Making the best use of your iPAQ also means that you need to keep it with you as you live your mobile life. The iPAQ, although small and lightweight, isn’t quite small enough to slip into your shirt pocket or the back pocket of your pants like a wallet (with the exception of the H1910, which will fit nicely into a shirt pocket), especially if you are using an expansion sleeve and a wireless card.
As future versions of the product are released, we will likely see the two form factors exhibited in the current lines continue. The integrated WiFi and Bluetooth also remove the need for bulky expansion sleeves to enable wireless communication. Hopefully, the form factor will continue to get smaller, and the overall weight lighter. Right now the best method is to carry it in a briefcase or purse when you move around. But what about those times when you don’t want to carry your briefcase or purse?
Your iPAQ doesn’t weigh any more than a conventional portable CD player and is as easy to carry with you. In fact, you will probably find your iPAQ works as well or better than your CD player while you run, work out, or perform any such activities. What’s more, with MP3, you will never again experience that annoying skipping that even the very best “skip-free” CD players are prone to.
For casual walking around, cargo pants with the side pockets can be very useful places for storing your iPAQ. For more of a business casual appearance, Dockers has released a line of casual pants called “Mobile Pants,” which contain a special pocket for holding your iPAQ. This idea is a good one; unfortunately, Dockers’ execution wasn’t great. The pocket (specifically identified in advertising as being good for an iPAQ) is too small. It is possible to squeeze in the iPAQ with no expansion sleeves or accessories, and the H1910 fits, but the fit is extremely tight. Unless you are standing at just the right angle, the bulge of the iPAQ is still obvious, and don’t you dare sit down! Dockers has the right idea; hopefully other clothing manufacturers will actually try putting an iPAQ into the pocket and using it before they tout their clothing as “mobile” wear! One popular method for carrying the iPAQ is to get a third-party case with a belt clip. The cases that came with the older iPAQs were generally of poor quality, didn’t fit the expansion pack, and did not feature a belt clip. As a result, they are mostly unusable. The current iPAQ lines don’t even have cases included. If you want a case, you will need to search through third-party offerings. On the www.pocketpctools.com web site we review many of the cases available from third-party manufacturers and give you the pros and cons of each one. There are other carrying methods as well, such as the secret agent–style under-the-jacket holster, or the multipocketed vest. One of the vests specifically targeted to the PDA owner is the SCOTT eVest (www.scottevest.com). It is a lightweight water-repellent vest that looks like a safari vest. It is loaded with pockets for all your wireless toys and has a unique feature:
Velcro-enclosed conduits to hold all the wires that connect your devices together and to keep the cords tucked safely away. They call this a personal area network (PAN). The vest isn’t something that you could wear to a business function, and for personal recreational wear, the $160 price tag is rather steep. For those of you who like leather, they have also introduced a leather jacket with the same integrated pockets and personal area network features.

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