- Goodbye Psion. Hello ...?

- Windows Mobile Without Outlook

- Re: Windows Mobile Without Outlook

Date: 14 May 2008 22:10:57 +0000
From: Chris Handley
Subject: Goodbye Psion. Hello ...?

Hello everyone,

Well, I've finally decommissioned my Psion Netbook, as it was too damn bulky to carry everywhere.  The Revo was the right size, but the bad battery & a lack of external storage (for easy backup/restore) were killers.  The 5mx would have been close (if I'd owned one), but it was still a bit too big, and lacked stuff like wireless (not to mention the dingy B&W screen sucks, sorry, but it's true).

So what am I replacing it with?  Yet more ancient technology!  Just not quite so old:  A Nokia 9500, which I've been running in parallel for quite some time, and for which I finally had the impetus to move what I needed onto it from the Psion.  I've actually now bought a backup 9500 from Amazon, and so I intend to stick with it for a *long* time :-)

The E90 looks nice, but what I badly need is a decent database app. The E90 (and S60 v3 in general) has only one, HanDBase, but it's still pretty immature, given that it only relatively recently (with v4) gained the ability to create/edit databases on the device.  What killed it for me is that it appears to be rather under-adapted to the E90's lovely internal screen, as it limits you to editing 4 lines (fields) of a database, even on the internal screen.  Which for anything 'serious' is going to be badly limiting, and certainly utterly useless for me.

The 9500 fares a lot better - while most of it's database apps are now either buggy (and unsupported) or just not sold anymore, it does still have SmallBase, which Psion users should be familiar with.  Crucially, it comes very close to duplicating the Psion's Data app - yes, it's a bit clunky (mainly when setting-up a new database), but it is more powerful, and most importantly it's still sold & it does work!  And I can get *9* lines on screen while editing, which is just-about enough for my needs.  I can even view/edit multiple databases at once - beat that HanDBase!

The 9500 also has a sweet MP3/etc music player in the form of OggPlay, which is a great improvement over the built-in one.  Calendar can be made to ape Agenda quite well (not perfectly but good enough for me). Contacts does it's job, not brilliantly, but it does it.  Plus I have ported (but not released) FastBackup for it, since the built-in backup utility is not incremental.  FreeCrypt can encrypt any sensitive files.  TomTom is a great SatNav using a bluetooth GPS.  That covers most of my needs, along with a large back-catalogue of software (going all the way back to the 9200) should I need anything else, or I can program something in OPL if worst comes to the worst.

Overall, the 9500 is a big compromise, and it has many small short-comings (including being slightly slow).  But for me it is still the best all-in-one solution available by a mile, and I have grown to liking it a lot, flaws and all, just like I did with my Psions (which had their own flaws).  The great thing about the 9500 is that it has not been greatly dumbed-down (cough E90 cough), and is configurable enough to not get in my way.  Nokia did a great job, pity they have not yet duplicated that feat with the E90 (maybe the E90's rumoured touch-screen replacement will do that?  Or maybe it won't.  I buy based on what I can get now, not on vapourware or rumours).

I do *not* intend that my 9500 will be a complete mini-computer-replacement (although it probably could).  I did that with my Psion, and I still have not yet converted everything out of it's custom file formats.  The 9500 is strictly for those things which I need access to instantly, or which I need with me always, and everything else will be handled by my Netbook-SIZED laptop (which even has a touch screen & humongous battery life).

So that's my story of how & why I finally ditched the wonderful mini-computer known as the Psion.  May it rest in peace.  (Except for those die-hards still using it!)

Chris Handley

P.S.  I know that I said I was going to make a follow-up post about my Panasonic laptop cum Netbook-sized-replacement, but I really don't have much else to say about it, plus no-one has asked or even commented, and well, everyone seems enamoured with the rather cheaper Eee PC.

Date: 14 May 2008 23:20:52 +0000
From: Mark Kenepp <address truncated>
Subject: Windows Mobile Without Outlook

To: Harold Fuchs
Re: Windows Mobile Without Outlook

Windows Mobile has two synchronization possibilities, Outlook and/or Exchange Server. There were, at one time, some third party applications which allowed synchronization to other desktop PIMs but I have been unable to find information on them in the past few years.

As to whether Outlook comes with a new Windows Mobile Device, I know that at one point and time that was the case but I am not sure if it is still the case. I remember reading that the latest version of Outlook (2007 at the time) was not included with new Windows Mobile devices but an earlier version was. Looking around just now at retail sites, there seems to be no mention of Outlook being included with the device itself, so it may well be that it will need to be purchased separately.

The other option would be to synchronize your Windows Mobile device over the air directly with an Exchange Server. Though I have no personal experience with Hosted Exchange Server Services myself, there are a number available and I believe that there are some that are free.

So going from Palm Desktop to Windows Mobile, you will need to get your data from the Palm Desktop to with an Outlook data file or an Exchange Server data store. The easiest way to do that is to have a copy of Outlook and sync your Palm device with Outlook.

My personal experience is that it is impractical to have a Windows Mobile device without Outlook on your desktop machine and would personally recommend a different direction if you want to stay away from Outlook.

Cheers,

Mark Kenepp
San Francisco, CA

Date: 15 May 2008 00:25:54 +0000
From: Harold Fuchs <address truncated>
Subject: Re: Windows Mobile Without Outlook

Mark,

Thank you.

I have pretty much come to the same conclusion. The only thing I can find that sounds as if it might work is FinchSync - www.finchsync.com - but ...

I don't have access to an Exchange server so that rules out some solutions.

I asked about this in WMExperts - www.wmexperts.com. You might be interested in the slightly one sided discussion: http://discussion.wmexperts.com/showthread.php?t=164439
I think it's amazing that Microsoft can yet again try to lock in its customers by producing WM without supplying any form of backup/synchronisation mechanism "in the box" with the devices. It seems to me to be exactly analogous to its bundling Internet Explorer with Windows and trying to not allow any other browser to have a look in. I am seriously considering raising the question with the European Competition Commission to see if it won't repeat its anti-monopolistic rulings.

Regards, Harold