Chapter 2
Choosing hardware

Jeff Hawkins, the designer of the original Palm Pilot, carved a small piece of wood that was literally the size of his palm, and showed it to colleagues at 3 Com. This, he announced, was going to be the size of his new organiser. At the time, nobody believed him - Apple was the pioneer of this market, and its organiser, the Newton, was the length of a forearm.

Now, 25,000,000 handhelds later, there are many models to choose between. My advice: decide how much you want to pay, and then find the machine that gives the best features at that price. Otherwise, the sales clerk is likely to dazzle you into unbudgeted territory.

Should you choose a Palm or Pocket PC?

Palm is not the only company making handhelds. The biggest competitors are Microsoft with its Pocket PCs, but you may find machines by many others such as Psion and Sharp.

Palm OS logo
You will find this on handhelds made by Acer, AlphaSmart, Handera, Handspring, Kyocera, Palm, Samsung, Sony and Symbol.

Pocket PC logo
You will find this on handhelds made by Acer, Audiovox, Casio, Dell, HP, Mexmal, NEC, Siemens and Toshiba.

What it comes down to is a choice of operating system. The operating system determines how much medical software you will find, and how many of your colleagues can beam data to you. Because of this consideration, you really should not get any handheld that does not have the Palm OS or Microsoft Pocket PC logo. Resist the temptation to get any other kind of handheld. No matter how cheap or impressive it looks in the shop, the software it is possible to run on it is too important a consideration to overlook.

Choosing between Palm and Pocket PC is tricky. The importance of beaming means that an easy rule of thumb is to buy a machine that runs the same software as your friends' machines. However, a problem arises when your friends have different machines.

Often, you will find that your friends will get very emotional about which machine you should buy. In fact, this will happen even if you didn't ask for their opinion. You should at least look on the positive side, i.e. that people tend to become very emotionally attached to their handhelds.
Perhaps I can offer a more objective view. On the one hand, Palm-compatible machines are cheaper and simpler to use, and have better battery life. On the other hand, Pocket PCs tend to be more powerful. These are general guidelines, not cast-iron rules, because all handhelds are improving so quickly.

However, it is useful to clear up two misconceptions. The first concerns popularity. At the time of writing, November 2002, Palm-compatibles are still more popular, and they have been around for longer. Therefore, most medical software is currently made for the Palm first, and most of your colleagues will have Palm-compatibles. However, you should not rule out a Pocket PC. The machines have gained a lot in popularity, and software developers are responding. The 2002 version of Microsoft's operating system also allows beaming with Palm-compatible machines, so you should still be able to work with your colleagues.

The second is about compatibility with your main computer (PC). You do not need a Pocket PC to work with your existing Microsoft software. All Palm-compatibles can work flawlessly with Microsoft Outlook straight out of the box. In addition, all models costing more than £200 ($300) include software for viewing and editing your Microsoft Word and Excel documents. In fact, this software works slightly better than a Pocket PC's software. And for a little extra money, you can buy more powerful versions, that allow you to edit your PowerPoint slides on a Palm.

In conclusion, there are slight differences between the two types of handhelds, but both companies are competing extremely hard for your money. That means you are likely to fall in love with whatever you choose in the end.

Which Palm or Pocket PC should you choose?

The most important decision to make is how much RAM ('memory') you can afford - this is how much information your handheld can hold, and denotes, therefore, how many programs and texts you can keep in it. The next decision is colour or monochrome. The former, I believe, is worth the extra investment. With a colour screen, you get a clarity of text simply not achievable in any of the monochrome models; you will appreciate this working on the wards. If you go for a machine with a lot of RAM and a colour screen, you can then choose amongst a host of other features, including music playing, wireless connection and global positioning system (GPS) navigation. None of these is necessary, but most are highly enjoyable.

Inventive input

One of the best features of handhelds is that they allow you to write straight onto them. This feature is not, however, perfect, and as you grow increasingly reliant on the handheld, you might want to shop around for some extras that will make text input easier.

Two such solutions are styli and keyboards. First to consider is Karl Robb's TrueTip finger stylus, which is on the cover of this book. It expands to fit on the tip of any finger, but the index finger gives the best control. The idea came to Karl the first time he saw someone using a handheld, and he quickly set about starting his own company.

An alternative model, the pen-cap stylus, fits on the bottom end of most pens. This means that you can write on paper using the pen, and then write on your handheld using the pen cap. Finally, because I constantly lose styli, I particularly appreciate the price of $9.99 for any four caps.

TrueTip finger stylus

TrueTip pen-cap stylus

Bob Olodort of Think Outside took a completely different approach to input. After four years of prototyping, he finally produced the Stowaway unfolding keyboard. This costs about £60 ($100) and is invaluable for long writing sessions, including lectures or clerking. It is the size of your handheld, but unfolds (beautifully) into a full-sized keyboard. This trick will draw gasps from any audience.
The amazing Stowaway keyboard by Think Outside

Where to buy your handheld?

Most high street electronics shops sell Palm-compatible devices, including chains such as PC World and mobile phone shops. They are however generally cheaper to buy online. So, if you are comfortable with buying on the web, and confident that you have chosen the right model, take advantage of the price differences. Good UK internet sites include Amazon.co.uk (which powers this website's shop) and Dabs Direct, while the online deals available to US customers have always left me jealous. Apart from Amazon.com, a visit to CNET's handhelds section is always good for comparing American prices.

However, if you are buying more than two handhelds, it is often possible to haggle with the high street shops. You can read more about this in the case study of Chapter 14.

Finally, do not forget that buying the handheld is only half the story - you need to buy additional software that makes it perfect for a doctor. For this, I would budget at least £60 (about $100), and the next chapter tells all.

Further information

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