Recently in PDAs & Handhelds Category

 ... but only on ebay or some other similar source.

Amid all the wonderful Apple news, just harkening back to the days when PDAs were just seeing the light of day and handwriting recognition was going to change computing and the way we worked and played forever.  

(Am I going too far back???)

That's what the Newton seemed to promise.

Well, it didn't quite work out that way, but companies innovated, came and went and look where we are today ...

But amid all of the Newtons for sale, I'm sure there are still some tried and true believers out there who live and swear by their Newton, using it day after day to make their lives easier.

Are there????

Let us hear from you!!!

I don't know about you, but before I left to go to the office today, I made sure I had my cell phone, laptop and BlackBerry, and on my way here, I programmed my navigation system for directions, switched between listening to CDs and traffic reports on the radio and checked my cell phone for voice mail.  Sound familiar?

It's amazing how connected we are today.  It's changed the way we live - and will continue to change the way we live -- at home and on the go.

We live in an age where devices are everywhere.  We have more ways to communicate and be entertained than ever before - PCs, cell phones, BlackBerrys, digital music players, CD and DVD players, terrestrial radio, HD radio, satellite radio, text messaging, voice recognition, ring tones, video games, navigation systems, e-mail, TiVO, Wi-Fi - and I'm sure I missed a few.

This convergence of factors - digital music players, broadband, voice recognition and everything else - is now dramatically changing our experience as drivers while at the same time it has already changed how car companies design their cars.

We want to be connected 24x7, any time, anywhere, and we want to the the same things in our cars as we do at home and in the office. 

With Ford's in-car connectivty system, SYNC, you control the devices you already have. You control most digital music players and Bluetooth-enabled phones from the driver's seat, with both hands on the wheel, using only voice commands.  You can operate your digital music player through the car stereo without touching it, or make calls without even taking your phone out of your pocket.

Does this sound great or what?

What has your experience been as a Ford owner?

Will this really make a difference how we buy our cars?

The Internet is open for your response ...

We are waiting ...

Palm keeps on churning out products --ahh, bet they still wish it was the heady days of the Palm Pilot ...

Anyway, now surrounded by relentless competition, the yet-to-be released Treo 850 apparently features a 400 MHz processor and 100 MB of RAM. Check out photos at The Boy Genius Report here.

Rich Tehrani has a great review on the SkyFire browser that gives Windows Mobile devices the Apple iPhone browsing experience. Well, not quite, but definitely much better than the built-in Windows Mobile browser. It supports easy zooming, Flash support, videos (including YouTube videos) and more. Rich was getting so frustrated with the crappy Windows Mobile browser that he even weighed the pros and cons of switching to the Apple iPhone from his Verizon HTC 6800 Windows Mobile.

But now Rich is giddier than a kid that just got a PS3 for Christmas, or that blogger who just got an iPhone and can't stop blogging about it. Yesterday, Rich had this big smile on his face and he couldn't wait to show me a demo of his new toy. Read on!

The Touch Screen Pointer from Krussell is a universal stylus that replaces the original stylus and can't be misplaced of lost ...

Interesting product, gentle on touch screens, that takes the company beyond its core PDA and cell phone case market -- and they do make nice cases.

www.krusell.se

Enkin is a developer of a location-based content that bridges the gap between reality and classic map-like representations using Google Android. It combines GPS, orientation sensors, 3D graphics, live video, several web services and a novel user interface into an intuitive and light navigation system for mobile devices. This project is a submission for the first round of the Google Android Developer Challenge. Their product is similar in concept to Wi-Fi Army that I wrote about.

Enkin's Rafael Spring and Max Braun created a new 3d-navigation system for Android phones that even includes a "radar" map of POIs (Points of Interest) that changes orientation as you change the orientation of the Google Android mobile device. Rafael and Max both study Computational Visualistics in Koblenz, Germany and started this (private) project when they were in Osaka, Japan for Robotics Research.

They told me, "We are both really excited about it since there is nothing even similar on the market, yet. Our project, which is called "Enkin", uses different kinds of sensors, live camera views, GPS, wireless internet and a lot of new interfaces provided by the Android platform to introduce a new way of navigation."

