infoSync : GPS over Bluetooth I think news of this first came out in late May, just before the Pocket PC Summit. If the price were right, I think it would be very worthwhile to get one of these to just leave in the car.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:46 PM |
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If you are a content provider interested in providing a way to distribute Pocket PC themes, ebooks, or MP3s, you might want to consider MagicSync.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:42 PM |
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Apple Introduces iSync There is some buzz on the PDA sites regarding Apple's iSync, but it seems to me that this is mostly targetted at syncing mobile phones with Macs. All that syncs is appointments and contacts. I don't know about you, but I sync much more than that with my Pocket PC. In fact, file synchronization may be the most important synchronization feature that I use.
posted by Frank McPherson 2:01 PM |
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Software & Drivers - Download iPAQ Foldable Keyboard Driver
posted by Frank McPherson 1:32 PM |
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Pocket PC Thoughts :: View topic - Fossil PDA Watch Review Ok, the Fossil watch sounds cool enough, but I wonder why anyone would want it? Why pay the money for this when you can simply carry your Pocket PC around?
Aside from the size of the device, using Peacemaker rather than the built-in infrared capabilities of Pocket PCs seems to be a bit killer. And infrared doesn't seem ideal, rather Bluetooth would provide a much more elegant solution since you wouldn't have to take the watch off to information to it.
posted by Frank McPherson 1:31 PM |
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Well, it happened. I've been running my iPAQ 3870 with the Version 2.20 ROM and Bluetooth for a little over one day, and I have run into my first Bluetooth Security Manager error. The error box pops up with the following message "The Bluetooth radio failed to turn ON due to insufficient driver memory available. You must perform a soft reset before you can turn ON the Bluetooth Radio. Reset now?" and I get Yes and No buttons. Tapping Yes causes a soft reset.
Just to keep in mind on how I got this way. I turned the Bluetooth radio on, and tried to keep it on this entire time. I have noticed occasions where I turn the iPAQ off and the Bluetooth radio does not turn on when I turn the iPAQ back on. On those occasions I was able to simply start the Radio and all was well. This is the first time that I have actually encountered an error.
I like the way Compaq has handheld this error that they clearly expected to happen. But I am wondering, what exactly is "driver memory?"
posted by Frank McPherson 10:49 PM |
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Alan Reiter has a good take on the public hotspot effort I mentioned previously. His article brings to mind a question, just how fast is T-Mobile working on the roll out of WLAN into Starbucks? When will I be able to get a WLAN connection in a Starbucks in West Bloomfield, MI?
posted by Frank McPherson 1:32 PM |
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News: Creating wireless hot spots? If this happens there could be a higher number of public locations where you could access the Internet via a wireless LAN.
posted by Frank McPherson 1:12 PM |
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InformationWeek > Digital Content > Microsoft Unveils New Format For Streaming Audio, Video > July 16, 2002 I have no idea about what this means for Pocket PCs. The article also doesn't mention anything about Microsoft's DRM efforts in relationship to this new media player.
posted by Frank McPherson 1:08 PM |
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Pocket PC Thoughts provides a link to this simple nPOP FAQ. nPOP is the email client that I use with my Pocket PCs to send and receive email. It has features not included with Inbox, and I find it to be much faster than Inbox.
posted by Frank McPherson 12:59 PM |
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Welcome to Belkin - Bluetooth™ PDA Adapter Card Belkin is now selling a CompactFlash Bluetooth card for $89.90, which amounts to being probably the lowest cost Bluetooth card to date. Unfortunately, it looks like the antenna for the card will extend beyond the Pocket PC, unlike Socket's CompactFlash Bluetooth card. What *does* look good is the $79.99 price for the Bluetooth USB adapter.
posted by Frank McPherson 4:39 PM |
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It's the first day after having upgraded my iPAQ 3870 to the Version 2.20 ROM. There are two things that I was looking for form this upgrade. First, that the Bluetooth stack error would go away. Second, that I would have to perform fewer resets thanks to improvements made in the virtual memory management.
