Tuesday, June 25, 2002
Faster, wireless Pocket PCs
Posted by Jason Dunn in "NEWS" @ 08:21 AM
http://www.msnbc.com/news/771301.asp
Gary Krakow is an MSNBC journalist that I'd like to meet someday - he writes with actual working knowledge about Pocket PCs, which is a rather rare thing in the Palm-biased mainstream media ("Those Pocket PCs are so hard to use, not like my good ol' Palm..."). Give the whole article a read - he has some good first-hand observations about both the new iPAQ 3970 (affiliate link) and the Toshiba e740 (affiliate link). He doesn't go into the XScale performance problems, but that might be good news - if he didn't notice it, perhaps the issue on the 3970 isn't as bad as the Toshiba. Granted, he might not have fired up a video and watched it sputter. What I found most interesting in the article was his gushing over the iPAQ screen - and, trust me, it's quite warranted:
"Now it’s time to talk about the screen in detail. 64K color, 16-bit touch-sensitive transflective TFT liquid crystal display. Sound impressive? All you really need to know is that this is the best screen ever on a handheld computer — and rivals (in quality if not size) the best screens you’ve ever seen on a portable device. The big difference here is that Compaq has changed screens and the way the screen is lit — now from the back instead of the sides. I was never a fan of the Compaq side-lit screen. As a matter of fact the first time I saw it I wondered why many people told me it was so terrific. It looked slightly washed-out in subdued light — and just OK in bright sunlight. The new screen is an entirely different story. This time around Compaq got it exactly right.
To understand why, go to your nearest Compaq dealer and turn on this device. You’ll be bowled over by the quality of the screen resolution and color rendition. My test model came with 3 test photographs. Everyone who has seen them on the 3900 has been completely bowled over." Source: Humphrey Riley, Peter West
Gary Krakow is an MSNBC journalist that I'd like to meet someday - he writes with actual working knowledge about Pocket PCs, which is a rather rare thing in the Palm-biased mainstream media ("Those Pocket PCs are so hard to use, not like my good ol' Palm..."). Give the whole article a read - he has some good first-hand observations about both the new iPAQ 3970 (affiliate link) and the Toshiba e740 (affiliate link). He doesn't go into the XScale performance problems, but that might be good news - if he didn't notice it, perhaps the issue on the 3970 isn't as bad as the Toshiba. Granted, he might not have fired up a video and watched it sputter. What I found most interesting in the article was his gushing over the iPAQ screen - and, trust me, it's quite warranted:
"Now it’s time to talk about the screen in detail. 64K color, 16-bit touch-sensitive transflective TFT liquid crystal display. Sound impressive? All you really need to know is that this is the best screen ever on a handheld computer — and rivals (in quality if not size) the best screens you’ve ever seen on a portable device. The big difference here is that Compaq has changed screens and the way the screen is lit — now from the back instead of the sides. I was never a fan of the Compaq side-lit screen. As a matter of fact the first time I saw it I wondered why many people told me it was so terrific. It looked slightly washed-out in subdued light — and just OK in bright sunlight. The new screen is an entirely different story. This time around Compaq got it exactly right.
To understand why, go to your nearest Compaq dealer and turn on this device. You’ll be bowled over by the quality of the screen resolution and color rendition. My test model came with 3 test photographs. Everyone who has seen them on the 3900 has been completely bowled over." Source: Humphrey Riley, Peter West
