FO HANDHELD NEWS
Volume 7, Issue 2
May 5th, 2006
Contents
Welcome
News Items  
User Tips
Development Tips
FO News
Reader Tips
Previous Issue (Vol. 7, issue 1)
Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Comments


Welcome
  ... to the 2nd quarter edition of our user and developer PDA tips newsletter.

This issue contains tools and tips for PPC, Palm and the Symbian OS, with a focus on phone applications. Interestingly -- while we tend to cover useful freeware applications in our newsletter as much as possible, many of this issues' items have at least a nominal price. Which we speculate might mean that consumers are beginning to value these tools a little more than in the past.

Please feel free to submit requests or ideas through the links at the bottom of this page.
This is also where you will find subscription and removal information.


Each item in our newsletter is marked with the icons shown to the right, so that you can focus on your own areas of interest.

 
PalmOS  
Pocket PC/WinCE items  
Phone-related PDA tips  
Wi-Fi items  


Please note: This newsletter contains tips and tools that can alter your PDA. These items are offered here "as is" and without any warranty or support from FO. Please consider them carefully before using or trying them (and as always ... backup, backup, backup first -- before making any changes).


Thank you,

Bill Shadish, Principal

News Items
First rumored news on the smaller, antenna-less Treos  
http://blog.treonauts.com/2006/03/first_pictures_.html
http://blog.treonauts.com/2005/11/treo_2006_produ.html
http://blog.treonauts.com/2006/03/treo_lowrider_i.html
The graphic by Treonauts, shows the smaller sized Treo which is being designed to be easier to carry and a little more stylish. This device may also fall into the $200-300USD (rather than $500-600) price range.
 

A Star Trek quality PDA screens?  
http://www.akihabaranews.com/en/news-10938-VGA+SPR(Sub+Pixel+Rendering)+LCD+by+LG.html
If you doubted that we were making our collective handheld way towards Star Trek-like tablet screens, then this site showing the LG Innotech VGA SPR (Sub Pixel Rendering) LCD that is 2.4", with 1440 x 960! resolution, will be interesting. While on that site, check the links to the right which take you to news announcements for a wide variety of electronic devices.


    OQO Model 01+- A Real Handheld-Sized PC ?
http://www.pocketpccity.com/articles/2006/5/2006-5-2-Review-OQO-Model.html
Along the lines of the LG screen, but something that you can actually purchase, is the OQO, which blurs the distinction between even the latest ultra-portable notebooks and PDAs. This device costs too much ($2kUSD) for its space -- but also gives a good idea of where things are headed.

On a related note -- for a discussion of the Intel | Microsoft Ultra-Mobile platform, see this link http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/02/27/ms_intel_apple_ultra-mobile_pc/
using a paperback book-sized tablet that's part PC, part PDA and part digital media player. It's wireless too, and would appear to have GPS on board.

Now, on to useful PDA tools and tips...


User Tips and Tools
Slingbox SlingPlayer Mobile -- TV on your PDA (~freeware)  
http://www.slingmedia.com/slingbox/slingplayermobile.php
This requires you to have a Slingbox, a high speed connection and a data call plan, but, in trade, this allows you to watch TV from your WinMob5 device. You can rotate your handhelds' display to show output in landscape mode. Also, like the PC version, SlingPlayer includes a remote to "remotely" control the TV, satellite receiver, DVR, DVD player and so on that you have connected to the SlingBox itself.

Free to current Slingbox users ... $29.99USD for others.
 

SlingPlayer
 

Pencil Box
  Pencil Box 1.14 (freeware)  
http://www.mentalmotions.com/showpage.php?page=pencilboxn
This is a pretty nice [pencil] drawing program for the PPC (and WinMob5). Drawings are saved as BMP files. Check this website for more advanced drawing programs as well, starting with Pencil Box Deluxe.




mOcean
  mOcean v2 ($19.99USD)  
http://www.motionapps.com/products.jsp?mocean
If you are getting the itch to be iPod-ish and only have a Palm device -- then mOcean is the next best thing to podding. mOcean sports the same type of thumbwheel and list approach to accessing your music and even lets you move files from iTunes, albeit as MP3 rather than MP4 (iPod formatted) files. If your Palm device is a phone, mOcean -- which can play music *while* other apps are running -- will pause when a call comes in.




HandOutline
  HandOutline Version 2.59 (freeware)  
http://www.fgolware.com
Ah, one of the rare programs that does what you expect it to do, rather than what it wants to do. This easy to use, single .prc app, allows you to create hierarchal outline lists, checking off items and\or collapsing portions of the outline with a tap. An example of its ease of use comes when pressing enter after a keyboard entry -- a new item is opened at that point for you to immediately add a new entry.

