If you would like to contribute or send in an article please do- hopefully I will be able to produce versions that run on your PDA over time. Doc and iSilo versions will be available for each article and you will be able to read them direct from the web site but it would be nice to bundle them together in a PDA friendly format so that you can carry articles with you. PS. Watch out for my book 'Angel' which will be released soon. Thanks Shaun McGill
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articlesThree's a crowd! (09/06/03)
I walked into my study the other day and was slightly concerned at the site in front of me. I have a large desk which I use for work, Clie Planet, writing and various other activities such as paying bills and being ripped off on eBay (still bitter:))
Here's a list of the objects currently sat on my desk:-
Compaq laptop
Toshiba laptop & Docking station
Psion Series 7
Psion Series 5mx
Clie NX70V & Cradle
Clie N770CU & Cradle (to be fair this is my wifes)
Colour portable TV
Playstation II
Scanner
Printer / fax machine
ADSL Modem
USD Hub
A few bills
As I said it's a big desk. My wife commented the other day that no-one needs all of this equipment and that perhaps I should consider selling some of it.
The problem is that I do need it and that's a bit sad in 2003. Things like the scanner and printer are unavoidable but it's strange that I need a PDA, a laptop and a mix of the two (Psion 7) to get what I need done.
Here's my case for not selling any of them:-
Compaq laptop
Broadband / updating Clie Planet (although this may not be needed soon) / Main back up and download device for NX and series 7
Clie NX70V
Every day organisation / music player / camera / video clips / mobile email etc. etc.
Psion Series 7
Writing (Books and articles such as this one) / updating Clie Planet (looking like I will be able to use this soon if I am away as it recognises shtml and there are many ftp apps available) / work whilst travelling- the battery life is considerably better than the Compaq
So why can't I have just one device instead of three? One reason is obviously size- there's no way I could do everything I need on a Clie and the Compaq is too large and power/cable dependant to even move around the house. The Series 7 is perfect for writing in my garden on a summers evening (like tonight:))
The other reason is power. The Compaq is designed to cover all the bases- 2.6Ghz processor, 40GB hard drive etc. The Series 7 is powerful but is nearer to a PDA than a PC in performance and of course the Clie sits on it's own doing exactly what it needs to do and nothing more.
It would be nice if someone could design an all in one device which could be pulled apart when needed. Why can't I have a Psion Series 7 size device on a larger docking cradle- I could take the S7 away with me when all I needed to do was use non-intensive applications and replace it when I wanted Broadband etc. I could then take the keyboard off the S7 sized bit and have a PDA (a bit big but manageable).
Obviously I'm not a typical case but it seems to me that there must be a market for a device which covers all the bases.
To be fair Martin Lex has built one but that is all fiction:)
Royal Hell!!! (05/06/03)
Let me start by saying the above statement sounds good but... If you have not read the article below called 'Not my PayPal' then it may help you familiarise yourself with this saga. This morning I was a happy man- the git from Indonesia would not be receiving the parcel I have sent to him before finding out his payment was made with a stolen credit card.
The Royal Mail (a lovely lady called Christine) had managed to intercept the parcel and get it back to Crawley sorting office last night (about 2 miles from my house). I phoned them yesterday afternoon at 4:30pm to confirm that it would be back with me today and a man who could only be described as a 'moron who should not be allowed to breed' advised me that it would be with me this morning. I wasn't confident that he had even looked the case up so I phoned again at 9.00am today and spoke to another one (moron that is) who also advised it would be with me this morning. Great! All I wanted at that moment was for the buyer(?) to not get the package.
Whilst having a cigarette at 10:30am I could not get the feeling out of my mind that I had just spoken to two guys who had a standard line just to get people off the phone. So, I decided to call yet again and got through to a lady called Julie (who was brilliant by the way)- after actually checking my case she advised that it was on a plane to Indonesia. I picked myself up off the floor and explained the whole situation and asked:-
How can a package which was intercepted in London, sent back to Gatwick then Crawley find it's way back to Gatwick, then London and onto a plane to Indonesia???
My guess is the guy in the sorting office thought to himself 'oh look, a package with RETURN TO SENDER written on it and the address of the receiver scribbled out. I should send this off straight away. Duh- what's my name, where am I?'
