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Pocket PC 2002
Microsoft is holding some sort of launch event today for a pile of new Pocket PC devices. Pocket PC Thoughts has a bunch of news items; PDA Buzz has a report and pretty comparison chart looking at the different models, and I'm sure people will post more links in the comments. So, is this the mighty Palm-killer?
Unfortunately, Palms do their jobs too well. They just work. I have no need to upgrade my HS Visor Deluxe anytime soon. It's a PDA that synchs between all my boxen, keeps my calendar, and keeps notes for me.
... because they NEED to to do all that crap that they're pushing. Only an MS designed POCKET ORGANIZER would need 200mhz and 64MB of RAM.
... I mean come on, anyone else think that since the M* series that Palm has lost it?
Someone mentioned that PocketPCs are pushing 200-300mhz
Right now, Palm is the Unix of PDAs, works, doesn't look sexy, just works. If I want an MP3 player, I'll buy one, I don't need a PDA/phone/mp3 player/tricorder/geiger counter with battery life measured in hours.
On the other hand, that doesn't give Palm/Handspring an excuse to sit around and not innovate
I also own a Kyocera 6035 phone. Palm's processor is too slow to do anything. Too slow to do real web browsing, MP3, email client (mail clients on Palm are agonizingly slow). I'm sorry, but mobile devices are getting wired, especially with 802.11b, and people want to browse, check email, and play music/video from their devices.
I happen to work on embedded products in Japan now. The phone I am working on now has a built in CCD camera, can real-time encode/decode video, mp3, runs full Java (not stripped down J2ME), and has 2-D and 3-D graphics acceleration. It has a color screen, weighs less than a Palm, smaller than a PalmV, and costs less. Oh, it's also 2.5G enabled, soon to be 3G.
See http://www.j-phone.com/f-e/j/products/j-sh07/inde
This phone blows away the Palm as a PDA and it's a phone!
I'm sick of linux lusers holding on to obsolete technology just because it doesn't fit in their world view that the underdog (Palm) actually sucks, and that Microsoft is shipping good products.
Fact is, PocketPC's are far more useful than Palms. I can put an 802.11b card in my PocketPC, and run internet apps that are far easier to use and faster than what you get on the Palm.
And who cares how long non-rechargeable batteries last? I have to recharge my cellphone every few days, so what! I only have to recharge an iPaq every few days. I'll gladly pay that price if it gets me much better functionality, which the iPAQ does.
Linux/Palm users == underdog lusers, making excuses for failed innovation