PPCzone.net

HP have released a ROM update for the IPAQ 3900 series.

Fixes include:

• Backlight turned off after screen toggle
• ‘Expansion Pack’title freezing on screen after soft reset
• Early termination of NOTES recording
• Popping noises at end of wav file playback
• Screen refresh after soft reset while in a jacket
• Bust’em audio fix
• Distorted audio when bass is increased
• MS (EUU3) End User Update 3
• SDIO driver updates
• SD driver updates
• IPSM driver updates
• iPAQ Backup version change
• iTASK updates

Download here
Source:http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/

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EUU3 (End user update) has been released for NEC devices.

Download here
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Rumoue has it that the Ipaq 1910 will be released in Europe as the 1915 with built in bluetooth & a different screen.
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I have written a short review on the Covertec Ipaq case. Take a look!!

Read review
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Jared Miniman owner of pocketnow was at CES last week and learned an interesting piece of information.

“Throughout CES, I had my MVP hat on. When I had the chance to speak with a marketing guy who had a great deal of engineering expertise (gasp!!), I jumped at the opportunity to get my questions out. I spoke with a rep from SyChip, who are delivering Socket’s SD WiFi card to begin shipping in March (I assume most of this is under NDA). He delivered this gem of information:

1. Any XScale processor device will support SDIO without an on-SD-Card clock handler chip. Why? The PXA250 chipset has built-in support for 1-bit (SDIO) SD!

2. Any OMAP processor device will also support SDIO for the same reason. So . . . all the Smartphones announced so far with OMAP–you guessed it–can theoretically support SDIO.”

Now, this doesn’t mean you can stick an SD Bluetooth card in your HP iPAQ h1910, the drivers don’t exist yet, but if this info proves to be correct, it means it is just a matter of drivers being written.
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The Wi-Fi Alliance today announced that the first round of 5 GHz IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.11a-based products has passed the rigorous Wi-Fi interoperability certification testing. One of the products was a dual band product (802.11a and 802.11b). The testing was conducted at the organization’s San Jose, California interoperability laboratory and began on November 29, 2002.

The following products are now Wi-Fi Certified: Dual-band (802.11a and 802.11b) products:
• Atheros AR5001X CardBus Reference Design Board / AR5BCB-00022A 802.11a
• Atheros AR5001AP Reference Design Access Point Model AR5BAP 00021A
• Cisco Aironet 1200 Series Access Point Model AIR-AP1220A
• Cisco Aironet 5GHz WLAN Adapter Model AIR-CB20A
• Intel® PRO/Wireless 5000 LAN CardBus Adapter Model WCB 5000
• Intermec MobileLAN Access Point Model 2106
• Intersil Indigo Station Card Model ISL 37703C
• Proxim ORiNOCO 5GHz Kit with the AP-2000 Access Point

Source:http://www.ppcnewswire.net/news.asp
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Expansys have just added an SD camera to their website. This device will be available for around £72 GBP which is about $115 USD. According to the website it will work with both PocketPC and PalmOS devies as the drivers are stored on the card!!

Specs:

• Image sensor: 300K pixels, color; Resolution: Up to 640 x 480; Preview Mode: Support 160 x 120, 128 x 96, 80 x 60, Format : RGB 16-bit & BW 4-bit; Still Capture Mode: Support 640 x 480, 320 x 240, 160 x 120, Format : JPEG in YUV 4:2:2; Picture Transfer: Through SDIO (SPI 1-bit mode); Frame Rate: 7-20 frames per second @ 160 x 120; Exposure/White Balance / Color adjustment: Automatically and Manually
• Viewfinder: PDA on screen 160 x 120 16-bit color; Picture Number (per M byte), pictures @640 x 480 (TBD), pictures @320 x 240 (TBD), pictures @160 x 120 (TBD); Recording time (per M byte) seconds @160 x 120 (TBD)
• Image Transfer: Direct Beam to Palm OS Device; Palm Application Software: Image Address Book and Photo Take
• OS support: Pocket PC, and Smartphone
• Optical : Adjustable Focus - F no.2.8, 4.5mm focal length; View Angle: 54 degree; Focus Range: 20cm to infinity

More info @ expansys
Source:http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com
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There is an ongoing thread a Brighthand discussing a new program which allows you to change the clock speed of the Xscale processor in the Ipaq 1910 from 200mhz to 300mhz!! This means all devices with an Xscale processor (200mhz) could in theory be increased to 300mhz. From what I understand the 200mhz chip is exactly the same chip that’s in the 300mhz devices.

More info @ http://discussion.brighthand.com/showthread.php?s=53b142f5865bce68bca8f266e39c7eca&threadid=69594&perpage=15&pagenumber=3
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LAS VEGAS, NV, JAN. 9, 2003 - SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) today introduced a line of wireless Wi-Fi (802.11b) cards with the world’s first card products to include both memory and wireless communications technology. The new SanDisk Connect™ product line was introduced at a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show where SanDisk is demonstrating products in Central Hall, booth 7949.

The announcement marks SanDisk’s entry into the wireless communications market and comes at a time when Wi-Fi, also known as WLAN for wireless local area networks, is emerging as the main worldwide wireless standard. Market watchers at Gartner Inc. report that some two million mobile surfers in North America already use Wi-Fi, and it expects that number to double by next year.

The Connect product line includes four products - dual-function 128 megabyte (MB) CompactFlash® (CF) and 256MB SD cards that combine Wi-Fi and flash memory as well as single-function CF and SD cards with Wi-Fi connectivity. SanDisk plans to add 256MB cards to the CF Connect product line by the middle of 2003.

Nelson Chan, SanDisk senior vice president and general manager of SanDisk’s retail business unit, said, “Access points that allow mobile computer users to wirelessly connect to their email and the Internet are rapidly being deployed around the world - from hotels, airports and universities to cafes, coffee shops and corporate campuses. With these new SanDisk Connect cards, people on the go can quickly transmit and receive data, images and music from any of those thousands of locations.”

Source:http://www.sandisk.com/about/press.asp

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January 13, 2003 - Spb Software House, the creator of such popular Pocket PC applications as GPRS Monitor and Pocket Plus, has entered into a joint venture with Pocketgamer.org to help game players around the world track their scores and compete with one another for top rankings.

«The Pocket PC is a powerful platform for gaming,» said Chief Technology Officer Vassili Philippov, «and we’re convinced that Pocket PC gamers will enjoy their games even more knowing that their high scores will be uploaded for the rest of the community to see. Friendly competition is a healthy thing!»

Pocket Highscores, a free application available from the Spb Software House Web site (www.softspb.com), is what users will install on their desktop PCs to enable this process. Once installed, this application will retreive high scores from supported games installed on users’ Pocket PCs and upload them directly to Spb partner site, PocketGamer.org (www.pocketgamer.org/scores). Once uploaded, the scores are displayed in descending order along with the name the user entered into the game scoring system. From the PocketGamer.org Web site, users can sort by game, username, and anywhere from five scores to all on record. The PocketGamer.org High Scores page also includes a leader board where current champions are listed.

Supported games include Spb Arkaball, Spb FreeCell, Spb Lines, Spb Minesweeper, Spb Pong, and Spb Xonix. Spb Software House will be releasing a free development library so game developers can quickly add this feature into their Pocket PC games. As more games support Pocket Highscores, the Pocket PC gaming community will be able to better compare scores from among their favorite games.

Source:http://www.softspb.com/press/pressreleases/2003/jan13.html
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