Electronic Organizer - Personal Communication Device Upgrade

I am enjoying my combined electronic organizer and smart phone as my main communication device and personal digital assistant. I have noticed some areas where given the opportunity, I would like to have better features, faster connection to the Internet, a bigger screen with better resolution, and just plain newer better technology. But having said that, I am getting along fine and in fact better than I was with the separate communication device (MOTORAZAR maxx Ve) and separate electronic organizer (Palm Treo 700w).




About this time, Verizon sends me a coupon for $100.00 off on any new smart phone upgrade and I start to seriously .check out their options. I have made several qualifying decisions at this point. I have decided the platform I go with will be the Android operating system. I have and will for the foreseeable future been very partial to Motorola - their quality and reputation for building very good hardware. I have been looking at the Motorola Droid 3 because I like the slide out keyboard (it has both the virtual and the slide out), but it is a 3G device and since one only usually upgrades once every two years, I have a concern going with trailing edge technology while Verizon is bring the 4G technology online in my area and coming online fast across the country.



I have been to the Verizon Wireless store several times but now I am ready to make a decision so off to the store again. I am looking at the Motorola Droid 3 and the store associate comes over to help. We discuss the Droid 3 and then I ask about the 4G technology sticking with Motorola. It turns out the Bionic has just hit the market and It looks very attractive in not only slim design, but it is feature rich. The 4G choice is more money that the 3G as one would expect, but I decide to go with the leading edge personal communication device for my new electronic organizer and personal digital assistant.

The Palm Treo 700w – 4

I am enjoying my move to this electronic organizer and smart phone - the Palm Treo 700w. This communication device has brought my cell phone and personal digital assistant together in one single device and that is very convenient. One of these benefits I notice is that the personal organizer / communication device at my side on my belt. I have always had my phone there, but the personal digital assistant has always been in my shirt pocket - I never ware a T-shirt because they don’t have shirt pockets. Now that the combined functions are on my belt, I am not so confined by shirts with pockets.



I also start to notice the size of the screen on the 700w. It is much smaller than my Palm T/X, approximately half the height and somewhat smaller side to side. The screen also appears to be grainy in when compared to the T/X. While I can see the information I need to see from Calendar, Contacts, Tasks and notes, I am used to seeing more of the information and not scrolling up and down so much. This is not prohibitive in the use of the Palm Treo 700w, but it not as convenient and pleasant to the eye as the larger screen.

Perhaps the most noticeable issue is the connection speed to the internet – or lack of speed connecting to the internet. I do get my emails on this older communication device which is very helpful, but surfing the net it is very slow to connect to and very slow to navigate.to a site or from site to site. In fact, it is so slow that I do not try to use the Palm treo 700w to surf the internet. I don’t know if it is an old device interfacing to new 3G or 4G technology Verizon is using or something else, but it is not very functional or convenient and my personal organization is not complete with this older device.

The Palm Treo 700w – 3

Ok, the day has come and I have called Verizon and have now switched my phone service from my old Motorola MOTORAZAR maxx Ve to the somewhat younger Palm Treo 700w. I am actually live with a newer personal communication device from the smart phone family. I have already preformed a “sync” and all of my contacts from my outlook are in this smart phone.


As I start to make calls and check out the operation of this smart electronic organizer, I notice that if I enter the phone number from the dialing pad, the contact name associated with the number appears, telling me who I am calling – a very nice feature. I also make a call using the contact list and find I am able to select between the home, work and cell numbers under the same contact (if that information has been previously entered) – also very nice. In addition I notice that at the end of a call my phone prompts me to save the number or update a contact record – I am liking the way this personal digital assistant is thinking. Then, I receive a call from one of my contacts and their name is displayed as the person calling me – this is not so new as I had this feature in the older phone, only without the benefit of the information being the same as in my outlook contacts.

After several days of use, I am really enjoying the integration of the calendar, tasks and note functions along with keeping my contact records up to date through constant use of the borrowed (from my brother Ronald) communication device. This is definitely helping me to improve my personal organization as well as my productivity. I can see how easy it is to get hooked on this electronic organizer and smart communication device class of phone.

