Vlad Mazek – Vladville Blog

Here is a little humor for your weekend: I own several Microsoft-powered mobile devices but spend virtually all my productive time on a PocketPC. I carry around a 2lb brick attached to my hip, attached to my Exchange and all I do. It has a huge screen, slide-out keyboard, phone, fax, bluetooth all the accessories that Taiwan can export and a enough battery to keep me online for a day. In many ways it is far more useful than my laptop, especially in terms of mobility. But why strap a huge brick to your hip and not a cute little SmartPhone? Ladies love PocketPC. There is nothing more appealing to the ladies than a man with a PocketPC. It is a geek equivalent of the gun. Just clip your holster to the side of your belt and you're the most dangerous thing out there. Lethal too. Just try to impress your date with what you can do on the PocketPC! Not as efficient as a bullet but far easier to clean up when they eventually die of boredom. Integrate Voice Command and you quadruple the danger factor. Think about it, what do you do when you see someone walking down the street talking to themselves? "Call Katie!! Close. Call Katie. Uhh you #@%% @#@#%. Show Kathleen. Call Kathleen at home." – Imagine someone walking behind you listening to that exchange? You will never lose a PocketPC. Since I've gone mobile I've lost many things, my mind included, but there is simply no "misplacing" the PocketPC. It has infinite functionality. Forget about Word and Excel, find yourself in a dark parking lot at night… turn up the brightness and you've got an instant flashlight. Nothing good on the radio during the long trip? Forget about an iPod, crank the volume on your PocketPC and watch it dance around the seat. Alone on the trip and missing your family? Instant album and video player. Signing paperwork during the business lunch at the restaurant and they sat you right under the fan? Instant paperweight. There are also way too many social situations in which a PocketPC can save your day, life and marriage. Got into a fight over whether "love rollercoaster" is by Red Hot Chillpeppers? Google will save the argument before it goes back to "Why don't you get along with my sister." Need to find a good restaurant nearby? Directions? Want a stock quote but don't want to pay $50 in commissions or admit to your friends you bought Apple stock? Point being, PocketPC is a lightning fast way to get stuff done without carrying around a suitcase. Forget about mobile Word. Forget about Pocket Outlook. Say hello to the danger-filled, sex-icon world of PocketPC fans. Mobile solutions for Girly Men There are very few things in life more frustrating than trying to type on a cell phone. SmartPhone combines that frustration with the traditional stability of a Windows operating system. Smartphones are small. Perhaps smaller than your current cell phone. They do not require frequent reboots but they also lack in functionality. For example, no touchscreen. Without a touchscreen you can't pretend to be at work when you're out and about without a laptop. You can not easily connect via TS to your server and restart the services. What's worse is you've actually taken the call and are aware of the problem! Smartphones are functional, somewhat. You can browse the web on your SmartPhone, you can get email on your smartphone. You may even be able to play a little game. But forget about taking notes in silence, doodling the network diagram, process flowchart. At the end of the day you're sacrificing functionality for the smaller size. If your functionality demands are fairly basic and you just bought a slightly bigger purse – SmartPhone is for you. If you're a guy and too weak to carry around an extra pound or two on your hip this will fit in your pocket without dragging your belt down to your ankles. But as a guy, the number one reason not to go for a SmartPhone, all things considered… is the fact that your girlfriend/wife will actually use your cell phone. PocketPC is like kryptonite to women. I've never lost my PocketPC to my girlfriend. I lose my SmartPhone daily… "Hey, does this one have StrikeForce on it?"; So if you're looking for a mobile organizer and you don't want to have a two hour conversation about how you didn't mention that you're going to a July conference in January…. Stick with something she won't steal from you. This is just my experience, feel free to flip the gender for your own circumstances. So which one should you pick? The one you like. The one you can use. The one you can carry. In that order. Bottom line – its not all about applications. Yes, both SmartPhone and PocketPC share Excel, Word and Outlook. Both can take pictures. But mobile devices are more than a laptop, more than a cell phone. They become your lifestyle. You have to like it. You have to like to use it. You will find yourself spending more time in applications outside of the Microsoft's big three – this gadget is an mp3 player, cell phone, fax, remote desktop client, video camera, voice recorder, file storage, presentation, remote control, flashlight, paperweight, mugging deterrent and a sex symbol.