iPAQ 5550 Rumors Surfacing

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pocketpcitalia.com/cms3/templates/PPC-NEWS.ASP?articleid=306&zoneid=1' target='_blank'>http://www.pocketpcitalia.com/cms3/...id=306&zoneid=1</a><br /><br /></div>Pocket PC Italia has a short article on the possible launch of a new iPAQ (:google: English translation <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pocketpcitalia.com%2Fcms3%2Ftemplates%2FPPC-NEWS.ASP%3Farticleid%3D306%26zoneid%3D1%0D%0A&langpair=it%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools">here</a>). I don't know how much of it is true or not, but speculate away! 8)

[Bob Anderson]

Well, of course, this news comes out roughly 30 days after I buy my 5455!! Of course the rumors I'm interested in are the ones talking about PPC2003 upgrades for the iPaqs, because I'm very impressed with this device and am sure the 2003 upgrade will make it even better. :)

[tddisc]

I want to upgrade from my 3835. I've been looking at the e750 and the 5455, I'll use the WiFi feature quite a bit. But since I've become addicted to Bluetooth (phone, GPS, printer, etc.), the 5455 (or the 5550) looks great because it's built in. I have a Socket BT CF card for my 3835 so it would be easy to add it to the e750. Any thoughts on which is the better device?

Thanks
TD

[FredMurphy]

In other threads here, I've been babbling on about both the 5550 and the rumour that the 5400, 3900 and 3700 series will be offered Pocket PC 2003 upgrades. I've also been wondering if the ROM from the (rumoured) 5550 could be copied over to a 5450 so we don't have to wait until the (rumoured) offical upgrade is offered.

:mrgreen: Obviously doesn't take much more than a rumour to get me over-excited...

[TMAN]

I wonder if the 5550 will be the 3870's 3970. In other words, will the 5550 be the model that fixed everything in the 5450 as the 3970 did for the 3870?

[R K]

I'm usually pretty skeptical about rumors but PocketPCItalia has been pretty accurate with them so far.
Hmm... 128MB of RAM would provide a lot of audio recording time along with the new version of NoteM 1.10.
Speaking of which, the new version of NoteM is out. This version allows on-the-fly MP3 recording at 44KHz with bitrates of 32Kbps, 56Kbps, and 128Kbps. Go check it out when you get a chance.

http://www.geocities.com/zavorine/wince/mp3.htm

By the way, sorry for throwing the thread off topic.

[jeremyweisser]

I highly doubt that HP will offer a ROM update for the 3X00 series. The hardware on all but the 3970 would probably not meet the requirements for PPC 2003.

[jpaq]

The rumor makes sense. This would be the natural progression of the 5xxx series.
What makes this even more believable is that the time frame seems to coinside with the 2200 series release rumors (i.e. FCC report on Brighthand).

I wish I knew what the PPC2k3 changes were. Let's just hipe that it fixes connection mangler and adds table support to Pocket Word.

8)

[ricksfiona]

I'm usually pretty skeptical about rumors but PocketPCItalia has been pretty accurate with them so far.
Hmm... 128MB of RAM would provide a lot of audio recording time along with the new version of NoteM 1.10.


The RAM upgrade would be SO nice. TransACT! 2.0 takes up a load of RAM and I am constantly running out of memory on my 3870. Bring it on!

[BTS]

128 MB of RAM will be nice for this unit. Hopefully the new PPC 2003 software (if it even ships with this device) will continue to work on increasing the processing speed of these devices. I think we'll see a good product simply continue to get better!

[GO-TRIBE]

Although this device sounds good, I want a 2200 that supports my eXpansion packs (i.e. jackets). A device with 2 expansion slots and jacket support would be ideal. :-)

[jpaq]

Although this device sounds good, I want a 2200 that supports my eXpansion packs (i.e. jackets). A device with 2 expansion slots and jacket support would be ideal. :-)

This is a pet peeve of mine.

We scream for innovation of design, while at the same time we tie the hands of hte OEMS wanting them continue to support old accessories.

For HP to continue to support the jackets, sleeves, pant legs, etc. of the old Ipaq's they have to continue the old thickness (thicker than the beloved 1900), the old width (Wider than the beloved 1900), and some proximity to the height (Taller than the 1900 series). I use the 1900 series as the reference because so many have said that this is an ideal form factor.

So we want the ideal form factor and we want support for 3 year old accessories. How does that encourage the innovation we all want?

We ahve to get past the past and let HP, who might be the only real PPC innovator out there, run free.

Of course that's just my $.02. It may not be worh that much.

