Palm Pilot worth taking?
 

Just read a trip report and it was mentioned that they loaded info into and took a palm with them. Anyone else done that? I have one (seldom use) but if it's worth it, I will gladly recharge and take it. Anyone else use one and think it's worth it? Any suggestions or ideas are most welcome. (Another reason I love this board.)

Look up &quot;robespierre&quot; who <i>frequently</i> advocates using a handheld device over books, journals, etc.

Travelnut beat me to it. Robespierre is a great advocate of suitable electronic devices, provided they aren't iPods.

And then, of course, there are the those of us who wouldn't be caught abroad without our paper books, paper restaurant reviews, paper driving directions, and, most importantly, our paper maps.

Notwithstanding all of the convincing arguments for electronics (and we do travel with an iBook), I need paper maps.

I guess it all comes down to personal preference.

Anslem

I'm finding it tempting to pack along my Palm Pilot. I can download all my hotel information, restaurant recommendations, places of interest, emergency phone numbers, etc. Plus, I will already have my address book with me.

However, I really, really, really hate traveling with electronic devices of any kind. They need to be recharged, and if I lose it or it's stolen, well, there goes everything. Besides, I write near novels for journals and that would never work with my Palm!

I suppose I'll leave it home, but I can certainly see how it might make life easier for some!

And if you're not in the habit of using your Palm, it may not be an indispensible travel item.

I love gadgets and electronics, but when traveling, it's just easier for me to pull out the paper map to see where I'm going, rather than trying to navigate on a map on a small screen, often in bright light - making the screen even harder to read.

I keep confirmation numbers, etc... stored on my pda, but they are basically a back-up (if I should lose my printed copy.) I've found that when presenting a confirmation number to a hotel clerk, will call window, airline agent, etc... it is much easier to hand them the printed up page than for me to dig out the pda, search for the info, then read out all the info to them (usually more than once.) If they see the printed page, they have all the info they need. It's just easier for me. And, as mentioned, it is a personal preference.

I really loved having my palm pilot for my recent trip to London, Paris, and Edinburgh. I had loaded the Lonely Planet City guides and there is an option once you have a listing to click on &quot;date book&quot; and have it set to your calendar. That was a great way to set an itinerary, plus, then there were notes about the listing attached to the listing in my calendar. We still used a fold out map because the one provided with the program is not very good. But the clunkiness of going through a guide book was gone. Each night I recharged, and never had any problems running out the battery during the day. However, my palm is only one year old, so make sure your battery is decent and holds a charge if you decide to take it with you. With the note pad option, it was great to jot down thoughts, etc, and as the day would progress I would add in stops to my calendar so that helped when trying to compose my trip report. Also, I kept a list of souvenirs I needed to buy.

I also stored all confirmations # for hotel, plane, and trains. There was also a list of my credit card and atm numbers, as well as phone #'s for my bank and credit card company in case anything got lost or stolen. (password protected)

I used London Tube and Paris metro programs from visualit and they helped with transportation. One nice feature that I discoved with them is that you can find info regarding places of interest near a particular station. There are free programs, but the ones I bought were around $20 a piece.

I had a lot of documents saved that were copied from the web. For instance, we wanted to eat at a particular sushi chain, so I copied all the addresses from the website onto a word document and then had it stored for reference when we wanted to fit it into our schedule.

It's theoretically possible to do almost anything with your PDA. But if you don't ordinarily use it in real life, what makes you think you're going to start using it on holiday?

I don't use anything else to store addresses and diary items. So the PDA sort of does that on holiday too (though the software that deals with time changes is a real pain, and it's best not to try to be too clever).

I find downloading streetmaps is a waste of time: it just never is as easy to read them (and more relevantly, scroll up or across) than paper. Personally, I can't abide reading novels from them, but it's always worth keeping a couple of unread Jane Austens or HG Wellses on them in case the alternative is inflight &quot;entertainment&quot; You can store guide books (though you have to pay for them). But are you really going to use them?

They're useful to store stuff that's easily called up. Experiment, but you'll probably find you won't actually use them for anything that doesn't come naturally.

By the way, does anyone know if any public-spirited organisation has produced PDA-compatible, free, 19th century Baedeckers? Now that I would download.

