03:53 PM by sUnShInE in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Can't get enough of the new Treo's? palmOne is banking that they've been so popular that they gave the smartphone its own store. The first ever Treo Store opened on Monday at the Valley Fair Mall in San Jose, California and will complement the other palmOne retail stores located in the same mall -- featuring the Zire and Tungsten handhelds.

In addition to the Treo Store in the Valley Fair mall, there are now 13 palmOne stores located in malls and airports nationwide that carry the full line of palmOne products and accessories. palmOne has reported sales through their existing retail stores have grown 595% year-over-year (Q1 FY04 to Q1 FY05), and they expect high traffic in the mall-based retail stores during this holiday season.

palmOne also kicked off a new TV advertising campaign, with commercials highlighting the Treo line and Tungsten E , which are now airing in select US markets. Check 'em out at palmOneTV.

02:17 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

A guy named shadowmite released a 2-byte patch for those frustrated Sprint users who weren't able to use the Bluetooth Dial Up Networking (DUN) profile on their Treo 650.

As a reminder: Sprint decided for unknown reasons to cripple the use of Bluetooth on the new Treo 650 for laptop Internet access. Now it is quite obvious that the reason was not of technical nature, otherwise how could it have been "fixed" by merely changing two bytes?

Here is how to install the patched file (as explained by a Treocentral user):
1. Turn off Bluetooth on the Treo
2. Soft reset (a precaution).
3. Use the install tool on your computer to install the patched file. Hotsync.
4. Soft reset your Treo (just in case).
5. Start Bluetooth and turn Dial-up Networking on.

07:01 PM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

I sadly take this opportunity to note the passing of James Grady Kendrick, father of James Kendrick our friend from the excellent jkontherun blog.

In his writing, (son) James has demonstrated a special talent for communicating his insights into both technology and life. Today he shares that talent with us in a tribute to his father's life and legacy at http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkonther...e_to_a_gr.html

Please consider stopping by to visit this tribute, and to offer your condolences and prayers. I guarantee this glimpse at one man's life will touch you in a special way.

Our thoughts and prayers are with you, son James. Thank you for sharing with us.

05:41 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Picard (my new hero) has just released a closed-source plugin for Betaplayer which utilizes the new Intel 2700G Video decoder of Dell's Axim X50v.

To use it, you must first install BetaPlayer 0.093g; then install the Intel 2700G plugin.

Once the new player and the plugin are installed, you should have two new video options. Use 'Intel 2700G Decoder' to accelerate mpeg1 and mpeg4 decoding. With this decoder, I had a benchmark of over 200% (compared to 130% without using the plugin). What makes the plugin so great is that Axim X50v users can now lower CPU speed to save valuable battery power.

[via Aximsite]

04:10 PM by Laurens in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

PalmSource unveils Xplore M28 Smartphone

A new slider-style Palm OS powered PDA smartphone from PalmSource was unveiled today, the Xplore M28 smartphone has joined the GSPDA family of devices, it comes built with a VGA camera and digital zoom, Mp3 and MPEG4 support, 64MB RAM, 32MB SDRAM and explandable SD/MMC slot.

Still runs OS5, though. Also, it seems to be for the Asian market only.

02:11 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Apparantly AvantGo is trying hard to capture back some of the users who made the switch from AvantGo to other offline-browser alternatives. If you have an AvantGo account, you can now participate in a new beta program for the upcoming AvantGo 2005.

AvantGo 2005 includes a redesign of the user interface, improved on-device channel management and selection (you can now search, browse, and add AvantGo channels from your device), on-device Help & Alert sections, and enhanced connected/wireless features (you can now select which channels you wish to sync).

The beta software is available for Palm OS 5, Pocket PC, and Symbian OS UIQ and Symbian OS Series 60.

01:50 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

In India's news magazine Express Computer you can find an interesting overview of how electronic paper could become a usable digital alternative to real paper in the long run.

The author Sushma Naik argues that "electronic paper has a better chance of succeeding [than e-books] as it mimics the conventional medium of paper but with a significant advantage." The advantage of e-paper over paper is that it can be re-used thousands of times. Imagine this scenario:

The use of electronic ink and two-way wireless communication could lead to the creation of electronic books that renew themselves with new selections when readers are finished with the current book or newspaper; indeed, newspapers might be able to update themselves with the latest news while being read.

12:05 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Winston Chiu was able to have an exclusive interview with SnapperMail creator Will Lau. SnapperMail is the currently best mail solution available for the PalmOS platform.

The interview reveals that the next version of SnapperMail will include background comms and push capable email (similar to Blackberry's email pager). Another interesting news is that the SnapperMail team is working on a project codenamed "Triplex", a portable cross-platform mail engine that marks the expansion of SnapperMail onto other platforms (Symbian UIQ, PocketPC, MS Smartphones and a few more).

[Via PalmAddicts]