Press Release: VITO VoiceDialer PE 3.0
VITO Technology brings a new level of voice dialing on Pocket PC Phones. Its updated VoiceDialer PE 3.0 allows pronouncing a name to dial a number instead of choosing it manually from the address book. New exciting look and enhanced recognition engine provide easy and flexible mechanism of recording and processing the voice commands. Moreover, VoiceDialer PE can handle voice tags in any language according to the users’ habits and preferences.
VoiceDialer PE supports all Phone Edition devices such as O2XDA, T-Mobile, XDAII, MDAII, and I-mate. It is available as an executable file as well as a .cab archive for over-the-air download. Provided trial version works without any limitations for 14 days; full version can be purchased for $15.95 at the company’s Web site www.VitoTechnology.com. Volume discounts are available.
http://vitotechnology.com/products/voicedialer_pe.html
Press Release: Spb Software House Thanks All Customers
Spb Software House Thanks All Customers Who Made Spb Pocket Plus the #1 Selling Product
May 31th, 2004 - Spb Pocket Plus has reached 1st place on the bestselling products lists at both Handango and PocketGear and has become the best selling Pocket PC program. Spb Software House would like to thank all existing and new-coming customers.
Top Five Products Discount Policy
If you purchase any of the top 5 Spb products (Spb Pocket Plus, Spb Finance, Spb Full Screen Keyboard, Spb Imageer, or Spb Time) you will get a 20% discount for purchasing another of the top 5. Please note that these discounts are not doubled, i. e. even if you purchase two or three of the top 5 Spb products your discount is still 20%. The top five discount program is cumulative with all other Spb discount programs, including Spb Reward Program.
The discount is expanded to all customers who have ever purchased at least one of the listed top products. The top five discount program will last until June 30, 2004.
More information about the Top Five Spb Discount Policy is available at:
http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/support/top5discount.php
Further Information on Top Five Spb Products
Spb Pocket Plus:
http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/pocketplus/
Spb Finance:
http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/finance/
Spb Time:
http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/time/
Spb Imageer:
http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/imageer/
Spb Full Screen Keyboard:
http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/fsk/
Scanner Screen For PDAs?
The day may come in the very near future where you’ll be able to use your PDA as a scanner simply by pressing the screen against whatever it is you want to scan! Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Company has developed a prototype of a 3.5″ display that also has the ability to capture images and text through sensors embedded in the low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) thin film transistor (TFT) liquid crystal display. This is a color quarter-VGA display (320 x 240) very similar to that used in many PDAs today.
Can you imagine how nice this would be for research work in libraries? You find a citation in a book, pull out your PDA, slap it face down on the book, and let it scan the text or image into your device’s memory! Let’s hope this is a cost-effective new technology and that the smart folks at Toshiba get it into products soon.
Playing Restaurant Critic
Tonight I came up with a fun thing to do with a PDA - pretend I’m a restaurant critic…
We were at the Ted’s Montana Grill at Larimer Square in Denver this evening, an odd choice for two long-time vegetarians but actually a regular stop for us because of the fine job they usually do with tarting up veggie burgers. I always had mine “Philly style”, with cheese, grilled onions and mushrooms, while my wife preferred hers with blue cheese on top. Mmmmmm….
Well, tonight’s visit started off with a bang - the sound of the half-door leading into the open kitchen. Despite the fact that we’re regulars and known by much of the staff, we were seated in probably the worst part of the house. Things went downhill quickly - the ditzy waitress didn’t bring me a glass of water when requested and then we had to wait close to 40 minutes for our food after unsuccessfully trying to flag the waitress down to find out where our meals were. To add insult to injury, when the food finally showed up it was a different type of veggie patty - the mushy mixed vegetable variety instead of the firm “meaty” Boca Burgers they usually serve….
While we were waiting for the food I popped out my T3 and keyboard and started typing a post for another blog of mine, all the while glaring at the cook staff and shaking my head. This finally caught the attention of one of the chefs, who may have thought I was a restaurant critic since I saw him flag down the manager and send him to our table. His visit gave me a chance to gripe about the lousy meal, horrible service, and crappy location, all while I continued to touch-type my article. He was more solicitous than usual, comped our meal, and apologized profusely.
