PPCzone.net

Wireless LAN specialist Agere picked opening day at Comdex to announce prototype wireless LAN chips capable of transmitting data at 162Mbps in the 5GHz band occupied by emerging 802.11a kit.

That’s three times faster than the theoretical maximum throughput of current 802.11a equipment (54Mbps) or almost 15 times the theoretical top speed of existing 802.11b kit (11Mbps).

According to Agere, the high-speed technology can be used to support high-definition video in future 802.11-based home entertainment and enterprise desktop PC applications. The company hopes to introduce the technology in products by late 2004.

Agere’s demonstration platform combines Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) - two of the most promising technologies to increase data rates in the currently available wireless LAN spectrum….

Full story @ the Register

—–

Pretec have announced the largest capacity CF memory cards which will come in sizes of 1.5GB , 2GB and 3GB. Wow. I wan’t one of them.

http://www.pretec.com/PR/PR_3GB_021118.pdf
—–

Sponsored by Textware Solutions and Blue Nomad, Quik Sense,
Pocket Informant, Paul Computing, IA Style, and ttools.

HOW FAST CAN YOU TYPE ON YOUR PALM?

You all know how difficult it is to get a fair comparison of
input methods. Any claim is likely to be dismissed as marketing
hype, as it may sometimes be the case. So the idea is to have a
contest where all participants can be measured on the same basis.

DOM PERIGNON II SPEED CONTEST

Just enter the following 40 words with the method of your
choice and record your time:

What you need to do to have a chance to win
the contest is to tap this sentence as fast as you
can without any error. One more thing you need
to have for a valid entry is a witness.

ACCEPTABLE INPUT METHODS ARE:

“This beauty has Intel’s PXA250 (400MHz) processor and comes with 64MB RAM and 48MB ROM. It’s beautiful 64K color Transflective TFT screen is the brightest display available on any Pocket PC. The built-in SDIO card slot lets you add storage memory or the potential for I/O devices to the new iPAQ. There are a total of four integrated wireless features consisting of Bluetooth, 802.11 Wi-Fi, Infrared and Consumer Infrared functionality. Finally, they have added on a biometric thermal fingerprint reader for high level security. When you put in all these features within a form factor that still allows you to use all the existing iPAQ expansion pack jackets, you end up with the latest winner by HP for the business user that is bound to take the enterprise market in full stride. “

Full review @ pocketpcpassion.com
—–

It looks like the new Ipaq’s are official. There will be two new devices launched next monday @ Comdex. The Ipaq h1910 Hp’s answer to the new Dell PocketPc’s will have the following specs.

Ipaq H1910

Specs:

• OS: Pocket PC 2002
  
• Processor: Intel XScale PXA 250, 200 MHz
  
• Display: Transflective type TFT color with LED backlight, 64K colors
  
• Memory: 16MB Flash/64 MB RAM (46 MB user accessible)
  
• Slots: SD/MMC slot
  
• Battery: 900mAH, Lithium-Ion user swappable battery

HP iPAQ h5450

There high end device will have a build in biometric fingerprint scanner, bluetooth and possible WLan. Specs are below.

Specs:

• OS: Pocket PC 2002
  
• Processor: Intel XScale PXA 250, 400 MHz
  
• Display: Transflective type TFT liquid crystal display, 64K colors
  
• Memory: 48MB Flash/64 MB RAM
  
• Slots: SDIO/MMC slot
  
• Battery: 1250mAH, Lithium-Polymer, user swappable battery
  
• Other: built-in Bluetooth and/or WiFi, Biometric Fingerprint Reader

Nothing new really. The specs are as expected. Even the earlier pictures which were posted on this site were real even though many preumed them to be fake.

Source:PocketPctools.com

Spb Software House, a leading Pocket PC software developer, announced today the release of Spb Quick - Pocket PC companion software for Quicken®, world’s most popular personal finance management software.

Until today Palm had once advantage over Pocket PC - there was a Quicken companion for Palm and there was no for Pocket PC. For many people it was a reason whether to megrate from Pocket PC to Palm or from Quicken to Microsoft Money. Today Spb Software House has changed it. Now Pocket PC has a tool for working with Quicken data including synchronization.

