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The Digest Thu, 23 Sep 2004 Volume 01 : Number 600
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Sent to: 752 subscribers
In today's digest 07 messages:
==========================
- GSM in Ireland (was: Orange PAYG)
- Re: Orange 3G mobile card
- PSIXPDA
- Psion Computer magazine
- Email with T610, Mysterious 5mx, 9210,
- Re: Durabillity of Symbian
- Re: The Digest V1 # 599
*++++++++++&
Date: 21 Sep 2004 15:42:18 -0500
From: U Hornstein
Subject: GSM in Ireland (was: Orange PAYG)
Reference is made to the mail in the The Digest V1 # 598 : Ealasaid and Simon
wrote on 20 Sep 2004 10:01:47 (> ):
> On a tangent - I have twice taken the 5mx and phone to
> Ireland, where checking the mail has been
> straightforward if rather expensive; however I have
> never managed to find a way to send mail!
Hi Simon,
as we all know roaming is always very expensive. On my holiday last month in
Ireland I bought a O2 plain simcard. Worked in my phone. I paid 10€ for 10€
worth of airtime. With 10€ top-up, it saved me a fortune of roaming costs for
calls within Ireland (15ct/55ct time dependent vs. 96ct roaming). Plus
further airtime if you register online - a good deal.
They said it would work with GPRS too. However, I probably did not try long
enough to get it to work. It would have cost 3ct per kB.
Basic message of this post: if you are abroad for a length of time, consider
to get plain simcard for cheap inland calls.
--
With greetings from Germany
Ulrich Hornstein
For spam protection: Please NEVER type my mail address into a www page ('send
to a friend' or similar)!
Sent by MC218 (EPOC palmtop)
*++++++++++&
Date: 21 Sep 2004 17:41:05 -0500
From: Ian Chapple
Subject: Re: Orange 3G mobile card
Peter,
>>Is the new Orange 3G Mobile Office card compatible in any way with the
Netbook? IIRC, the NB port door must be closed to operate the PCMCIA card,
has anyone developed a workaround for this?<<
I don't know about compatibility, but the netbook doesn't have a door on the
PC Card slot, so that certainly isn't an issue.
Cheers, Ian
*++++++++++&
Date: 22 Sep 2004 08:39:39 -0500
From: Will Green
Subject: PSIXPDA
Regarding this mysterious web site, if you venture to PsionPlace there is a
good discussion going on about it.
From what I can tell, a new type of 5mx Pro is being released from POS within
the next couple of months.
However Martin Guthrie has all the answers but he's not telling!
Go on Martin, give us a few more hints!!
*++++++++++&
Date: 22 Sep 2004 10:26:00 -0500
From: Steve Litchfield
Subject: Psion Computer magazine
Apologies if this is a recurring thread, but just making sure that issue 2 is
still not out. Or have I been missed off the distr. list?
Steve Litchfield
PS. w.r.t. pay-as-you-go GPRS, all four networks support GPRS for pay as you
go now. I've tried three of them in the last month.
*++++++++++&
Date: 22 Sep 2004 13:23:58 -0500
From: Itamar Engelsman
Subject: Email with T610, Mysterious 5mx, 9210,
Answer to: Bob
Re.: Email with T610 - I tried to use the email function on this phone as
well but did not succeed. when I try to download my email I get the messages
"GPRS parameters not supported" and than "cannot connect to server". GPRS
does work when I use the phone as a modem for my nB, so I don't understand
what is wrong. Any ideas ?
Answer to: Kevin Thorne
Re.: Mysterious 5mx - Maybe because some time ago there was a rumour that POS
were planning a colour 5MX ?
Answer to: Axel Moberg
Re.: 9210 - You wrote "The screen is practically useless for spreadsheets.
P800 is probably better for that". Why is the screen of a Nokia 92xx, 93xx or
95xx useless for spreadsheets and why would the P800,900,910 be better ?
