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Palm or Windows Mobile? I've been firmly in the Palm camp to date, but have just acquired a Pocket PC together with Missing Sync for Windows Mobile. This is not a review of the Dell Axim X50v, but rather a functional comparison with my Palm T3 from the point-of-view of a Mac user. How did a Palm user making a trial transition to Pocket PC fair when pairing the device with Mac OS X? For given applications and functionality, does Palm or Pocket PC have the winning edge? Will he or won't he become a "switcher"? First impressions count, so I decided to document my experiences during the first 48 hours with a Pocket PC. There will be plenty to revisit in subsequent bloggings...

The outgoing Dell Axim X50v

Now superseded by the X51v, Dell were having a 20% off clear-out of the previous model, now 1 year old. The hardware is the same aside from double the ROM. Buying direct saved £77 over Expansys (shop around!) and avoided having to fight it out on eBay for a similar price. It cost me less than a Fujitsu Siemens Loox 720 "Grade B" stock which seemed like a similar spec alternative.

I chose a "Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Second Edition" device because Missing Sync (see below) doesn't yet support Windows Mobile 5.0 (free update pending); Dell has announced that there will be a WM5 upgrade for the X50v (not free), so I have options.

The X50v doesn't match my recent wish-list, but then nothing does. I figured it should pair with my T610 as my T3 does now. It would allow me to try out the Pocket PC platform to find and test alternative applications to those I use on the Palm. By being familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of both platforms, I could then make an informed choice as to whether to stick with stagnating Palm or switch to evolving Pocket PC. That was the theory; on to the practical...

Missing Sync for Windows Mobile

ActiveSync is provided for Windows only and provides similar functionality to HotSync for Palm (available for Windows and Mac) i.e. data synchronisation and installation of files. Being a previous customer of Mark/Space (Missing Sync for Palm OS) I was entitled to a 50% reduction on Missing Sync for Windows Mobile (MSWM, version 2.0.2b6). The software makes it possible to synchronise iCal (calendar and tasks) and Address Book on the Mac with their equivalents on the Pocket PC via included plugins (acting like HotSync conduits):

Missing Sync extols "an all-new architecture that allows third-party developers to create plugins that add new capabilities". Disappointingly, no third party plugins have yet appeared.

It also allows installation of programs in .cab format (not .exe which must be installed from Windows). With the Pocket PC mounted on the OS X desktop as a removable drive, and you can drag .cab format applications onto the Missing Sync application to install them (an install destination window opens). A file called MissingSync.dll is installed onto the PPC although, unlike on the Palm, there is no PDA application to initiate desktop mounting (this is done on the Mac).

A progress window monitors the transfer of .cab files:

Two platforms, two Missing Syncs

Missing Sync for Windows Mobile and for Palm OS appear to co-exist happily on the same Mac. For example, a task created on the Axim will sync to iCal with MSWM and then onto the Palm with MS for Palm.

On first connecting to the PC I got a message "Either there is no default mail client or the current mail client cannot fulfil the messaging request. Please run Microsoft Outlook and set it as he default mail client." I ignored this (Outlook crashes every time it opens anyway) and a New Partnership window appeared, giving me the option of setting up a Standard ("I want to synchronize") or Guest ("file exchange only") partnership. I chose a Guest partnership since I have no need for PIM info on the PC. In the ActiveSync window clicking Explore lets you browse the device (as under OS X) and in addition install files by drag-and-drop.

Calendar and Tasks

MSWM enables synching of all or select calendars, and optionally your iCal tasks. Events created on the X50v transferred to iCal, complete with Notes and specified alarms. Likewise new tasks without categories plus notes created on the Axim appear as they should in the correct iCal calendar. So far, so good:

At first glance Calendar is very similar on both platforms, from the Today screen displaying upcoming appointments and tasks, to one-handed navigation using the navigator button. Here is comparison of the day view for Calendar on both platforms (the screens are a similar size; the captures reflect the difference in resolution):

Here is comparison of Tasks on both platforms:

Notice in the above image that I am using my iCal tip for "hidden" notes. I use an angle bracket to indicate that the iCal To Do (Task) has a note attached, otherwise such notes can be easily overlooked. The presence of notes on the Palm is plain (q.v. the yellow icon), but this trick turns out to be ideal for indicating Tasks with notes on the PPC. On the Palm to view the note you tap the hard-to-hit yellow icon; on the PPC taping the Task itself will display any associated notes.

Winner: draw (in terms of functionality; appearance is a matter of personal preference).

Contacts

MSWM managed to sync my Address Book contacts to the Axim:

Here is comparison of Contacts on both platforms:

It is not readily apparent that Contacts on the PPC have associated notes (on the Palm this is helpfully indicated by a yellow icon).

