Epocdigest V1 # 380

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Epoc Digest Thu, 13 Nov 2003 Volume 01 : Number 380

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Sent to: 789 subscribers

In today's Epoc Digest 11 messages:

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- Re: MSN Messenger for Epoc

- RE: Epoc Digest V1 # 379 (14)

- Palmtop magazine, best fit pda, Rolf, Sticky silk screen buttons, nB Pro OS 7

- Psion USA / First AND last name in data browser

- Re: Win-Netbook

- Psion takeover?

- Garmin handheld GPS needed. (OT)

- Psion takeover II

- Psiwin 2.3.3 crashes Windows XP Pro when using Psion 5mx

- Re: Epoc Digest V1 # 379 (4)

- TimeLog Author

*++++++++++&

Date: 5 Nov 2003 18:59:46 +0100

From: Victor Marchand

Subject: Re: MSN Messenger for Epoc

I may have some sort of solution for this. I first used the Ruksun version

of AIM (america online instant messenger) and ran into the same problem as

you have with the MSN client. I backed out, by getting the Java client for

AIM, which was (is ?, not sure) available on the AOL website. Maybe there

is a java msn client ? Or you could use the java AIM. It´s not a one on

one solution but may be helpfull. AIM and MSN are not compatible as far as

I know.

Victor

*++++++++++&

Date: 10 Nov 2003 15:22:30 +0100

From: Moshe Nahir

Subject: RE: Epoc Digest V1 # 379 (14)

Dear Lars,

My apologies!!!

Of course I have not posted this. I have not posted anything for months. In fact, I have not even read this posting yet, which I gather is yours (I am still reading Digest 321.). There had to be some accident; I probably pressed the wrong button as I was reading (and deleting what I have read) Digest 321.

By the way, I don't even own a netBook, so how to improve it is of little interest to me...

Moshe Nahir

-----Original Message-----

From: Lars J. Sent: Monday, November 10, 2003 7:14 AM

To: Moshe Nahir

Subject: Re: Epoc Digest V1 # 379 (14)

Epoc Digest wrote:

[...] : *++++++++++& : : Date: 8 Nov 2003 02:59:25 +0100 : From: Moshe Nahir : Subject: Re: EPOC DIGEST V1 # 321 (5) : : What could make the netBook better? USB, even longer battery life, give itthe option of running on standard AA-batteries, and maybe widen/heighten thescreen to fill more of the lid-space (and give it 800x600 resolution?). : You could also throw in CD-quality stereo-audio capabilities and a mini-jackplug to make the audio more useful, although audio doesn't really matter forme - I'm getting a separate neuros audio computer for my music needs... : : Lars J : : *++++++++++&

[...]

What't this? Reposting my greatest hits now? ;)

Lars J

*++++++++++&

Date: 10 Nov 2003 15:49:33 +0100

From: Itamar Engelsman

Subject: Palmtop magazine, best fit pda, Rolf, Sticky silk screen buttons, nB Pro OS 7

Answer to: Radek Brunner

Re.: Palmtop magazine - Are you looking for anything in particular ? I still have all the issues from no. 1 onwards. I am not sure I want to part with them, but could copy you information about a certain subject.

Answer to: Scott Lloyd

Re. best fit pda - We totally agree with each other. Being a professional photographer as well I did not yet check the quality of the photos (I've got a Nikon D100). But next week I might be traveling for work and will most certainly use it for various matters. I'll send you a more specific question off digest. As you, my S7 will be "nearby" for communicating with the office and various other PDA functions.

Answer to: Steve Litchfield

Re. Rolf - Last time this happened I emailed Rolf and he answered he had been very busy and unable to follow the digest. I suppose it is the same again. (Just confirmed reading the last digest <G>)

Answer to: Martin Guthrie & Simon Dare

Re. Sticky silk screen buttons - There was a macro called "xbarset5mx" that repositioned the programs on the Extra bar as per your own choice after a hard reset. It was written by Kit Byat and tested by our own Keith Giles. There was also a version for the S7 but I can't find a website if it still exists. Maybe Keith has got it somewhere ? Otherwise it should be easy enough to write a small macro to set these 4 silkscreen buttons.

