Today I ran into a employee of this corporation and saw her nice fancy Dell
PocketPC. We got into a conversation about PDA's (I've worked in Tech sales
on and off for 10 years so I am good at small talk). I showed her my Palm
Zire 72, and surprisingly her dell PocketPC was not much bigger. But her
Dell had a CF slot, which my Palm lacks. And besides Palm's are PDA's, and
PocketPC's are computers, so Palm has no need for a CF slot.

She told me about her job, and in her line of work, the CF slot is very
useful. She also told me that all employees with her job title in this large
company are assigned Dell PocketPC's!

We chatted about the new PDA Phones, Black Berry,etc.. We both agreed that
conventional PDA's are superior and should remain in production. But sadly
it appears that conventional PDA's (Palm and PocketPC) are going away.

A few months back I ran into a insurance agent in a Mexican Restaurant whom
was using a Windows CE Handheld PC! Again it was easy for me to get into a
conversation with this employee having worked in sales for so long, and
being all familiar with small talk, and conversation. I encouraged her to
visit hpcfactor.com. She was not familiar with the website. Its sad that a
Insurance company as large as that one was not familiar with HPCfactor.

Well I am only writing this to tell you that PDA's are still being used and
hopefully will not completely die away (not unlike the Handheld PC which is
dead).

Does any of you work for a company that utilizes PocketPC's? Or has your
boss told you to scrap the PocketPC in favor of a Smart Phone or Black
Berry?


John
--
The Bible calls sinners to Repentance (LK 5:32) and God's people to Holiness
(Rom 12:2).
www.cerm.info
Church Education Resource Ministries Founder and Director

At 30 Jan 2007 17:15:14 -0800 Bible John wrote:
> Today I ran into a employee of this corporation and saw her nice fancy
Dell
> PocketPC...

I had breakfast in my local Village Inn restaurant about a month ago, and
the waitstaff enter your orders into Dell PPCs which wirelessly send your
order to the kitchen staff. Pretty slick...


> She told me about her job, and in her line of work, the CF slot is very
> useful.

I found the CF slot useful in my older PDAs which didn't have wireless
built-in. I used the CF slot for a bluetooth card, wi-fi card, GPS card
and a 56k modem. Now my current PPC Phones has built-in wi-fi, BT, and
GPRS data so alOng with a BT GPS, I don't really miss the CF slot.


> We chatted about the new PDA Phones, Black Berry,etc.. We both agreed
that
> conventional PDA's are superior and should remain in production. But
sadly
> it appears that conventional PDA's (Palm and PocketPC) are going away.


As long as they are replaced with PPC Phones of equal power and ability I
don't see a problem (unfortunately, though, this hasn't been the case so
far. My PPC phone is as sluggish as my old Audiovox Maestro- a 2003
model...)

>
> A few months back I ran into a insurance agent in a Mexican Restaurant
whom
> was using a Windows CE Handheld PC! Again it was easy for me to get
into a
> conversation with this employee having worked in sales for so long, and
> being all familiar with small talk, and conversation. I encouraged her
to
> visit hpcfactor.com. She was not familiar with the website. Its sad
that a
> Insurance company as large as that one was not familiar with HPCfactor.


I'm not sure that's "sad" as most likely the company has their own
deployed apps and their HPCs do all they need them to do. HPC Factor is
an invaluable site, don't get me wrong- it's one of my faves, but IMHO
it's all about expanding the capabilities of your handheld, whereas
enterprise users are generally discouraged from "tweaking" or pushing the
enveloe on deployed hardware.


> Well I am only writing this to tell you that PDA's are still being used
and
> hopefully will not completely die away (not unlike the Handheld PC
which is
> dead).

Like a good friend in computer retailing used to tell his customers that
complained of product obsolesence, "it still does everything it did the
day you bought it." Sadly, it took the death of HPCs to make them
affordable enough for hobbyists like me- I'd neverhave bought my NEC 790
for the $700 they retailed for, but a $150 refurb was the "sweet spot" I
needed. I love it when people see it on a plane after I fire up a video
in TCPMP and think it must be the latest in ultra-portable laptops, and I
explain it's six years old and sells for $100 on eBay!


> Does any of you work for a company that utilizes PocketPC's? Or has
your
> boss told you to scrap the PocketPC in favor of a Smart Phone or Black
> Berry?

I can't help you with your poll- in my (very) small business I'm the boss
and use whatever device I want... ;-)

> And besides Palm's are PDA's, and PocketPC's are computers, so Palm has no
> need for a CF slot.

