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Epoc Digest Sat, 24 Jul 2004 Volume 01 : Number 565
************************************************************************
Sent to: 751 subscribers
In today's Epoc Digest 14 messages:
==============================
- CF size inconsistency PC/Psion
- back up problems
- Free ISP, Citymaps,
- Re: Epoc Digest V1 # 564 (3)
- Re: GPS navigation
- Re: Anfi Del Mar de Gran Canaria
- Darryl Kempster - Update
- Re: Psion to Laptop using PsiWin and infrared
- Re: Epoc Digest V1 # 562 (8)
- Re: Ericsson phones
- 2nd Update - Charity Donations for Darryl Kempster
- Re: Series5
- Re: New phone / PDA
- RE: Serial to USB
*++++++++++&
Date: 20 Jul 2004 14:36:24 +0700
From: Daniele Squarci
Subject: CF size inconsistency PC/Psion
I sometimes use the CF card on my netBook to ferry large files from the
office PC to the home PC. Today I inserted a 128 MB CF card into the USB
adaptor on the PC and tried to copy a 20 MB file over. The PC gave an error
message "insufficient space" and reported the available space as 10,4 MB.
The same card on the netBook is reported (Shift-Ctrl-K) as having 50 MB free.
Can anyone explain why there is this difference, and which is the correct
value? I tried compacting the files on the card with Compactor, but it made
no difference to the reported free space. I want to avoid sending such a
large file through the serial connection as it takes an inordinate amount
of time!
Ciao
Daniele Squarci
Italy
*++++++++++&
Date: 21 Jul 2004 08:46:53 +0700
From: hbf
Subject: back up problems
Dear All,
My 5MX screen went dead, I managed to back up all data to the PC.
The problem is in transferring my data from the PC to a Mbook.
Restore via Psiwin2.3 does not work because the Mbook has another identity.
I copied everything to the C in the Netbook, but I do not know how to open
my contacts. Right now it is in C\backup\internal\system\data in contacts.cdb.
thanks, best regards
H.B.Folkerts
Brazil
*++++++++++&
Date: 21 Jul 2004 16:00:18 +0700
From: Itamar Engelsman
Subject: Free ISP, Citymaps,
Answer to: Kevin Collins
Re.: Free ISP - Are you sure that you pay less for GPRS on a local card
than on a foreign card ? This is worthwhile checking before buying a local
card.
To All
Re. Citymaps - Never got an answer so repeating my question. Does anyone
know whether the maps that come with Citymaps were significantly updated
from the last issue of Streetplanner or not ? Is it worthwhile to spend
the money to upgrade or not ?
Best regards,
Itamar Engelsman
London, UK
*++++++++++&
Date: 21 Jul 2004 20:28:33 +0700
From: Steve Hodgson
Subject: Re: Epoc Digest V1 # 564 (3)
On 20 Jul 2004, at 15:20, Epoc Digest wrote:
> Re.: New Phone/ PDA - I used to think like you to keep them separate. >
However, I am not really happy with my Palm PDA and if I want to
> return to a Symbian PDA these are just about the only options. Nokia >
also makes them but these phones are more like a brick. The
> 800/900/910 you can still hang on your belt without discomfort.
Another option to consider might be the Sendo X. I was reading a review by
John Lettice today in the The Register
(http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/16/sendo_x_review/) today and he was
pretty complimentary about the Sendo phone. As an aside, he also mentions
his beloved netBook dying as a result of sauvignon. I just
know that is how mine would want to go!
Anyway, technical specs on the Sendo are at
http://www.sendo.com/smartphones/features.asp.
--
Regards,
Steve Hodgson &nb
*++++++++++&
Date: 21 Jul 2004 22:22:34 +0700
From: Alan Morris
Subject: Re: GPS navigation
Itamar Engelsman wrote:-
Just to improve on your answers Itamar.
> 1) It is possible on all Psion's from the series 5 and above.
> I used it on the 5 first and now on the mBook.
