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Keeping the Battery Charged

One weakness of the Pocket PC is its lack of a hard drive. The Pocket PC stores its data in RAM memory, which requires constant electrical power. All Pocket PCs contain a backup battery to preserve the data in case the main battery is drained, but the backup battery can only maintain the data for a day or two before it too is drained and all data is lost. Users must therefore learn to keep some charge in the main battery at all times. This can be accomplished by plugging the Pocket PC into an electrical outlet. Those who cannot meet the challenge of always remembering to keep their Pocket PCs charged, however, have two options. The first is available in the Jornada and Casio, which feature some memory that is not dependent on batteries. Users can use this memory for storing their most important files. The second option is to add a hard drive. Units that fit into the Pocket PC’s expansion slot are available. As always with computers, lawyers who are pondering whether to plunge into the Pocket PC world may, on the one hand, be tempted to wait until some technological advance makes the devices more powerful and less expensive; on the other hand, they may feel the need to keep pace with the competition. Lawyers who spend considerable time in motion may already know, however, if their tolerance for heavy laptops has reached an end, while other users may simply appreciate a know-it-all gadget that fits in a pocket.

Carole Levitt and Mark Rosch are principals of Internet For Lawyers.

The text of this article was written entirely on a Hewlett-Packard Jornada 565 with the ThinkOutside/Targus folding StowAway keyboard attached, using the PocketPC's included PocketWord software.

For more information on evaluating and purchasing a Pocket PC, see our new Pocket PC Information Center.