I'm not sure what you mean - the Palm is no less a "computer" than a Pocket
PC is. And as for "no need for a CF slot", I guess it depends on what you're
going to put in it. For storage, you can just use the SD Slot in the Zire.
Or for a GPS, if you can find a suitable driver. Of course there are things
you can get in CF form that you can't get (or won't be supported by the
Palm) in SD format, but storage is the most common.

> We chatted about the new PDA Phones, Black Berry,etc.. We both agreed that
> conventional PDA's are superior and should remain in production. But sadly
> it appears that conventional PDA's (Palm and PocketPC) are going away.

I don't think Pocket PCs are going away any time soon. There is much more
convergence now than there was, and the line between Pocket PC and
Smartphone is blurring as more companies release Pocket PC phone devices
that are small enough to be usable. The cessation of a requirement for a
240x320 screen has made this possible - I tested a Fujitsu Siemens T810 the
other day which is full Pocket PC Phone edition (as opposed to Smartphone)
but has a 240x240 display.

The problem is that Palm seem to have dropped the ball. Their market share
is a fraction of what it used to be, and they don't seem to be doing much
about it. The continued non-appearance of Palm OS 6, the continued buying
and selling of the Palm brand so no-one can keep up with who owns what, has
all damaged their credibility with large organisations.

But one of the issues Palm has is with their retailers. I actually witnessed
a conversation in PC World where a customer asked the salesman why Pocket PC
was better than Palm OS - she was told that the main advantage is that if
you make notes on your Pcoket PC, you can transfer them to a PC, which you
can't do on a Palm. Normally I keep out of conversations like this, but I
couldn't stop myself pointing out what utter c**p the salesman was talking.
But if the people selling the PDAs spout rubbish like this, it's no wonder
they don't sell as much.

Mike.

"Mike Edwards" <test@test.com> wrote in message
news:O2jvQkSRHHA.3500@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> But one of the issues Palm has is with their retailers. I actually
> witnessed a conversation in PC World where a customer asked the salesman
> why Pocket PC was better than Palm OS - she was told that the main
> advantage is that if you make notes on your Pcoket PC, you can transfer
> them to a PC, which you can't do on a Palm. Normally I keep out of
> conversations like this, but I couldn't stop myself pointing out what
> utter c**p the salesman was talking. But if the people selling the PDAs
> spout rubbish like this, it's no wonder they don't sell as much.
>
> Mike.
>

Thats false. I take notes on my Zire 72 and can transfer them to my ibook
easily. I can take notes in the Memo app, create a Word File in Docs to go,
write down notes in the handwriting app, and transfer them as pictures to my
ibook. Or I can take notes which the voice recorder app and transfer them to
my ibook as a voice wav file.

I like the Palm for these reasons over the PPC

1. Mac compatibility
2. Speed
3. Memo app (PPC's seem to lack a Memo like application equal to that of the
Palm OS). I also like how Memo is a database on your Mac or PC, where you
can catagorize memos. As far as I know PPC's need third party software for
these featyures.

But I do realize that PPC's have their strengths over the Palm. But for the
moment I will remain using my Zire 72. Been using it for 2 years and dont
plan to get rid of it anyday soon. If it breaks I'll buy another on ebay.



John

Todd Allcock <elecconnec@AmericaOnLine.com> wrote:

>- I'd neverhave bought my NEC 790
>for the $700 they retailed for, but a $150 refurb was the "sweet spot" I

I've been thinking on one of those NEC 790s as well

I need wireless tho

How do you add wifi capability to one?

On Wed, 31 Jan 2007 11:13:07 -0000, "Mike Edwards" <test@test.com>
wrote:

clip

>> We chatted about the new PDA Phones, Black Berry,etc.. We both agreed that
>> conventional PDA's are superior and should remain in production. But sadly
>> it appears that conventional PDA's (Palm and PocketPC) are going away.
>
>I don't think Pocket PCs are going away any time soon. There is much more
>convergence now than there was, and the line between Pocket PC and
>Smartphone is blurring as more companies release Pocket PC phone devices
>that are small enough to be usable. The cessation of a requirement for a
>240x320 screen has made this possible - I tested a Fujitsu Siemens T810 the
>other day which is full Pocket PC Phone edition (as opposed to Smartphone)
>but has a 240x240 display.

Many places, including some of our customers, want something like a
Pocket PC for collecting data, but definitely do not want telephones
and/or cameras.

