Hands0n
4th February 2007, 09:34 PM
I know its not politic to still call it CE but that is what it is just with another name these days. In my case it is Windows Mobile Pocket PC 2003 to give its full handle.
Why do I hate it? Simply, because like much else M$ it is flaky at best, and rather dodgy at worst.
I've been a PPC2003 user since ..... well ..... 2003 really! Running on a Compaq iPAQ h4155 I have been a slave to the system since eschewing the Palm Tungsten in favour of something Windows. It seemed to make sense at the time, and I was getting a bit bored with PalmOS in its various flavours from the original Palm One days. Someone once said something about the "grass" being "greener" on the other side, and I do believe that I know what that is all about.
My PDA provides me with Calendaring, Task management and Messaging for daily use. It also supports TomTom Navigator (3) for occasional use when travelling to a new client whom I'm visiting for the first time. All fairly straightforward, but absolutely essential.
Initially I had a Dell Axim X30 (the super dooper fast one) which was, on paper, the proverbial dogs nuts. It had a good lump of memory, a very fast processor, Bluetooth and WiFi - all in all a solid spec. Unfortunately, like much early production Dell stuff, it sucked like a very sucky thing. It stayed with me for three weeks before I finally cracked and arranged for Dell to take it away from me and refund the cash before I hit it with a sledgehammer. Twenty or more crashes a day were the norm! I became a dab hand at hard reset and reconfiguring the device, I reckon that I could get one up from a hard reset within three minutes flat.
Steadfastly pro the PPC 2003 spec I went for the iPAQ h4155 which was a mirror match for the Axim X30 in terms of spec. Where it differed was the design aesthetics - the iPAQ is gorgeous in comparison to the chunky X30. The experience this time was much more pleasant - soft and hard resets seem to be the norm as you check out the various additional softwares for these devices. There may well be standards, but the software is so flaky that gross incompatibilities occur which make the device unstable or completely inoperative. Even in this day and age.
As I said earlier, I live and depend on the PDA for my work and, increasingly, personal life. Busy schedules for both need to be managed and paper diaries just don't cut it for me. The combination of the PDA in my hand and Outlook on my desktop have become an essential part of my lifestyle. I really cannot be having any disruption in terms of the technology, as it reflects directly into my life (I don't turn up for meetings and appointments if it isn't in the system!).
So this past ten days has been fraught as the PPC, Activesync and Outlook all conspired to ruin my days. The problem was that the PPC would only connect as Guest in Activesync - the workaround being to delete and recreate the Partnership on each connection. Tiresome but at least I was not completely dead out of the water.
The Internet is alive with all manner of articles and suggestions as to how to remedy this fault, it is not at all uncommon. A simple Google search produced over 58,000 documents! I worked my way through a number of well documented scenarios, all without success. The ultimate solution being recommended was a hard reset - something I really wanted to avoid due to the sheer inconvenience that causes.
I spent the best part of three evenings trying to resolve the problem, and steadily the prospect of that hard reset loomed up towards me. In the end, over this weekend, I finally cracked and went for it.
Since I bought the h4155 there has been a ROM and Wireless Drivers upgrade for that version of Windows Mobile 2003. Most significantly the upgrade delivers WPA/PSK - previously the device only supported WEP, making it incompatible with my upgraded SOHO wireles network. The opportunity to update the h4155 OS was not to be missed. I also had a copy of TomTom Navigator 5 upgrade that I purchased a year ago but had put off updating Navigator 3 simply because I couldn't fit in such an upgrade in a production machine!
I have been running Activesync 4.5 (beta) to try and work around the earlier problems to no effect. The iPAQ firmware update process would not work with this version of Activesync and I had to downgrade it to 3.8. The update then worked and within about 20 minutes the iPAQ h4155 had its latest version of ROM installed. Updating the Wireless Drivers took another ten minutes.
Installing TomTom Navigator 5 was not at all difficult - this time I put it and the maps on the 1GB MMC card. It is a bit fiddly, but it all worked out okay in about half an hour.
Getting Navigator 5 to work with my incumbent Fortuna Clip-On BT GPS unit was difficult - and much time was lost getting Navigator 5 configured correctly. Some help was found on the TomTom website, and with some fiddling I got it working.
