New iPAQ Pocket PCs

Give Compaq credit for resuscitating the fledgling Windows CE Market. Its iPAQ Pocket PC wowed even the most jaded palm biased techies last year and breathed life into the whole category. For all those who jumped ship and bought the iPAQ this year, I have bad news. The new iPAQ introduced at this years' Comdex is even better. Compaq has tweaked the new version just enough to get you to post your other iPAQ on Ebay.

The new iPAQ maintains its best in class processor and your choice of 32 or 64 MB RAM. New features include a Secure Disc (SD) memory card slot built in to its top. This is a surprise. Compaq chose SD cards over the more common CompactFlash and Sony’s Memory Stick. SD cards, developed by Panasonic parent Matshusita, were late to the storage party, but they must have some muscle to beat out the original players. New palms are also to feature SD cards except the Sony Clie of course.

Anyway, previous iPAQs required bulky add-on attachments for memory cards. Also new is a cool casing with protective tinted cover, which thankfully retrofits older models. Compaq has moved the speaker to the top of the unit and made its touch controls a bit smaller and if I may say, easier to use. For road warriors, the new iPAQ comes with a nifty dongle charger adapter that allows you to leave the bulky backpacks and charger base station at home and charge the IPAQ with its single AC cord.



Models will also be available with integrated Bluetooth wireless capabilities for all those products we've yet to see with Bluetooth capabilities. All existing iPAQ accessories will fit the new version so if you do auction last year’s model you’re not stuck holding a bag of useless gear.

Prices: $499 for the H3700 Series (available now), and coming soon are the H3850 and H3835 (without Integrated Bluetooth capabilities) for $599, and $649 for the H3870 with Integrated Bluetooth. www.compaq.com