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

With the latest release of QuickTime, Apple is claiming that it has developed the first mainstream media format for rich multimedia content across CDMA 2000 and GSM wireless networks.

QuickTime 6.5 enhances the popular software - already a leading platform for high-quality audio and video over IP, wireless and broadband networks, with over 175 million downloads for the 6.0 version - and enables users to share high-quality multimedia across the two predominant wireless networking technologies worldwide.

The new release supports 3GPP and 3GPP2 standards, including Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR) and Qualcomm Code Excited Linear Predictive (QCELP) audio codecs, MPEG-4 and H.263 video codecs, 3G Timed Text, native .3gp and .3g2 file formats, Movie Fragments, cross-platform Unicode text support, and enhanced DV playback.

Disappointed Reaction to VGA PDA Screen

The Register has a preliminary mini-review on the new e800 Pocket PC from Toshiba (shown). The most, if not only, notable feature on the e800 is its full VGA (480x640) screen, which has double the resolution of the next-highest resolution PDA screens (the 320x48 screens found on some palmOne and Sony Palm OS devices). However, the verdict isn't all good:

"The high resolution display is a bit of a mixed bag. The standard Pocket PC applications don't support the it, and nor, actually does much else. Toshiba provides the ClearVue Suite from Westtek, which allows you to look at, but not work with, Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents and a range of image formats. Reading Word documents without scrolling horizontally requires them to be rendered to a very small font indeed - it's not advisable to do this for long periods and some people will find it simply too hard on they eye to bother with at all.

It's also irritating that you need to effectively soft reset every time you want to switch resolutions. Finally, in standard 240 x 320 the display looks rather blocky due to relatively large pixel size. In short, I wasn't actually as impressed by the high resolution as I had expected to be. I can see, though, that with increased application support, landscape viewing modes, and good WLAN access to web and other content, that this feature could one day become something very useful indeed."

That's too bad. It sounds like the same type of growing pains that Palm OS devices experienced when Sony and HandEra pushed the limit of Palm OS screens past 160x160 a few years ago. However, given Microsoft's very tight-fisted approach to permitting vendor-driven changes to the Pocket PC platform, support for Toshiba's VGA screen may be virtually non-existant for the foreseeable future. Too bad, too.

Tight TAZ I Supposedly to Come with Removable Hard Drive

Tight Audio Systems has updated their specs for the forthcoming "TAZ I" portable multimedia system (see GearBits overview of the TAZ I here), shown above.

The big surprise is that it now appears to be specified as incorporating a removable/swappable cartridge-based hard drive. Tight's hard drive module is shown below. With claims that the audio cassette-sized HD will be available in sizes from 20 GB to 80 GB, this could be one very yummy multimedia player.

Plus, Tight's specs now also include a modular MP3 player: "About the size of a domino, mini-taz is a fully functional, stand-alone mp3 player that docks (and disappears) into the left hand side of TAZ I." Mini-taz also serves as the TAZ I's SD/MMC reader slot, so it itself is expandable.

Tight's website claims availability in early 2004. Let's hope they're on schedule.

Sony Clie SJ-22 for $79

If you, or someone you know, is in the market for a nice, basic PDA, this might be the best deal going: a new Sony Clie SJ-22 (high-res 320x320 color with Memory Stick expansion slot) for $79. Renee sent in instructions on how to get this deal:

1) Go to Staples.com and search for item# 504989
2) Add the PDA to your cart.
3) Add coupon 76595 for $20 off.
4) Receive your SJ22.
5) Send in $30 rebate from Staples.
Final Price = $79.99 with free shipping

Expires today (12/14/03). Enjoy.

SanDisk Addresses (Lack of) Palm OS Drivers for Wi-Fi SD Card

Wi-Fi Planet is reporting that SanDisk sent out an email explaining the reasons for the delay in their issuing Palm OS drivers for their Secure Digital (SD) Wi-Fi (802.11b) adapter cards (shown).

While we've covered SanDisk's delay here at GearBits before, there are several aspects to SanDisk's statements that seem a bit odd. For example:

"SanDisk goes on to say it and SyChip have "invested considerable time and resources into developing Palm OS 4.1 drivers" but that in the long run providing the drivers will not be worthwhile. The older hardware, they say, isn't fast enough to take advantage of the higher bandwidth speed of 802.11b, and models that lack networking software (like the Palm m500) would need upgrades that would require too much technical expertise by the end user."

Older hardware isn't fast enough to take advantage of Wi-Fi? That's simply untrue. I had Wi-Fi on my HandEra 330 by adding on a Symbol Wireless Networker Compact Flash Wi-Fi adapter. The 330 had a 33 MHz Dragonball CPU and it was more than able to use Wi-Fi in a meaningful way (e.g., instant messaging, IRC, and web browsing on mostly text sites were all very usable). Even running VNC on it was feasible (albeit a tad slow). So, I don't buy this story -- my suspicion is that they just weren't able to finish the drivers and finally said "screw it."

"The company blamed delays in the Palm 5.x drivers for the SD Wi-Fi card on proprietary changes to the OS that product makers can introduce (SanDisk will have to make device specific changes) [and] electrical issues on some devices that couldn't handle the SD Wi-Fi card (the Treo 600 is mentioned specifically)..."

Who said SanDisk had to support ALL devices running Palm OS 5 when the drivers are released? You couldn't just support some Palm OS 5 devices (just like you're supporting only some Pocket PC 2003 devices)? Geez, guys, make a business decision and see what devices you need to support, based on the installed base, to make the required profit on your development costs (it's called an "ROI calculation" in case that's a foreign idea to you). My hunch is that if you supported just a few devices (e.g., the Tungsten T line and the Zire 71 from palmOne, perhaps also the Tapwave Zodiac), you could easily recoup your dev costs and make a nice profit.

SanDisk also claims that the necessity of negotiating a new OS licensing agreement with PalmSource (since it was spun off from Palm, Inc.) has hindered its ability to release drivers. Knowing what I know about PalmSource, I might believe a delay of a month or two, but not the six-month delay that SanDisk is now defending.

Anyway, the upshot is that SanDisk has really fallen down on its promises. Given the way it has handled this all so far, I'm not sure I'd buy an SD Wi-Fi card from them now even if drivers were available. What about you? Are you troubled by this whole debacle, or is it just a little glitch that we'll all forget about in 12 months?

Thanks to Gizmodo for the link.

Brando Screen Protectors

My buddy Dan generously bought me a Brando Workshop screen protector for my Tapwave Zodiac. I don't generally use screen protectors for two reasons: first, they always seem to reduce the quality of the display (something I'm pretty picky about), and second, I never seem to keep a device longer than 18 months or so, and I rarely seem to damage the screen. But, I thought, hey, might as well try it out.

I'm glad I did. Unlike most other screen protectors I've seen, the Brando is a very rigid piece of clear plastic with an electrostatic cling treatment added to one side. It seems pretty tough, is reusable, and even washable. It installs really easily due to its rigidity and did so with a minimum of air bubbles. Once I squeejeed those few out, I was impressed: I couldn't really tell that a screen protector was installed.

Brando offers screen protectors for just about every PDA, it seems. Check out their website and you'll see what I mean. At $12 apiece, they're anything but cheap screen protectors. But from what I've seen so far, my hunch is that just one will last a very long time. And after all, $12 is far cheaper than the cost of replacing your device's screen.

CNET: Palm OS Most Loved, Pocket PC Least Loved

According to the CNET Digital Living Gear Envy wrap-up, Palm OS devices are much more lusted after than Pocket PCs.

Of the top 5 "all-time most loved" gadgets, two ran on the Palm operating system: the Samsung SPH-i500 smartphone and the Sony CLIE PEG-UX50. None of the top 5 ran on Windows Mobile.

However, one of the "all-time least loved" devices was a Pocket PC, the HP iPaq H4350, which had votes of "53% left / 47% loved."

I hope Microsoft and the Windows Mobile OEMs keep coming out with new hardware, because it pushes Palm OS licensees to continue innovating and coming out with the best and most interesting devices (at least according to BusinessWeek).

Forbes: Can Wireless Save PDAs?

Forbes magazine has an interesting story discussing why wireless (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cellular) may be the only saving grace for what we now know as the PDA.

"So far, handhelds with chips to help users connect wirelessly to the Internet or to their other gadgets are in the minority of handhelds sold. This year, only about 15% of PDAs sold include wireless capabilities; Todd Kort, an analyst at research firm Gartner, predicts that the number will double next year because of the cheaper, more battery-efficient wireless chips on the horizon. Kort predicts that corporate customers wanting to keep their workers wirelessly plugged into the office will help prop up handheld sales for the foreseeable future, though he still doesn't forecast growth for handhelds as a market in general."

While I don't generally give much credibility to most of what the likes of Gartner have to say about things, this is one opinion I agree with. Unwired PDAs are likely to be as high-growth (and high-profit) as bargain calculators are now.

One comment in the article that may perhaps be more contentious was made by Paul Saffo, a research director for the Institute for the Future:

"Even if, as a consumer, you don't care about Palm, you should," said Saffo, the futurist. "Without [PalmOne], we're all marching lockstep with AT&T and Microsoft. As consumers, I think we should all buy a Palm even if we don't use it -- just to keep the diversity out there."

So, is wireless the life extending technology for PDAs, or can something else do it? Or, are we likely to see them die out regardless in a few years?

Optimal Use of Mobile Technology

As an academic researcher, I study how technology can be used by organizations and businesses to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of what they do. This line of investigation often leads me to think about how we, as users, have many of the same issues that corporations do. That is, how should we purchase, implement, and use various technologies to bring about the best personal results for ourselves?

Companies have a lot of techniques at their disposal that help them measure their existing and potential technology decisions: time-and-motion studies, return-on-investment (ROI) assessments, business process re-engineering...the list goes on and on.

However, the tools available to Joe User (you and me) are much more limited. Granted, you and I don't have corporate boards we need to answer to in order to justify our technology investments (although spouses might serve the same purpose). But, is there any less reason that we shouldn't be able to systematically examine how we individually use and apply personal and mobile technology, and then strive to make better investments? Does it not seem reasonable to want to get the most bang (in terms of usefulness and enjoyment) for our technology buck?

What I'd like to see is a set of software tools. The first type of tool would probably be PC-based, and it would help us analyze our cellular use and develop a cellular profile. For example, I suspect that about 85% of my mobile minutes are spent on data calls, but I don't really know that for certain. It could actually be 50% -- I just don't know. Understanding this aspect of my usage would help me decide what kind of device(s) I should be looking for (data-centric, voice-centric, or mixed?).

The second type of tool would be an application, or family of apps, that I can run on the various devices I use. It would give me a breakdown of how I operate my devices. For example, how often do I turn on each device? How long is each device on each time? How much time do I spend doing different things (e.g., using PIM (personal information management) functions, browsing the web, listening to music, playing games, etc.)? Again, knowing all this in a more thorough and systematic way would help me determine what kind of device(s) I should be looking at.

Finally, the third type of tool I want is a comprehensive decision-assistance tool. This could, and perhaps should, be a web-based tool. It would include information on all the various handhelds, phones, and related devices (MP3 players even, maybe). Then, by entering in my personal usage information (from the above tools), this app would determine which devices best fit my user profile.

Of course, that assumes I'm a mature technology user and that my current actual usage best suits what I need to do. If someone wants to change how they use their devices, this type of tool would help with that as well (need to do more mobile email? no problem).

In short, I'd like to see this happen. Will it happen? Most definitely not, for no one person would benefit enough from doing it to produce it all, and it might require the assistance and/or blessing of way too many device makers for such a project to be feasible. So, is there a subset of this dream, a whittled-down core concept, that would still be useful? Possibly...I'm still thinking about that.

Converged Devices: A Tale of Trade-offs

In a new article, Brighthand's Steve Bush says he has changed his ways. While he has long been a proponent of using two devices (a PDA and a phone), he is now a convert to using a smartphone. His new device, which I assume was a gift from Microsoft, is a Motorola MPx200 Smartphone.

The one task that Steve does not mention at all is entering text into the device. While the Microsoft Smartphone is a pretty nifty concept, since it has neither a touchscreen nor a thumb-keyboard, it doesn't allow for much, if any, text entry (short of the old-fashioned numpad-multiple-press approach). It has predictive word guessing, but if it's the same as on the Pocket PC, that's of minimal help.

So, my hunch is that Steve uses his phone/PDA as a phone first and a data-viewing device second. My personal use precludes this device since I enter a lot of data directly into the device (new contacts, appointments, to do lists, etc.). I just can't imagine having to tap out 2-2-8-8-9-9-9-0-2-2-7-7-7-3-3-2-3 just to get "buy bread" when 9 key pushes is all that's needed on a thumbboard.

