Technology PDA's, Iphone, etc

[dreams]

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hey I was wondering if anyone knew which type of PDA or this type of device is the most useful to have for med school? My phone plan is up soon and I can get one for free or discounted and I just wanted to see what people recommend as far as software for the different types of phones and if there is one that is better then the others?

 

[Dulcina]

i have teh ipod touch (my phone plan is with verizon, and i have 1.5 yrs left), and its pretty great, so I would guess the iphone is pretty good.

 

[dreams]

I am more trying to find one that works the best with the various software apps that are out there and used in med school on PDAs, Iphone etc so i was trying to find out if one works better than the others or if one type has more software apps available and all

 

[kac714]

it depends on what region you're going to be in which obviously you don't know. but i have an iphone and had a blackberry. one of the cool things about the iphone is you can download anatomy and physio flashcards to the phone (its like 25 bucks) and study them wherever. If you have a mac its nice because it syncs easily. HOWEVER if you have a PC then i'd go with a window's based phone like the motorola q or samsung blackjack.

 

[dreams]

it depends on what region you're going to be in which obviously you don't know. but i have an iphone and had a blackberry. one of the cool things about the iphone is you can download anatomy and physio flashcards to the phone (its like 25 bucks) and study them wherever. If you have a mac its nice because it syncs easily. HOWEVER if you have a PC then i'd go with a window's based phone like the motorola q or samsung blackjack.

see I have a mac but like you said I dont know where I will end up and I dont know if that place will want us to have a PC or whatever, so I wanted to see what works the best overall, and I heard of a program where you can convert the mac stuff to the windows stuff for blackberrys and all of those type phones but I dont know if this works well.

 

[DrJD]

If you were going to be a doctor next year I would say the blackberry just because there is software for that that just isn't on the iPhone yet... HOWEVER, since you are just starting medical school definitely get the iPhone. It is just as functional and because of the great success of the app store those applications I was referring to above will soon be on the iPhone.

I have seen doctors use both, so either way I'm sure you'll be fine, this is just my opinion...

 

[calnation]

I'm sure you'll buy another phone by the time you graduate

 

[Handy388]

I just bought myself an Acer AspireOne today, it's one of those mini laptop that's fully featured, it's about as two of my palm combined and it's super light for air travel. not as obnoxious as a macbook air yet very stylish,

 

[m_rivera84]

How about a Treo? Has a list of drugs database not available on iphone, I believe

 

[JackInTheBox]

I have a 1st gen iPhone, and it was great. I say "was" because 1.1.4 was the pinnacle of iPhone firmware. Ever since the 2.0 update, it's been awful. The 2.1 update fixed some things, but it still lags, and the AppStore is **** unless you like having 5 different flashlights and Facebook on your phone. Installer/Cydia is the only way to go.

 

[VneZonyDostupa]

it depends on what region you're going to be in which obviously you don't know. but i have an iphone and had a blackberry. one of the cool things about the iphone is you can download anatomy and physio flashcards to the phone (its like 25 bucks) and study them wherever. If you have a mac its nice because it syncs easily. HOWEVER if you have a PC then i'd go with a window's based phone like the motorola q or samsung blackjack.

There is little to no difference regarding how any of the iPod generations/iterations sync with a Mac versus a PC.

 

[VneZonyDostupa]

I have a 1st gen iPhone, and it was great. I say "was" because 1.1.4 was the pinnacle of iPhone firmware. Ever since the 2.0 update, it's been awful. The 2.1 update fixed some things, but it still lags, and the AppStore is **** unless you like having 5 different flashlights and Facebook on your phone. Installer/Cydia is the only way to go.

Really? Have you looked around the free app section of the appstore? I have a program to keep track of my monthly budget, connect to people around me with ipod touches/iphones over wifi and chat, an IM client, russian/french/english dictionaries, weight/bmi tracker program, all sorts of stuff.

 

[JackInTheBox]

Really? Have you looked around the free app section of the appstore? I have a program to keep track of my monthly budget, connect to people around me with ipod touches/iphones over wifi and chat, an IM client, russian/french/english dictionaries, weight/bmi tracker program, all sorts of stuff.

All of which I had 6 months ago on Installer.app in more useful and stable forms. Nothing on the AppStore can mimic or basic functions of the phone (mail, iPod, etc), so it limits the usefulness of official apps to mere novelties or marginally useful apps at best. The restrictions Apple puts on the AppStore are ridiculous.

 

[ninjapenguin]

How about a Treo? Has a list of drugs database not available on iphone, I believe

Which will be of so much use to you during your pre-clinical years.

OP, my advice is just get a cheap phone with a cheap 2 year plan. It's all you'll really need because the extent of your school-related phone use will probably just be text messaging your classmates at 3AM to figure out what is on an exam. Once you start clinical rotations, your contract will be up and then you can shop around for a fancier PDA/phone, of which there will be a choice of much more advanced and cooler features, since it'll be 2 years in the future (think iPhone 3 or 4).

 

[HumidBeing]

This is an interesting thread. We have an entire forum dedicated to Technology Questions and Discussions. I encourage you to check it out. I'm going to move this thread there where you can continue the discussion and perhaps others will join in to share their experiences.

 

[bookgodess15]

The restrictions Apple puts on the AppStore are ridiculous.

*cough* J.a.i.l.b.r.e.a.k.i.n.g. *cough*

 

[dreams]

Which will be of so much use to you during your pre-clinical years.

OP, my advice is just get a cheap phone with a cheap 2 year plan. It's all you'll really need because the extent of your school-related phone use will probably just be text messaging your classmates at 3AM to figure out what is on an exam. Once you start clinical rotations, your contract will be up and then you can shop around for a fancier PDA/phone, of which there will be a choice of much more advanced and cooler features, since it'll be 2 years in the future (think iPhone 3 or 4).

so there isnt any flashcard type apps for these phones that would be helpful in the first two years??

 

[stixx]

*cough* J.a.i.l.b.r.e.a.k.i.n.g. *cough*

Seriously. Word.

Phone would not be worth the money without the jailbreak (I definitely waited to buy the 3G until I was sure it was working on 2.0+)

 

[bookgodess15]

I jailbroke my friend's and messed around with that one, but I'm waiting (hoping) for a 32GB release so that I can put all my music on there, too.

 

[ninjapenguin]

so there isnt any flashcard type apps for these phones that would be helpful in the first two years??

I personally think flashcard applications are overrated, especially on PDAs. But I wouldn't justify an such an expensive purchase just so I can use flashcards, when I can easily just buy them or make them on my own. There are also a ton of programs for your computer that tailor flashcards to your learning style and adjust to your strengths and weaknesses - try doing that with your iPhone.

 

[DOctorJay]

u can always use powerpoint to make flashcards and load them to your device - palm and windows devices support this, not sure about the iphone though

 

[TMP-SMX]

You won't need a PDA until third year anyway. If you are just starting you might as well wait and just get a cheap phone and use a laptop until then. The technology will be much more mature in 2 years.

 

[tncekm]

u can always use powerpoint to make flashcards and load them to your device - palm and windows devices support this, not sure about the iphone though

Yeah, you can do it with an iPod touch / iPhone. Download a free utility called airshare and it allows you to map a network drive on your iPod. You can store files on the iPod and it can read various multimedia and office formats. Its pretty sweet.