.KEYWORD favor
.FLYINGHEAD ONE USER’S STORY
.TITLE Why lose the Palm device in favor of a Pocket PC?
.OTHER
.SUMMARY Seeking more than is offered in a Palm device, Ray Cheshire considered the various options open to him in the realm of handheld computing in Britain. When all was said and done, the choice was clear: Pocket PC. In this article, he offers an account of his search and gives a humorous look at a typical day in his life as a Pocket PC user.
.AUTHOR Ray Cheshire
Why lose the Palm device in favor of a Pocket PC? A good question, and no doubt one that’s going to be debated for some time. For me, it wasn’t a simple choice. I needed some time to think my decision through. I have to have complete trust in a product before I’ll endorse it to anyone.
.H1 An alarming deficiency
Palm devices contain the whole workings of life. From contacts to class lists to diaries, it was all there. Yet mine was losing favor. I was missing alarms. Not because I’m deaf but because the things are so damned quiet. I used to own some Psion machines, and they were loud. Even the humble Siena could muster an alarm of sorts. The Psion 3c and Psion S5 had glorious alarms but were a little bulky. I’d learned Graffiti and had become quite competent at it, but I was missing the added functionality of the Psion machines, namely, word-processing and spreadsheets.
.H1 In search of something more
Yes, the Palm device was simple, and yes it was intuitive; however, it was time for more. Unfortunately the world of Palm didn’t offer a decent upgrade path for the Palm IIIx. I could go slimmer with the Palm Vx or color with the Palm IIIc. Yet both of these are expensive options that offer no increase in functionality. The Palm VII will soon be released in Europe, yet even that offers nothing more than some very basic browsing that a WAP phone could supply a lot more cheaply and with the added bonus of being a phone.
No, I wanted something more, and I decided to check out the options. Previously, I’d had a Psion S5, and I regard the EPOC 32 OS to be one of the best. But the Psion S5mx is a bulky device, so I looked at the Revo. I liked it. In fact, I liked it a lot, but the keyboard isn’t a patch on the Psion S5’s. Also while the screen is okay, it’s not nearly what I expect of a Psion machine.
.H1 The search ends with the Pocket PC
This led to my wandering over to the Pocket PC stand. These machines aren’t well promoted in this country, unlike the Palm device, which seems to get all the best places on the shelves. I played with the ones on display. The Casio E-115 has a gorgeous screen but is a little bit of a Billy Bunter, while the HP Jornada 545 just looks amazingly cool and functional. I’m not being shallow here.
The HP Jornada 545 could show Nokia a thing or two. This is one very stylish machine. The real killer for me though, apart from all the groovy software, was the metal casing and the flip lid (rather like the one on my old Palm IIIx). Call me a Trekkie if you will, but I like this particular flip lid. It inspires confidence and lends the machine an air of dignity that the brash iPAQ couldn’t nearly muster. Yes, I even like the idea of incorporating the stylus in the flip lid. This reduces the need for increasing the real estate of the mother unit.
The Palm OS still offers one of the best PIMs around. It’s simple and it’s straightforward. However, if your day is anything like mine (with the need to make a quick voice note; check the wording of a document; dash off a few quick emails (often with attachments); and then do the minutes of a meeting), you’ll soon come to love the Pocket PC way of working. It takes the best of Psion and the best of Palm and marries them to the few good bits from Windows CE. For me it’s the perfect mix of Walkman, organizer, mark book, and text editor. It truly is a computer you can fit in your pocket. Well done, Microsoft. It’s taken you three attempts, but you’ve done it.
Now lets look, a little light-heartedly, at an average day for my little Pocket PC and me:
.H1 A day in the life of a Pocket PC (ab)user
I lay in bed wondering what that blessed noise is. As the morning fog that inhabits the deepest recesses of my mind gradually recedes, it occurs to me that perhaps it could be an alarm. Bloody hell, it is an alarm. I get up quickly and eventually find the accursed beast and dismiss it. Yes folks, the accursed beast, with which I have a love/hate relationship, is the alarm on my Jornada. It’s loud. There’s no way you can miss it. I can even hear it in the car when I’ve got The Verve blasting out of the speakers.
.H2 Pocket PC and a nutritious breakfast
So where are we in my little life? Ah, yes, I’m now dressed, downstairs, and making my better half a cup of tea. It’s amazing to see the civilizing effect a cup of tea can have on one’s morning routine. While the kettle is boiling, I check my agenda. My Jornada is set to go straight to the Today screen when I turn it on. After having been a heavy user of Action Names on the Palm device, there are a few things I miss with the Pocket PC, not the least of which are icons I could attach to appointments.
The agenda reveals a very important meeting I have with a parent. A quick check of my notes reveals his youngster has been up to no good in practically every subject bar one. I make a new reminder to see the teacher of the subject that is deemed "acceptable" by the youngster.
.H2 Off to work
With the kids dressed and breakfasted, it’s off to work I go. Not the best of journeys because it’s rush hour on the motorway (we can drive at 70 miles per hour in the UK), and I’ve a load of road works to negotiate. Getting into work, I haul my bags up to my lab. Science teaching has one great advantage over other subjects: space. I check my agenda again to see if I have to leave a note for our technician. Then it’s off to see the "acceptable" teacher. Jornada in hand, I scribble some additions to my notes. Seems our youthful friend, like many of the disaffected youngsters I’m happy to call my students, likes sport. Hates every other subject, mind.
After having been to morning briefing and indulged in some friendly banter, I move off to see the parent. Before doing so, I interrogate the school’s behavior database. We keep a "criminal record" of each student. I collect the printouts and muse to myself the failings of today’s so-called paperless office. The meeting with the parent goes unexpectedly well. Whilst returning to my lab, I scribble an addendum to my notes on this student.
Once in my lab, I synchronize the Pocket PC with my laptop. As we are yet to receive a network connection in this part of the college, I print out a record of my meeting and send it off to the student’s year head. A copy is also placed in the student’s record. After that, it’s the usual standard teacher fare of teach, mark, and record. Depending upon where I am, I’ll either enter the records straight into the laptop or alternatively straight into the Pocket PC. Neither machine is brilliant at this sort of data entry. If it’s exam time and there’s a lot of data to enter, then it’s time to use a proper full-size keyboard.
As you can see the wee beastie that is my Pocket PC can come in quite useful.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on Psion devices, visit http://www.psion.com/index_computers.asp.
For more information on Symbian’s EPOC operating system, visit http://www.symbian.com/index.html.
For more information on Casio’s E-115, visit http:\//www.casio.com/personalpcs/product.cfm?section=19&market=0&product=1714.
For more information on Hewlett-Packard’s Jornada 545, visit http://www.hp.com/jornada/products/540/index.html.
For more information on The Verve, visit http://the-raft.com/theverve.html.
.H1 Bulk reprints
Bulk reprints of this article (in quantities of 100 or more) are available for a fee from Reprint Services, a ZATZ business partner. Contact them at reprints@zatz.com or by calling 1-800-217-7874.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO Ray Cheshire is a freelance writer and a high school science teacher in the UK. He is also a contributing writer for http://www.smaller.com and http://www.brighthand.com.
