Most of Saturday was spent shopping for two friends of mine who recently became owners of Windows CE devices. One friend bought the Sharp Tripad Handheld PC, while the other bought a HP Jornada Pocket PC. I decided to by both of them a combo stylus & pen. At first I thought about buying them at Stylus Central, but I then decided to see if there any available in local stores. It has been a long time coming, but we finally are at a point where PDAs are popular items at places like Compusa and Staples. Another place where you can find PDAs and accessories are Franklin-Covey stores.
Of course, you mostly find Palms at these stores, along with a smattering of Handspring Visors. The Staples I stopped at had a sign for an HP Jornada, but none visible while there were very prominent displays for Palm and Handspring. There was even a Sony Clie display, which I personally think is just one ugly PDA.
Franklin-Covey had a display model of the Casio E-125, and also had a few blue Casio EM-500s. This was the first time I had a chance to actually hold an EM-500 in my hand and try it out. It feels nice in your hand, and is smaller than the E-100's. It seemed responsive enough, but I started up Reader and saw that ClearType does not look very well on the EM-500. You can find Franklin-Covey stores at malls throughout the U.S., and they are increasing their line of accessories such as styluses and cases. Their catalog also lists the Compaq iPaq for $519. While I was there I bought the Franklin Planner Handheld Suite, which includes several programs for Palm Handheld and Pocket PC devices. I'm think about doing a review of this for PocketPC.com. While I was in the mall I stopped at the Colorado Pen Company to see if they had any styluses. None were in stock, though their catalog shows plenty. If there is a Colorada Pen Company store near you you might find some styluses there.
Next I headed over to Compusa. I have been shopping at this particular Compusa for many years, and I have always been frustrated by the lack of PDA products they sold. Today that store is dominated by Palm and Handspring displays. Both the HP Jornada 545 and 548 were on display, and they have a Casio E-125 and EM-500s (not in display). There is also plenty of accessories including the Targus Stowaway keyboard for the HP Jornada, along with styluses and cases.
In summary, there are a lot more PDA products out there in retail stores this year than in past years. (I didn't even make it to Best Buy or Circuit City, which I am sure has products as well.) So, if you are wondering what to buy your friends for Christmas, and they have a PDA, check out some of the accessories at any of these stores.
posted by Frank McPherson 2:26 AM |
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Gadget Man - Casio Cassiopeia EM500 Pocket PC This site has a nice table showing Pocket PC applications that are equivalent to Palm applications.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:33 PM |
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OmniSky WIRELESS Reader Nigel Pond did some followup with Omnisky to find out why the holiday special does not apply to the HP Jornada. In a reply to an email from Nigel Omnisky says the reason is that they don't sell the Minstrel 540 themselves, so that can't offer a rebate on it. Currently you buy the Ministrel 540 from HP. Thanks for the followup on this, Nigel.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:16 PM |
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Coco Estimate Download This is a software development estimating tool based on the USC COCOMO II Model. What is interesting is that this program was developed in Waba, which is a programming language I have never head of before. It sounds like Java, but it isn't. To run the estimating tool you need to download and install the Waba Virtual Machine, which is only available for SH3 and MIPS devices.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:45 AM |
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Yahoo - Pharos Announces the First-of-Its-Kind GPS Solution for the HP Jornada Pocket PC With State-of-the-Art Voice Prompting In September I reviewed the Casio E-125 version of Pharos' GPS. Now the HP Jornada version has been released. When I reviewed this GPS I found it's voice prompts to not be very accurate. I also didn't like how you zoom the map by using the stylus. The Jornada doesn't have a navigational button like the Casio, so moving around on the screen while driving must require reprogramming the Jornada's buttons. I wonder of Pharos' navigator program supports that?
I still think a PC Card GPS used with the iPaq PC Card Expansion pak and the iPaq is the best Pocket PC GPS combination. But that presents a problem of what to do with the map files since you wouldn't be able to have a CF card in the iPaq.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:11 AM |
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HP Shopping is selling the Jornada 820 for $599. This is a Handheld PC Professional device being discontinued by HP, but when it was first released it sold for nearly $1K. I think this is one of the nicest handhelds that was made, and has been very reliable. However, I found its performance to be a tad slow (which was surprising given its StrongArm processor) and graphics are pretty lame, though it does come with a full VGA screen. If you are looking for a good deal on a handheld for the holidays, this might be it.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:55 AM |
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You have one month (until January 1) to buy BSQUARE's software applications. After January 1 the only way to get products like bFax and bPrint is if they are bundled with your device.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:41 AM |
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Rob Borek has written a review of Cubicle Chaos. Rob points out that you can find instructions for the game over at Rapture Technology's web site.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:28 AM |
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At first it would seem that you can buy an OmniSky modem for only $99. But then you read the fine print and find out it is not available for HP Jornada users.