This just goes back to illustrate (yet again) that we've yet to see the "perfect" device for a majority of users. Or have we? Perhaps such a device is merely just the simple cellular phone without any data stuff on it -- at least here in North America, that seems to be what the vast majority prefers.

SanDisk Yanks My Chain...Again

According to Palm Infocenter, SanDisk is once again delaying the release of Palm OS drivers for its Secure Digital Wi-Fi adapters. Despite promising Palm OS drivers for nearly a year now, SanDisk is now quoting a new estimated availability of 1Q2004.

While Socket Communications also offers an SD Wi-Fi adapter, that company never promised any Palm OS drivers. Socket, if you're listening, please step up and fill the void. Please.

PDAs: What Does $100 Get You?

Today's big Thanksgiving edition of the local newspaper hit our front porch with a thud. Inside were the flyers and circulars that one normally finds around this time of year -- all green and red and featuring the words "Sale" and "Specials" about every 3 inches or so.

Inside several flyers were PDAs being sold for under $100, but I found that what you get for your money varies greatly from store to store. Below is a table showing the place, the price, and the features on the device. As you can see, there are some huge differences:

Petition Verizon to Validate Treo 600 Smartphone

If you're a Verizon customer, you can't currently even consider getting the yummy new Treo 600 smartphone from palmOne (nee Handspring).

However, there's a rather sizable online petition going to get Verizon to add the Treo 600 to its approved handset list. You can sign the petition here<.a>.

Plus, Gizmodo is reporting that Verizon is saying that it's considering it, so there may be hope yet.

Sharp VGA Handhelds

A report in Brighthand notes Sharp's recent announcement of the Linux-based Zaurus SL-6000 PDA, to be released early in 2004.

The SL-6000 sports a new 640x480 transflective VGA display - switchable from landscape to portrait. Coming hot on the heels of the Toshiba e805 Pocket PC device, the new Zaurus PDA underlines the new era of VGA-enabled handhelds.

Other specs include an Intel XScale 400MHz processor, 64MB Flash, 64MB of SDRAM, SD/MMC expansion slot, and a rechargeable, replaceable 1500-mAh Lithium polymer battery. Built-in wireless 802.11b capability, a speaker and microphone, a built-in keyboard and a ruggedized case complete the physical specs.

Setting up a Bluetooth WLAN

My Tapwave Zodiac has on-board Bluetooth for short-range wireless connectivity. However, as I don't own another device with Bluetooth (major geek points off, I know), and the Zodiac looks to be just prime for Internet stuff, I had to figure out way to get it online.

After a bit of searching and a bit of help from my pal Dan, I came across this wonderful resource over at PalmZone. That page includes instructions on how to set up Bluetooth on Palm OS devices in nearly every configuration conceivable.

The one I was interested in was using a Bluetooth USB Dongle (or "BUD") to share my PC's Internet access with my Zodiac. Well, the hardware was half the story -- the other half needed to make this happen was an app called Mocha PPP, which essentially provides PPP connectivity over a serial port. Or, in this case, the virtual serial port created by the BUD.

Anyway, to make a long story short, it worked -- in about 15 minutes I was surfing the web and getting my email on my Zodiac. However, the range was, as expected, pretty limited -- I couldn't roam further than about 10 feet from my PC before losing the connection (despite it being a Class 1 (100m) BUD). While the speed of the data connection was acceptable, I decided to return the BUD to the store. While it was an interesting experiment, it's just not very useful.

Instead, I'm waiting on SanDisk to release Palm OS drivers for their SD Wi-Fi card, which they've been promising now for nearly a year. But that's an entirely different soapbox.

Methanol-powered Mobile Phones and Laptops

Portable electronics are the shiznit, but batteries for them are a real hassle. My iPod is not good for much more than six hours. My Nextel i60c is a goner if it doesn't get a nightly charge. Most laptops I've used are wheezing for power after a couple of hard hours. STMicroelectronics is working to fix all that with a line of methanol powered fuel cells for mobile phones and laptops. I'm guessing the airlines have already outlawed this emerging technology, but it is cool nonetheless.

iPod Engraving

I have finally caught my breath from laughing at these disturbing iPod engravings and when you finish your milk check them out. (I hate when milk comes out of my nose.) It seems I am just on the tip of the iceberg of this big iPod world.

I recently discovered MyTunes which is a little Windows utility released 10 days after Apple's iTunes debuted. iTunes will let you play music from other iTunes users' shared folders, but won't let you save it to your hard drive. Guess what MyTunes does. Not that I condone such behavior.

Review: Targus Wireless (Infrared) Keyboard

The following is Andrew Russel's excellent and thorough review of the Targus Universal Wireless Keyboard (shown below). He posted it on the Tapwave_Users Yahoo! Group mailing list and gave me permission to reproduce it here.

OK, I shouldn't have bought this keyboard without reading a review first, so here is a review for the rest of you.

This is the keyboard that Tapwave offers on their website (I bought it from CompUSA.) The only other portable keyboards that I have used have been of the Stowaway tri-fold type, for the Palm Vx, m500, and n760c. Compared to those keyboards, this one, to be honest, sucks. Here are the issues that I encountered:

1) Small, *very* hard-to-press spacebar. In order to press the spacebar, which must be done between every word, you have to reach your thumb over a plastic divider that is nearly the same height as the key. I find this very, very annoying.

2) No arrow keys! It is incredebly difficult to edit text if there are no arrow keys. There is an arrow-button, a cheap-feeling plastic button with directional arrows on it, which is supposed to be used for an on-screen cursor. I couldn't make it work.

3) Non-functional control key. In the version of Wordsmith included with the Zodiac, the control key is non-functional. This means that virtually no keyboard shortcuts work. This is probably a minor driver issue that could be fixed either by Wordsmith or by Targus.

4) Size. It's big - About 1/2 an inch shorter on one side than a CD case, and about as thick as 2.5 CD cases. This is much bigger than the Stowaway, even though the Stowaway has a lot more keys and much better key spacing. Also, it just plain looks ugly compared to the Stowaway. It has a huge black piece of plastic that sits on the table behind it, and another unfinished-looking piece of plastic behind the Zodiac, and and IR-arm sticking up above it - you use this, and you are going to have to accept looking like a dork :).

5) Cheap plastic feel. All of the buttons other than the standard keyboard keys have a cheap plastic feel to them - difficult to press, etc. Also, there are several small parts that do not look very durable, including the latch to open the keyboard, the keyboard lock to hold it open in your lap, and the whole lens arm assembly. I don't think that these will last nearly as long/as well as the Stowaways do (Despite hundreds of hours of class notes, my n760c Stowaway looked like new after 2 years of abuse, except for the wear on the top of the buttons.) Also, the case has plastic nubs on the outside, so it wouldn't slide easily even if you have pockets big enough to hold it (The Zodiac itself has similar problems...) They don't include a cloth case with it like Stowaway does, either.

6) The clips don't hold the Zodiac securely in landscape mode. It uses small, spring-loaded wire clips to hold the handheld in place. There are three of them: bottom, left, and right. The bottom and right ones are stationary, and the left one adjusts to the size of the handheld. They do a good job in portrait mode, but there is no provision for landscape. The left clip will not reach that far. I imagine it could be easily modified, adding another clip in future versions. It does have little rubber pads that the Zodiac can sit on outside of the clip system, and this works well, until you need to use the stylus.

7) Sometimes, rarely, the IR function will not work correctly, and need realigned. This is weird because it happens while typing. It results in missed characters, and sometimes repeated characters - you type 'r' and you get "rrrrpt," for example.

8) No stylus holder. The Stowaways all have a slot, usually left and right, to hold the stylus in while you are typing. This makes it much easier if you need to go back and forth a lot. The Targus has lots of holes that *could* have been used for this, but none of them seem to work.

9) I don't really care about this, but it is funny and reflects the production/QA values of Targus. There is a misspelling on one of the keys - "Graffiti" is mispelled as "Graffetti"

10) Key spacing. The guys, most notably the n and h keys, are smaller than they should be, and further apart (this is to account for the division in the middle.) Also, the bottom and top rows, including the space bar and backspace key, are tiny. The backspace key is one of the smallest keys on the keybaord! The number row, even though it is there, is very small, and offset funny from the rest of the keyboard - meaning no number typing unless you totally retrain your fingers. They might as well not even have it - at least they would have had space for a real backspace key!

I *do* consider the Stowaway to be a valid comparison, even though they are not available for the Zodiac yet - they are in a similar price range, and have the same function. Believe me, if the Targus keyboard cost only $30, I wouldn't be complaining.

The Targus does have its good points too - it's *fast*, much faster than the Stowaway was on any of my other handhelds (I hear they are slow even on modern, fast handhelds.) You don't need to worry about the iffy hotsync port on the Zodiac, because it is IR. Also, it uses small, light watch batteries, so it is not too heavy (compared, I guess, to other IR keyboards.) It does use the good, plastic X key springs rather than rubber domes, for the important keys at least. Finally, it *is* 20% cheaper, although I would argue that you lose more than 20% useability.

N-Gage Hacked

Nokia has admitted that hackers have cracked its N-Gage copy protection codes, allowing copied games to be traded over the Internet.

While Nokia hopes to sell up to 9 million units by the end of 2004, a key part of revenue comes from games, so this latest setback is critical to Nokia's bid to find a foothold in the mobile gaming market.

Talk to the Hand

Telecom giant NTT DoCoMo has demonstrated a prototype wristband phone - called Finger Whisper - which works by transforming the user's hand into a phone, with a microphone on the wrist and a finger earpiece.

To start a call, the user touches forefinger to thumb, enabling voice-recognition dialling via a microphone in the wristband, which also allows calls out.

Calls coming in are converted by Finger Whisper into vibrations transmitted to the bones of the hand. Put your finger in your ear, and these vibrations are sent to the eardrum, and converted back to voice by the brain.

A Cingular Sensation

Ever needed to take a business call at home but not give out your home number? Hated juggling between multiple numbers? Cingular Wireless promises to make things easier with the FastForward cradle.

The patented device plugs into an electrical outlet. When a Cingular Wireless phone is inserted into the cradle, calls to the cellphone are forwarded automatically to a designated landline phone, while the cellphone’s battery is being re-charged. Remove the cellphone, and call forwarding is deactivated. Simple!

The $40 FastForward cradle is compatible with select Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and Siemens phones. A $3 monthly package enables unlimited call forwarding capability...and also saves your cellphone minutes for use when you actually are on the go.

Looks like a winner to me!

My Tapwave Zodiac Has Arrived

I saw the FedEx truck on my way to work, pulled over, and convinced him to hand over my box. Intriguing how desperate cool new kit makes us, isn't it?

Anyway, I put up a page with some pics of the box and stuff, but it's not charged enough to get an idea of how well the device actually works yet. More as I know it.

Tapwave Zodiac Begins to Ship

News Flash! The first user we know about has received his production Tapwave Zodiac. Tapwave promised that Zodiacs would begin shipping "in late October," and it appears they met that deadline by getting some units out on the very last day of the month.

More info on the Zodiac can be found in these GearBits posts or at the Tapwave website. Recent reviews of the Zodiac have appeared in ExtremeTech and at Shacknews.

Travels...or Travails?

I just got back from 12 days of vacation. OK, it was Hawaii, if you must know (let the chorus of mock sympathies begin). While there, I found it difficult to maintain the high level of connectedness I've come to rely on in my daily life.

First, the hotel had no wireless access...anywhere. Not in the lobby and certainly not in the rooms. While this feature is common at better business hotels, I guess resorts don't feel that their guests are all that worried about it. Well, here's a note to all you resort owners: News Flash! We, your guests, want this feature even when we're on vacation. How do you expect us to be able to relax when we just know we'll be going back to face 1,000+ emails waiting for us?!

Second, the "business center" was a rather lame two-computer setup in a corner office. Internet access, like computer use in general, was an outrageous $5.00 plus $0.85 per minute! My one 17-minute use of the business center cost me nearly $20. While there were much cheaper Internet cafes around, they all required a drive to get there (not easily walkable).

Third, while I was able to rely heavily on my Kyocera 7135 Palm OS smartphone (pictured) for getting my email, downloading attachments and webpages was sloooow (I use Verizon's free dial-up Internet service). Also, composing longish emails using Graffiti is just painful. So, while I was able to keep up on my email, responding was much more limited. But, I have to say that Verizon's coverage on both Oahu and Maui was superb.

I know I'll look back on this trip with fond memories. But, had the hotel offered high-speed Wi-Fi access by the pool (or even [gasp!] down near the beach), I know I would have come away thinking this was perhaps one of the coolest hotels I'd stayed in. I mean, what would be better than a Mai Tai and Wi-Fi on Ka'uai?

