Epocdigest V1 # 571

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Epoc Digest Mon, 09 Aug 2004 Volume 01 : Number 571

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Sent to: 755 subscribers

In today's Epoc Digest 12 messages:

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- Re: Toolbar Patcher

- Palm support!!

- Re: Wot Phone?

- Re: Thoughts

- Re; Toolbar Patcher/Palm?

- More netBook Stuff for Sale

- Programme request: batch URL downloader

- Wot Phone?, Palm ? Thanks but no thanks ,

- Removing Zipmanagerdemo/ RFM110

- RE: Thoughts

- Wot Phone?

- 3G & WiFi

*++++++++++&

Date: 7 Aug 2004 16:55:47 +0100

From: Andrew Gregory

Subject: Re: Toolbar Patcher

On Sat, 7 Aug 2004 18:43:21 +0100, Epoc Digest

wrote:

> Toolbar Patcher is a small app that corrects an error in the netBook OS

> (158), whereby the battery display changes to a triangle in 3rd party

> OPL apps.

> I installed this about June this year (V-1.01), but recently noticed

> that sometimes the green level stays at full, while built-in apps

> display a true reducing level of green.

> Has anyone else noticed this, or has Andrew Gregory released a newer

> version?

The EPOC OPL toolbar code only supports a few coarse battery levels :

full, low, replace. The battery images are just read out of a system MBM

file. They're indexed by number and my patcher simply fixes the toolbar to

use the correct numbers. To display a nicely reducing level would require

drawing the battery 'by hand' and introduce an OPX dependency too (to read

the actual battery voltage).

I had started (and nearly finished) a replacement portable toolbar OPO a

long time ago, but developing an OPO that would work nicely in all

available EPOC platforms got a bit complicated. It has, unfortunately,

dropped right down on my 'to do' list. :-(

Andrew Gregory, <URL: mailto:andrew

<URL: http://www.scss.com.au/family/andrew/ >

*++++++++++&

Date: 7 Aug 2004 18:08:30 +0100

From: Ian Chapple

Subject: Palm support!!

Hi Franco,

my wife has had a Palm m515 for the last two years, and is generally very happy with it. However, after about 6 months of use, it refused to connect to her iBook via USB. We tried various combinations of new cables/different computers, but it refused to co-operate. Eventually, my wife came across an article on the Internet about SUDS (Suddenly USB Doesn't Synch); this is a problem caused by electrostatic discharge, which scrambles the USB chip. The only solution is to flatten the battery, which a) potentially damages the battery and b) causes all data to be lost. Prior to trying this, we bought a backup card, at a cost of €60. Luckily flattening the battery solved the problem, which, touch wood, hasn't re-occurred.

What was really annoying was the fact that Palm refused to admit that this particular problem occurred on this model (the m505 was so affected by SUDS, that the m515 was released earlier than intended), even though cases were well documented. When I pushed Palm for a suggestion about how to solve a problem that apparently didn't exist, they told me to flatten the battery, which was obviously what we had already done. However, when I tried to get them to reimburse the cost of the backup card, they refused, even though this was essential to solve a problem caused by their bad design. Luckily, the shop where I had bought my wife's Palm gave us a €25 voucher as a gesture of goodwill.

So, as you can see, my experience of Palm's support is that there basically isn't any. As I said, my wife is very happy with her Palm, but I must admit it feels a bit Mickey Mouse (ie. like a toy) when I use it, especially when compared to my chunky 5mx; mind you, a colour screen would be nice!!!

To be fair, her Palm has *never* crashed as far as I can remember, not that my 5mx/netbook do very often either; the same can not be said for MS Pocket PC, from what I have read.

Sorry for the long post, but this may of interest to those of you/us who are toying with the idea of moving to the dark side...

Cheers, Ian

*++++++++++&

Date: 7 Aug 2004 19:46:22 +0100

From: Wong Koi Hin

Subject: Re: Wot Phone?

Reply to: Owen H. Morgan

Dear Owen,

>>Any comments on the useability of the Sony Ericsson T610 VS the Motorola V600 with EPOC would be welcome. My main needs are e-mailing and sending and receiving SMS via PhoneMan.

I have been using the T610 for more than a year now and am very happy with it. So happy in fact I sold my original T610 to a friend and got an exact same model but with a different colour face plate. As you correctly pointed out, the T610 has one of the worst phone-cameras out on the market now. Its passable at best (relatively speaking). I do use the camera a lot though as I frequently snap shots of myself showing where I am and sending them to my girlfriend. I have no experience with PhoneMan and truth be told, currently the only way my phone is being used with my Psion Mnetbook is as a modem. (which it does fine, no problems receiving and sending mails) Unfortunately I have no experience with the V600 so I cant comment.

