Brighthand reviews Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition

[Steve]

The first Pocket PC with Windows Mobile 2003 is out, and Brighthand's Ed Hardy brings us his impressions of the new version of Microsoft's handheld operating system.

Read the full review at http://www.brighthand.com/article/Br...dows_Mobile_SE

[Scott R]

I completely agree with your comments about the PPC GUI not being designed well for landscape mode. The title bar and bottom menu bar take up far too much of the screen space. IMO, landscape mode on a 240x320 PPC is of limited value. You really need one of the newer 480x640 devices to get the most out of it. It's also disappointing that MS didn't add a widget for quickly changing modes, though I'm glad to hear that you can assign it to a button. I'd probably assign that to my h4155's voice memo button since that seems to get easily pressed (triggering the memo recorder).

Speaking of which...what's the word on HP offering us h4155 owners an upgrade?

Scott

[George Mitchell]

I wonder if the Alarms will work in this version.

[Pony99CA]

Originally posted by Steve
Reoccurring alarms are still AWOL.

I'm confused by this statement. Windows Mobile 2003 already supports repeating alarms.

Go to the Sounds & Notifications settings applet, tap the Notifications tab, then select Reminders in the Select an event drop-down list. You should see a Repeat check box under the Play sound check box.

The setting is obviously global, applying to all tasks, appointments and reminders. It would be nice if the Sound & Notifications settings were used as defaults for each item needing a reminder, but could be overridden for individual reminders. If I recall correctly, you could do that in Windows CE on Handheld PCs.

Steve

[robrecht]

Does landscape mode run slower than portrait as it reportedly does on the pa1mOne Tungsten T3?

[Ed Hardy]

Originally posted by Pony99CA
I'm confused by this statement. Windows Mobile 2003 already supports repeating alarms.

Go to the Sounds & Notifications settings applet, tap the Notifications tab, then select Reminders in the Select an event drop-down list. You should see a Repeat check box under the Play sound check box.

The setting is obviously global, applying to all tasks, appointments and reminders. It would be nice if the Sound & Notifications settings were used as defaults for each item needing a reminder, but could be overridden for individual reminders. If I recall correctly, you could do that in Windows CE on Handheld PCs.

Sorry, I threw that sentance in at the last minute and I realize I expressed myself poorly. What this feature does is play the alarm sound every few minutes. There's no way to control how often or for how long it does this. At least not that I know of. And the settings that MS has chosen aren't very useful. You get reminders for only about 15 minutes after the alarm goes off. (You can have the power button blink at you for an unlimited amount of time, but I keep my Pocket PC in a case, where I can't see this.) This feature needs to be much more robust in Windows Mobile 2005.

Speaking of which, I haven't run into the problem that bedeviled Windows Mobile 2003 where the handheld doesn't wake up correctly for alarms, but I have Spb Pocket Plus installed, which fixes the problem. I guess I'll have to remove it and see if the problem crops up.

I also find it interesting that there's no longer a volume control in Sounds & Notifications. You must use the one in the Title Bar.

[Double-Trinity]

Originally posted by Scott R
I completely agree with your comments about the PPC GUI not being designed well for landscape mode. The title bar and bottom menu bar take up far too much of the screen space. IMO, landscape mode on a 240x320 PPC is of limited value. You really need one of the newer 480x640 devices to get the most out of it. It's also disappointing that MS didn't add a widget for quickly changing modes, though I'm glad to hear that you can assign it to a button. I'd probably assign that to my h4155's voice memo button since that seems to get easily pressed (triggering the memo recorder).

Speaking of which...what's the word on HP offering us h4155 owners an upgrade?

Scott

I personally think that the GUI should offer completely resizable customizable, and hidable control strips, just like in windows 2000 or XP. That way in VGA and Landscape (it could swap out the settings for either of these) they could be arranged to take full advantage of the extra space. Hiding the control strips or the taskbar, like in windows, would also be a perfect solution to this situation.

Making the input panel floatable and dockable and resizable (in the case of letter recognizer and that sort of panel) would be a solution to the "squished" problem, as well.

[Pony99CA]

Originally posted by Ed
Sorry, I threw that sentance in at the last minute and I realize I expressed myself poorly. What this feature does is play the alarm sound every few minutes. There's no way to control how often or for how long it does this. At least not that I know of. And the settings that MS has chosen aren't very useful. You get reminders for only about 15 minutes after the alarm goes off. (You can have the power button blink at you for an unlimited amount of time, but I keep my Pocket PC in a case, where I can't see this.) This feature needs to be much more robust in Windows Mobile 2005.

Ah, OK. I certainly agree with making alarms more customizable.

Besides the number of times to repeat and the delay between repetitions, it would be nice to allow vibrating first for a specified time, followed by audio alarms. If cheapy cell phones can do this, I'd think a Pocket PC could.

Steve

[alexp]

Originally posted by robrecht
Does landscape mode run slower than portrait as it reportedly does on the pa1mOne Tungsten T3?

I would qualify that to state, "as it reportedly does on some applications..."

I haven't had any problems with most of the core apps. There are a handful of apps that I've noticed a slight speed loss with landscape.

[alexp]

And once again...Microsoft adds in a feature to Pocket PC/Windows Mobile that is clunky and cumbersome.

The on-screen keyboard in landscape mode is nothing less than a fiasco. The solution on the Tungsten T3 is far better, although the layout there is standard A-Z, which makes the keyboard a tad awkward. Still, I can actually see what I'm browsing with that design.

I also wonder why MS shoe-horned the "most-used apps" feature from WinXP into PPC/WM. I'd like to see it, because if it's in addition to the list of programs, it probably covers almost the entire screen. It'd be nice to have the "All Programs" option of XP, which significantly cleans up the Start menu. This is another area where I prefer the T3, which allows you to tap/hold on the Home icon in the status bar to see your most recent apps.

I'm sure some issues will be less-noticeable in 640x480, but it's still outrageously awkward design.