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Lisa Friedman Miner Daily Herald Staff Writer

September 17, 2003

J Buell admits he has all the signs of addiction. Rather than hide his dependence, however, Buell flaunts it.

The Arlington Heights man - yes, J's his full name - is hooked on his Palm Tungsten T2. And proud of it.

"I could probably do without it," Buell says. "But it would be kind of like living without your car, fire or indoor plumbing."

A little extreme, perhaps. But if you've ever heard the beeping of a co-worker's Palm or watched a fellow commuter try to beam a message to his wife, you know Buell isn't the only one hooked on his PDA, or personal digital assistant.

For the uninitiated, handheld electronic organizers have been around since the mid-1980s. Early models were little more than glorified electronic address books. The Palm Pilot, however, debuted a decade later, and the market has been growing ever since.

Today's Palms - and their various competitors - can beam business cards, edit photos, hold electronic novels, offer weather reports, even access the Internet and send e-mail.

Some models now package a PDA together with a cell phone - a true tech lover's dream.

"I can't go anywhere without it," confesses Joel Evans, a wireless consultant from Rhode Island and the "Chief Geek" at Geek.com.

"It has been so bad in the past that my wife had demanded that I go 'technology free.' She will literally say, 'No technology in bed!' If that's not hooked I don't know what is."

True confessions

Alan Williams' wife hasn't banned the PDA in bed - yet.

Williams, senior editor of pdaavenue.com, takes all his news off the PDA. He uses a "news plucker" service that grabs headlines and weather reports off the Internet. Then, he syncs his PDA into his computer and picks up stories on his handheld. He's gotten so used to getting his news this way that he's ceased buying the local paper.

Of course, all this attachment has a downside. Losing a PDA - even for a few days - can prove traumatic.

"When my son was 2, he decided to see if my current personal digital assistant would float in a glass of apple juice," Williams recalls. "Needless to say, it did not float."

It did break, however, and Williams faced a "hard couple of days" waiting for a replacement.

"I was without for three days," says Williams, who lives in Milwaukee. "I was climbing the walls."

Buell, on the other hand, is never without. He's bought a succession of new and improved PDAs since he fell in love more than a decade ago.

His current model allows him to read books in line at the grocery store and listen to a favorite MP3 anywhere he feels like a little music.

"I am major geeky," he admits. "I probably have on the order of 30 to 40 books or magazines on there ... I have a little over a hundred of my favorite MP3s on there."

His "geekiest" move yet, however, may be the spreadsheet he created for his PDA charting every song he has stored, every CD he owns.

It just makes it easier when he goes to the record store, he says.

Boys and their toys

PDA lovers will tell you why wireless technology beats good old paper.

You don't have to change your calendar each year, for one thing. You can exchange dates electronically, eliminating the chance that you'll forget to write something down. And a PDA is smaller and lighter than toting a phone book, a laptop and a calendar.

Practicality, however, goes only so far.

PDA enthusiasts store and swap games - everything from Tetris to Scrabble to backgammon.

They also like their accessories.

Al Musur, of Hawthorn Woods, got a global positioning device for Christmas. So at any given time, his handheld can tell him exactly where he is on planet Earth.

"It will locate me on a map," Musur says. "You're never lost."

You're also never bored. If your dentist makes you wait, you can play a game or read an electronic book. If you're stuck in a meeting, you can beam messages to a buddy across the conference table. If you're dying to hear a little Motown, you can access a favorite MP3.

And if you want to know whether you've got a bit of spinach stuck in your teeth, switch on the mirror feature and take a look for yourself.

'My whole life'

When Alan Williams talks about PDAs, he stresses the "personal" part. After all, you can store whatever you want on the device, retrieving information whenever you need it.

Brandom Grissom, a worship director at Willow Creek Church in South Barrington, writes songs on his PDA.

Carl Johnson, an Elmhurst management consultant, likes playing Scrabble on his Palm and stores "what to pack" lists for last- minute camping trips.

Terri Calvert, of Hoffman Estates, maintains a list of the light bulbs she uses regularly at home and the kind of furnace filter she needs - all the better for saving shopping runs.

"I have it with me all the time," Calvert says. "My whole life is in it."

Paul Sheridan, a real estate broker in Rosemont, keeps a list of ratings from Wine Spectator in his PDA. It makes picking out a good Syrah all that much easier.

Then there's Dave Hudik, an Elgin firefighter who turns his into the ultimate boy toy: "I use it as a remote control for the TV and VCR."

Still, each upgrade comes with a price tag. Pricey new PDAs can cost close to $1,000, Williams says.

A paperless society?

If you're hooked, however, you're hooked. And Brandon Grissom admits that he uses his Sony Clie constantly.

He stores speaking notes on his PDA, which he finds easier than the usual index cards. He also uses it when he travels. By pasting MapQuest directions from the Internet into his PDA, he can follow the recommended route without rifling through a pile of printouts.

In fact, Grissom sees a day when paper is obsolete and everyone carries a PDA.

"It will be as common as a notebook in a few years," he predicts. "It's definitely not a fad."

GRAPHIC: Learning the lingo

Ever wonder what those PDA users are talking about? Here are some clues to help you translate.

Backlight: A PDA light that allows for reading information in the dark.

Beaming: Transferring information from one PDA to another.

Bluetooth: Wireless technology that allows for short-range communication between, for example, your PDA and the Internet.

Cradle: A dock for your PDA when you want to synchronize data with your computer or recharge the batteries.

Ebook: Electronic version of a book that can be read on a computer or PDA.

Graffiti: A special alphabet/character recognition software that allows you to take notes on your PDA. Some letters - like L and C - look the same. Others are written differently.

Handheld: A generic term that refers to small high-tech gadgets such as PDAs and Pocket PCs.

HotSync: The technology used by Palm that allows a transfer of information from your PDA to a computer. This way, if you lose your PDA, you don't lose phone numbers, important dates and other information.

Smart Phone: A handheld device that combines a PDA and cell phone.

Stylus: A drawing tool that looks like a pen and is used with a PDA.

(C) 2003 Chicago Daily Herald. via ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved

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