The Mobile Gadgeteer

Run the Palm OS on your Nokia Internet Tablet

We all know that Palm OS 5 (aka Garnet) is getting a bit ancient in terms of mobile technology given that it was released back in 2002. However, there are still some applications from the thousands available for the Palm OS that many of us like to run, yet we want to also have the latest and greatest hardware. There are a couple of ways you can have the latest in mobile tech hardware and still run Palm OS applications. There is StyleTap for Windows Mobile devices (and soon for Symbian devices too) and now the Garnet Virtual Machine for Nokia Nseries Internet Tablets (including the 770, N800, and N810).

November 12, 2007 by Matthew Miller in Laptops

MobileTechRoundup show #116, Me and my Shadow

Please excuse my lame intro singing in MobileTechRoundup show #116 as I sing a few words of the popular tune that goes with my Shadow. The show gets much better after that as James, Kevin, and I chat about the Shadow keyboard, Nokia's tactile feedback technology, the Android announcement, N95 accelerometer, a couple pieces of freeware, and the Asus Eee PC.

November 12, 2007 by Matthew Miller in Enterprise Software

12 videos that detail everything you want to know about the Zune 2 release

While this blog is primarily focused on mobile devices and not necessarily consumer electronics, I have talked about the Zune and iPods in the past and those of us who work hard also need a chance to play. As you probably know the Zune 2 devices, new Zune Marketplace, and firmware update for the existing Zune 30 devices will be available tomorrow. Jason Dunn posted an incredible 12 videos of everything you could want to see regarding the new devices, Zune Marketplace, and firmware upgrades at Zune Thoughts. I had a brown Zune that I bought when they were first released, then sold it, then picked up a black on on Woot for US$90 a month or so ago so I was particularly interested in the Zune 30 Firmware Update: Old is Made New video. BTW, you can pick up a black or white Zune 30 today on Woot.com for only US$84.99 and after checking out these videos you may find it is a great buy.

November 12, 2007 by Matthew Miller in Hardware

T-Mobile Shadow getting unfairly dissed in the press

I was reading one of my favorite mobile sites, Mobility Site, and saw that NY Times writer David Pogue apparently had a chance to try out the T-Mobile Shadow and provided his thoughts. I am not quite sure how much time he actually spent with the device since I think he missed a few features on the Shadow and made some statements about Windows Mobile 6 that may give people the wrong impression about the operating system.

November 8, 2007 by Matthew Miller in Hardware

Opera Mini 4 comes out of beta to deliver the web to your mobile phone

One of the areas that people complain about most when it comes to mobile devices is the poor web browsing experience. The Apple iPhone provides users with a very good mobile experience, except for the EDGE wireless data connectivity. For owners of other mobile devices, Opera provides a free and very capable browser in Opera Mini. Opera Mini 4 has been in beta for a few months and has lived on my mobile devices, including Windows Mobile, S60, and BlackBerry devices. Opera just announced that Opera Mini 4 is out of beta and available now as a full release.

November 6, 2007 by Matthew Miller in iPhone

HTC will be launching an Android handset in the 2nd half of 2008

I am listening into the conference call between Google, T-Mobile, HTC, Qualcomm and Motorola where the Open Handset Alliance and Android open source platform was announced. Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO of Google Inc., Andy Rubin, Director of Mobile Platforms, Google Inc., René Obermann, CEO of Deutsche Telekom, parent company of T-Mobile, Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corp., Paul Jacobs, CEO of Qualcomm, and Ed Zander, Chairman and CEO of Motorola, Inc. made the announcement together and discussed their companies involvement in the new endeavor. The Open Handset Alliance, composed of 34 companies, is quite a departure from the standard for the U.S. wireless business and will have significant impacts across the world.

November 5, 2007 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

E-TEN Glofiish X800 sports a VGA display and HSDPA radio

HTC produces most of the Windows Mobile devices on the market, but there are still a few others like i-mate, Motorola, Samsung, and E-TEN out there that have some very good products. E-TEN just announced the availability of their latest device, the Glofiish X800 that has an impressive list of specifications, including an integrated GPS receiver, HSDPA radio, and VGA display. E-TEN is also known for including lots of great software applications with their devices and the press release states they have also provided a new Today screen UI.

November 4, 2007 by Matthew Miller in Hardware

MobileTechRoundup #115, ultra portable computers and the T-Mobile Shadow

James, Kevin, and I spent most of MobileTechRoundup show #115 talking about UMPC and ultra portable devices, particularly the Vye S37 and Asus EEE PC. We also chatted about the new T-Mobile Shadow I picked up this week and the cool Neo Home screen and plugins. There were a couple of new podcasts launched or launching that we talked about at the end of the show too so make sure to check them out.

