SAMSUNG's New Palm OS Phone

RUMOR has it that SAMSUNG will be releasing a new Palm-Powered phone, the SGH-i530. It's supposed to be the upgraded version to their SGH-i500. Details from an Italian website says that it will run Palm OS Garnet 5.2. Its processor isn't known at this time, but the i500 uses a 300 MHz Intel processor. The i530 will have 32 MB of RAM and an SD/MMC slot for extra storage.

The i530 will supposedly have a 324-by-352-pixel, 16-bit, TFT, touchscreen as its primary display. It will also include a smaller 96-by-128-pixel, full-color, OLED display on its exterior to display time- and phone-related information.

This will be a tri-band GSM/GPRS (900/1800/1900) device. It won't support EDGE but its current data capabilities will allow users to send and receive emails and SMS and MMS messages. It will also allow web surfing and WAP.

Reportedly, the i530 won't have built-in Bluetooth short-range wireless networking.

The smart phone will, of course, run most Palm OS applications and it will support playback of MPEG-4 and MP3 files.

The resolution of its built-in camera is not yet known, but it is expected to be better than that offered by the i500.

The Samsung SGH-i530 will be available in late spring or early summer. The company plans to give one of these to over 22,000 VIPs, athletes, and officials at the Olympic games in Athens, Greece this summer.

If you will examine the pictures, the Olympic logo can be seen

New SAMSUNG phone SGH-V500

SAMSUNG has released a new phone. This time, it has a swivel screen but on a horizontal axis. Unfortunately it uses the CDMA technology so RP peeps will have to wait for the GSM version.

Skyscape Palm Applications

I recently installed applications from Skyscape in my Palm, and I found out that they may be eye candy than the other Medical applications for the Palm, but may not have the functionality of the others in it. Just for example the Archimedes Medical calculator. Compared to MedCalc (probably the most comprehensive Medical Calculator I've seen sofar), it lacks some of the important Formulas needed in my daily rounds/clinics (e.g. Pregnancy Calculator). With regards to books, i.e. Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, I would say I liked the Skyscape version than the iSilo format.

Treo 650 pictures out!

Pictures of the much-awaited successor to the Treo 600 is out. The Treo 650 or Treo Ace sports a lot of enhancements from the previous model. Looks like the XDA will have an equal competition on this one. It is supposed to have said to have built-in Bluetooth, a faster 312MHz processor, 32MB of RAM, a higher-resolution 320x320 LCD screen, dedicated answer and disconnect buttons, and a one megapixel digital camera. More details are sure to come. A removable battery, a mirror next to the camera lens for taking self-portraits, a definite Bluetooth icon on one of the screens, a bigger speaker, and a more recessed SD memory card slot. Possibly also push-to-talk.

NOKIA Offers Re-Flashing of Infected Phones

NOKIA has offered to re-flash phones that have been infected by the CABIR/CARIBE Bluetooth Virus.

Nokia is alert to the existence of a laboratory-recognized concept worm, which attempts to replicate itself over Bluetooth. The worm sends a copy of itself to “visible” Bluetooth devices. However, the worm will not affect the device unless the user takes the active step of accepting it. Additionally, the worm cannot find devices in which Bluetooth is switched to “hidden” mode, or those in which Bluetooth is switched off. The worm is not spread over mobile networks.

The worm is coded to run under Symbian OS. According to Nokia’s tests, the on-market devices that could be affected include those Nokia models that run the Series 60 smart phone platform.

Since Bluetooth is essentially a means of sharing data, the best precaution is to exercise caution when accepting files from unknown or untrusted sources. If the worm is accepted to a device, it can be deleted without causing any harm to the device.

Nokia is monitoring the situation and will take active measures to address the issue of mobile malware including the Cabir worm. When potential issues come to our attention, we analyze them and take appropriate measures. Based on the analyses to date, Nokia believes the current security threat is relatively small and unlikely to mirror the risk profile of the fixed Internet.

K700i Firmware Upgrade

It's been four days now after I had my phone's firmware upgraded to R2L. So far the changes that I noticed are: bigger hour glass, new deleted icon, connection prompt now has an animated icon, slower refresh rate in the Pictures folder, bigger Operator fonts. SESS claims that the upgrade solves the battery problems, but I've yet to find out.

UIQ Phone from Benq

Taiwan based Benq will soon release their own Symbian OS UIQ phone the P30. Based on initial pictures and specs on the web, this phone has great potential. The most distinct difference from its cousins from SonyEricsson and Motorola is its size. This one is way thinner than the two. According to reports, the keypads are similar to the P900 in tactile feedback, which is good! Although, initial impression on the user interface says that it's not much as like that of the P900. It offers almost the same features as the other UIQ devices such as VGA camera, and high-resolution color touch-screen, this one offers SDIO capable SD/MMC card slot. Let's wait and see if Benq will be thru to it's promise.

palmOne Launches Wi-Fi Card

At last, the much awaited Wi-Fi card from palmOne has been launched. Out in stores by September 3, 2004 at $125.00. Unfortunately, it can only be used on Tungsten T3 and Zire 72. PalmOne's explanation why only two of their handhelds can use the card sounds as if, there are hardware incompatabilities with the other handhelds. SanDisk was first to release a WiFi SD Card, which is compatible with PPC and Zire 71, the only palmOne handheld that can use the said product. The palmOne WiFi card comes with a whopping 4MB installer which should be installed into the Palm and will extract itself but fortunately will leave only 1MB of footprint and is hardware specific.



Now I wonder if SanDisk will comeout with their own version/revision of the product since the palOne virtually released the driver for the other handhelds.

GLOBELINES NET EXPRESS

I find it odd, that after Globelines announced a more aggressive marketing for their Globelines DSL, my Globelines NX (Net Express) Dial-up internet started to FUCK up! At first I ignored it, but after sometime of blaming the rains and the "increasing" dial-up users, I finally came into the conclusion that DSL is already available in our area and by disrupting the dial-up process, one will be FORCED to apply for Globelines DSL.

Multi-Tasking?

Whew, it's been a long time since I've updated and posted. That's because I was in Tanay, Rizal. Yup, just across Joseph Estrada's Tanay Villa. The view there was breath taking, it's Baguio Jr. but nearer the city. To get there you have to pass thru Antipolo, Teresa/Binangonan, Angono then Tanay. But we didn't stop there, we were at the top of Tanay Rizal.

Enough of that, my query is that, I'm wondering why palmOne is bragging about "multi-tasking" in it's upcoming Palm OS 6, which they say boasts of Multimedia capabilities and is already capable of Multitasking. I find this very confusing. Why, would a very big and famous company, respected in the electronics and software communities for it's innovations, be so fussy with Multitasking? I know previous, up to the present Palm OS versions are not capable of multi-tasking, but I beg to disagree and I will elaborate later.

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I'm confused because, for a PDA/handheld computer, this should be a standard (one big plus for PocketPC). Now, what's multi-tasking? As the word says, it should be able to process two (2) or more things at the same time. this is evident on one's Desktop PC (Apple or Windows). You can do word processing on MS Word while printing a picture and birning a CD all at the same time. Again, what's bothering me? Well, I have this new phone, it's a Sony Ericsson K700i.

Now this phone, again it's a phone. It can play MP3's, MIDI's and WAV's and FM radio signals, while I am texting or using WAP and looking at photos. Isn't that "multi-tasking"? I wonder?