In case you haven't noticed, everything seems to be heading in the direction of wireless communications. In the near future, many people will have a handheld device always with
them—and always connected to the Internet.
That means the Internet must adapt to the small screen—which is already happening in a big way. In just a little over a year, there's been a huge jump in the number of Web sites tailored for mobile viewing.
Of course, if you're accessing the Internet via your Pocket PC, you can view many sites even if they aren't specially adapted for the smaller 240x320 pixel screen. But they often don't work very well. Even if you use the default Fit to Screen option under the View menu, you'll run into problems when viewing Web sites designed for full-screen browsers. You can turn off the graphics and view the site as text only (Tools/Options/Advanced/deselect Show Pictures). But this hardly makes problem pages more usable.
Fortunately, there's now a significant subset of the Internet designed to display well on these smaller screens. These include major sites such as the New York Times, USA Today, MSNBC, Amazon, eBay, and Encyclopedia Britannica.
To enter the universe of Pocket PC-friendly sites, start with Pocket PC magazine's mobile directory
(www.pocketpcmag.com/mobile.htm). We list eight of the best portals, all of which direct you only to sites designed for the small screen (including the sites mentioned above). We also offer a selection of the best sites with Pocket PC-related content. Here are some of my favorites from both categories:
MyMobileStuff (www.mymobilestuff.com)
This site is at the top of our mobile portals list. As I wrote this article, MyMobileStuff.com listed over 600 Pocket PC-friendly Web sites in its directory. The MyMobileStuff.com directory has nine categories, including Business, Entertainment, Living, News and Media, Portal, Reference, Sports and Recreation, Technology, and Travel. MyMobileStuff.com also offers a full-fledged search engine, which you can use to find Web content tailored to your small Pocket PC screen.
PDAhoo (www.pdahoo.com) calls itself "the Yahoo for PDAs." I like this site for simple and easy access to some of the best small-screen sites. The home page lists 16 categories (News, Financial, Weather, etc.). Each category lists a few top links and, in most cases, a "more" link to give you an in-depth listing of sites in that category.
Pocketnow.com (www.pocketnow.com) is one of the best mobile sites with Pocket PC-related content. You get it all on your small screen: articles, reviews, news, forums, downloads, and classified ads. Pocketnow.com has an appealing design and looks good in the smaller format. You don't need a special URL to access the Pocket PC part of the site. Just log onto
www.pocketnow.com. The site recognizes that you're accessing it via a Pocket PC and adjusts the layout to fit the screen.
I was impressed with how nicely the discussion forums fit on the small screen. They include model-specific discussions, general discussions (such as an eBook discussion), PocketNow content discussion, and authorized support forums for hardware and software developers.
PocketMatrix (www.pocketmatrix.com) has some of the most active Pocket PC-related forums around. The site has a dedicated mobile page that uses software to make the forums as compliant to the Pocket PC as possible. Their mobile page also includes DivX content for the Pocket DivX Player. When you access the site via your Pocket PC, it will automatically show you a page that lets you choose either the dedicated mobile page or the desktop version.
Pocket PC Life (www.pocketpclife.co.uk) has been online since January of 2000 and was designed for the small screen right from the start. The site offers a good selection of daily news and feature articles, as well as FAQs, tips, and downloads. Like other sites, it senses when you connect via the Pocket PC and displays the page for the smaller screen.
Microsoft's official
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