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It wasn't a patent issue. The guy was simply claiming that MS was infringing on his trademark rights.

http://www.pdabuzz.com/News/viewnews.cgi?newsid101 0641863,9371,

WHY do even the newest PDA's on the market still come with 16mb of memory?

This just isn't true luckily! Hell, every other type of PDA has been storming ahead of Palms.

For example, the Toshiba e570 has been out FOR A YEAR and has 64MB. As well as a full colour 320x240 screen. And an SD card slot. And a compactflash slot.

Ok, I had to see what you meant. The Kyocera 7135 does indeed look pretty cool.

I think they are the _first_ people to get a formfactor for a phone/PDS that I think might really be useable. I am a bit worried about the interoperability of the phone/PDA though. I'd have to try it out.

Of course, what I really wish is that the Sony Clie NR70 had a cellphone too. I mean they have the form factor right (if a bit large for a phone)!

Just don't ever ask me to use a PocketPC-based phone or PDA. Isn't ever gonna happen.

PDABuzz has more info and a artist conceptual drawing.

It looks pretty cool in white.

MS admits in the linked article that the OS is not "optimized". It fails to use the new ARM instruction set, and worse, does not seem to use the power-management capabilities of the XScale. Supposedly the Xscale uses half the power of the StrongARM, but battery tests on the new PPCs do not show this savings. This fix will be a while coming, as the next version of the OS does not appear to be optimized either.

Interestingly, Asus in their upcoming Xscale PPC is coming up with workarounds, such as on the fly automatic clock and voltage throttling. So while the Xscale supports capabilites that MS is not using, the vendors are not waiting for next year for MS to get their act together.

Hopefully the vendors will also figure out a way to speed up the terrible benchmarks of the Xscale PPCs.

I don't have one but I've read many accounts of the handera's having problems with build quality. Many have complained about the stylus silo cracking or breaking, and i've seen several complaints about the screen failing to responde and black lines appearing on the display. You should probably go check out the handera forums at http://www.pdabuzz.com and http://www.brighthand.com and asking around there before making any big purchase.

So that's why I can't get onto PalmInfoCenter today. Anyone looking for more info on this might want to try PDABuzz, another pretty good Palm site.

For those who are not so lucky to get there quick enough, go here to see pics and screenshots.

If I have to choose between HP and Treo, I would prefer Treo. It's smaller and I want a phone that can be PDA. This HP is PDA that has phone feature. but for someone who paln to do a lot of wireless web browser, HP beats treo to the ground.

Palm could certainly change PalmOS to use a different character recognition technology - for example TealScript already does this (although it too appears to be infringing on Xerox's patent).

Graffiti seems well integrated into PalmOS though, and to really fully replace it I'm sure would take more than writing a plugin.

Perhaps because the marketshare for GSM in the US is so far very low? Because CDMA and TDMA carriers currently offer vastly larger coverage areas than their GSM rivals, and there are plenty of CDMA and TDMA handsets that also offer analog roaming, GSM service is limited to pretty much only people that will be staying in and traveling between large metro areas. This will hopefully start to change once AT&T gets further along with their national GSM roll-out this should start to change. Of course, we start to get into a chicken vs. egg argument when you consider that more people (definitely me) would jump on the GSM bandwagon if some of these sweet Nokia handsets were available in the US.

Just-in New Buy.com Coupons [garlanger.com] .

This poster has a really good point -- usability is what really counts to the consumer. Does your mom really care what processor her cell phone uses? Does she care it can run Java? No. She cares that she can afford it, and it does what she requires. Therefore it is a successful product.

Now, please mod the parent as insightful or something.

Please type "Yes I understand that this is a very bad idea" to continue. -- apt

Rob Malda, the wannabe hacker and latecomer otaku, will soon be out on the streets, begging for spare change by the traffic light. He will spend his nights in a local shopping center, rubbing his ass against the shopping carts for kicks.

Jeff Bates, the wannabe scientist, will be forced to pimp out his little wifey -- amusing, because she's been an amateur whore for so many years already. Bates's primary customer will be Malda, whose Quarter Cartel shall make him one of the most prosperous bums in shopping center.

Gay Nik, although never really part of the Slashdork crew, will join this merry gang of homeless beggers, too, because what questionable BSD "skills" he many have are worthless in this day and age, a day and age in which *BSD is dying. (OpenBSD will never lose any users, though, because the only users it ever had were Theo "The Rat" De Raadt and his canine lover, Farmer.)

