06-12-2003, 01:18 AM
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Sage
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 797
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I take my leave...
It's sad, really. I wanted to like the Pocket PC. I gave up Palm for 6 months. I thought the PPC was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Problem is, I can't overlook the annoying little issues any more.
Sure I can deal with resetting once a day, everday. I don't really care.
Sure I can deal with the system telling me it's out of memory because the OS has no idea how to manage it.
Hell, I can even deal with the fact that PPC's are generally (generally, not always) bigger.
But data is important, and Activesuck is the worst thing that ever happened to handhelds.
I sync with my desktop at work and at home. Guess what? Sometimes they end up syncing, sometimes they don't. Sometimes I don't get my contacts on my handheld, sometimes I do. Sometimes I'll schedule an appointment on my desktop at work, and never see it again until I go back to my desktop at work. It doesn't end up on my PPC. It doesn't sync to my home desktop.
I check off tasks and they don't get marked as done in the handheld. Ever. Yet they get marked off on the desktop, and then when I mark it done on my home ppc as well, I have to resolve a conflict (!).
I loved my Axim, but what the hell good is it if I can't rely on the data that's in it? I suppose if I had one PPC and one desktop it wouldn't be a big deal. One sync and done. It would seem that multiple partnerships trips this baby up big time.
So I'm back to using my Tungsten T. Sure it doesn't have all the wowee kazowee features of the PPC, but at least I know the data will be there when I need it.
That to me, is more important than all the neato skeato features in the world. Data security and availability is a primary feature for me, and as long as Activesuck doesn't improve, I'm steering clear of the PPC. Too many quirks for what should be something I can depend on.
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06-12-2003, 01:24 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 1,479
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Heh
So how much you want for yer Axim and accesories then?
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06-12-2003, 02:24 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 1,051
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vincenzosa,
unfortunately I may be right there with you but for different reasons. I love (well, at least like a lot) my Axim but I've been frustrated beyond description by the "round-tripping" formatting loss of my word documents. Without being able to maintain formatting in my school papers, my PPC has SIGNIFICANTLY less value to me. Add to that, two days ago a co-worker showed me a Zire 91/71/something like that. It was AMAZINGLY quick and had an integrated camera and MP3 player. Form factor was fantastic.
Without the ability to sync my word documents with formatting, I pretty much use my axim for mp3 and avantgo. I can get that with a faster, lighter, better form factor, Palm.
Hate to say it, but I've already started selling my accessories.
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06-12-2003, 06:47 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 211
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I'm not at the point of switching back to Palm yet, but man do I hate this useless Activesync software. :bad-words:
I can't believe how much time and effort is wasted trying to make this whole process work the way it should. This is the one part of the whole PPC experience that would make me switch back.
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06-12-2003, 10:17 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 140
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I can't understand the problems people have with Activesync. I've never had trouble with it, ever (I have owned two Microsoft based PDAs and currently have an SPV). Not even a little bit. With other platforms I've used, I've never had trouble either.
If ever problems have arisen, I've looked beyond the sync software (whether ActiveSync or PCSuite or whatever) and looked at the drivers of the hardware connected (whether serial or USB) - and I'm no hardware whizz.
As for the the rest, I have noticed that the SPV has (compared to the Nokia 7650 Symbian smartphone) lots of wonderful whizz-bang features, nice screen and lovely sound, but is missing little things that makes the 7650 so easy to use. It's almost as if Symbian goes out of its way to help the user while Microsft movile software expects too much of the user. (I've never had to wait more than 1 second for a menu to appear on my 7650, I often have to wait more than 5 on my SPV).
Don't get me wrong, the SPV is nice, and I am getting along with it Ok, but it's not a patch on the 7650.
For me, it's these issues that Microsoft need to sort out if people are to stay with the platform because these are what make the devices frustrating to use.
Though I don't pretend to know where the line between pretty GUI and performance should be drawn, but with Series60 applications like sLauncher coming out, I know who the current leader is (at least in the smartphone arena).
