Portable

Palm Rumours: Takeover Bid and New Palm OS Model?
Currently recording more ups and downs than Ron Jeremy’s buttocks, Palm’s share price continues to oscillate wildly as rumours of a takeover continue.
After the news broke that Palm had hired investment-banking firm Morgan Stanley to advise them about possible business strategies, analysts have speculated that Motorola, Nokia, RIM, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and quite possibly the bloke in the corner shop might be looking to buy out the handheld company.
Although now owning a considerably smaller chunk of the smartphone market, Palm is still in profit, posting earnings expectations between $390 million and $395 million (a figure reduced from the original $430 million after shipping delays with its new Treo 750 smartphone.)
Fans of the old oft-flogged Amiga platform will probably find Palm’s curious business shenanigans somewhat familiar: in 2003 Palm was split into two separate companies, with one taking care of t’software and the other t’hardware.
In 2005, Access Systems forked out $324 million to acquire PalmSource – the folks who developed the Palm OS – while the second Palm spin-off company, PalmOne, renamed itself Palm Inc.
A few months ago Palm shelled out $44 million to Japan’s Access Systems for a perpetual license of the operating system used by Treo smartphones and PDAs, ensuring that current and future Palm handhelds remain compatible with Palm’s Garnet OS.
While all this faffing about with names, new logos and buyouts was going on, Palm’s popular Treo brand has come under increasing competition from technology packed smartphones from the big boys.
Although the Windows-based Treo 750 already looks to be doing well in Europe, the lack of wi-fi continues to mightily miff users and some have been looking at the Treo’s lardy lines and hinting that a crash diet could be in order.
China deal
Despite the speculation about its future, Palm has just announced that it’s launching the Palm Treo 680 through the world’s largest mobile operator, China Mobile Communications Corporation, expanding its operations in the country and establishing its first R&D and Operations Centre in Shanghai.
Treo 755p
Elsewhere, rumours are abounding of a follow up to the US-only Palm 700p , the Palm Treo 755p (the ‘p’ means it runs the Palm OS), previously codenamed Treo Sherlock.
According to leaked info, the 755p will be the first to support CDMA Treo with an internal antenna and come with EVDO, instant messaging, native voice dialling and be available in burgundy and blue.
Much as we heart the Treos, that doesn’t sound like an iPhone killa to us, but Palm fanboys are pinning their hopes on Palm co-founder Jeff Hawkins’s hints about having a “top-secret product in the wings.”
Talking to Business 2.0 a while ago, Hawkins hinted that something very special could be in the works: “One of the missions we have at Palm is to design breakout products. It’s hard, really hard, to do. Palm’s done it twice, you could argue, with the original Palm Pilot, and the Treo smartphone. We’ve got another one in development.”
8 March, 2007
FunkeeStory SMS Backup For Mac Treo Users
The Palm platform has traditionally enjoyed a lot of support from Mac users who can perhaps relate to the platform’s status as a great working product that isn’t as well known as it should be (or maybe it’s because it’s simply not Windows?!).
Anyhow, Mac based Treo users might well be interested in this lovely little app for backing up and storing text messages from a company called FunkeeMonk Technology.
Treo owners will already know that its threaded text message interface is the best in the business, but mustard keen SMS fiends often end up having to delete older conversations as the none-too voluminous memory of the Treo fills up.
The FunkeeStory application lets Mac users back up and archive SMS messages and conversations by installing a conduit and an attractive desktop viewing application.
The application retains the threaded chat views and also supports multimedia content, so photos, audio and video clips can be viewed on a Mac, or emailed out to friends.
All the messages are searchable and the program offers international language support.
Created by Mac fan Joe Goh, the program is available from the Funkeemonk website for $19.95 – FunkeeMonk Technology.
Windows backup options
We took a look around for something similar for Windows Treo users and came across the $10 Treo Desktop application which offers similar functionality but without a conduit.
Cheapskates on either platform can also use this free online converter sms2csv.php which does the job but is about as basic as it gets.
6 March, 2007
Archos 704-WiFi Portable Media Player Announced
Keen to maintain its position as the Dark Master Of All Things PMP, Archos have announced the latest addition to its Personal Media Player, the 704 Wi-Fi.
