4. Windows Mobile 5.0 Excitement

Windows Mobile 5.0's Media Player 10 offers some improvements compared to the previous version; video played amazingly well on the iPAQ's screen during my tests (video courtesy of CoastalBC.com).

The HP rx1950 has received some attention as one of the first handheld devices to offer Windows Mobile 5.0 - but don't hold your breath. While there are some positives, the Windows stamp on the user interface still largely means a lot of inconveniences involved just to get the applications to work as they are supposed to. Given the hype surrounding the latest version of Windows Mobile, you wonder if Microsoft will ever get it right as far as PDAs and handheld devices go (not to mention PCs, of course).

In fairness, however, part of Windows Mobile 5.0's novelty - as well as earlier versions of the operating system - is that it can pack Excel, Word, Internet Explorer and other MS Office applications for the PC into such a small and elegantly designed device. Once accessed, all three programs worked and felt like their PC counterparts. Setting up a POP email account with Messaging involved a surprisingly straightforward wizard and within minutes I was sending and receiving emails.

POP mail up and running.

Also on the positive side, Windows Mobile 5.0's advanced features finally support native push email from Microsoft Exchange 2003 SP2 servers and management of remote mobile devices from an Exchange 2003 console. These capabilities were not tested for this review. If they work as described Microsoft just might catch up technologically with RIM, its Blackberries and Blackberry Enterprise Server.

However, the OS continues to have limitations, some of which are a surprise. Windows Mobile 5.0's Media Player 10, Microsoft claims, facilitates music and video file access and transfer. But, in practice, accessing media files remains difficult. Media Player's menu offers access to a Library folder, but if you have not saved files to that folder, life becomes difficult. Media Player's menus offer no option to find your favorite media files in other folders, such as My Music or My Video. Maybe there is a way, but I certainly was unable too find one.

Accessing media files remains difficult with Media Player 10.

On a somewhat positive note, Media Player runs by default when video or music files are accessed from with File Explorer. Also, once running, video files do look remarkably good considering the low, 240 x 320 resolution of the TFT screen and limited horsepower of the 300-MHz Samsung SC32442.

Still missing in this rev of the OS is a My Network Places option. You can transfer files and folders either by dragging and dropping them between your handheld device and PC using a wired USB link or by using ActiveSync with its limitations. Accessing shared folders through a local network Wi-Fi connection through My Network Places would be a huge improvement. Supposedly, accessing shared folders on another PC can be accomplished through File Explorer's Open Path option, but my attempts failed.

The device periodically froze up and crashed, especially when several applications such as Internet Explore and Media Player were loaded at the same time. No glitches or system freezes occurred while running programs separately without other applications loaded in the background. So, unless there were problems with my sample, I must assume that stability problems can be attributed to limited memory and the OSes inability to handle such limitations. The level of active memory afforded by 32 MB of DRAM is marginal and loading multiple applications could certainly eat all or most of available memory. Of course, it is reasonable to expect a good operating system to handle low memory situations without stability problems. Bottom line: Users periodically checking their email, spreadsheets or even running the occasional video application separately should have few problems with the device going south.