Geeky mobile device stuff on my salvage trip

As I described in my salvage story, when I travel for salvage work I have to take a laptop due to the ship modeling software that I use. I created an Excel spreadsheet that uses parametric data to give me some quick and dirty answers and have it on both my Palm (with Documents to Go) and Windows Mobile device. While I have been raving about the Treo 650, this trip gave me a chance to test out which device would work best for me in a serious situation and not just a testing scenario. I also have a couple geeky things to mention.

I took both the PDA2K and Treo 650 and started off with the Treo, but then switched to the PDA2K so I could get better speaker volume. I used the PDA2K for a critical conference call, with speakphone on, since the 650 volume is unacceptable and I needed something reliable and tested. I also assisted the ship's captain with setting up his Outlook Express account and he was extremely excited about my assistance. I let the Salvage Master use my PDA2K with his SIM card when his BlackBerry battery died. All the salvage guys used BlackBerry devices too.

So I used the PDA2K most of the time and then finally went to the hotel after getting the ship afloat. I stayed on the boat the first 2 nights. Well I tried the Treo 650 and voila the data connection started right up. The 650 has the settings preloaded and I just input the SIM card. I then tried my settings on the PDA2K and the T-Mobile settings worked fine I must have just been in a dead area for data on the ship. So I now have data and uploaded several shots to my photo blog.

If the Treo 650 had better speaker and speakerphone volume then I may have used it more, but until palmOne updates the ROM I will have to take the PDA2K with me on my trips. The PDA2K wins the battle in this trip and made the 650 seem inadequate. I also tried opening these blog entries I wrote using Pocket Word on the Treo and Docs to Go kept crashing.

Successful salvage trip

As I recently posted, I had to fly to St. Croix to perform the calculations and put together the technical aspects of the salvage plan for the grounded containership SEA CLOUD. I am sure most of my readers are not that familiar with naval architecture (ship design) because it is not that big of a field of study. It can be very interesting work and the below is a bit of my most recent events, with some geeky stuff included.

I received a call on Saturday while we were on our way to dinner at Bahama Breeze. I had to make some calls and then found out I had to leave that evening for St. Croix, USVI. I had an 11:30 pm flight through Dallas and Miami.



While on the final leg of my journey to St. Croix, from Miami, I watched the movie After the Sunset. In the very beginning of the movie, one character, Selma Hyak, used a Treo 600 to send a message to Pierce Brosnan in the stands of a Lakers game. They then showed Brosnan using a Sony Clie, looked like NX70 blue device, remote controlling the SUV that Woody Harrelson was trapped in. Cool uses of devices in an enjoyable movie with a nice setup twist.

I arrived at 4:30 pm in St. Croix and turned on my phone to check for a signal and I was surprised that Cingular popped right up on the PDA2K. I wasn't able to get data from where I was staying on the ship though and my Treo 650 review is delayed and I wasn't able to post blurbs. I went directly to the ship and started performing calculations to figure out a plan for refloating the ship.

I was up until Midnight local time and knocked out some good calcs. I was up early the next morning and worked all day to get a plan approved by the US Coast Guard. They approved my plan and we were then scheduled to attempt refloating early the next morning.

Everything started at 1 am and went smooth. Then the ship started to move off all by itself, just as I predicted, and the two tugs pulled it free and clear.When it floated free and was stable, I can't hardly describe the rush and excitement I experienced. It was like making a winning touchdown, but even greater since there was so much money and personnel riding on my analysis. This was an AWESOME trip and I will never forget it.

Off to St. Croix!

It looks like my review of the Treo 650 will not be going up on Wednesday since I just received a call from Resolve Marine that a small containership ran aground and they need me to fly out and help get it refoated. I am excited about the interesting work, but the timing is pretty bad with my girls all excited for Easter tomorrow, their busy sports schedule, and my wife is not feeling too well.

For those who don't know, I am a naval architect and professional engineer in my day job and salvage is one of my areas of expertise. I worked over 50 successful cases while in the Coast Guard.

I may get some time to work on reviews during any dead time, but we'll see how it goes. I will send links to the grounding news if I can get connected there.

Working hard on my Treo 650 vs. PDA2K review

I told the Geek.com editor to save a place next Wednesday for my Treo 650 full review that will have some comparisons with the Treo 600 and i-mate PDA2K. Will I give the Treo 650 a Geek.com pick, oh yeah baby! I am checking out some specific details now, like how many taps (steps) it takes to add an appointment, how fast can the same web page load using T-Mobile data, and more on both of these high end devices. Feel free to let me know if there is something specific you want me to check out and post about in my review.

Is the Tapwave Zodiac better than the Sony PSP?

The Sony PSP was released here in the U.S. yesterday and Joel picked one up for review purposes and testing at his work. He seems to like the unit and is posting a mini-review on Geek.com today. I was thinking about this device because I was particularly taken with the Sony PDAs and know the quality is probably excellent. Then I started checking prices and see that bundles with games are running from $280 to $345, with tax. Wow, that is a lot of dough for a gaming machine. Granted it does have WiFi and can be used to listen to music and watch videos. However, music has to be stored on proprietary Memory Sticks and movies and games are stored on the new Sony Universal Media Disks (UMDs).

After I hit this price point and looked at some of the PSP features, I wondered why people would go for this device when, in my opinion, the Tapwave Zodiac offers more with a similar form factor. Check my simple table below for a direct spec comparison of major features.

