Mike Slocombe

Resco Explorer Review: For Pocket PC (5/5 Stars)
With Pocket PCs offering more and more storage space and applications shunting files all over the place, it’s getting increasingly difficult to manage the data held on a handheld device.
With the default Pocket PC File Explorer being as powerful as a tired gnat, Resco Explorer 5.2 could prove a godsend for Pocket PC users keen to keep their devices in order.
Offering built-in file viewing, ZIP file support, encryption, storage card formatting, FTP capabilities and a Registry editor, this fella is like a supercharged file browser on steroids.
Serving up an arm-long list of features, Resco manages to combine the functions of a host of different applications and meld them into one sophisticated, do-it-all, integrated solution.
It may have a ton of power under the hood, but thankfully you don’t need a degree in Advanced Boffinery to get around the program.
Resco’s simple two-pane interface and hierarchical file structure makes it easy to rummage through Pocket PC files and folders (including those stored in ROM and on storage cards), and perform a range of basic actions via a menu, icon bar or tap-and-hold menu – just like a desktop PC.
Files can be encrypted from within the program (and from a desktop applet) enabling data to be organised and secured within the same interface. Neat.
Network support is built in, letting users browse the files of connected machines, and there’s also HP Mobile Printing support (via an optional free download), FTP support, tap-and-hold menus for beaming (via Infrared and Bluetooth) or emailing any file, drag-and-drop of files and folders as well as storage card formatting.
Add to that the improved support for compression – letting users save files at different levels of compression – and a new Today plug-in providing on battery status and free storage/memory and you’ve got a Five Star application that is an absolute must for all Pocket PC users.
Highly recommended.
Digital-Lifestyles score: 5/5
Price: $24.95 (~€20, ~£13.50)
Buy now online at PocketGear
Further information Resco Explorer 5.2
22 September, 2005
Viewsonic VP191s Review: 19″ LCD Monitor (5/5 Stars)
The trouble with CRT monitors is that they often go fuzzy at such a leisurely rate that you don’t notice the deterioration, but find yourself slowly sitting closer and closer to the screen.
It was only when we found ourselves virtually snogging the monolithic 21″ Mitsubishi CRT monitor in our office that we decided it might be time for a change.
After much poking and prodding and review-searching, we decided to replace the 21″ beast with two Viewsonic VP191 LCD monitors, each with a native 1,280 x 1,024 resoluton.
They’re by no means the cheapest 19″ flat screen monitors around, but the slimline, ‘thinedge’ profile and image quality were all persuasive factors.
But what really got our wallet creaking open was the Viewsonic’s natty construction which offered enough manoeuvrability to rival a Russian gymnast on a bed of oil.
Height, pivot, tilt and swivel could all be adjusted effortlessly, so it’s easy to shimmy monitors into the exact desired position – particularly useful if you’re arranging a multi-screen set up.
Anyone working on long text documents will soon be spinning the monitor around into portrait mode with a joyful skip in their step because it makes a real difference to productivity – no more scrolling all over the screen!
Viewsonic uses Pivot Pro software to rotate the display from 0 to 270 degrees, and it’s possible to mix and match the orientation in multi monitor set ups. It worked fine every time with no hitches during our testing.
Swivelling the monitor around, there’s an internal power supply with three interfaces (DVI-D, D-Sub and D-Sub) available, with a neat set of cable guides helping to keep things tidy.
The front panel sports five small buttons – four for monitor adjustments and the fifth for turning the monitor on/off.
The onscreen adjustment menu is clear and logical, offering control over contrast and brightness, menu settings, input signal source and colour calibration, with an auto-adjustment feature and manual picture adjustment for non-digital inputs.
We liked the ‘information’ option which displayed details about the monitor’s resolution, horizontal and vertical frequency, pixel clock, model number and – best of all – serial number, saving users having to rummage around to find the thing.
Image quality
Of course, all the swivelling gizmos and pivoting wotsits don’t mean a thing if the display’s a duff one, but the Viewsonic really excelled in this department.
Using a new 8 ms MVA panel made by AU Optronics, the monitor impressed us with rich colours, bright, crisp whites, deep blacks and a good all-round performance for both graphics and games.