Winner: PPC (Contacts organised into Address Book groups + active hyperlinks)

Bluetooth pairing with Mac OS X

Pairing with the Mac was a breeze, similar to my previous Palm experience.

• On the Axim turn on wireless then tap the Bluetooth icon at the bottom of the screen;
• Select Bluetooth Settings from the pop-up menu;
• In the Accessibility tab make sure "Other devices can discover me" is checked and click OK;
• On the Mac open System Preferences and click "Set up new device" > Any device > Continue;
• The Dell should be listed; click Continue;
• On the Axim in the Authentication screen enter the passkey shown on the Mac screen and tap OK;
• Quit when done.

Bluetooth File Exchange can now be used to drag-and-drop (send) files for installation to the Axim. If you are sending a .cab file ignore the "File type not accepted" message and Send Anyway. Once received on the Axim a similar message about being "not supported by Pocket Outlook" will appear; ignore this too and click Save. This will install the .cab file to My Documents where you can click on the file to launch the installer:

Bluetooth File Exchange can browse the PPC (the T3 does not support browsing) and wirelessly get files from the Axim to the Mac:

Winner: PPC (can use Bluetooth File Exchange on Mac to send, browse, and get files)

Bluetooth pairing with a T610

It was certainly not difficult to pair my T610 with the T3. Just as easy with the X50v:

• On the Axim tap the Bluetooth icon and select Bluetooth Manager > Tools > Paired devices > Add;
• Tap the lookup icon to discover the T610;
• Enter a passkey on the Axim and click OK;
• On the T610 hit Yes to add to My devices and enter the same passkey.

Winner: draw.

Internet over GPRS

With the devices paired it's time to use the Connection Wizard to enable Internet access over GPRS. The option to "Connect to Internet via phone" looked promising, but seemed to do little more than pair the devices a second time. I was expecting to enter such things as the Vodafone UK GPRS user name and password—but these were not requested by the wizard.

Winner: ?

Update 29.10.05: How to get Internet via GPRS here.

SMS

On the T3 a nice little app called "SMS" makes it very easy to tap out a message on the Palm, address it via Palm Contacts, and sent it via Bluetooth to the phone. There is no SMS application on the X50v by default. A freeware app called easySMS is available and does integrate with Contacts on the PPC (the numbers can usefully be edited prior to adding). So far, however, all I can achieve is "System-error while writing to port (1359)".

Winner: Palm (SMS app is included).

Update 29.10.05: Success with SMS here.

WiFi

Because there is limited sync support for Mac the option of getting wireless updates becomes practically vital. This can be achieved via USB or Bluetooth Internet sharing, but why not access the Internet without involving another client? Accessing a wireless LAN on a PDA when other household computers are switched off is an attractive proposition.

I use a Linksys WAG54G wireless router/ ADSL gateway, secured using WEP. I was unable to establish a working WiFi connection in the first 48 hours.

Winner: ?

Update 15.10.05: Shortly after posting I got WiFi working. It wasn't the Pocket PC's fault at all as my router was configured to accept 802.11g rather than "mixed" mode for 802.11b devices such as the X50v. More here.

Voice notes

Just like my Pam T3 the X50v has a record button on it's right side. Tap the Record icon to record a memo. These are stored in My Documents and can be download to your Mac (via desktop mounting, Bluetooth browsing) where they play in the Finder as a .wav file - no extra software required! Because my T3 lacks the necessary Bluetooth services the only way to retrieve voice memos (also .wav files) is via the HotSync conduit.

If you need more bells and whistles (e.g. direct recording to MP3 for podcasting, editing), check out Resco Audio Recorder.

Winner: PPC (easy access)

Images and iPhoto

The X50v doesn't have a built-in camera. Sure, other Pocket PCs do and it was on my wish list—but what's the point when the quality is so poor? A bonus with the X50v is the inclusion of a CompactFlash slot—a feature not typically present on Palm devices. I was hopeful this would allow me to take images straight from my Nikon D70, resize them on the PDA, and attach them to an e-mail (or send them via Bluetooth to another device).

Firstly, what about getting photos from your Mac to the PPC? MSWM installs an Export plugin for iPhoto, but this has no synch capability (i.e. just like Missing Sync for Palm). It merely converts your pictures into a suitable format/ size and offers the option of saving them to the mounted device via the standard OS X Save dialog:

In addition you can load images onto the PPC via desktop mounting without using iPhoto to first prepare them (or, send them via Bluetooth). This may be preferable unless you really enjoy looking at JPEG compression artefacts, since there is no option to scale back the ridiculous amount of compression applied by the iPhoto export plugin.