A big’n’beefy, take-no-prisoners kind of affair, the 704 Wi-Fi comes with a massive seven-inch screen, a capacious 80GB hard drive, a DVR dock for recording TV shows, remote control, Opera web browsing and – not surprisingly – a hefty price tag to boot.
The $549.99, 1.4-pound beastie comes in a natty brushed-aluminium finish, with the front dominated by an impressively high resolution 800×480 pixel touch screen display, with two wee stereo speakers underneath.
Button freaks may be found wanting as all the navigation controls are activated via the touchscreen, either by using your trusty digit, or employing one of the two included styli.
As befits its media player billing, this puppy can play a ton of video formats including MPEG-4, AVI, Divx and WMV video files, and MP3 and WMA audio files (with optional plug-ins for h.264, MPEG-2 MP@ML, and AAC support). There’s also support for PlaysForSure.
The Archos can also play back bought movies from Amazon Unbox, AOL, CinemaNow, and Wal-Mart, but – surprise surprise – iTunes’ Fairplay-protected files won’t work with the player.
Video playback battery life is claimed at ‘up to five hours’, which should be good enough for all but the most lengthy of art house films.
The combination of the large screen and bundled Opera tabbed web browser should make surfing the web a whole lot more fun than some handheld devices, although there’s no support for Flash (so YouTube’s off the menu for now).
Initial reviews say that the player can suffer from sluggish performance, with an irritating “one-to-two-second delay between an input and an action”, which may give hyperactive surfers the heebeegeebees.
Although it’s a pricey number, the Archos 704 Wi-Fi packs a ton of functionality into its slightly portly frame, and with its big screen could be the perfect partner of long journeys. But don’t try wedging it into your pocket.
Specifications: Archos 704 Wi-Fi
Capacity 40GB (80GB in US)
Display 7 inches (800 x 480 pixels, more than 16 million colours)
Audio Formats MP3, WAV, WMA, protected WMA (AAC and AC3 with optional plug-ins)
Photo Formats JPEG, BMP
Video Formats MPEG-4, WMV, protected WMV (H.264, MPEG-2, and VOB with optional plug-ins)
Wireless Wi-Fi 802.11g
Battery Life 5 hours claimed
PC Interface USB 2.0
Size 5.2 x 3 x 0.6 inches
Weight 1.4 pounds
Archos
6 March, 2007
SPV M700 Launches on Orange UK: Also In Black
The latest model in the SPV range has arrived on the UK Orange mobile phone network.
There’s been shots of the SPV M700 floating around for a while, but as of today it’s been confirmed that there will be a black version in the UK to partner the White.
As well as all of the goodies detailed below, the SPV M700 has Sat Nav built-in – one of the early phone to have this. The handset will be able to take advantage of Sat-Nav from Orange.
The Sat-Nav is powered by Webraska with all maps and live traffic updates are held on a central server and are downloadable from the Internet via WiFi, 3G, GPRS or the Orange EDGE network onto the mobile device. Initially only available to business users, it’s now open to all.
The M700 has a 2.8in, 240 x 320, 65,53-colour display, a 2.1 megapixel camera and secondary, VGA camera for video calls and runs Windows Mobile 5.0, so offers Microsoft Office applications including Excel, Word and PowerPoint.
With all of this on board Orange is billing it as helping “you work faster and more efficiently when you’re away from your desk.”
This 3G handset can offer data rates of up to 1.8Mbps (network allowing) There’s quite a few wireless networks supported including EDGE networks as well as UMTS, GPRS and WiFi.
You can get the SPV M700 from Orange shops and online at orange.co.uk. It’s free on contracts over £35.
Sat-Nav from Orange
28 February, 2007
Mobile Use In UK Cars: Penalty Points And Fines Await
As of today, drivers using their mobile phone while driving in the UK will be hit with increased fines.
The previous fixed-penalty fine of £30 is increased to £60 with the courts having a possible maximum fine of £1,000.
The real disincentive to drivers will, however, be the three penalty points that will be added to their driving license. If UK license holders have over 12 points on their license they are banned from driving for three years.