Jon Katz, a man who couldn't write an interesting article to save his life but whose knowledge of Microsoft Word's "spell check" facilities makes him a twerp among lamers at the Geek Compound, will make his living by designing the Slashdork crew's "Homeless, five children, please help, godbless" signage. Interestingly enough, the signs prove more of a challenge to Katz than any of the meaningless drivel that he ever spewed while leeching off of Slashdot.

CowboyNeal would be able to subsist on his own fat stores for approximately fifty years, if he weren't destined to be harpooned and eaten by a gang of minority squirrels.

Timothy Gaybone, Michael "Censorship NAZI" Himmler, Jamie "Gay Nights Online" McCarthy, Emmett "Stupid" Galacticon, and Krow the Wannabe DBA will also reside in the shopping center, and provide blowjobs on demand to the local "nerdcore" [geocities.com] fetish group.

Fuck you.

Troll Tuesday 2001. [geocities.com]

--The Messenger

• FUCKING AC -- Wrong!! (Score:-1)
  by Big_Ass_Spork on Wednesday November 14, @04:01PM (#2565634)
  (User #446856 Info | http://www.goatse.cx) lol lol lol lol lol lol lol ROFL lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol hehe ROTFLMFAO lol lol lol
  
  Shut the fuck up, bitch!
  
  ---
  All your Sporks are belong to Big_Ass_Spork! What you say?! All your Sporks are belo... forget it... [ Reply to This | Parent ]

• Nate, come to the dark side... (Score:-1)
  by Big_Ass_Spork on Wednesday November 14, @04:05PM (#2565661)
  (User #446856 Info | http://www.goatse.cx) You know you want to.
  
  ---
  All your Sporks are belong to Big_Ass_Spork! What you say?! All your Sporks are belo... forget it... [ Reply to This | Parent ]

I couldn't purchase anything with a name like "Yopy". It reminds me of the Doctor Seuss book, "Horton Hears a Who."

YOP! YOP! Yop! yop! ...

spookyworld.dnsalias.com [dnsalias.com]

Just-in New Buy.com Coupons [garlanger.com] .

This poster has a really good point -- usability is what really counts to the consumer. Does your mom really care what processor her cell phone uses? Does she care it can run Java? No. She cares that she can afford it, and it does what she requires. Therefore it is a successful product.

Now, please mod the parent as insightful or something.

Please type "Yes I understand that this is a very bad idea" to continue. -- apt

Rob Malda, the wannabe hacker and latecomer otaku, will soon be out on the streets, begging for spare change by the traffic light. He will spend his nights in a local shopping center, rubbing his ass against the shopping carts for kicks.

Jeff Bates, the wannabe scientist, will be forced to pimp out his little wifey -- amusing, because she's been an amateur whore for so many years already. Bates's primary customer will be Malda, whose Quarter Cartel shall make him one of the most prosperous bums in shopping center.

Gay Nik, although never really part of the Slashdork crew, will join this merry gang of homeless beggers, too, because what questionable BSD "skills" he many have are worthless in this day and age, a day and age in which *BSD is dying. (OpenBSD will never lose any users, though, because the only users it ever had were Theo "The Rat" De Raadt and his canine lover, Farmer.)

Jon Katz, a man who couldn't write an interesting article to save his life but whose knowledge of Microsoft Word's "spell check" facilities makes him a twerp among lamers at the Geek Compound, will make his living by designing the Slashdork crew's "Homeless, five children, please help, godbless" signage. Interestingly enough, the signs prove more of a challenge to Katz than any of the meaningless drivel that he ever spewed while leeching off of Slashdot.

CowboyNeal would be able to subsist on his own fat stores for approximately fifty years, if he weren't destined to be harpooned and eaten by a gang of minority squirrels.

Timothy Gaybone, Michael "Censorship NAZI" Himmler, Jamie "Gay Nights Online" McCarthy, Emmett "Stupid" Galacticon, and Krow the Wannabe DBA will also reside in the shopping center, and provide blowjobs on demand to the local "nerdcore" [geocities.com] fetish group.

Fuck you.

