Somehow during all of my fussing around with the iPAQ 3870, I managed to get Internet Explorer to the point where it would not load any web pages. It kept reporting that the web page could not be found. I think what messed it up was uninstalling Bluekite. As I understand it, Bluekite is basically a proxy service for mobile devices, which is supposed to improve performance by compressing pages. Your mileage may vary, but I didn't notice any dramatic improvement in browsing web pages using Bluekite, so I uninstalled the program. After uninstalling Bluekite Internet Explorer stopped functioning, and I figure the reason why is that somehow it was trying to use the Bluekite proxy service. I tried also using GoAmerica's Go.web browser, which I have because I use GoAmerica's CDPD service for my wireless Internet access. Go.web would load some pages, but seemed to choke on this site. Fortunately, I was still able to use nPOP to send and receive email, but I could do little on the Internet.
This would not do, so I decided it was time for a deep clean, rinse, and rebuild. That means a hard reset, which on the 3800 series iPAQs is a bit more of a challenge because it doesn't have the battery on/off switch of the 3600 series. For the record, here is how you hard reset the 3800 series. Press and hold the two outside application buttons, then insert the stylus into the reset button and hold it for five seconds. Release the buttons, and re-insert the stylus into the reset button for another second, and you should then see the Pocket PC startup screen. I suppose the new gyrations prevent accidental hard resets, but frankly, I thinkt he battery on/off switch was a far better approach.
The 3870 is now partially rebuilt. I installed the Bluetooth and Secure Digital Card service packs, and then tried playing some music on the Sandisk cards. In this very quick test the music played without any problems. I'll have to do some more testing.. including loading up Mazingo, and using the card for a while, but things are looking up in terms of Compaq fixing whatever problem there was.
Next I installed the software for my Socket Lower Power WLAN card, and tested loading web sites using Internet Explorer. Success! I could not browse the web on this Pocket PC. Finally, I loaded up the iPAQnet/GoAmerica software and nPOP, and I now have all connectivity set up on this Pocket PC. So the moral of this story is to be careful with Bluekite and keep an eye out for problems loading web pages.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:49 PM |
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Yesterday I bought a Lexar Media 64 MB card to see whether it works better in the iPAQ 3870 than the Sandisk cards that I have. The first test that I did was copy several MP3 files to the card, plug in in the iPAQ and fire up Windows Media Player. No skips. That's good news. I couldn't play any music on the Sandisk cards with hearing skips and pauses.
Next I put the Lexar card into the Toshiba e570 that is running Mazingo and configured to store the Mazingo content to the storage card. I did get the dramatic improvement in performance that I was hoping for, but reload times of the Mazingo home page do appear to be slightly faster. (More commentary about Mazingo's performance to come later.)
The word that I am hearing is that the iPAQ has problems with a number of Secure Digital cards from different manufacturers. I don't know if this means anything, but I am pretty sure that the Sandisk and Lexar media cards are coming from different sources. The Sandisk cards are marked with Taiwan, and the Lexar card is marked Made in Japan.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:31 PM |
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Theme Master is a theme manager for Pocket PC 2002 devices. It provides a Today Screen system tray icon to quickly change themes, and it provides a way to automatically change themes after a set period of time. The program is currently in beta, and as such has some features currently not working. For example, right now it only sees theme files that are stored in the Windows folder, and the random theme change feature is not functional. The developers are working towards providing a fully functional version some time next week.
posted by Frank McPherson 7:12 PM |
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Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 - Hardware Reviews - CNET.com I have ordered one of these from Amazon, and I received notice that it shipped yesterday. One of the reasons why I decided to order this is that it is the first "serious" handheld to ship with Linux, and I think it is worth my time to learn a bit about how Linux works on a handheld.
One of the interesting things that I have learned second-hand about the SL-5500 is that while it ships with Intellisync for synchronization with Windows desktops, it does not include software for synchronizing with Linux applications. My understanding is that the Linux crowd is up in arms about this. However, I would expect the vaunted Linux community to route around this problem easily enough.
posted by Frank McPherson 6:12 PM |
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Software & Drivers - Download iPAQ H3800 Series Driver Updates Compaq has released an update that addresses some problems with Secure Digital cards.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:06 PM |
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I love my 1 GB microdrive. Tons of Amy Grant songs queued up, playing for a few hours and still going strong. Of course, the Toshiba e570 driving the drive is connected to a steady flow of electrons to keep it chugging along. The microdrive is a very happy camper in the e570, which is one of the very positive aspects of this particular Pocket PC. It has two storage cards slots: a Type II CompactFlash and a Secure Digital slot.