Julie then proceeded to do everything she could and even contacted Indonesia for me. A guy will try to stop the package and send it back but I have been advised that it's highly unlikely to happen as it's never been tried before. Thus it's probable that the Royal Mail have lost me £335 and get this- I cannot claim because it can't be classed as lost!!!
I have to give full respect to Christine and Julie- not just for doing everything they could to help me but for having to go into work each day and sit near the seven other people I spoke to in their customer services over a three day period who seemed barely alive to me.
I also have to give NO respect to Mr Virman of Villa Taman Cibodas, Tulip 3 street, Blok O3, 10 Tangerang, 15138, Indonesia (email: freebandwidth@mailc.net) who may still receive his parcel without paying for it.
Don't worry- there will be no more personal rants and I will get back to technology talk in a couple of days although it's interesting how many people emailed me concerning yesterdays article- 117!
Not my PayPal! (03/06/03)
I have been successfully trading on eBay for 2 years now and have never had any major problems with the service apart from the occassional auction winner who failed to pay or respond to emails. That all changed yesterday...
I sold the Toshiba e740 mentioned the other day for a respectable price and was sort of happy with the way things were going. The winner had not responded to my emails for 3 days so I left him negative feedback at which point he then responded with negative feedback to me (my first ever!) but also made a direct PayPal payment to me to cover the price of the machine and postage to Indonesia. I admit to alarm bells ringing at the thought of sending the item to Indonesia as it is not a registered country under PayPal rules so I waited a couple of days before sending the item.
The item was sent by Royal Mail recorded delivery yesterday morning (precisely 72 hours after receiving the payment)- now here's the interesting bit. The payment was then reversed by PayPal as it was made with a suspected stolen credit card! What amazed me was the fact that it could take so long for a payment to be made null and void and thus give absolutely no protection to the seller.
To add to my worries the Royal Mail refused to stop the package leaving the country stating that "once they had received it they are duty bound to deliver a package." The thought of losing the item and some money was bearable but I VERY much did not want Mr Scum Bag from Indonesia getting his slimey, thieving mits on it. I phoned the Royal Mail again and was told the same thing- I hung up pretty annoyed. I thought about things for a minute and phoned them again explaining that this was being investigated by Scotland Yard and that Interpol were also involved- a very helpful lady immediately tracked the device and arranged for it to be 'returned to sender' when it was intercepted at it's next location.
I have heard this afternoon that it was intercepted and is now at my local sorting office for return tomorrow:)
From all of this I have learnt the following:-
1/ If possible never sell an item abroad on eBay (you will lose £10-£20 at most on the winning bid)- if you must sell abroad and in particular to countries like Nigeria and Indonesia make sure you get some form of 'cash' payment
2/ You can put in your item description that you will not accept bids from people with a feedback rating below '5'. It's easy for someone to build up a quick rating of 3 or 4 by making a lot of payments on one day so also look at item 3
3/ Check to see how long they have been an eBay member. If it's below 1 month it's worth checking a little more carefully
4/ A payment to a PayPal or similar acount is worth nothing until it's been there for a good period of time. The guy at PayPal told me that it was all automated and that they cannot stop them straight away. I guess this is a failing with the Internet- no signature required.
If you do get caught out there are a few things you can do to make you feel a bit better:-
1/ Contact eBay and file a Fraud Alert
2/ Look at the buyer's feedback and contact anyone who has just given them feedback- I did this and managed to stop two sellers sending their goods out. One has already come back to me and advised that the payment got reversed so he was more than grateful:)
3/ File a crime report with the International Web Police
4/ Contact Interpol
5/ Contact the supplier of the buyer's email address. No doubt the details they gave to set it up were false but in this case at least this account has been stopped.
6/ Do some digging regarding the delivery address and make sure you quote it in any correspondence you send above.
Good luck and let's hope I get the Toshiba back in a few days:) A colleague at work sent me this link which holds some VERY frightening stories regarding the PayPal service (to be fair they are in an awkward position but you do need to know the facts).
Am I going mad? (31/05/03)
I wonder how many of us fill our PDAs with information which can serve no real purpose apart from sentimentality. I admit to being a culprit when it comes to this and will explain why.
