Have mobile office, will travel!
I am an independent consulting geophysicist who provides project management and quality control consulting services for client companies. I am called in when a client, usually an oil company, has a seismic data processing project that needs to be managed on their behalf. The project is typically executed by an outside contractor and I oversee the contractor's work for the client. While I maintain an office in my home, I am almost always on the road, working from the client's or contractor's office. This means that I must carry my own mobile office with me wherever I go.
My mobile office fits in a small rolling airline carry-on, and consists of my laptop PC, Pocket PC, mobile phone, paper files, cables, and AC power adapters. I can pull out and set up my complete office in less than five minutes, no matter where I happen to be working. Since I am usually working several projects simultaneously I have to go from one location to another during the day and this makes it easy. And since it's all on wheels it saves my back to boot.
Mobile e-mail a must!
I receive e-mails constantly throughout the day, from various clients and about the various projects. Rapid response is a must, and this is where the Wi-Fi connectivity is worth its weight in gold. About 60% of the offices I visit have a wireless LAN network, and many of those are open networks—which doesn't say much about their security awareness. I would never access an unprotected network without authorization, but once I've been given permission to access their network, tapping into it is very easy using the e740's built-in Wireless LAN Utility. I just power on the e740 once I arrive at a new office, and the utility "sniffs" out any available wireless networks in the area and connects to the first one it finds if there's no encryption. Voila, I am fully connected. Since all my e-mail accounts are POP3, once I can access the Internet I have full access to my e-mail.
Connecting from the offices that do not have an open network requires another solution which I have settled on after much experimentation. My Sony Vaio laptop PC can connect to my cell phone (Audiovox CDM-9500) via a special USB cable. Software that was obtained from Verizon Wireless allows me to use their Express Network digital service. This is a 1xRTT network that allows connections at speeds up to 144 kbps. Although slower than Wi-Fi speeds, this is very fast for a cell phone connection and works well for me. I am hoping that someone will release a similar cable to connect my Toshiba e740 to the cell phone. This would allow me to use the Pocket PC for all my e-mail connections.
Pocket Informant makes my Pocket PC world go 'round
Software makes the Pocket PC world go 'round, and the program that gets it spinning the fastest for me is Pocket Informant (PI) from Web Information Solutions, Inc. (www.pocketinformant.com). PI replaces the Pocket Outlook applications (Contacts, Tasks, Notes, Calendar) with a user interface that integrates and extends the functionality of these applications. PI's Contacts function displays information in list or card view, similar to the built-in application from Microsoft. But it has a fast-search capability that allows me to zoom in on a particular contact quickly. This is important as I have over 3600 contacts in my Contacts database. The Calendar function (Screens 1 and 2) is full-featured and allows me to view my schedule in Agenda View, Day View, Week View, or Month View. The ability to assign icons and different colors to each category results in the ability to quickly glean a lot of information with just a glance.
Screen 1 (above): The Agenda View in PI (Pocket Informant) Calendar allows full use of color and icons.
Screen 2 (above): The Week View in PI Calendar offers a more accessible view of the week's schedule than the built-in Calendar program does.
PI includes drag-and-drop features so it's easy to move items around if needed. You can also link any item to another quickly and easily. For example, if I create a task or appointment for a meeting, I can link to the contact information of the people attending the meeting. When I look at that meeting, the contact information is only a tap away.
The Tasks function allows me to organize the things I need to do and track them in unique ways (Screen 3). I can prioritize tasks using an alphabetical and numerical system giving me complete control over the order I want to view (and do) the tasks. Or I can drag them around in the Priority Manager and let the program prioritize them for me. The Priority Manager is a view that lists all your tasks grouped under their letter priority ("A", "B", etc.). After you drag the tasks around to put them in a new order of priority, PI changes the letter priority for every task in your task list (A1, A2...., B1, B2..., etc.). This is a real time saver over having to change them manually.
Screen 3 (above): The Tasks view in PI makes it easy to organize the things I need to do.
Pocket Informant includes a very unique feature called "hierarchical tasks," which lets me create sub-tasks under main tasks. These can be displayed in the PI Tasks view like an outline, so I can see which sub-tasks belong to the main task. This could be an extremely useful feature, but unfortunately the PC version of Outlook on my laptop doesn't support hierarchical tasks. The hierarchical structure is lost when I sync my Pocket PC with my laptop. All I see in Tasks on the laptop is a long list of tasks—the sub-tasks are no longer linked below the main task. I would have to use the Pocket PC as my sole task manager to be able to take advantage of this feature, but since I tend to use both the Pocket PC and the laptop throughout the day, it's not of much use to me.
PI Alarm Notes is similar to the built-in Notes application, but with one important addition—the ability to assign an alarm date and time to the note. This allows me to jot down a quick note in digital ink that will pop up on the main screen of my Pocket PC at the date and time of the alarm. (You can also create text or voice notes.) I use Alarm Notes almost daily for the kind of quick reminders that don't call for the creation of a full-fledged task. For example, if I need to pick up milk on the way home from work, I create an Alarm Note and in digital ink scrawl "milk" on the screen and assign an alarm time of 5 PM. When it's time to go home at 5, an alarm sounds and the note with the word "milk" appears on the screen to be dismissed or snoozed as appropriate. Alarm Notes is a simple yet effective way to jog my memory about simple to-dos (Screen 4).