You can save the outlines in memo format or onto a SD disk.

PDA Reach ($24USD) 
http://www.junefabrics.com/pdareach/index.php
This one is for presenters, or anyone wishing to explain features of a Palm app to an audience. Supporting PalmOS 5 devices (e.g.: Treo 600, Treo 650, LifeDrive, Tungsten E/E2, T2, T3, T5, Zire 21, 31, 71, 72, Tx, Z22), PDA Reach allows you to connect a Palm to a Windows PC and see the PDA on the Windows screen -- which can then of course be projected for others to see as well.

You can drag Palm apps using Windows Explorer onto the PDA Reach displayed device and they will be installed. Skins exist for all of the devices listed above, which makes for a much nicer presentation than using the stock version of the Palm Simulator.
 

PDA Reach on Windows

PDANet: Connect your PC to the internet using your PDA | phone ($29-$34USD)
http://www.junefabrics.com/pdanet/index.php 
http://www.junefabrics.com/palmnet/index.php 
From the same company comes PDANet, which allows you to drive your laptop | pc through your phone -- which of course, means paying for only one broadband service. Rather than using a Bluetooth | WiFi wireless connection -- PDANet uses the hotsync or Activesync cable to make the connection between the devices.

The Palm version supports current devices all the way back to the Treo 300/270/180.


Maker Faire Demo: Skype Home Automation (freeware)   
http://msdn.microsoft.com/coding4fun/makerfaire/default.aspx
If you are using Skype on your PDA or PC to make free VoIP calls over a broadband internet connection, then this toolset allows you to use an instant messaging (IM) application to communicate with a home server for home automation, like turning the lights on -- or turning on the coffee pot.



LightWav, et al (stop unwanted phone calls   
Are you on a minutes-based phone plan that is being chewed up receiving unwanted marketing calls, or spam-oriented text messages? Or, perhaps you have a mother-in-law that somehow got your phone number? These tools give you control over who can call your PDA | phone, as well as when they can do so.

LightWav ($24.95 USD) 
http://www.toysoft.ca/lightwav.html
CallerID and SMS blocking. Block unwanted callers or those without displayed callerid; as well as SMS spam. For the Treo 600 & 650 only.



LightWav


Here are some other examples of phone control tools:

CallFilter 1.3.1 ($29.95 USD) 
http://mytreo.net/archives/2005/12/callfilter_131_the_best_software_of_all_time_just_got_even_better.php
Call Filter is also Treo 600/650 only.
AGLAYA Call Filter 1.00 ($9USD) 
http://nokia.pdatopsoft.com/Symbian/AGLAYA-Call-Filter
A Symbian OS Call Filter. Simpler in functionality -- this app focuses on white list and blacklist features. Other Symbian phone filters can be found on the right of this link.
 

Aglaya
  Opera ($29USD)  (0-$29USD)  
http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/products/
The latest release of the popular Opera Mobile browser is released. There are versions for Windows Mobile, Smartphone 2003; Windows Mobile 5, Pocket PC and S60 Symbian phone devices.
Opera Mobile has two ways to display web pages -- fit to your current screen and a scrolling option, for larger displays.  
  • Open URL with auto-complete
  • Zoom
  • Download
  • Tabs
  • Navigation and history
  • Bookmarks
  • Landscape/Portrait Mode
  • Full screen/ Fit to screen
  • Pop-up handler
  • Pad-lock icon on secure sites
  • User preferences, Context menu
Features


Opera mini™ 2.0 
http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/operamini/
http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/operamini/phones/ (supported devices)
Also there is a client/server version called the Opera mini™ browser. The mini works in conjunction with a backend web server, which is used to do the heavy lifting of getting a page formatted and ready to be displayed on small screens. Think thin client. Opera Mini is a less than 100kb Java-based (J2ME) browser. Requests for pages go through an Opera server, which sizes [and compresses] the page before delivering it back to the requesting client.


