mip's scan

Bye Bye RIM...Say It Ain't So mip!

Ok all of you know how much I love my Blackberry.  It has been the one device I carry always.  It has allowed me (as it does for so many others) the ability to work at many different client locations, cities and times.  I could have never imagined saying goodbye to this little device and moving to something else.  But alas, it has been two weeks since I started carrying my Treo650 and I must say, I haven't missed my Blackberry at all.

True, the Treo650 doesn't have true push email.  I have mine set to go out and grab my email every ten minutes.  As much as I thought I could never abandon instant-push-email, I haven't really found waiting the 10 minutes too bad.  Yes, yes, I'll admit it, sometimes I'll press the "get" button and force the Treo650 to go get my email now.  Once an email addict, always an email addict, I guess.

But the Treo650 offers so much more.  I love the web browser.  It's actually functional and looks brilliant.  The speed is also great as the Treo650 uses Rogers EDGE network.  I also love how they've implemented the SMS messaging - it keeps the thread like a chat rather than like seperate emails.  Very nice and effective.  Throw in that I can listen to MP3s (thanks for all the podcasts Warren!) which pause when I get a phone call come in and resume at the right playback area when the call is done and now you're getting some really nice features.  The built-in camera is ok.  Not great but not bad either.  I exchange pics via Picture Messaging with my wife and it is great.  With the built in camera I'm going to being to post again to my mobile blog.

The really great thing about carrying the Treo650 is that with the Bluetooth functionality, I can actually use the phone as a wireless modem for my laptop.  I was working on a Powerpoint document in a Starbucks last week and then I emailed it from the laptop simply by pairing the two devices and "ta-da" instant wireless internet access.  Very cool.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not dumping on the Blackberry.  When you've spent so many days with a device like the Blackberry, you can't stop loving it.  But RIM is mis-stepping in my opinion.  They are not innovating enough.  The devices themselves have hardly evolved really.  Meanwhile, Microsoft is coming on strong and innovative, feature rich units like the Treo or the Audiovox from Bell are wooing users away from RIM.

Internet Tablet

A friend of mine excitedly asked me, "Hey mip, did you hear about the new Internet Tablet from Nokia?"  I shurgged with a simple "Yeah."  He was suprised that I didn't seem overly enthusiastic.  If you want details on the device itself checkout MobileBurn.  For me this type of device just doesn't do it on several fronts.  Firstly, its obviously geared for surfing the web and reading email - problem is, the screen is too small - from the picture you can see its about the size of a PDA.  Fine for checking email, but not for viewing web pages. 

Nokia is hoping people will pick up this device rather than a 2nd or 3rd PC for their home.  That is short sighted - its woefully underpowered.  You could get a PDA that would allow you to do the same and then some.  I would think you'd be far better off getting a decent Tablet PC - you'd be able to recline and surf the web in your home and still take the device with you outside of the home.  That's the other issue I have with Nokia's Internet Tablet - its pretty much a paperweight when you leave the home or aren't near any WI-FI hotspots. 

These "internet appliance" type devices have been tried before and not suceeded.  I would suspect the same for the Intenet Tablet.

Rogers Mobile TV

I heard on the radio this morning as I drove to my client's office that Rogers is offering television channels on their cellphones.  I'm a big fan of video content on the go (which is why the PSP capabilities are so appealing to me...but that's another post).

The line-up of channels sounds interesting "MSNBC, CP24, NBC On-Line, Discovery, TLC, The Weather Channel, Meteo Media, NBC Mobile, Major League Baseball Highlights - featuring exclusive Blue Jays content, Comedy Time, and ToonWorld" but this is what makes or breaks a service like this.

Blackberry Round-Up

So there's a couple of Blackberry items I thought I'd post here, seeing that its the one device that is always with me.  First, instant messaging....

The Yahoo! Messenger service on the BlackBerry system will allow consumers to see who in their buddy lists are online, send and receive instant messages, have multiple conversations at once and participate in online conferences. In a separate deal RIM will join AOL's Mobile Developer Program in order to support the AOL Instant Messenger and ICQ instant messaging services on the BlackBerry platform.

I must say I'm a bit surprised that MSN Messenger isn't anywhere in that list.  Its always been my favourite of all the IM applications.  You can already use MNS Messenger (kind of) on the Blackberry and I do it quite often between clients and family. 

The other piece of news is the legal battle that RIM found itself in with NTP over patents.  It would seem that RIM has settled for $450M.

