I finally did it. I gave up my Palm PDA and switched to an Audiovox Maestro
PDA-1032, which is actually a Toshiba e570 minus 32 MB of RAM. (It's one of
the softest OEM efforts I've ever seen. Even though it says Audiovox on the
front, it says Toshiba on the back.) Why did I go with the Audiovox? First, I
really liked the product's design. Not only is it smaller and lighter than the
Compaq iPAQ, Hewlett-Packard Jornada and Casio Casseopia devices we use in
the lab, it also has both a Compact Flash slot and an SD memory slot. So I can
connect to my wireless network using a Symbol CF Wi-Fi network card as well
as have a removable 64-MB memory card. The second reason I went with the
Audiovox is because it's a bargain, and I was using my own money to buy it.
The migration went fairly smoothly. One of my motivations for making the
switch was so I could use the PDA for messaging, something I wasn't doing
with the Palm. Yes, I know I could have, and I did try it once, but the wireless
network throughput using the Xircom Wi-Fi card was rather poor. I had been
syncing my Palm with Palm's desktop organizer, so it took me a while to figure
out how to move my schedule, contact database and to-do list to the
Maestro. I needed to install some Microsoft Outlook synch software, which was
hidden on the original Palm CD. Once I synced the Palm to Outlook, I was able to
easily move that data to the Maestro across the Wi-Fi LAN. That works great.
Given the volume of e-mail messages I receive every day (at least half of which
are junk), I find the messaging capabilities useful. I use Network Computing's
Communigate Pro IMAP server for e-mail and the Microsoft Pocket PC
messaging client seems to work very well with it. Now I can sit in bed and filter
my junk mail while my wife watches a TV documentary about Egyptian
mummies. (She sees that as a slight improvement over my previous habit of
sneaking off to my office several times each night.) I can also filter mail during
boring meetings.
I've found the file sharing capabilities of Pocket PC to be a real advantage. By
sharing a volume on my PC, I can easily move files -- mostly JPEGs and MP3s at
this point -- from my PC to my mobile device. Frankly, I wish the interface was a
little easier to use, but it's tolerable. I'm shocked that Microsoft doesn't
provide a JPEG viewer with the base distribution, but there are good third-party
utilities. While I'm impressed with the file sharing, I'm disappointed that there's
no printer sharing. I know, next version.
Wireless Web access is a mixed bag. The combination of the Maestro and the
Symbol wireless NIC works well from a performance standpoint, but it's still
very difficult to find decent Web content that is PDA-friendly. Even the sites that
cater to Pocket PC users are, for the most part, formatted for PC screen
displays. Someday, when enough of these devices are out there and connected
to networks, Web designers will cater to our needs. But for the time being, I am
relegated to a tiny corner of the Web that is PDA-friendly. It's also worth
noting that heavy Web surfing does suck the Maestro's battery dry in less than
an hour. In that regard, the HP Jornada, with its removable battery, or the
iPAQ, with its battery-powered PC-Card sled, make for a superior wireless LAN
device.
Do I miss the Palm? Honestly, I thought I would, but I don't. Yes, the Palm
devices are a little bit smaller, but when equipped with an equivalent wireless
NIC, there's really not much of a difference. I also really appreciated the Palm's
rock-solid reliability, and I keep expecting the Pocket PC OS to crash more
often, but so far, it's been pretty good. I haven't really done a thorough
analysis of third-party software availability, but to be honest, I didn't use my
Palm for much more than a personal organizer. In the long-run, I think I'll
probably be better positioned with Pocket PC, which pains me a bit in light of
my emotional reluctance to concede yet another market to Microsoft.
Posted by Brad Shimmin at 3:51:30 PM
