Handheld Devices: Productive? or just a vice? · Nov 30, 03:53 PM

I own a PocketPC. I’ve had one since about 1998—starting with the Casio e10. Then upgraded successively to the e11, e15, e100, and the e125. Then I jumped to the Dell brand with an Axim X5. As the years (and models) have gone by their usefulness has increased.

Dell Axim X50v

Now I own a Dell Axim X50v1 which runs the Windows Mobile OS. I use it for everything. People often ask me if they should get a Handheld device and which one they should get. My first question has always been: “Do you already have something you use to schedule your day or write down contacts or notes?” Because if they don’t then getting a handheld is just getting another piece of technology that will sit on a shelf or be something you pull out when you’re bored and want to play solitaire.

So why have I always had a device that runs Windows rather than Palm? My original reasoning was simple and remains one of the main reasons I still choose the Windows OS: Hieroglyphics. I didn’t want to have to learn how to write all over again. I figured that if I was going to switch to an electronic medium over pen and paper I wanted it to be as easy as possible. With the Windows OS I could write with my own handwriting and it new what I meant.

So what do we use these things for? Now that these devices are getting combined with cellphones the lines are blurring a little, but here’s what I use mine for:

This is the main reason I got my first handheld and remains so. I got tired of writing my day’s appointments in some sort of planner and then typing it into my office calendaring application (Outlook at the time). I wanted to be able to take the functionality of Outlook an put it into my dayplanner. These days I am using Google’s Calendar and like it very much, but it doesn’t sync up with my handheld—but Google’s working on that, or so I hear.

Having a place to quickly look up or enter contact information without carrying around a phone book was appealing. Crossing out old contacts or adding new pages to accommodate new ones was inefficient to say the least.

As I took notes in one meeting or another it became increasingly hard to find where my notes were. Were they on that day’s calendar page? Were they in the extra note section of my planner? where they archived away at home in a binder from three years ago? It was nice to be able to carry all of them with me and have some semblence of order. Now if they could just be organized by a search tool similar to Apple’s or Google’s.

From here on out, my uses for the handheld device have morphed with the increase in computing power and third-party application availability. So here are the extra-curricular activities that I use my current device for:

I’ll just start by saying that I hate the native Windows Media Player that comes with the device. It’s too hard to use. I use a third-party app called PocketMusic and it works a lot like Winamp. It would be nice if someone from iTunes or RealPlayer would get moving on an app for the handheld device. I have a 2GB SD Card and a 2GB CF Card that I can put music on (as well as other media and data files).

I’m definitely a fan of the old-fashioned, printed-on-paper, bound-with-paper-or-leather, hold-in-your-hand-and-turn-the-page book. My preferred medium. But there is something to be said about being able to carry around a small library with you so that you can read something when you have a spare moment—waiting for your oil to be changed, or in the doctor’s office. I love that I can open a book that I enjoy rather than relying on the latest issue of People in the waiting area.

Yep, weather. I like to be prepared and with a small third-party app that downloads the weather forecast when it’s docked I always know what to expect from the weather (as far as they can predict it accurately). That’s important since I ride the bus every day and it’s nice to know if I should bring an umbrella or wear some snowboots.

I have a 30 minute busride in the the morning and about 45 minutes going home, so I like to spend my afternoon commute watching my favorite cooking show. I use my home computer to record the show, then I transfer it to my handheld to be watched on the way home. It also gives me the luxury of skipping the commercials. Besides content from the television, I can also copy my DVD collection onto my device. With the storage capacity I currently have I can have about 4 full-length movies or about 8 episodes of my television program.

Yep, gotta have a few of these. I have about 7 or 8 games that I play on an infrequent basis. Depends on what I want to do with my commute time, but it’s nice to have some options. I’m currently looking for a decent (cheap) Soduko game to add to my collection. I’ve found that the shorter games appeal to me more than the longer, more involved games. I have played Age of Empires and Doom on my Pocket PC, but they really drain the battery and you have to actually plan to play those games rather than just opening something up when you have a spare moment.

Some other things that I have on my device that are useful, but not used everyday (the things that you wish you had with you when you need one, but usually don’t):

I feel that I should also put down a few things I don’t use my handheld for, lest you think I use it for everything or that it’s even good for everything:

I don’t surf the web on this thing. Yes, it has wifi and I can use it if I want, but (1) the screen is too small to see all of the content of most websites, and (2) I hate Internet Explorer and it’s pretty much the only thing out there for the PocketPC3.

That would be a nice advantage of the new phone/handhelds, but you know what—I really don’t want to be that connected.

The pocketPC comes with MS Word and Excel, but again, the screen real estate is limited and I think I can wait to get to my desktop or laptop. Nice for emergencies, but in the 8 or so years I’ve had one of these, I’ve only needed to view one of these documents a handful of times.

There you have it. I use my handheld on a daily basis and it helps me stay productive (or at least occupied). Maybe on one of my next few posts I’ll list all of the third-party apps that I use to make the PocketPC what it is, because bare-bones out-of-the-box the Windows base PocketPC leaves something to be desired in my opinion.

And finally, lest you think that I have become the epitome of the Generation X culture and have to be occupied or entertained every waking moment of my life, I have to say that a lot can be said about reclining on a chair or bus seat, pulling the cap down over your eyes and just contemplating your existence. Who says a guy can’t just sit and think without external stimulation. I highly recommend it. I’m often surprised at what thoughts come out of the process (and I have my handheld to jot them down if they’re really good).

1 Other specs for the X50v: An Intel XScale 624MHz Processor, 64MB RAM, 128MB ROM, Bluetooth, 802.11b Wireless, VGA (640×480) Resolution on the screen, SD Card Slot, CF Card Slot.

2 Just kidding on this one. Go get a Swiss Army Knife or a Leatherman.

3 Yes, I know about Opera, but I have to use more memory to load it, I had to tweek it to get it to run, and it still doesn’t overcome the screen size problem.

— Steve Harward

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