With Windows Media Player Version 7 you can play streaming audio and video from the Internet. That is provided the audio and video is in the Windows media formats. You won't be able to play streaming MP3 or MPEG content. Nor will you be able to play that content from a server on a LAN unless you install a web server, so you can't play content from a network share. A programmer named Dinesh has created a player that will play MP3 files that are stored on a share in a Windows network. He first posted information about the player on the Brighthand Discussion board and later posted the files on a web site. While he is still actively developing the program you can download versions that run on a Compaq iPAQ or Casio and try it out. Currently there is no bufferring implemented in the program, so I find that when I use my Linksys wireless LAN card there is a lot of skipping. Playback is smooth with a 10 mbit wired card.
posted by Frank McPherson 8:02 PM |
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Is this a usability problem? I gave my wife an HP Jornada 525 as a birthday present, and today she was trying to input the owner information (Start, Settings, Owner Information). She used the on-screen keyboard, but no matter what she tapped on the keyboard nothing would appear on the screen. Anyone care to guess what she did and why nothing was appearing on the screen? Click here to send me an email with your guess.
posted by Frank McPherson 6:45 PM |
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Iomega has released the iPAQ drivers for their Pocket Zip drive. The Pocket Zip does not work with any other Windows Powered device other than Compaq iPAQ, and for that you will need Compaq's dual card expansion sleeve. The dual card sleeve is not available right now. However, right now Iomega has a special on their web site where you can buy a 4-Pack of the PocketZip 40 MB disks and get the PocketZip PC Card drive for free. (I believe the cards normally sell for around $10). I originally found out about this offer in the Brighthand Discussion Board.
posted by Frank McPherson 2:25 PM |
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Sharp Picks Intel Chip for Version of Its Handheld Have I pointed this out before? Apparently the new Linux-based PDA from Sharp will use an Intel StrongARM processor.
posted by Frank McPherson 1:03 PM |
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Another eBook reader is now available for your Pocket PC.Aportis Technologies has released AportisDoc Mobile Edition for Windows Powered handhelds. You can download a 30 day eval version from their web site, and the program costs $30. Aportis has an eBook library of 4000 free eBooks. Perhaps one of the most appealing features is Aportis' PDF converter. It converts Adobe PDF files to AportisDoc, and the convert is free for personal use until November 1, 2001. I tried the converter program on the PocketInformant user guide, and it translated everything as well as can be expected, however, you won't get any graphics in your documents, and the table of contents really doesn't translate. Another cool thing about the the reader is that it only takes up 67.8K of storage space on your Pocket PC.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:33 PM |
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Henry Kong has written a quick review of Electric Pocket's Bug-Me!
posted by Frank McPherson 11:54 AM |
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PDABuzz.com's May poll shows that 36.45% of the 1753 people who participated say their next PDA must have wireless connectivity. I think that tracks pretty much with everything the folks from Palm and Microsoft have been saying. Of course, the next logical question would be, "what is your definition of wireless connectivity?"
posted by Frank McPherson 11:46 AM |
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infoSync : Compact Flash secured The CompactFlash assocation has approved the Secure CompactFlash proposal. I don't know what this provides, and what the relationship is with SD cards.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:40 AM |
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Mi PC de Bolsillo - Preview Toshiba This appears to be a picture of the forthcoming Toshiba Pocket PC. The English part of the article says that it will have a SD slot rather than a CompactFlash slot. I don't know about you, the picture makes the Pocket PC look rather disappointing to me. It seems like they mainly used HP's design.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:35 AM |
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Is weakened Palm ripe for acquisition? - Tech News - CNET.com More speculation on whether someone would aquire Palm. Most of the speculation centers around Apple, but I still don't see how Palm would fit with Apple. And if Apple were to aquire Palm, would they pull back from the licensing deals with Handspring and Sony just as Apple did with the Mac licensees?
posted by Frank McPherson 9:30 AM |
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Simply720.com - LinksysWPC11 Card using Compaq WL100 Drivers A while back I reported that I couldn't get the Linksys wireless ethernet card (WPC11) to work with my HP Jornada 720 handheld. It turns out that the problem is with the WL100 Status Application, which does not run on the 720. This page told me to remove the icon in the Startup folder on my Jornada and everything should work. It did.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:21 PM |
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It couldn't have been any easier. Before I sent my ipaq in for repair I backed it up to a CompactFlash card. When I got my iPAQ back I simply popped it into the CF sleeve, popped in the card, and ran a restore. A few minutes latter I had my iPAQ back, completely restored. In fact, I am posting this entry using my iPAQ and a wireless network card.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:16 PM |
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My iPAQ has made it home from it's trip to the Compaq repair shop. (Exactly one week from the day Compaq received it.) I sent it off for repair because it came down with the reverse screen image problem. While it was in the shop it got a completely new case and an upgrade to the 1.77 ROM. Of course, I haven't had it long enough to be completely confident the reverse screen problem is gone. Right now it is charging in the cradle and I am pondering whether to try a restore, original done with the 1.69 ROM installed.