Screen 4 (above): An Alarm Note that has popped up at the designated time.
Pocket Informant also has a global search feature which is fast and useful. It allows me to search across all my PIM databases (Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, and Notes) for any string of characters I input. It is very fast and in just a few seconds returns every instance of a given search string in one window. I can then click on any item in the window and open that item for viewing or editing. It really makes a nice view into my information and I use it all the time (Screen 5).
Screen 5 (above): PI's global search feature searched for "jaguar" across my Contacts, Tasks, Calendar, and Notes databases, and returned these results.
E-mail makes the world smaller
As I've mentioned, I rely on e-mail to stay in touch with clients. To enhance the Pocket PC's capabilities, I replaced the built-in Inbox with @Mail, another program from Web Information Solutions (www.pocketinformant.com/AtMail.php). Like Inbox, @Mail handles POP3 and IMAP e-mail. Unlike Inbox it also supports e-mail in HTML format (Screen 6). Note, however, that if you open HTML-formatted e-mail in @Mail and then sync it back to your PC using ActiveSync, all of the HTML formatting will be stripped away. This is a limitation of ActiveSync and not of @Mail.
Screen 6 (above): @Mail supports POP 3 and IMAP e-mail servers and lets you view HTML-formatted e-mail on the Pocket PC.
I use Outlook XP on my laptop and since I need to keep all my e-mail in one place I configured @Mail to leave all mail on the servers. This way the next time I check e-mail from my laptop I get all my e-mail and can keep it together on the laptop.
You can easily access Pocket Informant Contacts, Notes, Tasks, and Calendar from @Mail. And once PI and @Mail are installed on a Pocket PC, @Mail becomes the default e-mail program. For example, if I open PI Contacts
and elect to send an e-mail from a specific contact, @Mail will be used to send the e-mail.
eBooks bring the world to you
I'm a voracious reader, but haven't read a book printed on paper in over two years, thanks to the freeware eBook-reader program Palm Reader from Palm Digital Media (www.palmdigitalmedia.com). You can find a huge selection of inexpensive e-books on the Palm Digital Media Web site.
Also available from Palm Digital Media is Palm Reader Pro (Screen 7),an enhanced version of the program that adds an always-available dictionary. Click on any word in the book you are reading and its definition pops up. It also adds an auto-scroll feature that allows you to read a book without flipping pages. The scroll speed is configurable by the user so you can set a scroll rate that is comfortable for your reading speed. Palm Reader Pro costs $14.95. There are currently freeware and Pro versions of the reader available for the Pocket PC and the Palm PDA as well as for both Windows and Macintosh desktops. You can use the same eBook file on all platforms.
Screen 7 (above): Palm Reader Pro with a book opened for reading.
Palm Reader (and Palm Reader Pro) is very fast even with large eBooks. It allows full use of bookmarks and annotations. The Reader also "remembers" where you were when you last stopped reading. It always opens to the page you stopped at in the last eBook you were reading.
I occasionally read eBooks using the Microsoft Reader program that came pre-installed on the Toshiba Pocket PC. However, I find the program very slow and it seems to have a memory leak that over time crashes the Reader. When it crashes I must exit the program and then go back into it to be able to use the Reader, until the next crash (This problem is fixed in Windows Mobile 2003). Palm Reader Pro is just such a pleasure to use that I usually just stick with it.
Other great programs
I thought I should briefly mention a few other programs I use a lot. Streamliner (Screen 8) from Kopsis, Inc. (www.kopsisengineering.com) is a full featured program that makes it easy to create and use outlines in legal, Harvard, or bulleted formats. It also includes check boxes and progress bars, two neat features which allow it to function as a simple project manager—something I need on a daily basis.
Screen 8 (above): Streamliner lets you create outlines with progress bars to track percentage of completeness for each task. Note that the percentage bar for main items is automatically calculated based on the percentages for all the sub-items.
The check boxes feature lets you create detailed lists with items and sub-items and then check them off when completed. Progress bars allow me to easily assign a percentage of completeness for a given item.
I use Streamliner every day to help track all the sub-tasks I need to do for each project while providing an overview of all the projects for a given client. I also use it as an outliner for reports or articles I write, including this one. I can move my outlines back and forth from Pocket PC to laptop using the RTF output option that Streamliner offers.
I also rely on ThunderHawk from Bitstream (www.bitstream.com), a program that makes my Web browsing experience more enjoyable. ThunderHawk is a browser application that is coupled with Bitstream's proxy Web servers to allow full-screen Web sites to be displayed properly on the small screen of the Pocket PC. ThunderHawk automatically displays in landscape mode and the Bitstream Web servers dole out one screen at a time quickly and legibly. It is amazing how much information can be displayed in ThunderHawk and still be read by the user (Screen 9).
