Microsoft ActiveSync version 3 is soon to be 6 years old, as its 6th anniversary approaches we can reflect on the rapid changes that have occurred in the Handheld PC, Windows CE and PDA world at large. Through the flood of new ideas and technology which has sculpted the way in which we both value and use our PDA's, ActiveSync itself has for better or worse remained a constant in most of our lives.

After five Windows CE core releases and with the next generation of Windows Embedded Platform Operating System - Windows Mobile Magneto expected to be weeks away, Microsoft has finally shaken up the ActiveSync mix, and is preparing to release version 4 of its Windows CE Sync client.

We take a comprehensive look at the new ActiveSync, and reveal that for the Handheld PC community, ActiveSync 4 is going to be a mixed blessing.

Read: ActiveSync 4.0 First Look