What else do I like about the e570? It seems to have the perfect size, with the same thickness as a naked iPAQ, and a bit shorter than the iPAQ. In fact, I think it is the shortest Pocket PC available.
Another very cool feature of the e570 is that it supports a registry change to permanently label storage card folders. Rather than "Storage Card" and "Storage Card2" I have "CF Card" for the CompactFlash slot, and "SD Card" for the Secure Digital slot. All brands of Pocket PCs should support this registry change. In fact, shouldn't this be the default setting?
I also like the location of the record button. Toshiba placed this on the left side of the e570, but low enough that I don't accidentally press it when I take the e570 out of its case. This is the only Pocket PC 2002 device that I use for which I haven't reprogrammed the record button to prevent me from making false recordings.
Unfortunately, there are a number of things that I find wrong with this Pocket PC. Let's start with the soft reset button. It is so small that the only way to press it is to use the stylus that comes with the e570. I can't use my regular stylus (which is a combination pen and stylus) to reset the e570.
The screen has a pink tint to it that is really noticable when looking at white pages. The surface of the screen feels different and requires a bit more pressure to recognize taps. Some times the stylus sticks while writing letters.
And I have even mentioned the battery life yet, which by all reports is the worst of the Pocket Pc 2002 devices. I habitually keep charging my Pocket PCs whenever possible, and keep Electric Fuel handy, and so far I have not really encountered a problem with the e570's battery life, but your mileage may vary.
The e570 has 64 MB of RAM, making it the second Pocket PC that I own with this much memory. Unfortunately, there is 6 MB of storage space on ROM that I cannot use on the e570 because Toshiba did not include a ROM file store application like Compaq and HP did with their Pocket PCs. Toshiba will probably say that they provide a better solution because you can (and I do) just keep a Secure Digital card in the e570, and use it for storage. In fact, that is exactly what I like most about the e570 because I can store programs and data on a storage card and still have the Compact Flash slot free for modems and LAN cards. But still, knowing that their is 6 MB of storage space just sitting unused is a bit irksome.
So far Toshiba has not announced plans for a PC Card sleeve such as is available for the Pocket PCs from Compaq, HP, and Casio. In fact, there are very few accessories for the e570, and there is no external keyboard available for it. (I have heard rumors that there is a Stowaway keyboard in the works.)
In the end I feel very conflicted about this Pocket PC. When I first heard about its size and dual slots I instantly declared it to be "the" Pocket PC for me. Those two features make it very, very appealing. So appealing that I am very tempted to dub the e570 my main Pocket PC. But then, that means that I also have to lug around the iPAQ if I want to retrieve my email wirelessly, or if I want to type something out using a keyboard.
For now I am slowly working up towards making using the e570 all the time. One by one I am installing my important Pocket PC applications. But, I am also thinking that if I get my hands on a phone that supports Bluetooth, and I subscribe to iStream, the iPAQ 3870 my remove the e570 from the top of my Pocket PC hill. As time passes I may have more thoughts on this topic that I will post here.
posted by Frank McPherson 1:30 PM |
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I received an e-mail from T Bryce Yehl, who made a very good point about the Audiovox Maestro's poor battery life. From all reports, the current Toshiba/Audiovox Pocket PCs have very poor battery life. I haven't had as much first hand experience with that since I am just ramping up my use of the e570, and I already habitually top off the power on all my Pocket PCs.
Bryce is the guy who is developing a Pocket PC blogging application, and reports that a beta might be available in a couple of weeks. Bryce, put my name down for beta testing. Assuming that Bryce is using the Blogger API, his application might work with several blogging tools, including Blogger and Manila. I don't know whether Movable Type or Greymatter support the Blogger API, but if Movable Type is, I know some other Pocket PC bloggers who will drool over this.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:59 AM |
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EBook News and Information at KnowBetter.com This is a nice looking site, dedicated to eBooks.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:57 AM |
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Pocket PC Thoughts - TimeBiller 2.0 Released This is a new time and billing application for Pocket PCs. It is also another Pocket PC application that exports data to XML. I think it is good to see applications providing this functionality, because XML can be used as a method to transfer data between applications.
