The government is testing a new application for distributing bio terror alerts to doctor's PDAs, but this article doesn't say anything about what type of PDAs are being used. One would imagine they must be wireless. I'm guessing Treos.
posted by Frank McPherson 5:02 PM |
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It sounds like Toshiba has made some minor tweaks to the E740 to produce the E750. I have to admit that perhaps the think I like the least about my E740 is the screen, so the better screen on the E750 is appealing.
posted by Frank McPherson 2:26 PM |
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We continue on a Smart Phone theme, with news that HTC will be manufacturing Smart Phones for AT&T Wireless. Does anyone want to place bets on when a Smart Phone will actually be for sale in the United States?
posted by Frank McPherson 1:33 PM |
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Geek.com continues their great coverage of CTIA and the Microsoft Mobile Developers conference. It is almost as good as being there, and I dare say Joel is providing the best coverage of this conference on the Net.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:45 PM |
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Pocket PCs are amongst the gear used by journalists covering the current war in Iraq.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:30 PM |
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I got some hands-on time with a Smart Phone this afternoon, thanks to the kind folks at Ilium Software. Ilium makes two of my favorite Pocket PC programs, ListPro and eWallet, and they have versions of both for Smart Phones, Pocket PCs, Handheld PCs, and Windows. (Not to mention Palm OS.) The Smart Phone is impressive, particularly the beautiful, high resolution screen. It is clearly optimized for just carrying data and data entry is tedious. What is really strange is that the device currently does not support file synchronization, so it seems the only easy way to get music down to the device is to plug in a Secure Digital card. The lack of file synchronization hurts Ilium because that is what they use to synchronize ListPro and eWallet data between desktops and Pocket PCs.
I also learned that the application signing process is really a road block for developers. Developers can use unlocked versions of Smart Phones to test and debug their applications, but there are no debugging tools for signed versions of applications. Applications must be signed (certified) by Verisign before the mobile phone carriers will allow an application to be distributed to Smart Phones. Ilium had a problem were the unsigned version of their app worked just fine, but after it was signed something broke, and they didn't have debugging tools to be able to figure out the problem. It wasn't without some serious assistance from Microsoft that Ilium finally resolved the problem. As it stands now, the signing process pretty much eliminates shareware or freeware for Smart Phones, which is going to severely limit the number of apps available for Smart Phones. One of the big selling points of Smart Phones is the ability to add functionality by installing apps, but if there aren't many apps out there, there won't be much functionality available to be added. And, as we know, the number of applications available pretty much defines the success of a platform. This signing process sounds like another good reason why Smart Phones may have little if any success. (I haven't seen ActiveSync work with Smart Phones, but I assume one cannot directly install an app onto a Smart Phone using ActiveSync.)
When I first heard about Smart Phones I thought they were the ultimate device for me, but now after having used a Pocket PC Phone Edition for a period of time, I know that Phone Edition is perfect for me. Smart Phones are cool, but I don't see how they can be used for any type of data manipulation. In short Smart Phones are phones and certainly not a PDA replacement, at least not for me.
posted by Frank McPherson 8:24 PM |
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Pocket McDeb is proud to announce the availability of ThemeMaker McDeb by KAMware. This version of ThemeMaker was customized with special features in effort to bring you the highest quality original image retention available in a Pocket PC theme development application.
posted by Frank McPherson 7:55 PM |
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The Handheld PC is dead...long live the Handheld PC! As reported on Pocket PC Thoughts, while HP has officially announced that they will no longer sell the Jornada Handhelds, NEC has seized the opportunity by announcing that they will bring to market a new handheld, the MobilePro 900. Pictures show that that the MP 900 still runs Handheld PC 2000, so this handheld basically puts old software on new hardware. It would have been nice to see NEC come out with a handheld running CE .NET, which has an improved version of Internet Explorer, but I suspect that Microsoft hasn't developed a version of Windows for Handheld PCs based on CE .NET, and NEC isn't interested in building their own software based on CE .NET.
