Anyone still using Windows Mobile (Pocket PCs)?

[ssj92]

I have a few HP iPAQs I still play with. It's funny because they can access my samba server at home. 

 

I currently have 

 

HP iPAQ HX4700

2 x HP iPAQ RX3715 (used for IR remote)

HP iPAQ RX3115 (used for IR Remote)

HP iPAQ 211

HP iPAQ 111

Also have a HTC HD2 

 

They all have a lot of storage thanks to CF and SD cards. Trying to find ways to still use them today. 

[cucubits]

12 minutes ago, ssj92 said:

Trying to find ways to still use them today

Night lights 🙂

 

PS: Quote selection reply works.

[johnksss]

Wow, I have not pulled out one of those in a very long time!

[Mr. Fox]

I like Windows Phone OS, but the Nokia device I used it on was rather anemic and too small to be useful. It was better than Android, and I think anything is better than iOS, including and Blackberry OS.

[pressing]

This afternoon, I was using a Dell Axim x51v, which was about the last of the PDAs.

WM has incredible Japanese handwriting recognition, and seamlessly works in a dual English-Japanese environment. So is a good electronic dictionary. I use Excel and PDF also but they load a bit slowly.

- x51v shipped with the buggy and slow WM5. Upgrade ROM to wm6.1 (A02 dynamite) which is the best I found in terms of speed, stability and features for my dictionaries (as of c. 2014 but you see 2021 development on XDA forums by lennysh those should be better).

- Pocket PC Techs offered to upgrade SMD ram from 64 to 128MB. I haven't seen one of these for sale in the used market since ~2010.

- The x51v was made around the introduction of some new SD and CF card standards; it's not entirely clear what standards the Axim fell under but it will run fast & big cards (not sure if at full speeds or full compliance lol). Confirmed to run: 256GB "Class 10" SDXC Cards from the SD slot + 128GB from the CF slot (not all cards will work).

- The battery cover switch fails (I removed and soldiered the connection)

- Batteries don't last too long lol

- Headphone out is mediocre. VLC is most updated media but still not a great experience.

XDA and Axim-Site were very helpful Windows Mobile forums. XDA still exists but the WM forums got buried in a reorg. Axim-Site was renamed mobilitysite; it is gone but we see an archived version with ROMs below

https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/dell-axim-wm6-x-x50v-x51v-x50-x51-sdhc-and-other-cards-support.328460/

https://web.archive.org/web/20081206104114/http://www.mobilitysite.com/boards/

 

[pressing]

21 hours ago, ssj92 said:

I have a few HP iPAQs I still play with. It's funny because they can access my samba server at home.

They all have a lot of storage thanks to CF and SD cards. Trying to find ways to still use them today. 

See the XDA link above for clues on using modern big/fast CF and SD cards. You can see the industry standards and timeline for clues about what is possible.

Oh...here is the XDA Windows Mobile forum...with some recent posts

https://forum.xda-developers.com/f/windows-mobile.612/

There was an old HTC forum with a Windows Mobile section but I don't know where that is. Maybe became XDA? There was an old russian forum that was great but don't know if that still exists. . .

[ssj92]

45 minutes ago, pressing said:

See the XDA link above for clues on using modern big/fast CF and SD cards. You can see the industry standards and timeline for clues about what is possible.

Oh...here is the XDA Windows Mobile forum...with some recent posts

https://forum.xda-developers.com/f/windows-mobile.612/

There was an old HTC forum with a Windows Mobile section but I don't know where that is. Maybe became XDA? There was an old russian forum that was great but don't know if that still exists. . .

4PDA is the russian forum. A LOT of stuff is still hosted there and can still be downloaded. 

 

I have 128gb sd card and 16-32gb cf cards in mine. 2GB SD in the older ones without SDHC support.

 

I got 

 

iPAQ RX 3115 + 2x 3715 running Windows Mobile 2003 SE

iPAQ HX4700 running Windows Mobile 5 (I literally flash this one like once a month. It has firmware from 2003 SE to 6.5 so it's fun to play with)

iPAQ 111 running Windows Mobile 6 

iPAQ 211 running Windows Mobile 6.5

HTC HD2 running Windows Embedded Handheld 6.5 (I go back and forth between this and Windows Phone 7.8 on this one) 

 

I use them either as IR remote, drawing, or just playing around with super old apps 

[ratchetnclank]

I used to have an Sony Xperia X1. I loved that thing, loved the flip out keyboard. Always wanted the HTC HD2 as well but couldn't afford it at the time.

 

After that though i moved on to Android.

[Vasudev]

I do have Lumia 730 running in Mint condition but sadly its only 3g+ and doesn't support 4G.

[Mr. Fox]

On 1/24/2022 at 9:49 AM, ratchetnclank said:

I used to have an Sony Xperia X1. I loved that thing, loved the flip out keyboard. Always wanted the HTC HD2 as well but couldn't afford it at the time.

 

After that though i moved on to Android.

Given a choice, I will always choose a hardware keyboard over a slimy touch display. I don't care for touch input on anything, but I tolerate it on smartphones only due to the lack of viable alternatives. I find it unacceptable--even going as far as calling it repulsive--on a computer.

I don't even like using a touchpad on a computer for input and avoid it whenever possible. Keyboard and mouse FTW.

[Vasudev]

6 minutes ago, Mr. Fox said:

Given a choice, I will always choose a hardware keyboard over a slimy touch display. I don't care for touch input on anything, but I tolerate it on smartphones only due to the lack of viable alternatives. I find it unacceptable--even going as far as calling it repulsive--on a computer.

For now I don't think it'll happen since most of the apps use touch optimized layout first than preferring physical keyboard on a phone.

