Okay, here's my situation:

We go often into remote areas. The elements are not great and big thick books and laptops are hard to carry and preserve. It rains 14 foot per year in places out there.

My wife and I are nurses. And, we are called upon to do a great deal of medical stuff.


SO.....

I am thinking about getting a PDA, but I know nothing about these.

The only thing I do know is that a friend has a program called epocrates (PDA Medical Software. Medical & drug software for Palm & Windows PDAs) on his PDA and can access symptoms, drug dosages and a medical dictionary by means of his PDA. THis friends has an SD that bumps up the memory to over 1 GB.

What sort of PDA would you techies advise? What can I do with a PDA besides digitally store this epocrate program? I have a calendar and daly planner I am sure, right? Music storage? Can I download my camera pics into it to fre up my CF cards on the trail? Can I get one with GPS?

What PDAs would you suggest?

__________________
Pergamum


"If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?"
-- David Livingstone

Based on the elements, I would recommend getting a very rugged one.

If you had the resources, I would actually recommend something that we use at our Command when we go on Medical Relief missions to countries in the Pacific AO. It's a company called Global Relief Technologies (GRT) and they have a product that allows the update of standard forms into webs that allow us to track stuff going on. As it uses a global satellite network it allows us to use it in incredibly remote areas.

They've been used quite a bit by Non-Government Organizations (NGO's) like WHO for a few years and are popular with them. FEMA used them during Katrina because you can send out a guy with a PDA and he can update stuff that gets sent back to a central web.

Lots of information obviously but if you're going into a place with lots of rain then don't get a traditional PDA but make sure it's ruggedized and waterproof. This might mean paying a bit more. The ruggedized versions are the same as the others but a big less compact.

__________________
Rich
Northern VA
OPC

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I use Palm T|X. It might not be as suitable as the one recommended by Rich though. It takes 4 Gb non-HC SD card, but not CF. I have Bible (Greek, Hebrew, ESV), Calvin's Institutes, other online sermons on it (basically whatever books you can find on the web, you can put it in and view them offline). It has movie player, music player built in. You can purchase a separate GPS receiver and software. (Personally I use a standalone GPS).

Brighthand is a good source for PDA reviews.

__________________
Polo
Layman, Chinese Evangelical Church/Independent
San Diego

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. (Romans 11:36)

If you decide to go with a Pocket PC, the go to PDA Accessories and see if they have a waterproof case for it. You don't have to get a "ruggedized one" unless you don't mind spending +$1000 for it. You can get a PPC for under $600.


There is also a trend towards combining the PDA and phone so most current Windows Mobile systems are version 6 and come on phones. Me, I'm back on version 5 and have a just the PDA (no phone). I can't tell you much about Windows Mobile 6.

Find the software you want and go to the website. Find what PDAs it supports. Then look for a help/discussion board and see if there are many complaints about particular PDAs. Sometimes you'll find that some PDAs have problems with the software.

Definitely get extra memory. I've got a 2 GB SD card and a 2 GB CF card. With medical software on a Windows Mobile system, you will want lots of storage space for the data. I have Laridian Pocket Bible, and Pocket eSword, and all the bibles and commentaries takes a good chunk of my storage space. Also, there are so many great classics that are public domain that I need all the space I can get.

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R. Anthony Coletti
Midway Presbyterian Church (PCA)
Jonesborough, TN
[i]et venite et arguite me dicit Dominus[/i]

Thanks Civbert.

I've decided to go ahead and buy something.

I have a contact in the US who will buy and download ww.epocrates.com into whatever PDA I find. I will buy a 2 Gig SD and will probably have e-sword ESV Bible and commentaries downloaded too.


Does your PDA have GPS? If the region I am in has no maps, can I make my own through GPS and a PDA proggram?
Can you voice record using your PDA?
Does you PDA have a calendar, a daily planner and a way to write a lot of note?
Can you play mp3s on it.
Why did you buy a CF card? Does it have a camera too?
Can I download anthropology field programs onto it?
If I found a English-_____ Dictionary on a CD disk, could this be downloaded onto the PDA too?


Sorry, I don;t know much about PDA's, but having a PDA would sure help me out when humping a pack and travelling lite in bad conditions.

I used to know some army guys who had PDAs with a SOFLAN (sp?) too and they could lazar up a site and send the geo-cords to headquarters to call in fire. So, apparently this litle handy platform can do a lot of diverse operations.

__________________
Pergamum


"If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?"
-- David Livingstone