Category: mobile-technology

What is the difference between the Smartphone and a PocketPC? Then you could ask whats the difference between a PocketPC and a TabletPC?

But seriously back to the first question, whats the difference between a smartphone and pocketpc? I only ask because Microsoft have just released there second edition of Windows Mobile 2003, Released Pocket streets for the Smartphone platform and have disclosed details about a new software development platform which allows you to write for the Xbox, PocketPC, Smartphone and Windows. The lines are getting very blury… This maybe not the best time to own all 3 of them.

The major feature in Mobile 2003 is the VGA screen resolution for PocketPCs and QVGA for Smartphones. So this means the next lot of phones will have the same resolution as my current PocketPC. The WPA support, if i'm thinking correctly will be good if it finally supports 802.1x TTLS natively, rather than through another crappy client. But I'm not sure I'm thinking along the same lines. Would like to see the same Internet Explorer for Smartphones used in PocketPCs. If your site uses frames, then it wont show – excellent, that will teach those old style web designers. Which reminds me I still havent done my CSS media = phone/palmtop test yet. Still a real pain that explorer shows all css, which isnt made for small screens.
Voice dialing including voice tags would be great for the Smartphone AS IS PROMISED in the Orange Manual. Still cant work out if its a fcuk-up or just feature which was promised and not delivered on.

About 2 months after the Dutch and 2 weeks after the French. UK finally get an update for the SPV E200. Finally I will beable to use my SPV as a bluetooth modem. Whoo, a reason to use bluetooth again. Downloading update as posting.

You can improve the performance of your SPV E200 by downloading a new ROM Code Upgrade. This will give you the following benefits:

* Longer battery life which significantly improves standby time so that you can use your E200 much longer.

* Improved sound quality from the loudspeaker, earphones, and microphone so that you can hear and be heard more clearly.

* Improved Bluetooth support so that many more Bluetooth devices now work.

Upgraded, took me ages and thought my SPV was dead a couple of time… More about it after I get to sleep.

After pocketpcnow found the developer blogs for the PocketPC team. He's found out Microsoft are now hosting live chat sessions to talk about the PocketPC platform. Interesting Microsoft are using Ical for there events now. And looking at the information, its not only pocketpcs but smartphones too…

Been enjoying the register's wifi in the real world series.
Wi-Fi in the real world – pt. 1 and Wi-Fi in the real world – pt. 2

I keep meaning to try out the cloud in Beckenham, grab a pub lunch and wireless…

Oh you've got to love Microsoft, giving there developers weblogs is a recipe for fun. Thanks to pocketpchow for this great find.

The PocketPC Developers…

Kevin Lisota
Peter Foot
Neil Cowburn
Michael Yuan
Chris Tacke
Chris Chesnut
Amit Chopra
Alex Yakhnin
Alex Fenineman

Even though I now own a SPV2, I still have alot of respect for SonyEricsson. They are doing some pretty clever things with there phones now. Nokia on the other hand have gone nuts! But yeah the Sony style has really helped Ericsson. Hey and lets not forget the SonyEricsson Z1010 is still the most wanted 3g phone to date. But anyway I saw this link to the new SonyEricsson phones on mobile tracker. Anyway these new phones fit perfectly as SonyEricsson being the camera company…

Why Run Free Software on a PDA? is causing ripples on Slashdot at the moment.

Its one of those things I've always thought about even in the days of my first palmtop the HP200LX. It ran DOS, so it was easy to get data on and off it. Most of the Applications were standard based, so the text editor supported rtf and txt formats. Even the accounting package was in quicken format. Things havent changed much since using Windows CE2 right up to PocketPC 2003. Plus all the palmtops I've owned contained standard storage solutions, so its always been a matter of taking out a FAT formatted PCMCIA, Compact Flash or SD card. However I know people using Palms have not had such a easy time. I havent had such a good time with my phones up untill right now. The SPV2 Smartphone actually allows me do what the heck I like to it. Even store things it doesnt understand. However I do take the point of the post because honestly I would use Opie or some other GNU OS if it took advantage of the hardware built into the device. When I last used Opie it never had bluetooth and wireless was hit and miss. I would miss somethings like activesync but honestly my calendar and stuff are going Open or GNU too. And that goes double for my smartphone, Smartphone 2003 is ok, but it needs bits done here and there.

Cant wait to see TabletPC drivers for Linux some time soon…Specially if they support InkML.
I have to give some kudos to some of the replys on slashdot.
Grrr!! (Score:5, Insightful) by TheKidWho

Found this on Edd Dumbill's blog, sounded not only interesting but actually useful. May consider buying his book if its things like BlueFOAF, will have to look out for packages so I can also use the Bluetooth enabled GNOME.

Can wait to try out these things with my newly installed GNU/Linux. Yes thats right I did finally install Linux on my spare box without anyones help. Got GNOME and KDE installed plus loads of default packages which I dont need but then again its all there for future use.

I ask the question because I see little evidance to say the opposite. Yes we know American operators dont really have at best interopable media messaging, at worst any text messaging (Sprint?). The reason is unknown, except to say there has to be a reason why PTT has launched in America and not anywhere else yet. Could this be because Americans are not ready to accept messaging in any form?

Been thinking about it over the week and there could be a few reasons to the lack of embrace.
First up what country still uses pagers? which country did the two way pager launch in? What happened when the CB radio came to other countrys like the Europe and Asia? Did we embrace it? Hey and what country uses it the most by percentage still? Yes America. Makes sense in the light of push to talk services eh?
On the other side America companys are hell bent on banning camera phones so I have no idea if messaging will grow even if it natrually does.

