CBE for ARM CR8TOR

Stephen Furber has been recognised in the Queen’s New year honours list, and now becomes a CBE (Commander of the British Empire).  For those born in the UK,  the best known pieces of technology he worked on were the Acorn and BBC Microcomputer… But the rest of the world would be far more impressed by the fact that he was a designer of the ARM microprocessor

Yes THAT ARM microprocessor… the granddaddy of the ones that power Axims, Ipaqs, PSPs, Playstation 3, Video Camera’s and er… a little unknown device called the iPhone.

http://www.arm.com/markets/holidaygifts/index.html

Speaking in a BBC interview he said…

"The success story of the ARM is one that has built slowly but steadily," he said.

The first ARM chips came off the production line on the 26 April 1985.

"It was 10 years before it really started to emerge as a global success story and probably 15 years before it was recognised as such," he said.

And he’s now busy using them to build computers that model the human brain…

The machine, nicknamed the "brain box", is designed to eventually contain one million ARM processors.

"We are using ARMs like we were using transistors 20 years ago," he said. Although the finished machine will pack a huge amount of processing power, it will still only model around 1% of the human brain, or around one billion neurons.

Source: BBC

Will MIDs become more mainstream?

1st of all, what are we going to classify the HTC Shift as? UMPC, Tablet, or what? HTC is not considering it a UMPC. Anyhow, Compal is thinking that MIDs are going to be hot in 2008. So much so that they have dedicated a team to work on this. Personally, I have trouble drawing the line between all the mobile PC designations. UMPC, MID, Tablet, Pocket PC… I think they are all coming together into one form factor slowly but surely.

Compal Electronics recently decided that it will separate the MID (mobile Internet device) devision of its PC department in January of 2008, according to sources at the company.

The company observes that the focus on ultra-mobility, handheld, and Internet services found in MID products puts them in a separate market from current notebooks and ultra-mobile PCs (UMPCs). The company expects the MID market to see fast growth in 2008.

With Quanta Computer also adjusting its handset segment to prevent direct impact from its entry-level handsets, the MID market could become another battlefield between the two OEM giants, noted market watchers.

Source: Digitimes via Engadget

Sorry but the Foleo was not a UMPC

The press still does not know what is a UMPC. If they knew it they never would say something like this:  

So I took the news of the Foleo’s demise a little hard. Our own Rob Enderle pointed to the Foleo as a precursor to something big in the UMPC space, but most critics apparently were right when they said that you’d be just as well off buying a laptop. Got one of those, thanks.

Ok, so lets start with the concept that most of us recognize as a UMPC:

• It runs a full OS that will allow you to run any of the applications that we run in our Desktop PCs.
• It’s capable of fully browse the web without any type of restrictions or any special version of the browser to reshape pages to fit on the screen.
• It uses a touch screen (or any other kind of digitizer), maximum size 7 inches, minimum size around 5 inches.
• Integrated keyboard is an option but could not be present in some devices.

Now lets analyze the Foleo:

• It was not using a full OS version. It was reported here the limited multimedia support of that OS.
• It was not fully capable of browsing the web and this was reported here too.
• It did not have a Touch Screen or any kind of digitizer and the screen size was 10 inches, which classifies in the Subnotebook category.
• It has a keyboard!!!

So basically if you really check the Foleo, it did not classify even in the Notebook or Subnotebook category. Just to be honest, I even do not know how to classify this “thing”. It has the OS of a MID but it’s a lot bigger than a MID, it has the size of the subnotebook but it has the OS of a MID.

Thanks God it’s dead. That was the best decision Palm has taken in the last 2 years. That thing was huge, that thing was under-powered and that thing was useless.

And one thing was for sure, that thing was not a UMPC.  So the UMPCs did not lost anything with Palm canceling this project. And the only one winner on all this was Palm. There are moments when it’s a really good idea to calm down, sit down and think: What the f… I was doing?

Top Ten of Whatevers…… The Failed Future of Mobile Technology Part II

Following on from part I, here are some even bigger blind alleys, and disasters that looked like such good ideas at the time… 5 more to go, and I promise there’s no mention of iPhones or Wm6 here.

5) Project Odin

This one is personal. Back in Psion’s glory days, and riding high on the success of the Revo+ and Series7 Psion decided that what the world really needed was Smartphone. And when Motorola asked them to work on a keyboard based Smartphone the world was about to get a killer device.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2000/10/10/psions_series_9_odin_found/

What actually happened is that towards the end of the project, after Psion had spent all of the budget on R&D, Motorola flip flopped and pulled out of the project. Psion was then forced to restructure themselves completely and pulled out of the consumer market all together. Sob..

