What is a hand-held computer?

A hand-held computer, also called ‘personal digital assistant’ (‘PDA’), is a portable computer that can conveniently be stored in a pocket (of sufficient size) and used while the  user is holding it.  PDAs are  essentially small  portable computers and are  slightly bigger than  the common  calculators. A  PDA  user generally uses a  pen or  electronic stylus, instead of a keyboard for input. The monitor is very small and is the only apparent form of output. Since these computers can be easily fitted on the top of the palm, they are also known as ‘palmtop’ computers. Hand-held computers usually have no disk drive rather they use small cards to store programs and data. However, they can be connected to a printer or a disk drive to  generate  output  or  store  data. They  have  limited  memory  and  are  less  powerful  as  com-pared to desktop computers. Some examples of hand-held computers are Apple Newton, Casio  Cassiopeia and Franklin eBook Man.