It's also possible on the 3a (and later) as I first used it with my first
GPS, a Garmin 75 eight years ago . Mapper3a had GPS connection facilities
as did AutoRoute on a SSD ROM card. (I've still got the card, if anyone
wants it!)
> 2) Most GPS makes can be used that are NMEA compatible
At the weekend I bought my third Garmin, a 2610. It's NMEA compatible but
as it has a USB connection and not a serial connection, it wont work with
Psions. Other Garmins (the best to buy) also have only a USB connection.
--
Alan R Morris, G4ENS.
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, UK.
Using a Psion netBook & Nokia 6210e.
*++++++++++&
Date: 21 Jul 2004 22:22:44 +0700
From: Alan Morris
Subject: Re: Anfi Del Mar de Gran Canaria
Itamar Engelsman wrote:-
> Re.: Anfi Del Mar de Gran Canaria - Hi Owen, good to see you
> ar ein contact with the world again. Where in the world is
> this place ?
Not wishing to bring back the discussion about sigs, but the answer is in
Owen's sig. Just type the co-ordinates into Route using the W_Europe map.
It's S-W of Spain.
---
Owen H. Morgan, Yacht "Naomi J.", LD-9311
At anc27?46.28'N 15?41.65'W
Anfi Del Mar de Gran Canaria
--
Alan R Morris, G4ENS.
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, UK.
Using a Psion netBook & Nokia 6210e.
*++++++++++&
Date: 23 Jul 2004 06:37:11 +0700
From: Gary Jenkinson
Subject: Darryl Kempster - Update
Hi All,
To conclude the matter of donations made by members of the Digest to
Greenpeace, the choice of charity suggested by Darryl’s family, I sent a ?77
cheque and €10 cash to this organisation.
I received donations from the vast majority of members who had pledged them
and those that did and I received cheques or cash from were:
Vlad Arghir
Mark Bridge
Simon Chadwick
Itamar Englesman
J. Hamwee
Andy Hayes
Gary Jenkinson
Hanno de Kogel
Tony Ross
I apologise for the seemingly late response, but I had been waiting for some
sort of acknowledgement from Greenpeace, but it hasn’t arrived to date. When
it does I will let the Digest know and intend to send the
receipt/acknowledgement to Itamar.
I hope this meets with everyone’s agreement.
Kind regards,
Gary Jenkinson
*++++++++++&
Date: 20 Jul 2004 13:02:23 +0700
From: Rolf Brunsting
Subject: Re: Psion to Laptop using PsiWin and infrared
Dear Bernard,
<< Many years ago I had the same problem with my Psion 5mx. I complained to
Psion and they basically said that it wasn't guaranteed to be compatible
with a standard IR port on a PC. I asked what the point was of offering a
PDA with IR connection when it can't connect to a standard IR port on a PC?
They declined to answer >>
The infrared port of the Series 5(mx) was primarily intended for Psion to
Psion communication, as was the case for the Series 3c and the Siena. With
a 3c/Siena you could transfer contacts and appointments to another 3c/Siena
well before the Infrared Data Association (IrDA) had developed an industry
standard exchange mechanism. The IrDA was actually established just before
the Series 3c and Siena were launched. A time when most laptops didn't have
an infrared port as standard equipment. The PsiWin communication protocol
also predates the infrared port and IrDA as it was already implemented in
Psion's DOS communication tools RComm and MCLink. Psion's infrared
implementation on the Series 5 and its derivatives is therefore part
Psion-own (file exchange) and part IrDA (contacts and appointments via
IrOBEX). Add the fact that Microsoft's IrDA implementations have been
rather flaky and a PsiWin to Series 5(mx) exchange via infrared can't be
guaranteed to work flawlessly. As is the case for PC to PC communication
via infrared. I've had IBM ThinkPad laptops of exactly the same model
which, straight out of the box, refused to communicate with each other.
