- New link at www.psioneering.co.uk

- Nokia PC suite + Agenda - Windows replacement.

- Nokia 9500/9300 sync and compatibility

- netBook Screen Problem

- Orange support

- Battery charging

- Software for Series 60 , Selling used psion stuff,

- Answers from Steve Townsend

- RE: affordable Smart phone

- Revo battery problems

- Any 5mxs/7s For Sale?

- 5MX Battery Connection Bad & 9500 vs 5MX

- post er5, new wrinkle for Symbian,

Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2005
From: Digest administrator
Subject: New link at www.psioneering.co.uk

Hi all,
I'd like to inform the Psion/Symbian community, that we added at www.psioneering.co.uk a new link to the site http://www.symbiano.com.
The owner of site characterizes the site herself as following:
"On this site we are dedicated in giving you
reliable information on symbian and what it has to do with mobile phones and what it enables various handsets to do."

With best regards
Rolf Vonau
The Digest Team

Date: 24 Feb 2005 10:31:04 +0100
From: Stephen Convery <address truncated>
Subject: Nokia PC suite + Agenda - Windows replacement.

> Date: 20 Feb 2005 11:44:29 +0100
> From: John Wetton <address truncated>
>
> I tried installing Nokia PC suite yesterday so that I could back my
> phone up. Got it working OK, but then found I couldn't connect to
> the internet using my phone as the modem, so had to roll back
> Windows XP. Has anybody got any suggestions?
>

Hi John,
This is a known bug in the Nokia PC Suite - I did find somewhere instructions that say you should go into the Nokia Communications Manager and deselect the interface that you used to backup your phone, then dialup should work but I have found that if I use any of the PC Suite to connect to the phone then only a reboot of Windows seems to sort out the problem of using the modem.
HTH


> Date: 21 Feb 2005 08:32:06 +0100
> From: Nosferatu <address truncated>
>
> I love the Psion's Agenda program of all the PIM I have used so far
> which includes MS Outlook. I would be grateful if someone can tell
> me if there's a similar one that works on Windows XP. Thank you
> very much!

Hi Nosferatu,
I moved over to a Windows Laptop about a year ago and after much searching for an Agenda replacement, eventually bought Lotus Organizer v6.1. This was the only PIM that I could find that comes even close to Agenda. I think it's only available through the IBM website - that's where I downloaded it from anyhow - approx £45.

Regards,
Stephen Convery
Douglas,
Isle of Man.
British Isles.

Date: 24 Feb 2005 10:41:44 +0100
From: Daniele Squarci <address truncated>
Subject: Nokia 9500/9300 sync and compatibility

In the recent reviews of the Nokia 9500/9300, I haven't read much about the syncing capability with Outlook and other PC PIM managers. Is it simple/difficult? Any problems noted? What about compatibility of the built-in word-processing and spreadsheet software with Word and Excel? Can the files be read both ways, or is conversion needed as on our Psions? Would 9500/9300 owners on the Digest like to comment?

Ciao

Daniele Squarci - Italy

Date: 24 Feb 2005 11:24:57 +0100
From: Fredrik Johansson <address truncated>
Subject: netBook Screen Problem

Recently I have had some strange problems with my screen. Now and then the upper half of the screen have thin vertical lines in green and red like this : || || || || ||
integrated with wathever I visualise. First I thought that it was the screen cable problem that I have had on the 5mx, but since the problem is still there in all angles for the screen I suppose it isn't that. I have reset my netBook, but still the same problem. For example today I have had my netBook beside me all the day while working without touching the screen or the screen angle and the line have come and gone twice (for the moment beeing I am seeing the lines).

I have used my netBook for two years now and I thought that the screen would hold for longer time than that.
I have protect my netBook in a semi-rigid case and opened and closed it very gently (all in all I have taken care of it like a baby). So I am a bit disappointed that the screen allready starting to fail.

The problem that others have had like the light drops in force, I haven't yet experienced, so I suppose that it means that it should hold still a long time?

Then I thought maybe it has to do with the temperature, but the problem appear even in constant temperature.

Do I have to send my netBook for a repairing to SRS GmbH (http://www.psion.at/en/index1.html) for a prize of 280€ or does it exist another solution?

Best Regards,
/Fredrik Johansson

Date: 24 Feb 2005 14:53:36 +0100
From: Kevin Thorne <address truncated>
Subject: Orange support

Mark Whiskin wrote:
Subject: Nokia 9500 on Orange?

