Impatient for technology to make your life easier? You are not alone, yet too often it seems that the next trumpeted "step change" offers us something we have never wanted, and at a prohibitive cost. At least, you could argue, it's easier to ignore.
As for the technology behind it all, Jason Langridge, UK mobility business manager for Windows Mobile, puts it well: "By and large, people don't really care to know about it. As long as something completes its task, gets us from A to B and doesn't require any looking under the bonnet, the average user is happy to remain in ignorance of the name of the operating system or the software innovation."
On a recent trip with some journalists, I was amazed to find that most of them either didn't know what wifi was or didn't care, yet every day they have to file copy to their newspapers. The reason for their lack of interest is that they have their own well-established methods of getting those pieces across, such as using mobile phones with Bluetooth connections to email, reading their copy over the phones to copytakers (a very old-fashioned method) or typing them into an email using a computer at the business centre.
There are advantages and disadvantages to each system, just as there are with using a laptop to connect wirelessly in your hotel room (carrying the laptop for one thing; what I wouldn't give for lighter luggage).
Yet for all the pros and cons, there's no doubt the world of technology is poised to solve a few problems. The introduction of Microsoft's new Windows Mobile 5.0 software is billed as a rival to the Blackberry but with even more functions. It can keep you in touch with the office, allow you to see your emails in real time and open all the attachments — but costs less than a Blackberry. Another plus is that it doesn't require your company IT expert to install Blackberry software on your server (the Mobile 5.0 software works with any Microsoft Exchange Server).
The Blackberry's brilliance as an email device is that it can not only handle email and synchronise with your inbox but can also access your work email through the corporate firewall. Blackberry's solution was to embed a piece of software on the company server allowing this to be done securely, and also to allow the emails to be pushed through to the phone as they arrive.
Until now, Blackberry has had the stage pretty much to itself, but the new Windows Mobile software promises to offer real competition. What the new devices offer is the email experience of a Blackberry with internet access and miniature versions of the same computer programs (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) that we are familiar with from our desktop computers. For business users this is a cost-effective solution, as phones running Windows Mobile software integrate directly with a Microsoft Exchange Server and avoid the need to pay for third-party middleware to get a direct and secure mobile messaging solution. For business travellers, it means we may be able to lighten our travelling load.
"Depending on the nature of a trip or the length, people might travel with a laptop, a Blackberry, an iPod and a phone," says Langridge. "And that means all the charging cables for all of it. Windows Mobile offers convergence without compromise. People want the best of everything and now they can get it in one device."
So much for the theory; we put it into practice. The first of the Windows Mobile 5.0 devices are now coming on the market in a variety of formats. The T-Mobile MDA Pro, with its flip QWERTY keyboard, can function as a mini-computer and a Pocket PC. This device, with variations, will appear on all four networks in the UK. We tested the T-Mobile version (page 75) and found it a little heavy and awkward to use. Meanwhile, the Motorola Q is based on the popular RAZR design and also has a full QWERTY keyboard. It was said to be arriving by the end of the year, although the latest news is that it might not become available at all.
The "push email" part is not yet on the market, but is promised as a free update to the Windows Mobile 5.0 software, although at the time of going to press it was not yet available.
So what you have at the moment is a "pull email" solution, which nevertheless works with Exchange Servers. In other words, you press the ActiveSync button on the phone (or select that application) and the mobile device, whether it's a smartphone or a PDA, will be synchronised with either your computer or, via GPRS, 3G or wifi, with your company server, and potentially even the documents and information on that server. There's even apparently the option of having someone with permission to update your diary being able to do so, and that being updated in real time on your device (although after two months of just trying to get email synchronised, I remain sceptical with regards to these claims).
There's no doubt, however, that the new software enhances the capabilities in the Windows Mobile suite. On the T-Mobile MDA Pro you can edit documents without having to convert them into a pocket version of the software (the process of moving a document from a mobile device to a desktop computer or laptop and back again is called "round tripping") but, having worked on a spreadsheet on a mobile device, I can say it is not easy, and I'd advise waiting to view it on a laptop.
While these new devices may soon supplant an iPod, providing you buy a decent size storage card for them (at least 1GB), you may want to wait before dumping that laptop.
