Current p SYCHIATRY Psyber Psychiatry To upgrade or not to upgrade? Should you purchase a new PDA or wait for the next wave of innovations? Here’s help deciding John Luo, MD Assistant clinical professor of psychiatry UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and Hospital Los Angeles, CA ersonal digital assistants (PDA) are in a Cons. PDA operating systems are updated fre- P state of flux. Thanks to a flurry of hard- quently, reflecting continuing improvements in ware and operating system improvements over handheld hardware. Microsoft late last year the last 18 months, PDAs that were cutting-edge upgraded its Pocket PC operating system and last year pale in comparison to newer models. changed its name to Windows Mobile. Should you buy a new PDA now, or stick Although frequent users will rejoice in the with your current model and wait for still more opportunity to do more, others might not want to innovations? This article can help you decide. spend $300 or more to get the latest features— only to see their new device become outmoded in WHY UPGRADE? a few months. Pros. Today’s PDAs are more versatile and intu- itive. For example, many combination PDA/ HARDWARE ADVANCES mobile phones have newer operating systems, Processors. The processor, the heart of a PDA, more memory, and greater software compatibility has also seen much change. Newer Palm and than earlier devices. Pocket PC devices are based A frequent PDA user John Luo, MD on the strongARM micro- who craves more speed or Dr. Luo’s column is processor produced by Intel featured monthly on added features might want to CURRENT PSYCHIATRY’s under the Xscale brand. Each upgrade now. Likewise, users Web site at www. new processor has more who are constantly on the currentpsychiatry.com speed, better multimedia, an road might want a new com- improved camera interface, bination PDA/global posi- and lower power consump- tioning system. tion than previous processors. continued VOL. 3, NO. 7 / JULY 2004 81 Smartphones, which reached the market in 2002, for the T-Mobile, Cingular, and AT&T net- are geared to physicians who rely mostly on e- works, and a CDMA (code-division multiple mail and calendar functions and have little need access) protocol version for the Sprint network. for mobile medical information. A Windows Mobile smartphone typically OPERATING SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTS looks like a mobile phone but has basic Pocket Palm Source has released version 6 of its operat- PC capabilities, such as viewing mail, a calendar, ing system—code named “Cobalt”—to hard- to-do list, and notes. ware developers. This versatile new version— Windows Mobile smartphones, however, are with higher resolution, Word and JPEG file sup- compatible only with smartphone-specific pro- port, simultaneous multiple communi- grams, not with general Pocket PC soft- cations, and other features—could reach ware. This means that drug refer- the market around the winter holiday. ence guides, DSM-IV-TR, and Fully operable Microsoft has released Windows other commonly used medical pro- handheld Mobile 2003 Second Edition. With cer- grams cannot be viewed on a smart- computers will tain devices, the operating system will phone. If you love the idea of a reach the market help users read text or browse the Web smartphone but want a specialized by using more of the screen. With later this year program, check out www.smart- larger screen resolutions packed phone.net. into a smaller area, fonts are Pocket PC phone. By contrast, the Pocket PC smaller and hard to read. phone looks and works more like a PDA than a Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition provides phone. Because it is connected to the cellular net- additional font-size controls to compensate for work, the device has wider Internet access than this change. does a WiFi-enabled Pocket PC3. At 3.5-by-3.5 The new Windows Mobile version also fea- inches, the screen size is about twice that of the tures a start menu that displays frequently used smartphone’s screen. The device also is compati- applications, and WiFi security is improved com- ble with all Pocket PC software. pared with the previous version. Pocket PC phones typically have more main memory than smartphones. Smartphones are THE FUTURE limited to secure digital-based external memory, Tiquit, OQO, and FlipStart plan to release fully but Pocket PC phones have infrared and other operable handheld computers later this year. connectivity options. These new devices will run on Windows XP Palm-based smartphones can run most Palm soft- and other operating systems and will feature full ware, depending upon operating system compat- central processing units, hard disks, liquid crys- ibility. Previous Palm smartphones were more tal display panels, USB connectivity, and built-in limited because of an older operating system and QWERTY keyboards. It remains to be seen if lack of external memory cards. these computers will supersede Palm and The palmOne Treo 600, based on the new Windows Mobile PDAs. Palm Version 5 operating system, offers an exter- Sony’s new Vaio U70 handheld computer, nal memory slot, built-in digital camera, and text recently released in Japan, is available in the messaging. palmOne offers a GSM (global sys- United States via specialty retailers such as tem for mobile communication) protocol version dynamism.com. 82 Current VOL. 3, NO. 7 /JULY 2004 p SYCHIATRY.