I normally hate to pretend to be something I’m not, but having the “look” of a restaurant critic may have scared the crap out these guys tonight. If that means better service for me and other customers in the future, I’m more than happy to play a role! There’s yet another good reason to carry all my geek gear with me all the time!
Press Release: PDAMill releases GameBox Solitaire II
PDAmill has just released a sequel to the award winning GameBox Solitaire, smartly named GameBox Solitaire II. This new pack includes 10 new popular card games, tons of improvements and new features, such as Hint, in-depth game descriptions, detailed statistics and more! The games included in the collection are Australian, Bastion, Eagle Wings, Five Piles, Nestor, Penguin, Puss’s Corner, Scorpion, Spider and Yukon. Each game has a two variants, like Single- and Double-Suit Spider, Easy and Hard Yukon and so on. It has been polished to perfection in every aspect, even surpassing the original GameBox Solitaire. Incredible graphics, high quality music and sound effects, smooth card animations, alpha effects and fantastic playability makes it the best card game pack for the Pocket PC. If you liked GameBox Solitaire and wished for more games, it’s a must have for you!
(By the way, GameBox Solitaire II will be available for Palm OS 5 devices in June)
Posts From The Road
I’m going to be doing some traveling over the next few weeks, part of which will be in an area that doesn’t have very good GSM/GPRS coverage. I’m not taking my PowerBook G4 with me to post articles, so everything is going to be written on a palmOne Tungsten T3 connected to a ThinkOutside Stowaway Wireless Infrared Keyboard and then posted when I happen to see that I actually have decent signal quality! So, I’m apologizing in advance for not posting as much (or as little) PDA news, reviews and commentary as you may have come to expect from PDAntic.com.
On the plus side, this is going to be yet another opportunity for me to really put the mobile lifestyle to a test, so I’m sure you’ll be treated to another one of my patented rants when something doesn’t work the way it should! 
Interesting WiFi Test Results
Tom’s Networking, a rather fun site with a lot of insight into wired and wireless networking for just about anything electronic, recently published the results of some tests of WiFi on PDAs. What they found may shock you!
We all assume that our PDAs with built-in WiFi or with SD/CF WiFi cards are going to operate at the theoretical maximum 802.11b speed of 11 MBPS. In actuality, most PDAs operate at a much lower connection speed when they’re using WiFi.
Of all the PDAs tested (and unfortunately they didn’t test the 400 MHz HP iPAQ 4150), the palmOne Tungsten C appeared to have the fastest WiFi connection. All I know is that my iPAQ 4150 operates fast enough for me when I’m surfing or checking email with it on my home WiFi network!
Check out the article here to learn more about “WiFi PDAs Dirty Little Secret”.
MaximumPDA Review of Mitac Mio 168
The good folks at MaximumPDA have just finished posting their two-page review of the Mitac Mio 168 Pocket PC. This is a great little unit with GPS built into it, so if you’re considering the purchase of a Pocket PC AND a GPS receiver, you might want to take a look at the Mio 168.
You can read the review here:
http://www.pdatoday.com/maximumpda_more/1544_0_2_0/
When you’re ready to buy one, click this link!
10 Things You Can Do With A DV Camcorder
As mentioned in an earlier post, I recently acquired a Canon Optura 300 DV Camcorder. I like this model because it fits in my small hands, it weighs about a pound, has well over 2 megapixels of resolution (not good for a digital still camera, but outstanding on a camcorder!), and can also take stills and store them on an SD card.
I’ve used portable video devices since the early 1970s! In high school during that time, my school actually had a Sony reel-to-reel video recorder that was portable and had an attached black and white camera. Not too fancy, but we could at least tape school events and then take them to our rudimentary editing board to put in wipes, fades, split screens, and other cheesy and useful effects.
When I got to the early 80’s and started taking international trips, I wanted to do more than just look at static photos so I bought a Panasonic VCR that split into two parts; a tuner and a recorder. This VHS device weighed “only” about seven pounds without the boat anchor battery pack, and the color video camera that I bought to go with it weighed about another seven pounds. The entire ensemble took up a ton of space and weighed a lot, so I bought a big backpack to put it all into. One cool thing about this was that nobody had portable video equipment at that point, so everyone thought that I was professional videographer - that tended to get us into some rather fun situations.
