PDA Power: Add-Ons for Your New Palmtop

Santa came through this year and got you the hippest electronic stocking stuffer: a new personal digital assistant. Now, you're ready to check out what it can do.

Popular Palm, Handspring Visor, Sony Clie, and Microsoft Pocket PC PDAs all come with basic personal information management applications--a calendar, address book, to-do list, memo pad, and support for desktop e-mail, usually from Microsoft Outlook. Pocket PCs also have downsized versions of Word, Excel, and the Windows Media Player.

While these applications will certainly keep you busy, countless other utilities, games, and add-on accessories can make your new handheld even more productive and fun--if you know where to find them.

Sites such as Handango, PalmGear, and PalmTracker offer searchable databases of downloadable goodies, including lots of freeware or trialware. Palm and Handspring Web sites also offer buying guides for software and add-ons.

For the holidays, Microsoft has added a holiday gift guide site with information about peripherals, software, and content for Pocket PCs. Palm's customer service center has extended its hours for the holidays. It also launched Knowledge Finder, a new interactive tool with answers to customers' most frequently asked questions, says David de Valk, director of Palm customer service. You can access Knowledge Finder by whatever method you want to use: Web site, chat via the Web, e-mail, or telephone.

Content to Go

Some of the best PDA software lets you take your favorite reading materials with you. And if you don't have a wireless connection to download content on the fly, AvantGo is a must-have tool. It's especially handy for those who'd like to dispense with a bulky book or newspaper during long public transportation commutes.

Although AvantGo also works on wireless devices, its synchronized service provides timely Web content to nonwireless devices. Just download the free AvantGo client and its companion MobileLink app, and choose the channels you want at AvantGo.com. Each channel has content from sites such as Yahoo, Salon, New York Times, Weather.com, and even PCWorld.com. That material is downloaded via your Internet-connected desktop and then updated on your Palm, Visor, or Pocket PC whenever you synchronize using your desktop cradle. (With Pocket PCs, AvantGo's client is built into the browser, so you don't even have to download it.)

While AvantGo offers general content, JunglePort and Vindigo are among a growing group of free location-specific applications for Palm-based PDAs. Junglesoft combines a city guide with vector-based maps to help you find the restaurant, hotel, or other location you've just read about. Vindigo offers directions and recommendations.

You can also use your Palm or Pocket PC to read books. Pocket PCs come with Microsoft Reader e-book software; Palm owners must download a third-party e-book app such as Peanut Reader, MobiPocket Reader, AportisDoc Reader, or Express Reader Pro.