Archive for category Windows Mobile
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: Day 1 – Session 03; OSIS and modern Bible tools
Posted by palmsolo in BibleTech08, Blog, Christian, Nokia, Pocket PC, Windows Mobile on January 25, 2008
The third session I attended was led by members of the American Bible Society and began by describing more about the OSIS Initiative. Four thoughts on why to use OSIS were:
- Permanence: It is independent of hardware and software
- Portability: The OSIS-XML format can be used across platforms, including mobile devices
- Process: Again the open format can be used with different tools
- Products: You can make products cost effective for the end user
The next speaker talked about a couple of ABS tools, including 28forGod.org and ShareYourStoryNow.org. The 28forGod.org site was created to support the Stand in the Gap 2007 conference in D.C. I actually attended Stand in the Gap way back in 1999 (I think that was the year) where they hope was to get 1 million Christian men together to pray for our country and there were hundreds of thousands there on site. It was an awesome experience and I will never forget it. The 28forGod.org site still works and was setup so that the men could listen to audio of the New Testament and get through the entire New Testament in 40 days. You can go there now and download audio versions of the New Testament.
The other site they setup is Share Your Story Now where Christians can share their inspiring stories of their Christian life with the community. It is great to see some positive news and stories with all of the negative press we are constantly fed and I plan to check it out and read some of the stories soon.
The final speaker talked about mobility, trends in mobility, software trends, personal trends, and more. The speaker was quite knowledgeable about the mobile world and I was impressed. He talked about how we are moving away from the distinction of being either offline or online and moving towards an “inline” life. I don’t know if this is good to always be online, but then again I personally am most of the time unless I am way out in the woods or something.
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.
Reading the Bible in 90 days
Posted by palmsolo in Christian, Uncategorized, Windows Mobile on August 9, 2007
I have used the One Year Bible to read through the Bible twice back when I was much younger and just found a link to an article on the Palm Addicts site that has the reading list for reading the Bible in 90 days. I just loaded the reading list onto the HTC Advantage I am evaluating and plan to use the EXCELLENT PocketBible software to help me devote myself to these daily readings. I wish there was a PocketBible daily reader for this new 90 day plan.
The Read the Bible in 90 days site state that the amount you have to read per day is about 3.5 pages of The Wall Street Journal or 4 pages of USA Today. It is also pretty sad when you read the stats that show people read the Bible on average for 7 minutes a day and watch TV for 5 hours a day. I have been feeling a real need to get dedicated to Bible reading at church lately and am challenging myself to start this program. It really is exciting to think about all the wonderful words of God in the Bible and how it is accessible to all of us right now. Yet, too often we get caught up in the business of this world when we need to be studying for eternity.
While just reading through the Bible isn’t necessarily going to be the best way to dive into the Word and get into deep studies, it is very helpful to know what is in the Word, where it is, who the players are, and how you can apply it to your life. The Lord is pleased when we spend time in the Word and this seems like a great method that allows you to devote some time to prayer and reading the Word every day. If you start soon, you can go through the entire Bible in time to celebrate the birth of Christ this year. I am going to give the list to my daughters and challenge them to read along with me during their nightly reading time.
Any readers up for the challenge?
Trading my Nokia E61i for an HTC TyTn
Posted by palmsolo in Pocket PC, Smartphone, Windows Mobile on July 23, 2007
I found a trade deal this weekend on Howard Forums and will be sending off my Nokia E61i for an HTC TyTn. I wanted a TyTN last year when I reviewed it, but it was going for over US$700 so I passed it by. I want it for a couple of reasons, 3G support in the U.S. and the ability to load it up with the excellent PocketBible application and various translations. I loved the E61i and as readers know the E61 is the device that knocked the Treo out of my hands. However, with other Nokia devices in my current collection I would rather gain these two other benefits right now.
