What's the difference between a Pocket PC
and a Palm PDA? Is there even a difference?
These are the questions that I have been hearing
at work lately. Many of my co-workers are
becoming interested in the new Pocket PCs
and have a lot of questions as to what they
are. Most of us just group them with Palm
PDAs. But, a Pocket PC and a Palm PDA are
very different.
Palm
PDAs have been an intricate part of many people's
lives. Helping us to stay organized, on-time,
and not forget important dates like our anniversaries.
They do exactly what the their name states,
they are Personal Digital Assistants. Pocket
PC do this and more, they perform PC functions.
Because there are some major differences between
Palm PDA (powered by a Palm OS) and Pocket
PC (In most cases, powered by a Microsoft
OS), I decided to put together this resource
page about Pocket PC.
PCWorld
"More
professionals and consumers are relying
on PDAs. According to the Gartner Group,
sales of hand-helds in the U.S. will increase
by 300% to about 28 million over the next
four years. Not too long ago, the choice
was simple. The 5 oz, monochrome-display
Palm III reigned as the de facto standard
because it was practically the only option.
These days, shopping for a PDA means sifting
through numerous choices.
"Consider
the Pocket PC PDAs that are based on the
latest version of Windows CE from Microsoft.
About the same size as Palms but with color
screens and Pocket versions of familiar
Microsoft applications such as Word and
Excel, Pocket PCs make the first good case
for Palm fans to switch (see "Pocket PC
or Palm: Which Will Win Out?" for more on
this competition).
"Which
to buy? We looked at 12 in all, and put
each to the test in six areas: note taking,
personal information management, e-mail,
expense tracking, document handling, and
entertainment."
This
is an excellent review of the major Palm PDA
and Pocket PC that are on the market today.
It looks at the major differences and similarities
between the Pocket PC and Palm PDA. It reviews
everything from price to character recognition
that the different units use.
To
read more of this review, visit PCWorld.
ZDNet
"Far
be it from me to rush to the defense of
Microsoft, but there's no two ways about
it: Pocket PC is superior to the Palm. Anything
you can do on a Palm, I can do with a Pocket
PC, and do it faster, and prettier, too.
Furthermore, there are several things my
Pocket PC can do that your pathetic little
Palm couldn't even approach on its best
day. In fact, my Pocket PC can do almost
everything your *desktop* can do.
"Want
to edit images? Or chat with buddies from
Yahoo, MSN, and AOL. Why not play some MP3s?
Enjoy some videos? Windows Media Player
Technology Preview lets you get streaming
media: That's a taste of even better things
to come. Still not satisfied? How about
a Web server? While you're at it, have a
Trivial FTP server and an FTP client. Here's
a ZIP utility.
"And
games? Don't even get me started. There
is no comparison between a game like Turjah
and anything for the Palm. Or, if you're
a fan of the classics, try one of these
DOOM versions on Pocket PC. Sorry, Dave,
but the Palm just can't handle games like
this. But maybe you're content playing monochrome
tic-tac-toe."
This
review looks at both sides of the spectrum.
Dave attacks the Pocket PC, and Mike attacks
the Palm PDA. They point out strengths and
weaknesses of each. This page also contains
links to great downloads for the different
styled OS.
To
read more of this article, visit ZDNet.
Cnet
"Microsoft
announced its first major upgrade to Pocket
PC last month, but the software giant's
hardware partners had to wait until today
to reveal their new product offerings. All
the first-round players--HP, Compaq, and
Casio--are here, along with newcomer Toshiba.
But while there may be more choices to come,
one thing you're sure to notice is that
these offerings are more similar than they
are different, including their higher price
tags (which start closer to $600 than $500).
This is partly because Microsoft has imposed
more stringent hardware requirements (all
devices must use an ARM-based processor
and flash ROM, for example) and partly because
the manufacturers were forced to deliver
all the features that made Compaq's H3600-series
iPaqs so popular just to compete. But with
such similar hardware specs, it'll be easier
for you to add third-party software to a
new Pocket PC. In the past, owners had to
contend with different versions of software
for different devices.
"Only
HP was able to deliver a final production
unit in time for us to write a full review.
But we got a sneak peek at the other new
models and will serve up our first impressions
here. In the coming weeks, we'll deliver
full reviews of all the new Pocket PC handhelds."
To
read more of this review, visit Cnet.
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