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06-12-2003, 10:43 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 170
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Shame you have to go, but I guess its what you need to do so good luck. I do recommend Palms to many people, mostly those who have very little or no tech skills and want a PDA. Being so simple and reliable is good - precisly the reasons why you are leaving and the biggest disadvantages of the pocketpc platform.
Give some hope to ppc os 2003. I would be VERY dissapointed if Microsoft does not solve the memory management problems in this version. The sync problems... not so sure. But it is a different OS underneath, based on the powerfull CE 4.0, and they are going to optimize it so it really takes advantage of the new processors. I would guess memory management, being such a long outstanding and public issue, will be solved on this version.
I was going to update my original ipaq (from loooong ago) this month, now waiting to see what devices 2003 brings out. As a programmer, CE 4 does have a lot of advantages (.net) and we will see many cool and complex application out for it because of this.
Cheers, and enjoy!!
pd. I would have gotten one of those sleek Clie's instead.....
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06-12-2003, 10:55 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Sep 2002
Posts: 145
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I left Pocket PC for Palm at the beginning of the year. I realised that I never took my iPAQ 3970 with me because of it's size; so I bought a Tungsten T.
I have used the Tungsten since then but am about to go back to a PPC now that some smaller devices are about to be released as I've realised I prefer PPC.
I particular I like the ability to multitask - I hate that when I move between apps on the Palm (which isn't straightforward) I end up back at the main screen of each.
The Zire 71's screen is nice but the 1910 and hopefully 2200's is even better which is the other thing I like about PPC - rectangular screen aspect ratio - a squre screen feels unatural to me somehow. I know the Sony's have rectangular screens but they make the iPAQ look small!
I agree that compared to Hot Sync ActiveSync can be troublesome on occassion.
I think that the great thing is we have two different approaches to PDA OS and design which gives us the users a choice - choose the PDA/OS that suits your needs.
I have just had a play with a Sony Ericsson P800; not sure I want a Smartphone yet but that throws in a whole new approach to consider.
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06-12-2003, 11:01 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 248
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The system instability requiring daily resets and out-of-memory problems are mostly due to poorly written third party software. I also run quite a selection of software on my Pocket PCs and have to reset once every other week or so.
This is not unlike a desktop PC where a poorly written third-party driver can crash or lock-up the whole system.
I also generally don't have ActiveSync issues, but that is possibly due to a pretty stable set of quality software on the PC as well as robust PC hardware in general.
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06-12-2003, 11:05 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 56
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I know just what you mean. Activestink is a terrible, slow peice of software. On my work machine I keep a guest partnership and replaced all the activesync functions with XtndConnect - mainly because I use Lotus Notes at work. At home I have activesync and outlook, and I get the usual range of problems including unresolved items et al. I guess I oculd use XtndConnect there too, but I am worried it will upset a fragile balance if I do.
I bought my wife a palm and use hotsync for that. It works in seconds and has never had a problem. That is pretty cool. THe bad news is that my wife didn't like the palm, so it doesn't get used a whole lot.
I have thought about using a palm, but I love my iPaq 5450, especially the bluetooth link to my T68 and listening to music on my SD card. I guess I will reconsider again when I next upgrade in another 2 years.
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06-12-2003, 11:07 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 44
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Oh my secret shame. Forgive me all for I have sinned - one month ago I bought a tungsten C. Believe it or not, it's not that I found anything seriously wrong with PPC but rather, at the time, it seemed like a good time for a change.
I am also not abandoning the PPC platform.. herck I'm still reading PPCT :-) But I will give my Tungsten its year or so worth of use, and then evaluate my requirements and the platforms when it is time to change PDAs again.
There are definately things that I cannot do on palm (video playing still sucks because of the conversions, but it does work). But for the most part, I can still do almost everything that I was doing on my PPC (heck I even have a today screen :-) ). The integraed thumboard on the tungsten compensates for some of the limitations.
So in conclusion, I didn't change because one platform was better / worse then the other, but rather because the C took my fancy. May sound strange, but I understand the strengths and weaknesses of both platforms, and can live with either.
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