PDAs are unhealthy, Live-TV inflight, and more

[Alexander Turcic]

Here are some collected newsbits from me this Sunday. Handhelds can cause tendinitis flare-ups (anyone here having problems already?), and Singapore is going to have live TV on its flights beginning June 2005 (Connexion at its best).

• Treo Bluetooth Wireless Headset [engadget.com]
• More Nintendo Revolution News [i4u.com]
• iPlagiary [metafilter.com]
• Dell's 10 Days Of Deals -- Axim X50v $399CDN Today [pocketpcthoughts.com]
• Handhelds pose risk to hand health [indystar.com]
• Singapore Airlines to offer live TV in-flight from June [thestandard.com]

[taniwha]

i build wapsites for a living.. and i can say i get pretty serioius OOS in my thumb from cramped keybaord.. and it's the worst phones that need the most testing..

PDAs aren't so bad, because usually have multiple input methods.. garffiti, fitally, thmboards, and full size keyboards.

[doctorow]

After reading a full-length e-book, I occasionally notice pain in my handwrist from constantly holding the PDA in a weird position. I think P1 & Co should put warning labels on their products to avoid someone sueing them in future (you know how easy it is to sue someone, especially in the US)

[Pride Of Lions]

I had a BT headset similar to the one being marketed by P1 (it was a Motorola), but I didn't like it because it pulled down and away from my ear making it hard to hear. I ended up having to hold it with my hand to keep it on my ear and hear from it, making it not hands-free. It felt especially precarious when I was running across the street. I took it back and I got a BlueSpoon that I've been happy with ever since.

BobR and I had a little conversation re: Nintendo's decision making in their game consoles. Hopefully they'll be some good decisions for their future.

Maybe these tendonitis risks will move handheld makers to develop new methods of input. Maybe they should license that wave-your-hand-in-the-air-to make-numbers mobile phone tech. from a few months ago and convert it to text input. It might look funny, but I think it'll be cool to "write" someone this way instead of tapping little letters on a difficult keyboard.

I never understood the IM thing anyway. I could just be getting old, but it makes more sense to me to just call someone and leave a message if they don't answer. You can say exactly what you want and not have to resort to IM shortcuts that the othe party has to understand, you don't have to pay for text charges and it's quicker than tapping on a little keyboard or hitting 2-2-2, 6-6, 4, 5-5 you know.

I want my prune juice.
POL9A

[TadW]

Regarding your link "iPlagiary [metafilter.com]" Alex... Apple has just stopped its CeBIT of the Super shuffle! From Neowin:

After the company Luxpro banished its "Super shuffle" from its CeBIT stand on Friday, the iPod Shuffle lookalike again put in an appearance on Saturday. "It's not identical with the iPod Shuffle, it's better" - that at least is the way one of the people presenting the device for the Taiwanese company sees it (Hall 24, Stand C24-1). Under the name Super shuffle Luxpro is presenting an MP3 player with Flash Memory that at first sight cannot be distinguished from the iPod Shuffle.

Urged by Apple's lawyers Luxpro had taken the player out of its show cases on Friday, only to put it back in again on Saturday for the benefit of the weekend visitors to the CeBIT event. Who, moreover, did seem to show an interest in the device: The player offers besides all functions present in the genuine iPod shuffle an FM tuner, a WMA playing capability (according to the manufacturer also with digital rights management) and voice recording - only AAC support has to be dispensed with.