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I don't know how SMS relates to the communications protocol that the phone uses to interface with the tower (such as GSM, CDMA, etc.) But I have noticed that many have assumed that NexTel uses CDMA. They in fact use a protocol developed by Motorola called iDEN.

http://www.motorola.com/iDEN

Oh, really? Tell me, Jonny, from which orifice did you so casually pull that statement?

Allow me to present 78 examples of companies that are each dominating an even more enormous part of the country's economy at this very second.

...and this list doesn't even take historical cases into consideration.

...and, hey! I'll be damned. There are even a few tech companies on that list.

Of course, I realize that the Fortune 500 is not a foolproof, catch-all guide to measuring a company's worth. You'll understand, though, if I have a tad more faith in it than in baseless rantings...

Motorola has been using an OLED display on oe of their TimePort models, the 8767, sice August. It is in 3 colors, just each color is in a different region of the screen. Text is green, battery meter is blue, signal is amber, etc. Very bright, just like the LED display on my alarm clock, but much higher resolution. IIRC, it can display 5 lines of text. Here's a link

This a a pretty cool little program for storing, beaming, or emailing free-form hand-written documents.

There still seems to be more buzz about Palm than WinCE. And the next generation of the OS is due out soon.
-----------------

Huh? I can say: the big three of server operating systems are Solaris, Linux and NT.

You should put your money where your mouth is, and show some supportive proof of these big three. e.g., Yahoo, Apache, Sony's Japan website, formerly Hotmail use FreeBSD, IBM, NYSE, American Express use AIX.

Your post is pointless since thread does not discuss what will be run on the server(s). e.g. If your core webdesigners (programmers included) are extremely comptent with Oracle, Story Server (for Yahoo like pages) your not gonna run your site on NT unless your a dumbass and like headaches.

Aside from that there are many instances of Windows underperforming as a server which sometimes can't cut it, so the mere mention of them is painful

If you look at units shipped, QNX isn't even on the map. They've just started some bizzare marketing blitzes lately (starting with the whole Amiga switcheroo), so wannabes like yourself who know nothing about the embedded market know about QNX.

You should do some research before posting... QNX is used for stuff Windows is likely not competent/reliable/trustworthy(crashmasterWindows) to do. Hell even IBM jumped into the QNX mix. You should read about the uses companies like NASA and Motorolahave for QNX instead of thinking about only running a web and mail server. (theres more to an OS than that you know)

54.7W? Damn! I remember hearing that these things were going to be hot, and I've joked with the guy with the Athlon cluster up stairs that he better not fall asleep with the door to his office closed, or he'll cook, but Damn!

As a point of reference, take a look at page 5 of 6 of this PDF document from Motorola:
PowerPC MPC7450 @ 733MHz (Full-on Mode)
Typical : 20.8 W
Maximum (w/o Altivec): 22.0 W
Maximum (w/Altivec): 26.0 W

First of all, no matter what the marketing people tell you, doing everything over IP is not the best solution for every idea out there. You have to ask yourself what you stand to gain by using an IP-based implementation;

Where did the questioner say IP?

This was a request for an ETHERNET based solution, my guess was that he is already planning on putting the cabling in, and using ethernet switches/hubs anyway. If he already has this communications infrastructure in place then why would he need to run different cabling. I can see the point in using an ethernet solution if he already has an ethernet network with the spare capacity. But nobody mentioned running TCP/IP over the top of it.

Frankly I suspect a decent multi channel wireless system would be a much more reasonable use of the money. From memory Motorola Do a reasonable range of professional two way radios.

If you think this trend is taking off now, just wait until the day when Dragonball Linux exists...

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Gah, not enough large cell-phone screenshots available for that Timeport.

ah, here is some more info.

two years ago would they have based this thing on motorolla's iridium?

should ex-hippies really be the target audience? Are they the ones running all the servers nowadays?

Sure. Ever worked a gig in the Bay Area? Freaks, Deadheads, long-hairs, and flower children everywhere, and many working for high-tech firms, pardon the pun ;^). IBM is doing a lot of this linux work in Austin, which is a pretty hippified place...

At least that's how was. That's how it looks. Word has it that several of the coolest stoner spots have closed (White Rabbit, Steamboat, Electric Lounge, Liberty Lunch, ...) have closed up, and most of the big tech outfits there (Moto, AMD, ,and Big Blue, all have drug tests... Austin Comedian Steven Kendrick says that "Austin Sucks" now because of it... (Of course, you can always refuse to participate in FORCED URINATION, and help make the world a better place in the process...)

The moral of the story is that it may be hip to *look* like a hippy, but just don't *act* like a hippy...

My wireless Web setup is:

• A Palm IIIx, running either AvantGo or Browse-it.
• A Motorola StarTac ST7867W cell phone.
• A cable linking the two from Syncable Solutions

This stuff allows me to browse the web wirelessly. I'm not actually sure how you'd upload starting with this setup; I suspect that's a software problem, and I'm hoping it's solved elsewhere in this thread.

