| * Palm versus the PocketPC * |
Editorial by: Greg Gaub
Even with all the recent hubbub, there are probably people who don't know the whole story, so here it is.
In mid September, two members of Microsoft's Mobile Devices Division (the PocketPC people) held a conference in Redmond called "PocketPC: Wireless and beyond." They invited 36 palm pundits from around the country to attend this conference. The invited guests consisted of PalmOS related web site owners, PUG coordinators, and people who frequent the Palm mailing lists and Usenet newsgroups. As guests of Microsoft, they were flown into Seattle, put up at a ritzy Bellevue hotel, fed delicious foods, and given fancy toys (2 PocketPC computers, and a bag full or accessories)... oh yeah, they also were given a hands-on workshop on PocketPC computers.
One of the guests contacted me, probably because I plugged Coola early on, and he was now working with them, and told me that many of the guests were meeting in the hotel bar a couple of hours before the reception. I accepted his invitation, and drove up to the hotel and met many of the guests. I met a ton of cool people from the world of Palm on the web, which was fun. When it came time for the reception, although I was not invited, I headed up to it and spoke to Beth Goza, one of the organizers of the event. She apologized that I was not invited, as she did intend to invite someone from the local PUG. She did agree, however, to come to a future SeaPUG meeting and show us what they had.
I learned a few weeks later that the guests of the conference were also participating in a program they called "share the joy" where each guest suggested a person they think should receive a PocketPC (PPC for short) and be able to join the group on a mailing list to share tips, help, and even suggestions for improvement. This was Microsoft's ultimate goal, to get feedback from die-hard Palm users on the PPC, not to try to bribe people into switching and evangelizing the PPC. Well, it certainly worked. The PPCWB mailing list had over 2000 messages in less than 2 months! Most of those were feedback to Microsoft on problems being experienced and how things could be improved. How much things on the PPC will actually change remains to be seen, of course.
Needless to say, someone among their group recommended me as a recipient for their "share the joy" program, and I was soon playing with a brand new HP Jornada 548 with a 48meg Compact Flash memory card. I joined the mailing list, and started learning...
One of the first things a Palm (V) user like myself was giddy with is the larger screen, and the color. I also dove right into putting some MP3 music on the CF card and listening to the songs on the Jornada. It was really cool, to say the least. Before plugging the Jornada into my computer, though, I did some research into the message archives of the mailing list. USB can be quirky, so I made sure to follow the instructions precisely, and was pleasantly surprised with the ease of installation of the PPC "ActiveSync" software. It worked well, and with few (very minor) problems. I have since had no problems with it, although it does work differently from the Palm HotSync software. The most notable difference is the fact that when a PPC is connected to the computer, it's actually connected. You can browse the contents of the PPC as if it were another hard drive. It also makes you feel as if you've lost control over your computer, because as soon as you put the PPC into the cradle, it starts to sync. Personally, I kind of prefer being the one who decides what and when my device does what I want it to do. ;-)
I continued exploring the capabilities of the PPC, installing new software, and trying the built-in features. It was fun to record voice messages, play solitaire, view pictures, and even MPEG video on the little color screen there. When it came time for me to see what was "out there" I was really disappointed. I went to a few sites, one of which claimed to be one of the best sources for WinCE/PPC software on the web. This site boasted that the number of available programs was up to 180! Yes, that's right, one hundred and eighty. Compared to the staggeringly high numbers of PalmOS titles (nearing 8000 or more, I believe?), 180 titles was laughable. Some say that the PPC does all the things Palms try to do, but right out of the box... this is partially true... but what if it doesn't do what I want it to do? If the software doesn't exist, even in the 3rd party scene, I'm SOL. Wait... it get's better... Not only are PPC users limited to 180 or so 3rd party software titles... they can't even use them all! Akin to the growing problem of PalmOS 3.5 specific programs, PPC users have to make sure the program they want will work on the hardware they have. Microsoft does not seem to care how the hardware companies arrange things, as long as it can run the WinCE 3.0 (PPC) Operating System. So, half the programs I wanted to try, I could not try, simply because I had an HP, and the developer wrote it for a Casio, or an iPAQ, or whatever else. How many developers are going to want to develop multiple versions of a piece of software like that? Obviously not nearly as many as for PalmOS. :P
My woes continued... I'm a staunch Eudora user. I have no intention of EVER installing Microsoft Outlook on my computer. I won't get into why not, but I'll give you a one word reason: viruses! That said, I attempted to sync my PPC with Eudora to get my e-mail mobile. No such luck. Not only does Microsoft have no intention of ever supporting Eudora as a desktop e-mail client for the PPC, but no one else has either. There are 3rd party conduits for other contact managers and such, but no luck for us Eudora users. Can someone please explain to me why Microsoft can't use it's own technology (MAPI, which is what allows Palm users to sync with Eudora!) to allow people to use the software they choose? I can't think of any logical reason... at least not other than increasing that monopoly thing... but I digress. So, I'm SOL with Eudora. The PPC, for me, is now nothing more than a glorified MP3 player and picture viewer.
I could go on with knocking the PPC, but I won't. There really are some nifty things about it... like a bigger color screen, and built-in MP3 player... other than that, really, my Palm does the rest... at least for me. What am I to do with this expensive hunk of computer that I never use anymore? Give it to my wife! Not only is my wife unimpressed with Palms (too simple, I guess ;-) but she uses all MS products at work, including Outlook for e-mail, and Word, Excel, and all those other things that the PPC tries to do (although it doesn't even do all those as well as some Palm programs can, hehe). Once she gets the Jornada set up at work, she'll be using it to sync her e-mail, contacts, appointments, and all that "cool" Outlook stuff. She will also probably make use of Pocket Word and Excel, and she likes to play solitaire a whole lot more than I do. ;-)
So, what do I think now? Well, I think it's pretty obvious from the stuff you've just read, but I'll sum it up here for you. Needless to say, I'm still using my Palm, and barely even touch the PPC anymore.
People who should buy a PocketPC computer:
People who should buy a Palm computer:
I'll disclaim this one more time: These are my opinions. If you disagree, that's fine by me, many people do. These are my opinions based on my experiences based on my needs as a hand-held computer user. The only way for anyone to know how THEY feel about it, is to try them out for themselves, or read a whole lot more than just my opinion. Thanks.
If you would like to discuss my comments, please do so on the SeaPUG mailing list.