GearBits

Update...Treos and Other Bits

Sorry for the lapse...I was out of the country and I guess my co-authors have not much to say at the moment. Here are a few tidbits of recent note:

Treo 270 in for Repair
My wife's Treo 270 died while she was in Ireland this past week. Actually, just the screen and backlight died; the rest of it seems OK. Apparently, palmOne is charging me $179 for an advance exchange for this beast. Not a great deal, but not terribly bad, IMO.

Treo 600 Battery Life Redux
Like the idiot I am, I left my Treo 600 in my car when I left for my trip Thursday afternoon. I got back to my car around midnight last night -- that's about 4.5 days or 108 hours later -- fully expecting the unit to be deader than a doornail. Much to my surprise, it still had 36% charge left. I finally dropped the unit in the charger today at noon just out of habit; it still had 28% battery left. So, over the course of 5 full days (120 hours), the phone (a) remained in standby (phone on), (b) supported nighly back-ups of its RAM to SD card, and (c) was used for about 20 minutes worth of phone calls and about 15 minutes of PDA activity. Given that it probably could have gone 6 full days had I pushed it, I'm still very, very impressed by the Treo 600's battery life.

Eats, Shoots and Leaves
While on the flight from Dublin to O'Hare, I read Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss. Fabulous read. I'm quite sure I still have solidly entrenched mispunctuation habits, but I'm trying hard to overcome them. The attractiveness of joining a militant punctuation society is such that if you see someone with a Sharpie correcting a sign offering "Half Price Drink's", that's quite possibly me.

Sony Puts Handhelds on Hiatus in US
Sony has suspended selling its Clie line of Palm OS-powered PDAs in the US until further notice. It seems likely that the rapid rise in popularity of palmOne's recent Zire and Tungsten models and the forthcoming release of the PlayStation Portable (PSP) both made Sony reconsider whether trying to sell PDAs in North America made much sense. Brighthand has a short article on the announcement -- feel free to engage in wild speculation at your leisure.

Mobile Gear: What Features Take Precedence?

I'm fascinated by how consumers categorize their technology. For example, what's the difference between a phone with PDA capabilities and a PDA with phone capabilities? Yet, for some reason, consumers make these distinctions. What's really troubling is that the consultants and pundits (e.g., Gartner) seem to have latched onto certain categories and are pitting one against the other as if it were an illegal dogfight...last one standing wins.

So, let's recap what can be observed out in the marketplace today. What features seem to drive name/image dominance for handheld and mobile devices?

1. Phone -- If a device can be used as a voice phone on a cellular network, it is generally first and foremost considered a phone. Some exceptions to this include the Pocket PC Phone Edition devices, which people generally regard as PDAs, and the Palm Tungsten W, which people generally regarded as a piece of crap. So, the phone feature seems to dominate all other features...generally.

2. Gaming -- Second behind phone is gaming. If a handheld has significant game-playing capabilities, but is not a phone, it will essentially be labeled a gaming device. An example of this is Nokia's n-Gage -- it's a crappy phone and a decent gaming device, yet people still refer to it as a phone. However, consider the Tapwave Zodiac. The Zodiac is considered a gaming handheld despite it having significant PDA capabilities. Were it to have phone functionality, I posit that folks would refer to it as a phone (a la the n-Gage).

3. PDA/PIM -- Personal Digital Assistant or Personal Information Management functionality seems to be third on the influential feature list. If a device has this, but is not a phone or a gaming device, it is generally considered a PDA. There are relatively few exceptions, with the iPod being the most (only?) noteworthy one. The iPod's PIM functionality is crude at best, so perhaps this isn't really even that much of an exception.

4a. Camera -- Camera functionality (both still and video) seems to have no dominance over any other feature. The Sony Clies and the Palm Zires that have cameras are still primarily considered PDAs, and my Treo 600, which has a camera (albeit a lame one), is still considered a phone. Only devices that are strictly cameras (i.e., have no other significant capability) are regarded as cameras. The only exception I've found in this regard is the Panasonic series of multi-function devices (e.g., their D-Snap line) that combine a still camera, video camera, MP3 player, and voice recorder all in one. In that device, the camera dominates the MP3 functionality.

4b. MP3/Media Player -- Being able to play music or video clips is a laudable objective for a handheld. However, it is fairly undistinguishing if this is all a device can do. Most other features (e.g., phone, gaming, and PDA/PIM) overshadow music and video playing if those features are present on the device. Consider (again) the Tapwave Zodiac. It's an excellent multimedia device, yet folks think of it first as a gaming handheld and then as a PDA, with audio and video as an "oh, yeah, it can do this too" feature. Only dedicated devices like the forthcoming Samsung Yepp YH-999 Portable Media Center are known for their audio/video playback capabilities. Were these to have phone functionality or gaming controls or established PDA/PIM functionality, they wouldn't be nearly as lauded for their A/V features. At least that's my guess.