Funny thing is that I've never had any problems using my Psion's infrared
port for communication with other PDAs, mobile phones, smartphones,
printers and an OCR pen reader. While communication with a PC/Laptop has
always been a hit or miss affair. The infrared ports on laptop PCs may have
become standard equipment but I doubt whether many of them really comply
with the standards.
---
Kind Regards.
Rolf Brunsting - Darp - Netherlands
*++++++++++&
Date: 22 Jul 2004 13:28:07 +0700
From: Rolf Brunsting
Subject: Re: Epoc Digest V1 # 562 (8)
Dear Chris,
Symbian Induces Smart-Phone Envy
<< The blame for all of this goes to a long-ago decision by the FCC
(Federal Communications Commission) to limit wireless competition and give
preferential treatment to the old wireline carriers, the Baby Bells. That,
plus a decision to use American instead of global technology, will continue
to hold us back for many years to come >>
It's more complicated than that.
Most telephone companies were still state owned in Europe at the time the
major decisions about digital mobile telephony were made. They were
represented in a pan-European non-governmental body (CEPT). One of the
tasks of CEPT was to coordinate technological activities of these
companies. This lead to a more centralised decision making than in the US
where the telephone companies had been private companies for a long time.
When the US government, via the FCC, made the 1900 MHz band available for
digital mobile phones it left the choice of the mobile network technology
to the various telephone companies. While proposals in Europe lead to the
formation of a CEPT committee called Groupe Special Mobile (GSM) with the
task to define a common standard. This activity received official support
from the European Commission which made it mandatory for all EEC countries
to reserve the 900 MHz band for the new standard. Europe's state owned
telephone companies were privatised, of course. However, the political
process which finally resulted in an EC telecommunication directive ran in
parallel to the development of GSM. You could say that GSM is an
inheritance the telephone companies received when they were privatised. Had
they been privatised earlier there's a fair chance Europe would have ended
up in a situation similar to that of the US.
That most US mobile network operators decided to use american technology is
less of an issue. Situation would have been much better had the network
operators collectively decided to use a single network technology. What
consumers want is to be able to make and receive calls wherever they are.
The purely technological merits of a network type are of secondary
importance. The same applies to the origin of the network technology. Had
US operators chosen a single network type it would have given US consumers
confidence. There would have been a clear transition from the old analogue
network/phones to the new digital network/phones as was the case in Europe.
The european experience is akin to the change from the analog LP to the
digital CD - one that went smoothly and quite rapidly. US consumers were
confronted with something similar to the video recorder standards war.
Moving to a digital mobile phone in the US meant making a choice between
conflicting and competing standards. Many a US consumer preferred to wait
and see which standard would become the dominant one. European consumers
didn't have to wait for that. They only had to decide when to make the move.
A single standard also creates a level playing field. European consumers
could change network operator while keeping their mobile phone as well as
the additional gear they bought for it (car kit, extra battery, etc.). This
leads to a much stronger competition between the operators on price,
performance and customer service. You'll think twice about changing
operator when it means throwing away your phone and all the extras.
The same level playing field effect was true for the mobile phones. GSM is
an open standard and any manufacturer who wants to make GSM phones can do
so. Persuading the consumer to buy your phones means making better phones
than those of the competition. In other words, a competition on price,
performance and features. GSM phone technology developed rapidly compared
to that of (say) CDMA phones in the US. Also because changing operator in
the US was a hassle. Something which was made worse by technological
ownership. CDMA was covered by a series of patents owned by Qualcomm which
also supplied the CDMA chipsets. By which Qualcomm effectively dictated the
pace of development. The same
is true of the IDEN technology which is owned by Motorola.
