The Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) Essay examples -- essays research

Your Right-hand-man is in your Palm In the 1980s no one who was anyone, went anywhere, without his or her Filofax. The end of the 1990s had replaced it by its digital equivalent - the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). A PDA is effectively a handheld PC, capable of handling all the normal tasks of its leather-bound ancestor - address book, notepad, appointments diary and phone list. Most PDAs offer many more applications besides, such as spreadsheet, word processor, database, financial management software, clock, calculator and games. PC users have the ability to transfer data between the handheld device and a desktop PC and to convert data to and from existing organizer applications. They also achieve connectivity either via an infrared port or a special docking station. Because of their size, entering data into a PDA requires either a tiny keyboard or some form of handwriting recognition system. They're too small for touch-typing. This relies on a touch-screen display and a simplified alphabet - which takes about 20 minutes to learn - for data entry. Typically, PDAs with the Graffiti system provide the option to write directly onto the display which translates the input into text, or to open up a dedicated writing space which also provides on-line examples and help. I have been contemplating about purchasing a PDA and I’ve been to every store in town and all over the internet, to come up with a Top 5 PDAs & Handhelds according to Microsoft computers, makers of handh...