Gadget bytes... Palm, Pocket PCs, Ipod

We got our first PDA in the late 90s. It was a Palm Vx; Other Half has a penchant for techie stuff. I used to just tag along but over the years I caught the bug as well. With 8MB of memory, it was a sleek gadget back then and I remember borrowing it to take to school to read the first of the Harry Potter's series; The Philosopher's Stone. It was a real cool piece of gadget.

Our affair with the PDA took flight after that. A Palm m505 followed 2 years (I think) later, with double the memory. We were hooked, with the makings of PDA diehards.

Other Half was really faithful to Palm. The m505 was followed by a Palm Tungsten T5. And it's still in working order... more than 5 years later! The leather casing is kinda worn out now but the machine is still good for a game of Cubis! 8)

In between all those Palm PDAs, I switched over to the dark side, opting for a HP Jornada which ran on Pocket PC. The colour was fantastic but it was not as 'user-friendly' as the Palm. And it would hang every now and then. I had to press the reset button quite often. The OS was actually quite cumbersome.

I dumped it for a Sony Clie NX Series later which operated on the Palm OS. My gal still kept the Clie after all these years. It finally went dead last year. The Clie's screen was a luxury... 8) These 2 gadgets look kinda sleek here, huh? I just threw my HP Jornada in my last major cleanup during the hols. Else it would have made a good trio.

The Clie was good for multimedia stuff but somehow I got swayed again and return to the Dark Side.

Went for a Dell Axim because it had the apps that I wanted. I got 2 units of it, a Dell Axim x50 and a X51 after I gave the former to my Son.... kononnya for him to use it as a mobile notebook; which never happened. Both my Ipod and Axim side by side... The Axim is at least twice the thickness of the Touch. Both have touch screens but Ipod Touch wins hands down...

So, after all those gadget bites, we're (me, mainly) now into Apple products... the Ipod Touch. Other Half, Son and I have an Ipod Touch each. 8) Daughter is eyeing to own one, but she is still too young!

We were just comparing the PDAs. Next to the Touch, they looked kinda bulky!.... A whole new meaning for sleek comes around! Screen wise, the Touch is awesome. But I guess in a couple of years, if I'm still into all these stuff, the screen would probably get a little more awesome... that's how technology is - always going forward.

And the Touch has brought PDA experience to a new level. It's a very intuitive and easy to use. Even a person who is not very computer literate would find it quite easy to handle. The Touch screen made that possible. If it's anything that Apple has revolutionized in computing, it's probably this. I sometimes troubleshoot for the older people.... even the buttons to switch on the device is awesome. One press and the screen comes on. Mobile phones don't make it this easy too!

Writing this post made me realize too that, the gadgets to me served me well especially in reading... somehow I kinda forgot that to be able to read was always the main consideration. The Ipod has made it more comfortable and easy too. An occasional games and other stuff made it more worthwhile. After all, how can I forget apps like Avantgo which kept me well-fed me with news and articles?

So there! Our journey into the world of PDAs... and a small fortune later....