By the time the first Sony HandyCam came along with the new 8 mm tapes, I was ready since I was tired of lugging around close to twenty pounds of equipment. The HandyCam was small, weighed about 4 pounds altogether, and had pretty decent battery life. It also had an optional case that could be used to waterproof it, which was handy when we were on trips in the tropics or floating on rivers in the Rocky Mountains.
The next edition was a higher-end Sony HandyCam. It had better features, took much clearer video, and weighed a bit less, so that was nice. Now I have the digital Optura 300 that weighs just over one pound, has image stabilization, very good stereo sound capabilities, and so many features that it takes a huge manual to figure them all out!
The thing I really like about the Optura and other FireWire (IEEE 1394) enabled DV cameras is that you can use them to pump digital video into your computer for editing. No more do you have to put up with watching hour after hour of unedited “raw” video; now you can just edit out the boring bits, do nice fades or titles, and then finally burn a DVD for posterity. Great stuff!
I even use a great little Windows package from MuVee Technologies called AutoEditor that takes raw video and then edits it down to a shorter version automatically by analyzing where you may have “overshot” a scene, where scenes are already too short, or where a scene is too dark, then editing out those parts. It’s a very good and fast way to edit raw video down to a more manageable point. You can then take the pre-edited version into iMovie on a Macintosh or Windows XP Movie Maker for further embellishment.
But for a lot of people like myself who do NOT have soccer playing kids to videotape by the hour, the big question is always “What the heck would I want a camcorder for?”. The answer? To have a heck of a lot of fun, regardless of your age!
Here are some ideas of creative and fun things you can do with a digital camcorder and computer that you might not have thought about before…
1) Make short instructional videos for co-workers or friends. Let’s say you have a knack for wood-working and your friends are wondering how you make some of your furniture. You can film a typical session in the workshop, edit out the bad parts, do a voice over and add titles, and then give ‘em a DVD.
2) Living history projects. A lot of senior citizens have amazing stories to tell, and you can find people who have done things during their lives that have all the makings of a good documentary! If you know one of these people, ask if you can film them. Bring along a tripod, set it up right near where you’re sitting across from them, and then start talking - they’ll pay more attention to you than they will the camera, and you’ll get a fresh and unrehearsed story from an experienced human being. One note - these interviews can be worth their weight in gold in terms of memories once the person dies.
3) Art projects. I’m not kidding about this. A few years ago I saw a fascinating installation at the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art. It was a tape of about 30 minutes of driving, taken from the viewpoint of the driver of the car. No talking, just the road noise and ambient sounds. It was fascinating - I remember standing there in front of the screen watching the film until it finally looped around.
4) Video yearbooks. This is a project I want to do at my 30 year high school reunion this fall - just give everyone who shows up 1 minute to tell everyone who they are, what they’re doing, how many kids, dogs, houses, wives, or BMWs they have, etc… This could be much more fun than the standard boring writeup in a little book, and could be distributed to everyone on a low cost DVD. If I do this, I plan on scanning in the 1974 yearbook pictures and interspersing those old pictures of people with what they look like today.
5} Be an amateur reporter! Don’t laugh - some of the best video seems to come from people who carry their camcorder with them at all times and who are ready to tape anything that’s happening on a moments notice. You never know when your video is going to make it on the national news! You just have to be in the right place at the right time, with charged-up equipment that you know how to use under pressure.
6) Bring your slide shows into the digital age. If you were taking pictures (slides in particular) in the pre-digital days and you really want to get those slides into a digital format, there aren’t very many reasonable options for transferring the images. You can bring a pile of slides to a service bureau and pay anywhere from $150 - $300 to have the slides transferred to CD-ROM or DVD, but if you have a lot of slides you’re going to waste a lot of money doing the transfers. A much easier way is to simply set up a projection screen, get your old slide projector out, pop a slide carousel into it and then start showing the slides as you tape the screen. You can even give a narration of what you’re looking at, and that will become the soundtrack to your new video.
For those of you who would rather have very high quality images to play with, you’re probably going to have to find a way to scan your slides in individually. I have a 3 year old HP scanner that purports to scan slides; what you actually do is put four slides into a ridiculous little plastic template, put that on the bed of the scanner (hoping you have them aligned properly!) and then plop a little device on top of the slides to actually capture the images. Half the time the slides are misaligned slightly, requiring another scan, and then you need to make sure that you scan each image for the four slides one at a time to get best resolution. Of course, if the slides have any age at all, you may need to do a color adjustment as well.
