Another toy that I picked up yesterday is the HP Pocket keyboard. This keyboard slides right over the Jornada. The keys have great feedback and work well for thumb typing, as I am doing right now with this post. About the only negatives with this keyboard is that it doesn't have any of the program keys, and there is now way to sync the Jornada while the keyboard is attached.
Attaching this keyboard transforms the Jornada into a very different device.
posted by Frank McPherson 1:06 AM |
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Imation - FlashGO! Universal Flash Memory Reader/Writer Yesterday I bought one of these readers, and it works with my notebook right out of the box. I didn't have to install any drivers because as soon as I attached the device to the notebook's USB port Windows XP immediately recognized the drive. I have been able to copy files to and read Secure Digital and Compact Flash cards as well as my IBM microdrive. So far this works as advertised... recommended.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:42 AM |
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My condolences to Jason and the Pocket PC Thoughts team on the loss of their hard drive, and months of data. I'm glad to see that they can see the silver lining. Their pain is a good reminder to me to grab a backup copy of my own log here.
The Blogger Pro tool that I use for this site provides a layer of backup. All of these entries are stored in a database on Pyra's servers, and their server generates the HTML pages that make up this log and its archives. So, if Pyra's servers barfed I would have the HTML files on my server. If my server barfed I would have a copy on my local hard drive, plus the database on Pyra's server to re-generate my site.
While going through a central server such as Blogger's can be a pain, it also comes with some benefits.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:29 PM |
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Pocket PC Passion - 3d car navigation? GPS buffs, check out this product under development!
posted by Frank McPherson 8:23 PM |
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Think Outside >> support Think Outside has released new a new driver (v1.6) for the Stowaway keyboard. This single driver runs on all ARM-based Pocket PC devices, and includes eight international keyboard layouts.
posted by Frank McPherson 8:20 PM |
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pocketPCpassion.com - iPAQStowaway Dale has some good news. Think Outside has created an adapter that enables the 3800 series iPAQs to work with the existing Stowaway keyboards. The adapter will cost only $9.95 and will be available by the end of February directly from Targus and Think Outside. I am really glad to see that Think Outside is providing this adapter for such a low cost.
posted by Frank McPherson 6:44 PM |
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Apparently Philips is providing the Bluetooth technology used in the Compaq iPAQ 3870.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:39 PM |
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Personal Technology -- Personal Technology from The Wall Street Journal. "Palm says it plans to improve the i705 and its e-mail software. But it amazes me that the company took 18 months to develop this device and yet failed to match some of the key things that made the RIM so popular." Walter Mossberg gives a thumbs down to the i705 because it doesn't have a keyboard, it only collections e-mail hourly or daily, and the email client's interface is clumsy.
I don't agree with Mossberg about the keyboard because I don't think people type out long emails using RIM's keyboard either. But from what Walter says, it sounds to me like the email software on the i705 is severely limited.
One big problem that I see is that even though you can retrieve email from POP accounts, you must go through the Palm.net's email service. In otherwords, you don't directly access your email. Why is that a problem? Well, if the Palm.net service is down, you can't get your email, even if your actual mail server is up. Another problem with this approach is that Palm limits the amount of mail that you can retrieve to 5 MB. Granted this is not too different than what Omnisky does, but you can also configure Inbox on a Pocket PC to directly access email and bypass Omnisky's POP "collection" service.
From I have been reading, the i705 will only appeal to people who currently own a Palm, and it won't result in a significant amount of new sales.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:47 PM |
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I've been playing with the iPAQ 3870 for a couple of days now, and discovering some quirks along the way. Here is one that is really strange. This afternoon I bought a 64 MB Secure Digital card, and I've copied some themes to it. To do that I created a My Documents folder for the themes, but when I kept switching to Today to select the theme, they never appeared. Apparently, what is happening is that the Storage Card folder is being treated as the My Documents folder. Any files, and subfolders, stored in the "root" of the storage card folder as part of My Documents. I don't know if this is because I installed Service Pack 1, or something strange about the iPAQ.
Update: I found out the cause of my problem. (I understand this problem has been already discussed in microsoft.public.pocketpc.) In the root Storage Card folder was a zero byte hidden file named ignore_my_docs. If certain Pocket PC applications like Pocket Word and Pocket Excel find that file in the Storage Card folder, it will not look for a My Documents folder, and will automatically merge all files and folders into My Documents in the file list view. I am told that these applications will create that file if when the program starts it finds that application type file in that folder. So, if you save a Pocket Word file in the \Storage Card folder, Pocket Word will create the file.
You cannot delete the file while these applications are open, so to get rid of the file, first do a soft-reset (or manually shut down all the apps) then go directly to File Explorer. Here is a trick to view hidden files in File Explorer. Tap and hold on the white space at the very bottom of the File Explorer screen, and the pop-up menu includes a View All Files option that you can select to view hidden files.
