Smartphone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

"Mozilla's Firefox Mobile will hit smartphones like Windows Mobile and Linux devices later this year and as Mike Schroepfer, Mozilla Vide President Engineering, unveiled this week, beside users also mobile carriers and operators are interested to learn more about Mozilla's latest mobile device project. Schroepfer is quoted, that Mozilla's mission is to break open a closed market but he knows that it won't happen overnight. And while Windows Mobile devices includes a web browser already, namely Internet Explorer Mobile, it looks like operators and ODMs aren't satisfied with Internet Explorer anymore which must be the reason for adding Opera Mobile on their smartphones in addition."



I played around with some of the latest builds of Minimo a few weeks back and I have to say, I was pretty unimpressed. The program was nowhere near up to par with a majority of the releases you see coming out of the Mozilla campus. I hope, for all that is good and mobile, that the good folks over at Mozilla really polish the user experience on their upcoming release of Firefox Mobile. Right now, we have pretty slim pickings when it comes to choosing a good functional web browser on our Standard base devices and if there was a way to bring that Gecko based rendering engine to the portable world, it would make all of our browsing experiences better compared to what we currently have. While I am a fan of Opera's mobile offerings, I never really liked the look and feel of them and would love to use something that looked more like the screenshot above.

"Compulab may start a trend in the do-it-yourself world with its introduction of a fully functional -- less screen -- handheld computer. Starting at $122 you get the basic module running an Intel Xscale CPU up to 520 MHz with either Linux or Windows CE and for a bit more cake can add cellular radio, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, camera, or VGA touchscreen to your handset. Of course, you'll need to design yourself a nice housing as they don't seem to carry any, but hey, that's half of the DIY fun right there."





This is nothing short of "wow" worthy. If you are a huge fan of do-it-yourself projects, such as myself, than chances are you are most likely drooling over your keyboard right now. Since I am almost certain that drool can not be good for keyboards, go grab yourself a towel before you finish reading! I know I for one am growing a bit more uneasy everyday waiting for all of our favorite handset makers to get off their rumps and release a device that really knocks our socks off. Since I cannot see anything of that nature on the near horizon, I will just have to build my own device! I'm almost 100% sure that my DIY project will not be turning any heads on the street... in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if my housing consisted of a lot of duct tape. But how often do you get a chance to build your own smartphone?!

"Toshiba said Friday it has developed two small direct methanol fuel cell prototypes that can dramatically increase the playing time for mobile music players. A fuel cell unit the size of a pack of chewing gum can power a flash-memory-based player for about 35 hours on a single charge. Toshiba said Friday it has developed two small direct methanol fuel cell prototypes that can dramatically increase the playing time for mobile music players. A fuel cell unit the size of a pack of chewing gum can power a flash-memory-based player for about 35 hours on a single charge. The new fuel cell units have an output power of 100mW and 300mW and have been applied to a flash-memory-based digital audio player and an HDD-based digital audio player, respectively."



I haven't kept myself up to date with the developments in the alternative sources of power for our mobile devices. The direct methanol fuel cells sounds promising but I like the convenience of plugging my cell phone into the USB cradle for sync and having it charged at the same time. What I would like to see is batteries that charge quickly and can deliver more power. It seems like the DMFC battery packs need to be replaced or refilled with more fuel. Doesn't that sound like too much hassle? :?

"An assumption underlying Microsoft's Windows Mobile development tools is that developers want to target one specific platform (for example, either Pocket PC or Smartphone � but not both). For developers who target multiple platforms, one solution is to ship a different set of executables for each platform. With just a bit more effort, however, a developer can build a single set of executables to support multiple platforms. This article discusses steps that you can take toward building a single executable � or set of executables � to target multiple Windows Mobile�based platforms. Although Microsoft development tools are often geared toward single-platform targeting, Microsoft, as a company, tends to prefer a more integrated approach. In other words, the company's products suggest an approach that minimizes redundancy. Some people refer to this approach as "�ber-integration.""



Even though the Pocket PCs and Smartphones have different hardware form-factor and UI layout, the programming interface for both are identical. Mobile application developers can leverage the unified programming interface to keep their development costs down. Paul Yao has written a helpful article detailing the steps that the developers need to take to write a single application that can run on both the devices. :)

"Oregon Scientific today introduced StyleFi, a stylish wireless remote speaker, CD shelf system and portable music station. Wirelessly play music 100� away from your MP3 player, iPod, stereo system or TV."



