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Pocket PCs suck! Well, they do at least suck sometimes, namely when they don’t function. To be fair, I have to say that Pocket PCs are great as long as they work. Since a Pocket PC is like a miniature computer, it offers a functional range and programmability that surpasses almost any other mobile device. Unfortunately, this leads to complexity, and complexity leads to bugs which in turn leads to malfunctioning devices. I’ve been using Pocket PCs for two years now and have developed sort of a love-hate relationship. Probably the culprit is the Windows Mobile operating system. Windows Mobile, although already in version 6, evokes bad memories of the buggy Microsoft operating systems of the nineties. Only that this isn’t the nineties. After ten or fifteen years of consumer mobile phones, we have come to expect mobile devices to work flawlessly. In fact, I am relying on my Pocket PC for many day-today tasks. I use it as a phone, alarm clock, notepad, camera, phone book, and mp3 player and more. My HP iPaq Business Navigator also has an assisted GPS, but I came to see the latter as a toy function. Due to usability issues I hardly bother to fiddle with it.

However, the question I am asking myself now is – isn’t this device just an expensive toy? Where is the robustness that should come with a “business” device . I have put in a good deal of time just to keep my pocket PC working. My HP PPC has seen the service shop twice, once because of a faulty memory chip, and another time because it didn’t boot anymore until the shop installed a firmware upgrade. In addition to that, I have spent a fair number of hours with configuration and trouble-shooting because one or another function was broken. Once I get a working configuration with all the software installed, I use Spb Backup to create a complete backup of the system. Spb Backup is a real life-saver. It backs up all configuration data, user data, applications and system data. Should the device give up its ghost or display odd behaviour (believe me, every Pocket PC will do that at some point), I can perform a factory reset and restore the backup to recreate the former status of the device easily. But even with this tool, the amount of maintenance required seems a little excessive. A gadget that carries the name “Business Navigator” should be expected to work like a business device, namely reliably. Unfortunately, I can’t say that for the HP iPaq and neither for the other Pocket PCs I’ve owned and used. As previously mentioned, I am not blaming the hardware manufacturers. The OS seems to be the crux.

Real business users would probably be better off with a smartphone that requires less messing around. A Pocket PC is more suited to -shall I put it this way- the technically inclined person.

Until earlier this month I was a short-time subscriber to emusic.com. Extremely short-time. Nine days to be precise. For those of you who don’t know emusic.com - it’s an online music store where you can (legally!) buy music in MP3 format on a monthly subscription basis. Emusic.com specialises in independent labels. It offers a total of 4.5 million tracks for download with a fairly good selection of Jazz music, which was the reason I subscribed. So, I get DRM-free MP3 tracks at roughly 25 cents per track. Sounds perfect. What went wrong? Well, on the ninth day I looked at the emusic.com site and it said: “We’re sorry but eMusic is not currently available in your area.” Bummer. I was neither able to log into my account anymore, nor could I download any music. I contacted the their customer service to ask what had happened. No response. I contacted them again. No response. Only after threatening to initiate a chargeback procedure with my credit card company did I get a reply. It repeated the message, namely that eMusic wasn’t available anymore in my country. It also promised a refund. Oh well. - As for the reason why eMusic suddenly unplugged Thailand (and possibly other countries as well) I can only guess. It must have to do something with contracts, record labels, and anti-piracy policies. Clearly, the music industry is shooting into its own foot by taking such steps. Now emusic.com has become one of several online music stores that is not available in Thailand. Another one is Amazon, which also offers MP3 music. Consumers in Thailand and other countries are thus left with two options. Either buy music in DRM-crippled format for the same price as a physical CD, or turn to other more doubtful sources. You can probably guess what most people would do in this situation. Since I am a hobby musician, I would very much prefer to pay artists for their work. However, given the current situation in Thailand it has almost become impossible to acquire music legally in MP3 format.

This is an addendum to the previous blog entry. The GPS functionality is less useful than I expected. Today, I went with my wife to pick up our daughter from school. After leaving the school, we encountered a detour and promptly got lost in the maze of Chiang Mai’s rural roads. “No problem,” I thought, booting up the GPS navigation software on my pocket PC. But there was a problem. In order to calculate the position, the GPS requires several satellite signals. I think the minimum is four. The process usually takes 30-60 seconds. Today, the device appeared to have problems getting multiple satellite signals. When it had acquired two it lost one, then it acquired another, lost another, then all signals were lost at once, then it acquired a new one, and so the game went on, until I gave up after a few minutes. We were back on track even before the GPS could locate us. I suppose, I will put the old low-tech magnetic compass back into the car. It served me well in the past.