The Palm Treo 700w - 2

I have taken my newly acquired well used electronic organizer, my brothers Palm 700w, and installed the software on my computer, hooked up the phone and have performed my first sync. Since I have not called Verizon to have the phone turned on yet, I am using this time to learn the personal digital assistant portion of this communications device.

One of the first things I notice, is the mobile windows look and feel as I skim through the contact, calendar, Tasks and notes functions. It is very similar to the outlook software I am using on my desk top and it contains all of my personal organization information. Because of the similar “look and feel” the Palm 700w has, I am able to find my way to everything I look for. The first thing I start to use is the tasks or to do feature. I have recently acquired a new business and I take personal organization time each morning and plot tasks that need to be done both one time and also on a regular reoccurring basis. I then enter these tasks into the software and the due date. I do find this very helpful in keeping myself productive and on task when I work on my business.

I have also started using the calendar on this mobile communication device. I have previously been using the calendar function on my Palm TX, and notice that again, the windows mobile version is very similar to the desktop version – again making the use of this mobile calendar very intuitive. It is easy to enter my upcoming events and appointments on the 700w electronic organizer.

This initial start-up for me using my brothers Palm 700w electronic organizer has been very easy and intuitive. This personal digital assistant is handling my personal organization very well. I will now be adding the communication device function now to my Palm 700w.

The Palm Treo 700w - 1

As I continue to look at possibilities to combine my personal digital assistant with my communication device, I am visiting my brother who has just upgraded his phone from a Palm Treo 700w to the shiny new Motorola Droid X and he offers to let me take his older phone and see how I like it. This sounds like a good idea, since I have used Palm products before and am familiar with them.

Several things I notice as I look it over and start getting the touch and feel of the personal organization device. This electronic organizer has an exposed keyboard on the face and the 700w means it is a Windows mobile device – compatible with my Windows computer and also Microsoft Outlook. I like this possibility. You might remember from an earlier post that whatever the communication device I upgrade to, I am looking for a solution to sync with my Microsoft Outlook and all of the features of Outlook I use – Contacts, Calendar, Tasks and Notes. So before I ever hook it up to test out the possibilities, I have some high hopes for this older personal digital assistant.

The Palm Treo 700w offers a 16 bit color 240 X 240 touch screen display as well as a QWERTY keypad for input.  One difference from the 650 is that the keys are more square and not so oval in shape. The CPU is an Intel 312 MHz processor with XScale technology and has 128 MB of non- volatile memory.  It has built in Bluetooth (1.2), a 1.3 megapixel (1280 X 1024 resolution) digital camera with a 2x digital zoom and video camera capability and also supports SD, SDIO and Multi Media Cards for additional memory.  

As I evaluate my future personal organization, this older electronic organizer, at least on the surface, has some appeal to me as a communication device and personal digital assistant – I think I’m going to enjoy this test drive!

The Droid 2

Another solution I am now looking into, as new personal digital assistant and communication device, is the Motorola Droid 2. Up to this point in my personal organization, you might remember, I have kept my electronic organizer separate from my cell phone. Technology has moved forward and I am now ready to join the leading edge. This choice would also mean a different operation system – an android.

One reason to consider an android phone is this survey found at businessinsider.com http://www.businessinsider.com/smartphone-survey-results-2011-4

According to their published search results, over 50% of the 2000 smart phone users use an android device and most users say they will either stay with the android device, while some say they might switch from the iphone platform to android.

Given this information, I have looked into the personal organization applications I consider my foundational building blocks. I have been a Motorola communications device fan for many years, feeling quality is one of their hallmarks (my current communication device of over four years is a Motorola MOTORAZAR maxx Ve). I have found that with in the available apps marketplace I can find all of those building blocks – a calendar / appointment program, a contact manager, a task manager and a notes program as well as an email handler and social media manager. All of these critical components will sync to my personal computer. Another important basic feature that draws me to the Motorola Droid 2 is the slide out keyboard. I much prefer a physical keyboard to a touch screen version.

