PocketPCHow2 Log

Saturday, February 23, 2002

Friday, February 22, 2002

News: RSA Protects New Palm OS I think Palm is on the right track here in doing something about securing content on handhelds. This is something that Microsoft needs to improve on the Pocket PC. Things like record level security in Pocket Outlook (so that you can secure individual contacts and appointments) to file encryption should be baked into the OS.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:57 PM | link

MobileViews Commentary Archive - Data powered by HanDBase Todd has had a chance to play with Laplink's PDASync, and get a Pocket PC synching with Lotus Notes. On my round tuit list is to gather up some of these third party synchronization tools and give them a spin. As Todd says, $29.95 may be a very good investment in a product that reliably syncs.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:47 PM | link

Pocket PC Writer.Net - It's all about the Unwired-I.Net Arne may have some of the best coverage of 3GSM on the net.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:43 PM | link

Thursday, February 21, 2002

Nokia introduces its first multimode radio card "Nokia today unveiled its first data product that brings GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) technology to laptops and handheld devices."

And it gets better!

"The small but powerful Nokia D211 is a multimode radio card offering "always-on" Internet access within GPRS, HSCSD (High Speed Circuit Switched Data), and wireless LAN (Local Area Network) coverage areas. The product will be available in the second quarter, 2002."

And now to get you even more excited..

"It operates in the Windows(TM) 98 SE, Me, 2000, XP, Windows CE 3.0 and Linux environments. "

Analysis here and here. It's a no brainer that Voicestream will look at using this card to integrate their GPRS service with the Mobilestar, which is the public WiFI service they recently bought.

Imagine constant, seamless wireless connectivity. In the home you connect to the Internet via your home access point and broadband. Take the device out of the house and lose contact and switch over to GPRS, then walk into Starbucks and it switches back to WiFI. All seamless, with the only noticable difference being a drop in speed when you switch to GPRS.

Will this happen? That's up to the service provider, but it appears that the technology is now available to make it happen, and that is very, very cool.
posted by Frank McPherson 6:49 PM | link

The Unofficial 802.11 Security Web Page You may have heard about the many security problems with wireless Ethernet networking. This site as many links covering the security issues.
posted by Frank McPherson 1:48 PM | link

Wednesday, February 20, 2002

Pocket PC Thoughts :: View topic - New Expansion Plus Packs If you haven't already seen it, check out this new expansion pack from Compaq.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:51 PM | link

CommsDesign - Microsoft operating system supports GSM on PDAs "The key difference between the two resides in the user interface, Perryman said. The PocketPC Phone Edition lets users navigate through a bigger screen with touch functions and handwriting recognition. The Stinger allows operation via soft keys on a mobile phone." This little paragraph sums up the difference between Microsoft Pocket PC Phone Edition and SmartPhone.
posted by Frank McPherson 1:00 PM | link

Tuesday, February 19, 2002

WirelessSoftware.info - latest WirelessSoftware news Even after I have read this, I am not entirely sure if this is official. It appears that Ericsson is going to announce that they are going to use Microsoft's SmartPhone 2002 rather than Symbian for their 3G phones. If this is true it will be a major victory for Microsoft, who has been struggling for two years to get SmartPhone 2002, previously known as Stinger, accepted by one of the big phone manufacturers. Another question if this is true is just when will we see phones from Sony/Ericsson using SmartPhone 2002?
posted by Frank McPherson 4:11 PM | link

PCWorld.com - Combo PDA-Cell Phone Selection Grows This article does a good job of summing up the Microsoft announcements from today.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:41 PM | link

PCWorld.com - Hitachi's New PDA Gets Down to Business Hitachi is the next company after Casio's BE-300 to bring a PDA to market that uses Windows CE .Net rather than Pocket PC.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:34 PM | link

I do have readers! I have received several emails from people who read my rant about the iPAQ 3870 saying that I am not alone.

As I see it the problems here are entirely with Compaq. The OEMs write the parts of the Pocket PC software that address that company's hardware. In this case things like the Secure Digital card drivers and expansion pack drivers are added to Windows for Pocket PCs by Compaq, and not Microsoft.

