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HP Jornada 548 Color Pocket PC
The Pocket PC OS is also responsive and well thought out--a big improvement over WinCE. In addition to the suite of powerful pocket applications (Word, Excel, Internet Explorer, PIM, and Scheduler), the Jornada can also serve as a digital voice recorder (to capture those spur-of-the-moment thoughts), an MP3 player, audible content player, and even an e-books reader. The standard 32 MB memory is expandable using standard CompactFlash Type I cards. The product ships with a synchronization cradle (which supports USB or conventional serial interfaces), an extra sync cable (so you don't have to take the cradle everywhere), an AC power adapter, and earbuds. A microphone and a small speaker are built in. For MP3 use, we recommend expanding your RAM to 64 MB with a CompactFlash card to provide an hour of near-CD-quality music. Most Windows users should be able to run through the setup wizard and start using the Jornada and its applications without cracking the manual. Learning to use handwriting recognition, which is integrated into all the applications, requires mastering a few special stylus strokes, but you should be writing smoothly within half an hour. In comparison with Palm's Graffiti system, the Pocket PC system is fully on par. In our tests, setting up a connection to a desktop PC for synchronization was simple. Within 20 minutes, we had installed the ActiveSync software, hooked up the supplied cradle to the AC adapter and a USB port on our PC, and established a connection. If you have an older PC or laptop, you can also synchronize using a slower serial connection. Synchronization is automatic and file transfer is simple using the Windows Explorer-like interface. The only real caveat is that Pocket PC works best in a Windows-centric world. At launch, it appears that there is no support for synchronizing with non-Microsoft e-mail and scheduling applications. (With an optional modem or network-interface card, you can send and receive Internet POP mail directly via your ISP.) The choice between Pocket PC and Palm still comes down to tradeoffs. Palms are still lighter, smaller, and cheaper, and they do the basics beautifully. The Jornada 548 is slightly bigger, 5 ounces heavier, more expensive, but vastly more powerful and flexible. The choice all depends on what you expect your PDA to do. --Thomas Mace Pros:
Amazon.com Product Description If you are looking for a high-powered Pocket PC that contains everything you need to organize your life and entertain you in your free time, the HP Jornada 548 Color Pocket PC is the machine to have. You can check your e-mail, review Word and Excel documents, surf the Web, read electronic books, and listen to digital music. It's slim enough to fit in your pocket or carry in your hand. The HP Jornada 548 also comes with many software titles from Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, and more. The HP Jornada 548 has many of the same features as its counterparts the Jornada 540 and 545, but it does pack more memory. 32 MB RAM is enough to keep your busy professional life organized. It has everything you need to gracefully juggle appointments, schedules, to-do items, and to entertain you with music, photos, or extra applications at the same time. If you ride the bus or train home from work or school you can listen to popular MP3 and WMA music and compile your own digital music playlists. You can also listen to or read your favorite books and articles from leading newspapers and magazines. You can even create a digital photo album to share with friends. With the stereo-quality audio system and vertically aligned pixel color screen, you can listen, read, and relax wherever you may be. The HP Jornada 548 allows you to synchronize data with your desktop PC easily and quickly. Then carry and access your contacts, tasks, calendars, memos, and e- mail anywhere. You can even view e-mail attachment files or review Microsoft Excel and Word documents. Download digital music, images, and other multimedia files from your desktop PC, and capture your thoughts with the built-in voice recorder. As far as connectivity is concerned, the HP Jornada 548 is fully capable. You can review and act on your e-mail, surf the Web, send instant messages, and stay up-to-date with the latest news, sports scores, and stock information. Designed to fit the way you live, the slim and sturdy HP Jornada 548 features a rubber protection strip to make it easy to grip and carry anywhere. Its elegant alloy casing projects style and professionalism in any environment, while its sleek metal cover provides durability and protects the screen from scratches. You can also personalize it to fit your needs with a variety of accessories. Stay in touch, get online, do more in less time, and do it all in style with the HP Jornada 548 Color Pocket PC. What's in the box
My new HP Jornada 548 Pocket PC has changed everything for me. The color is sharp and clean (yes, even with the notorious 12-bit vs. the advertised 16-bit technology), the software seems to be extremely stable, and the look of it is way sexier than even the Palm V! But probably the biggest change is the software availability that comes with the Pocket PC and from 3rd party developers. Including Pocket Word, Excel, Money, AvantGo (can't live without it!), Pocket IE, Reader (I'm in the first half of "Timeline"), and support for POP3/IMAP4 email in addition to the included Outlook Inbox -- and still leaving me nearly all 32MB of memory I started with is AWESOME! Notice my focus on applications? That's no coincidence ... a palm-held PC has become more and more important to me, and it MUST do more than just show my contacts and appointments (something I hear a bit too much from other Palm users). My Pocket PC has become an integral part of my computing day; and will continue to be even more important over the next few years. So having top-notch applications available that are fast, user-friendly (still getting used to the new spot for "Start"<g>), and seamlessly integrated with my desktop PC counterparts is critically important for me. My heartfelt congratulations & thanks to the teams at HP and Microsoft ... way to go!I have had my Jornada for a month now and I have been nothing but pleased. It has exceeded my every expectation. The color (12-bit) is wonderful, the sound from the built-in speaker (and headphones) is surprisingly good, and the functionality is astounding. Make no mistake, you are not buying an organizer --you are buying a COMPUTER. 