How Would you Categorize Yourself?

[Jason Dunn]

This is something I've always wondered about, so please do me the favour and answer this one question - how would you categorize your level of Pocket PC knowledge? The answer will be a huge help to me in the meetings later today, because when my lips move, Microsoft people see a "power user" talking - and my feedback gets put into that category. It's hard to have them hear me talking about issues without them thinking only 5% of their user base would want that feature. If I can get a feel for what type of level YOU are at, it will help me communicate your wishes to the product team. Please cast your vote!<br /><br />PS - Our current voting system is based on IP address, so I know that excludes a lot of you from voting. We're going to switch to a new system as soon as we can, but in the meantime, I know I'll be missing some votes...

[don dre]

You can tell those big shots that we all want a new version of activesync not just a measly .1 update. where's 4.0? An how about that new OS?

[johncj]

Jason,

Based on the current poll results (50-50 split between experienced and power users), would you say that Microsoft is accurate in their assumption or not?

[PJE]

Hi Jason,

Unless something freaky is going on I think there may be a problem with the voting software. I've visited the site a few times this morning and the experienced/power users are always tied... I would expect a small swing one way or the other over a period of a few hours.

Regards,

PJE

PS. Give'em hell! ;-) My biggest peave with PocketPC the fact that they have bars at the top AND bottom of the screen wasting valuable real-estate. Oh, and the lack of formal support for landscape screen orientation.

[Venturello]

Thing is, the pocketpcthoughts.com crowd is a bad sampling of the market, since most of the people coming here are knowledgeful or at least in the 'tinkerers' category.

'Joe User', the average PPC buyer, is VERY different from us. I know a great deal of people that, wheren't for me showing them a few sites on the internet, would have stayed with the built-in apps in their PPC. They where simply unaware of the great deal of applications available and instalable on their hardware. Its funny, and might even seem stupid to us power users, but that is the way things are. Users think and operate so much different from us.

While designing software, I usually test my UI ideas on users, since their way of doing things and operating the software is SO MUCH different from the way I, or my fellow programmers, do.

I could rant for hours on this :)

GL Jason and team, thanks for all!

[JMountford]

I remember back when I was getting strated with Pocket PC. That was over a year ago. I know many people have been doing Windows CE and what not a lot longer than me. My first CE Device was a Compaq Foldable running CE 1.0. And I do not even remember what it was called. I still have the zipping leather case with Compaq Zipper Pull and that is what I carry My iPaq in.

Any way, maybe I am nuts but I am fairly happy with the pocket pc os on the whole. I would consider myself in as a power user as I do all sourts of things with my Pocket PC and use it both for entertainment and productivity as well as organization.

There are a few things I would like to see change.
I want more ability to put my folders where I want and for the native apps to be able to look in sub folders down to the umpteenth level.

I would love to see better Native OS Support for the newer CPUs on to the next genereation. Hell write the OS so that it is happered by 400 MHz CPUs.

I would like to see more functionallity in the MS Pocket Apps like Word and Excel. And there should at least be a basic Power Point and Access app even if it is an add on.

Add Shutdown and Restart Options!!!!! And a true Close feature!!!

There should be quicker Updates and releases to the OS. It is messed up when the OS is lagging behind the hardware by so much.

Lastly Active Sync is very lacking. It is not very intuitive. There needs to be more built in syncronization options and more hardware support.

And for GOD's Sake MY PPC should be able to Sync EQUALLY with EVERY computer I USE!!! In the same way to same Apps!!!! Maybe I want to get my mail from multiple computers!!!!

I am done for now.

[Ed Hansberry]

Jason,

Based on the current poll results (50-50 split between experienced and power users), would you say that Microsoft is accurate in their assumption or not?

My take is the casual users don't visit this or any other Pocket PC web site, no more than I, a casual MS Word user, visit MS Word enthusiast sites.