Having got to the basic production stage I backed up the h4155 using Activesync 4.5 (I went back to it after the ROM update). Just as well really, as the flakiness that is this OS and its Apps hit me.
I decided to load up the PocketGPSWorld (http://www.pocketgpsworld.com) Speed Camera POI add on for Navigator 5. I opted for the £2 one month membership to try it all out. If it is successful I'll probably go for the £19 annual membership. Both of these get you unlimited downloads of the latest POI files for the duration of your membership. I wanted this not so much because I speed around the roads, but the ever-increasing number of speed traps makes even a temporary lapse licence-threatening, and I've never met anyone who is not prone to the odd lapse occasionally.
One of the components of PocketGPSWorld is a utility (POICapture (http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/poicapture.php)) to record the location of a new speed camera. If you are first to report a new camera to PocketGPSWorld they will reward you with free membership!
PocketGPSWorld.com Speed Camera Database Version 5.014 25 Jan 07
There are a total of 10,281 cameras in the database. 3,847 Gatso/Monitron/Truvelo, 5,213 Mobiles, 25 Temporary, 201 Specs and 995 Redlight Cameras.
We have had a total of 55 verified static cameras added this release submitted by 22 members. All members submitting the first report of these static cameras will be credited with lifetime memberships by 17:00 26 Jan 07.
For my troubles, POICapture did nothing more than corrupt something in the TomTom Navigator 5 software. Loading it would crash the PPC requiring a soft reset to get it started again. I had to perform a hard reset and restore the previously-made backup to get it working. There is something fundamentally incompatible in POICapture, TomTom Navigator 5 and my version of the h4155 Windows Mobile 2003 PPC OS. What it is I am past caring - it breaks my PPC and so it cannot be allowed back onto it.
If Windows for the desktop was quite as flaky as all of this then Microsoft would probably be in Chapter 11 by now. It may well be that successive versions of Windows Mobile OS have improved (I doubt it) but the experiences of WM and Windows Desktop do not mirror. Even Windows 3.11 was never as flaky as Windows Mobile is.
I'm stuck with and on the PPC with Windows Mobile - it does what I need. But it is my experience that one has to be very careful to identify a robust combination of apps and operating system if it is to be used for mission-critical purposes.
Why do I hate it? Simply, because like much else M$ it is flaky at best, and rather dodgy at worst.
I've been a PPC2003 user since ..... well ..... 2003 really! Running on a Compaq iPAQ h4155 I have been a slave to the system since eschewing the Palm Tungsten in favour of something Windows. It seemed to make sense at the time, and I was getting a bit bored with PalmOS in its various flavours from the original Palm One days. Someone once said something about the "grass" being "greener" on the other side, and I do believe that I know what that is all about.
My PDA provides me with Calendaring, Task management and Messaging for daily use. It also supports TomTom Navigator (3) for occasional use when travelling to a new client whom I'm visiting for the first time. All fairly straightforward, but absolutely essential.
Initially I had a Dell Axim X30 (the super dooper fast one) which was, on paper, the proverbial dogs nuts. It had a good lump of memory, a very fast processor, Bluetooth and WiFi - all in all a solid spec. Unfortunately, like much early production Dell stuff, it sucked like a very sucky thing. It stayed with me for three weeks before I finally cracked and arranged for Dell to take it away from me and refund the cash before I hit it with a sledgehammer. Twenty or more crashes a day were the norm! I became a dab hand at hard reset and reconfiguring the device, I reckon that I could get one up from a hard reset within three minutes flat.
Steadfastly pro the PPC 2003 spec I went for the iPAQ h4155 which was a mirror match for the Axim X30 in terms of spec. Where it differed was the design aesthetics - the iPAQ is gorgeous in comparison to the chunky X30. The experience this time was much more pleasant - soft and hard resets seem to be the norm as you check out the various additional softwares for these devices. There may well be standards, but the software is so flaky that gross incompatibilities occur which make the device unstable or completely inoperative. Even in this day and age.
As I said earlier, I live and depend on the PDA for my work and, increasingly, personal life. Busy schedules for both need to be managed and paper diaries just don't cut it for me. The combination of the PDA in my hand and Outlook on my desktop have become an essential part of my lifestyle. I really cannot be having any disruption in terms of the technology, as it reflects directly into my life (I don't turn up for meetings and appointments if it isn't in the system!).
