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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

MobileTechRoundup #120, 2007 favorites and gearing up for CES 2008

The Mobile Tech Roundup gang is headed to CES 2008 in Vegas and in this first show of 2008 we provided some feedback on choices we made for 2007. We chose our favorite devices and favorite applications of 2007. We also talked about what we were bringing to CES this year to cover the event.

January 5, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Enterprise Software

SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry will be shown at CES

I personally am a big fan of the Slingbox and SlingPlayer Mobile clients. I use the device and these clients every time I travel to watch my recorded content or watch shows that are playing on my home TV. I just recently purchased a Nokia N95-3 that comes with a free SlingPlayer Mobile client and couldn't be happier with it. For all of you business users that have BlackBerry devices you will be pleased to know that SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry is coming later in 2008 (for the same US$29.99 as the other mobile clients) and will be shown running on a BlackBerry Pearl next week at CES.

January 3, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

New devices from Lenovo and HP announced

CES 2008 kicks off in a couple of days and companies are already making announcements. I plan to check out what is coming in the ultra-portable/Tablet PC market in 2008 as I look for a device that helps me work on my daily train commute. At this time, I am using an HTC Advantage for most tasks, but I do find I really could use a full computer to be most efficient. Lenovo announced their IdeaPad laptops in 3 sizes and that 11-inch model seems most attractive to me as I look for a smaller device. I then read about the newly announced HP Pavilion tx2000 on jkOnTheRun and this device moves to the head of the line for my consideration.

January 3, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Hardware

Is there a lower TCO for Windows Mobile at your company?

Windows Mobile is often compared to BlackBerry, especially now that Microsoft has integrated Direct Push technology into their servers and devices. There is a new tool that compares the Total Cost of Ownership between different server solutions (primarily RIM BlackBerry) and Windows Mobile. Do you agree with the results of the tool?

January 1, 2008 by Matthew Miller in Collaboration

New spare lithium battery travel rules go into effect 1 January 2008

There are some major new rules regarding packing along spare lithium batteries on aircraft that go into effect early next week, 1 January 2008, so if you travel with lots of devices then make sure you comply with the requirements. In most cases you should be fine carrying the batteries with you on the plane, but there are limits in what can be checked.

December 28, 2007 by Matthew Miller in Hardware

A look back at the mobile devices of 2007

As I mentioned in my previous post containing the 10 most visited and most discussed blog posts, HTC devices and the Apple iPhone were very popular topics in 2007. I wanted to follow that post up by taking a closer look at the mobile device hardware I had a chance to use in 2007 and some of the key announcements and other news related to mobile devices.

December 28, 2007 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

The iPhone and HTC devices were the most discussed and most popular of 2007

The news slows down during the holiday season before the big rush of CES and it gives us some time to reflect on the past year. I'll be posting a year in review for mobile devices shortly, but wanted to first post lists of the most popular and most discussed posts here on the ZDNet Mobile Gadgeteer blog. As you can see, the iPhone was the subject of 4 of the top 10 most discussed posts with HTC devices also capturing 4 of the most popular posts. The other two covered Windows Mobile 6 and Google Calendar syncing. It was interesting to see that one of my older posts from 2006 (HTC TyTN review) was in the top 10 for 2007. I believe that shows how popular this high-powered touch-screen Windows Mobile device was in 2006 and 2007.

December 27, 2007 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

MobileTechRoundup #119, HTC Touch Dual, WiBrain UMPC, and Dell Tablet PC

James, Kevin, and I recorded MobileTechRoundup show #119 just before Christmas and talked about the HTC Touch Dual, usage of the HTC Advantage on the go, the WiBrain UMPC that Kevin is evaluating, the Dell Latitude Tablet PC, and the OS 2008 update for the Nokia N800. We had a couple pieces of freeware we talked about as well that you may want to try out. We'll have one more show before we try to record again at CES in Vegas in January so stay tuned for that final 2007 episode.

December 26, 2007 by Matthew Miller in Tablets

Quickoffice Premier 5.0 for S60 provides Office 2007 support

I knew it was just bound to happen again, but just a couple of weeks after I posted my full review of Quickoffice Premier 4.5 they updated the software. They are constantly improving the software and updated it a couple of times while I was working on my review. The latest and greatest version, Quickoffice Premier 5.0 brings Microsoft Office 2007 support, printer support (Eseries devices), tighter integration with Adobe Reader LE and more to this amazing application.

