Pray for those affected by the tsunami

The devastation caused by the tsunami in Asia is tough to comprehend and I ask that we all pray for those affected by this tragedy. I also encourage you to visit the Google tsunami relief page where you will find links that allow you to donate to the relief efforts. Pray for those directly affected and for those going to Asia to provide assistance during this time of need.

New blog for other topics

I try to only discuss my usage of mobile devices on this blog, yet I am quite passionate about other aspects of life too. In order to voice some of my thoughts that are swirling in my head I created a new MSN Spaces blog focused on my religious, political, and personal life that you can check out here. If you are also passionate about these topics and might get offended and stop reading this mobile device blog then you may not want to check it out. I know I removed one site devoted to mobile devices from my browser favorites after I found out the author was passionate about beliefs opposite of mine and I just couldn't get over it.

New imate PDA2K ROM

There is a new ROM updated for the imate PDA2K that is supposed to fix some issues with performance, but does not completely fix the Bluetooth nagging issues. I don't know if I am going to load this right away though since I have my device pretty loaded and running well at this time. The update does not include WMP 10 Mobile so I may hold off until this and all the Bluetooth issues are fixed.

There has been some serious slow server issues with Club imate in getting this ROM downloaded and some people are quite unhappy with them. I also am considering using their hosted Exchange service for one year for free, but don't know if I want all my important Calendar and Contact information sitting on a server in Dubai.

Messing with my template

As you can see I am messing around with my Blogger template and trying to make my simple blog a bit better. I also added some Google Adsense ads to see how they do. I am considering going to a dedicated hosting service for my blog since I have also recently registered a couple of other mobile device and smartphone URLs.

imate JAM coming to review and prepping for CES

Boy, it has been quite slow in PDA/mobile device related news lately and has been tough to find at least 2 things to talk about each day on Geek.com. I just worked out a loaner deal with David Weiniger to get an imate JAM to review for Geek.com. This was one device that seriously impressed me at Mobius 2004 due to its rock solid feel and very small form factor. I can't wait to put it through its paces and evaluate it after CES.

Speaking of CES, I am taking my wife down there with me to Vegas for her first trip there. We are going to be quite busy with CES and press parties and still have to figure out what to do on Saturday. I walked miles and miles last year, but had a great time checking out all the cool consumer electronics gear. I am sure my wife will enjoy the large floor full of automobile enhancements like GPS, stereos, alarms, etc. I have 10 interviews set up and hope I can stick with them all this time. I made way too many last year and just couldn't physically make it to each one due to the sheer size of the event.

Did everyone have a nice Christmas?

I hope everyone had a pleasant Christmas holiday. It is always fun when you have kids around and my daughters had a great time. Santa brought me a Robosapien, which has been lots of fun playing with. I now have to see how the kittens respond to it:) No one gets me mobile device stuff because I always get the latest myself and they just can't keep up.

I received a Mirra Personal Server, a carchip that tracks tons of data via the computer interface plug, and a SanDisk 512MB Digital Audior Player to review just before Christmas. So even though I don't keep all this gear, it is fun to pretend that Santa delivered it to me. My middle daughter also received a SanDisk MP3 player for Christmas and so far I am quite impressed with these small players.

CES craziness, PDA2K is solid, C500 troubles

It has been quite a chore lately going through over 250 email invites to meet with people at CES in January. Last year was my first trip and I overbooked myself and was struggling to get to each meeting since the show is so HUGE. This year, I am limiting my one-on-one meetings so I can spend more time wandering the floor with my wife. This is her first trip to Vegas so we have a couple days just to hang out too.

My PDA2K is doing quite well, but I had a small heart attack the other day. This device was only used a couple hours and is in PERFECT condition. Well, I put it in my jacket pocket and forgot to zip it closed. When I ducked to go under the garage door it slipped out and hit the cement floor. Luckily, it only suffered very small scratches in two corners and everything is still fine. However, I take pride in keeping my devices in MINT condition and am now bummed that this has some usage scratches. Oh well, I LOVE this device and don't see upgrading soon unless a VGA model with high res camera, faster processor, and longer battery life comes out.

