I’ve been one impatient guy.  Over the last few

months, I’ve been sitting at my computer, drooling,

and checking like an impatient parent to be, wondering

when, oh when would the Compaq H3600 Pocket PC 2002

Upgrade CD would be released.  If I remember

correctly, it was originally supposed to be October

19th.  But, no!  We had to wait some more. 

Then, it was supposed to be, like, the end of October;

but no!  We were teased yet again.  The

release of the upgrade CD was pushed off until November

30, 2001. From what I can see from the Compaq

Upgrade Center, the upgrade is apparently now

shipping. As to whether all orders have been fulfilled,

Well, in the mean time, while the rest of the world

waits, some of us have been able to obtain through

legal channels what is supposed to be the final CD

from Compaq.  I’ve installed the upgrade and

some of the extra programs that come with it. 

I thought it would be a good idea to actually take

a close look at what the CD has to offer H3600 customers,

It is not my intention to go in to anything Pocket

PC 2002 related.  We’ve got a few other articles

and reviews related to Pocket PC 2002.  We have

a complete review written by our Editor-in-Chief,

Jared Miniman, located here.

If you’re looking for Pocket PC 2002 specific information,

you should look to there.  My focus is a little

different.  I’m concerned about the CD as a purchased

A lot of people are curious about the new operating

system and about the contents of the CD.  Is

it worth my money to order the upgrade if I don’t

qualify for a free upgrade?  If I qualify for

a free upgrade, or if I purchase one, is it going

to be worth my time to dump the entire contents of

my device and install al new operating system? 

These are questions that we’ll explore as we explore

In fact, I thought this was so important, I’ve suspended

my Apples

& Oranges column so that I could knock out

this important review.  But don’t worry, I’ll

Any who, you’ll notice from the list below, that the

There’s a lot here, kids.  If you were to install

absolutely everything, you could really be busy for

a while. I’m going to take a few moments and go through

nearly everything here and give you the straight poop

on some of the newer things you’ve noticed in the

above list.  However, before we get going, you

should know that there are some rather large graphics

here.  I’ve tried to resize everything so that

you can see them in their original size.  However,

I have resized the larger images to a more reasonable

size.  The original image is available for your

Now, as I was saying, this may take a while, so make

yourselves comfortable.  If you need to take

a break, do it now.  I’ll wait for you… we’ll

The Compaq iPAQ H3600 Upgrade CD is a flash enabled

product (uses the same building blocks as all Pocket

PC 2002 setup CD-ROMs) that brings up a cool animated

screen in the center of your PC’s screen.  It

is from this screen that you kick everything off. 

I’m going to take you through most of the CD screens

and the ROM upgrade here.  I’ll get to all

The above pictures provide hyperlinks to the bulk

of the review; please click on each picture go review

detailed information about each portion of the Compaq

iPAQ H3600 Upgrade CD.  It’s quite a read, and

there’s a lot of information here, so roll up your

There really isn’t a lot of help for the Compaq iPAQ

H3600 Upgrade CD.  As you can see from the screen

idea to head to the Compaq support

Compaq has manufactured an iPAQ upgrade for its H3100

and H3600 iPAQ Pocket PC’s.  The upgrades are

effectively identical except for the difference between

the two series devices.  I’ve ordered both, but

as of this writing, I haven’t received the upgrade

for my H3150 Pocket PC, so I can’t give you any specifics

Ok, don’t get me started.  If I start I’m not

gonna stop.  Ok…too late.  If you don’t

want to hear this brief rant, scroll down and skip

Which dork decided to pull the Spell Checker from

Pocket Word?  This guy should be found and shot…and

I’m not kidding.  That’s right kids, as of this

writing, if you upgrade your iPAQ 3600 device, you

will NEVER have spell check in Pocket Word. 

The lack of spell check in Pocket Word (and Inbox)

is a major hole that gets filled in native Pocket

PC 2002 devices like the iPAQ 3850 and Jornada 568. 

However, it’s still a hole in upgraded Pocket PC 2002

devices.  I spent money to buy this upgrade. 

Why should I be penalized?  This pisses me off

to no end.  Handwriting recognition isn’t 100%,

even with Calligrapher 6.x (the upgraded version of

The only way to correct spelling errors is to synchronize

all of your Pocket Word documents to your PC and run

spell check in Word 2000/2002.  This is the same

work around that I’ve been using with my Pocket PC

devices, and it’s still unacceptable.  The introduction

of spell check in Pocket Word was a HUGE draw for

me and other Pocket PC 2002 upgrade customers. 

I NEED spell check in Pocket Word.  The

guy who made the decision to pull it from the Compaq

H3600 Upgrade ROM is a jerk, and in my opinion, doesn’t

have a fricking clue about what upgrade customers

The same can be said for Windows Media Player 8; but

at least we had the opportunity to install it into

RAM.  And that’s a big deal, too.  I’m not

as upset about that one, because I have access to

the software, even if it is in RAM and not ROM. 

The spell check utility in Pocket Word can’t be that

big.  Why the heck would you pull it? Windows

Media Player 8 has to be about 1.5 MB or so in size. 

That’s a lot of space in this Pocket OS.  If

the dictionary for the spell checker was big, and

took up a lot of space, you could have installed it

into main RAM or on to a storage card, ya know… 

Think about this one, guys… The Pocket Word spell

checker is just too important of a utility to leave

If you’re going to penalize me like this, then at

least give it to me as a download so that I can install

it into RAM.  I don’t care if you think it’s

too big, or that its too complicated… You guys get

paid to create software solutions that solve these

problems.  Do your bloody job… This was just

The Compaq iPAQ H3600 Upgrade CD is available on line

here.  The upgrade is free for those individuals

who purchased their iPAQ Pocket PC between September

6 and November 30, 2001.  To qualify for the

free upgrade, you must show adequate proof of purchase;

but Compaq will still hit you for shipping and handling

via FedEx Ground.  If you don’t qualify for the

free upgrade, you can still upgrade your device, but

it’s going to cost you $29.95, or approximately $44

I love my upgraded H3635 Pocket PC.  It’s even

better than my original H3635.  However, the

absence of the Spell Check feature in Pocket Word,

and the complete absence of WMP8 in ROM is a noticeable

hole.  I’d much rather have all of Pocket Word

and WMP8 in ROM than some of the add-on applets and

utilities included in the OS.  I don’t know about

you, but I’ve NEVER used the CF backup tool or iTask,

included with Pocket PC.  I use ActiveSync to

backup my device, and then I use some hard drive space

to hold a copy of the data and program files I have

Bottom line, is the upgrade worth the money, and the

wait? Oh yeah.  The added functionality, even

with the absence of Spell Check in Pocket Word, is

still worth it.  However, don’t expect it to

part the clouds and answer your questions to the meaning

of life.  Contrary to popular belief, while the

answer to that is still 42, you won’t find it hidden

in the Upgrade somewhere; and as a result, the Compaq