Exporting to DCF results in a file that is viewable on the Mac using Preview and on the PPC using Pictures. PGP isn't Pretty Good Privacy, but PictureGear isn't explained anywhere. Exporting to this format creates a .prc file (an acronym familiar to Palm users but seemingly incompatible with Photos or SplashPhoto on the Palm). In any case these files can't be viewed on either the PPC or the Mac (at least not without extra software).

What about 6 MP JPEGs on a SanDisk Extreme III 1 GB CompactFlash straight out of a D70 camera? No worries, mate. The resolution of the X50v is much better than on the iPod photo, although similarly NEF files cannot be displayed. Another bonus is that you can zoom right in on segments of the image using the included Pictures application:

MSWM includes a copy of SplashPhoto that basically duplicates the functionality of the built-in Pictures application—except more slowly (reading from CF). Don't bother. Neither Pictures nor SplashPhoto let you resize images; Resco Photo Viewer ($US 25) does this and additionally supports RAW (but apparently not those from the D70), the viewing of EXIF data, multipage TIFF (think fax to e-mail), and the making of screen captures via a separate utility:

XnView Pocket is a less slick but free alternative that allows re-sizing.

Winner: PPC (VGA screen—but see below, CompactFlash and SD support)

Music and iTunes

As with Missing Sync for Palm the iTunes plugin does not sync; tracks are loaded onto the PPC via desktop mounting (you must mount the device for it to appear in iTunes). Once mounted simply drag your music onto "Pocket_PC" in the playlist area.

It is annoying that you have to convert your library to MP3s first (non-iTMS AAC only; you can't play iTMS purchases on anything other than an iPod).

Note that in the Palm world MP3s (and other files, like JPGs) must be installed on an external card, as they are not allowed to reside in internal memory. Windows Mobile is less fussy, so you can chose to store your music and other file types anywhere.

Without working WiFi I was unable to test WiFiTunes to stream music from iTunes on the Mac to the PPC.

Winner: PPC (tracks can be stored anywhere)

E-mail

I recently managed to send via Gmail on my T3 as described here.

As I was unable to establish WiFi connectivity I didn't look at Messaging.

Winner: ?

Update 29.10.05: Success with e-mail (including faxes) here.

Web browsing

This had not been a viable prospect on my T3. Although the Palm could share my Mac's DSL connection via Bluetooth or USB, this meant it had to be used in close proximity to the desktop (so why not use the desktop!). Furthermore the included Web Pro browser was, well, lame.

As I was unable to establish WiFi connectivity I didn't look closely at Internet Explorer. I will in due course, together with a promising alternative browser called NetFront (it does CSS IE6 can't handle):

Winner: ?

Scribbles

I made good use of hand-written notes on the Palm. These would synch to a desktop application for onscreen viewing and could be saved as image files. Pocket PC goes one step further: Notes can save your scribbles, or it can convert them into editable text after the fact. It thus effectively combines two Palm apps (Note Pad and Memos) into one. Unfortunately Notes files are not viewable on the Mac (under Windows they open in Word XP using the InkWriter/ Note Taker text converter).

Winner: draw.

Microsoft Word

Although synching of Word documents between Palm and Mac was nice, I don't alter most of my Word files often enough to make this essential. Just as well, because there is only the option to manually drag-and-drop to install or download new documents.

Pocket Word seems to support the same basic formatting as Word To Go on the Palm: type styles, text alignment, bullets. However, each RTF document I sent to Pocket Word displayed poorly or not at all:

Reformatting the RTF files a Word documents before sending to the PPC gave better results—but I had hoped to avoid .doc in favour of the more universal (open) RTF. Documents created in Pocket Word could be saved as txt, Word, or RTF. However, only Word format preserves lists.

Winner: Palm (Docs To Go much more capable than Pocket Word)

Secret stuff

I use PasswordWallet on the Mac and Palm daily, storing 148 password-protected card numbers, login details, etc. It's a big drawback not to be able to use my most vital app on PPC; there are no plugins (conduits) or handheld version for PPC. The closest alternative I could find is SplashID, available for both PPC and Mac desktops—but with no sync or even manual means to get data from one to the other (confirmed with tech support).

Winner: Palm (sync of confidential data)

Update 29.10.05: More on this issues here.

Backup

MSWM provides a File menu option to "Backup My Documents..." which manually backs up everything in the PPC's My Documents folder as a .tar archive to a folder on the Mac:

Of course you can also backup anything at any time by dragging it off the desktop-mounted PPC, or using the Get function in Bluetooth File Exchange. I might prefer this, since when I tried it via MSWM Pocket_PC.tar had grown to 4.47 GB before I killed it (impressive for a device with 61.75 MB total main memory!). I tried several more times but got only a "Backup Failure" message. Oh well...