My C500 is still not working right in the up and left direction and Orange has been unresponsive. My wife's Motorola MPx220 looks better every day:) Orange may be out with the Christmas season so I will follow up with them again after CES. My PDA2K is going with me down there with the cool Nokia 7610 Series 60 review sample I am checking out too.

1st Annual Geek.com Holiday Gift Guide is live

Joel and I just spent a few hectic days putting together our 1st Annual Geek.com Holiday Gift Guide with 50 featured products, primarily focused on mobile devices. You can check out the Guide here. We plan on making this an annual Guide, with next year focusing primarily on those products we reviewed throughout the year rather than putting mini-reviews right into the guide like this year. Thanks for your time and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Restored PDA2K, up and running again

Wow, Sprite Backup Premium absolutely ROCKS!!!!!

I made a full backup of the MDA III for my RAM and ROM (43MB full) onto my PC using Sprite Backup and then just restored everything to the i-mate PDA2K in a few minutes. The only thing that was a little buggy was the Extended ROM unlocker that I reloaded in seconds and was fine again. This application just saved me hours and hours of reloading programs on my device.

Geek Holiday Review Guide coming soon

Whew, Joel and I just spent the last couple of days cranking out a review guide of 50 products that will be going live on Geek.com soon. This guide served to totally clean out our review backlog and provide readers with some information on products as they buy for the holiday season. I spent way too many hours on this, but I think it will be a nice product. Next year we plan on doing one that brings a bunch of our reviews from the year together as a holiday resource.

I can now get my PDA2K setup and rolling along. The unit is just like my MDA III, but with the English keyboard that should be nice. I did like having the T-Mobile logo on the MDA III, but the English keyboard is more important. Also, T-Mobile has been experiencing intermittent data problems and I am still researching whether I can use the $5/month service or not. It looks like port 80 is closed so I will most likely stick with the $20/month plan.

My C500 continues to experience issues with the directional pad. It has problems going left and up on a regular basis and drives me crazy. I see the imate SP3i has been released and it is very similar to the C500, except it has a joystick like my E200. I contacted Orange about replacing this C500 and should see if they have a SP3i instead:)

MDA III sold in a couple hours

Whew, my MDA III sold in a couple hours on ebay after getting no hits at all in any of the online PDA forums. I was a bit worried how I was going to come up with the cash to pay for my PDA2K that should be arriving tomorrow. I can't wait to get back to using this Phone Edition again after going a few days without one as I prepped my MDA III for the sale. I like the C500, but prefer a Phone Edition device.

I also just disconnected the Axentra Net-Box server I was testing and now my HP Pavilion actually sounds quiet. The Net-Box was very loud and I didn't personally find it that useful and would not pay the money for it myself. Although it is designed for easy operation, it is still a bit cludgy to me and I didn't have the time to tweak it too much.

Smartphone just isn't for me, MDA III on ebay

I must have angered my funky C500 directional joystick by complaining that I kept on going up when I was trying to press in because now it doesn't want to go up easily. I press it up and it just sits there 90% of the time. I move it down a bit and then back up and it moves up about 25% of the time. I also hold it up and it will eventually move up sometimes. Needless to say I am not pleased at all with the directional controls on this C500 and am coming to covet the MPx220 my wife has. The flip form factor really does feel good in your hand and when talking on it. Since this C500 gets such good battery life I may be relegating it to a modem for my other devices. We have also found the MPx220 to be getting excellent battery life, much better than the cheapo Samsung free phone my wife was using. I have her set up now with some fun ringtones and also the $4.99 T-Mobile T-Zones service so she can check email on the go.

I haven't had any takers on my MDA III yet and have even lowered the price considerably. I just put it up on ebay (here is my ad) in hopes of selling it soon so I can pay Robert for the PDA2K which is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. I can't wait to go back to using this Blue Angel Phone Edition device as I just find myself too limited with the Smartphone platform.

I am also trying to get a newer Symbian smartphone to review because they generally have great battery life and a nice UI. I may be getting the funky 7610 to review for Geek.com soon.

