Palm O/S vs. Microsoft C/E O/S:
(http://www.winmag.com/reviews/systems/column/2000/07/0725.htm)
THE PC ANGLE - by Jonathan Blackwood
CE Comes of Age
July 25, 2000
There's some conventional wisdom out there about Microsoft that goes like this: The first version of any Microsoft product is going to be crap. The second version will be pretty good. The third time out of the gate, it'll be best in class -- or as good as any of the other players. Windows itself became usable, for example, with version 3.1. Word 2.0c was the version that started chasing WordPerfect to Canada. On the other hand, Microsoft TaxSaver, which has been discontinued, never made it past its first version just this year (see my comment above).
Which brings me to Windows CE and the new PocketPCs, and specifically the Compaq iPAQ PocketPC I've been using. Microsoft (and Compaq) finally got it right. The one downside is, to use some of the really cool features -- such as using Pocket Money and Pocket Streets -- you have to own the desktop versions of these products. The same goes for Pocket Word, Pocket Excel, and even Outlook.
Now, I thought Outlook was a killer application when I made the switch from Ecco Pro. But now, after living with it day in and day out for a couple of years, I'm totally familiar with its warts. My main complaint is its lack of flexibility in formatting, and the fact that Outlook Express is a much better e-mail app than is the full program. About formatting: You can't enter phone numbers in either XXX-XXX-XXXX or XXX.XXX.XXXX format…or rather, you can, but Outlook will change them back to (XXX) XXX-XXXX format, despite the fact that many of our major metro areas now require 10-digit dialing for all local calls. Give me a break. And if you move from one PC to another, good luck getting your data over; you actually have to cut and paste from one folder to another.
But I digress. Those concerns aside, the synchronization with the desktop PC via USB is quick and painless, works really well. The iPAQ has a reasonably loud and unique alarm to issue its reminders, along with a blinking light. The touchscreen is the best I've seen; it has a bright, crisp display you can even use in direct sunlight, and it offers instant response -- provided by a 206MHz Intel StrongARM RISC processor. It fits easily in a shirt pocket, and it's supposed to milk 12 hours of battery life out of its lithium-polymer battery. I don't know if that's true, because it hasn't run out of juice yet.
The handwriting recognition portion is much better than Palm's Graffiti, which means you really can painlessly add contacts and appointments to it without a keyboard. Add one of its Expansion Packs, and you can use a PC Card wireless networking card to actually have speedy Internet access in the palm of your hand. But knowing not everyone has access to those sorts of products, the ActiveSync installation program places a "Create Mobil Favorites" button in Explorer to save Web pages to the PocketPC, for viewing offline at a later time. The favorites can be updated every time you synch up, if you like.
There has always been a debate about the difference between the Palm OS approach to handheld devices and the Windows CE approach. Palm advocates insist it is the simplicity of the interface that is its strength, that it doesn't try to do too much, with the result that what it does do, it does very well. And frankly, the main weakness of CE prior to the PocketPC was, it tried to do a lot, and didn't do any of it that well. That's changed with Windows CE 3.0 and PocketPC. Microsoft has swung for the bleachers, and in most cases, connected.
I know, I know, it leaves a bad taste in the mouth that getting the most usability out of a PocketPC serves to tie you that much closer to Microsoft's other products. It may seem like a plot, but you know, companies have been doing that since before there was dirt, so don't think Microsoft is any worse than anyone else on that count. Next time you're at your favorite electronics chain, check out the new PocketPCs -- especially the Compaq. I promise you'll be impressed.
|
