Travelling Light

This comes up time and time again. Gadget freak plans to go away and packs their kit bag with so much technology that it would have been easier, cheaper and at lot lighter to have carried the whole bundle as an analogue kit.

No-one needs to take two laptops on holiday, a selection of PDAs isn't essential travelware and there's really no need to carry a PMP, games console and dedicated ebook reader as well.

If you're really planning on travelling light then your gear should fit into a pocket or a couple of pockets worst case.

Which devices you deem necessary really comes from the type of excursion you're planning. For example if you're planning a safari then a smartphone's camera probably isn't going to be up to the job. The smartphone is essential though, so why not pick one with a decent screen and add a large memory card, eliminating the need for a PMP, ebook reader and games console in one swoop.

My current travelling light pack consists of an HTC TyTn, Nokia N800, Freeloader Solar charger and a couple of USB leads. I may add a bluetooth keyboard in the future. Ideally I'd swap the Tytn for a Nokia N95, adding GPS and a camera to my kit list without actually making it any larger or more weighty.

Its a fine balance between too much and too little. When you're days away from home is not the best time to find out that you have ditched a piece of kit vital to operations, so have a care when packing that you have the appropriate kit for your journey and nothing more.

Read more...

On The Move

As I'm creating more and more N800 related posts I'm going to split these off into a seperate blog at http://smarterthan.wordpress.com/ Why the switch to Wordpress? The presence of the rather excellent maemo wordpy, which allows offline post creation, posting direct from the N800 and has a pretty impressive feature-set.

I'll still be covering a range of mobile topics on this blog however, so don't go be a stranger!

Read more...

Kindle? Kindling More Like

Someone at Amazon either has a much better take on the potential eBook market than I have, or the company has just launched the Austin Allegro of electronic devices.

The Kindle strikes me in much the same way as the Foleo did when Palm launched it: contempt for something that misreads its market so badly. This is a £250ish device which has can't read some key formats, is neither small nor especially pleasant to look at, offers some pretty pricey services and is pretty much a one trick pony one compared to the competition.

The price may have something to do with the built-in wireless network which allows users to download books direct from Amazon. Unfortunately its on Sprint's EVDO network so of no use to anyone in Europe (and anyone outside of major cities in the US as well to be honest). You can use it for email too, however Amazon will charge you a conversion fee for Word, HTML and several graphics formats that you recieve as attachments - best hope you don't start getting spammed on that address then! The web browser is not that much better - designed for text pages and not helped by a screen supporting only 4 levels of grey. So that network access isn't much good to you.

The screen itself is an epaper variant running at 600x400 pixels in a 6" format.Its flanked either side by buttons and at the bottom by a calculator style qwerty keypad. Its a big machine. You certainly won't be popping this in your back pocket to be reading in line at the airport/train station/hospital. And its freakishly ugly. At a time when Apple have pretty much demonstrated that visual impact is all important Amazon have set out to build the anti-iPhone. Weirdly inconsistent angles and edges which look uncomfortable to hold, buttons placed at logical grip points (for maximum unplanned button press frustration no doubt) and the screen looks awfully undersized with all that white plastic going on around it.

The best way to explain how bad I feel about the Kindle would be to compare it to the Palm T|X. Not a particularly great PDA, but a reasonable one, which can be had for around £175. The T|X has a 3.5" 320x480 screen, giving an almost identical screen pitch. The T|X can read books from a multitude of providers on a clear bright colour screen. When you're done reading the T|X can also collect your email (viewing attachments without any additional payment too), browse the web in reasonably good order (over a fast wifi link or a bluetooth link to whichever phone you have handy) and also manage your calendar, contacts and task list if you so desire.

Plus the T|X fits in your pocket, so should you get the chance to spend five minutes reading because your train has been delayed you're more than likely to have it with you.

The only thing the Kindle has over the Palm is better battery life, yet the T|X will easily last a full day, the longest you're likely to be away from a power socket in almost every case.

The Kindle doesn't do it for me, its even less viable as a product than the Foleo. Amazon would have been far better served buying up one or two of the larger eBook suppliers, standardising on a single reader/DRM combo and driving the market by producing compatible readers for every device known to man, from phones to PDAs and PCs.

Read more...

N800 Calendar Sync With Outlook

One of the biggest downsides to the N800 as an Internet Tablet is that Nokia have sidestepped the issue of Calendars completely. However the N800 is the ideal device to carry around as a PDA replacement so why not capture some of those PDA features that make life easier to manage?

The first PDA tool that I needed on the N800 was a calendar. Searching the repositories I found GPE-Calendar, which is part of the GPE-PIM Suite. Its a tiny file so it isn't going to make a huge dent in your available storage and, although a bit basic, it does fulfill the functions that most people will require from a calendar (categories, multiple views, etc.)

