| In a nutshell, a camera phone is a mobile phone | | | | nineties, but the most successful of these, the |
| with an integral digital camera. It allows users to | | | | Palm Pilot, did away with the pretence of being |
| capture both still images and short moving | | | | able to read human handwriting, using a system |
| sequences, store them on the phones internal | | | | of strokes to designate different characters that |
| memory or a removable memory card, and | | | | had to be learned by the user. |
| share them with other devices and users via a | | | | The first combined PDA and mobile phone, the |
| wireless internet connection. | | | | Nokia 9000 Communicator, was launched in 1996, |
| The daddy of them all was the Casio PF3000, a | | | | and went on to become the biggest selling PDA |
| digital personal organiser that could do everything | | | | ever made, although modern equivalents such as |
| your Filofax could do, but without all the tatty bits | | | | the Nokia N series and the RIM Blackberry are |
| of paper. Though it might have looked like a | | | | fast catching up. |
| glorified pocket calculator, it was really quite | | | | A modern PDA usually features a touch sensitive |
| powerful for its time and sold well upon its launch | | | | screen with a detachable stylus or a small |
| in 1983. Other firms, such as Psion and GO, | | | | QWERTY keyboard for data entry, a memory |
| followed suit and by the start of the nineties, the | | | | card slot for data storage, and wireless |
| market was awash with digital organisers, signalling | | | | connectivity via Bluetooth, IrDA and/or WiFi. The |
| the end of the line for the paper based organiser. | | | | inbuilt software usually includes an address book, |
| The term PDA was first used by Apple to | | | | to do list, diary, notepad, email and a web |
| describe their new digital organiser, the Newton, in | | | | browser. |
| 1992. The marketing hype described it as The | | | | One of the most important functions of a PDA is |
| Computer of the Future, which in some ways it | | | | that you can connect to a PC and share the data |
| was, as it did away with the keyboard to make | | | | between them, a technique known as |
| way for a large touch sensitive screen and a small | | | | synchronisation. This means that you can export |
| plastic stylus. | | | | all of your contact details, messages, and diary |
| It was not, however, a genuinely useful item in | | | | entries from your PC to your PDA, and vice |
| itself, as the handwriting recognition software | | | | versa, at the touch of a button. Not only does |
| didn't quite work, and without anything else to | | | | this mean that you don't have to enter any of |
| input data with, they were consigned to the | | | | the same information twice, but it also means |
| dustbin of history almost as soon as they were | | | | that your valuable data is backed up, in case one |
| released. There were several other attempts at a | | | | or other device is lost or ceases to function. |
| stylus-based personal organiser throughout the | | | | |