Handspring, Palm One

It's official... Shareholders have approved Palm's spinoff of its PalmSource operating system unit, and the acquisition of Handspring by its palmOne hardware unit.

PalmOne will be helmed by Todd Bradley, currently leading the Palm Solutions Group. Its Handheld Computing Solutions group will be led by Ken Wirt, currently a senior VP for Palm Solutions, and its Smart Phone Solutions group will be led by Ed Colligan, currently Handspring President.

Jeff Hawkins, founder of Palm and currently Handspring's Chairman and Chief Product Officer, will be Chief Technology Officer for palmOne. Donna Dubinsky, Handspring CEO, joins palmOne's board of directors.

Under the stock swap formula put together earlier this year, Handspring's shareholders would own 32.2 per cent of the new company, and Palm's shareholders would own 67.8 percent.

Officials hope the new focus brought about by the PalmSource spinoff and Handspring acquisition will help it stay ahead of rivals in a shrinking market.

msPOD

Microsoft has announced a new initiative to power handheld media players - similar to Apple's iPod digital music player. Devices based on Portable Media Centre will enable users to store photos, listen to music and watch movies and TV shows on the road.

Portable Media Center is a variant of Windows CE.NET - previously named Media2Go - that will power devices shipping in 2004.

Licensees include Creative, iRiver, Sanyo, Samsung, Tatung, Viewsonic. The handheld players will support MP3 as well as WMA9, Microsoft's own digital audio and video format.

Dell recently announced plans to produce a digital music player, the Jukebox. There have also been rumors about a video iPod for some time now, though with Apple one is never sure until the official announcement.

Toshiba Debuts Handheld with VGA Screen

Toshiba has just launched its e805 Pocket PC device. This is the first PDA with a 4-in transflective 480x640 VGA screen.

While currently not many PocketPC apps support the higher resolution, Toshiba is confident that users will soon see a flurry of releases from developers.

This shot from PDAFrance shows a side-by-side comparison of a handheld with a standard PocketPC screen and the VGA-enabled Toshiba device (on the left and right, respectively).

Click here to view a larger image.

Powered by a 400-MHz Intel XScale PCA263 processor clocked to 400MHz, the e805 has 128MB of SDRAM, 32MB of Flash ROM and a 32MB Flash disk. Both CompactFlash and SD Cards are supported.

The e805 boasts 802.11b wireless connectivity and a bundled Voice over IP application, supported by VLI. The e805 can be configured to respond to voice commands, and bundles software that can read aloud documents, emails and other text.

iPod Success

I like to think that the first iPod I obtained was just an anomaly. I exchanged it at Best Buy over the weekend and finally took the wraps off the new one last night. At first I was hesitant to flash in the newest firmware and I removed iTunes from my system. When Red Chairs's Anapod software refused to even recognize my iPod I went back to plan A by flashing the 2.1 firmware and re-installing iTunes. Heaven, thy name is iPod.

So far, everything works extremely well. I put a couple gigs of my existing high quality VBR MP3s onto the iPod. Sounds fabulous. I popped in an as yet unripped CD and the ripping and VBR encoding was handled with aplomb by iTunes. I quickly signed up for the iTunes music store and bought Sting's new album "Sacred Love". Seamless. Next I put in a blank CDR and burned "Sacred Love" to an audio CD. I got a couple of coasters until I slowed the burner down a bit, but I was able to present my lovely wife with her copy before we went to bed.

My next task is to get the AUX input installed into the rear of the Alpine head unit in my Subaru WRX. The only thing to figure out is how to mount the iPod to keep it safe and accessible.

I'm sure there will be more later...

A Human Ethernet

Technology Review notes that researchers in Japan have demonstrated a 10-Mbps network using human bodies as Ethernet cables.

ElectAura-Net is a wireless technology that uses a combination of the electric field emanating from humans and a similar field emanating from special floor tiles.

A floor tile carrying a transceiver transmits data by first creating oscillations in its surrounding electric field. These oscillations are transmitted through the electric field of a person entering the effective field area, and into the electric field of another tile-transceiver, which receives the data.

NTT Docomo researchers are now using the principles demonstrated to develop portable human electric field oscillators to serve as the basis for personal area networks (PANs). The system is faster than 1-Mbps Bluetooth wireless or 4-Mbps IrDA infrared communication systems now used for PANs, and could be the basis for the next-generation communications medium between personal digital assistants (PDAs).

Folks Really Digging the Treo 600

Several websites have posted initial impressions of their recently obtained Treo 600 smartphones from Handspring:

• Alex King seems to love his and he posted several photos of the contents of the box and a comparison to his Handspring Treo 300.
  
• Gizmodo says they have "...been getting a TON of email about the new Treo 600, mainly from readers who have gotten one and can't believe how good it is."
  
• TreoCentral got a 24-hour take-home preview and had many, many laudatory comments about the 600.
  

Update: While the Sprint Treo 600 has been launched to much acclaim, the GSM/GPRS version that is supposed to come out on T-Mobile has been delayed again.

Evolutionary Tree of Palm OS Devices

Dan Royea has created a phenomenally interesting and useful family tree of sorts for the Palm OS platform over at PalmEvolution.com

This constantly updated diagram shows all the current and past licensees of the Palm operating system and all families of devices that have been powered by Palm OS. Mouse-overs show the names of each device pictured in miniature, and each licensee's product lineage is color-coded for easier viewing.

While we love the concept, and this is truly one heckuva labor of love, the diagram seems to be getting more and more cramped as more Palm OS licensees join the ranks and more and more devices come out. Not sure how to make it better, but I might need a bigger monitor in a couple of months! :-)

Also, Dan has a really nice milestone history of Palm OS -- a chronological listing of major events in the 7-year history of the platform.

Nice work, Dan!

Tight's TAZ I Personal Multimedia Device

I just came across something that totally blew me away -- the TAZ I concept device from Tight (pictured). I say "concept" because it's not out yet, but the Tight website says that they expect to start taking orders next month and ship product in December. God, I hope they do, as this sounds like one helluva device.

Check out these specs:

• Storage Capacity - at least 60 gigabytes; 2.5 inch hard drive; SD/MMC card slot
  
• Screen - 4 inch diagonal transflective TFT LCD with 640x480 resolution; 4:3 aspect ratio
  
• Audio Formats Supported - MP3, Monkey's Ape (lossless), OGG Vorbis
  
• Audio Inputs - On-board microphone; line in (stereo)
  
• Audio Outputs - 2 headphone jacks; digital optical out; line out
  
• Video Formats Supported - MPEG1, 2, 4, AVI, DivX; NTSC, PAL (video frame rates supported: 24fps, 25 fps, 30 fps, all)
  
• Video Inputs - composite video
  
• Video Outputs - composite, S video, component (Y Pr Pb)
  
• Video Output Formats - SDTV (480i); HDTV (480p, 720p, 1080i)
  
• Photo Formats Supported - JPG, GIF, TiFF, BMP
  
• Network/Connectivity - USB 2.0; on-board 10/100 ethernet
  
• Power - Internal XV DC battery; approximately 9 hours video playback, 20 hours audio
  
• Host PC Software - customized version of leading multimedia software suite
  
• Accessories: Sennheiser PX-200 headphones; hand-made leather carrying case; connecting cables; battery charger
  
• System Requirements - Windows 98, 2000, XP (future compatibility planned for Apple and Linux)
  
• Dimensions (approx.) - 6.3" x 4.2" x 1.5"

If you want updates on their shipping and availability, there is an email notification service available.

Update: I just now found out that Tight has had a discussion board up and there's some 2000 or so posts on it. Check it out.

Infernal Downhilling

Spurred into action by Apple's release of iTunes for Windows, I dropped by my local Best Buy last night and bought an iPod after years of lusting. Until now, the price and the stigma of having to use MusicMatch to manage my MP3s was just too much of a turn off. Arriving home, I already had the iTunes software and the latest iPod firmware tucked away on a Smartmedia card in my wallet.

My initial impressions of the iPod (a 20GB model) are probably common: great packaging, cool carrying case, it's white (yuck), slick user interface, too heavy, awesome backlight, looks like hell if you happen to touch it (damn those fingerprints!).

iTunes installed without a hitch as did the firmware updater. I rebooted the Windows machine just for safety's sake. WinXP recognized the iPod immediately as did iTunes. The updater formatted the drive and laid down the new firmware. All was well. I was ready to suck in some tunes.

I pointed iTunes to several directories on my MP3 hard drive and to some favorite selections in KaZaA's download directory. The 200MB of songs firewired over lickety split. Man was I impressed. It was time to break out the earbuds and hear what this thing could do.

This is where the whole process skiied right into a ravine and did it's best Warren Miller tumble down the mountain. THIS $400 MP3 PLAYER WILL NOT PLAY MP3s!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For some reason, any tune I select loads up, plays about 1/2 second and then causes the iPod to reboot. I re-initialized the drive three times and did the whole reload process again even trying different groupings of songs and still not a peep can I get from this thing. I have not been so disappointed since Audi put an automatic transmission in the RS6.

This will probably be continued. I suspect my tribulations are not unique and there could be a fix posted soon. I have my receipt in a safe place just in case this is par for the course.

Kinoma 2 Offers New Features

Kinoma, the leading multimedia application/format for Palm OS devices, has just released a major upgrade to both its player and producer applications. From the press release:

With more content available in the DivX file format, Kinoma Producer 2 now directly encodes Kinoma movies from this popular format. So that your handheld movies will look and sound their best, Kinoma Producer 2 supports stereo audio, higher video bit rates, and widescreen video at up to thirty frames per second. Kinoma Producer 2 can also encode video at lower bit rates for Internet delivery directly to Palm OS 5 handhelds with an Internet connection.

Kinoma Player 2 has been enhanced to take advantage of the unique features of many Palm Powered handhelds. Kinoma Player 2 allows users of widescreen handhelds from Sony, Palm, Tapwave, and Garmin to hide the text input area making more room for video. High quality stereo audio playback is available on all Palm OS 5 handhelds. On the Tapwave Zodiac, Kinoma Player 2 uses Tapwave's graphic acceleration to speed video playback and virtually eliminate image tearing. And on Bluetooth enabled handhelds, users can now exchange Kinoma movies over Bluetooth.

Kinoma Player 2 supports the playback of Kinoma movies directly from the Internet. For the first time, Palm users can tap a link in a web page and immediate begin viewing video on their handheld. Kinoma movies are delivered to the handheld using a technology called progressive download, which maximizes the use of available network bandwidth while ensuring the best possible quality. Progressive download also allows the user to download the movie once and watch it as many times as they want. Kinoma movies may be stored on an ordinary HTTP web server, so no special server infrastructure is required. Kinoma Player 2 supports progressive download on any Palm OS 5 handheld with an 802.11, Bluetooth, or cellular Internet connection including Sony CLIÉ models, Tapwave Zodiac, Palm Tungsten T Series, and Handspring Treo 600.

Man...sounds cool! I've never been a fan of player systems that required converting content into a proprietary format, but this might be enough to get me to try it!

No Frills Mobile

In this mobile age characterized by the flavor-of-the-day feature, where the camcorder phone trumps the camera phone, it's refreshing to find a company whose business plan is based on the motto "Less is more."

The Cyclone phone, by New Horizons Technologies International (NHTI), is about as basic as you can get - but it works! It is recyclable and rechargeable, and in its guide as the 911+ emergency cell phone, can be powered by three regular AA batteries!

The five-ounce phone is packaged with nationwide minutes and retails for $39.99 (15 minutes); $49.99 (30 minutes); or $59.99 (60 minutes), and will be available at your local grocery, hardware store, or Kwikee Mart. Duracell, a major partner, will be marketing the phone alongside its battery displays.

The purchaser activates the phone himself by dialling a toll-free number. A live operator asks for his ESN (electronic serial number), and gives the customer his own phone number. Voila!

The low cost and simplicity means the phone will appeal to seniors and to parents with pre-teen children - who may need to phone home, but don't need to SMS. NHTI hopes people will buy the Cyclone like flashlights, and store them throughout the house, car, cottage, school locker or backpack....ready for use in the next emergency.

Samsung SGH-i505 Looks Compelling

PalmInfocenter has a story about a new phone that Samsung is working on, the SGH-i505 (pictured). The SGH-i505 is a GSM clamshell phone based on Palm OS 5.2.1.

The nifty bits of the SGH-i505 are the high-res screen (320x320), the integrated VGA camera, and the fact that you can swivel the screen 180 degrees to lay it back down over the keypad (the first that we know of that lets you do that).

