Evan

Having spend some time with a palm 5 I just claimed a Compaq IPAQ for myself. There is an app called Avantgo (also available for palm- sorry if I'm preaching to the converted!) that updates sets of web pages every time you synchronise so you can browse them offline. I've subscribed to Wall Street Journal, a few medical sites and some PDA sites. It works OK though it is a little slow to synchronise.

I really like the IPAQ's automated synchronisation with Outlook, though. I slam the device in its cradle, 20 seconds later it chirps at me and I've got my mail inbox with Word/Excel/Powerpoint attachments in my device to browse on the plane. No extra software to configure and no messing around. Same with the schedule and contact list. This is all built into the OS so it can't be broken.

IPAQ also has an inbuilt dictaphone. We're seeing whether we can get more control over it- at present you press record and every time you let go so you can pause to think, it creates a new file. People dictating are more used to a single tape they can scroll back and forwards in. If we can mimic that it will be useful for clients.

The IPAQ has a similar interface to Graffiti (in fact there is an option to behave like Graffiti) but I found a free add-on that allows me to write in cursive anywhere on the screen and it converts it to text. It "sort of" works. If they can get it up to the same speed as Graffiti, we have the makings of some killer apps.

My conclusion: the IPAQ is pretty cool. With its colour screen, emails and browsing are realistic. I thought it was a bit forced with the palm. I'm sure the new models of palm and handspring with colour screens are similar but I won't be trying them till next year.

Regards

JR