New and Improved PDA From Microsoft

When I turned on my new Pocket PC for the first time, I was outside enjoying a cloudless spring day, a rarity in Seattle. But the sun was too much for Microsoft, which is back with a redesigned line of digital hand-held devices.

All the hype, the fancy color screen and the razzle-dazzle technology crammed into my Pocket PC was lost to a bad case of screen glare. I couldn’t see anything. I fiddled and fumed over the screen’s mediocre display and then stuffed it back into my pocket, where it stayed for most of the day. So much for great expectations.

Microsoft and its hardware partners have returned for another try with a new line of hand-held personal digital assistants. Renamed the Pocket PC, Microsoft has overhauled its Windows CE software and worked closely with three manufacturers--Hewlett-Packard, Casio and Compaq--to offer a better product. But it still doesn’t measure up to rival Palm for simple elegance and ease of use.

That is not to say that Microsoft shouldn’t receive some credit for making big improvements over earlier, inferior designs. Its initial hand-helds were criticized for a clunky version of the Windows operating system that, among other things, created a cluttered screen and contained slow-moving applications. The old Windows CE versions lacked an intuitive understanding about how people used the devices.

Microsoft’s failure with its first hand-held device helped propel its main competitor, the Palm Pilot, to a nearly 80% share of the PDA market.

I tested HP’s $500 Jornada 545 for several months. The machine has much to offer--maybe too much. Though its color display is awful outside, inside is another story. The screen is sharp and crisp. I also like Microsoft’s version of the Reader--the e-book display software that comes close to reproducing the clarity of the printed page on the device’s palm-sized screen.

I found the core organizing functions--calendar and address book, to-do lists, memos and e-mail--to be well designed and easy to use. All synchronize well with similar applications on my desktop computer.

But users beware. The Pocket PC synchronizes only with Microsoft’s Outlook e-mail system and AOL 1.0 from American Online. If your company uses a different e-mail system, then you have some problems.

At the Los Angeles Times, we use Lotus Notes. That meant I spent far too much time talking to our technical department about converting my Notes account to Outlook so I could test the synchronization features.

This hardly builds the case for making my already complicated and busy life more efficient or less stressful. The Palm, on the other hand, not only synchronizes perfectly with Outlook, but with a host of other programs. Eventually, the Pocket PC will synchronize with other software programs, maybe even Lotus Notes. It already runs Yahoo Messenger. But the waste of time left a bad taste in my mouth.

Geeks and gadget lovers will probably like the Pocket PC the most, for its strength lies in the dizzying array of new high-tech features--a veritable mini-PC and personal organizer all in one. It includes a built-in MP3 music player and digital voice recorder (my personal favorite). Viewing high-resolution color photographs and even MPEG movie files on the small screen is impressive as well.

Pocket PC includes the Microsoft Media Player that lets the Jornada play compressed digital music files through headphones. The sound is pretty good. An expansion slot allows users to store music on CompactFlash memory cards.

The Palm can do some of these things with add-on software, but the Jornada has them already installed in the operating system.

The Pocket PC also has voice- and character-recognition technology. Like the Palm, the user writes on the screen with a stylus to enter text and numbers. The Pocket PC recognizes regular block letters, whereas the Palm requires users to learn a special simplified alphabet. But even with good character recognition, I found that entering text into the device was slower than writing on paper and requires more care.

Microsoft attempts to make it easier, though, by letting users scrawl freehand on the screen, using the stylus as a brush. While I like the concept, it recognized probably 40% of my handwriting. That’s not great, but the technology should improve over time.

Like the Palm, Pocket PC Jornada owners can access daily news summaries from several media sites through a scaled-down version of Microsoft Internet Explorer and special Web software developed by AvantGo, which designed clear and easy-to-read pages specifically for the Pocket PC.

I enjoyed the subtle humor in a feature called Peacemaker. It allows a user to point a Jornada at a rival Palm and transfer contact information between the two via infrared ports.

But I wonder how many people--especially busy professionals--will really use many of these new whiz-bang features. In the several months that I spent with the Pocket PC, I was hard-pressed to find the time to test all of them and probably missed some. I really had no use for the mini-versions of Word and Excel--although I see the potential benefit of having spreadsheets in the palm of my hand, even if Pocket Excel is cumbersome to use.

A Xerox sales manager--and devoted Palm V user--whom I know persuasively argued that the color Jornada is no match for the monochrome Palm V. She placed her Palm next to my Pocket PC and showed how the more simple, task-oriented Palm delivers the features it promises. Its core organizer functions are more intuitive and efficient. And she noted that her Palm can run other third-party programs.

Plus, the Jornada weighs more than twice as much as the Palm V--nine ounces versus four ounces. It costs nearly twice as much--$500 versus $279. And despite claims of an improved battery life over the even worse CE-based versions, I found the Jornada needed a recharge after eight hours of use, even less if you use the music player. The Palm V can go for nearly a month of normal use between charges.

While the Palm is not perfect, Microsoft and its partners have created a credible alternative. And despite Microsoft’s history of trying to illegally snuff out the competition, as its federal antitrust suit vividly shows, having other choices is a good thing for consumers.

For that reason alone, the new and improved Pocket PC deserves serious consideration. But for affordability and ease of use, buy the Palm.

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