02:01 PM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

[edit: I posted some of the technical findings further down this thread]

Hello fellow Mobilereaders!
This is Alex speaking from Lufthansa flight LH 432 on his way from Frankfurt to Chicago! I am so very excited because this is my first airborne Internet experience using my Dell Axim to surf through the clouds in high-speed.

On this Airbus 340-300 I'm accessing Connexion's broadband Wifi LAN (Lufthansa calls it FlyNet) for a flat rate of $29.95 - yes, I'll stay online for the remaining 8-1/2 hours of my flight, given my extended battery will last that long (I kinda doubt it, the Axim X50v isn't exactly famous for its battery lifetime).

Interestingly, Lufthansa's news portal I could access for free, which alone can be a good time killer on this flight (with around 1000 updated news pages both in English and in German). Of course I couldn't resist and signed up for the full flat rate Internet access. Alas, this proved to be a hassle because Connexion's secure web page popped up a server error when I tried to create a user account. A few more attempts and I was finally able to choose a payment method. Beside payment through credit card, I could have also paid through one of the major Internet proviers (1and1 is one example) or through frequent traveller miles.

Now let me post some of the more technical findings using Connexion's broadband with my notebook (Thinkpad R50):

- e-mail access (secure POP3, IMAP, SMTP) worked fine.
- browsing the Web was smooth, albeit sometimes loading images seemed to lag for half a second or so.
- downloading of a larger file (80MB) file from Mobileread resulted in a data throughput of around 180-220Kb/s.
- VPN access to my home PC immediately worked.
- no ports seemed to be blocked (including P2P).

What else can I say? Surfing 10'000 meters up in the sky is a lot of fun and it is a true asset for every mobile business man, or for every mobile gadget fan like myself

I'll supply you with some screenshots when I am back on Earth!

03:58 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Internationally best-selling novelist, William J. Lambert III, who has written over one-hundred books, in the complete gamut of existing genres, comments on a few of his William Maltese and Willa Lambert books released in electronic (and Audio) formats.

I found doing it, while staring at a computer screen, too downright trying, exhausting, eye-straining, and uncomfortable, especially compared to my curling up with the tactile pleasures of a bound book, seated before a warm fireplace, complete with crackling logs, comforter across my knees, an ice-bucket of cool white wine (and appropriate wine glass) within easy reach.

Mr Lambert, I assume you were reading your e-books on a PC's computer screen. My advice: buy a PalmOne T5 or a Dell Axim X50v of which either one makes a perfect addition to a warm fireplace and cool white wine. I am sure many readers of Mobileread agree with me that reading e-books can also be a comfortable experience IF you do it right!

12:40 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Sunrise

Laurens today released an updated version of Sunrise. Version 0.41f allows you to control the memory usage for Sunrise Desktop and its HotSync conduit. The update also contains two minor fixes for parsing RSS feeds. Download from Palmgear.

More interesting is the fact that Laurens is now fully concentrating on the development of his Sunrise viewer:

Barring any serious, show-stopping issues, this will be the last Sunrise release for a while. I apologize in advance for not being able to address some of the outstanding issues. Also, I will not be able to give much user support. Getting my product's v1.0 out the door takes priority over everything else.

If you are new to Sunrise, click here to find out more about its top-notch features for website offline conversion.

10:51 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Web IS, Inc will be releasing a public beta of its fantastic PIM software Pocket Informant 2005 somewhere between the next days/weeks. There is not much information regarding new features yet; however, it has been confirmed that PI 2005 will - last but not least - feature a timeline view.

Pocket Informat 2005 will go under the codename 'Palladium'. Some screenshots are attached to this post.

10:36 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

WebIS Mail is one of the most promising email clients for Pocket PCs. You can now download version 2.06 from PocketGear.

I am still waiting for the final 2.1 release which is expected to be released by mid-March. The beta version of 2.1 fully supports high-DPI VGA, offers speed improvements, a 3 pane view in VGA mode, a multi-page view, GMail Pop3 SSL support, and many bug fixes.

03:56 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Our PalmOne fans from Mexico had the opportunity to chat with PalmOne director Ignacio Gallego. You can read the main part of the interview (in Spanish) over at Montalvo's site, or study the log of the entire chat at PDAMexico.net.

The Treo 650 will be available in Mexico in the first week of April. You'll be able to buy either the uncrippled retail version, or get one through one of the available carrier plans.

11:19 AM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Let me start with a bottom line observation... I love a fast computer and I love a fast PDA. And it's not just a matter of wanting the "best", or being worried that my task will take a total of a few seconds more. Those waits really add up.

How many times have you been doing software upgrades or trying to make some software work on your PC or PDA, and you find the whole day is gone because of all the resets and reboots and even waiting on the user interface to go from step to step? I, for one, see precious time slipping out of my grasp because of that sort of thing. If computers were truly "zippy" it would be a lot quicker to get stuff done. And isn't that the bottom line? I'd be willing to even give up a lot of functionality.

I was working with some text files using Notepad on my Windows desktop PC and I realized that I generally use Notepad instead of MS Word whenever possible, despite the lack of features. In fact, there's a huge difference in capabilities, but I prefer Notepad. It's easy, fast, snappy and the text files are compatible anywhere.

That example explains much of what I like about PDAs (aside from the obvious -- portability.) More true of Palm PDAs than PPC, but they are generally quick and snappy and the apps are relatively simple to learn and use even if they have a lot of capabilities. I like the Zen of Palm that remembers to make the user experience more important than the feature set. Most of the time I can use a PDA (like Notepad), and sometimes I need the full blown PC (like MS Word.)

But with the growth in feature sets and the market demands, is simplicity and zippy response time going to be a casualty in the portable electronics wars? Might be my imagination, but it seems like hardware sped up during the "Clie age" and things went better for the user. But now software is starting to outpace hardware again. I hope not. I don't even like that 1/2 second wait for a response! It may not seem like a big deal, but it takes your mind off of what you were doing and puts your attention on the device instead.

And I don't want to have to buy the fastest PDA out there to get a responsive user experience. Let's face it, there are a lot of things that are slower on a PDA than a desktop even if you aren't talking about a lack of keyboard or the small screen.

The good news is that when battery/fuel cell technology improves, a lot of the hardward constraints may start to disappear also. You just might be forced to hold your pda with a glove so you don't burn yourself on all the heat put out by tiny devices with big power requirements. There are already warnings not to use laptops in your lap if you're a male who wants to procreate!

06:11 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Mini Mozilla, also known as Minimo, is being ported to Windows CE by lead Minimo developer Doug Turner (we reported). From Cnet I just gathered that the Windows CE version, which will run on all popular Pocket PC devices, is set to debut this summer. Cnet quoting Doug:

"The first release to the general public will be in about four months," he said. "We are hoping to be producing nightly builds starting at the end of March. Nightly builds are...for quality assurance and those that live a bit dangerously."

Until now, Minimo has been built only for Linux-based PDAs. If you are a Windows CE developer, you can partipiate in the new project and contact Doug at dougt[at]meer[dot]net.