So this past ten days has been fraught as the PPC, Activesync and Outlook all conspired to ruin my days. The problem was that the PPC would only connect as Guest in Activesync - the workaround being to delete and recreate the Partnership on each connection. Tiresome but at least I was not completely dead out of the water.
The Internet is alive with all manner of articles and suggestions as to how to remedy this fault, it is not at all uncommon. A simple Google search produced over 58,000 documents! I worked my way through a number of well documented scenarios, all without success. The ultimate solution being recommended was a hard reset - something I really wanted to avoid due to the sheer inconvenience that causes.
I spent the best part of three evenings trying to resolve the problem, and steadily the prospect of that hard reset loomed up towards me. In the end, over this weekend, I finally cracked and went for it.
Since I bought the h4155 there has been a ROM and Wireless Drivers upgrade for that version of Windows Mobile 2003. Most significantly the upgrade delivers WPA/PSK - previously the device only supported WEP, making it incompatible with my upgraded SOHO wireles network. The opportunity to update the h4155 OS was not to be missed. I also had a copy of TomTom Navigator 5 upgrade that I purchased a year ago but had put off updating Navigator 3 simply because I couldn't fit in such an upgrade in a production machine!
I have been running Activesync 4.5 (beta) to try and work around the earlier problems to no effect. The iPAQ firmware update process would not work with this version of Activesync and I had to downgrade it to 3.8. The update then worked and within about 20 minutes the iPAQ h4155 had its latest version of ROM installed. Updating the Wireless Drivers took another ten minutes.
Installing TomTom Navigator 5 was not at all difficult - this time I put it and the maps on the 1GB MMC card. It is a bit fiddly, but it all worked out okay in about half an hour.
Getting Navigator 5 to work with my incumbent Fortuna Clip-On BT GPS unit was difficult - and much time was lost getting Navigator 5 configured correctly. Some help was found on the TomTom website, and with some fiddling I got it working.
Having got to the basic production stage I backed up the h4155 using Activesync 4.5 (I went back to it after the ROM update). Just as well really, as the flakiness that is this OS and its Apps hit me.
I decided to load up the PocketGPSWorld (http://www.pocketgpsworld.com) Speed Camera POI add on for Navigator 5. I opted for the £2 one month membership to try it all out. If it is successful I'll probably go for the £19 annual membership. Both of these get you unlimited downloads of the latest POI files for the duration of your membership. I wanted this not so much because I speed around the roads, but the ever-increasing number of speed traps makes even a temporary lapse licence-threatening, and I've never met anyone who is not prone to the odd lapse occasionally.
One of the components of PocketGPSWorld is a utility (POICapture (http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/poicapture.php)) to record the location of a new speed camera. If you are first to report a new camera to PocketGPSWorld they will reward you with free membership!
PocketGPSWorld.com Speed Camera Database Version 5.014 25 Jan 07
There are a total of 10,281 cameras in the database. 3,847 Gatso/Monitron/Truvelo, 5,213 Mobiles, 25 Temporary, 201 Specs and 995 Redlight Cameras.
We have had a total of 55 verified static cameras added this release submitted by 22 members. All members submitting the first report of these static cameras will be credited with lifetime memberships by 17:00 26 Jan 07.
For my troubles, POICapture did nothing more than corrupt something in the TomTom Navigator 5 software. Loading it would crash the PPC requiring a soft reset to get it started again. I had to perform a hard reset and restore the previously-made backup to get it working. There is something fundamentally incompatible in POICapture, TomTom Navigator 5 and my version of the h4155 Windows Mobile 2003 PPC OS. What it is I am past caring - it breaks my PPC and so it cannot be allowed back onto it.
If Windows for the desktop was quite as flaky as all of this then Microsoft would probably be in Chapter 11 by now. It may well be that successive versions of Windows Mobile OS have improved (I doubt it) but the experiences of WM and Windows Desktop do not mirror. Even Windows 3.11 was never as flaky as Windows Mobile is.
I'm stuck with and on the PPC with Windows Mobile - it does what I need. But it is my experience that one has to be very careful to identify a robust combination of apps and operating system if it is to be used for mission-critical purposes.