Warm regards,

Koi Hin

*++++++++++&

Date: 7 Aug 2004 21:48:24 +0100

From: Mike Dyer

Subject: Re: Thoughts

Hi all,

I don't seem to have received a digest for a few days so I'm sorry if I've missed anything.

The first thing that struck me was how awesome our Psions are with their built in applications. You start making a list of programs just to try to bring your modern device remotely close to Psion functionality.

Mobipocket is still lovely for bookreading, and the colour screen with adjustable zoom is nice.

I missed my 'Today' screen until I loaded up 'Active Desk', which is lovely, all my tasks and appointments at a glance again.

Quick Office is basic in the extreme. Any of the more recent Psions could still easily be your only computer at a push, certainly in their day before internet standards moved on. I am going to alter my spreadsheets on my pc to make them more p800 friendly i.e portrait shaped!.

I've loaded up 'Power Protect' to password protect files, 'HandySafe' seems to be more of a credit card details etc safe which isn't quite the same thing at all.

Isn't it ironic that Epoc did all this and more out of the box?.

I tried the 'Jot' handwriting recognition but as a Psion user this went right over my head and I found the admittedly tiny on screen keyboard to be fast and accurate all things considered.

I'm not selling my Revo, I'm also keeping PsiWin installed for file conversions especially from my last backup.

Though with the appropriate shareware installed I like the p800 a lot, it is as small and light as a mobile should be but collects my email automatically with GPRS, the camera is fun when out and about and for picture messaging, and I've got all the information with me all the time in one unit easily carried in my belt case.

Bluetooth, a decent mp3 player and video player are great too.

On the subject of the psioncomputer magazine, I haven't received issue 2 either.

Regards,

Mike Dyer

*++++++++++&

Date: 7 Aug 2004 22:50:58 +0100

From: Keith Giles

Subject: Re; Toolbar Patcher/Palm?

Alan Morris wrote:

> Toolbar Patcher is a small app that corrects an error in the netBook > OS (158), whereby the battery display changes to a triangle in 3rd

> party OPL apps.

I've never been able to get it to work on my Mbook - so the app itself is just sitting in a "Holding File" folder on my PC waiting for someone to tell me how to get it to work.

> has Andrew Gregory released a newer version?

He has a version 1.02 put out in May 2003.

http://www.scss.com.au/family/andrew/epoc/myprogs/tbpatcher/tbpatcher.zip

Franco Cozzani wrote:

> here it is my feedback

It's always good to hear about the "other half". Personally, I don't

see myself changing over to something else unless it becomes

impossible to find a 5mx. The PC is my main computer - it does all the internet/e-mail stuff. I've never tried to set up the Psion to handle those things. On a cycle tour the 5mx does all I need. I use Word,

Sheet, Data, and Contacts. I have apps for a bike log, banking, French and German dictionaries. Those are my most used things. I have a lot

of other apps loaded, but they are not the essentials for me and I

could easily live without them.

I can't quite see a PDA camera taking the place of my Nikon SLR. I frequently look at all the PDAs in the electronic stores. The color screen is lovely (really like my Mbook but it's too big/cumbersome for cycletouring) but the lack of decent keyboards and el cheapo

replaceable batteries turns me off. Along the same vein, I'd never take my Mako on a trip because of the quirky battery, let alone having to bring cable/adapter.

It all boils down to what each individual needs - you just can't have everything. There's an old saying amongst bikies referring to a bike's properties: Cheap, strong, and lightweight - you can have any

combination of 2 of them, but not all 3. Rats!

Happy Cycling,

Keith

Sunnyvale, CA

http://ohsix827.home.comcast.net

Thought For The Day: Most girls are looking for a man who is tall, dark and has some.

All my outgoing e-mails have been checked by Norton Anti-virus.

*++++++++++&

Date: 8 Aug 2004 11:14:42 +0100

From: Andy Hayes

Subject: More netBook Stuff for Sale

Hi All

Thanks for the overwhelming demand for the previous items. I now have a few more to sell: -

Proporta semi-rigid case for netBook/7. See it on www.proporta.com It really is a lovely piece of kit. All of the foam inserts are included, as is the shoulder strap. 20ukp delivered anywhere in the UK.

Psion parallel IR printer adaptor 17ukp delivered anywhere in the UK. Battery not included.

Psion Gold card WAN Global CombineIT 56k and Fax card with telephone lead and ISDN adaptor 12ukp delivered anywhere in the UK.

Psion Gold card 56k and Fax and 10mb Ethernet. Comes with telephone cable and LAN adaptor cable. 15ukp delivered anywhere in the UK.

Genuine buyers only please.