4) Mobile TV

It seems that the great hope of the mobile phone industry is that we’ll stop talking to people on phones and get madly excited about the ability to watch TV on our mobiles. Various means have been tried, and mostly failed. From video trailers, to built in tuners, to IP based services, and most have failed as people don’t seem to want to watch/or pay for, jerky TV clips on a small screen that drains your battery and stops you being able to use the phone

3) Wap 

 I remember when 2G phones first came out. Huge great things they were, and the great selling feature wasn’t SMS, or colour screens or email. No it was WAP. The mobile phone networks loved it, and fell over themselves trying to persuade use that this would allow us to surf the mobile internet. Cellnet (now O2) even had glossy 3d animations about how using one of these phones was like becoming the silver surfer and flying along digital superhighways in glorious 3d..

http://networks.silicon.com/mobile/0,39024665,11020593,00.htm

Except it didn’t. and it wasn’t. and it never was. Most people agreed that wap was spelt with a capital C

2) PalmOS 6

You really have to hand it to Palm. One minute they are king of the mobile world. Producing devices that rule the market place, and the hearts of all of there users, and the next well they do absolutely nothing. When I bought my Palm T2, I was a little nervous. It was on special offer and did everything I wanted it to, apart from the fact that the new Palm OS 6 was out later that year. Still, with a broken Sony Clie in my rucksack, I needed something and the T2 fitted the bill. The new OS was to feature what every palm user wanted, multitasking. And it was just a few months away.

Then it was announced that the new OS would be delivered to the developers at the end of the year, with new devices out by Easter. then nothing happened. It was delayed, and delayed and eventually canceled. Not put off by this Palm announced that a replacement Palm OS6 based on Linux would be released. To everyone’s surprise they split the hardware and software parts of the company and everyone waited and waited. A couple of product lines, the Life drive and the TX came and went while we waited. The software half of the company was bought by Access, and we waited and waited. As if to prove that the company could do some nice stuff if they had a decent OS, Palm went and licensed Windows mobile, and produced the magnificent Treo 750. Meanwhile fans of PalmOS waited, and waited and waited.

Palm got fed up of waiting, and actually bought new licenses for Palm OS5! Rumors floated about that they were now writing there own OS based on Linux. Would this compete with the existing OS6 (now called the Access Linux Platform)? Well we don’t know. because we are still waiting.

1) Gizmondo

When it comes to promises of great success, followed by great failures then the Gizmondo story takes some beating. Billed by many in the UK (including people who really should have known better) as a British PSP killer this handheld offered GPS, Telephone, email and an ‘amazing 3d games engine’ It wasn’t and after a saga involving???? it died a quick and painful death.. well not really that quick.. It did involve a Swedish organized crime ring, a  crashed Ferrari, Formula 1 sponsorship (Jordan)  and the MTV show  ’Pimp My Ride’

Somo 650, Corporate Axim Replacement?

It’s either a case of ‘Nature abhors a vacuum" or "when one door closes another opens" but either way the classic PDA isn’t dead. With Dell stepping out of the market there is a business niche that Socket hopes to fill.

Here’s some specs that may seem familiar to Axim users on the Somo 650

Intel PXA270 @ 624 MHz
Windows Mobile 5
CF and SD slots
128m Ram
235mb of flash
Wifi/BT
1100/2200 battery

Ok theres no VGA but it does come in a rugged casing and you can buy one for the next  3-5 years… and there’s going to be a full set of corporate management tools, to allow you to roll out as many of these as you like.

source: IT Week

British Telecoms Blackberry VOIP Alternative

British Telecom, he company that once held back from anything that would lose them landline calls, has today launched a new service based featuring VOIP, Instant messaging and Push Email.  The Service, known as BT Office Anywhere features the HTC S620

 

BT’s Office Anywhere, developed in partnership with Microsoft, is a breakthrough solution.

You can tailor your BT Office Anywhere package to suit your requirements. A ‘Lite’ package could include:

• 250 inclusive voice minutes and 10MB data (enough for about 100 emails a day)
• Free Microsoft Windows® Mobile® Smartphone.
• Unlimited hour-long calls to UK landlines using Mobile VoIP wherever you have WiFi Internet access-offering big savings, especially when travelling abroad
• Low-cost capped rates for hour - long international phone calls

Source : Tech Digest

How mobile Technology should work.. MC218 Demo

Shaun over at Palm 247 has just posted a video demo of how mobile technology should work. The device in question runs off a couple of AA batterys and still has a battery life longer than all of the UMPC/Pocket PC devices, has an office suite that would humble the mighty Softmaker office, has a screen resolution of 640×240, Is in a form factor not unlike the HTC Universal, has a keyboard that is superior to every other mobile device on the market (can you touch type on any HTC device?) , runs the Opera Web Browser, Full pop3/Imap client, can send SMS via phone, has its own macro programming language,  supports compact flash and was launched in… er… 1999
[Read more]

Dilbert, Blackberry User and Google fan.

Not surprisingly Scott Adams, of Dilbert fame, has his own blog. And it’s a pretty good read too. It’s certainly one that I check out everyday as he blogs on a wide range of subjects.

Today he mentioned that he’s found a new trick. By setting up some google alerts and his Blackberry he’s managed to… well let him tell you himself.