The 800:1 contrast ratio and 250 cd/m² brightness on offer served up vibrant and colourful images – in fact, we had to turn the monitor down from its default 100% brightness setting for fear of being permanently dazzled.
Viewing angles were also impressive, with horizontal viewing excellent up to 100° (50° from the centre of the image) and very good up to 160°.
We tested the monitors using a relatively elderly Gigabyte Radeon 9200 card with both digital and analogue outputs and found no real difference in quality between outputs.
Conclusion
We were mightily impressed with the Viewsonic VP191s.
Image quality was solid throughout, text was crystal clear and the 8ms response rate offered excellent coverage of fast moving images.
Add to that the slim-line bezel, good looks, sturdy stand and fantastic pivoting screen function and you have a monitor that stands out as one of the very best in its class.
We feel that the monitor provides an oustanding portfolio of specifications and features on offer for the money. Highly recommended.
Score: 5/5
Viewsonic
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22 September, 2005
Humax PVR-9200T: Freeview Duovisio PVR Launched
Humax have dished out detailed information about their new dual-tuner, Freeview-enabled PVR, the PVR-9200T.
Like the Sony RDR-GXD500 we reviewed in April 2005, Humax’s PVR lets users watch and record digital terrestrial Freeview TV shows, with lucky UK consumers able to feast on over 30 channels of freebie programming.
With two tuners onboard, Humax’s PVR-9200T (or “Duovisio” as it likes to be called), lets you record one channel while watching another or you can really push the boat out and simultaneously record two channels while playing back a previous recording.
Receiving and recording of pay TV channels is possible through a special CA module.
There’s no DVD recorder on board, so storage is taken care of by a fairly generous 160GB hard drive, supporting up to 100 hours recording.
The unit comes with preloaded software, allowing for picture-in-a-picture and “assorted trick play, diverse formats of recording and recording services playback, all through the time shift recording function.” We’re not quite sure what that last bit means.
Folks baffled by the complexities of traditional video programming will enjoy the 7 day Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) with the Duovisio providing support for subtitles, digital teletext and interactive features.
There’s also a handy USB2.0 port provided for MPEG A/V file transfers between the Duovisio and a PC, letting users play back their digital photos or listen to MP3 files downloaded from a PC.
Humax
22 September, 2005
NEC L1 Launches. World’s Thinnest Folding Camera Phone
NEC ruled the early days of mobile phone, now with a battle cry of “Thin Is In!” NEC are waving their technological prowess around to the world with the launch of the world’s thinnest foldaway mobile phone.
Decked out in an attractive black and silver finish, the mini-marvel supports mobile-Internet and GSM/GPRS and comes with a 1.3 mega pixels digital camera onboard.
The teensy-weensy little puppy measures just 47.9mm (width) X 101.5mm (height) X 11.9mm (depth; when folded) and weighs in at a pocket-untroubling 96g.
Despite its Lilliputian dimensions, NEC have managed to squeeze in two displays, a 1.9″ (176×220 dot) 65,000 colour display, supported by a smaller, secondary organic light emitting display screen on the front of the device, handy for displaying caller information and scrolling text messages.
The clever boffins at NEC have also managed to wedge in PictBridge support, MP3 playback, Java and Bluetooth connectivity.
Lovers of kray-zee ringtones will shake their booties to the phone’s 64-polyphonic ring tone support and there’s even a movie function crammed into its super-slim frame, with the phone offering up to two minutes of movie shooting.
“This ultra-slim, clam-shell type mobile phone is a symbol of NEC’s leading position in the area of mobile technology,” chest-beated Susumu Otani, Associate Senior Vice President and head of Mobile Terminals Operations Unit at NEC Corporation.
“We will continue to strive to offer the latest, most innovative and most attractive mobile terminal solutions on the market. Boasting compact shape and the latest technologies, our phones allow our customers to choose the right phone for their individual needs in all of our target markets across the globe,” he continued, while laughing at the bulky dimensions of a nearby Motorola RAZR phone.
The phone is already available in Hong Kong, with other markets to follow.
