What is a PDA?

T

he PDA, or Personal Digital Assistant, has come a long way from the mid to late 1990s when I first started getting involved with the devices. At the turn of 2004, current PDAs have significantly more storage space, dramatically faster processors, improved battery life, better functionality and, for the most part, are even smaller.

But all PDAs share a few common traits. Their original design remit called for a portable information manager – a unit that could be used to retrieve information for the user, and allow some editing and modification of the data. Most may be connected with a desktop machine or server to allow data to be shared between the two computers, although many PDA users have traditionally not bothered with the desktop other than for backup purposes.

Some modern PDAs seem to add functionality even though it may not be needed, or it’s highly compromising in some other respect. Video on a PDA may seem like a cool funky feature, but the small screen limits the genuine functionality for all but the most geeky of individuals. Of course, this is slowly changing, and one day I’m sure that video connections will be reliable enough on 3G mobile networks such that they’ll be invaluable – but not yet.

Although there are several other brands of PDA, this site is mainly only concerned with Psion (Symbian, EPOC), PalmOS and PocketPC devices. You can read my comparison of them here.