And you can even publish your Outlook Calendar to it if you need to keep your work diary in sync.

Its a slightly convoluted process, so bear with me as I outline the steps:

First sign-up for a Gmail account, if you don't have one already, then go to http://www.syncmycal.com/ and download their outlook sync tool for Gmail.

Follow the instructions for syncing to Gmail's calendar and after a short setup you'll find you can fire a sync for a seven day period manually from an icon in the taskbar. If you pay for the full client you can set automatic synchronisation for any period you wish.

Once you've established a sync path between Outlook and Gmail you then need to setup GPE-Calendar to download the appointments onto your tablet. First go into Google Calendar and choose settings, then calendars and choose the calendar you wish to sybc with the N800. At the bottom of the page there is a private calendar section, click on the ical link and copy the URL you are given into a text document or email so that you can transfer it onto the tablet.

Open Calendar and then go to Tools, calendars and create a new calendar. Change the type to 'subscribe' and enter the URL copied above. Enter your gmail account details, set the sync frequency and you're done.

Now its not a complete solution, calendar traffic flows one way only, from Outlook into the Tablet. You can get around this by using Google Calendar as your primary tool for managing calendars, ensuring that both N800 and Outlook are always up to date.

There is another GPE-Calendar to Gmail Calendar sync tool which does offer two-way syncs and I'll be looking at that in the not-too distant future...

Read more...

Garnet On The N800!!!

Here's something I never thought I'd be writing: you can now run Garnet OS (the OS formerly known as Palm) apps on a N800.

Access have released a virtual machine which runs on Maemo so that users can test the compatibility layer for the upcoming Access Linux for Palm. Its a brave move which benefits both sides: Access gets a huge test environment and the ability to confidently claim backward compatibility a N800/810 users gain a calendar application that will sync with Outlook.

Installation is a breeze and, although it doesn't run full screen (yet?) it does emulate a full hires+ Palm, up to and including a TX. You can even set different apps to start in different emulation modes to ensure that as many as possible can be run as if on Palm hardware.

You can register for the download here.

Read more...

Did O2 Cash In On iPhone?

Well Apple and O2 have had a full weekend to enjoy the delights of plugging the iPhone to the British public - but did they have much success?

Its clear that the US launch went very well for Apple and US partner AT&T - but then American buying patterns have always differed from what we see in the UK... the Palm Treo is actually quite popular over there, whereas over here its a rare beast.

O2 has partnered with the Carphone Warehouse to retail the iPhone as its own retail base is comparitively small. Apple weren't going to be a lot of help here either, with only eleven UK retail outlets. First indications are that there wasn't a mad rush to either O2 or Carphone Warehouse stores at 6.02pm on Thursday. There was considerably more action at the few Apple stores in the UK, but given their rarity that isn't going to make much of a difference to the overall picture.

There are plenty of places on the web proudly showing photos of empty O2 and Carphone Warehouse stores on Thursday night (although why you would want to be proud of it I don't know) and my own experience was that neither of the local O2 stores was exceptionally busy on Saturday; and those people who were there weren't buying iPhones. The same story was true at the Carphone Warehouse stores in the area.

Yet O2 claims to have sold tens of thousands of iPhones over the first weekend of UK availability. I'm thinking that's something like wishful thinking on a corporate level. Of course given the proximity of Christmas its unlikely that O2 will struggle to sell every single iPhone it can get its hands on - but once the New Year comes I doubt that it will be able to sustain much momentum. I'm still convinced that O2 will have to start subsidising the iPhone early 2008 - and also increasing the range of tariffs which are available too.

And then they have the inevitable sales collapse to contend with later in the year when the 3G iPhone 2 arrives... sounds like an interesting year ahead in the boardroom at O2!

Read more...

N800 Proves A Compelling Argument For Device Separation

After a few weeks as an N800 owner I have to say I'm stunned at what a good job Nokia have done, producing what feels like a properly designed and well-rounded product. Compared to the shabby job that HTC and Palm have been doing with Windows Mobile and Palm OS devices recently its a real eye-opener to find something that does exactly what it sets out to do. Of course some of that may come down to the latest release firmware which I flashed onto the N800 straight out of the box. With the availability of the new N810 imminent Nokia will also be releasing the next version of Tablet OS:2008, with a whole slew of new features.

Without too much time spent on customising the installed software I'm happy to report that this is a real joy to use. The Opera web browser is as the desktop version and renders pages beautifully - this is the crowning glory of the machine. Flash works well - its possible to view Youtube videos (although its best to allow the stream to complete its download before playing) and the PDF reader is as good as anything on the desktop. Sites using Ajax aren't supported but in the new OS release Nokia have addressed this issue with a new browser. I've added third party PIM software, Skype for internet calling and the Video Center Vodcast client - all worthy pieces of software and as good as you'll find on any other mobile platform. Synchronisation remains an issue - if you're planning on using it as a PDA. I found the best way around this was to use Yahoo's online calendar and sync that with my exchange calendar via Outlook. Messy, but reliable. When (if?) I can get Outlook and Google Calendar to sync I will try out the different methods for syncing to my Gmail account.

