- RE: Batteries

- Re: The Digest V1 # 712

- Psion 5mx to Nokia 9500

- Re: ISP Question & oops, there went the Treo

- Re: Giving up on the phone manufacturers, buying a 5mx...

- Re: Giving up on the phone manufacturers, buying a 5mx...

- Thanks for UID number application info (was: The Digest V1 # 711)

- Nothing Important

- 3c to Revo Via IR?

- Correct subject lines (was: Re: Thanks for UID number applicationinfo)

- Re: Thanks for UID number application info (was: The Digest V1 # 711)

- Re: buying a 5mx...

Date: 21 Mar 2005 08:30:17 +0000
From: K. Liebmann <address truncated>
Subject: RE: Batteries

> I'd certainly hate to see my mobile phone and my PDA go up in size just to accommodate AAA cells.

I am also a supporter of standard size batteries for mobile devices.

I read this comment a few days ago. First, I decided not to reply but as a discussion is starting around this argument, I would like to add my 5 cents.

Actually, its probably a misconception that the phone size would go up by using standard cells. The standard cells don't have a dramatically different volume for a given capacity. The only difference, the normal phone batteries are flat while the standard AA or AAA are round. If you would build a phone that uses standard AA or AAA, you would be able to fit everything into the same shell volume. You just need to re-arrange the components.

I would believe, designing for custom batteries either just misses the consideration for the life cycle of the product or this is deliberate to make business with battery replacements.


Greetings

Karsten Liebmann
Schkopau 
GERMANY

Date: 21 Mar 2005 09:39:35 +0000
From: Chris Malcolm <address truncated>
Subject: Re: The Digest V1 # 712

On Fri, 18 Mar 2005, The Digest wrote:

>   The Digest    Fri, 18 Mar 2005    Volume 01  :  Number 712 > ************************************************************************

> Date: 17 Mar 2005 10:22:11 +0100
> From: Eir <address truncated>
> Subject: 9500 with GPS?
>
> I am again considering purchasing a Nokia 9500.
>
> Has anyone any experience of using this with GPS?
>
> What accessories and software do they use?
>
> Is it possible to connect to a Garmin 12XL?

Yes if it's got an RS232 serial connection, all you need is
appropriate cabling.

> Where can I get GPS maps for the Jungfrau region of Switzerland where we are going in June?

By "GPS maps" do you mean paper maps which are gridded in a way which
the 12XL can understand, such as lat/long or a UTM, which you could,
if you wanted, scan and display on the Nokia, along with current
position, track, etc., from the GPS; or do you mean maps already
available in electronic format, and if so, which? Some are tied to
specific software.

A problem with some parts of Europe is their historical use of unusual
grid projections which Garmins (and at least most other GPS's) can't
handle. In some of these cases they are starting to issue paper maps
which have been gridded in a GPS-compatible fashion.

The most general kind of mapping interface is one which allows you to
spot a useful map on the wall of the railway station you've just
arrived in, snap it with your digital camera, txfer the image to your
PDA, and calibrate it with a few waypoints from your GPS. I suspect
this is do-able with a Psion5mx, not sure what Nokia softare exists.

A good newsgroup to ask these questions in is sci.geo.satellite-nav. A
good website which may contain the answers is

http://gpsinformation.net/

--
Chris Malcolm  <address truncated> +44 (0)131 651 3445  Room 2107B
IPAB, Informatics, James Clerk Maxwell Building, King's Buildings
Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK.      [http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]

Date: 21 Mar 2005 10:05:14 +0000
From: Lord Kimberley <address truncated>
Subject: Psion 5mx to Nokia 9500

Hi all,

How easy would this transfer be? I use Word, Sheet, Jotter and Agenda  on the 5mx and several databases. At present I use Data for my contacts.

All advice welcome. I don't want to go and buy one and discover things can't be transfered across.



--

Yours John.

Tel:       +44 1763 289 732  e-mail:  mailto<address truncated>BR>

Date: 21 Mar 2005 10:10:12 +0000
From: Lord Kimberley <address truncated>
Subject: Re: ISP Question & oops, there went the Treo

Jim,

The PsiWin issue can be either too many apps open on the Psion or something like<address truncated>on the PC. Either cause PsiWin to fail to connect.

