I'm really torn between a Sony Clie, and a Toshiba e740.
I like the Toshiba because of Wifi and the expansion slots. Plus I like the elegant design. What attracts me to the Pocket PC platform is the handwriting recognition, even if it sucks; I hate the idea of Graffiti. I've seen people use it, and it's so slow and cumbersome to enter someone's name and phone number, say right when you meet them or whatever. I also like the idea of being able to just take notes in my handwriting and put that in Word documents or my calendar or whatever, and either convert it to text later or just leave it the way it is. The fact that Pocket Outlook interfaces with regular Outlook is great, because both at work and at home I use Outlook for my e-mail, contacts list, and calendar.
On the other hand, there's the Sony Clie, representing the Palm platform. I tried one out in a store, and I was amazed at how smooth and intuitive the interface was. I've heard that now several Palm devices some with software that lets you write straight into a file (not Graffiti), like on a Pocket PC. I'm pretty sure that there's no handwriting recognition, though, I guess I could get used to Graffiti if I really had to. Palms get much better battery life, as well.
I'm primarily going to use a PDA to be a mobile extension of my Outlook databases, to take notes in meetings (with a keyboard), and occasionally to browse the Internet via a wireless connection. I'm not going to be playing movies or storing music, so I don't really care about any of that related hardware/software capabilities of Pocket PC's. I want something that's easy to use (taht includes easy to interface with Outlook), but powerful enough to do Internet, and maybe a few simple games for those boring transcontinental flights.
I'd really appreciate if any of you could give me advice as to what kind of system would be right for me.
Thanks.
~Rapier21
I like the Toshiba because of Wifi and the expansion slots. Plus I like the elegant design. What attracts me to the Pocket PC platform is the handwriting recognition, even if it sucks; I hate the idea of Graffiti. I've seen people use it, and it's so slow and cumbersome to enter someone's name and phone number, say right when you meet them or whatever. I also like the idea of being able to just take notes in my handwriting and put that in Word documents or my calendar or whatever, and either convert it to text later or just leave it the way it is. The fact that Pocket Outlook interfaces with regular Outlook is great, because both at work and at home I use Outlook for my e-mail, contacts list, and calendar.
On the other hand, there's the Sony Clie, representing the Palm platform. I tried one out in a store, and I was amazed at how smooth and intuitive the interface was. I've heard that now several Palm devices some with software that lets you write straight into a file (not Graffiti), like on a Pocket PC. I'm pretty sure that there's no handwriting recognition, though, I guess I could get used to Graffiti if I really had to. Palms get much better battery life, as well.
I'm primarily going to use a PDA to be a mobile extension of my Outlook databases, to take notes in meetings (with a keyboard), and occasionally to browse the Internet via a wireless connection. I'm not going to be playing movies or storing music, so I don't really care about any of that related hardware/software capabilities of Pocket PC's. I want something that's easy to use (taht includes easy to interface with Outlook), but powerful enough to do Internet, and maybe a few simple games for those boring transcontinental flights.
I'd really appreciate if any of you could give me advice as to what kind of system would be right for me.
Thanks.
~Rapier21