T Bryce Yehl: Bryce's PDA Channel

Moving

Mon, 04 Nov 2002 20:15:07 GMT

I'm finally taking the plunge and switching to "MT". I'm not going to bother importing this weblog, at least not initially. Too much work for too little benefit. My archives can stay here indefinitely.

My new home page and weblog. Feeds are available in RSS 0.91, RSS 1.0, and RSS 2.0 flavors. I'm not going to set up RSS redirects. I don't like Userland's solution because any aggregator that doesn't understand the format will barf on it. HTTP 301 redirects are better supported, but I don't feel like reconfiguring Apache to allow .htaccess files.

For the couple of people that subscribe to my category feeds, I'll get around to re-creating those eventually. Stay subscribed to the current feeds and wait for an update.

SmartPhone attacks Brittons

Wed, 23 Oct 2002 00:57:38 GMT

Microsoft's SmartPhone platform is finally becoming reality, thanks to the Orange SPV (aka HTC Canary). Forbes reports a US$260 selling price. infoSync has a thorough pre-release evaluation. InfoWorld says that AT&T will offer SmartPhones in the US by mid-2003.

According to Microsoft's specs, the SPV is tri-band. Probably won't be long before someone starts importing them...

Newton Lives?

Mon, 21 Oct 2002 18:26:06 GMT

nSync synchronizes Newton PDAs with Mac OS X Jaguar. [via Boing Boing Blog]

The Newton MP130 was the first PDA that could read my handwriting. I have noticed that Transcriber's accuracy improves greatly if I write in cursive, but it's still not as good as an ancient Newton.

Standardization vs. Innovation

Fri, 18 Oct 2002 00:05:17 GMT

Frank followed-up on my post on the lack of PDA innovation, writing that "What one calls a lack of innovation, others call standardization." Steve follows-up on that with a list of some things that would provide him with a "more "mobile" digital assistant."

My take is that Pocket PCs have been commodities since Microsoft dropped support for non-ARM processors. Declining component prices have made them cheap, now it's time for vendors to start taking steps to differentiate their products. Better LCDs, faster CPUs, and more memory aren't enough. I want features that will make my PDAs more usable and useful, like keyboards and cameras, not simply more powerful.

Rumour is that HP is working on iPaqs that will be different, offering a variety of wireless and biometric options. Neither inspires me, especially given HP's reluctance to reduce iPaq pricing, but having those features will be meaningful for many buyers. And then there are those Sleeves that iPaq owners seem to love...

PS: One of the things that has shocked me with Pocket PCs is that, while they are commodities made by just a couple of manufacturers with essentially the same guts, everybody designs their own connector to stick on the bottom. And while almost every design includes an add-on chip from Intel that offers USB Host functionality, amongst many other features, very few make use of it.

More on Palm's Survival

Sat, 12 Oct 2002 18:26:26 GMT

Bow Lewis of InfoWorld writes that PDAs are here to stay, but Palm may not be:

Two years ago I predicted hard times for Palm. Hard times have arrived, in the form of plummeting market share and negative profits.

It was not a difficult prediction. When I wrote the column, Palm hadn't given customers any reason to buy a new PDA in years, and there are still only two reasons to replace a Palm PDA: (1) You dropped your old one; or (2) you want to upgrade to something better, which means either a Windows CE-based device or a Symbian-driven PDA/telephone combo.

He goes on to dismiss Palm OS 5 as "Yesterday's features tomorrow -- impressive."

I don't have it in me to do any more Palm-bashing right now. They've got problems, they need solutions. Convergence devices are a bright spot for Palm, just look at what Handspring, Kyocera, and Samsung have been doing. Maybe they should emulate Symbian -- exit the hardware business, push heavily for handset licensees. Let Sony and Handspring keep building PDAs, they're better at it anyway.

Lack of PDA Innovation

Fri, 11 Oct 2002 03:27:19 GMT

Steve has a rant on the lack of innovation in the PDA market, spurred by my earlier entry. I had actually started that post as a long rant, and started restating my arguments again just now, but I don't think we really need another long rant. I'll keep this relatively short and sweet.

All of the innovation is happening with non-PPC devices. The primary reason for this is that PPC vendors depend on contract manufacturers for just about everything, following the PC model. Palm OS licensees mostly follow the Apple model, designing nearly everything themselves and using contract manufacturers solely for manufacturing.

