Time for a Smart Phone?

[mikekn]

My current PDA (a Sony Clie NX80) came out in 2003 and is showing its age. Actually this is the second one of this model I've owned. The first one still works except for HotSyncing. The second one works except for the camera. Anyway...

The main thing lacking from it is access to the Internet (technically it has wifi, but it is very old and difficult to use), so time to look into something new.

Features I want but don't currently have:
- Internet access - wireless preferred, but I'd go with wifi only to save money if I can get all the other features I want
- Camera - the camera on my cell phone sucks and I rarely have our digital camera with me when I want to take a picture.

Features I have and need to keep (can be through additional apps)
- Calendar, Address book, Note pad - all synced with desktop application.
- MP3 player - especially for audio books and music on road trips.
- Read and write Word and Excel files (or OpenOffice files)
- Read PDF files.
- Load (and sync) files.
- Database program (mostly just able to load my data exported from LibraryThing and BoardGameGeek) Currently using SmartListToGo
- Ability to store web pages off line (unless I have full wireless access, in which case I don't need them off-line) Currently using Plucker.

I've lived with 2 GB of storage for a while now, but would prefer a lot more (2 for audio books, 2 for data and docs, lots and lots for music)

I've got Verizon right now for my cell phone service, which none of the big three smart phones use (iPhone, Palm Pre, G1). I'm not opposed to getting a smart phone with the lowest voice plan and unlimited data and just use it for data (looks like both the iPhone and Palm Pre can do this for $70/month) Tonight I'm paying bills which will serve to remind me that I don't have much money to spend on a new monthly bill.

Anyone out there with more experience then I care to comment or suggest?

Comments

[ubiq31.livejournal.com]

Here's a reason: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH6r2tIaRXU :) (Even if you won't use that particular app...the possibilities are there...)

Really, though, you want to consider Evernote if you get the iPhone (which I think they have for the Blackberry, too, but that came after Evernote for the iPhone, ironically enough). I have all of the SCA documents I need - handbooks, forms, laws, etc. - loaded into Evernote.

It's a neat application...you can make notes in Evernote (text notes, voice notes, picture notes) or you can email documents to your account at Evernote or load documents up through the client app on your desktop (Mac or Windows) or you can use the website as a client, too.

Basically, they index your document (and run OCR on any pictures you upload) so you can search through any of the clients. Need to see the docs relating to minors in the SCA? Easy...search for "minor" and it'll list them all :)

My favorite thing is the photo integration, though. You can take photos from the app or access photos you've taken separately with the camera (or any other image you've loaded into Evernote through one of the other methods). I no longer worry about missing anything on the whiteboard in meetings...I just snap a pic of the whiteboard. Snap another pic of my handwritten notes, too, and it'll index those. No real worry about bad handwriting...I'm sure it could be bad enough to not be indexed...but I've yet to see that ;)

It's a free app; it has a subscription option if you wind up needing to upload lots of photos or hundred or thousands of text notes...but most people won't need that functionality. For digitally-comfortable officers in a group like the SCA, though, it's really, really useful. Email newcomers handbooks at demos straight from the phone, etc...

As for databases, what kinds of databases? You want to have an arbitrary database on the phone or have one accessible over the net? For MP3s and video files, you can go through iTunes or if you just want to load it on there for retrieval elsewhere, it's usable as a harddrive, too.

I'm like you, I don't use the phone as a phone often at all...but it really is more of a mini tablet computer.

Won't try and convert you to GMail, but I didn't like the lack of organization initially until I realized that between filters, tags/categories and stars, you get all of the benefits of folders without the limitations.

[mikekn]

Very cool (the video and EverNote)!

I've got two types of databases I use - custom lists (like a cd collection) and imported data (like my book list imported from LibraryThing). I downloaded iTunes and have been poking around a bit. My current database app isn't available, but several similar ones seem to be. BoardGameGeek has it's own app too (but nothing for LibraryThing yet).

All GMail would have to add is the ability to show my inbox as list of individual messages instead of as "conversations" - I just don't like that style.

[ubiq31.livejournal.com]

GMail on the iPhone doesn't do conversation threads...individual messages are individual messages (probably because the app is actually Mail.app for the iPhone).

You can also use POP/IMAP through GMail for, really, using whatever client you'd like on the desktop.

Me, I can't go away from GMail now...the spam filtering is insanely good. The amount of spam I actually get is maybe 1-3 a month, tops.

I bet BoardGameGeek gets something in the app store...or make some noise about it and it'll show up ;)

I wonder if there's a GreaseMonkey script for unthreading GMail...I'd be interested to see that. I come from text-based mail programs, so I miss the unthreaded view...