Epocdigest V1 # 576

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Epoc Digest Wed, 18 Aug 2004 Volume 01 : Number 576

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Sent to: 747 subscribers

In today's Epoc Digest 10 messages:

==============================

- For sale

- Route Maps for Northern Ireland needed

- Re: What next?

- USB to serial port configuration, DOS , What next?,

- Psion turns its nose up at consumer

- Re: Series5,

- Re: DOS & Windows

- Re: Thoughts P800

- Batch URL downloader for EPOC?

- Re: Epoc Digest V1 # 575

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

Date: 17 Aug 2004 08:50:10 +0100

From: J. Hamwee

Subject: For sale

Selling:

Two S7 - each with the Netbook chip installed, extra memory chip installed, the original S7 chip and one Psion Gold card modem.

One was bought new in October 2000 and has very little use because it was never intended as a main stand alone computer, and I mostly used the emulator on my notebook.

The other S7 was bought on ebay in 2002 as a backup and after trying it out I never used it except to charge the battery. This comes with a Proporta carrying case.

One S5mx with carrying case

Non-EPOC:

One HP Jornada 720

One HP Jornada 690

One SONY 'baby' VAIO

All complete with the original bits and pieces such as manuals, connecting cables, synchronisation programs and an extra stylus for each EPOC device.

The following EPOC software on original media will be included:

Purple Navigator (the colour version compatible with S7)

Palmtop Money (with downloaded upgrade)

Michelin Guide Rouge Europe 2001

Street Planner Milennium Great Britain

Route Planner Millenium

Immediate delivery in or from London, UK or eventually New York some time in September.

More details off line on request

Regards

Joseph Hamwee

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

Date: 17 Aug 2004 10:40:06 +0100

From: U Hornstein

Subject: Route Maps for Northern Ireland needed

Hi Group,

I am visiting Ireland at preesent, using TomTom Routeplanner V3.0 build 207. I was surprised to learn that Northern Ireland is NOT in the Ireland packet, it must be in the UK PAcket. Strange world ....

Is there a possibility to send the necessary files by mail, i. e to install UK maps without the CD? Can a friendly soul check which Files are in the Route/UK folder, send me the files and maybe directions if there is a file to be altered? That would be nice. The address, where I am sending from accepts only attachments up to 150kB. The UK files are probably larger, so please send them to uli2ATaltern.org .

Thanks alot, if someone tries.

BTW, if anyone has a Route overlay with touristic attractions and/or B&Bs from all Ireland, that would be welcome as well. Files may be sent zipped.

German Greetings from Ardee, Ireland

Ulrich Hornstein

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

Date: 17 Aug 2004 12:39:13 +0100

From: unzip

Subject: Re: What next?

> I've put up a fairly comprehensive grid of scored features at > http://3lib.ukonline.co.uk/grid.htm . The top two came out as the > Sony Ericsson P900 and the O2 XDA II.

> Comments welcome!

Very nice :)

Plz, post info about changes/updates

Best Regards,

Pawel Magott

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

Date: 17 Aug 2004 14:17:30 +0100

From: Itamar Engelsman

Subject: USB to serial port configuration, DOS , What next?,

Answer to: John Morris

Re.: USB to serial port configuration - Did you try and tick COM3 as the connecting port in the Psiwin set-up ? I used a Belkin like that recently and had no problems with it.

Answer to: Steve Hodgson

Re.: DOS - Out of interest, I have a program from 1988 that was written for DOS and came at the time on a floppy 5.25" (soft ones) and still works under Windows XP Home Edition. Quite a backward compatibillity !

Answer to: Steve Litchfield

Re.: What next? - Thanks for your informative message and the articles on your website. However, in my mind it creates more questions than answers <G>. Some of these are :

- What are the differences between all the various Symbian OS's (60,80,90, UIQ)

- What difficulties will we encounter when one day we might change from the EPOC platform to Symbian ? What is compatible (directly and/or indirectly) and what not ?

- What is the software we definitely will not be able to replace, like Macro5, Assistant, Crontab, etc.

- On the other hand, what software is available that was not available on the Epoc OS, Bluetooth, Wifi, etc. ?

Best regards,

Itamar Engelsman

London, UK

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

Date: 17 Aug 2004 15:35:32 +0100

From: Manuel Campos Galvan

Subject: Psion turns its nose up at consumer

Fellos Psionistas,

Maybe this is old news to us, but it was recently published.

Psion turns its nose up at consumer

CeBIT 2004 Handheld for the uncommon man

By Tony Dennis at CeBIT: Thursday 18 March 2004, 15:48

PSION TEKLOGIX launched a new Windows CE based handheld here at CeBIT, Hanover.

But company CEO and president, Norbert Dawalibi, was adamant the product would not fall into the hands of ordinary consumers.