The only reason you <i>shouldn't</i> carry a PDA is if you simply prefer not to. All the <u>reasons</u> people come up with for not doing it are bogus non-issues.

Anyone who says s/he doesn't travel with electronics is either lying, or forgot the MP3 player, calculator, digital camera, and cell phone they take everywhere.

Keeping it charged requires maybe 30 seconds a day to take the charger out of your suitcase and plug it in. Big deal. (By the way, my Palm VII used 2 AAA batteries a month.)

It is just as easy to hand the PC to the clerk and let him/her read the information off the screen as it is to hand them a piece of dead tree with petroleum marks on it. And the information is probably easier to find, because it's all in one place, with a <i>search</i> button.

All the information in the PPC is backed up on a (½ oz) duplicate chip I keep as insurance against catastrophe. Paper things can be lost, stolen, or dropped in the river, too. Do you carry two sets?

The screens of modern PDAs are easily readable in bright sunlight. I have never failed to be able to read mine anywhere I've taken it (including in the convertible crossing the Arizona desert).

The area you can see on the screen is the same as the area you're actually <i>looking</i> at on a paper map. The computer version has the additional advantage of being <u>zoomable</u>, which makes it like carrying maps of 20 different scales for different purposes. Out in the country, a GPS plugged into your PDA shows you exactly where you are every second.

A PPC does several thousand things an iPod can't, and for less money. But it's not &quot;trendy&quot; and it only holds a few hundred hours of music instead of 10,000. But don't let anyone talk you out of anything based on their own preferences. It's your call.

I own a Dell Axim Pocket PC which I use on a daily basis for work. As much as I love the device, I can't envision myself using it on a vacation.

I agree with Kayb95 and flanneruk in that there are times when it is just easier to deal with paper-- I happen to feel that travel is one of those situations. I don't like looking at maps or reading extensively on a small screen.

Plus, I will already be bringing my digital camera and iPod...I do not want to have to keep track of a third device on my trip as well as keep it charged!

I don't have any need for one, but if someone else finds one useful, great.

I've been following the recent threads on pdas and ipods quite closely. Because of my conflicting travel needs - I want to have all my beloved novels, guidebooks, cds etc with me - especially on those long flights to Europe from the west coast and back - yet I hate to be overburdened with stuff when I travel. For me, the best thing about travel is, well, the travelling part - to be footloose, out in the world on subways, trains, boats, planes, horses...

Toss in the easyjet &amp; ryanair weight restrictions, and something's gotta give.

So I studied all the options and just bought an IPAQ rx3715 ($350 after rebate). It has a digital camera, wi fi and 128 mb memory. Should be able to take a picture of my husband in front of the Pantheon and go to a hot spot and email it to the folks back home. Going to load it with mp3's, a couple guidebooks and novels, maybe an audiobook too. Not to mention all my trip notes in Word and can use excel to track expenses. A few games - scrabble sound good. And you can't believe the size and weight of this thing. I'm definitely smitten with it.

I do plan to have a few paper maps tho...

LAwoman, congratulations! You have taken the first tentative steps towards conquering your addiction to paper.

Best wishes and good luck.

Now, now, Robespierre, it isn't nice to call people liars when you really don't know them. The fact is, I do not carry an MP3 player on vacation - why in heaven's name would I want to? (Besides the fact that I don't own one.) I take a cell phone only when I have to, and really wouldn't consider taking one out of the country. The digital camara I have is old and I've never felt the need to upgrade as I find them more of a nuisance than anything else. And a calculator? Why would I need that? I can add things in my head just as easily, and if it requires more complicated math (something I don't look forward to on vacation), there is usually pen and paper available.

I do travel with a camara - the old 35mm kind that requires film and batteries, yes. Well, sometimes. And sometimes I take the thing and either don't use it or my partner takes it for pictures.

So yes, there are people who do travel without electronic devices. If people find them helpful and valuable, that's great. I have nothing against them, and feel the need to defend such a position somewhat comical. But there are those of us who choose not to keep track of such things and we can equally enjoy our vacations, too.

Neither is right or wrong. Just different ways of traveling.

<b>By the way...</b>

If you don't use a PDA for <i>anything</i> else, it's worth having one for subway navigation using <b>M&eacute;tro</b>. It's free, it's cool, and it runs on a 5 year old Palm Pilot you can get for $15 on eBay.

