April 24, 2000
Untitled
This review of new PocketPC devices written by Larry Garfield, a dedicated PalmOS user, was passed along to me by someone who recognized my fetish for handheld devices. Thanks Bill. There is still not enough on either side of this fence to make me want to give up my Newton, but there are some interesting observations and usability issues scattered about.
“The Start button is still alive and well, but has been moved to the upper left a la Macintosh, with a clock in the upper right, also a la Macintosh. There is less clutter on the screen than before, for the most part, although the amount of clutter tends to change depending on the program.
Hey Redmond! Nice to see some real innovation happening here! Actually, it’s refreshing to see Microsoft actually being consistently cluttered across all their supported platforms, no matter what size of screen you’re using.
“PalmOS programs naturally give you only the files that pertain to them, and let you sort them by category anyway. The hierarchical file system actually got in the way more than it allowed for organization. Again, the Desktop paradigm doesn’t translate well onto the Palm-sized form-factor.”
Bingo! This is one of the major reasons why the Newton and the Palm work so well. You rarely need to search for anything, because of the intelligent way the datasoup was designed.
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