Personal Digital Assistants
A PDA is a digital organiser, or personal digital assistant. The term PDA first appeared early in 1992 when Apple began looking for a partner to make their Personal Digital Assistants. Sharp took on the task resulting in a product called the Newton appearing in August of 1993. A $700 price tag in the USA and a complicated handwriting recognition feature conspired to bury the Newton, and it was not until 1996, when U.S. Robotics (which was bought by 3Com in 1997) introduced the Pilot 1000 and 5000, that the market for PDAís began to intensify.
The basic features of any PDA are a calendar, address book, task list, and memo pad. While these features are very helpful at keeping someone organised, the feature that clinched their utility for any busy person who uses a desktop computer is that of easy synchronisation of information with the desktop. For example, if an operative is using the PDA onsite for maintenance/snagging reports the next time the PDA is slotted into the docking station and synchronised, that new information updates the desktop. Also, the reverse is true, new data on the desktop can be automatically updated onto the PDA. More sophisticated PDAís can run word processing, spreadsheet and industry specific applications and also provide e-mail and Internet access. The latest PDAís can provide 160 megs of total available memory, a 400 MHz processor, integrated WiFi, voice command and text to speech capabilities.