I have been able to remove the file from the Secure Digital card, but for some reason Pocket Word & Excel keep creating the file in the iPAQ File Store, despite the fact that there are no files in \iPAQ File Store. I delete the file, and it keeps being created, so I can't keep the subfolders from appearing in the File List view in either Pocket Word or Excel.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:33 AM |
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To my knowledge, F-Secure Anti-Virus will be the only virus scan program available for Pocket PCs that runs on Pocket PCs. McAfee's product only scans during synchronization, and scans from the desktop.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:56 PM |
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Pocket-G, Software products This is the home page for the authors of NeoKarateka and Battlefield for the Pocket PC.
posted by Frank McPherson 5:09 PM |
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Intrinsyc | CerfCube | Windows CE | Linux This looks very interesting and only costs $379. I'm pondering what I could do with this.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:38 PM |
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Pocket PC Thoughts has more information about the Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket PC, including a link to PocketWorld, which has hi-res pictures of the device. The information I had yesterday appears to be a little wrong. The device does not have integrated GPRS, instead it will support a GPRS sleeve. However, the big news is that it may be the first device using Intel's new XScale processor running at 300 Mhz. This all sounds very exciting, but I am starting to wonder whether this is going to be a real device, or just a form of vaporware.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:04 AM |
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Pocket PC Writer.Net - It's all about the Unwired-I.NetArne Hess has shared some big Pocket PC news -- a new Pocket PC! Arne reports that Fujitsu Siemens announced that it will launch its new Pocket PC, called Pocket LOOX, at CeBIT in March. The key differentiators are that it will have Bluetooth built-in, becoming the second Pocket PC vendor to provide Bluetooth, and also include integrated GPRS. The unit will start shipping in April, but there is no word as to when or if it will make it to the United States.
posted by Frank McPherson 6:38 PM |
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Wireless News -- PDAs, Wireless Network Tailored for Forum "So, how are Microsoft, Compaq and Accenture working together on this event? The special iPAQs, called "Davos Companions" within the confines of the event, are equipped with Microsoft Windows Pocket PC software using Accenture applications."
posted by Frank McPherson 11:39 AM |
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pocketPCpassion - review - HP PC Card Adapter Dale has posted pictures of the HP Jornada 565 with the PC Card expansion pack attached.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:55 AM |
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PDA: ScanSoft's Dragon PDsay Adds the Power of Voice to the Pocket PC - AnywhereYouGo.com "ScanSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT), a leading supplier of imaging, speech and language solutions, today announced the immediate release of Dragon PDsay(TM), a new application that adds voice- control and speech capabilities to Microsoft(R) Windows(R) CE-based Pocket PC devices."
posted by Frank McPherson 9:52 AM |
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Medical Pocket PC - Medical Resources for the Pocket PC The health care industry is one of the few for which there are sites dedicated to Pocket PCs. I wonder what other industry-specific Pocket PC sites are available? I think I might try to build a directory of these sites.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:45 AM |
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Downloads and Drivers for hp jornada 565 pocket PC for International English This morning I found good news on Pocket PC Thoughts as HP has finally released Pocket PC 2002, Service Pack 1. At the same time, HP has released a firmware update for the HP Jornadas and instructs that you should apply the firmware update first, then SP1. (Marlof provides all the installation details on Pocket PC Thoughts.)
The time for this is good for me, because I expect to be receiving the Compaq iPAQ 3870 that I ordered last week.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:40 AM |
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Verizon Wireless Launches Nation’s First Major Advanced Wireless Network: The Verizon Wireless Express Network "Starting today, Verizon Wireless customers in major East and West Coast markets will be able to reap the rewards of a significantly faster, more robust wireless experience with the company’s commercial launch of its 1XRTT network." To use this service with Compaq iPAQ Pocket PCs (and probably HP 560 series Pocket PCs) you will need to buy the Sierra Wireless AirCard 555. Apparently this card works with both voice and data. Right now availability is limited to a small number of markets on the east and west coasts.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:59 PM |
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Brighthand Forums - iPAQ 3870 and 3Com USB Bluetooth adapter problems! Early adopters are struggling to get Bluetooth working with the iPAQ 3870 and desktop PCs using Bluetooth adapters. The 3Com adapter has been pretty much ruled out, and anyone having any amount of success is doing so with a TDK adapter.
FWIW, I don't think that either desktop or Pocket PC ActiveSync were designed to support Bluetooth. It seems to work, but I don't think Microsoft did a lot testing with that configuration. When I ask Microsoft about Bluetooth synchronization I never get a very positive response.
posted by Frank McPherson 3:25 PM |
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The Nando Times: Sharp touts upcoming Linux-driven hand-held "Sharp's marketing director, Randy Dazo, said using Linux is less expensive than licensing Pocket PC software from Microsoft." This is bs. The licensing cost for Pocket PC is between $15 to $20 per device, which is a fraction of the cost of a $500 device.
posted by Frank McPherson 1:21 PM |
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