Compaq Ipaq Pocket PC
My experience so far . . .
I have:
- A Compaq Ipaq 3600 Pocket PC with 32mb of RAM. See the Foxpop CE Review
- CF card holder sleeve.
- A 32mb CF card.
- A cradle with serial port connection to the PC.
- A Prestec 56k CF card modem. Typically from www.expansys.co.uk
- A Targus Stowaway keyboard. See the Foxpop CE Review
- A travel case.
- An Ericsson SH888 mobile phone with an Infra-red port. A Nokia 8210 is newer.
- A three year CarePaq warranty from Compaq which has been invoked to correct a failed battery and faulty power supply, a leaking screen and to remove dust from behind the screen. There was an instant replacement service.
More recently I have the Compaq Pocket PC 2002 upgrade and Service Pack One,
and they deserve a separate page of review. See the list at the foot of the page.
Software
In the Ipaq apart from the inbuilt Word, Money, Excel and Outlook and other ample standard pocket software I have added:
- HPC Spell for writing and spell-checking e-mails in a larger font size.
- HPC Notes for automatic text entry of standard text replies.
- See the Foxpop CE Software Review
- DeveloperOne Platinum Access Panel - brilliant for automatic minor text entry.
- Gigabar - highly recommended to greatly enhance the file and screen navigation.
- Palm (formerly Peanut) Reader to display e-books.
- H-Bomb HTML writer from Handango.
- PE FTP HTML file transfer program also from Handango.
- AvantGo automatic webpage updating software.
Fax sending and receiving via www.trinité.com
With a free fax viewer (tiff files) called PQView 2.0.13 www.hanaho.com
My experience so far . . .
From an initial disbelief that this truly pocket sized PC could do all that I wanted, especially without a keyboard, in a matter of very few weeks I have become of absolutely convinced that this is the definitive PDA of the year and the future of mobile computing.
With minor exceptions the Ipaq handles all of my needs and does so in a user-friendly, efficient and generally very reliable way. The Foxpop CE Review gives all the details with total accuracy, let me just add in the little quirks that you only discover on the road in actual extended use.
General
It is very easy to accidentally touch the exterior sound recording button and make a recording of you fumbling in your pocket or bag for the Ipaq.
Pocket Outlook
Pocket Outlook does not always collect every one of your e-mails at the first request, and the solution is to always make a second send/receive sweep of your mailbox and now and again you will find a few extra e-mails appearing in your Inbox. This is an ancient problem and one that Microsoft addresses in Pocket PC 2002.
Text Entry using the Screen Keyboard
I found that I was highly prejudiced and disbelieving concerning this method of text entry but after three solid weeks of use, the Targus keyboard now rarely comes out. Access Panel and the truly brilliant HPC Notes provide me with major replies at the touch of a button and the Word Completion software, known as T9 on the latest mobile phones, learns your writing style, remembers your words and predicts what you might write with an amazing accuracy, although its suggestion box is occasionally capable of hogging the screen and cannot be dismissed except by the use of any key.
In fact to my intense surprise I observed the Word Completion software learning Spanish, accents and all, as fast as I could write it and by the end of a week it was becoming exceedingly competent and accurate.
However . . . after around 100 e-mails were in storage in the Pocket Outlook Sent and Pending folders, the Pocket Outlook programme suddenly became unstable, slow and then crashed the Pocket PC. Was it overloaded as happens with Psion's Messaging Suite or was a particular e-mail upsetting it ? I don't know.
What I do know is that only a soft reset, a run of the self test facility and a recalibration of the screen brought back something approaching normal behaviour.
And then to my intense disappointment I found that all the memory of the Word Completion programme had been lost and it was back to its original, pristine, virgin condition. What a shame - all that Spanish had vanished.
In the end only a hard reset and a run of the self-test restored the Ipaq to its usual smooth, fast self. Not a major problem in itself as I had a 95% back-up on CF card and in the PC, but sadly one done before Word Completion had had its language lessons. The moral of the story is as always to perform regular back-ups as a matter of discipline, and if you travel to take them with you on a CF card.
Keyboard
The truly brilliantly designed Targus keyboard (See the Foxpop CE Review) comes with a driver v.1 bug that causes a key to unexpectedly repeat endlessly thereby ruining your document as the only way to stop it is to delete the document or switch off the machine. The yet to be proven solution is to download an updated driver from http://www.thinkoutside.com/support.html
To be continued . . .
Two Steps Forward and Three Back ?
My first impressions of the Pocket PC 2002 Upgrade from Compaq
Back to What do I Need in my Pocket Office ?