PALM OS vs. Pocket PC

Recently, my 8 year old Palm Pilot died. It took a nasty fall off of the counter and the screen broke. Sadly I had just started using it again. The last four blog posts had been written on it. I was relying on this device to organize many different things. Thankfully, they were all backed up on my computer so little was lost.


As someone who has difficulty getting organized this came as a big loss to me. Fortunately, my wife helped Me find a replacement device. I ended up with a Dell Axim x5. This device comes with Microsoft Pocket PC instead of the Palm 0S and is a much more advanced machine then the one it was replacing.


There are some advantages to using Pocket PC instead of Palm's OS. While there are many differences between the two devices, I will focus on the Operating System itself and cover the devices later.



First of all, the OS is more polished. Navigation is much more intuitive, and is more like Windows then the Palm OS.


Secondly, the applications on the Pocket PC line up with the Microsoft Office applications. Where as the Palm device required the use of a third party system to sync and store the data with a host computer, the data from the Pocket PC synchronizes directly with the Office Applications and file system.


Third, the data input for the Pocket PC is much more sophisticated then what Palm Could offer. To me, this is by far the most important advantage.


If you've never used a Palm device there is only two built in data input options. A tiny keyboard and Graffiti. A proprietary writing shorthand that one had to memorize In order to use this method of input. Often. I would mess up Something or would forget how to make a symbol. The Pocket PC offers both of these input options and a third, a Transcriber, which can identify the words written on the screen and convert them to text. It is much more natural and quicker.


I'm still learning all of the functions, but I've found this device to be very intuitive so far. And for someone who has chicken scratch hand witting, the this device is remarkably good at figuring out what I am trying to say. There is no higher compliment I can give but that.