Advice on pocket pc for university student

[MattG]

hi,

i've been looking into getting a pocket pc for organisation/lectures at uni, aside from the usual calender/contacts etc what i was hoping was one which would be good at taking notes during lectures

is inputing text with a stylus easy and fast? or would a small keyboard be the best thing for taking notes, also are any inbuilt microphones good enough to record a lecturer in a large lecture theatre or are other microphones available to plug into a pocket pc?

please excuse my newbieness, i know virtually nothing lol,

[PDANEWBIE]

As far as the mic I would recommend sitting up front or near a speaker if its in a big hall. Most PPC's have built in mics but no external ports so I don't think there is an easy (or cheap) way to add on an external microphone to a PPC.

As far as taking notes I would suggest getting the item that you are most comforatable with. If your a typist you may want a full sized keyboard. if your not you may want something like a mini keyboard (thumboard). Really there are a ton of different "typing" input devices from mini keyboards to foldable full sized keyboards to frogpad type devices to bluetooth input. What I would probably do is make a list of needs and wants for an input device and let people tell you how close their owned device gets to it.

The nice thing about the PPC is really you can have both of these things going at one time I.E. keep the recording going on your lecture and take notes while the lecture is going on.

[Goomba]

I'd highly recommend Think Outside's wireless infared keyboard (or the BT one if its in your budget ;) ). The spacing of the keys is almost the same as that of a desktop keyboard, so if you are comfortable typing, that would be the best way to go.

When I use any of the stylus input methods I find my self making a lot of mistakes and that really slows me down.

[CTSLICK]

I tend to use my PDA quite a bit but taking notes is one of the few things that I could never do well on a PDA. Its ok for meetings but I find it too structured in a class room environment. Chemical formulas, sketchs, drawings, arrows to associate different ideas, quick references in the margins...nope...never found a way to do that fast enough.

Now as a reference tool it kicks butt. Lots of reference handbooks converted to pdf, lots of databases built up in HanDBase, lots of Word documents. I did find it handy to convert some of my notes to Word documents later.

But if your are determined to give it a try I would go the folding keyboard route. I would also give FITALY (http://www.fitaly.com/) a try instead of the standard input methods. It won't make any sense right away but its really a pretty brilliant input method after you spend some time with it.

[Mark Kenepp]

When I was first introduced to handheld computing, a friend of mine had just picked up a second hand Palm Pilot 3000 (or 5000, I don't remember what Palm Pilots were called before the Pro). He was driving the car and at an intersection, while we were stopped, he had the Palm sitting on the seat beside him and he was entering information at a pretty fast pace using graffiti with out looking at the device. I was very impressed :werenotworthy:

It was only a short note but I would assume that one could get proficient enough with one of the software input panels to be able to take notes effectively and efficiently.

I personally do not type fast enough even with a full sized keyboard to be able to take notes and I would be surprised if one could use a thumb board to type fast enough to do it either. I guess one could use a version of shorthand with any of the input methods effectively (I have watched my niece text pretty fast on her phone, but we all know how dangerous that can be (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/index.php?action=expand,36934) :wink: )

I can't comment on the recording capabilities as I have never used the record feature on my Pocket PC. There could be resource issues when recording several hour long lectures. I don't know how much memory that would require or how much battery power it would use. Battery power could also be an issue with note taking. There should be no problem having your Pocket PC on for a class or two but continuous use of your handheld for three or four hours could approach the limit of the battery life. This is easily alleviated by recharging and if I remember my college classrooms, there are plugs to be found.

Even if you find that note taking on your handheld is not practical, you will definitely find it an indispensable tool.

[Goomba]

Another input meathod I used for a while was to hold the Pocket PC in my hand and switch word (or notes) to writing mode, uncheck the fit to screen option, and simply write words as I would on paper, using the d-pad to scroll to the right so I could input a full line of text. I would then use the Recognize
feature to convert my notes to a neat typed format.

Once you get used to the plastic on plastic feel of writing, you can become pretty proficient in this and make very few mistakes. (IMO)

[ppcinfo]

With a Pocket PC device there are several different input methods. You have the popup keyboard where you need to tap on each letter of a word with your stylus, and the block recognization where you print each letter on the screen (like the Palm Graffitti input), and Transcriber where you can print or write your words on the screen in cursive. I like to use Transcriber because it seems most natural to handwriting, however, the software does have trouble sometimes reading my writing when I'm in a hurry.

Personally, taking notes using any of these methods distracts me from a meeting or lecture presentation, so I still use paper-n-pen. If I really had to take notes with my PPC device, I would probably invest in a portable bluetooth keyboard and enter all my text by typing.

ppcpinfo

[AggieJon]

I've been using my Pocket PC at school for about three years now. I've gradually started to use it for aspects of my studying and note-taking, so that by now I'm not sure how someone can be a student without one. :) I carry around a paper notebook just in case, but it usually remains blank.

I use Pocket Informant (http://www.pocketinformant.com) for organization. It allows you to add customized views and templates for your calendar and tasks, which makes entering class information quick.

For taking notes, the key is to decide what kind of notes you need for the class. Here's how I do it:

For classes where it is necessary to keep a lot of written notes (ie. the prof doesn't give out his powerpoint slides or lecture notes) I like to use a foldable keyboard.

For classes where I only need to write down, say, a page or two per class period, I use PhatPad (http://www.phatware.com/phatpad/index.html). I love this program for handwritten note-taking, but I admit it takes some getting used to since you'll probably be scrolling a bit because of the small screen. FITALY (mentioned above) is also great for typing, with practice.

Finally, for classes where the lecture is what the prof tests over, I sometimes like to record the lectures. It was mentioned above that you have to sit close. That's true. All PPCs have built-in mics, but they are designed more for up-close recording. It works, though. Programs like Vito SoundExplorer (http://vitotechnology.com/products/soundexplorer.html) and Resco Audio Recorder (http://www.resco-net.com/audiorec_indepth.asp) are great because they record straight to MP3. With a memory card installed, you can easily record whole lectures.

As far as what model to choose, I think that's more personal preference. Everything I mentioned is available on all current models. You might want one that has a slightly larger screen. You'll definately want wi-fi if your campus is wi-fi equiped.

-Jonathan

[Cadavidf]

if you find that ppc is not the best idea for note taking you can have a tablet pc (if that fits your budget) the screen size is aproximatelly the one of a standard notebook paper and im sure there are alot of programs for note taking since thats kind of the main feature of tablets, and if you dont like stylus's you can also have the full sized keyboard

[ctmagnus]

If you go that route, I highly recommend you check out The Student Tablet PC (http://studenttabletpc.blogs.com/the_student_tablet_pc/). Written by students for students ;)

[Sven Johannsen]

There are also some PPCs that do sport a mic input. The Dell X50 (v at least, don't know about the others) is one. And I know some Tosibas have that. It could support a more directional, better quality, mic, and you would want a better recording program as well than what is built in.

Of course any of the Pocket PC Phone editions support a mic, though it may not be usable for the recorder, but the above are plain PPCs