Specification	Tapwave Zodiac 2	Sony PSP
Display size	3.8 inches	4.3 inches
Display resolution	480 x 320	480 x 272
Display colors	65,536	16.77 million
Touch screen	Yes	No
Processor	200 MHz with graphics accelerator	333 MHz
Integrated RAM	128MB	32MB
Lithium battery capacity	1540 mAh	1800 mAh
Expansion slots	2-SD slots	1-Memory Stick Duo, UMD (read only)
Analog controller	Yes	Yes
Stereo speakers	Yes	Yes
Integrated wireless	Bluetooth, WiFi through SD card, IR	WiFi, IR
Vibration	Yes	No
Size	5.6 x 3.1 x .55	6.7 x 2.9 x .9
Weight	6.3 ounces	9.92 ounces

It's a pretty close call if you just compare the specs. However, the Tapwave Zodiac runs the full Palm OS so you get a device that can be used for a PDA as well as a gaming machine, MP3 player, portable video viewer, email machine, and web surfing machine. The PSP allows you to listen to MP3s stored on the Memory Stick and watch proprietary movies only purchased on their UMDs. You can convert virtually any movie into a format to watch on the Zodiac and it handles them flawlessly. The Zodiac also has a nice smooth black alloy casing and is quite durable. The PSP has a black plastic casing that I also have read is quite cool. The Zodiac also has a touch display so you can enter text via the display or even using an external keyboard. Games have to be purchased on UMDs for the PSP at about $40 a shot. You can play any Palm game on the Zodiac and there are also several optimized for the device that run about $30 a pop, but can be stored on a single SD card with many other games. While the Zodiac doesn't have integrated WiFi, you can add it with a SD WiFi card and still have another slot open to add a 2GB SD card. Personally, if I was going to fork out $300 for a machine to play games on then I would go for the Zodiac over the PSP.

Now, my comments on the PSP are based on reading and checking out the device online. I'll try to go to the store this weekend and play with one a bit to see if it changes my opinion at all.

More reasons going back to Treo 650, PDA2K Bluetooth issues

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that I had to reset the PDA2K more than 5 times yesterday trying to get the dang Bluetooth radio to turn on since I kept getting low device memory errors. Ha, on a device with 128MB RAM that should not happen. I was getting very frustrated since I couldn't use a Bluetooth headset with the device.

Also, the Treo 650 is so much snappier than the PDA2K and I don't have to wait for applications to launch or switch between them. I would like multi-tasking on the 650, but we should see that when Cobalt devices come out next year. The keyboard integration is also something that is SOOOO much better on the Treo 650, as I mentioned before.

One day with Nokia 7610, back to Treo 650

OK, one day is long enough with the Nokia 7610 as my only device. Browsing with Opera is very nice and the phone takes nice photos, however the lack of a good email client and the limited text input ability make me feel way too restricted. If you are a phone person, the this is a very nice smartphone with some great functionality and nice syncing with your desktop. I am too much of an email and browser person though for it to satisfy me.

As I stated I went back to trying to use the PDA2K as my only device for a couple days. There are some very nice applications for Windows Mobile devices that I missed on the Treo 650 (NewsBreak RSS reader, Brand-n-Go, and some very powerful GPS applications), but for functions like email and web browsing the Treo 650 is more than adequate. I will have to look around a bit and find a good RSS reader for Palm devices. Now that I have had a taste of Push email using Chatter on the Treo 650, it is like an addictive drug and I don't think I can go back to regular email where I have to manually, or on a timed basis, ping the server. I can understand fully why business people like the BlackBerry devices. By the way, Marc just updated Chatter today and added some initial POP3 support so you really don't need any other email application on your Treo 650.

So, I am going back to the Treo 650 and relegating my PDA2K to a review platform and GPS device. I tried the new Mapopolis NavCard in the Treo and it just kept resetting so there are issues with this application and the device. Other than a few applications resetting the Treo 650, mine has still been rock solid and I am very happy with it. Reading the complaints on TreoCentral would surely chase most potential buyers away, but you can rest assured there are some of us out here with solid devices. I would like to see the ROM update that Sprint users received this week for a fix of the memory allocation issues. Most users saw an increase of 3-5 MB of usable RAM just by palmOne fixing the way memory is handled. I am sure a GSM update is under development and look forward to receiving it soon.

Transferring files via Bluetooth and Nokia 7610 initial thoughts

I am reviewing the Nokia 7610 Series 60 Smartphone and wanted to load up the latest version of Opera, but since I was at work I did not have the USB cable that the 7610 comes with to install Opera directly. Also, I just discovered that the Nokia 7610 does not have an infrared port. Wow, I thought IR was standard on just about everything and I like to have IR since it seems to work all the time for me on all devices. I will have to test out my Think Outside/Dell Bluetooth keyboard now since IR is out of the question. So without a cable or IR, I then said "no problem" I still have Bluetooth. So I put the installation file on my PDA2K and then tried to turn on the Bluetooth radio. However, the Bluetooth stack is a bit buggy sometimes and I kept on getting an error stating their was insufficient driver memory available and I would have to reset my device. After three soft resets, the Bluetooth radio still would not come on. I then pulled out my new Treo 650 with Bluetooth. I put the file on a SD card, started up TealMover (file manager for Palm devices), and selected to send via Bluetooth. Voila! the file transferred quickly after discovering the Nokia and then the installation launched automatically on the 7610 and now I have Opera on it. I have to admit, surfing with Opera on a Series 60 device is very good and competes well with my other mobile devices.

