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I'd take a PocketPC or PalmOS PDA Phone and a Bluetooth GPS and a 4GB Microdrive, combined with some nice Hiking maps. And maybe some nice bright flashing toys from ThinkGeek. For Self-protection, I'd want a Taser. Oh yeah, and a Sidewinder so that I don't have to find a power supply for any of this stuff.

(Okay, I accidentally hit "reply" in the wrong fucking tab so this comment is actually posted in the "Developers: RMS Previews GPL3 Terms" story.)

I was planning on getting a Treo and setting it up with a Socket Communications barcode reader to explore that kind of functionality in a PDA. I hope they don't outright kill the Palm OS on their devices but rather carry both. I'd like to have an alternative to Microsoft when trying out those kinds of device setups. I keep coming across hardware I want that only works with Windows, like mobile phones and sheet-feed scanners, and it is frustrating.

Years ago, I had a top-of-the-range Toshiba laptop that came with Windows 95. When I upgraded to Windows 98, all of a sudden, the power management got all screwed up. To turn the machine off, I had to Shutdown, wait for it to hang, unplug the AC power adaptor, and pull out the battery. This was extremely frustrating, considering it wasn't exactly an obscure brand that was unsupported. Because of those kinds of experiences, I would really like to use another company's product.

Yes, there were things about their products that I did like. Despite the major security problems that came with it, I did like the whole COM thing from a development perspective. Being able to use the same controls in Access, Visual Basic, Visual C++, and Internet Explorer did have a nice consistency. And I don't recall having problems with my Palm on Windows the way I do now on OS X. If anything happened to your computer, all your PIM data was backed up on the Palm, so all you had to do was re-install the system and hit a button to restore it on the computer. But on OS X, I've had the computer wipe the data from my Palm when I did clean OS upgrades. They also managed to include programs along with their main products that helped you do more, like a graphics application that came with Office which was useful for web design. On the Macintosh, it seems like it costs much more to do really basic web design compared to Windows.

But that power management thing was really a bitch to deal with. I couldn't believe that any company would be so incompetent as to cripple a computers ability to simply turn off. The security problems were also unbearable. Allowing remote code to install itself on your computer automatically was just pure brainlessness. I can recall that there was an exploit in which an attachment could open itself up automatically in the preview pane in Outlook Express, and I had read about it as a proof-of-concept security hole possibly a year or two before virus writers actually started using it. The fact that a company would allow a common-knowledge exploit to go unpatched for so long was ridiculous. I've seen friends who's jobs depended on their computers lose all their data because of exploits like that.

So in the end, I opted for a more expensive computer setup that had less third-party hardware support, but could turn on and off like a television and actually allow me to do other things instead of having to constantly patch and implement work-arounds for newly discovered exploits. I got a computer I could use rather than one I had to maintain. Maybe things have been different since, but I think that it is just a fundamental issue that consumers have alternatives when piecing together computer systems.

I was planning on getting a Treo and setting it up with a Socket Communications barcode reader to explore that kind of functionality in a PDA. I hope they don't outright kill the Palm OS on their devices but rather carry both. I'd like to have an alternative to Microsoft when trying out those kinds of device setups. I keep coming across hardware I want that only works with Windows, like mobile phones and sheet-feed scanners, and it is frustrating.

Years ago, I had a top-of-the-range Toshiba laptop that came with Windows 95. When I upgraded to Windows 98, all of a sudden, the power management got all screwed up. To turn the machine off, I had to Shutdown, wait for it to hang, unplug the AC power adaptor, and pull out the battery. This was extremely frustrating, considering it wasn't exactly an obscure brand that was unsupported. Because of those kinds of experiences, I would really like to use another company's product.

Yes, there were things about their products that I did like. Despite the major security problems that came with it, I did like the whole COM thing from a development perspective. Being able to use the same controls in Access, Visual Basic, Visual C++, and Internet Explorer did have a nice consistency. And I don't recall having problems with my Palm on Windows the way I do now on OS X. If anything happened to your computer, all your PIM data was backed up on the Palm, so all you had to do was re-install the system and hit a button to restore it on the computer. But on OS X, I've had the computer wipe the data from my Palm when I did clean OS upgrades. They also managed to include programs along with their main products that helped you do more, like a graphics application that came with Office which was useful for web design. On the Macintosh, it seems like it costs much more to do really basic web design compared to Windows.

