Boss
07-18-2003, 07:01 PM
Hi,
Sorry to disturb you all with some negative statement...
I have recently switched from my old Psion 3c to something more modern and
chose an IPAQ 3970 mainly because someone showed me the Navtech Navigation
jacket and some jacket to display power point presentations with a beamer.
These are really nice (I also bought them), but I am shocked how bad the
basic Pocket PC 2002 system is. I had expected that Win CE is bad and had
intentionally NOT bought it for several years, but I had hoped that by now
it should be useful! Here are my complaints:
1. In the calendar it does not seem to be possible to SEARCH for some text.
I used to do this a lot in the agenda of my old PSION. Does nobody need to
find out when a certain meeting will be or was?
2. In the contacts it does not seem to be possible to SEARCH for telephone
NUMBERS, which I also used a lot in the data of my old PSION. If I see on my
(cell) phone that a certain number has called me, how do I find out whether
this person is in my contacts?
3. The alarm is just ONE gong. If I do not hear it or if I am note there in
this moment it never reminds me again. So it is useless as an alarm clock.
My old PSION started rather quietly with alarm, became louder and louder,
and if I did not stop it, it started again after some minutes and so on.
4. The protection jacket that came with the IPAQ only helps to protect the
screen. It does not protect the on/off and record buttons. So in a bag it
happened from time to time that these buttons keep being pressed and the
battery is empty soon. (Of course this happens especially when you really
need it)
5. Pocket Word has rather limited capabilities (no tables, etc.) and is more
or less a simple text editor. In contrast to my old PSION where a
transformed Word file was only about 10% of its original size, the file size
on the IPAQ is however as ridiculously huge as on the PC.
6. Just like my PC I have to reboot the darn thing often. Sometimes it gets
stuck, starts to beep continuously, and does not stop until I press reset.
The only good thing is that unlike on my PC where I have to press three
infamous keys at the same time the reset here is easy with the pen. ;o)
Once I was out for lunch and the IPAQ was just sitting in the cradle. Then,
suddenly the thing started to beep continuously and my secretary was
desperate because she did not know what to do. Finally she put some stuff on
top of it so that it was not so loud!
7. Once there were problems with synchronizing and I had to rename the IPAQ
so that I could reconnect it. Then I had duplicate entries in the calendar
etc.
8. The battery is weak. I have the feeling that it does not really last
longer than that of an average notebook (but here you cannot change the
battery). I was used to travel with my PSION without having to buy a new
battery (2 AAAs) for weeks! Now I always need to carry the battery charger
with me.
I think I have more complaints, but at the moment I only remember the above.
To sum up, I am very disappointed with the IPAQ and it is not fully useful
as an organizer. So for the last weeks I have carried both with me (IPAQ and
PSION) but this is ridiculous.
So my questions are:
Am I doing something wrong?
Do I expect too much (e.g. that a new and expensive thing should be better
than a 7 years old organizer)?
Does anybody else encounter these problems and also feels the above
shortcomings?
Has anybody got some solutions for some of the above?
Richard
Sorry to disturb you all with some negative statement...
I have recently switched from my old Psion 3c to something more modern and
chose an IPAQ 3970 mainly because someone showed me the Navtech Navigation
jacket and some jacket to display power point presentations with a beamer.
These are really nice (I also bought them), but I am shocked how bad the
basic Pocket PC 2002 system is. I had expected that Win CE is bad and had
intentionally NOT bought it for several years, but I had hoped that by now
it should be useful! Here are my complaints:
1. In the calendar it does not seem to be possible to SEARCH for some text.
I used to do this a lot in the agenda of my old PSION. Does nobody need to
find out when a certain meeting will be or was?
2. In the contacts it does not seem to be possible to SEARCH for telephone
NUMBERS, which I also used a lot in the data of my old PSION. If I see on my
(cell) phone that a certain number has called me, how do I find out whether
this person is in my contacts?
3. The alarm is just ONE gong. If I do not hear it or if I am note there in
this moment it never reminds me again. So it is useless as an alarm clock.
My old PSION started rather quietly with alarm, became louder and louder,
and if I did not stop it, it started again after some minutes and so on.
4. The protection jacket that came with the IPAQ only helps to protect the
screen. It does not protect the on/off and record buttons. So in a bag it
happened from time to time that these buttons keep being pressed and the
battery is empty soon. (Of course this happens especially when you really
need it)
5. Pocket Word has rather limited capabilities (no tables, etc.) and is more
or less a simple text editor. In contrast to my old PSION where a
transformed Word file was only about 10% of its original size, the file size
on the IPAQ is however as ridiculously huge as on the PC.
6. Just like my PC I have to reboot the darn thing often. Sometimes it gets
stuck, starts to beep continuously, and does not stop until I press reset.
The only good thing is that unlike on my PC where I have to press three
infamous keys at the same time the reset here is easy with the pen. ;o)
Once I was out for lunch and the IPAQ was just sitting in the cradle. Then,
suddenly the thing started to beep continuously and my secretary was
desperate because she did not know what to do. Finally she put some stuff on
top of it so that it was not so loud!
7. Once there were problems with synchronizing and I had to rename the IPAQ
so that I could reconnect it. Then I had duplicate entries in the calendar
etc.
8. The battery is weak. I have the feeling that it does not really last
longer than that of an average notebook (but here you cannot change the
battery). I was used to travel with my PSION without having to buy a new
battery (2 AAAs) for weeks! Now I always need to carry the battery charger
with me.
I think I have more complaints, but at the moment I only remember the above.
To sum up, I am very disappointed with the IPAQ and it is not fully useful
as an organizer. So for the last weeks I have carried both with me (IPAQ and
PSION) but this is ridiculous.
So my questions are:
Am I doing something wrong?
Do I expect too much (e.g. that a new and expensive thing should be better
than a 7 years old organizer)?
Does anybody else encounter these problems and also feels the above
shortcomings?
Has anybody got some solutions for some of the above?
Richard