Note that I have Camera and MP3/Video as tied for fourth. It seems there are a lot of examples of cameras that can do the audio/video playback thing and A/V devices with built-in cameras, so I don't see a clear precedence here. Maybe that will emerge as dedicated A/V devices get better and people start considering camera functionality as almost an assumed feature for mid- to upper-level electronics.

OK, I'm interested in hearing what you all think about my theory here. What are the exceptions (gadgets) to my rules that you've seen?

Portable Light

Universal Display Corporation (UDC), is presenting a collection of new product concepts for Wired's NextFest, being held this weekend in San Francisco.

UDC is a developer of organic light emitting devices (OLED), with applications for flat panel display screens and other applications.

UDC will be showcasing three innovations, a high-efficiency, phosphorescent OLED (PHOLED) technology, for energy-efficient, solid-state OLED lighting products; and flexible OLED (FOLED) and transparent OLED (TOLED) technologies, which are adaptable to new design opportunities.

The Portable Light exhibit at NextFest features design applications in architecture, textiles and other areas, based on UDC's proprietary flexible and transparent OLED technologies.

One striking application is an ultra-portable handheld personal digital assistant based on a FOLED screen, which rolls up into the size of a pen.

Sony Vaio VGN-U70

The Register has a short, but tantalizing, piece on this forthcoming tablet-style PC from Sony.

With an 800x600 screen, integrated 802.11g wireless, and a 1GHz processor, at just 1.2 lbs. this will be one impressive device. It's operated with a stylus, but it will run on plain-Jane Windows XP (not Tablet PC). Sony will have its own software to handle pen input.

This could put a lot of pressure on the Pocket PC (er, Windows Mobile for Pocket PC) market, since nearly all of the functionality in a Pocket PC can be replicated on this device yet it enables scads more that your run-of-the-mill Pocket PC can only dream of doing. Planned accessories include a charging/display dock and a collapsable mobile keyboard.

Music Player Snaps Pictures

iRiver has announced a new combination digicam music player, the iRiver Prism Eye. Coming in two models, the iFP-1090 and iFP-1095 devices combine digital audio with FM tuner capability with a digital camera.

While similar in size and specs, the iFP-1090 and iFP-1095 have storage capacities of 256-MB and 512-MB. The devices do not as yet support any expansion memory, and connect to PCs by USB1.1. Form factor is 3.5x 1.5 inches.

Prism Eye devices use a 0.3-MP CMOS sensor to capture images at 640x480 resolution, with an available 3x digital zoom. The 256-MB device can hold approximately 300 shots.

Audio formats supported include MP3, WMA, Ogg Vorbis and ASF. FM tuning is within the 87.5-108 MHz band. A Li-ion battery can handle about 35 hours of playback.

The Prism Eye is expected to ship this summer.

Pocket Tunes by NormSoft

I've started listening to the radio on my phone. How? All through the magic of Pocket Tunes from NormSoft.

Pocket Tunes is first an MP3 and Ogg Vorbis player application for your Palm OS device. It's fully skinnable with decent playlist handling and has lots of other nifty features that make it very capable stand-alone music player.

However, the real magic starts when you realize that Pocket Tunes Deluxe supports streaming MP3 over wireless connections. You can now listen to that favorite streaming radio station or your own Shoutcast source wherever your wireless Palm OS handheld or smartphone has Internet access.

For example, my phone is the Treo 600 from palmOne (nee Handspring). Using GPRS, I can stream in 97X at 24 Kbps without a hiccup (higher quality streams surpass GPRS's sustained throughput, so you end up buffering every so often, which gets annoying). Or, I could listen to my own stream if I were to switch it over to 24 Kbps (its default is 64 Kbps). Some other Treo-friendly streams can be found at Treobits.

Now, if my endorsement isn't enough to convince you, Pocket Tunes also won PalmSource's "Best Multimedia Solution" at the 2004 Developer's Conference. Nice job, NormSoft!

Garmin Forerunner 201

This new device looks very interesting. The Garmin Forerunner 201 (above) is a personal trainer wearable (wrist-strap) that does many, many things.

The Forerunner 201 offers athletes an easy-to-read display, ergonomic wristband, and integrated GPS sensor that provides precise speed, distance, and pace data. It's a compact, lightweight, accurate training assistant with performance tracking, auto-lap, auto-pause and more. The Forerunner 201 is easy to use right out of the box and delivers the benefits of GPS technology at an affordable price.

Working out with the Forerunner 201 means you're never alone in your personal training, because the unit provides a Virtual Partner™. This unique feature allows you to set your training goal by configuring your Virtual Partner's pace and workout distance. You'll get a graphic perspective of your performance by viewing your pace in relation to your Virtual Partner's pace, so you can always see at a glance if you're keeping up or falling behind.

Anybody use one of these? It sounds pretty darn nifty. At around $125 (Amazon.com), it's not too spendy, either. Some screen shots from the Garmin website are shown below. More screen shots can be found here.

Sony Releases LIBRIé e-Book Reader

Sony has just announced the LIBRIé e-Book reader, the first reader produced with E-Ink electronic paper technology in a Philips-manufactured reflective screen.

