Archive for category Gadgets
Arrived in Barcelona, thanks Nokia
I had a very long 2 days getting here to Barcelona, but I arrived safely. I was blessed to be invited on this trip by Nokia and will/be spending the first 2 days with Nokia folks. They gave each of us (there are about 8 of us) a Nokia N810 to try out and I am making this post on it using the thumb keyboard. We had a nice dinner nwith a couple Nokia guys too and then went to bed.
I was up very early/late writing about all the latest Windows Mobile news coming out at MWC so check out my ZDNet blog for that coverage. Much more to come today.
BibleTech08: Day 2 – Session 03, Electronic Publishing & Bible Software in a Fast Moving Mobile Landscape
Posted by palmsolo in BibleTech08, Blog, Christian, Gadgets, iPhone, Nokia, Palm, Pocket PC, s60, Smartphone, Windows Mobile on January 26, 2008
Drew Haninger was the presenter for the next session I attended that was the first one fully focused on mobile devices. Drew is the president of Olive Tree Bible Software and began by talking about their goal at the company. He presented the very crowded mobile landscape and I am sure that surprised many who spend most of their time in the Windows PC or Mac standardized world. There are device trade names, various operating systems, various device and display sizes, and different programming languages.
Drew then spent some time talking about the history of Olive Tree, which he started as a student project back in 1984. In August 1998 the first version of BibleReader for Palm OS devices was released and they have since moved on to supporting the Pocket PC/Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Symbian (both UIQ and S60), iPod (text only), and other cell phone formats. It is currently available on 12 platforms and they see something like 50,000 downloads a month of their texts.
The common theme in regards to programming language was that C or C++ was on many platforms (Palm, Windows Mobile, Symbian, and maybe the iPhone). I was a bit surprised to hear that development support and tools were the best for Windows Mobile and wonder if this fact has helped propel Windows Mobile past Palm these last few years.
Drew talked about some challenges that they face in development and selling mobile Bible texts. These challenges include:
- Different programming languages
- Data location (local, external memory, “in the cloud”)
- Installation methods (over-the-air, SMS, desktop syncing)
- UI systems (touch, stylus, non-touch)
- Publishers and licensing content
- Customer expectations (desire a desktop experience, users move to different devices often)
I enjoyed listening to Drew and learned quite a bit about the perspectives of the mobile market from a developer/vendor working in this space. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to keep up with the latest operating systems and the various programming languages used by so many different platforms. Unfortunately, I am afraid it will just continue to get even more complicated as Symbian, Windows Mobile, and Apple (with the iPhone) continue to evolve while Google’s Android joins in along with the possibility of a new Palm OS based on Linux. I doubt there will be any consolidation of mobile operating systems and platforms anytime soon as there are too many dynamics in the market with wireless carriers, hardware vendors, software developers, and much more that are not going to go away or combine.
Technorati Tags: BibleTech08
BibleTech08: Day 2 – Session 01, The State of Open Source Bible Software Development
Posted by palmsolo in BibleTech08, Blog, Christian, Gadgets, Palm, Pocket PC, Windows Mobile on January 26, 2008
This session was led by Troy A. Griffits and to tell you the truth I thought it was going to be something way over my head since I am primarily a user of technology and not a programmer. I was very pleased to learn that this session was indeed for the user like me as Troy spent some time demonstrating some of the wonderful tools available from the CrossWire Bible Society. As you can see there are lots of free tools and resources available, such as the CrossWire Wiki, the SWORD project, GnomeSword, MacSword (what I have on my Mac) and much more.
I have the Rapier application loaded on my Nokia N800 and it uses the SWORD project modules for the texts. Prior to this conference I was confusing the SWORD modules with e-Sword which are two completely separate products. Make sure you first install Python 2.5 on your N800 before loading up Rapier. It is currently a great Bible reading application and I hope the developer continues to work on adding features and functionality.
In terms of mobility, Troy also mentioned the Palm Bible+ application that used to be an open source project and SWORD Reader for Pocket PC. I have tried the Palm Bible+ application before, but it has been a few years since I looked at it. This was the first I heard of the Pocket PC SWORD Reader and I’ll have to take a look at it. There are also some other mobile resources like the QPSword application for Sharp Zaurus Linux-based devices and I do still have an older 5500 I could try this on.
Troy’s first live demonstration was for the online OSIS Bible Tool that lets you access text via a web browser. I was very impressed with the Parallel Bible Tool and plan to use this for the study of different translations side-by-side.
Troy then showed something from their labs that was quite impressive, but something that was WAY over my head. He showed how you can take a papyrus image and use tools with a Google Maps-like UI to annotate and add transcriptions to mapped areas of the papyrus document. These can then be shared like Google Maps with a link to the page where you actually added content and notes. This may be quite handy for academics and those who study the original Word.
A colleague (sorry I did not get his name) then showed the SWORD project in action in both Windows and Linux formats. The Linux Bible, GnomeSword, actually can run on a Windows PC too. It was quite functional and very feature-packed for a free application.
I also learned that these amazing CrossWire tools are all written, updated, and managed by volunteers in their spare time and I praise the Lord for these developers taking the time to make these tools readily accessible for all of us.
