Off to our first summer camping trip

I will be leaving for our first camping trip this afternoon and am not sure if I will have a GPRS connection or not so this may be the last post until Monday. I haven't received the iBiz keyboard yet, so it should be here by Tuesday since Monday is a holiday.

I am giving a demo on Quartz Development's GroupWise syncing solutions at lunch today for PDA owners at our company and so far find it to be acceptable. I still prefer Outlook or Palm Desktop to GroupWise, but at least it is better than Pegasus.

I did finish 3 mini-reviews in the last couple days and plan on working on some at night in the trailer when everyone goes to sleep or if it is raining out. I also need to get the book chapters and tasks done ASAP.

New review items on the way, including iBiz Virtual Keyboard

I am pretty excited about what may be coming my way soon to review, the long awaited iBiz Virtual Keyboard that uses IR and laser projection for entry into PDAs. I am curious to see if it will work with my MDA II or not, but it should at least work with my Tungsten T3 with Universal Palm Connector. My daughter saw this after my CES 2004 write-up and asks me if the review unit is shipping at least once a week.

I also should be getting a Bluetooth keyboard in June to review from ENR Tech. Think Outside also announced their version would be out in June and I am trying to get a review unit for them too.

My buddy, Chris Leckness, from Aximsite and iPAQ HQ also hooked me up with a new Dell contact and I will be getting a review unit of the Dell Axim X30 in early June. This unit sells for only $349 and includes a 624Mhz processor, SD, WiFi, Bluetooth, and WM2003 Second Edition. HP is going to have a tough time competing with this price, but they have 7 devices scheduled for the rest of this year that should meet many user's needs and desires.

I wrote one mini-review this weekend and have to really crank on some others before all this new gear starts rolling out. I wish I could spend even more time reviewing items, but I still have one chapter plus some other sections of the book to finish up this week.

We are also preparing for our first family camping trip this summer and will be going to Soap Lake, Washington this weekend. It will be interesting to see if I get a T-Mobile signal there, but then again the city is not too far off I-90. I spent 4 hours cleaning and prepping our trailer yesterday. I just wish gas prices weren't so dang high because it makes these trips fairly expensive.

Sammy posted a link to my blog

My fairly new online buddy, Sammy McLoughlin, just posted a couple of notes on his two awesome sites talking about this little blog of mine. I am honored he did so and also a bit embarrassed because I really haven't had time to get the new format down how I like it yet. Sammy runs Handheld Addict and Palm Addict and I visit them several times each day and highly recommend them to you as well. I need to get my photos working correctly, get the format looking good on Macs with Safari, get the blog working better on mobile devices, and may also include some photos in my blog.

I would like to get onto a regular schedule of posting thoughts, but I am so busy with my girls, work, reviews, and book writing that I have to make a better effort at doing so. I am taking my two oldest daughters to a Seattle fitness fair and then the Seattle Storm WNBA game today and am trying to squeeze in a mini-review after making this post.

Dell releases Axim X30 and new iPAQ models may be coming soon

I have meant to update my blog more often and also to get the format down, but I have been swamped at work trying to analyze the stability for an offshore platform being moved over from Russia to Korea. It is a very interesting project and one that helps me realize that naval architecture can be fun again.

Anyways, there has been some BIG news in the Pocket PC world the last couple of days with the revelation of the HP iPAQ roadmap over at Brighthand and iPAQabilities along with the release of the three models of the Dell Axim X30. The High model X30 entices me at only $349 for a 624 Mhz processor, WM2003 Second Edition, and integrated WiFi and Bluetooth. However, the upcoming iPAQ hx4700 with 4 inch 640x480 display, 128MB RAM, integrated WiFi and Bluetooth, and dual CF and SD slots looks even better. It will probably be priced at $500 or $550, but man what a great list of specs.

I am loving my MDA II and realistically probably should not buy any new device, but then again you know that is not my nature with PDAs:) Having a Phone Edition has made my load much lighter though and I may just stick with this device. A new beta ROM is out for the XDA/MDA II and I have been considering an attempt to upgrade, but I think I will wait until more guinea pigs give it a try first since I don't want to screw it up since there is no warranty or anything on the device and I really am enjoying it.

Updates should be coming soon

I meant to update my blog more this week, but have been swamped with ball games and trying to get some reviews done. I like the desktop layout of the blog, with the exception of the two pics I added, but the mobile PDA format is horrible so I am trying to figure this out too. If you have any tips, feel free to send them my way.

I reviewed the new Spb Pocket Plus 2.0 and have to say it is very impressive and my favorite utility on my device. They added a ton of features and it is worth the $15.

Now that I am using the MDA II I have been trying to find an Instant Messenger client that would allow me to use port 80 since I get T-Mobile data for free using the WAP conduits. I found and am now reviewing IM+ and have to say it is pretty dang cool. I can now chat with my friends and family on my MDA II and they don't even know I am on a mobile device. The only issue is MSN Messenger doesn't work because it can't use port 80 so I switched my wife to Yahoo Messenger since she uses Yahoo email anyway.

Solving the PDA to Groupwise syncing issue

Our company uses Novell servers and currently runs the free Pegasus email system. Most of us have a strong dislike for Pegasus due to its limited functionality and email only interface. Most of us with PDAs, that number is also growing, use Outlook for our calendar, tasks, notes, and contacts. We are moving to Groupwise in a week or so and I have been asked to figure out a solution for syncing PDAs to Groupwise and have been beta testing for about a week.

I first discovered Nexic Synchronis from the Novell guys and they do have clients for Palm and Pocket PC (beta version only right now). I tried it out and it did sync things, but it uses a totally separate PDA application and database so nothing in my current PIM database would transfer. The PDA interface is also a bit limited and they do not support Smartphones so I dropped this candidate. We have people moving to Microsoft Smartphones now so it is important to get something that works with them as well.

