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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 show #90, Windows Mobile 6 is announced

MobileTechRoundup show #90, Windows Mobile 6 is announced

The news this week is Windows Mobile 6 and in MobileTechRoundup show #90 and we spent a few minutes talking about this latest update that was officially announced today. James, Kevin, and I have also been loading up Vista on our devices and there may be noticeable battery drain on notebook batteries with Vista installed. James has some theories as to why this may be happening and we will continue to look into it. Nokia also made some great announcements at 3GSM today and I talked a bit about some mapping freeware for Nokia and Windows Mobile devices. TabletKiosk announced a couple of new Sahara slate Tablet PCs with both passive and active digitizers in one high end model. We record our show using Skype and last week twenty-five tips and tricks for Skype were posted so give them a try.

February 13, 2007 by in Windows

RIM announces the slim BlackBerry 8800 smartphone

RIM announces the slim BlackBerry 8800 smartphone

I said there would be a ton of announcements from 3GSM this week and if your head isn't already spinning with the speed and number of device announcements then get ready for another one. Research in Motion announced the BlackBerry 8800. The BlackBerry 8800 is the thinnest BlackBerry device and yet features their famous QWERTY keyboard and the trackball navigation system similar to the Pearl. Integrated GPS and a microSD expansion slot are also packed into this slim device. The BlackBerry 8800 comes with BlackBerry Maps that work with the integrated GPS radio to provide driving directions to your desired destination. The device sports a 320x240 landscape color display.The quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE smartphone will be available worldwide starting this month.

February 12, 2007 by in BlackBerry

ASUS, BenQ Siemens, Gigabyte, HTC, Lenovo, Motorola, and Palm show off Windows Mobile 6 devices

ASUS, BenQ Siemens, Gigabyte, HTC, Lenovo, Motorola, and Palm show off Windows Mobile 6 devices

A couple of new Windows Mobile 6 devices were announced earlier today, but the bulk of the announcements were just made from ASUS, BenQ Siemens, Gigabyte, HTC, Lenovo, Motorola, and Palm. All these companies announced Windows Mobile 6 devices that would be launched in 2007. The device that has me most interested is the HTC Vox that is a Windows Mobile 6 Standard device with a standard looking phone keypad, but with a side slide-out QWERTY keyboard to use when you really need to enter some text. I am also interested in the GSM Motorola Q that runs Windows Mobile 6. While it is nice that Palm will be updating the Treo line with Windows Mobile 6, the more interesting part of Microsoft's announcement is that 320x320 resolution is now supported so Windows Mobile Palm Treo devices can have the same hardware as the Palm OS models. The lower 240x240 resolution has been an area where people have been disappointed with Windows Mobile Treo devices.

February 11, 2007 by in Mobility

HP expands Windows Mobile line with the iPAQ Voice Messenger

HP expands Windows Mobile line with the iPAQ Voice Messenger

HP has had Pocket PC Phone Edition Mobile Messenger devices for a couple of years, but they have never really seemed to have taken off. HP continues to try to compete in the mobile market and is launching their HP iPAQ 500 series Voice Messenger. The Voice Messenger is a Windows Mobile 6 Standard device (aka Smartphone) and looks to also have a 1.3 megapixel camera. The HP Voice Messenger is capitalizing on the increasing popularity of VoIP and includes capabilities and integrated WiFi for this functionality. HP is also including a powerful voice command system that actually allows you to reply to email by dictating and sending a voice response without the need for any typing. GSM/EDGE and Bluetooth radios are also included on the device. The new HP Voice Messenger should be available this Spring, but you can check out our image gallery in the meantime.

February 11, 2007 by in Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Microsoft "officially" announces Windows Mobile 6

Microsoft "officially" announces Windows Mobile 6

Microsoft was forced to unveil their new operating system, Windows Mobile 6.0, last week due to a breach of NDA by a media source and today they posted the "official" press release. A couple of exciting bits of news that can be found in the press release that were not revealed last week are that future T-Mobile Dash devices in the U.S. will come with Windows Mobile 6 and existing owners like myself will be able to upgrade our devices to Windows Mobile 6, Orange will deliver the SPV E650, and SoftBank Mobile Corp will offer new devices from Toshiba and HTC in mid-2007. Yes, that's right it looks like Toshiba is coming back to the world of Windows Mobile and hopefully we'll see more details about the hardware soon. Look for lots of hardware details soon from 3GSM in Spain.The first Windows Mobile 6 hardware revealed at 3GSM is the Samsung SCH-i760 and a couple photos are included in this post. I saw this unique Windows Mobile 6 Professional device at CES, yet it did not have a battery so I didn't get to see it in action. The Samsung SCH-i760 has an original phone keypad with an offset directional pad on the bottom left with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

