DoctorCE has another remedy for a Windows CE ailment called CorrectTime. "Let's say an Outlook user lives in California (Pacific Time Zone) and creates an appointment entry for 8:00 AM while in their home time zone. Then, the user travels to New York (Eastern Time Zone) and updates the clock on Windows CE to reflect their "visiting city time zone." Pocket outlook, in turn, reacts by adjusting time of all appointments forward by 3 hours; for example, that 8:00 AM appointment is now suddenly moved to 11:00 AM." CorrectTime goes back and changes the appointments to be consistent with the local time.
The key thing to rememeber about appointments in Pocket Outlook is that the current time zone is included with the appointment. The idea is that when you create an appointment at 8 PM EST, you mean 8 AM EST. If you travel to California and change the time zone on your Pocket PC, the appointment changes to 5 PM Pacific, which is the same as 8 PM EST.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:24 PM |
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One of the problems I have with too many of the Palm faithful is that they lack class. It's another reason why I will never use a Palm OS device. They're just not something I want to be associated with.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:11 PM |
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My trek to Borders yielded the current edition of Pen Computing and Wireless Business & Technology magazines. When did Pen Computing become a bi-monthly? When I got home I found the current edition of Wired in my mailbox, and found a full page picture of Dale Coffing on page 60. Nice job mugging for the cameras Dale!
posted by Frank McPherson 11:58 PM |
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This evening I made a trek to the local toy stores, which for me include Borders and CompUSA. Every time I stop by the CompUSA it seems that the handheld displays become larger and more refined. They are so much better than the dark days of PDAs when most devices, Palms and Windows CE devices, usually ended up in one big heap in some corner. Now Palm, Handspring, and HP all have special in-store displays. There is also a more general purpose display showing Visors, Palms, Casios, RIMS, and iPAQS. In fact, tonight was the first time I saw an iPAQ on display at this particular store. They had two actually, the monochrome version and the color version. This is the first time I saw the monochrome iPAQ in person, and in IMHO it pretty much as the same display as the old Aero 1550. Unfortunately, the Pocket PC OS is really optimized for color displays, and I think it looks ugly in monochrome.
I also saw the new Palm M505 and I have to agree with all the reviews that I have read so far, the display sucks. In fact, I compared its display with the Palm IIIc, and the IIIc is better. I also think Palm is going to have a problem with in-store displays. When I first turned the 505 on the backlight was off. With the backlight off the screen is so dark as to be barely readable, even in the flourescent lighting at CompUSA. Imagine never owning this device and turning it on the first time. I would quickly move on to the next device. You would think the default setting is to have the backlight on when you first power the device up and then turn off, but it seems Palm has a better idea.
Even still, there is simply no comparison between the 505's display and any Pocket PC. The iPAQ was on a shelf right above the 505, and if I left the iPAQ on while the 505 is on I am sure eyes would quickly move upward. Unfortunately, Compaq has one problem with this display -- it is for the 3635, which is the iPAQ bundled with the CompactFlash sleeve and closts nearly $600. So, while the iPAQ quickly draws attention away from the 505, the price tag is a problem. Its too bad the regular iPAQ at $500 isn't sitting there, that would make the decision on which to buy a complete no-brainer.
I notice two other things about the 505's display that make it a real turn-off for me. First, the display still looks awfully grainy. It just doesn't look as good as any notebook PC or Pocket PC. The other thing is that I think the display is just too small. In fact, I think it is too small to derive any benefit from being a color display. Frankly, I just don't understand how these will sell. I do see the M500s selling madly, but I think the 505 will do even worse than the IIIc. At least I think it should.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:49 PM |
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This has been a week for trying out new Pocket PC software. Today I found Nyditot's Virtual Display, which is similar to Jimmy Landscape, but works on HP Jornadas in addition to other Pocket PCs, plus provides higher resolutions. I bought it at Handango and checked it out. Compressed 640x480 in landscape is readable when you crank the text in PIE to its largest setting. <via Pocket PC Thoughts> I've never played SimCity, but soon I will be able to play it on my Pocket PC if I wish. You can now listen to radio on your Pocket PC via streaming MP3. I just tired this with my Omnisky connection, and Omnisky is not letting me through to www.live365.com.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:29 PM |
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TheFeature :: It's All About The Mobile Internet "First of all, lets keep PDAs and Pocket PCs far apart, where they belong. Just because you can pay the same price for a high-end Palm as a basic iPaq doesn’t mean they are even remotely related in function and purpose. The broad application of the term "Palm" and liberal use of the PDA acronym are the primary causes of confusion in this area."
posted by Frank McPherson 1:31 PM |
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Cool news: Symbol has developed a 802.11b card in the CompactFlash form. Mike Lynch wrote an early review. < link via Pocket PC Thoughts >
posted by Frank McPherson 12:50 PM |
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Locating Success "And while Vindigo software can be used only on devices that run the Palm operating system, the company is rolling out a version that will work on mobile phones and is developing a version for Microsoft's Windows CE operating system-a shrewd move because the number of Windows-powered mobile devices operating in North America is projected to double this year to 4 million, according to ResearchPortal."
