personal digital assistant pda redirects here for other uses see pda disambiguation pdas redirects here it is not to be confused with pdas not to be confused with virtual assistant artificial intelligence the palm tx apple newton messagepad 1993 computer history museum a personal digital assistant pda also known as a handheld pc nearly all pdas have the ability to connect to the internet a pda has an electronic visual display letting it include a web browser most models also have audio capabilities allowing usage as a portable media player and also enabling most of them to be used as telephones most pdas can access the internet intranets or extranets via wifi or wireless wide area networks sometimes instead of buttons pdas employ touchscreen technology the technology industry has recently recycled the term personal digital assistance the term is more commonly used for software that identifies a users voice to reply to the queries the first pda the organizer was released in 1984 by psion followed by psions series 3 in 1991 the latter began to resemble the more familiar pda style including a full keyboard in 1994 ibm introduced the first pda with full telephone functionality the ibm simon which can also be considered the first smartphone then in 1996 nokia introduced a pda with telephone functionality the 9000 communicator which became the worlds bestselling pda another early entrant in this market was palm with a line of pda products which began in march 1996 typical features a typical pda has a touchscreen for navigation a memory card slot for data storage and irda bluetooth andor wifi however some pdas may not have a touchscreen using softkeys a directional pad and a numeric keypad or a thumb keyboard for input to have the functions expected of a pda a devices software typically includes an appointment calendar a todo list an address book for contacts a calculator and some sort of memo or note program pdas with wireless data connections also typically include an email client and a web browser and may or may not include telephony functionality touchscreen palmpilot organiser on display at the muse bolo epfl lausanne many of the original pdas such as the apple newton and palm pilot featured a touchscreen for user interaction having only a few buttonsusually reserved for shortcuts to oftenused programs some touchscreen pdas including windows mobile devices had a detachable stylus to facilitate making selections the user interacts with the device by tapping the screen to select buttons or issue commands or by dragging a finger or the stylus on the screen to make selections or scroll typical methods of entering text on touchscreen pdas include a virtual keyboard where a keyboard is shown on the touchscreen text is entered by tapping the onscreen keyboard with a finger or stylus an external keyboard connected via usb infrared port or bluetooth some users may choose a chorded keyboard for onehanded use handwriting recognition where letters or words are written on the touchscreen often with a stylus and the pda converts the input to text recognition and computation of handwritten horizontal and vertical formulas such as 1 2 may also be a feature stroke recognition allows the user to make a predefined set of strokes on the touchscreen sometimes in a special input area representing the various characters to be input the strokes are often simplified character shapes making them easier for the device to recognize one widely known stroke recognition system is palms graffiti despite research and development projects endusers experience mixed results with handwriting recognition systems some find it frustrating and inaccurate while others are satisfied with the quality of the recognition touchscreen pdas intended for business use such as the blackberry and palm treo usually also offer full keyboards and scroll wheels or thumbwheels to facilitate data entry and navigation many touchscreen pdas support some form of external keyboard as well specialized folding keyboards which offer a fullsized keyboard but collapse into a compact size for transport are available for many models external keyboards may attach to the pda directly using a cable or may use wireless technology such as infrared or bluetooth to connect to the pda newer pdas such as the htc hd2 apple iphone apple ipod touch and palm pre palm pre plus palm pixi palm pixi plus google android operating system include more advanced forms of touchscreen that can register multiple touches simultaneously these multitouch displays allow for more sophisticated interfaces using various gestures entered with one or more fingers memory cards although many early pdas did not have memory card slots now most have either some form of secure digital sd slot a compactflash slot or a combination of the two although designed for memory secure digital inputoutput sdio and compactflash cards are available that provide accessories like wifi or digital cameras if the device can support them some pdas also have a usb port mainly for usb flash drives some pdas use microsd cards which are electronically compatible with sd cards but have a much smaller physical size wired connectivity while early pdas connected to a users personal computer via serial ports or another proprietary connection or directly by using an expansion card that provided an ethernet port wireless connectivity most modern pdas have bluetooth a popular wireless protocol for mobile devices bluetooth can be used to connect keyboards headsets