Enkin allows you to navigate through your environment without using a map. Instead, all your navigational content (such as directions, annotated placemarks, etc.) is displayed extending real objects on the screen, using the devices built-in camera. Turning and moving the device will make the camera image and the content float by.

Enkin uses GPS to determine the user's position on the globe and motion-sensors to calculate the device's current orientation in space. So when you aim your camera at say Yankee Stadium from 100m away, the phone's video display will overlay the "real world" image of Yankee Stadium with annotated text that says "Yankee Stadium 100m". Even cooler, say you are lost in the Bronx and are trying to find Yankee Stadium -- simply swivel your camera around until you see the annotated text "Yankee Stadium 100m" on the screen. Even if the Stadium is blocks away behind several buildings, since it uses GPS and motion sensors to detect your orientation, it doesn't require line of sight.

Another perspective in Enkin makes you watch your content from a virtual camera high above you. The content then comes embedded in a fully textured three-dimensional landscape.

According to Enkin, tou can also see your content on a classic 2D map (driven by a motionsensor-interface) which is similar to Google Maps. The different views can be switched seamlessly using 3D graphics. You can therefore "dive" right into a map. Enkin combines GPS, different orientation sensors, 3D graphics, live video and several web services into an exclusively mobile application.

Enkin will be released soon after the first Android devices are available.

Sometimes seeing is better than explaining. So check out the cool video!

Microsoft has announced plans to rollout an updated version of its Windows Mobile platform called Windows Mobile 6.1. The new updates include enhancements to existing features as well as some new ones. Features include e-mail, Web-access, instant messaging, traffic updates, photo capabilities, music and the ability to edit documents. One nice feature is a new zoom capability that lets you view an entire Web page or picture and zoom in up on a portion of a page. The new IE Mobile browser should help Microsoft compete with the "wow" factor of browsing on the Apple iPhone.

It also features a new Getting Started Center designed to make it a snap to set up e-mail, Bluetooth devices, and Wi-Fi. Other major enhancements include Adobe Flash Support, H.264, and Silverlight support, as well as a new camera interface. You'll now be able to play YouTube videos (Flash).

Lastly, they added the Microsoft Live search engine. Whoopie. Microsoft stated the updated software is scheduled to be available in late spring of 2008. The update announcement was made during the CTIA convention in Las Vegas.

OctroTalk mobile instant messaging client features connectivity to Google Talk/Jabber with MSN, AIM, ICQ and Yahoo, IM capabilities, VoIP, P2P file transfer, folder sharing, quick picture messaging, and more.

OctroTalk works over both low-bandwidth and high-bandwidth connections, including  GPRS/EDGE/CDMA/WiFi/Bluetooth data connections. OctroTalk supports a low bandwidth codec with low CPU usage requirements so it runs quite well on smart phone devices. It currently runs on Windows Mobile smartphones, Windows Mobile Pocket PC, and Symbian S60 3rd Edition. OctroTalk features an easy to use user interface that supports one handed operation and 5-way navigation. OctroTalk currently supports GoogleTalk/Jabber, MSN, AIM, ICQ and Yahoo.

Interestingly, when you logout from the Google/Jabber account, the application will automatically log you off from all your accounts including MSN, AOL, ICQ and Yahoo. You can be connected to MSN, AOL, ICQ or Yahoo! only when you are connected to Google Talk/Jabber. I guess Google Talk/Jabber must act as the mediation to the other IM services.

In any event, OctroTalk allows you to have multiple IM sessions going on simultaneously which will appear as tabs, as seen here:



One cool feature is that If you are using the Google Talk account, then for your Google Talk buddies you can archive your chat conversations and search an information in your Gmail account. Another cool feature is the ability to share a folder as seen here:



Emoticons are supported (comes with the Microsoft MSN Messenger emoticons). Initiating a VoIP call is pretty easy to do. Here's a screenshot of a VoIP call being initiated:


The only limitation is that you can only VoIP someone with a Google Talk/Jabber account. It doesn't support VoIP connectivity with MSN, AIM, ICQ, or Yahoo.

