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The Mobile Gadgeteer

Matthew Miller provides you with news, commentary and in-depth reviews of the latest in mobile gadgetry such as tablets, cutting edge smartphones, and portable gaming.

Matthew Miller

Matthew Miller started using mobile devices in 1997 and has been writing news, reviews, and opinion pieces ever since. Matthew started using mobile devices with a US Robotics Pilot 1000 and has owned hundreds of devices running Palm, Linux, Symbian, Newton, BlackBerry, iOS, Android, webOS, Windows Mobile, and Windows Phone operating systems. His current collection includes the latest and greatest foldables, wearables, and more, along with classic devices like the Apple Newton MessagePad 2100 and Sony CLIE UX50. Matthew can be found on various social networks under the user name of "palmsolo."

Latest Posts

New MyStrands Social Player adds scrobbling support for S60 and S40 devices

I love using my Nokia N95-3 S60 device and find I use it every day for podcast downloading and playing. I also use it to listen to music, primarily downloaded from my Yahoo! Music subscription. I signed up for Last.fm, but have to admit I haven't used it that much primarily because I still haven't spent the time to figure out what it is all about. I understand it is a service that keeps track of the music you listen to and then helps to personalize it for you. Rudy De Waele sent me an email to let me know that a major update to the MyStrands Social Player for S60 and S40 devices was just released.

April 29, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Mobile software Monday: SplashMoney for Windows Mobile

I load up quite a few 3rd party applications on my mobile devices and a few stick around and appear on all of my devices because I find them essential for my daily life. One application that I tried several years ago on my Palm Treo was SplashMoney from SplashData. It has been a few years since I used a Palm OS device as a primary device, so I was quite pleased to hear of the recent launch of SplashMoney version 4.0 for Windows Mobile devices. My T-Mobile Shadow is found in my pocket most of the time so I quickly loaded it up with SplashMoney's non-touch screen version. I also loaded the desktop client on my Fujitsu U810 and the touch screen client on the HTC Advantage. They also now have a Mac desktop version, but that does not sync to Windows Mobile devices. You can see just over 20 screenshots of SplashMoney on my two Windows Mobile devices and a PC in my image gallery.

April 28, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Is the Amazon Kindle a low cost entertainment option?

I know at first I was a bit hesitant to buy the Amazon Kindle because the cost of the device was a bit high and the form factor wasn't the most attractive or functional. However, after giving it a bit more thought I went to Amazon to make a purchase of one. However, they were sold out and had a very long back order. I then actually purchased a Sony Reader PRS-505 because it has a great form factor and even better display than the Kindle (more gray scales). Amazon just recently caught up with orders and now when you purchase one you can actually receive it within the next two days or so. After reading and seeing Josh Bancroft's enthusiasm during his unboxing, I am again thinking about the Kindle as an ebook device.

April 27, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Hardware

Skype launches new beta for feature phones, works on S60 and Windows Mobile too

Skype announced a beta version of its client for Java-enabled mobile phones with the current list of compatible devices from Motorola, Nokia, and Samsung. The intent of this new mobile client is to expand Skype to the mass market feature phone, but being the mobile geek that I am I decided to try it out on some other devices and was fairly pleased with the results.

April 25, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Social Enterprise

Will BlackBerry devices continue to reign in the enterprise market?

I read an article this morning that I found particularly interesting because I was thinking of posting my own article related to the topic of BlackBerry devices. Wayne Schulz titled his Gear Diary article, Five Reasons RIM Popularity Will Peak This Year". I will let you read the five reasons over on Gear Diary and won't spoil it for you, but I think you need to keep in mind that Wayne's reasons appear to make the argument for the consumer market rather than the enterprise market. I do think that there are a few reasons that enterprise customers may be taking another look at RIM as well.

April 25, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Evernote passes 1 millionth note mark and offers beta signups to all for one day

I am a big fan of the Evernote application and service because it lets me works across all platforms and mobile devices. I just received word that they have just passed their 1 millionth note milestone and to celebrate they are having instant beta account access (no invite needed) for today only (24 April) from now until 9 pm Pacific Daylight Time. Check out their blog post for the secret URL to sign up.