Some initial thoughts on the Nokia 7610 are that it is quite sleek and fashionable. I am reviewing one with black casing and it is very cool. It feels quite solid in my hand, although removing the back cover to access the battery, Reduced Size MMC card, and SIM card is a bit awkward. The display is much better than I have on my Nokia 3650 and the keypad is more user friendly. The Nokia 3650 took very decent 640x480 photos, but this 7610 is even better with a 1152x864 pixels camera capable of still and video images. I wish it used a standard SD card or even MMC card, but it uses the new Reduced Size MMC (RS-MMC) format so yet another format card is needed. At least the unit comes with a 64MB card in the package to get you started and it does have a MMC adapter so you can use it easily in card readers. I could never get my Nokia 3650 to sync with my desktop using a Bluetooth dongle and am very happy to report that the 7610 syncs flawlessly with my Outlook desktop data using the included USB cable. I haven't tried syncing it via Bluetooth yet. I did try connecting with some of my Bluetooth headsets and it works very well. I was even able to dial using pre-recorded voice commands from my Bluetooth headset. Why can't everyone get their Bluetooth drivers working this well? The 7610 also runs Symbian Series 60 Version 2.0, which is one reason I wanted to review this model as the Nokia 3650 I have runs version 1.0.

Back to 2 columns for now

OK, I haven't figured out the Blogger and 3-column tags yet and there are too many problems with my last 3-column attempt in different browsers and different screen sizes so I am going back to my more stable and better looking 2-column format. Thanks for your patience :)

Pardon my mess while I clean up

I have been tweaking my blog and trying to get 3 columns working in Blogger. I now have it looking OK in FireFox, but then I checked it in IE and it looks bad with a small screen size. I'll be tweaking it some more until I get it how I like it so please forgive the mess. If you have any tips on 3-column formatting in Blogger, feel free to pass them along.

My wish list for future Windows Mobile operating systems

I personally don't care too much about the improvements in Word and Excel since nothing can really touch the power of TextMaker and PlanMaker. I also get lots of functionality in Internet Explorer through Spb Pocket Plus. The addition of PowerPoint will be a nice feature and I hope there will be other improvements in the OS itself (speed improvements, usability improvements, etc.)

I also have several features and functions I want to see in Windows Mobile that I do not think we will see in 2005. They include:

1. Better thumb keyboard integration (I want the ability to control and use all the menus, toolbars, etc. with my keyboard and leave the stylus in the silo)
2. I want the ability to have the top and bottom toolbars hidden in the core apps (i.e. in Pocket Word I want to see a completely blank white screen where I can enter data with a thumb keyboard or external keyboard without having toolbars take away from the writing area)
3. I want to see improvements in MSN Messenger (colored fonts, smiley support, etc.)
4. I want to see a File Explorer like Resco File Explorer with ZIP support integrated too
5. I want to see the Smart Dialing feature found in the JAM in all Phone Edition devices
6. I want the ability to delete, move, rename, etc. files from Find (I also want to know the path of the files in Find )
7. I want a better calculator
8. I want to see a RSS application as part of the OS
9. I would like to see submenu/cascading menu support for the Start Menu, in the Remove Programs utility I want to see where the program is loaded and how much memory it consumes so I can better manage the memory of the device
10. And lastly, I would like to see USB flash drive functionality so I can connect to any computer even without ActiveSync installed.

I am only asking for a few things and expect they will eventually be addressed in the Windows Mobile OS.

Windows Mobile 2005 ROM leaked online

Someone over at the XDA Developers website leaked a ROM of Windows Mobile 2005 that several people were able to download before the links were removed. They apparently had the ROM running on a HTC Himalaya (MDA II) device, although it still had issues. I don't doubt that it had issues since Microsoft is still working on the ROM and it should not be released until sometime this summer. I blurbed on a few improvements we will see in Windows Mobile 2005 on Geek.com back in January when other screenshots were posted online. This January revelation led to many headaches for Microsoft employees as they tried to contain the damage done by the leaked info.

While I understand that Microsoft has to contain this info because manufacturers still have existing devices out there to sell and they don't want to tick them off, I also believe these types of leaks get the PDA geeks like me excited about what is coming. Us die-hard mobile device fans are going to buy the latest devices anyway and I highly doubt we would hold off from buying a device because by the time the next OS is leaked we have already had the latest device for a few months.

Listening to Podcasts and trying out the PDA2K again

I have listened to a few Podcasts on my devices and today I downloaded the latest ones from Engadget, 1src.com, and PDAntic. Engadget's was enjoyable and actually encouraged me to go take a look at the upcoming Sony PSP online a bit more and has me considering one of these cool devices. I really don't have the funds, but could sell more of my devices to pick one up. The 1src.com podcasts are done pretty well, but Jeff Kirvin is way too pro-Palm for me and I don't think gives the Windows Mobile devices enough credit. I am a big Palm fan too, but I also enjoy Windows Mobile devices and think they both have their strengths.

My favorite podcast of the three I listened to during lunch was Steve's PDAntic recording. I liked when he talked about us gadget geeks and how we may need to enroll in a 12-step program. He said something about our addiction being less expensive and less harmful than drugs, but wondered if we really needed to keep upgrading. He mentioned that his Nokia 3650 still serves him well and I have to admit that I too could get by with the Nokia 3650. However, since I review software, accessories, and hardware for Geek.com I like to have newer model devices so I can test out the latest and greatest. If I wasn't involved with Geek.com, then I probably would stop getting the latest device every 3-6 months. Then again, who would Peter make fun of if I stopped upgrading :)?