The ink-on-paper look of the plastic display closely resembles newsprint, at 170 pixels per inch (PPI). The 800 x 600 screen resolution displays four shades of gray, and the entire e-book reader measures 126mm x 190mm x 13mm and weighs 190 g.

The LIBRIé's screen is easy to read in bright sunlight or in dimly lit places, and only consumes power when the image changes. Because of this, 10,000 pages are readable using four AAA alkaline batteries, making the LIBRIé extremely light and portable.

Storage capacity is 10-MB, enough for 500 downloaded books. 512-MB of memory can be added with memory stick PRO.

The LIBRIé will be available in late April or May 2004.

Archos AV500 Mobile Viewer

Archos has just announced the successor to its AV300 series of mobile viewers. The AV500 has a more ergonomic design than the AV320, and is similar in size to a Jornada Pocket PC.

The AV500 comes in 20-GB and 40-GB models. The display screens have a 704x480 resolution, with 30-fps refresh. Also available are an external speaker and microphone.

Dual USB 2.0 ports enable direct camera-to-device transfer of images. Finally, Archos also allows users control of the AV500 via a remote control as a video player and recorder.

The AV500 sports DivX and MPEG4 playback, DRM support for Microsoft's WMA and WMV9 video format, as well as synchronization compatibility with Microsoft Windows Media Player.

The Archos AV500 will be the first PVP/PDA device on the market to support standard PIM applications (including Calendar, E-mail, and Notepad), and will include an integrated Web browser.

Internet connection is still unspecified, but is said to support Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth, and GSM.

Selling my Kyocera 7135

I'm selling my Kyocera 7135 Palm OS smartphone on ebay.

If you want it, go bid on it.

Bill's Treo 600 Photo Tips

If you've viewed Live from Mundania, you've noticed that the photos I've been taking with the Treo 600's camera are...well...total crap. I'm really not that bad a photographer...honest.

Well, it seems that Bill Koslosky, a.k.a. Wireless Doc, has posted the start of a rather nice-looking Treo 600 Camera Primer. While there's not a whole lot there yet, Bill emailed me today to tell me that he's working on some new material that should be posted soon.

What impressed me the most was the quality of the photos he's getting out of the Treo 600's camera. For example, the photo shown below is just one of several that are pretty amazing especially when compared to the garbage that mine seems to produce. I'm willing to accept some blame for bad pics, but I'm still not 100% convinced that my phone is acting the way it should. I guess I just need Bill to teach me the Zen of Treo 600 photography.

Toshiba Mobile Viewer

Toshiba has just released a consumer multimedia handheld device at the CeBIT 2004 show.

The Toshiba Mobile Viewer is a multimedia player featuring a 3.5-inch LCD display, and a 1.8-inch 20-GB hard disk drive for up to 80 hours of video storage. The Mobile Viewer also converts into a still picture and video recorder, with an optional one megapixel cam module (higher resolution modules to be made available later).

Toshiba has also designed the Mobile Viewer to be able to dock into an audio-video cradle connected to stereo sound speakers, transforming it into a full-featured entertainment unit.

Panasonic Videocam Handset

Panasonic has announced the X300 mobile handset, which turns into a videocam at the touch of a button, sporting a pop-up LCD 65K colour screen. The unit will be available in the fall of this year.

Pop-up LCD screens are primarily seen on camcorders, but the design appears to be a significant ergonomic advance over other mobile phone camcorders. Filming is much easier when holding the phone sideways, videocam style.

Besides the novel pop-up screen, the Panasonic X300 tri-band phone features video record and playback, a 65-k colour display, a built-in VGA digital camera, multimedia messaging, polyphonic ring tones, preloaded games, and a WAP 2.0-compatible browser.

PDAs in Wichita Schools

David Rothman over at TeleRead posted an interesting story about how 1,580 PDAs are now being used quite successfully in a Wichita school system.

Without mentioning e-books in particular, an ed-tech specialist at one Wichita school says the results with Tungsten-E's have "knocked my socks off. The parents are very interested and want to use the handhelds too. Teachers send notes home to parents via the handhelds, and the parents respond. They are great school-to-parent communication tools." Plus, the kids use the machines to be better organized, not just for a variety of subjects.

I'm still a firm believer in the near-term (next 5 years) growth potential for PDAs, but they have to be cheaper, more durable, and definitely no harder to use than your typical Palm OS device is right now. Just my opinion, of course.

PalmSource Sells WeSync

I was just sent an email announcement stating that PalmSource has sold the WeSync™ group calendaring/contact system to Tanner Research.

WeSync is a shared calendar and contact data management system. It permits users of Palm OS devices to sync multiple devices and/or PCs (desktops and laptops) to the same server-based PIM (personal information management) database. This facilitates coordinating schedules and common address books within households and small groups.

WeSync was purchased by Palm back in 2000. It was supported (barely) for about two years. Then, support and new memberships were discontinued on October 18, 2002. Since then, the WeSync system has been on life support, allowing existing users to sync their calendar and contact data, but not permitting new users and not providing any user support.