T-Mobile data plan issues yet again, but Nokia seems to work
Posted by palmsolo in Nokia, Series 60, Smartphone, Windows Mobile, wireless carriers on May 11, 2007
I am getting a bit tired of T-Mobile and their data plan issues. I had the unlimited data plan for US$19.99 per month and then added the WiFi option for my trip to London in December, but they never came through with the WiFi part so I tried going back to the data only plan. They wouldn’t let me do that and said I had to pay the US$29.99 plan with the T-Mobile HotSpot access. Well, I don’t want the HotSpot access since I would rarely use it so I tried the US$5.99 T-Zones plan and that has worked for the last 4 months or so.
I just recently upgraded my T-Mobile Dash to Windows Mobile 6 and also just received a Vox to try out and now neither of them will connect with the T-Zones plan, even trying the proxy settings. It looks like my only alternative with T-Mobile is to go with their US$29.99 plan again. I would pay it in a heartbeat if they had 3G like EVERY other U.S. carrier, but they are still on EDGE and I don’t think consumers should have to pay US$30 per month for EDGE and WiFi that is not needed. Why can’t T-Mobile offer the US$20 plan again just for data? I think they better watch out or they may lose more customers with their extreme slowness in adopting 3G while still charging 3G data rates.
On a whim, I put my SIM back into the Nokia N95 I am testing and data seems to work fine with the S60 devices so T-Mobile must have some way of detecting what type of device a person is on and shutting down that pipe. So it looks like my choices are limited in devices if I stay with the T-Zones plan and T-Mobile. I guess that knocks the Vox out of contention for a new device and the Nokia E61i is looking more and more enticing to me now.
I am locked into T-Mobile for at least another year due to contract extensions or else I would most likely jump to Cingular where I could get 3G data for US$20/month. T-Zones may open up again on these Windows Mobile devices like it has before and if not it looks like I’ll be using S60 and not Windows Mobile for my wireless data access.
UPDATE: I gave in and added the full unlimited internet plan (with T-Mobile Hotspots) so I am not limited in what device I use and don’t have to worry about loss of connectivity again.
Goodbye Qbacca, hello Vox
Posted by palmsolo in Nokia, Palm, Smartphone, Windows Mobile on May 10, 2007
I just sent my Samsung Q1 UMPC and all accessories off to Spain (which is where I just was a couple weeks ago). It was in perfect condition, but I just found myself rarely using it with the work Dell laptop, my personal MacBook Pro, and all my mobile devices. I didn’t want it sitting around and also have my eye on a couple new devices I want to evaluate and maybe purchase.
An HTC Vox is out for delivery to my house right now and this may be the next device. I am also thinking about the Nokia E61i, Nokia E90, or Palm Treo 750v. Which one, or even other model, would you purchase if you had a bit of cash?
Winner of i-mate JAQ3 is picked
Posted by palmsolo in Giveaway, Windows Mobile on March 4, 2007
I was quite surprised by the low number of responses for the contest and I wonder if people just didn’t want an i-mate JAQ3, they didn’t want to do a little work for a US$500+ device, or there isn’t that many people that read my ZDNet blog. Anyways, I had 40 people send in their answers of which 35 of you actually got all 12 right. Good work everyone. I appreciate your kind comments and it sounds like most of you had a bit of fun finding all the keyboards.
I used a random number generator from www.random.org to select a number between 1 and 35 and then counted the emails from 1st received until last received. The winning number was 23 and that was Timothy’s number. I am sending an email to Timothy and will be shipping the JAQ3 out this week.
Thanks everyone for sending in responses. In the future, I’ll have to hold any giveaways here since ZDNet is still working out legal issues, etc.
UPDATE: I posted the answers on ZDNet, but here they are for my blog readers too. Here were the devices that are associated with each keyboard:
4: HTC TyTN or Cingular 8525
5: BlackBerry Pearl (or 8100)
6: Sharp Zaurus SL-5500
7: Nokia E61
8: i-mate K-JAM (HTC Wizard/QTEK 9100)