gps receivers and other nearby accessories its also possible to transfer files between pdas that have bluetooth many modern pdas have wifi wireless network connectivity and can connect to wifi hotspots infrared technology is lowcost and has the advantage of being allowed aboard synchronization most pdas can synchronize their data with applications on a users computer this allows the user to update contact schedule or other information on their computer using software such as microsoft outlook or act and have that same data transferred to pdaor transfer updated information from the pda back to the computer this eliminates the need for the user to update their data in two places synchronization also prevents the loss of information stored on the device if it is lost stolen or destroyed when the pda is repaired or replaced it can be resynced with the computer restoring the users data some users find that data input is quicker on their computer than on their pda since text input via a touchscreen or smallscale keyboard is slower than a fullsize keyboard transferring data to a pda via the computer is therefore a lot quicker than having to manually input all data on the handheld device most pdas come with the ability to synchronize to a computer this is done through synchronization software provided with the handheld or sometime with the computers operating system examples of synchronization software include hotsync manager for palm os pdas microsoft activesync used by windows xp and older windows operating systems to synchronize with windows mobile pocket pc and windows ce pdas as well as pdas running ios palm os and symbian microsoft windows mobile device center for windows vista which supports microsoft windows mobile and pocket pc devices apple itunes used on mac os x and microsoft windows to sync ios devices such as the iphone and ipod touch isync included with mac os x can synchronize many syncmlenabled pdas blackberry desktop software used to sync blackberry devices these programs allow the pda to be synchronized with a personal information manager which may be part of the computers operating system provided with the pda or sold separately by a third party for example the rim blackberry comes with rims desktop manager program which can synchronize to both microsoft outlook and act other pdas come only with their own proprietary software for example some early palm os pdas came only with palm desktop while later palm pdassuch as the treo 650have the ability to sync to palm desktop or microsoft outlook microsofts activesync and windows mobile device center only synchronize with microsoft outlook or a microsoft exchange server thirdparty software can be used to synchronize pdas to other personal information managers that are not supported by the pda manufacturers for example goldmine and ibm lotus notes wireless synchronization some pdas can synchronize some or all of their data using their wireless networking capabilities rather than having to be directly connected to a personal computer via a cable devices running palms webos or googles android operating system primarily sync with the cloud for example if gmail is used information in contacts email and calendar can be synchronized between the pda and googles servers rim sells blackberry enterprise server to corporations so that corporate blackberry users can wirelessly synchronize their pdas with the companys microsoft exchange server ibm lotus domino or novell groupwise servers operating systems of pdas the most common operating systems preinstalled on pdas are palm os microsoft windows mobile pocket pc with a windows ce kernel other rarely used operating systems epoc then symbian os in mobile phone pda combos linux eg vr3 ipaq etc newton qnx also on ipaq automobile navigation some pdas include global positioning system gps receivers this is particularly true of smartphones other pdas are compatible with external gpsreceiver addons that use the pdas processor and screen to display location information pdas with gps functionality can be used for automotive navigation pdas are increasingly being fitted as standard on new cars pdabased gps can also display traffic conditions perform dynamic routing and show known locations of roadside mobile radar guns tomtom garmin and igo offer gps navigation software for pdas ruggedized some businesses and government organizations rely upon rugged pdas sometimes known as enterprise digital assistants edas or mobile computers for mobile data applications these pdas have features that make them more robust and able to handle inclement weather jolts and moisture edas often have extra features for data capture such as barcode readers radiofrequency identification rfid readers magnetic stripe card readers or smart card readers these features are designed to facilitate the use of these devices to scan in product or item codes typical applications include access control and security capital asset maintenance facilities maintenance and management infection control audit and surveillance within healthcare environments medical treatment and recordkeeping in hospitals meter reading by utilities military us army package delivery park and wildlife rangers parking enforcement route accounting supply chain management in warehouses taxicab allocation and routing waiter and waitress applications in restaurants and hospitality venues wildlife biologists medical and scientific uses this section needs additional citations for verification