Technorati Tags: BibleTech08
BibleTech08: Intros and mobile clients
Posted by palmsolo in Blog, Christian, Gadgets, Nokia, Pocket PC, s60, Smartphone, Windows Mobile on January 25, 2008
We started off with a general introduction and welcome by a Logos Software rep There are about 80 to 90 people at the event, by my rough count. It is nice to see that Laridian, Pocket eSword, and Olive Tree people are here with talks coming from them later. BTW, I took the photo with my N95, then Bluetoothed it to the N800 and pulled it into Wordpy.
Check out the full list of speakers for a summary of the topics that are planned for discussion over the next two days.
Technorati Tags: BibleTech08
Is gadget lust a struggle for you?
Antoine posted a good link to start off this week about Addressing Gadget Envy that you should take a look at. He links to a very good post at Get Rich Slowly on How to Cope with Gadget Envy. It was a nice read that helps you to refocus on priorities in your life and whether or not you really need that latest gadget. Thankfully, there was nothing at MacWorld that is calling for my money this year so I am safe from Apple for now.
If you read my ZDNet blog you will see I use a lot of different mobile phones, but thankfully most of them are loaners or review units that eventually get sent back to public relations companies or manufacturers. The shine usually wears off after the review period, but there are those devices that I do find essential that I purchase. In the last year, I have purchased an Apple iPhone, T-Mobile Shadow and Nokia N95-3. There are probably 8 or so other mobile phones in my review drawer right now that are review/evaluation units. Even though the Lord has blessed me with a great “day job” and a fun hobby career, writing for ZDNet, I do pretty well in keeping my credit card in my wallet and avoiding buying all the latest and greatest. I would love to pick up an ultra-portable PC, but there is no need for it no matter how much justifying I try to come up with.
I think you will see me exhibiting even more self-control in 2008 as I am trying very hard to spend more daily time with the Lord. My daughters are getting older and I want them to have a strong foundation in the Lord as they go through the teenage and college years where a strong foundation is needed with all the added peer pressure and negative influences of society. I am actually extremely close to canceling cable TV too since it seems like such a waste of money and is an influence I don’t want in my house anymore.
Do you struggle with gadget lust?
palmsolo's still here and summary of mobile happenings
Posted by palmsolo in Blog, Gadgets, iPhone, Nokia, Personal, s60, Smartphone, Travel, Windows Mobile, wireless carriers on October 29, 2007
Wow, I have been quite remiss in posting updates to this personal blog of mine and for those who are still actually reading it I apologize. I have been very busy with my yard (the grass is now about an inch in length and looking good – Flickr photos coming soon), coaching soccer (we only lost 1 game all season so far), watching soccer (my 2 oldest play for great teams too), spending time with my family, and blogging for ZDNet. I’ll try to update this a bit more regularly, but will give you a summary update below:
BlackBerry device in the house: Yes, it is true. I was sent a review T-Mobile BlackBerry Curve and this was really the first BlackBerry I spent any significant amount of time with. I really enjoy using it and plan to pick one up for myself soon, maybe even with the excellent @Home UMA/WiFi service that can reduce my monthly minute usage. I am amazed by how many 3rd party applications work with the device and find it to be very consumer focused now with the camera and media player. I posted a review on ZDNet and have very little to say about any dislikes with the device. I even found that Laridian has a Bible for the BlackBerry so I am very satisfied with the device!
iPhone still here too: I do still have my iPhone and AT&T account, but am probably going to be ending my AT&T contract soon by paying the early termination fee. I don’t need to be shelling out $70/month for a bit faster data than I see on T-Mobile, especially given the fact that I probably won’t be traveling as much in the future with much of our salvage work stopping soon (a change in our strategic plan at work). I still have my iPhone with the 1.0.2 firmware and find it to be a very nice device, but do miss all the 3rd party stuff available for Windows Mobile and BlackBerry.
HTC Advantage being used on the Sounder: HTC is still letting me evaluate the HTC Advantage as I conduct some software reviews (SoftMaker Office Suite, etc) and I have been using it primarily via WiFi on the Sounder commuter trains to and from work. I still may pick one of these up for myself for Christmas, but we’ll see what comes down the pipe soon.
New T-Mobile Shadow: T-Mobile just announced the HTC Shadow last night and it looks like a wonderful Windows Mobile Smartphone. My wife took my Dash and really likes the Smartphone platform, but she may like the Shadow even better with its larger display and cool slide-up display that reveals the phone keypad. She hates the volume JOGR on the Dash and at only $150, the Shadow looks like a great deal.
What about Nokia and S60?: I keep falling back to the excellent Nokia N95 for high quality phone functionality and 3rd party apps, but have no plans for upgrading any time soon. I thought of the N95-8GB, but with the new SanDisk 8GB microSD cards I think that is a better option. The N95-3G version looks good, but only works with AT&T in the U.S. The N81 looked good, until I read some reviews that weren’t that positive. It will be tough to top the N95, but I do really look forward to what Nokia will bring in 2008 with the new touch UI.
