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[TomB]

Hello all! I just read 4Him's post on being out of it for a while and I must confess I am in the same boat. I had been a daily participant in the PPC scene for years, but maybe about a year ago I just lost interest. Other then a VGA screen, wireless and painfully slow advances in processor power, PDA/PPCs haven't changed dramatically in the past six years. In fact, I still carry an overclocked HP1910, only because nothing seemed worth upgrading to in terms of screen or size. Yes, the Casio E-100 and the iPaq 3650 are relics, but it seems to me that relative size, design and function are about the same now as they were in the beginning.

So here is an interesting question from someone who used to be in the know who just gave up. When is the next generation of PPCs due and what do we have to look forward to? To put this into perspective, instead of spending $600 for the latest VGA PPC, I just spent $250 on a PSP and am loving it. I hate the size, but the beauty and function of this device, its display and media playback is amazing! My 1910 used to go everywhere I went with timeshifts and ebooks for my daily subway commutes but I am tending to favor the PSP these days even though it is a brick. Any thoughts or overviews from those still riding the cutting edge?

[surur]

Pocketpc's have been advancing along quite nicely in the last few years. The truth is though that the Palm V was probably the ultimate organiser, with its long battery life, good input and adequate software for that purpose. I went pocketpc because I wanted a pocket pc, not a fancy sharp databank.

From that point of view the best advance in pocketpcdom has been the wide availability of software to run on your platform, which was a restriction earlier. Now if you want to do something chances are some-one has already written the software for you to do it.

The next windows mobile will continue to trend of making your device more desktop like, by including elements of direct X, and devices like the dell x50 already demonstrate that a good 3d chip can lead to excellent graphics performance. Further MS has finally decided to address some usability issues, making one handed usage easier.

Also built-in wifi (or some connectivity) is now becoming an accepted element of the platform, and we can expect more and more software to be written to take this into account e.g. skype and the various blackberry clones.

The OS and platform is also being redirected to the mobile phone part of the market, which I think is as good thing, as people in that area are less tolerant of a poor physical and GU interface, and of unstable devices and poor battery life. An example of this is that the next OS will be designed for non-volatile memory, meaning low battery will not wipe your device. This will in fact immediately make your device more usable, as you will no longer have to "baby" it, just like your psp.

Of course for a single use a dedicated device is best, but for this reason you also watch DVD's on your dvd player, not your pc, even though you could. However as a computer platform the next windows mobile is going to be quite exciting, and its nice to see the market continue to develop and expand.

Surur

http://www.2s.dk/image/regne/EL_6053.jpg VS http://www.infosyncworld.net/2005/02/02/gfx/t_mobile_mda_iv_03.jpg

[TomB]

Surur thanks for the overview. PPCThoughts is still a great read, but if you aren't current with the forest, you can get lost dealing with the trees. Back a few years ago, you could depend on everyone releasing their new PPCs in time for PCExpo in NYC. Now that that is in the past, I am wondering when are the next generation PPCs going to hit the market?