We sense a big push from NEC, back to its mobile phone glory days. Yesterday NEC announced it will be supplying its Mobile Internet Platform (NEMIP) to O2 in the UK, so they can run their coming-soon i-mode service in the UK.
NEC (the L1 is so new, it doesn’t even have a product page!)
21 September, 2005
Dell Axim X51v PDA Rolled Out
Dell has announced three updates to its popular Axim PDA series, headed up by the powerful, VGA-enabled X51v.
The flagship model is physically very similar to their existing X50v, but runs on the new Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system and comes with more memory and powerful features.
With a hefty 624 MHz Intel PXA270 processor lurking inside, the Dell Axim X51v incorporates a 3.7-inch 640 x 480 VGA TFT display, powered by an Intel 2700G Multimedia Accelerator offering 16 MB of dedicated video memory.
Onboard storage comes in the form of 256 MB of non-volatile memory, with expansion taken care of by SDIO compatible SD/MMC and CompactFlash Type II card slots.
One big difference from previous models is the use of non-volatile memory, which means that the new Axim X51v uses RAM exclusively for running programs and stores all programs and data in flash.
The good news is that this results in extended battery life and means that data stays intact when the battery goes dead, but there is a downside.
Because flash memory is slower than RAM, activities that involve shunting a lot of data between storage flash and operational RAM (like opening files or rebooting the device) become slower.
PC Magazine found that opening times on large Word documents were much slower than on earlier models, taking up to 18 seconds compared to the nippy 3 seconds on the X50v.
They also found that file writes to the default storage directory took three times as long as on the X50v, and reads took nearly eight times as long, but the machine performed well with video files and opening ClearVue PDF, Pocket Excel/Excel Mobile and Pocket Internet Explorer/IE Mobile documents.
Connectivity is taken care of with integrated Bluetooth 1.2 and Wi-Fi 802.11b support, with WPA and LEAP security for the latter.
Dell have bundled in a generous software bundle of games and applications including 3D mini-golf, Geo Rally 3D and full versions of the Battery Pack Lite utility and the excellent Resco Picture Viewer.
Looking down the range, Dell’s new Axim X51 and X51s devices offer 520 and 416 MHz processors respectively with smaller 3.5-inch QVGA displays and no Wi-Fi 802.11b connectivity in the X51s.
The Axim X51v is now available in the US and Europe, priced $500 USD (£271, €390) with the X51 and X51s knocking out for $400 USD (£220, €340) and $300 USD (£166, €280) respectively.
21 September, 2005
SPV M5000: Orange 3G Smartphone In The Shops
Orange has become the first UK operator to sell an own-brand Windows Mobile handset operating on 3G networks, with the launch of the SPV M5000 smartphone.
Manufactured by HTC of Taiwan, the phone goes under a host of pseudonyms and although o2 were the first to announce the launch of their version of the phone, the o2 Xda Exec, Orange appear to have beaten them to market (although the o2 phone looks way cooler in its neat black finish).
Aimed at business users on the move, Orange are hoping that the phone will provide a practical alternative to execs currently lugging a laptop, PDA and a phone around.
As we reported earlier this month, the phone combines 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth functionality in a chunky PDA-style device with a natty fold out keyboard and a mega-pixel camera onboard.
The silvery device stuffs in a loudspeaker and microphone for making conference calls, with a built-in modem and fax capability letting users blast off emails and check their appointments whilst making calls on the hands-free kit.
This new addition to Orange’s range reflects the company’s continuing support for Microsoft’s technology as part of its ‘Signature’ handset programme.
Philippe Bernard, Executive Vice President, Orange Business Solutions commented, “Mobility is unlocking the potential of the IT infrastructure by giving business people access to data when and where they need it. As mobile devices are increasingly aligned with personal computers, they must operate within that same environment. The SPV M5000 does exactly that by providing a powerful Microsoft Windows based connected PDA that has outstanding compatibility with IT software, hardware and powerful connectivity.”
Orange SPV M5000
21 September, 2005
Google WiFi In Testing. Free Service To Launch?
Are Google about to launch a free wireless Internet service?
