Jandy
Who or what is Jandy? Is it a company that manufactures a PDA? Jandy – amazingly – is not a consumer electronics company but instead deals in pools, spas and related peripherals. Unlike so many other electronics companies that made the leap into the PDA market after first cutting their teeth on such items as phones, two-way radios, and VCRs, Jandy is known for manufacturing automatic pool cleaners, heating pumps, filters, and a salt chlorine generator.

Before shrugging your shoulders at the notion that Jandy is nothing more than a glorified pool digger, keep in mind that there is a lot more to pool and spa technology than simply digging a hole in the ground. To this end it is not surprising that suddenly Jandy began marketing a PDA. To be fair, the Jandy Aqualink RS PDA is not exactly the kind of device that usually is associated with PDAs. After all, a PDA is supposed to be a handheld computer that permits users to essentially complete many of the same tasks they could perform while seated at their at their home desktop PCs.

The Jandy device does not fit into this mold. The Jandy PDA will not solve your mathematical problems. In the same vein, the Jandy PDA will not allow you to surf the Internet, read your email, or use GPS in order to ascertain your whereabouts. On the other hand, a Jandy PDA holder will be able to use the device to control a variety of functions of a pool without ever having to leave the Adirondack chair at the side of the spa. Owners of the little devices will be able to increase the spa’s or pool’s temperature or decrease it with the push of a button. Similarly, you can now to ahead and turn on and off jets and other functions wired into the control panel that the PDA controls.

Since it is a device that many be used in the water, the Jandy PDA batteries are built in and may be easily changed; the unit is waterproof, will float, and can be used within about 500 feet of your pool. The menu onscreen is somewhat reminiscent of the Windows drop down menus so many users are familiar with, and a slightly oversized backlit display will inform the owners of this little gadget about the strength of the signal, the charge of the battery, and also the current water temperature and any technical alerts that the system may transmit to the PDA.