Before I begin, it's been awhile since I contributed something new to this space. After a debilitating illness that began late last year, my mother passed away on March 28. Her illness and her death have kept me away for most of this year. I want to thank Perry Lowell for having kept my last column on the home page to this site and thank all who contacted me in this period for your kind thoughts and good wishes.

One of my great frustrations with regard to the PC is that my information is on my hard drive and there's no other way to access it except booting the system. Until recently, the only alternative was to have a laptop and synch your information. I like laptops; I think they add a lot of convenience, especially if you need to take your work with you. However, if you are simply looking to carry information with you, a laptop is not only overkill, it is extremely expensive.

Up until now, there have been quite a few units on the market, notably the Palm as well as a wide variety of electronic organizers, all with their own format, many of which make synching with your PC problematic. Enter the "Pocket PC." First, it has pocket versions of Word, Outlook and Excel. For me, the most useful is Outlook because I have Microsoft Office and Outlook synchs perfectly with the Pocket version.

I ordered mine during my mother's illness and this was an invaluable help to me during that time as I was constantly being asked for various contact information to which I would not ordinarily have had at my fingertips without the Pocket PC. Between, hospitals, doctors and ultimately the hospice, I needed important information at my fingertips constantly and the Pocket PC came through every time.

I purchased the Dell Axim X5. It comes in two versions, one is a 400Mhz version and the other is 300Mhz and they both use the Intel X-Scale processor. Processor type is important when buying a Pocket PC as not all software works in all Pocket PCs though more and more software is coming out that is compatible with most processor types. You just need to keep in mind what processor your unit has and make sure any software you acquire is compatible with it.

The Dell Axim X5 comes with two PC memory card slots. One is a compact flash Type II and the other is a secure digital slot. This has the advantage of allowing you to use the compact flash slot for a compatible home network card while still leaving a memory card slot open for transferring data files. When you acquire a Pocket PC, if charging cradle and cords are optional, be sure to make the investment. Also be sure to purchase screen protectors as the screen can and will become marred with constant stylus use and protectors will protect that screen.

At the time I purchased the Axim, I was considering an HP for around $299. As it turned out, Dell had an introductory offer on the Axim that brought it down to virtually the same price and the Axim 400Mhz is about twice as powerful as the comparable HP with roughly twice the onboard ram with 64MB. By the way, this thing is fast, I mean screamingly so. Think of your PC as a big sedan and the Axim 400Mhz as an Indy racing car. There's about a $100 difference between the Axim with 400Mhz processor and the 300Mhz version. As far as I'm concerned, the extra $100 is will worth spending.

As happy as I am with it, I must admit there are still some bugs. People seem to have the most trouble with ActiveSynch, the software used to synch the Pocket PC (AKA PPC) with your PC. Firewall and antivirus software can block the synch process. If you know what you are doing, you can set your firewall to allow access. With so many different firewalls, I won't endeavor to explain the process here but if you've made such settings in the past, you'll pretty much know what to do.

While I did have some issues with ActiveSynch, mostly due to my firewall, most of that has been resolved. The one issue I've not been able to overcome is using the ActiveSynch Explore feature or Windows Explorer to drag and drop files to the PPC. I'm not sure if this is a security issue with Windows XP or just some bug in the software but it is not an isolated issue. However, it can easily be overcome. With the use of a memory card and card reader you can move files as easily to and from the PPC as you can between computers with a floppy disk. Card readers are inexpensive and if you have a digital camera, you might already have one.

By the way, you can also use your PPC to view images. Downloading images to the PPC is simple and it's a great means of showing off images or image files that you might need to display for work if you don't need high resolution.

Despite its quirks and idiosyncrasies, I've found the Pocket PC to be an invaluable tool and great companion for the PC. You can find out more about the Dell Axim at www.dell.com. This unit has become quite popular. So much so there are private sites devoted to it, the best of which is http://www.aximsite.com/, It's an enormous resource for Dell Axim users but it has links to software sites and general information about Pocket PCs as well.

While most of these units are a bit too big to fit into your shirt pocket, they are quite handy, you can often acquire a case with a belt clip and they will easily slip inside a woman's purse. If you have been suffering with the same frustration as I with regard to information being held hostage on your desktop PC and thought a laptop was too expensive and, perhaps, too large a solution, the Pocket PC is ideal, especially if you are basically looking for a unit to simply carry your information with you and easily synch with your desktop.