:lol:

[Pony99CA]

It sounds nice, but nothing revolutionary -- just a no-brainer upgrade of the 5450. The only thing I wonder is how much it will cost. :-D

Steve

[Pony99CA]

I highly doubt that HP will offer a ROM update for the 3X00 series. The hardware on all but the 3970 would probably not meet the requirements for PPC 2003.
What is your basis for that claim? I'm certainly expecting Pocket PC 2003 to run on my iPAQ 3870. I heard talk in a post a while ago that the code will fit in 32 MB ROM, and, as Microsoft has said the Pocket PC OS won't be optimized for the XScale, I see no reason that it wouldn't run on the 3800 series.

Even if it won't fit in 32 MB ROM, Microsoft could have Professional and Premium versions like they did for Pocket PC 2002.

Steve

[Pony99CA]

Although this device sounds good, I want a 2200 that supports my eXpansion packs (i.e. jackets). A device with 2 expansion slots and jacket support would be ideal. :-)
This is a pet peeve of mine.

We scream for innovation of design, while at the same time we tie the hands of hte OEMS wanting them continue to support old accessories.

For HP to continue to support the jackets, sleeves, pant legs, etc. of the old Ipaq's they have to continue the old thickness (thicker than the beloved 1900), the old width (Wider than the beloved 1900), and some proximity to the height (Taller than the 1900 series). I use the 1900 series as the reference because so many have said that this is an ideal form factor.

So we want the ideal form factor and we want support for 3 year old accessories. How does that encourage the innovation we all want?

We ahve to get past the past and let HP, who might be the only real PPC innovator out there, run free.
I disagree. There can easily be two (or more) models. HP is doing that now with the 1900 series and the 5400 series. The user gets the choice of whether sleeve support is wanted or not.

Also, I've suggested a few times that you might be able to get a smaller form factor and sleeve support. What you'd need is an "adapter sleeve" that accepted the smaller iPAQ and gave it the same form factor and electrical connections as the original iPAQ. If that is possible, you'd have the best of both worlds -- a smaller naked iPAQ and protection of your investment in sleeves -- without forcing third-party manufacturers to redesign their existing sleeves. You might lose support for the record button in the sleeve (depending on where it was located), but I'd be willing to give that up while in a sleeve.

Imagine if PC makers "innovated" so much as to invalidate most of the peripherals supporting their boxes. Would you buy a PC if you believed that you couldn't use your peripherals on the next PC you got? Yes, changes do happen -- the old PC AT keyboard adapter seems to be dead, and the PS2 one will be gone, USB is taking over for serial and parallel ports, etc. -- but those are very slow changes, and there are usually transition models with support for both standards for a while.

Steve

[R K]

I just like the iPAQ H5450 because its integrated peripherals don't make extra add-ons necessary.
With integrated WiFi and integrated Bluetooth, there's rarely a need for a second expansion slot. Arguably CF Cards can be used for analog modems or bigger memory cards, but for most, an iPAQ H5450 is probably as good as having a Pocket PC with two expansion slots.

[jeremyweisser]

I highly doubt that HP will offer a ROM update for the 3X00 series. The hardware on all but the 3970 would probably not meet the requirements for PPC 2003.
What is your basis for that claim? I'm certainly expecting Pocket PC 2003 to run on my iPAQ 3870. I heard talk in a post a while ago that the code will fit in 32 MB ROM, and, as Microsoft has said the Pocket PC OS won't be optimized for the XScale, I see no reason that it wouldn't run on the 3800 series.

Even if won't fit in 32 MB ROM, Microsoft could have Professional and Premium versions like they did for Pocket PC 2002.

Steve

Because while Microsoft may have claimed that the OS will fit in 32 MB ROM I seriously doubt HP will release a version for anything but the 3970 and up.

As in the past HP has not made multiple versions of Pocket PC OS upgrades availible to customers. It is one CD that usually serves certian models.

[Abba Zabba]

It sounds nice, but nothing revolutionary -- just a no-brainer upgrade of the 5450. The only thing I wonder is how much it will cost. :-D

Steve

I don't think it's that revolutionary, but I do think it will be the uber PPC. 128 MB 8O gees now you won't necessaruly need to carry any CF or SD cards.

I really hope this device in fact is true and will debut sometime in the next 2 to 3 months. I've been fighting the urge not to buy a new PPC for a long time now :cry: but haven't found anything that really different among the OEM's.

[brntcrsp]

Let us not forget the HP has never offered an upgrade in fact. No upgrade was offered for the 54x to Ppocket PC 2002. They simply shipped the 56x models.

Compaq did offer the upgrade, but frustrated many of its customers in the process.

I'm curious to see how the new behemoth of HP/Compaq will handle OS upgrades.

[qgman]

Let us not forget the HP has never offered an upgrade in fact. No upgrade was offered for the 54x to Ppocket PC 2002. They simply shipped the 56x models.

Compaq did offer the upgrade, but frustrated many of its customers in the process.

