User's Report on the Pocket PC 17 July 2000 by Click Image to Send Email

Contents What is a Pocket PC? My Pocket PC Environment and Experiences Pocket PC Memory Configuration Pocket PC Functionality Programming the Pocket PC

Note: this report contains links to various websites. These websites are outside of my control, and, as such, these links are subject to breaking in time. As of the date of this report, all links were checked and found to be valid.

From the Microsoft Pocket PC website:

"The Windows powered Pocket PC brings you all the best of your desktop PC in a form factor that fits in the palm of your hand!

"With Pocket Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, and pocket versions of your favorite business applications, the Pocket PC gives you what no other organizer can: true portable computing power. "

From the Pocket PC Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page on the Microsoft Pocket PC website:

"With a Pocket PC, you can have ready access to your most essential information anytime, anywhere. You can check your calendar, read your e-mail, and browse the Web* all while listening to your favorite songs. And best of all, your PC and Pocket PC will always be in sync so your information will always be current.

"Pocket PCs come with a broad range of business, personal productivity, and entertainment applications. They always include Pocket Inbox, so you can read your e-mail with attachments wherever you are; Pocket Outlook® for managing contacts, calendars, tasks, and e-mail; Pocket Internet Explorer; Microsoft Reader with ClearType™ display technology; and the Windows Media™ Player for listening to downloaded music files. Pocket PCs are also versatile enough to satisfy the personal needs of your busy lifestyle letting you play digital music, read ebooks or magazines, and play state-of-the-art-games. And they're remarkably (and easily) expandable as your needs change, you can easily add to the capabilities of your Pocket PC from a varied selection of standard hardware and software expansion options."

Convenient, reliable mobile computing is what the Pocket PC is about. Imagine travelling to a meeting and bringing with you a single "pocket size" mobile computer that contains: Your calendar and contact list combined with an infrared communications port that lets you exchange electronic business cards and other information with the people you meet Smart maps to your destination, complete with an integrated database showing local hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and landmarks Copies of your presentations with full-motion video in electronic form which are ready to be viewed (via a projector) directly from your mobile computer A database of business expenses that you fill in as you go (using Microsoft Money) An assortment of reference books for use during your meeting A notebook and voice recorder to record your meeting minutes and other notes using a simple keyboard, handwriting analysis, or just your voice A web browser (for use either via a wired or wireless connection to the Internet) An email program (for use either via a wired or wireless connection to the Internet) supplemented with scaled-down versions of Microsoft Word and Excel for viewing attachments A mobile information system that docks with your desktop PC when you return and automatically updates your calendar, contact, email, notes, and files with the changes you made while travelling Entertaining and educational books and news magazines to read while you are travelling Music and video to which to listen and watch while you are travelling

One of the single best places to go to find out about the available Pocket PCs and their features is http://www.microsoft.com/pocketpc/. The reader is also invited to visit http://www.cnet.com/ and search for the phrase "Pocket PC" for writeups, reviews, price comparisons, free software listings, and news about the Pocket PCs.

My Pocket PC Environment and Experiences

Click on Image to Enlarge

This report is based on my personal experiences with my Casio E-115 Pocket PC. I employ the following configuration when I use my E-115:

• The basic Casio E-115 device with its docking cradle that connects via a serial port to my HP Pavilion desktop PC

  My Casio E-115 Software Configuration Microsoft Windows CE Version 3, Microsoft input tools: Voice Recorder, Keyboard with Word Completion, Jot Character Recognizer with Word Completion, and Transcriber Handwriting Recognizer Microsoft Pocket Excel, Microsoft Pocket File Explorer, Microsoft Pocket Internet Explorer, Microsoft Pocket Money, Microsoft Pocket Reader (for viewing a library of eBooks and eZines), Microsoft Pocket Streets 2001, Microsoft Pocket Windows Media Player (for playing video (AVI) and audio (MP3, WMF) files), Microsoft Pocket Word, Casio Calculator, Casio Calendar (compatable with Microsoft Outlook), Casio Contacts (compatable with Microsoft Outlook), Casio Inbox (for email, compatable with Microsoft Outlook), Casio Notes (compatable with Microsoft Outlook), Casio Tasks (compatable with Microsoft Outlook), Field Software's PocketShot (for taking screen snapshots), 4 games: Microsoft Pocket Chess, Microsoft Solitaire, Pocket Friendly's Backgammon, and Namco Pac-Man