The rumours are running at fever pitch as pundits scour around for clues and hints about a forthcoming Wi-Fi service by the Internet search engine giant.
What’s really excited us is a set of pages on Google describing a new test service called Google Wi-Fi, containing instructions on how to use its wireless desktop software, Google Secure Access, which sits on their subdomain wifi.google.com.
Listed as a set of answers to questions, the pages include a list of features and terms of the new service, with examples including:
Q. “Is there a fee for using Google Secure Access? A. No, Google Secure Access is free.”
Q. “Where can I go to download Google Secure Access? A. The program can currently be downloaded at certain Google Wi-Fi locations in the San Francisco Bay area.”
Reuters picked up on the story and first ran an article saying that Google was preparing to introduce its own wireless Internet service, but this was later amended to say that they’d only begun a limited test of the wireless service.
So far, Google have only introduced two wireless access points in Silicon Valley, at a pizzeria and a gymnastics centre, but it has been reported that the company were in talks with San Francisco officials about setting up public wireless networks in the city (Google currently share a single access point in Union Square in partnership with Feeva.)
Typically, the company are keeping tight lipped about their plans, but with Business 2.0 reporting that Google had “quietly been shopping for miles and miles of ‘dark,’ or unused, fibre optic cable across the country” last year, the Wi-Fi service is looking increasingly probable.
A free Google Wi-Fi service would make sound business sense, providing another way for Google to sell targeted advertising, big up the brand, maintain their popular reputation for dishing out free stuff and importantly adding location-based information to their adverts.
Although rolling out a nationwide Wi-Fi service would be a formidable task, with Google’s energy, enthusiasm (and zillions of $$$), it’s entirely possible and would no doubt be supremely popular.
Investment site Motley Fool.com are voicing doubts about Google claiming an even bigger chunk of our online life, with their article, Why I Fear Google WiFi, investigating Google’s “big and potentially scary news.”
wifi.google.com/faq.html
21 September, 2005
European In-flight Mobile Calls Next Year
British airline bmi and TAP Air Portugal have announced that they will be allowing passengers to use their own cellphones on commercial flights within western Europe from late next year.
The two European airlines will be introducing OnAir’s voice and text service for mobile phones in separate three-month trial runs.
The trials will give OnAir, a Geneva-based joint venture of Airbus and Netherlands-based technology company Sita Information Networking Computing, the chance to assess its service before a general release slated for 2007.
“With both airlines, initially there will be a couple of airplanes – two or three airplanes – equipped with this system,” OnAir’s chief executive George Cooper told The Associated Press.
“During that three months, we’ll all be evaluating how it’s going, what the usage is, how we handle the crew issues and so on,” he added.
The system will be used by TAP on its Airbus 321 model and by bmi on its Airbus 320s, with passengers able to make and receive calls using a base station within the airplane once it reaches 3,000m
“This trial will guide us on usage patterns and some of the social issues in using mobile phones on aircraft,” said bmi chief executive Nigel Turner. “It will also help us to confirm the business case for rolling the service out across the remainder of the fleet.”
There have been concerns that cellphones trying to connect to terrestrial networks might interfere with a plane’s navigation, but OnAir’s plane-based system ensures that cellphones and other devices operate at lower transmission power and thus avoid affecting avionics.
The company is also looking to sell its services to other airlines and hopes to clear regulatory hurdles for air traffic within Europe some time next year.
Cooper said the surcharge for cellphone use would be competitive with international roaming rates, costing around $2,30-$2,50 (€1,88-€2,04) per minute, with text messages charged at 50 US cents (41 € cents) to send or receive.
BMI chief executive Nigel Turner was enthusiastic about the new service, “Our research tells us that our premium passengers have two key concerns: getting quickly through the airport, and the ability to carry on working during their journey.”
“This trial will guide us on usage patterns and some of the social issues in using mobile phones on aircraft, and will help us to confirm the business case for rolling the service out across the remainder of the fleet,” he added.
Much as we love the idea of firing off texts while we’re quaffing champagne at 20,000 feet and chatting to earthbound chums, it’s worth pointing out that the demand for in-flight mobile calls hasn’t matched expectations.
