I just noticed something odd. My IBM Microdrive has a copyright on it. IBM can't copyright the drive itself, so I am thinking they must have a copyright on the term "microdrive."
posted by Frank McPherson 7:18 PM |
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linux.oreillynet.com: Death of a Palm [Jun. 19, 2001] Not too surprisingly, Windows CE is dissed, but Windows CE users have enjoyed multitasking on their handhelds long before Linux was thought of for running on handhelds.
posted by Frank McPherson 6:59 PM |
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MedicalPocketPC.com has a small overview of database programs for Pocket PCs.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:34 AM |
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MobileViews Commentary Archive - Data powered by HanDBase Todd Ogasawara is blogging from his Pocket PC using HanDBase and XML.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:10 AM |
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What's a Billionaire Like Mark Cuban Doing With His PDA? Most people think its cool that Cuban uses a Compaq iPAQ. I found it interesting that he says most NBA players use RIM pagers.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:04 AM |
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One rumor is that HP will be announcing a new Pocket PC at PC Expo... I am looking forward to next week, and I am even starting to wish I was in New York. And I really don't like New York. However, I will be web logging all the info I can find, given that both Jason and Dale will be at the show.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:00 PM |
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Note to self... start using Blogger's spell checking.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:23 PM |
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Master Mobile Solutions' PoQuick doesn't sync with Quicken, but it's QIF compatible, and they are working on the synchronization.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:22 PM |
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Which brand of wireless LAN card you use matters. That's what I learned this evening. Connected to my home network is a Linksys Access Point, with which I have been using the Linksys wireless PC Card and the SMC EZ Connect Wireless. Both cards work ok, but don't seem to have the best single strength. In particular, I was disappointed that I couldn't connect to the network from my patio. So when I read a posting on Brighthand earlier this week about how much better the Orinoco cards were in signal strength, and that they work with the Linksys router with no problem, I couldn't order one fast enough, and it arrived this afternoon. As soon as I took the card out of the box I noticed that it was substantially different than the Linksys and SMC cards. The Orinoco card is made by Lucent, which previously manufactured these cards under the brand name Wavelan. Before I bought my Linksys gear I had the Orinoco Residential Gateway kit on order from CDW, but after over a month of waiting I cancelled the order, went to Compusa, and bought the Linksys gear. Of course a week later CDW shipped the Orinoco kit which I returned. Now I am kinda wishing I had stuck it out, if the card is any indication, the Orinoco gateway is probably also top notch. If you own a Windows CE device then this is the card to get. Lucent provides drivers for just about every Handheld PC made, going back before the Handheld PC Professional. So far the only testing I have done is with my Compaq iPAQ. Installation of the driver is a breeze, and the card is properly recognized when you insert it into the PC Card sleeve. All I had to was tap on the system tray icon to configure the card to provide my network name and configure the encryption settings. I was a little concerned that the WEP settings I use would not work, but all I had to was manually enter the hex codes and I was connected. Unlike the Compaq WL100 driver that I use with the Linksys and SMC cards, the Orinico driver does not use a passphrase so you have to manually enter the hex codes used for WEP. The card is not able to obtain an address from my DHCP server, so I manually configured an address. Once I verified I was communicating on my LAN and getting out the Internet I was off to test the connectivity. To my pleasant surprise I found the card has good connectivity on the patio. Connectivity with the Linksys card fades in and out, but the Orinoco card maintains a solid connection, In fact, I was able to walk several feet away from my patio towards the condos acrossed from mine and maintain a connection. Considering that the access point is actually in the basement of the condo, I am very impressed. I walked all around my condo, out to the garage and was able to maintain a connection. All in all I would say this is the card I will be recommending to anyone who asks.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:33 PM |
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Last night I made a stop at my favorite toy store: Compusa. I saw replacement Compaq iPAQ styluses and car power adapters for the iPAQs. I also found the Handango Project Management software suite, which I bought, along with the Pharos Pocket Navigators for Casio, HP and Compaq Pocket PCs. It seems that just about every time I stop by Compusa they now have some new Pocket PC accessory. Cool!
