Another duh! moment. I didn't realize that the Compaq folding keyboard for the 3800 series iPAQs had a port for plugging in AC power, but I am wrong. Thanks to a post in the Brighthand forums I learned that the AC power port is at the back right side of the keyboard. (Or immediately to the left of the iPAQ when it's attached to the keyboard.)
posted by Frank McPherson 9:51 AM |
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infoSync : PPCs get even friendlier with Macs Full synchronization between Pocket PCs and Macs is becoming a reality.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:25 AM |
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N I: Sniffer adds PDAs, VoIP There are several products available that enable one to use a Pocket PC to discover wireless LANs. This week Network Associates announced Sniffer Portable Wireless PDA that runs on Compaq iPAQs using the Symbol Technologies Spectrum 802.11b card.
Another product is AirMagnet, which also runs on an iPAQ and the software comes bundled with a 802.11b card, and only works with that card.
The prices for this software is incredibly high. Network Associates wants $3,995 for theirs, and AirMagnet costs $2,495. This seems to be way too high for a single purpose software product. However, network analyzers and packet sniffers have always been this high so in relative terms I guess the price may be acceptable.
Network Stumbler provides a free alternative, though the Pocket PC version (called Mini Stumbler) is in beta. The beta works on Pocket PC 2000 and 2002 devices but so far only works with the ORiNOCO and Compaq WL110 WLAN cards. Though the Socket WLAN card is not listed as not supported, I downloaded and tried the program and it did not recognize the Socket card.
posted by Frank McPherson 1:20 PM |
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TDK is pushing their Bluetooth products via a web site that lists retailers that sell their product. From this page I see that MobilePlanet is now selling TDK's Bluetooth USB adapter, which I tried to buy from Expansys a couple of months ago. Since then I bought 3Com's Bluetooth USB adapter that costs $50 less and works just fine with the iPAQ 3870 after you apply Compaq's first Bluetooth patch.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:35 PM |
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Download Pocket Blog An update of Pocket Blog has been released.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:22 AM |
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News: BlackBerry's got some Good competition Here is an article about Good Technology's announcements that I reported on here yesterday.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:02 AM |
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Some times you run across something that is so obvious, you go "duh, why didn't I think of that?" One of the negatives with the iPAQ Pocket PC is that it doesn't have a scroll button on the left side like the HP Jornada Pocket PCs. Well, the iPAQ does have a record button on that side. What you can do is re-program that button to scroll down by tapping Start, Settings, and then Buttons. The
posted by Frank McPherson 7:48 PM |
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New HP offers peek at product plans - Tech News - CNET.com "Compaq's popular iPaq PDA will also carry over, but with a new name. The device will be called the HP iPaq Pocket PC. HP will add technology from its Jornada Pocket PC handheld to future versions of the iPaq. The Jornada will be phased out by the end of the year, the company said."
A FAQ on HP's web site suggests that HP will continue supporting the Jornada Pocket PCs for three years.
So far the HP xda was only announced for Europe, so it might only sell there under the cover of "HP Wireless Solutions."
posted by Frank McPherson 4:22 PM |
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Good Technology is a new competitor to the Pocket PC Phone Edition and Blackberry. Just launched today, this combination of service and handheld device provides continuous two-way synchronization between Exchange servers and the device. Unlike Blackberry, it is complete wireless synchronization of email (including attachments), calendar, contacts, tasks, and notes. The handheld software runs on the RIM 957 device (you may recall a couple of weeks ago RIM announced that their devices would be used by other companies) as well as the Good G100 handheld from Good Technology. The G100 is about 3/4 the size of the RIM 957.
John Doerr is one of the investors in this company, and he referrs to this service as "Blackberry done right." Blackberry only provides wireless messaging, and PIM functions require synchronization with a desktop.
Microsoft's answer to Good Technology's product is Pocket PC Phone Edition or SmarPhone 2002, plus Mobile Information Server. However, companies must figure out the network infrastructure that they need to make MIS continously sync with Pocket PC Phone Edition.
Good Technology provide the network infrastructure. To provide wireless messaging using this product a company puts a GoodLink Server behind their firewall. The GoodLink server provides secure communication between a company's Exchange Server, and the GoodLink Operations Center via HTTP over SSL (Port 443). The handheld devices communicaiton with the operations center via Cingular's wireless network.
Good Technology says that the wireless data service will be provided for a flat monthly fee with no limits on the amount of data transfered. The service will be provided by Cingular Wireless, but Good Technology does not state the price of the monthly fee. There is no mention about Good Technology on Cingular's web site.
It will be interesting to see whether Microsoft has a reaction to this news. On one hand the service is tightly coupled with Microsoft Exchange server, yet on the other hand Good Technology is selling a product that competes with Pocket PCs. The ideal situation for Microsoft would be that Good Technology provide their software for Pocket PCs that would enable them to work with the GoodLink service. I think this is a product worth keeping an eye on.
(I know that Pocket PC Phone Edition provides the added benefit of voice and data, but I personally think Phone Edition is more about providing data communication service to Pocket PCs than voice.)
posted by Frank McPherson 4:16 PM |
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TABLETmedia: Wireless IP Communications TABLETmedia provides a voice over IP application for Pocket PCs. Another noteworthy fact is that I think this is the first Pocket PC vendor web site that I have seen that features the new Toshiba e310 on their front page.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:51 AM |
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Reiter's Wireless Data Web Log : Scroll down to the bottom of this page to read some comments about Palm. I particularly notice the comments about 802.11b use throughout the Palm HQ campus. Is there an 802.11b interface for Palm handhelds, or are they using notebook PCs? (Or Pocket PCs?) And regarding the battery life comment.. what is not said is the usage that goes with one day's worth of battery life. Is the device constantly being used? Or only used for quick checks of email, etc..
posted by Frank McPherson 10:50 AM |
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802.11Hotspots.com, a directory of public 802.11b hot spots for finding WiFi wireless Internet access network nodes Directories of WiFi hotspots are popping up on the Internet. Here is another one.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:45 AM |
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Ok, here is a challenge for you. Pull up this page, play the movie file and see if you can figure out who is laughing. If you've been to a Pocket PC Fanfest you will probably figure it out.
posted by Frank McPherson 6:58 PM |
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Email synchronization is designed to keep the Pocket PC Inbox and Outlook Inbox the same, so when you delete an email from the Pocket PC it will be deleted on the desktop, and that is by design. Unfortunately, you can't just move the email from the default Inbox to another folder because ActiveSync will still keep the email on your Pocket PC. There are two things that you can do. One is that you can configure Outlook to archive email more frequently. Archiving moves the email from the default Outlook data store to an Archive data store which is a separate file. To configure Archiving right-click the Inbox folder, select Properties, and then the AutoArchive tab.
Another thing that you can do is create a separate Outlook data file (a pst file) and move email from Inbox to that file. In Outlook click File, New, Outlook Data File. I created a file named Saved Email and then I drag and drop email that I want to save but delete from my Pocket PC to that file.
posted by Frank McPherson 1:01 PM |
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