I return to this periodically, continually trying to make make sense of a nonsensical world. My aged Palm Vx works wonderfully, and allows me to organise my life very efficiently and effectively. (How I execute my life is another matter.) But it’s about eight years old now and will break down soon and I’ll need a replacement.

In those eight years the world of miniature electronics has moved on in ways we probably couldn’t have guessed then. So there must be a product out there which suits my needs. But then again…

The wonders of the Palm Vx are as follows:

• I have a calendar, to-do list and address book at the touch of a button. Literally. I don’t even have to have the device switched on. One button will switch on the device and bring up the calendar. Similarly for the to-do list and address book.
• There is genuine utility in these applications. The to-do list is designed in a Getting Things Done kind of way, which means I can assign dates to items. The calendar handles real-life appointments like “repeat every 3rd Monday of the month”. One search searches everything.
• It syncs with a desktop application.
• And the desktop application requires few keystrokes to operate it.

In all, it does a proper job with few actions. As Simon Armitage says today when reviewing a bunch of smartphones:

And while it may seem mundane to bang on about the basic features of these gadgets, immediacy is everything, because their higher functions are beyond question. They’re all equally excellent, give or take.

So what are my options today. I think they fall into three categories:

• Palm devices. The latest organisers, such as the T|X. Pros: Does the same job as my Palm Vx but with colour and wireless. Cons: Otherwise is far behind the current generation of devices which include touchscreens, rollerballs, swish graphics and a wide range of applications (or at least a good SDK).
• Android devices. The forthcoming platform from Google, to be taken up by many handset manufacturers. Pros: Strong open platform with many applications, and a likely a good range on handsets to choose from. Cons: The “forthcoming” bit, obviously; plus, you just know that any handset will only make your to-do app available to you after two levels of menus and lots of sideways scrolling.
• The iPhone or iPod Touch. Pros: Very swish, with a good SDK, so lots of apps forthcoming. Cons: It’s primarily a device for others to admire than for you to use, so the single button makes it impossible to get to any apps without the multiple button-pushes and slidey things.

I think I’m just going to have to carry a small hope that I’m wrong about Android, and meanwhile not drop my Palm Vx.

Tags: android, iphone, palm