New iPods Have More PDA-like Features
Apple announced new iPod models yesterday, all featuring a new slimmer design (only .62″ thick) and a revised user interface. The new iPods come in 10GB, 15GB and 30GB flavors, and they come with a surprising number of PDA-like features. There are three built-in games (Solitaire, Brick and Parachute), an alarm clock, a text note reader (the predecessor of a full-function eBook reader???) and improved calendar and address book functions. You can now create playlists on the fly ON the device, instead of having to create your playlists on a PC for download. The 15 and 30 GB models also have a new docking station that makes it easier to plug/unplug the device for charging or synching.
I think a lot of first-generation iPod owners will be unhappy with the new docking interface design, as it moves from a FireWire connection on the top of the device to a proprietary connector on the bottom. This will make it possible to do USB 2.0 synching in the near future (requiring a software upgrade available in June plus a separate USB 2.0 cable), but it also makes a ton of peripherals that were developed for “original iPods” obsolete. That seems to be something that Apple has a real problem with - they’re always making radical design changes that create planned obsolescence an annual affair.
The previous design feature a touch wheel surrounded by four buttons; the new human interface has the same touch wheel with circular touch buttons above the wheel. These buttons perform the same functions, they’re just in a different configuration. Pricing has been reduced as well - the 10GB model is now $299, the 15GB model is $399, and the 30GB version is $499.
All in all, I think the new iPods look great and will probably capture even more devotees. I’m not sure I’ll upgrade, as I really don’t think the new features really add that much to the device - after all, I carry a Pocket PC Phone with me at all times so I won’t need some of the more PDA-like functionality. I also question Apple’s continuing devotion to MusicMatch as the Windows-based synch software. At this point in time the best solution for a Windows-based PC connecting to an iPod is ephPod - it makes the MusicMatch software look absolutely awful by comparison. For Mac users, you’ll still have iTunes and the entire suite of Macintosh goodies at your fingertips to make your iPod happy.
Things You Should Never Try With a Pocket PC Phone or SmartPhone
Well, if you logged onto PDAntic.com between today and last Thursday, you probably noticed two things - first, I wasn’t posting as much as I normally do and two, the last post (from MARGI Systems) was a horrible mess in terms of formatting.
I just got back from a short vacation in New York City and it taught me some very basic lessons about what you can do with a Pocket PC Phone or SmartPhone, and what you really need to have a Tablet PC or Notebook PC for. The biggest problem I ran into in NYC was the horrible GPRS service in Manhattan. Here in Denver, I can pretty much make a GPRS connection anywhere and be assured of a steady and fast connection. That makes it very easy to do things like gather information from various sources and then send it to this blog for posting. While I was in NYC I could barely even get to my e-mail. My GSM phone connection worked fine, but the GPRS data connection was another matter. I’d make a connection, then try to gather e-mail from my “PDAntic.com” mailbox. Sometimes it wouldn’t connect, the other times it would connect but wouldn’t let me log in and download e-mail, other times it would get the mail and then drop the connection, and on the rare occasion I was able to actually have the thrill of a full working connection that didn’t drop.
What I learned out of this lesson is that there’s a function for every device, and that one shouldn’t try to use a Pocket PC Phone or SmartPhone to do the work that’s normally accomplished on a Tablet PC or notebook. What I will do the next time I take a long trip is bring along my Tablet PC and just plan on going to a Starbucks or other WiFi hotspot once or twice a day to get my e-mail and update the site. I’ll use the phone as a phone - I’ll be damned if I’m going to try using it as a replacement for a computer!
I apologize for the lack of postings and news the last few days and will try to make up for it this week!
MARGI Systems Turns The Next Generation of Palm Handhelds Into Portable Presentation Tools
MARGI Presenter-to-Go Enables Users of the New Palm Tungsten C and Zire 71 Handhelds To Leave Their Laptops Behind When Conducting Presentations
FREMONT, Calif. (04/23/03) — MARGI Systems, the leading provider of mobile presentation solutions that turn handhelds into professional quality presentation devices, is extending presentation capabilities to a new generation of Palm handheld users. Today’s announcement of Presenter-to-Go’s compatibility with Palm’s new Tungsten C and Zire 71 handhelds (announced today) means that users of these devices can travel with and conduct presentations directly from their handhelds with ease. The solution provides mobile professionals with a lightweight alternative to deliver professional-quality presentations from their Palm Tungsten C or Zire 71 handheld - useful when traveling cross-country, across town, or even to a conference room down the hall.