With OctroTalk you can create or join chat conference rooms. It appears that OctroTalk hosts the conference rooms but it can support other services. The conference rooms only support IM and not VoIP. I'd like to see group conferencing with VoIP capabilities in a future release. Of course, that would require MCUs and possibly some heavy transcoding, but it's certainly a feature people want.

Summary of Features:

• Always on connected to Google Talk/Jabber with MSN, AIM, ICQ and Yahoo transports
• Complete VOIP product. Access to PSTN.
• Supports Low Bandwidth Codec (even works with EDGE/GPRS/CDMA).
• Streamlined UI. Optimized for one-handed operation. Today Screen on Pocket PC. Home Screen support for Smartphone.
• Extremely fast P2P file transfer. Quick picture messaging. 
• Low CPU usage. Only VOIP product that works on Treo 700w (300 MHz processor).
• Secure and Encrypted connection to GoogleTalk. Google Talk messages are encrypted using industry standard TLS/SSL.
• Message Archiving in your GMail Account.
• Share files with your buddies (automated file transfer).
• Access your computer remotely. Install OctroTalk for Windows on your desktop, and share a folder with OctroTalk on your Mobile.
• Support for GroupChat/Conferencing. OctroTalk lets you create/join Jabber conference rooms.

Sony announced GPS functionality for its Sony PSP gaming platform. While the GPS accessory was released in Japan in late 2006, this marks the "demo" launch (at CES) of the product in North America. It was simply a demo at CES, but Sony reps said they expect the product to ship sometime this year.

The GPS device will load map data from an included UMD that's region specific. Updated or additional country maps can be purchased and downloaded to a Memory Stick. The GPS will work with the older/original PlayStation Portable as well as the newer PSP-2000. Pretty amazing that the Sony PSP can now do gaming (obviously), Skype calls, and now GPS. The large screen should do nicely with GPS navigation, so TomTom and Garmin may need to be concerned since they are mostly one-trick GPS ponies. Though I doubt the first rev of the Sony PSP GPS software will include turn-by-turn text-to-speech naming of streets.

I previously wrote today about my George Costanza wallet, which was replaced with a Men's Digital Photo Wallet from Brookstone. Even with my new gadgety wallet, I still had to do some pruning of various club cards to reduce the thickness of wallet. For instance, I took out my Mohegan Sun casino club card, Foxwoods, Viper Club of America card, Stop & Shop card, and various other cards.

Well, today, I happened to come across a website called Just One Club Card, which lets you combine your various club cards into a single small sheet of paper, thus saving you from having an overstuffed fat wallet or a backache/buttache from sitting on a fat wallet.

You simply enter in your club card account numbers online and it will generate the barcode images on the web page in a small condensed format that you can stick in your wallet. You can then print it out. Here's a sample one I created with some fictitious account numbers:

According to the website, you simply cut out the card along the dotted lines (except the middle line). Then fold together to get a two sided card. Use some clear tape to hold the card together or laminate if you want a really nice card that is also more durable.

You're probably wondering how the store barcode reader will know which barcode to read. Good question.

The simple solution is to cover all the barcodes but the store you're at with your fingers. That assumes of course that the cashier allows you to start waving your motley of printed barcodes over his/her scanner with your fingers obscuring the unimportant barcodes. A better solution is to print this Just One Club Card windowed-sleeve cutout (PDF), cut it out, and construct a sliding, windowed sleeve for your new just one club card. You still might get a few looks from cashiers when you hand this to them, but from users' feedback I've seen, no store has turned it down.

So far he has a database of over 120 club cards, including, A&P, Stop & Shop, Costco, BJs, BigY, Borders, CVS, Shaws, and more. Of course, an even better method would be to store your barcodes on your mobile phone and have them scan your mobile phone's display. It's already being discussed by the International Air Transport Association, which represents 94% of scheduled international travel on 240 airlines, and which has agreed to a global standard for mobile barcodes that can replace physical boarding passes.

Instead of a slip of paper, a barcode image is sent to your mobile phone, which can be scanned. Continental Airlines in Houston already has this running as part of a pilot program. They're the first airlines to offer cellphone boarding passes using barcodes. Here's a photo of it in action: