Personal Digital Assistant or PDAs are helpful for you in keeping organized. PDAs can handle a variety of tasks from managing contacts to scheduling appointments, checking mails, accessing internet etc. This article intent to help you in selecting a good PDA.
1. Identify your Needs with PDA: First and foremost thing is to determine the needs of your PDA. Here you need to identify what all features you would like to have. As I said before PDA can handle a variety of tasks. Some of the features to be considered are
- Contacts and a good organizer
- Internet and Email Supoort
- Phone calls
- Decent Memory
- Good battery life.
Most of the PDAs have decent in-build memory from 32MB to 64MB. If you need more memory you need to go for handset which supports extendable memory. This can be used for storing songs and videos.
Most of the PDAs have battery life of 3-10 hours in a single charge. Use lighter screen settings for better battery life. Some of the PDAs also offer rechargeable batteries, so that you can keep a spare battery handy.
2. Select the OS of the PDA: Second thing to look for is the Operating System of the PDA. There is Pocket PC handheld devices which run on Windows Mobile operating system. If you are using Windows Mobile OS, it supports Microsoft Office applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. Windows Mobile also supports entertainment like Windows Media Player and other audio file support.
Another OS for PDA is the Palm OS, which are used by Palm devices. Although they do not directly support office applications, there are lots of third party tools to support these. Palm OS also boasts of other features.
Deciding between a Palm OS device and Pocket PC is one of the most critical decisions to be taken while buying a PDA.
3. Other features: Other features which can be considered while buying PDA are;
- Camera
- Bluetooth
- Wi Fi connectivity
- Audio and Video support
- Keyboards
- Expandable memory slot
Mobile phone market is one of the fastest growing segment and everyday we can see lot of new models coming out. In this situation, picking up a new model would be a hectic task. Here are the most important 10 features to be considered while purchasing a new mobile.
- Phone book: Check the number of phone numbers that can be stored in the memory. Most of the handsets have a min of 200 contacts. Some phone even allow to customize each contacts based on mobile numbers, office numbers etc. Voice dialing and speed dialing are others features to look for.
- Organizer: Make sure that your phone has a good organizer. Typically an organizer will contain Calender, alarm clock, calculator and a stop watc. Some advanced models have other features like synchronization etc.
- Messaging and Multimedia: Almost all the phones have messaging service in-built. Check if the phone supports multimedia messages (MMS) and Email. Now its possible to access your mails and messengers using the phone, so its always preferable to have a handset which supports these features.
- Connectivity: Most of the handsets supports connectivity to PC or other handsets. Connectivity can be in the form of USB, Infra red or Bluetooth. Bluetooth feature is a must you plan to use the Bluetooth headset.
Imagine your cellphone in your shirt pocket and you are in a beach or lake, you bend down to take something and oops you cellphone falls in water. What to do in this situation? You can save your phone from water damage following these simple steps.
- First and foremost thing is to take the phone out of water as quickly as possible, do not keep thinking what to do.
- Open the back case and remove the battery soon as this will reduce the chances of a short circuit.
- Shake your phone and remove water as much as possible.
- Wrap a tissue paper or water absorbing paper around the phone and take out as much water as possible.
- Keep your phone and battery for drying near the window, but not under direct sunlight. Do NOT keep the phone and battery in oven or heaters, the battery may explode.
- Put the battery back into the phone after 1-2 days so that it gets dried properly.