That said, I'll throw out some other notes on systems like this. First, they are flaky, and don't like you moving, so when you get a connection, stop moving. A modem connection seems to be much more fragile when switching between network cells than a phone call is. Second, think redundant. Get multiple paths of connection, because there are so many places where the connection can break down, and you'll go crazy if you absolutely depend on any of them. Lastly, forget about sending up pictures and enjoy the ride. Experiences like that aren't for sharing with other people over the web, they are for experiencing first hand, while it's going on. The 3rd California AIDS Ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles changed my life, but it wouldn't have if I'd been fretting over hardware the whole time.

mahlen

See how today's achievement is only tomorrow's confusion; see how possession always cheapens the thing that was precious. --William Dean Howells (1837-1920)

A number of companies make very small, very cheap GPS receivers which are meant for OEM-style use in other devices. SiRF makes a number of tiny, inexpensive receivers; here's a picture of one the size of a quarter. I believe Motorola's GPS division makes a very small Oncore receiver as well.

A number of companies make very small, very cheap GPS receivers which are meant for OEM-style use in other devices. SiRF makes a number of tiny, inexpensive receivers; here's a picture of one the size of a quarter. I believe Motorola's GPS division makes a very small Oncore receiver as well.

Motorola's on to an interesting marketing gimmick enforcement mechanism. But what about the legal/contract law implications?

For example, If I buy a CD player, will I be required to agree to a license? If I don't agree and the device suicides, will I be able to sue the manufacturer, the distributor, or the retailer? After all, if I buy the device at the local Circuit City but the sales clerk didn't point out the agreement to me, or I bought the device on the gray market, I shouldn't be bound by the terms of the license, should I?

This looks like one more insidious possibility of UCITA shrink-wrap licenses causing grief in the marketplace.

Don't forget to read the unbiased news about UCITA, also (Not that Stallman's opinion doesn't explain enough...).

I am not sure whether it is available in your part of the world or not, but the Motorola T900 has served me quite well. Its a small, easy to type on, pager that can send/recieve messages via wireless devices or email. http://www.motorola.com/GSS/CSG/direct_pagers/T900 /

The G4 rivals the Pentium in power consumption? Not really. According to Motorola's fact sheets on the PowerPC 7400, it uses an average of 5 watts of power at 400mhz, 11.5 watts max. The PowerPC 7450 (the new version of the G4 used in the 533, 667 and 733mhz models with embedded L2 cache and slightly lower core voltage) uses 14-17 watts of power at 533mhz. The Pentium III, on the other hand, uses anywhere from 30 watts of power to 50 watts for the super-overclocked 1.13ghz recall units. I wasn't able to find any stats on Intel's website or in their datasheets (too much marketing), so that number might not be completely accurate, but I am sure it's much higher than the PowerPC 75xx processor line.

Apple encased the whole G4 processor card in plastic to dampen fan noise? Not really. There IS no processor fan on the new G4 models. There's a huge honkin' heat sink on it (which sits next to the power supply and an external vent when the door's closed), but there is no direct cooling on the processor. So, no, I don't think you've seen a picture of the latest G4. If you had, you wouldn't've claimed they encased the processor in plastic. Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of cooling? Heat can't escape through plastic as easily as it can through air. :)

The hard drive in the latest iMacs don't make that much heat, actually. Apple uses three kinds of hard drives in their latest lines: Maxtor, Seagate, and Quantum. They all run rather cool, with the Quantum being the hottest of them all (this is all subjective, and I haven't scientifically measured this stuff). The Seagate drives are definitely the quietest, though. :) The processor is one component that stays really cool. The heat sink for the processor happens to be the entire metal shield between the logic board and the Analog/Video/Power board. This shield has lots of holes in it that air goes through. It's quite an interesting and practical design. The monitor makes most of the heat, but since the tube is several inches away from the bottom of the iMac, there's plenty of room for heat to move up away from the components, sucking lots of cool air over the expensive stuff (logic board, hard drive, etc...) on the bottom of the computer. I admit it's not the coolest design, but considering what it is, it works really well.

The micro fans might be nice on paper, but how long do readers think it'll take for MAJOR chip vendors to implement them? The heatsink/fan combo has been with us for as long as I can remember, and considering how cheap and easy it is, I don't see it changing that much very soon. We need cooler processors, not better fans/heatsinks.

Path of least resistance, I guess.

