7849884
Press Release: Adobe Acrobat for Pocket PC Is Gold!
Adobe Announces Availability of Acrobat Reader for Pocket PC Software
Product Broadens Reach of Adobe PDF, Further Extends Value of Acrobat 5.0 Software
SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Dec. 11, 2001–Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE - news), the leader in network publishing, today announced the immediate availability of Adobe? Acrobat? Reader? for Pocket PC, a new software application that builds on the company’s vision to deliver visually-rich content anytime, anywhere, on any device.
Acrobat Reader for Pocket PC, which can be downloaded free of charge from the Adobe.com Web site at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html, allows mobile professionals and others the freedom to view content in the ubiquitous Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) on devices based on the popular Pocket PC software from Microsoft Corp.
The public beta version of the product received an enthusiastic welcome from professionals across industries, many of whom pointed to its ease of use and the value it added by providing immediate access to Adobe PDF files from virtually anywhere.
“Adobe PDF supports the full range of materials we rely on, from technical reports with charts and images to text-intensive documents,” said Al Cohen, a pilot for Air Canada. “Having this information available on my Pocket PC in Adobe PDF is far more advantageous than carting around paper, or even my laptop. With Acrobat Reader for Pocket PC, I can review documents wherever I am in an instant.”
“We want to make online synonymous with available anywhere. Acrobat Reader for Pocket PC brings us closer to that goal,” said Kendall Whitehouse, director of advanced technology development, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. “Because Adobe PDF is a standard format for distributing many of our materials, including school brochures, faculty research and class assignments, Acrobat Reader for Pocket PC gives our staff and students nearly universal access to important information. This enables them to review materials in a way that fits their busy schedules and lifestyles.”
Acrobat Reader for Pocket PC extends the value of award-winning Adobe Acrobat? 5.0 software and Adobe PDF to a broad range of devices, including HP Jornada, Compaq iPAQ and Casio CASSIOPEIA Pocket PC personal digital assistants (PDAs). Adobe PDF files created using Acrobat 5.0, as well as Adobe InDesign? 2.0 and Adobe PageMaker? 7.0, will offer the best reading experience on Pocket PC devices because they are automatically tagged with information on page structure and organization. This allows for easier and more reliable text reflow on a handheld device.
7758426
What Did I Tell You? Omnisky Files For Chapter 11
Yep - I can call ‘em. Over a month ago I mentioned that Omnisky was going to bite the big one, and sure enough they are filing for bankruptcy. No big surprise, seeing that most people don’t see the value in an expensive ($40 - $70 per month) data-only service that requires a separate modem. At least Omnisky is already passing their users along to Earthlink, so there will be no interruption in service. Here’s the scoop direct from the horses’ mouth:
Dear Valued OmniSky Customer,
Today we announced that OmniSky has agreed to sell its subscriber base and key technology assets to Atlanta-based EarthLink, a leading Internet service provider.
We are very excited about the prospects of this agreement and what it means for you.
This acquisition leverages EarthLink’s position as a world-class provider of Internet access — from dial-up and DSL/high speed access to wireless Internet access. As an award-winning company that focuses on providing its subscribers with the best Internet experience possible - wherever they are, through whatever device they are using — EarthLink will continue to improve and expand upon your existing OmniSky service. You can look forward to satisfying your need for new features, enhanced functionality, and additional device options in the coming months, all from one company.
We expect to continue to provide you with uninterrupted, high quality service and support. We anticipate that our day-to-day business will, in the short term, continue as usual. We do not expect:
Your service to be interrupted
Your email address to change
Your pricing to change; or
Our customer support to change
To ensure the most seamless transition for our customers, the company has filed for Chapter 11 protection. Our agreement with EarthLink is subject to a number of customary closing conditions, including the receipt of bankruptcy court approval. We hope to obtain that approval in January 2002, although we cannot be certain as to that timing.