Since Teklogix makes a fat living from the enterprise sector, he mocked: "Which of those (consumer space) vendors - like Palm - for example, makes much of a profit?"

The handhled, the Workabout Pro utilises an Intel XScale 255MHz processor and majors very heavily on connectivity. The C (colour) version can support GSM, GPRS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

Interestingly you could use both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth simultaneously if you chose to, but Psion Teklogix recommends you wait for Bluetooth 1.2 before you try this.

Inside the Workabout Pro you can fit peripherals which interface via serial connexion, CD Card, PCMCIA/PC Card or Compact Flash (CF).

But the list price for a Workabout Pro goes from 866 to 2349 Euros. Not exactly cheap for a handheld.

Dawalibi claims that Teklogix's customers are more focused on service, support and durability rather than price.

Nonetheless, he revealed that his company is talking to interested parties about the possibility of a consumer version of its existing Netbook product.

Quite why Psion Teklogix required a $136 million cash injection from the sale of a stake in Symbian is unlear, however.

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

Date: 17 Aug 2004 16:10:08 +0100

From: Owen H. Morgan

Subject: Re: Series5,

Howdy!

Itamar Engelsman wrote (> ):

> AFAIK there was no 4 Mb

> series 5 but only the 8 Mb with the 5MX being 16

> Mb.

Yes there was a 4Mb S5. I have seen one! It was in a "Spaceworld" consumer electronics shop in Sortland, northern Norway three or four years ago unsold and still priced at more than a new 5mx cost at the time. I tried telling the staff that it was a dinosaur and worthless (I wouldn't have bought it at any price), but they didn't change the price. Maybe they hoped some idiot would walk in and buy it some day without understanding what he was getting.

Owen

Thought for the day:

Those who can, do.

Those who can't, teach.

Those who can't teach, administrate.

Owen H. Morgan, Yacht "Naomi J.", LD-9311

At anc27°45.56'N 15°41.06'W

Arguineguin de Gran Canaria

http://home.no.net/naomij

Phone and SMS:

In Spain: +34 620520079

In Norway: +47 92053097

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

Date: 17 Aug 2004 16:10:18 +0100

From: Owen H. Morgan

Subject: Re: DOS & Windows

Howdy!

Steve Hodgson wrote (> ):

> On the other hand, starting from scratch has been

> attempted in the past

> but those competitors to Windows are all history

> now apart from a few

> players with a very low percentage of the market.

I don't know about the other OS's, but I think one of the main reasons the Apple Mac did not take the market position that WindoZe has now is that they started off by alienating the hobbyists. The success of WindoZe is largely built on the backs of teenagers playing with computers in their bedroom. Many of these teenagers went on to become programmers, office workers and company managers and they stuck with the devil they knew.

When Macs first came on the market in the early eighties, you had to buy expensive extra software and AFAIR a hardware dongle to plug into the machine to be able to write software for it. This combined with a closed architecture (no cheap clones) meant it was out of reach for the hobbyist. In fact, this (and the price) was the main reason my first computer was an Amstrad CPC664 (with a Z80 processor and CP/M) rather than a Mac. The Amstrad had a Basic interpreter built in, which is how I started to learn programming. When I progressed from the Amstrad, I went to MS-DOS and from there the transition to WindoZe was a natural one even though I resisted for a long time.

Personally, my main reason for not buying a Mac today apart from cost and availability is the fact that while a WindoZe computer has much more problems, I have a lot of experience with them and I also know people who know about WindoZe computers. If I have a problem, I can send an e-mail and usually get a reply that solves the problem. I wouldn't know where to start with Mac. If I lived in a house and had a fast Internet connection, things might be different as I'd then have access to Mac users all over the world, or I might have gone the Linux way which again would rely on help from people on the Internet.

Also, while Rolf Brunsting might not like it, it's a fact of life that many home users rely heavily on pirated software. This is much easier to find for WindoZe than for a Mac. Well, even non-pirated software is easier to find for WindoZe. I don't see many Mac titles in the stores around here. Naturally, people who use Micro$oft software at home prefer to use the same software (hopefully payed for) at work.

Owen

Thought for the day:

Windows was unable to detect your keyboard.

Press F1 to retry or F12 to abort.

Owen H. Morgan, Yacht "Naomi J.", LD-9311

At anc27°45.56'N 15°41.06'W

Arguineguin de Gran Canaria

http://home.no.net/naomij

Phone and SMS:

In Spain: +34 620520079

In Norway: +47 92053097

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

Date: 17 Aug 2004 20:06:11 +0100

From: Mike Dyer

Subject: Re: Thoughts P800

>Date: 4 Aug 2004 14:06:58 +0100

>From: Itamar Engelsman >Subject: Thoughts P800,

>Answer to: Mike Dyer

>Re.: Thoughts P800 - I for one am interested in hearing how your P800 compares to the Revo, what >is better and what is worse, and how you get along with the switch. I am sure that more subscribers >will consider this switch in the near(er) future. I read that the P900 has a bluetooth facility for a >keyboard ?