Here's a Pentium III Datasheet. If anyone can find the wattage for the P3 in this marketing mess, I'd appreciate knowing it: http://www.intel.com/design/pentiumiii/datashts/24 526407.pdf

Here's a PowerPC 7400 Datasheet: http://e-www.motorola.com/brdata/PDFDB/MICROPROCES SORS/32_BIT/POWERPC/MPC7XX/MPC7400FACT.pdf

And here's a PowerPC 7450 datasheet: http://e-www.motorola.com/collateral/MPC7450FSR0.p df

The G4 rivals the Pentium in power consumption? Not really. According to Motorola's fact sheets on the PowerPC 7400, it uses an average of 5 watts of power at 400mhz, 11.5 watts max. The PowerPC 7450 (the new version of the G4 used in the 533, 667 and 733mhz models with embedded L2 cache and slightly lower core voltage) uses 14-17 watts of power at 533mhz. The Pentium III, on the other hand, uses anywhere from 30 watts of power to 50 watts for the super-overclocked 1.13ghz recall units. I wasn't able to find any stats on Intel's website or in their datasheets (too much marketing), so that number might not be completely accurate, but I am sure it's much higher than the PowerPC 75xx processor line.

Apple encased the whole G4 processor card in plastic to dampen fan noise? Not really. There IS no processor fan on the new G4 models. There's a huge honkin' heat sink on it (which sits next to the power supply and an external vent when the door's closed), but there is no direct cooling on the processor. So, no, I don't think you've seen a picture of the latest G4. If you had, you wouldn't've claimed they encased the processor in plastic. Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of cooling? Heat can't escape through plastic as easily as it can through air. :)

The hard drive in the latest iMacs don't make that much heat, actually. Apple uses three kinds of hard drives in their latest lines: Maxtor, Seagate, and Quantum. They all run rather cool, with the Quantum being the hottest of them all (this is all subjective, and I haven't scientifically measured this stuff). The Seagate drives are definitely the quietest, though. :) The processor is one component that stays really cool. The heat sink for the processor happens to be the entire metal shield between the logic board and the Analog/Video/Power board. This shield has lots of holes in it that air goes through. It's quite an interesting and practical design. The monitor makes most of the heat, but since the tube is several inches away from the bottom of the iMac, there's plenty of room for heat to move up away from the components, sucking lots of cool air over the expensive stuff (logic board, hard drive, etc...) on the bottom of the computer. I admit it's not the coolest design, but considering what it is, it works really well.

The micro fans might be nice on paper, but how long do readers think it'll take for MAJOR chip vendors to implement them? The heatsink/fan combo has been with us for as long as I can remember, and considering how cheap and easy it is, I don't see it changing that much very soon. We need cooler processors, not better fans/heatsinks.

Path of least resistance, I guess.

Here's a Pentium III Datasheet. If anyone can find the wattage for the P3 in this marketing mess, I'd appreciate knowing it: http://www.intel.com/design/pentiumiii/datashts/24 526407.pdf

Here's a PowerPC 7400 Datasheet: http://e-www.motorola.com/brdata/PDFDB/MICROPROCES SORS/32_BIT/POWERPC/MPC7XX/MPC7400FACT.pdf

And here's a PowerPC 7450 datasheet: http://e-www.motorola.com/collateral/MPC7450FSR0.p df

[Disclaimer: I run iDEN's Developer Support program.]

As an introduction, iDEN is a unit of Motorola based in SoFla that produces a handset that combines cell phone, 02-way radio, pager and WAP capabilities. Our largest customers include Nextel in the US, Clearnet in Canada, and other operators in Latin America, the Middle East and Far East. http://www.motorola.com/iden.

So what is so exciting about running J2ME apps on the iDEN phones? Let's see:

• You get a full-blown cell phone, with pager, WAP, and 02-way radio capabilities
• Plus the equivalent power to a 386 PC in terms of MIPS and RAM
• Able to run J2ME apps. J2ME is a subset of Java, with 02 million plus developers out there
• Al this power in the palm of your hand, with wireless data capabilities (19.4 kbps) at 1/100th the weight of a 386 PC and 1/10th the cost

The bottom line: J2ME-powered devices are not just game-enabled phones. With these devices you can create complete, server-based wireless mobile IT applications. iDEN will make more announcements in these directions in the next few weeks. Please visit http://www.motorola.com/idendev for regular updates

What kind of wireless mobile IT solutions can you build with the iDEN J2ME-powered phones? For example:

• Server-based solutions where you can replicate a portion of the corporate database in your iDEN phone for off-line access.
• Stand-alone applications where all the business and presentation logic reside on the local app. Once the app completes the data processing, it can quickly send / receive updates via the wire
• Highly-interactive games that can stay in touch with your game server, allowing you to stay up to date on the "state" of your game.

So, why should developers partner with iDEN to create such wireless solutions? iDEN offers its registered developers:

• A free CD-ROM loaded with 03 Java IDEs, Apache, Enhydra, Sun's J2ME documentation, an Open Source RDBMS, plus debuggers and emulators. For both Win32 and GNU/Linux.
• Access to a multimedia J2ME training and certification program
• Access to e-mail, web, and telephone technical suport
• Once the developer creates an application, iDEN can distribute the app worldwide through its carriers (Nextel in the US, Clearnet in Canada, plus operators in Latin America, Middle East and Far East).