Screen 9 (above): Thunder Hawk makes an entire Web page legible on the Pocket PC.
Because ThunderHawk uses the Bitstream servers, you must license the software for $49 per year. This has generated a lot of complaints. But for my money it's well worth the price because it lets you surf the Web from your Pocket PC without having to stick to "mobile-enhanced" sites. Almost every site on the Web is useable and attractively rendered. I'm sticking with ThunderHawk unless something better comes along.
I also use a number of utilities to keep my Pocket PC in tip-top running shape. Chief among them is Battery Pack 2003 from Omega One (www.omegaone.com). Battery Pack 2003 gives you a battery and memory tracker for the Today screen as well as a program launcher.
PocketRSS from Atomic DB (www.happyjackroad.com/atomicDB) is an RSS news-feed reader which includes both a Today screen module and a stand-alone application. Many Web sites publish a near-real-time news feed in RSS or XML format that can be received and displayed with a program such as PocketRSS. These feeds typically show a headline and an article summary that keep you informed on selected topics throughout the day. In PocketRSS you can click on the headline and it takes you to the full article in Pocket Internet Explorer. An excellent example of a Web site that publishes an RSS feed is Pocket PC Thoughts (www.pocketpcthoughts.com/xml). Both the Today screen module and the stand-alone application work very well on the Toshiba to keep up with news feeds and blogs (Web logs) wirelessly.
Resco Explorer 2003 from Resco (www.resco-net.com) is a full-featured file explorer that gives the user complete control over the files on the Pocket PC and all storage cards. Resco Explorer also comes with a registry editor and a network explorer.
Pocket Backup 2.0 from Sprite Software (see article) (www.spritesoftware.com) is a fast and reliable backup program that provides a simple yet effective method for backing up the entire Pocket PC to either a storage card or a desktop PC. It has saved my bacon several times when a hard reset of the Toshiba was necessary, by allowing me to completely restore my Pocket PC in just 5 minutes. I highly recommend it.
ScreenSnap from Developer One (www.developerone.com) makes taking excellent screen captures as simple as pushing a button within any application and was used for most of the screen captures in this article.
Calendar+ from PepeSoft (www.mohairsofa.com) is a freeware plug-in that shows upcoming scheduled events on the Today screen.
On time, in touch
I must confess that I am a bit of a techno-geek and love technology. But to be a part of my daily life, the technology must make my life and work easier and more efficient. I must be able to use the technology without thinking about it and without concentrating too much on the platform. The Pocket PC setup I use and the software I have mentioned in this article allow me to do just that: perform my tasks almost without a thought about the tools. This keeps me concentrating on the real task at hand.
My Pocket PC accompanies me almost everywhere and reminds me where I need to be and when, and what I need to do once I get there, and it helps me enjoy those rare slack moments in between.
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James Kendrick operates Pure Seismic Solutions Inc., and independent geophysical consulting firm in Houston, Texas, offering project management and quality control services to oil companies. He has been actively participating in the computing industry over twenty years, is IBM certified as a speech recognition specialist, and has been involved in mobile computing since it's infancy. He is also an official reviewer for BostonPocketPC.com. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].
Geocaching: High-Tech Treasure Hunting with a GPS-Equipped Pocket PC
by Shawna Kelly
"Geocaching" is a seamless blend of GPS technology and an exciting treasure hunt. It's so much fun you'll barely notice the healthy outdoor exercise you're getting as you hunt for a hidden geocache!
The idea is simple: individuals and organizations around the world setup hidden caches, which consist of a container with a log book, a pen, and usually some "treasures." The log book may have information about the cache's founder, visitors to the cache, nearby attractions, locations of other caches, and more. Most caches have simple treasures, such as books, CDs, toys, coins, tools, etc. The coordinates of these caches are published on Groundspeak's geocaching site (www.geocaching.com) and individuals use their GPS units to find them. Many of the geocachers use a dedicated GPS device, but a Pocket PC GPS solution such as those from Teletype (www.teletype.com) or Pharos (www.pharosgps.com) will work well, too. The World
Navigator software that comes with Teletype GPS units (Screen1) displays more navigational information at once and is a little more geocaching-friendly.
Screen 1 (above): Pocket PC GPS solutions such as the Teletype WorldNavigator work well for geocaching. You may begin your adventure by using this GPS in your automobile (or on your bike with the aid of a National Products Inc. RAM mount: www.ram-mount.com) to guide you to the general vicinity of the cache. Then you carry the GPS with you as you walk the final distance to the cache.
When you find a cache, you sign the logbook. You're free to take a treasure from the cache, but you are expected to leave something in its place. If it is a themed cache, it is best to leave an object which fits the theme. A cache's theme may be music CDs, hats, a color (such as green), etc.
Tens of thousands of caches are hidden around the world. To see the ones in your area, go to Geocaching.com and enter your zip code into the geocache locator in the top right. When I entered my zip code, I found forty caches within 5 miles of my location in the San Francisco Bay area—a few weeks later there were 50. Geocaching is growing fast!
Pocket PC Magazine, November '03 Page 17