If those caught are driving anything bigger than a car, say a bus, coach or goods vehicle, the maximum fine is considerably higher, rising to £2,500.
Peter Rodger, the Institute of Advanced Motorists’ chief examiner, said: ‘Inevitably some drivers will think that they should buy a hands-free kit and the problem will go away.
“That would certainly suit the manufacturers. But drivers should be aware that they are potentially buying trouble – even when you are hands-free, research has shown that you are four times more likely to crash because your concentration is split.
“The best advice is to switch off before you drive off – and if you really can’t do that, be prepared to stop and find somewhere legal and convenient to return that missed call or check your messages.”
Some of the rules that do confuse are that the rules still apply, even when people are sitting in traffic jams.
27 February, 2007
Freeloader Solar Technology Portable Charger
Having a ton of the latest technological gadgets bulging in your pants may give you a Noughties swagger, but you’ll be looking like a prize chump if the batteries go flat, so Solar Technology’s new Freeloader charger might help you keep your cool.
Billed as an ‘advanced portable charging system’, the portable device sports twin fold-out solar panels for that mini-Space Station look, with the makers claiming that the panels can charge up the internal battery in as little as 5 hours.

They may not sound much, but seeing as some Brit summers seem to contain less than five hours sunlight in total, it’s a good job that the Freeloader has a trick up its sleeve, offering the option to charge up the internal battery via a (supplied) USB cable.
This gives you the chance to store up on battery power before you leave the house and then top it up whenever there’s a bit of sun in the sky.
The 1000mAh environmentally friendly Li-ion battery seems to have a reasonable bit of oomph to it too, and is quoted as being able to power an iPod for 18hours, a mobile phone for 44 hours, PSP for 2.5 hours a PDA for 22 hours.
The Freeloader can hang on to its battery charge for up to 3 months and can conveniently charge a device while its internal battery is being topped up via the solar cells or by USB cable.
The charger comes with a power master cable and eleven adaptors to fit a ton of devices listed on their website:
- LG Chocolate series phones
- Motorola V66 series and current V3 series phones
- All Nokia current and N series phones
- Samsung A288 and current D800 series phones
- Sony Ericsson T28 and current K750 series phones
- 4mm straight jack for Sony PSP, Tom Tom sat nav, digital camera’s, PDA’s and two-way radio’s
- Mini USB for Blackberry Smart phones, Nintendo DS, Bluetooth headsets etc
- USB 2.0 female socket for iPod, iPod Shuffle, MP3 players, smart phones, PDA’s, GPS “plus much more”
Sized up at a portable 123mm x 62mm x 17mm and weighing 185g, the stylish Freeloader comes in a tough aluminium case and could prove a handy purchase for travellers, road warriors and folks looking forward to this year’s festival season (Glastonbury mudstorms notwithstanding).
The Freeloader solar charger is available now from Solar Technology’s website at £29.99.
Freeloader
27 February, 2007
iAxe USB Guitar For Laptop-Toting Plank Spankers
Guitar bands may well be back in, but all those clunky effects pedals and old-school spaghetti cables are unlikely to impress the chix at the front, so aspiring Rock Gods may want to check out the new iAxe USB Guitar.
As the name suggests, this Strat-shaped guitar comes with a USB port, allowing aspiring six string warriors to plug into their laptops and access a host of cool effects.
The guitar certainly looks the part, sporting a maple neck, solid body, single-coil pickups with 5-way switching, shiny chrome machine heads and a whammy bar letting you go for a bite while the sustain continues making that ‘eeeeeeeee’ sound.
The ‘idiot proof’ software supplied lets bedroom plank spankers jam along to their own music, with the ability to slow down or speed up tracks to learn those tricky licks and difficult ‘shapes’.
There’s also a multi-track recording/editing function for laying down dual-guitar sonic attacks, delicately layered tracks or a Ronnie Spector wall of noise.
If your neighbours aren’t down with your late night, death metal interpretations of teenage angst expressed through the medium of a heavy fuzzbox effect, there’s a handy headphone socket to help keep the noise down to minus eleven.
The sound may well be Shea Stadium, but at just £99 the price is definitely Bull & Gate, and the USB iAxe is available now for wannabe six string renegades on the highway to desolation from online widget merchants, Firebox.