In a recent poll by IDC, only 11 percent of its 50,000 survey respondents wanted the ban on using mobile phones on planes lifted.
20 September, 2005
Commodore Is Back With GPS Multimedia Player
Mention the name “Commodore” to old skool gamers of a certain age, and you might see a tear welling up in their eyes as they recall long, blissful hours playing Frontier Elite, Sensible Soccer and Lemmings on the legendary gaming platform.
After suffering a crushing fall from grace in the mid 1990s, Commodore’s new owners (Yeahronimo Media Ventures) have re-launched the brand, and announced a cutting-edge multimedia GPS Videpod.
Codenamed ‘The Navigator Combo’, the Windows CE-based handheld comes with a 30GB hard drive (preloaded with maps), a big 3.6in touch-screen display and an integrated GPS receiver, all packed into a refreshingly chunky case.
As well as providing satellite navigation, the portable media centre can also play back music in MP3 and WMA format and video in MPEG-4 and DivX formats.
Music tracks can be downloaded from online music stores like Napster and Virgin Digital, or from their very own Commodore Music Store.
Videos can also be downloaded from the Internet or transferred from PCs via USB 2.0, or stored on SD memory cards.
The new handheld forms part of a series of new products announced by Commodore at the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) in Berlin.
The company has entered into a partnership with SupportPlus Europe, for the distribution and sales of Commodore products in Europe.
The two companies presented a wide range of shiny new consumer electronic products for consumers and the retail market, including MP3/MP4-players, C64 gaming joysticks, multimedia download dispensers and home media centers.
The management of YNMO and SupportPlus anticipate gross revenues from the Commodore Products in the European market to exceed 162 Million Euros within 3 years.
“In the ’80s and ’90s the name Commodore represented successful, innovative and technically first-class products,” said Ben van Wijhe, CEO of YNMO.
Building up to the required mutual backslap, he added, “Therefore the management of Yeahronimo and SupportPlus believe it is an obligation, when using the Commodore name, to continue offering the electronics consumer with products that have a high-quality and are attractive in price. SupportPlus already has showed they are an excellent partner in the historic re-launch of Commodore.”
www.commodoreshop.com
www.commodoreworld.com
Commodore/Amiga history
20 September, 2005
GetMeThere: Pay As You Go Mobile GPS Launches in UK
GetMeThere.co.uk has launched what they are claiming is the first, free to install, Pay-as-you-go Mobile Satellite Navigation solution in the UK.
A joint venture between Toyota GB and IS Solutions, the TARA (Traffic Avoidance and Routing Application) Mobile SatNav is aimed at mobile and smart phone users in the UK.
Customers won’t have to buy expensive hardware or annual licences to use the Satellite Navigation system as the TARA Mobile SatNav works with any compatible mobile phone and a GPS receiver.
Instead, punters pay on a per-journey tariff, with TARA Mobile SatNav charging £1.50 ($2.70, €2.22) to the mobile phone bill for each destination, with users allowed to update their route to check traffic conditions, take an alternative route or to re-calculate the journey if they have the orienteering skills of an alcoholic amnesiac
The system offers a comprehensive suite of features, including full turn by turn navigation, voice commands, traffic avoidance, auto-zooming maps as a junction approaches, hands free use, European road network coverage with full address, house number, street and postcode search.
All route calculation and traffic avoidance is processed remotely, with the data automatically downloaded onto the mobile via GPRS.
Jon West, Director of GetMeThere.co.uk said “With over 4.5m navigationsystems expected to be sold this year across Europe, TARA Mobile SatNav has arrived just in time to provide a low cost, quality solution for the intelligent motorist. With GPS devices now available at around the £50 ($90, €74) mark, SatNav has become a must have for all motorists”.
TARA mobile SatNav is available as a free download from GetMeThere.co.uk and is compatible with a long list of mobiles including popular Nokia models such as 3650, 3660, 6260, 6600, 6670, and 7610,T-Mobile’s MDA II and Compact and O2’s XDA II range.
GetMeThere.co.uk
20 September, 2005