I'm curious to see how the new behemoth of HP/Compaq will handle OS upgrades.

In HP's defense, the 540 series used SH3 chips whereas PPC 2002 required the use of ARM chips, so an ungrade was not technically feasible. The same thing happened with my Casio E125.

[kfluet]

What is your basis for that claim? I'm certainly expecting Pocket PC 2003 to run on my iPAQ 3870. I heard talk in a post a while ago that the code will fit in 32 MB ROM, and, as Microsoft has said the Pocket PC OS won't be optimized for the XScale, I see no reason that it wouldn't run on the 3800 series.

Even if won't fit in 32 MB ROM, Microsoft could have Professional and Premium versions like they did for Pocket PC 2002.

Steve

Because while Microsoft may have claimed that the OS will fit in 32 MB ROM I seriously doubt HP will release a version for anything but the 3970 and up.

As in the past HP has not made multiple versions of Pocket PC OS upgrades availible to customers. It is one CD that usually serves certian models.

I think people might be comparing what "HP" did in the past for the Jornada line and what "Compaq" did in the past for the iPAQ line. They may be called "HP" now, but the iPAQ line is what they decided to keep.

There were multiple iPAQ PPC 2002 upgrades, including one for the 3150 greyscale model. The full PPC 2002 upgrade didn't fit into 16MB of flash either. You install a "lite" version of the upgrade and additional apps like WMPlayer onto a storage card or whatever.

I would expect them to continue with the traditional iPAQ policies and offer an upgrade to 2003 for all colour iPAQ models. The whole expandable/upgradeable thing is why many people are willing to pay more for an iPAQ. And don't forget that HP can make money selling you the upgrade.

[kfluet]

What you'd need is an "adapter sleeve" that accepted the smaller iPAQ and gave it the same form factor and electrical connections as the original iPAQ. If that is possible, you'd have the best of both worlds -- a smaller naked iPAQ and protection of your investment in sleeves -- without forcing third-party manufacturers to redesign their existing sleeves. You might lose support for the record button in the sleeve (depending on where it was located), but I'd be willing to give that up while in a sleeve.

An adapter sleeve (with a battery in it) would be cool. I was thinking of a body design for the main unit that had the minimum edges required to allow sleeves to fit. The main unit could be narrower and thinner in the middle around and behind the screen. The shape would be a little different (reminicient of one of the newer sleeves without an iPAQ in it), but I think many would find that they would like the extra grip they could get on their machine.

[R K]

Pocket PC Itlia is reporting that HP will provide upgrades for its H3900 and H5400 series iPAQs on all international versions. Supposedly the H3800 will only get an update on the English version.

Link with translation here (http://216.239.39.120/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&langpair=it%7Cen&u=http://www.pocketpcitalia.com/cms3/templates/PPC-NEWS.ASP%3Farticleid%3D305%26zoneid%3D1&prev=/language_tools)

[Pony99CA]

I highly doubt that HP will offer a ROM update for the 3X00 series. The hardware on all but the 3970 would probably not meet the requirements for PPC 2003.
What is your basis for that claim? I'm certainly expecting Pocket PC 2003 to run on my iPAQ 3870. I heard talk in a post a while ago that the code will fit in 32 MB ROM, and, as Microsoft has said the Pocket PC OS won't be optimized for the XScale, I see no reason that it wouldn't run on the 3800 series.
Because while Microsoft may have claimed that the OS will fit in 32 MB ROM I seriously doubt HP will release a version for anything but the 3970 and up.

HP may decide not to release an upgrade for business reasons, but that's not what you said. You said that you didn't think anything less than the 3970 would meet the hardware requirements for Pocket PC 2003. The only relevant difference between the 3970 and the 3950 is 48 MB ROM vs. 32 MB ROM, so it sounded like you were saying other models wouldn't have enough ROM. I was curious if you'd seen something about that.

Steve

[Pony99CA]

I don't think it's that revolutionary, but I do think it will be the uber PPC. 128 MB 8O gees now you won't necessaruly need to carry any CF or SD cards.
That's only true if you don't have a memory card larger than 64 MB. I have a 256 MB SD card and a 512 MB CF card. :-)

Of course, I'd love being able to install all of my programs in main memory and just use my memory cards for data.

Steve

[ricksfiona]

I just like the iPAQ H5450 because its integrated peripherals don't make extra add-ons necessary.
With integrated WiFi and integrated Bluetooth, there's rarely a need for a second expansion slot. Arguably CF Cards can be used for analog modems or bigger memory cards, but for most, an iPAQ H5450 is probably as good as having a Pocket PC with two expansion slots.

You hit the nail right on the head. The 5450 is great. It just needs more built-in memory and I'd be VERY happy with it. I'll wait for 128MB.