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considering PDA/laptop (yeah, vague)
Chaotic Descent
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I know nothing about portable computing. I've had a desktop PC since forever, although I upgrade infrequently and have to play catchup homework on the technology, I'm not new to computing technology.
I have a feeling I don't want a laptop, since they're so expensive. I could only justify it as a replacement for my desktop PC, and I don't see much use for that kind of portable computing any time soon. It would be nice, but I don't have a couple thousand I can casually throw at it.
I have no idea what the different kinds of portable computing devices there are, and which names are brands, which are OSes, which are hardware platforms, and how many of those four categories of categories are actually the same.
I see PDAs for only a few hundred dollars. While I can't do nice things like show people my artwork on it or do programming and databases (or can they?), I could browse the internet for reference, or at least keep track of lists, and carry reading material.
Is there any easy way to do offline web browsing with a PDA (download and look at it later when away from wireless internet), or offline map navigation like MapQuest/YahooMaps?
I also want a cheap full-size keyboard if I'm going to be doing any real typing. how many ways can you hook a keyboard up to a PDA?
I can't find any good guides on this. like what features matter. what brands are good.
A lot of the website search results I get are horribly obsolete. of course most of them aren't dated, so it's hard to tell. (brilliant forethought, guys!)
I found out in a round-a-bout way that the site I used to comparison shop for a digital camera ( www.myproductadvisor.com ) also did PDAs and pocket PCs. although I'm still unclear on what features matter, and what brand's best.
I have a feeling I don't want a laptop, since they're so expensive. I could only justify it as a replacement for my desktop PC, and I don't see much use for that kind of portable computing any time soon. It would be nice, but I don't have a couple thousand I can casually throw at it.
I have no idea what the different kinds of portable computing devices there are, and which names are brands, which are OSes, which are hardware platforms, and how many of those four categories of categories are actually the same.
I see PDAs for only a few hundred dollars. While I can't do nice things like show people my artwork on it or do programming and databases (or can they?), I could browse the internet for reference, or at least keep track of lists, and carry reading material.
Is there any easy way to do offline web browsing with a PDA (download and look at it later when away from wireless internet), or offline map navigation like MapQuest/YahooMaps?
I also want a cheap full-size keyboard if I'm going to be doing any real typing. how many ways can you hook a keyboard up to a PDA?
I can't find any good guides on this. like what features matter. what brands are good.
A lot of the website search results I get are horribly obsolete. of course most of them aren't dated, so it's hard to tell. (brilliant forethought, guys!)
I found out in a round-a-bout way that the site I used to comparison shop for a digital camera ( www.myproductadvisor.com ) also did PDAs and pocket PCs. although I'm still unclear on what features matter, and what brand's best.
Chaotic Descent on
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It's an alright machine, it has a Pentium M, decent sized hard drive, wifi, etc. Good for web stuff and general office-type applications.
... nope. the PDA link just leads to... a section on cell phones. the links at the top no longer include a section for PDAs...
anyhow if you're going for a lower end model for maybe 200 i don't know.. you're probably better off with a refurbed laptop, though i think most windows mobile pda's are getting cheaper these days
depends how cheap the laptop is, and how crappy it is. I don't need it for playing games on. Although if it's little more than a PDA with a large screen and less-[portable & energy-efficient] MP3 capability, it won't be worth it. Honestly, the technology is starting to confuse me. It's starting to seem kind of pointless. So you get a laptop which is a portable PC, but it's a bad PC, and eats batteries. Then you have your MP3 players and PDAs. the MP3 players seem fine (if expensive and small unless you want to put a HD in there) but the PDAs are even more gimped than the laptops. I dunno. I've never even tried a PDA.