Handheld is a superset of all handheld devices,PDA(Personal Digital Assistant).The market's most popular PDAs will be comming with two kinds of operating system in them.They are Palm OS by Palm and PocketPC operating system from Microsoft.Pocket PC is the lastest version of Windows CE operating system.Which gives the same look and feel of windows environment.Palm OS is earliest one in the handlheld OS market.From a programmer perespective both have its own importance and different paths.If you are interested in Palm programming you must have the knowledge of Palm OS,C / C++.If you consider Pocket PC programming you must have the knowledge of Windows CE/Pocket PC OS,VC++, Visual Basic.Links are provided at the end of page for more details.

Organize your life

Despite all the extra roles PDAs are taking on, information management remains their primary purpose. For this task, Pocket PCs once again pull ahead of the others. The Palm offers lots of power and flexibility, but the IPaq and Casio are just as useful overall and superior in some areas. Where Pocket PCs really shine, however, is in their interface. Their bright screens, shortcut menus, and handy pick lists simplify adding and viewing appointments, tasks, and contact information, making them more fun to use than any other organizer we tried.

To help you keep track of all the people in your life, Pocket PCs include the powerful Contacts application, which provides over 40 fields for information. The Calendar application turns the IPaq and Casio into great appointment books. Day, week, month, and year views let you see and fine-tune the busiest of schedules. And it's easy to find open spots and add and reschedule appointments, recurring meetings, and all-day events.

With their meeting invitation feature for Schedule+ and Outlook, Pocket PC PDAs make the best palmtop choice for corporate users who need to stay in the loop. They do come up short in one major area, however: task and appointment integration. Palms excel at melding these important components of a busy schedule, providing several ways to look at them together.

The chunkier Jornada matches Pocket PCs feature for feature and displays a larger part of your contacts list and schedule at once, including a separate window for tasks. The Diamond Mako offers users a mixed bag. People who need complete control over their address books might like its Contacts application, which lets you relabel and rearrange every one of its 23 fields--even name, address, and phone number. But we found the quirky Agenda application difficult to use.

The little RIM BlackBerry handles PIM basics--just. Minimalists might like the stark screens--the calendar's week view consists of two labeled axes--but most will want a more informative interface.

Pocket PC or Palm: Which Will Win Out?

Call it the clash of the tiny titans. The two main electronic organizer operating systems are headed for a showdown, and the outcome rests in users', er, palms. For the moment, PDAs based on the industry-standard Palm operating system continue to take the lion's share of the market; last year Palms accounted for about 62 percent of sales in the category of keyboardless "handheld companions." But analysts predict that by 2004, the Pocket PC will own as much as 40 percent of the market, with Palm falling to 45 percent.

Pocket PCs are expected to woo nonbusiness users and corporate types alike by virtue of their bright 240 by 320 screens, faster StrongARM processors, and familiar Windows-like interface and applications. Palm PDA owners tend to be fiercely loyal to their devices, however, citing streamlined operation and longer battery life as key benefits.

Meanwhile, both camps are busily nudging their products toward the middle. The next version of Microsoft's PDA operating system will be designed to conserve power, says Suwanjindar. To catch up with Pocket PCs, Palm is planning to release Palm OS 4 later this year; it will support faster processors and increase screen resolution, says Palm's Mace.

Work toward a common expansion device standard continues, and Palms and Pocket PCs due out later this year are expected to standardize on the new Secure Device (SD) slot. Based on the MultiMedia Card specification, postage stamp- size SD cards will add storage as well as LAN and Internet connectivity.

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