mobilePASSION

HTC Universal Preview Update

Microsoft is showing off the HTC Universal (pre-released version) here at TechEd so I thought I would take the opportunity to take a quick photo with it and get some more of the specs. (Here is the link to original preview I did with photos.)

I used the high resolution camera on the back and not the video conferencing camera on the front. The photo is of the afternoon fruit table located in Community Cabana area. I thought the food looked colorful with the flower table setting. The settings I used was (2M) 1600x1280 pixels with SuperFine on the JPEG setting. There were lower resolution settings of 1280x1024, 640x480, 320x240, 160x120. This camera software also has settings for panarama stitching of images. (The original photo file is actually a true 1600x1280 pixel image but when I upload it to here this blog software is resizing it.) The quality is the best I have seen on a HTC device.  Compare it to one below.

Here is a photo (640x480) from an older version HTC device to compare it to. I was doing a Windows Mobile video for Pocket PC's and Smartphones at the Microsoft Studios in Redmond a little while ago. My buddy Jeff took the photo for me as I was getting makeup put on to hide my ugly mug.

Some of the specs are:

CPU PXA270 @ 520MHz
64MB RAM
Flash: 128MB ROM (Flashtype G3)
Storage Size: 43.72 MB
Screen: 640x480 TFT

TechEd 2005

This hall is huge. Microsoft is expecting over 10,000 people being here. I will be working in the Expo Hall and the Cabana area.

Coming in from Atlanta was a chore due to some bad weather over the airport which caused my plane to circle the gulf for about an hour.

This is being posted moblog style using my Treo 650. One of the things I like about the Treo is it's camera is a better quality than the one on my imate JAM. The imate JAM was my primary device until I started using the i730 which doesn't have a camera. So the Treo is my moblog device for now.

Treo 650; is it the Pocket PC Wannabe or the Convergence King?

OK I admit it!  I was actually pretty excited to get the Treo650. I know it may sound a little strange coming from a Windows Mobile die-hard but I was getting so frustrated and bored of using the very limited Blackberry 7100t platform. The Treo650 simply blows away my Blackberry but how does it do against the stronger Windows Mobile platform device? My plan is to just keep a running journal over time about how I feel about the device as I use it over time. I may not be a Palm-OS expert but I am certainly a mobility enthusiast and how can anyone not LOVE the form factor? In my opinion if you want an integrated keyboard it is one of the best form factors combining small size along with a high resolution screen and great phone functionality.

Mobile Mania! What's your favorite?

What do you think my favorite device is out of this line up?

You have the super duper Windows Mobile Smartphone Samsung i300 on the far left with its 3GB internal hard-drive sitting next to the i730.  The i730 which is a Windows Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition sizes up amazingly well (with its QWERTY keyboard hidden from view) next to the current small form factor champion... the imate JAM.

All three of these babies are being shown here at TechEd at the Windows Mobile device bar in the Expo Hall.

TechEd 2005; Orlando

It is time to take off for Orlando Florida to attend Microsoft's Tech-Ed 2005 located at the Convention Center. It has been completely sold out for a while now so there has been lots of interest. You know the Windows Mobile side of things will be jumping with activity since the announcements of Windows Mobile 5 and some of the latest hardware. I will have the Samsung i730 with me to show off at the Windows Mobile booth in the Expo Hall as well as at the Cabana section.  The party this year is on Thursday evening at Universal Studios where several thousand attendees get free run of the park. See ya there!

"Tech·Ed is Microsoft’s largest annual conference for providing IT professionals and developers with technical training, information and resources to build, deploy and manage solutions with currently shipping and near-term Microsoft technologies."

First Impressions of the HTC Universal

This unique and very exciting form factor is a real attention grabber to anyone that sees it being demonstrated. I had the opportunity to play with a pre-production version of the HTC Universal that was in the booth at Microsoft’s Mobile Embedded Developers Conference and at the Gartner Symposium ITxpo. People would stop immediately after their eye caught the 180 degree swiveling VGA screen in action revealing a QWERTY thumb keyboard. The hinge design allows the screen to be protected by folding flat over the keyboard (Fig 1.)

This was running Microsoft's recently announced Windows Mobile 5 software. (See fig 4) This latest version of Windows Mobile has lots of internal changes to the software but the obvious ones are the look and feel. It is now more uniform to what you have on a Windows Mobile Smartphone so that one handed operation is more easily accomplished.

Unfortunately the device didn’t have a functional SIM card so I wasn’t able to test phone or data connections. The design idea is that you can still answer a phone call without opening the cover by simply pressing the talk button on the hinge (Fig. 1 again). There is a speaker accessible through the cover for your ear and the microphone is located at the bottom near the SD slot.

T-Mobile SDA Smartphone

This is my current Smartphone of choice from T-Mobile in Germany. Doesn't it look great? :-)

It is the model SDA and I like the look of this one. The joy stick is my preference over the rocker arm of the previous model by HTC.

It is taking a little getting used because I had gotten use to the old button placements of the older typhoon model. CES is going to be great next month with a boatload of excellent devices and accessories to be showing off in the Microsoft booth.

i-mate JAM GSM/GPRS Pocket PC

You just got to say WOW the first time you put your hands on one of these babies.... Thanks to Patrick and www.expansys.com for getting this out right away. :-) ... just in time for CES next month.

It really is amazing to hold. The screen is the smallest around today for any Pocket PC product. It looks to be on the same size as the unreleased MPx. I will be showing this off at the small Theater in the Microsoft booth at CES along with some of the other very cool products that have recently been released. 

Here you can see the relative size of the JAM compared to some popular devices.  From left to right is the MPx220, JAM, hx4715 and Dell x50.

GPS in the air...

I was on a trip to Seattle this week and just had to have some fun. I wanted to try out my new CoPilot bluetooth wireless GPS receiver running the CoPilot Smartphone software just to see what it looks like on my typhoon.

Well I had the receiver but had the wrong phone with me. I brought along my MPx220. So what I did instead was to run the Pharos Ostia software on my Pocket PC hx4700 and connect the CoPilot receiver to it wirelessly.

Here is the screenshot of the time the plane was at 31000 feet cruising above Oregon I believe at the time. The CoPilot receiver picks up the satellites signals just fine from the window and at high speed.

The Super Sales have started...

My techno set of brothers were up and at 'em early this morning at BestBuy where there were several HUNDRED early bird shoppers in line eager to take advantage of the super sales only available for the first several hours. When I say early I mean VERY early. Mark decided to get going at 2am to stand in line just to make sure he could get the "bestbuy" of his choice and he wasn't even FIRST at that outrageous hour. It was a nice gesture that they handed out free coffee and doughnuts for those in line. You can look at this way.. you might be losing some sleep but you won't be losing any pounds. ;-)

BestBuy had one of the best deals going here for a Motorola MPx220 Smartphone with a final price of about $50. :-) I love the ability to use the Smartphone as a modem.

I headed over to Staples for their 6am opening to pick up some great deals on a 256MB USB memory stick for under $10. I didn't expect a big turnout at Staples but I was amazed that there was still around a hundred people in that line. That is one of the justifications for getting there early before store opening.... you know you will end up standing in shorter lines during checkout. All the specials seem to be goobled up within 15minutes of being on the shelves and tables.