Top 10 Things to Do with Your PDA
Want to make the most of your PDA? Whether you want to chat online, surf the Web, or play music or video files, these top 10 ideas will give you plenty of options for maximizing your connection.
1. Get a Wireless Connection
It is essential nowadays to have a wireless connection (WiFi) for your PDA. With a wireless connection, you can surf the Internet using your PDA, often at high speeds. All you need on your PDA is a web browser, as long as it is WiFi-enabled.
PDAs often have web browsers installed out of the box. For example, PocketPCs come with Internet Explorer installed on them. Other web browser options for PDAs include the Opera browser, WebPro, NetFront, IBrowser, PalmBrowser, and the EZWap browser.
If you set up a wireless LAN at home, you have the freedom to use your PDA anywhere in the house (including from the comfort of your armchair) to get your web emails (such as through Yahoo! Mail or Hotmail) or to just surf the Web. You can use any of the mail clients (such as Outlook or Eudora) to get emails via pop from your company or web host mail server.
Alternatively, within the United States, you can connect via wireless to the Internet from a cafe, Borders bookshop, or Kinkos using a T-Mobile wireless connection. Other wireless providers (such as Wayport Laptop Lanes) offer connections in hotels and airports; at the time of this writing, a number of large companies (including McDonald's) were about to put wireless connections into stores. Many smaller cafes and stores are also providing this option to customers, often at no charge.
The Palm i705, the Sony Clie TG37 and UX50, the Zire 72, the Tungsten T3 and C, and all Blackberries come with WiFi access, as do most HP iPAQs, some of the Dell Axim models, and many other PDAs/PocketPCs.
Look for wireless hotspots through these resources:
Find a T-Mobile hotspot near you.
Find out how much it costs to use T-Mobile connections at these locations.
Yahoo! now offers a service that identifies nearby wireless hotspots on a map.
Increasingly, cafes and stores are offering free wireless hotspots to their customers. Find a free wireless hotspot near you using WiFi FreeSpot.