December 23, 2007 by Matthew Miller in Collaboration

Nokia N95 8GB NAM and N82 8GB revealed by Nokia?

Nokia may not be quite as good as Apple at keeping upcoming devices quiet, but they are very careful about leaking news. It seems that Devin from The Nokia Guide site discovered that the N95 8GB NAM (North American model with 3G support for U.S. networks) and N82 8GB may be coming soon. He was browsing the web and visited one of the Nokia pre-installed bookmarks where he discovered these two device names in the list of supported devices.

December 23, 2007 by Matthew Miller in Networking

Take internet radio on the go with the Nokia Internet Radio application

One wireless radio that is included on many Nokia S60 devices that I think rarely gets used is the FM radio. I know I rarely use it since it also requires a wired headset to serve as the FM antenna. As a result, I was very pleased to see the beta release of the Nokia Internet Radio application a week or so ago. I immediately downloaded and installed it on my Nokia N95-1 to give it a try and was very impressed with the slick interface, performance even over my T-Mobile EDGE connection, and ability to play the radio over the loud stereo speakers on the device.

December 19, 2007 by Matthew Miller in Microsoft

2nd impressions of the HTC Touch Dual

I have been using a Windows Mobile Smartphone (the T-Mobile Dash and then Shadow) or a Nokia N95-1 as my main device for the last year and was getting along just fine. A few years ago when I first started using converged devices, I was using Phone Edition devices like the MDA II and i-mate JAM. As a power user, the touch screen devices give you more options in terms of functionality and software, but I haven't found one that I really wanted to carry with me all day long due to the size or performance. I also thought I needed a device with everything, but the kitchen sink thrown in. However, after using the HTC Touch Dual for a couple of weeks (with no WiFi or US 3G support) I discovered that I rarely need to use some of the wireless options and can get 90% done what I want with a simple wireless data connection and solid Bluetooth stack.

December 19, 2007 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Don't like DRM, then look to Neuros to free your digital content

I have reviewed a couple of Neuros Technology media capture devices in the past and am currently evaluating their OSD product. The Neuros OSD allows you to capture video content from a number of sources and legally store it and convert it to mobile format so you can consume it on the go. I have recorded some great content for viewing on my PSP and mobile phones. Johan sent me an email to inform me that Neuros Technology has created an "Unlocked" Media trademark to promote the concept of open standard DRM-free files that can be stored and played anywhere. There are so many limits on DRM content that lock consumers into specific devices or services and don't let them take their content they purchased with them across platforms and devices.

December 19, 2007 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Zumobi brings a fresh experience to Windows Mobile

A few months ago I saw a quick demo of ZenZui on a Windows Mobile device. The name of the company and client has been changed to Zumobi and the beta is now rolled out for initial public trials. Zumobi lets you access and share web-based content using a new zooming tile interface. Mary Jo Foley mentioned the beta availability a couple of days ago and I was given access to the beta program that same day. I loaded it up on an HTC Touch Dual device and recorded the short video clip below of Zumobi in action.

December 19, 2007 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Getting things done with Gmail

I started using Gmail as my primary email application/service a couple of years ago and have gotten better and better about labeling and filing my email. The problem is that I still may archive something in a label/folder and then forget to follow-up so I am really not being very productive. I like that I can access my Gmail easily on all my mobile devices with the mobile client or even via the mobile web interface (like on the iPhone) with a 3rd option of using POP or IMAP. Joel at Geek.com put together a very helpful feature on Getting Things Done with Gmail that I plan to implement as we begin a fresh new year.

December 18, 2007 by Matthew Miller in Enterprise Software

The Mobile Gadgeteer

Matthew Miller

Latest Posts

MobileTechRoundup #120, 2007 favorites and gearing up for CES 2008

SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry will be shown at CES

New devices from Lenovo and HP announced

Is there a lower TCO for Windows Mobile at your company?

New spare lithium battery travel rules go into effect 1 January 2008

A look back at the mobile devices of 2007

The iPhone and HTC devices were the most discussed and most popular of 2007

MobileTechRoundup #119, HTC Touch Dual, WiBrain UMPC, and Dell Tablet PC

Quickoffice Premier 5.0 for S60 provides Office 2007 support

Nokia N95 8GB NAM and N82 8GB revealed by Nokia?

Take internet radio on the go with the Nokia Internet Radio application

2nd impressions of the HTC Touch Dual

Don't like DRM, then look to Neuros to free your digital content

Zumobi brings a fresh experience to Windows Mobile

Getting things done with Gmail

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