--

Yours John.

e-mail:  mailto<address truncated>BR>

Date: 21 Mar 2005 13:25:21 +0000
From: Chris S Handley
Subject: Re: Giving up on the phone manufacturers, buying a 5mx...

On 19 Mar 2005, Chris Kantarjiev wrote:
> I've been nursing my 3c along for about 5 years now, certain
> that Nokia or someone would come out with a decent
> replacement for it, and I wouldn't have to drag along two
> devices.

Hello Chris,

I think that the best advice for anyone looking to upgrade is:  "Don't bother waiting for what MIGHT get released, but base your decision on what is available NOW."  Otherwise you could (and probably will) end-up waiting around for a long time, as you have discovered.  And even if a great new device was released after waiting some time, it will still take a long time for any flaws to be found (such as screen cable problems...), and for much decent software to be developed & released :(

On that basis, I'm still using my existing Psions & phone, but when they eventually die, I'll probably go for a 9500, unless something better has appeared by then.


> I had high hopes for the 9300, but Nokia have made some
> incredibly stupid design choices, already mentioned here.
>
> So I've decided to buy a 5mx, instead. If I'm dragging two
> devices around anyway, I've got to have something that can

Given that you are willing to make the fairly big compromises of (a) having two devices to lug around, and (b) using an OS (EPOC) which is increasingly out-of-date (e.g. no bluetooth, slow/poor web browsing, and lack of support for modern file formats), I wonder if perhaps you ought to consider making a different set of compromises?

For example, you could switch to a 9300, by instead being willing to compromise on what are mostly just slight inconveniences (e.g. lack of vibrate alert, lack of touch screen, or a keyboard that's halfway between a Psion3 & a Psion5/Revo in design).  If you really need to do a lot of typing on *occasions*, then occasionally luggy around a similarly-sized foldable bluetooth keyboard should be quite acceptable (and better than even typing on a Netbook).

In my case, I think I could quite happily use a 9500, if loosing a few nicieties (which may take a little adjusting to) means that I only have to carry one device around, can render modern web pages fast & well and do so on-the-move (GPRS), natively reads/writes modern MS Word/Sheet formats, use bluetooth devices (such as a headset or GPS), surf wirelessly (WiFi), play DivX/XviD videos well, be always readable night & day, and of course still do a pretty good job of being a PDA.


BTW, I quite happily accept that for some people this particular trade of compromises would leave them worse off, but I think that very few people here would REALLY fall into this category, if they were willing to take off their "Psion blinkers" and consider things without bias (which I know is not easy, as I used to be convinced that a touch-screen was essential, rather than just being quite useful for some situations).


Also, I don't think that anyone here has really explained how the little 'joystick' plus the four CBA buttons (to the right of the Communicator's screen) manage to do a reasonable job of replacing the touch screen in most situations:

While someone with pratical experience of a Communicator should be able to explain better, it seems clear to me that the Psion's stylus is mostly used for tapping on dialog buttons & on the toolbar - for which both functions are now handled by the CBA buttons.  I find that I navigate the Psion menus and even blocks of text using the arrow keys as often as the stylus - and obviously the arrow keys are still present on the Communicators, plus it has the joystick for more 'natural' navigation (and which may even be better than the stylus in some ways).  The Psion's silkscreen icons for accessing Word, Agenda, etc are an elegant solution, but the special keyboard buttons of a Communicator serve just as well.  I think that covers pretty much everything the stylus is used for on our Psions (apart from the very occasional sketch), and leaves just our emotional attachment to using the stylus...

---
Chris Handley

Visit the web page email.cshandley.co.uk for my address

P.S.  Perhaps the joint Psion/Symbian nature of the Digest could be conveyed by renaming it the "Psimbion Digest" ;-)

Date: 21 Mar 2005 16:37:55 +0000
From: U Hornstein <address truncated>
Subject: Re: Giving up on the phone manufacturers, buying a 5mx...

Hi Chris,
Reference is made to the mail in the The Digest V1 # 714 : Chris Kantarjiev <address truncated> wrote on 19 Mar 2005 23:27:56 (> ):
> So I've decided to buy a 5mx, instead. If I'm dragging
> two devices around anyway, I've got to have something
> that can compose and receive email while I'm away for
> multiple days.

welcome back in the 5mx Club!

