tips

Jeff Opal's
tips about how to get the most value out of a handheld computer

--for Palm OS machines: by deleting the software called "Graffiti" (that is the name of it, as it appears on the Palm OS applications-launcher screen), around 15 Kb of RAM is freed up. If one wants it back in RAM, simply execute the "Welcome" software. That software will transfer a copy of "Graffiti" from ROM into RAM.

This page in process, last updated on 26-JUL-2003. (please contact me with your suggestions, if you have any)

   3. Be open to the possibility of spending $500 or more. In my opinion, the potential benefits of having and using a high-quality handheld computer are so great for the average person that the average person should be willing to spend at least as much the typical price of a used automobile (one or two thousand dollars). Handheld users often say that their device is so useful to them that they have difficulty imagining life without it. I wholeheartedly agree.
    However, the benefits are far from obvious at first. I've heard many handheld users tell me that they needed several weeks of experience of daily usage of a handheld before they became enthusiastic about owning one. This was true for me also.
    I found that I couldn't easily visualize the benefits of owning a handheld until at I had used one daily for three weeks. During that three week period I went from disinterest (I almost returned the device -- a Palm IIIe -- back to the Franklin Covey store where I had bought it) to an extreme, "til death do us part", enthusiasm.
    I also believe that one should be open to the possibility that one will become disappointed with one's first handheld (in favor of another model) within months of purchasing one's first handheld. I often suggest to people who have never owned any kind of handheld that they "take the leap" and buy one regardless of whether it seems like the very best one for them. The really important thing is to gain experience with one of these wonderful little machines. After gaining a few months of experience with handheld-usage, one usually is much better able to judge what make/model of handheld is most suited to one's needs and wishes. E.g., it wasn't until a year had passed before I realized that I should have a handheld with a digital camera builtin to it.
   Handheld computers are very popular, so it normally is easy to find persons wanting to buy a used one. They also make great gifts...especially if the giver is familiar with handhelds and can provide knowledgable assistance to the person receiving the gift handheld.

--know how to make a record of the address book be ones "business card". Such a record will automatically be selected for beaming when one holds down the address book button.

My advice about what handheld computer to buy: My thinking about what is the best answer to this question has changed very much over the period of time that I have owned and used handhelds (ever since March of 2000). Several obvious factors have caused changes to my advice:

2. It is important to have a machine that has a slot for some kind of "flash" memory expansion. It is especially important for computing devices of the "handheld" type to have such a slot, for several reasons. Such a slot makes it easy to frequently backup all the data in the device's RAM-type of memory. (Signals in "RAM" require a constant, small charge of electricity in order for them to not disappear.) Backups of the data in a handheld computer are VERY important to do, and OFTEN. Handheld data is usually "a labor of love" that has required a lot of time and effort for the user to create. Losing it is thus far more disastrous for the user than is losing data of some other kind of computer system. In addition to the time and effort, the data itself is often very difficult to reproduce, because it is often totally orginal -- existing only on one person's handheld, and nowhere else.

4. Energetically search for software likely to be useful for you personally. A handheld computer will not be useful to the user if appropriate software isn't stored in it. The task of identifying the best software to have on one's handheld computer can be a long and difficult process (Note: help with this task is the primary function of user groups such as BRHandheld.)
     The two primary ways one learns about great pieces of software to have on one's device are
(a) talking with other handheld computer users, and
(b) searching through the huge collections of software at web sites such as www.handango.com. Give keywords related to your interest to the search-engine of such a site. The search-engine will find software titles with descriptions that have the keywords somewhere in the description. Example keywords one might use are
   ---"aquarium" (this will find titles of apps for managing large numbers of aquariums
   ---"taxi driver" (this will find titles specifically for taxi drivers)
   ---"stamp collector" (this will find titles specifically for stamp collectors)
   ---"camera collector" (this will find titles specifially for someone with a camera collection)
   ---"glass collector" (this will find titles specifically for glass collectors)
   ---"automobile" (this will find apps that enable one to track expenses, repairs, etc...associated with automobiles)
   ---"bridge" (this will find score-keeping apps for bridge, as well as apps that play bridge)
   ---"construction" (this will find apps that help a person manage building-construction projects)

    Note: This web page lists out all the pieces of software that I keep on my HandEra 330.