  My Casio E-115 Hardware Configuration 131MHz MIPS VR4121 CPU, 65,536-color 240 x 340 pixel TFT display, 16M bytes of ROM, 32M bytes of RAM, 128M bytes of Compact Flash card (removable non-volatile storage which is also compatable with my Kodak digital camera) infrared communications port, serial communications port used to communicate with my home desktop PC via a PC docking station (which also recharges the primary battery), microphone, speaker, stereo headphone jack, primary rechargeable battery and secondary button battery, and power supply with primary battery recharging capability Some E-115 Accessories Click on Image to Enlarge Modem card Wireless cell phone card (for wireless Internet access) Ethernet card Full-motion video camera (see above) Full-size keyboard Printer Recommended Changes to the E-115 Replace the serial port with a USB port. Add a second Compact Flash card slot. Increase battery life.

• The HP Pavilion desktop computer configuration includes:
  • Microsoft Windows 98 2nd Edition,
  • Microsoft ActiveSync 3.1 (for synchronizing with the Casio E-115 Pocket PC),
  • Microsoft Outlook 2000,
  • Microsoft Streets and Trips 2001 (for generation of smart maps for desktop and Pocket PC use),
  • Microsoft eMbedded Tools 3 (Visual Basic and Visual C++ compilers and debuggers that support Pocket PC software development),
  • Microsoft Office 2000, and
  • Microsoft Visual Studio 6 (Visual Basic, C++, Interdev, etc., compilers, interpreters, and debuggers that support Desktop PC software development)
  • ImageMate Sandisk (for quickly and easily accessing Compact Flash cards as "disks" via a USB port)

  Click on Image to Enlarge

  
  The Sandisk is particularly instrumental in providing a bridge between the Pocket PC and the Desktop PC. It allows the Desktop PC user to view the Compact Flash card as another disk. All the Windows tools, such as Windows Explorer, can use it as a conventional disk. The only drawback is that the user needs to remember to Eject the Compact Flash card before removing it for use on the Pocket PC.

My Pocket PC has become second-nature to me, and I use it constantly both at home and at work. I've been using it since the launch of the Pocket PC in March 2000 (I purchased one shortly after they came out). The vanilla Casio E-115 did not include a Compact Flash card (just the slot to plug one in), and I purchased a 128M byte Compact Flash card about a week after buying the Pocket PC. The long-term non-volatile storage afforded by the Compact Flash card is virtually essential to even the casual user, especially if the user enjoys music and wants to store songs on the Pocket PC (a single MP3 song can run from 3-5M bytes).

I've used my Pocket PC at my desk, in local meetings, and on travel at remote meetings and conferences. It's an excellent travelling campanion, providing both entertainment (in the form of electronic books, electronic magazines, games, and music) and mobile office support (taking written and audio notes, checking email and the web, recording expenses, exchanging information electronically with other mobile computers (including laptops and hand-helds)).

The Pocket PC really shines in some areas and not at all in others. Positives:

• The Casio is extremely dependable and reliable. It has not crashed once, although individual programs have frozen (and I have been able to terminate them from the Settings menu).
• Electronic books and magazines (eBooks and eZines) work very well. You can curl up with a Pocket PC (in an airplane seat, on a couch, in a comfortable chair, in a meeting, in an auditorium filled with uncomfortable chairs) and read a book or magazine clearly and easily. The TFT display with Microsoft Cleartype technology simply works. I actually prefer eBooks over conventional books in many cases, and the eBook data format used by Microsoft Reader compresses them to where you can store hundreds of them on a single CDROM. With the Tablet PC later this year, eBooks will be better yet. I've gotten into the habit of downloading the latest copy of Slate (an eZine that contains news summaries from many major magazines) the evening before I make a trip.
• Sound quality is excellent. I cannot distinguish between a conventional CD, my Rio MP3 player, and my Pocket PC.
• Electronic maps are excellent. Being able to zoom, locate places, search for street addresses, and keep many different maps with you is extremely convenient. The integration with Microsoft Streets and Trips 2001 on my desktop PC is excellent, allowing me to prepare my maps on my desktop PC (using the provided database of the entire United States and most of Canada) and then export them to the Pocket PC. The only problem I've run into is that larger map areas (covering more than 100 miles) may have to be cut down into a number of smaller maps, but the size limit is still not a problem if you just want to cover a conventional city (I have maps of Atlanta, Fort Worth, Orlando, and Indianapolis in my Pocket PC).
• The calendar (with its multiple views) and the contacts are very easy to use.
• The word completion feature of the keyboard input is extremely handy, preventing you from having to tap in the whole word in many cases. It also keeps track of the words you have used recently and adapts itself to offering these words rather than some other words as you get into a note.
• ActiveSync 3.1 with its built-in Explorer for the Desktop-to-Pocket PC interface is excellent. It makes data synchronization very easy, and the explorer lets you view the Pocket PC like a disk. It even works well via the serial port (provided you don't try to transfer larger files), and moving around in the Pocket PC's RAM and Compact Flash card storage spaces is quick and easy.

• I've noted that some programs have frozen, and it was necessary to terminate them via the settings menu. The Pocket PC OS (Windows CE 3) has never crashed, and I've never had to use the reset button, but the freezing of some programs, like Internet Explorer, under some situations, like when they are trying to read a large photo, is annoying.
• Never plan on using it to take lengthy, detailed written notes. Its form factor is simply too small to consider using it to enter large amounts of written text. Audio notes are fine. Handwriting recognition is still lacking (I have not yet mastered the "brush stroke" sequence so that it always recognizes the characters as I intend), but I understand that the new Microsoft Transcriber tool helps with this and will look into it.
• Never ask it to handle images with large numbers of pixels. If the image is too large, Internet Explorer (which displays images) cannot load the image. If the image is large but not too large, Internet Explorer can load the image, but you have to scroll left and right and up and down to see the whole thing. Keep your images small enough to comfortably fit on the screen.
• Word and Excel are pocket versions -- NOT full versions. While they are great for many attachments, they don't work completely with all attachments. The first thing that hit me was that tables in Word 2000 are lost in Pocket Word (the text is there but the table border and structure are gone).
• The desktop PC's double-click has been replaced with the Pocket PC's touch-and-hold. This takes getting used to, but is not a problem after a short while.
• My Pocket PC's serial interface is way too slow for transferring larger files, like songs. I use a SanDisk and transfer songs, eBooks and eZines, photos, and most larger items via the Compact Flash card. The serial interface is good enough, however, for data synchronization of small things (like contact and calendar changes). Some Pocket PCs, like the HP Journada, have USB interfaces instead of serial interfaces, and they don't have this problem.

More experiences can be found throughout the later sections of this report.

Pocket PC Memory Configuration

The memory configuration of the Pocket PC is generally divided into three parts:

• ROM, in which the Operating System and some applications are stored,
• RAM, in which other applicatons and some data is stored, and
• non-volatile memory (usually a Compact Flash Card), in which data is stored

Below is a table of descriptions of memory and its usage along with screen shots showing the memory status of my Pocket PC, a Casio E-115, at the time of the preparation of this report.

