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Mobile Surfing…

While on the go, it’s nice to know that you can still stay connected with more than email if need be. For this, I highly recommend that you bookmark PDAPortal.us which lists hundreds of sites ready to be linked to with a PDA browser. You can of course use this as a starting point for custom AvantGo or Plucker channels as well, but I’ve found that browsing live over GPRS is quite simple and manageable.

Written while listing to — Tenacious D “Double Team” from Tenacious D .

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Hush’s silent AVX Music Server

A new whisper-quiet (or so they claim) digital audio server from Hush Technologies. The AVX Music Server connects to both your stereo and your home… [Gizmodo]

Looks good… love the PDA remote skin! Would love to see that kind of development for the SliMP3 on either PPC or Palm platform. The handheld skin is nice but no were as sophisticated as what has been developed here.

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For the deaf, new options on the phone

This is an amazing development which should serve as quite the equalizer…

The Sorenson videophone is a breakthrough, said Genie Gertz, an assistant professor of deaf studies at California State University at Northridge, because it enables the deaf to use what many consider to be their native language – American Sign Language – with unprecedented simplicity and clarity. “This is a gigantic step for the deaf community,” Gertz, who is deaf, said through an interpreter.

The Sorenson VP-100 is a stand-alone videophone that works with a television and broadband Internet connection. It has a remote control and a flashing light that can be used instead of a ringer to signal incoming calls. Users can sign directly with another deaf person or with a Sorenson interpreter. Because of the high quality of the video, the interpreter can read the deaf user’s signing while simultaneously translating and speaking to the telephone user, and vice versa. [

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Sony Ericsson testing mobile online gaming

Sony Ericsson announced today that its testing online gaming between mobiles. It looks to be open to all consumers, but certain carrier restrictions apply…. [MobileTracker]

Very cool!!

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Lost? Hiding? Your sell phone is keeping tabs

Families and employers are adopting surveillance technology once used mostly to track soldiers and prisoners. [CNET News.com]

I have mixed feelings about this technology… While I think location services are cool for personal use (driving directions, friend finding, store locations, etc…) and tracking of children for parental piece of mind is great, the potential for abuse is certainly there. Let’s hope that the appropriate personal security is added or enhanced as the services become more available.

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Decuma Releasing Handwriting Recognition Software for Palm OS and Pocket PC

Decuma has just announced its new OnSpot Handwriting Recognition Software for Pocket PC and Palm OS 5 devices. [Brighthand]

Looks good, but for 30 bucks, I’d really like to see a demo before thinking about buying.

Update – Thanks to a Post and comment by Steven I learned that Handango has a demo of the app. i have it a shot last night and while it looks nice I was not please with how it works on screen. You select keyboard ( shortcut – /K) and you then get the Decuma screen which takes over whatever app you were in. I was hoping it would replace the virtual graffiti area on my T3 while it was running.

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Bluetooth Internet Sharing to Palm

Thanks to some extremely helpful scripts from TechnoHappyMeal, it is now possible to share either my Airport or Ethernet connection to my Palm over Bluetooth. Running a simple AppleScript allows my Mac to be a point of connectivity for the Palm which is very helpful when you want to update AvantGo or Hand/RSS without a cradle or cable. You can also send and check email as well as browse web sites if you like. Set-up details are quick and painless.

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Syndicated Audio Messaging with RSS

Harold Gilchrist is working on an RSS-based protocol for audioblogging. I want to be able to subscribe to audioblogs and other audio delivered by RSS, but I want an RSS reader that automatically downloads the audio into iTunes folders for one-click downloading into my iPod. I want to just pickup my iPod as I’m running out the door, and discover all the blogs and programs I subscribe to already neatly organized, ready to listen to. (I also wish the iPod had a way to mark tracks as having been read, so I could tell it to just play or show new material.) [Doug Kaye: Web Services Strategies]

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Push or Pull? Who cares!