It was OmniSky’s priority to ensure that our customers were in good hands. Your care is EarthLink’s priority. Please look forward to hearing directly from EarthLink in the coming weeks. They will be providing more information on the transition and associated customer benefits. In the meantime, for more information and the latest updates, please visit http://www.omnisky.com/earthlink
Sincerely,
Pat McVeigh
Chairman and CEO
OmniSky
7654660
BlogBack Sucks
The asshole who runs the BlogBack site (what we used to use for comments) changed the system without letting anyone know, and now he’s not accepting conversions to the new service. Sorry about that! As soon as he either gets his shit together or there is another service available we’ll make comments a part of the PCPocket Blog again.
7654607
iPaq Upgrade CD-ROM FINALLY Ships!
Yep, I finally got the iPaq upgrade CD-ROM. And it’s about time - I’m probably going to see if I can return my Jornada to HP since the “dust bunnies” behind the screen are starting to multiply. That means at least I’ll have an Pocket PC 2002 machine to play with while the Jornada is in the hospital.
Segway Is Cool, But Expensive - A PDA On Wheels?
If you’re a tech geek like myself you were probably thrilled when Dean Kamen’s latest invention, the Segway Human Transporter, was announced yesterday. Although those of us who aren’t corporations or governments probably won’t be able to buy one of these cool devices for at least a year, and then at a cost of around $3K, this really does have the feel of a PDA on wheels.
Why? Well, PDAs aren’t really necessary for one thing. I used to keep really good track of my life with one of those DayRunner books, and the Newton/Palm/Pocket PC only made that a bit more efficient. Likewise, most people can either walk, ride a bike, roll a mongo skateboard like one of my team employees, or (like most Americans) get in their huge SUV and burn gas. So for all purposes, does the world really need the Segway?
PDAs are also kind of an elitist toy. The top of the line devices have always remained at the $500-$700 level, which isn’t exactly something that a single mom with 2 kids and a heavy credit card balance can afford. So for the most part, PDAs have remained a tool or toy for those with lots of disposable income. That’s precisely why the PDA industry is seeing a slowdown right now, as the recession is forcing people to re-evaluate their true needs. Once again, the Segway is going to be a rather expensive piece of equipment - $3000 or so for the first consumer models.
But unlike PDAs, the Segway may really have a chance of revolutionizing life. For example, I currently drive my big SUV (a 4-cylinder Toyota 4Runner, so it gets somewhat better mileage than the 6-cylinder model) to a park ‘n ride about 4 miles away. For that privilege, I pay about $400 a month on a lease, plus insurance, license and gas costs. I do a ton of bike riding for exercise purposes, but I really don’t relish the thought of getting all sweaty riding to work all the time, and I don’t like the idea of parking my expensive recumbent bike at a public place where it could get stolen. So, my first thought after watching the Segway films and reading up on the device was this — hmmm…I spend $3000 on one of these, charge it up at night, then take it the 4 miles to the light rail station every day (20 minutes). I roll it up the handicapped ramp onto the train, then cruise downtown to work. I get off downtown, then zip over to the building where I work, roll into the elevator, then roll to my desk, where I plug it in for a recharge. If I need to travel to one of my client’s local offices (all of which are within 4 or 5 miles of the building where I work) I grab the Segway, roll out the door, and take the sidewalks to the other buildings at a speed three to four times faster than I could walk. Once it’s time to get off of work, I roll over to the station and take the train home, then zip back to the house. For much less than what I spend in a year just to pay for the car, I suddenly have a way to get around.
Of course, it’s probably not too practical in really cold weather or deep snow, but that’s relatively rare where I live. In very cold climates (i.e., Minneapolis), one could probably zip the Segway around the Skyway system in the winter. I could also see a similar problem with rainy weather or thunderstorms - I don’t tend to ride my bike in the middle of a raging lightning storm, and I certainly wouldn’t want to get stuck on a Segway while thunder is booming all around me. But once again, for the majority of days in the town where I live, this could be a really good transportation alternative for short-distance commuting.
