Product Reviews

Every now and again, a product appears that is more useful than others in its category because it concentrates on doing the essentials well rather than adding a thousand superfluous features. The Pilot is that product for the PDA market.

At first glance, Pilot looks like Newton's baby brother with a large touch-screen, a slide-in pen and some control buttons at the bottom of the screen. The difference is that the entire Pilot fits within the Newton's screen and, at just 160g including its twin AAA batteries, it's one of the lightest PDAs around. The result is that it's comfortable to hold and easy to carry - US Robotics even include a soft case to protect the unit in transit. The screen is fairly easy to read with a wide contrast range set through a thumbwheel on the side of the case, but it sadly lacks a backlight.

Just as the hardware suits someone who wants a PDA they can carry easily, the software is aimed at those who just want to replace their address book and diary rather than someone trying to buy a fully featured computer in a miniature case. Included are an address book, a diary, a to-do list manager, a memo-pad text editor, a simple calculator, and options for managing preferences and security. Applications are selected by tapping their icon, and data is entered by writing in a text-entry box at the base of the screen. Rather than full handwriting recognition, Pilot uses the Graffiti system seen on early versions of the Newton, with some letter shapes being altered to make them easily distinguishable by the software. This takes a little learning, but the result is practically instantaneous character recognition. Extra strokes handle operations such as deletion and starting a new paragraph.

In truth, the built-in applications are quite limited compared to some PDA rivals - the address book will only hold names and addresses rather than being a customisable

ADVERTISEMENT

database, and the diary program can't show the to-do program's entries. It's also a shame that there's no way of drawing quick sketches on the screen, or of leaving a clock on permanent display. But it covers the basics well, and a Find command allows files of every kind to be searched for text making tracking down information very quick.

The Pilot's strength is that is has been designed to work alongside a full-size computer rather than in isolation. The unit comes complete with a docking stand that links to a Mac's serial port; and software that creates a desktop version of the Pilot's software running on the Mac. Run the software, drop the Pilot onto its stand, press the hotsync key and the system automatically synchronises the information on the two machines, leaving both fully up-to-date and fully backed up. The system can also download extra software to the Pilot, and keep track of several Pilots if required.

While this works well, the whole concept is somewhat let down by the Mac software, which requires an outrageous 16Mb of free memory (real or virtual) to run the Desktop Pilot software and HotSync utility. Even leaving just HotSync active to allow automatic transfers, eats up over 6Mb - this is consumed by a hidden application that lurks mysteriously in the background and is impossible to quit. The Desktop Pilot software does emulate every function of the Pilot itself, and does some functions better (its diary shows relevant to-do entries, for example), but is a bad Mac program since, when tested on a PowerBook 540, the window did not have a title bar making it impossible to reposition. The program can read tab and comma delimited text files to feed into Pilot's address book. It coped less efficiently with text files, converting every new paragraph into a separate Memo Pad file. And it can't yet support automatic synchronisation with other agenda or database software, though some suppliers are working to correct this.

However, even if you rarely use the Mac software, the Pilot itself is an excellent back-to-basics, low-cost PDA. It lacks the PC Card compatibility and communications facilities of larger models - there is no data or fax support, though the ability to hotsync via. modem is available. But it's small enough to take everywhere. And the all-important ability to back up your data comes as standard rather than being the £50 extra which is usual with many other PDAs. This makes the whole thing excellent value.