posted by Frank McPherson 6:15 PM |
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Ok, here are your best wireless options if you own a Compaq iPAQ Pocket PC and the PC Card expansion pack. Both options uses the Sierra Wireless Aircard 300 that costs $399 without service. Until June 30 you can buy a bundle that includes the modem and one year of service for $599. That comes to $200 for 12 months of wireless service, or $16 per month. Or you can go with the Compaq/GoAmerica iPAQNet bundle that is $399 for the modem and $39 per month with a one year contract. That is $20 less than Omnisky's month plan, but requires a one year committment. There is a 30-day return policy and $200 cancellation fee. The $16 deal from Omnisky is considerably less than the $39 I am currently paying for Omnisky on my HP, but of course requires the up-front purchase. Plus, my Ministrel sled that I bought from HP would effectively be useless.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:48 PM |
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OmniSky fees reach new heights with iPaq - Tech News - CNET.com Here is some official news regarding Omnisky's pricing plans, and that if you want to use an iPAQ with Omnisky you will have to pay up to $59.95 per month, which is $30 more than Palm OS users have to pay. In fact, that is $20 more than the $39 I pay right now to use Omnisky with my HP 540.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:27 PM |
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Here is a shocker. I used up the ink on my Dr. Grip Duo Pen and Stylus! Honestly, I can't remember the last time I actually used up a pen. It is also interesting given that I am so stylus centric that I would use up a pen. As you can tell, I am kinda taken aback by all of this. How do I recover? Should I get myself a new stylus? Hmm..... (And I wonder if I can get refills at a local store rather than having to order a refill online?)
posted by Frank McPherson 11:53 PM |
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One more thing about the upgrade... if you use a Stowaway keyboard it might be a good idea to disable the keyboard before doing an upgrade. Tap on the Stowaway icon in programs and then clear the Enable keyboard checkbox.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:47 PM |
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Now here is the $10,000 question. Should people who already upgraded to the aborted upgraded now do this upgrade? I am thinking probably.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:27 PM |
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Apparently version 1.77 of the Compaq iPAQ Pocket PC ROM has been released, and pocketPCpassion has the complete low-down, including step-by-step instructions, some history, and a running survey. So far 168 votes have been cast and 94 have successfully upgraded, with the majority of the rest waiting to see if there are problems.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:24 PM |
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Blogger is having a planned outage for more server upgrades. I will most likely be offline for some time on Wednesday. Information that I find during the day will be over at the other place.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:19 PM |
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News: Intel To Transfom Handspring Visors
Wahoo! You can buy a 802.11b wireless ethernet Springboard for a Handspring Visor for $299. Gee, and I just bought an SMC PC Card that works with my iPAQ Pocket PC for $100. Sounds like a winner to me.
posted by Frank McPherson 5:44 PM |
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infoSync : Straight from the big screen The movie Quantum Project stars Stephen Dorff, Fay Masterson, and John Cleese and runs 32 minutes. It will cost you $4 to get this 30 MB movile in Windows Media 7 format to play on your Compaq iPAQ.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:46 PM |
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CLC Journal There doesn't appear to be a demo version of this program available to download, so to try it out you must buy it. Bother!
posted by Frank McPherson 10:16 AM |
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I've been using the Franklin Planner software's Daily Record of Events for associating notes with Outlook's Journal. Based on this Brighthand review CLC Journal has more features that I may find useful. I'm probably going to give it a try, and I wonder how well it can co-exist with DRE? <via Pocket PC Thoughts>
posted by Frank McPherson 9:59 AM |
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Yesterday I wondering whether the @migo could work as my primary Pocket PC. Today I read BrightHand's review and I learn that there are some compatibility problems with the Sierra Wireless Aircard. Since the primary reason why I would consider getting the @migo is for wireless Internet access, it's incompatibility with the main wireless cards is a show stopper. I can't really understand how a device aimed at corporate and vertical markets would have this problem, and so once again I am concerned about the real viability of this product. There is a part of me that wants UR There to succeed with this, but time after time they disappoint.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:49 AM |
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Pocket PC Passion - review - @migo PD-600C - Photo Comparisons I am starting to wonder if I want to pick up one of these @migos to be my primary Pocket PC. I am thinking it would be very nice to just have the Sierra Wireless card plugged in without bothering with a sleeve. Jason tells me that there are a couple dozen going around with the Microsoft Mobility Tour, so I will ge ta chance for a first hand look and we'll see what we see.
posted by Frank McPherson 5:38 PM |
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Handhelds boot up to new role as owners' primary computers (5/07/2001) This makes me wonder why Microsoft isn't targetting the education market.
posted by Frank McPherson 5:23 PM |
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Dale has a link to a current deal at Amazon, where you can buy a 128 MB Viking CompactFlash card for $102 after a mail in rebate.
posted by Frank McPherson 1:29 PM |
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There's a good discussion going on at Brighthand about practical uses for Pocket PCs.
posted by Frank McPherson 1:02 PM |
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There has been some buzz on the Pocket PC web sites about Vieka's file explorer replacements because they enable you to connect to a network share. You can only connect to one share at a time, and if you download PE Pocket Explorer you can connect to ftp servers. For some reason I can't get the program to access a share on a Windows 2000 server, but it can get to shares on my W2K Pro workstation.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:59 AM |
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Marlof Bregonje is now contributing to Pocket PC Thoughts as a correspondent. He'll be helping keep the site up to date while chief Thinker Jason Dunn treks around the country on the Microsoft Mobile Experience Tour.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:26 AM |
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