The maker of operating systems for mobile devices and Research In Motion announce plans to collaborate on software that will enable Palm OS-based handhelds to use RIM’s BlackBerry wireless service. [CNET News.com]

I am not exactly sure what the connectivity is on T-Mobile’s site, but it lets you get Enterprise mail directly on a device – Phone or PDA. The Palm/RIM deal is interesting, and helps those corporate users get true support from IT. My setup was not officially supported by my (former) company’s IT group. For the small or solo user, I can’t see how this announcement helps. You can easily get email now, just not “push.”

I am not sure how much push really matters… I get plenty of email on a daily basis. When I am out and want to stay connected I simply set SnapperMail to auto-check every XX minutes – usually 30 minutes. This automatically initiates a bluetooth connection to my phone, which then connects via GPRS on the T-Mobile network and then allows my Palm to POP into my mail server to send and retrieve messages. I can always override this schedule with a manual connection as well. This is a very practical and relatively simple set-up that works VERY reliably.

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PortalPlayer Photo Edition paves way for Picture iPod

All your digital photos. In your pocket [The Register]

All the pieces are certainly there… just a matter of who will build it. Apple is far from the exclusive builder of devices with the Portal Player chips inside – they are just the best. If they took full advantage of this with the integration we already know through the iPod, this would be a clear winner of a device in my opinion. We can hope that Steve has just been blowing a bit of smoke about this and secretly building a new “something.”

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Prince of Persia

I picked up Prince of Persia tonight and dusted off my PS2. Been a while since I felt I could really spend some time gaming and I guess I feel pretty cool about it now that I am officially not working. All work makes… yeah yeah.

Anyway – Prince of Persia is an amazing game. It’s beautifully designed, not too hard to play and has a cool combination of fighting and adventure. It’s kind of like Tomb Raider, but with some serious tweaks.

I also recently downloaded a demo of Indiana Jones, which looks much closer to Tomb Raider. Have not played it yet, just watched the movie online and immediately downloaded.

Game on!

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Yes Please…

So imagine that you’re coming home from work with your iPod and you’re listening to a song. Let’s say that you’re listening to Don’t be Light by Air, because it’s an extremely good song. Now let’s imagine that your iPod has bluetooth capabilities (or something similar) and that you’ve already paired it with your home computer (that – of course – you have hooked up to your stereo).

[plasticbag.org]

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Bluetooth Sharing Windows XP’s Internet with a Tungsten

With Bluetooth in the Palm of your hand and on that desktop or laptop PC,
Internet sharing is only a few steps away. Whizoo has some step-by-step
instructions on sharing Windows XP’s Internet connectivity with a Tungsten over Bluetooth.

discuss [MobileWhack]

Anyone get this working on Mac? Seems like it would be simple using the Sharing control panel and creating a connection from Palm to Computer. For some reason my connection to world from Palm through Computer is not working… not sure if it is DNS or what. I’ve tried on my Powerbook as well as iMac.

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Zukero V3 – crazy name, cool idea

Little black box lets any audio device get streaming content over GPRS.

The product itself is a small dongle terminating in a 3.5 mm jack suitable for connection to a wide range of home audio products. This dongle connects via Bluetooth to a compatible mobile phone (currently Nokia’s Series 60 devices, Sony Ericsson’s UIQ handhelds and their T68, T39 and T610) and uses its GPRS connection to stream audio content directly to the home appliance. [infoSync]

Pretty wild gadget, though I am not sure that GPRS is quite fast enough to be a practical delivery method for music. It’s more like a 33.6 modem connection in best cases which would be pretty lo-fi on your stereo. The concept is awesome though… hopefully they will figure out how to support faster networks as they become available.

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Wi-Fi Blackberry in Works

Research in Motion Ltd. is building BlackBerry messaging devices that run over wireless LANs, company officials confirmed last week.

RIM, of Waterloo, Ontario, has started testing BlackBerrys that can roam between 802.11, or Wi-Fi, WLANs and wide-area cellular networks.

“We’ve been working on Wi-Fi for a long time,” said Jim Balsillie, chairman and co-CEO of RIM. “We weren’t really planning to talk about it for a while, but it’s a bit predictable that we would do this—it’s just another transport.” [Technology News from eWEEK and Ziff Davis]