Stephen Beesley
05-14-2004, 10:33 AM
leading on from some other discussions here about new Pocket PC devices, and some of those from the competition, it got me thinking about the main factor that I have not jumped ship (although often very tempted) to a competing device.
I realised that, for me, it comes down to the input methods that are available. As it stands, only the Pocket PC (of devices still being manufactured :D ) offeres me the option of real Handwriting Recognition. Even with Graffiti 2 or Jot on a palm platform it is still really a souped up character recogniser and the Decuma HWR on the Zaurus also forces you to write one charecter at a time in an input panel at the bottom of the screen. What I want is to be able to write anywhere on the screen in whole sentances, using my normal handwriting. At the moment only Transcriber/Calligrapher give me that option.
So, for me at least, it is the lack of proper HWR that has so far stopped me jumping over to something like the Palm T3 or a Zaurus - both of which I consider to be very nice PDAs in pretty much every other sense.
For other people I am sure the lack of what I call "proper" HWR is of little importance, but maybe it is an integrated thumboard that they really desire. Others may be just as happy to conform to whatever input method a particular device offeres if the other features are what they are after.
So how important are the available input methods to YOUR choice of PDA?
I realised that, for me, it comes down to the input methods that are available. As it stands, only the Pocket PC (of devices still being manufactured :D ) offeres me the option of real Handwriting Recognition. Even with Graffiti 2 or Jot on a palm platform it is still really a souped up character recogniser and the Decuma HWR on the Zaurus also forces you to write one charecter at a time in an input panel at the bottom of the screen. What I want is to be able to write anywhere on the screen in whole sentances, using my normal handwriting. At the moment only Transcriber/Calligrapher give me that option.
So, for me at least, it is the lack of proper HWR that has so far stopped me jumping over to something like the Palm T3 or a Zaurus - both of which I consider to be very nice PDAs in pretty much every other sense.
For other people I am sure the lack of what I call "proper" HWR is of little importance, but maybe it is an integrated thumboard that they really desire. Others may be just as happy to conform to whatever input method a particular device offeres if the other features are what they are after.
So how important are the available input methods to YOUR choice of PDA?