Sony PSP Handheld Download Service

A long while back when Sony announced they were exiting the handheld market in Canada and the US, I'd speculated that part of the reason for ending the Clie here was due to the then immenent release of the PSP.  I'd gotten some comments posted to my blog around this and a half dozen emails that said "You're way off base..."   

It would seem that the trend is pointing to the fact that indeed the PSP is taking on more and more functionality which would have eaten away at Clie marketshare.  With leaked reports of software upgrades that will provide PIM functionaly, word processing, email, browser etc., etc.  I was getting that feeling that indeed it was happening.  To further strengthen my original suspicions I now read that Sony is going to launch a music download service for the PSP.

SCEE will put the delivery mechanism in place in time for the handheld console's launch, using it to allow users to download game levels and software updates. However, the system will be extended to music in the summer.

Given the PSP's multimedia focus, it's entirely possible the service could subsequently be used to deliver video downloads.

This again shows how the PSP was meant to replace the Clie and with music and video, they'll challenge the iPod as well; something Clie couldn't do as a PDA, and something that proprietary Sony digital music players couldn't do.  It'll be interesting to see if the PSP can make this challenge a reality.

Linux Tablet-Like Pepper PC

I'd written the other day about a Linux-based media player, and now I see this beautiful looking tablet like PC that runs Linux. The Pepper Computer has taken the tablet concept with a keyboard split in half and placed on the left and right side of the unit. Its a bit underpowered as far as specs go but I would suspect that a unit like this would be more for surfing the web, reading and responding to emails and perhaps some OpenOffice usage - nothing to resource intense.

Say hello to Pepper, the new wireless pad from Pepper Computer. Pepper represents an entirely new category of wireless device-bigger and more powerful than a PDA or mobile phone, but smaller, lighter and far less complex (and a lot more fun) than a laptop.

For more details on Pepper click here.

iPhone: Wish or Reality?

I'm one of those people who bought the original Newton when Apple launched it.   Truth be told, I was part of a design team back in the early 90's at the University of Toronto that submitted handheld / portable computing prototypes and design concepts to Apple.  The Newton of course was one of those technologies that died a sad death - people still talk about it.  Remember the terrible handwriting recognition.  I still have my original and often I've thought about whether Apple would get back into the PDA market.  Over the last year I would have said no.  With PDA's slowly disappearing and losing market/mindshare to Smartphones it wouldn't make sense.  Of course, with the huge success of the iPod and the way they incorporated some very minimal PDA like functionality (ie. calendar, contacts) the idea still tickled my thoughts every once and a while. 

And then I saw this picture this morning: an iPod+Smartphone=iPhone.  Is it real?  I'm not sure.  It could be a well done fake.  But is it a good idea?  I think it could be.

OQO Goes On Sale

Well the OQO handtop that we've writen about before has finally begun to take orders via its web site.
You can get details here..
I never did get a response from the company about testing a unit; stay tuned however I may be testing a FlipStart in the near future.

UPDATE: PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THE PRODUCT IS ONLY SHIPPING IN THE US FROM WHAT I SAW ON THEIR ONLINE SHOPPING AREA.

OQO Mid-October

For those of you following the OQO handtop computer, I just saw an article at ExtremeTech indicating that the expected launch is this upcoming October. I'm still waiting for a response from the company itself on whether I can review a unit pre-release.

The OQO Model 01 palmtop computer will launch in mid-October, a company representative said in an email.

Blackberry 7100t

RIM has recently announced the release of one of the newest models of the Blackberry device, the Blackberry 7100t. This device is radically different than any they have every produced before and the reason for that is that it is being targeted at the consumer market rather than the corporate market. Amongst corporate users Blackberry's are already hugely popular but the typical unit costs and month fees have kept them out of the average, everyday user's hands. Well, not any more. With the release of 7100t RIM has made a bold move into the consumer market. There is an excellent review/preview at Brighthand that provides us with lots of details. The one striking design aspect that I'm not sure will work is the keyboard.

The 7100t will be the first BlackBerry that doesn't include a full keyboard. Instead, it will merge a keyboard and a number pad in a design created by RIM. Each key will handle two letters, and the device will include predictive text software.

But I guess if they are competing in the consumer space, where people have been sending emails and SMS messages by using the keypad on their cellphones, than this 20-key keyboard would be a huge improvement although with phones like the Nokia 9300 which offer the full-keyboard hidden inside the phone its hard to say if the reduced keyboard will fly with consumers. Then again, the easy-to-use and highly addictive always on email aspect of the Blackberry which corporate users absolutely love might just prove to be the winning note with consumers as well.