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A Powerful, Yet Cheap Alternative To A Laptop These days, it's getting harder and harder for adults and us teens to get our work done. A good amount of our projects and assignments for both school and work generally require everything to be typed and formatted. For those with a low budget, a full size Apple laptop is simply out of the question even though the prices on Apple's models have dropped from premium prices ( those who remember 1993-1995 just nod) to more affordable prices. Be strong young one, there is hope for you and this one comes at you for about $450. More, when you read on. Alright, so you took the first step, admitting you have a problem. That problem is that you spend hours at night finishing your work for school and proposals for your job. If you are like me and very busy from the time you leave the school parking lot until midnight you can't even do your writing. Here's the solution:
You are most likely asking your self about now, why do I need a PDA ( Personal Digital Assistant)? This is why. This PDA is almost a completely functional portable laptop. It weighs a couple ounces, is easily totable, and can have some really nifty games put on it! Sometimes you just have to sit back and enjoy life, if you know what I mean. For my birthday on the 21st of September I received the GoType! Keyboard an $80 keyboard for these machines. Now when you combine these two things you almost have a complete laptop computer. Using the Memo Pad, I can easily type up stories for my English class. Typing is a lot faster for most people, I know it is for me. Why type the essay/story? Think about it, your teachers prefer having written homework typed so it's easy to read. Typing it before hand makes it easier to edit considering once you sync your Palm with your desktop, it's right there and editable in your favorite word processor. (My Fav is AppleWorks 5 =D ) Now for your next draft, all you have to do is reprint the essay/story. Make a few changes, and there you have your final masterpiece. This is just one of the great uses. You can also use the To-Do List built into the Palm to put in your homework and assignments for school as well as put your daily routines in so you know what you have to do. Trust me there is no better feeling than having all of those boxes checked and saying "YEEA I'M DONE!!" You can also attach notes to the To-Do's. Say you have a test that you need to study for the next day: Simply add a note to that To-Do and Voila, you can now type everything that the teacher is telling you to study for so you will not forget. And with one simple tap on the screen, you can now see what you need to study for. There are many other uses you can use this for but the main reason for this article is so that you find a way to get your work done. Simply type everything up on your handy-dandy Palm, Sync it up with your desktop and print. It's that easy. I currently use the Go Type! Keyboard and a Palm III. Now you can get a Palm III for $229 and the GoType! Keyboard for $79.95 and still have money from that $450 to buy a modem so you can get info on the road or from the web on an assignment. Isn't technology wonderful?!?! Now, don't get me wrong, these little "buggers" can really haul when it comes to just about anything. I have a web browser on my Palm III as well as the Mail client already built into it. Funny thing is, I've never used it, but plan to in the not to distant future. For those of you with normal POP mail, not AOL mail (which is the worst kind), you are in luck of getting your mail to that palm of yours. Use Outlook Express. I know, BOO and HISS at Microsoft, but this is actually a really decent mail client. You can sync your mail up to your palm and read it during class. Please be careful if you do this for reasons I probably don't need to go into. Now here's the really really cool part about getting the internet on that Palm which I think will work. Go to freei.net and setup an account. Load the info into your palm and get a modem or cable to connect to your modem and viola free internet. Now you may have noticed that you need a banner to be on your screen to use freei.net well it just might work if your just enter the numbers and username and other fun stuff into it. If someone can do this with their Palm, try it and E-Mail me! I'd love to know if it works and I think everyone else will to! Until NeXT time. Chris Rogers
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