Does this sound complicated? It is, and it’s very time-consuming as well. It took me well over a week working 3 - 4 hours a night just to get an 80 slide carousel of wedding pictures into digital format. That’s turned me off of that method, so when I go to scan other slides into my computer I am going to either hire out the work to a contractor, look for a new flatbed scanner with a better way of scanning slides, or consider a much more expensive slide scanner (usually run about 5 to 10 times the cost of a flatbed scanner!). Or maybe I’ll just use the low-res method of showing the slides on a screen and taping them…
7) Video Eulogy… Kind of in the same vein as my “living history” suggestion earlier, you might want to tape your own self-eulogy or video will (legality may vary depending on local or national laws). OK, it’s a bit morbid but all of us are going to die at some point, so a good idea is to let your loved ones, family, and friends know what your wishes are. Just about everyone has a DVD player nowadays, so you can burn a DVD and pass it along to those who need the information. Just remember, if you make any changes in the disposition of your belongings or how you want to be remembered, be sure to record a new “will” or at least a codicil DVD to pass along the new information.
DV Camcorder + IM = Videophone! Here’s a way to get more use out of a FireWire-enabled digital camcorder - use it for videophone service with MSN Messenger or Apple’s iChat! Most of these instant messaging applications are designed to capture input from DV camcorders so you can send real-time high-resolution images of your self to your chat buddies. Over a WiFi or wired broadband connection, the frame rate is usually quite good and the video quality on one of these chats can be excellent!
9) Video postcards If your DV camcorder or even your digital camera has the ability to save lower-resolution and lower-frame rate video to an SD or CF card, then you have some of the makings of a way to send video postcards to your friends!
My Canon Optura 300 not only saves high-quality video to tape, but you can also have it save thumbnail videos to the built-in SD card that are small enough to send with emails. I’ll often record a 10 - 20 second video greeting to friends, transfer it to my Pocket PC, and then send it with an email while I’m on a trip. It’s a lot easier than describing a location to a friend in a typed email, it’s dynamic, it has sound, and it’s just a lot of fun. You can avoid the transfer step if you have a camera phone that will let you record short videos to send to your friends and relatives, but the picture and sound quality usually isn’t as nice as what you’ll get from a camcorder.
10) Videoblogging I was at an awards ceremony last night where the after-dinner entertainment was a really good Beatle’s cover group. At one point they played “A Day In The Life” and it occurred to me that it would be fun to videotape a lot of what goes on in a typical day of my life. Right now it seems rather boring and annoying (a project manager on the project for hell, working for the company from hell), but five years from now it could seem like a fond memory of my past or a not too fond memory of a past job that I’m finally out of. It could also be an interesting way to see how styles, transportation hassles, schedules, offices, and work practices change over the years… Who knows? Maybe a hundred years from now my video could end up in a museum, showing how people slaved over hot keyboards in boring offices for 40 - 70 hours per week!
Services that are usually used with camera phones to store moblogs, such as Textamerica.com, are now letting users store their short videos online too!
Most of all, don’t be afraid to put your DV camcorder to a use that’s a little out of the ordinary. Not only are you going to learn more about how to use your camcorder’s capabilities, but your creativity will also get a workout. Too many people just take hour after boring hour of video of their kids playing soccer or attending school events without thinking about taping something that they’ll actually want to watch at some point in the future!
Using a little creative thought can make a video an exciting experience that may be something that is used for generations to come.
Press Release: Audiovox, AT&T Wireless Announce PPC4100
New Device with Windows Mobile 2003 software Powered by Intel XScale? Technology
HAUPPAUGE, NY ? May 24 - Audiovox Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: VOXX) and AT&T Wireless (NYSE: AWE) announced today the PPC 4100, an integrated wireless PDA phone featuring Windows Mobile software, will be available in June 2004 and showcased for the first time today at Microsoft?s Tech Ed conference in San Diego, CA.? The PPC 4100 will be available for $349 after a $50 instant rebate.? The unmatched combination of power, function and form makes this competitively priced ?all-in-one? device one of the best values on the market today.??
The device was also named a finalist for the Best of TechEd 2004 Awards conducted by Windows & .NET Magazine and SQL Server Magazine. Winners will be announced May 26th.