The story was broken first by msmobiles.com, which seems a bit odd, and is the source of the photo shown. Given that Samsung has recently delayed the SGH-i500, its previously announced GSM Palm OS 5 phone, perhaps the SGH-i505 is already set to replace it even before the SGH-i500 is ever released. Stranger things have happened, for sure.

No Future for Microsoft's Mobile Devices?

There seems to be growing concern about the future (if not the present) for mobile devices using Microsoft operating system, Windows Mobile. Two recent blog entries offer some interesting insights into this issue.

Mike Rohde recently blogged some thoughts about stagnation in the Pocket PC space, especially as he compares it to the innovation going on in the Palm OS camp, and offers some links to other stories to support his ideas:

"I don't think Pocket PC is going away, but rather that Microsoft may be looking to greener pastures like their new Smartphone platform or Tablet PC platform."

However, per Gizmodo, Steve Sande over at PDAntic has some rather significant concerns over Microsoft's strategy, or lack thereof, and doubts the longterm commitment that Microsoft is making to any of its mobile products, including Tablet PC:

"I just don't feel like Microsoft is doing much to generate any excitement in the mobile computing world lately. Last week's introduction of three new PalmOS devices from PalmOne is one of several "symptoms" that indicate to me that things might not be going all that well in the Windows Mobile world."

So, what's up with mobiles in Redmond? Given that both JVC and Gateway have recently abandoned their stated intentions of developing Windows Mobile products, is Windows Mobile in trouble? Is it being ignored by Microsoft in order to shore up other, more reliable (and traditional) products, or does Microsoft just simply not get mobility (like it didn't get the Internet for a while)?

LG Unveils Camcorder Smartphone

LG Electronics has announced that it will soon be releasing a smartphone with a built-in 1.1 megapixel digital camera, and a camcorder feature that allows users to record video for up to an hour.

In August, LG shocked the market by introducing the first camcorder phone to break the 1-hour recording barrier. The IMT-2000 was also equipped with 96-MB of memory, and streaming video-on-demand capability.

The new device trumps the IMT-2000 with 192-MB of memory, and is powered by Microsoft's smartphone operating system, giving it advanced PDA functions. A slide-out numeric keypad complements the MS smartphone touchscreen-hardbutton user interface.

Expected to debut in Korea at the end of 2003, LG estimates pricing at the equivalent of $700.

Confused over the X3?

Yesterday, Gizmodo outlined some of the specifications of Dell's forthcoming low-end offering, the X3. However, some have gotten this confused with BMW's forthcoming low-end offering, also called the X3.

To address this confusion, we've created a handy table identifying the differences:

Both models are smaller and lighter than the companies' larger X5 models (respectively). We hope that clears up any confusion.

Treo 600 Video on CNET

CNET's Brian Cooley talks with Joni Blecher about the Handspring Treo 600 smartphone.

Watch the video here. My goodness, that thing is small!

Editorial comment: After watching the entire video, one starts to wonder how Joni Blecher got that job. Could she know less about the devices she reviews?

The Importance of Interface Design

I think consumers generally overlook and underestimate the importance of one critical aspect of handheld and mobile technologies: the user interface. It is possible, in my opinion, that no other single attribute is as important to user satisfaction as this design aspect, yet we, as consumers, generally think very little about it (at least on a conscious level).

Now, I'm no graphic arts / design geek (but some of my best friends are! :-). However, I've come to appreciate the dramatic impact that interface design quality can have on my satisfaction with a particular device. Let me explain using a few personal examples.

My first PDA was an original Pilot 5000. The essence of Jeff Hawkin's original concept was simplicity -- the "Zen of Palm" was keeping simple tasks as simple as possible. This was achieved through extensive thinking and testing of how people interact with the device, both in the physical sense (e.g., hardware and on-screen buttons) and in the process sense (e.g., what do I want to do next?).

The result was one of the most efficient interfaces I've ever personally experienced. It allowed me to do a fairly large number of things in a relatively small number of highly intuitive steps. Palm OS today largely retains this design philosophy, but feature-creep has complexified things somewhat. For example, having the ability to rotate the screen means that the user now has to decide each time which orientation he/she wants to use. I think Jeff Hawkins would doubt that this adds significant value for a majority of users in a majority of use scenarios, but I digress.

When Jeff Hawkins started up Handspring, he took his "the interface is sacred" philosophy with him. The result was the Treo series of smartphones. I've used a number of smartphones and...er...dumbphones (?) over the years, and none have had such a nicely integrated, well-conceived interface as the Treo. It was almost as if the phone anticipated what you wanted to do next. All the applications were integrated such that the transition from one task to another was nearly seamless and the data just floated along, ready to be handled with whatever you wanted to use at the moment. It was Nirvana (the state of bliss, not the band). The new Treo 600 looks and sounds like it has even improved in this regard, meaning that using it will be just heavenly.

Another really good example of an excellent interface is TiVo. It is simple and intuitive enough for anyone to learn how to control, even without training, in just a few minutes. The menu system is pretty well thought out and easy to navigate. The remote control is a wonder of ergonomics, putting the most important buttons where they need to be and packing 100% of the functionality you need onto a very comfortable remote. In contrast is the Scientific Atlanta 8000 DVR, which does not have such a great interface.

In a car analogy, the Treos and the TiVo are like modestly powered but immaculately behaved (i.e., effortlessly controlled) and confortable sports cars, the kind that you love to drive every day and never get tired of.

Of course, there are dozens of examples of bad interfaces. My Kyocera 7135 is quite the opposite. It runs on Palm OS, but the engineers at Kyocera have utterly destroyed any sense of simplicity. They packed on application after application with almost no data integration across them whatsoever. For example, when in "Phone Mode" (yes, the phone display has a separate mode for making phone calls), the touch screen doesn't work. But, and this makes me both laugh and cry at the same time, if you touch the screen when in phone mode, it actually pops up a message that says "Touch Panel Inactive -- The phone applications is not touch sensitive...Please use <-OK-> (buttons) to navigate." Incredible. Overall, the phone is amazing, but sometimes I feel like I have to wrestle it into submission in order to get it to do what I want (very much the same way I feel about the Pocket PCs I've used).

Another good example of a bad interface is my FL100 MP3 player from MPIO/Digital Way. It is incredibly powerful and full-featured, but the hardware buttons are very poorly thought out. It's very easy -- too easy -- to do things you don't intend. Also, some aspects of the on-screen menu system just don't make any sense at all.

In a car analogy, these two devices are like suped-up muscle cars -- they're really powerful and full of features, but hard to control and they take a real effort to "drive." Initially, there's a real "wow" factor, but over time this wears off. As a result, these devices don't elicit the long-term enthusiasm that the devices with a good interface elicit, at least in me.

So, we, as consumers and users, need to think about this aspect more than we have in the past. Every time you use something with a designed interface, start to become aware of characteristics that you like or dislike. Does your digital camera have a menu system that makes it easy to get to those controls you need to change on a regular basis? Does your portable music player have buttons that are easy to manipulate without looking? Does your PDA take as few taps as possible to get to the data you need? If you start thinking about these things, you may begin to appreciate aspects of these devices you never even consciously noted before. Also, you may begin to see new reasons to explain why you look forward to using certain devices more than others.

Palm Tungsten T3 Already Being Sold in Stores

I just found out today that a local OfficeMax is actually selling the Tungsten T3. A co-worker just left to go pick one up and hopefully, this afternoon, I'll be able to fondle one in the...er...flesh?

Even though Palm SG has an embargo on any information and actual products being provided or sold prior to October 1st, many of the details have already leaked out (e.g., the recent post by Sam).

While product leaks are common, actual sales aren't. Obviously, Palm SG needs to do something better to keep retailers on their (Palm's) launch schedule. Don't know what to suggest, however -- it's a tricky spot to be in.

The Tungsten T3 sounds really yummy, by the way -- I can't wait to check it out.

New Palms Launched (Before Official Launch)

C&A Electronics has begun listing two new Tungsten models from Palm (aka palmOne) - apparently ahead of the official October 1 launch date.

According the the catalog listings, the Palm Tungsten E sports 32MB of RAM, Palm OS 5.2.1, and SD expansion slot, and comes in at £169.99 (~$280).

Similarly, the Palm Tungsten T3 sports 64MB of RAM, a 400 MHz XScale Intel processor, Palm OS 5.2.1, and SD expansion slot, built-in Bluetooth, all at £339.99 (~$560).

As of this writing, the "Buy" buttons on the C&A Electronics site are functional, but orders are only being taken for the UK and the European Union. If you're in the right geographic area, order away - and send us a review!

Photos from PalmSource Europe

PDAFrance.com has a whole gallery of photos from the PalmSource European Developer Conference that ended yesterday. It looks like anybody with a penchant for handhelds would be on a virtual sugar high. Take this photo from their gallery as an example:

(Click on the photo to see a high-res version)

Some of my favorite photos include:

 • the Treo 600 side-by-side with the Samsung SGH-i500 (neither of which have been fully released yet)

 • The GSL Xplore G18 (a really tiny Palm OS phone from China) next to two "normal" mobile phones

 • A photo of the Tapwave Zodiac in action (drool, drool)

OK, check 'em all out at PDAFrance.com.

EscapeCellHell.org

Some of our elected officials are caving into financially well-endowed lobbyists and waffling on the Number Portability Act that is slated to go into effect in November.

Consumer's Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, has a new website that makes it really easy to email your elected officials to let them know that you expect them to represent your wishes by keeping Number Portability on track.

EscapeCellHell.org is the place to go.

(Thanks, boingboing.net)

A neat present

I turned 40 this past weekend. (Thanks for coming to my surprise party, Craig!) I'm still sporting some bruises I took at the hands of a naked stripper who got a bit carried away with my belt during the obligatory "birthday spanking". (Made even more humiliating by my Mom observing the whole sordid affair.) But I digress...

I did come away with some cool stuff and this little Belkin Quadra 4-in-1 thingy is worth mentioning here. It looks just like a regular pen that might be carried by an astronaut or high-powered investment banker, but it's really much more. Twist the lower body one way and you get a nice ink pen; the other way gives you a PDA stylus. The top button on the upper body controls a very bright, white LED that can be a reading light, morse code signaler, or an aid to finding your way through a dark hotel room. The lower button controls a laser pointer and we all know what fun these can be. Here kitty, kitty!!! Ooooo, look at that spot on the wall...get it!

Ya Gotta Love Ebay

It's amazing how Ebay has transformed the way I think about buying things. Most of the time, when I need something fairly common and can wait a couple weeks to get it, I turn to Ebay just to see what's available.

For example, I needed a sync/charger cable for my Palm Tungsten C. Best Buy sells the cable alone (pictured) for about $30. I could also order it online from a variety of companies for $18-$25. Then I check Ebay.

My choices for this rather standard electonic accessory are nearly unlimited. I settle on a USB sync/charge cable and a car-charger adapter and a wall AC adapter kit, all for $17. With 3-day delivery, my total expense was $22.50. Man, ya gotta love Ebay!

Interesting sidenote: What's funny is that the cable turned out to be an Innopocket branded cable. That cable alone costs $18.90 if you buy it directly from Innopocket.

A Renaissance for Palm OS?

Palm OS, and by extension, PalmSource and pa1mOne (ugh), may be seeing the beginning of a rebirth of sorts -- an era where things "go its way" far more helpfully than they have in recent years. Here are four examples:

First, Palm OS powers two of the hottest new devices that haven't even hit the streets yet. The Treo 600 (pictured) by Handspring (soon-to-be pa1mOne (ugh)) was just recently praised to the highest level in an article by Walt Mossberg, personal technology journalist for the Wall Street Journal. Also, the forthcoming Tapwave Zodiac, the device I've lauded a few times on this very blog, got a very favorable write-up in Forbes magazine. It wasn't that long ago when industry analysts were asking if there was any life left in Palm OS beyond Sony sticking a camera on a PDA for the first time. Apparently, licensees are starting to ramp up innovation once again -- definitely good news for the platform.

Second, Palm's stock [PALM] is setting 52-week highs while it extends above $20 per share. PALM was hovering in the single digits just a couple of months ago. Obviously, the vagaries of the market prohibit me from generalizing, but this expanded market price is likely at least a partial indicator that Palm OS is believed to be heading in the right direction. Moreover, yesterday's report showed Palm beating analysts' expectations for the quarter. While not profitable, the loss was less than many had predicted.

Third, there has been a bit of a reprieve on some of the lawsuits (many of which were completely frivolous, IMO) that have dogged the operating system and the parent company for years. For example, the NCR patent-infringement suit was tossed out by a U.S. District Court. While some lawsuits are still pending (e.g., Xerox's patent-infringment claim regarding Graffiti), the news doesn't appear to be as uniformly negative as it had just a few years ago.