By working with iDEN, developers focus on whjat they do best (designing apps, coding, creating), while iDEMN handles the rest (app certification, distribution, merchandising and e-commerce back-end). iDEN is committed to help developers become more successful in the emerging Wireless Java Internet space.

By the way, current iDEN phones (like the i1000+) do not support J2ME apps. You will need to buy one of the upcoming "Condor" series phones, available int he US market by Q01 2001.

For additional info:

• http://www.motorola.com/idendev. Register free, and receive a free CD-ROM with all the tools you need to start creating cool J2ME MIDlets for the iDEN phones.
• e-mail Jose C. Lacal

Thank you for reading. Regards.

[Disclaimer: I run iDEN's Developer Support program.]

As an introduction, iDEN is a unit of Motorola based in SoFla that produces a handset that combines cell phone, 02-way radio, pager and WAP capabilities. Our largest customers include Nextel in the US, Clearnet in Canada, and other operators in Latin America, the Middle East and Far East. http://www.motorola.com/iden.

So what is so exciting about running J2ME apps on the iDEN phones? Let's see:

• You get a full-blown cell phone, with pager, WAP, and 02-way radio capabilities
• Plus the equivalent power to a 386 PC in terms of MIPS and RAM
• Able to run J2ME apps. J2ME is a subset of Java, with 02 million plus developers out there
• Al this power in the palm of your hand, with wireless data capabilities (19.4 kbps) at 1/100th the weight of a 386 PC and 1/10th the cost

The bottom line: J2ME-powered devices are not just game-enabled phones. With these devices you can create complete, server-based wireless mobile IT applications. iDEN will make more announcements in these directions in the next few weeks. Please visit http://www.motorola.com/idendev for regular updates

What kind of wireless mobile IT solutions can you build with the iDEN J2ME-powered phones? For example:

• Server-based solutions where you can replicate a portion of the corporate database in your iDEN phone for off-line access.
• Stand-alone applications where all the business and presentation logic reside on the local app. Once the app completes the data processing, it can quickly send / receive updates via the wire
• Highly-interactive games that can stay in touch with your game server, allowing you to stay up to date on the "state" of your game.

So, why should developers partner with iDEN to create such wireless solutions? iDEN offers its registered developers:

• A free CD-ROM loaded with 03 Java IDEs, Apache, Enhydra, Sun's J2ME documentation, an Open Source RDBMS, plus debuggers and emulators. For both Win32 and GNU/Linux.
• Access to a multimedia J2ME training and certification program
• Access to e-mail, web, and telephone technical suport
• Once the developer creates an application, iDEN can distribute the app worldwide through its carriers (Nextel in the US, Clearnet in Canada, plus operators in Latin America, Middle East and Far East).

By working with iDEN, developers focus on whjat they do best (designing apps, coding, creating), while iDEMN handles the rest (app certification, distribution, merchandising and e-commerce back-end). iDEN is committed to help developers become more successful in the emerging Wireless Java Internet space.

By the way, current iDEN phones (like the i1000+) do not support J2ME apps. You will need to buy one of the upcoming "Condor" series phones, available int he US market by Q01 2001.

For additional info:

• http://www.motorola.com/idendev. Register free, and receive a free CD-ROM with all the tools you need to start creating cool J2ME MIDlets for the iDEN phones.
• e-mail Jose C. Lacal

Thank you for reading. Regards.

[Disclaimer: I run iDEN's Developer Support program.]

As an introduction, iDEN is a unit of Motorola based in SoFla that produces a handset that combines cell phone, 02-way radio, pager and WAP capabilities. Our largest customers include Nextel in the US, Clearnet in Canada, and other operators in Latin America, the Middle East and Far East. http://www.motorola.com/iden.

So what is so exciting about running J2ME apps on the iDEN phones? Let's see:

• You get a full-blown cell phone, with pager, WAP, and 02-way radio capabilities
• Plus the equivalent power to a 386 PC in terms of MIPS and RAM
• Able to run J2ME apps. J2ME is a subset of Java, with 02 million plus developers out there
• Al this power in the palm of your hand, with wireless data capabilities (19.4 kbps) at 1/100th the weight of a 386 PC and 1/10th the cost

The bottom line: J2ME-powered devices are not just game-enabled phones. With these devices you can create complete, server-based wireless mobile IT applications. iDEN will make more announcements in these directions in the next few weeks. Please visit http://www.motorola.com/idendev for regular updates

What kind of wireless mobile IT solutions can you build with the iDEN J2ME-powered phones? For example:

• Server-based solutions where you can replicate a portion of the corporate database in your iDEN phone for off-line access.
• Stand-alone applications where all the business and presentation logic reside on the local app. Once the app completes the data processing, it can quickly send / receive updates via the wire
• Highly-interactive games that can stay in touch with your game server, allowing you to stay up to date on the "state" of your game.

