- Subject: What would you change about your Psion?

- BT keyboard for Itamar Engelsman

- RE: Wireless comms and Aircraft control systems

- RE: In-flight mobile phone usage

- future on new platforms, Street Planner & maps for Ireland,

- Access to Gmail with XJMail?

- Re: AAs v battery-packs

- RE: AAs v battery-packs

Date: 22 Jan 2006 18:39:06 +0100
From: Giorgio <address truncated>
Subject: Subject: What would you change about your Psion?

Dear Franco,
 
I perfectly 100% agree with you !!!


Ciao
:-)
Giorgio Odazio
Rome - Italy
www.cassiahouse.com
-------------------------
Date: 20 Jan 2006 12:09:06 +0700
From: Franco Cozzani <address truncated>
Subject: What would you change about your Psion?
.... First, the screen of the MC 218/ 5MX for a modern, colour, bright screen. It really took, and takes, our enduring devotion to Epoc's brilliance and unmatched 5MX keyboard to put up with the muggy and often plain unreadable screen of our beloved MC 218/5MX.

Secondly, I used my MC 218 to take tons of notes in multiple-days meetings.
Fine. But more and more in my line of job, the Chair hands out the meeting docs in the format of USB keys, which of course are perfectly useless on the spot with a Psion. Therefore, USB support + faster loading of .pdf files would come strongly as N° 2 wish.

And, yes, I would not mind to have a modern Li rechargeable battery for the 5MX. As for the known problem of typing War and Peace while in the Gobi desert, one could think of an adapter for AA batteries like Nikon digital reflex cameras have (Itamar, I guess you know more about this than I do?).

So, in a sense, as the years go by, I miss less and less the actual realisation of the Psion concept in the specific format of the MC 218/MX of
6+ years ago.
But, be fellow Psioneers rest assured of my unflinching devotion.  As the years go by, I remain as bitter as ever at the prospect that no "modern"
And "full" replacement of the 5MX is so far in sight.

Best regards,

> Franco COZZANI
> Brussels

Date: 22 Jan 2006 19:29:46 +0100
From: Martin O'Neill (IOL) <address truncated>
Subject: BT keyboard for Itamar Engelsman

Itamar wrote:
>the space bar is very hard to use. You really have to press it deep for
>it to work, and I get too many words linked together when I type.

I had the same problem with one of my 5mx keyboards in the past and I remember reading about a cure for the problem either on the digest or on one of the forums.  As far as I can recall, it involved removing the 5mx key and cutting out some foam?  Perhaps, someone else can remember better.

Regards,
Martin

Date: 22 Jan 2006 22:32:09 +0100
From: Alan Morris <address truncated>
Subject: RE: Wireless comms and Aircraft control systems

Arabbitte <address truncated> wrote:-

||> Now, I'm no expert, but I know enough to say that WLAN ||> devices are much more power hungry than bluetooth (using ||> more battery power) and therefore, assuming such
||> communications can have a detrimental effect on an
||> aircraft's control systems, should be more problematic in ||> use than Bluetooth. Or is all this a load of cobblers? Cars ||> have had wireless control systems for about 20 years -
||> initially in the form of a cableless accelerators - and ||> they are now ubiquitous. I have yet to hear of any incident ||> where the use of a mobile (handfree of course!) caused a ||> car of slow or speed up involuntarily. And as there are
||> many times more cars in use with such technology than
||> aircraft, is all this just an example of some laziness
||> dressed up in a safety wrapper?

Not laziness.  Two reasons, mainly.  Profit and protection from legal action.

Much like cellphones in hospitals.

My first cellphone, back in 1987 was a transportable.  As heavy and the size of two house bricks.  It was an in-car high transmit power type.  I went into hospital and took the phone with me to continue my business activities.  There were no problems with the transmitter.  As I radio ham, I know many radio hams who have taken their 20+ watt transceivers into hospitals.

But now they are banned so that the commercial telephones can earn profits for the hospitals.  My wife's father was in hospital for about 6 weeks.  When he first arrived, he was allowed to use a TV bought in by his son.  The commercial side of the hospital were installing PAYG TVs for every bed.  When the installation was done, suddenly the private TV was now classed as unsafe, as it had not been tested.  It was removed.

Current cellphones have such low powers that they can't be more dangerous that the much higher devices years ago.

Two weeks ago I was walking past the heart section of my local hospital. I saw a technician walking out of a room into a corridor.  He was talking on his UHF/VHF business radio.  Not being a cellphone, that were banned on numerous signs, this was being used by hospital staff. So that was OK then!