Now, about the price. Of course, $3000 is the original estimated price for consumers. That’s much less than even a Daewoo, and there shouldn’t be any insurance or license fees. Think of it this way - $3000 will buy you two Sony Aibos, and although they’re cool, they sure as hell can’t take you anywhere. Like any vehicle, the Segway is bound to have competitors and prices will drop as a result. Segway is planning on building (in their present plant) about 40,000 of these a month initially. If they really take off, the price could drop dramatically as economies of scale kick in. Segway has really done a good job of defining their market - they plan on trying to sell the devices in a commercial version for highly visible businesses or governmental organizations, such as delivery services, police/emergency workers, intra-factory transportation, leisure industries, etc… Once people see how really revolutionary a device that seemingly defies gravity is, they’ll want one, and then the flood will start.
It’s about fucking time. For the last 50 years or so, those of us in the US of A and a lot of the rest of the civilized (i.e., not the Mideast) world have been making a big mistake. We went from excellent mass transit systems (trolleys, buses, trains) to cars, and cars led to sprawl, which led to traffic jams and 2-hour long commutes. In the same time, we started sucking down fossil fuels like there was no tomorrow. And part of the sad history of using petroleum to fuel those cars that we love so much is that we’ve become very dependent on paying Saudi Arabians and other folks who can’t stand us a shitload of money for their oil. They promptly turn around and subsidize terrorism against those they don’t like - Americans, Israelis, etc… On top of that, we’re starting to look at those virgin territories like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and even Antarctica to find new sources of oil. Eventually, we ARE going to run out.
To quote Dean Kamen, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to use a 4000 pound vehicle to move our 150 pound asses around, especially when we’re driving to the local restaurant, theater, or grocery store. Maybe I’m dreaming, but something like the Segway could have a good positive impact if it is widely adopted. Instead of spewing pollutants, taking up huge amounts of space for parking lots and roads, and drilling every square inch of every wilderness area on earth, perhaps we’ll be able to use those same parking lots to build affordable housing near transit centers, leave the pollutants to centralized power stations (which, by the way, meet very stringent emissions standards), and won’t have to subsidize terrorists or oil companies.
So. What does this rant have to do with PDAs? A lot. I’ve often wondered why we put so much value on these little devices when they’re really not providing any life-changing capabilities. Don’t get me wrong - I love playing with them. But I don’t really consider them to be a necessary part of my life. That’s where I think the Segway could be different, as it DOES have the ability to eventually be something that can change the way we live. Time will tell, however, if people are willing to change enough to make this interesting product a success.
7654604
iPaq Upgrade CD-ROM FINALLY Ships!
Yep, I finally got the iPaq upgrade CD-ROM. And it’s about time - I’m probably going to see if I can return my Jornada to HP since the “dust bunnies” behind the screen are starting to multiply. That means at least I’ll have an Pocket PC 2002 machine to play with while the Jornada is in the hospital.
Segway Is Cool, But Expensive - A PDA On Wheels?
If you’re a tech geek like myself you were probably thrilled when Dean Kamen’s latest invention, the Segway Human Transporter, was announced yesterday. Although those of us who aren’t corporations or governments probably won’t be able to buy one of these cool devices for at least a year, and then at a cost of around $3K, this really does have the feel of a PDA on wheels.
Why? Well, PDAs aren’t really necessary for one thing. I used to keep really good track of my life with one of those DayRunner books, and the Newton/Palm/Pocket PC only made that a bit more efficient. Likewise, most people can either walk, ride a bike, roll a mongo skateboard like one of my team employees, or (like most Americans) get in their huge SUV and burn gas. So for all purposes, does the world really need the Segway?
PDAs are also kind of an elitist toy. The top of the line devices have always remained at the $500-$700 level, which isn’t exactly something that a single mom with 2 kids and a heavy credit card balance can afford. So for the most part, PDAs have remained a tool or toy for those with lots of disposable income. That’s precisely why the PDA industry is seeing a slowdown right now, as the recession is forcing people to re-evaluate their true needs. Once again, the Segway is going to be a rather expensive piece of equipment - $3000 or so for the first consumer models.
