Tip! Do your won research and make up your mind as to the PDA model you want to get. DO this research before you go shopping, so you’ll have a good background about which model you want, and what are the potential problems it has.

Electronic device manufacturers and content producers have
got to back away from the forest and see the light filtering
throught the trees. Consumers want to control the content
they purchase and want to be able to use their electronic
devices together without restrictions placed on them.

Standards and interoperability will have to come to digital
devices, just as Google co-founder Larry Page said in his
Consumer Electronics Show keynote speech when he introduced
Google Video. Right now, only those video’s purchased through
Google Video that are NOT copy protected will play on video
iPods and Sony PSP’s - the rest only work on Google Video.

www.google.com/press/podium/ces2006.html

That news about Google Video and Digital Rights Management
(DRM) standards of interoperability had me fuming about my
inability to use my content (photos, movies, music) on
devices made by different manufacturers or between cell phone
providers. Today I ran across a story about an Anti-DRM group
in Britain campaigning to demand an end to DRM.

www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/18/drm_consumer_opposition/

Obviously I’m not the only one disturbed by the fact that I
cannot move digitally recorded movies from my Tivo to my DVD
recorder (purchased for exactly that reason, but before I
knew it wouldn’t work) I only found out that I couldn’t
record movies from the Tivo to the DVD recorder when I called
Pioneer customer support to ask why the recorder wouldn’t
record my movies. It seems that I can only move digital
movies from the Tivo to my computer (which I found I could do
with free Tivo Desktop software when I called Tivo customer
support.)

Tip! If you are surfing the web, there are types of viruses and Trojan horses who ‘know’ how to penetrate your PDA and do their worst. You therefore need proper protection from infected files, just like any PC user who surfs the web, downloads files, reads emails etc.

So instead of recording directly from my Tivo to my Pioneer
DVD recorder, I have to move the movie over to my computer
via Tivo Desktop software, then burn a DVD from my computer.
Very smart move on Tivo’s part, as it means I definitely
won’t buy the DVR from my satellite TV provider because they
don’t support skipping commercials, nor do they support
moving movies to my computer.

This also means I don’t NEED my Pioneer DVD recorder - so
their DRM which stops Tivo digitally recorded movies from
recording to DVD means that I won’t use that Pioneer DVD
recorder and will now sell it. The other DVD player connected
to my other television will suffice. If I want to record
something, it goes on the Tivo because it is so easy to use
and works so extremely well. I’ll use the free Tivo Desktop
software and move it to my computer and burn DVD’s of my
recorded television and movies there.

Tip! Start with a research first. Always look for a few Internet forums about your PDA and ask around about the item you want to get.

Clearly Tivo is doing all they can to make their device
consumer friendly - but they are being besieged by television
and movie content producers, who are screaming at them to
stop the “piracy” of their users. Tivo now disables the 30
second commercial skip button daily (which you have to know
how to program - Select, Play, Select, 3-0, Select). They do
this via automatically updated internal software because
advertisers screamed at them for several years about the
consumer ability to skip commercials. The result is that I
reprogram that function daily anyway - annoying, but not
nearly as annoying as not being able to control my own device
the way I want to.

I’m convinced that content producers will lose this battle
over the long term and I’ll do all I can to fight them
myself, like supporting anti-DRM groups wherever I find them.
And I’ll research more thoroughly before buying products
which contain DRM to make certain they will work with my
existing devices - meaning no Sony CD’s or DVD’s. There have
been rumors that Apple is creating a set-top box and service
similar to Tivo and I’d buy one in a split second as I’m sure
I could use my iPod, iMac and iPhoto seamlessly between all
devices.

Tip! You need accessories. These are the basic, non essential goodies that are accompanying your PDA, like a nice leather case, a spare battery, a data/recharge cable, a recharge cradle and the like.

Maybe they’ll make a phone with a Mac OS and a PDA as well (I
actually used to own an early Apple Newton PDA and oh, how I
wish they had continued to develop that wonderful little
thing). I’m happy to use anything Apple produces - but I
won’t switch cell providers or switch my Satellite TV
provider. Interoperability and standards are essential to me.
It’s about choice. Pioneer limited my choices and lost a
customer and Motorola lost my ROKR iTunes phone business
because the device is only available from Cingular.