I wonder if anyone would listen to a podcast from me? Hmmm, I may have to consider that in the future. Where can I find some other good podcasts that you recommend and listen to?

Speaking of Windows Mobile and Palm devices, I am giving my PDA2K another chance since I have been using the Treo 650 for over 2 straight weeks. I want to see if my use of the Treo 650 has been due to newdevicephilia or if it truly can take the place of my excellent i-mate PDA2K. I have to say that the speaker volume and speakerphone volume of the PDA2K blows away these volumes on the Treo 650 device. I will be including results of these direct comparisons in my Treo 650 full review that I am still targeting for posting by the end of March, which is only 10 days away.

Busy family weekend

Well I did not get to do as much geeky stuff this weekend as I planned since I had soccer practice, saw Robots with my girls, went to church, then went to my Mom's house for a St. Patrick's/Easter party where we had an egg hunt, colored eggs, had a few gunnysack races, ate some awesome corned beef and cabbage, and visited. The only update I made to my blog was to get signed up for a Blogrolling account and started adding links to my favorite blogs. I tried to get a 3-column formatted template, but it took much longer than I planned to tweak it just right so it is still under development.

I plan on posting up several more pics of this weekend on my SplashBlog site this morning. I am still really enjoying this Treo 650 and have only been using my PDA2K to test out the whopping 3600 mAh Mugen Power battery that LiIon Battery sent me to review.

Site reformatting and cool Mappoint utility

As you can see, I found a Blogger template that I am tweaking to get it how I like it and so far things seem to be going pretty well. I could use other blog software, but I like some of the easy functionality in Blogger and really do not have a lot of spare time to spend on the site. I plan on cleaning it up a bit more this weekend and adding a left sidebar with more links to sites, etc. This current template looks very good on my Treo 650 so I don't want to mess with it too much though. I will also add a photo of myself next to my cool new WA State license plate you have to see.

One cool little tool I found was the Microsoft Mappoint utility posted on Chandu Thota's blog. Click on the Neighblog Map icon over in my right sidebar to see where I am blogging from and see those in my vicinity. There are hundreds of Microsoft bloggers not too far from me and this looks like a fun tool to see what bloggers are in your area and may even lead to meeeting some people or finding some great local blogs.

Boring and frustrating days lead to wild thoughts :)

I made my post about alternative careers and review postings the other day on a day when I was seriously bored at work and very frustrated with my daily commute. I have a family to support and my current employer pays very well, has a great retirement plan, has excellent benefits, and just offered me to buy in as part owner of the company so I must have been loopy making that post the other day. I can't give up the security and benefits, even if there are days when I am bored and frustrated. I am sure people are this way in every job they have.

That being said, I am still considering pursuing some of my dreams like writing science fiction books (maybe I'll start with some short ebook stories) and getting into my blog more.

I want to also apologize to Sam and Joel Evans from Geek.com for freaking them out a bit about my review ramblings. I may post an occasional review here on my blog, but I don't want this to become a review site since they are more than willing to allow me to post all I want on Geek.com, which sees a ton more traffic than I could ever see here. These guys took me in back in 2001 as a writer and my involvement with Geek.com has opened a ton of doors to some great fun that has kept the "kid" in me alive.

Review: Laridian PocketBible for Windows Mobile Smartphones

I am still going to reformat my blog and add some links, etc., but I wanted to try out my first review with a new product that Laridian just announced yesterday afternoon and I have been beta testing for a bit.

palmsolo's review: Laridian's PocketBible for Windows Mobile Smartphones

One of the first things I load on my devices is a form of the Bible from Laridian, either MyBible for Palm Powered devices or PocketBible for Windows Mobile devices. Today, Laridian announced the release of their third version line of products for the Windows Mobile Smartphone. You will also notice a nicely reformatted Laridian website that went through a nice overhaul. I had the chance to beta test PocketBible for Windows Mobile based Smartphones and have to say I am impressed again with their products.

Main PocketBible display

PocketBible for WM Smartphones is designed as a product that you read and there are no note taking or text entering abilities in the program. I am pleased with this strategy because I cannot stand trying to enter text on the phone keypad myself. As you can see on the many screenshots I have included, they packed quite a few features in this product. The Bible translations are formatted differently for the Smartphone so you will have to purchase new Bible translations even if you already use PocketBible on your Windows Mobile Pocket PC. I know there are probably not that many multiple device geeks like myself so this may not be much of an issue. I loaded PocketBible and 5 different translations, ESV, KJV, NASB, NIV, and NLT on my Secure Digital card and it ran like a champ, even in beta testing.


5 translations loaded on my SD card

After launching PocketBible you will see there are two buttons at the bottom of the display that are accessed with the two top Smartphone buttons. The right button access the Menu and on the Menu you will find 9 options; Select Bible, Forward, Back, Find, Bookmarks, Options, Book Properties, About, and Help. Laridian uses the keypad shortcuts so you can quickly jump to any menu item without having to scroll through the list. The Select Bible function takes you to another page where you can choose a Bible translation that is stored on your device. You then press the left Done button to view the Bible. The Forward and Back functions do just that, move you forward or backwards from where you currently are in reading the Bible.