As a long-time (and current) WeSync user, I look at this announcement with great anticipation. The Palm OS community has long needed a shared PIM system that is reliable, scalable, and easy to use. WeSync is by far the closest thing out there currently. My hope is that this sale will enable the system to be maintained for the foreseeable future.

Photo Moblogging with the Treo 600

Ever since cameras started coming out as features on on wireless (cellular) PDAs, I've wanted to arrive at a setup that would let me post photos and comments as new blog entries directly from the phone and with as little hassle as possible. Well, using a mix of readily available tools, I've achieved the first objective and the hassle factor is reasonably low.

Take a look at Live from Mundania -- that's the photo-centric blog that I've set up to receive my mobile posts. It's plain and simple, but it renders pretty nicely on a mobile device screen.

The requirements for this moblogging setup are pretty straightforward:

• First, you have to have a handheld. Mine is a Treo 600. Fairly mediocre camera but best-in-class overall package.

• Second, you have to have a blog to post to. Movable Type is an excellent, free blog environment with a vibrant user and developer community behind it.

• Third, you need a way to get the content from your phone to your Movable Type server. This is the key. MfOP2 (or Moblogging for Other People Too) is a free service that will take any content emailed to it and post it to your moblog. It has an impressively flexible configuration and works amazingly fast and effectively for a free service.

• Finally, you need an email client on your handheld. My client of choice is SnapperMail. It works really well with the Treo's built-in camera and other image-handling apps under Palm OS 5.

So, what's the hassle factor when posting a new entry? Here are the typical steps my setup requires:

1) Take a photo with the Treo. This can be done later, but it's easiest if this is the first action taken.

2) "Send" the photo to Snappermail (two taps). This creates a new email with the photo as an attachment. You can add other photos as attachments as well and, if you configured MfOP2 correctly, it will post all in a single blog entry.

3) I enter the email address of the MfOP2 server into the To: field. That requires all of two keystrokes and a stylus/fingernail tap.

4) At this point, you'd have to enter a fair bit of MfOP2 code to tell the MfOP2 server what your password is, what the title of the image is, what your comments are about it, etc., etc. I set up a Palm OS "shortcut" that enters all that into the email as a template. All I need to do is enter the shortcut symbol, hit my two shortcut letters, and all the MfOP2 code is dumped into the empty email. I then do a few minor edits as necessary and hit "Send."

That's it. About 1 minute later, my moblog is updated with my new post. As I said, the key to all this working so smoothly is MfOP2 -- it really is an amazing tool.

So, if you're wanting to give moblogging a whirl, give this setup a try. It's slightly less than trivial to get it all set up initially, but once that's done, it's pretty smooth sailing from then on.

Record Movies With Your Treo 600

Ryan Rife has released an alpha version of MovieRec for the Treo 600. MovieRec turns the Treo 600's still digital camera into a movie recorder. The app can be downloaded from Infinityball.com (Ryan's website) and there's a hearty discussion about the app/idea over at the forum at TreoCentral.com.

Currently, the app (shown above), which doesn't even have a version number yet, records only to internal RAM. Ryan claims it can attain 30 frames per second, faster updates than the screen can display. Also, an interface to allow saving of the video files needs to be added.

Pretty exciting stuff from the Palm OS dev community, eh? Go PayPal Ryan a small donation to keep him going -- he needs to buy a serial cable to facilitate his debugging. ;-)

Concept: The PDA Calculator Sled

As a college professor, I'm surrounded by young adults, many age 18-24. While the general populus thinks this age group is the most technologically savvy, I have to say I'm just not seeing it. Relatively few use PDAs or smart phones or other cutting edge stuff. The large majority of the students I see rely on two things as their daily tech: plain, no-feature cellphones and big scientific/business calculators.

It was this latter item that got me thinking. Why don't they just use inexpensive PDAs as their calulators? The bargain-basement Zire series and discontinued Sony Clie models can be had for under $100 -- roughly the same price as an upper end calculator.

The answer is, of course, in the interface. Using even the best designed calculator on a PDA is not all that enjoyable. The screen gives relatively little feedback and the screen offers only so much room for buttons. The advantages are that the screen can change based on the task, but usually, this hinders rapid use. Any of us who still hang onto our favorite HP or Casio or TI calculators from yore know this to be true.

So, it dawned on me that you could have the best of both worlds by virtue of a PDA calculator "sled." Instead of having a piece of dedicated hardware that includes a screen and software and limited memory, just rely on the PDA hardware to do that.

The image to the right is a quick sketch of what I'm envisioning (click it to see a zoom view pop-up). The PDA slides into the top and docks with a connector of some sort in the base of the sled. That physical connection would then launch the calculator software that would be controlled by the buttons (and, alternately, by an on-screen interface as well if desired). The sled could also contain a couple of 'AA' cells for added power as well as some button/detents at the top for securing the PDA in place.

The advantage of this setup is that you get the good tactile feel of real calculator buttons with the memory and horsepower and nice screen of a PDA (even the lowliest Palm OS device has a higher resolution screen than even very expensive calculators). Plus, the sled would be pretty inexpensive to manufacture since it doesn't have a screen or even much in the way of electronics. Additionally, the software could be upgraded (how many calculators have you seen that allow you to upgrade the firmware?).

