Ever since I got an iPod Touch about a year ago, I’ve been using it as a PDA. It’s done a fine job for me. Nonetheless, I have recently been missing some of the features of a Pocket PC. So, last week I started using my Dell x51v again.
I must say that I am really loving the experience of using the Dell. I had almost forgotten how nice its handwriting recognition is, and how quickly I can enter text on it. I had forgotten how blazing fast it is: when I open its Tasks app, it takes no time for it load, whereas the Appigo ToDo app I use on the Touch takes a few seconds before it shows anything.
It wasn’t all that hard to make the changeover from living in the cloud (having my data on the internet) to having my data in Outlook and syncing to the Dell. I had to copy and paste a lot of tasks from Remember The Milk, but that was easy to do. (I know RTM has a sync app, but I had bad results with it several months ago and didn’t want to risk losing data on both ends.) My calendar was already synced via GoogleSync for Outlook, and my contacts had not really changed since I retired, so there was no updating to do there.
It’s kinda fun to “change out” every once in a while, at least for me it is. It could get counterproductive if one did too much of it, of course. But, I am enjoying the change for now. Of course, I still use the Touch for surfing and music.
I miss my PocketPC sometimes too, Bruce. May end up using one for note taking and all that with handwriting recognition. Moving back to Exchange means easy syncing for me with my BlackBerry, iPhone, and a Pocket PC. I may even upgrade to an iPod Touch and just have one phone again.
Isn’t it funny how amazing it is to move to a different UI after being on one for a while? I think the iPhone is a great media/browsing device, but to me, it is a lot better at consumption of content and media than creation. Especially for PIM features. I’m in the process of migrating all of my content back to Exchange from MobileMe, Remember the Milk, etc. Looking forward to Snow Leopard’s native support of Exchange in Mail, iCal, and Address Book!
Thanks for discussing, Thomas. I’m looking forward to Snow Leopard, too … will have a lot of neat things!
I am looking for this. This is really gud
If you miss synching in the cloud, SugarSync has a PocketPC client that is superfast, and very capable of accessing anything you sync from your desktop. Of course, you’d need wifi; but I seem to have wifi available just about anywhere I spend much time these days.
Thanks Michael. Always good to know about new sync options, as so many of the existing ones aren’t perfect.
Thanks again for the comment.
I have been using my iPhone as a PDA since I got it a year ago, and it’s the only organizational gadget I’ve ever been happy with (although I am still exploring for the best task management app). But the iPhone’s handwriting recognition options are getting better all the time, with software like WritePad and Handwriting Notepad. Maybe it’s because I’m disabled and have slightly impaired coordination, but I hate using a stylus to write, whereas just writing with my finger on the screen feels so natural. Anyway, thanks for all the tips!
Interesting the timing of your comment and also interesting how things can change so quickly (in my case). My Boot Camp partition on my Mac got corrupted and I reinstalled Windows via Parallels Desktop 4.0 … when I tried to use ActiveSync, it created several calendar duplicates. I could deal with that, of course. But, the second time I tried to sync, and the third, and the … tenth, it just kept on saying “Looking for changes.” I had forgotten how pathetic Activesync is.
So, now I’m back to using my Touch as my PDA, and loving it. Was dumb to revert back to the Pocket PC. Well, maybe not dumb, but nonproductive in my case.