We cannot respond to all letters or e-mail, but we do read them all. Please send us questions, suggestions for improvements to the magazine, ideas for new software, or general comments. All responses, unless otherwise indicated, are from Rich Hall, Editor of Pocket PC magazine. You can reach Rich at Rich@PocketPCmag.com. This column contains e-mail from readers as well as selected messages from the Pocket PC magazine forums. The content has been edited for clarity.
Persistent Storage
I bought and read the July edition of Pocket PC magazine last night and read the entire thing by the pool. Great magazine! I just wish it was monthly. Anyway, I read the article about Windows Mobile 5.0 by Rich Hall. On page 12 he talks about Persistent storage for Windows Mobile devices. To quote the article: Now all your personal data, user installed applications and updates are stored in non-volatile flash ROM. RAM is now reserved for running programs. You can no longer install applications in RAM.
The HP iPAQ hx4705 Pocket PC I just bought from Mobile Planet has 64 MB SDRAM and 128 MB flash ROM, with a total of up to 135 MB user-available memory. In addition, HP is offering a free upgrade to Windows Mobile 5.0 for this device. If I upgrade to 5.0, I assume that none of the SDRAM will be available for file storage. How much of the flash ROM will be available for internal file storage? How will the new OS affect the total of up to 135 MB of user-available memory? Does that mean if I upgrade to Mobile 5(which I can because HP is offering the upgrade for free) I will only have 128MB of room or 135MB? I was thinking of buying a 2GB card for room for program installations but now I might not need that much room. Will this new decision LIMIT the flexibility/scalability of my iPAQ?
BrianSNJ
Pocket PC magazine forum member
I don't believe that Windows Mobile 5.0s Persistent Storage feature allows you to store any personal files or data in SDRAM memoryall of the SDRAM is reserved for running programs.
I don't know how much of the hx4700s flash ROM will be needed for the Windows Mobile 5.0 OS and applications. But Microsoft is adding one application, PowerPoint Mobile, so I don't imaging the ROM image size is going to shrink any. The original version of the hx4700 had an 80 MB file store (80 MB of flash ROM available to the user). This is probably the most internal storage you can expect if you upgrade, and it may be a little less than that. I suggest getting a high-capacity storage card, especially if you want to listen to music or load GPS maps on your iPAQ.
Windows Mobile 5.0 updates for older Pocket PCs?
Microsoft released Windows Mobile 5.0 and HP and Dell announced that they would offer upgrades for a few models (HP: iPAQ hx2100, hx2400, hx2700 and hx4700; Dell: Axim x50 series). I have an iPAQ h2210, which was not listed by HP. My question: Is HP going to add to this list of devices that will have upgrades made available?
Ayman Sousa
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