Finally, we expect that Palm OS 6 will be arriving sometime in the next 6-8 months with devices using OS 6 available shortly thereafter. Palm OS 6 will address many of the shortcomings in OS 4/5 (e.g., multi-tasking and security) while maintaining that backward compatibility with most existing Palm OS apps that has been so essential to the ongoing success of the platform.

So, in a word, I'm definitely "bullish" on Palm OS right now, perhaps moreso than I have been in years. The big question has been whether Palm OS can survive the tech spending drought, but there are already signs that the skies (and pursestrings) are about to open up. Here's hoping for a deluge.

Couch Potatoes Go Mobile

Samsung has just announced the SGH-P705 GSM 900/1900 phone with WAP 2.0, MIDP 2.0 Java, multimedia messaging service (MMS), infrared and 40-chord polyphonic ringtones. Big deal, you say?

Well, this is the first phone of its kind with a built-in TV tuner. Along with the (now de rigeur) ability to do MMS and Java-based games, this baby has a hi-res TFT display which sports 262,000 colors and screen-capture ability.

Ultraportable TVs aren't new; but I never saw myself putting one of those in my jeans pocket and taking it everywhere I went. Now, integrate a TV with a phone - that I might bring around with me.... With this at your fingertips, you may never have to miss an episode of Queer Eye again!

Tapwave Zodiac Goes on Sale

Yes, the Zodiac is finally available...at least for pre-orders. Tapwave has said that orders will be filled starting in October.

The newly updated tapwave.com website also has boatloads of new information on games, accessories, packages, etc.

I've got my pre-order in...what about you?

GameBoy Phone Home

Got a Nintendo GameBoy Advance? Instead of a videogame cartridge, clip on a Campho Advance from Digital Act, and turn your handheld gaming device into a videophone - complete with digital camera, microphone and earpiece.

For now, connections are via a regular phone jack - broadband and wireless connections are in the works. The GameBoy display streams live video of the person on the other end of the line, with your own image in a corner of the display.

Naturally, the other person requires a similar setup. And, for now, you both need to live in Japan, as developers aren't saying when (or if) they'll sell the Campho Advance overseas.

Ouch.

Tapwave Zodiac Pre-Sales Start Wednesday

For those who just have to have the latest hip kit in their messenger bags, the Tapwave Zodiac will be going on sale (pre-order) Wednesday, September 17th at 7AM PST. Pre-orders can be placed at www.tapwave.com as of that morning.

Avid readers of GearBits will know that I'm particularly excited by the Zodiac. GearBits blog entries about this new Palm OS powered gaming device cum PDA can be found in this list of search results.

The photo to the right came out of the FCC application that Tapwave had to submit for the Zodiac. Tons of additional information, including a user manual, many photos, and lots of active discussion about the Zodiac can be found at the Tapwave_Users Yahoo! Group. But, you have to be a member of that group to access all the downloads, so go sign up today (it's free) and join the 300+ others who are making this the most active place to find out new information on the Zodiac.

Sony UX-50 Keyboard Not So Hot?

Well, we heard that several lucky few who have gotten to fondle the forthcoming Sony Clie UX-50 (pictured) have found the keyboard to be rather pathetic.

While some liked it, a major complaint so far seems to be that the keys offer zero tactile feedback and are hard to distinguish from the surrounding metal without looking. This very concern has existed since the first time the photos of the UX-50 and UX-40 were released back in July.

The Sony Clie UX-50 is a clamshell form-factor Palm OS handheld featuring Wi-Fi 802.11b and Bluetooth built right in. Combined with a big 480x320 screen, loads of RAM, and the standard built-in digital camera, these devices looked promising. However, a few limitations have popped up. The keyboard is one, and the fact that the device can't be used in portrait mode (even when folded back on itself) seems pretty silly.

The lousy keyboards on Clies has been a pet peeve of mine since they first came out, and it's disheartening to see that Sony hasn't figured this out yet. I hope Clies get better keyboards pretty soon or the whole product line may be at risk.

Warfare Incorporated for Handhelds

Handmark and Spiffcode are preparing a new game for handhelds: Warfare Incorporated (WFI). WFI is a real-time strategy combat game. As an employee of a mining company, your various missions require you to destroy the forces of a competing mining company and/or an opposing army of independent miners.

The image to the right is a little piece of a screenshot. With the game supporting graphics up to 480x320 (the max resolution currently available on handhelds), there is a lot of detail available on the screen at any one time.

Full-screen demo shots can be found here, and a downloadable movie of actual game action can be found here. It looks as if Handmark will be coming out with both Palm OS and Pocket PC versions of the game.

The game appears to be you-versus-the-computer through a series of scenarios. Head-to-head gaming doesn't currently seem to be an option, but that might be something that appears in version 2 -- who knows for sure. In a nutshell, however, this looks like it will be a really awesome game.

Full disclosure: Craig has a financial relationship with Handmark, although this hasn't kept him from criticizing the company when it screws up and praising it when it comes out with something totally kick-ass (like this game). :-)

Group Calendaring - Any Recommendations?

Do you use a group calendaring system? If so, which one is it? What do you like about it? What do you hate about it? Does it work with handheld devices (if so, which ones)? Does it have a web interface?

I've been trying to find a good one and have come up short so far. Share your experiences here.

Video of Tapwave Zodiac

A new video of the forthcoming Tapwave Zodiac is available at CNET TV:

Watch the Video Now.

Byron Connell, CEO of Tapwave, talks through some of the highlights of the device, including full SDIO compatibility for both expansion slots! Tapwave is also planning on supporting a community-oriented website once the Zodiac is launched.

Believe me, you will want one...you will need one of these things after seeing it in action. Tapwave will start taking pre-orders via its website on September 17th. You all can get in line behind me. Thanks to namorblah for the lead.

SanDisk Secure Digital Wi-Fi Adapter Now Available

SanDisk has finally released its Secure Digital Wi-Fi 802.11b adapter (pictured).

The SD Wi-Fi adapter only currently supports PDAs running Pocket PC (SanDisk has a compatibility chart, which shows which Pocket PCs the adapter supports (apparently not even half of all Pocket PCs). Given that this card costs under $100 street (I saw it tonight for $94.95 online), it should sell well. Once Palm OS drivers are released, it should sell really well.

SanDisk has also promised that a combination 256 MB RAM / Wi-Fi card will be coming out this year. Yummy!

Handheld Blogging Made Easy

Michael Ashby has a nice blog entry about blogging with a Palm OS handheld. In it, he recommends an application called Azure. I gotta say, it works just as advertised -- I'm posting this entry using Azure. Read Michael's blog entry and then go try this terrific app for yourself.

Palm Sells Digital Media Division to PalmGear HQ

Apparently, PalmSource has decided to sell its Palm Digital Media division to PalmGear.com.

The graphic in the upper left of the Palm Digital Media website used to say "A Division of PalmSource, Inc.," whereas it now says "A Division of PalmGear.com." That logo graphic is pictured to the right, for reference only.

Palm Digital Media started out as PeanutPress, an online e-book publisher and seller. PeanutPress was acquired by Palm, Inc. and changed to Palm Digital Media (PDM). PDM then became part of PalmSource when Palm, Inc. split itself into the software (PalmSource) and hardware (PalmOne) halves. PalmGear.com is an aggregator and value-added reseller of software, and now e-books, for Palm OS handhelds.

What this means for e-book readers who are happy and content with using content in the PalmReader format is hard to say at this point. We hope that PalmGear takes this ball and runs all the way to the endzone. Otherwise, e-books just took a major step backward.

Update: Here's the press release on PalmGear.com

Tapwave Zodiac Available Soon

The gaming hardware company Tapwave has announced that it will start making its forthcoming Zodiac device (pictured) available in late September. A preview of the device can be found at GoDoPlay.com.

The Zodiac, formerly called the Helix, is a handheld computing/gaming device powered by Palm OS 5.2 and sporting such tremendous hardware specs as a 480x320, 16-bit color user-rotatable screen, stereo speakers and headphone jack, dual SD expansion slots, user-replaceable rechargeable Li-polymer batteries, Bluetooth (for multi-player gaming) and a fast ARM processor (actual clock speed not yet released).

The unit will ship with 32 or 128 MB of RAM depending on the model purchased, and will cost either $299 or $399 directly from Tapwave's website. The Zodiac will not be sold in retail stores until some time in 2004.

A lot of excitement has been generated about this device, with most reactions claiming that the Zodiac has a definite edge over its rivals, the Nokia n'Gage and the Nintendo Gameboy Advance. Both gamers and PDA users are expressing significant interest in this cross-over device, which may, surprisingly enough, satisfy both user types equally well.

For more information, a dedicated Yahoo! Groups community for Tapwave's products already exists -- check out Tapwave_Users today.

Origami Yields Better Phonecams

According to New Scientist, origami techniques are providing cameras in cellphones with a much better focusing mechanism.

"Thanks to a novel and ultra-cheap micromotor technology, cellphone cameras should soon be able to zoom and focus with the same precision as the autofocusing lenses used in expensive stills cameras.

1 Limited of Cambridge, UK, has found a novel way to make a thin sheet of a piezoelectric ceramic material work like a motor. It can move whatever is placed on top of it, or it can be rolled into a cylinder to grasp and move a miniature camera lens."

Moving from fixed-focus to variable focus should provide a large improvement in picture quality. Of course, I'm not sure I'd put picture quality as my #1 concern when it comes to cellphones, but maybe that's just me.

Neuros More Than an MP3 Player

ExtremeTech has a review of an interesting new music portable, the Neuros Audio Computer. It sounds pretty sweet.

"A new company on the scene, Neuros Audio, took a long hard look at this market space and is now shipping what the company has dubbed an 'audio computer'. It features an FM tuner and transmitter (transceiver), support for the open source encoder Ogg Vorbis, and a Linux music management app. It can not only record FM radio, but can sample and save music playing on an FM station and find similar material via the Web when the player is connected to your PC."

Check it out and read the article.

VNC and Palm VNC

Anyone who has ever had to manage a computer from a remote location has dreamed of being able to do it wirelessly via a handheld computer. The dream of fast, convenient, virtually unbounded remote management is made just a bit more realistic by virtue of Palm VNC.

Palm VNC is an application for Palm OS devices. It enables the user to control any PC (Windows, Unix, etc.) running the freely available VNC Server application, which permits two-way desktop control between the server (the PC running VNC Server that is being controlled) and the client (in this case, the Palm OS handheld running Palm VNC). Basically, the client user "sees" the desktop and controls it just as if he or she were sitting at the console.

As with many highly useful and open application standards, there are several different "flavors" of VNC out there. The original VNC was cooked up by some AT&T engineers in the UK. The latest build can be gotten from the official VNC site at RealVNC.com. Other variants on the VNC protocol, most of which are backward-compatible with VNC, include Tight VNC and UltraVNC.

And, yes, there are even a couple of VNC clients for Palm OS to be had. I have had tremendous success with Palm VNC 2.0. This works tremendously well on my Palm Tungsten C, and I've used it to access my home machine (Tight VNC server on Windows XP) via Wi-Fi on multiple occasions from various locations. Palm VNC 2.0 is a really nice continuation of the work originally done by Vladimir Minenko a few years ago, which has now been taken over by Harakan Software.

So, if you like the idea of being able to control various computers' desktops remotely over wireless from your handheld, give Palm VNC a try...you might be as hopelessly addicted to it as I am.

Protests Over RFID Just Silly

Why is it that folks are protesting the use of RFID technology by companies like Wal-Mart, Procter & Gamble, and others?

In case you haven't heard of RFID, it stands for Radio Frequency ID. The technology behind RFID is still being tweaked, but the idea is pretty straightforward. RFID tags are simple circuits that have some small amount of information (a few kb at most) embedded in them. These small tags "identify" themselves and broadcast their information when they pass within a few yards or feet of special radio-frequency sensors. The tags are inert until they receive power from the reader's wavefield. These RFID tags could be placed on things (e.g., pallets of shampoo or individual bags of dog food) so that products can be tracked throughout the supply chain and more accurate information can be had about inventory levels, locations of products in stores and warehouses, etc. Additionally, they could possibly be used in metro or rail passes, hotel door keys, etc. -- wherever a unique identifier is needed.

According to stories like "Privacy advocates call for RFID regulation" (CNET News.com), there is an organized and growing opposition to the further development and deployment of this technology (which is already in use by the US military). The opposition claims that RFID offers the significant potential for companies to invade our personal privacy more easily and extensively than they already do.

Even though I fully agree that privacy is something we need to protect, the RFID technology does not pose a more serious threat than anything else out there today for a few reasons.

