Pocket Goddess: The Zen of. . .Windows Mobile

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pocketgoddess.com/articles/2006/04/the_zen_of_wind.html' target='_blank'>http://www.pocketgoddess.com/articl...en_of_wind.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"If you’ve been in the mobile space for any length of time, you already know how that sentence is supposed to end. After all, we’ve been talking about the “zen of Palm” for years now. But my recent experiences with Windows Mobile 5 have led me to change the way that sentence ends, at least for me...Palm was first in my consciousness—first to market (I had never even heard of the Newton), and the makers of my first handheld, the Palm IIIx. I used and loved that PDA and its many successors over the years—the IIIc, m505, Sony Clie NR70, Tungsten T, Tapwave Zodiac, and finally the palmOne LifeDrive...In effect I had become a Palm OS “fangirl” in the sense that I had dismissed the competition without really giving it a closer look and honestly evaluating whether or not the devices and software met my needs."</i><br /><br />An interesting article about a long-time mobile device guru and her new-found appreciation for what Windows Mobile has to offer. Anyone out there undergone a similar change of opinion regarding Windows Mobile? I've been a fan since 1997's Handheld PC days, so I can't say that it's happened to me, but I know there are a lot of ex-Palm users out there. What drew you to Windows Mobile?

[Janak Parekh]

A very fair and balanced essay. It covers a lot of the points that convinced me to switch to Pocket PC back in 2000.

(Ironically, she has less problems with ActiveSync than HotSync. Go figure. :P)

--janak

[crimsonsky]

Up until about 2 months ago, I always had both a Pocket PC and Palm device (my last Palm device was a T5). Each had something in its favour, but for me, it was mainly the superior screen of the newest Palm devices that kept me in the Palm camp. The QVGA PPCs just don't compare.

This changed when I got my Pocket LOOX 720 - the VGA screen on this device, even in pixel-doubled mode is outstanding and better than the HVGA on the T5. Add in StyleTap and I know longer have a need for a Palm device. My two must have Palm programs are Shadow Plan and SmartLists-to-Go, both of which run flawlessly under StyleTap on the LOOX. True, there's no direct synchronisation, but I just move the pdb files I need back and forth on my Mac with Bluetooth. Works just fine.

My biggest problem with Palm lately is just how plain flakey the devices are. I've never reset any PPC as often as I reset my T3 or my T5 and HotSync crashed way more often than Active Sync ever does. Also, the ease of programs like TCPMP and GreenSoft's music player along with TextMaker on the PPC makes using my Pocket PCs devices a pleasure.

I'm still waiting to see what Palm comes up with next, as honestly, as a Mac user, sycnhronising with a Mac using the Missing Sync is much easier and more complete than with The Missing Sync's Pocket PC software (I use Entourage on the Mac and there is no way to synchronise notes with the Pocket PC, although MS provides a plug-in for Palms that does synchronise notes).

But unless Palm comes out with a reliable, stable device, I'll stick with PPC for now.

[mscdex]

Actually, I've recently converted from Windows Mobile to HandheldPC. Traded my Axim x50v for a Jornada 728 :D

[msafi]

initially, i thought that it might be best to stay with one operating system, but as my needs grew more complex i needed to allow myself more options. i started with palm OS in a gray-scale hi-res Sony CLIE, then moved to Symbian in the SE P900, then I tried the Windows CE in the Jornada 720. after that i came back to Palm in a treo 650 and recently i chose WinMo in the HTC Wizard and now I have Mio A701. i never used any Pocket-PC platform prior to WM5.0

if you demand a lot from your handheld device, there really is nothing left in the market to serve you besides WM. my Mio A701 is my handheld GPS, my phone, my PDA, my dictionary and encyclopeida...Can any Palm or Symbian device give me all of that in one little package? i wish they could, so we, as consumers, can benefit from the competition...but they can't...

so WM is my only option, not necessarily because i love it, but because there aren't that many options...

[Jason Dunn]

Actually, I've recently converted from Windows Mobile to HandheldPC. Traded my Axim x50v for a Jornada 728 :D

Wow! Retro!! 8O :D

[Damion Chaplin]

What drew you to Windows Mobile?

Initially, the superior multimedia handling capabilities. Being able to play MP3s and videos lured me from my Palm IIIx to the original iPaq 3650. Eventually, I was discouraged by the poor battery life and the fact that every month or so I would forget to charge it and it would hard reset. Which led me back to the Palm OS. From there I went back and forth between wanting simplicity and great battery life (in a POS unit) and wanting a machine that could do anything I wanted it to, albeit with terrible battery life (in a WM unit). You'd think a company like Sony would be able to make a PDA that could play MP3s well, but using my NX70V was a joke. My other problem was that I always take my phone with me everywhere, but too often I left the PDA at home. So for a while there I was so discouraged I went without a PDA for about 6 months.

Enter WM5 and the SMT5600. I reasoned that if my PDA was built into my phone I would never leave it at home again. I was right, but found the Smartphone interface a little lacking. Wanting more power again, there eventually came a day when I bought a K-JAM. This PDA is about the perfect unit for my needs and I've never looked back. At last I have a PDA I can't imagine living without (instead of cursing twice a day).

[mscdex]

Actually, I've recently converted from Windows Mobile to HandheldPC. Traded my Axim x50v for a Jornada 728 :D

Wow! Retro!! 8O :D

Well, main reason was I kept finding myself buying an external keyboard (usually a stowaway if possible) when I would buy a new PPC. So I decided to go with an HPC with a keyboard built-in (plus a larger screen) 8)

[Jason Dunn]

Well, main reason was I kept finding myself buying an external keyboard (usually a stowaway if possible) when I would buy a new PPC. So I decided to go with an HPC with a keyboard built-in (plus a larger screen) 8)

Yeah, I hear you. I've always thought there was a decent market for a $500 HPC device with a decent screen, decent keyboard, and running Windows Mobile 5. The battery life and the price point would be the real selling points, but whenever someone has tried to do a device like this, the price points are always insane (witness the aborted resurrection of the Clie).