But unlike PDAs, the Segway may really have a chance of revolutionizing life. For example, I currently drive my big SUV (a 4-cylinder Toyota 4Runner, so it gets somewhat better mileage than the 6-cylinder model) to a park ‘n ride about 4 miles away. For that privilege, I pay about $400 a month on a lease, plus insurance, license and gas costs. I do a ton of bike riding for exercise purposes, but I really don’t relish the thought of getting all sweaty riding to work all the time, and I don’t like the idea of parking my expensive recumbent bike at a public place where it could get stolen. So, my first thought after watching the Segway films and reading up on the device was this — hmmm…I spend $3000 on one of these, charge it up at night, then take it the 4 miles to the light rail station every day (20 minutes). I roll it up the handicapped ramp onto the train, then cruise downtown to work. I get off downtown, then zip over to the building where I work, roll into the elevator, then roll to my desk, where I plug it in for a recharge. If I need to travel to one of my client’s local offices (all of which are within 4 or 5 miles of the building where I work) I grab the Segway, roll out the door, and take the sidewalks to the other buildings at a speed three to four times faster than I could walk. Once it’s time to get off of work, I roll over to the station and take the train home, then zip back to the house. For much less than what I spend in a year just to pay for the car, I suddenly have a way to get around.
Of course, it’s probably not too practical in really cold weather or deep snow, but that’s relatively rare where I live. In very cold climates (i.e., Minneapolis), one could probably zip the Segway around the Skyway system in the winter. I could also see a similar problem with rainy weather or thunderstorms - I don’t tend to ride my bike in the middle of a raging lightning storm, and I certainly wouldn’t want to get stuck on a Segway while thunder is booming all around me. But once again, for the majority of days in the town where I live, this could be a really good transportation alternative for short-distance commuting.
Now, about the price. Of course, $3000 is the original estimated price for consumers. That’s much less than even a Daewoo, and there shouldn’t be any insurance or license fees. Think of it this way - $3000 will buy you two Sony Aibos, and although they’re cool, they sure as hell can’t take you anywhere. Like any vehicle, the Segway is bound to have competitors and prices will drop as a result. Segway is planning on building (in their present plant) about 40,000 of these a month initially. If they really take off, the price could drop dramatically as economies of scale kick in. Segway has really done a good job of defining their market - they plan on trying to sell the devices in a commercial version for highly visible businesses or governmental organizations, such as delivery services, police/emergency workers, intra-factory transportation, leisure industries, etc… Once people see how really revolutionary a device that seemingly defies gravity is, they’ll want one, and then the flood will start.
It’s about fucking time. For the last 50 years or so, those of us in the US of A and a lot of the rest of the civilized (i.e., not the Mideast) world have been making a big mistake. We went from excellent mass transit systems (trolleys, buses, trains) to cars, and cars led to sprawl, which led to traffic jams and 2-hour long commutes. In the same time, we started sucking down fossil fuels like there was no tomorrow. And part of the sad history of using petroleum to fuel those cars that we love so much is that we’ve become very dependent on paying Saudi Arabians and other folks who can’t stand us a shitload of money for their oil. They promptly turn around and subsidize terrorism against those they don’t like - Americans, Israelis, etc… On top of that, we’re starting to look at those virgin territories like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and even Antarctica to find new sources of oil. Eventually, we ARE going to run out.
To quote Dean Kamen, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to use a 4000 pound vehicle to move our 150 pound asses around, especially when we’re driving to the local restaurant, theater, or grocery store. Maybe I’m dreaming, but something like the Segway could have a good positive impact if it is widely adopted. Instead of spewing pollutants, taking up huge amounts of space for parking lots and roads, and drilling every square inch of every wilderness area on earth, perhaps we’ll be able to use those same parking lots to build affordable housing near transit centers, leave the pollutants to centralized power stations (which, by the way, meet very stringent emissions standards), and won’t have to subsidize terrorists or oil companies.
