Use an Ipod as a PDA

Having bought an Ipod Touch to keep me occupied on the long haul flight to Cuba at Easter, when I got back I decided to see if it could replace my PDA (a Dell Axim X50v) for diary functions. The answer is a resounding YES.

The pros:

• Wifi on the Touch is way better than using Windows Mobile. It was always a pain on the Axim to even get connected, but the Touch just finds the network and logs in, no bother. It recognises whether I'm at home or at school, remembers the settings and just works.


• The on screen keyboard is better than handwriting recognition, if not perfect.


• Itunes is happy to sync with Outlook on my school PC whilst syncing music, podcasts, movies etc at home.


• It's smaller, lighter, sexier and the battery lasts a lot longer.


• I can do basic editing of documents with a free App.

The cons

• I can't use my IR keyboard that worked really well with my Axim. This meant that I could have a device in each jacket pocket whcih, when unfoilded and combined, gave me a mini laptop. Come on Apple - give us Bluetooth!


• Document editing isn't as capable (though it might be with the paid for version of the App I got - I don't know and don't need it).

And that's it. The Axim is off to Ebay.

If you're not sure how to go about synching an Ipod with two PCs, the key is to select "Manually manage music and videos" on the "Summary" tab for the device in Itunes on the work PC, then enable Outlook synchronisation on the "Info" tab. More detail on manual syncing here: Manually manage...