01-23-2004, 06:00 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 108
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Pocket PC vs Pen and Paper: Fight!
As you may already know, I recently reviewed PhatPad, and writing the review really got me thinking about the Pocket PC as a replacement for pen and paper. So this time I'm going to take a closer look to see if our favourite gadget, teamed up with an application such as PhatPad, really stacks up as a credible alternative to pen and paper.
Now I'm not talking about all the stuff we've already replaced with our Pocket PC: the diaries, phone books, calculators, handheld games consoles, mp3 players, etc. I'm talking about going back to basics: can the Pocket PC fundamentally replace that simple plain piece of paper that I bet many of us still have to hand to fulfill a myriad of miscellaneous tasks?
So in the blue corner we have the Pocket PC running PhatPad; in the red corner, the undefeated champion: a piece of paper and its tag team partner, a pen. Who's your money on?
I've already looked at PhatPad in some detail, so in this follow-up I'm just using it as an example of state-of-the art note-taking software on the Pocket PC, rather than picking on it particularly. After all this article is really about the Pocket PC itself, but clearly the hardware's no good without some decent software.
The Challenge
To even enter this contest the Pocket PC solution must provide standard pen and paper features such as easy editing, the ability to use different colours and line thicknesses and support for sketches and diagrams. To stand a chance of winning, it must overcome paper and pen's key strengths, namely fast start-up time and speed and fluidity of writing.
The new kid on the block (new as compared to how long paper's been around) may try to distract us with advanced features such as handwriting recognition and text searching. However, the old dog still has some killer blows up its sleeve, such as near-zero thickness and persistence; can these still outweigh the bells and whistles of technology? Seconds out...
Round One: Flat or Phat
A single piece of paper may have near-zero thickness, but a pad of several hundred pages certainly doesn't. Clearly this isn't a problem on the Pocket PC, as the number of notes or pages you can have is only limited by your storage memory, and the only physical space taken up is the Pocket PC itself. This is fine unless you only want to make a few short notes, which is after all the focus of this comparison, and in this case the Pocket PC is bloated to say the least.
So Round one goes to pen and paper. Pocket PC: 0, Pen and Paper: 1.
Round Two: Size Isn't Everything
Paper comes in many sizes, but unfortunately Pocket PC screens don't. However, applications such as PhatPad allow you to create notes in a variety of virtual sizes with enough zoom options to make the most of them, and in any case the Pocket PC isn't competing with Letter or A4 size paper - that's a job for the Tablet PC.
Round two goes to the Pocket PC. Pocket PC: 1, Pen and Paper: 1.
Round Three: Time to Write
In a straight race against the clock, I can be ready to write with pen and paper in a second or two (assuming of course that I can actually find a pen). With the Pocket PC it's at least two or three times slower: fetch Pocket PC, open case, turn it on, launch PhatPad, extract stylus, select 'New' menu option; by this time I may have forgotten what I was going to write.
So Round three goes to pen and paper. Pocket PC: 1, Pen and Paper: 2.
Round Four: Speed and Fluidity of Writing
With paper you can choose your favourite writing device, be it cheap ballpoint or gold fountain pen - pick the right one according to your taste and writing with it can be as smooth as silk.
Advanced digital ink technology in applications like PhatPad makes handwriting on the Pocket PC screen almost as smooth and quick as writing on paper. As an aside, the only fly in the ointment here for me is the less-than-substantial stylus that came with my Axim X5 - the device's only Achilles heel in my opinion.
Round four is close enough to be a draw. Pocket PC: 2, Pen and Paper: 3.
Round Five: Editing
Unless you're using a pencil or special ink, a key limitation of paper is that you can't easily and neatly change or erase what you've written, so there's an opportunity here for technology to come to the fore. And it doesn't disappoint, as PhatPad's 'Erase' mode allows quick and easy rubbing-out, much quicker and easier, in fact, than with paper writing.
Round five is an easy win for the Pocket PC. Pocket PC: 3, Pen and Paper: 3.
Round Six: Diagrams
Now writing is all well and good, but you also need to make the odd sketch, map, diagram, etc. Of course this is easy enough on paper, but the results aren't going to look too good if you can't draw a straight line or a smooth curve. PhatPad has a neat shape auto-correction feature which makes your lines straight and your circles, well, circular. You can also change pen colours and line thicknesses with a simple toolbar button click.