So. What does this rant have to do with PDAs? A lot. I’ve often wondered why we put so much value on these little devices when they’re really not providing any life-changing capabilities. Don’t get me wrong - I love playing with them. But I don’t really consider them to be a necessary part of my life. That’s where I think the Segway could be different, as it DOES have the ability to eventually be something that can change the way we live. Time will tell, however, if people are willing to change enough to make this interesting product a success.
7590622
Why I Don’t Like Apple
Since not a whole heck of a lot is happening in PDA-land this week, I thought I’d devote a blog to my distaste for Apple Computer, Inc. Now you have to understand that from 1984 until 1998 I was a rabid Apple fan. At this point in time, however, I can’t stand the company…
In late 1984 I purchased an Apple Macintosh (Fat Mac with 512K of RAM). At the time, it truly was a technological marvel. Nothing else out there could compete with its high resolution screen, mouse, graphical user interface, and ability to print graphics on an Imagewriter printer. Soon I was lugging the Mac to work, where many of my coworkers became impressed with its capabilities, and before I knew it, the company I worked for (a small natural gas transmission company with about 250 employees) was all Mac and I was running the show.
At the same time, I was busy preaching the gospel of Mac-dom to the rest of the world. I attended a lot of user group meetings, ran a bulletin board system (BBS) from 1986 to 1993 that touted the Mac OS (MAGIC was the name, and I was written up in MacWorld magazine), and started religiously attending some of the big Apple events every year such as the Apple World Wide Developer Conference and MacWorld Expo. Apple opened an office in my home town (Denver) and I was invited to events at the office on a regular basis. This was one thing that pissed me off about Apple - at the time, I was literally selling Macintosh to more people than the Denver office was, since I had a ton of influence on the market in my state. Did they ever consider hiring me? Hell, no - they were much more interested in hiring frat boys and sorority girls who looked really good, but knew nothing about their products… It made me chuckle when most of them were laid off in the mid-90s!
Towards the end of the 1980s, something started bothering me about Apple. They seemed to be resting on their laurels, making few real changes in the OS, making a lot of announcements about products that never made it to market, and jacking up the price on a lot of their machines to the point that they were out of reach of many people. This became even more pronounced in the early 90’s, when even a lot of the developers were complaining about the slow speed of Apple when it came to getting new products or OS upgrades out the door. I was thrilled in 1993 when the Newton MessagePad first hit the market, and was really thinking that it would be the device that saved Apple. However, the company had made a mistake by coming out with an costly and imperfect device that was way ahead of its time, and the pundits quickly flamed the product.
When Windows 95 came out in late 1995, my boss wanted me to test the new OS to see how it would work in our environment. Dutifully, I loaded up a hated PC with a copy of Win95, and was amazed with how well it worked. It was more Mac-like than a Mac, it networked well (we had a combined Novell / NT network at that time), and it was relatively fast. The great thing was that we could make PCs very Mac-like for a fraction of the cost, since Apple was still charging ridiculous prices for their products. Sooo, about this time I started becoming a real fan of Windows (warts and all) and became less and less impressed with the Mac OS, which was still essentially the same product that had been out 11 years earlier - it hadn’t changed all that much! As the Mac OS tried to work in the enterprise, it became much more buggy and worked less well, making our support costs go through the roof.
Fast forward to 1998. I was on a cruise in the Caribbean when I heard the news - the Newton Messagepad had been killed. I wasn’t surprised. I had owned an original Palm Pilot since the day they first hit the market in 1996, I had purchased a Handheld PC on the first day they appeared in 1997, and I could see the writing on the wall for the Newton. Steve Jobs had hated the device since the day he took over Apple again, since it was a product that had been the brainchild of John Scully. So instead of being a rational human being and realizing the potential of the Newton (which by 1998 was an amazing and relatively bug-free device!), Jobs used his power to eliminate a device that to this day represents the best of what PDAs are supposed to be.
