Is The Promise of Mobility Real In Your Life?

[Brad Adrian]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.foxpop.co.uk/eclectica/pda_06.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.foxpop.co.uk/eclectica/pda_06.htm</a><br /><br /></div>I know that most of us are pretty optimistic about how close our Pocket PCs and related <i>accoutrement</i> come to fulfilling their promise and helping us solve all kinds of problems ranging from lost addresses to a cure for the common cold. I mean, we have to be optimistic if we continue to use such technologies as Bluetooth and Activesync, right?<br /><br />On the other hand, I also think it's fair to say that Murphy's Law was written expressly with people like me in mind. If something CAN go wrong while using my Pocket PC, it WILL.<br /><br />Well, David Keppler has put together a hilarious article called "A Day In The Life Of A PDA User" that does an excellent job of illustrating the difference between how we all WISH our PDAs would work and how they work in real life -- especially in my real life. So read the article, share it with your Pocket PC-using friends, and decide which better describes your experiences: The Ideal Scenario or Real Life.

[ucfgrad93]

Thats a great comparison. Very funny. :lol: Since, I don't push my 1910 too hard my experience is close to Ideal.

[peterawest]

I enjoyed a good laugh, and I'm happy to say that my experience is closer to the ideal. :D

[Duncan]

I have to come down on the 'closer to the ideal' side as well. Though I suspect the author was deliberately exagerating both for effect and we've all had those times when Murphy has struck our Pocket PCs...! :)

[Brad Adrian]

...I suspect the author was deliberately exagerating both for effect...
I think he simply followed me around for awhile.

[PR.]

Sounds about right, I don't know how many times I have pulled my iPAQ up gone to fire up PI4 and found something else was running (Textmaker) and it all starts complaining that theres isn't enough memory either requiring a softreset or saving the textmaker document then reopening PI4, by that time they have given you the note and walked off :)

I've never found a WiFi access point other than the one at my home. And almost every time I have gone to use GPRS I have had trouble either connecting or had no GPRS signal, when it has worked I was quite impressed.

I finally plucked up the courage to use my PPC in a meeting, its the setting up the Stowaway thats the worst bit as everyone wonder what that thing your rolloing out is:

* You plug in the port converter for the newer iPAQs
* Take it out the Vaja case as the connector makes the centre of gravity to high and it lifts the keyboard up
* Switch on the iPAQ then
a) Find the fingerprint reader hasn't loaded and you need to unplug it and reset or
b) Switch it on get asked for a thumbscan but the orientation of the iPAQ makes it too difficult and you have to unplug it again, then fire up Textmaker only to find PI4 was running and its run out of memory again and requires a reset

To be fair, PPC2003 seems to allow the two apps to run at the same time without the memory drying up

The trials of the mobile digital pioneers :D

[petvas]

My experiences so far are closer to ideal. I rarely get any problems at all...
The only thing that bothers me a lot is the fact that GPRS roaming doesn't work and I cannot surf the Internet and check my emails from my iPaq when abroad...

[Jimmy Dodd]

While I was using an e740 my day normally went like this:

0600 Wake to annoying alarm clock buzzer (I know better than to depend on the e740 to wake me).

0610 Pick up e740 from nightstand. Notice that it has once again completely drained its battery while turned off overnight.

0700 Drive to work with dead e740 because couldn't afford the ridiculous price for a second charger to keep at home.

0745 Arrive at work. Place e740 in cradle to charge.

0800 Check e740 - note that it is still at 0% and refuses to take a charge. Reset and reseat in the cradle.

0815 Check e740 - note that it is still at 0% and refuses to take a charge. Reset and reseat in the cradle.

0830 Check e740 - note that it is still at 0% and refuses to take a charge. Reset and reseat in the cradle.

0845 Check e740 - finally charging. Leave in cradle to fully charge. Begin restoration process from last backup.

0900 Prepare for meeting. Check e740. Restoration still in progress with warning not to disconnect during process. Leave for meeting after piling papers on top of e740 to hide it from theft.

1015 Return from meeting to find that e740 has dropped ActiveSync connection. Restoration process ruined. Hard reset. Start restore again. Cross fingers.