[Eastwood]

My take is the casual users don't visit this or any other Pocket PC web site, no more than I, a casual MS Word user, visit MS Word enthusiast sites.
Are there MS Word enthusiast sites? http://www.ppc-welt-community.de/yabb/smilies/cwm27.gif

Anyway, I have a Question: What makes you a "Power User"? Is it the multitude of Purposes you use your PPC for? Or is it just the way you use it?
What do you think?

[Ed Hansberry]

Anyway, I have a Question: What makes you a "Power User"? Is it the multitude of Purposes you use your PPC for? Or is it just the way you use it?
What do you think?

I think a power user is one who doesn't use the device for its intended purposes all of the time.

Composing raw HTML in Pocket Word and PIE, FTP transfers, image editing, using high powered replacements for virtually every built in feature (3rd party apps for file exploring, book reading, PIM, etc) and using it for HOURS each day, not 10-15 times a day for 30 seconds to a minute or two.

[Ed Hansberry]

Unless something freaky is going on I think there may be a problem with the voting software. I've visited the site a few times this morning and the experienced/power users are always tied... I would expect a small swing one way or the other over a period of a few hours.

Yup. Bug and now fixed. Going forward it is ok, but those first 149 votes are suspect. :(

[Gerard]

Part of my definition of a 'power user' is perhaps being the sort for whom opening the registry and deleting a few no-longer-used keys and editing a couple of others while waiting for their bus stop is an ordinary thing to do. Or maybe moving DLL files out of \Windows and into a card, to save space, and obviously editing the paths to these in the registry. Or even using third-party software like CabInstl to unpack CAB files, renaming updated components, and using these to replace older versions of a software rather than messing up custom settings with an uninstall/reinstall routine.
Perhaps it is more commonly defined by users who even just install add-on software, like a phone dialer or a specialized word processor. I don't know. I don't like the term 'power user'. It seems pretentious. I see people with no experience and a lot of nervousness, prone to making mistakes.... then at the other end of the scale people who tweak and fiddle to endless degrees, just to have a better sense of control of the device. In between, there are infinite variations. Where's the line drawn? Did I 'become' a power user at some point? My approach hasn't changed. I got my first computer about 28 months ago, and had no clue. It was an E-115, and my research had told me it was all the computer I wanted. My desires for more memory and more speed grew, quickly, as I realized some things about file systems and such. Still, my needs haven't changed much. I use the built-in apps plus about 70 others to do stuff related to communications, business record keeping and billing, amusement, image/video capture (had the Casio CF camera withing 4 months of getting the E-115)... but the bulk of my softwar is devoted to fighting the instabilities inherent in the Pocket PC. I have a multitude of backup methods, Sprite's being the best, but I learned early on never to trust any one program with all my data. Microsoft and the OEMs have managed to deliver me a consistently unreliable stream of devices since then, and I've seen well over 200 hard resets, some hardware, some beta ware, mostly OS-related, bugs in the filesystem handling mostly. (Am I the only one who finds the PPC 2002 File Explorer program buggy as hell?)
You were asking for input for these meetings earlier... but I'm at a loss where to begin. It might be nice if Microsoft could offer a device OS which was stable, simply doing the same thing day after day, not losing data for a thousand silly reasons. Is that hard to do? The registry is supposed to (I think!) make for an ordered and stable environment, but it is always getting messed up. Is there no way to 'lock down' the registry? Perhaps the hack PHM just reported locking a user out of deletions and changes, I don't know, as my iPAQ is in the air just now. Have to test that next week. But it would seems a bit awkward to toggle that all the time, and of course, the device would most likely crash when it was turned off.
I'm sorry, I get a bit rambling and rantish when the subject of Microsoft comes up. There have been a number of times I've been embarassed by the Pocket PC. That grates. Ever have someone ask you what that Palm Pilot is like, want to see how it works? Ever try to show them a movie clip, open an ebook, whatever, and have the perpetual hourglass appear and nothing happen? Or maybe you've tried to show them Doom or some other intense and convincing game on you 'definitely not a Palm' device, and get an error message that it was not properly installed, or the card not being recognized. 'Funny', you say, 'that just worked an hour ago.' Then as they get a little embarassed for you, and consider moving along, you soft reset and say 'wait just a moment, I'll get it going' only to get an error on reboot.... similar scenarios have happened a bunch to me. I don't show the things off any more. It's too sad. Almost like there's a bug in the air, something emitted by newbies which crashes a perfectly happy device. So I couldn't help sell a Pocket PC if I tried. My little accidents have probably sold a lot more Palms, no matter about any reassurances about the amazing capabilities of the OS. So that's my big contribution to your mission: ask them to give us a stable OS. Please. Power user status has nothing to do with it. I've tried in forums for almost two years to help thousands of people keep their PPCs up and running. That shouldn't be necessary. If these were cars, there'd be some billion dollar lawsuits in the courts. Microsoft should be ashamed.