We are working on a big holiday guide for Geek.com in an attempt to clean out our entire review backlog and start fresh while giving our readers a good guide for gadgets during the holiday season. I will be working some serious late nights for a couple nights as I try to crank out my part of this guide and will post a link when it goes live.

MDA III up for sale, free shipping for readers

Yes, as you can see from the title my MDA III is up for sale. However, I am not really going away from this device as I am buying an iMate PDA2K from Robert. The only difference is the English keyboard versus the QWERTZ keyboard, but I use this device SO much that I am willing to take a hit monetarily to get one with an English keyboard. My ad that has been posted on a couple sites for the MDA III is below in case you are interested and includes a special discount for my blog readers;)


This device has the best specifications of all Phone Edition models and has everything you need in a single device. The MDA III has GSM/GPRS (for use on T-Mobile, AT&T/Cingular), WiFi, and Bluetooth wireless functionality built in. It comes with a whopping 128MB RAM and another 59MB of usable ROM. Other specs include WM2003 Second Edition, 400MHz XScale processor, 1490 mAh Lithium polymer removable battery, integrated well backlit thumb keyboard, 9 programmable hardware buttons, VGA camera (still and video capabilities) and a Secure Digital slot. I reviewed this for Geek.com, but the review is not yet live. Check out this other review for more details. These are going for over $875 on ebay in new condition (I paid $975), but I am looking for only $775 for this MINT condition unit. I keep all my devices in perfect condition and this one has been in its case and had a screen protector on it since day 1. It is loaded with the iMate English ROM and includes a CD with the English manual in PDF format. The keyboard is QWERTZ (German) so not all of the key labels match up with what appears on screen, but you will quickly learn the differences.

The package includes the MDA III in perfect condition box, cradle, ac adapter, companion CD, German manual, extra stylus, slip case, screen protector, and headset. I can send photos if you are interested in the device. I will ship it in the U.S. for FREE to my blog readers and will work with you to ship it anywhere in the world at reduced shipping costs.

If you are interested, please contact me at palmsoloATgeekDOTcom to discuss. Also, feel free to check out my ebay feedback with my id of "yosemsam". I sell things here on the forums and on ebay and everyone I sell to can attest to my MINT devices and honesty. I accept PayPal, cashier's checks, or personal checks too.

More C500 thoughts

I installed a few applications on the new C500 and have to say there are a couple ergonomic issues that make my E200 a bit nicer. The keys are quite close together on the C500 and since it is so small I have to really bend my thumb to press in keys on the right side. I do not like the center joystick/rocker bar yet and keep moving up when I am trying to press the center of the joystick in to serve as the selection/OK button. This controller does not work that well for right and left or pressing in, which actually goes along with the Smartphone OS big weakness.

Microsoft really should look at making the phone more usable with the directional pad instead of relying on the user to press buttons on the keypad or scroll too much. This was a big discussion at Mobius when we were talking with the Microsoft members at the end and I think if Microsoft really wants to make headway into the huge number of mobile phone users they need to improve the interface and not try to match Windows. I can picture a Home Screen that has some basic info for today's events along 1/3 of the bottom. The rest of the display is a single icon where the user can quickly move right and left to see the other icons. These icons can be labeled something like My Life, My Media, My Web, My Games, etc. After going to My Life, then you press in on the directional pad and a smaller set of 4 icons appears labeled Calendar, Contacts, To-Do, Notes or something like that. Like Rich Brome showed me, it would be great to move around with just the directional pad and not have to use other hardware buttons or keypad keys to really get around.

Besides the navigational pad and tight keys, the display on the C500 is awesome and larger than I have seen on other MS Smartphones. The camera looks like it takes much better photos than the MPx220 and I love the fact that it uses mini-USB to sync and charge. Why can't we all go with this standard? I next need to try out Bluetooth and then other applications once my miniSD card arrives.

My buddy, Peter, was asking if I only had to choose a single device what would it be, the C500 or the Treo 650? I think I told him the 650 a couple days ago and after using the C500 a bit more I would have to say the 650 still looks compelling since it has much better text input methodology. The low memory capacity of the 650 though is a big problem.

