HP and Compaq are now one. Current HP Jornada owners need not worry, as HP has a long tradition of supporting discontinued products. Actually, HP will likely continue manufacturing its Jornada 560 series and accessories, such as the cover-keyboard and double life battery, through the end of the year.

In its press releases HP announced that the merger would mean the integration of the best technologies from the two companies. However, HP Jornada engineers are in Singapore, while Compaq engineers and the headquarters of the new HP iPAQ division are in Houston. Geography and human nature dictate that the Compaq iPAQ design strategies and not those of the HP Jornada will dominate. Additionally, the next generation XScale units have just been announced. That means that innovations from the merger can't really be expected until 2003.

I was initially against the merger and I still have my doubts about it. But I hope that the vision of HP CEO Carly Fiorina proves correct and we see the development of a Pocket PC that has the best of what HP and Compaq have to offer. I hope that future versions of the HP iPAQ Pocket PC come with a replaceable battery, longer battery life, and built-in card slots or thinner Expansion Packs. I also hope that HP imposes its seven decade history of high quality control standards on the iPAQ line.

POCKET PC AWARDS 2002

There is a ton of useful and interesting software for the Pocket PC. Again this year, our Board of Pocket PC experts will nominate and select software, accessories, and Web sites for the Pocket PC Awards 2002.

To monitor the progress of the awards and see the eligibility rules, visit the Awards Web site (www.pocketpcawards.com). There, you will also be able to vote in the Pocket PC Summit/Pocket PC magazine People's Choice awards.

We will present the winners their awards at the end of October, at a formal, Oscar-like ceremony at Pocket PC Summit (www.pocketpcsummit.com). As it was last year, the ceremony should prove to be a fun event, rewarding those individuals and companies who have worked so hard to produce great software, accessories, and Web sites. You will be able to read more about the nominees in our next issue, the Pocket PC magazine 2003 Buyer's Guide.

In the meantime here are a few examples of useful software I've recently discovered.

POCKET MINDMAP

I'm a firm believer in outlines. My tasks, new ideas, projects, speeches, and articles (including this column) all get outlined first. Outlines help me organize my thinking and lets me view both the big picture and the smaller details.

Recently, I was introduced to the concept of "mind mapping," which offers a more intuitive, graphical, multidimensional method of outlining and brainstorming. Colors, symbols, and different fonts allow a more creative and expressive process then simple outlining.

Pocket Mindmap (www.pocketmindmap.com) is written specifically for the Pocket PC. The main subject of the map is displayed center screen, and subtopics and submaps branch out from it. Hyperlinks and hidden text can be associated with any topic. Mind maps can also be viewed in outline mode. If you create a mindmap containing tasks, those tasks sync automatically with Pocket Outlook tasks.

Pocket Mindmap lets you create intuitive "mindmaps" of articles, projects, and more. Shown here is the mindmap of the structure of this article with a hyperlink to the Pocket Word document of the article itself.

Pocket Mindmap also syncs with the popular desktop software Mindjet Mindmanager (www.mindjet.com). Mindjet will soon introduce a Pocket PC version of Mindmanager. If you are a mindmap expert and interested in reviewing these two alternatives while giving practical examples, please e-mail me.