With Android devices being such a leading dominate player in the personal digital assistant market place and a longtime leader of communication devices, this Motorola electronic organizer, the Droid 2, is worthy of my consideration for my future personal organization.

The Palm Pre 2 or HP Pre 3

I am now looking for a new personal digital assistant and communication device. Up to this point in my personal organization, I have kept my electronic organizer separate from my cell phone. I’m not sure I can give a detailed explanation for the decision, I just felt for myself that was the best practice. Technology has moved forward and I am now ready to join the leading edge. One choice I am considering is the Palm Pre 2 or soon to be released Palm Pre 3. It is a natural inclination for me to consider the Palm solution – after all I have owned a palm since the first Palm issue.

One reason to stay with Palm is they still offer the four basic programs I consider the foundation of my personal organization. The Palm.com website is showing that there is  a Calendar / appointment program, a Contact manager, a task list manager and a note feature (and others). In addition the website also shows the new communication devices should and will manage multiple email accounts, and all of the social Medias.

According to engadget.com (http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/09/palm-pre-2-vs-hp-pre-3-whats-changed/) here is how the Palm Pre 2 compares to the HP Pre 3:

Palm Pre 2

HP Pre 3

Dimensions	59.6 x 100.7 x 16.9mm	64 x 111 x 16mm
Processor	1GHz TI OMAP 3630	1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8x55
RAM	512MB	512MB
Display	3.1-inch 480 x 320	3.58-inch 800 x 480
Camera	5 megapixel with VGA video capture, no secondary	5 megapixel primary with 720p video capture, VGA secondary
Storage	16GB	8GB or 16GB
Cellular radio	GSM / HSDPA or CDMA	GSM / HSPA+ and CDMA
WiFi	802.11b/g	802.11b/g/n (dual-band)
Bluetooth	2.1 + EDR	2.1 + EDR
Gyroscope	No	No
Accelerometer	Yes	Yes
Touch-to-share capability	No	Yes
Battery capacity	1,150mAh	1,230mAh

A physical feature I require is a slide out keyboard which comes with both the Pre 2 and the Pre 3. My own assessment of this personal digital assistant comparison is heavily favoring the HP Pre 3 electronic organizer to move my personal organization into the leading edge communication devices.

The Palm Treo 650

Just before I bought my Palm TX, Palm offered a cell phone and a personal digital assistant combined into one communication device, the Palm Treo 650. Now you could have both the function of a cell phone and the personal organization of an electronic organizer in one device. This arrangement offered the convenience of using the contact phone numbers already stored in the personal digital assistant to make the calls and send emails. Now instead of having two devices, one in your shirt pocket and one on your belt, it is just one device.

The Palm Treo 650 offers a 320 X 320 touch screen display as well as a QWERTY keypad for input. The CPU is an Intel 312 MHz processor with XScale technology. The 650 has 32 MB of memory and an MMC expansion card slot for additional memory, with a .3 Megapixel camera, Bluetooth, email, multimedia and all of the usual Palm OS standards – calendar, contacts, tasks and notes. It also maintained the ability to sync it’s data with the PC and software like the Palm Desktop and through third party software, Microsoft Office products.

The world of electronic organizers, personal digital assistants and communication devices has now come together to strengthen personal organization and has a new name – it is now called the smartphone. 

My 3rdG and Several Others - 5

In early 2006, I upgraded my personal digital assistant once again to the Palm TX. My newest electronic organizer featured both blue tooth and 802.11b Wi-Fi. The blue tooth was not new to my personal organization, but the Wi-Fi was. With Wi-Fi, I could not only search the web, but I could read and send emails. My communication device now had web access. My Palm TX featured a 320 X 480 16 bit color one touch display.

The memory coming with my Palm TX was 128mb of flash memory and 32 mb of RAM. It also has an SD/MMC card slot witch I purchased a 64mb SD card for. The CPU was a 312 MHz Intel XScale processor – the fastest one of my personal ownership. The syncing of my personal organizational data was over the faster serial USB connection to my personal computer.  With a faster processor, more memory and a color display, the battery consumption is very pleasantly light. I can go four to seven days, depending on use, without being concerned about charging.