But that power management thing was really a bitch to deal with. I couldn't believe that any company would be so incompetent as to cripple a computers ability to simply turn off. The security problems were also unbearable. Allowing remote code to install itself on your computer automatically was just pure brainlessness. I can recall that there was an exploit in which an attachment could open itself up automatically in the preview pane in Outlook Express, and I had read about it as a proof-of-concept security hole possibly a year or two before virus writers actually started using it. The fact that a company would allow a common-knowledge exploit to go unpatched for so long was ridiculous. I've seen friends who's jobs depended on their computers lose all their data because of exploits like that.

So in the end, I opted for a more expensive computer setup that had less third-party hardware support, but could turn on and off like a television and actually allow me to do other things instead of having to constantly patch and implement work-arounds for newly discovered exploits. I got a computer I could use rather than one I had to maintain. Maybe things have been different since, but I think that it is just a fundamental issue that consumers have alternatives when piecing together computer systems.

Yeah, if only something like this existed.

There are several Bluetooth GPS devices available....

Even simpler. If your PocketPC has CompactFlash and SDIO slots, a ported version of airpwn would be equally disruptive, and much harder to detect physically.

The Zaurus SL-5500 is awesome. Being worried about battery life, I opted to purchase the Socket brand low power CF WiFi Card. The card works great for "normal" usage. It does not work with Kismet or Discoverer (or I could not get it to work).

Having used both Microsoft SmartPhone and Nokia Series 60 phones (7650 and 3650) I can tell you that Microsoft offering is garbage compared to the Nokia ones... UI is more intuitive and usable. Also Bluetooth, MIDP 2.0 and Symbian OS provides (for me) a more attractive and usable environment. Plus the phone is actually a lot more stabler.

The Microsoft SDK is a more usable though than the current Nokia one, but I was able to create a GPS program for my 3650 in three days. It uses Socket's Bluetooth GPS module for location information and downloads a map from Mapblast using GPRS connection - a bit like GpsDrive and one program done for SonyEricsson P800. You cannot do that in SmartPhone (current phones for not have Bluetooth).

So for Series 60 SDK:
Forum Nokia and your Bluetooth examples and community help from:
Berlin Factor
Newlc And one more thing there are more than three million Series 60 phones out there compared to measly 80000 Microsoft SmartPhones :-).

There are lots of products (yes I know it's down but that's their website) that integrate barcode scanners into PDA equipment. The dual-function-as-laser-pointer feature I have not yet seen....
We (along with many other retail chains I am sure) are building UPC lookup via barcode PDA applications as we speak. They are rather trivial - the hardest part being designing a good UI

They support Compact Flash Type1 Cards which means you can swap in a Modem, GPS,Barcode scanner or anything else available.

Cos you just know your Boss is going to NEED a Barcode scanner, well, just as soon as he thinks of it...


PS. I just used google to find the example CF Cards so I recommend looking about for the best buy.

They support Compact Flash Type1 Cards which means you can swap in a Modem, GPS,Barcode scanner or anything else available.

Cos you just know your Boss is going to NEED a Barcode scanner, well, just as soon as he thinks of it...


PS. I just used google to find the example CF Cards so I recommend looking about for the best buy.

They're all missing the boat.

What we need are:
- Simple devices (a camera that just takes pictures, a MP3 player that just plays MP3's, a GPS that just spits out GPS data, a scanner that just scans, a printer that just prints)

- Cross-device scripting language, like "Javascript for Devices" or like Sun's old Java Bean Studio or even "Lego Mindstorms for Devices" or something like that

- Wireless, of course (short range)

- A PIN # to match all of my devices

- Rendezvous so that they all auto-recognize each other

This way, I could program my camera to talk to my GPS so that I know where that picture was taken, program my camera to talk to my cell phone so that when I double-click the shutter, email that picture to Mom. Program my printer to talk to my camera to print out pictures, program my car to email me when my odometer reaches time to change the oil, etc. etc.