<b>http://chotto.free.fr/tatami/Metro/MetroD-en.html</b>

My mother, who travels frequently, says she never takes an MP3 player, digital camera, calculator, or cell phone with her. I always thought she was an honest woman, so it's surprising to learn here that she is, in fact, a liar!
Flanneruk is right. If you don't use your PDA at home, you probably won't use it on vacation. You can travel perfectly well without one. We have one (several actually, for a while, vendors were handing them out to us like candy). We take one along for occasional use, but most of the time we don't bother with it and have never felt the lack.

Ah. The old &quot;well, I know someone who...&quot; ploy. Very well. I should not generalize when the literal-minded are about.

As far as being able to travel without a PDA/PPC: well, I guess that's true of just about everything except (in most cases) a passport.

A calculator? No thanks, don't need one. It's bad enough how much I use my cell phone in L.A. In Europe, no way. Digital camera. Guilty as charged.

Yous truly,
IPOD trendy guy
((H))

<i>&quot;But don't let anyone talk you out of anything based on their own preferences.&quot;</i>

Conversely, don't let anyone bully you into anything based on their own strong convictions. Whether you think a pda on vacation will be useful to you is a personal preference.

This debate seems nearly as passion-inspiring as the on-going 22&quot; suitcase debate. :)

&quot;...don't let anyone bully you into anything based on their own strong convictions.&quot; I guess you missed where I said &quot;The only reason you shouldn't carry a PDA is if you simply prefer not to.&quot;

&quot;Whether you think a pda on vacation will be useful to you is a personal preference.&quot; I agree wholeheartedly. But base your preference on valid information, not the opinion of someone not in possession of all the facts.

<i>&quot;Paper things can be lost, stolen, or dropped in the river, too. Do you carry two sets?&quot;</i>

Your pda/ppc could also be lost, stolen or dropped into the river. Much more costly to replace than a piece of dead tree with petroleum marks on it. :)

If you're worried about losing a PDA, you probably shouldn't be traveling.

Besides, there are tethers that prevent such mishaps.

<i>&quot;If you're worried about losing a PDA, you probably shouldn't be traveling.&quot;</i>

((?)) How can you argue with that kind of logic?

Do you want to discuss this on the merits?

It is possible to lose anything. The fact that you can lose anything is not a reason for not carrying it. Precautions can be taken. The backup to a PPC is a tiny chip. The backup to a pile of paper is another pile of paper.

Your choice.

But the tiny chip is worthless until you go out and buy a replacement ppc/pda.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's <i>not</i> a good idea to travel with one. I'm only pointing out that it is not a perfect solution for everyone. I use mine to an extent, but sometimes prefer the non-tech alternatives. You admit that it's a personal preference, but then go on to say there is no reason whatsoever that anyone shouldn't carry one - countering every opposing viewpoint with your own.

I believe Robespierre backs up his PDA in the event of a hard reset or the battery going dead so the data can be restored. I do the same with mine.

I cannot imagine traveling without my PDA. In addition to the datebook itinerary (with addresses, phone numbers...), there's E-wallet, PalmMoney (really nifty for accumulating a customs list), Ultralingua and others.

My new favorite is RepliGo. Amazing! Beautifully copies anything to the PDA. Has reduced the paper I cart along by about 95%. One huge advantage of copying all those papers onto the PDA is that you can find them a lot faster.

When we inadvertently left our Clarence House tickets at home on the fridge, I sure was glad to have the online order number on the PDA!

Sometimes you prefer the non-tech alternatives. That's a valid reason, as I have said consistently. Go in peace with your dead trees.

But <u>besides</u> personal preference, I see a lot of ignorance driving peoples' choices. Fortnately, ignorance is curable.

<b><i>Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!</i> Bogus argument alert!</b>

The fact that something valuable can be broken, lost, or stolen is not a valid reason for not taking it on vacation with you. If it were, no one would venture out their front door with an iPod, SLR camera, or Rolex.

The validity of my point (<i>i.e.</i> that 100% of my travel data is backed up, but that of tree-luggers' isn't) is irrefutable, so you raise the (true, but irrelevant) fact that the PPC would have to be replaced. No cigar.

