David Urmann asked:


They are here to make your life better and convenient. Yes! We are talking about the best of handheld devices that are available in the market. Let it be finding your way through the woods or storing your precious data, these devices can handle the job better than any other conventional way of doing so.

That is not all, this is done by a device that can easily fit in your palm and slide in your pocket. These new age tools have added an altogether new dimension to our lives and it is not an exaggeration that within the small period of time, they have made themselves irreplaceable.

Today, the PDA device or the digital organizer is an integral part of our day to day life not forgetting about the useful handheld GPS devices that helps us to find any location within few clicks.

Let’s learn more about the best of these devices that are functional and have eased our lives to a great extent. The first that comes to mind is a PDA or Personal Digital Assistant. In a nutshell the PDA device can be called as a “smart” pocket computer.

The handheld PDA devices are completely functional devices that offer portable electronic productivity and entertainment that come in several sizes with varying capabilities. They range varies from basic devices typically used to look up appointments and phone numbers to more advanced units that play music and videos or connect you to the Web.

With the advance of technology, the most significant trend in the present time is the use of such devices for communication via wired or wireless networks. A handheld PDA device gives you the much sought after freedom to access important data without geographical limitations, and with convenience.

That is why the this device is very much popular among those who have to spend most time out of the office and carrying a laptop every time is not a possibility. In fact, considering some occasions, you will find that a PDA is more useful as it is handy and can be carried in the pocket. A handheld PDA is even more useful with some of its interesting features like handwriting recognition software, which makes using it convenient.

On the other hand, a handheld GPS device offers navigational help and is really handy for outdoor adventure like camping, hiking, mountain biking, etc. Although a handheld GPS device is meant to help you navigate with the help of a satellite, most of them slide down in your pocket and provide you with the essential features, which are useful for more than finding directions.

One of the features of this unit is the UTM grid data maps or local grid maps. Many of the handheld GPS devices have multi-parallel channels to ensure that several satellites are tracking you at one time rather than just one.

Ron Hel-Or asked:


The many PDA handheld accessories available today can make any handheld computer more useful and fun. No matter who you are or how you use your PDA, chances are you will be able to find the perfect PDA handheld accessories for your PDA’s.

When looking at PDA handheld accessories, reviews can come in handy. Reviews of various handhelds and PDA’s often include a discussion of which accessories are essential and which ones can safely be skipped, or are “nice to have”.

So what are the essential a accessories for a handheld PDA?

Here’s a short list of accessories you don’t want to do without:

1.An extra battery – Believe you me, it is NOT a good experience to be left with a dead PDA because you forgot to recharge the battery. This can happen often (more often than we think), so having an extra batter in your bag or your can is a good idea. A good idea is to buy a good new battery as your “prime” battery (try the new Li Ion type), and as an extra back-up battery use the old NiCd battery you probably got when you bought your PDA.

2.Recharging cradle/cable – these can save you a ton og time. Some recharging cables act also as data cables, and you can use the time you take to synchronize your PDA with your PC to recharge the PDA.

3.A good PDA case – This is essential to protect your PDA. Your pocket pc probable gets pushed into pockets and bags quite a few times a day – so it can use the protection. A good leather case doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg and will also provide an elegant look.

Ok, so these are essential accessories. Now, what about the “nice to have” ones?

1.An external keyboard iscan be very important accessory for some people. Many people dislike the stylus and touch screen that comes standard with most PDA’s, and an external keyboard certainly makes data entry a whole lot easier. This is nice to have unless you type a lot of data to your PDA. Then it becomes an essential.

2.Many people like the convenience of having a digital camera integrated into their handheld computer, and that is an important consideration for many people as they compare PDA’s.

3.A built-in cell phone is another handy feature to look for when shopping for a PDA. Many of the newer models of PDA’s, such as the Treo, are integrated with a cell phone. This saves space and time for many people who used to carry around a PDA in addition to a cell phone.

No matter what accessories you decide on for your new PDA, you will find many accessories to choose from that can make your PDA experience both fun and productive. It’s important that you only invest in accessories that meet your needs and comfort and not spent too much on things you don’t really need.

Alex Rider asked:


With amateur photography gaining in popularity, digital cameras are becoming the norm. The convenience of digital cameras over traditional film cameras coupled with recent advancements in picture quality have meant more pictures conveying happy holiday memories than ever before.

Back in 2003 12.8 million digital cameras were owned, a marginally larger number than film cameras, 33% of households were seen to own a digital camera by the end of the year.

Cameras such as these in combination with other digital products such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) and MP3 players all require media on which to store the digital data. Flash media, memory cards and microdrives were designed in combination with these digital products. Unfortunately, as with computers, digital media does occasionally suffer from corruption which in turn can cause stored information to become locked away in the storage media, supposedly inaccessible.

A wide variety of digital storage media forms exist today, all with varying storage capacities dependant upon make and model. 8MB through to larger 6GB microdrives are now possible.

First placed into this market by SanDisk Corporation in 1994, CompactFlash Memory has become the most popular storage media of late. This media uses flash memory semiconductor technology able to house audio, text, video and images on flash chips. Being non-volatile and also solid state (no battery is required to keep the data stored and no moving parts exist) has made this technology tough and reliable, just right for portable digital products.

Sony and Toshiba created Memory Sticks and SmartMedia cards, respectively, which also turned out to be very popular. Memory Sticks have become the dominant storage media type for their own products, digital cameras, Clie’ handhelds and computers. Other manufacturers also use Memory Sticks, in particular Konica. SmartMedia cards tend to be rather thin and fragile, and have a top capacity of 128MB. Similar to solid state technology, no moving parts and a small size are perfect for active and constant transfers between digital devices.

Initially introduced in 1998 with a capacity of 170MB, IBM Microdrives are also now popular and have grown in storage size to be able to cope with 2GB. Although solid state memory cards like CompactFlash are more impact resistant, microdrives have been seen as reliable and very economic with regards to digital devices.

Whatever format you use, be it one of the afore mentioned, or some of the other varieties e.g. SecureDigital, xD Picture Card, MultiMedia Card, Mini CD-R/CD-RW, more and more people are relying on digital media and its associated problems, rather than traditional film.

Gone are the cases of film overexposure and damaged film rolls, in come the hardware failures and data corruption. Data organization and storage now uses the FAT file system. Corruption of this filing system results in the digital device that houses the memory card not being able to locate the data, whatever is stored being ‘lost’, although still remaining on the memory card.

Corruption typically occurs when a device is low on power or when memory cards are removed whilst the power is still on. Such circumstances result in the file systems not pointing to the data. Hardware failure tends to come from damage, e.g. by rough handling or accidental breakage, to the digital media so that it is unable to properly connect with the associated device which needs to read the data.

Various data recovery companies, such as Vogon, MJM, Storagesearch, CBL-Tech and Ontrack, are readily available for any of the data recovery difficulties you may encounter with digital storage medias and their associated devices. A wealth of experience and data recovery innovations mean that most data that is ‘lost’ is in fact retrievable with the right techniques.