My hunch is that this setup, if sold as a blister pack in Wal-Mart and Target stores (wherever kids go to get ready for the new year in high school or college), would go like hotcakes. Imagine our young adults all getting both a really good calculator and a really good personal organizer tool all in one. Also, if combined with educational software (e.g. grade and homework management programs), it would be quite easy to justify the slight additional cost to a lot of parents. The whole kit could probably be sold for under $150 for a color model and under $100 for grayscale. And if anyone actually starts making this, just send me a letter thanking me for the idea...would you? That's all I ask. ;-)

Brando Screen Protectors Redux

Last year, I wrote positively about the Brando WorkShop Screen Protector. Well, I just recieved one for my Treo 600 and am again impressed.

Brando claims their product is "The Perfect Screen Protector!" -- they may very well be right. Not only is it tough (I would have a hard time pushing a pencil tip through it) and rigid, it is perfectly clear and doesn't diminish or obscure the display in any way.

Sure, there are cheaper options (each Brando is $9 + S&H), but given that this one protector might well outlast the device, I doubt there are any better deals.

Tapwave Releases Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 for Zodiac

Tapwave and Activision have (finally) co-released one of the titles that folks have been most anxiously awaiting for the Zodiac gaming device: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4.

In the screenshot shown above, which was posted at ZodiacGamer, you can see that the game is a 3/4-view perspective game. You can control over a dozen different (real and made-up) skaters through different terrains, maps, and parks trying to learn different tricks, accomplish various tasks, and win a series of competitions.

The game is surprisingly addictive -- I didn't think I'd enjoy it nearly as much as actually did. With dozens and dozens of different tricks to learn (some requiring mind-boggling sequences of button combinations), the game is perpetually challenging. Plus, as each level has a series of challenges and surprises to discover, the game can be quite entertaining even if your skating abilities aren't that evolved.

Overall, I'd give this game a hearty thumbs-up. It uses the Zodiac hardware to its fullest and the controls are both configurable and easy to get the hang of. Memorizing all the different moves, however, may take quite a while. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 is definitely not your 20-hour-to-beat type game...it should last many, many times that given the variety and flexibility of play. Also, given that you can have multiple players competing in the same level simultaneously (through head-to-head Bluetooth connections), the opportunities for group fun are many.

Lovin' the Treo 600

I'm now fully switched over to my new Treo 600 (shown). All the apps and data that resided on my previous smart phone (the Kyocera 7135) have been transferred and I'm living large.

As a phone, it's dandy -- it does everything a phone is supposed to do and it does them superlatively. The size, weight, feel, and interface are all just terrific. Yes, there are smaller phones out there, but the Treo 600 is not what I would call large by any stretch.

As a PDA, it's very good. While the low-res screen reduces the amount of stuff you can see at any one time, the display is amazingly bright and clear (and it's the same 160x160 that I had on my Kyocera). The 32 MB of RAM is adequate (but not tremendous) and the 144 MHz processor is quite snappy. The SDIO slot provides nearly limitless expandability.

The real work of art here is the interface between the PDA side and the phone side. Unlike the Kyocera, there really is no division between these two functions. On the 7135, it was very apparent whether you dealing with a "phone" function or a "PDA" function -- shuttling between the two function sets was difficult and obvious.

In contrast, the Treo 600 blends everything quite perfectly. Using GPRS in a PDA application is seamless and transparent. Initiating a voice call from the Addressbook is fall-down easy. Handspring/palmOne really knows their stuff when it comes to user interfaces.

Then there's the battery life...it's heaploads better than I expected. I can easily go three days on a single charge with moderate PDA and phone/GPRS use. My Kyocera and my old Treo 270 would struggle to go 24 hours. Realizing that "battery = weight" makes me even more accepting of the Treo 600's 6 oz. weight (typical for handhelds, a bit heavier than most cellphones).

But, nothing is perfect. I wish the SDIO slot were full-power rather than it being a bit underpowered (it's not clear whether it's actually SDIO compliant in that regard). I also wish that T-Mobile's GPRS speeds were better. They're not bad in most spots, but the throughput can vary a fair bit from location to location and it still pales in comparison to Wi-Fi. I'm hoping that EDGE will come to T-Mobile fairly soon (is a hardware change required on the phone?). Finally, and this is the tiniest nit to pick, I wish it had a feature that my Tungsten C has -- hold down a letter key to capitalize it. I really like that feature and I wish the Treo 600 had that as an available option. The Shift key isn't inconvenient...it's just that I often capitalize after-the-fact and the TC's approach lets me change my mind after the letter has been struck.

Overall, to borrow from McDonald's, when it comes to the Treo 600, I'm Lovin' It.

MiniPC's = Death to Handhelds and Smartphones?

Rohdesign has a blog post offering an interesting concept: miniature, pocketable full-fledged PCs will out-evolve today's PDAs and smart phones and replace them.

