I have been a Palm PDA user for many years now, and I have been wanting to upgrade to a smart phone. The Palm offerings like the Centro and Treo’s just didnt have the flash and moderness of the competition like the iPhone and Google phones. So I waited. And I carefully considered switching services. Rumors of a new PalmOS floated around. And then nothing. And still nothing.The aging PalmOS needed an upgrade. And yet my PDA’s still worked fine.
Then, the Palm Pre arrived. I was skeptical. Its linux based.Its based on the open source linux, which makes it quite easy to develop for. Its all web based (I am a web developer). Wow, the perfect phone!
I couldnt be separated from my Pre. It syncs my Google Mail with my work’s exchange server into one seamless mail experience. It syncs my calendars too. Fantastic! It multitasks.I can play back music stored in the 8gb built in memory, or stream music online. It does everything I wanted a phone/PDA to do.
Of course, nothing is perfect. It currently does lack Adobe Flash support although that is supposed to be coming (they have Flash on linux in general so I dont see it being much harder to get it to work on the Pre), and it doesn’t have a generic Jabber client (google talk is based on Jabber so I am not sure why they don’t have this yet). The App Store is a little sparse so far, but there is a homebrew apps site with unofficial apps you can install. And the biggest little complaint I have is the battery life, which for me averages about 12 hours.The battery life is a little weak, but you can get an extended battery.
It also uses any wi-fi connection you might have, seamlessly using it for faster internet access, which also saves on battery time.
Overall, I couldnt be separated from my Pre. Its hacker friendly, its slick as hell, and its on Sprint.
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Global Positioning System (GPS) are now being installed into Portable Digital Assistants (PDAs). The United States Department of Defense managed by the United States Air Force 50th Space Wing established the global navigation satellite system (GNSS). Civilians everywhere also have access to it and can freely use it. The installation of GPS receivers enables PDAs to transmit radio signals to the group of 24 to 32 medium earth orbit satellites. This makes the location of PDAs to be determined in a precise manner. It was in 1995 that the GNSS became fully functional. GPS is now being widely used for the purpose of navigation whether in air or over sea or land. It can also be used as an instrument for tracking, map-making, surveillance, scientific use, land surveying and commerce. Handsets with GPS receivers entered the market in the late 1990s.
A number of mobile phone manufacturers have incorporated GPS into their phones. GPS enabled PDAs are used extensively in navigation and sports to calculate speed, time and distance. Customized directions and maps, tracking of movement, planning of trips, and detailing of journey could be carried out quickly and precisely. The Route Planner application of Palmtop Software can provide detailed route maps and travel plan. All you need to do is to indicate the starting and destination point or you can even point and click in the map to define the route you choose. PDAs began to be used for realtime automobile navigation. They were fitted on to new cars. They displayed road conditions, traffic conditions, roadside mobile radar guns and dynamic routing.
The PDA market has remained robust with newer models adding features and newer technologies as the touchscreen and GPS. Some of the well-liked PDA models are the PalmOne M515, Palm Z22, Palm TX, HP iPAQ 111 Classic Handheld, 535e Pharos Traveler, Palm Tungsten E2 Handheld, Palm TX Handheld and Nokia N810 Portable Internet Tablet.
There are many spheres of human activities where PDAs can be effectively applied. This includes health care where it is used for assisting in the recording symptoms and in diagnosis of diseases. It also indicates the line of treatment and suggests the drugs that could be useful in the treatment. It is useful in many areas of in the field of education. PDAs can be used for digital note taking, word processing, dictionaries, storage of e-books and their use, spell-check and digital planning besides many others.
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