11-15-2003, 08:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Palm Vs. Pocket PC
http://www.comp-talk.co.uk/Framesets/POS%20v%20PPC.htm
Thomas Kuglin has been a loyal Palm OS user but decided to see what it was like on the other side and acquired an iPAQ 2215.
"For just over two and a half years I'd been a loyal Palm OS user and fan. It started with the release of the Palm m100: a (relatively) cheap, basic handheld - perfect for me to use, to see if I liked the notion of a "PDA". (And I would like to just go off topic here, to point out how much of a difference there is in what you get for your money now, compared to three years ago!) Anyway, I kept that m100 for a full year, during which I think I learnt everything I knew about the Palm OS. And I loved it! But I needed more... more power! More memory! More gadgetry! The answer? Palm's m505 handheld - top of the range at the time. Again, I used that for a year - but then out came the first ever Palm OS5 must-have: the Palm Tungsten|T. Oh I couldn't resist. I was soon the happy owner of it I can tell you! Anyway, in August I decided to "investigate" what all those die-hard Pocket PC fans could possibly like with their handhelds, by acquiring a HP iPaq 2215. It's been a "fun-filled" couple of months with this new PDA, and I now feel I know enough about it to give an honest, and more importantly, unbiased, comparison between the two handheld computer operating systems: Palm OS5 and Windows Mobile for Pocket PCs 2003 Premium Edition."
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11-15-2003, 08:16 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 309
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It was a nice read... he�s right on important things. I know Palm is simplier, and that hotsync is better than active sync... but the only reason i�ll stick to my iPAQ is Pocket Informant. But if any day PI for palm OS appears, i�ll buy a Palm. The ppc interface is full of useless displacement bars and title bars.
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This site should go the way of msmobiles.com. Forget WM and start talking android. Androidthoughts.com
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11-15-2003, 08:32 PM
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Mystic
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 1,639
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I have to disagree with your thought on the interface. I find that my today screen, using the Program Bar supplied with Battery Pack is much easier and quicker to use than any of the Palms I've had. The task switcher that comes in BP is also great for switching quickly between apps - obviously no need for that with POS!
Although I do like some of the new hardware from pa1mOne and Sony, I would not go back to a device with the current POS. Be interesting to see what both WM2004 and POS 6.0 bring us next year.
Regarding new platforms for PI, I would be tempted to go with a Zaurus, the clamshell one, if I could use Pocket Informant on it. (And Textmaker and Repligo and ........ )
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Cheers!
David
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11-15-2003, 09:43 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 63
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The one thing I love most about PPC is the OS File system. Ebooks have .rtf or .lit extensions, Mp3s have .mp3 etc. HTML files have .htm. Copying files to and from is very painless. I have a text file I want to use on Palm...oops gotta convert it to .pdb(instead of sticking in a card or wifi copying it)Icbar and tdLaunch replace most of the desktop problems.
The two things that I dislike about PPC. (1) native apps are pathetic. (2) Installing apps put files on the desktop. Absolutely unnecessary.
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11-15-2003, 09:52 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 321
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I disagree with alot of this. First of all, I love Block Recognizer. I've never had any problems with it's accuracy, as a matter of fact, that's why I use it, because of its accuracy. His entire issue in regards to program installation on storage cards is totally inaccurate, and I am sick to death of people complaining about the close issue. I've lost track of the number of freeware solutions there are for this. Lastly, if you need to see more cells in Excel, go to the settings an adjust the zoom size!
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2B 1 Ask 1
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11-15-2003, 10:18 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 24
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I dont know what the fuss is about. I never had problems with activesynch, I have never had my iPAQs freeze and transciber are by far the faster input methods for me. I have compared the volume of notes I have taken to an experienced palm user sitting next to me. I am always way a head. We think in words not letters. 
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11-15-2003, 11:22 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 495
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i think he makes some excellent points. the biggest is that out of the box most users will find pocket pc's a little annoying.
i love them but i also know how to make them work.
a friend of mine recently just bought a 1945 and i sold him an sd card and showed him how to put some data on it. about 3 days later he called me and said that file explorer no longer showed any data on the sd card and he was wondering if he needed to return the device. i suggested a soft reset and the card reappeared with the data. but how confusing is that? he probably would have returned the device if we hadn't talked. could i blame him if he told me pocket pc sucks?
bottom line is that many people dont have the patience to deal with the quirks of the pocket pc os. buying and installing 3rd party apps to make up for the gaps. and never really needing the power.
so for some, i guess palm makes more sense.
i should add that some of his points skim over the answers to his complaints.
he rags on transcriber and block recognizer but doenst mention letter recognizer -- odd.
he complains about screen real estate but doesnt mention you can minimize the writing area, go to full screen mode, or change the resolution -- odd.
he praises the home button on palm but then doesnt want to assign the programs page to a button on pocket pc (as though its an effort) -- odd.
maybe its his device, but to be honest 99% of the time activestink works. i just get extremely angry the 1% of the time it flakes out. so i'm not sure why he had so much trouble with it -- odd.
i cant really defend the uninstall orphan files and files being spread everywhere argument. some aspects are irritating as hell, such as programs sticking data files in the windows directory when i've asked the program to be installed on the sd card. some of that is sloppy programming on the part of 3rd party apps, but i suspect that the os to some extent requires some library files to be in the windows directory (since so many end up there). not sure why but eats up my RAM.
i do wish developers were a little more obsessive compulsive about organizing things, being clean and putting program folders/files where they belong.