Troll Tuesday 2001. [geocities.com]

--The Messenger

• FUCKING AC -- Wrong!! (Score:-1)
  by Big_Ass_Spork on Wednesday November 14, @04:01PM (#2565634)
  (User #446856 Info | http://www.goatse.cx) lol lol lol lol lol lol lol ROFL lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol hehe ROTFLMFAO lol lol lol
  
  Shut the fuck up, bitch!
  
  ---
  All your Sporks are belong to Big_Ass_Spork! What you say?! All your Sporks are belo... forget it... [ Reply to This | Parent ]

• Nate, come to the dark side... (Score:-1)
  by Big_Ass_Spork on Wednesday November 14, @04:05PM (#2565661)
  (User #446856 Info | http://www.goatse.cx) You know you want to.
  
  ---
  All your Sporks are belong to Big_Ass_Spork! What you say?! All your Sporks are belo... forget it... [ Reply to This | Parent ]

Some technical specs and more pictures are here.

Does that *really* say 206MHz ? Gah.

MS didn't just block Mozilla, Opera, Netscape, and all its other browser competitors. It also blocked its own version of Internet Explorer for Pocket PC 2002. That is the brand-new version of the Pocket PC operating system which it just released last month. The lack of internal co-ordination at Microsoft on this is stunning... I thought they were a better organized company than this. Read the story here

The Handera has a bunch of cutting edge features for the Palm platform and the display resolution is awesome. However, I *cannot* believe that they don't have a USB sync port.

BTW, here is a good review on PDABuzz.

JOhn

According to this press release from Sony, it's 4.65 x 2.83 x .39. The reference linked is incorrect (which they usually are.)

Let's see, Palm CEO announced this in June, the official press release came out in July, and it is only now hitting Slashdot?

Three fourths of News is New.

So far nobody has gushed over the fact that the E-200 can act as USB host or client. Sure, they can all plug in to a USB port to synchronise, but up till now the only way you could connect peripherals was via serial port, or use one of precious few Compact Flash devices.

Imagine with proper USB connectivity, plug it into a USB hub and use a dozen things.

USB scanners, webcams, printers, USB-to-Ethernet, USB whatevers.

If only the release date was known....

What I am crying for actually is a larger display.

...

But what keeps them away from enlarging the display into the "graffiti" write zone? This gives roughly 1/3 more display area, for easier data display and email reading and and and...

PDABuzz reports they each have a 33MHz Dragonball VZ.

Hi all,

there's an interesting new article over on the Compaq website about the upgrade of current iPAQs to Merlin (PocketPC 2002):

"You made a great decision when you purchased your iPAQ Pocket PC!
Compaq will offer an upgrade to Microsoft Pocket PC 2002 for the iPAQ Pocket PC H3600 and H3100 Series.
You can place your order starting September 17, and shipments of the upgrade CD will begin in mid-October.
* If you purchased the iPAQ Pocket PC H3600 or H3100 Series between September 6, 2001 and November 30, 2001, your upgrade is free*.
(*You only pay for shipping, handling, and applicable tax for the upgrade CD.)

The process will involve completing and printing a form, then mailing or faxing it to Compaq, along with your proof of purchase.

* If you purchased the iPAQ Pocket PC before September 6 or after Nov 30, the upgrade will cost $29.95. Shipping, handling, and applicable taxes will be added to this amount.

Return to this site on or after September 17 to request or order the upgrade. "

The URL is here (thanks to Dave's Compaq iPAQ site for the original source of this news).

This comes after Compaq's announcement that "Customers can be assured that any iPAQ Pocket PC purchased today is upgradable to future Pocket PC software--a feature unique to the iPAQ."

I think this is pretty bad form on Compaq's part. First they announce that all current iPaqs will support Pocket PC 2002, with the wording of the announcement strongly reassuring potential buyers that it's really OK to buy one now, then they announce that they'll only supply the OS upgrade to people who've bought one from the 6th onward! Since I just bought an H3630 (ordered it on the 29th August) partly due to this announcement, I feel a little cheated. Compaq should supply the upgrade free to everyone who ordered an iPaq on or after the day they announced that the current generation would support the new OS.

Of course it does depend on how much the upgrade costs for us non-eligible owners, if it's say GBP30 (USD 50 or so) then while there'd be a fair bit of grumbling, most users would be willing to pay this (assuming there are significant reasons to upgrade).

