TamsPPC - the PocketPC Blog

People owning i-mate stock will have learned a lesson in being frustrated in the last months – the stock price has tumbled down to about one British pence due to increasingly bad sales.

According to the Financial Times, the CEO Jim Morrison plans to take over all remaining stock. This will lead to the delisting of i-mate; which means that the stock is no longer tradeable on the Alternative Investment Market.

Farid Hanna, resident expert economist, on the consequences:

While the delisting itself will not do anything to the stocks (which will remain in depots), the delisting kills trading opportunities almost completely.

People owning i-mate stock will then become real shareholders of the company. Their shares can still be bought and sold – but you should be prepared to expect minimal motion as well as next to no volume in sales.

via The Register

Expansys UK has just posted news on a few hotly-anticipated Windows Mobile devices:

HP iPAQ Data Messenger
HP’s iPAQ Data Messenger can be preordered for 399.99GPB(508 Euros / 646USD) - it is expected to drop November the 25th.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1
Silver and black versions of the XPERIA X1 are now in stock and are ready to ship. Both versions are priced at 584.99GPB(743 Euros / 945USD) - while the black version is free on a higher contract, the silver version costs 176.99GPB with a rather pricey two-year T-Mobile contract:

P.S. The solid black version currently is the #1 top-selling product at Expansys UK. The silver version is ranked #7, #9 and #10 are occupied by contract bundles.

UK-based readers hoping to get their hands onto a Touch HD will be more than happy to hear that they will be able to do so via Orange. The carrier has just announced that the machine will become available from November onwards.

The device will cost £79.99 on an 18 month, £40 per month contact including so-called anytime mobile internet browsing (250Mb per month).The carrier’s exclusivity period will end 2009.

BrightHand quotes a Microsoft spokesperson stating:

We recently gave Windows Mobile device makers the final updates to our new browser. It’s now up to our partners to roll out Internet Explorer Mobile 6 on their handsets; we’re expecting some of the first phones with IE6 to be available in Asia and Europe by the end of calendar year 2008, with U.S. offerings to follow.

Unfortunately, it looks like existing Windows Mobile handsets will not receive this upgrade. Customers on recent HTC devices will not be annoyed too much (they get Opera for free – everybody else will be less than happy.

As Microsoft gives up a large part of the market by not supporting legacy devices, I consider it highly possible that an aftermarket upgrade of some sort will become available.

So: stay tuned for further info as we get it!

Samsung seems to invest quite a bit of money into ads recently - I have stumbled across a pretty big one on London’s Heathrow airport recently:

P.S. Isn’t it amusing to see how Samsung advertises that WM 6.1 is “pre-loaded”?

All QWERTY keyboard candybar phones have to be compared to Palm’s Treo series, which can be considered the trendsetter for great keyboards on mobile phones. We have looked at the size of the 910 in the last part…now, it’s time to look at what the box contains!

Looking at the front of the box, one immediately sees the keyboard and the screen. The five-way navigator is somewhat usable, but has a rather smooth pressure point:

The keyboard itself is rather weird. While the wave shape and the layout are somewhat common, the keys have a very weird shape. Typing on it was rather uncomfortable, but works after some training (but not as good as on a Treo):

Looking at the back, we can find a speaker, the camera and the flash:

Pulling off the back reveals the huge battery and the SIM tray:

The top of the unit contains the reset button, power button and the GSM antenna plug. The bottom of the device contains the stylus silo:

Looking at the left side of the device, we see the volume buttons, record button, MiniUSB jack and memory card slot(MicroSD, 2GB bundled). Unfortunately, the jacks are covered by flexible lids:

The camera button at the right side of the box is extremely annoying due to its bad pressure points. It furthermore contains an OK button and a jog wheel:

Finally, here’s a comparison between the styli (Treo 680, ipaq 3600 and ipaq 910).

In the end, the ipaq 910’s keyboard definitely can’t verse the one found on Palm’s now classic Treo 680/75x series. Nevertheless, the machine feels solidly built except for the annoying lids and the weird camera button.

People wanting a landscape-screened QWERTY candybar running Windows Mobile 6.1 (!!no typo!!) won’t be disappointed (if they can live with the smallish screen).

Tune in soon for a screen brightness shoot-out!

Both mayor US carriers are currently expanding their PocketPC line-up - read on for the full scoop:

Sprint: HTC Touch Pro
We have covered Sprint’s version of the Touch Pro some time ago - the release seems to be imminent. BrightHand reports that the device will start to become available today, and will retail for 300$ with a 100$ mail-in rebate.

Verizon: HTC Touch Pro
Verizon’s Touch Pro has also been covered to death - the box will be called XV6850 and will come “in the following months”.

Verizon: Samsung Omnia
Nothing is known about Samsung’s CDMA plans - but it looks like Verizon will be the first US carrier to ship the product.

Verizon: Samsung Saga
The Samsung Saga is the aforementioned i770 - and it will NOT be a WMS. The device is said to have a 320×320 touchscreen and a small QWERTY keyboard.

