What is on Frank's Pocket PC?
posted by Frank McPherson 6:34 PM |
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I am finding round tuits all over the place today. The Where is? page has been updated so that the links are correct. I also put together a page to answer "Where can I find a registry editor for my device?" and created a new page for "Where can I find Pocket Access for my Pocket PC?"
posted by Frank McPherson 6:08 PM |
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Got the Linksys 802.11b drivers working - Brighthand's Discussion Board Here is a guy who reports to have the Linksys wireless ethernet card working on his iPAQ using the Compaq WLAN drivers.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:34 PM |
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JS Overclock!!?? - Brighthand's Discussion Board The hotest Pocket PC buzz right now is Jimmy Software's overclocking utility. It is a program that enables you to overclock the Compaq iPAQ up to 236 Mhz (the base speed is 206 Mhz) or underclock the cpu down to 163 Mhz. Underclocking should increase battery life.
From this discussion it appears everyone who installs the program is having success, but some are having problems at the hight speeds. From what I have read there have been no hard studies on how much underclocking increases battery life.
PocketNow has posted a review of the program, and Steve Bush has posted Pen Computing's benchmarks.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:21 PM |
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CNET.com - News - Personal Technology - Is the wireless Web ready for handhelds? Richard Shim sales wireless prices are too high. I agree.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:43 AM |
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Tech News: Pocket computers finally get the picture "The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is targeting the pocket PC platform with its recently developed software that implements a format emerging as the major standard for Web graphics - Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.0.
An open industry standard based on XML, SVG images remain clear and detailed no matter how much you zoom or rescale them and it has the backing of industry big wigs including, Adobe, Sun Microsystems and Kodak." Another useful program in this area is Autodesk OnSiteView.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:38 AM |
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allNetDevices: - Win CE Based Net Stereo Introduced As I have said before, Window CE is being used in all sorts of different embedded ways. Here is a stereo that will use Windows CE. I'll talk about how Windows CE is embedded in my next column for Pocket PC Magazine.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:32 AM |
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Here is anothergreat article from PDASquare that addresses the alleged complexity of the Pocket PC user interface. It does this by providing a visual comparison between it and the Windows NT interface. PDASQuare is producing some good stuff, I'll be adding it to my every day read list.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:27 AM |
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PDA Buzz / Feature: CES 2001 Report: "The DaVinci DV5 is based on the Palm-Sized PC version of Windows CE (2.11) and sports a 72MHz MIPS processor, 8MB or ROM and RAM, a built in modem, and is powered via two AAA batteries. I think the key to the DV5's success or failure may be its rock bottom price tag, at $169 it will certainly be the lowest priced (non closeout/discontinued) Windows CE PDA ever made. Expect to see the DV5 sometime in Q2 of 2001." We'll see. I find it hard to believe that Microsoft would license CE 2.11 at this point. I just really skeptical about this one.
posted by Frank McPherson 1:01 AM |
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Does the fact that the @migo has a built-in PC Card slot make it worth $100 more than the Compaq iPAQ? I think so when you take into consideration that the PC Card expansion pack for the iPAQ costs $149.
posted by Frank McPherson 5:18 PM |
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PocketPCHow2: How do I print from my Pocket PC?
posted by Frank McPherson 10:18 PM |
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Linksys Cable/DSL Router Help - Firmware upgrade If you are using the Linksys Etherfast Cable/DSL router with DHCP enabled and a Windows CE Ethernet card (such as Socket Communication's LPE Card) you may know that the card will not get an IP address from the DHCP server. Linksys has released V1.37 of the firmware for this router that claims to fix this problem. I'm thinking of testing this out in my set up, but not tonight.