Winner: Palm (automatic backup conduit for documents + application files)

VGA? That's not strictly "true"...

Although the X50v has a VGA (640 x 480 pixel) screen it doesn't display any more information than the Pocket PC standard QVGA screen (320 x 240 pixels). This may sound like a cheat—and it is, sort of—but for your money you get a very sharp screen. More pixels go into displaying the same picture, so there are none of those typical PPC jaggies that would make a Palm user rush back to his or her glorious 480 x 320 pixel T3.

But you can have real VGA too. SE_VGA is a third-party app that gives you an on/off switch for "true" VGA. I imagine this would bring a whole new dimension to web browsing. I can confirm it does wonders for native PDF files, iSilo documents, photos, and sales of prescription lenses:

Winner: PPC (no Palm can do VGA)

Update 29.10.05: More "true" VGA screen captures here.

Overall interface

Personally I find Windows Mobile less pleasant in the eye candy department than the Palm OS. Palm OS is perhaps more like Mac OS in that it (mostly) exudes simple elegance. I like simple. WM is too reminiscent of Windows 95. Functional, yes, in the same way a Ford gets the job done—but there's no whiff of precision German engineering or Italian styling. Or something like that.

The strange thing about WM is that the icon "X" doesn't close a program as it does on Windows, but rather minimises it. As a Mac user this is perhaps less odd than it may seem to a Windows user, since under Mac OS X the "X" button will close an open document but leave the application open in RAM (there are exceptions e.g. iBlog). I installed Magic Button, a task manager useful for switching between and closing apps. Also check out vBar.

Winner: draw (Palm for ease-of-use, PPC for features)

Other apps I tried

• Acrobat Reader: PDFs at 640 x 480 pixels! Native PDFs? Yes (important if you need to carry around the instruction manual for your watch). RepliGo is not a viable alternative as it requires a Windows-only commercial converter. Winner: PPC (Reader for Palm is a lame 160 x 160 pixels);
• Audible: Audible Manager is delivered as an .exe download for Windows, so needs a PC for the initial installation. After activation and re-downloading in Format 3 (I had Format 4 on the iPod), my audiobooks were playable on the PPC. Winner: Palm (Mac installer);
• AutoMobile: delivered as an .exe download for Windows, so needs a PC for the initial installation. Able to import Palm .pdb data but does not display mi/gal (UK) so set to l/100 km instead. Something's screwed because it costs me £0.15 per mile to run my Smart on the Palm, yet £1.50 on the PPC! Winner: Palm (not in beta);
• iSilo: can be delivered as zipped .cab files. Documents are in the same data format as Palm. Winner: draw;
• Diagnosaurus: delivered as an .exe download for Windows, so needs a PC for the initial installation. Winner: draw;
• Medical Eponyms: can be delivered as .cab file. Winner: draw;
• TCPMP: can be delivered as .cab file. I haven't found a QuickTime video + audio codec combination it will play yet! Winner: ?;
• Epocrates: delivered as an .exe download for Windows, so needs a PC for the initial installation. Winner: Palm (Mac installer);
• Mobipocket Reader: delivered as an .exe download for Windows, so needs a PC for the initial installation. Same data format as Palm so books bought for Palm work on PPC, but you'll need to register your new device PID and re-download the books (you can have 2 PIDs at once, so one for Palm and one for PPC is possible). Winner: Palm (PPC version not VGA);
• VNCViewer: delivered as an .exe download for Windows, so needs a PC for the initial installation. Unable to get this working so far. Winner: ?;
• WorldMate SE: delivered as an .exe download for Windows, so needs a PC for the initial installation. Thereafter can update over a shared Internet connection. Winner: Palm (installs from Mac; PPC version not VGA).

Conclusion

It's been a busy couple of days (the joys of part time work). There are pros and cons to both platforms. Coming to PPC from Palm involves a steep learning curve. The biggest disappointment has been not being able to get WiFi working (pre-WinXP SP2 wasn't easy either; hooking up an iBook was as easy as eating cake).

The lack of any third-party plugin support for the Missing Sync for Windows Mobile (released Jul 2005) is disappointing and definitely limits the usefulness of a Pocket PC and Mac pairing. Furthermore, the pairing is only really practical if you have at least occasional access to a PC in order to install software updates and applications not available in .cab format.

Would I switch? The answer to that probably now depends more on the characteristics of the device, rather than the OS and the software available for it. Palm or Pocket PC—I don't think I would really mind. So who will be first to fulfil my hardware wish-list?

Enough: I can't play all day. Feel free to come back and read about subsequent experiments :-)