So, why should developers partner with iDEN to create such wireless solutions? iDEN offers its registered developers:

• A free CD-ROM loaded with 03 Java IDEs, Apache, Enhydra, Sun's J2ME documentation, an Open Source RDBMS, plus debuggers and emulators. For both Win32 and GNU/Linux.
• Access to a multimedia J2ME training and certification program
• Access to e-mail, web, and telephone technical suport
• Once the developer creates an application, iDEN can distribute the app worldwide through its carriers (Nextel in the US, Clearnet in Canada, plus operators in Latin America, Middle East and Far East).

By working with iDEN, developers focus on whjat they do best (designing apps, coding, creating), while iDEMN handles the rest (app certification, distribution, merchandising and e-commerce back-end). iDEN is committed to help developers become more successful in the emerging Wireless Java Internet space.

By the way, current iDEN phones (like the i1000+) do not support J2ME apps. You will need to buy one of the upcoming "Condor" series phones, available int he US market by Q01 2001.

For additional info:

• http://www.motorola.com/idendev. Register free, and receive a free CD-ROM with all the tools you need to start creating cool J2ME MIDlets for the iDEN phones.
• e-mail Jose C. Lacal

Thank you for reading. Regards.

[Disclaimer: I run iDEN's Developer Support program.]

As an introduction, iDEN is a unit of Motorola based in SoFla that produces a handset that combines cell phone, 02-way radio, pager and WAP capabilities. Our largest customers include Nextel in the US, Clearnet in Canada, and other operators in Latin America, the Middle East and Far East. http://www.motorola.com/iden.

So what is so exciting about running J2ME apps on the iDEN phones? Let's see:

• You get a full-blown cell phone, with pager, WAP, and 02-way radio capabilities
• Plus the equivalent power to a 386 PC in terms of MIPS and RAM
• Able to run J2ME apps. J2ME is a subset of Java, with 02 million plus developers out there
• Al this power in the palm of your hand, with wireless data capabilities (19.4 kbps) at 1/100th the weight of a 386 PC and 1/10th the cost

The bottom line: J2ME-powered devices are not just game-enabled phones. With these devices you can create complete, server-based wireless mobile IT applications. iDEN will make more announcements in these directions in the next few weeks. Please visit http://www.motorola.com/idendev for regular updates

What kind of wireless mobile IT solutions can you build with the iDEN J2ME-powered phones? For example:

• Server-based solutions where you can replicate a portion of the corporate database in your iDEN phone for off-line access.
• Stand-alone applications where all the business and presentation logic reside on the local app. Once the app completes the data processing, it can quickly send / receive updates via the wire
• Highly-interactive games that can stay in touch with your game server, allowing you to stay up to date on the "state" of your game.

So, why should developers partner with iDEN to create such wireless solutions? iDEN offers its registered developers:

• A free CD-ROM loaded with 03 Java IDEs, Apache, Enhydra, Sun's J2ME documentation, an Open Source RDBMS, plus debuggers and emulators. For both Win32 and GNU/Linux.
• Access to a multimedia J2ME training and certification program
• Access to e-mail, web, and telephone technical suport
• Once the developer creates an application, iDEN can distribute the app worldwide through its carriers (Nextel in the US, Clearnet in Canada, plus operators in Latin America, Middle East and Far East).

By working with iDEN, developers focus on whjat they do best (designing apps, coding, creating), while iDEMN handles the rest (app certification, distribution, merchandising and e-commerce back-end). iDEN is committed to help developers become more successful in the emerging Wireless Java Internet space.

By the way, current iDEN phones (like the i1000+) do not support J2ME apps. You will need to buy one of the upcoming "Condor" series phones, available int he US market by Q01 2001.

For additional info:

• http://www.motorola.com/idendev. Register free, and receive a free CD-ROM with all the tools you need to start creating cool J2ME MIDlets for the iDEN phones.
• e-mail Jose C. Lacal

Thank you for reading. Regards.

Well, I noticed the sega link seems broken. But what really irks me is the lack of a link to the iDEN page. So I went and found it:

Motorola iDEN Group

Btw, the news is old (Nov 29th, 2000):
MOTOROLA WIRELESS PHONES TO FEATURE SEGA GAMES

And, yes, the phones are low power, so you don't have to worry as much about your batteries, although they do invariably run down. Why doesn't anyone put some solar cells on these things? (Or a minature cold-fusion core, goddammit.)

Any more questions are probably answered here.

Well, I noticed the sega link seems broken. But what really irks me is the lack of a link to the iDEN page. So I went and found it:

Motorola iDEN Group

Btw, the news is old (Nov 29th, 2000):
MOTOROLA WIRELESS PHONES TO FEATURE SEGA GAMES

And, yes, the phones are low power, so you don't have to worry as much about your batteries, although they do invariably run down. Why doesn't anyone put some solar cells on these things? (Or a minature cold-fusion core, goddammit.)

