Things like the eeePC from ASUS seem almost ideal but there are a few issues with it – slightly too small and horrific battery life. If the keyboard and screen resolution were a little better and the interface had a tad more polish (to suit the limited screen real estate) it would be damn near an instant purchase; but its biggest holdback is the battery – 2-3H battery life, one would assume quite a lot less when driving something the huwei E220 USB 3G/HSDPA modem.

Now both Intel and VIA have released their next generation mini-mobile CPU’s (Atom and Nano respectively) performance and battery life should be improved in these devices the Atom being the most interesting of the two CPU’s – hyper threading and SIMD instructions included but out of order execution has been dropped – it will be most interesting to see how such things are supported by software. Nvidia’s Tegra is very interesting an ARM based solution complete with OpenGL-ES support and a tiny power consumption footprint. One could conceive a decent portable device could be constructed based on this platform (the current non-3G iPhone is based on something with a similar architecture).

However my needs are pretty simple – I want a portable device with a reasonable screen (1200×800 pixels), reasonable keyboard for the fat fingered amongst us and fantastic battery life when used with a USB modem. I think drivers will be Tegra’s limitation and price will limit the adoption and acceptance of the Atom and Nano platforms, only time will tell – I think manufacturers have overlooked the reason that people have flocked to the eeePC, yes it is partially form factor but overall it is price I think there is a whole market segment between eeePC and subnotebooks (Vaio, Lenovo X300, MacBook Air) where people want some of the functionality of these subnotebooks, but not the prices attached to them.

** Addtion – whinge and you shall receive – seems the eeePC1000 may suit my needs – depends on final cost I suppose which looks like it might be going up.

For the truly hardcore the ringtone from the MacWorld keynote was once on this page. Now it is gone (and has been replaced by a midi and some sheet music). *sigh*.

This is a handy guide to getting iSync working on Mac OS X 10.4.8 with the Motorola KRZR K1 mobile phone (full review to follow at a point in the near future).
M

Pocket PC Software Suggestions – Tux:tops 

Both the links above have exellect suggsions for free apps that help make life on a PocketPC device a little bit easier! Well recommended for any one with a PPC device.

I urge all contractors and permies in Canberra, (ACT, Australia) to check this site out and rate thier pimps and place of work! Help others make sensible decisions about their career future!

nabwld

The major focus is the Mobile Section – mainly as I am about to get a HP IPAQ hw6965 and there does not seem to be much information about them.

Enjoy.

M

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For as long as companies persist in shoving DRM down our throats a DRM system like the one described here, proposed by Sun is most certainly my preferred method.

M

read more | digg story

Tonight (24-48 hours after the initial call) I spoke to several other people about this phone call and of the 4 people having dinner (Tudo Vietnameese in Canberra, VERY nice for reference) and all of them had also recieved missed calls from this number (none had called it back) three were able to verify via the call logs that this was the exact same number we came to the conclusion that this was likely a scam – designed to get you to accept a premium rate line call (via press a number to continue this call and accept phone charges) or a method to get you to release your personal information (address to send prize too, confirm name and birthday etal).

My advice is that if you have a missed call from this number and you google it before returning it, that you do not call it, I believe that you risk much more than you may gain. If you did call this number and went beyond my meagre 26 seconds, please create an account and leave a message, I would really be interested what happens beyond the initial greeting message.
M

Edit (18 June 2006)

An updated number range is as follows

02 8219 0500
02 8303 8320
03 8102 9565
03 8558 0556
03 8558 1441
03 8558 1442
03 8558 1443
03 8558 1444
03 8558 1445
03 8558 1446
03 8558 1447
03 9540 2950
03 9540 5101
03 9540 5189
03 9645 2474

There is an email running around with the text “Apparently it’s all part of a massive scam where they ring you up and hang up straight away, then when you ring back they promise you a prize and try to keep you on the line at $2.50/min by feeding you information about this wonderfull prize.” which while close is not accurate. You will only be billed at the standard phone call rate for numbers in the range/area (ie: STD rates are the maximum you face), the goal of the “missed/prank” call is to get you to listen to the entire message and THEN call the premium rate number given in the message, as long as you don’t call the 1902 number you should be allright.

Always a pig to find, the windows smartphone theme generator or theme editor is a useful tool to allow you to create and edit themes for smartphones. This Microsoft tool designed for Windows Smartphone 2002, works fine with Windows Smartphone 2003 SE.

I also tend to play around with the Pocket PC theme generator or theme editor as I prefer as they seem to be semi compatible with the Smartphone systems as well.

M

So go get Operating System, 2.3.33.21, from imate . Lets hope it fixes the hang on removal of the sync cable.

Good news it seems to fix the hang I was experiencing 90% of the time when I removed the sync + charge cable from the phone. (Only seemed to present an issue when connected to a PC – a powered hub or the wall pack did not have the same odd behavior.)

M