When I go on vacation, I just strap my GPS and my portable hard drive to my belt and bring my camera, no more wondering where that picture was taken, no more worrying about storage.

Simple Devices and Cross-Device language.

Eliminate the PC and complexity of it. Why do I need to fire up my PC to print & save my pictures?

This company almost gets it. As does Intel, by the article.

DNET. You heard it here first.

Welcome to the next revolution.
williesleg@hotmail.com

I've worked out most of the details, don't have any prototypes yet, though. Soon.

... one of these to go with my Sony/Ericsson T68, HBH30 bluetooth headset and Palm Tungsten T:

Socket Bluetooth GPS Receiver

This offers much more flexibility, and I can leave the phone in my pocket, the GPS in my bag and use two hands to navigate the maps and links on the Palm.

What has stopped me from buying, however, is the claim that this card does not work under current Linux drivers because it uses a currently undocumented MAC chip, although the rest of the hardware is supposed to be standard Intersil Prism.

Does anyone know if this problem is still the case? If the hardware were documented I would probably feel comfortable enough buying the chip and adapting one of the Prism drivers to it. (One the other hand, I would use a different card or do without rather than run a proprietary driver.)

By the way, the SMC card the MicroCenter had for $140 looks identical to the Socket card from the outside. I would be intersted in knowing if they are the same, and if anyone has used the SMC card under Linux.

--

I now have a Motorola 7868W Startac with a Digital Phone Card with service through Verizon and it works wonderfully. Let me break it down for you....

• The phone: Has a built-in "modem." Actually, since it never goes analog, modem is a bad term. But plug a serial cable into this puppy and you can send Hayes AT commands to it! It also has a phone.com mini-browser in it so you can browse WAP sites or even read/send e-mail if you like pecking on a 10-key pad.
• The PDA: Casio E-115 Pocket PC. Has a Compact Flash interface. Now that means you can get a serial CF card and connect that to a serial cable for the Motorola (that costs $119 at a Verizon store believe it or not, plus a bit for the CF Serial card and cable too.) Which brings us to...
• The Interface: Socket's DPC phone card just combines the two pieces above into one serial CF card with plug on other end to put into specific digital phones. They make different cables for phones so make sure you order the right one. Retails for $120 iirc.
• The Service: Verizon has CDMA Data access in many areas (but not all of its digital areas). It runs at 14.4K and you communicate to the phone at 19.2K. With it you can just dial a normal ISP dial-up number or use Verizon's own dial-up at no extra cost by dialing #777 and using a username/pass of qpc/qpc (er, it says this on their web site so I'm hardly revealing anything here). The point is, #777 is available without having to have your own ISP. Now you have to pay/use minutes just like normal airtime rules. I got an unlimited nights/weekend package to help.
• The Cost: Via Verizon, it's $6.95/month for "web access" plus air time. You get web access through the phone's browser plus data access from another device. Now I never tried not having the 6.95 web charge and just trying to dial #777 and seeing if it worked however. Of course, they know what your phone # is when you dial into it. Their intent is for you to buy the 6.95/mo service from what I could gather. If thinking along those lines, dial into an ISP and not #777 if you don't have the 6.95/mo service. However, I'm sure the wireless network has to know if your call is being set up for a data call (and even when my call detail comes in the mail, calls to an ISP still show as a data call) so I really really doubt you can get buy without the "web" phone service feature.

Another possible solution is to use a CPCD network. The big problem I had with this one was lack of a CPCD CF card. Well, one just came out (I remember seeing it advertised but can't remember details). With this, you don't need a cable between your phone and PDA, you don't need your phone at all. Get CPCD service and you're really free. Verizon sells this too for $40/month unlimited access in my area and it runs at 19.2K. Never tried it, so I don't know how well it works.

I'm also not a Verizon person. I'm just more familiar with their services since I'm a customer. There could be other combos out there. Also, Socket has the Digital Phone Card (DPC) for use with GSM phones so that must be an option in areas as well...

Does anyone know of a Bluetooth product for the TRGpro? I know that Socket Communications will be producing a BT CF card, but they do WinCE drivers (ick). Are there any other companies likely to release a BT CF card soon? TIA.