The PPC 4100 is a tri-band (850/1800/1900 MHZ) GSM?/GPRS Pocket PC from AT&T Wireless which allows users to enjoy international roaming capabilities and experience enhanced coverage and quality services from recent AT&T Wireless network upgrades.?
The PPC 4100 runs Windows Mobile 2003 software for Pocket PCs on a 400 MHz, Intel XScale? technology based processor to create a powerful mobile computing experience that combines the capabilities of a PDA with integrated wireless voice and data capabilities.?? With 64MB RAM and 64 ROM and built-in SD/MMC expansion slot, the PPC 4100 also facilitates easy storage of and access to large files.
?The collaboration between AT&T Wireless, Microsoft and Intel has opened the door of mobile computing to a wide range of professionals looking for the latest in software and hardware innovations,? said Philip Christopher, president and CEO of Audiovox Communications Corporation.
?The new Audiovox PPC 4100 Pocket PC builds further on our joint commitment to bring mobile professionals powerful tools that help them stay productive virtually anywhere their work takes them,? said Jeff Bradley, senior vice president, Business Data Solutions for AT&T Wireless Services. ?This all-in-one mobile device runs over the recently expanded GSM?/GPRS network ? which now spans approximately 1.2 million square miles in the U.S. ? so customers can use the PPC 4100 in more places than ever before.?
With Windows Mobile 2003 software, the PPC 4100 delivers a great messaging and e-mail experience that enables wireless access to corporate e-mail and POP3 e-mail accounts. Using Exchange Server 2003, or AT&T Wireless alliance solutions such as GoodLink from Good Technology, enterprise customers benefit from always up-to-date e-mail synchronization.? For mobile professionals, the PPC 4100 coupled with AT&T Wireless? Office Online solution provides economical wireless access to work e-mail, calendar and contacts and the ability to receive alerts when important e-mail arrives.
?With the integration of Windows Mobile 2003 software, PPC 4100 customers benefit from a powerful and familiar wireless experience,? said Scott Horn, director of marketing for the Mobile and Embedded Devices Division at Microsoft Corp. ?By offering seamless integration between voice and data functionality customers are able to stay connected and in touch while on the go.??
With Windows Mobile 2003 software, customers will benefit from enhancements to the operating system including:
?Always-on? Data Connection. The new software enables an “always-on” wireless data connection that dramatically improves application startup.
Windows Media Player 9. Offering an improved multimedia experience, the device supports Windows Media Audio and Video 9 Series, with improved play list management and support for Microsoft? Plus! Digital Media Edition.
Improved SMS Integration. Inbox will look for the phone number on an incoming short message service (SMS) message in the Contacts database and display the sender’s name if there is a match. An option to call back the sender of an SMS has been added to the SMS notification screen and to Inbox. The SMS account in Inbox is now available when the radio is offline.
Phone Mute and Volume Control. New dual volume control separates the phone’s ringer volume and the Pocket PC’s system volume so users can choose their ideal sound level.?
?The PPC 4100 offers enhanced handset capabilities enabled by the Intel XScale? technology, such as photo, video, and music processing, all while using less power and providing a greater degree of function,? said Mark Johnston, director of marketing for Intel?s Cellular and Handheld Group.?
Intel XScale? processors are the next generation of ultra-low power processors with industry-leading multimedia performance for wireless clients that integrate a host of new features that make end devices compelling, entertaining and more mobile while delivering an unparalleled handheld user experience.
The new PPC 4100 will be available in retail outlets across the country in June.?
It will come with an AC adaptor, USB Cradle, single ear bud headset, a leather pouch as well as a Stylus pen. For more information, please visit www.audiovox.com or www.attwireless.com.
Notes from the Road
So here I am, on a United Airlines Boeing 737-300 on the way to San Jose, CA. Mrs. PDAntic is getting an award from her company (not surprising, as she is MUCH smarter than me and works for a company that actually rewards its employees…) and they’re paying my way to the awards night as well.
It’s been a few years since I’ve been to the heart of Silicon Valley. Back in my Macintosh / Newton MessagePad development days (1984 - 1996) I was traveling out to the Bay Area on a regular basis, going to MacWorld Expo, the Apple WorldWide Developer Conference, and other tech events. Then my company outsourced me and my compatriots to a large tech firm with a three-letter name and a profit-oriented outlook, and the trips stopped..