[Ravenswing]

Judging from the voting so far, we're a conceited bunch who think we know all there is to know...

unless we're bright people with the taste to frequent a good site :lol:

[davidbaldauff]

Here's a problem that needs addressing at the Microsoft level: How can end developers develop international applications for Pocket PCs, when it is almost impossible to get access to international devices within your own country?

In order words if I call HP or Toshiba america, and I ask them about foreign versions of their devices, they don't have any information. We need some standard for all device manufacturers about how they provide their international devices and information about the international devices to the developer base. Otherwise how can developer develop international applications?

(The same problem really doesn't exist on the desktop, because we have the ability to install whatever language version of an operating system we want via MSDN.)

[Sven Johannsen]

I think a power user is one who doesn't use the device for its intended purposes all of the time.

Composing raw HTML in Pocket Word and PIE, FTP transfers, image editing, using high powered replacements for virtually every built in feature (3rd party apps for file exploring, book reading, PIM, etc) and using it for HOURS each day, not 10-15 times a day for 30 seconds to a minute or two.

HMM, guess I have to change my vote. I'm short on the ctriteria. :oops:

[KH]

I consider myself a power user because I have gone through several generations of the devices pushing and prodding to make them the useful convenience promised in every relevant futuristic book, TV show and comic strip encountered over the last several decades. They might not quite be my Dick Tracy communicator watch, but they come close to the Asimov voice-to-text translation machine described in the original Foundation Trilogy. They are well on their way to replacing all of the books stored in my garage, even though some of the book readers and formats available a few years ago are no more (but fortunately most of their authors have turned up with other ebook publishers). I dabbled with Calligrapher in the early days of 70MHz MIPS machines, but when the 206 MHz IPAQ hit the scene I put away my spiral notebooks and started taking notes that I could never misplace. My much-upgraded and accessorized IPAQ takes on multiple personalities depending on my various activities, and I am constantly finding new ways to use it. This has spread to family and friends, and I often have perfect strangers at airports stopping to look at videos of my daughter on her horse (what a photo album!) The key word here is USER. I have developed software and firmware as a career, but until I had devices this portable and capable I never had the motivation to sniff out ways of improving my own life with technology. It certainly has been fun!

[mike6024]

I think they're should have been a vote for "developer", cause developer and power user are still two very different breeds.

[Rirath]

So does this mean more content geared toward the more experienced 480 some voters and less for the 10 voters? Here's hoping. :D (Vote count current only at time of posting, of course.)

[Jason Dunn]

Based on the current poll results (50-50 split between experienced and power users), would you say that Microsoft is accurate in their assumption or not?

Nope, I'm pleased with the number of intermediate people (around 30%) - Microsoft considers MVPs like myself in a 5% "Super Power User" category, and the results I'm seeing from readers here tell me there are a significant portion of people in the intermediate category.

Most people who are TRUE newbies wouldn't even read this site, so these results are what I expected.

[Jason Dunn]

I think they're should have been a vote for "developer", cause developer and power user are still two very different breeds.

I'm going to be doing surveys a few times a week, and a few will be on developer-specific issues.