First, getting a chip to broadcast its coded information requires a sensor. Installing these sensors everywhere is both expensive and troublesome. While a supermarket or department store might be able to recoup this expense, most businesses would not. A restaurant, for example, would be unlikely to be able to tag much of its products because they're eaten on-site. Moreover, the restaurant isn't going to have much interest in RFID tags a patron may already have on his/her person when he/she walks in, so what would be its financial return for installing these sensors?

Second, these sensors don't contain any information about you, just the products you purchase. They don't contain your social security number, your age, your address, or your credit card number. A large number of US shoppers have willingly signed up for discount cards at their neighborhood grocery stores. These cards effectively generate the same information that the RFID system would -- what you buy, when, and where. Obviously, a large number (perhaps a majority?) of US shoppers are willing to trade some privacy for cheaper groceries. While it's true that some tags can be re-written wirelessly (perhaps even using PDA or handheld computers), it's unlikely that tags on standard consumer items like toothpaste would have this capability.

Finally, RFID represents a potentially huge improvement in our ability to reduce prices and improve availability of the goods in our stores. By having better information about when and where products are at any given time, supply chain managers can make better decisions about purchasing, stock levels, renewal policies, etc., etc. Personally, if RFID helps the grocery store improve the likelihood that it has the products I want when I want them on its shelves, then I'm all for giving them some additional information.

Maybe it's just that I don't have anything to hide. Maybe I don't really care that anybody knows what I buy. Or maybe I'm just not paranoid enough for my own good. What do you think?

$100 Off Kyocera 7135 at Verizon

According to a post at pdaPhoneHome.com, Verizon Wireless is offering a $100 off the purchase of a new Kyocera 7135 smartphone (pictured).

The offer supposedly runs from 8/18/03 to 10/31/03, only applies to wireless service plans of $39.99/month or higher, and you must trade in a phone to get the deal.

It's not typical of me to include such a blatantly commercial post here on GearBits, but this sounds like a pretty sweet deal. $100 off "just because" is nothing to sneeze at.

So, if you've been considering the 7135 (it's what I carry), this might be a good opportunity to pick one up.

Just be warned: once you start carrying this, you will constantly be stopped by folks wanting to know what it is, how it works, where to get one, and so forth. This is not a good device for the ardent introvert.

How to Put Original Graffiti on Your Graffiti 2 Palm OS Device

So you bought a new Palm OS PDA only to find out that Graffiti 2 is irritating the crap out of you. Wouldn't it be great to replace the Graffiti 2 multi-stroke characters with those classic unistroke ones from Graffiti? Well, Palm Infocenter has step-by-step instructions on how to do just that.

Here are the instructions, which were originally published by Brando, in a nutshell:

First, Using a file manager like FileZ, find these two files in the ROM on a PDA that has original Graffiti on it:
-- Graffiti Library.prc (30k)
-- Graffiti Library_enUS.prc (22k)

Second, beam those two files to the PDA on which you want original Graffiti to be installed.

Third, do a soft reset. That's it....you're done.

Additional information is located at the Palm Infocenter article, so give it a read.

Frustrated by Palm Desktop

So, I want to upgrade my PC's hard drive at home -- simple thing, right? Well, it would have been had it not been for a peculiarity in Palm Desktop (Palm Desktop is the PC program that allows me to synchronize and view my PDA's data on my desktop).

I install my new drive while keeping my old drive installed (so I can move stuff over). The new drive is given the letter F: -- no problem, right? Well, for Palm Desktop, it's a real problem. The geniuses who developed this program hard-coded into it the requirement that it run from C: and only C:. So, when I thought I was installing it onto F: (the new drive I booted into), it was really just re-installing it on C: (my old hard drive).

So, I had to unhook the old drive, re-install Windows onto the new drive so it would take on the drive letter C: (for whatever reason, Windows XP won't let you change the drive letter of your boot partition), and then start all over installing various programs and stuff. That's what I was doing from 9PM to 5AM last night. Fun stuff, eh?

Note to developers: Don't follow Palm's example in this regard. Please. For your own good.

Cheap E-Book Devices

David Rothman over at TeleRead has a nice article outlining some inexpensive devices that make good e-book readers.

While David generally recommends Palm OS devices because of their good value (what you get versus what they cost), I have to recommend that a serious e-book reader should only consider the high-res Palm OS devices featuring 320x320 pixel screens. These provide very high quality displays with excellent text rendering.

The article goes on to discuss some interesting possibilities coming out of China. David predicts that we will soon see several inexpensive devices capable of serving as e-book readers coming from Asia.

Phone Sales Killing PDA Sales?

In this article, CNET News.com reports on a report suggesting that increased mobile phone sales are leading to the decline in PDA sales:

"The market for mobile phones is increasingly encroaching on the market for handheld organizers, leading to the second straight year of decline in organizer shipments, according to a report from research firm IDC.

So-called "converged" mobile phones, which combine organizer functions with the ability to make phone calls, are taking customers away from the handheld device market, IDC said Monday. For 2003, worldwide shipments are expected to decline 8.4 percent, to 11.35 million units from 12.4 million units last year."

If you take a different perspective -- that "converged mobile devices" are both phones and PDAs, then one might conclude that the PDA market is doing well...actually growing. It's not clear why IDC arbitrarily decided that anything that can be used as a cellular phone is a "phone" -- I think the lines separating the various categories are getting too blurred to make this type of report very useful.

Think of the Palm Tungsten W (pictured at the right). Out of the box, it can be used to place voice calls, but it's primary mission in life is as a wireless data device. Is this a "phone?" It's not clear from IDC's report whether this is counted or not (I believe it would be).

OK, then, what about any of the PDAs that have Wi-Fi built-in? These can be used for voice-over-IP (VOIP), meaning you could place a voice call if you're within an active Wi-Fi network with an Internet connection. Is that a phone? If not, why not? Or, what about the phones that have merely a bare-bones calendar and address book? Are those considered "converged devices?" Again, it's not clear from the IDC report what the criteria truly are. In fact, one would nearly need to go device-by-device to establish which category each fits into and why.

So, as the lines between device categories continue to blur, and "converged device" has less and less meaning every day, I'll continue to take reports like this one from IDC with a huge grain of salt. Or, better yet, perhaps we should just start ignoring them totally. Maybe then these research/consulting houses would be forced to come up with something more useful than the omnipresent "exponential growth" curve that they seem to use to describe every technology on the horizon.

But then again, if they showed what a reasonably clued in person expects for most new technologies, many fewer copies of their reports would be sold -- nobody is interested in reading about things that are headed into obscurity. How do you spell "conflict of interest" again?

Palm Becomes PalmOne

Early this morning, Palm Solutions Group, the hardware side of Palm, Inc. announced that it would take the new name of palmOne after Palm, Inc. splits off its PalmSource software sometime division this Fall.

According to the press release:

“Palm created an entirely new category when it delivered the first successful handheld computers in history,” said Todd Bradley, Palm Solutions Group chief executive officer. “palmOne builds on the brand promise and popularity of the Palm name, while indicating our intention to continue to be the driving force of innovation.”

The forthcoming and much delayed spin-off of PalmSource, Inc. has been approved by shareholders and should be completed as soon as the merger with Handspring is finalized.

It has been widely known (or assumed) that Palm Solutions Group would have to change its name once the spin-off was completed in order to reduce confusion over branding of the Palm operating system and the use of the word "Palm."

While I'm not crazy about the new name, I'm just happy that it's been announced. At least there's now one less hurdle to overcome before this corporate reconfiguration can be finalized. Then, everyone concerned can concentrate more on products and customers rather than organization charts and lawyers. Other coverage of and reactions to this announcement can be found at Palm Infocenter and Brighthand.

Sony Clie PDA Case Reviews

Our own Ken Rhee has posted an extensive review of cases and protective covers for the Sony Clie NX series over at MemoWare Features.

Three different cases are reviewed. The Sena and Bellagio cases are soft leather cases and the Innopocket is a hard case made of aluminum.

Plus, Ken reviews a nifty Clie accessory: the Clie NX Charge Adapter, which lets you power your Clie using 4 'AA' cells.

TeleRead.org -- E-Book Advocates

TeleRead.org is an interesting website with an interesting mission: to promote "well-stocked national digital libraries." Beyond the various lists and links, the site features a well-done blog related to e-books, the publishing industry, DRM (digital rights management), and other related matters.

As you may know, I'm a big fan of e-books, and I think they deserve a lot more attention than they've been getting, so I'm glad to see a well-organized and active site like this emerge. Check it out!

A (Revised) Day in My Life

A few months ago, I posted a blog entry where I described a typical day of mine and most of the tech I interact with. Well, I have a couple of revisions.

First, I had said that the first real piece of technology I used each day was an iPaq that lives on my nightstand -- I use it to get my email and check the weather before getting out of bed. Well, with the arrival of my Tungsten|C, the iPaq is pretty much collecting dust. The T|C just does what the iPaq did -- from checking email to web browsing -- a whole lot better. Part of that may be the T|C's faster processor (nearly twice as fast), but I think the apps I mostly use (Snappermail and Palm Web Browser) are just better than the standard Pocket PC equivalents.

Lest you think that Pocket PCs have no place in my daily life, the second change is that I've begun relying on my HP Jornada 565 to act as my home theater universal remote. Using the TV Remote Controller software I discussed previously, the 565 is now a very capable and flexible remote control that suits our entertainment system (TV, stereo, etc.) exceptionally well. Plus, with a Wi-Fi card installed, the 565 doubles as an email and web appliance for the family room. Now that's handy!

So, where one Pocket PC fell out of use, another use emerged. Funny how things work out like that. Anyway, just keeping up-to-date.

Wardriving with the Tungsten|C

In this post, I mentioned that I'd report back on my experience warwalking/wardriving with the Palm Tungsten|C handheld.

Using an application called Netchaser, I've been really impressed at how easy it is to find wireless networks. Armed with nothing more than the Tungsten, I can walk or drive, and about everywhere I go, there are Wi-Fi networks to be found.

Last night, I drove my daily 5 mile commute with the Tungsten sitting on the passenger seat. In scan mode, Netchaser keeps the handheld on and actively searching -- no user intervention is needed (which is good, as I wouldn't want to be fiddling with a PDA while driving). Netchaser will beep and/or vibrate when a new network is found.

In that short trip, I drove through 14 networks, 10 of which were completely unencrypted (i.e., no WEP). Some of the SSID's (network names) were "Charlotte's Wireless Network," "Christy's laptop," (?) and "Moe." Unfortunately, a lot of folks haven't heard that it's a good idea to change the default settings on your router/AP -- 6 of the 14 were named either "linksys" or "wireless." Oh, well, maybe if they read the manual they'd end up figuring out how to turn on WEP too, and then that wouldn't be nearly as much fun.

In summary, wardriving/warwalking with the Tungsten|C is easy and terrific. While I wish it was more sensitive in terms of its Wi-Fi reception, this is a great first version of a Palm OS handheld with integrated Wi-Fi.

Turn Your Pocket PC into a Universal Remote

For you home theater fanatics who might be in search of a universal remote control, I have an interesting alternative to suggest -- use your Pocket PC and the TV Remote Controller app (TVRC) by PDAWin.com.

TVRC basically turns your Pocket PC 2002 or 2003 into a full-color Pronto-compatible universal remote (note: if you don't know what a Pronto is, check out Philips' website). In short, just about anything that can be controlled via infrared can be controlled through TVRC.

It is insanely flexible. Using the free ProntoEdit software (from Philips), you design your templates and remote control layouts. Then, you upload the resulting .CCF file to your Pocket PC and open it up in TVRC. In "CCF mode," TVRC then emulates the Pronto (including hardware buttons!). If you don't have some infrared codes already in hexadecimal, no sweat -- just teach your Pocket PC using the "learn" mode and voila! TVRC also has a standard (non-CCF) mode that is far less exciting in my opinion.

Oh, and did I mention that TVRC can even accept voice commands!?! For less than $15, this is a really nice piece of software. Finally, I can put this Jornada 565 to use around my house! Check out TV Remote Controller 5.4 at PDAWin.com.

Dana by Alphasmart

The Alphasmart Dana, having been out now for over a year, isn't exactly new news. However, recently, I got a chance to try out one of these devices that Alphasmart is billing as "The Palm Powered laptop alternative that's truly affordable."

The Dana is basically a 2-lb. unit with a full-sized keyboard attached to a 560x160 grayscale screen and running Palm OS. It comes equipped with dual MMC/SD expansion slots, a rechargeable battery (that can be removed and replaced by 'AA' cells), two USB ports (one type A and one type B), and an IrDA port. It comes with several pieces of custom software, including Alphaword, a text editor capable of creating and editing Microsoft Word files.