Then there are the economies of scale a single standard brings. One of the
effects in Europe was that the prices for network equipment came down quite
quickly. This allowed the operators to roll out their networks into the
more rural and remote areas at a rapid pace. Europe
is now very well covered by mobile networks. Something which can't be said
for the US, all network types combined. And when you look at the per
network type coverage the situation is much worse. Needless to say this
creates problems when traveling. Reason why you could buy
dual-mode phones which also supported the old analog AMPS system. Mobile
phone users could fall back to AMPS when out of reach of their digital
network. Manufacturers didn't have to create similar phones for the
European market. There was hardly a need for them, given the rapid roll-out
of GSM networks. What's more, former state owned KPN closed down its analog
ATF-1 network in the Netherlands 2.5 years before schedule.
---
Kind Regards,
Rolf Brunsting - Darp - Netherlands
*++++++++++&
Date: 22 Jul 2004 14:08:06 +0700
From: Rolf Brunsting
Subject: Re: Ericsson phones
Dear Bernard,
<< I note that Sony-Ericsson do Epoc driven mobile phones running things
like TomeRaider. Eg P800, P900. Will these also act as IR contacts for my
netBook and Ps5? >>
First thing to note is that the EPOC name was discontinued after release 5.
When Symbian released version 6 of the operating system it became known as
Symbian OS. The only smartphone equipped with EPOC (release 5) was the
Ericsson R380. The Nokia, SonyEricsson, Siemens etc. smartphones based on
Symbian are using Symbian OS 6 or 7.
Both the SonyEricsson P800 and P900 use an addressbook application that's
very similar in look and feel to the Contacts application of the Series
5mx, Revo, Series 7 and netBook. Any telephone number, fax number, e-mail
address and web URL can be used for making phone calls, sending e-mail and
fax messages and browsing the web. View a contact, tap on the phone number
and it will automatically be dialed. Tap on an e-mail address and the
e-mail application is started and a new message opened so that you can
start writing your message. Contacts on the P800/P900 also supports
infrared transfer. You can therefore beam a contact from the P800/P900 to
you netBook. The same is true for beaming contacts between PalmOS and
Windows Mobile devices.
<< I use 3 pay-as-you-go Sims with the SH888 simply on account of the
vagaries of reception here in Scotland. Do the Px000 etc also offer
changeable PAYG chips? >>
Yes, because this has nothing to do with the operating system or other.
It's the GSM standard which places the network details and your account
details on a SIM card (Subscriber Identification Module). You can therefore
use your existing SIM cards with a P800 or P900 as long as
the one you purchase isn't operator locked (what others erronously call SIM
locked). When the phones is operator locked it will only work when
a SIM card of that particular network operator is in it. That is, a phone
that's operator locked by Vodaphone UK will only work in combination with a
Vodaphone UK SIM card. When a phone is truly SIM locked it will only work
with the one particular SIM card it's locked on. Any other SIM card, also
those by the same network operator, won't work.
*++++++++++&
Date: 23 Jul 2004 10:16:44 +0700
From: Gary Jenkinson
Subject: 2nd Update - Charity Donations for Darryl Kempster
Hi All,
Wouldn't you just believe it, no sooner had I sent my post to the Digest
saying I hadn't received any sort of acknowledgement from Greenpeace, when
one turns up in the post!
I have it available if anyone wants to see it. Please send me your fax number.
I have offered to send the original to Itamar and am awaiting his response
on this at the time of writing of this post.
Kind regards,
Gary Jenkinson
*++++++++++&
Date: 23 Jul 2004 17:50:43 +0700
From: Korbinian Demmel
Subject: Re: Series5
Hi Itamar,
> The first series
> 5 was the original machine called "S5" with 8Mb
> internal memory.....
