Windows Mobile 5.0 for HP iPAQ hx4700 - Expected on March 1

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://h71015.www7.hp.com/generic3.aspx?page=wm2005' target='_blank'>http://h71015.www7.hp.com/generic3....spx?page=wm2005</a><br /><br /></div><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20050602-HP.gif" /><br /><br />March 1: that's the date when HP iPAQ hx4700 users will be able to grab the Windows Mobile 5.0 upgrade. All this follows HP's announcement <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=42472">back in August 2005</a> that there would be a significant delay in the delivery of the upgrade due to <i>"unforeseen extended delays in the availability of a critical 3rd party driver."</i><br /><br />The upgrade will be available for £26.00, or around US$46.10.

[pocketpcadmirer]

hx4700 owners rejoice !! I only pray that it is bug-free and doesnt uses the MS bt stack(which the Dell did)

Sunny :D

[klanum]

You think that would possibly apply to the US as well?

[Darius Wey]

You think that would possibly apply to the US as well?

The hx2000 upgrade was offered globally, and I'd expect the distribution patterns of the hx4700 upgrade to be no different.

[alex_kac]

I don't pay much attention to the bluetooth stacks, but I can say that MS is pushing hard for OEMs to use their stack and more are. Then again, their stack is also getting better.

[Chairman Clench]

Who exactly wants this "upgrade" considering all the problems in WM5? Major memory leaks and alarms that don't work are just 2 of the most serious problems in WM5. I don't know about the rest of you hx4700 owners, but my hx4700 has been incredibly stable and works just fine with WM2003SE. I don't have any noticable memory leaks and ALL my alarms and reminders sound perfectly.

So exactly why would I want to jeopardize a perfectly good device? For a PowerPoint viewer? To lose 2 hard buttons to the WM5 "soft buttons"? So that my reminders and alarms don't work consistently?

Let's face it, WM5 was not fully baked when it was released and I don't think HP is going to be able to fix the core problems in the OS. I was about to take the plunge and buy an xv6700 or Treo 700w but there is no way I'm going to "upgrade" to a device that doesn't have working alarms and reminders. Nor am I going to "upgrade" my iPAQ to a less-stable OS.

[SHC]

I have the same worry. I have waited for this upgrade and now it's almost here I don't know if I want it? I also have my device set up just nicely, hardly ever need to reset (except to get bluetooth on!). What would I really gain? Somebody tell me the list of pro's and con's so I can decide. At the moment its 70:30 against the upgrade in my mind.

[Peter Traugot]

I concur.

The only, and I mean ONLY thing that would sway me to the next OS is if the have difinitivly fixed the driver memory issue that haunts me regarding Bluetooth and WiFi drivers failing to install after awhile because the pitance of memory space they are allowed to run in gets trampled.

[nobody]

I have concerns but I still want to upgrade because I am an os junky :wink:

Hopefully there should be a way for me to go back to WM2003SE if there is a problem.

[Chairman Clench]

I concur.

The only, and I mean ONLY thing that would sway me to the next OS is if the have difinitivly fixed the driver memory issue that haunts me regarding Bluetooth and WiFi drivers failing to install after awhile because the pitance of memory space they are allowed to run in gets trampled.

Hmmm... I've never had this problem, but I have VERY little installed in RAM... only my Today-screen plug-in and P.I. Everything else I install to the iPAQ File Store.

[Menneisyys]

I concur.

The only, and I mean ONLY thing that would sway me to the next OS is if the have difinitivly fixed the driver memory issue that haunts me regarding Bluetooth and WiFi drivers failing to install after awhile because the pitance of memory space they are allowed to run in gets trampled.

Hmmm... I've never had this problem, but I have VERY little installed in RAM... only my Today-screen plug-in and P.I. Everything else I install to the iPAQ File Store.

The BT driver memory shortage has nothing to do with the free size of the RAM. See this blog entry (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&amp;p=309&amp;more=1) for more info.

[Patrick Y.]

I wonder if the "critical third-party driver" that caused the delay is the "filesys.exe" problem as in Dell's upgrade.

[Jonathan1]

WOOT!!! I've been googling 4700 Windows Mobile 5 over the past few weeks wondering when we were going to hear something! Great news! Maybe Microsoft will release SP1 for Windows Mobile 5 that day too. :lol:

[bigray327]

So much for it being free, eh? You gotta wonder where they came up with $46.10. Why not a round number like $45 or $50? Did they tally up the exact cost of development and divide by the 12 people that are actually going to install this? :)

Well, I'll be one of them. Every OS is going to have its share of problems. While WM2003 is stable as heck, I gotta have some better memory management. The BT/WiFi errors are awful, so anything has got to be better. Plus it gives you the latest and greatest OS; eventually developers will stop supporting older versions. Yup, I'm in... if it actually gets released.

[Darius Wey]

So much for it being free, eh? You gotta wonder where they came up with $46.10. Why not a round number like $45 or $50? Did they tally up the exact cost of development and divide by the 12 people that are actually going to install this? :)

HP never said it would be free.

As for the $46.10, that was a conversion performed on my part. HP US hasn't officially announced the upgrade (yet), so I did a quick conversion to give most of you a rough idea of the cost in US$.

[onepieceman]

Has anybody done any comparative benchmarks on WM5 vs WM2003SE?
I think it would be very interesting for people to compare the pros and cos, especially if the benchmarks are done on the same hardware (i.e. pre and post upgrade).

[Jason Lee]

overall the benchmarks will be slower after the upgrade because everything will be in rom instead of ram. So let's not run them and give people one more thing to b**ch about. I am really getting sick of it.

[ctmagnus]

This was eons ago, obviously, but iirc my Pocket PC 2002 upgrade cost ~$25USD. Why the close to 100% increase since then?

[Dazza]

Still not sure if I'm going to go for this upgrade or not.
The killer for me (apart from WM5.0 support for my favoutite apps) will be MSFP.
Has anyone seen if HP will be including it or not?
Anyone with a 2xxx who did the upgrade got any feedback on this?
I know most of the WM 5.0 HTC phone vendors in the UK seem to be "unable to comment" or in one case stated "you will have to talk to Microsoft" :evil:

[btorbik]

I want this upgrade. The implementation of persistent storage and upgrades to Office Mobile apps are worth the aggravation, if any.

I'm aware of some of the downsides: soft buttons that can't yet be remapped; slower performance (the extent of which isn't clear) and issues with MS Bluetooth stack. But, the value proposition still seems worthwhile.

[PR.]

Who exactly wants this "upgrade" considering all the problems in WM5? Major memory leaks and alarms that don't work are just 2 of the most serious problems in WM5. &lt;SNIP>

I have to say I barely use my 4700 nowadays but when I do pick it up I almost always have either one or both of these problems.

I'd say about 3 times a week I am awoken by an alarm going off at 3am after my PPC turns on to do its nightly backup and finds there was an alarm at 4:30pm the day before that it didn't trigger.

I will probably get the upgrade just to see the new file system, but I doubt I will use it anymore than the once a week I do at the moment.

More interested in a newer Smartphone and a TabletPC running Vista :)

[threedaysdwn]

About time. I've been using WM5 on my phone since I got the 6700 and it's annoying that my 4700 (in my car) is stuck with 2003SE.

WM5 is a huge improvement over 2003.