Who of you out there with a PDA "really" use it?

[rosalindavenue]

I have a Treo 600 (got it a couple months before Verizon put the 650 out). I turned off the email after a month-- the $50 a month data plan was not worth the money and I can check email enough as it is. I use the phone, calendar (with alarms) and contacts all the time. I keep small notes on it; and I use Avantgo so that I always have something to read. I have other reading material on it (Dickens and Shakespeare with a e-reader-- C Spot Run, I think) but I rarely read that stuff. I had a Clie for a couple years before that and used it regularly for everything above, but it was too much to carry that and a phone so I never had my phone on me; which was a pain in the neck. So, to answer your question (I guess) a phone with PDA capacity is worth it for me.

 

[amin]

I use my Ipaq multiple times daily to check medical resources as well as to keep my schedule organized. I also maintain a word doc of things to do on my work desktop, and it is useful for me to sync a copy of this to the PDA. I prefer Palm OS, but need a medical reference called UpToDate, which is unfortunately only available for Pocket PC. I am considering a switch to the Treo 700w when it comes out, but 240x240 may be too limiting.

 

[notjustjay]

In the winter, I use a PDA more often than in the summer. Why? Bigger pants, more pocket space

I used to have a proprietary Sharp thing (SE-500?), then a Handspring Visor, then a CLIE T615. I used them a LOT, in particular for calendaring, for games (Solitaire is great for long road trips), and I kept a Bible on it as well. It was pretty handy, until at some point I put it down and left it too long -- the batteries died and the memory was cleared out.

Of course it's not a big hassle to get it all back -- just resync -- but after I lost my job and was no longer generally tied to one computer every day, the resyncing habits got erratic. Eventually I just stopped using the PDA, and at some point realized that it wasn't worth keeping anymore, so I sold it.

I've become used to not carrying a PDA now, especially now that we have fancy Bluetooth cell phones and 12" Powerbooks so small we can carry them anywhere. In fact, last summer I found a smokin' deal on a Tungsten E2 which I snapped up real quick, only to return it 2 weeks later because, frankly, I wasn't using it!

I think I want a Treo 650, but we'll see what happens...

 

[iSaint]

What program can I use to store/sync and view PDF's and other docs?

Adobe has a free Acrobat reader for Palm

DocumentsToGo is a popular viewer for Word and other documents, and support PDF viewing. They also have a spreadsheet app.

 

[Lyle]

The first time I bought a PDA was back around 2000. I bought one of the low-end Handspring Visor PDAs because, frankly, some of my co-workers had them and I thought it would be a cool toy to have. Didn't use it.

I resisted the urge to get another one until I really thought I could find some regular day-to-day use for it. When I started reading David Allen's book Getting Things Done at the beginning of this year, in an effort to get my act together, it was pretty clear that his system lent itself well to implementation on a PDA (although he makes it clear in the book that that's not required).

So I shopped around and decided to go with the Palm Zire 31. I use it for the calendar and the contacts a good bit, but primarily I use a third-party application called Shadow Plan (which I use to manage various lists in a kind of outline form). I do feel like I'm getting my money's worth out of it.

And like someone mentioned earlier in this thread, I'm really, really interested in seeing the new Palm TX (which finally has built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for a decent price)!

P.S. Adding that I've never tried a Treo, but am skeptical that I'd like it.