Jornada Gets More Than Just a New Look
It’s September--time for new TV shows, new cars, new fashions and a new Pocket PC operating system.
At the DEMOmobile conference in La Jolla today, Hewlett-Packard is expected to introduce the $600 Jornada 565, the first in a wave of Pocket PC-compatible devices running version 4.0 of Microsoft’s hand-held operating system.
Some of the improvements in the device and the OS are more than skin deep. Other manufacturers, including Compaq, Casio and Toshiba, are expected to join Microsoft in the formal launch of the new OS next month.
Most important from a usability standpoint is that HP has finally bowed to convention and provided a channel into which a round stylus can slip. Previous models used something resembling a tongue depressor that fell out of the device’s flip-top cover when opened. With the new stylus, users have a chance of holding on to it for a while.
Second on the hardware improvements is the addition of a removable lithium-ion battery. This enables users to have a spare on hand for extra power or to use an optional higher-capacity battery for as much as 14 hours of use.
Extra batteries might come in handy: The version of Windows Media Player installed in the 565, along with the internal hardware, delivers some of the best digital audio anywhere, at any price. On a more practical level, the device could be hooked up to external speakers to deliver audio at a meeting.
Apart from digital entertainment, however, the Jornada 565 offers a slim (0.68-inch-deep), lightweight (6.1-ounce) personal digital assistant that business users should love. The new Pocket PC operating system looks a bit more professional than the previous version.
The pocket versions of Outlook, Word and Excel are still there and function well. There also seems to be good integration--in this model at least--with outside storage media that can fit in a compact flash slot.
For example, IBM Corp.’s 340-megabyte, $260 Microdrive works with the Jornada 565 and holds as many as six hours of MP3 music, or hundreds of photos and thousands of document files. By contrast, some Palm platform applications have had trouble using data from other storage media.
The reflective TFT color screen, which HP says can display as many as 65,236 colors, is sharp and clear. Again, the business application here is in presentations, although probably one on one since there’s no video output.
The challenge--to other Pocket PC makers, if not to HP itself--is whether a Microsoft-based PDA will descend into the price range of lower-end Palm and Handspring devices. For now, the HP Jornada 565 probably will find a home among those with some money to spare, or an expense account to charge it to. In some ways, that’s a shame because the 565 deserves a wider audience.
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Mark A. Kellner is a freelance technology writer and hosts “Mark Kellner on Computers” at https://www.adrenalineradio.com from 5 to 6 p.m. Thursdays.