With Spb Quick mobile enthusiasts now have an ability to track their finances anytime, anywhere. Spb Quick synchronizes to desktop version of Quicken, downloading all its data to Pocket PC. Once synchronized, a Pocket PC user can inspect all his accounts and transactions, see account balance, income and expense charts and, what is most important, create new transactions while on the move. All the transactions entered with Pocket PC then get to Quicken on the desktop on the next synchronization.

Spb Quick gives new possibilities for those people who use Quicken - now they don’t have to remember details of all the operations for entering them into Quicken later - they now can track their incomes and expenses during the whole day, week, business trip or vacation and synchronize them with Quicken.

Pricing and availability
Free 15-days trial version of Spb Quick is available for download exclusively from PocketGear. Full registered version is available for US$ 29.95. For more information about Spb Quick please visit Spb Software House website at: softspb.com

—–

In a move to further increase use of its Pocket PC operating system, Microsoft has now developed a low-cost concept platform in collaboration with Samsung; white box, anyone?

Microsoft and Samsung today unveiled the last conception by the companies to further increase use of Microsoft’s Pocket PC platform in handhelds; a new concept design that the companies claim dramatically lowers costs and reduces product development time for mobile device OEMs and original device manufacturers (ODMs).

The new design incorporates a Samsung ARM9-based S3C2410 application processor and Microsoft’s Pocket PC software, combined with a 3.5″ QVGA grayscale or color display. The Samsung application processor utilizes NAND Flash memory, and MultiMediaCard, SD and SDIO expansion card capabilities are incorporated into the concept design. The design is also smaller than any Pocket PC device currently on the market with its 4.1″ x 2.8″ form factor and a weight of only 2.9 ounces (82 g) for the grayscale version.

Source:Infosync
—–

TeleSym delivers its SymPhone System for wireless voice calls on PDAs

Turns a Pocket PC PDA into a mobile phone for the wireless workplace, free trial offered

TeleSym announced immediate availability of its SymPhone System, which enables clear, cost-effective voice communications on wireless mobile devices like Pocket PC PDAs (personal digital assistants, like the iPAQ). The SymPhone delivers high-quality voice calling on wireless LANS - 802.11b networks - and across the Internet. All components of the SymPhone System are now available for trial and purchase.

“Enterprises using the SymPhone System can deliver high quality voice calling to their mobile workforce in a very cost effective way,” explains Raju Gulabani, TeleSym chief executive officer. “At the same time, the mobility can yield increased productivity. Our beta program generated tremendous enthusiasm for adding voice communications to PDAs. This will be a home run for our partners, resellers and customers deploying the next generation of telephone systems.”

Enterprise Observations

“The voice quality is extremely good,” says Zackary O’Donnell, a wireless development analyst at the University of California at Davis. “We think that mobile computing over wireless devices will be the computing method of choice for students in the future. With SymPhone, students could call each other on campus, and faculty could use it to call their office, or call for audiovisual support in a classroom.”

SymPhone System Components

SymPhone Client software transforms mobile PDAs into phones for PDA-to-PDA or PDA-to-phone calls over wireless 802.11 LANs. SymPhone looks familiar to users, with a dial pad, contact list and intercom features. SymPhone Client runs on Pocket PC devices such as the Compaq iPAQ and industrial devices such as the Intermec 710…

Full Story @ wirelesssoftware.info

—–

Dell’s entry into the handheld market has been rumored for a while, and now it’s official: On November 18, at Comdex, the company will release its new Axim X5 line of low-priced, color Pocket PCs. The models will start at $249 with a $50 mail-in rebate. True to Dell’s form, the XScale-powered Axims will come in two configurations–a 300MHz model and this 400MHz unit–but don’t expect an Apple- or Sony-like eye-catching design. We got a hands-on demo of the Axims, as well as an earful from Dell on its plans to upset the card table of the handhelds game this holiday season….

Full Story @ Cnet
—–

There is a review of the new Toshiba Portege 3505 Tablet PC over at PocketPCthoughts which can be viewed here

More info on TabletPC @ microsoft.com
—–