Menu selections

Pressing 4 opens another Find menu where you have the options to Find, Show Find Results, Next Match, Previous Match, and Highlight Find Hits. One very powerful feature in PocketBible on the Pocket PC is the thorough and speedy find functionality. I searched for Jesus in the entire Bible and PocketBible gave me my results within 2-3 seconds. After you enter your search term you press the left Done button to conduct the search and I personally would like to see this labeled "Go", "Find", or "Search". Done implies that I am done with this task, which confused me for a second. Your search terms will be highlighted and a hyperlink to the verse containing the term will be present in the left side of the list. Find is a very cool function and extremely fast on the Smartphone. I was even using an older generation Orange SPV E200 device for my evaluation.


Initiating a Find


Entering my Find terms


Voila! results in seconds

You can Add, Delete, and Categorize bookmarks to your favorite verses as well using the Bookmarks function in the Menu. Book Properties shows you the copyright and other details on the translation you are reading. About shows you what build of PocketBible you have loaded and the Laridian info. Help is actually quite useful with PocketBible since it will go into detail about how to navigate, add bookmarks, and more. I found it useful since I was so used to navigating in PocketBible on a Pocket PC.


Working with Bookmarks


Excellent Help is provided on the device

If you select the Options function from the menu then you will be taken to the Options page where you can change settings for the Appearance, Navigation, and Miscellaneous options. There is also a Debug option to help troubleshoot the application if you are experiencing problems. The Appearance options include changing the font size, from 1-7 with 3 being the default, using red letters for Christ's words, indenting poetry, and turning on or off footnotes. Navigation lets you toggle on or off T9 input (I'll write a bit more about that later), use abbreviations for books, and whether to show the books in alphabetical or Biblical order. I personally prefer Biblical order since that is how I learned them. The Miscellaneous options also include the toggle for selecting a book by abbreviation or full name (must be a simple oversight here), display exit in the menu, and delay for flash power-up.


Options


Setting up the Appearance Options


How do you want to Navigate?


Misc. options

OK, now that I went into detail with the right Menu button let's get back to the main reading pane. On the left bottom of the display you will find the label for the current translation, book, chapter and verse at the top of your display. Tapping the left hardware button brings up the GoTo page. At the top are two button, OT and NT, for the Old Testament and New Testament. These only work if you have the T9 entry turned off. If you have it toggled on then these buttons will not appear. Selecting OT starts you in Genesis and selecting NT starts you in Matthew, if you have the selection for Biblical order set up in the Options. If you chose alphabetical then the OT and NT act rather strange. Selecting OT will start you at the very top of the alphabet and selecting NT starts you at J. However, it doesn't actually filter the OT and NT books like it should at this time. If you use the T9 option, then you start entering the book name to select it. However, you must at least know part of the book name to go to it. You can also press 0 to scroll through the available T9 options after you enter at least one letter. If you are not familiar with the books of the Bible then you may want to leave T9 off so you can select from a list of the books. After selecting a book, you then can enter a chapter and verse to start reading.


Selecting where to start reading


Choose the book from a list


Or use T9 to select a book

One thing that took me a bit to get used to was the up and down press of the directional pad moves you up or down a line or a link at a time while a left or right press moves you up or down a viewable page at a time. I was used to up/down presses moving me up and down pages and left and right moving me forward or back to the previous chapter in PocketBible on my Pocket PC. The navigation they created in the Smartphone version makes perfect sense, it just took a bit to get used to for me.


Red letters can be useful too

Reading is enjoyable on the Smartphone with PocketBible and navigating through the books and different translations was a breeze. You cannot view multiple translations on the Smartphone, but I don't see why you would really want to on such a small display. You can now load up your Bible and all your favorite translations and pack them along to get in that critical daily Bible reading or to share the Gospel with a friend or neighbor while you are out and about. Congratulations to Laridian on an excellent job with another incredible product.

You can purchase PocketBible for the Windows Mobile Smartphone for only $10 (affiliate link) and Bible translations range from FREE to $24.99.

On my way to Gnomedex 2005

As I talked about yesterday, I am expanding this blog and throwing around some other ideas for income possibilities. I had some PDA cash saved up and just blew it on the $399 registration fee to attend Gnomedex 2005 that will be held here in Seattle in June. This one was tough to pass up because I won't have to pay for a hotel or airfare since it is being held in my own back yard. I look forward to getting some help with this blog and hooking up with some great people, including Chris Pirillo and Robert Scoble. It should be quite an event and I'll make sure to regularly update my blog during the conference.

Site updates, should I pursuit my dreams?

I am planning on little sleep this weekend as I do some reformatting to my blog and working on my huge review backlog for Geek.com, adding links to my favorite sites and blogs, and other improvements.

It looks like my interview will be on the Penn & Teller show and I imagine my blog may get some traffic increase as a result so I am trying to get things how I want them before the show goes live. It may be on in June, but I will let you all know when I find out for sure.

