Author: Alastair Scott
Date: 00:40:26 08/03/03
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You are in a great muddle. Hardly surprisingly, as new PDAs are turned out like sausages these days and it is difficult to keep track of what's going on. So I simplify, but not too much. To run Pocket Fritz you need a PocketPC-based PDA, _not_ a PalmOS-based one. The two have superficially similar hardware features, at least when comparing the more expensive PalmOS-based machines, but the software is completely incompatible between them. So (with the proviso that the PocketPC manufacturers listed here are most active in the United Kingdom; it may well be different in other countries): (Principal and most active) manufacturers ----------------------------------------- PocketPC-based Dell (Axim X5), HP (iPaq), Compaq (iPaq), Toshiba (e-NNN where NNN is a number) PalmOS-based Palm (Tungsten, Zire), Sony (Clié) (Most important) chess software ------------------------------- PocketPC-based Pocket Fritz, Pocket Grandmaster, Chess Genius for PocketPC PalmOS-based Chess Tiger for Palm, Chess Genius for Palm Now, from my (brief) experience of PocketPCs, I agree with others who say that Pocket Fritz doesn't offer much, if anything more, than the other two packages yet costs twice as much as either of them. Personally, I would recommend the combination of: PalmOS: Palm Zire 71 + Chess Tiger + Chess Genius (which I currently own) PocketPC: Dell Axim X5 Advanced + Pocket Grandmaster + Chess Genius (I haven't heard a bad word against the Axim) Really, there is some difference in features but little difference in playing strength within each pair of packages I quote. Obviously I can't decide which hardware you go for; the only way to decide is to try them out. Get down to a computer shop and feel that plastic! Ignore all the fuss about processor speeds; some people here have an obsession with these, believe that they measure everything that is of value about a piece of hardware (rather like IQ and intelligence ;) and they are a diversion from more important things; a super-whizzo machine is not much use if it's so big it won't fit in a pocket or chews up battery power. Certainly, if you are rated 2200 or below, the PalmOS combination I state will give you a very, in fact depressingly, good game, and I suspect you can raise that threshold to 2300 or 2400 with the PocketPC combination. Alastair
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