The good news is that the decline in prices puts PPC vendors on nearly equal footing with Palm OS licensees. The bad news is that PPC innovations will likely remain few and far between due to the dependance on contract manufacturers, and declining margins will make PPC vendors even more risk-adverse (ie: cool stuff won't be widely available until the costs are low enough to attract Dell).

I think I am slowly convincing myself to go back to the Palm platform. The Sony NX70V makes me drool and the Kyocera 7135 (review) is a highly appealing SmartPhone alternative. I wonder if anyone will come up with a way to directly sync a Palm OS 5 device with a Palm OS 4 phone...

Danger Follow-up

Thu, 10 Oct 2002 23:50:27 GMT

I realized sometime on Monday that it was gonna happen. Too many people reading it, the Network Effect had been triggered, and I was expecting an email any minute. Sure enough, I got an email from a web app engineer at Danger, in response to my rantings the other day. [Anil]

After reading Anil's original rant and posting about Danger's lack of developer information, I sent an email to developer@danger.com asking if they had any "guidelines for creating web content that renders well" on the HipTop / Sidekick. I have received no response.

What good is a web browsing super phone if nobody knows how to design content for it?

How the Pocket PC market will shake out

Thu, 10 Oct 2002 18:41:11 GMT

Here is how I see the platform and price aligning. The Pocket PC platform will be low to midrange in price depending on memory, screen quality, and expansion capabilities. Prices will hover in the $300 price category. The Pocket PC Phone Edition platform will be the new, high-end platform around the $500 price and feature wireless voice and data, along with more memory. [Frank McPherson]

Agreed. I want to believe that there is still room for premium, non-vertical devices that aren't simply cloned PPC PE designs... but I'm not sure that there are any innovators in the current Pocket PC market.

I would love a Pocket PC rendition of Sony's NX70V.

The End of Palm?

Wed, 09 Oct 2002 17:29:29 GMT

The upcoming line of inexpensive color Pocket PCs are going to shake up Palm OS market.

At the low-end of the B&W Palm OS spectrum, Palm has just come out with the $99 Zire. It is a physically attractive device with 2MB RAM, rechargeable battery, and no backlighting. What's interesting to me is that Palm already had a $99 device, the m105, with a backlight and 8MB RAM but no rechargeable cell. You would expect these models to be primarily impulse-buys from first-timers. Pocket PCs don't compete in this space, and that's a great thing for Palm because they need to get first-time buyers hooked on Palm OS if they are going to continue selling higher-priced models.

Palm's $149 m125 adds an SD slot, Handspring has two models at that price-point, Sony has one, and all three also have $199 B&W models. I want to proclaim all of these models at being dead, because color devices ought to decimate B&W sales when the price difference is negligible... Except that Dell doesn't have any retail presence, which makes me doubt that HP's upcoming low-end model will come in under $299. In that case, I expect the $199 models to fall to $149 and the current $149 models to disappear.

The cheapest color Palm is the $249 m130, a model that has been compromised by a faux 16-bit display. Next up at $299 are the Handspring Treo 90 and Sony PEG-SJ30 CLIE. These devices may survive, primarily selling to existing Palm OS users. First-time PDA buyers will go elsewhere. Palm's $349 m515 is a goner. Sony's wisest play might be to kill everything except the NR-series, reducing prices by $100 to make them more competitive against $250-$350 devices.

Upcoming Palm OS v5 devices are the wild card. Sony has started taking pre-orders on the $599 NX70V and $499 NX60. Both are 200MHz, 16MB devices of the keyboard/swivel-LCD variety, with the usual high-end Sony features, "soft" Graffiti area, and a CF slot. The pricier model has a VGA-resolution camera. So long as Pocket PC vendors aren't cloning Sony's features, or otherwise innovating, these models have a shot at long-term survival.

Palm is due to announce the Tungsten T later this month. Supposedly it is a 175MHz, 16MB device with "classic" Graffiti area and an SD slot. It might include Bluetooth and will probably sell for $499. With those specs it is dead in the womb.

Supposedly Palm continues to work on splitting into OS and hardware companies. Palm needs to do something. Palm built and maintained a thriving PDA business by creating products that were Good Enough for $299 or less, while everyone else's products were more expensive, difficult to use, or both.

Those days are officially over.

Pocket PCs have been Good Enough for a while, and next month's PPC devices will be cheap enough. If Palm and their licensees fail to produce competitive products in the $200-$400 range, Palm is dead. Growth at the low-end won't help Palm if those users have nothing in the mid-range to upgrade to.

