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Ask Slashdot: Best Software To Revive PocketPCs With Windows Mobile 5-6?
An anonymous reader writes I recently got my hands on some amazing (at their time) pieces of technology, PocketPCs from the 2005-2007 era. All run with Windows Mobile 5 or 6, have storage SD cards (up to 4GB), 300 to 600 MHz ARM CPUs and 64-124MB of RAM/ROM. GPS chip is Sirf STAR III. I want to know what software you would install on them. Maybe a good Linux with GUI - if anyone can point on how to make it work. Creating some apps myself would be nice, but dunno where to start for WM5. One of my ideas was to use them as daily organizer / shopping list / memory games for people that don't own smartphones. So if anyone remembers such apps, I'd appreciate a reference. Tips or ideas for memory training or smart games are also highly welcomed. The power within these toys is simply unused and it's a shame!
A device from 8 years ago is ancient. Just let it go. If you want to play with it for a sense of nostalgia, don't let me stop you, but don't foist that trash on anyone else.
I've coded for those WM5/6 mobile devices using .NET Compact Framework, using C#. You might think these things are beyond use, but they're suprisingly capable. We still use ruggedised WM6 devices in warehouses as there still isn't a good cheap alternative.
So coding for them is simple enough, but the underlying OS has a pretty horrible UI by today's standards.
The power within these toys is simply unused and it's a shame!
The power within those toys is pathetic, based on the fact that $30 will get you something newer which runs Android and which has more CPU and RAM. Throw those fucking things away. All of the environments for them are dead, Familiar linux is based on OpenEmbedded which is a goddamned nightmare to build, just drop them into the recycling at the landfill and buy something newer.
With that said, if you have an absolute shitload of them, the fact that they have a halfway decent (which I think adequately describes STAR III) GPS chip suggests that you should do something GPS-related with them. The problem is, the GPS isn't very good by modern standards (even cheap phones will use GLONASS as well now) and the battery life will be atrocious.
Those devices are dead, and all the software for them is dead or dying, you will waste a lot of time just dealing with their problems and if you don't manage to find another OS which will run on them, WINCE UGH WINCE.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"