posted by Frank McPherson 1:34 PM |
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TomTom Route Planner Millennium - USA Here is another mapping program for your Pocket PC.
posted by Frank McPherson 1:27 PM |
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Another popular Palm OS application has been ported to the Pocket PC. BugMe! for Pocket PC works like the built-in Notes application except that you can assign alarms to your digital ink notes. Another cool feature is that you can make a voice recording and have that go off as an alarm. I've been using this app for about a week, and I think it does a decent job, but there are trade offs for using it as a replacement to Notes. For example, you can't synchronize your BugMe notes to the desktop. But I do like BugMe's scrolling feature that lets me use the action button to scroll through each note.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:33 AM |
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iPAQ Pocket PC doubles as "mobile phone A Singapore company has come out with a client/server solution that runs on a wireless LAN and enables you to use an iPAQ as a phone.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:18 AM |
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On the chance that you have not already read about this over at Pocket PC Thoughts I'll mention that Doctor CE has taken on the challenge of developing a Pocket PC synchronization program for Macintoshes that will be called PocketMac. I don't know when it will be done, but you can fill out a registration for to be a beta tester.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:11 AM |
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A friend who lives in northern Indiana stopped by his local Best Buy yesterday and found the sale prices for the HP Pocket PCs in store. However, that particular store did not actually have any of the Pocket PCs, and they won't give a rain check.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:57 AM |
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PDABuzz.com is reporting that Best Buy is now running a sale on select handhelds. They aren't sure whether the sale is only online or also in-store.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:36 AM |
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Microsoft Usability: What is Usability at Microsoft? One of the things that impresses me about Microsoft is the amount of research and usability test that they do. I have seen the usability labs at Microsoft and I have seen the how the studies are done. One can argue the conclusions drawn from the studies, but I think you can appreciate the amount of effort put into them. Now you can sign up to participate in Microsoft's usability research by going to this link. <via Pocket PC Passion>
posted by Frank McPherson 10:28 AM |
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allNetDevices: - 3Com Unveils Wireless Bluetooth PC Card 3Com's Bluetooth PC Card should be available in June. Of course, there is no word whether they will provide Pocket PC drivers for it. Chances are they won't since 3Com really doesn't support Windows CE very well.
posted by Frank McPherson 3:04 PM |
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I just read Brian Livingston's column in the May 21 issue of Infoworld, in which he rips the RIAA by threatening the professors who took the "SDMI Public Challenge" and broke the SDMI's watermark. One of the things that caught my eye was this statement of the "Three Rules of an SDMI Device:" "If an SDMI-encoded audio track is compressed, an SDMI device must detect the distorted watermark and refuse to play." In other words, as I read this, SDMI-encoded audio tracks cannot be compressed. One of the reasons why Casio chose to provide a Multi-media Card slot in the EM-500 is SDMI compliance. Right now I think the maximum size MMC available is 32 MB, so I wonder just how much of that SDMI-encoded music will fit on one of these SD cards? You see, compression is the key ingredient behind MP3 and WMF that makes those files work so well on portable devices.
posted by Frank McPherson 1:10 PM |
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New Calligrapher!! - Brighthand Discussion Board Here is some feedback on the Calligrapher beta.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:32 PM |
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Unwired-I.Net - Arne's Unwired Internet Diary - Mobile Edition Arne reports that the first two integrated Pocket PC & cell phones, the Trium Mondo and Sagem WA 3050 have started appearing at stores in the UK and Germany.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:58 AM |
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CalliGrapher Beta Web Site Phatware has taken over responsibility for managing the CalliGrapher handwriting recognition software created by Paragraph. The current production version of CalliGrapher does not run on the Compaq iPAQ Pocket PC, nor the HP Jornada 720, which both use the StrongARM processor. The beta of Version 6 of this software addresses those issues. Paragraph is the company that created the handwriting recognition software for Apple's Newton, and is also at the heart of Transcriber which comes for free on Pocket PCs.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:50 AM |
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JavaOne: Sharp to unveil Linux PDA next week Infoworld reports that Sharp will be showing their forthcoming Linux PDA at JavaOne on June 4.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:12 AM |
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Simputer to bridge digital divide This is a great article by Gary Krakow about a handheld being developed to help people in third world countries communicate. I think the use of a smart card to enable the handheld to be shared amongst different people by storing their personal information on the smart card is really cool.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:05 AM |
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WorldTime webpage - Brighthand Discussion Board Brighthand contributor Ellen Beeman has whipped together a little Javascript and HTML to display a simple multiple timezone clock that you can use with Internet Explorer on your Pocket PC.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:31 PM |
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MS Mobility Tour & PPC FanFest Article Judie Clark had great time at the Dallas Pocket PC Fan Fest. I'm looking forward to Chicago on June 7.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:19 PM |
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Jason says he might write an article about what Pocket PC apps he uses, and you can see the favorite apps I have loaded on my Pocket PC right now.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:39 PM |
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Pocket Informant by WebIS: FAQ Alex Kac has released a new version of Pocket Informant that fixes some problems with the registration process and adds the ability to create Alarm Notes by pressing a hardware button.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:15 PM |
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