TO ALL : Hurah ! We have reached issue no. 600 <G>
Best regards,
Itamar Engelsman
London, UK
*++++++++++&
Date: 22 Sep 2004 15:21:41 -0500
From: Rolf Brunsting
Subject: Re: Durabillity of Symbian
Dear Martin,
<< You have repeated Dr David Potter's statements almost verbatim >>
All messages I post are written from my own perspective and express my
personal views. Please note that I haven't been able to follow what Dr.
Potter has said - my news sources are rather limited. In case my words
largely correspond with what Dr. Potter has said we're dealing with
coincidence - coming to the same conclusions from different directions -
rather than one person mouthing another person's words.
<< This is a question of the market asking: 'Can we rely on someone with a
tradition of L-turns and U-turns to be a credible systems provider without
leaving us in the lurch the next time around'? >>
I'm sorry, Martin, but what I'm missing in your message are a few examples of
the "L-turns and U-turns" you mention. And it's questionable whether you can
avoid making L-turns and U-turns as the environment you work in doesn't
always go in the directions you think its going. One of the instrument
companies I worked for had to make a U-turn regarding one of its
environmental monitoring systems when EC legislators suddenly decided to
relax the detection criteria. We had a BMW of a system for what suddenly
became a Ford job and had to decide to discontinue this particular monitoring
system. Needless to say this didn't find favour with three of the Dutch Water
Authorities who had decided to standardise on our system.
<< In fact, I was always very much in favour of Psion exiting from Symbian to
obtain much needed capital. They really didn't have a choice. Since Symbian
didn't go public according to the initial timeline, Psion's sharemarket
behaviour was clearly that of a Symbian proxy >>
You're underlining what I wrote. When Psion built EPOC devices it's
partnership in Symbian was technological as well as financial. The
technological aspect of the partnership has gone, turning Psion into a
financial investor. There's an endless discussion in financial circles on
when, and under which conditions, it's best to turn your investment into
cash. History will tell whether Pion pulled out at the right time. Could be
that Psion is judged to have pulled out at the right time but for the wrong
reasons.
<< There is no logic link in this sentence at all >>
Come on, guy, nothing's served by deconstructing what people write word by
word and sentence by sentence.
<< And leaving Symbian/EPOC customers in the lurch, sacrificing a key
differentiator to Symbol and Intermec and the Japanese/Korean competitors,
and creating negative waves in the media. As this whim goes, rather than the
argument, they cannot 'afford' to support more than one OS, and the next day
they're going Linux... >>
I've yet to see a company's decision to pull out being wholeheartedly
embraced by the media. I'm afraid that it's in the nature of the media to
focus on (some of) the negative aspects of the decision. Bad news is News and
good news no news.
And what I always find rather strange is that people say that such a decision
leaves customers in the lurch. Even though these customers see no bones in
changing supplier when they can buy (what they consider to be) a better
featured and less expensive product from another company. Nobody's going to
say that I'm leaving Canon in the lurch when I
replace my IXUS 500 by a digital camera from Nikon, Pentax or Fuji. But
people are going to say that Canon is leaving me in the lurch when the
company decides to discontinue the IXUS range. I'm sorry, customers can't
claim the freedom to change supplier when it serves the
customer's interests without giving the supplier the freedom to change its
model line-up when it serves the supplier's interests. Nor can the customer
expect a company to keep developing its products, to come with new model
after new model and to remain a purchase option when the customer decides not
to buy the company's products time and time again.
As for your "differentiator", Psion-Teklogix was the only company to supply
EPOC based handheld computers for specialist corporate and industrial
applications. This is an advantage as well as a
disadvantage. The advantage is, of course, that you're clearly different and
easily recognisable. The disadvantage is that you're the odd one out. That
you always need to explain why it is that you're different. You need to
demonstrate that EPOC is perfectly capable of doing what people expect it to
do. Something that's more or less taken for granted for a widely used
operating system like Windows CE. In
other words, Psion-teklogix had to sell EPOC to the customer before it could
start selling the netPad and netBook. Selling EPOC is very important as your
prospective customers can't easily switch to another supplier when they're
not pleased with your performance. You can't take your EPOC software with you
when you move to Intermec or Symbol. Quite
a number of companies simply don't want to become dependent on the
performance of a single supplier and won't buy netBooks or netPads because of
EPOC. Unless EPOC has a number of truly unique capabilities you won't find in
Windows CE or PalmOS. Making EPOC the default choice for a range of
applications. Similar to the Apple Macintosh being _the_ computer for
graphics, desktop publishing and other pre-press work for
a long time. I don't think EPOC has such unique capabilities to make it
really stand out.