posted by Frank McPherson 8:19 PM |
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If you aren't concerned about synchronizing your financial data with a PC then Assets Manager might be worth a look.
posted by Frank McPherson 3:53 PM |
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I've posted a rant on digital rights management over on my other weblog, Notes From The Cave
posted by Frank McPherson 1:52 PM |
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deVBuzz.com is a new web site dedicated to developing Pocket PC applications using Embedded Visual Basic.
posted by Frank McPherson 1:15 PM |
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Here's a tip: TrueTip I just like this review. Thanks Steve!
posted by Frank McPherson 10:55 PM |
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PocketPCHow2.com: Where is? Two questions have been added: Where can I download the Microsoft Embedded Tools? and Where are Microsoft's mobile device downloads?
posted by Frank McPherson 7:33 PM |
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Cubicle Chaos Game Free game from Microsoft.. go check it out!
posted by Frank McPherson 7:16 PM |
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Recipezaar: Where the Recipes Are - Recipezaar Recipezaar has content specifically targetted for handheld devices.
posted by Frank McPherson 6:46 PM |
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Recipezaar - a recipe food cooking & nutritional info site Recipezaar is a site dedicated to cooking that is formatted for the Pocket PC.
posted by Frank McPherson 6:42 PM |
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A couple of sites have information regarding Compaq's efforts to address the quality issues of the iPaq Pocket PC. Pocket PC Thoughts Reports that changes made by the manufacturer of the iPaq (HTC in Taiwan) will fix the dust problem in the screens, as well as other hardware problems. Jason says that the problems have already been fixed, and should be reflected in the new devices.
Over at Brighthand, Steve Bush has updated his article on the quality problems, with some more specific information about what most people have reported as dust. Steve also reports that the problem I am having with the digitizer is being worked on by Compaq engineering, and will require a Flash ROM upgrade due in the December/January timeframe.
The digitizer problem I have with two iPaqs is very strange. It amounts to a dead spot on the screen where the location that you tap is registered somewhere else. Unfortunately, the location is right at the small letter entry point on the software input panel, making it difficult to use the character recognizer.
Earlier this year I reported the problem to Compaq, and they had me send them the iPaq. They supposedly replaced the screen, but after receiving the repaired device I discovered that the problem still exists. The strange thing is that the problem is not immediately apparent, it gets worse over time.
I hope both of the sites are correct and that Compaq is dilgently working to fix this problems, and that the fix will be available soon.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:22 PM |
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E&B HP54x Slipper Case Review The Gadgeteer has this review of the HP540 version of the EB Slipper Case.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:50 PM |
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pocketPCpassion.com - Review - SlipperPAQ Improved I purchased this case before Dale posted his review. There are actually two versions of the case, one with a belt clip and the other without a clip. So far I am not sure about the case. It pretty much requires that you use either the basic style pack, or the CompactFlash Expansion Pack, both which add bulk. You can just put the iPaq in the case, but then it is too loose. The Compaq leather case is designed for just the iPaq, so that makes it much smaller. OTOH, if I use the Compaq case then I have to constantly take the iPaq out of that case to put it in the CF Expansion Pack. I do take the iPaq out of the SlipperPAQ to sync.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:39 PM |
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Why all of the excitement about Palmax? They have been talking about producing a Pocket PC for nearly a year, and we have yet to see anything. The excitement is caused by all the features they claim to be including, as highlighted in Dale Coffing's article: Palmax’s Coming Out Party
Perhaps the wait is good news in that Palmax is making sure they can meet demand before anything actually ships.
posted by Frank McPherson 7:48 PM |
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CNET.com - News - Personal Technology - Pocket PC devices making headway against Palm: "Since the April introduction of Microsoft's third version of software for handheld organizers--after the first two failed to challenge Palm--the company's market share has grown to 18 percent from 10 percent, according to researcher IDC." From this article I get the impression that Gartner is the only group of analysts with a positive spin on the Pocket PC.
posted by Frank McPherson 4:41 PM |
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PDABuzz.com is reporting that the Palmax Pocket PC has a deal with a Florida based wireless service provider called LynkUs to manufacture a "custom-built Pocket PC." Over the years there has been more talk about Palmax than results. I'm from Missouri on this one.
posted by Frank McPherson 2:23 PM |
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