Round six is also a win for the Pocket PC. Pocket PC: 4, Pen and Paper: 3.
Round Seven: Persistence
Paper writing is always visible; you don't have to switch anything on to see it, it's just there, staring up at you, all the time. Paper writing is persistent, there are no batteries to run out, memory to fail, data to become corrupted - unless of course you spill your coffee over it or your dog eats it.
Round seven is a win for pen and paper. Pocket PC: 4, Pen and Paper: 4.
Round Eight: Extras
To use an analogy, if we were talking DVDs then on the extras front pen and paper would just give you scene selection and maybe a theatrical trailer if you're lucky - i.e. there aren't any of note. The Pocket PC solution, on the other hand, is more akin to the 4-disc extended version of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, what with handwriting recognition, text searching, built-in lighting, etc.
Round eight is an easy win for the Pocket PC. Pocket PC: 5, Pen and Paper: 4.
The Final Bell - And The Winner Is...
Ok so in this slightly lighthearted competition the Pocket PC seems to be the winner, although it's by no means a walkover. Obviously in reality, whether you prefer one or the other depends on your specific subjective needs as both have major pros and cons which are difficult to weigh objectively, making it fairly easy to twist the results whichever way you want.
For me, to really replace pen and paper, Pocket PCs need to be flatter, have bigger screens and have stylii that are as nice to hold as a pen. PhatPad on the Pocket PC comes pretty close, but computers have a long way to go to replace the simple perfection of paper.
Ultimately they will need to be always on, foldable and have no real value, so you can pass them around like you would, er, a piece of paper. But we're going to need to wait for true electronic paper - and maybe a moneyless society - for that.
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01-23-2004, 06:07 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 37
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"Pocket PCs need to be flatter, have bigger screens and have stylii that are as nice to hold as a pen."
Hmmm, I think the description fits the Tablet PC...
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01-23-2004, 06:07 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 34
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Good article. It reminds me of a point I made a while back to a friend: no matter how good our technology is, we'll probably never replace paper. It's just too simple, reliable, and cheap to do away with. Not to say that I would want to live without my PocketPC, but paper rocks.
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01-23-2004, 06:11 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,264
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Hard to explain, but with pad and paper, each note can be a singular item. IE, you can rip the note from the pad and give it to someone else, you can stick the note in the appropriate place for it to get action. When reviewing workpapers, I leave sticky notes throughout the workpapers, a PPC can't do this. I can leave a note on someones door. Plus, I can crumble up a note and throw it in the garbage (office basketball). 
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01-23-2004, 06:13 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 108
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Traveller
"Pocket PCs need to be flatter, have bigger screens and have stylii that are as nice to hold as a pen."
Hmmm, I think the description fits the Tablet PC...
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Yes, it could - perhaps what I really should have said was slightly bigger screens.
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01-23-2004, 06:14 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,264
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I wonder if we are attached to paper simply because it is the first thing we used and are accustomed to it. For example, I could not imagine writing anything of any great lenght on paper, but that is because I have had a computer to do it on for most of my life. If a child had a PPC and got in the habit from the getgo of writing all notes electronically, their opinion might differ.
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01-23-2004, 06:25 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,162
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Very good article!
You're right on the dot that both solutions suit different people. I usually use paper just because I can write faster on paper - although I have to live with the 25% chance I won't be able to read my writing later.  ops:
The main reason I don't use my pocketpc for this purpose is start-up time though.
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01-23-2004, 06:32 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 468
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Good article! I'm afraid I would have to disagree with your conclusion, though.
As much as I love my Pocket PC, I still mostly take notes on paper. It's faster and easier. The one advantage I think Pocket PCs could bring would be storing the notes in a format I could search on later. But generally I've found that current handwriting recognition technology is not up to the task.
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01-23-2004, 06:33 PM
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Magi
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 2,386
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Funny you write this article... I'm actually trialing Phatpad now with the sole purpose of trying to find something to replace my need to scribble notes from time to time.
While I do have HPCNotes, I've been using the standard Notepad for the impromptu scribbles, but Notepad is gawdy to work with.
I'll see if I draw the same conclusion...
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01-23-2004, 06:39 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 49
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Excuse me I demand recount.
paper can be made into paper airlane and other vairous origami object.
So that should also give paper extra point. :mrgreen:
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