Viewsonic Pocket PC review

Wed, 09 Oct 2002 15:00:41 GMT

ZDNet previews the Viewsonic V35 [via Pocket PC Thoughts]. Previous reports had called it a 32MB device, but this review says 64MB. If Viewsonic can do a 300MHz / 64MB device for $299, Dell's rumoured pricing becomes quite credible.

Dell aiming for $199 Pocket PC?

Wed, 09 Oct 2002 03:27:02 GMT

CNET is reporting that Dell's Pocket PCs will start at $199. Pocket PC Thoughts says "Dell isn't firing a shot across HP's bow. They are aiming their cannon right at the hull." Robert Scoble suggests that Palm is dead.

I'm also reminded that I neglected to blog Viewsonic's planned $299 device and HP's $200-$400 iPaq.

If the pricing rumour is true, I'm with Scoble: Dell is aiming at Palm, not HP. My reasoning is two-fold:

Declining component prices aren't enough to achieve such low pricing; it implies very favorable licensing terms from Microsoft. The other licensees have been targetting $299 as the low-end.
Microsoft would only be likely to grant favorable terms if they believe the result would be to expand the Pocket PC market, as opposed to poaching sales from other licensees (ie: HP).

Dell is a selling machine, I don't have any trouble believing that they can ship 2 million Pocket PCs next year at either of the rumoured price-points. If the $199-$299 pricing is true, Dell could probably out-sell Palm.

Pocket PC End-User Update 2 for Maestro

Tue, 08 Oct 2002 18:53:48 GMT

Audiovox has finally released EUU2 for the Maestro. Get it while it's hot!

Why you should wait for Dell's handhelds

Tue, 08 Oct 2002 18:51:32 GMT

David Berlind writes:

Unless you need a handheld device tomorrow, my advice to those who are looking for a PDA is to wait and see what Dell comes up with. While scant details are available, Dell officials have indeed confirmed that the company is about to dive into that market and that units could appear in time for the holiday buying season. [via ZDNet]

I'm with David. Whether or not you choose a Pocket PC from Dell, you stand to gain from waiting because Dell's entry will create downward pricing pressure. Personally, I expect to buy from Dell if they hit the rumoured pricing levels ($300 and $500 models) and come through with the planned peripherals. I've never liked the iPaq line because it doesn't offer built-in Compact Flash, and I hesitate to buy another Pocket PC from lower-volume manufacturers (Audiovox, Toshiba, NEC) because of the lack of peripherals.

If there were a thumb keyboard available for the Maestro, I would use it a lot more...

I've been wondering if this will prompt another round of companies pulling their products from Dell's distribution channel. Currently Dell offers a variety of handhelds from NEC, Casio, Sharp, Palm, Sony, Handspring, and HandEra. Interestingly enough, they aren't offering iPaqs and the only Jornada model listed has been discontinued. Did HP pull their PDAs, or has Dell never offered them?

PPC Thoughts on RSS

Tue, 08 Oct 2002 03:09:42 GMT

In the spirit of ask and ye shall receive, Pocket PC Thoughts now has their very own RSS feed. The re-design is sharp, if a little over-commercialized.

Where art thou, Pocket PC Thoughts?

Mon, 07 Oct 2002 21:41:49 GMT

Pocket PC Thoughts has been down since the weekend, their web site promising a new look on Monday morning. I've been silently hoping that they would add an RSS feed too.

Morning is long-gone in the continental US. Where are they? I need my fix.

Tablet PCs - the cool portables that come with a free pen

Mon, 07 Oct 2002 21:37:03 GMT

How do you put people off pen computing? Easy - put out a pen computer whose pen facilities seem more or less glued onto a normal computer, with only perfunctory integration with the rest of the platform. [The Register]

To my mind, the upcoming crop of Tablet PCs are a solution in search of a problem. A regular laptop with a touch-screen doesn't do much for me. They need to be smaller, much smaller.

Toshiba shrinks Bluetooth SDIO Card

Mon, 07 Oct 2002 16:17:07 GMT

A new Bluetooth SDIO Card from Toshiba cranks things down a notch - 9 millimeters in length, and power consumption by 50%, according to Toshiba. Also, it's Bluetooth 1.1 compliant. [infoSync]

Perfect timing from infoSync. I'd seen something about this a week or two ago, but when I had wanted to post about it the other day I could not locate the original source.