In a way, that’s been a godsend since I no longer have to beg the corporate powers-that-be for expense dollars for the trips. I just go to fewer tech events now, and depend a lot on my readers to send me e-mails on occasion when they hear about a new and really incredible piece of tech.
Since this is a short trip, I decided not to bring my PowerBook with me since it’s probably more at risk of being stolen than a PDA. Instead, I took along the Think Outside Stowaway Infrared Wireless Keyboard and my iPAQ 4150. Why? The iPAQ is a bit smaller, has a much smaller AC adapter, and better battery life than my Tungsten T3. On an upcoming vacation I will probably bring the T3 since I think it does much better with handling emails and I can use it in landscape mode for typing.
My other tech gear on this trip includes a Canon Optura 300 DV Camcoder with a 512MB SD memory card in it for when I decide to take digital pictures instead of video. I also have my SPOT watch on; before the trip I went out to the MSN Direct site and set up my dates / locations so that the system could transmit to my watch while in the Bay Area. It’s always fun to see the watch reset itself once it realizes that it is in a new time zone. Unfortunately the SPOT watch (from Abacus) has a HUGE recharger that comes with it; what a freakin’ boat anchor!
I’ve finally talked Mrs. PDAntic into using a digital camera, so she’s taking along my former Canon PowerShot S230 to learn how to use it before we go on our “real” vacation in a few weeks.
Tying this all together is my Nokia 3650 camera phone. I’ll use it for taking those candid shots when I don’t want to take out the Optura and do a still shot, for updating PDAntic.com, checking emails, and lurking the other sites to see what’s happening. I can also use the phone and T-Mobile’s “T-Zones” service to do instant messaging on AIM with my sister and a couple of other friends, while I can ping my MSN Messenger buddies from the Pocket PC using the Messenger application on the iPAQ. Last but not least, good old Bluetooth is going to help me get these articles moved from the iPAQ to Blogger for posting on the site by connecting me to the web.
About the only time I feel comfortable about taking along a laptop is when I’m on a driving trip or forced to take it with me for business purposes. For example, when my wife and I do our annual Santa Fe Opera trip in August, I take along the PowerBook (last year it was a Tablet PC) so I can write, do spam dumps on my email accounts, etc… This year I will be able to use the PowerBook to do editing of digital video while I’m on the trip, then burn the final product to a DVD that’s already to play when I get home.
It’s on relaxing trips like these that I really find that I use this technology a lot, and in much more creative ways than I would in the
office environment.
I may post some photos to my Moblog this weekend, which you can view at this website. I find that the ubiquitous portability of the Nokia camera phone makes it very easy for me to take and post photos, so there are about 160 or so sitting out there for your viewing pleasure.
If I get more time during this trip to comment on how to increase your vacation enjoyment with tech toys, I’ll be making some additional posts. Until then, have a great weekend!
PC Magazine, Aximsite.com Review Dell Axim X30
It seems like just about every Pocket PC site in the world has posted a review of the Dell Axim X30 - it’s one hell of a Pocket PC with up to a 624 MHz Intel PXA270 CPU, Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition, and both WiFi AND Bluetooth. And a low, low price of $349, it’s going to be one heck of a competitor to my favorite Pocket PC - the HP iPAQ 4150.
Rather than go out and buy a Dell Axim X30 (or try to get one sometime in the next three months…) and write a review right now, I’m going to direct you to PC Magazine’s review of this wonderful new device.
One of our “buddy sites”, Aximsite.com, also has a review of the X30 here: http://www.aximsite.com/x30review/
If you’re interested in buying one, you can go to Dell’s USA or Canada sites.
Press Release: Spb Software House Releases Spb Time
May 18th, 2004 - Spb Software House announces the release of a feature-rich, extraordinarily attractive time application - Spb Time.
We think that even when a Pocket PC is idle it should be attractive. We also think that when a Pocket PC is just sitting in your cradle is can be useful. Let it be a clock. Let it be a very beautiful clock. And let it be brand new, every day. The main aim of Spb Time is to make you feel like you are holding a real watch in the palm of your hand.
*** Skins ***
You may like your stylish desk clock, but you cannot do anything but throw it away when you get tired of it. With Spb Time however, you can change the design of your Pocket PC watch long before you get tired of it. Just change the skin!