As for whether it'll fit into the 16MB flash ROM, well according to most reports I've read on the misc. Pocket PC sites there'll be TWO versions of Pocket PC 2002, a scaled down one for all the current devices and the full version for the next-gen machines. There's more info at CNet here
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-7025389.html% 20tag=mn_hd

Oh, I might as well part with a few iPAQ links of my own (in no particular order):

http://www.tekguru.demon.co.uk/

http://www.pdatweaks.com/

http://www.ludipocket.co.uk/

http://www.pdageek.com/

http://www.pdabuzz.com/

with a bit more depth than the press release at pdabuzz
looks pretty.

Yep, those ones are mock-ups. For supposedly real shots of Merlin, check out this thread on PDABuzz. Note that there are no guarantees that these are real, either.

And here's the pre-press release story on it.

"I am a man, and men are
animals who tell stories."

And here's the pre-press release story on it.

"I am a man, and men are
animals who tell stories."

• You can't press more than one button at a time. This makes gaming nearly impossible.
• The speaker "clicks" as the little amplifier turns on whenever it needs to make a sound; This is probably a WinCE thing, so hopefully the linux driver folks will make it configurable.
• Dust inside the screen. Seems to happen to everyone - it happened to me, I'm just living with it.
• Weird expansion capabilities. You can add a Smart Media or Compact Flash slot, but the sleeve you need to get to do so makes the iPaq quite a bit bigger, and you can only have one sleeve at a time.

http://slashdot .org/article.pl?sid=00/04/27/0858200&mode=thre ad
http://linuxtoday.com/stories/17660.html
http://www.geeknews.org/news/fe b00/newsitem090.html
http://www.palmstation.com/ view_article.py?article=1786
http://www.pdabuzz.com/Features/Yopy.html
http://slashdot .org/article.pl?sid=00/02/27/1027237&mode=thre ad
http://www.pcworld.com /pcwtoday/article/0,1510,15486,00.html
http://www.ch ip.de/PC2D/PC2DB/PC2DBA/pc2dba.htm?id=323&ress ort=20 (German)
http://www.twomobile.com/new_032200_y opy.html (obviously they didn't credit the source of the pictures and video footage!)
http://ore illy.linux.com/pub/a/network/2000/05/05/magazine/L inuxPDA.html
http://www.handheldmed.com/code/news /yopi1.htm
http://www.gnn.de/0005/7603.html (German)
http://www.p cwelt.de/content/news/newprodukte/2000/05/xn090500 003.html (German)

http://www.sem.samsung.co.kr/ eng/product/digital/pda/
http://www.gmate.co.kr

http://www.palmtopmagazin.de/board/linux Discussion about Linux-PDAs (German)
http://www.palmtopmagazin.de/news/linux Linux-PDA news (German)
http://www.theyopy.de German Yopy fan site
http://www.handhelds.org Linux-Development for Compaq iPaq
http://www.yopy.org Another Yopy fan site

PDABuzz has a story/discussion on this, as well as links to Palm's announcement and a story about Steve Jobs' attempt to purchase Palm.

"I am a man, and men are
animals who tell stories."

But I guess it's not /. news until they can be sure to be the LAST to report it! Hmm.. Ya, but those wireless microwaves... Wooo doggy, uber geek, but... Ah, nevermind, it is sort of cool, just a bit more pointless. Just glad there are at least one or two other sources of Geek news than slashdot...

But I guess it's not /. news until they can be sure to be the LAST to report it! Hmm.. Ya, but those wireless microwaves... Wooo doggy, uber geek, but... Ah, nevermind, it is sort of cool, just a bit more pointless. Just glad there are at least one or two other sources of Geek news than slashdot...

You can read the patents here and here.

While the patents do cover the devices talking to one another and to other devices, the patent is obviously not for a PDA or PIM.

Now if Palm goes on with this e-wallet thing, there might be some question, but right now this lawsuit is a lot of hot air.

wishus

(Patent URLs courtesy of PDABuzz).
---

Without the full specs on the clie, it sounds like there will be additional software to purchase from Sony if you want to move your mp3s to ATRAC3 format.

(I wait impatiently for the english version)

while i feel for you, i'd have to agree w/ the /. editors on the decision. when the m505 launches at cebit, i'm sure it'll hit the news. until now it's just a rumor.

for anyone really interested in all the latest, i've found the palminfocenter to be the best source of info. (pdabuzz, brighthand, and palmstation are some other good ones for ppl interested)

Yes, it does look nicer than the old PQA. Though the new PQA actually looks pretty nice. Very cleverly designed, if naught else. And cooler, form-factor-wise, than the Visor+VisorPhone.
I'm not a huge admirer of the Visor (I fear that's due to loyalty to my Palm IIIxe), but this is a great application of the Springboard. However, read the discusison threads on the Visorphone on any handheld site (like Palmstation) and you'll see the problems. Cost, coverage, compatibility, etc. I won't rehash each of those issues here.