I am also contemplating pursuing some other interests that I have since I am just not that excited about commuting 2+ hours every day to a job that is really not that exciting to me. While the work can be interesting and challenging at times, it can also be quite boring at times. The company I work for is outstanding and the benefits and security are what keep me coming to work every day. It is just tough to get up at 4:30 am and get home at 4:30 pm every day when I have other interests that really excite me. Some other ideas I am working on are mobile device consulting (security of mobile devices, how to optimize their use, what device is best for your company, etc), science fiction book writing (I have been a SciFi fan since I was a kid and am an avid reader who loves to write), mobile device book writing (I wrote one book and am pursuing other titles), mobile application developer (I have to learn a language still, but am interested and pick up technical things very quickly), and website designer (I have done a couple for family and friends and could pick this up as well). As you can see I have several ideas and am working on some of them now. They are quite risky pursuits, but they are all ones that get me excited and would allow me to work from my home or at least within a few minutes of my home. My wife's Party Lite candle business is doing quite well and we could probably make it if I can get setup with at least one of these interests. Am I crazy to consider pursuing these ideas and should I just stick with what works?

Garmin Forerunner 301 arrived for review

I just received the Garmin Forerunner 301 to review for 30 days last night. The 301 has a GPS and a heart rate monitor along with some cool software that is designed to help people monitor and improve on their workouts. I am letting a buddy at work try it out first for a few days while I work on other reviews since he is a die hard runner and tried the older model Forerunner and had issues with it. I want to see what he thinks of this newest model. I am using the Suunto n6HR SPOT watch with heart monitor on my runs to track progress and am very happy with the performance so far. There seems to be a lot more techy geek gear coming out in the fitness world and I know the gear personally helps motivate me a bit more to get out there and hit the road.

I now wear the n6HR everyday since it is such a comfortable watch and I love the MSN Direct channels I read throughout the day. Other gear that I currently use daily are the Treo 650 and Cardo Systems Scala 500 Bluetooth headset. The GN Netcom 6210 BT headset (also sold as the Jabra 250) works better with the Treo 650 than it did with the PDA2K and has much better volume. This is actually a bit funny since the volume out of the PDA2K internal speaker blows away the volume of the Treo 650.

Treo 650 volume issues and MSN Search Champs gift

OK, there is one aspect of the Treo 650 that is bugging me a bit and may be a serious issue for those who are on the phone quite a bit. The speaker and speakerphone volume are horrible. I can barely hear my wife on the phone and the speakerphone only works if you are in a very quiet environment. I am going to email my palmOne contact to see if there is a firmware update that can fix this issue. Volume is excellent with a Bluetooth headset, which is what I use the majority of the time so it has not been too bothersome. The thing is, the volume for ringers, games, etc. is extremely loud and I actually have to turn it down. The PDA2K has excellent speaker and speakerphone volume levels and that is what I want on the 650.

As I mentioned last year, I was invited to the MSN Search Champs conference in Redmond for a couple of days. It was great to participate as a member of this inaugural team and provide direct feedback to Microsoft on MSN Search and desktop search. I just received a very large box from Sean Carver and the rest of the MSN Search Champs coordination team last night and understand they sent out a final gift to each Search Champs V1 member. It turned out to be a MSN Search Champs stamped Creative Zen XTRA 30GB MP3 player. Very cool!! I charged it up last night and plan on checking it out some more tonight.

I stated this a week or so ago, but I have also been invited back for MSN Search Champs V2 that will kick off next month. I look forward to seeing some of my new friends from all over the world as well as providing more feedback to the MSN Search team. I actually use MSN Search quite a bit now on my mobile devices as I try to see what can be done to optimize and improve it for mobile devices. Please email me at palmsoloATgeekDOTcom if you have any feedback on MSN Search or desktop search and I can pass that along directly to Microsoft.

Treo 650 still my main device, reviews stacking up

I just passed two full weeks with my palmOne Treo 650 and it is still the main device in my hand. Generally, my enthusiasm wanes after a week or two, but I am still quite excited and interested in this Treo 650. My i-mate PDA2K has bee relegated to a spot in my Swiss Army carrying bag (a Mobius 2004 gift) and I have only been using it to test the Mugen Power 3600 mAh battery. I have experienced a couple of more soft resets, but figured out that it was due to a 3rd party application. I have SplashBlog loaded on my SD card with PowerRun and if I start SplashBlog and then launch the camera followed by no inactivity so the device display shuts off then when I turn it back on it may soft reset. I have no problem with this because I am running an application of a SD card and then using a built in function that could easily be confusing things and is not something I do regularly.

Other than that incident and a couple other 3rd party application issues, the Treo 650 has been rock solid for me. I have never experienced a hard reset and will have to perform one manually soon to test out the TealBackup software I am reviewing.

I have been quite busy with family life and my review queue is getting rather large. We are working on a Geek.com Tax Refund Buying Guide where we should cover quite a few products and get caught back up on reviews. I have to turn down many software titles and other products because I just do not have the time to spend reviewing all the products. I wish I was able to write reviews, write books, help people out, and work in the mobile device industry full time. I also now have to drive the vanpool one way everyday so I lose an hour of my mobile device time there.

We are going to go buy The Incredibles DVD at Wal-Mart tonight and then check it out together with family movie night on my new birthday gift, the 26 inch LCD TV, my wife picked up at Costco thanks in part to Showtime.

New Piel Frama Treo 650 case arrived

I just received a Piel Frama leather case, Crocodile style black, to review for my palmOne Treo 650 and it is beautiful. The case is very lightweight, adds very little bulk, has a nice mesh speaker opening cover, has cutouts for easy access to everything, does not put plastic over the keyboard (like other cases I have tried on devices with keyboards), and is very well constructed. I have a Piel Frama black crocodile case for my Dell Axim X30 and the case alone has kept me from getting rid of the device. My wife love the look of these cases as well and the Treo 650 can now safely ride on my belt instead of me having to try to find a pocket for it.

