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This site is no longer maintained.
My current weblog.
Friday, April 05, 2002Research In Motion has announced plans to offer a reference design program to device manufacturers based on their Blackberry series of wireless data devices. [via PDABuzz]
Interesting.
Press release and PDABuzz discussion.
Since re-building my Zaurus, the situations where it works or doesn't work on the docking base seem to have changed. And pressing the "Sync" button now turns it on. Weird. I didn't re-flash the ROM or anything like that.
Positive anecdote: a first sync with Outlook goes much quicker on the Zaurus than any Palm or Pocket PC device that I've ever used.
Zaurus Hell
I just had the thrill of "breaking" my Zaurus SL-5000D. Linux is not for everyone, folks. If you're foolish enough to open the terminal and make a mistake while editing /etc/inetd.conf, you too may find yourself holding a PDA that hangs on "INIT: Entering Runlevel 5"
Fortunately I have been saving all of the ipkg files I need on my SD card, so re-installing my applications is a fast process. With a "virgin" Zaurus I can even get some of the Hancom applications to install to SD if I do them in the right order and chant the proper incantations. They do not seem to play well with each other. I'll write something about that later (SL-5500 buyers get the Hancom suite in ROM, no special installation dances required).
Are there people for whom spreadsheets are a compelling PDA application?
Follow-up: I am not a thief
I predict that a Taiwanese manufacturer will start producing cd-rom and dvd-rom drives that feature a pessimistic TOC determination mode that is immune to current audio protection schemes. It will have a flash-rom so that future schemes can also be worked-around.
The RIAA will sue them, of course, claiming that the drives are "circumvention" devices under the DMCA. The RIAA will not prevail because the device is not circumventing anything, it is correcting a broken CD. Phillips will be a lead witness for the defense, and after the suit is dismissed they will begin producing similar drives.
Such drives will be standard on all Dell systems one year from now.
Jason Dunn of Pocket PC Thoughts is reporting about Mobius Europe 2002 live from Germany.
I miss German food. Italy offers more culinary delights, but the classic Bavarian home-cooked meal just... suits me, damned well.
What I would give for some schweinebraten mit knodel, or even just a plate of weissewurst and a fresh brezle!
Correction: Jason was in Germany. Mobius has been over for a while, he's just getting his notes online.
Wireless Zaurus, "Free" Linux
ZDnet on the Sharp SL-5500. Reports that Sharp will be launching a CDPD service at $29 per month and $99 for the modem. A CDPD offerring at this stage when there are faster services is curious. It is interesting to note that while the SL-5500 uses the supposedly cheaper Linux operating system, the device does not cost significantly less at $500. [via Frankly Speaking]
Plenty of reasons still to use CDPD. It's wildly popular for embedded applications and has been around forever, which has resulted in wide-spread coverage. The pricing has also been driven down over the years, flat-rate for under $50/month is nothing new. Granted that CDPD is slow, but until recently it had been the only game in town.
As for Linux being cheaper... Beyond the kernel itself and the command-line utilities on the Zaurus, nearly all of the software is commercial. Qtopia, QT/Embedded, Opera, the Hancom suite, and IntelliSync all cost money. Sharp is probably saving a few dollars per unit over Pocket PC 2002, but I suspect that it isn't very much. Factor in development costs, increased time to market, lost sales due to it not being a Pocket PC...
Pictures!
Here are some shots of Mobile Offline Blogger in action. These were taken using the emulator because it was easier to capture the screen that way. The editor will probably have some UI changes made before the Beta 1 release.
Updated first image with slight UI improvement, it now shows the time with today's entries and the date with earlier ones.