133 mhz processer, 12-bit color, 32 mb of ram --is it just me, or wasn't that a top-of-the-line desktop computer 5 yrs ago? Well, I won't go into the basics -other reviewers have done a good job doing so --let me focus on other areas. Buying extra memory is a must if you download a lot (MP3s or books). (I filled up my memory within 2 weeks after downloading 9 books, 2 songs, and 5 extra games... Books seem to be 500k to 1 mb, MP3s are 4-6MB and games are less than 1MB) I'd recommend going with the maximum upgrade of 128 MB flash-card --you could put 2 hours of MP3s on that card! This is great if you always wanted an MP3 player, as I did, now I can just roll the functionality of my Jornada into my portable music station. For downloading books I recommend checking out the great FREE selection on Amazon.com. (Another good place is, egads!, Barnes and Nobles.com) There are some great books just worth keeping in the memory in case you are stuck somewhere with time on your hands. I highly recommend getting the FREE Pocket PC expansion pack offered by Microsoft --it contains some games (Chess is great, Hearts is great, Pac Man is alright --but is meant to be played with a joystick), but more importantly, offers a lot of other great software, free. There is a "paint" program -it offers simple drawing in many colors (but no paintbrush or sprayer), the e-book reader program (allows you to display e-books), a great "slide-shower" program (I put family pictures in here in 5 minutes) --there is a full screen mode which allows you to page-through slides, and is really impressive. There is even an ADOBE ACROBAT reader --quite amazing, though I wonder how documents will look on a small screen. The best thing about the Jornada is that it is very intuitive. The internal file system is set up just like your home PC -with a version of "explorer". This allows you to open an "explorer" menu (when your Jornada is "synched" with your computer). The advantage of this is you can just open folders on your big computer's screen and drag and drop PHOTOS, E-BOOKS, MP3s, and M-PEGS just as easy as that. One of my best comments about this product is that I didn't need the instruction manual. Other highlights --the COMPLETE synchronization with Microsoft's products is absolutely wonderful. Outlook is FULLY synched --alerts, contacts, and tasks to remember are added to your home computer (after you've added them to your Jornada). (By the way, you receive the FULL version of Outlook 2000 for free when you purchase your Jornada). Word and Excel allow you to open e-mail attachments as well as create new documents. Microsoft Money requires a separate purchase of Money 2000 (or newer) and is really cool. It keeps your whole checkbook, basic stock information, and lists of Payees and Expense categories available at your fingertips. The Jornada can be extensively customized, I found THAT very attractive --a variety of sound, backlight, password, and hotkey settings can be changed quickly from the internal menus. Surprisingly, the calculator is one "widget" that I've used more than anything else. It really feels natural, and gets a LOT of use in restaurants... The weight is nothing you can't handle, but is noticeable --it is heavier than it looks, and I wouldn't want to put it into a shirt pocket, or try to squeeze it into a pair of jeans. If you drop it on a hard surface, good luck, because it looks like it'd shatter --it is heavy. The cover is very nice. It is sleek metal, which is great protection. One drawback is that it is not something that is easily removed (though you can --with care), and doesn't move back more than 90 degrees when opened. I like the stylus. It is very easy to pull out and use, and stores very well. The best program is the built-in "NOTE taker" function. You write on the screen and your strokes are captured exactly as written--no "graffiti" or "keboard" needed here (though these ARE an option). This is the fastest way to take notes --basically just drawing on a touch-pad. Also, another neat function is that you can press the red button on the side and RECORD voice messages that are saved with specific notes--really cool! You can even record messages when the machine is off --just press the button and you can record for as long as you have memory! Every morning I plug it in and it automatically downloads 500 web pages for view later --it takes less than 5 minutes on a 28.8 modem. This is the best part --I was astounded how fun it was to read news on the metro on my handheld. (Every time you "synch" outdated web pages are deleted, and new ones stored). Go to Avantgo.com, and you can choose a variety of web sites to be AUTOMATICALLY downloaded to your Pocket PC --this is just the ultimate in usefulness. I entered my zipcode and now articles are more relevent to me. Just an example --I said I wanted to see Hollywood.com, and now I get all the movie summaries, locations, and movie times downloaded to my Pocket PC --no more looking through the paper... You can download book reviews, news, business, sports, and weather. You can also get ALL of your articles on your MY YAHOO site (if you have one) --this was a REAL plus. The New York times offers a LOT of features, as does MSN. One last thing --you can download MAPS -this blew my mind -there were maps of all major cities available --you just drag and drop the ones you want onto your Pocket PC. When viewing a map, just click on the spot you want to see, and you can zoom in. You can get to individual streets, and it looks stunning in color --I really love this feature. No more carrying outsized maps with me (and looking like a tourist) when I'm in the city. Wonderful! More to say, but not today. I am one satisfied customer. A purchase for someone who wants more than just an organizer... a LOT more.The product was shipped quickly. But now I cannot get the Pocket PC to connect to any PC. I have emailed the seller numerous times about this and they will not respond to me. Amazon is abolutely no help either, they will not do anything to help me. If I ever do get the problem fixed, I will change the bad rating for the seller. For its day the 548 was a stunning piece of equipment. I have been a Jornada 548 owner since week 1 of its release. I am disappointed to report, however, that the older Jornada models have been left in the dust by the Compaq-HP merger. Ipaq'ers get an upgrade from the Pocket PC OS to the newer, marginally better Pocket PC 2002 OS. Although the OS is only moderately more useful, it is aesthetically more pleasing and is symbolic of the fact that the 548 will receive little attention or support from HP/Compaq ever again. Also, the lack of back up batteries is quite a nuisance when you lose all drivers and software because you forgot to recharge the 548. Furthermore, and this may be my error, I never found a car charger for it which would have been useful given the adequate, but not stellar battery life. I would suggest buying a newer piece of equipment, its worth the dough. |