Answer to: Rolf Brunsting

Re. Symbian OS 7 netBook Pro - Thanks for the message, you said it more clearly than I could ever have described it. You did not mention that with the change from the S3 to the S5 we already went through this process once with Psion machines, requiring us to change systems, software and accessories. A second time within a few years does not help to built a trust with the consumers.

As to your second message to me. I understand what you write, but I feel that Psion Teklogix have decided to move away from the EPOC / Symbian OS in favour of WindowsCE. I don't think they will revise that decision in the near future so that even if a netBook Pro OS7 will come out, it will be a "dead-end" machine. Why should I as a consumer invest my money in such a machine as opposed to as you said a Palm or PocketPC machine where further development is more or less guaranteed ? I like my S7 very much, use it daily, and will have to look for an update sooner or later. Besides the above points, at the price projected for the netBook Pro there will be a lot of competition in that price range. Personally I don't believe in the project, but again as you said, if it will come about I could be a potential customer, but not "blindly at all odds".

As to Ruskun, I will have all the courtesy required. However, I think my general point is valid that many a program will cease to work due to the external world developing with the writer not being interested in updating it. For example, there are already reports of Opera not functioning properly due to more complex websites and I think that sooner or later efficient surfing of the web with our EPOC systems will be as good as impossible (web program even worse).

Best regards,

Itamar Engelsman

London, UK

*++++++++++&

Date: 10 Nov 2003 16:07:07 +0100

From: Joe Fell

Subject: Psion USA / First AND last name in data browser

to: Jim Watson-Gove

You recently wrote that you were planningon sending in a unit to Psion USA - are they still around?

to: all

I am switching from contacts to data (not only was Malcolm Bryants "C2F" (available at Freepoc) the only way to go, but Malcolm was very helpful to me via email.

1) How do I get "Last Name comma First Name" to appear in browser list at

side? Right now it's only the last name.

2) can I make any of the fields longer?

TIA

*++++++++++&

Date: 10 Nov 2003 16:17:01 +0100

From: Terry Gordon

Subject: Re: Win-Netbook

Gang, However they market the new NEtbook, all I know is that the lady behind me at a recent science meeting kept watching me type on my Malaybook and was pretty "Wow!" when I told her that this great size format would soon be released with a mobile verison of Win. TG

*++++++++++&

Date: 11 Nov 2003 14:57:43 +0100

From: Darryl Kempster

Subject: Psion takeover?

Dear all

Sat in a hotel in Vancouver and caught this in the financial section of the Canadian National Post. It's only a short article so thought would reproduce it here for benefit of the digest. Apologies if already been noted but in my fourth time zone this month so a little behind in the digests.

Darryl

On Killing Joke world tour

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Nokia considers move on Psion

Nokia, the world's top mobile handset maker, is considering a takeover of UK firm Psion in a bid to dominate the multi-billion-dollar cellphone software market and fend off Microsoft, the Business on Sunday newspaper reported.

Finland-based Nokia and the British company are partners in Symbian, which makes software used in mobile phones.

Nokia owns 32% of Symbian and Psion has 31%.

A takeover of Psion would give Nokia control over Symbian and help it head off growing competition in cellphone software from Microsoft, the world's largest software company.

"There are clear signs coming out of Nokia that it is planning to make a move on Psion", the newspaper quoted an unnamed industry source with knowledge of Nokis'a plan as saying. Reuters

*++++++++++&

Date: 11 Nov 2003 17:02:21 +0100

From: Owen H. Morgan

Subject: Garmin handheld GPS needed. (OT)

Hi.

I´m now in Porto Santo, Madeira after a hard crossing from Peniche in

Portugal. All is OK with me and the boat except my GPS died half way across.

Does anyone happen to have a spare Garmin handheld GPS for sale at a

reasonable price? I need one that´ll will run direct off 12V, has a connection

for an external antenna and preferably uses the round connector for power and

NMEA. A 12XL, 48 or similar would be fine, but not the 12 (non XL).

I have also heard that there are sometimes refurbished Garmins available. Any

tips on where to look?

Do Garmin still give a rebate on a new GPS if you give them the old corpse?

Where is a good place to buy a new GPS in the Canaries? I´m not able to buy

anything through ebay etc. as my only Internet access is via Cyber café´s here

in Madeira.(If I can´t find the Canaries from Madeira without a GPS, I´d

better sell the boat and take up knitting...)

PS. I use my GPS with the Psion, so this isn´t totally OT.