posted by Frank McPherson 8:53 PM |
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Michael Lynch has uploaded photos from CES at PhotoPoint. Note the DataPlay CompactFlash adapter from Pretec. There are also several pictures of the @migo from UR There.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:52 PM |
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BrightHand: "The UBIQ Pocket PC from Korea-based Cesscom is yet another wireless Internet device, and it's a CDMA cell phone too. It runs the Pocket PC OS on a StrongARM 206 MHz processor, and comes with 32 MB RAM and a Type I CompactFlash slot. Cesscom plans to market to the United States later this year."
posted by Frank McPherson 12:37 PM |
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pocketPCpassion.com - CES2001 Diary Dale has an interesting post about a disposable Zinc-Air Power Pack being developed for Pocket PCs from Electric Fuel. How expensive will these be?
posted by Frank McPherson 12:27 PM |
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USA Today - PDA company CEO reads Palm's future Question from USA Today to Palm CEO Carl Yankowski "You've said Palm is built on simplicity. But as you add features and software, do you run a risk of losing that simplicity?" Yankowski: "Absolutely not, because we don't preload our device with all these things. We make them available through our developer community, Web downloads and CD-ROMs, so you can get what you need and customize this device." If these features aren't burned into ROM, then they have to go into RAM. How much of that precious 8 MB of RAM in the high end Palms is going to be available after you load up your favorite feature? Are you limited to just one feature? What if you want more than one?
posted by Frank McPherson 12:48 PM |
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Today I downloaded the trial version of Callex Pocket PC by EleTel from PocTalk.Com. When I tested the application I found that the microphone on my Compaq iPAQ sucks. There is a buzz in everything I record, whether it be in Callex or Notes. The reason why I am checking out Callex is that it that it enables you to make voice recordings and send them via email. You can do that manually without Callex using Notes and Inbox, because the recording is nothing more than an attachment. However, playback of the Callex message is done on the PC via streaming audio over the Internet, and Callex can be bundled with a service that will play the recordings on a phone.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:36 PM |
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Paul Thurrott: "At the Saturday launch of 2001 CES, Microsoft announced the availability of six new hardware devices based on Windows CE, the company's Windows-like OS for non-PC devices. These devices, which include Internet radios, Web pads, and a wearable Internet appliance, join other CE-based products such as UltimateTV, Car.NET, and the successful PocketPC line in what can only be described as a surprising resurgence for this little OS."
posted by Frank McPherson 10:29 AM |
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CNET.com - Consumer Electronics - CES - CES 2001 CNET currently has a link to a video about the PC-Ephone on their main CES web page. If you don't know, this is one of the many integrated cell phones & PDAs running Windows CE. Steve Bush has been writing articles about this particular device for a year now. The CNET video is the first time I have seen this device being held in a hand, and I have to say it is much smaller than I expected. This could be a killer device, but right now it is expensive being over $1K. I wonder if it could be sold by a cell provider as part of a service bundle?
posted by Frank McPherson 11:22 PM |
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Steve has posted several pictures of Compaq's expandable iPAQ case. The case will hold an iPAQ inside the PC Card sleeve.
posted by Frank McPherson 4:01 PM |
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Pizzacast - A slice of Motorola This might be the first m-commerce idea that makes sense. The problem that has to be solved for m-commerce applications is, how are financial transactions handled? If you are transmitting credit card numbers over the air, then the transmission has to be secured. If you are storing credit card information centrally, then that information also has to be secured. For example, you can store your credit card information on Amazon.com to be used with one-click shopping, but how do you know Amazon has secured that information from hackers?
posted by Frank McPherson 2:59 PM |
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Remember the hub bub about PayPal? That was the first attempt at purchasing with Palms. At CES Palm announced a partnership with Verifone to support credit card purchases with Palms and infrared. The question is, does anyone want to do this? The fact remains that while online purchases continue to increase, the fast majority of Americans do not trust the security on the Internet and refuse to make online purchases. And SmartCards have never caught on.. so how does Palm think this will be different?
