Quick Review - Palm Centro from Sprint
I used to be a Palm fanatic. I had a tremendous amount of respect for the Palm platform, its ease of use, and the way that the company pushed the envelope in terms of new products. Some of those things never really took off all that much (i.e., Palm VII), but were truly groundbreaking products at the time. However, over the past 4 years or so, it seemed to me that Palm was simply rolling out new versions of the Treo one after another, with no work being done on improving the OS or user experience.
As a result of Palm neglecting the Palm OS (Garnet) and embracing Windows Mobile, I’ve lost a lot of interest in their products. But i was VERY happy to see that they started aiming their products at a new market - younger people or people who wouldn’t normally spend $299 or more on a smartphone. This product is the $99 Palm Centro (see below) , which is currently available only from Sprint.
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Technorati Tags: EV-DO, palm, Centro
Novatel Wireless Ovation U727 from Sprint
If you’ve been reading MovableBeast for any period of time, you’re probably aware of my love affair with my Sprint Mobile Broadband service. I own one of their Sierra Wireless AirCard 595U “modems”, and I’m wishing that I had waited a few months to sign up for service. Why? Because Sprint is now selling the Novatel Wireless Ovation U727 EV-DO USB Mobile Broadband Modem.
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Technorati Tags: EV-DO, Laptop, Linux, Macintosh, Vista
Happy Mobius, Everyone!
If 2007 was like past years, I’d be at to the Mobius conference in Amsterdam this week. This is the conference that I’ve attended three times since 2000, dealing with all things mobile…as long as it had to do with Windows Mobile, since Microsoft was footing the bill. 
The folks from Microsoft who organize the conference don’t always invite the same people every year, unless you happen to run a site like Engadget, Pocket PC Thoughts, or some other highly commercial website. I’m hopeful that I’ll be invited to the next conference in early 2008 so I can see what’s new in the mobile space and hear their highly informative (and usually NDA) discussions about future directions for mobile devices.
However, if I was a believer in conspiracy theories, I’d think my non-attendance at the conference is due to my total lack of respect for any mobile device running Windows Mobile these days. After using an iPhone for four months and seeing a number of people who had never embraced smartphones suddenly “getting it” when they started using an iPhone, I am much less interested in what goes on in the WM world. For instance, I just finished reading the latest Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine annual Buyers Guide edition, and I couldn’t believe how bored I was with page after page of similar looking WM devices.
In past years, I was upset when I wasn’t invited to a Mobius conference at least once a year. I’m not sure it will upset me much anymore. As much as I love mobile technology, it’s hard to get excited about a platform that seems so limited after using an iPhone and seeing what Google is planning with Android. I’ll be happy to be with the other Apple fanatics at Macworld Expo in January, where I’m hopeful that we’ll hear about new directions for the wildly successful iPhone.
As for the people who will be in attendance, have a great time in Amsterdam! I just hope they still have the “Old Windows Mobile Device Toss” like they did last year - it was the most fun I’ve had with Windows Mobile in years!
Amazon Kindle eBook Reader
As an eBook author (see Take Control of your iPod: Beyond the Music and Take Control of iWeb as examples), I found Amazon’s announcement of their new�Kindle�eBook reader to be just what the doctor ordered. For years, there have been both dedicated eBook readers (i.e.,�Sony Reader�or the�iRex iLiad) and eBook reading software for mobile devices (Palm, Windows Mobile, even Newton MessagePad). However, the Kindle is entering new territory in this market. (Click the link below to read on…)
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Merging Movable Beast and iPhone Ranch
Big changes are coming! Since I can’t keep up with both Movable Beast and the iPhone Ranch, I’ve decided to merge the two and just have iPhone content be a part of the overall Movable Beast site. Since the combined site will have many different “sections” or topics, I’m probably going to switch to a new WordPress theme by top-notch designer Brian Gardner that lends itself to a more news-friendly format.
Pals of the iPhone Ranch will find that they can still use their old bookmarks; they’ll be automagically redirected to Movable Beast. Expect to see this change before the end of 2007, since I want it in place and ready to go prior to MacWorld Expo 2008.
Why I Won’t Use TinyURL Anymore
One site that I tend to use on a regular basis is TinyURL. It provides a very welcome service by taking extremely long URLs (web addresses) and compressing them down to a very short URL like “www.tinyurl.com/3cm43d”. Well, I won’t be using their service anytime soon, because these folks are taking the political route and posting political ads and jargon on their site.
Let’s face it; we’re all going to be sick of the campaign by next November. Do we really have to see Ron Paul’s face every time we want to use TinyURL? I’ll use Snipurl, thank you!
Technorati Tags: Political Advertising, TinyURL
Astraware Plantastic
Enjoy hours of petal-popping fun with Plantastic!
KEELE, Staffordshire, UK & BUDAORS, Hungary - November 14th, 2007 - Astraware(R) and PalmStormTM are excited to announce the release of Plantastic! for Palm OS(R) and Windows Mobile(R) smartphones and PDAs.
Plantastic! is a fun combination of puzzle and strategy game where you create bouquets from groups of brightly coloured flowers to clear them from the play board and reach each level’s bloom target! Each game mode has a different planting pattern and blooms can only be placed near the player’s last bloom within the pattern shown. Blooms drop into the queue and you must plant them in the garden before the queue fills up.
Plantastic! begins as a simple fun game, but add the challenge of more complex flower arrangements, and a range of different bloom colours as you progress, and the challenge increases. Avoid the mushrooms that block your path, and stop Mr Mole from stealing your blooms by tapping him on the head, but make sure you don’t run out of time or flowers! Flower powerups like the super trowel and joker flowers will offer assistance to boost your points total.
Developed by PalmStorm and published by Astraware, Plantastic! includes 5 different play modes across 3 levels of difficulty and hundreds of play levels. The game is designed for Palm OS(R) 5 and Windows Mobile(R) 2003, 2003SE, 5 and 6 devices with touchscreens, and is available from the Astraware website http://www.astraware.com/plantastic, priced $19.95.
Technorati Tags: Games, palm, Windows Mobile
iPhone Update 1.1.2 Available
I just downloaded and installed the iPhone 1.1.2 update, which is a huge file — 160.2 MB. Apple, of course, is rather coy about what is actually new and different in the update, other than saying that it contains “bug fixes”.
After a rather slow download (my guess is that everyone with an iPhone with the exception of my wife is downloading it), the device reset and is now showing the “chasing it’s tail” indicator under the Apple logo on the startup screen. This has been going on for a while, so obviously there’s a major ROM update that is underway. Upon completion, the iPhone displayed an indication that it wanted me to disconnect and reconnect the device, with “Emergency Call” displayed in English, French, and German in case I needed to make a 911 call.
Other than that, not much has changed. In the devices list in iTunes, there’s now a battery charge indication next to the name of the device, but I really can’t see what else is different. More later…
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Joy of Tech!
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MacLevelTen