These Piel Frama crocodile cases run over US$100, but they are each individually hand crafted in Spain and I could not be happier with the quality and smell of the leather. If you are looking for a PDA case then I recommend you check them out. They do have styles that are much less expensive than the crocodile model and some US online retailers, like StylusCentral.com, sell them as well.

Birthday and interview for Showtime

The interview yesterday seemed to go quite well and I am sure that Penn & Teller will probably have a good time ripping me apart as a big dork. The actual interview with the producer was straight forward and he asked me questions about my devices, which would work best in an avalanche, what devices the Star Wars characters would use, and more. They were at the house for about 4 hours and at the end they wanted to film my wife and daughters giving me my birthday gift. It seems that Showtime helped my wife out with a gift for the trouble of coming over to our house and taking away some time on my birthday so she ended up getting me a 26 inch LCD TV. It replaces our 10 year old 32" Panasonic TV with a hole in it and is actually a very cool TV. I can even plug in my computer and am fairly certain I can plug in my PDAs with the correct cable attached, like the Dell presentation cable. My wife usually leaves technology purchases up to me, but she did a great job with this one and now I can't wait to watch some movies on it. I may have to finally upgrade to something other than basic cable now and in the future a Media Center PC may also be in the cards.

I dropped the ball on reviews this weekend since it as so beautiful out here in Washington. I spent most all day Saturday in the yard and then went to my cousin's wedding that evening. Sunday was spent at church, filming with Showtime, and then off to the Keg for a birthday dinner that was awesome.

Penn & Teller and MSN Search Champs V2

A director and crew from the Penn & Teller BullS@#$! show are coming to my house on Sunday to shoot an interview and footage for the 3rd season of this Showtime comedy show. Sunday happens to be my 36th birthday and this should be entertaining. I don't watch much TV and do not have Showtime so I had to do some research on the show this morning. I don't agree with any of their political or religious views (at least those they portray on the show), but I have been assured that this show is more lighthearted and not as controversial as some of those other shows. They want to interview me and ask questions about having the latest and greatest mobile devices and try to figure out what drives my PDA addiction. I am sure they will like my new license plate you can see on my truck, PDAGEEK. I'll have to take a photo and put that up here on my blog site. So if I spread the news that they are going to be shooting at my house, I wonder how big of a party I can have:) We actually just planned a simple family thing, but now will invite a few more family and friends along who may be shown on Showtime in some background footage.

The news keeps getting better too as I have been invited to participate as a team member on the MSN Search Champs V2 team. I was a member of the initial team and provided input on using MSN Search on mobile devices. After my emails they had MSN Search working on Windows Mobile devices within a couple days. I get to stay in a hotel for a couple nights and work directly with the MSN Search team to help improve their product and am excited to be a member again.

Mal's on her way!

My middle daughter, Maloree, has goals and dreams of becoming a professional soccer player and a chef and is now on her way to reaching at least one of those goals. She tried out for the Under-11 (she is 8) select soccer team here in our area, the FC Royals and made the team. 30 girls tried out and 16 were selected for the team. She is very excited and I wouldn't doubt that you may even see her on the Olympic team in the future. She is very competitive and works very hard at sports without any prodding or other sicko parental pressure that I see some parents applying to their kids. Congratulations to Mal as she works to become a soccer star!

No XM on my Treo 650, for now

Well, I tested out the ability to use the XM Satellite Online feature on my Treo 650, but it requires a desktop browser to run the internet interface so it won't work for now. However, I did some research in the TreoCentral forums and I could connect my XM radio to my home computer and then setup a ShoutCast server with the XM radio and listen that way. The problem there is that I could only listen to one channel and I would have to leave my MyFi at home tied to my computer. I will carry my MyFi and my Treo 650 for now since that gives me the most flexibility. I found the prank call comedy channel on ShoutCast and that is pretty funny stuff. TreoBits has a great mobile device formatted page that links to ShoutCast stations that are compatible with the Treo 650 (you need the lower bandwidth stations to avoid buffering and delays).

Pocket Tunes is another great Treo 650 application

You already know from reading this blog that Chatter email is a "killer" application for me that pushed me over the edge in using the Treo 650 as my primary device. I have been playing around with some other apps and just found out that Pocket Tunes allows me to stream internet radio stations over my T-Mobile data connection and it is very clear with no pausing for buffering in the channels I have been using so far. This is VERY COOL and allows me to listen to tunes with the display off and I still get Chatter emails showing up while the radio is playing in the background. Now I need to see if it is possible to get my XM Satellite channels playing over the internet on the 650. I never tried listening to radio over the internet on my Pocket PCs with my T-Mobile data connection, but will have to try that out as well. I just bought another couple years of XM radio at a low rate that gives me the internet feeds as well.

I am suffering from an extremely painful outer ear infection today and my whole head is throbbing and I can hardly hear anything out of my ear. I may work from home tomorrow so I can take some catnaps throughout the day when the pain gets too bad to even think. I need to stop monkeying around with these dang Q-Tips ;)

I admit it, I have newdevicephilia!