posted by Frank McPherson 7:50 PM |
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Brighthand suggests that the Zen of Palm is gone. Was it ever really there, or just marketing hype?
posted by Frank McPherson 10:11 AM |
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Joel has more great info from CTIA, admittedly making me a bit envious that I am not there.
posted by Frank McPherson 10:05 AM |
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Webcampda.com provides a directory of web cams that format nicely on a Pocket PC. I just checked it out using my Toshiba E740 and of course the pictures load pretty fast via WiFI, then I check it out using my T-Mobile Pocket PC and found that even with the rather slow 8Kbps connection I get here at home, the web cam pics load fast enough. Of course, the T-Mobile's poor screen quality really affects the picture quality, but I was more interested in how fast the pics load. I do have one beef with the site in that it doesn't have very good navigation. PIE is part of the problem, but when I open a web cam the back button returns me to the top level page rather than the cam directory listing.
Now, what I would really like is access to the freeway web cams around the Detroit area.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:59 AM |
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Todd Ogasawara has written a good review of thumb keyboads for the iPAQ, Dell Axim, and the original HP Jornada. As I have said before, I am not a proponent of thumb keyboards, particularly the add-ons such as the iPAQ and Axim keyboards this review shows. My main beef is that I find it hard to simply hold the Pocket PC with these keyboards attached due to the length of the device + keyboard combo. If I use it a keyboard with a Pocket PC it is because I want to enter data at a much higher faster rate than I could enter with a thumb keyboard, so a Stowaway is a much better solution. For direct device input I find either Transcriber or Letter Recognizer to be good enough for me.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:36 AM |
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Wanda has built-in support for WiFI, Bluetooth, and GSM/GPRS. She is only a reference design from TI. I wonder if a company will fall in love with her enough to bring her to market? Likely candidates? How about Motorola?
posted by Frank McPherson 9:26 AM |
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I did not know that the Hitachi Pocket PC Phone Edition device also has a built-in camera. Even though I am not a big proponent of the thumb keyboards, I think the Hitachi looks very appealing assuming that I can use either a stylus or the keyboard.
posted by Frank McPherson 9:14 AM |
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Verizon will be selling the Samsung i700 Pocket PC Phone Edition. Samsung is also planning a GSM/GPRS version of this phone that I expect to be sold by T-Mobile and AT&T Wireless. My main question remains, does the Samsung phone have an SDIO slot?
posted by Frank McPherson 9:10 AM |
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Bryce likens Smart Phone to the Titanic while quoting rumors that Samsung is dropping the Microsoft Smart Phone platform. I think the best way for Microsoft to get into the handset biz is to make their own by aquiring one of the companies that manufacturers handsets. How about Motorola as a whole-owned subsidiary of Microsoft?
posted by Frank McPherson 6:52 PM |
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I'm posting this at the Cincinnatti Chili in Farmington Hills, Michigan. (Orchard Lake Rd and Twelve Mile.) Cincinnatti Chili is right next to Roosevelt's, which provides free WiFI access. As I suspected, the WiFI access flows over to this restaurant nearby, and I get pretty good signal strength while sitting in a booth that shares a wall with Roosevelts.
posted by Frank McPherson 6:47 PM |
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Geek.com has a good report on day 1 of the CTIA show.
posted by Frank McPherson 1:11 PM |
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At first look the fact that the RIM software will be available for Pocket PCs sounds appealing, but I wonder how many people will actually go for it. The question is in the wireless connectivity and whether you can get a Pocket PC to be continually online.
posted by Frank McPherson 1:08 PM |
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Pocket PC Thoughts has started a discussion forum to collect feedback about the Pocket PC retail experience. If you have an opinion, stop buy the forum and post it.
posted by Frank McPherson 1:01 PM |
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If you read this weblog regularly, you probably know that I had been planning on travelling to New Orleans today to attend the Microsoft Mobile Developer's conference. After thinking about this trip for some time, and talking with my wife, I decided that now is not the best time to be far away from home. While it is most likely nothing bad will happen here in the United States, I cannot risk the possibility of being away from my wife if something bad were to happen. In short, my responsibilities here at home and my love for my wife out-weigh the geek in me that really wanted to go on this trip.