Any more questions are probably answered here.

Well, I noticed the sega link seems broken. But what really irks me is the lack of a link to the iDEN page. So I went and found it:

Motorola iDEN Group

Btw, the news is old (Nov 29th, 2000):
MOTOROLA WIRELESS PHONES TO FEATURE SEGA GAMES

And, yes, the phones are low power, so you don't have to worry as much about your batteries, although they do invariably run down. Why doesn't anyone put some solar cells on these things? (Or a minature cold-fusion core, goddammit.)

Any more questions are probably answered here.

Another advantage of flash rom is you can use a utility to save databases to flash, which is great if you need to reset your palm and don't have access to your synced information. I've been using Flash Pro to backup databases.

You'll have to watch out, because there are some Palms that don't have a flash rom, such as the Palm IIIe. This chart shows the palms that do and don't have flash (listed as "Upgradable").

If you ever need two-way paging needs, check out the Motorola Timeport 935. It has very similiar PIM applications like the Palm and can beam information too/from a Palm. Problem is, 3rd party application support is sparce.

Finally, see what your company will pay for. You may find out that the company either provides or has discounts setup for PDA's.

What about those personal organizers ? There are the Franklins, the Sharps, and what else ? Anybody play around with those cybikos ?

I'm thinking of building a prototype for a product, which will be a small organizer or two way pager like device with a key board and small 4 line screen. I know nothing about ergonomics, so I'd like to examine the best example.

I think it was a great idea: Unclassified but Sensitive information could be phoned back to the US without high level personel having to locate a STU (secure telephone unit). Bypass landlines and possible wiretaps, and you can call from anywhere. I believe conversations from the handset to the satellite were encrypted, so it was a great investment. Of course, the Iridium shut down around 6 months later and the phones were useless...

Hey, don't forget the MC 68328 series, which is currently used in all Palm PDAs. When will NetBSD port to that?

very interested in NetBSD/ppc, just wishing the install process wasn't such a pain...

While your at it check out Motorola's answer: The Accompli 009 which is due out in early 2001 both in the U.S. and Europe.

Here's another link: from cnn

OK, here's one to ponder - _IF_ there are health effects from cellular phones, is there any difference between the "GSM" ones and the "CDMA" ones? Here's why I ask:

1. Cel phones do not emit what is traditionally called "ionizing radiation" (UV, X-ray, gamma ray) - photons with enough energy to knock electrons out of atoms and break chemical bonds. Yes, this type of radiation causes cancer. No, cel phones do not emit it. Period.

2. My cel phone does, however, emit some radiation at a frequency that is capable of effecting electrochemical changes in biological molecules. Specifically, the power LED and LCD backlight emit photons of visible light that interact with my retina. The energy per photon of this radiation is roughly 1/2 of that of the UV at the low end of the "ionizing radiation" spectrum. Let's say a wavelength of 500 nm for "visible", 250 nm for "ionizing". (energy per photon is proportional to 1/wavelength)

3. The "interesting" radiation from the phone is at a frequency of approx. 3 GHz. This gives a wavelength of 10 cm, or 100,000,000 nm. In other words, the energy per photon is 200,000 times less than that of visible light and 400,000 times less than that of "ionizing" radiation.

4. I know that microwave ovens cook food. A cel phone uses a lot less power than a microwave oven. Consider this - it would hurt to stick your hand in a toaster for 5 minutes. That's infrared / visible radiation, with a higher energy per photon than your microwave. Does that mean that all infrared and visible radiation is harmful? Does it mean you will burn your brain if you sit next to a candle? Our bodies contain a lot of water, which has a high heat capacity. We also have circulating blood and an evaporative cooling system which allows us to regulate our temperature. Thermal radiation is only a problem at intensity levels which overload our body's regulating systems.

5. So the question now is, what's left in cel-phone radiation that could cause cancer or other biological effects? This is where I would be interested to hear the opinions of people who know more about these areas:

- Biological systems are quite sensitive to the shape of molecules. Microwave ovens heat food by exciting certain rotational/vibrational modes of water molecules. Is it possible that some interesting biological molecules are tuned so that microwave photons can distort their shape or alter the rate of some chemical reaction?

- Electric or magnetic fields. Instead of the quantum picture of individual photons, consider the classical picture of an electromagnetic wave. A time-varying magnetic field will induce electric currents in a conductive medium. The magnetic field itself will exert a force on moving electrons (Hall effect). Cel phones are easily capable of interfering with nearby electronic devices - some phones make the picture on computer monitors jump around, or produce audible pops and buzzing from cheap radios. The human brain is a rather delicate electrical system. Is it totally unaffected by the same levels of EM fields which interfere with electronic appliances? [I don't know the answer here]

6. If there are any actual interactions according to this last point (which to me seems to be the most likely, _IF_ there's anything there at all), shouldn't the effects be more pronounced with GSM phones than with CDMA ones? As you can see from technical references such as this one, GSM phones use "Time Division Multiple Access" where each one transmits pulses of radiation in a narrow frequency band. Conversely, CDMA phones transmit over a wide frequency range. Given the same total amount of energy being transmitted, a narrower bandwidth means a higher peak intensity of electric and magnetic fields. Therefore, wouldn't the GSM ones be more likely to cause adverse non-thermal effects in surrounding devices?