Thoughts on the Palm Centro: I am just about done with my review of the Palm Centro and have to say I think this is the BEST Palm OS device I have seen in a few years. When a GSM version is released I will most likely be picking one up for my Palm OS device (currently I only have older Palm devices in house). It is sleak, full featured, and priced right at $99.
MacBook Pro now running Leopard: My 160GB MBP drive crashed on me a couple weeks ago and I lost about 2 months of photos. It was still under warranty and a new drive arrived on Friday, along with my copy of Leopard. I made a clean install of Leopard on the replacement drive and now will be regularly backing up my data using the new Time Machine feature. I have no plans to upgrade my laptop any time soon and with my mobile device collection I don’t plan to get a UMPC either right now (as much as I would love to have an OQO Model 02 or something like that).
Upcoming travel plans: I will be flying into Amsterdam in November for a few days and then will be hitting the streets of Vegas for CES in January for 3 days. I am almost to MVP Gold status and may even have a trip or two to Alaska and one to Miami before the end of the year.
Apple iPhone heading back to AT&T today (again)
Posted by palmsolo in Apple, Gadgets, iPhone, Uncategorized on July 10, 2007
I really wanted to like the Apple iPhone and if I was an AT&T customer already I probably would have held on to it with the hope that Apple would be issuing updates to fix the issues with the device. It is very fun to use and is a great iPod, but it is a poor phone as I detailed in my latest ZDNet blog post. It is just way too expensive for a crippled mobile phone when there are so many other better alternatives out there, but I will definitely be keeping my eye on future Apple devices and do hope it forces Microsoft and Symbian/Nokia to take a look at their future operating system plans.
UPDATE: So I had the iPhone all packed up and was on the way to the store when I had to pull over and admire the device again. I just can’t return it after all the memories of camping out with my girls, fun posts at ZDNet, and the awesome UI. I discovered I can forward 500 minutes from T-Mobile to the AT&T number for free so the impact the my family plan should be minimal. I am going to give it a couple more days and hold off my final decision until minutes before the 14 day period, but I am leaning towards keeping it now.
UPDATE 2: OK, so the iPhone is all packed up and will be returned in about 1.5 hours to my local AT&T store. The extremely poor speaker volume, very weak email program, and monthly cost of adding AT&T to my T-Mobile service just pushed me back to a return state. I have to say it is a relief to finally make a final, final decision. I will definitely take another look at the iPhone after Apple updates it, but now I am much more educated on its limitations, and strengths, so I know when I will be willing to jump back into the iPhone game. Thanks for the 2 weeks Apple and good luck with the iPhone.
iPhone coming soon to the U.S., but how can we use it for Bible study and ebook reading?
Posted by palmsolo in Apple, Gadgets, Smartphone on June 27, 2007
Well, we all know about the Apple iPhone coming out on Friday and the news, reviews, and Apple videos are pouring out all over the place. I have to admit that it does indeed look slick and the rate plans are actually reasonable, which makes sense since the iPhone is running the slower EDGE connection rather than AT&T’s 3G network.
I use my mobile devices for a lot of things and one reason I keep going back to using a Windows Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition type device is because of the excellent Laridian PocketBible application. It looks like the only way you will be able to access and read the Bible on the iPhone is through a Bible web site, which requires that you have a data connection and doesn’t allow for any note taking.
I also enjoy reading Mobipocket e-books and there is not going to be 3rd party application support like this on the iPhone. The iPhone has a very cool UI, but lacks a lot of other features found on existing Windows Mobile and S60 devices.
Gadget cash going to family needs
Our digital camcorder died a couple weeks ago and we are missing some precious moments of my daughters’ lives so I decided to spend my PayPal gadget cash on a new camcorder and a new dishwasher (our current one has driven my wife crazy for a couple years now because it was cheap and just doesn’t work that well). So now new devices for me for a while, which is fine since it will give me time to really check out the ones I have right now.
I thought I liked the Palm Foleo
Palm announced their Foleo mobile companion device yesterday and most every blogger I read over the last 24 hours does not like the device. I actually am thinking about it as a possible future purchase since I think it takes the Nokia Internet Tablet idea and makes it better with a larger display and a keyboard. With the integrated WiFi you don’t even need a smartphone to use the device, but the multimedia functionality is still an unknown. I think if it was priced the same as the N800 (US$399) it would probably sell quite well, but with a full retail price of US$600 then that may push it too far out of people’s comfortable price range.
I take my Stowaway BT keyboard with me and try to use the TV-out on S60 devices, but many times hotel do not have the ports available to turn the mobile device into a traveling computer and the Foleo would allow you to always have a display and keyboard with you. I think the device may be a good companion for the business traveler who needs to get some basic work done on the plane and needs a device that lasts longer than the 2-3 hour battery life on most all laptops. Granted, there are micro laptops out there with long battery life and good performance, but they cost 3 to 4 times what the Foleo will cost you.
I need to get a hold of one and see for myself. What do you think of the Palm Foleo?
UPDATE: After some more thinking about the device, I just don’t think there is a need for the Foleo as I stated in my ZDNet blog entry.
