How good is PDA writing recognition?

[icyorange]

Hi,

I'm thinking of getting a cheap PDA (possibly Palm Zire) to take notes in my uni lectures - i'm losing track of my handwritten notes and it's time for some organisation! :)

Is the Graffiti recognition stuff any good? How similar is the writing style to how you normally write? Can you write quickly on it? I'm assuming with Palms that you only write on the little bit at the bottom, not the whole screen?

Cheers,

Nick

[wstokeley]

Being immensly bias against palm, but having owned one for many years, here's what i've got to say:

Firstly, on the Zire models, as with most Palm Os devices there is a dedicated writing area, at the bottom of the screen, which is used for all data and numerical input .

Secondly, You can only input one letter or number at a time. If you dream of writing continous sentances and watching them get converted into text, you can kiss that dream goodbye.

Thirdly, You can get a keyboard that folds up for easy data entry.

Fourth, you can download a app that enbles you to use your screen as if it was a keyboard (if thats what you want)

The Graffiti mode of data entry is ok, some find it a bit slow. Its not exactly like writing normal characters, and you do have to learn the code associated with some letters and punctuations (for example to type a "A" you would make a stroke like this: ^) I have a friend who can write faster on his IIIc than his natrual writing, but this is through YEARS of practise.

On a pocket pc (which I now have) you can use the palm mode of recoginition, or write continous prose in your own handwriting which works extremely well. I thoroughly recomend getting a budget pocket pc, you would be amazed at the power :) . And the price is pretty good too...

Let me know how your PDA shopping goes! I reccomend the Dell Axim X3, btw. I've got one. And i used to have an m105 (great, reliable) and a Zire 71 (terrible, hardly ever worked.)

Hope that helps.

[Galley]

The Zire 71 is fantastic! If you are looking for a great PDA, go for the Palm Tungsten E. Circuit City has a great sale on PDAs this week.

[wstokeley]

OMG, you are joking, right?

palm has terrible customer support, they insisted my device was working, and it quite clearly was not (one of the chips had burnt out)

The Zire 71 has mediocre battery life, and a poor data input method. The quality of the digital camera is shoddy at best, and there is no wirless connectivity. The included 18mb of memory is a joke. compare it to the included 128mb on my pocket pc, and you get the picture. Plus the ability to only play music off a Sd card?? Why not the palm itself? My pocket pc cost the same, and has a 400mhz processor, compared to the zire 71's 144mhz. The only good thing I could say about the zire was the screen.

[Boffa Jones Veteran]

So is there one that you can write notes with, like frantic quick? Or is it jsut bettre to get the keyboard?

[MegaManXcalibur]

"Is the Graffiti recognition stuff any good?"

For me Graffiti recognition is pretty good, it would be a lot better if I didn't suck at writting to begin with :whistle:

"Can you write quickly on it?"

I've just started taking notes in class with my Sony Clie using Documents to Go 6, and even using Graffiti (as opposed to the built in keyboard) I can keep up with the professors fairly well, so yes I can write quickly on it.

When I had a Pocket PC I tried using that hand writing recognition (in hopes I'd gain some speed), but with my horrible hand writting there was no way the poor thing could keep up with me so I ended up using the block recognizer, which is the Pocket PC version of Graffiti. The moral of the story is, if you have a hard time reading your own handwritting so will a PDA, and you'll end up using graffiti anyhow.

"How similar is the writing style to how you normally write?"

Graffiti is fairly similar to normal handwritting, and Graffiti 2 is even closer. If play with graffiti for about an hour you'll have it down, it's very easy to adjust to.

"I'm assuming with Palms that you only write on the little bit at the bottom, not the whole screen?"

As for writing only on the bottom, there is a program out there that can make it so you can write anywhere on your screen and it will act as a graffiti pad, I don't remeber what it's called, or where to get it, but it's out there.

[icyorange]

Hi,

Thanks for all your replies, very helpful.

With a Dell Axim X5 would I be able to write on the whole screen area to recognise my handwriting?

Cheers,

Nick

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

Dell Axim: Get Calligrapher (software) and you can use the whole screen area. First time I installed it, I gave it no training and it worked perfectly and at full speed.

[wstokeley]

You certainly would, with the included, native transicriber software. But get the X3 - its cheaper, and does a lot better in the benchmarks. I'm very happy with mine. Though the X5 does have a certain "stylistic" charm.

[Galley]

  wstokeley said:

OMG, you are joking, right?

palm has terrible customer support, they insisted my device was working, and it quite clearly was not (one of the chips had burnt out)

The Zire 71 has mediocre battery life, and a poor data input method. The quality of the digital camera is shoddy at best, and there is no wirless connectivity. The included 18mb of memory is a joke. compare it to the included 128mb on my pocket pc, and you get the picture. Plus the ability to only play music off a Sd card?? Why not the palm itself? My pocket pc cost the same, and has a 400mhz processor, compared to the zire 71's 144mhz. The only good thing I could say about the zire was the screen.

• My Zire 71 has excellent battery life!
  
• The data input (graffitti 2) is the same as every other PalmOS device on the market. There's nothing wrong with it.
  
• The camera is VGA-quality, and is not intended to be a DigiCam replacement. It's went for taking quick snapshots.
  
• You can always add a Bluetooth or WiFi SDIO card (when they are available).
  
• True, the Zire 71 only comes with 16MB of memory, but PocketPC apps tend to be 3-10x larger in file size. With a 256MB SD card, I can store as many apps as I want to on it, and they launch within a second or two.
  
• Why would you want to limit yourself to only a couple of MP3s in RAM???
  
• 144MHz is plenty fast; in fact some older apps that I have run too fast. PocketPC is simply not a responsive OS, which is why it requires more horsepower. It's just like BeOS on a 400MHz machine with 128MB RAM being much more responsive than Windows XP on a 2000MHz machine with 512MB RAM. Just wait until we finally get to see some "BeOS goodness" on PalmOS 6! :woot:
  

[Radix]

  njlouch said:

Dell Axim: Get Calligrapher (software) and you can use the whole screen area. First time I installed it, I gave it no training and it worked perfectly and at full speed.

where can i get?

[Galley]

PalmOS 5 also offers the option of writing anywhere on the screen.

[TheDreamX]

  njlouch said:

Dell Axim: Get Calligrapher (software) and you can use the whole screen area. First time I installed it, I gave it no training and it worked perfectly and at full speed.

Why would you download extra software? PocketPC 2002 (or the newer Windows Mobile 2003) have Transcriber built in. It allows you to write anywhere on the screen and works relatively great - just don't let others use it too often or it'll begin to learn their writing instead of yours. Also, if you are looking into an older PocketPC model, Windows CE 3.0 and PocketPC 2000 models have free upgrades that include Transcriber.

[stewright]

A much better product (although more expensive), is a tablet pc.. The hand writing recognition on one of these babies is fantastic comapred to on a PDA. + it will be far better use for you in lectures,

I can't even imagine trying to quickly scrawl down notes on a tiny PDA.

Have a look at the Toshiba M200, only came out recently ... it's the one i'm saving up for! :)