I have owned quite a few PDA since 1997. My very first PDA was a Zaurus 5800 handheld by Sharp. I bought it for my dad but he gave up using it as he wasn't very tech savy, and passed it back for me to use. It was quite easy to use and simple, but did not have any synchronising features. But the motherboard fried one day due to a power surge while I was changing the batteries! Just my luck, the warranty was just over one year and I couldn't claim for free repairs. I gave up repairing it because the cost of repairs was enough to buy another one!
My next PDA was a Hewlett Packard HP320LX, which I bough about same time before my Zaurus 5800 went kaput. I though it was nice to have a similar OS like the Windows 95 at that time. It could multitask, and sync well with the MS Outlook software. As the technology was still new and expensive, HP did not provide a very powerful CPU. Though 4mb RAM was considered big at that time, but I quickly fill up the memory pretty fast! So I had to purchase a couple of 8mb Compact Flash cards to compliment the storage capacity. Mind you, I plunk quite a tidy sum into this device, though I was pretty lucky to get a free O/S upgrade from Win CE version 1.0 to 2.0. Due to its slow processing speed, there wasn't much I could use it except for contacts look ups and appointments. Sometimes I used it for downloading email, but at 14.4kbps, it was torture to wait for all the mail to download.
So I decided not to buy anymore PDA until the manufacturers can come up with devices that are faster and more efficient.
Sometime early of year 2003, my wife started pestering me to get her a PDA device. Many of her colleagues were using them, and she thought it would be effective and efficient to keep her many contacts and appointments in the device for quick lookups and reminders. She kept her eye on the Toshiba e330, which was running on Pocket PC2002 O/S. It was very expensive, but there was a promotion where a leathercase and 64mb of SD card was provided free together. So deciding it would be a good investment to mollify her, I made the purchase. She was very happy to have it.
Around this time, I got the urge to get one PDA device myself. Microsoft PC2002 was good, the devices have pretty good CPU and RAM. Though I had a fair idea how useful it is while fiddling with my wife's Pocket PC device. I decided to scour the market for other alternatives. Palm O/S seems intrigueing. I did many researches, came to the conclusion that it was quite a solid PDA device. My impulse to purchase came when the Palm Zire71 was launched. I quickly got one, and soon got to know its features very well.
Disaster strikes! While enjoy an X-men2 movie, my wife forgot to secure a bottled water tightly. Her handbag was totally soaked and there at the bottom was the Toshiba e330! The water went into the LCD unit. Though I tried to dry it under the fan, it would not dry! Thinking it would be covered by the warranty, I sent it to the distributors for repairs. Sadly, though they managed to dry it under the hot sun, but the circuits were fried. Sorry, warranty did not cover for negligent handling, they said. Sob! There goes my hard earned money! Now it sits on my shelf as an expensive decorative item!
No choice, but I had to purchase another replacement for my dear wife. Deciding to get a cheaper device, at least, if it gets damaged, I wouldn't lose so much! So I got a Hewlett Packard iPaq h1910 Pocket PC2002. Its got a slower CPU and lessor RAM, but considering my wife is no power user, it will be sufficient!
Ah, the joys and the agonies of computer technology! With the fast pace of technological advances, newer devices were launched making the PDA devices we now owned seem rather dated. Not to mention the way prices drops! Makes one regret having made the purchase so soon!
With new Pocket PC2003 devices and new Palm Tungsten E/T2/T3 with ever better features, makes one wants to upgrade to the devices to take advantage of its newer features. Sigh! Well, better have some self control and be content with what I have now. Still...