Pocket PC News Roundup

By Jeremy Weisser,

Well the dust has cleared and now its time for a Pocket PC news roundup. Just one week ago we all waited in anticipation as news and rumors began to emerge. Now that all the facts are out in the open I will attempt to sum up all the news and important facts into one concise article. 

Microsoft has appeared to have finally gotten it right with version 3.0 of Windows CE. The OS is clearly faster, simpler to use, and more stable than previous versions. For Microsoft these changes will hopefully translate into increased sales of Windows Powered devices. 

Each of the manufacturers officially released devices on the 19^th and the clear winner has to be Hewlett Packard.

HP is the only company that was able to introduce a completely new device that is widely available. The Jornada 540 series of devices show much improvement from the previous line of palm-size devices from HP. The new models are sleeker and sexier than anything that has come out of the HP handheld division and they are also priced very reasonably.

Casio and Compaq both were unable to release new models in time for the April 19^th release; instead they opted to release upgraded versions of palm-size models.

Casio's E115 Pocket PC is merely an upgraded version of the successful E105 PPC. The devices only differ in that the E115 has the Pocket PC ROM chip and its case coloring is slightly darker.

Compaq's Aero 1550 is an Aero 1530 with the upgraded ROM chip.

The most interesting news of the last week centers around the soon to be released, Compaq Ipaq Pocket PC. We now know that the device will most probably not live up to its pre-release hype.

With details now emerging about the Ipaq we now know that the device will use a 12-bit color screen as opposed to the 16-bit standard. Though the device employs the exciting modular sleeve system the Ipaq does not come standard with any sleeves. At an MSRP of $599 it is quite disappointing to learn that consumers must purchase a Compact Flash sleeve

Though Hewlett-Packard seems to have fielded the best of the new Pocket PCs they are the only manufacturer that has left palm-size pc owners in the dark. Both Compaq and Casio are offering some kind of upgrade program for owners of the previous generation devices however HP has announced no plans to do so.