One of the more impressive aspects of the Dana is its durability. Alphasmart bills it as "rugged," and I've seen their salespeople repeatedly drop them on the floor from 3-4 feet up with absolutely no damage. Cool!

One thing that bugs me a bit about the Dana is the angle of the screen. I'm not very tall, and the angle of the display seems to "flat" -- I keep wanting to tilt it up to see it better (the contrast is lower at off-angles). Since this device is designed for kids, many of whom are shorter than I am, I wonder if this design is appropriate.

Recently, Alphasmart announced that it would soon start offering a model of the Dana equipped with built-in Wi-Fi (802.11b). I can see how that would be appealing to its customer base. Right now, the Dana can become Wi-Fi-enabled by hooking up a Wi-Fi adapter to its USB port (only certain adapters work, however, so be sure to check the documentation).

I'm not sure what Alphasmart means by "laptop alternative." Does that mean laptop replacement? I sure hope not, as that would be setting a pretty high bar to reach. Since it's not too terribly hard to find decent laptops with good feature-sets for $800 or so, laptops aren't really all that unaffordable anymore. If Alphasmart continues to push these into K-12 schools as typing tutors and alternatives to buying full-blown computers, they might be successful. I just don't see many professionals being satisfied by the Dana when they can have a full-fledged laptop for only a few hundred dollars more.

Dynamism.com: A Tech Lover's Dream Store

I've found perhaps the coolest online store for North Americans. Dynamism.com features some of the hottest new technology from Japan ready to be purchased by and shipped to us over here on the wrong side of the Pacific. A short list of goodies available from Dynamism today include the Sony U101 ultralight micro-notebook, the Samsung Nexio S160 multi-mode PDA, the new Sharp Zaurus SL-C760, and the Sony Qualia 016 high-end digital camera. You know, it's nice having a single URL I can use for my entire birthday list. ;-)

PalmSource Rolls Out "Expert Guides" Program

Today, PalmSource, the maker of Palm OS, unveiled a new program aimed at helping users of Palm OS-powered PDAs and smartphones get more and better use out of their devices. This program, called "Expert Guides," can now be found online at www.palmsource.com/applications/.

In a nutshell, PalmSource describes the Expert Guides program this way:

Leading Palm OS users have created guides to what you can do with a handheld or smartphone. Learn about software, user stories, e-books, websites, and a lot more. Check in often -- we're adding new guides frequently.

Some of the initial topics covered include Food & Wine, Time and Life Management, and resources for Medical Professionals, among others.

One of the more interesting aspects is that each topic is written by an "expert," and most topics seem to give you a little bit of an introduction to the writer. I hope this program grows, as I think it holds a lot of potential. If you are interested in volunteering to become an expert and cover a topic, go to the PalmSource application page and apply. Members of the program receive prominence, private contact with PalmSource, and $200 in gift certificates toward the purchase of handheld gear of their choice. Wow...fame and fortune all in one.

Palm Tungsten C

Yesterday, I received a Tungsten C from Palm Solutions Group to try out for a while. In case you've been under a rock for a while, this bad boy runs Palm OS 5.2.1 and comes with a 400 MHz ARM processor, 64 MB of RAM, a Secure Digital/MMC slot, a 320x320 resolution transflective display, a thumbboard, and built-in Wi-Fi 802.11b networking.

The display on this is the best I've seen on any handheld ever. I've heard that same comment from nearly every person who's seen it -- it's that good. The 400 MHz CPU makes it just scream -- HotSyncs that would normally take minutes on my Kyocera 7135 (a 33 MHz Dragonball device) take less than 10 seconds with the Tungsten C. The thumbboard means that all those emails and instant messages you send via Wi-Fi will be entered quickly and accurately -- no more stylus cramps.

There are two downsides of the Tungsten C. The first is Wi-Fi sensitivity. Compared to most other Wi-Fi devices I've tried, this PDA is a bit lacking in being able to detect faint network signals. As a comparison, a HandEra 330 with a Symbol Wireless Networker CompactFlash Wi-Fi adapter (the most powerful Wi-Fi reception in a handheld solution I've found) still gets about 30% signal strength when the Tungsten C drops the signal entirely.

The other weakness of the Tungsten C is the headphone jack -- it's mono. With all this horsepower that could be used for listening to MP3s, you'd think a nice stereo headphone jack would be obvious. The folks at Palm, believing that this was purely an enterprise device, felt that a mono headset for use with VOIP would be better received. I think they're finding that to be a silly assumption.

Anyway...I'll post more about warwalking and wardriving with my Tungsten C and a really cool WLAN sniffer called Netchaser from Bits & Bolts Software (think Netstumbler for Palm OS). In the meantime, check out some reviews of the Palm Tungsten C at MemoWare (by our very own Ken Rhee!), Brighthand, Infosync, and The New York Times (by David Pogue).

Sony PEG UX-50

Sony Japan has just announced the newst Clie in their PDA lineup. As seen from the picture, the design of the unit has gone through an interesting change. Rather than having the portrait orientation, now it has the landscape orientation (thus 480x320 screen rather than 320x480). It also now sports a new keyboard as well (hopefully this one will be practical and useful). The unit also supports both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. I believe this is the first Palm OS device to support both wireless protocols internally (i.e. built-in). I can't comment on the screen since I haven't seen one personally, but hopefully Sony used a transflective screen (just like Palm Tungsten C) in the unit. The unit also has a built-in .3 megapixel (640x480) CMOS digital camera. The unit has 22MB of ROM, but unfortunately, the unit only comes with 16MB of available RAM. It will go on sale in Japan on August 9. There was no information about how much this will cost though. This is an interesting evolutionary upgrade, and we will have to see how well the device performs once we have in our hands.

If you know Japanese, you can read about it here

Palmless for ? Days . . .

Well, my Tungsten C is off to the Palm repair center at Laredo, Texas. I shipped it via UPS 2nd day (afternoon). With insurance, it came out to $12.06. I thought about sending it next day afternoon, but it would have been $26.27, and there was no way I'm going to pay that much after having paid $499 for my device.

Of course, Palm offered me an advance exchange for $39.99, but that to me was ridiculous as well. I can be without Palm for a few weeks (I still got my Treo 180 and Sony NX60, plus a few classic Palm's), but I can't imagine how other folks who don't have any spare device supposed to deal with this withdrawal.

I have a bunch of wireless adapters/cards, and this is the first time I have to deal with this issue. I suggested to Palm they should reexamine their repair/exchange policy, especially when it clearly involves "negligence" on their part, but don't hold your breadth.

Stay tuned for future updates.

Is there something wrong with this picture?

I've been pretty happy with the Tungsten C since I purchased it for my MemoWare Features review as well as personal use. It has been my primary PDA for the past few months. However, that is going to change (at least temporarily). You see I have to send it back for repair. Although there have been a number of issues I have discovered since the purchase (See MemoWare), I have tolerated those. Also, I have found quick solutions to those issues such as the Boxwave hotsync cable for the hotsync cable issue.

However, today I have learned that I have to return the unit for repair (at my expense), and it will take 7 to 10 days once it is received at the repair center. The funny thing is that this saga started on a positive note: Palm's newly released patch for the Tungsten C. I was excited to find that Palm released a new patch for the Tungsten C. However, when I read the update instruction, I discovered something was amiss. The update instruction says, "If the MAC Address does not match the MAC label on the rear of the handheld contact Palm Customer Support. DO NOT continue to step 3." So, I contacted Palm Customer Support, and then I was told that there was an issue (upon further checking with Palm Tech Support, the issue seems to be related to the device losing its MAC ID), and it can only be repaired at the repair site. I don't have any solid data, but I suspect that this issue might be more widespread than just affecting a few individuals. It's hard to believe that Palm would have overlooked something like this before the release (for me, if you have to send the unit back for repair, it's not a minor issue any more).

Well, I've had my Palm T/C for exactly 2 months, and now it is going back for repair. Needless to say, it doesn't bode well for me to have to spend extra $$$ and time (not having Palm for more than a week). I remember when I had my earlier Palm’s, Palm sent me a box for me to send back the unit overnight, and then I would have the unit back in 2-3 days. Well those days are forever gone I guess. I'll update my readers on my experience, and it will be interesting to see if my positive past support experience with Palm continues to hold true. Stay tuned . . .

Windows Mobile

Microsoft has aggregated its mobile OS products, including Pocket PC and Smartphone, into a new sub-brand called Windows Mobile. This will hopefully remove some of the consumer confusion over Pocket PC versus PPC Phone Edition versus Smartphone. Now, how does Windows CE fit into all this again??

Treo 600 Looks Compelling

The new Treo 600 from Handspring (soon to be Palm), shown to the right, looks like it might be one kick-butt mobile device.

In a nutshell, it is a Palm OS-based mobile phone, and Handspring expects to ship both GSM and CDMA versions of it. The 600 will feature 3G data connections (GPRS and 1xRTT, respectively), 160x160 color display, digital camera, SDIO expansion slot, huge 1800 mAh battery, and a full QWERTY thumb-board keypad.

There are both lovers and haters of thumb-boards, but I'm definitely in the "love it" camp. After using a Treo 180 and a Treo 270 for about 4 months each, I really miss the thumb-board on my current phone, the Kyocera 7135.

Notably absent from the Treo 600 is Bluetooth. Given the size of the device, this is more likely explained as an engineering trade-off than a marketing/product development decision. Naysayers will also point out that the display is "only" 160x160. While this is less than both the Microsoft Smartphone standard resolution (176 x 220) and much less than the forthcoming high-res Samsung SGH-i500 (320x320), it is likely much better than most mobile phone users are used to and it will do less damage to precious battery life.

Overall, it sounds like it could be an incredibly compelling device. Handspring's Treo 600 "sneak peek" preview page, complete with Jeff Hawkins infomercial, is now available here. Other reviews and articles on the Treo 600 can be found at Brighthand, Wired, InfoSync, and Palm Infocenter.

A Radio Station in Your Pocket

Guglielmo Marconi would have been amazed. A combination of two diminutive devices, shown to the right, now lets anyone walk around with a personal radio station in his pocket.

The white device on the top is the Belkin TuneCast FM Transmitter. It will broadcast on four frequencies: 88.1, 88.3, 88.5, and 88.7 MHz. Although it was designed to aesthetically match an iPod, it will work with any device that has a 1/8" headphone or line out jack. It runs on 2 'AAA' cells (rechargeables work fine).

The shiny device on the bottom is the MPIO/Digitalway FL100 MP3 Player (see that link for my blog entry devoted to the FL100). It plays MP3s, tunes FM stations, records voice notes, and records off of the radio -- amazingly versatile for a 1.5 oz. device. It runs on a single 'AAA' cell. The battery and the memory card in the photo are shown for scale.

So, imagine walking around with virtually unlimited music in your pocket (the FL100 takes SD cards up to 512 MB) and being able to broadcast it to any FM receiver. Granted, the range of the TuneCast unit is a bit short -- roughly 30' line of sight in my usage testing -- but the fact that you can do this at all is pretty cool.

So, the total weight of this personal radio station, including batteries and an SD memory card, is a smidge over 4 oz. (113 g). Granted, while any personal music player could be used in this setup, the FL100 is the smallest I've seen to include an SD card slot. Now, what happens if I set the FL100's FM tuner to the same frequency as the TuneCast is set to broadcast on? Hmm...

Palm Zire 71

For its Zire 71 PDA, Palm has a pretty cool interactive movie-ad made using Flash (that link will open a new browser window).

With Palm's $50 trade-in rebate (good through July 14, 2003), a net-savvy shopper should be able to snag one of these nifty devices for under $225 -- a pretty nice deal for a PDA with all those features.

Some other good reviews on the Zire 71 can be found at MemoWare Features, Brighthand, The Gadgeteer, and Geek.com

First Look--Fellowes Stowaway XT Keyboard for Sony Clie

One of the key accessories missing from the Sony NX lineup has been the portable "full-size" keyboard. As most of you know (it's also mentioned in my earlier MemoWare article), Sony changed the wiring of the NX devices, and as a result, the previous Sony portable keyboard was not compatible with the keyboard. So, the current owners of the Sony NX devices have been waiting for a new keyboard for a long time (7 months is eternity in the high tech world).

Well, the long wait is finally over. Fellowes has just released the Stowaway XT keyboard for the Sony Clie NR, NX, T, and SJ. I just received the review unit, and I was eager to try it out. I installed the driver and off I went. The driver is an updated version (1.96F) of the ThinkOutside driver for Palm OS5.

The keyboard and driver worked perfectly during my brief testing. The only thing I've noticed was that there was a slight lag when I typed fast (the screen display was delayed by a second when I typed). Since I type 70 words per minute, it is understandable, but I did not notice the same lag when I was using the Palm Ultra-Thin keyboard with the Zire 71 and the Tungsten C.

