Next-gen Wi-Fi to trade ludicrous speed for the boring art of actually working
Eighth generation of the standard is all about ultra reliability
Networks
2 Jan 2025 | 40
The Last Gasp for the iPAQ line?
This looks like the last gasp for the iPAQ line. HP is trying to jump on the bandwagon of Blackberry, iPhone, and so on. But 3 years ago and more, they had iPAQs that worked as a phone, camera, MP3 player, had Windows apps like Word and Excel, and could browse the Web and use Bluetooth headgear.
What's really the tragedy here is that even though the iPAQ had most of the iPhone features years ago, HP's technical R&D never corrected the incredibly serious bugs in the old 4000, 5000 and 6000 series models. Application memory was mysteriously crippled. OS corruption propagated onto backups. Users like my brother and I had to reset the units several times a day, with hard resets (lose all your contacts, appointments, and tasks) every month or so.
Gradually, customers got wise, and the office supply stores here in the States dropped the iPAQ line. Now that HP is trying to resurrect the iPAQ, I say, good luck -- it's their last chance, and it may be too late at this point.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