For the disposable-income-laden power user, this looks like The Way To Go. But otherwise... I'm not so sure. This seems partially to be a "because we can" feat that will need time to become perfected.

-J

Im sorry - but my money is clearly on the success of PocketLinux. What seems to be the best 'idea' is that we pair down Linux, build a GUI (why Xwindows? maybe XWindows is not 'appropriate' for Handhelds).

PocketLinux currently runs on Casio's E100, Compaq's iPaq & the VTech Helio. I think the 'real future' of pocket PC's, and if success for Linux will play out in this space is if a 'distro' is developed that is not to closely tied to one device - why not use Linux as the operating system to move the Handheld PC market away from the 'Apple' desktop idea to the 'IBM Clone' idea - where people install whatever (PocketLinux) OS on their current INSERT YOUR PDA HERE?

Have a look at all the PDA's that were @ Comdex 2000 - here at PDABuzz Look at all those beauty little PDAs, the question is are these obscure electronics companies from Asia going to build and 'market' a completely new OS for each of these devices? -OR- Would they be better off selling the device like a standard PC, with the attitude that users can find a OS to run on it. Wouldnt you rather buy a handheld for its hardware (the reason I bought the E100 10 months ago) or would you rather be forced to buy a OS/Hardware combo - where buying one may force you to compromise on the other.

Casio's E100 is a far better piece of hardware than anything fielded by Palm (even today - only advantage palm may have is size.. but its not that great an issue)

Palm's are small but their capabilities, speed, screens, audio(?) are less than optimal.

What I want is the PalmComputer market to move in the direction of the PC market - that way we can have our cake (hardware) and eat it too (PocketLinux).

What I would like to see: Both Palm and PocketPC get caught with their pants down (ala Apple in the 80s) while each of these "I have a wonder Palm PC but no 'marketing' or 'OS' to sell with it" (ala IBM Clone shops in the 80s) brings their product to market and aids Transvirtual in building PocketLinux. This basic change is bound to occur in the handheld space - Ill bet PocketLinux makes it happen...

Im sorry - but my money is clearly on the success of PocketLinux. What seems to be the best 'idea' is that we pair down Linux, build a GUI (why Xwindows? maybe XWindows is not 'appropriate' for Handhelds).

PocketLinux currently runs on Casio's E100, Compaq's iPaq & the VTech Helio. I think the 'real future' of pocket PC's, and if success for Linux will play out in this space is if a 'distro' is developed that is not to closely tied to one device - why not use Linux as the operating system to move the Handheld PC market away from the 'Apple' desktop idea to the 'IBM Clone' idea - where people install whatever (PocketLinux) OS on their current INSERT YOUR PDA HERE?

Have a look at all the PDA's that were @ Comdex 2000 - here at PDABuzz Look at all those beauty little PDAs, the question is are these obscure electronics companies from Asia going to build and 'market' a completely new OS for each of these devices? -OR- Would they be better off selling the device like a standard PC, with the attitude that users can find a OS to run on it. Wouldnt you rather buy a handheld for its hardware (the reason I bought the E100 10 months ago) or would you rather be forced to buy a OS/Hardware combo - where buying one may force you to compromise on the other.

Casio's E100 is a far better piece of hardware than anything fielded by Palm (even today - only advantage palm may have is size.. but its not that great an issue)

Palm's are small but their capabilities, speed, screens, audio(?) are less than optimal.

What I want is the PalmComputer market to move in the direction of the PC market - that way we can have our cake (hardware) and eat it too (PocketLinux).

