PocketPC 2003 Reviewed

Sander Sassen writes "Prior to the official launch of the Microsoft PocketPC 2003 platform next Monday, Hardware Analysis puts an Asus MyPal a620 PocketPC to the test and details what new features PocketPC 2003 brings to the table and whether it is worth it to upgrade from 2002."

Comments

Small and Big

[Ken@WearableTech]

The changes for the end user are going to be rather small. The changes for the developers who are going to move to .NET tools for PocketPC programming rather than the hacked versions of VS6 we are using now is going to be a larger change.

Not really a review of Pocket PC 2003

[cloudless.net]

In fact it is more like a review of the Asus MyPal a620 Pocket PC. I was expecting to see the detail of new features in the new OS, but it only tells me about the new media player and not much else. I am more interested about the performance of the new OS, as it is supposed to be optimized for the Xscale CPU. By the way, the MyPal Pocket PC has a terrible name and is very ugly, don't you think? I think the Taiwanese manufacturers should hire some better designers.

Re:it is never worth upgrading a microsoft product

[cd_Csc]

I still use my orginal PocketPC, and am quite content with it. I am guessing about 80% of the people never actually had a REAL NEED to upgrade from PocketPC

Most people never actually had a real need to upgrade from paper and pencil. But we did it anyways. Why? Technological innovation makes certain tasks easier and certain situations more enjoyable. Pocket PC 2003 will be no different. There are many things (for both developers and end users) that it will make easier and more enjoyable. Whether it's suitable for you is simply a question of whether these things are important to you. I'd hold off until full reviews of the changes surface before making that decision.

Palm to iPaq (student view)

[1000101]

I'm a CS major and recently switched from a Palm to an iPaq. Microsoft's PDA OS is so much better than Palm's, it's hard to imagine using anything else. At first I thought the $500 price tag was outrageous, but it has helped with my studies and organization tremendously. Bash MS all you want, but their PDA OS is by far the most versitile on the market today.

PCMCIA Harddrive

[cloudless.net]

You can add the PCMCIA jacket to an ipaq and insert a PCMCIA harddrive into it. Alternatively, there is a Pocket PC from UR There with a PCMCIA slot built-in. Either way the device would be too big to be Pocketable.

I live out of mine with pocketTN

[Archfeld]

and the Terminal Services Client. My hardware DB(access, so its just barely a DB) is resident on the card. With that I have everything I need to support servers in 7 national and 4 international data centers, serving some 8 to 9 million email recipients. Now if someone could make WebSphere and a terminal server play nice I'd be golden :)

I agree with you in theory on apps though....Most of our clients could in reality still be on the mainframe with 3270 connectivity and text email, but human nature being what it is...ooooo loook NEW PRETTY LIGHTS and BUZZERS....Droooool