Happy Birthday to You, Pocket PC!

[Andy Sjostrom]

Today is our dear Pocket PC's second birthday! Microsoft launched the Pocket PC on April 19th, 2000! On New York's Grand Central Station Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, exclaimed: "It's an amazing time in mobile computing, and we're just getting started, Technology is innovating at a rapid pace, and the Pocket PC is a great example of how, today, we are bringing the productivity, performance and power of a PC in a pocket-sized device to enable true any-time, anywhere access to information."<br /><br />If I'd pick one memorable, joyous moment I've experienced with my Pocket PCs during these two years it would be when I met and <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/MOBILE/pocketpc/columns/ipaq.asp">interviewed Ted Clark, Vice President of Compaq's iAppliances Division</a>, and saw the iPAQ Pocket PC the very first time. He pulled it out from his pocket and I literally gasped: the design, the speed, the SCREEN, the feel! I will never forget that moment! Pocket PCs have since then stayed my passion, professionally as well as privately.<br /><br />What's your most memorable, joyous Pocket PC moment?<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/birthday.jpg" /><br />Download this theme from <a href="http://www.pocketthemes.com/download.php?query=birthday&op=search">PocketThemes.com</a>!

[marlof]

My most memorable moment was the moment when I got my first Pocket PC. I had it ordered through the IT guy from the office, as the Pocket PC simply didn't arrive in the local stores in The Netherlands. I had selected the one to choose by reading and rereading all reviews online, and especially real life user reports. At first, I wanted an iPAQ, but in the end I decided that may be that was a little too much chrome for my clients, and I fell for the 'business looks' of the Jornada 548.

I still remember where I was when I first lay my hands on the Jornada. I sat in the garden or our IT guy. There I received the box of my Jornada 548. Coming from a Velo 1, I just knew I had arrived in the future. And that Jornada never let me down, besides breaking one plastic tab in a fall. At the moment, although suffering from that handicap, it's still doing a great job for one of my best friends.

Since that moment I've used other Pocket PCs, but the leap from Velo 1 to Jornada 548 was so huge, that receiving this one made the biggest impression.

[Brad Adrian]

You mean BESIDES reading each of your posts, Andy? :wink:

I think mine was the first time I used my Pocket PC to pull in my e-mail from a hotel room. I had to leave town for a funeral and didn't have the time or inclination to drag along my whole notebook PC "bunlde." So, I grabbed my new Jornada with CF modem and hoped for the best. The first time I saw that inbox fill with messages (and properly send mine) I knew I was hooked.

[Ken Mattern]

I think it must have been, for me, when I went to Cherry Point Marine base in North Carolina and demoed to the Major some of the prototype software I had written. His response was, "I love this stuff, but the wrench turner won't have any use for it."

Then I went to brief the Captain. He said, "This is the greatest. I could use one right now, but the men in the unit won't be interested at all."

So I went to the hangar floor and met with the men and women who maintain the aircraft. I showed them some stuff and their response was, "How soon are we going to get ours?"

At that point I knew the Pocket PC had arrived!

[JonathanWardRogers]

My most memorable joyous Pocket PC moment was August 22, 2001 at 7:12pm Pacific Time (GMT - 8 ). I had my E-115 with my CF camera, and I took the first picture of my then 6 minute old baby daughter holding my finger in her hand.

Jon

[Kevin Tea]

Sitting on a beach in Greece having just changed from a Palm to a Jornada. I was listening to a CF full of good music sending an email with a pre-loaded graphic of the village I was in to my friends and kidding them that I had taken it through the IR lens!

On the plane home I was again listening to music and looking at my PIM to see what was in store for me on my return. The guy next to me asked if it was a computer and I demoed what it could do. His response was - "******* hell".

[entropy1980]

My most memorable moment was my birthday of 2000 which i spent scouring 30-50 local electronic stores (hey I live by Los Angeles so there are tons!) Desperately trying to find an Ipaq, and when I had given up hope , I happened to just try and call a Sears downtown, after explaining to the clerk 15 times on the phone that no i was not looking fo an Imac but an Ipaq, he said yeah we got three of those things (at the time they were going for round 1000 on ebay) so I booked it down to the Sears super fast and low and behold they had 3 so I bought mine took it home, now 5 pocket PC's later I amstill hooked and can hardly wait for the next devices to come out!

[JornadaJ]

I had just moved into the interesting world of public affairs. We had a major press briefing coming up, and we had been working with the 'big man' on his opening statement. We went through several drafts, trying to accomodate his style. On the morning of the briefing, he arrived and as we were doing the final checks, his driver took off. His printed speech was in the vehicle! My boss and I saw the 'career evaporation light' flashing, because we couldn't get the driver on the radio to come back.

Luckily, I happened to have the final draft of the opening statement on my old Jornada 548, since I was working on it on my computer at the office. Opened the file, increased the font, popped it into Landscape mode, (which was BUILT IN on the 548's!), and there it was. I just had to show him how to scroll through the statement. The opening statement and the briefing went well.

The 'big man' got reassigned to a much warmer place a few months later. My boss got promoted and left also, still the big man's public affairs guru.

[Jonathan1]

My favorite moment was sitting in a theater waiting for a movie to begin. The couple next to me was chatting and wanted to go out to dinner after Monsters Inc and didn't have a clue as to what was around here. (Out of towners.)

Lucky for me that I had my Pocket PC with Pocket Streets on it. I whipped my little o' iPaq out and preceded to help them find a place to grab some food. (FYI it ended up being Outback Steakhouse.) I showed them the route to get there right on my iPaq.

They were seriously impressed because I have the entire Minneapolis twin cites area right in my little o PPC. :o

[dma1965]

Mine has to be the first time I used it to connect to a 802.11 LAN, and, using VNC, I connected to my Fiances desktop while she was playing "The Sims" and took control of her mouse. I sat in the other room and giggled while she exclaimed "honey, I think we are being hacked". :twisted: :lol:

[spg]

I don't really have a favorite moment, but I guess if I did it would be the time I got my iPAQ. That was a Sunday that best buy had a special deal on the 3765 iPAQ($399 I think). Anyway I kept thinking all day that I wanted it, but I didn't need it (at the time I was a faithful Visor user). Finally I decided to go ahead and get it, and went there about 30 mins before the store closed and bought it.

For all those who love the PocketPC, I have created a theme to comemorate the 2nd birthday. A screen shot is attached, and the theme can be downloaded from by clicking on the screenshot.
http://www.handecomputing.com/pocketpc/themes/ppc b-day/ppcbday_screen.jpg (http://www.handecomputing.com/pocketpc/themes/ppc b-day/PocketPC B-Day.tsk)


More themes like this can be found at my site (http://www.handecomputing.com).

UPDATE: The link was broken, but I have fixed it. The download should work now.