2008 Woodie Awards
A new way to use your smartphone
Eddie Burns, Special to The San Matean
Issue date: 10/22/07 Section: Entertainment
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After a long overdue start of a full-time college career, I decided to get together provisions that I believed were essential to my success as a college student. I had my backpack, binder, notepaper and pencils and felt somewhat ready with my provisions. But after many years away from the classroom I was concerned with my ability to take notes. My note taking skills had been far out of practice and handwriting has always been a difficult task for me but my listening and typing skills are exceptional. Realizing that the digital age has imposed itself on the classroom for at least a decade, I rationalized that a laptop would be a good solution to my note taking dilemma.
Fry's Electronics is to me now what Toys "R" Us was when I was 8. I knew right where the laptops were and made my way to that department. I had a shopping list of the things that I wanted my laptop to have and at the top of that list was portability. My rationale was that if I were to lug a laptop to school all day it had better be small and lightweight. I was disappointed to discover that the laptops that fit this description were between $1500-2500.
Unable to justify the purchase, I left the department and made my way towards the exit, passing through the PDA section. I glanced at the items as I walked past and stopped when a package caught my eye. The package was a folding keyboard that was compatible with PDA's. The rusty wheels in my head started to turn. I had a Microsoft Windows based cell phone and asked myself "Could I use this with my cell phone to take notes in class?"
Your PDA Phone
The answer is "Yes." And here is the lowdown. There are numerous PDA (personal digital assistant) phones, often referred to as a "smartphone," on the market but only a handful of operating systems. What this means is that no matter who built your phone (Samsung, HTC, Motorola, etc.) there will only be 5 operating systems available: Blackberry, Symbian (very select phones use this OS), Palm, and Windows in two varieties: Windows Mobile for Smartphones and Windows Mobile for Pocket PC. There are few differences between them- all will synchronize to your Windows based computer and all of them will synchronize with Microsoft Outlook and transfer your calendar information, contacts, and tasks. All of them have the ability to view Microsoft Word and Excel files. What the Palm and Pocket PC version of Windows Mobile can do differently is that they include the ability to create your own Word and Excel documents right out of the box. A third party application, sold separately in most cases, is required to create Word and Excel documents on the Blackberry and the Smartphone version of Windows Mobile (for more info visit www.handango.com).
Fry's Electronics is to me now what Toys "R" Us was when I was 8. I knew right where the laptops were and made my way to that department. I had a shopping list of the things that I wanted my laptop to have and at the top of that list was portability. My rationale was that if I were to lug a laptop to school all day it had better be small and lightweight. I was disappointed to discover that the laptops that fit this description were between $1500-2500.
Unable to justify the purchase, I left the department and made my way towards the exit, passing through the PDA section. I glanced at the items as I walked past and stopped when a package caught my eye. The package was a folding keyboard that was compatible with PDA's. The rusty wheels in my head started to turn. I had a Microsoft Windows based cell phone and asked myself "Could I use this with my cell phone to take notes in class?"
Your PDA Phone
The answer is "Yes." And here is the lowdown. There are numerous PDA (personal digital assistant) phones, often referred to as a "smartphone," on the market but only a handful of operating systems. What this means is that no matter who built your phone (Samsung, HTC, Motorola, etc.) there will only be 5 operating systems available: Blackberry, Symbian (very select phones use this OS), Palm, and Windows in two varieties: Windows Mobile for Smartphones and Windows Mobile for Pocket PC. There are few differences between them- all will synchronize to your Windows based computer and all of them will synchronize with Microsoft Outlook and transfer your calendar information, contacts, and tasks. All of them have the ability to view Microsoft Word and Excel files. What the Palm and Pocket PC version of Windows Mobile can do differently is that they include the ability to create your own Word and Excel documents right out of the box. A third party application, sold separately in most cases, is required to create Word and Excel documents on the Blackberry and the Smartphone version of Windows Mobile (for more info visit www.handango.com).
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