[Mr. Fox]

11 minutes ago, Vasudev said:

For now I don't think it'll happen since most of the apps use touch optimized layout first than preferring physical keyboard on a phone.

Fortunately, I don't use smartphones for that many purposes and don't find much practical use in having a wide variety of apps. I don't really enjoy using them for anything. Even when texting, I use Google Messages to send and receive text/SMS on my phone using a computer as the primary interface as often as possible. The most common uses of my smartphone is 2FA, phone calls and a platform for routing of SMS that I access from my computer. I find using a smartphone for web browsing and email to be an inefficient and often less than pleasing experience due to the form factor limitations. The small screen and compromised visual capabilities of the tiny display run a close second to touch input on my scale of undesirableness.

[Vasudev]

2 minutes ago, Mr. Fox said:

Fortunately, I don't use smartphones for that many purposes and don't find much practical use in having a wide variety of apps. I don't really enjoy using them for anything. Even when texting, I use Google Messages to send and receive text/SMS on my phone using a computer as the primary interface as often as possible. The most common uses of my smartphone is 2FA, phone calls and a platform for routing of SMS that I access from my computer. I find using a smartphone for web browsing and email to be an inefficient and often less than pleasing experience due to the form factor limitations. The small screen and compromised visual capabilities of the tiny display run a close second to touch input on my scale of undesirableness.

I don't use much apps anyway. I have Google messages, Gpay, Disney+, Authenticator. Most used apps will be Firefox, Phone, messages and authenticator. Firefox notified my email was hacked in one of the sites and had to change credentials and added 2fa most websites/apps.

[pressing]

The high-quality Blackberry keyboard was excellent for emails and memos. Main downside was that thumbs got tired after using for a long time. Somebody sold a clone of that keyboard to stick on a smartphone...but got sued.

 

Modern screen keyboards are ok for short texts but not anything longer. They have better internet functionality, of course.

[ryan]

I had a toshiba tablet pocket pc can't remember the model but it was awesome, I could handwrite and it would convert to text, play music movies ect. I even had age of empires on it, geesh. technology. it really hasn't come very far, I could do things on that 15 years ago that my s21 ultra does today, sure better cameras and speed but is it really a bump. 15 freekin years and all we got was 4k 8k cameras. tech is supposed to double each year. the thing better be a time machine or we are getting flossed. lol

 

 

what do you guys think government? what is it why has tech improved only slightly instead of massively

[GeekBear80]

Nice to see the Xperia X1 in the thread. It was the device that got me into custom ROMs back in the day and it also make me realize that my appreciation of WM is stronger now than ever before. If there would be a newly made device running the system I would be happy to return since I find Android (post-Nougat) to be unacceptable (the GUI is drastically degraded into filth, anti-root and anti-ROM measures commonplace, SafetyNet compound this, lower price/performance/quality ratio of devices, lack of diversity in the market et al) while iOS is OK as a dumb terminal (Apple Pay is excellent and the system is perfectly fine for simple tasks such as talk/text and shopping apps, banking/payments and the like).

 

Windows Mobile together with XDA and devices like the X1 and Touch Pro 2 were as close as we ever came to being "laptop replacements" before the development went the wrong way. The main issue is that smartphones has turned into terminals/feature phones with "apps" that are more akin to "Java Midlets" rather than the fully featured applications offered for WM. It is also interesting to note that mobile devices are the only pieces of electronics that have seen drastic price increases, thus breaking the normal "rule of electronics" where "specific performance level become cheaper as technology progresses while performance increase at a given price point". This is also why a $1500 smartphone in 2022 feels like a toy (and is a toy as far as capabilities goes) in comparison with something like a Nokia 9210 Communicator or (more recently) HTC Touch Pro 2 or HD2. The only "tangible" areas where progress has been made is mostly camera and display but feature set and flexibility not to mention quality and sophistication of apps and the operating system is seriously downgraded and dumbed down.

 

My conclusion is that the only viable "successor" to Windows Mobile is Windows on a device like the OneNetbook A1 or GPD Pocket supplanted by something like an iPhone SE (banking and Apple Pay/digital wallet).

[kojack]

Best OS ever for a mobile device was windows mobile.  The best phone I ever owned was my 1020.  I miss it dearly, and I wish it could still be a viable option for me today. 

[ryan]

I used to love my pocket pc but for the last 20 or so years we have phones that do all that and more. my s21 ultra does about 1000 times more than any pocket pc ever could, but yeah 20 years ago they were pretty useful.

[kojack]

If I could load windows 10 mobile onto the lumia 1020 (it was possible but I think those have since been shuttered), I would be using it right now. I need to surf the net, text, make calls and take photos (the 1020 still destroys most phones out today in image quality). Thats it with my phone. Oh, and hotspot wifi from it. 

[ryan]

What was the screen resolution and technology 

[kojack]

the screen was an oled with 1280x780 ish resolution it was awesome. I had to replace it and the way you get into the phone was one torx screw in the sim tray slot. It unlocked the screen with a crazy engineered mechanism. You could replace everything by taking that loosening that one screw.  Still the best phone I have ever owned. Running windows 10 mobile it was fast, smooth as silk, the camera still bests stuff from today and the battery life was good enough to get through a day and a bit in 2013.  It never officially got w10m but you could get it windows preview/insider flight.  Now, I am not sure if you can load it on or not. If I could, I would buy one today!

[ryan]

I had a Hitachi windows mobile pocket PC. I was young. Battery life was awful but good for the time. I would read play age of empires watch pron ect YouTube didn't even exist. Imagine investing in YouTube back then. I think the next big thing is graphene. Wish things advanced faster. I think ai in 5 years will change the world and the new world will be juxtaposed to the current world