Anyway, it's great news for the Sony Clie NX owners--actually for other Clie owners as well since we now have the first thin Stowaway keyboard for the Sony Clie's.

Stay tuned for my MemoWare Features for the full review of Sony Clie accessories including several cases for the Sony NX devices in the near future.

Palm to Acquire Handspring

According to this morning's press release from Palm, Inc., it will acquire Handspring immediately after spinning off its PalmSource division sometime this Fall. The photo at the right shows (L to R) Ed Colligan (Founder, President, and COO of Handspring), Todd Bradley (President and CEO, Palm Solutions Group), and Jeff Hawkins (Chairman and Chief Product Officer of Handspring, and inventor of the first Palm Pilot).

Stock issues seem fairly straightforward: Handspring stockholders will receive 0.09 shares of Palm, and no shares of PalmSource, for each 1 share of Handspring common stock. Since PalmSource will be spun off just prior to this merger taking place, this makes sense.

This seems to put Palm squarely on the map as a well-rounded device maker. Whether it has the muscle and inertia to carry its success in the consumer and enterprise PDA markets into the mobile phone market is something that we'll all be watching closely.

Another concerns is the people at these two organizations -- there is a lot of good talent that I hope isn't displaced because of this merger (especially some of Handspring's senior management).

Now we can also all debate what the name of the new company will be (assuming there's a name change for Palm SG in the works as result of this combination spin-off/acqusition). The running favorite seems to be "PalmSprings," but I'm thinking the community in California might have issues with that choice.

Read more on this story at CNet News.com, Brighthand, InfoSyncWorld, PhoneScoop, or CNN Money, and the cynic's view is (always) available at The Register.

Small Cheap Hard Drives

Just about the time I thought that flash memory had completely taken over the handheld device market, new life has been breathed into magnetic hard drives by startup Cornice. Read the whole story on CNet News here.

It sounds like these new hard drives are perfectly suited to mobiles -- they're small (smaller than an IBM Microdrive), durable (can withstand a 1-meter drop when installed), and seem like they have reasonable power consumption. 1.5 GB for $65? That's a deal, especially when flash storage is still about 4-6X that price on a per-megabyte basis. The primary downside I can see is that these drives are not made to be removable -- they are hard-soldered to the mainboard in the device. But, as an adjunct to removable storage, this would make for a nice base level of memory for mobile devices.

Review to Go (Acrobat Palm OS Reader)

I know I have been writing my MemoWare Features for more than a year now, but I haven't been able to turn any of my reviews into a portable document that I can carry with me and still be satisfied with the quality. That is until now.

Adobe has just released the new version of its free Acrobat Reader for Palm OS Version 3.0. So, I figured why not try to convert my latest Palmcorner review of the Zire 71 into a Palm OS pdf file and see if it can fly.

Of course, given the smaller Palm screen, it would be impossible to duplicate the identical format, but the new version did a good job preserving graphics and tables in the review. While it's difficult to read the table as it appears in the program (see the picture), you can zoom on the table and read the contents of the table. I was impressed!

The conversion was simple as adding a pdf file to the PC Acrobat Palm OS program and synchronizing to a Palm device.

Check it out by downloading the converted PDF (.pdb) file here: Palm Zire 71 Review

New Sony Clie?

Well, it looks like my rantings, including this blog entry, haven't fallen on deaf ears entirely over at Sony. ‹vbg› It just hinted at a new model of Clie, which looks to be a clamshell format with 480x320 screen (shown to the right). We'll see what the keyboard, if there's a keyboard, looks like, for that could make or break the design. Well, that and Sony's insistence on using proprietary Memory Sticks for expansion. Read the whole story at Palm Infocenter.

The Perfect PDA?

The PDA you see to the right may just possibly be the world's perfect PDA.

It features a hinged design akin to the Sharp Zaurus SL-C series. Unlike the Zaurus, which runs on Linux, this device runs on Palm OS 5.2. Its feature list is impressive, including:

• Transflective 480x320 screen, 64K colors
  
• 64 MB of RAM and 32 MB of flashable ROM
  
• 400 MHz ARM processor w/ power-saving modes
  
• Full QWERTY keyboard (actual keys!)
  
• Dual expansion slots, SD and CF (1 each)
  
• Integrated GSM + GPRS (Class 10)
  
• Integrated Bluetooth
  
• Voice recording
  
• USB2.0 port (for synchronization or accessories)
  
• 1800 MAh Lithium-Polymer battery, user replaceable
  
• Estimated dimensions (closed): 5.2" long X 3.0" wide X .75" thick, 9 oz.
  

Unlike other devices, this unit does not have a hamstrung headset jack -- it accepts standard "mini-jack" stereo headphones or it will accept a 3-band headset for voice communications. However, voice communications can be done without a headset, as this unit features an external mic and speaker that can be used for placing phone calls as well as creating (and listening to) voice recordings. Voice recording can be done without opening the unit, accessed by an external button.

Some may criticize the lack of any 802.11x wireless networking, but it seems that with two expansion slots, the user can decide what kind of networking (b, a, g, etc.) is best for his needs. In addition, future upgrades to newer standards is much easier if done through an expansion card rather than buried internally. Also, this is an advantage, for expansion slots mean exposed antennae, which yields better range and lower power consumption than if the antenna was enclosed inside the unit.

Yes, this could be the ultimate accessory for that road-warrior tired of schlepping heavy laptops through the airport, or for that student already lugging 23 lbs. of schoolbooks, or for that executive needing a comprehensive portable communications solution. Granted, it's not exactly a "dump-in-your-pocket" kind of device, but given that it likely replaces your PDA, your cell-phone, and your laptop, this might be the perfect compromise.

So who is making this device? That's the problem -- nobody. Now we just need someone to actually build it.

Tapwave Rocks My World

Save up your pennies, boys and girls, for you will be wanting the forthcoming product from a pretty wicked little startup called Tapwave. This holiday shopping season should see a new handheld gaming device on store shelves, or at least available online.

The specs on the device are mondo impressive, including a super-bright 480x320 (that's half-VGA landscape) screen, ARM processor, a full set of analog and digital gaming controls, sound and graphics acceleration, built-in Bluetooth, dual rechargeable batteries, and much much more. The Bluetooth is there to support multi-player head-to-head gaming (read "fragfest in Physics class"), which should be popular with gamers of all ages. What's more is that, because it is based on Palm OS, it will run all those same PIM apps and stuff that you need to survive each day -- Addressbook, Datebook, etc.

I was lucky enough to be invited to Tapwave's launch party on May 5th, at which I was unlucky enough to get to fondle one of these devices. Why do I say I was unlucky? Well, because now I have to wait 5-6 months until these things get released -- 5-6 MONTHS!! I'm just not that patient for new gear, especially gear as sweet as this. And believe me, it's sooo sweet. [insert Homer drooling sound here]

Well, more as I know about it. If you want to discuss this device in the meantime, check out the Tapwave_Users group over at Yahoo!

Lightweight Laptops

I'm all about reducing the weight of the stuff I have to carry when travelling, so I just shudder when I think about having to lug my 7-lb. Dell Inspiron with me on trips. That motivation, along with my blog entry Honey, I shrunk the PC, got me to wondering how light I could go and still have access to a full installation of Windows XP and Microsoft Office. Here are some interesting options I turned up.

• Often touted as the standard in sub-notebooks is the Sony Picturebook series (pictured above right). At just over 2 lbs, these little dudes are marvels of engineering. As always, Sony's notebooks have terrific screens: I just wish Sony took better care of its customers when they have problems.

• In the not-yet-available category is this Vulcan Mini-PC (shown to the right). It's supposed to meet up with standard laptop specs, but feature an 800x480 5.8" screen and weigh in at about a pound. Gizmodo suggests, and I might agree, that the keyboard looks really crummy -- let's hope the final product is more finger-friendly than the mock-ups appear.

• Another amazing lightweight notebook is the Fujitsu Lifebook P1000. This has the standard notebook physical form factor, but also includes a WXGA touch-screen, and all for 2.2 lbs. Pretty impressive! If I could fold the screen 360' around, so that the screen was on one side and the keyboard the opposite, that would make for a pretty keen Tablet PC-esque setup. Granted, cooling would be a challenge since you just smothered the bottom of the notebook with the back of the screen, but if it runs cool enough, this should be possible (and it would get rid of that big ugly hinge on so many of tthe convertible Tablet PCs).

Let me know if there's a micro-notebook on your wishlist (or better yet, already in your bag).

A Day in My Life

Technophiles are generally pretty interesting folks, I've come to realize. We all have particular idiosyncracies and preferences that make it extremely unlikely for two of us to have exactly similar usage patterns, technology choices, etc. Just to illustrate my own pattern of choices, here's a brief recap of the tech I employ in a typical day.

Wake up -- I use a $10 GE clock-radio that I got at a discount department store about 10 years ago. I was so impressed at the radio sensitivity (it can tune stations even my $400 Yamaha receiver can't), I bought a second as back-up. For $10, it's a steal.

Check email -- my first real "tech" interaction of the day is usually with a Pocket PC, a Compaq iPaq 3670 with PC Card sled and D-Link Wi-Fi adapter. I check my various email accounts with this thing (Pocket Inbox is a phenomenal email app), check the weather, etc. before I get out of bed. The charging cradle is a permanent fixture on my nightstand, since I no longer sync this with a PC. This is about the closest thing to a technology "appliance" I've found to be actually useful.

Shower, get dressed, wolf down breakfast (optional) -- no real tech involved here :-( [Note to self: Work on this.]

Pack for work -- stick necessary tech into briefcase for the day at the office. This usually consists of my Kyocera 7135 and my HandEra 330, although the 330 is seeming less and less necessary given the really nice capabilities of the 7135 (and the EOL issued for all HandEra devices).

Drive to work -- I invested in a sweet piece of car stereo equipment, the Alpine CDA-7894 in-dash receiver. This unit plays the full complement of digital discs (except DVD) and decodes MP3. Given that I have over 45 GB of MP3s (all legal, ripped from CDs we own), this is a really nice way to access my music while in my car. Not only does the receiver sound great, it really does a fairly stellar job at handling MP3 data. I still think there's a big opportunity for high-res after-market head units (to display the track name, artist, etc. all simultaneously), but those still seem to be fairly rare. Given that it's an Alpine, the tuner is just excellent, especially good for pulling in WOXY (alternative) and WNKU (alternative/folk + NPR).

At work -- While at my office, I interact with a lot of standard-issue university technology. Fairly banal Dell desktop with CRT monitor, etc. -- a pretty typical arrangement. My pride and joy in my personal office is my HP G85 4-in-1 printer/scanner/fax/copier. It does a really stellar job at all four functions (well, never tried the fax function, but I assume it's stellar). I use the snot out of the sheet-feeder for scanning multi-page documents -- works great...highly recommended. The bane of my existence at work is our office copier...some lame, fickle Xerox piece of crap. This hunk of junk, more than anything else, has inspired me to go as paperless as is reasonably possible. Knowing I'm helping conserve trees also makes me feel good about using bits instead of paper.

Back at home -- home for the evening and I rely on all the tech here in my home. I have a mixed wired/wireless LAN that ties together 2 PCs, 1 laptop, and 2 handhelds (1 Pocket PC and 1 Palm OS device). Internet access is via RoadRunner cable broadband, which is being distributed to all the connected devices. My main computer at home is a custom/self-built desktop, and the other desktop is my MP3 server (I'll talk more about this later). I have our family room TV and stereo system tied into the MP3 server, so I can browse or whatever while listening to our music collection -- a pretty nice setup. My main complaint is the resolution on our television is really poor. It's a 27" Sony Trinitron, so it puts out like 550 lines of resolution. Needless to say, I really want one of the new true 1920x1080 HDTV LCD TVs that should be hitting store shelves later this year (yum!). To control the MP3 server, which is in the basement, while I'm sitting in front of the family room TV, I rely on a Gyration wireless mouse/keyboard setup -- this is some really trick hardware if you want to have a nearly invisible common room computing setup.

In bed -- prior to hitting the hay, I will often do some minor computing in bed. This is done via the laptop (which I'm typing on now) or using one of the handhelds. Generally, I'm just doing a blog entry, checking email/weather, or IM'ing with some friends (or some combo of those). While I generally like the apps better on my PalmOS devices, their lack of multi-tasking in the OS really bites in this case -- I can't keep an IRC/IM connection open while I do something else (check email, calendar, etc.). I really hope OS6 fixes this.

Well, that's about it. I'll talk more about the MP3 server another time, for I'm pretty happy with that particular piece of my home setup. Have comparable usage patterns or something that differs dramatically? Leave me a note!