Interesting that you are able to do that. IIRC, you are using a hosted exchange, right? Not sure if that makes a difference. And yes, tux would be move fun than tax

Tux sounds better than tax. BTW, I am using Exchange Server just fine with my laptop that has Home Edition on it. No problems logging onto domains.

Oops! I meant “tax” season.

I didn’t realize Exchange Server required a constant connection. I actually purchased Small Business Exchange Server just before Christmas but then realized that I had to have XP Pro on all my machines (since XP Home doesn’t allow you to log onto a domain). It was going to cost me more to upgrade the machines than SBES cost, so I returned it.

Vidge, I have found that using Exchange Server sometimes affects some programs like the Sidebar since they require a connection all the time to the server. It’s too bad because Sidebar is pretty cool.

I don’t think you have to worry about overcharging, Sony is really good with power cutoffs. What is tux season?

I started out keeping my U turned on all the time (in standby mode when not in use) but I was concerned about overcharging the battery. I may go back to doing that in a couple of weeks when tux season gets going hot & heavy and every minute counts.

I was remiss in my discussion about Outback Plus in the article, there is a new version of the program that not only backs up the entire Outlook and IE environments but also now backs up the Firefox environment which is really cool. I just upgraded this week and it is even better than before.

Hi Len- long time no see. What I find with the UPC is I only carry it if I am going where I cannot take the U with me, and that is not very often at all. The U replaced the PPC for productivity stuff since it is so capable but still very portable. That said if I didn’t use an extended battery this would probably not work for me since 3 hours is not enough for me when I am running around all day.

I still use the Toshiba e800 for reading ebooks for which it shines. It’s lighter and will go days between charges so I read with it at home. The 4″ VGA screen is almost as big as the U so I don’t give up much with ebooks.

Vidge- it’s interesting that you use Desktop Sidebar. I tried it but it sometimes interfered with Standby and Resume. Do you have an Exchange Server for your email? I suspect that is what caused my problem with it as it required me to always be logged into the Server.

As for the tip for limiting your programs for efficiency with Standby- I have gone as long as two weeks without booting the Sony. It’s that stable.

And I’m sure James will chime in here on the comparisons to PDAs but from my perspective, it’s like apples and oranges. I don’t consider the U750 to be pocketable but in all other aspects it outperforms any PDA I’ve used over the last 9 years by a mile. James’ tips about loading programs you need is right on. I boot mine in the morning, fire up Outlook & Desktop Sidebar, & I’m good to go for the day. When not in use, I leave the unit in standby mode, which only takes a couple of seconds to start up. I’m willing to sacrifice battery life for near instantaneous boot time, so I don’t use hibernation mode.

James, now that you’ve used your UPC for a while, how do you feel that it stacks up against some of the “power user” pocket pc’s. By that I mean, iPAQ 4700, Toshiba E-800/830, Axim X50v, etc. Are you able to be more productive? Does it take much longer to boot up? Can they be put in a suit jacket pocket? I’m really not very familiar with them other than tidbits read here and there. Thanks.

Thanks. I’ve tried turning off WiFi to see if it made an impact on battery life with the Sony U but to tell the truth I wasn’t able to tell much difference. WiFi will use some juice but it’s negligible. Bluetooth even less so.

Excellent insights, James. A couple of questions, though. The display uses the most juice, but so does wifi. How fast does bluetooth depleat the battery, and ditto standby?

I backup the important stuff like I said in the article- docs and outlook get backed up to the iPod and also to my laptop so I have two copies at any given time. To make complete backups I image the hard drive to DVD using PowerQuest (now Norton) Drive Image. At some point I can see adding a 120+ GB HDD just for backups like this.

Good info in this article. One thing I’d like your comments on is backing up a UPC, both from a software (i.e., which backup programs) and hardware (what kind of drive) perspective.