So far I have been turning the iPAQ on or off to check email using Bluetooth and I haven't seen the stack error. That's good!
posted by Frank McPherson 1:00 PM |
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Web McDeb: Special Announcement - Blogathon 2002 Web McDeb will be continuously creating Pocket PC themes and posting them on her web site as part of Blogathon 2002. The Blogathon is on July 27 starting at 9 AM EST and runs for 24 hours. She has to post a new entry on her site every 20 minutes.
Sponsorship donations for Deb go to the American Cancer Society. I'm pleased to be sponsoring her in this year's Blogathon.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:50 AM |
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Now, the Synchronized Family (New York Times Registration required) This is an interesting article about how families are using personal computers and organizers to keep a family schedule. I am wondering about what is the best way to do this with Pocket PCs. The easiest would be to set up a family PC with Outlook and synchronize to that, but I am not sure that is the best way.
Today many family members have their own computers which they would synchronize. I, for example, use my Pocket PCs to keep track of my work and personal schedules. There is no real reason for my wife to get my work appointments on her Pocket PC, but it would be worthwhile for her to get my personal appointments.
My guess is that one way to do is is have Outlook on the desktop synchronize with a common backend repository. You would download everything in the repository, but only upload specific categories of appointments.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:55 AM |
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Ok the EUU2 update is now complete. The process took a little longer than expected, so I was getting nervous there for a while, but everything is now done and I now have a completely updated iPAQ.
If you have an iPAQ 3800 series and you have not installed the Version 2.20 ROM update, I highly recommend following the process that I just performed. Doing so will make everything go smoothly since you will be applying EUU2 to a fresh device.
Now it is time for me to start rebuilding the iPAQ to get it into a functional unit. I was surprised when I audited the device to see what programs where installed that I had 31 programs and device drivers installed on the iPAQ. I entered all those items in ListPro which I can now use as a check list for rebuilding the device. My first priority is to get nPOP installed and then configure Bluetooth so that I can get to my email tomorrow while I am work.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:36 PM |
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EUU2 is a cab file update, which means that to install the update you have to copy a 12 MB CAB file to the Pocket PC. You then execute that cab file directly on the Pocket PC, which in turn expands a number of files. You also need 9 MB of system RAM (or program RAM, not storage) in order to run the update.
The good news is that EUU2 updates files in ROM, so no additional RAM is taken up by the updated files.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:24 PM |
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The Version 2.20 ROM upgrade is complete, and the upgrade was very smooth. The main challenge was figuring out just exactly how to simultaneously press the Contacts, iTask, and Power button while pressing Reset, which you have to do to get the Pocket PC into Remote USB mode. You must get the iPAQ into that mode in order to do the upgrade.
I am impressed with the upgrade program that HP/Compaq created. It guides you through the process step-by-step, and has very clear pictures showing which buttons to press. In all, I would say that the ROM 2.20 upgrade is painless, provided that you follow the instructions.
The next step is to apply EUU2.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:09 PM |
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Ok, I am taking the plunge and upgrading my iPAQ 3870 to the Version 2.20 ROM. Here is my plan. I'm going to do a full sync and two backups. One backup via ActiveSync, the other use the Compaq utility. I cannot restore these backups on to the new ROM, but the ROM upgrade utility enables me to backup the existing ROM so presumably there is a way to restore the old ROM, then restore the device and be back to where I left off.
The Compaq backup is running right now. Then will do the ActiveSync backup. I will then backup the profile directory on my desktop PC and then delete the partnership between this iPAQ and my PC. My device name is Harald, and I am logged in on a Windows XP PC as Frank, so the profile directory is C:\Documents and Settings\Frank\Application Data\Microsoft\Activesync\Profiles\Harald.
posted by Frank McPherson 6:37 PM |
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