PocketPCHow2 Log

Saturday, January 19, 2002

Times2 Tech has announced that they are now providing 64 MB and 128 MB upgrades for the HP Jornada 56X series.
posted by Frank McPherson 3:08 PM | link

Pocket PC Thoughts reports that Version 3 of PrintPocketCE has been released, and it now includes support for Excel.
posted by Frank McPherson 1:08 PM | link

RoadWired makes some of the best cases for notebook computers. They are now selling the Advanced Protection System PDA Case for $24.95. The Advanced Protection System has a combination of "defensive" features: weather resistance, shock absorption and screen protection, and most notably, high-tech protection against environmental pollutants and corrosion.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:19 AM | link

Consumer Electronics Show 2002 Trip Report Article The Gadgeteer's CES report is loaded with goodies to drool over, like the 1 GB San Disk Type I CompactFlash card.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:08 AM | link

Friday, January 18, 2002

Good news from Pocket PC Thoughts, Microsoft has posted a good tutorial for Connection Manager.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:57 PM | link

Southeastern Michigan Pocket PC Users' Group Note to Pocket PC users in the metro Detroit area. There will be a Pocket PC users group meeting at Shields's in Southfield (Ten Mile & Telegraph) starting at 4 PM tomorrow.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:56 PM | link

Pocket PC Thoughts reports that the Terminal Services client and MSN Messenger for Pocket PC 2002 is now available for download. A lot of people who upgraded their Pocket PCs to 2002 have been waiting for these downloads. Microsoft promised to have them by February 2002, and it is good to see that they lived up to that promise.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:40 AM | link

Thursday, January 17, 2002

Commentary: The Linux alternative for PDAs - Tech News - CNET.com It must be that time of the year for the Meta group when they release articles on handhelds and PDAs. I think this article makes a good point about the fact that the software on PDAs are a very small part ($7 to $10) of the total cost.
posted by Frank McPherson 7:06 PM | link

Pocket PC Life has the first review of the Pretec CompactGPS that I have read. I am giving this GPS serious consideration. I ordered the HP extended battery pack with MMC slot this morning so I could use this GPS with my HP Jornada 565. The reason why I like this GPS is that it is very versatile because it can be used with any Pocket PC as well as notebook computers.
posted by Frank McPherson 2:28 PM | link

The Merc's Mike Langberg doesn't have anything good to say about Handspring's Treo "Handspring's much-touted new Treo 180 ``communicator'' at $399 -- the latest attempt to merge a personal digital assistant with a mobile phone -- turns out to be yet another kludge that's too much of a PDA to be a good phone and too much of a phone to be a good PDA."

If Langberg is right Handspring may be in big trouble because they appear to be betting the company on the Treo.
posted by Frank McPherson 1:32 PM | link

Brighthand / Cathy gets a PDA Even if you don't read Cathy, you might want to check out these comic strips. I have a stack of these in my home office as my wife keeps bringing them down to me.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:50 AM | link

PCWorld.com - Microsoft's Plan to Dominate PDAs "Hitachi expects to release the first CE .Net handhelds by June 2002 at the latest, first in Japan, then in the United States. Other vendors are expected to ship products about the same time. The announcement of the new software, even by Gates himself, doesn't ensure it will be successful. But CE .Net shows that Microsoft has been learning from its experiences in the handheld market during the past few years."
posted by Frank McPherson 9:39 AM | link

infoSync : Symbol to bring 802.11a to handhelds "While an 802.11a access point is all good and well, the most interesting news for handheld users is that Symbol also said the company is planning to bring 802.11a to handhelds later in 2002. No further details were offered, however since Symbol already manufactures an 802.11b CompactFlash Type I card called the Wireless Networker, it would be likely to assume that the company would expand the 802.11a line with similar products." I am a bit skeptical about whether home users need 802.11a. Keep in mind that your true bandwidth is going to be your slowest connection, so even if you have a 54 MB wireless connection, if yoyu only have a 10 MB connection to a cable modem, and a 1 MB connection from the Internet, your speeds are never going to exceed 1 MB. As I understand it, the real value with 802.11a is that it does a better job of handling multiple clients on the same access point and sustaining speeds. That means in business settings 802.11a might provide true 10 MB speeds to wirelss clients, but in a home setting you probably only have one or two wireless clients so you may not gain any benefit at all.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:36 AM | link

Wednesday, January 16, 2002

If this works, I made a post using Radio Userland V8 to my blogger site.
posted by Frank McPherson 4:10 PM | link

Microsoft Spurs Mobile Data Services "Building on established ties, global software giant Microsoft and European wireless operator mmO2 have announced they will introduce a collection of corporate services for mobile devices using mmO2's high-speed GPRS (general packet radio service) data networks."
posted by Frank McPherson 3:47 PM | link

Could wireless rescue PDA makers? "Meanwhile, devices using Microsoft's Pocket PC operating system, could get a speed and power boost as Intel starts shipping the first chips using its XScale architecture, the successor to the StrongARM chips used in nearly all Pocket PC-based devices. Sources say manufacturers should be able to introduce products using XScale later this quarter." Most of the focus in this article is on Palm and Handspring.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:20 AM | link

Nokia to Take on Palm in Market War Will the Nokia Communicator be successful in the United States?
posted by Frank McPherson 9:19 AM | link

Tuesday, January 15, 2002

Xircuit - Software for Pocket PC's Xircuit is doing some good Pocket PC development.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:03 PM | link

Electronics Reviews - CNET.com "Following the lead of Palm-powered phones, Pocket PC 2002 will power wireless handhelds from HP, Audiovox, and HTC (the company that makes iPaq PDAs for Compaq)."
posted by Frank McPherson 6:02 PM | link

PDABuzz.com - Tuesday, January 15 2002 "Sony has been executing a full court press in the PDA arena lately, releasing 7 new CLIE models since May of last year. Comparatively Palm and Handspring have released just 3 PDA's each since March of 2001" Sony is becoming the General Motors of the PDA market. Do we really need 7 different models from the same manufacturer?
posted by Frank McPherson 11:45 AM | link

From Pocket PC Thoughts is news about a program called Kill ActiveSync that completely shuts down ActiveSync and removes it from the system tray until you start it again.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:38 AM | link

Monday, January 14, 2002

Software & Drivers - Download iPAQ Pocket PC 2002 Update 1 (EUU1) Compaq has posted Service Pack 1 for Pocket PC 2002. Now all the remains is HP.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:09 PM | link

Commentary: Palm's fading presence - Tech News - CNET.com This is the Meta group's take on the enterprise market for Palm and Pocket PC. Good news for the folks in Redmond.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:06 PM | link

PCWorld.com - Royal Unveils Low-Cost Linux PDA "When Royal's Lin@x launches next quarter, priced at $299, it will feature applications including an Internet browser, address book, calendar, and schedule applications, as well as handwriting recognition, a virtual keyboard, and an MP3 player, Royal says."
posted by Frank McPherson 2:55 PM | link

Phillip Torrone is bringing Macromedia Flash to the Pocket PC Today screen.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:10 AM | link