What other evdance do i need? I rest my case…for now.

One of the things which bugs me about mobile phones is the location trianglation which is possible to find where I am at the time. And I always thought the profiles on mobile phones were powerful but not natural enough for widespread use.

Bell Labs claim to have solved the first one at least…
Bell Labs sets its sight on location privacy and
Hiding your Location Information.

If you want to understand cities today and especially in the future, keep mobile communications in mind. Ten years from now, understanding the way people use mobile media will be as fundamental to urban planning as understanding the buildings they inhabit and vehicles they use. by Howard Rhiengold

Thoughts soon…

Yes you heard it first, i'm not paienting it, i'm not going to keep it to myself and i'm certainly not going s ll the idea. This has GPL written all over it.

So what’s it all about? Well when I was in america last christmas we drove the distance from peura in illinois to the twin cities in minnesota via chicago, milwaukee, madison, eau claire, rochester and la crosse. And back… During that time, we listened to a lot of public radio. Some good some poor. But I was thinking on the way back from la crosse to madison. Why can’t I listen to this in england? (By the way england only has 2 national talk stations.) As some of the talk is relative to anywhere in the world. Oh by the way the BBC is great and is included to my list of good stations. Then I thought, but I can there online, surely? So what was stopping me from tuning in? Then it hit me.

Theres no programming guide for radio as far as I know. What the heck? And if there is, its not wide reaching enough to count for internet radio stations. So i'm proposing a xmltv style schema for radio listings. Surely it would be easy, and once the data is in xml, I don’t see why not it can’t be syndicated and aggregated just like rss and xmltv?

The next stage would be to create a pvr-ish thing in software or even hardware). It would then allow you to capture multiple internet radio streams and maybe (tivo like) suggest others. Xmlnetradio is what i'll call it for now. On the hardware front you could imagine something like radioyourway supporting xmlnetradio, but I like the idea of mobile devices with java or something simular decoding the xml and supporting internet radio even though it would be stupidly expensive over a gprs connection. However wireless would be great for this. Saying all that I would prefer to do the whole capturing on my pc with the software client then transfer the result with xml content to my mobile device. You know if worst came to worst writing out the mpeg3 file with converted xml data in id3 would work well enough?

So the stages for xmlnetradio would be,
1. create the schema based on xmltv but modifed for internet radio.
2. Write software to transform xmlnetradio into something meaningful and allow it jump station to station easily
3. Add pvr type functionality so the listener can record one or more streams in real time.
4. Add support for mobile devices, be it just mpeg3 transfer or full on mobile client.
5. Hope someone adopts it…

I'm loving these news pieces.
Redknee provides 3G multi-SIM solution to O2
Multiple Devices, Multiple SIMs, One Number

If these become common place, i'm first in the queue. I've been relying on bluetooth to do the job, but the applications haven't hit the spot yet. For example I was using mphone on my ipaq with my old ericsson t68 to get text messages on my ipaq. But now mphone doesn't support my spv2 so all messages have to be replied to on the phone. There is a sim slot on the ipaq and if I could send all text messages to the ipaq, allow gprs data on the ipaq and smartphone while allowing voice to be taken by the bluetooth headset. Then I would be happier with my personal area network. Bluetooth technology, shame no one is creating application of better standards. For example, where's the application to instant message between two or more bluetooth devices? I just don't know… Kinda wish I could program enough to do it myself.

Quick mention to say i'm reading smart mobs by Howard rheingold. And its a good read indeed.

Its amazing to come across open wireless points while out on my usually route through the day. I found a open linksys node at the bus stop while waiting for my bus home. It was aa low signal but good enough for my ipaq to pick it up. I was on for 15mins before the bus came and whisked me away. So any Ravensbourne students who wait for the 314 bus, should open there laptops and enjoy bus stop wifi. I'm sure someone must have discovered the open node, before me? remarkable…

The kensington wireless keychain finder I bought in america is very useful indeed, but a bit misleading. I'm sitting in hospital waiting and the keychain is saying theres no wireless but my ipaq found a netgear node broadcasting. However I don’t seem to be gettinng any outside access at all. So I think its internal only? And I don’t have any network tools on my newly reinstated ipaq to test it. I'm also wondering when there going to bring mini-stumbler to pocketpc 2003 or support the internal wiireless cards in the newer ipaqs?

Oh yeah found this sweet Wifi finder for the UK. Added the above to the database.

For ages now, I've been thinking of setting up a moblog, which is basicly a blog of interesting or not so interesting pictures which I snap with my camera phone through-out the day. Its kind of like my picture gallarys but less structured and pictures are uploaded via mms so they appear instantaly online no matter where you are. Which would have been extra nice when I was in America, except MMS didnt work on either Tmobile or AT&T while I was there.

The other thing which seems to becoming possible is vidblogs as operators allow for video messaging. Obvioulsy Orange havent yet launched there video service, but there on the brink and my SPV2 phone supports it. So realisticly I could send it over GPRS as a email instead.

Anyway, I've been meaning to look at textamerica for ages and have signed up now. Didnt like all there terms though.

14. Textamerica.com may use, sell and/or share with its affiliates any information provided by you on this website, including your name, e-mail address, usage patterns, and uploaded images and text

The URL is http://cubicgarde.textamerica.com and yes it looks pretty shite at the moment. But I'm thinking about writing my own moblog now rather than using text america as it seems very limited and ASP buggy. Then again i need to check out the other moblogging apps out there too.