Help me make use of my old PDA

March 30, 2007 9:14 AM

Help me make use of my old PDA.

I have a Sony TJ37 Personal Entertainment Organizer that is pretty much just lying around. It has a camera, built in WIFI and IR and a nice big screen. Can anybody give me a good reason to keep it around. Anything that lets me make use of this is fair game, hacks included. Thanks!!

posted by zacharyseibert to computers & internet (11 comments total)

FYI, he's talking about this.

I would think that if it had wifi, it would at the least make a great mobile rss-reader, or a way to listen to streaming audio
posted by Pastabagel at 9:31 AM on March 30, 2007

I give a lot of presentations, and have a couple of older iPaqs lying about that work perfectly as remotes when used with Salling Clicker.

The software can also control iTunes & DVD player, as well a whole bunch of other applications.
posted by Mutant at 9:41 AM on March 30, 2007

I assume you mean "other than use it as a PDA"


Aside from mediocre PDA-based games (though a few are brilliant, check out drug wars and space trader), mobile rss would be good. Mated with project gutenburg, it would make a decent ebook reader.
posted by craven_morhead at 10:47 AM on March 30, 2007

Videotape yourself smashig it to bits, host it on youtube, pointed to from your blog, then submit to digg and rake in the ad money!
posted by cschneid at 11:25 AM on March 30, 2007

It might make a really nice universal remote control.

Or, if you have wireless at home, you could just put it in your kitchen or guest room or bathroom or something, and use it for instant web access.
posted by box at 11:37 AM on March 30, 2007

Use it as an ebook reader.
posted by Manjusri at 12:28 PM on March 30, 2007

I second Manjusri's suggestion. I have an old Palm Pilot that I use for nothing but reading eBooks.
posted by doctorcurly at 1:19 PM on March 30, 2007

Thirding Manjusri -- my ebook reader is a Sony Clie, a library in my pocket.
posted by anadem at 2:55 PM on March 30, 2007

I've been using Mobipocket for my Clie NX70. Completely free, can access books stored on the memory stick.

I use Word2Doc, a Word plugin, to convert anything Word can open up into prc files that mobipocket can read.

I'm not sure if your Clie has a jog dial, but man oh man, that dial makes the Clie's great for reading.

Ebooks can be purchased (ie., from Mobisoft - that's why their reader is free), obtained from Project Gutenberg, or from other places such as Usenet.

I believe that some of the SciFi publishing houses (Baen? Tor?) offer some of their library in e-format for free as well.
posted by porpoise at 3:02 PM on March 30, 2007

Download recorded books from your library, transfer them to the Clie and listen to them while commuting.
posted by Joleta at 9:26 PM on March 30, 2007

Porpoise is thinking of the Baen Free Library. Tor doesn't have any general practice of releasing their books for free, but some Tor authors have arranged such (Cory Doctorow, Peter Watts, Mike Brotherton.) There's also Accelerando. Actually, there's a heck of a lot of free fiction out there, so I'll just stop now.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 10:47 PM on March 30, 2007