Well, needless to say that really torqued me off. I had been irked with Apple more and more in the days since Windows 95 had hit the market, realizing that their main goal seemed to be charging exorbitant prices for relatively unimpressive computers. They’re still doing that as far as I’m concerned - even the “bare bones” iMac (the main selling point of which seems to be that it comes in “designer colors”!) starts at $799. Shit, I can buy a fairly well loaded Dell PC with twice the memory and 3 times the processor speed for less than that (and it comes with a 17″ monitor…). Of course, Apple’s response to the processor speed question was to create some extremely bogus benchmarks that pitted programs optimized for the PowerPC processor against a Pentium III processor running generalized software that was not optimized for that processor. I notice that they’ve been remarkably quiet since the Pentium 4 hit the market.
Now, instead of reducing prices, creating faster computers, or really coming up with something new (excuse me, but OS X isn’t that much of a revolution and a lot of legacy Mac software still won’t run on OS X, forcing you to boot up the old reliable OS 9…), what’s Apple up to? Opening boutique stores nationwide. They opened one of these about 4 miles away from me a few weeks ago and I just had to go look. There were some idiots who were actually camped out in front of the place the day before it opened…pathetic.
Anyway, an Apple Store is simply a shrine to the ego of Steven Jobs. There are all of the black & white photos that were featured in the “Think Different” ad campaign splattered on the walls, designer furniture, and all of the software that runs on the Macintosh platform. Funny that you can fit all of the Mac OS software (for both legacy versions and OS X) in a small storefront in a strip mall, when you can fit only a portion of the software for Wintel devices in a CompUSA “big box” store. I find it interesting that they build most of these stores in the more expensive parts of town. For example, the Denver store is within shouting distance of million-dollar homes. So much for a company that seems to pride itself on being the “People’s Computer Company”.
The thing that got me going and forced me to write this diatribe was the attitude of the people working at this store. Of course, I baited them a little bit. Each of the stores has a “Genius Bar” where you can ask questions of an Apple “Genius” who can tell you all about the Macintosh, Mac OS software, even development tools for the Mac. I pointedly asked why there was a need for an Apple “Genius” if the Mac was so easy to use, and was immediately given a shot back by the smartass behind the counter. Gotta admit, that was fun. It really amazes me that anyone believes the “easier to use” argument anymore, particularly since the recent release of Windows XP.
But the biggest irritation was the iPod. Reading the hype that Apple has thrown out about this device, and that is perpetuated in the Apple Store, you’d think that MP3 files and MP3 players didn’t exist before Apple created the iPod. Granted, this is a well-designed product. I think that the inclusion of a multi-gig hard drive, a FireWire interface and a good-sized buffer are strokes of design brilliance. But the arrogance of Apple in terms of their advertising and their flippancy towards the 90+ percent of us who choose the Wintel platform is appalling. When I asked the resident geeks at the Apple Store if there were any plans to come out with a version of the iPod for Windows PCs, I was told that a) they didn’t feel that Windows was up to the standards needed to properly “feed” the iPod with tunes, and b) it was impossible to do since PCs don’t come with FireWire built-in. I told the Apple-ites that a) they had no idea what they were talking about, since Windows XP was vastly superior to OS X and, unlike OS X, provided much better legacy compatibility, and b) I could add a 3-port FireWire card to my PC for as little as $20 (FMI makes a combo USB / FireWire card that sells for this unbelievable price).
About this point, I think they were ready to throw me out of the store. I really pissed them off before I walked out the door by saying that their company really hadn’t come out with a decent product since the Newton MessagePad 2100 and that was a product that their brilliant leader had killed. I’m sure I’m going to get some e-mail from some Mac-heads who will read this and get really, really irritated with me. All I can say is that I was one of you once…and I’ve realized that the Windows world offers much more in terms of functionality and value than any Apple product ever will. Wake up and smell the coffee, folks.
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Joy of Tech!
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MacLevelTen
