Recommendations for Inexpensive PDA

[Micha Feigin]

On Wed, 27 Jan 2010 10:22:58 +0200
"Nadav Har'El" <nyh at math.technion.ac.il> wrote:

> On Tue, Jan 26, 2010, geoffrey mendelson wrote about "Re: Recommendations for Inexpensive PDA":
> > On Jan 26, 2010, at 7:07 PM, Aharon Schkolnik wrote:
> > >
> > >So, I am in the market for a replacement. I really want the minimum
> > >possible - calendar, phone book, etc. I need Hebrew support, and I  
> > >want to
> > >sync with Kontact's calendar, contacts, etc.
> >...
> > 
> > iPhone? If you get an older one that is still locked to AT&T, it  
> > should be relatively cheap.
> > 
> > Everyone I know who has one loves it as a PDA/media player/pocket PC.
> 
> How will he get Hebrew support for the iPhone? 

Version 3.1.2 has native hebrew support

> How will he sync it with Linux?

I have to admit that I'd like to know that

> Also he didn't specifically ask for this, but I know when I had
> a Palm Pilot, one of the things I often did was to transfer *text files*
> from the computer to the Palm Pilot - that's another thing you can't do
> on an iPhone.
> 

You don't need to jailbreak it, you have for example quickoffice (has limited word/excel/text write support) which costs 8$ and can read pdf, word, excel and text files. reading pdf with hebrew works great, word + hebrew is usually bad. you also have file app which is read only but also supports images and is free. Both can setup a server for uploading/downloading files.

I'm sure that there are more.

> Or, did you mean he is supposed to "jail break" the iPhone to be of any
> use?
> 

You need to jailbreak it if you want to unlock it or to use it for ssh and a few other things, but it's quite useful also not jailbroken.

BTW, I use an ipod touch 1st gen as a PDA and it's quite nice. I would opt for a second gen though so that you can connect a mic for skype calls, with the 1st gen you can only hear and text.

Note that 3rd gen ipod touch jailbreak requires rerunning the jailbreak every boot so you are better off with a 2nd gen ipod touch if you want to jailbreak or an iphone (3g-s is nice, also has a gps ...)