If you want to go bigger, then the MDA III (Blue Angel) is really quite a device with all wireless functions (WiFi, Bluetooth, GSM/GPRS) and ample memory with great text input functionality.

Orange C500 now unlocked!

As I briefly mentioned, we received the Motorola MPx220 and the Orange C500. The C500 was locked and codes were going to be provided by Orange. I waited 2 days, but my impatience got the best of me so I gave myself an early Christmas present and paid $39 to have it unlocked in a couple minutes. Thanks to Peter for sending me the link. I am now all set and can start loading up my C500, although I still need to get my miniSD card from Buy.com to really go to town with it:)

Mobius 2004 wrap up

A full report along with photos is now up on Geek.com and can be found here.

I would like to provide a little more of my personal thoughts here on my personal blog to supplement my full "official" report.


Day 1
I went to the hotel and found Chris Leckness who I have been talking with for about a year since I help out at times with iPAQ HQ.com. I was a huge HP and iPAQ fan for years, but currently use the MDA III Phone Edition and no longer have an iPAQ in my collection so I don't contribute much over there anymore. Chris and I went to eat some Italian food at Pike Place Market before going back to the hotel for the evening reception.

I was already paying $25 a day for parking at the hotel so I didn't want to pay the $10 more per day for internet access since I had it on my devices with T-Mobile's $4.99 T-Zones data plan. However, as I just stated in my previous post, I can no longer get T-Mobile access with this cheap plan and will have to pony up. The good thing is Geek.com gave me a longetivity bonus for over 3 years of writing so that will pay for the access.

We then had a reception kicked off by Derek Brown. I drank Diet Pepsi (I have lost over 20 pounds in the last few months and didn't want to blow it completely) and had some of the great food. I played with Ryan's Treo 650 and have to admit it is a very nice device. Joel has the Sprint review sample and will be reviewing it for Geek.com since I reviewed the Treo 600 last time. I am definitely keeping my eye out for the GSM version in 2005, but will be following the threads at TreoCentral closely to see what the issues with this latest model are. Ryan was using a UX50 quite a bit which I think is funny because I was the big UX50 advocate last year and no one seemed to think much of it. He showed me a new launcher app and KeyQuick which really could have made the UX50 usable without a stylus if I had given it more time. I still like my T3 and won't go back now that Sony isn't providing any support and has dropped the US PDA users.

I met Marcus Adolfsson from TreoCentral and chatted with Jason Dunn, Chris, Arne Hess, Jorgen Sundgot, Lisa Gade, Julie Strietelmeier, Howard Chui, and others at the reception. I then went back to my room and rented a movie, The Village, since I wasn't yet tired.

Day 2

Jason Gordon launched the official part of the event with an intro and then asked each of us to give an intro. Here is a full list of attendees:

Julie Strietelmeier, The Gadgeteer
Lisa Gade, PDA Buyer's Guide
Chris Leckness, Aximsite.com and iPAQ HQ.com
Paul O'Brien, MoDaCo.com
Rich Brome, Phone Scoop
Rafe Blandford, All About Symbian
Jason Dunn, Smartphone Thoughts
Eric Levine, Engadget
Paul Chee Wee, PPCSG.com
Paul Matt, threegmobile.com
Wes Salmon, Microsoft and WesSalmon.com
Arne Hess, PPCW.net
Peter Rojas, Engadget
pt (Phillip Torrone), Engadget
Jorgen Sundgot, infoSync World
Ryan Kairer, Palm Infocenter
Marcus Adolfsson, TreoCentral
Hal Goldstein, Pocket PC Magazine
Jenneth Orantia, Jenneth.info
Andy Sjostrom, Pocket PC Thoughts
Howard Chui, HowardForums
Myself, of course

Ryan then got up and talked about the Palm platform. He thinks Palm Cobalt, OS 6, will be a big hit for PalmSource and that devices will be out sooner than Ed Colligan stated (he has been saying 2006 in interviews). I hope PalmSource is right because they need to get a fire going now with Microsoft coming out with so many new devices and improving their OS. I think we will see more smartphone devices from palmOne and a cheap low cost model PDA, but not much more in the high end PDA realm.

