CowboyNinjaPirate
08-22-2006, 10:17 PM
I posted this on my TechBlog (http://techrevelry.spaces.live.com) and thought people here might get a kick out of it. :)
Being a bit of a PocketPC power user I some times take for granted those lovely 'must have' apps that plug up major flaws in the Win Mobile OS.
Recently tho I was wandering around the office at work, having only worked there about 4 months I'm often at ends for productive work to do.
Now one of our top brass was in this particular day and had set up his usual camp on one of the desks with his Laptop, Phone and PocketPC device. He travels a lot and spends usually a week every month or so in our building going into meetings and other such important stuff.
I noticed him on one of his rare moments where he had nothing to do and seeing his Pocket PC residing in an Aluminium case I offered him a cup of tea and then decided to strike up a conversation.
"How long have you had your PocketPC?"
Now at first I assumed it was an XDA of some sort... Maybe a XDA IIs or something but when he opened it up to show me I recognised it as an IPaq 1490.
"Three years." he answered.
I was kinda amazed by this. 3 years!!!
I have the itch to change my device after 6 months usually... I'm sure this guy in the fancy suit, with the fancy car could get a new one at least once a year...
Anyway we started to talk about what he actually used it for and he let me have a play with it.
It was a lovely little machine, I have no doubt it wasn't as powerful as my RX3715 or as fully featured but it was lovely and small, very light and easy to hold, one of the few complaints I have about the RX3715 is that after long periods being used to read ebooks the square body and weight of it can give a bit of hand cramp.
Anyway moving on I took the opportunity to let him have a play with my IPaq (my MiniS was still being repaired) and he commented on the quality of the screen.
I noticed on his device tho the untouched state it was in, all the today items were out of the box and I couldn't find any third party software. He pointed out to me that for a while now the machine hadn't worked properly and was sluggish compared to when he got it. Mainly that the 'Tasks' application would not respond at all.
I tested and he was right, nothing happed... Not even a loading timer... So I looked puzzled and asked :
"So soft resets don't fix it?"
To which came the reply :
"Soft-what's??"
So I explained the whole 'x' button minimizes not closing thing, showed him the frankly ginormous amount of programs he had running in active memory, programs most likely that have been running for 3 years solid and then I held down his power button and waited for the reset prompt.
His face dropped when the screen changed and the loading bar went across, I could see he was worried about all his data and such. I told him not to worry pre-emptively to him saying anything and waited with baited breath my self to see whether my confidence would backfire on me. To see if true to form the simple things might badword up and leave me stammering for words that weren't curse words.
The today screen loaded, and I jumped directly into the contacts breathing a sigh of relief to see them all present and accounted for, then came the test. I pressed the Tasks icon and immediately it was in view.
Possibly the easiest I've ever impressed one of my bosses. :P
Next time he's in I've agreed to teach him a few things about his device, I'm gonna install Magic Button for closing his apps, and show him some other software that I think he might find useful.
I'm also gonna help him install ActiveSync. In the three years he's had the device he's used it as his main Calendar and Contact manager without so much as connecting it to Outlook once...
He's had three years usuage out of the IPaq as is, and with what I'm gonna show him next week I'm quite envious to say he'll probably get another three years of good happy usage out of that thing. :P
Being a bit of a PocketPC power user I some times take for granted those lovely 'must have' apps that plug up major flaws in the Win Mobile OS.
Recently tho I was wandering around the office at work, having only worked there about 4 months I'm often at ends for productive work to do.
Now one of our top brass was in this particular day and had set up his usual camp on one of the desks with his Laptop, Phone and PocketPC device. He travels a lot and spends usually a week every month or so in our building going into meetings and other such important stuff.
I noticed him on one of his rare moments where he had nothing to do and seeing his Pocket PC residing in an Aluminium case I offered him a cup of tea and then decided to strike up a conversation.
"How long have you had your PocketPC?"
Now at first I assumed it was an XDA of some sort... Maybe a XDA IIs or something but when he opened it up to show me I recognised it as an IPaq 1490.
"Three years." he answered.
I was kinda amazed by this. 3 years!!!
I have the itch to change my device after 6 months usually... I'm sure this guy in the fancy suit, with the fancy car could get a new one at least once a year...
Anyway we started to talk about what he actually used it for and he let me have a play with it.
It was a lovely little machine, I have no doubt it wasn't as powerful as my RX3715 or as fully featured but it was lovely and small, very light and easy to hold, one of the few complaints I have about the RX3715 is that after long periods being used to read ebooks the square body and weight of it can give a bit of hand cramp.
Anyway moving on I took the opportunity to let him have a play with my IPaq (my MiniS was still being repaired) and he commented on the quality of the screen.
I noticed on his device tho the untouched state it was in, all the today items were out of the box and I couldn't find any third party software. He pointed out to me that for a while now the machine hadn't worked properly and was sluggish compared to when he got it. Mainly that the 'Tasks' application would not respond at all.
I tested and he was right, nothing happed... Not even a loading timer... So I looked puzzled and asked :
"So soft resets don't fix it?"
To which came the reply :
"Soft-what's??"
So I explained the whole 'x' button minimizes not closing thing, showed him the frankly ginormous amount of programs he had running in active memory, programs most likely that have been running for 3 years solid and then I held down his power button and waited for the reset prompt.
His face dropped when the screen changed and the loading bar went across, I could see he was worried about all his data and such. I told him not to worry pre-emptively to him saying anything and waited with baited breath my self to see whether my confidence would backfire on me. To see if true to form the simple things might badword up and leave me stammering for words that weren't curse words.
The today screen loaded, and I jumped directly into the contacts breathing a sigh of relief to see them all present and accounted for, then came the test. I pressed the Tasks icon and immediately it was in view.
Possibly the easiest I've ever impressed one of my bosses. :P
Next time he's in I've agreed to teach him a few things about his device, I'm gonna install Magic Button for closing his apps, and show him some other software that I think he might find useful.
I'm also gonna help him install ActiveSync. In the three years he's had the device he's used it as his main Calendar and Contact manager without so much as connecting it to Outlook once...
He's had three years usuage out of the IPaq as is, and with what I'm gonna show him next week I'm quite envious to say he'll probably get another three years of good happy usage out of that thing. :P