Offlist replies please! (

Owen

Thought for the day:

Old sailors never die, they just get a little dinghy.

*++++++++++&

Date: 11 Nov 2003 21:04:38 +0100

From: Darryl Kempster

Subject: Psion takeover II

Further to my earlier post, in this mornings Fianancial Post the original article is refuted thus :-

Nokia not in talks on UK's Psion, source says

LONDON - Nokia, the world's biggest mobile handset maker, is not in talks to take over UK software firm Psion, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday, in response to a newspaper report. "There are no discussions taking place and there are no plans for discussions to take place" said the London-based source. Officials at Nokia and Psion declined to comment on the situation. Shares in Psion had earlier risen as much as 11.6% after Britain's Business newspaper reported that Finnish-based Nokia was bidding for Psion. Reuters

No wonder I never believe anything I read in the papers. Sorry for wasting the digest's time.

Darryl

Heading for San Francisco with Killing Joke

*++++++++++&

Date: 11 Nov 2003 21:32:41 +0100

From: Nicholas Bloch

Subject: Psiwin 2.3.3 crashes Windows XP Pro when using Psion 5mx

Hi all,

This is the text of my email to eXpansys to ask of their technical help as to the problem that I'm experiencing with my PC interfacing with my 5mx.

Just bought a new version of Psiwin 2.3.3 (Build 149) on 4th Nov. 2003 from yourselves. (Order ref. no: 3B43A139DE60). My PC is incredibly stable and has very rarely crashed since I bought it 2 years ago.

I use a USB to serial adapter to connect my Psion 5mx to my PC, since both serial ports are being used: COM1 for monitoring the status of an APC UPS & COM2 for an external modem.

I installed the new software OK and my PC detected my 5mx & Copy Anywhere was enabled.

My Psion Connection Properties are set as follows:

Ports which Psiwin can use: COM3 (matching up to Belkin F5U109 mapped onto COM3)

Baud rate: 115200

Synchronise PC & Psion clocks at connection - ticked

Start Copy Anywhere at connection - ticked

Then when I tried to backup my Psion, my PC crashed, I got a wierd error message flashed onto the screen, then my PC restarted again and I got the following error message:

Microsoft Windows: The system has recovered from a serious error.

A log of this error has been created:

Error Signature:

BCCode: a BCP1: 0000214, BCP2: 0000002, BCP3: 0000000, BCP4: 804EC380, OSVer: 5_1_2600, SP: 1_0, Product: 256_1

The following files were listed in the error report:

C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini 110503-03.dmp

C:\DOCUME~1\ADAM&N~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER1.tmp.dir00\sysdata.xml

I had set up my PC so that my 5mx was connected when it booted up and so instantly detected the PDA. When I looked at the task bar, the Copy Anywhere icon was still there, but disabled, but the Psion icon (usually a sine wave) was "a straight line" ie. not connected.

Trying to reconnect the Psion, yeilded the following error message:

Psiwin Problem Report:

There was an application problem because there is a problem with the PC to Psion connection.

Do you wish to try again?

When I hit OK, sometimes it will connect (sine wave in task bar) but Copy Anywhere is now always disabled.

When it does connect and I attempt to backup the Internal memory and my 256MB D: drive, I cannot do it. Moving the arrow point of the cursor over the Psion screen changes to an "hourglass".

Hitting the "close" button - I get the error message:

Psconsv.exe not responding.

It's infuriating!!

Could it be that the actual disc that I just bought is faulty?

If not, what is your positive prognosis and solution to this problem?

I haven't a clue what to do?

Regards,

Nicholas

Any suggestions from all you EPOC Digest readers??

Many thanks!

Nicholas

*++++++++++&

Date: 11 Nov 2003 23:11:35 +0100

From: Trygve Henriksen

Subject: Re: Epoc Digest V1 # 379 (4)

Greetings!

Rolf wrote:

> Concerning : S3MX update

<< Battery consumption : All Symbian32 phones are quite heavy on batteries if you are going to use the organiser functions intensively >>

When battery consumption would be one of the top 5 purchase criteria none of the current crop of PDAs and smartphones would stand any chance of commercial success. Fact is that they do sell, indicating that a range of other features take precedence. A time on batteries of 6 to 10 hours is acceptable when the PDA/smartphone is equipped with features the consumer consider to be must-have features. Going against this trend by offering a time on batteries of (say) 40 hours at the expense of such 'must-haves' is commercial suicide.