Tip! Understand that the items on ebay may not be presented as they really are. You don’t see the PDA with your own eyes.

Obviously, I’m a Mac user and had studiously avoided
purchasing Windows machines until I had to buy a Windows box
to run business software not available for my Apple machines.
So I bought an extremely cheap $299 PC to run the three
programs that won’t run on my Mac. That cheap machine now
serves as my DVD burner for movies (with a cheap external
hard drive as movie storage drive). Pioneer lost a customer
because they don’t allow me to record movies to DVD from my
Tivo. How about a Tivo/Apple partnership? That would be a
marriage made in heaven due to the customer-centric design
and usability so elegantly addressed by both companies.

I’ll put up with Apple’s walled garden (iTunes and
proprietary AAC files) and their own DRM only as long as
everything they make works seamlessly together. Apple
products always have worked elegantly together and probably
always will. Somehow most third party software seems to
interact well with everything else on the Macs. The moment
Motorola makes that ROKR iTunes phone available through MY
cellular provider, I’ll consider buying that phone.

Tip! The battery the manufacturer gave you with the PDA is not satisfactory and you want another one. With today’s affordable PDA battery costs, it’s easy to acquire a new battery fast.

Being in the market for a phone, I had been looking at a Palm
Treo 650 phone/PDA and was excited when they introduced the
new 700 model, just as I was about to make that purchase. So
I read a few reviews and discovered to my horror that Palm
just fell victim to the dominance of Microsoft and replaced
their own well designed Palm operating system on that new
Treo 700 with a buggy, slow and cumbersome Windows OS!

Tip! Make sure what brand of PDA you want. If you already own a PDA - that is easy.

In the process they lost another customer, because I can’t
stand the clunky way one must navigate with Windows
(reviewers agree) and refuse to buy that machine now, the
same way I avoided all other PDA’s running Windows for the
past 10 years. This is all because Palm couldn’t port
Microsoft documents and Windows related bits to the Palm OS
when corporate users required that interoperability. Thanks
to Gates & Company, Palm lost another customer - and their
own elegant OS.

Tip! Full Internet and email capability. This is a standard feature among PDA’s today, but it’s worth mentioning.

If mainstream electronics device manufacturers continue to
take the path of least resistance by kowtowing to content
producers, lowest common denominator software and stifled
functionality and interoperability, then consumers will
eventually find a way to take back the control. We’ll avoid
buying products (CD’s & DVD’s, “rented” music) that don’t
work with their existing devices (Tivo’s, DVD recorders,
PDA’s, iPods) and will find companies that make all of this
stuff work together and buy from them - but only so long as
ALL devices and ALL content work with each other
interchangeably.

Tip! Your own PDA in now being repaired. This is obvious - your PDA is broken or malfunctions and it’s being repaired.

Mike Banks Valentine is a Search Engine Optimization
Specialist and blogs about web content at:
http://
weblogs.Publish101.com and distributes articles about
business at: http://
Publish101.com while operating a small
business ecommerce tutorial at: http://WebSite101.com

Bookmark to:

Tip! Start with a research first. Always look for a few Internet forums about your PDA and ask around about the item you want to get.

A lot has been said about the iPAQ and it’s various models. In this article I’d like to talk about a specific model, the iPAQ H6315 PDA, and what has been the experience of people with this model. Please note that this device is a PDA - phone combination, also known as “smart phone”. This increasingly popular option gives you more added value because you don’t need to carry your cell phone around in addition to the PDA.

Let’s begin with going over the features of this device:

1.The H6315 is an integrated PDA + cell phone. In the US, this device works perfectly along with the T-Mobile and Cingular networks. What does this mean for you? Well, you can forget about carrying around two devices (PDA and cell phone) and replace them with one device.

Tip! The H6315 is an integrated PDA + cell phone. In the US, this device works perfectly along with the T-Mobile and Cingular networks.

2.This device has the ability to connect to a GPS system. You can actually find your way to any destination in the country using the GPS system along with a suitable map software. Make sure you install the voice software so your iPAQ can give you sound directions while you are driving.

