Incredible

For the last year or so the company I work for has been trying to sort out its office administration systems and has been struggling badly to get meetings arranged, keep the directors in touch, etc, etc. We’re finally starting to make big inroads into this whole area of work now and are fully operational using Microsoft Outlook and Exchange Server products to link the whole organisation together with respect to e-mail, diaries and address books. That in itself has had major advantages in that now I can automate the booking of meetings, leave meaningful messages for people, find out what they’re doing on such and such a day and all sorts of other wonderful stuff.

I’m one of the lucky ones who is acting as a guinea pig for the pilot and I’ve had the Jornada long enough to give you an authoritative view.

It’s currently on offer at $999 via the hp.com website and you can get it quite freely in most electronic or computer showrooms at around the 700 quid mark.

When you open it you find it’s got a nice sized full colour screen (supporting up to 65,536 the helpful spec again informs me) and you operate it by the dinky integral keyboard and/or the clip out stylus pointer, about the same sort of size as the pencils you get with a paper diary. You use the stylus by tapping on or dragging across the integral screen.

In terms of visibility it’s quite good and clear, although in strong sunlight it is a bit indistinct unless you’ve got the brightness control whacked right up. You can have four standard display profiles set up which can be accessed via two clicks with the stylus, so it’s excellent in this respect.

When typing, I’ve also found that unless I’ve got the Jornada on a flat surface, like a desk or hard backed book, it has a tendency to rock over on its back. Alternatively you can hold it with one hand and type the other, but it’s not ideal. Oh well, these are very small prices to pay, although it is sometimes an irritation.

I had the Jornada running on the battery quite comfortably last weekend for about 7 hours in three separate sessions without a problem, though I started to get a bit concerned I was going to run out and I hadn’t got a power lead with me, but this capacity is quite good enough even for the most passionate slave driver.

The Jornada comes complete with a docking cradle which you can use to link to a PC and the power lead, although the cables for both of these functions also connect direct into the Jornada’s body. The cradle is a stylish luxury, but isn’t a necessity, unless you want to put the stylus in the ‘inkwell’.

This allows you to connect your Jornada to up to two different PC’s and synchronise calendars, files, tasks and contacts between them all. I have got my system set up such that I can synch from home machine to Jornada and then office machine, so I’ve got the same data on all three machines. Totally amazing and what I’ve found most useful with this set up. It’s a bit fiddly when you first set up the Active Sync facility and I’ve had a couple of occasions where it’s needed to be fixed, but this is an amazing facility.

The Jornada can also be used to provide an Internet connection via either a mobile phone (with a cable or via the infrared link) or the telephone socket. It has an integral 56k modem. A word of advice, however. Mobile phones using the Orange network provider are difficult to get up and running. The IT bods managed to get the Jornada connected up to the net via a Nokia 6210e using a Vodafone network, but when they tried the same thing with the same handset only using the Orange network, they drew a blank. We’re still trying to resolve that little glitch.

By default, only messages received in the previous 3 days are synchronised from your main PC and no attachments are copied. You can also only sync the e-mail with one other PC rather than the two for everything else, but you can write e-mails offline for sending when you synchronise, assuming that the Contacts section is up to date or you know what the e-mail address is. Now this is a brilliant facility, as long as you keep your contacts section up to date with the e-mail addresses you need. It’s a disadvantage not being able to add attachments, but a small price to pay for the luxury of being able to jot together a brief note to someone and then having it sent automatically as soon as you dock when you get into the office.
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UPDATE
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Using the e-mail all the time now - BRILLIANT!!
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I’ve tried loads of times to organise my work using the Tasks function within Outlook and I stick at it for a couple of weeks and then slip back into the bad old ways. Suffice to say that if you use Tasks in your everyday life then it works just as well on the Jornada as it does on the desktop machines, although as ever it’s a cut down version which strips out some of the fancier stuff.

The integrated address book and e-mail listing you get with the Contacts module is a wonderful things, especially when you sync it between machines. I now have a comprehensive and fully up to date address book in the office, on the move and at home. A great boon, if ever there was one. Highlight a contact and click the ‘New message’ button and you’re away with an e-mail, ready to send when you dock - bliss! Shows how sad I am, when something like this gives me a cheap thrill. It is all truly wonderful stuff, however.

The Pocket Word program is extremely good and you only see the difference from the full blown application when you want to do things like Word Count, or you particularly want an obscure font. Most of the normal functions are present and correct, however, including the spell checker. I tend to draft up most of my Dooyoo ops now on the Jornada first and then tidy it up in the normal package before cutting and pasting onto the Dooyoo site. This means that I can jot down ideas and modify opinions while I'm floating about the place. This is great if you're on the train as you can just whip out your trusty J and get on with your artistic endeavours. I've not mentioned this previously, but the Jornada allows you to shut down without closing down applications and when you switch on again, the document you were previously working on is already open waiting for you. This prevents all that lengthy shutting down and powering up hassle you get with desktops and laptops and is particularly pleasing.

Much as is the case with Word, Pocket Excel is a very strong substitute for the full thing. I use my Jornada to keep a record of my travelling expenses and all I need to do at the month end is print off the finished doc and submit it for authorisation. One drawback I have found here, however, is the lack of support for text boxes in a Pocket Excel worksheet and the fact that you can't really change the zoom level and this makes it problematic when switching between PC's.

Pocket Powerpoint allows you to download presentations from your desktop PC and run a slide show while you're out and about, meaning you don't need to bother with all that heavy laptop stuff. You have to get a PC card in order to send the presentation to one of the LCD projectors, but this is still a wonderful opportunity. I'm less enthusiastic, however, about the fact that you can't create presentations in Pocket Powerpoint which is a bit of a drag.

Now this is the one. This I do rate extremely highly. Drag any file into the Synchronised Files folder that is installed on both Jornada and your desktop machine when you install Active Sync and the next time you dock they are synchronised between the machines. This is a great boon for me and has meant that I can dispense with all that messing about with floppy disks and I can work on my files wherever I am, at any time and know that as soon as I'm back to base, both machines will be sporting the latest version of every doc in there. Now that's brilliant!

In terms of security, you can password protect your Jornada to deter the would be thief and you can add ownership details on the front screen to encourage a return to owner if lost. Again, these are neat, very helpful touches designed to enhance customer service.

I cannot speak too highly of the Jornada. It has actually changed the way that I work on a day to day basis and I am still only scratching the surface of this smart little beauty.