<< There is only one version of Symbian16 (a.k.a SIBO a.k.a Epoc 16 0but now there are at least 3 different releases (ER 5.1 , ER 6 and ER 7 , not to count embedded versions ) two menu-driven (Series 60 and Series 80) - and three different graphical user interfaces ( Eikon, UIQ and Series 90 ) of Symbian32 , with probably more to follow so the development environment is extremely stable >>

There are three main comments I'd like to make.

> ONE - When you pick the Series 3mx as a basis for your new device

> you automatically pick SIBO as your software platform.

No you don't...

There are both Psion HC handhelds and the Psion MC600 machines, based on the SIBO architecture that runs (shudder) DOS...

As I understand it, there's even a Linux (or was it Minix) for the S3 range.

But, the SIBO OS is the one that fits the task best so lets assume that one.

> THREE - The fact that SIBO is a stable platform is because it's as

> dead as a doornail

No, it's not...

Psion Teclogix still produce and sell Workabout mx handhelds, based on the same technology.

As for third-party, I got a mail from a French company last year, trying to sell me 433MHz radio link cards for SIBO machines.

Or, rather, they were trying to sell me a development kit since it was a brand new product....

The card was in the form of a SSD module, so should work with all SIBO machines except possibly the Siena.(Not certain how 'standard' the external SSD drive is)

They wouldn't lend me the kit to test on my mc400, though.

> . The whole mobile device industry has moved to 32-bit systems.

> No new features will therefore be added to it and the bugs that are

> still in SIBO will remain till Kingdom comes.

Bullshit, and you know it!

If POS decides to add featues, it's easy to add to the system.

As for bugs, what bugs?

I know that there are a few limitations, but I don't think I've ever run into a bug in the OS or standard apps. The biggest limitation is the 42KB filesize in Word, but how often do you write 20 page documents on so small machines?

(This is because of a 64KB data segment limit in the OS, and with the paragraph list, internal program variables and the clipboard it's reduced to about 42KB)

> What you want to do with the Series 3mx is therefore a kind of Dr.

> Frankenstein operation by patching bits of dead IT flesh together.

If so, I'll line up in the queue to buy a 'slightly charred' piece of kit.

The S3 series are just about the most stable and easy to use machines I've ever used. (Yes, even compared to the S5 and netBook)

I still use a S3c for notetaking sometimes, because it has a better keyboard than the Revo, runs longer and can be taken where my netBook would be too awkward. (Yes, I have a Revo. In fact I have TWO, a Revo and a Revo Plus)

As for the industry abandoning 16bits systems, it's not that long ago all Palm's used Motorola Dragonballs.

And compared to a Palm, even recent models, the S3mx beats it hands down on just about any task except networking. (Surfing/email)

Yes, I also have a few palms, from the Professional, to a Zire, so I can compare.

><< Symbian32 is a high-profile target (can I say sitting duck ?) for

> litigation by MicroSoft about intellectual property issues while

> Symbian16 is almost forgotten and unlike Symbian32 unlikely to

> affect MS's bottom line >>

> We're once more at the, yet unexplained, issue of Microsoft

> intellectual property.

What I heard a few years ago, was that the OS development was done with M$ C++, and that there might have been an issue with some libraries, but I never got the exact details, and if it was a real issue, I'm certain the M$ lawyers would have tore into it long ago.

Not that Psion is afraid of taking on the M$ Lawyers...

M$ did steal one of their directors, to head up the Phone software work for M$, but Psion managed to stop him from working for them for half a year.

:-)

Trygve

Now the proud owner of an Osborne 1 portable...

And wouldn't you know, it has better word-processing(wordstar 3.0 for CP/M) and Database (IBM DBase II) than a modern Palm...

It even does Mail-merge!

It is only slightly heavier than a typical WinCE/PocketPC machine with its 26pounds...

*++++++++++&

Date: 12 Nov 2003 21:22:45 +0100

From: Tim Johnson

Subject: TimeLog Author

Hi All,

Does anyone have contact details for Thomas Nemec, the author of the excellent TimeLog app?

I have various websites and what I believe is his latest email addrbut I haven't received a response from this and the websites are all dead.

I am having a problem using the export function (only for registered users, but I am one).