February 11, 2007 by in Samsung

Windows Mobile 6 Professional screenshots

Windows Mobile 6 Professional screenshots

The lines are becoming blurred between the different categories of devices as you can see in the image gallery with some of the key differences in the new Classic, Standard, and Professional classes being a much more powerful Office Mobile application suite that allows you to create documents on a Professional or Classic device, Remote Desktop Mobile in the Classic/Pro models, stupid basic calculator on the Classic/Pro devices while the Standard device actually has a new, fresh calculator designed for non-touch screens, ability to setup your own home page in Internet Explorer Mobile on Classic/Pro devices, and external storage card encryption support on Classic/Pro devices. Check out the 42 new actual screenshots from a Windows Mobile 6 Professional device, including the Windows Update sequence.

February 11, 2007 by in Mobility

Get free maps with GPS functionality on your S60 or Windows Mobile device

Get free maps with GPS functionality on your S60 or Windows Mobile device

Nokia announced that users of other select S60 and Windows Mobile 5.0 devices can now also download maps over-the-air for free when they are connected wirelessly. Support for other S60 devices, S40 devices, Linux, and other Windows Mobile devices is planned for the future. Their smart2go maps provide worldwide coverage and allow for mapping in routing in over 150 countries. I have been using Google Maps quite a bit for finding locations when I am traveling, but will definitely be trying out the Nokia maps because I can now pair my devices with a Bluetooth GPS and get satellite navigation functionality. There is a desktop client to download maps and store them on a storage card in case you are traveling to an area without wireless carrier coverage.

February 9, 2007 by in Microsoft

Nokia brings "desktop search" to mobile devices

Nokia brings "desktop search" to mobile devices

I LOVE desktop search tools like Google Desktop and Windows Desktop Search and remember talking with Microsoft about bringing this search functionality to mobile devices. Microsoft has a integrated search tool in Windows Mobile devices, but it has never been a very strong utility. I just read the Nokia press release announcing the release of Nokia Mobile Search that brings powerful search functionality from the desktop to the device. Nokia Mobile Search allows you to search emails, text messages, calendar entries, videos, music files, and more. Nokia Mobile Search indexes your compatible device for faster search results. I could not find any information on whether external storage flash cards or hard drives, like the 4 and 8 GB drives on N91 devices, are indexed. I would think this is where the real power of device search would be as storage cards get larger and larger in capacity with more and more files being stored on them.

February 7, 2007 by in Microsoft

Carnival of the Mobilists #61 sports a Japanese theme

Carnival of the Mobilists #61 sports a Japanese theme

As promised last week, I want to keep informing readers of the availability of the latest Carnival of the Mobilists issue since there really are some great pieces of writing in every weekly newsletter. This week Wireless World Japan hosts Carnival #61. The Carnival takes on a Japanese theme with articles this week falling into the carnival themes of behind the scenes, music, magic, floats, gods, food stalls and 3GSM Barcelona. Is the mobile phone market a two horse race between Nokia and Motorola? As I talked a bit about when the iPhone was announced, do people prefer buttons on their phones? How can you optimize your use of Opera Mini? The answers and discussions to these and many more topics can be found in this latest edition of the Carnival of the Mobilists so visit and enjoy the articles.

February 6, 2007 by in Mobility

MobileTechRoundup show #89, Vista and driver updates

MobileTechRoundup show #89, Vista and driver updates

Vista was launched and MobileTechRoundup show #89 contains lots of discussion of this latest Micrsoft operating system. James, Kevin, and I are all installing Vista on our devices with James trying it on the Fujitsu P1610 and Kevin and I on the Samsung Q1 UMPC. Drivers are being released by many manufacturers, although Samsung hasn't released any for our Q1s yet so we have had to brute force a few aspects. Kevin is happy to have Sammy back and told his readers that Sammy is looking for a new home so contact Kevin if you are interested. EV-DO Rev. A is rolling out from Verizon as well and I am having good experiences with Sprint. Kevin is testing the Netgear SPH-101 Skype phone and it sounds good. Google Maps is available for free for Windows Mobile and Palm devices so make sure you download it now.

February 6, 2007 by in Windows

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