[darkshadow46236]

I was in the same boat last year. First, congrats - if you know a older pocket pc device you know about 80% of any current WM device. Basically, other than the ram/rom difference:

* much larger community.

* lots of little apps and fixes for annoyances in WM. I used to use the ipaq 5500 and wished I had half of the cabs or changes we have now. Screen tweaks to make it more sensitive, office apps that work better, able to open html emails, rules for emails, etc.
* keyboards - much nicer software keyboards. Took long enough.

* storage - all but standard microSD cards up to 16gb in size now.

* if you used a old device you likely could feel that little plastic film on top of the screen? it was the touch sensitive layer - after awhile I always could notice it. Newer devices don't have that obvious layer anymore (some do)

* flush screens. Much nicer for reaching into the corners.
* finger friendly interfaces. older devices could be used with your fingers just fine, but things like creating a appointment was annoying. Now we have decent finger interfaces for all the normal stuff.

* roms. Load up a custom rom with lots of these tweaks and apps already installed. I've learned about a whole load of useful apps because they were bundled with the rom.

* working, easy java support. the ipaqs had java bundled for awhile (nice of HP back then) but it was hard to install on anything else. Now java isn't a big issue, and we can use just about any mobile java app.

* browsers - much better alternatives then pocket IE now. Opera Mini, Opera 9.5 beta, and skyfire. Pocket IE is better now too, but it still does not hold a candle to these three.

* push mail support. Needs exchange, or something like emoze, but it works, and mail2web offers free exchange accounts for mobile devices.


I'd go to the XDA-developers forum and poke around the development and hacking section for a few days. You can get a pretty good idea of the overall changes from looking there. Also look at the section for your own device, there will be tutorials (here and there) for how to load the roms, and you can read the debates about which is best.

Good Luck, and welcome back.