PalmOne hard drive-based handheld on horizon
PalmOne plans to announce later this month its first hard drive-based product line, broadening its device portfolio and leading another trend in the handheld market.
Wireless Archive
Bluetooth Future is UWB
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group - the body that controls the wireless connectivity standard - has formally chosen ultrawideband as the foundation for future versions of the technology. UWB, traditionally seen as a potential competitor to Bluetooth, seems to now be bluetooth's ticket to future relevance. Meanwhile, Bluetooth's current popularity assures that UWB adoption won't spark yet another Beta vs VHS standards war.
Run PalmOS Apps on your Pocket PC
The StyleTap Platform allows you to run applications (and games!) originally written for Palm OS handhelds on your Windows Mobile Pocket PC handheld. With more than 20,000 applications for the Palm OS platform available – many of them free – you will be able to do so much more with your Windows Mobile Pocket PC handheld. Demo preview available for download.
PalmOS NVFS and Transactions
PalmOS users and developers have been having problems lately with the NVFS (Non Volatile File System) which has been included on recent PalmOne devices such as Tungsten T5, E2 and the Treo 650. Developer Zakai Hamilton has a solution to solve it for the future.
Nokia Interface Expert on Phones, Blogs
With the addition of cameras, music players and more, mobile phones are becoming increasingly more integrated with consumer electronics and a staple of everyday life. BetaNews spoke with Nokia's top user interface guru, Christian Lindholm -- once dubbed the "godfather of mobile phone users" -- to discuss the design challenges prevented by such convergence, and his new project called Lifeblog.
OpenZaurus 3.5.3 Now Available
OpenZaurus 3.5.3 is now available with the latest versions of GPE and Opie.
Microsoft Proposes Two New Thumb-Driven User Interfaces
More info and examples over the two new thumb interfaces Microsoft Research introduced a few weeks ago and we reported in earlier this month.
DVD-Jon plans mobile phone revolution?
Linuxlookup.com is reporting on famous Norwegian hacker "DVD-Jon" wants to turn the mobile phone world upside down. In an article in Norwegian daily "Dagens Næringsliv" Jon's father Per Johan Johansen says "It's simply a new way to use the net. With the new software we have developed, your mobile phone will be able to do all new things. Telenor and Netcom will hate this. They will panic, as this will give a whole new pricing system on services."
Nokia 3230 review: Smartphone for the masses
This is supposed to be the "smartphone for the masses" selling at around $400 without a contract in US (the phone hasn't been released officially in US yet so it's rare to find). Here's a comprehensive review of the unit at GSMArena with plenty of pictures. The device comes with a recent build of Symbian OS v7. Pros: GPRS class 10, EDGE class 5, 1.3 MP camera, Bluetooth, includes a 32 MB MMC card, FM radio, image/video editor, Real player, 176x208 hi-res screen, email, XHTML browser. Drawbacks: It seems to be using a rare kind of MMC (about $55 for 256 MB), only 6 MBs of internal memory, earphones only deliver mono sound for mp3 playback and they don't seem reliable with FM either.
Palm Releases the Tungsten E2
PalmOne released today a sequel for its popular Tungsten E. The Tungsten E2, looks essentially identical to its predecessor, but offers Bluetooth wireless networking, and a more powerful battery. Like the original, the E2 has a 320-by-320-pixel display. This is 30% brighter and has 40% better color saturation. This handheld has 32 MB of NVFS memory, with 26 MB available to the user. NVFS memory holds information without a charge or power. It runs at 200 Mhz, it has a headphones-in jack, but it lacks a microphone. It uses PalmOS Garnet 5.4.7 and sells for $249. Reviews here, here and here.
Microsoft goes after Blackberry with Magneto
"Microsoft aims to kill BlackBerry," an insider told CRN. "Every corporate type has a BlackBerry, and they all have Outlook. What is the cost going to be to RIM Server when Exchange Service Pack and Magneto come out and they're not priced? Microsoft is giving it away for free." Read the article at TheRegister. On a related PDA note, this is the best PDA deal on the web judging from the feature-set and extra free accessories included (note: we are not affiliated with that shop in any way). There is also a hack available to update that Dell Axim X5-Advanced model to Windows Mobile 2003.
Microsoft’s New Smart Phone Interface: Your Thumb
Microsoft Research scientists, in cooperation with University of Maryland researchers, have designed two interfaces to support easier use of PDAs and cellphones. Although existing stylus-based gesture systems do not preclude the use of the thumb, no systems have been specifically designed to be operated using the thumb, according to the researchers.
Review: How Smart is the ‘Smart Keyboard’?
The people at SuntekStore were very kind to send us in a review unit of their latest special product, the Universal Bluetooth Keyboard (BK600) for PDAs & phones. It is dubbed the "Smart Keyboard" and it sells for $109. It is compatible with the most recent PalmOS/PocketPCs PDAs and a large number of Bluetooth phones. We tested it against the Dell Axim x50v. UPDATE: Pictures added.
Introducing Nokia Developer Platforms
The Nokia Developer Platforms allow developers to write scalable applications across a range of Nokia devices. This chapter covers the technologies from a bird's-eye view.
Symbian OS: Threads Programming
This document explains the use of threads in Symbian OS. When using threads, synchronization and mutual exclusion must be considered in order to get thread interactions safe.
The Sad Story of Secure Mobile Browsing
As many of our readers know, I am a major proponent of mobile-friendly web design and browsing. Very few browsers in the mobile world are powerful enough to support modern w3c technologies (IE, NetFront, Opera & OpenWave) however they are good enough to do some basic browsing and even have SSL support. But especially in the case of IE (which is used a lot with PocketPCs & WinCE), Microsoft is still bundling a variant of IE 4.0.1 with WinCE. And we all know how insecure 4.0.1 is...
A Preview of Windows Mobile 2005; Opie 1.2 is Out
A beta version of Magneto leaked out: This version of the OS, which is expected to be called Windows Mobile 2005, will have a number of significant changes from the current one. Elsewhere, the Opie Project is pleased to announce the availability of version 1.2 with many new features.
Syncing the Treo 650 with Bluetooth under Linux
The new Treo smartphone is GNU/Linux compatible and comes with Bluetooth connectivity--here's how you can set it up for your network.
Synchronizing PalmOS devices with Linux
Smart handheld devices or personal digital assistants (PDA) extend our access to the information on our desktops, from addresses to telephone numbers. Unfortunately, when it comes to vendor support for synchronizing this information with a *nix operating system, the options are limited. In this article, NewsForge reviews the various GPL-based suites available for synchronizing PalmOS-based devices with Linux. This one is of great interest too.
PalmOne Readies New Devices
Brighthand has some speculative information on Tungsten T6, Zire 73 and the Tungsten-E|2 (wish). Elsewhere, InfosyncWorld is previewing the most powerful communicator to date, T-Mobile's MDA-IV.