Mobile Computing: Upgrading Your PDA

James A. Martin

Feature: Upgrading Your PDA

Tempting, if not downright tantalizing, new PDAs seem to be debuting every month. The latest generation offers cool and even useful features, such as built-in Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connectivity, and internal digital cameras. It's enough to make you want to trash your current Palm or Pocket PC and overextend your credit card (yet again) for a new model.

But you can easily add new features to your old PDA, especially if it has an expansion slot for CompactFlash or Secure Digital cards. Check out this guide to PDA upgrades for ideas on how to teach your old dog some new tricks.

By the way, the following list of products and technologies is by no means exhaustive; it's meant to give you some idea of what's out there. To get an at-a-glance overview of a wide variety of available PDA upgrades, check out MobilePlanet. It's among the best e-commerce sites at organizing Palm and Pocket PC accessories for easy browsing.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a short-range (within 30 feet) wireless networking technology. With Bluetooth, your handheld can synchronize data wirelessly with your Bluetooth-compatible notebook--which means you've got one less cable to carry on your next business trip. You can also print wirelessly from your PDA to Bluetooth-enabled printers; surf the Web and check e-mail via Bluetooth-compatible mobile phones; and more.

Palm: Palm's Tungsten T and T2 are among the recent PDAs with built-in Bluetooth. For older models, Palm sells a Bluetooth adapter on an SD card, compatible with expansion-slot equipped Palms such as the Palm I705 and M515. The card lists for $130; go to the PCWorld.com Product Finder for the latest retail prices.

Palm V fans (and they are legion) can add Bluetooth via TDK Systems' Bluetooth Palm Vx Sled device--which, confusingly, is also referred to as Blue5, BlueM, and the Bluetooth Palm M500/505 Sled, depending on where you look. The device attaches to the back and bottom of the PDA, connecting to its HotSync cradle connector. The Blue5's nearly $200 price tag, though, is enough to give even Palm V loyalists pause. For the latest prices, check our Product Finder.

Pocket PC: Hewlett-Packard's IPaq H220 is among the new generation of Pocket PC devices with built-in Bluetooth. For older Pocket PCs with a CF Type II slot, there's Belkin's Bluetooth PDA Adapter Card. Though the list price is $90, Belkin also offers refurbished units for about $45. (To browse PCWorld.com for related stories, see our Bluetooth topics page.

Wi-Fi

A growing number of PDAs, including Toshiba's E755 Pocket PC and Sony's Clie PEG-NZ90 Palm OS-based handheld, offer built-in Wi-Fi wireless networking. With these slick devices, you can surf the Web at a coffee shop or other location that has a Wi-Fi hot spot. Don't have $500 to spend on a Wi-Fi enabled PDA? No worries. For under $150, you can buy an 802.11b Wi-Fi adapter card for a PDA with a CF or SD slot.

Palm: As of this writing, SanDisk's SD card is limited to Pocket PC PDAs, though the company plans to offer an SD Wi-Fi card for Palm OS devices this fall. A few Palm OS devices from Sony have CF slots; but SanDisk doesn't make a CF card that works on Palm OS devices.

Pocket PC: SanDisk's Wi-Fi CF card for Pocket PCs is available with 128MB of storage. It lists for $130; check our Product Finder for the latest retail prices. SanDisk also sells a version of the CF card without memory ($100). The company's SD Wi-Fi card ($129 list) is being offered without memory for Pocket PCs. It lists for $129; check our Product Finder for the latest retail prices.

Belkin also offers an 802.11b Wi-Fi card ($90 list; $45 refurbished) for Pocket PCs with CF slots.

Digital Cameras

Slick new PDAs, such as the Palm Zire 71 and the Sony Clie PEG-UX50, include built-in digital cameras. The image resolution of these cameras is generally too low to make high-quality prints, but fine for posting on a Web site or e-mailing to friends. If your PDA doesn't include a camera, you've got several options.

Palm: Palm recently announced a 1.3-megapixel digital camera accessory for Palm OS 5-based handhelds (Tungsten C, Tungsten T, Tungsten T2) with PhotoBase or Palm Photos software. The camera connects to the PDA via the SD expansion slot. It's scheduled to be available in December for $100.

Palm/Pocket PCs: Veo's PhotoTraveler PDA add-on digital camera is one of several digital camera accessories for Palm devices with Secure Digital/MultiMediaCard expansion slots and CF-slot Pocket PCs. Each model lists for $99 and offers 640-by-480-pixel resolution, or about three-tenths of of a megapixel. Check our Product Finder for the latest prices on the Palm and Pocket PC versions.

Notebooks & Accessories

Reader Response: Sharing a Power Outlet

Reader Dave Sturtz, responding to the September 18 newsletter item on finding power outlets in airports, offers this tip: "I carry a Y-type power cord.... I can then share an outlet with [another notebook user] if need be." The cord Sturtz referenced costs only $3, fits easily in a notebook bag, and allows two notebooks to share one AC wall socket. Check it out at Cyberguys.

Review: A Petite, Powerful Projector

InFocus's new stylish, ultralight LP120 portable projector weighs just 1.98 pounds and stands 2.05 inches tall. It projects excellent, bright, colorful images, says PCWorld.com reviewer Richard Jantz, and it offers the same native resolution (1024 by 768) resolution and brightness as projectors at least twice its size. The $2799 price tag is big for this small projector, but that's Jantz's only serious complaint.

News: Fujitsu's Convertible Tablet PC

Fujitsu's new LifeBook T3000 is its first Tablet PC to use Intel's Centrino chip set package. And it's a convertible: The LifeBook T3000 looks like an ordinary notebook, but its screen swivels around to cover the keyboard when used in Tablet PC mode. This model comes with a 12.1-inch display, a 40GB hard drive, 256MB of DDR SDRAM, and two USB 2.0 ports. Base price: $1799.

News: A Smaller PC Card Format

The PC Card, those credit-card sized expansion devices that you stick in an empty slot on your notebook, is on its way to being history. The PC Card's smaller, faster successor, developed by the trade group that spawned the original, could appear in desktop PCs in about nine months, followed soon after by notebooks and peripheral devices. The advantage: You could use the same device with your desktop at the office and on the road with your notebook. The ExpressCard is based on USB 2.0 and PCI Express interfaces.

Handhelds

Cool Accessory: FM Radio on Your Palm

Here's something you probably never thought existed: a gadget that lets you listen to FM radio on a Palm PDA. The $50 IBiz PocketRadio, an SD slot-based FM tuner, comes with software for tuning, adjusting volume, and presetting favorite radio stations.

Cool Accessory: A Miniature Cable

BoxWave's MiniSync is a compact, travel-sized cable that connects a PDA to a computer's USB port for synchronizing and recharging. BoxWave sells a version of the MiniSync for practically every major Pocket PC and Palm model; each cable costs only $15.50.

Wireless

News: More Bluetooth From Belkin

Belkin recently announced two new Bluetooth USB adapters for creating a short-range wireless connection between notebooks and other devices. Belkin's FBT003 adapter supports the standard 33-foot Bluetooth range. Priced at $30, it's about the size of a fountain pen cap. The other adapter ($40), the slightly larger F8T001, includes a pop-up antenna that reportedly extends transmission range up to 333 feet.

Past Newsletter Topics

You can access previous newsletters at our Mobile Computing archive.

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