RumorMill™: Pocket PC 2003 Focuses On Wireless

Certainly one of the most important events in the coming weeks is the impending release of Pocket PC 2003. According to the best information available, this is going to happen sometime in early June. The release may be at Microsoft TechEd 2003, or possibly at an independent launch event.

At this point, it looks like this will offer some new features and clear up bugs found in the current version. According to information leaked on several websites and newsgroups, many of the changes in Ozone, Pocket PC 2003's codename, will be related to improving its wireless capabilities.

This will include a new Connection Manager, which should be music to many users' ears, as it is one of the most complained about parts of the current operating system. The new version is supposed to be easier to use for beginners while at the same time giving advanced users more control.

It will offer built-in support for both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, encouraging licensees to integrate these into their handhelds. This is a strong reminder that "wireless" doesn't just mean CDMA or GPRS.

Internet Explorer will get a major upgrade, gaining support for XHTML, CSS, JavaScript 5.5, animated GIFs, and improved performance.

Pocket PC 2003 will also include support for SMS and there will be an MMS plug-in for the Inbox. Both of these are ways of exchanging instant messages, with the second one offering multimedia. The Inbox will also gain the ability to add email signatures.

It is based on Windows CE .NET 4.2. However, it will need the .NET Compact Framework in order to run .NET Web services. At least one of the New Handhelds expected this summer, the ViewSonic V37, will come with this pre-installed in its ROM. The .NET Compact Framework is quite large, which means many current handhelds probably won't be able to install it, even if they are upgraded to the new operating system.

More than Just Wireless

Of course, not all the changes in Pocket PC 2003 are related to wireless networking.

There have been some tantalizing hints of landscape support but, frustratingly, no details on what applications will offer this.

It comes with Windows Media Player 9. There will also be a new application just for viewing images.

There will be various small improvements to the built-in applications, like the ability to quickly jump through the list of contacts by writing the first few letters of a name. The calendar will get a scrollable list of events and attendees. Supposedly it will handle time zones better, which hopefully means that changing cities won't automatically move the start times for all events. These are just a few examples; there are many more.

The new OS will allow developers to write applications that are optimized for the XScale processors that are at the heart of most handhelds. For end users, this means there will be new versions of applications that run even faster than they do now. However, these XScale optimized apps will run only under Pocket PC 2003. Of course, the new OS can run just about all software written for Pocket PC 2002.

What It Doesn't Have

As significant as what Pocket PC 2003 offers is what it doesn't offer. At this point, there have been no hints of major improvements to Pocket Word or Pocket Excel. There has been no mention of a Pocket PowerPoint.

Another thing Pocket PC 2003 doesn't include that some have hoped for is a complete re-writing of ActiveSync. However, some users are reporting that the beta of ActiveSync 3.7 is more stable than the current version.

Upgrading

A new operating system always brings questions about whether current models will be able to upgrade. For those who are new to this, releasing a new handheld OS doesn't work the same way as it does with desktops and laptops. The upgrade doesn't come straight from Microsoft. Instead, Microsoft gives the new operating system to its licensees who customize it for their individual models and release it.

At this point, none of the licensees have said anything about whether they will offer upgrades for their handhelds because it would be premature to do so. They would be jumping the gun on Microsoft's official announcement of the new operating system. Assumably, such announcements will come soon after the launch of Pocket PC 2003.

It should be pointed out that the licensees are not required to offer upgrades, though there is tremendous pressure from the users for them to do so. It's also entirely possible that the licensees will charge for the upgrade.

According to unconfirmed reports, Pocket PC 2003 should fit in any handheld with 32 MB of ROM. It is not known if there will be a version for the HP iPAQ h1910, which has only 16 MB of ROM.

Related Links

• The Summer of Pocket PC