The Device Itself: The Axim's come a long way since the clunky, clumsy days of the X5. It's a bit larger than some of its competitors, but the ability to take both SD cards and CF cards means I'm not out a couple Jacksons in accessories. I've got a few complaints about the button-placement, which seem optimized for women with spidery fingers. I think I've opened the Rhinoskin case about three times without accidentally pressing the wireless button.

Which brings me to one other question. Dell is marketing the x50v, with its VGA screen, as a "gamer's PDA." What in heaven's name are they thinking? OK, I'm sure that if I installed a game on this thing it would look great, but what am I going to play it with? The directional button would look small as a cracker topping. Unless you're going to buy some bluetooth D-pad (and by the way, the bluetooth on this thing works great), just go buy a Gameboy.

Which brings us to the best of the best: the screen. You just can't describe the difference between this and the earlier Axim models. It's bright, it's crisp, and it probably does to battery life what Nader fears Bush is doing to the environment. But what the heck, it's a thing of beauty, and I can't recommend it more highly.

The Operating System: On the other hand, that screen is supported by the new Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition. For that, I can give you a two-word evaluation:

Windows ME

Seriously, it's that bad. I've had this thing less than twenty-four hours, and already I'm best friends with the soft-reset button. Hell, I'm on passing aquaintance with the hard reset function, and I'm keeping multiple backups to make certain that if there's a crash I can get back to a stable position without too much trouble.

Admittedly, I'm doing some fairly rough things. I've tried to install a task manager, because despite persistent user complaints, Microsoft still hasn't provided a way to do one of the most basic OS tasks: shut down a goddamn program. I've installed a Japanese screen font (and did I mention that on a VGA screen those fonts look bloody fantastic?). And I added one of the agenda management programs that comes bundled from Dell. Anything else that I tried to add from my old PDA resulted in this error message: "This application may not function because it was designed for a previous version of Windows CE."

(Incidentally, Microsoft, can you make up your fucking mind? I'm either running a Windows CE device, a Windows Pocket PC device, or a Windows Mobile device. Could someone please go back through your OS and make sure the operating system gives me consistent error messages as to the nature of the device I've got in my hands?)

The lack of stability, the freezes, the lockups--these are inexcusable. Indeed, at one point the operating system was so screwed up that the screen was showing nothing but pin-striped lines.

But worst of all is the lack of backwards compatibility. Some of you might remember that I recommended Decuma's Japanese handwriting recognition software a few months back. Well, guess what? It doesn't work on the new version of.... whatever this OS is called. Once you install it, it disables every input system and keeps all applications from launching. And you can't remove it. Hard-reset, anyone?

So now I'm stuck. I've got a piece of kit I really like, but the primary function I hoped to use it for--a Japanese/English dictionary--can't be managed until I find a replacement for Decuma. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd greatly appreciate it.