At the risk of starting World War III here, I'm going to point you to a recent comparison that was published by a long term Palm user who stuck his toe in the Pocket PC world. The comparison does a pretty good job of pointing out some areas of difference, although I don't necessarily agree with all of his conclusions. In some cases his Palm bias shines through, but overall it's pretty neutral.
I've used Pocket PC for nearly 2 years now, after using Palm for quite a while.. and now I'm back using Palm with the Treo 600. I really do miss some of the Pocket PC's features... in particular the real multitasking. In a pdaPhone, it is very important to be able to run multiple applications at the same time, and I disagree with the referenced article in that Pocket PC does do a really good job of this.
What do you think? Here's your chance to sound off about your OS preference... and feel free to at Symbian, Smartphone OS, etc. to the mix. Just keep it friendly.
I tend to agree with the article writer's conclusion that: "Both Palm OS and Pocket PC need some work. "
I use both an Samsung I330 and a Jornada 568. Due to the lack of a memory slot on the I330, I back up critical files to the J568, so that when the I330 does a spontaneous hard reset, I can use the IR ports to restore critical apps until I get back to my Desktop where I can do a full restore. I can also connect the J568 to the I330 if I need access to a website that doesn't work on the I330, while away from a desktop.
The I330 meets my PIM needs as well as managing email most of the time. However, if I need to view an attachment, I download it to the J568.
The I330 has no multi-media; for trips, I rely on the J568 for movies and music.
I've been tempted to "upgrade" to a Treo 600, but compared to the I330, I just don't like the form factor. I also don't want to go back to a non-removeable battery.
Rather than choosing between Palm and PPC, I still prefer to use each--at least until someone comes out with a smartphone with the I330 form factor, and a de-bugged version of Mobile Windows 2003.
Mick
Agreed... I think that Microsoft is making a mistake by having the forced 320x240 resolution on the Pocket PC. I think that this may be too big for many, while the Smartphone may be too small. What seems like an ideal size is right in the spot where Palm is with the 320x320 display. Time will tell if this is true, but I'd love to have a Pocket PC OS on a device the size of a Treo 600, with 320x320 resolution. That would be pretty cool.
Still no clear, clear winner...put palm has an edge, sort of
As I current own at least three PALM units, just finished a review of the Treo 600 for Mobileburn.com ( I hope it's not bad karma to mention that here ), and presently switch back and forth my Nokia 3650 and my PocketPC Phone Edition ( usually only when the PPC runs viciously low on battery charge ), I have to say that
while there is still no CLEAR winner...Palm still kind of has an edge, sort of.
There are just a few things that I don't like in my PPC Phone Edition....lack of SDIO ( and Bluetooth ), and battery life. Frankly 640x480 resolutions in the palm of my hand make me think I'm going to require glasses earlier in life than I would normally, because of all the squinting ( my primary beef with the 3650 is because of just that..the small screen form factor ). The issue with the Palm not being "multi-tasking" is a bunch of hoo-ey. Multitasking is possible under Palm 5, but coupled with the fact that most programmers aren't taking advantage of it, and you get the misconception that it's not possible. SO, I can't really blame everyone for not knowing that.
I LOVE my PPC Phone, but frankly, it's a tank( Not that MS Smartphone is a real winner either.... ). Still it's the phone I use the most at the moment. We'll see what happens when Samsung introduces it's I700 ( Palm 5 phone ) with a higher resolution screen, to see how things met out. I have yet to spend a serious amount of time with an XDA-II, but it looks promising. If only it didn't cost and arm and part of leg, to buy.
The next 12 months in the Connected Handhelds arena is going to be VERY interesting.
But if an OS is truly multitasking it doesn't require any special effort on the part of the applications programmer. The system just runs muliple tasks simultaneously and shares resources and timeslices among the tasks.
While my general preference is for the Palm platform (for many of the reasons cited in the article), I believe the reviewer was overly critical of the PocketPC in at least a few areas:
1. Launchers/multitasking. This really isn't that much different in PocketPC vs Palm. One could argue that "out of the box" the Palm is simpler, but there are so many 3rd party launchers and app managers for the pocketPC that you can launch programs with minimal taps almost any way you want to.
2. Synchronization. Lots of differing opinions on this but I much prefer active-sync to hotsync. As a Windows/Office user, my synchronization was seamless and effortless. With hotsync, I have to manually synchronize my PIM data and manually setup files (with documents to go) that I want to synchronize vs the "drag-and-drop" capability on PocketPC.
3. Stability. My PocketPC devices were every bit as crash-resistant as my Palm devices. I use a lot of hacks/programs on both devices and found the PocketPC to soft/hard reset no more often than my Palm. However, what annoyed me the most about my PocketPC was the occasional temporary freeze that might last anywhere from 1-10 seconds -- often when I needed quick access to a contact or calendar entry.
The Palm platform generally does what's most important to me more effectively than PocketPC. But the PocketPC is a darned good platform and I miss some of the multi-tasking, synchronization, and other attractive features missing from my Palm device.