Rafe then gave a nice presentation on the Symbian OS. I do like my Nokia 3650 and Rafe laughed when I told him that was the Series 60 device I had since there has been an update to Series 60 and many newer devices have been released since then. I really need to get an updated Symbian OS device to test out.

We were then shown some Windows Mobile devices by Michael Bullion. I loved the HTC Magician Phone Edition device and could see using something like that in the future. I think this one is only available in Europe though at this time.

Our first breakout session was then held and I was grouped with Andy, Jason Dunn, Wes, and Ryan (who typed the notes on his UX50). We talked about mobile services and what we would like to see provided on devices, i.e. media, location based apps, and multi-player gaming.

A Motorola rep. then gave us their PR spiel about being the best in the mobile device arena. Questions about the problems with the MPx220 were brought up and issues like the low speaker volume may have been fixed with a software update. He gave us each a MPx220 and it has a later ROM on it so hopefully the problems are fixed. I gave my wife my MPx220 when I got home and after 3 days of use she is quite happy. I tried converting her for the last several months without luck and think the MPx220 may finally work. I am showing her how to use Outlook on it and the desktop and will be putting some apps and MP3s on it for her as well. I didn't like the MPx220 form factor the couple times I have seen it, but after playing with it some more it is OK. I still think Motorola could have done well by just updating the OS and putting Bluetooth into the MPx200 Smartphone, which I loved.

It was also disappointing to see Motorola is limiting the MPx so badly. If this thing is priced over $600 then I don't see how they think it will do well in the market.

Mike Hall then talked about Windows CE. He had some great things to say and some interesting reference platforms, but I think he was given a bit too much time to present when we needed more time to provide feedback to the Microsoft Mobile Devices team.

Rainer spoke about the SPOT watches and passed some unique models around. We were given a Fossil model the night before and it seems Fossil has an issue they need to fix. You see when you place the watch on the charger nothing happens. You have no way of knowing if it is charging or not on the initial charge and we let Rainer know that Fossil needs to fix this or the average user will not have a good first experience. My other Dick Tracy and Abacus models beeped and showed a charging icon when placed on the charger the first time and this new Fossil one will do that after the first charge. I also had to hold down the three right buttons for about 10 seconds to start the watch the first time, which I haven't seen before.

The 3 remaining breakout groups then gave their presentations to the group.

The last Day 2 presenter was the people from Action Engine. I think they have an excellent product and look forward to trying it out on my Smartphone and MDA III.

We did get a nice amount of swag from vendors and Microsoft that I detailed in my Geek.com report. I can't wait to get the unlock code for the C500 and check it out. I will be writing a full review of it for Geek.com in the next month or so. I also was given lots of software that I will be giving out to people since I already have most of it. It was nice to get another copy of my book so I can pass it along to a family member as a gift since I was only given 5 from the publisher.

We went to the SciFi Museum in Seattle for dinner and fun that night. Microsoft gave us an interesting presentation on Halo 2 and I could not believe how well it did in the opening couple of weeks. It surpassed sales of movies and records and set the highest record with over 2 million sold in 24 hours. They set up several stations and we all linked together to play a game of shoot out among each other. I was almost in last place the first game and was continually smoked by Wes and Jason Gordon. I played a few more games and got better every time. The only bad part about this event was that there were a few people who don't really play video games much so they didn't have much to do, but talk with each other.

The museum was also quite cool since I am a huge SciFi fan. I wanted to see a Storm Trooper outfit since they are one of my favorite characters, but there wasn't any in the museum.

I went out to a local bar with Eric, Jorgen, Jenneth, Rafe, and Ryan to chat about devices and get to know them a bit more. I then went back to the room and crashed for the night.

Day 3
The last day was held across the street. We didn't go to Microsoft at all and I was a bit disappointed about not going to the store since I wanted to try to get Halo 2 for myself and some other XBox games for my girls for Christmas.

Matt Taylor talked about the hardware side of things and it was a great perspective to hear.

Dan Titus then spoke about CoPilot for Pocket PC and Smartphone devices. I haven't even heard about this product for the Smartphone and can't wait to try it out. He said we will be getting the software, but it hadn't arrived by the time I had to leave to make it to my company Christmas party that night. ALK is quite popular with the commercial trucking industry and they also create their own map data, unlike most other GPS software developers that use Navtech or other data.