I did purchase the Beyond Contacts 3.0 and Dataviz Documents To Go 11 Professional Edition to sync my data files with Microsoft Office 2007 Outlook, Excel, Word and other files on my computer. I also purchased the latest portable keyboard for my new TX. While the pocket sized personal digital assistant is not an ideal size to review Excel spread sheets in, it does allow me to view and edit them as I need to. The physical size of the Palm TX is better suited to making and editing Word documents. With extra storage memory, I also started carrying some of my favorite pictures in my pocket. 

My 3rdG and Several Others - 4

My personal organization was fueled by newer devices with continued enhancements such as increasing the memory (multiple times), size of the screen, color display, desk top software and the like. These advancements kept the Palm Pilot in the class of leading technology. I did update my personal digital assistant with each one of these advanced improvements.  

One of the features that came alone was the ability to share information – appointments, tasks, contacts or notes by “beaming” them to another electronic organizer. This was accomplished through the use of infrared technology and moved the Palm Pilot forward into a communication device. Thus, I could send and receive useful information to and from electronic organizers of friends and coworkers. This obviously saved time and was as accurate as the senders’ diligence.

There was also the development of blue tooth technology to communicate between communication devices. This development was my first introduction to “texting”. Because the technology was blue tooth, the communication devices had to be in the same room. I remember sharing relevant and not so relevant information during some meetings and classes I was attending.

My cell phone also moved forward in the world of communication devices with advancements like more memory facilitating speed calling at the touch of a single digit, and smaller devices with longer battery life. The rates of air time were also falling as the cell phone technology became more wide spread and more accepted by the general public. Some of the advances to the cell phone included rudimentary calendars and calculators.

My 3rdG and Several Others - 3

Cell phones had arrived on the scene and Motorola had progressed from the large somewhat “banana” looking device to the first “flip” phone. While air time was still pricey, this brought a whole new look and practicality to the cell phone and a new focus to my electronic organizer. I started a more diligent process of entering my contact information from my Franklin Day Planner to the contact section of my Palm Pilot. Having phone numbers in my shirt pocket while I was away from my desk saved many steps back to the office and much time. Phone numbers in the shirt pocket and a portable phone on my belt - this was a very portable office set up!

It was impressive to have contact information – multiple phone numbers for vendors and sales persons, crew foremen and supervisors, family and friends all in that shirt pocket. It also had all of my meeting and appointments complete with an audio alarm to signal the upcoming appointment with enough time to arrive early. The phone at my side was also handy – somewhat bulky but very convenient and time saving. It was a challenge to hold the Palm Pilot in one hand and the Motorola flip phone in the other, look up the contact information in one hand and then try to dial the phone number with the other hand. Still, this was a very nice and progressive set up which I enjoyed. This was a real portable extension of my office!  What would they think of next?

The four features of my digital personal assistant: Contacts, Calendar, Tasks and Notes had really moved me forward into a new word of electronic organizers. All this with along with my actual portable cell phone.

My 3rdG and Several Others - 2

As weekly event schedules came out, I could plan and enter tasks or work assignments into the task lists with shifts (priorities) and dates to be completed. Then I could print out each shift's work assignments and post them for the week. As an event setup changed or other assignments needed to be added, it was a simple matter of adding a new task, giving it a priority and date and then reprinting that shift’s list of tasks. This was very fast compared to the old hand written paper method with the added benefit that I had everything on my computer and with me in my shirt pocket – at work or at home.

In my planning sessions, I began to notice that some of the work assignments were similar in nature and other assignments needed to be organized so they were similar. This gave the tasks and procedures a routine that improved our performance and efficiency. These routine and similar tasks were defined in my “notes” feature and then copied and pasted into the "to do” list, thus giving the better process and organization to the tasks.