Finally, regarding your Linux comment, I don't see Psion-Teklogix' move to
Windows CE as a whim. Teklogix already had a few Windows CE based devices
before Psion bought the company and merged it with Psion Enterprise
Computing. Supporting two operating systems (actually three as Psion-Teklogix
also inherited the SIBO based Workabout) is
relatively costly. A new technology, like using radio frequency tags rather
than barcode labels, needs to be implemented for both EPOC and Windows CE.
You can't escape doing some jobs twice and having the ready cash to pay for
two parallel developments. This can be justified when EPOC is sufficiently
different from Windows CE and has it's own market segments. When that's not
the case there will be a big overlap between your Windows CE and your EPOC
based products, In other words, you have external competition in form of
Intermec, Symbol and others as well as internal competition in the form of
Psion-Telogix (EPOC) versus Psion-Teklogix (Windows CE). Which has its
advantages as there will be
a healthy rivalry between your Windows CE and EPOC development teams. It also
allows you to win additional supply contracts - you can offer EPOC when
Windows CE doesn't quite fit the bill. Question remains - at which cost?
Loosing a few supply contracts because you don't have EPOC can be less
painful financially than having an EPOC product line right next to your
Windows CE product line. Looks to me that Psion-Teklogix came to the
conclusion that it could no longer afford having EPOC as well as Windows CE
based products. Which lead to the decision to phase out EPOC by, first,
offering Windows CE for the netBook and NetPad.
With the Windows CE only netBook Pro as second phase. And the SIBO based
Workabout wasn't replaced by an EPOC based Workabout Pro but a Windows CE
based one.
I therefore think that your "the next day they're going Linux" is out of
place. First, because we're not dealing with a 100% EPOC supplier switching
to another operating system. Psion-Teklogix had a mixed product line-up and
had to make a decision about it. Secondly, because Psion-Teklogix' decision
was at the expense of EPOC rather than Windows CE. I very much doubt that
you'd have written about all those Windows
CE customers Psion-Teklogix would have 'left in the lurch' had Psion-Teklogix
decided to drop Windows CE. You wouldn't have discussed Psion-Teklogix
having Windows CE as well as EPOC as the differentiator. Nor would you have
written about it being Windows CE today and Linux tomorrow. Psion-Teklogix
would have chosen your operating system of choice and you would have been
damned pleased about it.
<< That is only true if you close your eyes, plug your ears and keep
rehearsing David Potter quotes in your head >>
Congratulations!!! You're now a member of the EPOC Digest club who has
succeeded in killing a discussion by attacking the person rather
his/her views. I'm not going to continue as a riposte to the above would be
targeted at you personally. As the EPOC Digest Team doesn't like these kind
of exchanges the discussion would have to be discontinued anyway.
---
Kind Regards,
Rolf Brunsting - Darp - Netherlands
*++++++++++&
Date: 22 Sep 2004 17:17:19 -0500
From: Mike Dyer
Subject: Re: The Digest V1 # 599
>Date: 21 Sep 2004 05:40:25 -0500
>From: Axel Moberg
>Subject: PS for For Mike Dyer Re 9210]
>
>PS The screen is practically useless for spreadsheets. P800 is probably
better for >that.
Coo, that's an interesting comment to make, why do you say that?
Surely you could select the full screen mode and remove any menus, or scroll
bars like on a Psion.
Thanks for your other comments as well!
Regards,
Mike Dyer.
from a Libretto 70ct.
*++++++++++&
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Website : http://www.psioneering.co.uk
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