Introduction:
User Support Services established a PDA Project Team to review several popular Personal Digital
Assistants, also known as PDAs. The Project Team was tasked to determine which devices worked
best with University systems and to
recommend devices best suited for the general user at the University of
Maryland.
Hardware Evaluated:
The Project Team evaluated five devices from the two major platforms for PDAs, which are the Palm and
PocketPC. Each platform approaches usage from a different
perspective. The Palm platform is focused simply on
organization, while the PocketPC platform focuses on desktop
functionality. The devices were evaluated based on
cost, ease of setup, popularity, and dual
platform compatibly (i.e., Windows and Macintosh). Also, each device was
tested for connection to the University’s e-mail system
(Mail@UMD), Corporate Time, web browsing, general calendaring, and
address book functions.
Click the name of each device for a review of the device
Palm
Z22
Price:
$99
Operating System
Palm OS
Palm LifeDrive
Price: $499
Operating System
Palm OS
Palm TX
Price: $299
Operating System
Palm OS
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Dell Axim x51
Price:
$399
Operating System
Microsoft® Windows® Mobile™ 5.0
HP iPAQ hx2495
Price $399
Operating System
Microsoft® Windows® Mobile™ 5.0
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Recommendation:
The Project Team was not able to come to a conclusion on which
single
device is best to use because of the disparate systems currently used
at the University of Maryland.
Therefore, the selection of choice of a PDA is left to the end user.
A recommendation may be
able to be offered as the University simplifies to new uniform e-mail
and calendaring solutions in the future.
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