Question about perxsonal digital assistants (Palms etc) vs smartphones

candlegrease

Im quite familiar with smartphones like the Nokia N8, HTC desire, Nexus One etc, but I never really got into the whole PDA thing.

Can somebody please explain the basic advantages/disadvantages of these in comparison with smartphones such as mentioned above.

Also, is a blackberry similar to the Palm models? If not, how does it differ?

candlegrease

Anyone?

candlegrease

..or not

Gooch2k4

Well TBH your question makes no sense, the PDA is dead, has been for years, the modern smartphone encompasses PDA functionality and Phone

justsomebloke

do they even make pda's anymore?


PDA's initally came on to market as phones of the same era simply didn't have the functionality that business people needed in a device for on the go pocket computing. However now a days most phones, not just smart phones would have the same functionality as a PDA so they aren't really needed. Also even if there was a market for PDA's seperate to phones, mini slates or even ereaders would now be killing the market off

candlegrease

Cheers for tyhe resonse. When I said PDA I was basically asking what's the main difference between the blackberry/palm models as distinct from the likes ofhtc desire, n8, nexus one etc

justsomebloke

candlegrease wrote: »

Cheers for tyhe resonse. When I said PDA I was basically asking what's the main difference between the blackberry/palm models as distinct from the likes ofhtc desire, n8, nexus one etc

Truthfully all they are are different types of phones. The blackberry and palm maybe viewed as more business orientated phones but truthfully there is no real difference anymore, well except for the fact that blackberry's can't directly connect to a Microsoft exchange server.

KrisW

PDAs never really caught on here - I had one friend who used a PalmPilot, then a Palm Treo, but that was it, and my friends would have been serious tech-heads at the time, the kind of people who're buying super-sized do-everything Android phones now. I'll admit to owning an Apple Newton at one point, but it was given to me as a found object, and I think I turned it on twice.

On the other hand, I remember seeing everyone in business using them in the States around 1999-2001 or so. No WiFi in those days - it was all offline, synced at your desktop, and not all models had cellphone features either. No SMS of course - they didn't get that until 2003.

If you want a modern PDA, buy a Windows Mobile or Android phone - they're closest in concept to what a PDA was, and add a whole lot more.

CantGetNoSleep

candlegrease wrote: »

Cheers for tyhe resonse. When I said PDA I was basically asking what's the main difference between the blackberry/palm models as distinct from the likes ofhtc desire, n8, nexus one etc

Also for a Blackberry you need to have a Blackberry specific plan for apps/features to work on it properly, whereas with the others you can use them on any network / plan / payg once they are unlocked.

candlegrease

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

Also for a Blackberry you need to have a Blackberry specific plan for apps/features to work on it properly, whereas with the others you can use them on any network / plan / payg once they are unlocked.

thanks, thats good info, didnt know that