"I think that all of today's 'super-duper mobile devices' have a core flaw: they use a different OS than the one users are used to from their desktop PCs. Whether that OS is Symbian, Palm Cobalt or Pocket PC doesn't matter."

I've long believed that Pocket PC's days were numbered since we're getting close to being able to cram full Windows XP into that form factor. My personal belief is that the PC will eventually go away and be replaced by lots of smart (by today's standards) devices better designed for specific subsets of tasks/functions.

Handspring/palmOne Begins Shipping Treo 600 for T-Mobile

I just received notice today that my pre-ordered Treo 600 for T-Mobile has shipped. I pre-ordered it back on February 10th (the first day pre-orders were being taken). The promised delivery date had been "sometime in March," so I'm glad to hear that it's on its way earlier than expected.

More when it arrives later this week...

CNET's Lame 'PDA Prizefight'

CNET usually offers a mixed bag of content -- while they have some good reporting on tech issues, most of their features have pretty limited worth, at least to the hard-core geek. The latter is true of their current feature, the PDA Prizefight.

This feature supposedly compares the two dominant handheld operating systems, Palm OS 5.2 and Windows Mobile 2003, in eight categories. They go on to propose Palm OS as the winner, besting WM03 in four (of the eight) categories and tying it in two categories.

The article is pretty much worthless, IMNSHO. It's loaded with inconsistencies (e.g. it says that its goal is to consider only the operating system and not the hardware, but then uses many examples that relate only to certain OEMs' actual devices and/or third-party add-on applications). The article also assumes that the same qualities are equally important to users of both operating systems, which I'll be the first to admit that they aren't. Despite CNET's determination that Palm OS was the better handheld OS (it's the one I personally prefer), I still think this article only vaguely resembles "journalism" (sorry, Rick...I call 'em as I see 'em).

Notes from the 2004 PalmSource Developer Conference

Well, I'm back from the PalmSource Developer Conference in San Jose and, well, I'm bushed (the SJC-ORD-CVG red-eye sequence sucks). Nevertheless, here are some noteworthy comments that you may not find on other sites.

First, the big news is that Palm OS 6.x will be called Palm OS Cobalt and Palm OS 5.4 (and beyond) will be called Palm OS Garnet. When I first heard the latter, I thought they said "darn it" and was really confused. Follow that link for more info about the new Palm OS -- while there aren't any Cobalt devices announced yet, the breadboard demos were stunning. I cannot wait to see what the device makers come up with powered by Cobalt -- should be sweet.

Ironies of ironies -- the conference venue, the San Jose Fairmont, had free Wi-Fi Internet throughout the common areas of the hotel. However, to sign on to the service, you had to use an Internet Explorer-compliant web browser -- Mozilla didn't work and neither did any of the Palm OS web browsers. So, all those Tungsten C owners were walking around with slight scowls on their faces.

I got to fondle the most teeny smartphone, the GSPDA Xplore G18 (shown to the right). This GSM/GPRS (class 10) phone is about 2/3 the size of the already small Treo 600 and includes a camera. It has no keypad (on-screen buttons), but at 3.7 oz, I can't see where you'd put them. While there's no SD or other expansion slot on the camera itself, there's a slick little SD/MMC card reader adapter that plugs into the USB port on the bottom of the phone. For those wanting their Palm OS apps in the smallest possible PDA-phone combination (possibly even the smallest Palm OS device overall), this is it.

One thing I noticed while "people-watching" was that there were a LOT of Treo 600s being used by the other 1,100 or so attendees -- my hunch is about 20% of everyone there had one of these. The recent announcement that palmOne is taking pre-orders for T-Mobile-friendly Treo 600s just put me over the edge -- I pre-ordered one yesterday for $399. Now all I need to do is wait till early March when they will supposedly be shipping. For the record, I firmly believe that the rumored Treo 610 is complete hogwash. The current device is obviously so compelling to so many that palmOne is most likely to just keep making more and more of them, thereby bringing costs down so as to improve its profits.

During the multi-PUG (Palm Users Group) meeting Tuesday night, an engineer with Tapwave demonstrated Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 on the Zodiac. I believe this is the first public demo of the game, which has been "coming soon" for a few months now. It's good to see some of the promised game titles finally coming out for the Zodiac (which rocks, BTW).

FISH Memory Card Standard Debuts

The Universal Transportable Memory Association (UTMA) has introduced a flash memory card standard requiring no adapters, cables or card readers, called a Flash Internal Semiconductor Harddrive, or FISH. Cards based on the standard plug into any USB port, allowing transfer of information between PCs, PDAs, cameras or other devices.

FISH Memory cards are smaller than SD cards and have transfer rates of 10 Mbps. FISH cards are fast enough to capture streaming video from DVRs and videocams. Standard FISH cards are 1.3" long with width and thickness the size of a USB port. Miniature versions exist, 25% smaller. Current FISH technology allows for 2-GB, with 16-GB expected in 2005.

47 independent industry experts were involved in the development of the UTMA standard. Inputs to the standard came from 34 different companies. This industry consensus is expected to lead to a broad range of devices.