Whilst I use my PDA for helping to run my life with Agendus, writing articles such as this one and reading the news and eBooks etc. I also have a habit of keeping historic data which does nothing except fill up space. My current contact list contains 1,232 entries of which I suspect about 200 are relevant at this moment. I have datebook entries going back to 1991 which has been kept and added to through upgrade after upgrade. Due to the nature of my job I add about 5 entries a day so as you can imagine the database is getting rather large.
I'm not sure why I can't just archive everything before March but I just can't. Occasionally I look at the old entries and have a sentimental moment but that's it. I also have over 200 photographs on my memory stick, over 90 video clips of my son and wife, 30 eBooks (which I have read!) and about 15 which I have purchased but have not had time to read yet, various web clips (all read), MP3 tracks which I don't really like but I downloaded them because I liked them when I was 12 years old and all sorts of other stuff which is not needed anymore.
It's strange because I do not hoard personal possessions- I have no old magazines or clothes in the house and have always thrown out anything which is no longer needed so why do I do it with my PDA? The only other things I hoard are emails which I have dating back to 1997 on my work Laptop. To be fair they can be useful when a fellow manager is trying to stitch me up:)
Perhaps it is sentimentality or maybe I am going mad...
Phony Clie (28/05/03)
After a couple of months of consistent rumours Sony finally released details of 2 new Clies- the NX73v and NX80V. It would be fair to say that these are possibly the most significant Clie releases ever but not for the reasons below:-
Specifications
200Mhz Processor
The same as the NZ and NR Clies and the latest Palm has 400Mhz as do a lot of Pocket PCs
32MB RAM
The latest Palm has 128MB and almost all Pocket PCs have 64MB RAM as standard
1.3 MegaPixel Camera (NX80v)
You can buy a camera of this spec for less than $100
Bluetooth
Oh yes neither machine includes Bluetooth whereas the Tungsten T, NZ90, TG50, e740 etc. etc. etc. does. Hell, even my cigarette lighter includes Bluetooth (OK it doesn't but no doubt one will be available soon).
Design
A merging of the NX and NR design- nothing new here either
On the face of it these are 2 machines which will fail to make a dent in the two prominant PDA markets of the moment-
Current PDA obsessives (people like me) will see nothing new here and personally I see no reason to upgrade from my NX.
Non PDA owners will have difficulty working out why to buy these. They are swamped in a sea of PDAs such as the Tungstens, Clies and Pocket PCs, many of which have some stand out features which these appear to lack. It's almost as if Sony has tried to fill the gap between the NX and NZ ranges when there is no space to fill?
So, why are these so important?
CF COMPATIBILITY!
Have Sony finally realised that the Memory Stick format is holding them back? Did they find that prospective owners turned away because they already owned CF cards or found them for a fraction of the price of equivalent sized Memory Sticks? Did they realise that the MS will never become a 'standard'?
Let's hope so...
Update: it appears that the compatibility is limited at this time (maybe it was all too much to go the whole way at once?)
I don't believe for one moment that these machines represent Sony's only new Clie releases for June and if my sources are correct we can expect some more variations on the T series (with hi-res+) and a new very high end machine to challenge the NZ (so far my 2 sources have been fairly accurate but it's difficult at the moment as Sony finally seems to have sorted it's internal leaks- at least they think they have:)) Will be intersting to see if they beat Palm to a hi-res+ very slim OS5 model...
It is likely that they are just 'marking time' with minor upgrades and that a SmartPhone is being developed in the background- most people would probably agree that the PDA will die in the next 3 years and that the market will be swallowed up by integrated mobile devices. Think about it- how many people do you know with a PDA compared to people who own the newer mobile phones with built in cameras, basic organisers etc.?
I would be surprised to see them release a Pocket PC but I have heard that they have dabbled with the idea for a long time.
Their original intentions of creating entertainment devices have come true and indeed many of us would scoff at a new Palm OS PDA without a camera and MP3 player.
