Head 2 Head A Showdown among natural PC competitors
20 MAXIMUMPC DECEMBER 2003
P
DA buyers have never been faced with such a confus-
ing platform choice. On one hand, you have Palm OS
5, the latest version of the venerable Palm OS, updat-
ed for today’s modern PDA hardware. On the other hand,
you have Windows Mobile 2003, the newest version of the
Pocket PC OS. Microsoft’s PDA platform has made great
strides of late, and it’s now harder than ever to choose
between it and the Palm OS. The two operating systems
basically do the same things—but in different ways.
Hence this month’s toe-to-toedown. We pitted the twocontenders against each other in a seven-round brawl,
and we’re not letting either leave the arena until one
emerges a victor. We tested virtually everything you’d
ever use in a PDA, from basic features like appointment
and contact management to advanced wireless connec-
tivity via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPRS
cellular connections. We pushed each machine to its
limit and beyond.
Who’s the winner?! Whose OS will reign supreme?!
—WILL SMITHTHIS MONTH: PDA Operating Systems
PALM OS 5
A clean interface and easy access to basic apps
are Palm hallmarks.PALMOLIVEPALM OIL
The Palm OS isn’t taking full advantage of the
available hardware yet.
Ships w/hardware, http://www.palm.comMAXIMUMPC VERDICT 8
Extras: Finally, the Palm OS includes fancy media apps—
an MP3 player, a picture viewer, and a movie player—and
has the horsepower to use them. With support for the
XScale processor, Palm OS 5 is actually fast enough to
play multimedia files. It’s a pity that Palm OS 5 lacks a
standard media playback software, the RealOne player
included with the unit we tested sucks. There aren’t any
cool DiVX players for Palm OS 5 yet either.
Winner: Windows Mobile 2003Essential software: Palm has been doing contact-list
and calendar management software correctly since the
beginning, and the latest version of its OS adds some
minor enhancements. For example, tapping a phone
number in the contact list automatically dials your
Bluetooth phone. Also, the Task list and Calendar programs
are integrated with the Contact program, making it easy to
find the phone number of the person you just missed an
appointment with. Still, there’s nothing new here that has
us terribly excited. Winner: Windows Mobile 2003Web browsing: The Web Pro browser included with the
Palm OS 5 PDA we tested is reasonably fast, renders
everything properly, and has most of the features we’ve
come to expect in a PDA browser. Heck, you can even
flip the screen to landscape mode to render wide web
pages without unnecessary scrolling. It’s inexcusable to
ship a browser designed for a PDA that doesn’t disable
image rendering. Different hardware ships with different
browsers, though. Palm should include a browser with the
OS. Winner: Windows Mobile 2003Hackability: This one’s easy. The Palm OS
has long supported the Hackmaster line
of plug-ins, which let interested parties
modify any aspect of the Palm OS interface.
This hasn’t changed with OS 5. We’ve
seen hacks that allow everything from
screengrabs to different ways of sorting
your contact list. Winner: Palm OS 5Connectivity: With built-in interfaces that
make connecting Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
devices seamless, the Palm OS is a strong
contender here. However, we haven’t seen
any Palm devices that actually include
support for both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth yet,
and we hate having to choose one or the
other (this is a problem with Palm hardware
and not the OS, however). Finally, Palm OS’s
GPRS configuration tool—which greatly
simplifies configuration of the wireless
data service included with most GSM cell
phones—is so simple, anyone can get it
working. Winner: Palm OS 5Basic interface: Essential PDA features—
such as your contact list, calendar, and
notepad—are a single click away. Now, we’re
annoyed that some frequently used interface
elements (specifically the onscreen keyboard
and the home menu) aren’t big enough
to hit reliably without making a concerted
effort, but the Palm OS ekes out a win here,
simply because its basics are so accessible.
Winner: Palm OS 5Synchrony: A PDA is worthless if it doesn’t
talk to your favorite contact management
and appointment software, so Palm now
provides “conduits” to synchronize both
Palm Desktop and Microsoft Outlook
with Palm OS 5 devices. Also included in
the OS is Documents to Go, which will
convert Word and Excel documents to
Palm-friendly formats. We appreciate the
gesture, but using its default settings, the
included Outlook conduit made duplicates
of many of our contacts and almost all of
our appointments. This is not acceptable
behavior. Winner: Windows Mobile 2003