I received my copy of Volume 6, Number 2 here in Australia on Friday 4th April. I immediately read with interest the articles comparing the HP 200LX and the new HP 300LX palmtop PC. In particular, Mark Scardina's excellent article comparing the software on the two machines.
Mark's article indicated that the HP 200LX Phone Book does not have custom fields and only has four phone numbers per record. As most readers would be aware, the Phone Book format can be customized using the Database application. (Useful for people outside the U.S.A. who don't use "ZIP" codes, for example. :- )
Therefore, it seems that the HP 200LX Phone Book is superior to the Windows CE PIM Contacts module in almost all of the categories that Mark listed.
Given the effort that has gone into developing the hardware for the Windows CE machines, it seems strange that the built-in PIM software is so limited and that the only software that will run will be Windows CE specific.
Although the HP 300LX palmtop PC sounds very interesting, I can't see myself changing from the HP 200LX. I'm more likely to upgrade my HP 200LX with extra RAM, cards, etc., and retain the formidable capabilities of the built-in software that the Windows CE machines don't match (e.g., HP Calc's Solver).
Ron Lees
Canberra, Australia
rlees@pcug.org.au