Mon November 15 2004
Linksys WCF54G - 54 Mbps WiFi card for PPC |
04:58 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones Linksys offers welcome news to Pocket PC owners: the WCF54G Wireless Compact Flash Card, as the name implies, brings 54 Mbps 802.11g performance to Pocket PC PDAs and smartphones. The WCF54G is compatible with Windows Mobile Pocket PC 2002 or later. In addition to supporting 802.11g, the card is also backward-compatible with the 11 Mbps 802.11b standard. According to Linksys, the card roams seamlessly among multiple 802.11g/b wireless network access points or wireless routers, it also operates in ad hoc mode (without an access point) to download data from wireless PCs without a cradle or network connection, and can share data directly with other wireless PDAs. The card will be available for an estimated street price of US $99. |
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palmOne doesn't accept that it's lagging on the technology curve |
02:28 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones We're almost stifling a yawn this time around, but there is another interview featured in ZDNET UK with palmOne president Ed Colligan where he talks about the potential future of his company. Colligan's key points: Here is one bit of the interview I found quite amusing. To the question whether palmOne is lagging on the technology curve, Colligan replies: I probably would have accepted that a year ago. I think the category defining products in this space are at PalmOne. You read any review of any smartphone and the Treo 650 wins. So I don't accept that premise. Well. I don't recall anyone questioning palmOne's leadership one year ago. Do you? |
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RIM: Connectivity is a "must" for PDAs nowadays |
09:57 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones "International wireless solutions manufacturer Research in Motion (RIM) believes the days of disconnected PDAs are gone" is how an article in today's ZDNet UK begins. According to RIM Asia-Pacific vice-president Patrick Spence, "Disconnected PDAs were great in the past but today, people's information is changing too rapidly for that type of model and customers want to synchronise their PDAs with their PCs fast." This statement is not suprising in light of RIM's announcement from last month of the 7270 BlackBerry, the first Blackberry to support VoIP and 802.11b WiFi. The device is due to go on sale in early 2005, with selected customers testing it already. |
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Sun November 14 2004
Sunrise Viewer for PalmOS cancelled! |
02:42 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Sunrise Laurens decided to abandon the standalone Sunrise Viewer for Palm OS platforms. Here he explains why (taken from his blog):
Note that his decision does not affect the Sunrise desktop convertor, at least for now. Sunrise 0.4 is still due for release next month. |
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Vade Mecum 0.6 Plucker Viewer for PPC |
02:25 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Software | Reading and Management Free PPC-based Plucker document viewer Vade Mecum V0.6 alpha has been released. New in this version: support for composite images; 16 bit images no longer turns up black; images that are too wide to fit in the reader are resized; all images, except those used as links, are clickable and opened in a new image viewer, which allows you to scroll and zoom the image; a few minor changes to the search dialog and small bug fixes. |
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SafeGuard PDA protects even after hard resets |
10:02 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones Utimaco Safeware has launched SafeGuard PDA 3.0, allowing every Pocket PC user to encrypt (with AES encryption) not only specific files and directories, but also the internal Personal Information Management (PIM) databases, in the same transparent manner. As a result, your e-mails, SMS, tasks, dates and contact data can no longer be displayed without the correct authorization. Even after a hard reset the PDA's security settings remain active giving only authorized users access to the data. There are two variants, intended for private customers and companies. The enterprise edition also allows companies to block Bluetooth, WLAN, infrared interfaces and telephones on staff PDAs, control ActiveSync connections and use Active Directory to distribute security guidelines. You can download this pdf for more information. |
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iPod with wireless capabilities leaked info |
09:27 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Portable Audio/Video "[A] newly obtained document provides incontrovertible evidence that the company has been experimenting with wireless iPods for nearly two years," reads an interesting headline at AppleInsider today. Somehow the Apple news site was able to get hold of a patent application. It begins with: "One aspect of the media player system pertains to a docking station that allows a media player to communicate with other media devices. Another aspect of the media player system pertains to a wireless media player system that includes a hand held media player capable of transmitting information over a wireless connection and one or more media devices capable of receiving information over the wireless connection. Another aspect of the media player system pertains to a method of wirelessly connecting the hand held media player to another device. The method includes selecting a media item on the hand held media player; selecting one or more remote recipients on the hand held media player; and transmitting the media item locally to the hand held media player, and wirelessly to the selected remote recipients." I only wonder what is taking Apple so long to implement WiFi. Two years is an insanely long time. |
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palmOne: No more high-end PDAs in future |
09:21 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones The Independent was able to chat with palmOne chief Ed Colligan, uncovering some more interesting information on what we might expect from palmOne in future. Read closely the three following quotes from the article (I marked the important parts in bold): These changes [enhancements of the Treo 650], Mr Colligan believes, will help PalmOne to compete with manufacturers such as Sony Ericsson and Nokia, as well as persuading existing Palm users to switch to a smart phone. "The PDA market has been flat to declining," he says. "But I look at the mobile computing and communications business and see that growing rapidly. We are cannibalising ourselves. If PDA sales are shrinking, it is because we have a smart phone business." The low-end market [of PDAs] is one where Mr Colligan believes he can make money - and where the competition struggle. Mark my words: There won't be any high-end PDA from palmOne anymore. Not today. And not in a year. Colligan CLEARLY says so himself. He says he wants his (btw shrinking) customer base turn towards smartphones. He says there cannot be place for both, PDAs and smartphones, and without doubt he is in favor of smartphones. And lastly, to avoid spreading rumors that palmOne is completely abandoning the PDA market he mentions that the low-end sector is still of his interest. So only a shift in strategy? I suspect there is more what Colligan is not telling us. Notice that palmOne has had some serious distribution problems. In Europe, you'll hardly find anyone on the streets with a Treo in his hand. Colligan says there was a problem of over-supply; but he fails to explain why his only European partner is UK Orange so far, and what he could do to win other important alliances with European phone network companies. This just doesn't sound right. And if palmOne is really focusing on, I quote, "mobile computing and communications", why then did they decide to release a Tungsten T5 without WiFi? |
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