Never one to properly maintain a diary, and with an increasingly busy life, I decided to buy myself the HP 1940 iPAQ Palmtop. I've now owned it for about three months and although it's about £240 more expensive than a diary, it's money well spent. I could now write huge lists of specifications to do with it but instead I'll describe my day and how I use this little computer.
I wake up at around 7 and turn on my Desktop PC and go on-line. I then attach my iPAQ to it using the Microsoft Activesync software that comes with the HP1940. After a straightforward installation when I bought it, I can now plug the two computers together through my PC's USB socket and they synchronise
with one another. The best thing about this is a faciltity called AvantGo. This downloads news pages from sources such as Reuters, BBC, Guardian, Times etc onto your iPAQ so that you can view them at your leisure and it even removes old news pages. So with my iPAQ full of the days news, I walk to the station and board my train.
I am a huge fan of The Darkness and luckily the Microsoft Media Player on my PC allows me to very easily download music onto my iPAQ. With the built-in 64Meg of memory, you can fit about 15 songs and this can obviously be extended by purchasing a memory card. The iPAQ has a strange headphone socket which is narrower than the standard 3.5mm socket but they do provide an adaptor. So, I sit on the train listening to "I believe in a thing called Love" and reading all the latest news. If the journey takes ages and I start to get bored of music and/or news then I can play Solitaire or a game called jawbreaker which is a colour matcing game that is very addictive.
I arrive at work and sit at my desk and browse through the calendar on the iPAQ. The desktop, the screen you see when no programs are running, can be configured to show all of your appointments for the coming weeks and really does allow you to see birthdays and anniversarys that could be easily missed in a diary. You can also set alarms to remind you in advance of important meetings. The iPAQ is used with a stylus that you draw on the screen with. Although very odd to start with, you do get used to it and input of text or numbers can either be done by handwriting recognition or by tapping away at a small keyboard at the foot of the screen. The latter is the most accurate.
The iPAQ comes with those office favourites Word and Excel, and although very basic versions of their desktop PC cousins, they can be very handy for working on the train or adding any information which can then be transferred to your PC using Activesync.
If you have a Bluetooth camera phone, it is possible to send your photos to your iPAQ and then simply transfer them to your PC when you get home, also using Activesync.
There are very few bad things that can be said about this product. However.
-It doesn't come with a case despite being extremely fragile and prone to damage.
-You can't use different coloured markers on your calendar screen to show day's off, leave, birthdays etc without opening each day individually.
-If you have got big hands, it is quite fiddly to use, especially if you're subjected to the 1950's slam door trains that I have to use. A smoother ride could be experienced at Blackpool Pleasure Beach!!!!
To conclude, this product is excellent at entertaining you, organising you and informing you. It is possible to download loads of different programs and the main limit is the size of memory but new cards can be bought from places like Amazon. I only really use it for the reasons I've outlined above and I've no doubt that I have barely scratched the surface of what this machine can do. However, I had to decide if I could justify spending £240 on a machine that runs a few very useful programs and 3 months after buying it, the answer is yes. To see specifications then please go to Hewlett Packard's website. Basically, it's as long as the diameter of a CD, wide as 3/4 of a credit card's length and as narrow as my little finger. It's very compact and I can't recommend it highly enough.
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Handheld - 64 MB RAM - Screen: 3.5 in inch - Display: TFT active matrix - CPU: XScale PXA270 - Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Infrared - Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 Premium Edition
Handheld - 64 MB RAM - Screen: 3.5 in inch - Display: TFT active matrix - CPU: XScale PXA310 - Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi - Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0, Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0 Classic
Handheld - 128 MB RAM - Screen: 4 in inch - Display: TFT active matrix - CPU: XScale PXA310 - Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi - Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0, Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0 Classic
Advantages: A sexy toy, erm which does lots of important things too! Disadvantages: Can only use some of the functionality with people with compatible devices.
Kirsty1 04.02.2004 (09.07.2004)
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May 4th, 2004
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