Dear Sir or Madam,

I have archived my previous letter in which I discussed the way I was advising others to avoid Motorola products here:

http://www.goingware.com/mani fes toes/motorola.html

and will continue to widely inform others of the URL widely until Motorola puts a stop to practices such as this.

Regards,

Michael D. Crawford

The only possible explanation that doesn't make Motorola sound like evil bastards is the concept that they're simply asking for this information in an effort to be closer to their customers.

Unfortunately, their completely faceless corporate tone and unwilliingness to so much as comment on their new Radius policy totally contradicts the idea of doing right by the customer. I wasn't even able to find a press release on their corporate website.

When will companies realize that if they alienate customers and screw the local businessman across our street, customers will go somewhere else??

It wouldn't be the first time. After all, how many companies keep this close relationship to Microsoft? The case, as I see, is they "like" what hackers do with their *hardware*. I don't see violations of EULA around. A hacker that respects him/herself won't simply bother opening the software pack.

So... what's *their* point? Motorola and other companies may send us the heck for offering our services to develop a driver for their softmodems, for example. Will we be competing disloyally? I *laugh* back at them.

-------------------------------------

I know the perfect gift... an Iridium Satellite. Useless but still cool as a tech relic! andrew at stern dot as

According to this guy, it's next to, but not completely, impossible!

Sean

I was referring to the PageWriter 2000X. It is based on a 68000 and Sun+Motorola were showing them at JavaOne 1999 (and probably 2000 as well). I forget the exact specs, but the JavaOne version had more than 4Mbytes of memory and ran at a decent clock speed. The retail versions have less available memory, but are still pretty powerful.

I design products with 8 bit devices, and I've used a couple larger chips here and there. There are many important features that designers need in microcontrollers:

• LOW COST !! 50 cents less times 10k units/month is a big deal. You could task an engineer for a couple man-months to rewrite code for a 50 cent lower CPU, after an initial release. Usually using an 8 bit chip instead of a 32 bit solution saves at least $10, sometimes much more.
• Low power consumption, under 4 mA is what I generally consider low power. A few years ago I designed a product that uses 9 A, 32 kHz CPU, wakes from full shutdown at 4 Hz. Try that with a linux-capable 32 bit chip! Low power also means a low cost power supply... at 1-2 mA, a resistor and zener diode can sometimes be used!
• Multiple vendors, or at least some assurance that the components will be available in the required quantities.
• Programmable program memory on-board... with in-circuit firmware download is a plus.
• Small physical size

Most projects in the embedded market just don't need a lot of CPU power. At high volumes, it's easy to pay even the most expensive engineers and programmers to re-write code to run on a cheaper chip.

I should probably disclose that I have a small website with 8051 related resources (open source), so take my words with a grain of salt, but until 32 bit microcontrollers are less expensive and use less power than their 8 bit competitors, I'd expect the bulk of the market will probably stay with the 8 bit chips.

Small devices like PDAs, cell phones, wrist watches, alpha two-way pagers, etc. seem to provide a fair amount of challenge and possible room for creativity with 6x6 icons and drop-down menus that take up most of the screen.
--

not the fastest chips mind you, but the best hw in terms of life of svc.

The processor speeds are NOT meassured by Mhz. Comparing PowerPC 750 and Intel chips on a Mhz basis is not even close to adequate. There is much more involved in the "speed" tests.

Check this for information regarding Processor comparisons.

From a Motorola white paper:

Designing Space Systems for Manufacturability

It looks like the cost is ~$19.8k/kg for the iridium satellites. I believe this includes both manufacturing and launch costs, though the paper is not so specific. However, remember that because they were manufacturing 66 identical satellites, they were able to greatly reduce the per satellite cost. The same paper lists a cost of ~$66k/kg for a single conventional satellite. Also, note that in building iridium Motorola set a number of industry records for Manufacturing and Deployment of Satellites (see motorola press release). Somehow, I don't think any inexperienced yahoo is going to rival this accomplishment!

From a Motorola white paper:

Designing Space Systems for Manufacturability

It looks like the cost is ~$19.8k/kg for the iridium satellites. I believe this includes both manufacturing and launch costs, though the paper is not so specific. However, remember that because they were manufacturing 66 identical satellites, they were able to greatly reduce the per satellite cost. The same paper lists a cost of ~$66k/kg for a single conventional satellite. Also, note that in building iridium Motorola set a number of industry records for Manufacturing and Deployment of Satellites (see motorola press release). Somehow, I don't think any inexperienced yahoo is going to rival this accomplishment!