I have other Pocket PC 2002 devices from other manufacturers that do not exihibit the same problems. My hope is that Compaq is working on an update to address these ongoing problems.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:14 PM | link

infoSync : Tri-band GSM/GPRS from Sierra Wireless No word on when this will be available or how much it will cost. My guess is that availability will be tired to one of the GSM providers: Voicestream, AT&T Wireless or Cingular Wireless.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:05 PM | link

infoSync : HP unveils first WDA More scoop on the new Jornada 928. I am surprised that it will not support GSM in the United States. I was expecting GSM support to appear in the United States before CDMA, but it is starting to look like CDMA coverage will be first. That's a bit surprising given that AT&T Wireless and Cingular Wireless are switching to GSM. My only guess is that HP is partnering up with Sprint or Verizon.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:00 PM | link

infoSync : Speeding up surfing iPAQs Snake oil? I've downloaded this Bluekite software and I am checking it out on my iPAQ 3870 with the Sierra Wireless Aircard 300 and GoAmerica. I am not seeing any speed improvements with browsing web pages, though I am not positively sure that optimization is really happening. The Bluekite software doesn't show that my iPAQ is activated. Another problem is that it appears to have messed up Go.Web since now whenever I try to use Go.Web it locks up the iPAQ.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:34 AM | link

infoSync : Microsoft rings in PPC Phone Edition This article refers to these devices as "wireless digital assistants." How many different names do these new devices have?
posted by Frank McPherson 10:29 AM | link

Easy High Speed Wireless Internet of Voice and Data Through World's First CompactGPRS Card and BVRP Software "The world's first GPRS/GSM card in CompactFlash form factor from Pretec Electronics Corp. working with Microsoft Window CE powered Pocket PC will be demonstrated here running BVRP software"
posted by Frank McPherson 10:27 AM | link

Pocket PC Thoughts :: View topic - New Pocket PC MSN portal coming soon Pocket PC Thoughts has some screen shots of the next release of MSN's mobile portal. A key piece of information is the following sentence: "The working timeframe for release is April...coninciding with US availability of Pocket PC Phones." April availability? Is that for a real Pocket PC Phone or the Compaq GSM sleeve?
posted by Frank McPherson 10:25 AM | link

HP dials in Pocket PC for new handheld - Tech News - CNET.com "The Jornada uses a 133MHz Texas Instruments OMAP 710 processor and contains 64MB of memory and a lithium-polymer rechargeable battery. Like its predecessors, the Jornada comes with a CompactFlash Type I slot for expansion cards. The device is 0.7 inches thick, 3.1 inches wide and 5.4 inches long, and weighs 6.8 ounces." Huh? Is the processor StrongArm based? I would expect this device to be using a StrongArm processor, so I this doesn't make too much sense to me.

Ok, I figured this out. The TI processor is for the radio. For the Pocket PC side the 928 will still use StrongArm.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:53 AM | link

Thanks to Pocket PC Thoughts, I now know that I will soon be able to get a Real Audio player for my Pocket PC. I wonder if it will lock up Pocket PCs as well as desktop PCs?
posted by Frank McPherson 9:46 AM | link

Monday, February 18, 2002

I am coming to the conclusion that the Compaq iPAQ 3870 that I have is the quirkiest Pocket PC that I have ever used. It requires more soft resets of any Pocket PC that I have ever used, and it seems to have real problems with peripherals and Secure Digital cards. For example, just now the iPAQ inversed the amount of free space and space occupied on a Sandisk 64 MB SD card, and when I browsed the card using File Explorer the card was blank. A soft reset fixes this problem, and it is yet another example of the problems the 3870 has with SD cards.

From what I am seeing here, the problem appears to be happening when the device powers up. There might be a timing issue where the card is not being mounted quickly enough or correctly. I am also seeing similar problems with the Sierra Wireless Aircard 300 where the iPAQ cannot recognize the card in the PC Card sleeve until I reset the device. I think that problem is introduced when I sync the iPAQ.

Anyway, there are some definite software problems here that need to be addressed.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:37 AM | link

AvantGo: Using Mobile Internet If you subscribe to this site via AvantGo be aware that effective this Wednesday, February 20 you will no longer be able to retrieve this page using AvantGo. AvantGo is changing their policy for custom channels, which is what is created when you click the link at the bottom of this page. That policy limits custom channels to eight subscribers. I will be removing the AvantGo link, and I recommend that if you want to read this site offline that you either use Mazingo or create an offline mobile favorite. I apologize for this inconvenience, but this is out of my control.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:28 AM | link