Off to PalmSource

Tomorrow, I head out to the PalmSource 2004 Developer Conference in San Jose. While there, I hope to see many exciting things, including the official public launch of Palm OS6, the renaming of OS5 and OS6, and perhaps even some prototypes of devices based on OS6...who knows.

While my blogging will be somewhat curtailed while travelling, I'll try to post the most juicy bits as I can.

Sony's New TH55 and TJ37/27 Clie PDAs

Sony is bringing out three new Clie handhelds to add to its line-up. The Clie TH55 (shown) will sport Sony's first slate-style device with 480x320 resolution. It will feature both Wi-Fi (802.11b) and an integrated VGA (640x480) camera. It will come with 32 MB of RAM and a variable-speed ARM processor running Palm OS 5.2.

New for the TH-series is Sony's enhanced PIM app, Clie Organizer, which has been met with some mixed reviews by those seeing screenshots. It will be interesting to see if the new app still maintains the ease-of-use that has been the hallmark of standard Palm OS applications to date.

The other two new Clie handhelds are the TJ37 and its lesser sibling, the TJ27. Like the TH55, the TJ37 sports Wi-Fi and an on-board VGA camera, has 32 MB of RAM, and runs on Palm OS 5.2. However, it's display resolution is 320x320 (plus a dedicated Graffiti2 area). The TJ27 will not have on-board Wi-Fi and won't have as extensive a set of multimedia functions as the TJ37. Unlike the TH55, neither TJ unit will come with Clie Organizer. Previews of these devices can be found at Palm Infocenter, BargainPDA, and Brighthand.

I'd be more excited about these units if they didn't rely on Sony's semi-proprietary Memory Stick expansion card format. I think it's obnoxious for Sony to shove an unneeded flash memory format down our throats when that format offers no real technical advantages over existing alternatives (e.g., Secure Digital) while being bigger and more expensive. Of course, Sony's bad reputation regarding their poor customer service is another reason to reconsider making one of these new Clies your next device. Kind of like that hot girl in college...they're pretty, but they come with baggage.

Olympus Enters Camphone Market

Olympus has announced its entry into the market of mobile phone camera modules.

The new camera module, pictured here with a Japanese 100-yen coin for a size comparison, realizes its thin size by employing free-shaped prisms for aligning light rays.

The free-shaped prism technology was previously employed by Olympus in a head-mount display, called Eye-Trek. The experience carried over in the design of the miniature camera module.

Compared to conventional camera modules for mobile phones that require several lenses vertically stacked on one another, the resin free-prism model is much thinner, at 8.5-mm. Olympus' camera module has an F value of 2.8, is designed for a 1/4-in optical instrument, and supports a 1.3-million-pixel image sensor.

Olympus is expecting to ship camera modules by spring of 2004, and mass-production in fall 2004, with an estimated production run of 500,000 units per month.

1-GB SanDisk SD Cards

SanDisk Corporation is now shipping the world's first production 1-GB secure digital (SD) card.

At $500, the 1-GB SD card has the capacity to store over 30 hours of digitally compressed music, 1,000 high-res digital images, and over five hours of MPEG-4 compressed video.

This new SD card uses a novel stacking technology, which enables SanDisk to double the previous memory capacity without increasing the size of the card.

SanDisk worked with Sharp's Integrated Circuits Group to devise a way to stack additional layers of NAND MLC die in ultra-thin packages without increasing the card size. In the 1-GB card, two ultra-thin packages are vertically mounted in the same height that currently houses a single package.

The new stacking process also has the potential for application to compact flash (CF) and Sony memory stick (MS) storage media.

New BlackBerry Adds Walkie-Talkie, Speakerphone

Research in Motion has just released the BlackBerry 7510, a new version of the famously addictive wireless handheld with phone and data capability.

Similar to the color 7200 series, the 7510 features new long-range digital walkie-talkie and speakerphone capabilities.

The color screen features a high resolution 240x160 display supporting over 65,000 colors. Other highlights include built-in email, browser and organizer apps; integrated attachment viewing for email; and a development platform based on Java.

Walkie-talkie service is provided by Nationwide Direct Connect, and phone service is via Nextel.

Review of Abacus SPOT Watch

PDAntic.com has a really nice review of the new Microsoft SPOT watch from Abacus (a division of Fossil). These watches access data wirelessly through an FM sub-band.

Interesting idea. The watch looks pretty large to me, but heck, I don't even wear a watch to begin with. Should be interesting to see how these things pan out.

New Handheld Survey

The Palm OS User Council is hosting its 2004 Handheld Users Survey. We hope everyone will fill it out, as it looks to take less than 5 minutes total to do so. The results should be interesting.

Bumped from Jan. 06

Microsoft's iPod Killer?

Apple's iTunes Music Store has captured over 80% of the market for legally downloaded music, the Trojan Horse for the real moneymaker, the iPod music player. Steve Jobs has called iTunes "the Microsoft of music stores."