[r@dimus]

I can completely relate to what Jen wrote, having migrated from a Palm Vx to a HP Jornada 560 some years back. I originally started with a Palm Vx, then tried out a Palm IIIc, but went back because the color screen on it was not very good. Going to the Jornada was light night and day. I can agree with everything she mentions. Activesync has it all over Hotsync. PPC Contacts is a hundred-fold more capable than Palm's address book. Synchronizing My Documents makes it way easier to be sure you always have a backup of your files. The list goes on.

Then Palm also managed to do a very good job of making sure that I never came back as a customer ever again. Getting my contact data out of Palm Desktop in a consistent state was a nightmare. I would export the address book out as a CSV file, but because Palm let's you change the field titles for the phone numbers (i.e. any phone number field can be made to be "Home" or "Work" or whatever) I had work numbers swapped with home numbers swapped with wireless numbers. I had to practically hand-edit every record in Excel to straighten the mess out before importing it to Outlook. Also, if I correctly recall, there was no way to export out Notes. I had to manually copy and paste each one into Outlook Notes. Once that was done any little thought I had about ever going back to Palm was no more.

Palm had a pretty good thing, but like Novell did years ago they got lazy and Microsoft caught up with them, surpassed them, and ate their market right out from under them. If it wasn't for the Treo, which they acquired by buying out Handspring, who knows what shape they would be in right now.

[kimylawson]

I first fell in love with my hp jurnoda. It took a licken and kept on ticken (very well made). my whole world was in it. Then the Toshiba was all the rage and I wanted dual storage slots. Although I really missed the screen color of the jurnoda. Then I herd about wm5 and I just had to up grade. Now I am totally nuts for my dell axium. I love the better battery life and all the improvements that have been made over the years culminating into wm5. I never lost any of my data over the 5 plus years and it all took up residence in my dell. I anxiously await the next generation and its continued evaluation. :wink:

[pnjm]

Joining this thread a little late, but better than never, perhaps.

Interesting to see some people say in effect that Activesync gives fewer problems than Hotsync, and that WM is the only OS around if you want a lot from your PDA.

I began with an HP clamshell running DOS (HP LX200), then went to a Psion, then briefly to a Sharp Wizard, then had an NEC Mobile Pro P300 on Pocket PC 20002, then an HP IPAQ rx3715 running Pocket PC 2003. I used Activesync up to version 3.7.

Had an absolutely HORRIBLE time with Activesync and just cannot accept the comment that Activesync is less problematic than Hotsync. With Activesync, I could never properly sync to more than one PC at a time (duplicate entries were a ***real*** problem), could never use the email (working with MS Outlook was an issue), and occasionally (esp with the NEC running PPC2002) Activesync would do something completely unexpected on me, like require me to recreate the profile, or fail absolutely to detect the PDA in the cradle. I could also never get Activesync to sync any of my Pocket PC's properly via Bluetooth or Wifi.

I purchased a Palm TX last year and it is absolutely the best PDA I have ever owned, outperforming the IPAQ rx3715 at about 2/3 the price of the IPAQ rx3715. In EVERY respect, except maybe battery life, and except that the Palm TX does not come with a sound recorder and camera - better screen, better sound and smoother video playback, more stable OS. I have NEVER had to hard reset my Palm TX, and only soft-reset it once in a long while (once a month, perhaps) to solve problems with memory leaks, perhaps from third party software I installed, preventing certain of the TX's multimedia functions from working (the machine itself never completely hangs on me). In contrast every PPC I have ever owned has required a soft reset at least once a week; HP provided a clever workaround whereby after nightly scheduled backups the PDA resets itself.

I had absolutely no trouble at all with Hotsync - it was much quicker to set up than Activesync, syncs faster to MS Outlook than Activesync, it backups all my data in a fraction of the time required by Activesync, and it does it all automatically at the touch of the (software) Hotsync button on my PDA screen. I get no real problems with duplicate entries, and I can finally sync and check email from multiple POP accounts via Wifi (that was so easy to set up I wondered what Bill Gates &amp; Co were thinking when they designed Activesync).

I reckon I'm one of the last adopters of Palm PDA, cf. the Goddess. Unlike her I came to Palm from Pocket PC, not the other way around. I don't know about WM, but I'm not dying to return to Bill Gates' evil empire again in a hurry. My hope is for Palm to keep on doing its Zen thing.

PN

[teq]

I have been a Palm "believer" since the US Robotic Palm 1000 - and had my share of models (Palm III, Palm Vx, m505, Tungsten T).

What finally convinced me to check out the "dark side" were two reasons:
- The really terrible digitizer on my Tungsten T (which needed to be re-calibrated every second day)
- The really cool WM 2003 devices that came out at that time - I bought a HP 2210 because of it's dual expansion slots and great form factor.

I still use my 2210 regularly and haven't found a reason yet to switch back to the Palm camp (I actually sold my Tungsten T a few weeks ago). I also haven't found any use of the new VGA devices (I've recently sold my Loox 720 again) because they seem to be too big for my taste.

Just my 5 cents.

teq

[pnjm]

Hey, 5 cents is what we all want to contribute ;-))

Tungsten T with a faulty digitizer?? Sounds like the problem. My Palm TX has never required me to recalibrate the screen (although I've only had it for about 6 months).

The digitizer on my HP Ipaq rx3715 started getting wonky on me after about a year of use; I still have it. Just wear and tear I suppose.

PN