1. Many (thousands) of software titles are available for the machine. As far as I know, at this time machines that run the Palm Operating System or Microsoft's Pocket PC Operating System are in "a class by themselves" regarding software availability. According to recent (Feb. 2003) estimates I'm familiar with, there are now around 14,000 titles available for Palm OS machines, and around 6,000 available for Pocket PC machines. Other types of device (e.g., the "Helio") have only 100 or so titles available. Handhelds that have relatively few software titles available for them are "Symbian" machines (these machines run the EPOC operating system made by a British company), RIM machines, the "Helio", a Texas Instruments handheld, and a few others not worth mentioning here.

(a) Handheld computers have been continually acquiring new features, and some of the new features are very important for about 98% of handheld users to have. E.g., handhelds with a slot for some kind of memory-expansion card became common on store displays around the Fall of 2000. And now (Spring of 2003) virtually all handhelds on store displays have at least one such slot (and some have two!). I believe that such a slot is very important to have on one's handheld. Such a slot enables a handheld user to easily and frequently make backups of all the handhelds' data stored in its RAM, which additionally enables the user to be free of the need of using a regular PC (desktop or notebook machine) for such backups.
(b) Palm OS machines have lost much of the software-choice advantage they once had over Pocket PC machines. Two estimates I've made reveal this big change: my first estimate was in mid-2000 -- the ratio was 6,000/1,000 in favor of the Palm OS over the Pocket PC. A mere 18 months later, in Fall of 2002, my estimate for that ratio was 14,000/6,000. The large number of Pocket PC titles now available suggests to me that most or all of "the basic great stuff" has become available for Pocket PC machines also.

NOTES TO MYSELF:

5. Be patient. The value of a software title for a given user usually very dependent upon two things: (a) the user having learned how to use the title, and (b) the user having entered lots of data about the user's personal life into the database used by the title.
      Learning how to use the title might require an hour or so of self-study (or 1/4th of this time if personally tutored by someone else knowledgable about the title) . However, suppying the title with enough data for it to be truly useful typically requires months of patient data-collection and entry.
      E.g., perhaps the most useful piece of handheld software for me, personally, is now (April 2003) my Palm OS address book (a title builtin to all Palm OS machines).
     This piece of software's potential usefulness for me became apparent to me only after I had used it for several months, and had laboriously created around 100 records for its database. After accumulating around 100 records, each about either a person familiar to me, a business I buy things from regularly, or something else I need data about regularly, the title's potential value for my life was beginning to be very obvious.
     However, that potential value started to become actual value for my life only after I had used my address-book daily for around a ten months, and had created around three new records per day for the software to use, creating a total of around 1000 records. (I now [as of April 2003] have 1629 records in its database.)
    My address-book now is worth around $4/per day to me. That is, $4 per-day is what I would be willing to pay in order to use it if I were somehow required to pay money to use it and its 1629 records.

     Note: the web site of Consumer Reports magazine (www.consumerreports.org) has software that can recommend to you a handheld computer to buy. The form asks you about what things are most important to you. You are able to declare the importance of things like: price, size (height and width), weight, screen (size, color or monochrome), compatability with MS Outlook, want to listen to music with it, want a certain type of battery (single-use vs rechargable, replaceable vs builtin), etc... It then gives you an ordered list of handhelds according to how well the features of each match your specifications.
      I year's subscription to the online version of the magazine costs $24.
      When I used this software I was impressed with the results. The two handhelds getting the most points were the Palm Zire 71 and Palm m515 machines (from among around twenty handhelds). These two were the two I already had concluded were the best two choices for me.