November 3, 2007 by Matthew Miller in Enterprise Software

T-Mobile Shadow first impressions; HTC and Microsoft reveal a refreshing UI

After checking out the BlackBerry Curve for a couple weeks I scheduled a time on my calendar to visit T-Mobile and pick one up for myself. However, the sun came out before my appointment and revealed the T-Mobile Shadow so I now had a choice to make at the local T-Mobile store. I went on 31 October, the release day for the Shadow, and the T-Mobile store in Seattle was packed. I checked out both the brown and green Shadow, as well as the Curve again, and a few minutes later I walked out of the store with a green T-Mobile Shadow. I have 14 days to decide if I am going to stick with the Shadow or go back and get the Curve so if you have any thoughts on why one is better than the other, feel free to leave a comment. My thoughts, video, and photo gallery below are my first impressions after about 6 hours of using the Shadow. I plan to post a more detailed review prior to my 14-day trial period expiration.

November 1, 2007 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

AT&T's Motorola Q Global reports 9 hour talk and 30 day standby times

It has been a couple of years since I checked out a Motorola Q Smartphone and it looks like Motorola has made some major improvements. The Moto Q Global is now available from AT&T for US$299.99 after mail-in rebate and 2-year contract (US$499.99 list price). The keyboard is curved and it actually looks like an solid Windows Mobile device. AT&T has a huge and growing collection of Windows Mobile devices for buyers to choose from and looks to be the carrier of choice for 3G mobile phones.

October 31, 2007 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

The Samsung i780 may be the first 320x320 Windows Mobile touch-screen device

My new BlackBerry buddy, Hector, sent me a link to a very cool rumored Windows Mobile Professional (touch screen) device from Samsung. GPS and Co has some details on the Samsung i780. The rumored specs include a 2.6 inch touch screen display at 320x320 resolution (a first for WM), QWERTY keyboard, Assisted GPS receiver, tri-band GSM (no AT&T support with this particular model), EDGE and 2100 MHz 3G (outside the US), 2 megapixel camera, 256MB ROM, 128MB RAM, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2Dp, 802.11 b/g WiFi, and microSD slot. This bad boy seems to have it all in a very slim form factor. I may have to keep my eye out on the US importers for this unit and use it with T-Mobile USA.

October 31, 2007 by Matthew Miller in Enterprise Software

The Palm Centro; at $99.99 it really isn't a tough choice

I started using Palm OS devices back in 1997 and went through several Palm and Sony CLIE models. The last Palm OS device I used was the Treo 650, which I used for about a year (almost a record for me) and gave up on it almost 2 years ago. While the Treo devices released over the last year have had some nice improvements (rubberized casing, loss of antenna, and better cameras) there hasn't been much departure from that same Treo 600 form factor we saw back in 2003. Early rumor photos of the Palm Centro did not look too great, but I changed my mind quickly after receiving a 30-day evaluation unit from Palm. The Palm Centro is a very sleak smartphone and at US$99.99 with a two-year agreement and service plan I hope it brings more people into the smartphone world.

October 30, 2007 by Matthew Miller in Smartphones

T-Mobile reveals the Shadow at a great low price

On 1 October I posted a blog entry on the rumored T-Mobile Shadow Windows Mobile device from HTC. The rumors seem to have been true and today T-Mobile announced the Shadow that will be available on 31 October. The Shadow is a Windows Mobile 6 device, looks like a Standard (Smartphone) model with a 2.6 inch QVGA display, unique keypad with a BlackBerry-like QWERTY keyboard, WiFi, Bluetooth with A2DP support, microSD expansion slot, 2 megapixel camera, and more. It supports myFaves and looks like a slick device. The specs show it is just over 1/2 inch thick.

October 28, 2007 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Gmail IMAP is here, but BlackBerry users may want to stick with POP

IMAP support continues to roll out from Gmail and I just found that my account was provisioned for it sometime last night. I also am now using a T-Mobile BlackBerry Curve as my main device so I thought I would delete my Gmail POP account and setup Gmail with IMAP in an attempt to gain access to my labels, etc. in Gmail and avoid any duplicate efforts in handling email. I also setup my iPhone with Gmail IMAP and found that it works perfectly while giving me access to all my labels as if they were IMAP folders.

October 26, 2007 by Matthew Miller in Collaboration

MobileTechRoundup #114, A new BlackBerry is in the house!

It has been a couple of weeks since James, Kevin, and I had a chance to get together, but there was lots of new device news in MobileTechRoundup show #114 that I think you will enjoy. As I mentioned in my T-Mobile BlackBerry Curve review I am going to purchase my first BlackBerry device and I go into a bit more detail in the show. James also recommended a BlackBerry application to try and Kevin talked about a new device he is testing out. We continue our discussion of small keyboard on ultra portable computers. We closed the show by talking about a new free service called Dashwire that I recommend you check out.

October 25, 2007 by Matthew Miller in Enterprise Software

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