What’s Online?

 By Tom Gibson - Technical Editor at Handheld PC Magazine and The HP Palmtop Paper
tom_gibson@thaddeus.com
http://www.thaddeus.com

Welcome to the Premier issue of Handheld PC Magazine. In this article I will try to give you a flavor of the support and hot spots for Handheld PCs available to you on the Internet. There are a wide variety of information sites: places to download software and demos for your Handheld PC, H/PC Manufacturers home pages, and support for you Handheld PC. As a bit of warning to you, the Internet is like a living and breathing creature; it changes constantly. Sites come and go, and sometimes they change their address, just like us. A great site today is tomorrow's "ho-hum" site. The only thing that is constant about the Internet and the World Wide Web is that they will not be the same tomorrow. A great starting place is this magazine's home page at http://www.hpcmag.com

Handheld PC Manufacturers

At the current time there are seven manufacturers selling Windows CE-based Handheld PCs, and all of the manufacturers have Web sites for their machines.

Casio Cassiopeia — The first Handheld PC out of the gate was the Casio Cassiopeia. Casio's page for their Windows CE Handhelds is at: http://www.casiohpc.com/home.html. It is continually being updated. The Cassiopeia home page has a section for technical support, a "What's New" section, a software section and much more. (Owners of earlier Cassiopeias may have experienced a keyboard problem which caused some of the units to run the batteries dead, losing all data stored on the RAM. The technical support section of Casio' s Web side has a patch that will fix that problem.)

Compaq PC Companion — Compaq’s home page is at: http://www.compaq.com/products/handhelds/index.html. This page has lots of information on where to buy a PC Companion and accessories to go with it, and a "Real Uses" section that tells how real people use their PC Companion for business and personal use. Compaq’s site also has a fix that you can download for the keyboard problem.

LG Handheld PC — The LG Electronics' home page is at: http://www.lgeus.com/hpc/. This page has a nice rundown of the specifications and features of the LG Handheld PC, called the LHPC.

Hitachi Handheld PC — Hitachi not only markets a Handheld PC, it is the manufacturer of the SH3 RISC chip that is used in the Casio, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, LG Electronics, and Hitachi Handheld PCs.

NEC MobilePro — NEC’s offering in the Windows CE market is the MobilePro. The MobilePro is one of the two current Windows CE offerings to use NEC’s VR4101 processor, a high-speed, low-power 64-bit MIPS RISC processor. To see what NEC has to say about the MobilePro, go to http://www.nec-computers.com/products/mobilepro/mobilepro.html and select the Products button, then choose Handheld PCs.

HP 300LX and 320LX Palmtop PCs — Hewlett-Packard’s home page is located at: http://www.hp.com/handheld/palmtops/hp300lx/300lxhome.html.HP tells us about the 300/320LX’s features, including the wider screen available on these units.

Philips Velo 1 — Philips Electronics brings the idea of the mobile office home on the Velo 1 page at: http://www.velo1.com/. The opening graphic of this page places you in the front seat of a car while driving through a restaurant. Software and Information

Microsoft Windows CE — The Windows CE section of Microsoft’s Website is located at: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsce/default.asp.

Microsoft developed the Windows CE operating system, and they have a lot of good information and downloadable software on their site. Microsoft has links to the Casio and Compaq pages that have the software patch for the power management problem on the Cassiopeia and the PC Companion, and also an explanation of what the problem is and how and why it may occur. Microsoft has an area on their Website that has all the announcements made by Microsoft regarding Windows CE. This is a good place to check for the latest news for the Windows CE platform.

There is also a section for downloading Microsoft applications such as Automap, (which lets you download city maps to your Handheld PC), Microsoft Pocket Internet Explorer (MPIE) (which lets you surf the Internet using your Handheld PC), Powertoys (which contains a Paint program, cascading menus, and remote control so that you can control your Handheld PC with your Desktop unit and more), HPC Explorer 1.1 (the utility that connects your desktop to your H/PC), and the Handheld PC File converter (which allows you to create pocket versions of documents using only your desktop computer). There are sections for FAQs (frequently asked questions), and links to Microsoft's partners in Windows CE development.

WWW Sites with Handheld PC Content

The real wealth of the Handheld PC Internet world can be found in the user Websites. Some of my favorites include the following:

Thaddeus Computing’s Handheld PC Magazine Site— Here we share some highlights of our magazine, plus downloadable software.Located at: http://www.hpcmag.com

WindowsCE.com — Great links to other Windows CE sites, news and software. Located at: http://windowsce.com/

Craig Peacock's WinCE Page — Lots of how-tos and links. Craig is a contributing writer to Handheld PC Magazine. Located at: http://www.craigtech.co.uk

HotPocket PDA — See what’s going on in the world of Handheld PCs and PDAs. Located at: http://hotpocket.com

Windows CE Software Page — Links to freeware/shareware for the Windows CE platform. Located at: http://www.atech.tec.clark.nv.us/~rmcardle/windowsce/

Windows CE On-Line — Links, news, software, and more. Located at: http://www.arcos.org/worlds 

HPCPage — From the same people who bring you PDAPage. Find out where to get the best prices on your H/PC and accessories.Located at: http://www.hpcpage.com/

Handheld PC Users Group of Washington DC — Links and news from H/PC users in Washington DC to you. Located at: http://www.mindspring.com/~theman2/hpc/

Chris De Herrera’s Website for Windows CE — This site has lots of good information on PC cards and modems. Chris is a forum leader on AOL. Located at: http://www.cewindows.net

Usenet Newsgroups and Listserv Mailing Lists

There are also some Usenet Newsgroups and Listserv Mailing lists that are devoted to or carry content for the Windows CE platform. Usenet newsgroups are like electronic bulletin boards where users can post questions and receive answers. With Usenet Newsgroups, you have to go to the list and download the message headers and/or the message bodies. Most ISPs have a news server that you can use. The Usenet newsgroup that is devoted to Windows CE is on Microsoft's public news server - msnews.microsoft.com news:microsoft.public.windowsce The Usenet newsgroups that have content for Windows CE are news:comp.sys.palmtops and news:comp.sys.handhelds. These last two newsgroups should be on your ISPs default news server. There are now two Listservs mailing lists that cover Windows CE and the WindowsCE.com's Windows CE Talk Mailing list at http://cgi.skyweyr.com/WindowsCE-Talk.Home. With a Listserv, you subscribe to the list and when someone posts to the list, an e-mail is sent to you. Most Listservs have interactive and digest versions.

CompuServe and America On Line

There are also sections on CompuServe and AOL that have Windows CE content. On CompuServe, there is HPHAND section 17 and PALMB. On AOL there is the WindowsCE special interest group, use keyword WCE to get there. To take advantage of either of these, you must be a member of that electronic bulletin board system.