Well, the Redmond giant is awakening. Last month, Microsoft began offering, with Loudeye, a service that lets other companies build online music stores. Later this year, Microsoft will offer its own music download service through MSN.

And finally, at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft is expected to reveal new details about a line of portable devices that could challenge the iPod's position in the digital music world.

As previously reported by GearBits, Microsoft's handheld Portable Media Center device will store photos, music and video. A 40 GB device will hold up to 175 hours of video, 10,000 songs or 100,000 pictures. The first commercial devices are expected later in 2004, from licensees Samsung, ViewSonic, iRiver, Tatung and Creative.

Prices are expected to range from about $400 to $700, pitting lower-end devices squarely against Apple's 20 and 40 GB iPods... and trumping them with what could be the next mobile killer app, video playback.

iPod's Mini Me

Apple has just unveiled the much-rumored, much-denied iPod mini at Macworld Expo. Voila!

Weighing in at 3.6 ounces, the iPod mini sports a shell of anodized aluminum (your choice of silver, gold, blue, pink, or green), holds 4GB of music, and will retail at $249.

The original iPod retails at only $50 more, now at 15GB in size, and is also available in 20GB and 40GB versions.

To conserve space, the iPod mini sports a smaller LCD screen, and integrates the iPod’s buttons with the Touch Wheel to form a new Click Wheel.

In addition to playing music ripped from your CD collection or purchased from Apple's iTunes Music Store, the iPod mini can store contacts, a calendar and to-do lists. Also available are nightlife guides, news articles and games - Music Quiz, Brick, Parachute and the ubiquitous Solitaire.

New NOMAD Digital Audio Player Debuts

Creative has just launched the NOMAD MuVo TX digital audio player.

The media player includes USB 2.0 connectivity, which ensures that hours of music can be downloaded in seconds. Requiring no cables, the player plugs directly into a computer’s USB port for instant recognition as a removable flash drive.

Measuring 36.7 x 74 x 16mm, and weighing 43 grams, The NOMAD MuVo TX features 512 MB of memory for up to 16 hours of music, and a continuous play time of up to 15 hours. A backlit LCD display shows song information, track number, play time, play mode and EQ setting. A built-in microphone also enables recording of over 32 hours of live audio.

The player is bundled with Creative MediaSource software, a full MP3/WMA ripping and organizing app.

The Lord of the Rings Wireless Games

Wireless software publisher JAMDAT Mobile has announced that it is launching wireless games based on The Lord of the Rings epic. Available through Verizon Wireless' Get it Now service, the games suite include six separate apps:

The Return of the King is an eight-level scrolling adventure game with Aragorn, Frodo, Gandalf, Gimli, Legolas, Pippin and Sam battling Orcs, Uruk-hai, Trolls, the Army of the Dead, Shelob and other foes.

The Lord of the Rings Trivia includes more than 360 trivia questions covering characters, objects and locations and more from all three chapters of the Ring trilogy.

The Lord of the Rings Pinball is a fast two-table pinball game wrapped in a Middle-Earth theme.

Wallpapers offer various Middle-Earth images including characters, locations, scenes, and maps. Finally, The Lord of The Rings Tones Player provides ring tones based on the musical score.

Adobe's New EBookstore

Software company Adobe Systems recently opened an online store offering customers digital content in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF).

The Adobe Digital Media Store offers ebooks from publishers such as Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, McGraw-Hill, and Random House, and includes links to digital publications such as BusinessWeek, Popular Science, the New York Times, and USA Today.

Adobe's move is the latest chapter in the two-steps-forward, one-step-back saga of the ebook industry, which last saw Barnes and Noble exit the ebook market.

Based on Adobe Reader 6.0, digital content from the Digital Media Store uses a digital rights management (DRM) scheme that allows users to view paid-for material on desktop computers and Palm OS-based handheld computers.

The PSA - Personal Satellite Assistant

So you think your 400 MHz wireless GPS-enabled PDA is pretty cutting-edge kit, eh? Well, it's not even close. NASA is working on the PSA, or Personal Satellite Assistant (shown), the next great thing in mobile electronics...at least for astronauts.

NASA's Ames Research Center is collaborating with other institutions and companies to develop a semi-autonomous astronaut's assistant. The PSA would float (due to micro-gravity) and propel itself around inside the space station using small air fans.

About the size of a cantelope, the PSA would record the astronaut's activities by streaming A/V to the space station's central computer via wireless LAN. It would also facilitate communication and perform routine minor tasks for the astronaut. The PSA would also have an array of sensors, so the astronaut could verbally instruct it to "go check the temperature in B module," and, after venturing there on its own, it would report back with the requested information.

This overview at Ames provides some still drawings and some concept movies. This page provides a lot more detail into how the specifics of the research effort are progressing. Finally, this link is to a quasi-academic research paper outlining the conceptual and theoretic foundation of the PSA.

Based on the photos and movies, it kind of reminds me of the training droids in the original Star Wars (the small hovering orbs Luke is using to practice using The Force). This just makes me want to be an astronaut just that much more -- they have all the best toys!

Quicktime Does CDMA, GSM