Given current trends in the Pocket PC market (few wireless models, many foregoing Compact Flash due to size), why hasn't anyone come out with a dual-SD unit? With Bluetooth SDIO here already, and WiFi SDIO coming, adding another SD slot would provide excellent expansion without adding much bulk or expense.

The probable answer is that Intel's StrongArm / XScale chipsets don't support it. Neither do they support SD's faster transfer modes.

Frank has some goodies...

Sat, 05 Oct 2002 23:03:25 GMT

Today on Pocket PC How2 Log:

Commentary on outliners for Pocket PCs.
Link to some juicy information on Dell's PPC, with pictures.
Word that Jabra's FreeSpeak Bluetooth headset is finally available.

Jabra's FreeSpeak headset has been vapor for a long time, when it was first announced it had the distinction of being the first BT headset that could be worn all day without making you look like a dork. The regular BT version is $100, a version with an adapter for non-Bluetooth phones is $180.

1GB SD Card

Sat, 05 Oct 2002 22:50:22 GMT

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. has unveiled a working prototype of a SD (Secure Digital) memory card with a 1G byte capacity, at the Ceatec 2002 exhibition. The company, which is better known by its Panasonic brand name, said the card is not expected to go on sale until around one year from now when a larger market for such a capacity card exists and production costs have fallen.

[TwoMobile via PocketNow]

The 1GB card can transfer data at 20Mbps, double the rate of current 512MB cards. 2GB cards are due in 2004.

More Battery Power

Fri, 04 Oct 2002 21:59:45 GMT

PPCW: Replace your proprietary PDA battery.

Laptops for Less is branching out to sell PDA batteries. They have replacement internal batteries for several HP, Compaq, and Palm models. They also have a universal external battery that packs a whopping 3500mAh @ 5v. It weights 8 ounces and comes with a belt case, four connectors, wall and car chargers for $69.

GPS and Mobile Devices

Fri, 04 Oct 2002 19:00:13 GMT

allNetDevices: e911 Pros and Cons.

infoSync: Motorola touts new GPS chip. Single-chip GPS in a 7x7mm package, supposedly sensitive enough to work "under dense trees, in a parking garage, or even a chop shop."

infoSync: 1xRTT and GPS from Verizon, Samsung. The a310 features GPS-based e911 functionality and is available now from Verizon.

I've been wondering for a while now if GPS-enabled cell phones will work with PDAs. The carriers are likely to drag their feet in rolling out location-based services, and their early offerings are likely to be corrupted by their need to derive revenue from them. Not to mention the inherent usability challenges...

Anti-Danger

Thu, 03 Oct 2002 23:56:46 GMT

I was planning to write a little missive against Danger and the HipTop / Sidekick device, but Anil beat me to it [via Mark Pilgrim]. Anil's site apparantly doesn't render well on the Sidekick:

So I decided I was going to modify my page to conform to your browser's idiocy. I went looking for technical docs on what you do to mangle web pages. None. I went looking for a desktop emulator that I could run to simulate your device on my computer. None. I went looking to see an acknowledgement of the shortcomings of your device, indicating that the situation would be improved. None.

Nice job creating a device. Too bad you didn't bother to make it a platform.

One might expect that the year of delays in getting the first Danger product to market might have given them time to establish a developer program and produce guidelines for designing Danger-friendly web content. You would be wrong. From the bottom of the Danger FAQ:

Danger's objective is to make the hiptop application platform open to all developers. At this time, we are working with select developers on an individual basis. We intend to launch our formal developer program in early 2003. If you're interested in becoming a developer for Danger, please email us: developer@danger.com.

Next Zaurus?

Thu, 03 Oct 2002 19:50:30 GMT

Slashdot reports on a PC World article describing a prototype of a new Zaurus design. It's a clamshell design with a landscape VGA screen that appears to rotate. IDG has a picture, MobileNews (Japanese) has more.

Another Sidekick / HipTop note...

Tue, 01 Oct 2002 18:56:43 GMT

T-Mobile is including the camera accessory for free, no idea if that is a limited-time offer.

Danger's HopTop.com will eventually offer weblogs:

Hiplogs Online Journals—It's your chance to be a star! You and your trusty T-Mobile Sidekick, that is. Share your deepest thoughts or wildest whims online with a public journal you can update on the go!