Product Reviews

Windows CE was developed when Microsoft realised that the PDA/ handheld market was becoming significant. It appeared as two versions, H/PC to counter Psion and P/PC to counter Palm. The jury is still out on H/PC, but palm-sized PC devices aren't selling in the numbers that were predicted by its supporters. It isn't difficult to guess why. When compared to the Palm, these devices are expensive, overpowered (for a PIM device) and have a serious interface problem.

The operating system was sold on the strength of interface similarity to Windows, which is a wonderful marketing line, but the reality was an interface so cluttered that there was very little space for data. This was particularly apparent on critical PIM applications like the appointment calendar where it was difficult to see what your daily commitments were.

Now, Microsoft has released Pocket PC, the next version of Windows CE for palm-sized devices. The changes are significant, mainly because Microsoft has finally realised that functionality must take precedence over marketing. So, what are the changes and do they really work?

Totally rebuilt UI

Fire up a Pocket PC device and the changes are immediately obvious. After the owner information screen, Microsoft has added a Today screen that summarises the most important information for your day. This is customisable, and a very neat touch for a PIM device.

At a stroke, all the 3D effects are gone. The interface is totally flat and now owes much more to the Web than to Windows. Gone also are all double taps - everything is started with a single tap. However, a new action, tap and hold, is now the equivalent of right-click and pops up a list of actions that can be performed on the object. This is intuitive in practice and significantly reduces the interface clutter because the options only appear when you want them. The Start menu has moved to the top left of the screen, which again feels right on a machine of this size. Finally, the interfaces of all the applications have been stripped to the bone to leave more room for data. As an example, when you call up the details for a Contact, only the details you've entered appear on screen so it isn't filled with blank information. No-one, least of all Microsoft, would claim that all of this is innovative (Psion already does the same with contact details), but it's effective and a welcome improvement. The net result is an interface that owes no more to Windows than it should and is extensively improved as a result.

Multiple levels of Undo are supported, and Autosave has finally appeared, allowing applications to be auto-shutdown under low power without loss of data. This is a major plus, although neatly balanced by the major minus that the applications still don't have a Close button. When will Microsoft learn

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that the P in 'PC' (Pocket or otherwise) stands for Personal and means that the user wants control? True, applications can be shut down, but the process is seven clicks away: Start, Settings, System, Memory, Running Programs, Highlight, Stop. Some applications also support , but that means invoking the soft keyboard.

This brings me neatly to text input. The keyboard is there, as is a character recogniser, but the major innovation is Transcriber. This allows you to write anywhere on the screen and does a very respectable job of recognising both individual characters and hand-written script.

Synchronisation revamped

To my delight, the dependency on RAS (Remote Access Server) has gone, and is replaced by a Wizard that enables you to set up synchronisation in six clicks. In addition, the Desktop will now connect at the bit rate set on the device, every time; and finally USB synchronisation with Windows 98 and 2000 is fully supported.

A third-party product, XTNDConnect Server from Extended Systems, gives direct server connectivity for Windows CE devices. This uses a small client on the device and connects to Extended Systems' proxy server. Microsoft intends to distribute an evaluation version of XTNDConnect that provides Exchange connectivity and Microsoft will also provide product support. Extended systems will sell additional client access licences and other features as add-ons. These include mouth-watering options such as synchronisation of handheld applications with SQL Server, Oracle, DB2 and Sybase.

So far these improvements are impressive, but they don't really distinguish the Pocket PC device from a Palm. The hardware specifications of the target device provide a great deal of spare capacity. This power is happily soaked up by some of the applications (see Pocket applications opposite) and also by the Web browser.

Pocket IE

The bare specifications are that the browser supports HTML 3.2, framesets, JavaScript 1.1, SSL and ActiveX, which is impressive on such a small machine, but there's also the rub. Web browsing on a screen measuring 55 x 75mm would be difficult if the resolution was VGA; given that it's quarter VGA, this looks like mission impossible. Microsoft has tried desperately to help and offers an intriguing option called Fit to Screen. This works fine for some sites and less well for others; so expect it to be a little hit and miss. However, this is still considerably better than trying to do the same job on a Palm or a Psion 5. On the connectivity front, hardware support - given the relevant CompactFlash card where required - comes in the form of LAN, Modem, Digital phone card, IR to phone and Bluetooth.

Microsoft is noticeably moving away from attacking Palm on its home ground - the PIM device. In fact, devices fitted with Pocket PC are a much closer competitor to Quartz, created by Symbian - but only vapourware as yet.

Pocket PC devices are much more than PIMs, so don't buy a Pocket PC if you only want an address list, contact and appointment manager. Buy one because you want all of that plus complex games, video, MP3 and so on. Hardware pricing will have to reflect the added functionality so the 'Value for money' judgement depends on what you want your PDA to do. Viewed in this light, and installed on the right hardware, Microsoft has made a remarkable comeback with this desirable interface.