Pocket PC 2002 Devices

For years, Microsoft has tried to break into the PDA market by developing software that runs on PDAs. In the mid-1990s, Redmond introduced the small-footprint, portable, embedded Windows CE OS for use in small, clamshell-cased PDAs with keyboards called handheld PCs (H/PCs). However, in a market already dominated by players such as 3Com, consumer response was underwhelming. The OS went through several revisions, and the devices evolved as well, gaining features but remaining a minor part of the PDA market.

About 2 years later, Microsoft introduced a version of Windows CE aimed at shirt-pocket—sized devices, initially called palm-sized PCs. Consumers saw a larger, heavier, more expensive alternative to Palm's Pilot and stayed away in droves. Still, Microsoft and its hardware partners kept trying, adding bright color displays, faster processors, and more memory while increasing battery life. The result was the Pocket PC.

Two vendors—Casio and Compaq—broke from the pack, offering unique features that began to redefine the category. Casio introduced a 16-bit-per-pixel screen capable of displaying digital images and even video; Compaq added a 206MHz Intel StrongARM processor and put the OS in flash memory to make the device field-upgradable. Last year, Microsoft made these features standard in the OS and added new connectivity options, including built-in network drivers, VPN support, and even a Windows Terminal Services client. The result, Pocket PC 2002 is the most powerful class of shirt-pocket PDA ever offered for personal or business use.

Hardware
In general, Pocket PC 2002 devices fall into one of two categories: general business devices and rugged industrial models. Devices in the first category, from Audiovox, Casio, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard (HP), and Toshiba, are shirt-pocket size—typically about 5" long, 3" wide, and a bit more than 0.5" deep—and weigh about 6 ounces. These units have bright, transreflective color LCDs that rival notebook PC screens in clarity (the screens actually are easier to see outdoors in direct sunlight than notebook PCs' screens) but offer a relatively low display resolution of 320 x 240 pixels.

The second group of devices, which Intermec Technologies and Symbol Technologies make, are very different. They're larger—from 7" to 8.4" long, more than 3" wide, and at least 1" deep—and heavier, weighing from 10 ounces to 16 ounces. That extra size and weight buys you a device that, depending on the model, might include internal expansion slots (e.g., for wireless NICs), an integrated barcode scanner, and a physical numeric keypad on the front panel.

Whereas earlier Pocket PCs used a StrongARM, MIPS Technologies R4x00, or Hitachi SH-3 CPU, all Pocket PC 2002 devices use a processor from Intel's StrongARM family (all the current models run at 206MHz). Pocket PC 2002 devices are also field-upgradable: The OS and built-in applications reside in flash memory. Again, this feature contrasts with earlier models, many of which either required physically replacing the ROM to upgrade the device or weren't upgradable at all.

All Pocket PCs use a touch screen and stylus to input text through an onscreen keyboard or handwriting-recognition software. Pocket PC 2002 devices have dispensed with Communication Intelligence Corporation's (CIC's) Jot recognizer, which Microsoft licensed for earlier PDAs, but include two other character recognizers: Block Recognizer, which emulates the Grafitti system that Palm PDAs made popular, and Microsoft Transcriber, which Microsoft licensed from the developer of the recognizer that Apple Computer used on its Newton PDA. Transcriber can recognize neatly written script as well as printed characters.

Users also use the stylus to select from menus and press buttons. Stylus use required modifications to the typical Windows UI conventions—for example, instead of right-clicking to bring up a context-sensitive menu, users tap and hold the stylus on the display. Microsoft radically simplified the Windows UI for early Pocket PCs and has continued that process with Pocket PC 2002 devices, although operations still typically require more stylus taps than Palm's environment does.

Hardware buttons on the device's front panel and sides complement the touch screen. The buttons typically include an on-off switch, as many as four programmable application buttons, and some form of up-down control with which users can select menu items and scroll through lists. Casio, HP, and Compaq provide a front-panel control, similar to that on an alphanumeric pager, for up-down—left-right cursor movement. Game software is the primary user of this control. A Record button activates the built-in voice-recording application, which uses a built-in microphone. Pocket PCs also have a built-in speaker. For the best sound, you can plug stereo headphones into the built-in headphone jack.

You can use a Pocket PC's infrared (IR) port for data synchronization with an IR-equipped PC or to "beam" data to other PDA users. In early models, IR data transfer worked only between devices running Windows CE, unless you used third-party software. However, Pocket PC 2002 devices can exchange data with Palm OS—based PDAs. Pocket PC 2002 devices include one or two LEDs that indicate battery charging or alert the user when a notification or system message appears.

All Pocket PCs have a connector on the base of the unit. In early models, the connector was a serial port; in Pocket PC 2002 devices, it can also function as a USB port. Unfortunately, this connector isn't based on a common standard, and vendors persist in using proprietary—and incompatible—connector designs. Another connector lets you attach an AC adaptor to charge the device's built-in battery—typically a lithium-ion or lithium-polymer unit. Vendors quote a battery life ranging from 8 hours to 14 hours per charge. In practice, because most Pocket PC use is intermittent, you can expect to operate a device for a full day on one charge. Microsoft's specifications require all Pocket PC 2002 devices to retain their memory state for at least 72 hours after low-battery shutdown and—on devices that allow battery removal—at least 30 minutes after the main battery is removed.