This doesn't look very portable to me. It's like carrying a couple tennis balls in your back pocket. :roll: There has to be a better design for these. Does anyone know of a good set of flat portable speakers, wireless or not? Something that might fit in your laptop bag, or luggage a little easier than these.

"I have an OQO to play around with for a while, this is a fully functional PC in a palm sized (depending on the size of your hand) form factor. The device runs on a Transmeta processor which seems to scale from 300MHz to 1GHz depending on processor load � the OQO came with Windows XP Professional installed, has a 20GB hard drive, and 256MB Ram � the device has built in WiFi (when I used the device at home it detected my 802.11g and 802.11b networks), and built in Bluetooth support, has USB and 1394 ports, and audio out "



This really shows how small devices are getting. A full computer, with keyboard and a screen, in the palm of your hand. To think that something this small is more powerful than something that used to fill a room! Just slap on a couple more chips and you could be answering your next phone call on your ultra portable computer! So, how long do you think it will be before we can drop the "Mobile" and just run Windows Smartphone? 8)

According to Xerox, they're working on innovative software that can help turn the camera in your phone into a portable document scanner. If you look at the -lack of- quality of the pictures created by your phone, you might find that hard to belief. But that's where the Xerox software will help you.

"Xerox's patented mobile document imaging software works through a four-step process:

• Capture the image photographically.
  
• Apply Xerox software to correct for blurring.
  
• Convert image to black and white, like a conventional printed image, and eliminate any shadows and reflections. For handwritten text or writing in color, as might be found on a whiteboard, apply color saturation and white balance contrast techniques.
  
• Compress the image making it easy to send and print. Xerox uses a G4 fax compression format, producing images one-tenth the size of JPEG, which is standard for mobile image transmission. The result? A 250Kb JPEG image becomes a 15Kb G4 fax image.

The file can be sent by Bluetooth wireless technology, multimedia messaging or facsimile. Once the image reaches a server or desktop PC where optical character recognition can be applied, various types of services can be offered based upon the user needs."

"Napster is previewing its forthcoming Napster To Go service. This service leverages new Windows Media 10 technologies to enable Napster subscribers to download music to portable devices, a technology called Janus. Music remains protected, and if a user's subscription ends, the music won't play any more. It's tunes to rent."

I find it strange that they're "previewing" this feature, because I used it more than a month ago. When I first connected the Portable Media Center that Microsoft had loaned me, I saw this pop-up window inside the WMP10 client. I clicked yes, and was able to transfer my subscription-based songs to the player. I've done the same thing with my Dell Axim X50, and it worked like a charm. I don't have a Smartphone with WMP10 on it yet, but you should be able to do exactly the same thing.

The one thing I'm not sure about is how long the songs will last on a portable device that doesn't connect back to the host machine and the Internet - would they time out after seven days? A month?

One of the things I don't like about my current laptop, a Fujitsu P5010D, is that the speakers just aren't very loud. With it's wide, crisp 10.6" screen, it's perfect for DVD playback but the lack of audio punch makes watching DVDs practical only when using headphones. So I set out looking for a set of external speakers that would connect to the laptop and give me more audio, yet still be small enough to easily travel with me. My first attempt was a set of small $20 un-powered Sony speakers that were touted as being a walkman accessory � the audio level was no louder than what my laptop could produce (being un-powered was my first clue that they wouldn't be sufficient).

Next I tried a much more expensive solution: the Creative TravelSound speakers. At $75 CND, this was more than I was comfortable spending, but I knew I could return it if I wasn't happy. Here's a quick Photo Review of the Creative TravelSound speakers.

Figure 1: The Creative TravelSound is quite small and very portable. It comes with a nylon pouch for travelling. The pouch is nothing special, but it does the job.


Figure 2: I liked the fit and finish of the speakers � the silver and black looks sharp. Creative opted for no speaker covers, which is a good decision given the need to eek out every last decibel from these.


Figure 3: The Creative TravelSound connected to the headphone jack on my laptop. How does it sound? Compared to the built-in speakers, loud! The audio is crisp and clear, with strong high and mid tones. Given the size of the speakers, it's not surprising that there's little to no bass response. One thing that I'd like to see added is some sort of a removable plastic mounting bracket � it's a bit disorienting to have the audio coming from one side or another, so I'd like to see a way for the speakers to mount to the LCD screen of the laptop. This may or may not be practical based on the weight of the speakers, but it sure would be cool to see.

