Aaron Dubrinsky, the President of Go America, examines "How to Shop for an Off-the-Shelf Mobile Data Solution" on pages 34-35 of the Wireless & Mobility Magazine published for May/June 1998. The article compares and contrasts Windows CE, PalmPilot, Ruggedized Laptop, and SmartPhone technologies.
Bob Parks' "Fetish" articles that start on page 47 of the Wired published on Aug98 examine three handheld devices: Seiko's The Ruputer watch (US$360, only sold in Japan though); Magellan's Global Satellite Communicator (GSC) 100 mobile e-mail device (US$999) 909-394-5000; and Sony's Watchman FDL-PT22 walk-around TV (US$109).
Odyssey Software has released a Windows NT based middleware solution that they are calling "CEfusion" that links desktop applications to mobile Windows CE devices. The key feature is the ability to link via a Windows CE query application that is SQL savvy to any ODBC savvy database running on a Windows NT server.
The MultiMediaCard Association (MMCA) has announced that Symbian (Ericsson, Nokia, Psion, and Motorola) have endorsed using MMCS's MultiMediaCard, which is about the size of a postage stamp, in future devices.
John Gehl and Suzanne Douglas' Innovation newsletter has a write-up about "natural interactions with regards to future computing devices" that was published in Forbes (27Jul98). The article includes a quote from Microsoft's Bill Gates which mentions a future where people have "tablets that they carry around and can talk to." You can learn more about Innovation via www.newsscan.com/archives.
Nils Rönnbäck reports that mobile handheld users who have access to a Web browser on their handheld should check out two solutions. One provides "network monitoring" via a text page that can be hosted on a Web server. This is called "WhatsUp" and it is offered by IP Switch. The second product is called "Medline" and it also generates quick and simple text based Web pages that can even be viewed on a cellular phone size device.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) has approved the new wireless LAN standard known as "802.11" that makes it possible to achieve data rates in the 11-Mbps range, and should enable multi-vendor interoperability. Products using this new standard are not expected until sometime in mid-1999. [SOURCE: Information Week, Aisha Williams, 27Jul98, page 87]
Ericsson has a new four inch tall and less than one inch thick mobile phone called the "CF-788" that also only weighs five ounces with the a battery. The list price for the phone is US$385, but mobile phone service providers have been reportedly selling them in the US$199 range. [SOURCE: Fast Company, Aug98, page 54]
Jakob Peterhänsel reports that the Danish Newton User Group's (DNUG) Newton Versions database now has over 800 product listings available from over 227 vendors. You can learn move about this very valuable resource via www.dnug.dk.
O'Grady's PowerPage reports on 28Jul98 that Apple's yet-to-be officially announced "eBook" (next-generation Mac/Newton hybrid handheld device) could be ahead of schedule and available for release in early Q1'99 and not during the first half of 1999 as reported earlier.
-Steve Holden (sholden@pencomputing.com)