What I would like to see: Both Palm and PocketPC get caught with their pants down (ala Apple in the 80s) while each of these "I have a wonder Palm PC but no 'marketing' or 'OS' to sell with it" (ala IBM Clone shops in the 80s) brings their product to market and aids Transvirtual in building PocketLinux. This basic change is bound to occur in the handheld space - Ill bet PocketLinux makes it happen...

http://slashdot .org/article.pl?sid=00/04/27/0858200&mode=thread
http://linuxtoday.com/stories/17660.html
http://www.geeknews.org/news/fe b00/newsitem090.html
http://www.palmstation.com/ view_article.py?article=1786
http://www.pdabuzz.com/Features/Yopy.html
http://slashdot .org/article.pl?sid=00/02/27/1027237&mode=thread
http://www.pcworld.com /pcwtoday/article/0,1510,15486,00.html
http://www.ch ip.de/PC2D/PC2DB/PC2DBA/pc2dba.htm?id=323&ressort= 20 (German)
http://www.twomobile.com/new_032200_y opy.html (obviously they didn't credit the source of the pictures and video footage!)
http://ore illy.linux.com/pub/a/network/2000/05/05/magazine/L inuxPDA.html
http://www.handheldmed.com/code/news /yopi1.htm
http://www.gnn.de/0005/7603.html (German)
http://www.p cwelt.de/content/news/newprodukte/2000/05/xn090500 003.html (German)

http://www.sem.samsung.co.kr/ eng/product/digital/pda/
http://www.gmate.co.kr

http://www.palmtopmagazin.de/board/linux Discussion about Linux-PDAs (German)
http://www.palmtopmagazin.de/news/linux Linux-PDA news (German)
http://www.theyopy.de German Yopy fan site
http://www.handhelds.org Linux-Development for Compaq iPaq
http://www.yopy.org Another Yopy fan site

http://www.pdabuzz.com/Features/Yopy.html Seems to be the new pics. (not sure, since my download is crawling)

Significantly, it is compatible with the Palm Computing platform, although it is unclear whether it has licensed this technology from Palm Computing itself.

Regards,

Ralf

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.

Significantly, it is compatible with the Palm Computing platform, although it is unclear whether it has licensed this technology from Palm Computing itself.

Regards,

Ralf

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.

Significantly, it is compatible with the Palm Computing platform, although it is unclear whether it has licensed this technology from Palm Computing itself.

Regards,

Ralf

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.

Wish I was there..

wish
---

Thank you, Bruce! I thought I was losing my memory.

I was immediately annoyed by the terms of the initiative: 'a donation in your name or a grant for future work for Helios, at your choice' -- if they make a donation in your name, it implies you're being rewarded for work already done (and should be allowed to pick your own charity, dammit) but if you need the cash for yourself, 'you owe them' some future work. Contradictory!

At first, I wrote it off as a lame PR stunt ("We were going to make a modest donation to an open source charity for publicity purposes, but if we can rope in a developer commitment instead, that's good too"), and I couldn't find any indication of the Foundation they mentioned on the Helios web site, but figured it was in the 'members only' developer section. Annoyingly: "For all the info you need to develop applications for the VTech-OS, click here." leads to nothing but a registration form and click-on license with terms that guarantee your work will not be GPL! (the complete license is listed at the end of this post)

Further research located a Linux/Open Source Foundation sponsoring 'groundbreaking' student competitions in Europe with 1Venture, 4linuxjobs (.co.uk, .nu, .se, etc.), but though the contest links all seemed to be 'down' or inaccessible from the US). I did find this little snippet in the archives of the Anglian Linux User Group:

"The Linux/Open Source Foundation (LOSF) is a trust with the sole purpose of supporting the development of Linux/Open Source by arranging contests and sponsoring events."

This Linux/Open Source Foundation also"placed 50,000 ord shares [in 1venture.co.uk] with institutional & other clients of JM Finn & Co @ 50p" -- whatever that implies.

So basically the Helios contest will "donate" cash to a company that sponsors contests. Is that enough to call it a scam? Not really. However, i remembered the Helio's click-on license (which you needed to accept for any developer info) and its disturbing conditions, and I wondered if their 'contests' might not be a scam to lock up innovative but undeveloped ideas from hungry students and budding developers.

"The submissions must be used through a browser or something similar - again freely available via the Internet."

What? No e-mail submissions? How very odd. But then they'd have to supply an e-mail address, and there might be an audit trail. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but if you review the materials linked, you'll find that I left out a lot of stuff that raised questions in my mind.