(SPB GPRS MONITOR can take a lesson on that one -- whats with all of the files and folders piling up in the MyComputer directory?)
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11-15-2003, 11:27 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 30
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I use to hate Activestink cause it would always disconnect on me every 5 minutes, so it was near impossible to transfer large files over to my cards. But now that I've got WinXP, Activesync seems to be behaving properly; I hardly ever get disconnected anymore. Oh, I was using WinMe before.
And the only times my 2215 freeze is because I installed some bad programs by some bad developers *cough*calligrapher*cough*. I chose to just use the default input method and not have calligrapher installed and I've been running fine for 2 months now without ever once freezing, as compared to 3 soft resets a day >_< But it's all good now ^_^
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11-15-2003, 11:29 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 73
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by dh
... obviously no need for that with POS!
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It took me just a little while to figure out what POS stood for. :mrgreen:
I thought that the article definitely pointed out some short coming that Microsoft should work on. The funny thing is that the most loyal PPC users have been saying this for a couple of years and frankly MS hasn't changed things.
On closing Apps
As far as closing apps goes, all I have to say is  ukeface: . It's a flaw of the OS, but apps like Wisebar do such a good job. Out of fairness, he could have at least mentioned that these apps exist. All he said was that "Thankfully, some bright Pocket PC manufacturers include a task manager app with Pocket PC to save you this bother." This makes it sound like you can't get this functionality on all PPCs, which aint true.
On ActiveStink
I agree that Active Sync just isn't as good as it should be. I've been having problems lately with ActiveSync not fully running through a sync. It will say something like "unable to synchronize 12 items" for inbox, and even if I select inbox with my mouse, right click and hit "synchronize", it'll still say "unable to synchronize 12 items." (I suspect that everything may actually be synchronized, but that it's just confused over the count). If I disconnect and reconnect my PDA, it'll work just fine. There are also times where after a sync, some items are not synchroized (the AS icon is yellow, not green). If I select them and choose synchronize, they'll sync. Both of these problems are so stupid. Why, after being around for a long time, is AS still having these problems?
However, I've never had AS just delete stuff. (Maybe I'm lucky?) I don't hear other people complaining about it all the time either.
On Stability
Yes, the PPC isn't quite as stable as the Palm OS. Every now and then it locks up and soft resets are necessary. But the tone this guy took made it sound like you couldn't use a PPC for over 5 minutes without it crashing. My experience with several PPCs has been good in terms of stability. They're a heck of a lot more stable than the Windows 9x kernel, that's for sure!
On handwriting recognition
Okay, here's my :soapbox: . I cannot stand MS Transcriber. I find that block recogizer is pretty good, though slower. Transcriber makes me so mad because it tries to guess what word you're writing. Here's an example. I was trying to look up a contact yesterday and I wrote his last name - "Allred." Transcriber, trying to match the word to some recognized word in it's dictionary turned it into "Allied." Thinking I might have been just a little sloppy writing it, I rewrote it very meticulously. A-l-l-r-e-d. "Allied". Tried again. "Allied." An 'r' vs. an 'i'. An 'i' has a dot above it for goodness sakes! I just want to scream at how maddening this program can be. :bad-words: (A real POS ) Text entry is perhaps THE most important part of a user's interaction with their PDA. And instead of improving it, MS is creating $40 apps like voice command. Calligrapher, which is just a better(?) version of Transcriber, gives you an option that prevents the program from trying to guess what word you're writing. I cannot even begin to fathom why transcriber won't give you the same option. (I may buy Calligrapher soon, or maybe wait till Christmas :wink
More than anything, I just want to see some real improvement from MS to the very basics of their PDA platform. Better handwriting recognition, better active sync, better word and excel support. By the time PPC 2002 came out, they should have had these greatly improved, and yet here we are, four years later, and they remain the same.
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11-15-2003, 11:55 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 94
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The writer of the review would have realized much more utility of the PPC if he had used a couple core applications.
The first one is free and offers such power and flexibility to the PPC that I would hardly consider using my iPAQ without it: GigaBar. I have read that people complain that GigaBar is difficult to set up so Palm users, kindergarten teachers, and the like might latch on to that complaint.
The other is FITALY for text input. FITALY offers far more power on the PPC than the Palm (T3 possibly excluded) due to the virtual keyboard and is essential to me. FITALY requires a learning curve but is well worth the endeavor for the speed and power that it provides. Again, if the user is uninitiated then learning a new keyboard may not be his or her style.
Those two applications to me fill in what the PPC OS is missing at the basic input and task management level. I believe that users should compare devices (including price) by considering how they will actually use the device (i.e. applications) rather than by what is loaded out of the box. Utility is the benchmark.
Here are my other indispensable applications: TextMaker, Lextionary, and Pocket Informant (or Agenda Fusion to be fair).
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