Contact me

Thanks

Andy Hayes

*++++++++++&

Date: 8 Aug 2004 15:49:55 +0100

From: Peter Rand

Subject: Programme request: batch URL downloader

This request is directed to the clever programmers on this digest:

I would like to take a list (from several to dozens) of URL's, eg:

http://www.csmonitor.com/cgi-bin/redirect.pl?textEdition

http://www.iht.com/topten.html

http://www.iht.com

and have my Psion download them automatically. Could an app be written to do this? One app that purportedly does something similar to this is called "WebGrabber", but I have not gotten it to work.

I imagine it would work something like this:

1. Start "BatchURL" and either paste in all the URLs at one go or import them from a Word/txt file.

2. Once online, "BatchURL" quickly downloads all the requested links and saves them to the specified directory.

3. The user can then use Web or Opera to open and view the files downloaded by "BatchURL".

Perhaps this is too difficult to do with a Psion? I don't know, but it would be an extremely useful tool.

Thanks for any feedback.

Peter

*++++++++++&

Date: 8 Aug 2004 15:51:18 +0100

From: Itamar Engelsman

Subject: Wot Phone?, Palm ? Thanks but no thanks ,

Answer to: Owen

Re.: Wot Phone? - I use the T610 with my Psions and it works very well. I do a lot of emailing with it via GPRS as well as using Phoneman from time to time for SMS messages. i hav eno experience sending images up or down. If you want a better camera in a small unit get a PDa with camera, as these have better quality cameras.

Answer to: Franco Cozzani

Re.: Palm ? Thanks but no thanks - Thanks for confirming my personal opinion about these machines. I also find the diary not half as useful as the EPOC ones and you did not mention the lack of full multi-program either. In the end I find I use it very little but for the diary which in the end is not the purpose of such an expensive item. My latest plan is to sell it on eBay (yes, it is the NX-73).

Best regards,

Itamar Engelsman

London, UK

*++++++++++&

Date: 8 Aug 2004 16:17:49 +0100

From: Larch

Subject: Removing Zipmanagerdemo/ RFM110

Somehow I am unable to remove this program. I still get the Icon in Extras but nothing in the Add/remove tab in control panel. If I click on the icon I get a message that the demo version has expired and in the right hand corner a message window says "opening". I have reinstalled zipmanager but iit does not work despite having got the "succesful installation message". I still got the message about the demo having expired. I then uninstalled it again but this has made no difference at all. What can I do to reolve this as I want to install and use zip manager properly?

Still trying to get RFM110 to work. SOme info I read rrsaid that a "small process has to run on the psion". Do they mean Comms or is that something else?

Help! I'm beginning to think I'm jinxed!

Larch

*++++++++++&

Date: 8 Aug 2004 19:31:05 +0100

From: Chris S Handley

Subject: RE: Thoughts

Martin Maxwell wrote:

> There is one key endearing feature with all UIQ/ER7 and

> EIKON/ER5 machines; that it is possible to beam *all* contacts

> in one go.

> You can keep your Revo as the Contacts master database, which

> is much easier to maintain due to the keyboard and larger

> screen, and then regularly update the P800 by beaming the

> complete Contacts base from the Revo. Even your Contact notes

> will be beamed.

So the P800 uses exactly the same Contacts database file-format as EPOC? That's very useful to know! I thought only MBM was unchanged.

Are there no Contact compatibility problems at all?

BTW, it is also very useful to know that individual files can be beamed across without even plBeam.

Regards,

Chris Handley

*++++++++++&

Date: 9 Aug 2004 05:14:28 +0100

From: Gary Y Reyes

Subject: Wot Phone?

>Date: 4 Aug 2004 01:06:06 +0100

>From: Owen H. Morgan >Subject: Wot Phone?

>Any comments on the useability of the Sony Ericsson T610 VS the Motorola = >V600 with EPOC would be welcome. My main needs are e-mailing and sending = >and receiving SMS via PhoneMan. It would also be useful to be able to = >transfer photos to and from the phone from the Psion.

>Owen

Owen,

You might want to give the Treo 600 a look-see. If your needs are emailing and SMS, the thumb-board of the Treo 600 is better than struggling with 12 keys of other phones.

Gary

*++++++++++&

Date: 9 Aug 2004 14:44:49 +0100

From: Antony Booth

Subject: 3G & WiFi

Hello all,

I was wondering if anyone has any experience using a 3G device as a WiFi router? I am interested in getting high bandwidth connections from my netBook, but am limited to serial or WiFi connections, which present the obvious drawback of limited mobility. However, I have read there are devices out there such as Wireless 3G routers, which could potentially open up the possibility of 3G data speeds on my netBook. The following article is an example of this technology. Any replies about your experiences with such devices would be greatly appreciated.