Even better would be support for SOAP or XML-RPC because that would enable this application to communicate with backend systems such as SAP. For example, it would be really cool if I could use this application to track my time and have it automagically update the SAP time tracking system that I have to use at work.
We have the technology to do this, all that is needed is the vision to architect applications this way.
(BTW, other examples of applications that support XML is Pocket MindMap and HanDBase.)
posted by Frank McPherson 9:48 AM |
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If you are looking for cheap Pocket PC 2002 devices, check your local Compusa. I just noticed that the store near my house claims to have the Audiovox Maestro in stock, and you can buy it for $299 after rebate. Mobile Planet is also selling the UR There @migo for $299. I am somewhat hesitant to recommend the @migo because it has so many quality problems, but $299 is a good price. IMHO you should check out the Audiovox first.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:14 PM |
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I've been thinking that my iPAQ 3870 has problems with Secure Digital cards, but I am now suspecting the problem is really with Sandisk Secure Digital cards. I am using a 64 MB Sandisk card in a Toshiba e570 and there are definite refresh problems. For example, I use File Explorer to copy a file from a network share to the Secure Digital card by using copy and paste. When I paste the file into a folder on the card, the file name does not appear in the list. I have to switch out of the folder and go back in to see the file listed.
This past weekend I encountered the first problem that I saw with this card when I started Pocket Excel and the program hung until I popped out the Secure Digital card. I now think the problem is that Pocket Excel was trying to refresh the file list and hanging. So, I think the only way to really nail this down is to track down another brand Secure Digital card.
I see the local Compusa has 64 MB Lexar Media Secure Digital cards in stock.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:52 PM |
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GnomeTomes - Quick . Easy . Fun . Useful . Portable eBooks for Everyone Get your Lockergnome eBooks for five bucks now!
posted by Frank McPherson 7:01 PM |
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Cell World Awaits 500-Lb. Gorilla "Microsoft, which proudly points out that various American cell-phone service providers will soon carry Windows-powered devices on their shelves, recently said it plans to capture 25 percent of the cell-phone market by next year."
posted by Frank McPherson 6:45 PM |
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So Many Phones, So Little Need Here is a run down of all the new handsets announced at CTIA.
posted by Frank McPherson 6:44 PM |
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The number of wireless devices is starting to increase. PalmInfocenter reports that Enfora will be selling a wireless protfolio that uses infrared to connect any handheld to a wireless modem. There will be CDPD and GPRS versions.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:23 PM |
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Wireless News -- Coastal Companies Launch WiFi Access Businesses If you own a business, say a book store, or a coffee shop, and you want to provide wireless Internet access like Starbucks, these two companies have products for you.
I am still wondering when Borders and Barnes and Noble will start providing wireless Internet access. I got to believe they have been approached by several companies like Mobilestar and Wayport, so they must be thinking of doing it on their own.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:16 PM |
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Wireless News -- GoAmerica, VoiceStream in GPRS Network Deal GoAmerica will be providing it's wireless Internet service over Voicestream's GPRS network and selling it to corporations. My guess is that GoAmerica will bundle this service with Sierra Wireless' Aircard 750, which is their new GSM/GPRS voice and data card. I would be surprised if GoAmerica actually started selling SmartPhones.
posted by Frank McPherson 3:27 PM |
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Hardlite Samsonite will be selling a computer case with built-in Bluetooth for things like security.
posted by Frank McPherson 4:44 PM |
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Bryce's Radio Experiments Bryce claims to be working on a offline blogging tool for Pocket PCs. This is exactly the type of thing I have been thinking about for some time, and I hope Bryce's work sees the light of day.
posted by Frank McPherson 1:15 PM |
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PCWorld.com - Sharp's Zaurus PDA Makes Its U.S. Debut The Linux-based Sharp Zaurus goes on sale this week for $499.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:26 AM |
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Imagine owning a wireless Pocket PC, within breaking news and stock quotes constantly being updated in real time across the screen. This could be done by using the new Animated Today 2002 application.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:11 AM |
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If you are into the stock market you might want to check out Visual Byte's ROI Stock Trade. This program helps you calculate commission, cost, profit and return on investments.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:54 AM |
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