MetaCatholic

I want to publicly record my gratitude to the kind parishioner who has given me a new PDA. For several months I have been struggling with organising my life on paper, and it hasn’t been easy. Now I intend getting up-to-speed again.

It’s strange though. The first PalmPilot I had – which lasted for six years – was a model of simplicity. It simply did the basics, and did them extremely well. Then I switched to a Windows Mobile device from Hewlett Packard, which introduced all sorts of complexities, but was extremely easy to pick up, since it was, well, Windows. But it lasted nowhere as long and died after two and a half years.

Thanks to my kind friend I’m now back with a Palm TX. The simplicity is still (just about) there under a rather more complex device with may added features, but you have to work a bit harder to find it. I haven’t had time for much of a play with it yet (only time to charge it and sync it), and there’s a lot more to get to grips with. Ironically it’s Outlook synchronisation is faster than Windows Mobile!

To those who wonder: no, I didn’t want a smartphone. I still want to keep my devices separate, since I’m not a great cell phone user, and I don’t like their contract prices that much. I hope I will uncover the same simplicity that I so enjoyed before. The mail and other newer applications look rather more complicated by comparison to the core calendar, contacts and to do lists that are at the heart of a good PDA.