You lick your lips, rub your hands together, and count out the bills, one by one. As you reach $423, your Palm-sized PC buzzes, faithfully reminding you of your next appointment. You pick it up--thumb resting against its flywheel, fingers curled around its width--and look deep into the depths of its high-resolution display. As you read the clear script, a question surfaces. "Do I really need to upgrade now?"

It's a question that's been there--submerged beneath a layer of desire--waiting, threatening to make an appearance. Now it has, and there's no turning back. Before you rush off and do anything rash, however, let's clear our heads a moment and spend a little time weighing the pros against the cons.

Enhancement checklist
I created this list in order to help you decide whether or not it's the right time to upgrade. Let's begin by listing what I feel are the most compelling enhancements to the operating system.

• Greater stability;
• Faster access;
• Easier-to-use interface;
• Pocket Office applications;
• Smaller hardware;
• Microsoft Transcriber;
• Microsoft Reader with ClearType;
• Improved memory management;
• Wireless Internet;
• Longer battery life.

That's a pretty impressive list. Let's look at each one in turn and see how it affects you. Take out a sheet of paper and number one through ten. As we work through the list, write Yes or No next to each number depending on whether or not you really need that feature now. At the end, I'll tell you how to tally your score, and then your upgrade quandary should be resolved.

Greater stability
Okay, we all know that Windows CE crashes as frequently as Windows 98. Fortunately, rebooting a Windows CE device is relatively painless compared to its bigger brother. That doesn't mean it's not annoying, however. After all, it always seems to happen when you need a quick, reliable device the most.

If you enter a lot of contact information in real-time (i.e., with the contact person standing in front of you, dictating), or you use your device to take notes in meetings or classes (masochist!), then this is likely to be a major concern of yours. You should probably choose Yes as your answer for this one. If the occasional reboot is annoying but not necessarily a big deal, write down a No.