I have a Motorola Timeport Tri-Band and a Palm III, get online via IR port to the phone..works great! Just connect to your existing ISP no problem.
Instructions for setup at this page. Also some other info about Palm & online access.

4 32 bit floating point numbers

4 32 bit signed/unsigned integers

8 16 bit signed/unsigned integers

16 8 bit signed/unsigned integers

AltiVec provides extremely powerful SIMD instructions, and even special instructions targeted at graphics (convert between 16 bit and 32 bit pixels with one instruction).

AltiVec also provides a very cool vector permute unit/instruction.

Everybody can test this portal by using one of these wap toolkits:
Ericsson
Motorola
Nokia
phone.com

I am using a very simliar setup. RH6.2 on a SONY Z505R (the modern one would be the HS or HE I think) with a Motorola L7089 tri-band phone. Works everywhere I've been (UK, Switzerland, Belgium, USA, Canada). No need for a modem either, just IR the phone to the laptop. Not the cheapest solution, but it does work well. Just make sure that you contact your local mobile provider and enable world-wide roaming. Some GSM providers have better roaming agreements than others. Shop around before you sign up if you are planning to roam in North America or Australia. I can't help much with that, since I am in Canada and use FIDO aka Microcell.

What did Apple do with the Altivec? Bundled it with a slow processor and sold it in overpriced systems.

AltiVec was invented by Motorola, not Apple; it's part of the processor, not an add-on unit like FPUs used to be. And even if it were, it couldn't just be "bundled" with any arbitrary processor.

You should do a little research before insinuating that someone else is a bad programmer next time. The vector datatypes being talked of here are VERY different from the STL vector template class. These are datatypes that represent the fundamental 128-bit data in the Altivec instruction set, much like double typically means a IEEE 64-bit floating point number.

Altivec adds the following data types to to C/C++:

vector unsigned char

vector signed char

vector bool char

vector unsigned short -- a.k.a. vector unsigned short int

vector signed short -- a.k.a vector signed short int

vector bool short -- a.k.a vector bool short int

vector unsigned int -- a.k.a vector unsigned long or a.k.a vector unsigned long int

vector signed int -- a.k.a vector signed long or vector signed long int

vector bool int -- a.k.a vector bool long or vector bool long int

vector float -- 4 single-precision floats

vector pixel -- 8 1/5/5/5 bit pixel elements (for graphics)

The elements of the bool types can only be all zeros or all ones. These vectors are usually used as masks or selectors in certain Altivec calls. The pixel type is for representing 16-bit color pixels and handles overflow within the 1/5/5/5 portions of the pixel.

This can all be found on pg 21-22 of the Altivec Technology Programming Interface Manual, which can be found on Motorola's site here.

I don't understand what you're getting at.

If you don't wnat HomePNA, don't plug a phone line into the HomePNA connection. Simple.

HomePNA doesn't travel far, either, if you did decide to leave it connected without using it.

The PL-100 has an F connector for you Cable service, an RJ-45 for 10/100BaseT Ethernet connectivity, A USB port for....errr...USB, and a HomePNA connector (RJ-11). Take your pick, mix and match. Bridging takes place in the modem.

BTW, the DM-100 is shown on Moto's website -- a kit is $299. Looks like the PL-100 bay be $399. What's interesting is that on their purchase page the DM-100 is shown selling for $249. Here is their 'io' site.

-Exigency

Unlike the LinkSys, this unit is a CableModem incorporating a firewall, DHCP Server, NAT and Management solution as in the Linksys (only, the Linksys has a web-based configuration, and the PL-100 uses separate Mac/PC software management) with a DOCSIS (CableLabs Certified) standard CableModem, so you don't need an external piece of equipment like the LinkSys.. The LinkSys has a 4-port 10/100 switched hub built-in, and the Motorola PL-100 has one 10/100 port so, if you're not interested in HomePNA, you can hook it into a hub yourself and still have all the services offered in the modem.

DOCSIS/CableLabs Certification guarantees interoperability with DOCSIS-compliant Cable Headend equipment (the majority of new installations and upgrades are DOCSIS compliant), so Motorola's equipment isn't required in the headend.

Motorola is coming out with an AL-200 which is a DOCSIS-compliant modem which uses HomeRF technology wireless networking, according to Motorola's CableModem website. I can't wait!!!!

Maybe it took so long for Motorola to certify their CableModems because they're sticklers about quality. I have been waiting over a year for Motorola to certify a DOCSIS Cablemodem. As soon as they're available I'm buying one.

Oh, and as for the Cisco unit - it's huge. It looks like it could be part of my stereo system, and to top it off it's $1000. Too much to pay for a cablemodem, since I could have bought the same type of system with discrete products for $500. If Motorola sells this modem for $350, it's mine!!

-Exigency