Wasn't there a 4 MB version for some short time?
regards
Korbinian
*++++++++++&
Date: 23 Jul 2004 20:42:31 +0700
From: Rolf Brunsting
Subject: Re: New phone / PDA
Dear Itamar,
<< So ..... yes, I am wondering whether or not I should go for the P900
with Symbian software, and buy a full size keyboard with it (infrared
or bluetooth) to do any serious work. I will try and orientate myself on
this phone, but any remarks or opinions from others most welcome. >>
Which begs the question what you mean by "serious work". Note that most
smartphones, including the SonyEricsson P900, are a merger between PDA and
mobile phone. Most of them allow you to view an MS-Word document or Excel
spreadsheet (as received by e-mail) but aren't supplied with a word
processor or spreadsheet application as standard. And you can ask the
question whether their relatively small screens allow you to do
some serious word processing or spreadsheet building. That is, when you add
the necessary software as well as an external infrared or Bluetooth
keyboard. Not that they make it impossible, it's more a question of whether
it's reasonably comfortable to do so. I think you'll have a go at it but,
after some time, will take out the MalayBook rather than the P900 (or
other) when you need to work on a document, spreadsheet or database. And
that the P900 will be the one you use for your diary and contacts
management. This would make the purchase of an external keyboard an
expensive mistake as they don't come cheap.
The sole exceptions being the Nokia 9210i Communicator and the upcoming
9500 Communicator. They're a merger between a Series 5mx like handheld
computer and a mobile phone. They have the software, the integrated
keyboard as well as the screen for word processing or spreadsheet building.
When things really get serious you can add an external keyboard. I don't
think a 9210i or 9500 is in the picture as you've never been fond of their
size. You prefer something that's more mobile phone than handheld computer.
I therefore think you're better off forgetting about this "serious work"
thing as you already have the tool for that - your MalayBook.
As for smartphones, you have experience with both EPOC and PalmOS and
therefore can go two ways. One option is the PalmOS based Treo 600
which was originally developed by Handspring. Palm bought Handspring and
has renamed itself so that you'll probably see it advertised as the PalmOne
Treo 600. Another option is, indeed, the SonyEricsson P900.
Both Treo 600 and P900 have been well received and reviews are quite
positive about them. It sometimes depends on where the reviewer is coming
from whether (s)he prefers the one over the other. People who've used Palms
as their PDA tend to prefer the Treo 600 and people who've used Psions the
P900.
Another option is the SonyEricsson P910 which is equipped with a QWERTY
keyboard. It's just been launched and the details I have are rather
sketchy. I'm therefore not able to say whether it can be described as a
P900 with keyboard for easy SMS/MMS and e-mail entry or as a 9500
Communicator rival. First looks indicate to me that it's the former rather
than the latter but I can't say whether that's truly the case. I don't know
when your mobile phone contract expires but there's a fair chance that you
have to make a decision about a new contract and a new (smart)phone before
the P910 is on the market.
Then there's the option not to look too specifically for PalmOS or Symbian
OS. A smartphone that's been quite successfully in the UK is
the O2 XDA II. It can be described as a Hewlett-Packard iPaq 2210 with
fully integrated mobile phone. Which means, indeed, the Microsoft Windows
Mobile operating system and applications. I'm not that deep
into Windows Mobile but the functionality of the XDA II is equivalent to
that of the SonyEricsson P900. It's therefore more PDA than handheld
computer (with or without external keyboard). Still, when the P900 is
on your option list it would be fair to put the XDA II on it as well - if
only to define your purchase criteria better.
On a final note, I'm not sure whether the Bluetooth standards committee has
created a keyboard profile as they have for such things as
headsets. What I do know is that there's no standard IrDA definition. High
chance that the use of an external infrared/Bluetooth keyboard depends on
whether it's supplied with drivers for the smartphone you intend to buy.
Could be that the keyboard you like doesn't support the smartphone you like
or vice versa.
---
Kind Regards,
Rolf Brunsting - Darp - Netherlands
*++++++++++&
Date: 24 Jul 2004 00:31:59 +0700
From: "Bob Rudolph"
Subject: RE: Serial to USB
Hi Folks,
I sent a post a couple days ago that my Proporta USB to Serial adapter
would not work with my new Laptop using Windows XP and my 5MX and
Netbook. I bought an Iogear adapter. It came with drivers and my Proporta
one didn't. It also brought up a Coms 5 which the Protorta one didn't
either. It all works fine now.
Thanks,
Bob
*++++++++++&
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