[milhaus]

Now that we have the missing sync for Pocket PC, I'm thinking of making the switch from Palm. I'm looking for a wifi enabled version, with the primary purpose being to surf the net and read email where there are hotspots, and to use the Office applications. I'm just wondering how effectively they work for this sort of thing - are they effective as browsers and email checkers, or should I not bother? I'm wondering also if it's possible to change the orientation of the thing so that I can take advantage of a wide screen rather than a long narrow one for web surfing.

Please do give me a sense of how effective you find them.

[maxintosh]

Originally posted by milhaus:
Now that we have the missing sync for Pocket PC, I'm thinking of making the switch from Palm. I'm looking for a wifi enabled version, with the primary purpose being to surf the net and read email where there are hotspots, and to use the Office applications. I'm just wondering how effectively they work for this sort of thing - are they effective as browsers and email checkers, or should I not bother? I'm wondering also if it's possible to change the orientation of the thing so that I can take advantage of a wide screen rather than a long narrow one for web surfing.

Please do give me a sense of how effective you find them.

I just made the leap from Palm and I couldn't be happier. My iPaq 2210/2215 kicks my Tungsten|T's sorry butt in every sense of the word--especially in multimedia and internet capabilities.

Maybe it does some good to give Microsoft competition in the marketplace, because they've really done a stellar job with Windows Mobile 2003.

I use my iPaq to connect to the web via the cradle, via Bluetooth to my Nokia 3650, and with a wireless CF card. There's a Network "menu extra" that sits on top. Tapping on it brings up a list of available networks.

The e-mail client, Inbox, works great. You can set up multiple accounts. I was pleased to see all of my .Mac folders syncronize when I connected. HTML mail displays nicely, attachments load properly, and sending & receiving is fast. It can periodically check for e-mail and alert you when you have a new arrival. Messages are displayed on the "Today" screen

The PocketPC gives you a myriad of input methods, including Transcriber which is an updated version of the old Newton's Rosetta engine. It's very easy to switch between input methods -- there's a pop-up menu at the bottom right. For letter-by-letter recognition (Graffitti) it suggests a list of auto-completetion words. Very handy.

I've found Pocket Internet explorer to work quite well. It supports WMA off the bat, and with the free PocketTV and Macromedia Flash, you can also load MPEGs and Flash movies. The "Fit to Screen" option compresses images and tables to look the way they were originally designed. It does a pretty good job rendering everything--I have yet to find a page it chokes on. Although MS IE does not support landscape mode (as far as I know), I believe Opera for PPC does. I haven't really found the need for it, though, since it renders well enough vertically.

An example of the Pocket PC's ability -- on the way to work on the train, I can stream a news broadcast through Bluetooth and watch it in Windows Media Player. Now that's pretty cool.

[geekwagon]

I also have a 2215 which I just purchased. The main reason I bought it was that when I upgraded from a T68i to a Nokia 3650 I could no longer get WebPro on my Tungsten|T to work over bluetooth at all. I have owned many PocketPC devices in the past, but in the end I have always gone back to Palm because they just didn't feel very "polished."

I doubt I will go back this time, at least until the PalmOS 6.0 stuff starts coming out. I concur with most of what the previous poster just said about strengths of the new OS. I tried a 5455 a while ago and found it to be absolute crap. While the hardware seemed like it should be fast, everything felt way slower than the Tungsten. Even text recognition was painfully slow and non-responsive. In this new version of the OS (PocketPC 2003) almost all of that has been cleared up. The text recognition is nice and responsive, the joystick actually works (unlike the 5455..) and programs feel fast again. I do a lot of reading of .PDFs on my handheld, and that is just a joy on the 2215 compared to a Palm device.

That said, there are still some problems.. The bundled productivity apps (Contacts and Calendar) are still total crap. If you have ever used a Tungsten|T with it's 5 way dpad you get kinda spoiled to almost *never* having to pull your stylus out for anything. The 2215 has the hardware to be just as good, but the OS doesn't want to let you leave the stylus in the silo. Most functions (like going back to the list from an individual contact) are just not available from the hardware buttons. Absolutely no excuse for that. Also, the bluetooth dialing and SMS capabilities are FAR inferior to the T's. I also hate having to manage what programs are open, but I guess that comes with the pervasive multi-tasking. Also, the whole system gets kinda slow when you have a heavy task running in the background not doing anything (like Acrobat Reader)

All in all, happy with my purchase though. For doing "advanced" stuff like multimedia and web browsing, PocketPC has it all over Palm right now. But, Palm still has the advantage as far as the basic datebook and contact management functions. Hopefully I will be able to find some shareware that will fill the gaps left by Address Book and Datebook. Does anyone know of a good Datebk5 clone for PPC? All the datebook replacements I have seen seem to be in a contest to determine who can get the most crap on the screen, not who can accomplish tasks in the most efficient way..

