tunelab vs RCT (and others)

[Glenn Grafton]

>Yesterday I saw a iPaq hand held.  It is so NEAT!  And it is a real 
>computer not a
>memo pad like the Palm.  It's CPU is by Intel, has a good color 
>backlit LCD, easily
>sincs with any other computer and has 32 megs of ram (Palm 8 megs) 
>and the fonts can
>be made large enough for me to read.  It appears to have a touch 
>screen which likely
>can be used with any semi sharp object in case the pen is lost (not 
>sure on this
>point but I could move things around with my finger only.  You can 
>add up to an
>additional 64 megs of memory when you need it.
>
>Geese, technolust all over again. :(  Somewhere in the neighbor hood of $600.
>
>		Newton

I few observations regarding Palm handhelds vs. Pocket PC. I realize 
that on this list most of the interest centers around the ability to 
run RCT on something smaller and lighter than a laptop. Running RCT 
on a Pocket PC based handheld is a great idea.

However when the question of how these stack up to the current Palm 
models and other Palm compatibles (Handspring, Sony, etc.) there are 
some things that raise their head.

First off, yes Windows is the dominant OS on desktops, among the 
handhelds Palm owns the market. Something like 75%. Web sites like 
http:www.handago, http:www.palmgear, http:www.tucows, etc. have a 
slew of commercial, shareware & free software for the Palm OS.

Yes the iPac is somewhat like a real computer. That's a plus and a 
minus. A plus in the case if you're porting an application like RCT 
or if you want to run Pocket versions of MS products.

It's a negative when you consider that along with that you get lock 
ups and some of the other inherent problems with a Windows based 
product. The Palms NEVER crash.

Battery life is another problem on the Pocket PC based handhelds. I 
get about 2 weeks without having to dock my Palm IIIC to charge
Palm's newly announced M505 features an awesome display, a faster 
processor, expansion capabilities, etc.

The PocketPC based handhelds require more RAM to run due to the OS. 
Don't let the amount of RAM, mhz. etc fool you, the Palms are leaner, 
faster and more stable. They can easily be synced to either Windows 
or Macs and have an abundance of software from color spreadsheets, 
databases, synching to MS Office, GPS receivers, wireless internet 
access. They don't however run RCT.

Palms new M505 (check this out for some technolust)
http://www.palm.com/products/palmm505/


How to choose the best mobile office solution.
http://www.palmpowerenterprise.com/issues/issue200012/office001.html
-- 
Glenn Grafton
Grafton Piano & Organ Co.
1081 County Line Rd.
Souderton PA 18964
http://www.graftonpiano.com/
glenn@graftonpiano.com
800-272-5980

The box said "Requires Windows 95, or better." So I bought a Macintosh.