Two other features worth noting: there's a normalization button on top, less useful with a TV signal, but more aimed at an MP3 player with songs that might have different audio levels. There's also the line-in jack, for connecting your device, and a headphone jack, which I find a bit curious. I'm having a hard time imaging a scenario where someone would prefer to connect the headphones to the Creative TravelSound instead of the headphone jack on the audio device itself. Perhaps the TravelSound would amplify the signal beyond what the original device can put out.


Figure 4: The base of the unit is where the four AAA batteries are located, so the unit is weighted towards the bottom. This makes positioning the speaker simple, and the swivel-mount allows you to position the speakers at whatever angle suits you best. Shown here, I have the speakers connected to my Shuttle ST62K � I didn't have any other speakers set up, so I connected these in a pinch. I ended up keeping them in place for several weeks and several sets of batteries. The TravelSound has a power input for AC power, but the unit doesn't come with an AC adaptor � I imagine it's available separately.


Figure 5: The Creative TravelSound connected to my E200 Smartphone. I needed a 2.5mm to 3.5mm adaptor from Pocket PC Techs in order to connect it, but once connected it worked nicely. One thing I did notice though was before I started the audio I heard buzzing and popping - I'm not sure what this was from. Once the music started, it sounded fine.

Conclusion
The Creative TravelSound speakers are the perfect solution for what I was looking for: small, easy to pack speakers that still proved to have much more audio punch that what my laptop can accomplish alone. They're a bit pricey, and I wish you'd get an AC adaptor for that price, but from a design standpoint the speakers deliver quite well. They can be purchased from Amazon.com for $64.99 USD, and also include a short minjack to minijack audio cable. [Affiliate]

"Samsung Electronics, has successfully developed a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC), the company says. Direct methanol fuel cells mix methanol with air and water to produce electrical power and are viewed by many as a potential successor to Lithium-Ion and other batteries used in devices such as notebook personal computers and other portable electronics devices. Many major electronics companies are developing DMFCs, and Samsung says its new fuel cell could allow a notebook computer to run for 10 hours on a 100 cubic centimeter cartridge of methanol."

8O A 10 hour charge! Cool. Too bad it we won't be seeing these for at least a year, but I would guess it will be closer to 2. Wait a second, isn't methanol flammable? Suddenly this doesn't sound like such a good idea.

"Toshiba has unveiled a prototype hard drive that's smaller than any currently on the market. The drive could start appearing in devices such as cellular telephones and digital music players before the end of this year. The drive is the same length and width as an SD memory card and is 1 millimeter thicker, says Maciek Brzeski, vice president of marketing at Toshiba's U.S. storage media division. A prototype on display at the Consumer Electronics Show here this week has a data storage capacity of 2GB. Toshiba is also planning to produce a sample drive with 4GB capacity around the middle of this year, Brzeski says.

...It is expected to be used in small handheld portable devices such as cellular telephones, digital audio players, PDAs, digital still cameras, and camcorders, Brzeski says. Serious talks with manufacturers of some of these devices have already begun, he says. Toshiba expects to begin sample production in the middle of this year and begin commercial production in late 2004."

Although I greatly prefer Flash-based memory concepts to spinning platters of metal, thinking about a Smartphone with 4 GB of on-board storage makes me weak in the knees. 8O

"Telecommunications customers in the U.S. will be able to take their phone numbers with them when they swap their wireline phones for wireless, if an order issued Monday by the Federal Communications Commission has its intended effect. The FCC order is intended to provide guidance to wireline and mobile carriers on "intermodal" porting of phone numbers. In most cases, wireline carriers operating in the 100 largest metropolitan areas have to support intermodal number porting by November 24, the FCC said in a statement Monday."

"Having just bought my Microsoft Smartphone, I am now literally in heaven! With GPRS, I can now get online literally anytime I want, anywhere! And since the Smartphone comes with Microsoft Messenger, I can also chat with my MSN buddies on the go!! Since I'm going to be using it all the time, I'll need all the battery power I can get. Unfortunately, the phone isn't sold here. So, I cannot buy extra batteries for it. I will have to find other means of charging it on the go."



The article goes on to explain how to make a USB charger that draws power from normal batteries. Cool!