Time to accessorise
Like any modern appliance, there's a wide range of cosmetic accessories available--the Palm m100 has nearly 20 different colour cases for you to choose from.
A quick search of the Web revealed everything from a gold-plated stylus for the Palm III to a kangaroo-skin flak jacket for the iPaq.
There are functional additions, like docking stations, flash memory, solar power modules, and network adaptors to make life with your handheld a little easier.
There are also quite a number of accessories which will extend the usefulness of your handheld computer. Clever businesses are expanding the functionality of their handheld devices to improve productivity and even find new ways to conduct their business.
The addition of a GPS turns your handheld device into a powerful mapping and navigational device. Your GPS can be combined with mapping software to easily locate manholes, under ground cabling and other geographical features to help you get your job done quickly and easily.
You can also collect data with the GPS into the handheld for later downloading into your main system. If you bring a modem and mobile phone with you, you could even upload to your company's servers instantly.
Barcode readers allow handheld users to quickly take inventory in a warehouse or offsite, and return to a desk and update records quickly, saving time on data entry.
Wireless networking allows employees freedom of movement, for example making it possible to do maintenance checks and create work orders on the move, again saving data entry time.
Serial and network cables allow technical staff to log in and check equipment like routers and headless servers without having to carry a full laptop everywhere.
There is a range of other equipment also available. There are digital camera add-ons-Sharp even has a digital video camera and card especially for the Zaurus.
Other less common devices like RF (radio frequency) readers and pre-programmed flash cards can also be used to improve productivity.
Operating systems
When Technology & Business magazine received handhelds for testing they came with three different operating systems--Microsoft Pocket PC, Linux Qtopia and PalmOS.
Microsoft Pocket PC
The Windows CE operating system powers the palm-sized Pocket PC and larger Handheld PC, as well as the Xbox and other products.
The Pocket PC PDA has a quarter-VGA screen (320 x 240), which is great for playing Doom, but may make it a little difficult to manage large spreadsheets and forms for business applications, Web applications, or desktop applications designed for a full screen.
Pocket versions of Word and Excel, as well as Outlook and other MS apps come bundled, and with expansion cards it supports modem, network and wireless.
Microsoft's OS has multimedia support for various audio formats as well as images and Windows Media files.
With the limited amount of memory in handhelds this is a bit of a novelty, but with many of the machines now supporting CompactFlash and memory cards, there is the ability to carry around a few of your favourite MP3s, or maybe your company promo video on a removable card.
A CompactFlash Microdrive would expand this capability to 1GB, although it impacts on battery life.
Linux Qtopia
Linux is a Unix-like open source operating system, with several distributions available for palmtop devices. We received one Linux-based PDA for testing, the Sharp Zaurus.
Our Zaurus was a development model, running the Qtopia desktop environment (formerly called QT Desktop) developed by Trolltech. The open source nature of Linux makes it cheaper and easier to develop your own applications, in addition to the range of software already available.
This Linux-based environment offers multimedia support for various audio formats as well as MPEG video. As with the Microsoft offerings, CompactFlash and memory cards allow you to carry a lot more multimedia files with you and insert them when desired.
PalmOS
The Palm OS is, as its name suggests, the native OS of Palm devices, but is also licensed to vendors such as Handspring, IBM, and Sony.
It is much smaller than the Windows OSes (around 50KB compared to Pocket PC at 2.5MB) and applications are likewise smaller.
An issue to consider: while Palm devices can automatically install new OS upgrades, licensees must re-license each new version, and they don't always do so. For instance, the current Handspring OS is based on Palm OS 3.5, while new Palm devices use Palm OS 4.
The two PalmOS devices we tested had the capacity for extra memory, with either an SD card for the Palm, or a Springboard expansion card for the Handspring Visor Pro. The Palm Desktop synchronisation software that comes with both the Palm and Handspring products comes in Windows and Mac OS versions.
Mac OS X is not officially supported, although Palm's Web site says it's possible to run Palm Desktop in Classic mode. A new version of Palm Desktop for OS X is in the works. Palm also says the cradle won't work under OS X and you'll need to use a USB cable to synchronise.
There is no official Linux software for the Palm, but there are clients for most popular desktop environments, such as Kpilot for KDE. Palm OS currently has very limited multimedia capabilities, although these are expected to be greatly enhanced in the next version.