Battery life is amazing, I achieved a day and a half of fairly heavy use before the N800 decided that it was going to take an enforced rest until I fed it some juice. With the same usage patterns my previous devices, Windows Mobile smartphones of one sort or another, have failed to last a full day.

Its interesting to see that two dedicated devices, shorn of the compromises required to create a single device produce a much more complete user experience - something that seems to have been lost in the mad rush to squeeze a phone into everything out there.

I shall continue to prod and poke this most accessible of beasts to see if I can find any other gems hidden away beneath the Hildon GUI...

Read more...

Motion Computing MC5

Now this is a very specialised piece of kit, aimed exclusively at hospitals and in particular clinical areas. First impressions are very good: everyone who sees one for the first time is more than a little stunned, in fact the general consensus has been "I want one".

The MC5 is somewhere between A4 pad and filofax sized. Its white plastic exterior is good to hold and can be cleaned to appropriate infection control standards. Its 10" screen is bright and sharp and the touchscreen is accurate without obscuring the display excessively.

Looking around the tablet we have, at the bottom, a port for the docking cradle; on the left hand side a speaker; on the right hand side a covered power socket, buttons for the camera and the security key (principally used for replacing CTRL + ALT + DEL at logon) a fingerprint scanner, power switch and barcode scanner. On the top we have a button to fire the barcode laser and to fire the RFID reader. The top fifth of the MC5 is used to provide a handle to better facilitate its use when standing up. On the back is a camera with LED light whilst on the front are a selection of buttons to launch different Motion apps and control the cursor, should you not wish to use the stylus mounted in a recess in the back of the handle.

The stylus is active: the screen does not respond to taps with your finger or other instruments. The stylus tip is recognised from about an inch above the screen, which allows you to move the cursor around the screen without having to touch it with the stylus tip. touching the screen with the tip registers a mouse click at the contact point, double clicks and click and drag work in the same way. A button just above the tip selects the right mouse button for the next click, as does a click and hold on the screen.

Running XP Tablet Edition at a fair old pace the MC5 even manages to keep up with some very high speed scrawling - this post was written at fairly high rate of knots and recognition has been near perfect so far (which is an obvious cue for the whole thing to go to pot!)

For those who are tasked with improving services to the healthcare industry I can see the MC5 proving to be an absolute godsend. Supporting advances such as bedside prescribing, real time bed management and bedside viewing of reports from Radiology and Pathology departments. Additionally I can see the MC5 being used to reduce the risk of misadministration of drugs. The barcode scanner being used to scan the patient's ID tag and the medicine's label and the Patient Administration system being used to ensure the two marry up and that the gap between dose administering is sufficient.

Tablet PCs have been something of a market flop, but I suspect this latest effort will be well recieved by NHS Trusts with sufficiently strong budgets to meet the (steep) asking price.

Read more...

N800 HSDPA Internet Via Tytn

Sporting internal Wifi means the N800 is a fantastic web tool whenever you're in range of a hotspot, but what about when you're out and about?

Well the N800 also sports bluetooth and a list of compatible phones which can be found at http://maemo.org

Problem is most of the supported phones max out at 384kbps - 3G speeds, which I'm sure would be sufficient for many - but a bit of a comedown after the 1.5Mbps  I've been enjoying on my Vario II (aka Tytn or Hermes). Well the good news is that you can use bluetooth to link to the Tytn and enjoy 3.5G speeds on the N800 when out of the range of Wifi hotspots

Its not a straightforward process - and it doesn't appear to be documented anywhere so I'll briefly outline the steps required.

Firstly you need to have a successful pairing with another phone for this to work - so beg, borrow or steal a phone to create your dummy pairing first. Follow the wizard to create your dummy pairing and then proceed as below.

Next you need the right WinMo version - if you see a program called wireless modem then you're all set - if not you'll have to follow the 'restore the DUN profile to WM5' process from xda-developers.com -  enable bluetooth and make your Tytn visible.

Enable Bluetooth on the N800 and do a search for new devices. This should find the Tytn and display a PDA icon. Complete the pairing process and then exit from the Bluetooth program.

Now go into the control panel and phone then change the selected phone to the Tytn. You may now have to make some minor changes to your connection settings depending on your carrier. Finally on the Tytn open the Wireless Modem program and choose the Bluetooth connection then from the menu select 'Start'.

You should now have a working 3.5G connection whenever you're away from a Wifi connection. My N800 automatically connects whenever there is no wifi access available.

Read more...