I recently picked up this device:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/111059489184?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trks...
It boots directly into the CE desktop, and seems pretty fast. There's a separate UI with PIMs and other stuff
(accessible through the X5 icon on the lower left in the screenshot below
), but once you get into that UI you can't exit it and return to the CE desktop without resetting.
(Fortunately, it appears to retain all installed data and settings.
) As such, there are no PIM apps or databases in the core OS, even though it does connect via ActiveSync.
(There's a utility for setting the USB OTG port for either mass storage or ActiveSync function. Thus far I haven't been able to get any of the MIPS versions of Pocket On-Schedule to work on it, including a CE .net MIPS version.
) There's also a USB host port that supports USB storage drives natively as well as wireless mice and keyboards. Battery life is pretty good: it appears to be able to provide 4-5 hours of moderate use on a single charge.
.NET Compact Framework 1.0 SP3 comes pre-installed. I've been able to upgrade it to .NET CF 2.0, but the MIPS CABs for .NET CF 3.5 don't seem to want to install. Just the same, there are tons of .NET CF 1.0 and 2.0 apps that are running nicely on it. And the MIPS processor means I've been able to play with apps all the way back to CE 1, such as the little desktop clock you see in the screenshot below.
The only downsides I'm finding are the same old complaints: lack of Flash video and decent GAPI support. Geared2003's HPC Media Player had a MIPS build in its first release
(1.05
), and it installs and opens fine on this device, but of course can't support all the video options that ARM devices can.
(Of course, this was arguably by choice as OEMs and software developers abandoned the MIPS architecture about a decade ago. I have to wonder how much more this device could be able to do if Windows CE device manufacturers hadn't turned their backs on that CPU class.
)
(Viliv X5.JPG) Attachments
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Viliv X5.JPG (51KB - 2 downloads)