MARGI Presenter-to-Go SD supports all Palm handhelds that feature the Palm Expansion Slot for SD Cards, SDIO and MultiMediaCard media, and is immediately available for the new Tungsten C and Zire 71 handhelds. Current owners of the technology can attest to the flexibility of being able to walk into any meeting, connect their handheld to a projector and begin presenting immediately without experiencing the downtime associated with booting up a laptop. With Presenter-to-Go, presentations created in PowerPoint or any printable PC application are converted and transferred to the handheld for display in high-quality, full-color 1024 x 768 resolution via a digital projector or monitor.
“Many view their mobile devices as an extension of their personal and professional lives. They have come to expect their handhelds to carry-out many of the functions they rely on their desktop and laptop computers to perform,” said Pete Ellis, business development manager for Palm Solutions Group. “The Presenter-to-Go solution from MARGI is an excellent complement to the Tungsten C and Zire 71 handhelds, and will enable users of these new devices to carry the power of laptop quality presentations in their pockets.”‘
The latest handheld offerings from Palm offer a host of new and unique features that are sure to entice users with a variety of mobile device needs. The Tungsten C handheld is ideally suited for business professionals and is the first handheld from Palm to provide integrated support of Wi-Fi, or 802.11b, for wireless campus connectivity. In addition, the Tungsten C handheld integrates full-featured business applications such as VersaMail 2.5 for email and DataViz Documents To Go. Targeted at multimedia aficionados, the Zire 71 handheld provides a built-in digital camera and Palm’s sharpest high-resolution color screen to date. The Zire 71 handheld also allows users to listen to MP3s (requires an expansion card, sold separately), watch downloaded video clips and carry their personal photo albums wherever they go.
“Professionals from all industries are increasingly turning to their mobile devices as a means of avoiding the hassles associated with carrying laptops to business meetings, classes, conferences and other business endeavors, many of which involve considerable travel,” said Phil Underwood, vice president of sales and marketing for MARGI Systems.
“As handhelds continue to gain importance in all professional arenas, innovative products such as Presenter-to-Go are extending the capabilities of these devices, in effect transforming them from organizers into true business tools. We are committed to providing our customers with the highest quality presentation solution that works with the broadest range of devices- as evidenced by our ability to support these latest handhelds from Palm.”
Presenter-to-Go is compatible with the broadest range of handheld devices and smartphones, including Palm OS based devices from: Palm, Kyocera and Sony; and Pocket PC devices from: Dell, Hewlett Packard, and Toshiba. This presentation solution comes with software for slide creation from any printable PC application and the MARGI Mirror software for displaying the contents of your handheld’s LCD. Also included in the package are a 14-button infrared remote control, VGA cable, projector connector cable, A/C adapter (Palm OS version only), software CD and carrying case. Presenter-to-Go sells for $199, and is available on the MARGI Systems Web site: http://www.margi.com, and from resellers across the country including CDW, and MobilePlanet. Other versions of Presenter-to-Go include Memory Stick, PC Card, and CompactFlash Card. The Palm Tungsten C and Zire 71 handhelds are available online at The Palm Store (http://store.palm.com).
Sorry…
My attempt at minimalist wireless blogging is having mixed success - please excuse the question marks (?) that have shown up in the previous wireless post.
Posted by wireless device!
New Palm Handhelds Announced
The Palm Tungsten C handheld is Palm, Inc.’s most powerful handheld computer with built-in high-speed wireless connectivity to address what campus networkers want most in a handheld. It is Palm’s first device to ship with integrated Wi-Fi, or 802.11b, for wireless campus connectivity. It offers 64MB of memory to manage data-intensive applications; 400MHz of ARM processing power; a 320 x 320 transflective TFT display (Palm’s sharpest screen to date for indoor and outdoor viewing); and integrated, full-featured business applications, such as VersaMail 2.5 for email, and DataViz Documents To Go for efficiently managing Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint compatible documents. More information is available at www.palm.com/tungsten-c.
Bringing multimedia capabilities to the Palm Zire product family, the affordable Zire 71 handheld offers a built-in digital camera and Palm’s sharpest high-resolution color screen to date. Media aficionados will also enjoy listening to MP3s (requires the use of an expansion card, sold separately), watching video clips and carrying their personal photo albums wherever they go. The all-new sliding design hides a concealed digital camera for spontaneous photo capture, giving users the ability to capture life on-the-go. More information is available at www.palm.com/zire71.
Posted by wireless device!
HP iPaq h2200 and Pocket PC 2003 - Coming In May?