> In poking around the web, it appears that there have
> been a lot
> of problems with writing CF cards on the 5mx. Are these
> problems sorted? Is there a max size CF that is usable?

I cannot answer the question generally.
Certain CF Makes are reported to make problems.
Since 2 months I am using a 1GB CF from Dane-Elec (the fast one). Not expensive for under 80€, with 10year worldwide replacement guarantee, whatever this is worth. Works yery good, and even faster than my old 128kB CF from Simple Technology.

> I'm a big believer in storing my important files (in
> particular, Agenda) on CF ...

I do that too. However, with a trick:
Agenda, my everyday sheet and my Data address files are on C:\dokumente\startup. I have a crontab job that copies these files daily at 1h00 and 13h00 to D:.
Mail data store area is on C: too for speed reasons.
All other files and apps are on D:.
--
With greetings from Germany
Ulrich Hornstein
http://psion.uh-lab.de
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 Mar 2005 16:38:01 +0000
From: U Hornstein <address truncated>
Subject: Thanks for UID number application info (was: The Digest V1 # 711)

Hi Martin,
Reference is made to the mail in the The Digest V1 # 712 : Martin Maxwell <address truncated> wrote on 18 Mar 2005 02:39:00 (> ):
> From: Martin Maxwell
> Subject: RE UIDs for programs
>  Reply to: Prar
> Below I have pasted some key information from:  http://www.symbian.com/developer/techlib/papers/tn_uid/uidinfo.html
> Ordering UIDs Please email<address truncated>with
> the subject 'UID Request'.

snip.

Thanks for that very welcome and detailed Info on how to get UIDs.

However, I almost overlooked it since the subject was the very general "The Digest V1 # 711". I DO often select which posts to read according to the subject line. Others might as well.

I ask all contributors to use the subject line for the intended purpose, if possible.

If someone thinks it is too much work to copy the correct subject line into the answer, (s)he might think about using one of the available macros/apps that do this work. At least DigestHandler does this and other things perfectly.

Martin, please don't take this mail personally. I just took your mail as a cause for this general reminder.
--
With greetings from Germany
Ulrich Hornstein
http://psion.uh-lab.de
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 Mar 2005 19:48:44 +0000
From: Mike Dyer <address truncated>
Subject: Nothing Important

Hi all,

I'm going through a phase of envying magazine reviewers at the moment. They get all the latest pda's to play with free of charge, whereas the rest of us can only read their opinions or dabble with our own cash.

Ebay helps though, when my Revo died last summer (screen callibration & batteries) after much research I bought a SE p800 for £150 as new. It's a lovely phone but I still hate replying to emails on it and can't be bothered to use the bluetooth keyboard half the time. Also I feel carrying around a phone and a keyboard kind of defeats the object of a smartphone really.

I've just ordered a Treo 600 off Ebay for a simmilar amount of money, as I feel it is like the p800 but with a miniature keyboard. One of these devices will be going back on Ebay depending on which I prefer after a long test.

If I wind up disliking both of them I am going to risk £499 for a Nokia 9300. Despite my vocal criticism of the device I now feel I can live without the camera and vibrate and percieve it is the nearest device on the market today to my beloved Revo.

Time will tell, it's all good fun anyway.

Best Wishes,
Mike Dyer.

Date: 22 Mar 2005 02:09:59 +0000
From: Jakfish <address truncated>
Subject: 3c to Revo Via IR?

Is it possible to send an RTF file back and forth between a 3c and a Revo via IR?  Or are the IR protocols completely different?

Thanks,
Jake

Date: 22 Mar 2005 13:39:53 +0000
From: U Hornstein <address truncated>
Subject: Correct subject lines (was: Re: Thanks for UID number applicationinfo)

Hello Martin,
"martin dp<address truncated>wrote on Tue, 22 Mar 2005 15:43:55 +0100 (> ):
> Dear Ulf,

(Ulrich, please :)

Ulrich wrote: >>However, I almost overlooked it since the subject was the very general "The Digest V1 # 711". I DO often select which posts to read according to the subject line. Others might as well. >>

> Thanks for the reminder and feedback. But please specify
> exactly what I did wrong, because my subject line in my
> actual posting is:

> "Subject: RE UIDs for programs"

Unfortunately  I deleted the Digest on my Psion already. But on psioneering.co.uk (thanks to the digest team for updating the archive so fast) you can see when viewing digest #712, last posting:
"Subject: Re: The Digest V1 # 711"

This is what I referred to. Most probably you did not write this by hand, it must have been copied there by some mechanism, maybe by a macro or by hitting the "reply" button.