Spb Time comes with four skins, and more are available for downloading from Spb web site. And yet more you can create by yourself. The skin format includes such clock elements as background image, clock face, hands and digits, calendar position, colors and background. The skinnable clocks are best viewed in full screen mode. Just look at an example of one of our skins. Could you buy such a beautiful watch?
*** Screen Savers ***
You may not know that the average PDA spends a considerable amount of time (about 50%) in a cradle while connected to external power. We think that the best use of your Pocket PC in such situation is to turn it into a clock screen saver. Spb Time allows you to customize the screen saver behavior. It’s possible to select one of three different screen saver modes: Analog clock, Digital clock, or World clock. You can also set the timeout period, and list of programs that will never be interrupted by the screen saver. This feature is a must for programs like GPRS navigation, or video playback.
*** World Clock ***
With Spb Time’s World Clock, you can monitor the time in up to four different cities worldwide. The World map can be zoomed and panned. Also on this map, see the Earth’s current night shadow!
*** Other Time Tools ***
Browse through Time’s rich features and you will find a stopwatch with the ability to record an unlimited number of lap times. Run one stopwatch, run two, or run up to five different stopwatches at once! You can also export your lap times into a CSV file.
In the same way, you can run up to five separate timers and set the start time to count down for each timer. You can also customize the alarm that plays when the time has elapsed.
*** Further Information and Downloads ***
Further information regarding Spb Time can be found on the Spb Web site:
http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/time/
Spb Time screenshots:
http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/time/screenshots.html
Download the program here:
http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/time/download.html
Sniffing Out WiFi Networks With WiFiFoFum
Looking for a freeware WiFi sniffer for Pocket PC 2003 devices so you can either make sure that your corporate WLANs are secure and operating, or do a little “Wardriving” to find unencrypted WiFi LANs? There’s a great application available called WiFiFoFum that was recently updated to a new version (0.3.1). Written by a Scottish programmer by the name of Malcolm Hall, this sniffer works with a surprising number of WiFi-enabled Pocket PC 2003 units and can even be integrated with a GPS unit to give you a log of the exact latitude/longitude of every WLAN it picks up.
I could have used something like this last week when my wife was in the hospital - I saw a 802.11g access point near the nurse’s station near my wife’s room, so I turned on my iPAQ 4150 to try to see if I could get some free broadband! Unfortunately, the WLAN appeared to be using WEP or LEAP encryption since I couldn’t make a connection. If I had installed WiFiFoFum on my 4150 prior to the hospital visit, i would have been able to check the channel, signal strength, name, and encryption status of the WLAN. It’s really a worthwhile piece of software - if you download it, you might want to donate a token amount to the selfless programmer who has done such a great job!
New MSN Direct Content for SPOT Watches
I was pleased to see that new content became available last night for owners of MSN Direct SPOT (Smart Personal Object Technology) Smart Watches! As you’ll remember from my January review of the Abacus Smart Watch, these devices are designed to receive up to the minute news, sports, weather and other information. For quite a while, the sports information was very limited. As “March Madness” started up, basketball coverage started up and those of us who are baseball fans were anxious to see what MSN Direct had in mind for us.
It took a little while, but baseball coverage is now available. You can pick up to five of your favorite teams, watch scores as the games progress (including a box score and who’s pitching), and also see the standings for the specific NL or AL division your team is in. It looks like there may be a bit of a problem with doubleheaders - the second game in a Rockies / Pirates doubleheader showed up, but the final score didn’t… Oh, well - it’s a 1.2 release of a Microsoft product, so I expect it may take a while for this to be fixed.
The other content that was added last night included “Daily Diversions”, which includes a fun list of things to read - “Quote of the Day”, “Word of the Day”, “Famous People Born On This Date”, and “On This Day In History”. There are also Horoscopes and Lottery results available now.
What’s so nice about this technology is that you really don’t have to do much to get the new content - just go to the MSN Direct website, sign into your account, and then pick the new information you want to see. After a few hours (it took about 10 hours for the Daily Diversions to download for some reason) the new content is sent directly to your watch. Cool! I think MSN Direct is really starting to warm up. If they build this technology into PDAs or Smart Phones, it will be really amazing and useful.
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Joy of Tech!
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MacLevelTen
