8. Chatting Made Easy

Message templates for making chatting easier

Since entering characters is relatively inconvenient with Pocket PCs, the program also provides the option of generating message templates.

Multi-Week Operational Trial: Calling Anybody, Anywhere

To gain as complete an impression as possible of the performance capability of this solution, we subjected Skype for Pocket PC to a multi-week operational trial. During this round of testing we made calls to Skype users within the local company network and at other locations, as well as over the fixed line and mobile networks of various different providers in the U.S. and Europe.

Range

The range of the "self-configured" mobile IP telephone is limited only by the range of the WLAN currently employed by the Skype user. In other words, there is no problem using the "PDA-telephone" to make calls in an office building within a WLAN having multiple access points that allow roaming throughout one or several floors.

The system can also be operated on the road too, at airports or coffee shops. This of course requires being logged into a WLAN hotspot. At home, the PDA telephone works "flawlessly" as long as you are the proud owner of a working wireless network with a broadband Internet connection.

And How Long Does The Battery Last?

We are unable to make a general statement on the maximum calling time of the system we tested, because this depends heavily on the current signal strength between access point and PDA, as well as the headset and PDA hardware used. The display brightness settings also play a major role, as well as the type of Pocket PC used. A PDA that already runs down after two or three hours in idle mode is thus not optimally suited for this purpose.

As an example, we found that with a steady, strong signal between all the devices involved, the Ipaq hx4700 permitted a call of several hours' length before the PDA's battery needed recharging.