Perhaps you haven't noticed but you've bullied all of the other children off the playground.

Give it a rest would you?

If you have nothing to contribute, don't.

Hi, I'm relatively uninitiated in PDA use. I used to own one a few years ago, but have no idea where it is anymore. I have no use for it in everyday life, <b>but</b>, carrying a zillion guidebooks was a huge pain during my last vacation and may consider it if only for that reason.

Here's my question:
Where do I find guidebooks that are downloadable to PPCs? Is there a good selection available? Can anyone point me to a website, please?

I already have all contact#s on my cell phone and all other confirmation#s take 2 pages of the journal that I carry anyway (no, I'm not quite ready to switch from writing to PPC shorthand). If there was an easy way to upload guidebooks (short of scanning each page I want), it would be worth it to me.

Fodors has one- go to the shop section on this site.Lonely Planet also has one available on their website. I am sure there are many more out there. Maybe do a search or go to the palm website.

thanks ally. google didn't turn up anything (probably wasn't using the right key words).

Microsoft lists 379 travel e-books, 29 of them Fodor's titles. Look here:

<b>http://www.mslit.com/default.asp?mjr=TRV</b>

Robes, since I am PDA impaired, perhaps you can answer this for me.

The people I am traveling with to Italy have a Treo Palm One 600. I have a ton of files (in word document) that I would prefer not to lug (agree with you on not bringing a ton of &quot;dead trees&quot;).

I sent him a word file on just one of the towns, and he was only able to get about 50% of what I sent him. Do you have any idea what he did wrong, or is it something with his PDA? Or should I send in another format?

Thanks, your fellow Apple Shareholder.
((H))

There are so many versions of Word, it's hard to keep up. The easiest approach would probably be to find a reader for PalmOS that speaks Word.

Failing that, maybe you could &quot;save as&quot; some format that the Treo recognizes. I don't know that world very well, but your friend might.

Thanks Robes. I will try to get an answer from my friend, who I believe might be more tech-impaired than myself. Maybe, I'll have to bite the PDA bullet and get one myself.
((H))

A PDA is a neat toy, but for some of us it is not worth the trouble to maintain and use it. I have one provided by my employer. I loaded all sorts of stuff into it--snail mail and email addresses, birthdates, appointments, etc. Kept at it for over a year.

But my At-A-Glance Pocket Weekly with a real faux leather cover is just so much easier to maintain and use {for me} (and it costs only $5.99 plus tax) that I found myself using the PDA less and less. It has sat alone and ignored in my middle desk drawer for over a year now.

I guess it does just come down to personal preference--I prefer paper; it has worked for me just fine for a long time and I find it a lot less trouble to maintain.

But I do love my digital camera.

Oh, a tech question I might be able to answer (hard to do with this bunch). Maitaitom, try saving your Word documents as text files (*.txt) and then sending them over to your friend. There might be some formatting issues, sort of like when someone copies and pastes a Word document here.

For the person looking for out of copyright books, try Project Gutenberg. I don't know their webaddress so try a google. The prof. in charge is trying to get books into the digital age and started with out of copyright materials. It's been a whiles (ok, like 10 years) since I last had any involvement with this, but it's worth checking out.

To read ebooks on your Palm, you need the Palm ereader. To convert text files to Palm books, you need a free program called DropBook. You can get both of these at:

http://ebooks.palmone.com/product/browse/software

There is a pro (i.e., paid) version of the ereader, but the free one works fine for me.

I have an ancient Palm III, which probably would be worth all of $5 on the open market today. So as long as all my files are backed up, I don't really worry much about losing it. It works just fine for my needs, and I can store quite a few text files on it. TimeOut has some good city guide available for the Palm, by the way. You can buy them as separate files, or via a CD that comes with the books.

I actually prefer reading paper, so I often photocopy pages from guidebooks to use when traveling and not have to carry heavy books, But I do like having reference material on the Palm as well.

&quot;Maitaitom, try saving your Word documents as text files (*.txt) and then sending them over to your friend.&quot;

I have an iMac G5, not a PC. Will this make a difference? I see you can save docs as &quot;Text only&quot;, &quot;Text only with line breaks&quot;, &quot; MS-DOS Text&quot; or &quot;UNicode Text&quot;. Any clue? thanks for the help.
((H))