Hi Itamar and all,

that's good, I like reading the digest but all of a sudden it is less relevant to me, hence my question about an informal widening of scope to a 'Symbian Digest' but only between ourselves of course!.

Well I've had the p800 a couple of weeks now, the previous owner just bought it before the p900 went on sale and promptly upgraded. This enabled me to buy a mint condition p800 for £151 on eBay.

I've spent some time and money upgrading it to Psion spec!!!

This has entailed the purchase of 'Quick Office' for basic Word Processing and Spreadsheet functions. What I have done though is rewritten my spreadsheets to be only three columns wide and very long!, this means I don't have to scroll across the document with the stylus and can move down it easily using the jog dial.

I also bought 'Power Protect' to give me passworded file protection of which there is none as standard on the p800.

Also Sony Ericssons' freeware 'File Manager' because I was lost without one, and while we are on the subject their PsiWin style program can't do incremental backups. You can only back up the whole phone, or the memory stick not just the new changes. This has lead me to keep critical files on the phone and just back those up. The USB connection is actually an emulated serial connection and rather slow if you have a 128MB memory stick installed...

'Active Desk' is a wonderful replacement for my Revo's Today Screen.

I also invested in some 'Writeshields' screen protectors for the first time as the screen gets so much more use as pretty much the sole source of input as there is no keyboard. I've found a lovely program called 'eZitap' that is a predictive WORD keyboard that makes writing emails etc very speedy indeed.

The only BIG disappointment I've had with the p800 is the fact that you can't define your own folders in the email program so there seems to be no way of storing important emails or sms text messages for future reference. I've ended up copying and pasting the text into a blank Quickoffice document as a work around but it's not ideal.

Overall though I love it. It is small enough to carry at all times as a mobile phone, but powerful enough with a few shareware upgrades to serve as my pocket computer / pda. I've sadly retired my Revo+ but the p800 is wonderful and would heartily recommend it, or the p900 / 910 to anyone who wishes to travel light with one device, especially if you also have access to a laptop or netbook should the need arise, as I have.

Itamar regarding the p900 bluetooth keyboard, if you have a look on page 15 of the current 'Palmtop User' there is an article on the 'Stowaway Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard' for the p800 / 900. The p800 series has been such a big seller for Sony Ericsson of course, they have pulled out of the pda market in the West to concentrate on these devices.

Regards,

Mike Dyer.

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

Date: 17 Aug 2004 20:14:54 +0100

From: Peter Rand

Subject: Batch URL downloader for EPOC?

Hi PM,

Thanks for mentioning MobiPocket - I like the service very much, and use it on a regular basis. But MobiPocket works only in conjunction with my notebook computer. A "Batch URL downloader for EPOC" would be an independent solution for the times when I have only and EPOC machine with me.

I often collect URLs people mention in digests, etc, and would like to quickly download all the URLs without having to paste them into Web one-by-one. For example, some links I came across today:

http://downloads.plkr.org/911_Report.html

http://3lib.ukonline.co.uk/grid.htm

http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/fc/Sports/olympics/latest_developments/*

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040815/ap_on_sp_ol/oly_empty_seats_2

What's the fastest way to download these to a Psion?

Regards,

Peter

Date: 14 Aug 2004 07:40:25 +0100

From: unzip

Subject: RE: Batch URL downloader for EPOC?

Hi,

it's not a batch URL downloader, but you might give it a try - I noticed you want to download mainly news sites, and that's what this free program is made for (among other things - I'm using it mainly to read e-books). It's MobiPocket (www.mobipocket.com).

It can download to a PC a set of web pages for example every day, and than, when you connect your PSION - it transfers them. If the web page doesn't have a special link for mobipocket, than you have to make a special file that says how mobipocket should download them. One of my friends has made such files for different polish pages, so I think you can prepare them also for those chosen by you.

Best Regards

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

Date: 17 Aug 2004 21:59:21 +0100

From: Bernard Hill

Subject: Re: Epoc Digest V1 # 575

In message , Epoc Digest writes

>I am up at 9 now so basically nowhere to go! It has definitely crept up >over the years but even at nine I find myself surprised at how dull it >is. To address Victor Marchand's points regarding temperature; I reckon >this problem is unrelated. After cycling in to work on a cold day the >netBook can be pretty cold and the contrast is very low for quite a >while. The problems I am seeing are in the middle of the afternoon in a >stabilised office environment.

I wonder if you are aware that there is both a brightness *and* a contrast setting on the netBook? Fn+space for brightness and Fn+comma, Fn+full stop for contrast.