Is It Really a PDA?

When I worked at The Worst Job I Ever Had, they contributed to a technology purchase in lieu of getting me a laptop bag or Franklin Planner -- a Palm T|X.

I had a Palm III way back when, and then later, a Handspring Visor (which was tres cool!). I loved that Visor.

So when I had the opportunity to upgrade it to a Palm with wifi capability and a color screen that would allow me to watch videos streamed from SD cards, I jumped at the chance. I even purchased a better file manager and the Fitaly keyboard. It was very nice, albeit a bit buggy with the Blazer browser and such. VersaMail worked pretty well, though. I held on to it, using it off and on for a couple of years. Recently, I have been in an "off" section of time, though I have been watching Justice League episodes on it.

This last Sunday was my birthday. My wife snuck out a few days before and bought me a frivolous gift that I mentioned that I wanted (okay, I gushed about it like a little girl). In any case, I was surprised Sunday morning with a bag containing a bright, shiny, new iPod Touch 2.0, 16GB.

Even though the iPod pricing has come down, this is still a $300 do-dad, which gave me great pause. Do I really need something this expensive for watching videos and checking email at Panera? Do I really want something fancy to replace my tried and true Palm T|X?

I have been agonizing over this decision. Here's what I've been thinking about:

• The two units have a lot in common: wifi, a browser, a media player, and lots of storage memory (SD cards on Palm, 16GB on iPod Touch)

• I rarely used the wifi on my Palm, and used the email, calendar, and contacts only slightly more

• My T|X is only about two years old -- it has lots of life left in it

• Sure, the Touch is very swanky (and slimmer and lighter), but do I really need to replace a device I only used sporadically?

I was also curious about whether or not the Touch could be used as a PDA, or if it was just a glorified media player (read: TOY). So I began researching what it could do. I found a bunch of references to using it as a productivity tool -- as a true PDA.

That got me to thinking. It has email, calendar, and browser, PLUS it will sync all those with my MacBook Pro ... but could it's limited applications compete with the tens of thousands of apps out there for the Palm?

I checked for comparisons -- people who had a Palm T|X, but were considering, or had switched to, the Touch. I found a few that made that switch, that compared the two, and found the Touch equal or superior to the Palm.

Then I thought about why I never used the Palm at Panera to surf ... and I remembered taking 5 to 10 minutes trying to get the browser going, only to have it be slow and a pain in the ass to use. I thought about the calendar, contacts and email -- all hallmarks of a PDA -- that would be even easier to use on the Touch by being synced to my laptop.

And after all that, it seemed more and more likely that the Touch could be the PDA that I wanted. In fact, I was terrified that it would be near, but never meet, what I wanted, but the chance was still there.

So I took the leap.

I decided to keep it.

I opened it.

I charged it today and set up wifi at two locations, synced my contacts and calendar, and even set up my work email -- on IMAP, no less. I added a couple of movies to see what they would look like (Buckaroo Banzai and Appleseed).

And I have to say ... it's FANTASTIC! I love this device. It does more than I thought it would, and it does it all beautifully! It's light years ahead of the Palm in functionality and usefulness to me!

I was disappointed when I switched from the Handspring to the T|X, because the only things I added were color, media, and wifi -- with all the other apps being the same as they were on my 5+ year-old device.

I think the iPod Touch can be a very effective PDA, and I'm so glad that I decided to keep it. I'll try to keep posting on my experiences.