please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources unsourced material may be challenged and removed august 2010 learn how and when to remove this template message many companies have developed pda products aimed at the medical professions such as pdas loaded with drug databases treatment information and medical information services such as avantgo translate medical journals into pdareadable formats wardwatch organizes medical records providing reminders of information such as the treatment regimens of patients to doctors making ward rounds pendragon and syware provide tools for conducting research with allowing the user to enter data into a centralized database using their pda microsoft visual studio and sun java also provide programming tools for developing survey instruments on the handheld these development tools allow for integration with sql databases that are stored on the handheld and can be synchronized with a desktop or serverbased database pdas have been used by doctors to aid diagnosis and drug selection and some studies have concluded that when patients can use pdas to record their symptoms they communicate more effectively with hospital staff during followup visits the development of sensor web technology may lead to wearable bodily sensors to monitor ongoing conditions like diabetes or epilepsy which would alert patients and doctors when treatment is required using wireless communication and pdas educational uses this section needs additional citations for verification please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources unsourced material may be challenged and removed august 2010 learn how and when to remove this template message pdas and handheld devices are allowed in many classrooms for digital notetaking students can spellcheck modify and amend their class notes on a pda some educators software companies have developed pda programs to meet the instructional needs of educational institutions such as dictionaries thesauri word processing software encyclopedias webinar and digital lesson planners recreational uses pdas may be used by music enthusiasts to play a variety of music file formats many pdas include the functionality of an mp3 player road rally enthusiasts can use pdas to calculate distance speed and time this information may be used for navigation or the pdas gps functions can be used for navigation underwater divers can use pdas to plan breathing gas mixtures and decompression schedules using software such as vplanner models consumer acer n series alphasmart amida simputer apple newton atari portfolio dell axim eten fujitsu siemens computers pocket loox gmate yopy handspring company hp ipaq htc dopod qteks series of windows mobile pdasphones huawei series imate iphone hp jornada pocket pc lifedrive nec mobilepro osaris running epoc os distributed by oregon scientific palm pda tungsten e2 tx treo zire handheld palm inc smartphones under palm os and under the successor webos pre and pixi philips nino casio pocket viewer pocketmail email pda with builtin acoustic coupler psion roland pma5 personal music assistant royal ezvue 7 etc sharp wizard and sharp zaurus sony cli sony magic link with the magic cap operating system tapwave zodiac toshiba e310 abacus pda watch ruggedized american industrial systems milspec ip67 bluebird catchwell datalogic mobile ecom instruments getac handheld group honeywell hand held products intermec m3 mobile motorola symbol technologies psion teklogix skeye hoeft wessel ag trimble navigation two technologies inc ultra rugged handheld computers unitech automotive navigation system graffiti palm os information appliance medical calculator pen computing personal navigation assistant pna pocketsized computing device wikimedia commons has media related to personal digital assistants annotated bibliography of references to gesture and pen computing epocalcs list of pda manufacturers vtemobile operating systemslinuxkernel android forks bada ezx linux firefox os b2g os kaios maemo maemo leste meego mer sailfish os moblin motomagx openembedded ngstrm kaeilos openmoko linux qtmoko shr postmarketos tizen ubuntu touch ubports webos luneos xnu ios qnx blackberry 10 blackberry tablet os windows windows xp tablet pc edition windows mobile windows phone 7 8 81 windows rt windows 10 mobile zircon fuchsia other blackberry os epoc geos magic cap nintendo dsi nintendo 3ds s30 s30 s40 nokia asha platform palmdos palm os psp ps vita symbian comparison of mobile operating systems list of mobile app distribution platforms open handset alliance open mobile alliance mobile app development vtecomputer sizesclasses of computersmicrocomputerpersonalcomputerstationary workstation desktop home personal supercomputer portable tabletop smart tv interactive kiosk game arcade cabinet system board home console microconsole sff nettop plug smart speaker mobilelaptop desktop replacement 2in1 subnotebook netbook smartbook ultrabook ultramobile pc tablet ultramobile pc 2in1 phablet tabletop handheld handheld pc palmtop pc pocket computer pda electronic organizer mobile phone feature phone smartphone phablet pmp ereader handheld game console portablemobile data terminal calculator scientific programmable graphing wearable digital wristwatch calculator watch smartwatch smartglasses smart ring midrange server minicomputer supermini large super mainframe minisuper others microcontroller nanocomputer singleboard computer smartdust wireless sensor network authority control gnd 42889935 ndl 00948207 