OK. Small history of my PDA computing experience.
My computing adventure started out with the Apple Newton I got it for a song back when they discontinued the Newton. To this day I still use it for taking notes, playing a few basic games, and using it as a todo scratchpad. DAMN YOU APPLE FOR KILLING THE FIRST APPLE BASED PRODUCT I FELL IN LOVE WITH!
In '98 I got my first Microsoft based handheld. Casio Cassiopeia E-100 Palm Sized PC. It had features that no Palm based device had back in '98 but the OS was a worthless PoS. For you see it was based on Windows CE 2.0. Which at that time was the equivilent of Windows 9x. A slow buggy underpowered expierance. Because of that in Fall of '98 I got myself a used Palm V. It didn't have as many bells and whistles but it didn't crash on me every 5 seconds.
Then came fall of '99 when I started seriously looking at upgrading to a new Palm. I started checking out the online reviews of various models. In my travels of the various discussion boards I came across a tidbit of information. Microsoft was releasing a MAJOR revamp of their handhelds based not on Windows CE 2 but on CE 3 with a GUI and API front-end that will be called the Pocket PC. Skeptical but integrated at the leaked screenshots of COLOR! I waited until spring of 2000.
Microsoft in typical Microsoftian fashion did what they do best. Market the **** out of the PPC by touring it around the US. When the Redmond giant came to town being the tech addict that I am I went to school on the Pocket PC. Literally. The tour was held in a school (I think it was where the PC usergroup meets.) I got a chance to fondle the first generation iPaq. Then and there I knew the device I wanted. Palm was nice. BUt this device blew anything Palm had out of the water.
Keep in mind in 2000 Palm's lineup was 160 x 160 screens with 12 shades of gray on the Palm Vx and VII pathetic when you compared it to the Pocket PC.
Well the fateful day came Sept of 2000 when I got my first Pocket PC. People say the rev A products can sometimes have issues. Well the iPaq had its share of issues for a first generation first of its kind device. It had a pathetic 32MB of RAM, dust that was viewable because of its revolutionary reflective display, and the center button that also contained the speaker occasionally stuck. But what it lacked in quality it made up in features. Sound so loud that I didn't need a headset to hear, e-books in all its cleartype glory, MP3's (More after I got the CF sleeve and my 340MB microdrive.) eventually Omnisky wireless that was hooked up to AT&T's network which meant total internet access from my PDA. On a nightly basis I huddled in the dark reading a book listening to a song marveling at this device. It really was a fantastic work of technology.
Well 2000 passed by and 2001 rolled around. That winter/spring I can claim to be one of the first people anywhere to get a Pocket PC with 64MB of RAM on the system. I use to be a moderator at pocketpcpassion.com and Dale the head of the site got me signed up to have major surgery done on my iPaq. It was Frankensteined into a 64MB powerhouse by the cool folks at pocketpctechs.com They needed test subjects for their experimental upgrades and I had the pleasure of being one along with Dale. 64MB of storage was bliss esp with storing MP3s!
That summer HP announced the new 56x series of Jornada a device with very similar specs to the iPaq. In fact the screen and CPU both used those found in the iPaq. In fact it was the success of the iPaq that spurred MS to standardize on the ARM CPU. (The same CPU type found in the Newton. Apple was SOO ahead of their time it wasn't even funny.) The first generation Jornada that was released with the launch of the Pocket PC was not so much a dud but a letdown. The quality was top notch but it had some serious drawbacks. Mainly with the screen 8-bit color vs. 12-bit and MIPS vs. the faster ARM.) As more info trickled out about the 56x series I realized that it was my next device. So one fall day in October I made a mad dash to Circuit City and picked up a newly-released-that-day Jornada. It was and IS a thing of beauty. Since that time Microsoft has come out with one other upgrade. Pocket PC 2003 (Actually its Windows Mobile but I like the PPC name better.) I have yet to upgrade because I did not see a major difference between 2002 and 2003 even though the undercarriage had a major overhaul (Went from Windows CE 3 to CE 4.25.)
With that being said I am waiting with bated breath for their next OS release. The OS was released about 2 months ago to OEMs. That OS being Pocket PC 2003 Second Edition. As you can tell its not a major release but a minor one. The minor release being native landscape support. Press a button and turn the display on its side. And the other big feature. Native VGA screen support. That doesnt sound like much but VGA support alone IMHO makes this a must have upgrade. The text in e-books alone is going to be razor sharp. And before people complain Im not going to be able to read anything
Developers won't have to change their current applications to let them run at the new screen resolution. The new operating system version uses what is called "pixel doubling" to scale applications up. Perhaps a better name for this would be pixel quadrupling because each pixel of an application designed for a 240-by-320 screen will be replaced by four new ones, which will allow the app to be displayed twice as tall and twice as wide. Of course, there will be a session at Mobile DevCon on how to write applications that take full advantage of the new resolution.
Though the extra space on a VGA screen is a welcome change, no one wants this to come at the cost of unreadably small fonts. Microsoft has included in the Second Edition a Settings panel which will include a slider to that allows the user to control the size of the font.
I think the real turning point for the Pocket PC came in two major events that have happened only in the last year:
The first being Dell bring to the table the idea of $300 or less Pocket PC. Up to that point it could be successfully argued if you dont need the features why pay the average price, at the time, of anywhere from $450-$700 for a Pocket PC. Dell brought one thing to the table: Price competition. Before then it was who could outdo the competition in features. Dell said screw the features lets get the price down and the industry followed. You are still going to have high end prices for high end devices but at least now you have a choice. Back in 2000 and 2001 it was $450 or more or you went looking for a Palm.
The second was the size of these devices. Palm users cried loud and hard that the Pocket PC was a brick. In truth it wasnt but if you put a first gen iPaq or even a current gen Dell Axim next to a Palm V its going to look like a super model that gorged herself with 8 pizzas. This changed with the introduction of the iPaq 1910 series. If the first gen iPaq was a bloated model the 1910 series was a starved super model. The device was the first of its kind for the Pocket PC. A system was comparable as small as a Palm V!!
The 1910 series.
The Palm Tungsten T.
And the Palm V.
So what does this boil down too? Where does the Pocket PC stand vs. a Palm. The line has substantially blurred in the last 2 years as Palm has realized that the comment that their CEO made at CES 2001 that users dont want color or sound was so freaking off it was stupid. Palm has played some major catchup but they still arent there. The Palm OS for all the tweaking Palm has done to it still remains a simple PIM system. It still doesnt have true multitasking abilities. It still has no true file system. Its multimedia capabilities still lack behind the Pocket PC. And its OS lacks support for more high end features like WEP in WIFI. If all goes well sometime this fall new devices featuring Palm OS Cobalt will rectify this situation but once again Palm is playing catchup.
Right now the Pocket PC still has the edge both in selection, price, expansion, features, and soon compatibility. (As soon as Palm drops OS X support in Cobalt that is.)
If anything if there is one Akillies heel the the Pocket PC it is the sync software. ActiveSync, also know as ActiveSuck, ActiveStink, and CraptiveStink, is still at version 3 and has been since the Pocket PC came out 4 years ago. The reliability of the syncing has improved but it still can be iffy at times. If you are on the Mac, and since you are on Macrumors I will assume this, you dont have to worry about this since MS doesnt make sync software for the Pocket PC. You have two better options:
Missing Sync for Pocket PC
and
PocketMac
See part II.............