Aaron gave a talk about Microsoft's consumer strategy and showed some cool software products.

Matt Rogers, from Orange, gave us his PR talk that included a slide of their supported devices. I did not realize they sold devices from all the operating systems, including the Treo 600.

We were then able to provide some feedback to a couple of Windows Mobile employees. I don't think we were given enough time and would like to see a half of a day devoted to this subject. I have a long list of fixes and new features that I will be passing along via email, but I would have liked to have time to discuss it with the group. I didn't see them taking notes either and wonder if our input is really even taken to heart since we talked about the same things last year. I know that Magneto (WM2005) is under development and they can't talk about it so I hope some of our issues are addressed since this is where I think enthusiasts like us can provide the most valuable service to Microsoft.

Mobius 2004 was enjoyable, although I had a better time at Mobius 2003. It is always great to talk with people face-to-face and I hope to get invited back in the future.

No more cheap mobile data

Please forgive me for the delay in getting details of Mobius 2004 up on my blog site. I can no longer get web page access via the T-Zones $4.99 plan and am going to have to upgrade to the $19.99 monthly plan. You are still able to use email with the $4.99 plan, but no HTML browsing. The WAP browsing from my Nokia 3650 works, but I can't figure out how to browse via WAP on my devices since they use HTML to browse and I don't think there is a way to work around this. I knew it was too good to last forever and should have signed up last week. Can you believe they shut the pipe the day I went to Mobius so I only had Internet access during the daily sessions where I was too busy working to post a thought?

I still think $19.99 is a good deal, but with other mobile operators coming out with faster data at reasonable prices T-Mobile may be losing some of their edge in data soon.

Mobius evening reception

I went into work at about 4 am so I could leave early and head on over to the Seattle Marriott waterfront hotel and meet with Chris Leckness. We met up about 3:30 and then headed up to Pike Place Market for some dinner and just to chat about devices and our lives.

The hotel is nice, but the $25 a day to park my truck is a bit high. BTW, my truck just came out of the shop and looks and drives great. It is nice to be back in a higher seat. Internet is $8 a day, but I just stuck with my T-Mobile data for Day 1. For some reason email is fine, but I can't get to the web right now and hope it is just a temporary deal. We get WiFi in the conference room so I will be connecting with my devices that way. I do not have a laptop so I will be using my MDA III and Dell BT keyboard to take notes.

I went down to the evening Kick-Off reception and met Jorgen Sundgot, Arne Hess, Lisa Gade, and Julie from the Gadgeteer. I met them all, but Arne, at the last Mobius. Derek Brown kicked off the evening by talking a bit about Mobius and the Windows Mobile brand. He is the father of Mobius and a great guy. I then moved around the crowd and chatted with Hal Goldstein, Ryan Kairier (sp), Jason Dunn, Howard Chui, Rich Brome, and many others. I will list all the attendees later to make sure I spell their names right and don't forget anyone. We stayed up until about 11 chatting about mobile devices, sites, and life. The food was great and so was the diet Pepsi:)

People brought some toys and gadgets like the new Nintendo DS and Treo 650. The 650 has an incredible backlight on the keyboard and a wonderful display. I may have to get one when the GSM version comes out. It really is the most compelling Palm device at the moment.

BTW, I wrote this entire post on my MDA III thumb keyboard.

-Sent from my excellent MDA III!

Mobius 2004 starts today!

Mobius 2004 starts this afternoon and needless to say I am quite excited about seeing everyone and talking with Microsoft about the Windows Mobile platform. I finally get to meet my buddy Chris Leckness from Aximsite and iPAQ HQ.com fame. I'll post an update on my blog this evening about what went on during the first part of the event and will post a summary of the first day on PDAGeek.com on Friday as well as posting other thoughts here. I hope that someone has a SPV E200 there so I can see if my problem is just a battery problem.

I have a huge list of improvements and bug fixes I would like to see in the next OS and if you have any thoughts then feel free to post a comment here and I may add it to my list.