Can the iPod Touch serve as a decent PDA? How is its contact manager? Are there other apps to fulfill the PDA functions?

I actually had a Sony Clie (UX50) before moving to the iPod Touch. The PDA functions of the Clie were good... when they worked. I had many issues mostly with syncing.

The iPod Touch can be a good PDA, though as mentioned, it depends on what type of user you are. Probably the biggest downsides are no copy and paste (at least until the new model comes out), the on screen keyboard, and the lack of notes syncing. I solved the copy and paste issue with a jail break.

And as mentioned you can use evernote for notes syncing, though I found it to be a bit flaky on the touch (you had to mark notes as favorites in order to edit them without wireless). I switched to using 1Password for my notes. It is not free and requires a desktop version on the mac for syncing, but it adds the ability to encrypt/password protect my notes on both ends easily.As far as contact management, it works very well if you are a Mac user.

If you are a PC user and don't mind sticking with Microsoft Outlook, then it's OK too. Overall, I am a light user of the PDA functions, but I was very happy to make the switch from the Clie. The overall user interface experience and the large number of available apps makes it a very nice experience.

And the PDA functions available are pretty much in line with what you had on your Clie (minus the cut and paste). So perhaps the best bet is to wait until next month and see what the new iPod Touch has to offer. I believe there are going to be several new features (like a camera) on that model.

And at the very least, it should drive down the price of the old iPod Touch.

I replaced my Palm Tx with an iPod touch and have been very happy with it. The Contact Manager is easy to use. It's easy to find contacts by flicking through the list, or tapping on the right side index to go straight to a particular letter of the alphabet.

Using iTunes, it syncs with my contact list in Outlook. You can also sync with Google if desired. The Calendar app supports multiple calendars and looks really nice with list, day, and month views.

Using iTunes, it syncs with my calendar in Outlook. You can also sync with Google if desired. I have two minor complaints.1 - no customized alert sounds, and 2- no week view.

Otherwise it serves my needs just fine and hopefully Apple will make improvements to resolve my complaints sometime in the future. I'm using Evernote for notes. It syncs with the web when on wifi and supports "favorite" notes which are cached on the iPod for access when off wifi.

I'm using Toodledo for tasks. It has a ton of options and syncs with the web for access anywhere. All of the above apps are either built-in or free.As previously mentioned, there are a ton of other apps for anything else you want to do.

The whole user interface is gorgeous and it's a pleasure to use.

I believe it can. The contacts are in an app all on their own like a little phone book (just like on the Mac computers). It's really easy to navigate because everything is in alphabetical order by last name.

When you touch one of your contacts, it'll take you to a list of their information which includes e-mail address, phone number, their website, and their home address. Then if you want to email them, all you have to do is touch their address and it takes you right into your email app. There is literally just about an app for everything you can possibly imagine and a lot of them are free too.In the App Store, there's a category called "Utilities".

That's probably where you would find your most useful must-haves.

Well it depends on what functionality you need. If it's just the usual email, calendar etc... then the ipod touch will do great (as long as there is a wifi around for email). Hope it helps!

I originally posted the following comments at wooga.drbacchus.com/ipod-touch-and-pdas and thought they might provide some additional insight. As of today (10-22-09) I'm still less than thrilled to be stuck using Outlook as my desktop companion. Also, the task issue has not been addressed by apple.

I thought they would have done so by now. I had purchase and was using iDo, but the fact that it doesn't include alarms kinda defeats the purpose... here are the posts... abp 2008-08-09 11:14:48 First of all, I realize that my response is being posted when many (but not all) of the issues have been addressed. I had been a palm user for ten years when I purchased my ipod touch almost a month ago.

For almost the past year I had been planning to eventually leave the palm for another PDA solution. The quality of palm hardware has never been acceptable, in my opinion and I have always taken full advantage of the Best Buy extended warranty. I considered it a necessary cost in order to not have to purchase a new device every two years.

I can say with full confidence that I NEVER returned a PDA unless there was a genuine problem with the device. Many times it was due to the battery dying. I did own several palm lifedrive devices before I purchased the TX.

I probably owned at lease 6 to 8 TX’s which all had to be returned because of the screen. I had considered looking at windows mobile when the time came and my Best Buy extended warranty was getting ready to expire. Once again, my Palm TX screen had failed and was getting worse by the day.

I had “heard” that palm was not planning to market any stand-alone PDA’s, that they would only be marketing palm OS smart phones. As I had events in my palm as far back as early 1998, is was critical that I be able to transitio.

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