<Do Orange support the Nokia 9500? I have emailed them several times asking when the 9500 will be sold by Orange but they have failed to get back to me. Did you just purchase a SIM free 9500?>

I've been with Orange since the network launched and my experience they have always been slow in making the latest release handsets available on their network and they never seem to reply to emails!  Indeed, I wasn't going to wait an undetermined amount of time for them to support the 9500 on their network so my own 9500 is indeed SIM free.  I also did this a few years ago with a Nokia 8850 (which was never supported by Orange) but I could never
get the thing to work with my then 5mx on Orange (although it worked fine with a colleague's Vodafone SIM installed).  Orange would often say they couldn't give me any technical advice why the 8850 wouldn't work with data
on their network but it wasn't supported anyway so couldn't help me.  I'm pleased to say though that although my 9500 is not supported by Orange it does indeed work fine on their GPRS service.  The only thing I haven't got
it to do yet is connect with my home Wi-Fi network (it can see the network but cannot connect) and I guess this is because of its WEP
encryption.....but any help on this gratefully received!

Regards
Kevin Thorne

Date: 24 Feb 2005 15:32:01 +0100
From: Kevin Thorne <address truncated>
Subject: Battery charging

A couple of comments regarding the Revo charging problems:

<<No one will ever convince me that built-in, non replaceable by Mr Joe Average, rechargeable batteries are the way to go.>>

<Kieth, when it's done correctly, it's excellent.  Palm got it right. I wouldn't have it any other way with my Treo.  It has an impeccable charging system that works regardless of how you approach recharging.>

I think indeed, when it works properly, it's excellent but I personally prefer user-replaceable cells myself.  My 9500 seems to have a considerable increase in running time over the old 9210 I used to own.  The battery can be topped up at any time, can be replaceable by the user in seconds (as opposed to having to go to a service centre when the cells eventually wear out) and doesn't need to go in the freezer overnight to reset the charging system :-)  Currently I use my 9500 with the main screen on for about an hour and a half a day, the phone side is on from 8am till midnight and I'm sure the thing's going to last a whole week at the rate of discharge I'm seeing from the battery status indicator.  So, currently I am very pleased with the power system on my clamshell :-)

Regards
Kevin Thorne

Date: 24 Feb 2005 17:41:27 +0100
From: Itamar Engelsman <address truncated>
Subject: Software for Series 60 , Selling used psion stuff,

Answer to: John Wetton

Re.: Software for Series 60  - I can't tell you about the Series 60, but have quite a list for the P910 UIQ system :

- I downloaded several programs/files in Hebrew giving me a prayer book and the text of the Old Testament.
- Databank, a data program
- Dates, a program to enter important dates like birthdays, anniversaries, etc., but did not register it yet
- Handy day 2004, a diary program to enhance the calendar program giving a lot more than just that as well as Handy Desktop for free.
- Fastconverter for all type of conversions from length to weights to many others
- Several games like Hearts, bridge, NiknakkPatience, MobileOthello, etc.
- ProfitMail for a better email program, although not yet convinced and did not yet register. It comes with ProfiExplorer free, which is a very good file program.
- Smartmovie, already discussed in depth by me.
- Travelclock, just registered, for a good alarm clock and other details
- Worldmate, to give me the time in various parts of the world, night and day, some conversions, currency updates, and some more, also the weather in almost any city you want.

These are the main ones I use. If anyone would like more details on any of these, let me know.

Answer to:  Emil Granström

Re.: Selling used psion stuff - Hi Emil, that is a long time ago, WOW !  Trust all well with you ?  I "migrated" partially from a Psion 5MX to a SE P910 and am quite satisfied, although my main machine is still my mBook. We don't have official advertisements in the digest but you can list your articles for sale in a message to the digest and ask people to react directly to your email address. If you want to catch up, send me an email.

Best regards,
Itamar Engelsman
London, UK

Date: 24 Feb 2005 17:41:39 +0100
From: Itamar Engelsman <address truncated>
Subject: Answers from Steve Townsend

Sorry about the delay replying, was trying to track down some more answers, but failed.

> Questions from Chris Handley
> ------------------------------------
>
> I have one (long) question for Steve Townsend, and although I
> know it is not part of your remit, I also have a short (private)
> message that I hope you can pass on to him (where he can reply
> (to me) if he wishes).
>
> The long question is this:
>
> The first Psion I owned was a Sienna 1MB (english) model, and it
> had some problems with it crashing and the occasional file
> corruption (such as letters changing), and this became especially
> bad after I installed lots of software (in memory).  It was
> replaced several times without improvement.  I eventually wrote a
> program to test the memory of the Sienna, and found that one or
> two bits out of every few KB would randomly change, and that this
> occured in a regular pattern.  So it seems it was a design flaw
> in the Sienna, and after much pestering I finally got a Psion
> engineer to admit as much.  What I want to know is what the flaw
> actually was (e.g. software or hardware?), and did it affect all
> models of Siennas?  I realise that Psion may have never fully
> located the precise problem, as I don't believe it was actually
> ever fixed.

Sorry, but I've never heard of this issue before, they must have kept it secret from us Software guys as well.