Another improvement that came along was the portable keyboard. I purchased this accessory and found that I became as effective in entering my data into my Palm Pilot as I was entering it into my computer. This keyboard was even the same size as my computer keyboard only folded up into a compact size – approximately the same size as the Palm Pilot. This was yet another very portable and a very productive addition to my personal organization. With two dress shirt pocket sized devices, I had a small portable computer readily at my disposal.

My 3rdG and Several Others - 1

As I used my new electronic organizer and personal digital assistant, the Palm Pilot, I became much more effective personally and the crews that I managed increased their productivity. I learned to use this portable electronic organizer, and I started to push its limits of storage. Palm soon offered a memory upgrade and I took full advantage of it.

A word about the industry I was working in .... I managed the facility services and expo services for a very large complex that included an arena, convention center and an off premise theater. This facility was attached to a hotel and indoor mall with a small park outside. The events and activities in this multi-use complex needed up to five crews and up to fifty employees to keep up the with servicing, setting up and striking the heavy event load.

One of the features that really received the heavy use of my personal digital assistant as far as facility services and expo departments were concerned, was the "task" or "to do" lists. This feature had fifteen different task categories with five levels of priorities within each category. Each task could be assigned a date and a priority. Because of these attributes, I could assign each department a category, and within each department, the priority could represent shifts. I usually had up to four shifts per day and sometimes five. These shifts were not always the three shifts that went through the twenty four hours of the day, but often they over lapped each other.

My 2G - Personal Organization

Sometime after I improved my personal organization with my Franklin Day Planner, the realization of living in a paper world with its limits and bulk became apparent. Around this time, a new emerging market of electronic organizers which included digital organizers or personal digital assistants (PDA) came into existence. This market and these emerging devices were small, compact and able to fit in my dress shirt pocket. I also noticed that the key features I enjoyed in my Franklin Day Planner – contacts organized alphabetically, daily appointment schedule, tasks, and my notes were enhanced and improved in the electronic organizers, digital organizers and personal digital assistants.

My investigation led me to the Palm Pilot. I do not remember the exact number of contacts, appointments, tasks or notes this personal digital assistant could hold, but it was very impressive to me at the time and the small portable hand held digital organizer took me into the 2G (second generation) phase of my own personal organization.

Another feature I enjoyed and found extremely valuable was the ability to connect my Palm Pilot to my computer and “sync” the two together. I could work at my desk and update my data using my computer and keyboard and then sync. The Palm Pilot also allowed me to take notes and make changes while I was in meetings or walking around my buildings performing inspections and sync. Thus, after working in either my computer or personal digital assistant and within moments, I could have all of my information available to me both on my computer and in my pocket whenever I was out of my office.

This second generation of personal organization, the Palm Pilot, had a monochrome display and I soon out grew its memory.

In the Beginning

In the beginning, before personal digital assistants and electronic or digital organizers, I used a Franklin Day Planner. I found the classic size with the daily layout to be the most convenient for my needs at work and in my personal endeavors.  I enjoyed the size of (5 ½” X 8 ½”) divided into the hours of the day on the left page and the right page for notes in a diary fashion.

This organizer proved to be a great improvement for my personal organization, resulting in increased productivity, and keeping track of my appointments. The benefits were immediate – fewer missed appointments, more on-time appearances, more actual scheduling and therefore productive outcomes. I was also able to make and manage lists of tasks to be performed with due dates to meet.

The planner had an alphabetized section for all of my contacts both business and personal, with their phone numbers, addresses and other valuable information. This feature replaced the rolodex file, a stationary fixture and a less than portable item on my desk.

I also purchased blank pages and set up my printer and word processing to print useful information to be kept in my binder. I used additional tabs to organize this information which included notes from meetings, reference materials and data, talks, meeting agendas, and other useful information.

This planner, even though it was two inches thick - the size of a thick book, almost became my constant companion and was nearly always with me, at my side, on my desk, on the table in front of me in the meeting I was in, or beside me in the car.

Such was the beginning of my personal organization, pre electronic organizer, digital organizer, personal digital assistants or communication device.