> Is there any other specification of subject line which I
> am overlooking?

I do not really understand this question. There is only one subject line per mail. Of course, the words
> "Subject: RE UIDs for programs"
can appear within the *body* of a mail, but this is not a "subject line" then. Sorry if I am writing about the all-too-obvious.

PS: Thanks to your info, I have ordered 10 UIDs; they were sent very quickly.
--
With greetings from Germany
Ulrich Hornstein
http://psion.uh-lab.de
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: 22 Mar 2005 15:43:55 +0000
From: U Hornstein <address truncated>
Subject: Re: Thanks for UID number application info (was: The Digest V1 # 711)

Dear Ulf,

Thanks for the reminder and feedback. But please specify exactly what I did wrong, because my subject line in my actual posting is:

"Subject: RE UIDs for programs"

Is there any other specification of subject line which I am overlooking?

Kind regards
Martin Maxwell
Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia

>Hi Martin,
>Reference is made to the mail in the The Digest V1 # 712 : Martin Maxwell <address truncated> wrote on 18 Mar 2005 02:39:00 (> ): >> From: Martin Maxwell
>> Subject: RE UIDs for programs
>>  Reply to: Prar
>> Below I have pasted some key information from:  http://www.symbian.com/developer/techlib/papers/tn_uid/uidinfo.html
>> Ordering UIDs Please email<address truncated>with
>> the subject 'UID Request'.
>
>snip.
>
>Thanks for that very welcome and detailed Info on how to get UIDs.
>
>However, I almost overlooked it since the subject was the very general "The Digest V1 # 711". I DO often select which posts to read according to the subject line. Others might as well. >
>I ask all contributors to use the subject line for the intended purpose, if possible.
>
>If someone thinks it is too much work to copy the correct subject line into the answer, (s)he might think about using one of the available macros/apps that do this work. At least DigestHandler does this and other things perfectly. >
>Martin, please don't take this mail personally. I just took your mail as a cause for this general reminder.
> --
>With greetings from Germany
>Ulrich Hornstein
>http://psion.uh-lab.de
>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: 22 Mar 2005 22:40:11 +0000
From: Alan Morris <address truncated>
Subject: Re: buying a 5mx...

Chris Kantarjiev <address truncated> wrote:-

<< My current plan is to get a second hand one on ebay and then possibly upgrade to a 5mx pro refurb from Clove. >>

I bought my third 5mx from Clove recently - the PRO version that has extra memory.  I don't know for certain, but I suspect that Clove use new parts to make their 5mxPRO machines.  As it has 6 months warranty, I've not taken it apart, but from what can be seen, it's all new parts.

The only complaint with Clove is that they take a very long time to supply anything that you order from them.  I guess that they don't hold any stock, but buy in when you place an order, or assemble a 5mxPRO from parts.

BTW, my two other 5mx have been retired to the 'use when the other fails' box.  Before them I had a 5.  On this the touch screen failed - not the normal screen cable.

<< In poking around the web, it appears that there have been a lotof problems with writing CF cards on the 5mx. Are these problems sorted? >>

On all Psion 5s I've used about a dozen CF cards from 16Mb to 256Mb.  I've not had any problems with writing to a CF card - ever.  So I'd say, 'What problem?'

I've also used most of my CF cards in my Psion 7 & netBook without any problem.

I've also used from 4Mb to 1Gb on three digital cameras and never had a problem with their CF cards.

I've also used a 256Mb and 2Gb in my Garmin 2610 GPSr and again no problems.

<<Is there a max size CF that is usable?>>

The 2Gb did not work in a 5mx when tested.

<< I'm a big believer in storing my important files (in particular, Agenda) on CF ...>.

I use two SSD (flash and RAM) in my 3mx!

--
Alan R Morris, G4ENS.
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, UK.
Using a Psion netBook.