-----------------------------------------
To reply to me, remove the underscores (_) from my email address (and please indicate which newsgroup and message).

Robert E. Zaret, eMVP
PenFact, Inc.
20 Park Plaza, Suite 478
Boston, MA 02116
www.penfact.com

Reply to message from r_z_aret@pen_fact.com (Wed, 31 Jan 2007 15:04:24)
about "Re: Quaker Oats employees all use Dell PocketPC's!":

r> Many places, including some of our customers, want something like a
r> Pocket PC for collecting data, but definitely do not want telephones
r> and/or cameras.

I am one of those people who appreciates having competent electronics - a
telephone that does what it is supposed to anytime, anywhere, whenever I
need a phone to make a call; a real digital camera that takes photographs
as opposed to snapshots; and a PPC that is a temporary laptop replacement
are that can do all my Axim can do with a screen no smaller than the
present one.

This trend towards convergence seems to produce gadgets that are 'jack of
all trades and master of none', and that irritates the heck out of me.

Take phones - the latest phones have all sorts of add-on crap but are no
longer tri-mode so if I happen to be camping in an area without digital
(but with analog) service I would be stuck. No upgrades for me unless it is
tri-mode.

I just hope that PDAs do not die off as there are many people like me who
do not care about smart phones that (a) have a 'micro screen' and (b) do
not have the same features as my separate phone and PDA.

Best Regards
Wayne Moses <wmoses@houston.rr.com> Wed, 31 Jan 2007 19:19:37 -0600

=== Posted with Qusnetsoft NewsReader 3.3

At 31 Jan 2007 12:09:15 -0600 me@privacy.net wrote:

> I've been thinking on one of those NEC 790s as well
>
> I need wireless tho
>
> How do you add wifi capability to one?

Get thee to www.hpcfactor.com and check out their "HCL" (Hardware
Compatibility List."

The NECs have a PCMCIA slot, and I happened to have an old Netgear
wireless card that worked fine. Newer cardbus cards won't work, but a
variety of old 801.11b cards work fine.

Another shout of thanks to Mr. Fitch for his invaluable website!

At 31 Jan 2007 19:47:23 -0600 Wayne Moses wrote:

> I am one of those people who appreciates having competent electronics -
> a telephone that does what it is supposed to anytime, anywhere,
> whenever I need a phone to make a call; a real digital camera that
> takes photographs as opposed to snapshots; and a PPC that is a
> temporary laptop replacement are that can do all my Axim can do with
> a screen no smaller than the present one.
>
> This trend towards convergence seems to produce gadgets that are 'jack
> of all trades and master of none', and that irritates the heck out
> of me.


But the PPC is already that, unfortunately. A lousy browser, mediocre
video/MP3
player, so-so e-mail device, and crippled file viewer/editor rolled into
one amazingly
compact device. Adding a mediocre phone and cheesy camera simply makes
it a better swiss-army knife (two more attachments!) than it already is.

I'll take the slightly smaller screen and slower processor f my HTC
Wizard over my larger-screened and faster Axim to have it all in one
"knife."

> Take phones - the latest phones have all sorts of add-on crap but are
> no longer tri-mode so if I happen to be camping in an area without
> digital (but with analog) service I would be stuck. No upgrades for
> me unless it is tri-mode.

I have a backup digital/analog pre-paid phone I forward to for that.
I've only needed it maybe a half-dozen times all last year (mostly in
National Parks), so it's not worth it to me to carry a comparitively
featureless phone 365-days a year to have better coverage the 2% of the
time I need it. (I understand this is very situational- your coverage
issues are likely vastly different than mine.) And when I did need the
backup phone, I found myself constantly p-o'ed I couldn't check my e-mail
on it! ;-)


> I just hope that PDAs do not die off as there are many people like me
> who do not care about smart phones that (a) have a 'micro screen'

Is the 2.8" screen on my Wizard really "micro" compared to the 3.5", or
even 4" screen of most standalone PPCs? The only difference I've noticed
is that "fingernail" typing (when I'm too lasy to pull out the stylus) is
a little bit harder to hit the right key on the soft keyboard.

> and (b) do not have the same features as my separate phone and PDA.

If PDA's make a quantum leap towards real laptop replacement, I'll agree
with you. But as long as WinMobile is as feature-limited as it is, the
extra 1.5" of screen and faster processor isn't worth carrying two devices,

at least for me. PPC-phones do a decent job of replacing "last year's"
PPCs. Now standalone PPCs need to step up and take advantage of their
superior hardware and actually DO things converged devices CAN'T do. So
far, there's very little a high-end PPC can do that my phone can't,
except maybe do it a little faster.