P.S. Further information on US market shares can be had here!

This one is very important for all Austrian readers of Tamoggemon’s content network. Austria’s governmental carrier A1 has suffered an extensive network outage, leaving parts of Austria without voice, data and SMS service.

As Three shares A1’s network in some (rural) areas, this outage can also affect 3 handsets outside of their home 3G network. Three customers can thus try to fight back by forcing their handset into 3G only mode, while A1 users have to sit it out.

Once again: do NOT change your A1 handset’s settings. You can NOT do anything on the client side!

P.S. In case you feel like further information on Three’s network - hit this URL for a nice interview!

Avid TamsPPC readers will probably still recall the finding of a strange bug in Windows Mobile 6.1 - it rears its ugly face by slowly but surely corrupting email accounts, leaving users unable to send (but not to receive) email.

Microsoft has now officially acknowledged the issue, and assigned it the KB-ID 958639. As of now, nobody knows if a permanent fix will arrive - the Redmond-based boys currently suggest that affected customers should delete and remake the account:

WORKAROUND
To work around this behavior and to restore full e-mail functionality, you must delete the existing e-mail account and then set up the e-mail account again.

For more information about how to set up an e-mail account, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/en-us/help/email/send-receive-email.mspx (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/en-us/help/email/send-receive-email.mspx)
Important All the e-mail messages in the Outbox folder on the Windows Mobile 6.1-based device are erased when you delete the existing e-mail account. You must re-create these e-mail messages after you set up the e-mail account again.

Note This workaround is only a temporary solution. Until a resolution becomes available, this behavior may reoccur for the new e-mail account.

The reasons for the bug are vaguely stated as following - maybe a small program that overwrites the account settings could help:

This behavior is associated with a feature that is introduced in Windows Mobile 6.1. The feature allows for mobile operators to specify an alternate SMTP server name that is used if e-mail messages cannot be sent by using the user-specified SMTP server name. If the mobile operator does not specify an alternate SMTP server name and if the Windows Mobile 6.1-based device does not connect, the e-mail account is corrupted and cannot send e-mail messages.

Further information can be had in the Knowledge Base…

It’s this part of the month once again - AdMob has provided me with a new Metrics Report. For all these of you new to the topic: AdMob is a company that focuses on serving up ads to mobile devices. Thus, they find themselves in an unique position for gathering data about market shares - and gladly pass that data on to the press.

As usual, I have picked out the most interesting bits of info - links to the full report can be found at the links below:
Palm OS - US market share takes decisive blow
The Palm Os finally is out of the US top 20 except for the Centro. The figure on the left is from August, while the figure on the right is from September. The single big winner is the iPhone, which now has about 3.2% of market share compared to the 3.4% of the Centro:

US - carriers and manufacturers
Our next char looks at which carrier deploys wich mobile phones. One can immediately seer that Sprint is the single biggest user of Palm devices, while MetroPCS acts as a game reserve for dead or dying phone manufacturers:

OS market share analysis
When it comes to OS shares all around the world, the Palm OS still manages to take in 6%. Symbian dominates the market, Windows Mobile and RIM OS fight about the second place:

Further reading
September 2008 - PDF
August 2008 - PDF

P.S: Should the PDF links ever go down, please let us know - we have them archived!

Dear Readers,
if you currently own a device eligible for a free WM6/WM6.1 update, please proceed to downloading the upgrade file ASAP (even if you don’t wish to deploy it ATM).

The reason for this is simple: most carriers and manufacturers will remove their WM 6.1 upgrades in the next week or two. After that, there is no official way to update your device.

Once again: you don’t need to install the update now! However, the Tamoggemon Content team advises you to download the file ASAP and place it in a safe place - just in case you (or the person you sell the device to one day) feels like WM 6.1…

So far, most carriers (except for Hutchison/Three) have loathed and feared VoIP applications like Skype or its mobile cousin Fring. In fact, some data plans prohibited users to use VoIP programs.

However, this is now set to change - Austria’s biggest carrier A1 just announced a cooperation with Fring:

….
announced today the first ever deployment of fring’s mobile VoIP and mobile internet community application for a Tier 1 network operator.

Under the agreement, mobilkom austria will give its customers access to a dedicated version of the fring mobile client, containing fring’s entire open-platform, feature-rich suite of internet based mobile communications & community services, allowing A1 over IP users to talk, chat and interact with each other & all of their online communities, and access fun mobile web applications, using the internet connection capability of their mobile device
….
Avi Shechter, fring’s co-founder and CEO commented: “Today’s announcement by fring and its new partner, mobilkom austria, represents just the beginning of a sea change in the relationship between mobile VoIP and traditional mobile carriers.
….

I am not exactly sure myself as to why A1 chose to take this rather radical step, as the carrier traditionally is known to be the exact opposite of offensive when it comes to adopting new technologies.