Some rumors are starting to bubble up regarding the release of two big items in the Pocket PC world - the HP iPaq h2200 series and Pocket PC 2003. The rumors got started when FCC posted details of the iPaq h2200 on their website (as part of the FCC certification process for the device) which were later removed. The HP request to have the data removed from the site noted that the device would be “confidential to market until May 30, 2003″ and that the information should be republished on the website as of May 30th.
Of course, that’s resulted in a huge amount of buzz that May 30th will be the date that the iPaq h2200 will be released or at least announced to the public. What will these devices feature? It’s expected that they’ll include a CF and SD/MMC slot with SDIO support. The screen will be a transflective TFT LCD with 65,536 color support, .24 dot pitch and a size of 240 x 320 pixels. People who have seen the device believe that the new device will run on the 400 MHz Intel PXA255 XScale processor, and that there will be both 64MB and 128MB models. The battery is expected to be a 900 mAh user-replaceable Lithium Polymer unit.
With the speculation about the release of the iPaq h2200 also comes word that they will run the Pocket PC 2003 version of the Pocket PC OS, which means that we can probably expect to hear the official release of Pocket PC 2003 on May 30th or in early June. Nobody is expecting great things out of Pocket PC 2003 - most likely, it will incorporate a number of bug fixes to Pocket PC 2002 and will provide some new tools that will allow developers to make full use of the XScale processors. It will be backward-compatible with Pocket PC 2002 applications, but Pocket PC 2003-enhanced apps will not be usable on Pocket PC 2002 devices.
Posted by wireless device!
Mobile Blogging
I’ll be traveling out of town later this week, but it’s going to be a great opportunity to demonstrate how a Pocket PC with wireless capabilities can be used to update a website! For most text posts, I’ll be using a special mail-based blogging tool built into Blogger Pro. To keep up on what’s happening in the PDA world, I’m using a Pocket PC-based RSS Reader as well as mobile versions of many of my standard news sources. For e-mail, I’ll be using a combination of the built-in Inbox POP-based e-mail and the Gopherking service (for my MSN mail). I probably won’t be able to post screen shots or 0ther pictures, but at least I’ll be able to keep you up-to-date. And all of this will be done without having to take a Tablet PC with me! Later this year I plan on taking my Tablet PC with me on my usual August trip to New Mexico, but I thought this trip would be a good test of how to use the bare minimum of hardware to enable mobile website updates!
Press Release: Palm Solutions Group Announces Memory Innovation; Sevenfold Increase Expands Versatility
More Images, Video, Music, Applications and Microsoft Office Documents Can Be Carried in RAM
MILPITAS, Calif., April 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq: PALM) Solutions Group today said it has accomplished a sevenfold breakthrough in memory for Palm Powered(TM) handheld computers. Palm Solutions and PalmSource engineers collaborated to develop memory technology that extends the amount of random-access memory (RAM) possible on a Palm OS(R) handheld from the current 16MB to 128MB.
The engineering feat enhances Palm Solutions Group’s long-term product roadmap and enables it to deliver more valuable solutions. Customers will be able to carry more images, video, music, applications and Microsoft Office documents on future Palm(TM) handhelds. Business-grade solutions such as email and web services will be enhanced. Business people and consumers alike will benefit from improved multimedia and gaming experiences.
The memory breakthrough has been incorporated into Palm OS by PalmSource, a subsidiary of Palm, Inc., responsible for developing and licensing the operating-system software.
“The range of potential next-generation hardware and software solutions expands tremendously with this innovation from Palm Solutions engineers,” said Steve Manser, senior vice president of product development for Palm Solutions Group. “Our memory advance means customers can be confident they’ll have what they need to deploy robust business applications or rich multimedia.”
“We’re delighted that Palm Solutions Group took the lead on this technology enhancement,” said David Nagel, president and chief executive officer of PalmSource. “Cooperative development in partnership with our licensees gives the Palm OS platform faster innovation and benefits the entire Palm Economy.”
“This innovation gives developers a plethora of possibilities for a new generation of hardware and software solutions,” said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies. “Business customers tell us that no matter how efficient the Palm OS is, the competitive marketing spin on limited memory created concern. This should quiet those concerns.”
1 GB Compact Flash Card = $184.99!
I was out looking a CF card prices on Amazon.com today so I could get a larger capacity card for my digital camera. I noticed this deal - after a $50 mail-in rebate, you can get a Viking 1 GB CF card for only $184.99. It’s amazing how fast prices continue to come down on memory cards - I can remember paying more than this for a 2 MB PCMCIA card for a Newton back in early 1994! These cards come with a five year replacement warranty and 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can’t go wrong buying one.
