Pocket PC 2004 ideas

[digitalexit]

My first gripe with Microsoft is that the development team should have added the telephone option to Pocket PC as a standard CF or SD module instead of making the Phone Edition. For Microsoft, this means they only need to maintain a single code base. For cell phone carriers, this means instead of branding a PDA phone, they only need to lease out cheap CF or SD cards. For PDA users, this means they can choose and upgrade whatever PDA model and whatever cell phone carrier they like, instead of being stucked with a second-rate PDA phone for a 3-year plan. Another possible use for CF/SD cell phone cards is that notebooks with CF/SD slots could also use the cards to go online - instead of connecting to a cell phone via a standard phone jack.

From a development point of view, this should be quite easy. The phone modules will have the dialing software (linked to the PPC address book), antenna and the phone number ID and PPC will provide the rest.

The next generation of PPCs should include the follwing hardware features:
1) Xscale CPU at 600~800MHz with 200MHz FSB
2) upgradable RAM/ROM, 64MB each at least
3) CF/SD slots (obviously)
4) USB 2.0 AND FireWire connections
5) Build-in 802.11g and Bluetooth wireless connectivity
6) higher screen resolutions - 480x640 may be too high for small screens but 240x400 or 320x480 should be more conceivable - you can display NTSC (or even PAL) MPEG1 videos with that kinds of resolutions and still leave enough room for control buttons
7) Bluetooth headphone/microphone
8) built-in IR port to use the PDA as a universal remote control, and print to printers equiped with IrDA ports

On the software side:
1) better Unicode support and options to install Asian and Mid-east language packs (input/output) - Windows XP already has this option and I don't see why PPC should not. I like to browse Chinese/Japanese websites and input contacts' Chinese/Japanese names natively without using add-on software
2) Pocket PowerPoint
3) built-in multimedia browser a la ACDSee Mobile Lite - with USB 2.0 / FireWire ports, more people would like to connect their digital cameras and camcorders directly to PPC for viewing, and possibly some light-weight editing
4) voice-recognition - use your Bluetooth earphone/microphone to make calls!!! WAY cooler that holding a PDA to your ear!
5) Adobe Illustrator for Pocket PC!!! while that's not gonna happen any time soon simply because of the screen limitation of PPCs, but something like the Corel Grapfigo or Alias SketchBook for the PPC would be very cool indeed.
6) TV on your palm!!! with 802.11g and higher screen resolution, and a computer equiped with a TV tuner, you may be able to beam your favorite TV program directly to your PDA. you may not need to do it at home, but enterprises can transmit training videos, annoucements, news, or selected TV channels like CNN or MSNBC to every PPC users
7) 3D!!! if the next generation PPCs support DirectX 9, a slew of game developers will probably release 3D games on secured CF/SD cards, like Game Boy Advanced, and becomes next big thing in game and PDA industry. Of course, for business users, ability to view 3D models on your palm is also good, ;)
8) Video phone!!! with 3G, tri-band, 802.11g, cell phone carriers can probably offer a CF/SD cell phone card (described above) with 1 megapixel digital camera and low-res digital camcorder. Why would someone suffers a low-resolution digital camera or camcorder anyway? to transfer the images and videos via phone line of course! FBI and CIA beware, perfect spy gear!!!

Andway, that's my 2 cents on the next generation PPCs, hope I will see them soon.

[Pony99CA]

About eight hours before you posted this, there was the "How hard is it to make a PDA that has all the good stuff?" thread (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=103062) which is pretty much the same thing.

About 12 hours before that, there was the "Thinking about the ideal Windows CE device..." thread (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11373), although that dealt more with Handheld PCs.

I wonder if people actually look at the other threads before posting. :?

Steve

[digitalexit]

Yes, indeed I've read the "all good stuff" thread. But all three replies offer nothing interestingly new nor in much detail, except for the Biometric suggestion. Finger print and/or voice print security should be included in the next generation of PPCs.

[Pony99CA]

Yes, indeed I've read the "all good stuff" thread. But all three replies offer nothing interestingly new nor in much detail, except for the Biometric suggestion. Finger print and/or voice print security should be included in the next generation of PPCs.
Well, why didn't you post there and give your ideas? (My reply, which was the only one that you found vaguely interesting, came after you started your thread, though.)

Why spread the same topic over multiple threads? I'm sure your ideas would have been welcome there. :-)

Steve

[disconnected]

Digitalexit,

I don't care so much about all of the software, but from a hardware point of view you have described EXACTLY what I want from a PPC. The phone module especially would be great, and it would also be cool to have an actual radio/TV tuner module.