iPod Instead of a Palm?

It's not very well known that the iPod has the ability to store contact info, tasks, notes and other personal organization information that is usually toted around in PDA, such as the Palm.

Hopefully this feature will become a little better known now. Julio Ojeda-Zapata at the Your Tech weblog will be testing two options for syncing his iPod with his Outlook contacts and calendar: PocketMac iPod and iPod Sync.

A note to all you other player vendors: add these features ASAP! This is an easy way for you to add an incredible amount of value to your existing products with a simple software update. I suspect that many people who carry PDAs only use it to store addresses, phone numbers, to-do lists, etc. Just the simple stuff. Your players already have the raw materials for an organizer: a harddrive, an LCD screen, navigation controls and a way to sync with a desktop computer. All that's left is a bit of software magic and folks can carry around one less gadget.

Note: the iRiver iHP line can at least display text files that are on its harddrive. This is a good start and I hope iRiver expands on this in the future.

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