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.