Memory Element	Screen Shot(s)
Data Storage and Programs in RAM Memory 32M bytes of RAM is quite adequate for my needs, as is shown by the screen shot on the right. Many of the first Pocket PCs came with only 16M of RAM, but the Casio came with 32M. Since I use a Compact Flash card for non-volatile storage, and my default flash card is 128M bytes, I keep most of my data there.
Program Access in RAM Memory Since Windows CE 3.0 is multitasking, the operating system provides a way to view the current running programs and abort or switch to any one of them. With the eMbedded Visual Tools 3.0 debugger, you can see many more tasks than the main program access points shown here.
Compact Flash Card Memory The removable Compact Flash Card provides an excellent non-volatile storage medium and is also compatable with many digital cameras (including the Kodak camera I use), so the Pocket PC's flash cards can be reused in the cameras and vice-versa. While I currently use a 128M Compact Flash Card for the Pocket PC and a 20M Compact Flash Card for the digital camera, Compact Flash cards on the order of several hundred megabytes are available. They tend to get a little pricey, but the price I paid for the 128M card was cheaper per byte than the 20M card.	Click on Image to Enlarge

Pocket PC Functionality

To illustrate the kinds of functionality offered by the Pocket PC, below is a table of descriptions of screen shots showing many features of my Pocket PC, a Casio E-115.

