New Pocket Pc > Outlook 2002 - Jeez...

So recently, I shifted from a Palm Tungsten E to a Dell AXIM X50. Sad to relate, I'd simply lost faith in Palm - up until recent rumours of new models due this fall (still using the PalmOS), I thought I'd never be able to take full advantage of what can be done on other PDAs - so it is to WinMobile I went.

Its a fundamental change and I knew some things/programs and attitudes towards info management would get lost in the process, but I had hope for a more advanced overall experience. And, as luck would have it, Palm had just released a new Desktop that would make the migration of info over to the Pocket PC even easier, with an imbedded link to Outlook included.

(Incidentally, this Desktop version is only meant for a very small range of Palm PDAS and, bizarrely, removes access to Expense - I'd never have used it had I not been moving over. But I digess...)

One of things that had certainly not been encouraging me to move to a Pocket PC what the necessity of using Outlook as the 'Desktop' to the PDA. I had tried Outlook 3 years ago and hated every moment of it - it was (like many Office programs) cumbersome, counter-intuitive, a security nightmare and just plain butt-ugly - and so I removed it and remained perfectly happy with Palm Desktop for my PIM with VersaMail as my link to my email via Outlook Express. The Palm Desktop was everything that Outlook wasn't.

But hey, that was 3 years ago, right? Outlook must have improved, yes, inkeeping with the improvements of the Pocket OS? Imagine then my surprise to find that my Dell included the same version of Outlook that I ripped out all that time ago. I mean,  I know its not Dell's fault, per se, as it is Microsoft that is forcing the inclusion of Outlook 2002 with their PDA OS and its probably the only way MS can get anyone to use just a dreadful product - but jeez, its not even the most recent version of the PIM. Apply all the Office Upgrades available and its still an old, cra**y product.

Given that Outlook is the 'gateway' to the the PDA from the home and/or office computer, you'd think both Dell and MS would be more concerned with creating a more user-friendly, efficient and attractive interface. Apparently not. And while MS has been busy improving the WinMobile OS and tweaking ActiveSync  - you'll still end up connecting to software that is probably older than most of the hardware on your desk. And while my Dell is running WinMobile 2003 SE (the upgrade CD is 'in the mail') a colleague of mine with an I-Mate JasJar with WinMobile 5 tells me he too got Outlook 2002 as his Desktop PIM. 

Oh, I miss a number of things about my old E - and while I've found some replacements for some of my favourite software (and to their credit, they've all been freeware) I simply pine for my old Desktop as a means to create, access and edit information efficiently on my PDA.

Outlook could still be the deal-breaker for me. Love the hardware, Dell - hate the software.

Oh wait, did I see a pig fly by my window?

Outlook 2002 tied to WinMobile is simply Microsoft being cheap and lazy - and if there was any justice in the world, such inclusion in an OS install would hurt their bottom line as users/manufacurers refused to use the OS until the Desktop experience was improved.

Dell, HP and now Palm have the collective financial ability (if they chose to) to force the issue or create a Desktop of their own if Microsoft won't do the work or even just create a more effective 'Lite' version of Outlook specifically for the PDA/smartphone. And why should a user of the (not insignificantly priced PDA) be forced to upgrade their entire Office Suite just to get a product that might be better?

Outlook was (the argument being) meant to be a 'corporate' email/PIM product - but I know a significant number of business types and companies who steadfastly refuse to use it (and may account for the original popularity of the Palm) - and while that argument might have had some justification in the early days of PDAs, the devices are in the mainstream now, used by a variety of users (home, business, student, traveller) who neither want or need a clunky, ugly interface.

Nope, no pigs here. None expected....

Well, reviewing my initial note that began this thread, I guess it is hardly surprising -

I've had an Epiphany!

So there I was, looking at my Dell Axim X50.

I was sitting there, quietly acknowledging to myself how much I liked the screen and the sheer horsepower of the unit, how much I (so far) admired the build quality and the prompt assistance I had received from Dell Customer Service (if not Tech Support) when it suddenly hit me - a dazzling flash that was stunning in its obviousness.

I Had Been Blind But Now I Could See!

The OS and its imbedded programs, ActiveSync and the desktop portal to the device, Outlook - they all suck. Badly.

There it was.

Amazing! How could I have missed this obvious observation? I mean, we're not talking the old 'this OS is better than that OS' here, we're talking 'this stuff is bad - full stop.'

Combined, they amount (when working as intended - and that not always a sure bet) to nothing more than 'A Jack of All Trades, Master of None' - managing to make devices they are installed on less impressive than the technology deserves.

The OS's imbedded programs routinely fail miserably to do the tasks that a PDA was created for - resulting in users relying on 3rd Party software to regain partial usefulness - see Pocket Informant (for example) on the device, but nothing to replace a badly imagined 3 year old desktop product. Meanwhile, as a Pocket PC or - and here's a laugh - Windows Mobile, it once again it fails miserably. Even products that are primary money-spinners for Microsoft fail here in the Mobile incarnations. See instead Textmaker, TCPMP, et al as de facto replacements.

"Why", I realised during this Epiphany, "Have I accepted doing even simple tasks the way the OS and its awful software wants me to do it, rather than the way that is instinctive and natural - and offered elsewhere? And why should I pay additional to get that control? Have you forgotten how much this thing cost you?"

A recent OS release should have fixed these issues but only made more, while the 'upgrade path' appears to be (for most) a Homer Simpsonesque fall off a cliff, hitting all the sharp outcroppings and tree branches on the way down - only to be mauled at the bottom by wolves.

How could I have missed this? Was I led astray by poor, wretched, misguided souls who actually believe this is cool and this is how one should work with technology? Did I watch with amazement the wizardy on the device, ignoring - as ordered - the man behind the curtain madly twiddling controls?

I m-u-s-t  r-e-g-a-i-n  con-trol. I am  b-e-t-t-e-r  than it!

I didn't come this far only to find I have a pocket-sized Altair, with all the hobbyist geekiness that implies.

The software sucks. The developer doesn't appear to care and it's an easy option for PDA manufacturers to install. We've been had.

Wow.

So now I look at my Axim. I still covet the technology it suggests but now accept the Spawn From Heck resides Within. And I mean to do something about it. I thinking it will make a swell flashlight or paperweight - and I'm looking at my dusty old filofax  and  other simple techie gizmos with a new respect.

Meanwhile if (and this is a big 'if') Ed Colligan can get his Company's sh*t together again - a respect for their users a big part of that (build quality, decent warranties, tech support to name but three failings) and acknowledge even just an apparent interest in their own OS, a return to Palm may yet happen.

Or maybe others need to experience an Epiphany too....