It's autumn here in Fairfield, Iowa, home of Pocket PC magazine. Jamie, our in-house handheld technician, is getting ready to take a four-week leave of absence to harvest the 800 acres of corn and soybeans he planted late last spring. As it turns out, Jamie is not the only one harvesting things right now.
Microsoft, equipment manufacturers, and wireless network service providers are just starting to harvest the results of a large investment in time and money. We've been previewing integrated Pocket PC/phone devices for the last couple of issues. In this issue Ed Zabrek reviews one of the first to become commercially available, the T-Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition. This new device runs on T-Mobile's high-speed GSM/GPRS network, which provides voice and data services to T-Mobile users in over 8,000 cities nationwide.
You should also check out the crop of Bluetooth articles we have in this issue. If you don't want an integrated device like the T-Mobile, you're still in luck. In his article, David Shier sings the praises of the "two-box" solution--one cell phone and one Pocket PC, linked wirelessly via Bluetooth. An article by the father and son team of Alan and Maarten Lefor simplifies the process of connecting a Pocket PC to a mobile phone via Bluetooth. Finally, Frank McPherson discusses the ins and outs of using Bluetooth to synchronize a Pocket PC with a PC.
A number or articles in this issue report on the bumper crop of software and hardware accessories for Handheld and Pocket PCs. Check out Gupta's Greats and New Products by Nitin Gupta, the Games Roundup by Allen Gall, and Enhancing your Pocket PC by Richard Kettner.
Autumn is also the time for harvest festivals, where everyone gathers to celebrate the end of the year's growing season and give out prizes for the biggest and best. We're celebrating our own "harvest festival" here at the magazine with the annual Pocket PC Awards for Best Products. Who got the blue ribbons this year? Find out inside!
Finally, our yield of quality editorial material has just increased with the addition of the "Mobile Insider" column by Gerry Purdy. His regular column will appear in the Enterprise section of each issue. Welcome aboard, Gerry!
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