Joel said a couple of funny things about me on Geek.com recently that Peter pointed out this morning and you may get a good chuckle out of it. To intro my MDA III (now PDA2K) review Joel stated:

"As you know by now, if there's a cool handheld out there then palmsolo has probably owned it. He's got newdevicephilia so bad that he frequently pays some large cash to get devices that haven't made it to the States yet. Well, he took the time to review yet another of those great connected handhelds for us a while back, and I'm only getting to publish it now, so you shouldn't be surprised to hear that the T-Mobile MDA III Phone Edition he reviewed has since been supplanted. But while he had it, he liked the MDA III so much that he gave it a Geek.com Pick. Check out his as-always comprehensive and photo-filled review--wait 'til you see how cool the thumb keyboard is!"


And then today, I wrote the latest issue of the PDAGeek newsletter and Joel started off by stating:

"Initially I thought palmsolo was just unconsciously making a reference to Neo in "The Matrix" when I saw the title of today's issue of the PDAGeek Newsletter, but then I thought about it a bit. If you don't know, palmsolo has had more handhelds than there were Agent Smiths in "Revolutions," so to hear him get superlative about a particular handheld is not, shall we say, a rare occurrence. But he really seems to like his latest, and if you check out The palmOne Treo 650 may be the ONE! you'll see why it may just be the Keanu of converged devices. You also get the usual site round-up and software recommendations."

First Treo 650 soft reset, new Mugen Power PDA2K battery

Well I experienced my first random soft reset yesterday, but it was directly related to a single specific application. I just paid for the upgrade to Agendus from version 8 to 9 and then was messing around with the settings and the Treo 650 just reset itself. It seems there is an issue with Agendus when you tap the checkbox to have Agendus manage your alarms. The Treo doesn't like to let Agendus do this apparently and thus it reset. I unchecked this option and things have been fine ever since.

We had a company bowling night last night where we competed against another ship design firm to raise money for United Way and I was pretty consistent with a 120, 140, and 126. My bowling method is to throw the ball down as hard and straight as possible and I just could not get a strike. I had 6 spares in one game with 9 pins knocked down each time. I tried to take some photos with the 650 using the camera and SplashBlog, but it was very dark in the alley and nothing really turned out.

I just received the new Mugen Power 3300 mAh battery, that's right 3300, to review with my PDA2K. That is a whole lot of power and should keep that device running for quite some time. It does add a bit of thickness in the center back area, but the device still feels find in your hand because of where it is placed. One bad thing is that the cases I have will now not fit so I will have to carry the PDA2K naked during my testing.

Why the 650 over the PDA2K?

I was reading some Treo 650 vs. PDA2K comparisons on the TreoCentral and HowardForums discussion boards last night and almost every person who has tried both has said the PDA2K is for the power users and was recommended over the 650. I have been using a Treo 650 now for 6 days and have to say that I am happier with the 650 at this time. Is it just my initial new gadget enthusiasm, or is the 650 really a better solution FOR ME? One thing that people who write up comparisons must understand is that there is no single device that is the best for everyone and it comes down to really evaluating each individual's need and desires. I get emails all the time from readers and recommend both Palm and Windows Mobile devices, depending on how people respond to my usage questions.

Right now, it is very refreshing to come back to a Palm device. It is like when I resigned my commission and moved home to Washington. I started with a US Robotics Pilot 1000 in early 1997 and I am having fun getting into the Palm OS again. That said, Windows Mobile devices are very powerful and are also fun to push to the limits and use.

I think the one aspect, besides the instant push Chatter email functionality, that keeps me intrigued and interested in the Treo 650 is the way palmOne has integrated the keyboard into operating the device. I can do everything (open, close, switch apps, activated Done, New, OK, etc taps, and more) all with the keyboard and never have to pull out the stylus. I have only run into a couple of older applications that required the stylus. I actually still have that stupid thick plastic cover on the 650 because I don't want to tap on the bare screen and my TreoCentral order (screen protectors, extra battery, retractable sync/charge cable, and pen/stylus replacements) has yet to arrive. Microsoft only recently started opening up the OS and encouraging manufacturers to use integrated thumb keyboards and the OS level support for them is really in its infancy. You have to pull out your stylus or use your finger for just about everything but text entry. You can't even use shortcuts to launch applications or anything and this really takes away from the user experience on devices with thumb keyboards.

I don't know if this will change with Windows Mobile 2005 or it they will finally implement some real keyboard support with the next version after that, but know that Microsoft is aware of it because I have told them about my desires a couple of times :)

I am going to work on some direct comparisons between the PDA2K and the Treo 650 for my Geek.com review since they are both the top devices in their respective OS. I hope to submit this review in a week so it can post in mid-March. Is there anything specific you would like me to test out? I already find that I get better Bluetooth headset reception with the 650 than I do with the PDA2K and the GN Netcom 6210 headset I have actually works very well with the 650. I also get better T-Mobile reception with the 650 (one or two more bars than I see with the PDA2K).

Treo 650 arrived and now fully loaded

My Treo 650 arrived yesterday and I spent way too many hours last night completely loading it up with all the applications I wanted to use on it. I have read of many instability and reset issues and was a bit worried about what might happen, but I put 34 3rd party applications (including Chatter email, VeriChat, Docs to Go 7, Uninstall Manager, WordPop!, Farkle, Busker, Pocket Tunes, Blackjack, MyBible, Mobipocket, and more) and so far haven't had one issue. I launched each application and put in my registration codes and played with them for a couple minutes and still never had an issue of resetting. I really think the devices that are sold by the carriers may have issues due to the things that they add onto the devices. I have read the GSM unlocked models seem to have less problems.