Functionality Description	Screen Shot(s) (Actual Size)
Today Screen This is a slightly edited display of my Today screen (don't want to let too much personal information out). The Today screen can be set to display any or all of the following summaries: Date Today Title Bar Owner Information Calendar (today's appointments) Inbox (new email messages) Tasks (today's to-do list) On power up, the Pocket PC may display the Today Screen or the Owner Information: Name Company Address Telephone Email Address Notes Simple password protection for the device (a user-provided 4-digit PIN) is also available.
File Explorer File Explorer on the Pocket PC is very similar to Windows Explorer on the Desktop PC. One key difference to remember is how the touch screen/stylus is used on the Pocket PC: Single tap (strike and raise the stylus or finger) launches an application Tap and hold (strike and hold the stylus down) is like the context-sensitive right mouse click on the Desktop PC - it brings up a context-sensitive menu that presents options to the user (such as copy, cut, delete) These are basic rules for all applications on the Pocket PC.
Pocket Internet Explorer Pocket Internet Explorer is a full-color web browser. It may be used online with a dial-up modem card or a cell phone card, and it may also be used offline through the serial port and ActiveSync on the Desktop PC. In offline mode, information is downloaded from the web to the Pocket PC and then accessed later on the Pocket PC.
Calendar With the TFT screen, the Calendar can clearly display a full year as shown in the screen shot at the right. The Calendar can also be configured to display the month, the week, or the day. Each entry in the calendar can optionally include a reminder alarm which causes a light to flash at the top of the Pocket PC. Audible alarms using a variety of sounds can also be set.
Maps Microsoft Streets and Trips 2001 includes a detailed database with maps of the United States and Canada. The database contains landmark, hotel, restaurant, gas station, car rental agency, and other information, and user-defined pushpins with their own graphical symbols can also be added as desired. The Pocket PC version of Streets and Trips, Pocket Streets, is included with the Desktop PC version. I have used the Desktop PC version to map out the area of the country to which I am travelling and then saved it to the Pocket PC for use on the road.
eBooks amd eZines Barnes and Noble, as well as other publishers, are collaborating with Microsoft in setting up an infrastructure for the publication and sale of books in electronic form compatable with Microsoft Reader (currently only available for the Pocket PC). Over 2,000 eBooks are already available in a format suitable for viewing by the Reader. The Microsoft Reader with its Cleartype technology presents books in an extremely readable way, and the user interface is very comfortable. I have curled up with eBooks on airplanes, in airports, in bed, in a Lazy boy, and any where else I would normally curl up with a conventional book. The difference is that I now can have a large library of eBooks on a single CDROM rather than several bookcases. Many eBooks are available for downloading for free, giving us ample opportunity to try them out once you have a Pocket PC. Included is a dictionary, classic novels, about 15 Star Trek novels, a few science fiction books, and electronic magazines (eZines). Pictured on the right and below is an image from the Microsoft Reader of the first page of an issue of the Slate eZine. Slate contains many articles unique to Slate and many articles selected from other magazines such as Time, Newsweek, Fortune, Money, and so on. New issues of Slate, which cover the last two weeks, are releases every evening at 5pm. It is easy and free to download the latest issue of Slate to the Pocket PC before leaving for a trip the next day. I store my eBooks and eZines on the Compact Flash card. I also keep my library on a R/W CDROM which I update on occasion. The Desktop PC of the Microsoft Reader and an authoring kit which integrates with Word will be coming out later this year.
Games Several free games are available for the Pocket PC. They run in full color, sometimes with stereo sound. The games I have are: Backgammon Chess Pac-Man Solitaire
Photos Photos can be displayed by Internet Explorer (which is invoked automatically from File Explorer when an image is tapped). Photos can be in the usual formats and may be larger than the screen, in which case sliders appear as needed to allow you to move around over the photo. I keep many photos on my Pocket PC, as one would use a wallet. There are also some aerial and satellite photos I use to help giving people directions.
Music There is a Pocket Version of the Windows Media Player that can play WAV, MP3, WMA, and other audio formats as well as the AVI video format (for full-motion color video). Sound output can go through either the built-in speaker (which is fairly good as they go) or CD-quality stereo headphones. Libraries of audio and video files can be kept on the Desktop PC and loaded onto the Pocket PC on demand. Since the Pocket PC is multitasking, you can play songs while performing other tasks, such as reading eBooks. With my 131MHz Casio E-115, the audio sometimes pauses when I try this (but it plays fine when the media player is the only main task). Audio CD copyrights allow the purchaser to make copies for personal use, and tools like the Rioport Audio Manager and Windows Media Player 7 have the ability to read audio CDs and store their tracks as WAV, MP3, and WMA files (only Player 7 can store WMA files at this time). Skins and visualizations, to customize the appearance and function of the Windows Media Player, are already available for Player 7 and should come to the next version of the Player for the Pocket PC soon.
Written and Audio Notes Drawing Example There are several ways to provide input to the programs running on the Pocket PC. These include, but are not limited to: Serial Port (both transmission and reception with ActiveSync on the Desktop PC) - standard on the Casio Infrared (both transmission and reception) - standard on the Casio Stylus Keyboard - standard on the Casio Touch Panel (the display screen is a touch panel which works with the stylus, the finger, or any other object) - standard on the Casio Jot Character Recognition - standard on the Casio Freehand Drawing - standard on the Casio (example is in the image on the right) Microphone and Speaker with Voice Recorder - standard on the Casio Microsoft Transcriber (handwriting analyzer) - free add-in to the Casio Camera - accessory for the Casio Plug-in Cell Phone (wireless transmission and reception) - accessory for the Casio Plug-in Telephone Modem (wire transmission and reception) - accessory for the Casio Compact Flash Card and Sandisk on the Desktop PC - accessory for the Casio
Written and Audio Notes Jot Character Recognizer Example The Jot Character Recognizer is a quick and easy way to "write" on the Pocket PC. The disadvantage is that you need to learn the Jot brush stroke standard to make it work correctly all the time. The Pocket PC's online help is an aid to learning this, but this extra step is still an effort. Jot includes intelligent Word Completion, which is some help. By "intelligent" I mean that the word completion subsystem watches what words you use and, over time, suggests your more frequently-used words. I found the overhead of learning the Jot brush strokes to be in the way and turned to the keyboard and Voice Recorder for most of my notes before Transcriber came along. I'm likely to start using Transcriber more and drop Jot completely.
Written and Audio Notes Transcriber Example Microsoft Transcriber is a relatively new free add-in to the Pocket PC. It analyzes handwriting and, when used with a program like Note, it applies Fuzzy logic to read your handwriting and then place what it feels are the associated characters into to the text (erasing your writing as it does the replacements). I found that Transcriber is doing a very good job overall. It's actually rather amazing to watch. Even very scrawled handwriting has been picked up correctly, and I find that when I take my time to make the writing clear, Transcriber has a very high correct hit rate. Unlike with Jot, there are only 4 gestures (strokes) to learn - these are used to enter a carriage return, erase the previous character, enter a space, and quick-correct. Transcriber recognizes cursive writing and printing. It also recognizes digits distinctly from letters. The writing entered while using Transcriber is blue in color, distinguishing it from the default black print of drawing.
Written and Audio Notes Keyboard and Word Completion Example The Pocket PC is definitely not intended as a keyboard input device. It is quite small, and a stylus is required to punch the keys. Intelligent Word Completion helps a lot, but it is still not enough. Transcriber definitely makes life much nicer for text input to the Pocket PC. Note that Casio does offer a full-size keyboard accessory that plugs into the serial port. I have not tried it, but I guess it would work OK. Looks odd, tho, with the computer being this little device plugged into a keyboard many times its size. If you have a lot of text entry to do, a Desktop or Laptop PC is a much better choice.
Written and Audio Notes Mixed Note (Drawing/Keyboard/Voice) Example Many forms of input can be mixed in the same document (note file, in this case). Note that in the image on the right I also included an audio recording from the Voice Recorder. The Voice Recorder is very easy to use, and the built in speaker plays it back well (or you could use headphones).
Pocket Word Input Completion Example Pocket Word is a scaled-down version of Microsoft Word that is compatable with Word in many, but not all ways. You can use it to create documents, edit documents, and view email attachments. Word documents can be transferred to the Pocket PC using ActiveSync and, in so doing, they are automatically converted to a Pocket Word format. This happens through both automatic file synchronization and ActiveSync Explorer. They are transferred back into Word format on the way back to the Desktop PC. I don't like the shortcomings of Pocket Word and don't use it much as a result. Many of my Word documents use tables, and Pocket Word does not support them. I have found that if I compose a Word document with the Pocket Word target in mind, I can have a high degree of success in working with it in Pocket Word. But many of the bells and whistles are gone.
Pocket Word Color Example Pocket Word does support color. This is one really good thing about it that draws me toward it a little. I like to use color to emphasize important points in my document sometimes. It stands out nicely on the Pocket PC. Note that highlighting also stands out nicely.
Pocket Excel Like Pocket Word, Pocket Excel is there as well. Like Pocket Word, Pocket Excel is scaled down as well. It will do in a pinch and for attachments you have to try to see, but I'm not too excited about it either. The big things I use Excel for are elaborate text tables and graphs. Pocket Excel is not too good for either.