Profit is the main reason.  The other is to protect against any possible legal claim.

No technical reasons.

Alan Morris.

Date: 23 Jan 2006 04:50:14 +0100
From: SA <address truncated>
Subject: RE: In-flight mobile phone usage

There are recorded incidents of wireless electronic items interfering
with aircraft control systems, so for the safety of you and your fellow
passengers, don't be tempted.  However, a number of Airlines are now
working flat out on systems which will allow personal mobiles to be used
on flights.

It looks as if the first system will be useable with the next 24 months.
Unfortunately, it seems that last bastion of peace and quiet (aircraft)
will soon be open to the mobiles. Then the problem will be that other
passengers will be disturbed by loud talking on the phone (imagine a
long night flight). A colleague who is close to this concept assures me
that cabin crew will be able to switch off the link when other
passengers get bothered or complain about loud users. 

Brendan (from cooler but sunny Dubai)

Date: 24 Jan 2006 06:27:25 +0100
From: Itamar Engelsman <address truncated>
Subject: future on new platforms, Street Planner & maps for Ireland,

Answer to: Arabbitte

Re.: future on new platforms - Thanks for the message. I still have my doubts about the P990 and I am afraid that yet again a lot of the software will not be upgradable. One would think that they have learned their lessons from the past history of the EPOC / Symbian evolution ... . I will certainly not be among the first ones to buy a P990. Still, interesting to read soon about his experience with this model.

Answer to: Tim

Re.: Street Planner & maps for Ireland - I am currently on holday. If no-one answers you, send me a pm end of this week and I will check for you.

Best regards,
Itamar Engelsman
London, UK

Date: 24 Jan 2006 15:17:30 +0100
From: emai7s <address truncated>
Subject: Access to Gmail with XJMail?

>From: jAnO <address truncated>
>Subject: POP3 (access to Gmail)
>Why don't probe the XJMail? This is great email client (for PSION)!!! p

Hi jAnO,
Could you tell what settings you used to get XJMail working with Gmail? I'm sure that would interest a lot of people.

Peter

Date: 25 Jan 2006 07:17:49 +0100
From: Armin Podtschaske <address truncated>
Subject: Re: AAs v battery-packs

Hi Ian,

>> My phone would last probably twice as long on 2x AA batteries.

> To accomodate AA batteries, my phone would need to be
> about 7mm thicker, which would definitely *not* be a good
> thing.
>
> AA batteries have their strong points, but being used in modern mobile > phones is not one of them...

It depends what is important to you. If size is so important, that you are willing to throw away a fully working phone, that you like, someday. At the moment I am trying to find a new battery pack for my SE T610, because I have to recharge twice a week now. Not any cellphone shop I asked, has it. Eventually I'll have to throw away it and to buy a new one (that will let the Psion fax e.g.).

My 5MX still has the full Power as if it was fresh from the shelf some years ago. And it will ever have.
If the batteries capacity start to degrade, I throw them in the recycle bin and can be sure to be able to go to any shop I like, ask for a new set of rechargeble AA's and will never hear the answer: "sorry, we don't sell theese any longer since a year".

If I find a AA powered cellphone, that works with a Psion, I would probably take it.

Cheers, Armin.

Date: 22 Jan 2006 22:32:09 +0100
From: Alan Morris <address truncated>
Subject: RE: AAs v battery-packs

Ian Chapple <address truncated>  wrote:-

||> While I agree with your calculations, I'm not sure I agree ||> with your conclusions. The battery in my P910 is about 4mm ||> thick, compared to about 11mm for an AA battery. To
||> accomodate AA batteries, my phone would need to be about ||> 7mm thicker, which would definitely *not* be a good thing. ||>
||> AA batteries have their strong points, but being used in ||> modern mobile phones is not one of them...

This is a typical modern society problem.  Years ago the A ..... D and PP... Ranges of standard sized batteries was a sign of good design by manufacturers for the good benefit of society as a whole.  Companies made products that used batteries (actually cells in the AA case) and were content with making a profit on those products.  They left making of batteries to other companies.

Now almost every company wants to make their own unique sized battery packs, so that only they can make the profit, at the expense of the consumer.  Nikon have recently introduced a new digital camera that even uses the same model number of battery as previous models, but they are not inter-exchangable.

A range of thin (for phones) and thicker (for laptops) batteries with a standard set of sizes and voltages would benefit all consumers, but I can't ever see it happening.

Why are the lithium battery packs so expensive ?  It's not the technology, it's the trade name mark-up.

Alan Morris