1045 Watch e740 drop connection again. Restore ruined. Start again. Say prayer.

1200 Lunch time. e740 restore completed. Take e740 to cafeteria to catch up on email while eating. Turn on WiFi soft switch. WiFi refuses to start. Turn WiFi hard switch off and back on. WiFi refuses to start. Soft reset. WiFi starts up but can't connect to network because settings are wrong. Manually reset WiFi security settings that weren't in backup. Add task to perform new backup after lunch.

1300 Back in office, place e740 in cradle as battery is getting low from an hour of WiFi use. Turn off WiFi soft switch so device will charge faster. Start backup.

1320 e740 drops ActiveSync connection. Remove from cradle and reseat. ActiveSync connects. Start backup process again.

1345 e740 drops ActiveSync connection. Remove from cradle and reseat. ActiveSync connects. Start backup process again.

1400 e740 drops ActiveSync connection. Remove from cradle and reseat. ActiveSync connects. Start backup process again.

1420 e740 drops ActiveSync connection. Remove from cradle and reseat. ActiveSync connects. Start backup process again. Spend time waiting by surfing HP site drooling over new iPAQs.

1515 Backup complete. Take e740 to meeting to catch up on email while waiting. Turn on WiFi soft switch. WiFi refuses to start. Turn WiFi hard switch off and back on. WiFi refuses to start. Soft reset. WiFi starts as meeting begins. Put e740 back in pocket.

1630 Meeting over. Back at desk pull out e740 to check schedule. Note that e740 has drained its battery while in my pocket. Put e740 in brief case. Head back to HP site to drool over iPAQs again.

[Steven Cedrone]

Naw THAT was funny. Cought me with a mouth full of coffee on the "PDA projectile" part... :rotfl:

Steve

[whydidnt]

Thanks for posting the great link Brad. I got a good morning chuckle out of this. I have to say my actual experience is probably in the middle of these two. Nothing more frutstrating than going to check your calendar, only to have to do a reset to get the thing working. All your "paper" associates are wondering what the heck you spent all that money for when the dayplanner is so much "faster". :lol:

Whydidnt

[Paragon]

...I suspect the author was deliberately exagerating both for effect...
I think he simply followed me around for awhile.

:D

[Sven Johannsen]

I mean, we have to be optimistic if we continue to use such technologies as Bluetooth and Activesync, right?

Good thing God didn't hit Job with BT and AS. Things might have been different ;)

[Brad Adrian]

Good thing God didn't hit Job with BT and AS. Things might have been different ;)
VERY funny reference, Sven!

[Prevost]

While I was using an e740 my day normally went like this: [...]Do you REALLY can live this way :mrgreen: ?

I hope this is an e740 scenario and NOT a PocketPC typical scenario. I do not have that kind of psycho marathon with my Palm...yeah, you'll say I also lack Bluetooth and all that icing, but I do not worry for the device. It's as reliable as a paper block and only susceptible to the same things, apart from falling...reading this story makes me swear I will never buy PocketPC...until tomorrow :mrgreen:

[Jimmy Dodd]

While I was using an e740 my day normally went like this: [...]Do you REALLY can live this way :mrgreen: ?

I hope this is an e740 scenario and NOT a PocketPC typical scenario. I do not have that kind of psycho marathon with my Palm...yeah, you'll say I also lack Bluetooth and all that icing, but I do not worry for the device. It's as reliable as a paper block and only susceptible to the same things, apart from falling...reading this story makes me swear I will never buy PocketPC...until tomorrow :mrgreen:

The events depicted above happened, maybe not every day, but often enough on my e740 that as soon as I got a ViewSonic V37 I retired my Toshiba. The e740 has had a (well deserved) bad reputation since early on, though it seems to be confined to a subset of devices. Others report no problems at all. Toshiba offered to exchange it, but I held out for a year for a newer device at Best Buy (I had the 3 year replacement plan).

I have had no problems with the V37, and once the h2215 iPAQ was released I traded in my e740 for it. So now I have two wonderfully reliable Pocket PCs: one a 2002 model and one a 2003 model.
:D