ACRONYMS    
http://www.ginko.de/user/franz.hamberger/acronyms.txt
A Nice list of ISO-8859-1 acronyms. Here is just a tiny subset of the list.
(snip)
GNOME       GNU Network Object Modeling Environment
GNU         GNU's Not Unix
GOC-NAND    Gate-Offset Cell NAND [ flash memory storage cell ]
GOLD        GSM One-chip Logic Device
GOLD-SP     GOLD Signal Processor
GO-MVIP     Global Organisation of MVIP
GOMSFE      Generic Object Models for Substation and Feeder Equipment ( UCA )
GOP         Group Of Pictures
GOPS        Giga-Operations Per Second
GPC         Graphics Performance Characterization ( group SPEC )
GPC         Graphic Programming Console
GPF         General Protection Fault
GPi         General Purpose input [ a pin that receives whatever clock signal frequency 
            an external peripheral device sends to it, allowing the external device to 
            control the timing and the rate of information in and out of 
            the serial port, rather than the rate being controlled by the computer ]
GPIB        General Purpose Interface Bus
GPIO        General Purpose Input-Output
GPL         Graphical Programming Language
GPR         General Purpose Register
GPRS        General Packet Radio Service ( GSM )
GPS         Global Positioning System/Satellite
GPSR        Global Positioning System Receiver
GRM         General Routing Matrix
GRP         Global Routing Pool
GS          Geprüfte Sicherheit
GS          Group Separator ( ASCII control code )
GSC         Gray Scale Controller
GSI         GigaScale Integration
GSM         Global System for Mobile communications


Blue Tooth Chess (freeware) 
http://greatbal.blogspot.com/2006/04/bt-chess-beta-10.html
This application allows you to connect with another PDA user over a Bluetooth connection to play Chess.



Blue Tooth Chess

Sticky section
Included here will be PalmOS; WinCe/Pocket PC/Windows Mobile; Smartphones and calling plan comparisons. We will keep and update this set of device lists in future newsletters, as a way to help users in comparing hardware before a purchase.
Palm PDAs Comparison Chart 
Current/discontinued Palm, Sony and other models
http://www.anewpda.com/palmpdas.html

Palm's list of Product Comparisons 
Current Palm models only
http://www.palm.com/us/products/compare/

Steve Litchfield's grid comparison of current PDA/smartphones 
http://3lib.ukonline.co.uk/grid.htm

Pocket PC Mag's Pocket PC/Smartphone list  
http://www.pocketpcmag.com/bg04/ppcs.asp

1-Stop Compare Cell Phones(page down
http://www.1-stop-free-cell-phones.com/compare-cell-phones.php

Compare Wireless Plans 
http://www.getconnected.com/
 


Development Tips and Tools

(Sites with content most valuable to developers)

Visual Studio 2005 Express (freeware) 
http://forums.asp.net/thread/1262185.aspx
Announcement that the Visual Studio 2005 Express Editions (Visual Basic, Visual C#, Visual J#, Visual C++, and Visual Web Developer Express) will be 'permanently free'.

The beta Skype wrapper for the .NET Starter Kit is a very interesting inclusion, which allows you to create a managed code wrapper to work with Skype services using the development languages shown above. The Skype wrapper allows you to send and receive phone calls and track call information. You can also send and receive chat messages.

Pocket RAR v3.60 beta 2 (freeware) 
http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm
(http://www.rarlab.com/rar/pocketrar36b2.exe)
We usually try to get one indispensable developer tool or tip in our newsletter, and the Pocket RAR compression tool is our candidate this time. RAR allows you to create and decompress files into ZIP and RAR format.

The RAR format can compress files up to 30 percent better than the ZIP format. There are versions for Windows and Linux as well.
 

Rar for Pocket PC

NSBasic Searchable List (freeware) 
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=nsbasic-palm&r=1&w=2
An ongoing collection of the NSBasic Developer Groups thoughts, tips and fixes, in an easily searchable format.


FO News  Palm Pocket PC Phone

foLicense version 1.1 is released.

  Our server-based license tracking tools, used to track (and validate) corporate handheld applications, have been upgraded to support Windows Mobile 5 devices in addition to the PalmOS and Pocket PC. See http://www.fo.com/pda/folicense.htm for more information.


Reader Tips

TIP:
  (the answer to) Are there any web communication commands available in NBASIC? 
Submitted by Doug Handy, NSBasic Forums

  > I am trying to write a simple program to send small data to a web database.
> Are there any web communication commands available in NBASIC?

You need to use a "shared library" to perform TCP operations. One option is TcpIpLib, documented in Tech Note 18 under your help menu. A second option, if you are doing this via HTTP, is HttpLib2. More information on that is at http://www.tektonica.com/projects/httplib2/

Using a shared library bundled with NSB requires the registered version. I believe you can still use third-part libraries such as HttpLib2 with the evaluation version of NSB/Palm however.

Tech Note 18 also has a link to a sample VB application to use in connection with TcpIpLib, as I recall.


To enter your own reader tip



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