Tuesday, December 30, 2003
Admitting Defeat
Posted by Robert Levy in "ARTICLE" @ 01:00 AM
Ok – it’s time for me to come clean. There is a personal battle that I have been fighting over the last several months and last week that battle was lost. It was my belief that life would be easier if I only carried around a single device. Since getting my first Smartphone, I pushed myself to do this and for the first couple of months it brought about a great feeling of freedom. I could entertain myself, stay on top of my email and the news, plus keep in touch with people wherever I went with just one gadget that I could easily operate with one hand. Everything I ever needed to read while on the road was never more than a few taps of the thumb away. But then I saw the 4350 iPAQ Pocket PC from Hewlett Packard and everything changed. For those that don’t know, the 4350 is a thin device with 64 MB of RAM, a 400 MHz XScale processor, the latest Pocket PC operating system, built in 802.11, built in Bluetooth, and a built in QWERTY keyboard.
For me, the combination of 802.11 and the keyboard are what make this a perfect Smartphone complement. The downsides to carrying around just a Smartphone is that my GPRS connection to the net is pretty slow, the screen is too small for any extensive web browsing, and typing up lengthy emails or IMs is pretty painful. The 4350 Pocket PC solves this beautifully by giving me a big screen, a fast network connection, and a super fast way of typing.
On top of the device itself, I’ve finally been able to go through some of the software filed away in my “stuff to try out when I get a device with the Pocket PC 2003 OS” pile. Specifically, Microsoft’s Voice Command which lets me control Windows Media Player and other things using my voice (if you like the 1-handed Smartphone approach, the no-hands scenarios that Voice Command enables will blow you away). After that, I set up Plus Sync & Go which pulls video news feeds and music down to my device whenever I put it in the cradle. I created an “Auto Playlist” in Windows Media Player 9 on my desktop which randomly picks 200 MB worth of my favorite music so that means that the SD card in my Pocket PC is automatically filled with a new mix of great songs each day. Simply put, I’m really glad to be using a Pocket PC again. this doesn’t mean that my Smartphone has been put aside. It still goes everywhere with me and it’s what gets pulled out of the pocket when I need to quickly look something up. It also gets the nod when I have to travel light – the Pocket PC sits at home.
So there you have it… I’m admitting defeat and have gone back to being a 2-device geek. Please forgive me.
Will Smartphone kill the Pocket PC platform? No way. As long as the hardware and software developers continue pushing forwards in ways that take advantage of the unique features inherent in each form factor, there is plenty of room for both of them on store shelves and in my pockets.
For me, the combination of 802.11 and the keyboard are what make this a perfect Smartphone complement. The downsides to carrying around just a Smartphone is that my GPRS connection to the net is pretty slow, the screen is too small for any extensive web browsing, and typing up lengthy emails or IMs is pretty painful. The 4350 Pocket PC solves this beautifully by giving me a big screen, a fast network connection, and a super fast way of typing.
On top of the device itself, I’ve finally been able to go through some of the software filed away in my “stuff to try out when I get a device with the Pocket PC 2003 OS” pile. Specifically, Microsoft’s Voice Command which lets me control Windows Media Player and other things using my voice (if you like the 1-handed Smartphone approach, the no-hands scenarios that Voice Command enables will blow you away). After that, I set up Plus Sync & Go which pulls video news feeds and music down to my device whenever I put it in the cradle. I created an “Auto Playlist” in Windows Media Player 9 on my desktop which randomly picks 200 MB worth of my favorite music so that means that the SD card in my Pocket PC is automatically filled with a new mix of great songs each day. Simply put, I’m really glad to be using a Pocket PC again. this doesn’t mean that my Smartphone has been put aside. It still goes everywhere with me and it’s what gets pulled out of the pocket when I need to quickly look something up. It also gets the nod when I have to travel light – the Pocket PC sits at home.
So there you have it… I’m admitting defeat and have gone back to being a 2-device geek. Please forgive me.
Will Smartphone kill the Pocket PC platform? No way. As long as the hardware and software developers continue pushing forwards in ways that take advantage of the unique features inherent in each form factor, there is plenty of room for both of them on store shelves and in my pockets.
