, consider also a Blackberry device - receives 'push' e-mail direct to the device. Also acts as a phone. Bluetooth.

Sometimes called the crackberry as it's so addictive...

RIM (the company that makes these things) has an old-school corporate server background so this device may play nicely with older Lotus products...

I have a Palm Tungsten which is good. I haven't noticed any compatibility problems, but I don't use it for anything too sophisticated.

Just a word of warning about Pixmania- I got my camera from there and although the price was good, the manual was in French. I've downloaded the English version but it's not as handy as having a wee book!

Would that be the same sort of Blackberry that got Alistair Campbell in to a lot of hot water recently? No disrespect to your dh Blossom, but is he up to working a Blackberry competently?

The contract for Blackberries is quite expensive, isn't it?

Marina

I've got a Palm Zire 21 - I love it . It is excellent for diary and address book and syncs beautifully with my outlook calendar. It is very basic though - no other real fancy stuff, but then it was really quite cheap about £35 on Ebay (brand new)

I 'd recommend a blackberry. Had one for a couple of years now - we have the lotus notes system at work and it's compatible for e-mails, calendar, to do's etc . You can also open word documents on it, use it as a mobile phone, has wap and it has a nice colour screen. Not sure about memory as I don't tend to store things on it - I use it more as an accessory to my PC. Mine doesn't have games on it. HTH

Lotus Notes is alive and well and being actively marketed by its owner IBM

Palm zire looks great merlot - I want something i can use to synchronise outlook at work with outlook at home, a simple calendar and address book, very cheap on EBay!!

thank you very much for your advice girls. where were you last night?!?!?

I called HP today. Get this, you can change the language options on their iPAQ. ie if we buy a french one, then go back to the UK, they can't change it back to english for us!!! how crap is that ... i thought these things were suppose to be universal...

ahem, no skirt here...

(Although perhaps you'd disagree if you read about my slugs .

IIRC Palm you can toggle language settings v. easily but Ihaven't used one for years now...

Yeah, it's very easy to change the language settings on a Palm.