posted by Frank McPherson 11:41 AM |
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PCTEL has announced a Pocket PC version of their Segue WiFI client for Pocket PCs. As I read this press release it sounds like Segue provides WiFI profiles to make it easy to switch between WiFI networks.
posted by Frank McPherson 7:10 PM |
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Dale is already down at CTIA and posting information about new Pocket PC Phone Editions. First out is Sprint PCs formally announcing the Samsung and Hitachi Phone Edition devices that we already knew about. Target release: first half of 2003. Next is news that HTC has made a CDMA version of the same Phone Edition devices currently available from T-Mobile and AT&T Wireless. Big new deal about the HTC product is that it supports 1xEV-DO, which is the true 3G implementation of the 1XRTT alreadyy implemented by Verizon and Sprint. There is very limited distribution of 1xEV-DO, but it's speeds are reported to be approaching the 1 to 2 mb range, which starts approaching broadband speeds. The final bit of news is also reported on Pocket PC Thoughts, and that is that TI is showing a reference device that includes support for GSM, WiFI and Bluetooth.
posted by Frank McPherson 5:34 PM |
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Two years ago Mac owners really had only one option if they wanted to synchronize a Pocket PC with their Mac. They had to buy a copy of Virtual PC, and run Windows in emulation on the Mac so that they could use ActiveSync. Today that is no longer the case thanks to PocketMac, which I installed on my 12-inch PowerBook yesterday.
The installation process was not without a few glitches. First, I had to configure OS X's personal firewall software to open up the ports that PocketMac uses for communication. The firewall was not running on the PowerBook, nor for that matter was there any type of file sharing, so no ports were open at all on this Mac. Alas, if I am going to sync I must open ports, so I followed the instructions after which when I connected my T-Mobile Pocket PC Pocket Mac actually recognized the connection.
Unlike ActiveSync, Pocket Mac actually enables one to synchronize Pocket PCs will mutliple personal information management (PIM) programs. You can sync with the iCal and Address Book software that comes with all Macs running 10.2.X or Microsoft Entourage, which is the Outlook equivalent from Microsoft that runs on Macs. You configure which programs you want to sync with by selecting which plug-ins you want to use, so first I set up synchronization with iCal and Address Book.
iCal and Address Book are separate programs that provide the level of integration of Outlook/Entourage. iCal has a neat Internet publishing feature, but it seems to be lacking and Address Book is alright, but again doesn't seem to be nearly as robust as Entourage. I also found synchronization with both programs to be slow, so I changed the plug-in settings to switch synchronization to Entourage. While Entourage is better, overall sync speed doesn't appear to be much faster than iCal and Address Book.
The good news is that I now can synchronize my main Pocket PC with all desktop computers that I use on a frequent basis. With ActiveSync I sync the Pocket PC with my home and work computers. With PocketMac I sync with my new PowerBook. Notice that I can now sync with three desktop computer, moving beyond the boundary that ActiveSync keeps me of two computers. I have to decide whether I want to sync my Pocket PC with the PowerBook on a regular basis. For now I am glad to get all my contact information on the PowerBook, but I don't know whether I am going to move my personal information management over to the PowerBook from my Windows PCs.
The main reason why I decided to install PocketMac at this time was because next week the PowerBook will be my only desktop computer while I am in New Orleans for the Microsoft Mobile Developers conference. Synchronization provides a level of backup and easy data entry of appointments. However, I am disappointed by the fact that PocketMac doesn't provide any apparent way to back up Pocket PCs, which would have been handy for me on this trip. While I will use the built-in backup software on the T-Mobile Pocket PC, there is a certain comfort level from knowing that a backup also exists on a nearby desktop computer.
posted by Frank McPherson 3:22 PM |
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Alan Reiter provides confirmation of T-Mobile's WiFI coverage at the CTIA conference, which were the Microsoft Mobile Developer's confernce is co-located.
posted by Frank McPherson 3:06 PM |
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