Todd Allcock <elecconnec@AmericaOnLine.com> wrote:

>Get thee to www.hpcfactor.com and check out their "HCL" (Hardware
>Compatibility List."

will do

I'm a college student so money is tight

but don't like lugging around a full size laptop

I think a PPC or HPC such as NEC will do me fine for
mobile use

I just need some thing to access hotspots..... check
email

Todd Allcock wrote:
> At 30 Jan 2007 17:15:14 -0800 Bible John wrote:
>> Today I ran into a employee of this corporation and saw her nice fancy
> Dell
>> PocketPC...
>
> I had breakfast in my local Village Inn restaurant about a month ago, and
> the waitstaff enter your orders into Dell PPCs which wirelessly send your
> order to the kitchen staff. Pretty slick...
>
I went into my local McDonalds and there was a girl walking up the line
of people waiting to be served and taking their orders with a pocketpc,
obviously wirelessly connected to the shops computer and when I got to
the counter all I had to do was pay.

>
>> She told me about her job, and in her line of work, the CF slot is very
>> useful.
>
> I found the CF slot useful in my older PDAs which didn't have wireless
> built-in. I used the CF slot for a bluetooth card, wi-fi card, GPS card
> and a 56k modem. Now my current PPC Phones has built-in wi-fi, BT, and
> GPRS data so alOng with a BT GPS, I don't really miss the CF slot.
>
>
>> We chatted about the new PDA Phones, Black Berry,etc.. We both agreed
> that
>> conventional PDA's are superior and should remain in production. But
> sadly
>> it appears that conventional PDA's (Palm and PocketPC) are going away.
>
>
> As long as they are replaced with PPC Phones of equal power and ability I
> don't see a problem (unfortunately, though, this hasn't been the case so
> far. My PPC phone is as sluggish as my old Audiovox Maestro- a 2003
> model...)
>
>> A few months back I ran into a insurance agent in a Mexican Restaurant
> whom
>> was using a Windows CE Handheld PC! Again it was easy for me to get
> into a
>> conversation with this employee having worked in sales for so long, and
>> being all familiar with small talk, and conversation. I encouraged her
> to
>> visit hpcfactor.com. She was not familiar with the website. Its sad
> that a
>> Insurance company as large as that one was not familiar with HPCfactor.
>
>
> I'm not sure that's "sad" as most likely the company has their own
> deployed apps and their HPCs do all they need them to do. HPC Factor is
> an invaluable site, don't get me wrong- it's one of my faves, but IMHO
> it's all about expanding the capabilities of your handheld, whereas
> enterprise users are generally discouraged from "tweaking" or pushing the
> enveloe on deployed hardware.
>
>
>> Well I am only writing this to tell you that PDA's are still being used
> and
>> hopefully will not completely die away (not unlike the Handheld PC
> which is
>> dead).
>
> Like a good friend in computer retailing used to tell his customers that
> complained of product obsolesence, "it still does everything it did the
> day you bought it." Sadly, it took the death of HPCs to make them
> affordable enough for hobbyists like me- I'd neverhave bought my NEC 790
> for the $700 they retailed for, but a $150 refurb was the "sweet spot" I
> needed. I love it when people see it on a plane after I fire up a video
> in TCPMP and think it must be the latest in ultra-portable laptops, and I
> explain it's six years old and sells for $100 on eBay!
>
>
>> Does any of you work for a company that utilizes PocketPC's? Or has
> your
>> boss told you to scrap the PocketPC in favor of a Smart Phone or Black
>> Berry?
>
> I can't help you with your poll- in my (very) small business I'm the boss
> and use whatever device I want... ;-)
>
>

I work for a large mining company and we use ppc's for our SAP
maintenance entries and for safety job audits.

Reply to message from woodee <blah@blah.com> (Sat, 03 Feb 2007 09:23:30)
about "Re: Quaker Oats employees all use Dell PocketPC's!":

w> I work for a large mining company and we use ppc's for our SAP
w> maintenance entries and for safety job audits.

Are you using it constantly wirelessly for your maintenance?

If so what is your battery consumption like, and what brand/model of PPC do
you use?

Best Regards
Wayne Moses <wmoses@houston.rr.com> Sat, 03 Feb 2007 19:44:34 -0600

=== Posted with Qusnetsoft NewsReader 3.3