BTW: The Missing Sync doesn't sync wirelessly yet, via bluetooth or wifi. Supposedly the developers are working on it though, it just didn't make it into 1.0. I'm fairly happy with the product, but it is definitely a 1.0 product.. Lots of bugs in there primarily with recurring appointments and stuff like that.

[maxintosh]

Originally posted by geekwagon:
I also have a 2215 which I just purchased. The main reason I bought it was that when I upgraded from a T68i to a Nokia 3650 I could no longer get WebPro on my Tungsten|T to work over bluetooth at all. I have owned many PocketPC devices in the past, but in the end I have always gone back to Palm because they just didn't feel very "polished."

I doubt I will go back this time, at least until the PalmOS 6.0 stuff starts coming out. I concur with most of what the previous poster just said about strengths of the new OS. I tried a 5455 a while ago and found it to be absolute crap. While the hardware seemed like it should be fast, everything felt way slower than the Tungsten. Even text recognition was painfully slow and non-responsive. In this new version of the OS (PocketPC 2003) almost all of that has been cleared up. The text recognition is nice and responsive, the joystick actually works (unlike the 5455..) and programs feel fast again. I do a lot of reading of .PDFs on my handheld, and that is just a joy on the 2215 compared to a Palm device.

That said, there are still some problems.. The bundled productivity apps (Contacts and Calendar) are still total crap. If you have ever used a Tungsten|T with it's 5 way dpad you get kinda spoiled to almost *never* having to pull your stylus out for anything. The 2215 has the hardware to be just as good, but the OS doesn't want to let you leave the stylus in the silo. Most functions (like going back to the list from an individual contact) are just not available from the hardware buttons. Absolutely no excuse for that. Also, the bluetooth dialing and SMS capabilities are FAR inferior to the T's. I also hate having to manage what programs are open, but I guess that comes with the pervasive multi-tasking. Also, the whole system gets kinda slow when you have a heavy task running in the background not doing anything (like Acrobat Reader)

All in all, happy with my purchase though. For doing "advanced" stuff like multimedia and web browsing, PocketPC has it all over Palm right now. But, Palm still has the advantage as far as the basic datebook and contact management functions. Hopefully I will be able to find some shareware that will fill the gaps left by Address Book and Datebook. Does anyone know of a good Datebk5 clone for PPC? All the datebook replacements I have seen seem to be in a contest to determine who can get the most crap on the screen, not who can accomplish tasks in the most efficient way..

BTW: The Missing Sync doesn't sync wirelessly yet, via bluetooth or wifi. Supposedly the developers are working on it though, it just didn't make it into 1.0. I'm fairly happy with the product, but it is definitely a 1.0 product.. Lots of bugs in there primarily with recurring appointments and stuff like that.

I agree about the D-Pad... it isn't nearly as useful as it could be. What it really comes down to: Palms make better organizers, PPCs make better handheld computers. Palms are more intuitive to use; PPCs allow you to do a heck of a lot more.

I'm still looking for a PIM replacement, I'll let you know what I find... the built-in apps are just as good as Palm's bundled apps, but nothing comes close to Agendus/DateBk5 did.

There is a beta version available of the Missing Sync that fixes the recurring appointments and allows wireless syncing.

[maxintosh]

Wow! You should check out Pocket Informant (www.pocketinformant.com), I downloaded the demo and I'm quite amazed. IMO it blows Agendus out of the water! It is ridiculously customizable, makes great use of the navi pad, is easy to navigate and just wow.... I really like it!

[geekwagon]

That one does look pretty nice. The date book especially is quite nice. No bluetooth support for dialing contacts though, but I guess I don't do that all that often.

Did you notice they have an OS X installer on their site? That was quick! I was just complaining the other day about how I was still having to use my PC for just about all software installs since they were almost all wrapped in EXE files.

[maxintosh]

Originally posted by geekwagon:
That one does look pretty nice. The date book especially is quite nice. No bluetooth support for dialing contacts though, but I guess I don't do that all that often.

Did you notice they have an OS X installer on their site? That was quick! I was just complaining the other day about how I was still having to use my PC for just about all software installs since they were almost all wrapped in EXE files.

Yes, I did notice that, which made me REALLY want to support that company. I've been using that all day and it's fantastic. Oh, and check out Calligrapher too, it makes a great Transcriber replacement.