3.Full Internet and email capability. This is a standard feature among PDA’s today, but it’s worth mentioning. The ability to connect to the Internet makes this device especially useful. Imagine you are driving your car to a new client, using the directions the PGS system gives you. At some point, the client calls your phone. You can take the call with your iPAQ while still driving and talk to the customer. Let’s say he want to send you a PDF file. No problem. He send it to your regular email account, and it’s being forwarded to your iPAQ. You now can access the PDF file through your email and PDF software that are installed on your iPAQ. If you need to see more data from the Internet maybe - again - no problem - you can use the browser on your iPAQ.

Tip! Do your won research and make up your mind as to the PDA model you want to get. DO this research before you go shopping, so you’ll have a good background about which model you want, and what are the potential problems it has.

4.Calendar and reminder. Let’s say you are out of your office all day. Your iPAQ calendar can be updated automatically with all your appointments while you are on the go.

5.You get all these capabilities for less that $500. This is a lower price than the competing machines and you get great value for the price.

Ok, so we’ve gone through the good stuff, let’s look at a few disadvantages of this device, as were reported by actual users on websites such as Amazon.com:

1.The device requires quite a few “soft resets” while operating. Now this is not so unusual, as many of us experience this with our PC’s. To eliminate this problem as much as possible make sure you upgrade your ROM to the maximum possible. This will enable you to use all the PDA’s abilities with lower chance of resets.

Tip! You need accessories. These are the basic, non essential goodies that are accompanying your PDA, like a nice leather case, a spare battery, a data/recharge cable, a recharge cradle and the like.

2.Sound of voice on the phone is a bit weak. But this can be addressed with the proper software that enhances the voice level.

Hopefully this review helped you make a better decision about your future iPAQ. The HP iPAQ H6315 PDA gives good value for money option, and is a worthy option in today’s PDA market.

Bookmark to:

Tip! The battery the manufacturer gave you with the PDA is not satisfactory and you want another one. With today’s affordable PDA battery costs, it’s easy to acquire a new battery fast.

PDA Memory Cards are a very popular means of immediately enlarging the memory capacity of a PDA. Most of the PDA Memory Cards that are in use today are of the SD memory card format, and their capacity ranges form 16MB to 1GB. The 2,4 and 8 GB cards are now in development, and are expected to penetrate the market during 2007 and 2008. Quite impressive for a memory card the size of a post stamp. The use of an SD memory card is great for installing additional software on your PDA, or storing more data on it. But it also enables your PDA to participate in what’s called “The Bridge Media” concept that the SD memory card creators had the vision for.

Tip! Start with a research first. Always look for a few Internet forums about your PDA and ask around about the item you want to get.

The meaning of Bridge Media is that the SD cards can offer a way to connect many sorts of appliances trough one small memory card, without the need to use any interpretation.

An example for sd card use:

You shoot a video clip with your digital camera. You will store the video clip on your SD card which is supported by the digital camera. After that, you can take the memory card out and plug it into your PDA. The video clip is immediately shown on your PDA, without the use of any other device. You didn’t need your PC’s intervention in doing this - both your digital camera and your PDA know how to read and write data to and from an SD card.

Tip! Understand that the items on ebay may not be presented as they really are. You don’t see the PDA with your own eyes.

The nest thing you can do is, say, change the video clip is some way sing your PDA (like adding titles). You can than save the new video clip to the memory card and take the SD card to a video camera. The video camera can now read the new video clip and display it on it’s screen or on your television.

Here’s another example:

You have an important phone call on your cell phone. Your cell phone supports SD memory cards so it’s able to record the call. You can later save the phone call audio file on to your PDA memory for future use.

Tip! Make sure what brand of PDA you want. If you already own a PDA - that is easy.

As you can see the possibilities are endless, and memory is something you can easily move from one appliance to the other thanks to the flexibility of PDA Memory Cards

Another thing to remember is that the DS memory cards have very fast read/write speed of X133. This is possible due to the fact that no physical component are active in the read or write process, and the memory is completely electronic.

Tip! Full Internet and email capability. This is a standard feature among PDA’s today, but it’s worth mentioning.

Bookmark to: