I don't know what a Filofax is, but if your friends are just using theirs as a simple electronic organizer, they may be missing out on some great technology. Here's why I prefer Palm OS (I actually have a handspring) over the simple organizers.
1. Interface -- The user interface is wonderful. Some of these organizers have nice interfaces too, but the Palm's is excellent right off the bat, and extremely customizeable. My user interface is highly modified for me, and I can get a whole lot done with surprisingly few stylus clicks.
2. Software -- There are thousands if not tens of thousands of applications out there now. Applications that let you create or read documents, databases of all kinds of interesting facts, applications targeted at just about anything you might do. As a small sampling of what's on my Visor:
- mapopolis: free mapping software. I carry very detailed maps of this and several other counties around on my visor! I can search for an intersection, street address, etc.
- vindigo: searchable database of restaurant reviews, and I can put in my current address, and it will give me walking directions to the restaurant of my choice.
- epharmacopia: database of all prescription drugs, dosages, interactions (that's saved me a few times)
- databases of all kinds of cool things -- local restaurants, zip codes, mixed drink recipes, etc
Okay, none of that even remotely interests you? No problem, there are thousands of other cool programs, some of which I guarantee you will find useful, if not indispensible.
3. Offline web content through avantgo
When I sync my visor to my PC, the avantgo application goes out to the web, and downloads whatever I've asked it to, like the NY Times headlines and tech sections, wall street general, stock prices, and a bunch of other web pages. Whenever I'm waiting around, I can read them at my leisure.
4. Document editing and reading
There are all kinds of cool document formats, but I use Wordsmith. It lets me download a word file from my PC, edit it on the visor if I want, and then upload it back to the PC. So I carry around all my essential documents, and my visor serves as a secondary backup to my PC for all my word files. If I have to work on a file over the weekend, I just download it into my visor, and take the visor and a small portable keyboard where ever I go, to work on it.
5. Online web content
Now, going online is the coolest thing. Anytime I have free time to kill -- waiting in the doctor's office, or for my wife to finish shopping, or I'm just out somewhere and need information from some specialty website or other, or I want to send an email page to a buddy, or I'm dying for a bladeforums fix -- I access the web wirelessly.
There are numerous ways to do this, but the way I do it is
absolutely free. I just string a cable between my cell phone and visor, fire up the web browser or email program, the visor does its thing to the cellphone, and I"m on the web.
What happens is, companies like sprint and verizon have free access numbers for internet access, so you don't have to pay a thing beyond the minutes you use, and I have so many free minutes it's essentially free for me. There are other solutions to go wireless, but most of them cost money, and I'm allergic to that type of solution