> The short message is:
>
> Back in May 2003 you very kindly send me a WINS (emulator) verion
> of No Mans Land that you had lying around in a ZIP file.  I never
> got it to work, but just before Xmas 2004 I emailed you to say
> that I had discovered that it was looking for the missing
> NMCORE.DLL file.  I presume that you never replied, because you
> have long ago deleted the Psion Emulator, and thus any copies of
> the DLL that you may have had?  If so, that is a pity, because it
> is a good game - especially the AI.

I can't help with the file for the old WINS version of No Man's Land. But I am just about to release No Man's Land for the UIQ Platform and Series 90/7710 Platforms, so I'll try and sort out a WINS release of the Nokia 7710 version that can be used with the 7710 Emulator. See
http://www.greatape.com/nml/

> Questions from Alan Morris
> ----------------------------------
>
> Two questions for Steve.
>
> Q1
> Is it possible to exchange the <Menu> and <Fn> keys, so that my
> Psion 5mx, 5mx, 5mxPRO, 7, nB and Revo+, have these two keys in
> the same position?
>
> A 'fix' to the OS and the best way to remove they key tops.  I
> don't mind which is swapped, although swapping the 7 & nB would
> be best as I've only got to machines to change.

Sorry I can't think of any easy fix to the OS to do this.

> Q2
> Is it possible to 'fix' the OS so that embeded objects in Word
> can also use external normal files?

This wouldn't be possible without some serious work on the OS code for handling embeded objects.

> Questions from Vlad Arghir
> ---------------------------------
>
> That's great!
> Thanks to Steve Townsend and to you!
> Wow!
>
> Here's what I always wanted to know :-)
> There were threads on both in the Digest, but never a complete
> explanation for non-software-engineers...
>
> - re: CF Cards
> When switching CF Cards between the MX and a Mac (afaIk
> comparable symptoms dvelop with IBM-compatibles also AND when
> using MacConnect or Trafic) at least two bad things _may_ happen:
> 1: The CF-card gets corrupt. Some docs at first, then gradually
> all, become garbage.
>
> The CF then has to be reformatted, mostly several times over (on
> the Mac and Psion), until it becomes usable again.
>
> NB: the Finder leaves some invisible and visible docs on the CF
> (Finder-databases etc.). Deleting them on the Psion seems to
> cause trouble, but not always and it's not the only cause...)
>
> 2: The Mac Finder occasionally hangs when I move Psion docs
> (copied from the CF) around. I have _seen_ document-names jumping
> around and successively getting changed on the fly, a very
> strange thing that ended with a bad hang of the Finder and
> data-structure corruption of the Mac HD AND the CF.
>
> We've had several threads here about that, including one in which
> Eberhard Mattes, a software-engineer I think, said this had sth
> to do with document-headers or somesuch being (mis)treated
> differently by the platforms. He also said he had a Unix program
> that could repair the trouble, but why it happens and what to do
> and how was never explained.

Again no idea about the answer to this one sorry.

> - re: System-management
> All (?) programs install something in the Systemfolder at various
> places. Do you have a list of these types of docs, what they
> contain and what they do?
>
> Some kind of how-to would be useful... We've just had a case in
> point, Ian Colvin lost a lot of time trying to recover his
> registration-code. S-o else cannot get rid of an icon in the
> dock. Or a program misbehvaes, what can one do besides
> reinstalling in order to get a clean state? etc.

I don't have any list of these, off the top of my head what I remember is:

The standard place for an apps config data is c:\system\apps\<appname>\ Other data gets put into c:\system\data\

> - a "Philosophical" q.:
> I'm sure many will ask sth like this: how come that such an
> intelligent machine doesn't get any successors? How come the
> Apple guys didn't jump in (my MX is in _many_ respects a lot more
> elegant and stable than the OS up to 9)? etc. A shame... how
> often have we said that? :-)

> Questions from Itamar Engelsman
> -----------------------------------------
>
> Q1)  While in the 1990's Psion clearly had an innovative product
> well ahead of it's time they failed to market it properly,
> specifically in the USA, in order to succeed. What went wrong in
> the marketing department ?
>
> Q2)  A Psion 5MX with a colour screen would have been a great
> machine. Did Psion ever think about it and if so why was it not launched ? >
> Q3) Some of the major problems of the Psion machines were
> technical with the screen cables and the Revo battery. Was this
> due to sloppy sourcing of the required parts or what was the
> reason that these otherwise great products were let down by these
> problems ?
>
> Q4) In your humble opinion, could Psion have stayed in the market
> and further develop their products and product range or not ?
>
A general answer for all the above questions.

Two main reasons for Psion not continuing with PDA's. On becoming Symbian, Psion Software put 100% of effort into the smartphone market, everything was driven by the phone companies at the point and I don't think there was room for any distractions making PDA's as well as phones.

