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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?
Is this the Palm killer? Not if the battery life is still measured in hours, not days or weeks (Palm V series and subsequent models); not if there's still massive overhead from all those Windows apps that get in the way of what you normally use a PDA for; and not if you're forced to listen to Windows Media (barf) instead of MP3, which has been supported on Handspring for about 2 years now.
sulli
RTFJ.
10 hours? Do people really put up with 10 hours of operating battery life? My palm pilot used to last over a month of regular use (before it met an unfortunate end with Mr. Pavement.)
I've even read one review where the guy was gushing about the GPS receiver with the colour screen and how he could use it to on hikes and trial rides. With 10 hours?
Are none of the new handheld companies doing anything about this? Do consumers not care?
So, is this the mighty Palm-killer?
Not according to IDC they're not. (Of course, how much weight you give the likes of IDC, Gartner, et al will temper this report).
I think the downturn doesn't bode well for PocketPC (nor Palm, frankly). PocketPCs seem to be geared towards business users (WAY too expensive for the average folk) and I wonder how willing business are going to be to plunk down a lot of money to take full advantage of what the PocketPC PDAs can do.
Palm are getting it in the shorts due to economy and saturation, MS will get it in the shorts due to the economy and the dubious usefulness of PocketPC devices beyond niche applications.
You're kidding right? I got my ipaq for $150 from comp usa. It is the grayscale 16meg version, but still very nice and functional.
cheese
It's a neat toy. I had a great time playing with it, setting it up, etc. Then I got down to actually using it, and it's not worth the trouble. Very few of the applications are worth using, web browsing is a hassle with a tiny screen (even a nice color one.) The only apps left that I was interested in were mail and typical filofax-type-stuff. All of which were handled by my Palm (which rarely loses information and has a longer battery life.)
And for all the gadgetry, I still can't mount an external drive via the network connection. What a useful feature that'd be... Too bad.
I hate that this is so. Maybe someday they'll get it right, but they haven't yet. Go ahead and spend your money if you want a cool gadget, but gadgets get boring after a while unless they're useful.
You also have to buy those "standard Microsoft tools", n'est-ce pas?
Nope.
...it's the PalmOS emulator for the PPC. Of course, you still need to buy the $600 PPC to use it, but people who want to continue using their Palm apps and want bells and whistles PPC provides will be able to stick with just one device rather than juggling a Palm and a PPC.
The first public beta should be out this month.
I can't tell you how many times it's crashed on me (taking out all of my configurations, files, and network card drivers)
Dude, I don't know what kind of wacky software you're running on the iPaq, but I've been using mine for more than a year, and I've never had it lock up so hard that I had to hard reset.
Did I mention that the ActiveSync software doesn't automatically back up your file system whenever you sync? Maybe it could, but I can't find a way to make it so.
You didn't look very hard, then. Tools, Backup/Restore, check Automatically Backup Each Time the Device Connects. Plus, everything in your My Documents folder is automatically sync'ed with your desktop.
web browsing is a hassle with a tiny screen (even a nice color one.)
I personally love to read AvantGo channels and eBooks on my iPaq, but I guess that's just opinion.
And for all the gadgetry, I still can't mount an external drive via the network connection. What a useful feature that'd be... Too bad.
Pocket PC 2002 includes this feature, and the iPaq is upgradable. The upgrade is even free, depending on when you bought the iPaq. Otherwise, it's $29.
There are a lot of cool features built into Pocket PC 2002 - VPN client, Terminal Server client, MSN Messenger, spell checker, etc. If you don't like it, don't use it. But don't spread FUD about it, either.
Jenova_Six
and the third party software isn't worth the price for me.
I use EasyCalc. It's a wonderful, souped-up, graphic Palm calculator, released under the GNU Public License...
That's also what you get for giving out cheap plasic styluses as spares, instead of a metal ones, like the main stylus. And for using crappy power buttons (Palm V). And for not being to able to sort contacts by their first name, etc...
Palm OS is easy to use, and reliable. But it is still missing lots of basic things, that should be there, that will NOT clutter or otherwise reduce the 'simplicity' of Palm.
Simplicity in an OS, is not about how many features it has. It's about how they are accessed, and how they work.
M$ board members, CEOs, markering dep. may be 'evil'. But PocketPC have been improved vastly since I used WinCE on my HP 680. So someone there is actually doing something good.
I have a funny feeling that my Palm Vx will be my last Palm product. I just wish those PPC makers could get there hardware down in size!
Who knows, maybe that linux version of Palm OS might take off, along with Handera.