26 February, 2007
UK Punters Are Feeling The MP3 Music Love
A new survey by Q Research discovered that a third of UK consumers aged 11 to 25 were slapping down up to £5 a month on digital tunes, with three per cent shelling out £25 or more a month.
Not all the kids are feeling the digital love though, with 45 per cent of respondents spending but ne’er a bean on music.
A hefty 85 per cent of respondents were found to be owners of MP3 players with the ubiquitous Apple iPod being the most popular device by a long chalk.
The survey found that the young ‘uns were the biggest users of free download services – almost half – but 43 per cent of under 16s were still paying up to £10 a month, with a hardcore nine per cent splashing out as much as £10 to £25 a month.
When it comes to the real big spenders, the lucrative 20-24 year olds sector were flashing the most cash, with two thirds spending up to £10 a month on downloads, and 16 per cent spend from £10 to £20 a month.
Downloading tunes direct to mobile phones is still a niche interest though, with punters put off by the high cost.
Liz Nelson, chairman of Q Research, commented that the survey showed that, “while there is already a very buoyant market for paying for MP3 files from the internet among young people, they are very aware of the cost of downloading files to their phones.”
“This finding is underlined by other projects we have done, where we have discovered opposition among young people to watching video or receiving video ads to their mobiles because of the cost,” she added
Source
20 February, 2007
Sony Ericsson W51S Mobile Phone
Sony Ericsson in Japan is launching the snazzy new W51S phone which comes in a striking clamshell package.
The no-fuss, flip out design is pleasantly understated, featuring a textured matt black front with just three icons for notifying the user of an incoming email, call or alarm/reminder.
The Organic Light Emitting Device (OLED) icons look rather dandy to our weary eyes, although work-shirkers probably won’t like not being able to see who’s actually calling before flipping open the phone and getting an irate boss on the line.
Once opened, the phone sports a 2.7-inch display with a 16:9 widescreen which (apparently) employs RealityMAX technology to “enhance picture quality.”
Also bundled on board the phone is a 2-megapixel camera backed up by a fairly healthy 120MB of internal memory and IrDA. As ever, Sony are persisting with their love of all things Memory Stuck, burdening the W51S with a Pro Duo expansion slot.
The W51S measures up at 105 × 48 × 19.3 mm, with talk time quoted at 210 minutes, with a standby time of 270 hours. For the security conscious, there’s also a feature letting users remotely lock and delete data on the handset over the web (Palm Treo users have been able to do this for years via excellent software like Warden)
The phone will be available in black, silver or pink, but there’s been ne’er a whisper from the Sony head honchos about pricing, release dates or even if this funky number will be getting it into the greasy paws of Britlanders.
[ From MobileWhack ]
5 February, 2007
Sony W880i Ai: Tuesday Euro Launch?
Sony Ericsson have let it be known via press invites that there’s a number of new handsets being released in Europe next Tuesday.
What they are and where it’s going on is currently being held close to the chest, but there’s rumours going around that one of them might be the W880i Ai.
There’s some shots purporting to be it floating around on a Swedish site called Mobil.
If the shots are to be believed, it looks mighty svelte, appearing only just bigger than a Bic lighter and as thin as you like.
It’s understood that it feels really solid, with a covering of metal conveying a feeling of quality.
We think it looks pretty hot, but the only thing that holds us back from near-total lust is the size and make up of the numeric keys, that have more than a passing similarity to a 1970’s calculator. Without having our hands on it, it’s unclear how friendly it will be to texting at high speed.
Specs are unclear, but it looks like two cameras, one facing forward, the other, a 2mpx facing back. Walkman branding makes it pretty clear it has music-ness included.
It looks like it’s 3G, which makes it all the more remarkable that it’s so tiny.
We’re really interested in its almost-neon-type interface.
Last, but not least, it looks like it’s heading to the US, as it’s got FCC approval.
Tune in next Tuesday for more details following the press launch, until then have a look at Mobil for more shots of it – and get a handkerchief to catch the drool.
The official I Want My W880 site.
Well done to those at Mobil for the photo scoop and Thanks to Hugo for the pointer.
2 February, 2007