If you’d like to order one of these cards, click here (affiliate link)!
And The Winners Are….
Congratulations to our three winners of the TextMaker for Pocket PC giveaway! Those winners are:
Paul Carrier
Lucien Dal
Kieran Rhysling
Each will receive a free, fully licensed copy of TextMaker for Pocket PC, which also includes TextMaker for Windows! That’s a EUR 79.95, $69.95 value and it’s a very powerful software package. We hope to have some other fun giveaways and contests coming up in the future, so keep coming back to PDAntic.com!
Off-Topic: Segway Demo Videos!
People who have known me for years know how I tend to occasionally get…fixated…on certain topics. I was a severe Mac addict for many years, then I became obsessed with the Newton MessagePad, next the wireless Motorola Envoy and MagicCap OS, then the original 1996 Palm Pilot, Pocket PCs, and….now the Segway Human Transporter.
I was fortunate enough to get a demonstration ride on one of these yesterday and took some video, so if you’re perverse enough to want to know what I look like and what it looks like when I’m riding a Segway HT, be sure to give the video a look!
I’ve created two different downloads, one for broadband connections (highly recommended - about 9.2 MB in size) and one for dial-up connections (not as good quality video or soundwise, but only 1.1 MB). If you have a broadband (DSL, Cable Modem or corporate internet) connection, just click on the “Video for broadband connection” link below and you should be able to stream the video to your PC. If it’s too jerky or just doesn’t work, right-click the link and choose to “Save Target As…” to your PC. Once the movie file has downloaded, just double-click the icon and it will play in Windows Media Player. Enjoy!
Video for broadband connection
By the way, I’m considering doing video reviews in the future, so stay tuned for further developments!
A Kinky New Deal For T-Mobile
T-Mobile has added another national (US) chain to their ever-expanding HotSpot WiFi program. They started last year by “unwiring” a huge number of Starbucks locations with WiFi, then moved on to do the same for Borders Books. Today T-Mobile announced a similar deal with the Kinkos copy chain.
This is a very natural move. Kinkos has long offered the use of rental PCs and internet connectivity; I’ve even used ‘em in several cases where I needed to check e-mail, post a blog entry, or pay a bill electronically while on a trip out of town. This latest move is excellent, as it will allow people with WiFi-enabled laptop or Tablet PCs to simply walk in and log on without paying for the rental of a PC.
Pocket Quicken for Pocket PCs is Here!
Back when the most popular PDA was the Apple Newton MessagePad, one of the hottest software packages was Pocket Quicken. Designed to work with the desktop Quicken package, Pocket Quicken was the great way to take your financial information on the road with you. If I remember correctly, there was also a MagicCap version that ran on my Motorola Envoy wireless PDA… However, when it came to running on Pocket PCs, Pocket Quicken didn’t have that capability. It was strictly a Palm OS package.
Well, Landware has just made thousands of Pocket PC owners very happy by releasing Pocket Quicken for Pocket PCs. This package ($29.95 for downloadable version, $39.95 for a CD-ROM) is your mobile Quicken companion - in fact, it requires the “real” Quicken on your desktop/laptop PC. Like the other versions of Pocket Quicken over the years, the Pocket PC “flavor” includes QuickFill and memorized transactions for quick data entry, the ability to assign PIN numbers to accounts for security, and synchronizes with your desktop Quicken using ActiveSync. I’ve always liked the user interface design of Pocket Quicken. It’s straightforward, speedy and easy to read.
For more information about Pocket Quicken for Pocket PCs, click here. You can order Pocket Quicken for Pocket PCs online for only $29.95 by clicking here (affiliate link).
Still One Copy of TextMaker for Pocket PCs To Give Away!
C’mon, I know you’re out there because my hit count is huge. But believe it or not I’ve only had two winners in the TextMaker giveaway! You can’t get a freebie unless you enter, so send me an e-mail with your name and e-mail address and you may be our final lucky winner.
I’ve Got Three Copies of TextMaker for Pocket PCs to Give Away!
OK, act fast! The first three people to send me an e-mail with their name and e-mail address will win a free copy of SoftMaker’s TextMaker for Pocket PCs (US$69.95 value). This includes TextMaker for Windows, which is the desktop companion to the award-winning Pocket PC word processing package.
I’ll announce the lucky winners later!
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Joy of Tech!
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MacLevelTen