With the eMbedded Visual Tools 3.0 kit, it is very easy for an experienced Visual Basic or Visual C++ programmer to move over to creating applications for the Pocket PC. The only trick is to get used to the more limited set of controls and attributes on the Pocket PC. Due to the tight screen space requirements of the Pocket PC, many objects in your Visual Basic programs have a smaller set of attributes in order to reduce the space they take up unnecessarily. Also, Windows CE has some different functionality than normal Windows, and the visual tools are designed for it. A couple of screens follow.

Description	Desktop/Pocket PC Display
eMbedded Visual Tools (on Desktop PC) The eMbedded Visual Tools have the same basic look and feel as Visual Studio, and they will soon be integrated into Visual Studio. There is very little additional learned to do to get started. I wrote a simple embedded Visual Basic demo program in only 30 minutes and ran it in debug mode on the Pocket PC immediately after composition was complete. I later created a deployment package for the demo that can run on any of the mobile computer devices on the list. As indicated by this screen, during development, you work with a specific mobile computer target in mind. At this time, the target are: Hand-Held PC Palm-Size PC Pocket PC Formless (no display screen) The Auto PC (which is built into automobiles) will be added soon.	Click on Image to Enlarge
Composing an Embedded Visual Basic Application (on Desktop PC) The look and feel of the interface is very close to Visual Studio. The main thing it took me to get used to was the reduced number of controls. That soon passed. Also involved was a mindset change, but my previous experiences with the Pocket PC as a user quickly helped me get over that as well. It's important to use the Pocket PC for a while before writing a program for it.	Click on Image to Enlarge
Running Demo on the Pocket PC The result of the development on the Desktop PC is a running demo on the Pocket PC. The circle changes color, the line moves, and the number in front of the line changes every second (driven by a timer control). During this time, the pushbuttons are active.