Secondly Psion had always worked by the old fashioned business method of actually making a profit on it's business, selling products at prices that recovered development costs and funded future growth. Palm and Microsoft came into the PDA market operating at a loss, pouring investment cash in, expensive marketing campaigns, selling products cheap to gain market share.

To fight against that Psion would have had to do the same thing, raise a large amount investment cash and operate at a loss to gain market share of what was basically a dieing market. I believe overall Psion made the right tactical decision to go for the smart phone market and let Palm and Microsoft throw their cash away in the dieing PDA market.

The phone companies via Symbian have of course done the same basic thing of operating at a loss while building the market, but I think that was the correct route to take as the smartphone market looks to have much bigger future than PDA's, and also the phones companies had quantities of money to spend that Psion could only ever dream of.

I think Psion did toy with the idea of a PDA based on later versions of the Symbian OS, not sure what made them decide not to go ahead with that plan. My personal ideal PDA/Smart phone combindation would be a pair of seperate devices, a small pocketable phone linked via Bluetooth to a Series 5 or sized powerful PDA.

Steve Townsend
Great Ape Software Ltd
http://www.GreatApe.com

Date: 24 Feb 2005 19:53:39 +0100
From: Bob <address truncated>
Subject: RE: affordable Smart phone

It's interesting and fun to see all the different devices that we all have. I have a N-gage QD, series 60 phone and its great.  Its very affordable and does everything and more than I thought it would do.  I have PC suite with does all the transferring of files and back ups just great.  I currently have a 512mb mmc card in it and have a 1 gig on order.  The software that I have so far is Ebook, Handy Clock, Bible, Soccer game, Headline--rss news reader, Mobipocket, Opera, UltraMP3, virus checker and many others.  This has just about replace by Psions for the most part.  What a great little device at a reasonable price.

Thanks,
Bobbyr

Date: 24 Feb 2005 20:53:45 +0100
From: Elizabeth C. Baker <address truncated>
Subject: Revo battery problems

To Jim Watson-Gove: Regarding the Revo, I've found that a good long rest
does wonders-- just as good as a repair. (Better -- no postage, no repair
bill.) Let the battery run down and let the machine sit there quietly for a
few weeks. Then plug it in & charge it up -- seems to be good as new. It
charges fast & holds the charge like a new machine.
        I've had this happen more than once with each of two Revos that I
own (one is actually a Mako, but the same thing). I've also had it happen
when one of the machines has just frozen up and refused to turn on. Soft
reset-- no reaction. But after a month or so of inactivity, miraculous
rebirth. (The files are gone, of course, but I generally back up pretty
often.) The thing works fine again. I find this tendency to simulate death
a little discouraging in a machine I would otherwise travel with --  thus I
travel with a 5mx & back up to a CF card while i'm on the road.
Best regards & good luck --
Betsy Baker

Date: 24 Feb 2005 21:35:47 +0100
From: Toddrick <address truncated>
Subject: Any 5mxs/7s For Sale?

It looks like I need a replacement 5mx, or possibly a Series 7 instead.

Can I restore my 5mx backup to a Series 7 without losing anything?

Thanks, Todd

Date: 25 Feb 2005 06:28:03 +0100
From: Patrick Warner <address truncated>
Subject: 5MX Battery Connection Bad & 9500 vs 5MX

Hi All,

I have a 5MX which keeps dying, but if I open the battery case and twist the batteries around, or take them out and reseat them, it comes back to life again.  This seems to happen once in a while say every 2 weeks or so.

Is this a known problem?  If so do I need to send it for repair or is there anything I can try "at home".

In fact I have 3 5MX machines, one for me, one for my wife and one backup.
I haven't found anything that I feel can replace it.  I am following the threads on the Nokia 9500 with interest - that could be what I am looking for, although I have heard that some of the software is crippled compared to the 5MX - for example you can't zoom the views in the Agenda application. I'd be interested in any posts from Nokia 9500 owners on what are the missing software capabilities of 9500 vs 5MX.

Cheers
Patrick.

Date: 25 Feb 2005 12:53:39 +0100
From: Itamar Engelsman <address truncated>
Subject: post er5, new wrinkle for Symbian,

Answer to: Jack

Re.: post er5 - Thanks for the info. I am not really interested in a Linux PDA, yet another different OS to get used to <G>. However, what is good is to note that there are still Companies out there that are interested in developing PDA's with keyboards. On the photo the keys look good, but comparing it with the size of the phone they must be very small, too small for comfortable touch typing.

Answer to: Howard Weissman

Re.: new wrinkle for Symbian - Interesting reading, specially the motivation for writing virusses !  In general I think it is sound advice not to leave your bluetooth activated when you don't need it.

Best regards,
Itamar Engelsman
London, UK