April 24, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Apple

RIP MSN Direct SPOT watches, so few of us knew thee well

I am probably one of the few who actually bought a SPOT watch and have been paying for the yearly service since they were launched back in 2004. I found the technology interesting, but it took a year or so for the watches to evolve into something smaller and more fashionable that people would wear. Even then, the service never took off and I actually never saw anyone wearing one that wasn't a gadget geek like myself. According to a post on SpotStop made by Jon Canan, Program Manager of MSN Direct, Microsoft and its partners are getting out of the SPOT watch business. They will still be supporting the MSN Direct service and if you have a watch you can continue to receive service, but there will be no new channels added or other enhancements to the watches.

April 24, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Enterprise Software

Nokia Conversations blog site launches for public viewing and interaction

I had a chance to check out the new Nokia Conversations site over the last week as it was in beta phase, but it is now open for viewing by everyone. As you can see the Nokia Conversations site is a Nokia-sponsored site that is written and hosted by Nokia people. It is headed up by Charlie Schick and other members of the Social Communications team.

April 21, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Microsoft

HTC is kicking off a North American campaign and holding a London event on May 6th

There is lots of speculation surrounding the special invite-only May 6th HTC event being held for 100 selected members of the press in London. Are we going to see a Google Android device, a new HTC form factor Windows Mobile device, or another iteration of an existing Windows Mobile device? Arne over at th::unwired posted a leaked photo submitted to Mobile Review that shows possibly two new HTC devices. HTC is also kicking off a new North American brand campaign to create more brand awareness of their excellent Windows Mobile products.

April 21, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Windows

MobileTechRoundup show #130, Affordable HP entertainment Tablet PC and Mac OS X on a UMPC

We put a small teaser in show #129 about another new device that James Kendrick has been playing with and in MobileTechRoundup show #130 his thoughts on the new HP tx2051 Entertainment Notebook were revealed. Kevin, James, and I also talked about my HP Mini-Note cancellation, the upcoming Asus Eee PC 900, and Kevin's tinkering with Mac OS X on his Samsung Q1 Ultra Premium UMPC.

April 21, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Enterprise Software

Mobile software Monday: WorldMate for S60 and Windows Mobile

Mondays are usually a bit slow for news, so today I am kicking off my software reviews with the first "Mobile software Monday" article. The first title I checked out is WorldMate from MobiMate. I checked it out on my Nokia N95-3 (S60 device), T-Mobile Shadow (Windows Mobile Smartphone), and BlackBerry Pearl so you get to hear about software running on the 3 major operating systems present today. WorldMate is a wonderful software solution for the enterprise mobile phone user who travels and spends time on the road. Check out my image gallery for screenshots of WorldMate on S60 and Windows Mobile non-touch screen devices.

April 21, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

More than double your T-Mobile Shadow runtime with the new extended battery

My current preferred Windows Mobile phone is my T-Mobile Shadow (that will soon be replaced by a U.S. model HTC Touch Dual as soon as trhey are available). The one issue I have with my Shadow is the rather short battery life. There looks to now be a solution that solves this issue for less than US$60.

April 19, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

What ultra portable meets my needs for under $1000?

I have spent quite a bit of time and even more money trying to find a solution that would help me be productive during my daily 2 hour train commute and while traveling. I have also added the restrictions that it has to be very portable, lighter than my MBP, and have a battery life that last 3-4 hours or more with connectivity to WiFi or Bluetooth for data. My final requirement is that the device has to cost less than US$1000. My minimum functional requirements are the ability to write in a basic text application, connect to the internet to work with email, research for articles and post blog entries, read an electronic version of the Bible, ability to resize photos taken with a digital camera so they can be uploaded and inserted into articles, and watch video content (either streaming of pre-loaded content).

April 18, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Enterprise Software

Do you watch mobile TV on your cellphone?

As a person who commutes by train every day to and from the office and who also spends a fair amount of time on the road for business, I often use my mobile devices for entertainment on the go. I read the rumors of AT&T's MediaFLO service on The Boy Genius Report and wanted to post a few of my thoughts on these types of mobile TV services.

April 17, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Networking

Asus officially announces launch of Asus Eee PC 900

We heard about the second generation Asus Eee PC at CES back in January and today Asus made the official announcement for the Eee PC 900. This next gen device improves in a couple of areas with a larger 8.9 inch display at 1024x600 resolution, 1.3 megapixel webcam, and more storage capacity.

April 16, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Hardware