I then tried Intellisync because I knew they were well established and worked with multiple platforms. They also just added the ability to work with Smartphones. However, after testing this out with multiple people's PDAs we could not get the Calendars to ever sync. It would start working and then Intellisync would just quit. They charge big bucks for support and cost $70 per license so I dropped this one too.

During my hunt for a resolution to the calendar issues, I found PortaMail from Quartz Development on the Aximsite.com forums. After installing it on my desktop, I was able to get everything synced smoothly in about 5 minutes, including setting up the conduits. They have full Palm and Pocket PC version and an Alpha of a Smartphone version. I need to still test the Smartphone solution, but it is looking great for PortaMail so far!

I am also getting used to Groupwise and look forward to using it for our daily email and PIM application. It is a significant improvement over Pegasus and eliminates all of the progams others have installed as well as making the office a bit more functional with global scheduling.

Blog changes and van theft

You will notice some changes to my blog since Blogger just went through a major update and I am going to use their new comment solution as well as figure out their permalink page deal. The best feature I have been waiting for is the ability to email posts to my blog from any device so I'll try to update my blog more from my mobile devices.

On a sad note, some jerk broke into my van yesterday at the Park and Ride and stole my digital camcorder (accidentally left in the car after my daughter's piano recital), kids TV, CD changer, radar detector, and a few other things. I can replace all the material items with insurance, but the video of my 8 year old daughter's first recital really ticks me off!

Book status, MPx memory use, Smartphone status, MDA II use

I had some more author review edits to make on the Windows Mobile 2003 book and am trying to come up with some more pieces to include in the book since it is a bit under the page count the publisher desires. I also finally finished up a couple of reviews and am trying to crank through some others. There will be a review posted on PDAGeek on May 11th for a software application that I think may be one of my new most vital apps and have it installed into ROM.

Speaking of ROM, I read that the MPx will have 64MB of Flash ROM and 32MB of RAM. The ROM will be used to install applications and keep user data (Storage) and the RAM will be used for running applications (Program). Unlike most devices, you will be able to use all 64MB of ROM and I personally think this is a better way to manage memory because then if you perform a hard reset then nothing should really be lost or require a backup. Now, you pretty much lose everything you have on your device that is not stored on an external storage card. I love the fact that I have 128MB of RAM and 30.5MB of ROM accessible for my use on the MDA II and would like to see other manufacturers follow Motorola's lead and include more ROM on devices.

I indicated in my previous posting that my SPV E200 is primarily being used for software evaluation and wanted to add a bit more to that thought. My plan was to give my wife the E200 for phone and GPS use. However, she is often on the phone making calls while in the car and thus it would be tough to use GPS at the same time. Also, I have been trying to get her to use Outlook and take advantage of some of the functionality of the Smartphone, but she isn't really into spending the time to learn about it yet. Also, she is known to lay her phone and keys down at random places and already lost the MPx200 a couple of times for several hours. I don't want to risk losing this wonderful Smartphone so I cancelled the plans to transition her to it. I gave her back her $20 phone and she doesn't even really notice a difference. I do have the Tungsten T3 setup with my Bluetooth GPS to provide a great navigation solution for her that she does really appreciate.

It was also great to see Astraware and PDAmill both release some great new games for the Microsoft Smartphone platform, but I haven't yet had a chance to check them out.

I have zeroed out my balance of items being bought and sold and it looks like I will have a couple hundred dollars profit that I am going to save for a Palm OS 6 device or Windows Mobile Second Edition device. I would like to see the MPx live to see if that is a feasible alternative to the MDA II because I am really liking this converged device. The phone features on the MDA II are awesome and it is so convenient to carry around one device with me where ever I go. It really is not too big either and I have been just holding it up to my ear and using it that way for 95% of the calls.

NEC 900 vs. Jornada 720

When I bought the NEC 900 on ebay I paid about $50 to $75 more than what a few other devices were going for because the seller offered a 3 day risk-free trial period. I wanted so badly to love the 900 due to the reasons I mentioned earlier; larger keyboard, large memory capacity, and faster processor. I received it and was quite impressed. I then was talking with someone about buying my Jornada 720 and did a side-by-side comparison with the 900. This resulted in me deciding to return the 900 and keep the Jornada 720. The 720 is snappier even though it has an Intel ARM 206Mhz processor vs. the 400 MHz XScale in the 900. This reminds me of when the first 400MHz Pocket PCs came out and were slower than the 206MHz models. Also, the 720 display is much crisper and a bit brighter. The 900 touch panel is also not very sensitive and required a few taps to register on the display.

I recently bought a new external keyboard for the Jornada 720 and it is an outstanding accessory that lets me type to my hearts content and also adds some cool functions to let you navigate the 720 quickly. I also picked up some new extended batteries that last 3 times the standard battery. As a result of this comparison, I am sending the 900 back to the seller for a full refund and will keep the 720.

By the way, I have 2 BRAND NEW in the box Jornada 720 extended batteries left and will sell them to anyone who wants them for $115 each. I ship worldwide and only charge actual shipping costs.

I am also falling deeply in love (as much as you can with an inanimate object :) with the MDA II device. It is a wonderful mobile phone and a great Pocket PC with tons of memory and a nice design. The only thing I miss is more hardware buttons, but I am evaluating some software to help make launching applications easier.

My Tungsten T3 has been relegated to a GPS only device for my wife's PartyLite use and my SPV E200 is only being used to evaluate software at this time. I still have the MPx200 available for $205 and will probably put it up on ebay later this week if I don't get any takers soon.