Re: Pilot: Pilot?

[Steve Willer <willer@xxxxxx>]

On Mon, 4 Nov 1996, Acid Bent wrote:

>     1. I heard that the Pilot5000 has better screen than Pilot1000.. Is this 
> true?

Nope. Same screen, same body, same everything.

>     2. Should I buy the P1000 with 1MB upgrade or should I go for the P5000 
> directly?

Perhaps you're not aware that the 5000 has 512K of RAM. The 1000 with the 
upgrade has 1MB of RAM and the 5000 with the upgrade has 1MB of RAM. It 
all depends on what you're going to use the Pilot for. If you don't need 
the full 1MB right now (this is probably 90% of the Pilot owners), you 
could just get the 5000 and perhaps upgrade to the 1000 when the new 
version of the OS comes out (no idea when that is).

>     3. I heard a new version of Pilot is coming out... is this true?

Someday. I don't think anyone knows dates, but one might guess that 
something will be out first quarter next year.

>     4. I heard that some good PDAs will be released in Nov from HP, is this 
> true?

Don't know, don't care (my Pilot does what I need).

>     5. Should I wait for a Pegasus?

Ugh. The Pegasus will be quite large. I personally prefer the simplicity 
and speed of the Pilot interface. I also hate the clamshell design. I 
probably wouldn't get a Pegasus even if it was out.

>     6. Is the handwriting recognition on the Pilot acceptable?

It's just peachy. It's not really the same as the Newton's handwriting 
recognition, though -- you're supposed to use a specialized, 
single-stroke character set. The characters are all simple and 
single-stroke. It's a lot better than my own handwriting, anyway.

>     7. Is this good for notetaking? I attend a lot of internal meetings, plus I 
> am always on the phone with clients... currently I am using a pen and paper 
> notepad to take down notes...while on the phone... Is Pilot a good replacement 
> for this scribbling?

Yep. With some practice, you can probably do 30wpm without too much 
difficulty. What you get out of it is a *searchable* database of meeting 
notes and the ability to print and e-mail them. Very nice. It would be 
nice to have an outlining ability, but tabs and dashes will have to do 
for now.