I'm sure Sony have not stopped innovating though- they are just keeping it under their hats. There is no way that a company as big as Sony does not have it's finger on the pulse and they will probably surprise us all again in the not too distant future. Don't worry about the new releases- they are just throw away toys designed to keep the Clie name in the technology magazines and web sites:)
Here's some comments I received regarding these releases:-
this is the long awaited news! Apart from that it is within normal expections. I am a little bit disspointed, while it is not really state of the art in terms of RAM. I expected Sony to introduce 128 MB of RAM, at least 64 MB! Also, I thing BT is a must-have for newer PDAs, while WLAN should be optional available (or inbuilt as well). 400 MHz is the latest CPU clock rate and even 2 MP cameras have been introduced as well with older models...OS5.2 is the lastest OS for Palms (why OS5?). I mean, all given information point to a device which is about 4 to 6 month old. This is not the SONY I know. Sony usually comes with a big bang, being the first on the market with a lot of innovation! As I said, I am happy to see new models, but I am a little bit disappointed...
Hhmmm. Got a little bit disappointed. Was actually expecting a new T series with VG.
My Perfect Application (26/05/03)
I tried out Iambic's newest version of Agendus this morning and it made me think about what would be my perfect application. Agendus Pro effectively integrates Datebook, Contacts, To Do and Email all in the one application giving you the ability to send an email using the contact details and view add contacts to Datebook entries etc. etc.
Those of you who used the later Psions will remember the wonderful integration between the included applications. For example you could add a sketch, a word file or a voice recording to an agenda entry. You could include spreadsheet graphs and table ranges in a word document and even add files to contact data if required.
One thing sorely missing from the Palm OS is true communication between the core applications such as Datebook, Memo etc. Agendus is getting there and the ability to view memos directly from within it would seem to be the next logical step but I understand that is not easy to do.
Anyway, here's a brief run down of what I would like to see in my perfect application:-
Agendus style integration such as the ability to email direct from contact data.
Able to paste images into word type documents and to include spreadsheet data etc.
Would be fantastic to be able to 'hyperlink' to specific documents and applications from a Datebook entry or a word document. I nunderstand a couple of programs try to do this but not without some pretty strenuous input after a marathon read of the included instructions:)
The wishes above would probably need a whole new operating system but I can dream.
My other wish would be a decent Palm OS HTML application which enables easy uploads of data- anyone have any suggestions on this one???
Give us an update!!! (25/05/03)
Yesterday I was having a look around the various programs stored on my Clie (there are 100's) and was surprised to find a lot I use on a daily basis which have not been updated for a VERY long time. There are also a few that can no longer be used due to not having been updated to work with OS5. Here's s brief list of programs I would just love to see updated with new features:-
F1 Sprint
This is the classic Badlands style game which was way ahead of it's time when it was released and I still play it a lot to this day. The developer's site mentioned new features on the way over a year ago but alas to date we have seen none. It's worth a download to see how good this game really is and I have emailed the developer to ask about the possibility of an update in the future.
Grid Lock
In my opinion the quickest and most intuitive security application for the Palm OS. The problem is that it still does not work with OS5 and I miss it- I use VisualKey at the moment which is an excellent application but a bit of a memory hog in comparison to GridLock.
Meteor
A simple and easy to use thought manager which badly needs hi-res+ and more colour support. Still works very well but these two extra features would make it a must buy program.
Race Fever
I have no doubt that this will never be updated again but it was astonishing when it was released. Just imagine it in hi-res with full OS5 sound:) Hopefully Astraware can blow it away with the next release of GTS.
Sim City
A good version of the PC classic which has become unusable on OS5 and looks dated on OS4. Would be nice to see an attempt made at SimCity 2000 now that 200Mhz is available to developers to work with.
Hexacto Games
Lemonade Inc and Tennis Addict are great games but where are the long awaited hi-res versions? No doubt these will be delayed somewhat by the recent takeover of the company but they would be nice to see.
Are there any applications or games which you would like to see updated? Let me know at webmaster@clieplanet.com and I will add them to the list.
I will be adding any responses I get from the developers above to this article when they come in.
User Comments
"I have one more palm program that I think desperately needs an OS5 update… Little Angel. You see, I’m a pediatrician, and this little program was my secret weapon in making my patients more at ease in the office. It still works in OS5, but the screen constantly flickers, and it’s really not worth using like that. If you could get the developer to fix this (and maybe take out the occasional lurid innuendos J ), I would forever be grateful."
"Just noticed this while upgrading my apps: Meteor DOES now have a new version (1.6)-- both hi-res and OS5 compatible."