This combined with the Telefonica statements (coming soon) make me think that we are looking at a significant change in the carrier landscape. Traditionally, carriers have been afraid of innovation..this policy seems to change all over the board currently.

What do you think?

I just stumbled across this review part in the drafts folder. As I recently wondered myself about StyleTap performance, I decided to run it even though it is now one year old…

In the last installations of our StyleTap review, we looked at what StyleTap could do. This part focuses on something entirely different…how fast is StyleTap compared to a real handheld?

Palm OS handheld speeds usually get measured via Speedy, which is a very popular(and fast…30secs max per test) benchmark that gives pretty accurate data. At the first glance, my 400MhZ ipaq is about as fast as a classic 144MhZ Tungsten T:

However, comparing the benchmark details shows that the ipaq is much slower Graphics-wise, while it beats the TT hands down in memory and CPU-related tests:

PalmPi reports a calculation time of just seconds, which is a record value never ever seen before on a Palm OS handheld. Our sister site TamsPalm has loads of PalmPi results - visit them there for further comparison!

Accessing SD cards is really fast. The values below are much higher than the ones the memory card scored in real Palm handhelds - apparently, the ipaq’s highspeed SD card subsystem speeds up VfsMark to new heights.

Overall, StyleTap’s emulator window could be the fastest Palm OS handheld ever - if it didn’t have the huge bottleneck in the graphics routines. As already shown in previous parts of the review, games suffer badly from this. Nevertheless, StyleTap is more than fast enough for productivity applications…

Don’t ask me why Opera’s booth at the Symbian Smartphone show contains an XPERIA X1 (visit them ASAP for a free Opera license for your PPC!!!):

I used the opportunity and played around a bit with the box. Being perfectly honest, I can NOT understand why the device has been criticized so much….while the keyboard wasn’t perfect, it is rather comfortable to use. The keys stand out about half a millimeter, which is enough for me:

From my point of view, the keyboard of the XPERIA X1 is good (not great, but good)…it looks like Sony Ericsson took the preliminary reviewer’s complaints seriously!

Dear HP fans,
feast your eyes on the box pictured below:

You are looking at the so-called HP Data Messenger, which is the latest touchscreen-based iPAQ. It runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 and has a QVGA screen - apparently, the ipaq 21x experiment didn’t work out too well for HP (peabrains - where is WM 6.1 for that box???).

HP chose a Qualcomm 7201A (528MHz ARM11) CPU, and deployed 128MB of RAM along with 256MB of Flash ROM for storage. The screen is LED backlit, headphones have to be attached via a 2.5″ headphone jack.

Here are the specs:

• Slide-out QWERTY keyboard and 5-way control
• 3G wireless broadband connectivity for voice and data1,2
  o Tri-band UMTS (900/1900/2100 MHz)
  o Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
  o HSDPA up to 7.2Mbps downlink
  o HSUPA up to 2Mbps uplink

• Operating System: Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional edition
• GPS: integrated support6
• Display: 2.81-inch (71.12 mm) diagonal QVGA, 64K color, 240×320
• Camera: 3.1MP auto-focus, 5X digital zoom with flash LED
• Wi-Fi: 802.11 b/g with WPA2 security1
• Bluetooth: 2.0 + EDR1
• Memory: 128M SDRAM/256MB Flash ROM
• Storage: MicroSD (supports up to 8GB4)
• Battery: 1140 mAh Lithium-polymer
• Charge/sync connector: Micro USB
• Headset: 2.5mm stereo headset jack
• Weight: 5.64 oz/160g
• Dimensions: 4.5 x 2.24 x 0.69 in/114.5×57x17.4mm (H x W x D)
• Light sensor for display brightness control
• Proximity sensor for touchscreen control while on a call
• Key software features:
  • Opera version 9.5 Browser
  • Microsoft Office Mobile, including Outlook Mobile for push email (from Exchange, IMAP, or POP3)
  • Real-time streaming support
  • Google Maps and Google Search
  • Windows Live for instant messaging
  • Windows Media Player Mobile for audio and video playback
  • Microsoft Internet Sharing to connect your laptop to the internet

HP bundled the following third-party programs with the device:

• Opera 9.5
• Google Maps
• Google Search
• ArcSoft MMS Composer
• ArcSoft RTSP
• Sun JVM
• Snapfish integration
• Cyberon Voice Commander
• Westtek Jetcet PDF viewer
• Westtek Jetcet Print
• MobiMate WorldMate (on CD)

This device has a planned street prize of 549 Euros before VAT and is said to become available in November. Its carrier launch partner is confirmed as VodaFone - my press release contains VodaFone’s director of terminals stating that his carrier is:

…
“Leveraging the depth in HP’s routes to market and the global scope of our partnership, we are expanding the range of mobile devices and regions where customers can experience true office mobility.”
…

Finally, we are proud to present you the VodaFone press release and an extremely detailed datasheet - hit the links below for the full scoops:
Full datasheet (Word .doc file)
VodaFone press release (PDF file)