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Subject:Re: Feedback on H/PCs(long) From:Jason Wynia <jwynia -at- AGRIS -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 26 Aug 1998 10:47:28 -0500
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George Hayhoe wrote:
I've discovered a new class of product--the handheld PC
(H/PC), and wonder if anyone out there has experience using
one.
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I currently have a first generation HPC from Casio. It was one of the
first ones made and doesn't have the color screen. It also runs
WindowsCE 1.0 rather than the current WinCE 2.0. I really like mine. It
doesn't work as a complete replacement for a PC, however. At least with
WinCE 1.0, the Pocket MS Word is little more than Word Pad. It has
about 6 fonts, left, center and right justification, bullets and not
much else. The keyboard is fairly difficult to get used to. I've taken
to using a sort of stripped down typing method with only my index,
middle fingers and thumb. I type somewhere around 20-30 wpm that way,
which is faster than handwriting notes, but far slower than typing on a
regular keyboard. As we are writers, that makes using one as a primary
computer difficult. It's hard to get work done on it. It is a good
tool for sketching out ideas in the car (with someone else driving), or
on a plane. A good tool to help tech writers catch ideas.
On the hardware end of things, they use solid state memory that is
shared between RAM and an emulated hard disk. So basically the more you
store on it the less RAM you have. So when you see a HPC with 16MB of
RAM, keep in mind that if you store 2 MB of Pocket Word files on it you
only have 14MB of RAM. Also, if you put any PC cards in it they drain
the batteries in no time flat. If I put a modem in mine and don't have
it plugged in, it is drained in less than 30 seconds. The AA batteries
that it runs on just can't handle the load.
At first some of these limitations frustrated me, but now I look at it
in a different light. I was trying to use it as a fully featured laptop
and it's not. What it is is a good notetaker, organizer, calendar, deck
of cards(solitare :)), calculator etc. What it does, it does well, it
just doesn't stretch to do everything we expect a "computer" to do.
My recommendation for a truly useful replacement while keeping the size
down would be the Libretto