posted by Frank McPherson 12:33 PM |
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allNetDevices: - Compaq Handhelds to Get GPRS Compaq is developing a GSM/GPRS sleeve for the iPAQ that will be available later this year.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:01 PM |
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I've purchased the Colorgraphic Voyager VGA Adapter that works with just about all Handheld PCs and the Compaq iPAQ Pocket PC. So far I've only been able to test it with a HP Jornada 720 Handheld PC. The card displays regular video output from the device on to a monitor, in addition to PowerPoint presentations. Pocket PowerPoint slides are displayed full screen but the regular display of the device is bound by the size of the display on the device. I also noticed a slight time delay in the screen refresh, which isn't really noticable in presentations is noticable when running other applications on the Handheld. This card is clearly designed primarily for giving presentations.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:02 PM |
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My Font Manager enables you to change the font size for the System, Title Bar, Start Menu, and Icons, and Pop Up Menus, between large, medium and small. <via Pocket PC Thoughts>
posted by Frank McPherson 11:04 AM |
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Mike Lynch responds to a post I made about the Proxim CompactFlash card. He points out that the 7630 is an OpenAir card, and that OpenAir is a pre-802.11 protocol with much slower rates. This Proxim card is not a 802.11b card and will not work with 802.11b networks.
posted by Frank McPherson 3:26 PM |
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Proxim Offers Wireless Network Connectivity Solution for Compaq and Casio" Pocket PCs Here is the official press release regarding the Proxim CompactFlash wireless LAN card that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. As I said then, MobilePlanet already has this product listed in their catalog for $149. Apparently the product will ship in July. I am still concerned about compatibility with 802.11b access points. Proxim claims that this "OpenAir" card will work with 802.11b and HomeRF, but it seems Proxim is in a pissing match with WiFI. Another issue is that it will not work with HP Jornada Pocket PCs because it is a Type II CompactFlash card. Drivers for the card will only be available for the iPaq and Casio Pocket PCs. Now, since I can get a wireless PC Card for the iPAQ for less than $149, I wonder what the motivation will be to use the card with iPaqs. Is the smaller size of the CompactFlash sleeve worth it?
posted by Frank McPherson 2:11 PM |
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Compaq Ipaq Q2 Sales to Top Palm's - Survey I think several months ago I said profitability is more important than market share. We really see this in the automobile industry where for years GM has been a slave to maintaining market share on units sold, but doing so by offering tons of incentives that bring profitability down. As this story suggests, while Palm can promote the fact that they have more units sold, and hence have the largest share of the market in terms of those units, it is really profitability that is important to Wall Street. And the latest rounds of discounts and rebates have the same affect as GM's incentives, they just bring profits down even more. So Palm moves inventory but doesn't make money, and at the end of the day the Street is more concerned about making money. Obviously one assumes that the higher priced iPAQs come with a greater amount of profit, which makes one wonder how much Compaq could lower the price and still maintain a profit margin that makes the iPAQs profitable. I suspect that right now the margins on iPAQs are very high.. maybe 40%.. to make up for losses Compaq had on earlier Palm-size and Handheld PCs. Ironically, Compaq has been able to increase prices (presumably with more functionality) to make even more money.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:04 AM |
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Yesterday I wrote about the latest release of Pocket Informant and how it added the ability to rank tasks by letter and number. One of the things I was curious about is how this data is stored. One of the problems with the Franklin Planner software is that they store that information in another database and the synchronization of that data does not work very well. What Pocket Informant does is add the ranking info to the subject of the task. PIE separates that information and displays it two columns, but if you view the information in Dashboard or Tasks you will see the rankings. Now, if Dashboard provided a way to sort tasks by subject I would be able to view tasks in the ranked order that I define in Pocket Informant. However, it is pretty simply to create a view in Outlook that sorts by subject. To create the Daily/Master task list affect that the Franklin Planner software does I created categories to filter the task list.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:53 AM |
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Mattew Ingram: "As much as it hurts Microsoft critics to admit, the 900-pound gorilla from Redmond has again come up with something that looks an awful lot like a winner."
posted by Frank McPherson 10:19 PM |
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Say a contact name into your Pocket PC's microphone and have it appear on your Pocket PC screen.
posted by Frank McPherson 8:51 PM |
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Compaq.com - iPAQ H3600 Series Pocket PC PCMCIA Update for ROM 1.69 and 1.77 Fixes unrecognized IBM Microdrive Card-English If your iPAQ is not recognizing the IBM Microdrive this patch will fix that problem. <via Pocket PC Thoughts>
posted by Frank McPherson 8:48 PM |
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I am one step closer to removing the Franklin Planner software from my Pocket PC. One of the main reasons why I have kept the Franklin Planner software is the prioritized daily tasks that allows me to rank tasks by letter and number. I find the three default priorities in Tasks to not be sufficient for my needs. While I was on vacation Alex Kac released a new version of Pocket Informant that added this task prioritization. It doesn't work exactly the same way as Daily Prioritized tasks but it might be good enough. Now the only Franklin software I still need to keep is the Daily Record of Events that syncs with the Outlook Journal, and I know how to replace that!
posted by Frank McPherson 8:45 PM |
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