I'll close with the license text I promised:

----------------------------------------------
THE HELIOS CLICK-ON LICENSE FOR DEVELOPER INFO
----------------------------------------------


Public User License Agreement

PLEASE READ THIS AGREEMENT IN ITS ENTIRETY.
The Helio Software Development Kit contains the copyrighted and proprietary property of VTech Informations Ltd. This License Agreement is a legal contract between you and VTech Informations Ltd. that grants you certain limited rights to modify, reproduce, and use the information and software contained within the Helio Software Development Kit, in exchange for your expressly agreeing to the terms, conditions, restrictions, and waivers of warranty detailed below.

Unless you have a written license agreement signed by VTech Informations Ltd. that expressly supersedes this Agreement, your downloading of the Helio Software Development Kit indicates your acceptance of the terms of this License Agreement.

1. The Licensed Development Kit
This License Agreement applies to all technical information and software that is included in or distributed with the Helio Software Development Kit ("the Licensed Development Kit.") The Licensed Development Kit may include source code and/or object code forms of the VT-OS operating system, the Application Programmer Interface, drivers, sample applications, and additional code and information.

2. Copyright Statement
The Development Kit and any included software and information is owned by VTech Informations Ltd. or its suppliers and is protected by United States copyright laws and international treaty provisions.

3. Your Rights Under This Agreement
By agreeing to this License Agreement, you are granted the right to use the Licensed Development Kit solely to create software application programs for VTech's Helio line of products, or other VTech products that use the VT-OS, and to distribute, market, license and sell such application programs. You may modify or adapt the software and may incorporate the software, or part thereof, into your own programs, thereby creating a Derivative Work. YOUR USE OF THE LICENSED DEVELOPMENT KIT AND THE CREATION AND USE OF DERIVATIVE WORKS IS STRICTLY SUBJECT TO THE LIMITATIONS AND CONDITIONS CONTAINED BELOW IN SECTIONS 4 THROUGH 7.

4. Your Obligations Under This Agreement
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and this patch will make it more diff to sync your palm w/ outlook. this is IMHO just part of the plan to make ppl dislike the palm.

nmarshall
#include "standard_disclaimer.h"
R.U. SIRIUS: THE ONLY POSSIBLE RESPONSE

Here is a link to a scanned image of a full page ad M$ took out in USAToday. Don't know about you, but I have a Palm _because_ of its simplicity.

We covered this over a month ago right here and it is only an artist's conception.

It was submitted to /. the same day we posted it but it was rejected ... I guess you just have to wait a few weeks and resubmit to get stuff posted these days. *sigh*

Yea.that w/not a flame epoc is a really nice os..(though i wish the dev tools were free -or- cheaper).. my psion 3a just crocked.. and imo it was as good as the palm 3 series.. minus the size of course.. The new Psion Revo is only a tad larger then the palm 3 and his a bright (not backlite) b/w lcd screen.. http://www.psion.com/revo
http://www.pdabuzz.com/Reviews/Psion ~Revo.html

d

Sorry if this is a double posting, /. has no returned page.

The funnest thing is these palm-wandabes can play .mov, but what can you play on 8meg memory? Or the max 96 meg of Compact Flash? Before a handhold device can hold 1Gig of data, it's simply stupid to add the video feature on a tiny gadget. And there is only one thing can do it. No portable dvd player doesn't count, because it can't play X-file futurama and rare Humphrey Bogart movies. (of course, I can't afford it.)

And before somebody want to remind me that they can play mp3. These are the answers 1) My Rio cost 50 bucks 2) No PDA has 32meg build-in memory 3) My Rio runs 12 hours on an AA 4) Visor will play mp3, (the add-in doesn't have its own battery source thouh)

Compaq already replace its fansy 12 godzilliom color screen with a black and white, now all it need is a decent OS :)


(disclaimer, no I don't own any PDA)


CY

The funnest thing is these palm-wandabes can play .mov, but what can you play on 8meg memory? Or the max 96 meg of Compact Flash? Before a handhold device can hold 1Gig of data, it's simply stupid to add the video feature on a tiny gadget. And there is only one thing can do it. No portable dvd player doesn't count, because it can't play X-file futurama and rare Humphrey Bogart movies. (of course, I can't afford it.)

And before somebody want to remind me that they can play mp3. These are the answers 1) My Rio cost 50 bucks 2) No PDA has 32meg build-in memory 3) My Rio runs 12 hours on an AA 4) Visor will play mp3, (the add-in doesn't have its own battery source thouh)

Compaq already replace its fansy 12 godzilliom color screen with a black and white, now all it need is a decent OS :)


(disclaimer, no I don't own any PDA)


CY