Yesterday I signed up for Google’s free service, Google Alerts. It sends me an e-mail any time my keywords newly appear on the Internet. My keywords are “Scott Adams Dilbert.” Now, I usually have my Blackberry 8700 in my pocket. So check this out…

Any time that 11-year old Vijay sits at his Dad’s computer in Lucknow, India, and blogs about his favorite Dilbert comic, Google finds it, and sends that link directly to my left front pocket. I reach in, pull out the Blackberry, click the link, and Vijay’s blog opens. I read it, just to see what little Vijay thinks of me today. In India. Minutes ago.

Now while I’m happy that Scott has found something that’s Frickin cool.. I always assumed that he’d be a Symbian or Linux guy. As the Blackberry is the pointy heads PDA of choice.

That reminds me, I must stop confusing real life with cartoon strips. I must stop confusing real life with cartoon strips. I must stop confusing real life with cartoon strips. I must stop confusing real life with cartoon strips. I must stop confusing real life with cartoon strips. I must stop confusing real life with cartoon strips. I must stop confusing real life with cartoon strips. I must stop confusing real life with cartoon strips.

If this manages to make it to your google alerts.. Then this fan says thanks

Source: The Dilbert Blog

MobiltyVets, Windows mobile and fluffy animals

Veterinary students in the UK are involved in a pilot study to use WM devices to take notes, record training records and track cases. The pilot sponsored by Orange uses the M3100SPV (Universal) and M500 (Imate-Jam), and some custom software developed for them called myPad

While tablet PCs were considered, the team chose to use smartphones because they were small enough to fit in a pocket but have screens large enough to display diagnostic images. "You can’t have a huge, scary thing sticking out of your pocket when you’re dealing with animals," said final-year student Adam Mugford.

Project member Kim Whittlestone said the students were told to view the devices more as portable computers than phones. "They’re really more hand-held computers," he said

Source: ITPro

 

 

 

Run Palm apps on your wm smartphone….

When Styletap was  launched on the pocket PC, this ex palm user was so impressed that i bought it while it was still in its public beta.. It does an excellent job of running all sort of apps.

• Runs most applications for the Palm OS® platform on Microsoft Windows Mobile™ handhelds and smartphones.
• Supports most of the thousands of application programs written for the Palm OS 5.2 platform and earlier versions.
• StyleTap Platform is fast, compact and comes with everything you need to get going.
• Applications written for Palm OS platform show up as native Windows Mobile programs and operate in the same way. You can even cut and paste text and bitmaps between applications and native Windows Mobile programs.

Well apparently there was such a demand from smartphone users that they’ve got a preview version for smartphone devices ncluding the Moto Q™, T-Mobile Dash™, and Samsung BlackJack™!

Over the last year the #1 request we’ve received was for a version of StyleTap Platform that would run on Windows Smartphones. This new preview version delivers on that request by adding new features such as using the 5-way button instead of a touchscreen and stylus.

Since most of the changes were related to the user interface and not the core emulation functions, we expect this to be a relatively short preview period (60 days or less). Most of our testing was done on the Motorola Q

Unfortunately I don’t have a smartphone.. but if you do try it out then let us know how you get on with it,

Styletap:

New Charging Stations Unveiled at JFK International Airport

Travelers flying into or out of John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York will be able to power up their mobile phones, laptops and other electronic devices at Samsung Mobile Charging Stations. This initiative, driven by The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and JCDecaux NA, Inc. along with Samsung, will alleviate the increasing demand for electrical outlets as the airport prepares to handle millions of holiday travelers.

"Over the past decade, cell phones, laptops and other electronic devices have become a part of everyday life, especially when traveling," said Dale Sohn, President, Samsung Telecommunications America. "To celebrate Samsung Mobile’s 10th anniversary in the U.S., we are providing the Samsung Mobile Charging Stations to travelers at JFK airport free of charge."

[Read more]

PalmOS 5 Forever

Palm seems stuck in a rut at the moment.. but it does look like they are trying to make the best of a bad situation.

First they decide to run a huge advertising campaign then they decide it might be an idea if they had something to sell…

So, They’ve signed a new deal, costing $44 million, to allow them to use and modify the ageing Palm OS5 (aka Garnet) from Access (the company who bought software half of palm after it split from the hardware side).

"ACCESS has entered into a non-exclusive agreement with Palm, Inc., to license the Palm OS® Garnet® source code to Palm, Inc. ACCESS continues to license and support Palm OS. ACCESS and Palm have also agreed to an expansion of the two companies existing patent license.

Under terms of the agreement, ACCESS has granted Palm specific rights to modify the code base of Palm OS Garnet for use in its devices such as the Palm Treo smartphone family and the company’s other handheld computers. The agreement also grants Palm the right to use Palm OS Garnet in whole or in part in any product from Palm and together with any other system technologies. "

They’ve also quietly slipped in the information that the new OS (Access Linux Platform) is going to be available in the first half of 2007.

So with no sign of the  promised next gen operating system actually being used in their hardware for a while,  it looks like the elderly OS5 will be here for a long time. Well assuming that the success of the WM5 treos doesn’t take them in a new direction all together.

Source: palm : Access