Mixed Signals
Any sufficiently advanced information is indistinguishable from noise
Monday 8 October 2001, 3:03 PM
Rupert Goodwins' Diary
Thursday 4/10/2001
Microsoft unveils -- ta-da! -- Pocket PC 2002. It's got more corporate hooks: VPN, Terminal Services Client, wireless, that sort of thing. It's got Bluetooth support too -- which is odd, given that XP doesn't because "it's not ready". Most of the PPC 2002 models shown off today have two expansion slots, and run on the StrongArm processor: given that Intel makes the processor and the slot interfaces bear a strong resemblance to the old IBM expansion standard, they really do look like pocket PCs these days.
The best reason I can think of for upgrading -- not being a corporate soul -- is the MSN Messenger client. That and a wireless network would be a worthwhile innovation; nothing else I've got at the moment will let me do that instant messenger thing from a coat pocket. Oh, and you can run Tombraider on them.
But I remain curiously unmoved, even by the thoughts of Lara bouncing around in close proximity to my trousers. Perhaps it's the fact that portable memory remains too expensive to really do what you want; perhaps it's the lack of a 3G infrastructure that'll really make good use of all this portable welly, perhaps it's the lack of any analogue to the CD-ROM. But having got colour and sound and all that jazz, there doesn't seem to be much left to do with the format.
Microsoft unveils -- ta-da! -- Pocket PC 2002. It's got more corporate hooks: VPN, Terminal Services Client, wireless, that sort of thing. It's got Bluetooth support too -- which is odd, given that XP doesn't because "it's not ready". Most of the PPC 2002 models shown off today have two expansion slots, and run on the StrongArm processor: given that Intel makes the processor and the slot interfaces bear a strong resemblance to the old IBM expansion standard, they really do look like pocket PCs these days.
The best reason I can think of for upgrading -- not being a corporate soul -- is the MSN Messenger client. That and a wireless network would be a worthwhile innovation; nothing else I've got at the moment will let me do that instant messenger thing from a coat pocket. Oh, and you can run Tombraider on them.
But I remain curiously unmoved, even by the thoughts of Lara bouncing around in close proximity to my trousers. Perhaps it's the fact that portable memory remains too expensive to really do what you want; perhaps it's the lack of a 3G infrastructure that'll really make good use of all this portable welly, perhaps it's the lack of any analogue to the CD-ROM. But having got colour and sound and all that jazz, there doesn't seem to be much left to do with the format.
Previous