Re: Still no clear, clear winner...put palm has an edge, sort of
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Originally posted by marcelol As I current own at least three PALM units, just finished a review of the Treo 600 for Mobileburn.com ( I hope it's not bad karma to mention that here )
No, it's not bad karma... but feel free to publish your reviews here as well. Send me a PM if you are interested.
Quote:
There are just a few things that I don't like in my PPC Phone Edition....lack of SDIO ( and Bluetooth ), and battery life. Frankly 640x480 resolutions in the palm of my hand make me think I'm going to require glasses earlier in life than I would normally, because of all the squinting ( my primary beef with the 3650 is because of just that..the small screen form factor ).
The point of this is comparing the Palm and Pocket PC platforms, not a particular device. There are Pocket PC Phones that have SDIO now, and soon Bluetooth (which none of the current Palm phones have either). Pocket PC is 320x240, not 640x480. I haven't found that I squint any more or less between the two, as the print is similar in size. If anything, the larger glass gives you the option to blow things up more. I haven't found a significant difference in battery consumption between the Pocket PC Phone and the Treo 600. The Treo probably has the edge, but both get me through a day with steady use.
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The issue with the Palm not being "multi-tasking" is a bunch of hoo-ey. Multitasking is possible under Palm 5, but coupled with the fact that most programmers aren't taking advantage of it, and you get the misconception that it's not possible. SO, I can't really blame everyone for not knowing that.
It is true that Palm OS 5 has multitasking APIs in it that would allow a programmer to do some multitasking. That is NOT what I'm talking about when I say it doesn't do multitasking. I'm talking about running multiple programs at the same time without concern. I regularly want to do this, and have grown accustomed to doing it on the Pocket PC Phone Edition that you mentioned. As an example, I used the device in my car and ran Mapopolis w/GPS to do active navigation, played MP3 music in the background, received calls, used the PIM functions if needed to look up something, and also occaisionally checked email and web pages... all without anything stopping, and yes... all in 32MB of RAM. You can NOT due this on any Palm OS 5 device, nor even come close. The closest you can come is to start an MP3 and then start up Mapopolis at the same time. The music will keep playing and you can get your navigation to occur. That's great until something else happens... then the house of cards crumbles. Let's say you want to change the song you are listening to, or you want to receive a call. As soon as you do one of those, Mapopolis is stopped. To restart it, you have to start up the program again, load the maps, start the GPS, pick your destination, generate a route, and then you are back to where you started. Anytime you do anything, you have to go back through that. Most of the apps are less painful to swap between, but there are problems. With Pocket PC, I can have a web page loading... actually loading, while I jump to Mapopolis to do something, and when I return to the browser the page will be done. This is what I'm talking about... on a disconnected PDA it's not a big deal... on a pdaPhone it is very valuable to be able to do.
This is not "hoo-ey", this is real world needs that can't be met.
Quote:
I LOVE my PPC Phone, but frankly, it's a tank( Not that MS Smartphone is a real winner either.... ). Still it's the phone I use the most at the moment. We'll see what happens when Samsung introduces it's I700 ( Palm 5 phone ) with a higher resolution screen, to see how things met out. I have yet to spend a serious amount of time with an XDA-II, but it looks promising. If only it didn't cost and arm and part of leg, to buy.
The Samsung i700 has been out for a while and is Pocket PC based. Are you referring to the new GSM/GPRS SGH-i500?
Quote:
The next 12 months in the Connected Handhelds arena is going to be VERY interesting.
I have two comments.
1. True multitasking- Pocket PC
2. Works same as my pc
As you can see I prefer the pocket pc. I tried the Treo 300 and the Treo 600. Just was not intuitive, I don't want to reinvent the wheel. I also find my Hitachi G1000 more comfortable to use due to it's larger size. My large thumbs stumbled over them selves on the Treo 600. Each has there own + and - I prefer the pocket pc. I posted this on my G1000.
I agree with you ddwire, but I am still going with the Treo 600 for now because I like the size. I didn't find the G1000 to be "easily" pocketable for me ... but I still have it so I may switch back at some point.
prefer palm to ppc: i need the ability to sync to all platforms and ppc doesn't sync to mac as far as i know which is bad for those of us who want to do true graphics work and real video editing, both require macs
plus as i stated in another thread what is the deal with virus protection, i can only assume this is a ppc needed thing, but you know what assuming does...
I love it. Like their moto says "it is the mobile operating system"
-Symbian UIQ and Series 60 both do great multitasking given sufficient memory
-Symbian UIQ and Series 60 both have great native removable media support
Unfortunately, it is relatively nacent and is mostly devoted to games at this point.
Palm leads the field with 3rd party apps that made any device ideal for different users. I would be shocked to find 2 people that like the exact same device. For now, Palm gets my money.
I think I'd take a uniform national health service in exchange for my free choice of a cell phone. In fact, much as I absolutely love my I330 (one vote for Palm!) I'd give up all cell phone service for a national health plan. And that's only one of many things I'd give it up for (try good public schools, right to adequate nutrition, right to employment, truly progressive taxation for a few others--and I'm in the upper 1% income-wise). If "free" choice of cell phones is really "what is great about america", then we have fallen further than I had feared. Sorry, but I didn't bring this up!
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