posted by Frank McPherson 11:35 AM |
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I received an email from Ellen Craw of Ilium Software telling me that they weren't able to trademark eWallet. Apparently they weren't able to get the trademark for it because there were other requests. "Ilium Software eWallet" is a registered trademark, but it appears that eWallet is going to be a more generic term like Pocket PC.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:34 AM |
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Microsoft: a consumer giant? "The music (or news or weather or information) can be grabbed from many sources, including CDs, MP3s and Internet radio stations, and broadcast via playlists downloaded to any number of portable devices." One of the things that has really frustrated me about the Pocket PC's media player is that I can not create and download playlists from my desktop to the Pocket PC. It would seem to be very logical that one would want a playlist automatically created whenever I batch up a bunch of MP3s to be downloaded from WMP7 to the Pocket PC.
Also in the same article is information that Gates demonstrated voice recognition capabilities on a Pocket PC. I caught this demonstration on TechTV, and it looked pretty cool. They were using a Compaq iPAQ along with a special expansion pack that turned the iPAQ into a brick. This was a demonstration of Microsoft's R&D, and I wouldn't know when to expect it. I know that voice recognition has been viewed by some as the holy grail for PDAs, but personally I am not sure how good it will be. Imagine trying to command your Pocket PC in a crowded room, how well will that work? I would rather see near perfect handwriting recognition first.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:06 AM |
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Dan Bricklin provides a brief overview of The WordSmith Word Processor for the Palm OS. Sounds like Pocket Word. And I didn't have to buy Pocket Word, it came with my Pocket PC. And it synchronizes with Word very well, thank you. Another step for Palm in the Pocket PC direction.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:29 PM |
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While looking for some information on Microsoft's web site, I came across the archived web cast of Steve Ballmer's keynote at the Pocket PC launch event on April 19, 2000. A year later one might be able to play this streaming broadcast on their Pocket PC using the Windows Media Player technology preview.
posted by Frank McPherson 5:35 PM |
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TechTV | Siemens' Gigaset 4600 SIMpad "The Gigaset 4600 SIMpad runs the Windows 3.0 CE operating system and comes bundled with a few basic applications: Microsoft's I.E. 4.0 browser, plus Pocket versions of word processing, email, and imaging software....The company says the device will be available in second quarter 2001 and should cost less than $1,300."
Less than $1300, yikes! Why would I want to pay that much for something that suplements my desktop computer? The unit will included integrated wireless communication compliant with HomeRF, but you are going to need to install a HomeRF access point or HomeRF card in a PC in order to connect. Not to mention the fact that you will also want broadband. The prices on these things are just too high to sell.
posted by Frank McPherson 5:10 PM |
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CNET.com - News - Personal Technology - Palm sets its sights on retailing "Palm CEO Carl Yankowski unveiled eWallet at the Computer Electronics Show on Saturday" Boy oh boy, Palm needs to do a much better job of checking out their tradmarks. Remember at COMDEX they announced MyPalm.net only to discover that the domain was already owned by someone else. Now at CES Palm is talking about eWallet. Is that the same thing, or different than Ilium Software's eWallet?
posted by Frank McPherson 4:23 PM |
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David Carnoy talks about Samsung's Palm phone: "Behind closed doors, the company also gave me an early look at its Palm phone, which features a low-powered color screen (it's not as bright as the Palm IIIc's) and 8MB of memory."
posted by Frank McPherson 4:17 PM |
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ZDNet is reporting that Windows CE is appearing in many more appliances such as web pads and music players. One of main reasons why Microsoft introduced "Windows Powered" in their marketing is so that it would be easier to market Windows CE as an general purpose embedded operating system.
posted by Frank McPherson 3:01 PM |
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Steve Bush is at CES and he has a picture of Proxim's CompactFlash HomeRF card.
posted by Frank McPherson 1:34 PM |
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Smaller.com appears to be having some problems with their servers.
posted by Frank McPherson 1:12 PM |
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Dale has found a wearable monitor for Pocket PCs at CES.
posted by Frank McPherson 1:08 PM |
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