What's the most accurate battery monitor for Pocket PC-based devices?
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Since Pocket PC-based handhelds store the majority of their users personal
data in volatile memory, which is wiped clean when the battery fully
discharges, battery monitors can be valuable utility. Particularly for
mobile professionals, who may be traveling away from their desks and their
power cradle as much as 20% of the time and for those who commonly enter
information into their device with the stylus and synchronize with their PC
intermittently. The same concerns over lost data due to power loss holds
true for Palm-based devices, but the issue is not as obvious because Palms
tend to have longer battery life. It is, however, becoming an increasing
issue for Palm-based devices as battery taxing technologies such as color
screens, faster processors and WiFi WAN connectivity, become part of the
standard feature set, and as entertainment applications such as gaming and
integrated components such as digital cameras increase their usage and
battery drain beyond just the personal information management applications.
Battery life, however, is still a greater issues with Pocket PC devices
since a base device without the additional capabilities such as a camera,
GPS receiver or GPRS connectivity is likely to drain dry hours before most
Palm devices are fully depleted under the same usage conditions.
There are several sites where battery monitors for Pocket PCs can be
downloaded. Two of the best are Download.com where a number of free, but
capable monitors can be had, and Handango.com which has a variety of
utilities to choose from, most priced under $10. Both of these sites
display user ratings to guide you to which utilities are the most capable
or accurate.
A few of the highest rated utilities that contain battery monitors include:
A few of the highest rated utilities that contain battery monitors include:
- Battery Pack 2003 version 5 by Omega One Software
- iPAQPanel 2003 by RhinoCode
- iStatus System Monitor for Pocket PC 2000 by PPPCLINK
This was first published in June 2003