Windows Mobile 4/Dell Axim X50 Experiences
I bought a Dell Axim X50 running Windows Mobile 4.21 in 2004. I figured I was very late to the PDA game (late majority) and thought all the wrinkles would be out. Was I every wrong. I have been very unimpressed with the Axim and Windows Mobile because:
- I have had the device hang a few times with no clear reason (pretty sure the battery wasnt run down) and lose all its settings and data. That is spooky, I rely on it for my calendar and contacts when I am out and about.
- ActiveSync is flaky. The device may connect to activesync on the PC, no error messages displayed but nothing is synchronized. Sometimes I have to reboot the PocketPc a few times to get it synchronizing, or initate and cancel a logout from windows xp. If I can get it to sync, sometimes tasks I have dismissed reappear (this happens less now I sync to only one PC). Or I get an “Information Type Not Synchronized Error” with no hints as to what peice of information, file, etc. note is causing the error. Am a missing an appointment on my PDA? I don’t know. Anyway, don’t try and sync a Pocket PC right before you have to catch a bus.
- The PIM user interface is horrible. There is so much wrong with it I am just going to leave it at that. You can purchase a tolerable user interface called Pocket Informant which works on the same databases. Still, I make unavoidable mistakes (the PDA is tiny and its easy to check the wrong thing) that are hard to recover from.
- I tried backuping up the device and then attempted to restore it after a firmware upgrade. Contrary to instructions, doesn’t work.
- You can’t sync to both your Outlook calendar at home (so your family can see your calendar) and at work with exchange. Try it, especially if you have dozen meetings with different people booked at work. I think filming someone trying to add their missing contacts into outlook when syncing at home would make an excellent episode of Angry Dad. Make sure you know how to end-task outlook before you start.
- Your contacts lose a lot of information when they sync from outlook (i.e. photos in your contacts. Further, you update the contact on the PDA and sync it back, and that info is gone from outlook.
- If you draw or use certain audio codecs in the note fields of tasks, and try and sync to a PC, you get some hexadecimal error message (from my experience in software development, I can tell its a COM errror code). The note never syncs.
- The wireless user interface is confusing and wireless function unreliable. You enable wireless, you never know if you are going to get some sort of “no wireless card installed” message. Its tricky to get the VPN working (I am pretty sure you can’t - at least to windows xp pro. I found I could get a connection to my PC, but it would break as soon as I tried to actually use it with terminal client or file explorer). Sometimes when you have a VPN configured but not enabled, https links won’t load. I totally don’t get the VPN configuration interface - specifying what is my home and work network etc. It is bizaree.
- No obvious place to look when things fail - most things fail silently so you don’t know they are broken. Why won’t my wireless work? Why doesn’t the VPN work - it shows it connected. Why did my device lose all my data even though the battery wasn’t run down? I can’t tell. I can’t find an error log. Most things just fail silently - no error messages, stuff just doesn’t work. If you do get an error message, it will probably keep popping up.
- Offline reading of web pages is flaky, and you need IE on a PC for this to work (everyone I know uses Firefox). Mark a page for offline reading and it may or may not be available when you attempt to read it while disconnected. You can’t seem to browse to a page with Pocket IE and mark it as something you would like to read offline.
- Pocket IE Crashes a lot. Try http://decafbad.com/blog/
John seemed to get a lot more value of his old monocrhome palm before he upgraded to a newer one than I get out of my 1 year old Pocket PC. Several people who have asked me about my Dell Axim X50 bought Palm OS devices instead. I would next time too, I have been tempted to discard the X50 as an expensive mistake.
I do like having my photos, calendar, contacts, and task list portable and synchronized to a PC.
I just wish the X50 met my basic use cases:
- wireless and network connectivity I can understand, and doesn’t get totally fubared as you switch from home to public networks. Built in SSH & VNC would be nice.
- offline reading of web pages I was looking at online with it, or pages I was looking at with firefox (or even IE).
- built in support to rip PDFs to text so they are readable. PDF is unpleasant to read on a PC and worse on a PDA.
- synchronizing calendar to work and home (first thing I tried. First thing my coworker tried. Who wouldn’t wan’t to do this?
- synchronize contacts without losing/trashing information in them
- work over a VPN so I can use terminal and sync with my unsecured wireless lan. I am tempted to try SSH and VNC instead as a way to control my PC, Mac, and synchronize through wireless.
- associate some maps with a contact.
If you buy a pocket PC, don’t except it to work like PDAs have been out 5 years. Imagine you are buying the very first one. Because you will feel like an early adopter on the bleeding edge.
With any luck the Windows Mobile 5 Upgrade Available for Dell Axim X50 available from Dell will fix all these things - they have had years now with Windows Mobile 4 to understand customers, fix bugs, and make the product usable.
Things I do like about my pda:
- photo viewer. Not a key business use case, but useful.
- watching video, another toy use case. I have 5 minutes of my son in a Jolly Jumper.
- reminders of tasks and appointments
- portable task list & caledar synchronized with PC. This is the main reason I don’t use a Hipster PDA
- Microsoft Reader Ebooks. I have a few free classics for when I am stuck somewhere reading.
- Offline reading of web pages, Microsoft Reader EBooks (I read free ones) or scraped material from PDFs. I do go through hoops to make this work. It’s mostly hard. However, its nicer to read on the PDA than paper or a PC screen.
Technorati Tags: PDA, Axim, Windows Mobile, ActiveSync, PDF, Hipster PDA, MicrosoftReader, PocketPc