- re. Bluetooth, sending emails

- Re. sending emails

- Re: Mp3Play

- bt keyboards

- What would you change about your Psion?

Date: 14 Jan 2006 12:40:38 +0700
From: Ian Chapple <address truncated>
Subject: re. Bluetooth, sending emails

Itamar,

>>Re.: Bluetooth on a plane - The latest craze in the world is Skype (talking over the internet to other users much like a phone call). My partner flew Lufthansa business class which gives the passengers an internet connection on the seat. My partner connected his laptop to the connection, activated Skype and called me from high up in the sky and we had a long business chat. He also logged in from his airplane seat into his computer at work and worked as if he was in the office. So, is it not all a little bit of nonsense ?<<

Maybe, maybe not. However, the important thing to note (I presume) is that your partner's laptop was plugged in to an Ethernet network, ie. not a wireless connection.

>>Re.: Bluetooth on a plane - I seem to remember that Bluetooth works onlyup to abt. 10 meters or so ?  If that is correct, why should it interfere with anything in the plane ?<<

Modern planes use a fly-by-wire system, meaning that important controls (ie. flaps, rudder, undercarriage etc.) are controlled by sending a low-voltage digital signal along a signal wire to a receiver, which then actuates the appropriate control using electric motors. Because of the nature of these signals, they are susceptible to interference produced by electronic devices, especially as the wires which carry the signals have to pass from the front of the plane to the back quite close to the passenger compartment (ie. less than 10 meters), hence the restrictions.

An important question is not really whether the restrictions are necessary or not, but more why the signal lines are not better protected, especially in newer planes. Mind you, it would probably be asking too much for aircrew to know whether a particular model of plane was susceptible to interference or not...

It's also interesting to note that more and more new cars are adopting the same approach, mainly to reduce the complexity of the wiring; this saves both money and weight. However, this may not be without its problems, as I have certainly heard of one or two problems with Mercedes airbags being triggered by an inappropriately placed mobile phone antenna.

>>Quite often when I connect with my mBook the first time I try to send emails it will fail and than when I press send again (without disconnecting) the email(s) will be sent without problems. Anyone any idea why this happens ?<<

No, but this sometimes happens to me as well. Not much help I know, but at least you're not alone...

Cheers, Ian.

Date: 14 Jan 2006 12:42:14 +0700
From: Ian Chapple <address truncated>
Subject: Re. sending emails

>>No, but this sometimes happens to me as well. Not much help I know, but at least you're not alone...<<

In fact, it just happened to me when sending my previous reply. Ironic or what.

Cheers, Ian.

Date: 14 Jan 2006 14:32:08 +0700
From: Chris S Handley
Subject: Re: Mp3Play

Hello Steve,

> I then clicked on the download link on that page, i.e. > http://psion.cshandley.co.uk/Mp3Play_050913.zip but unfortunately that > link does not work !
> I have tried over a few days in case the link had a problem but no luck

If you notice, after the link I wrote "(old version removed!)".  This is because I released quite a few versions, and therefore the older versions were removed.

The newest version is farthest down the page.  Currently it is given in post #38, although that may change.  Please note that the thread has now gotten so long that it has actually spilled onto a second page - so any further releases will be mentioned there.
--
Chris Handley

Date: 14 Jan 2006 17:43:03 +0700
From: ktabic <address truncated>
Subject: bt keyboards

On Sat, 14 Jan 2006 15:34:33 +0700, the sky darkened, lightning flashed and the voice of The Digest spake thus:

> Date: 12 Jan 2006 07:57:04 +0700
> From: Max Ozinsky <address truncated>
> Subject: bt keyboards

> This was one of the bugs that Rolf Vonau and myself reported to the
> manufacturers. We did not get a direct response from them, but in my
> experience the latest driver (ver 17002) by and large overcomes this
> problem. In the month I have been using the new driver I have only once
> had this problem. I suggest that you try this driver which is available
> at www.chainpus.com/support

I'll give that a go (once the 14Mb file has finished dling over gprs...)

> I tried the Yellow driver with the Thinkoutside bt keyboard but it did
> not work. It also does not work the Freedomkeyboard. Is there any
> keyboard this driver works with?

From what I can tell, the HID 1.1 protocol for keyboards, isn't completely fixed and there are some variations, so a driver written for one keyboard doesn't nessercarily work with another one. From what I remember when I was hunting around, teh bitween bluekey should work with the thinkoutside, and the yellow should work withe the nokia wireless keyboard, judging from the pictures on the websites. The freedom keyboard isn't a HID 1.1 keyboard so will never work with a HID 1.1 driver/program.
The thinkoutside is (afaik) and the nokia one is. The iTech is as well, since it works fine with windows and linux

Date: 14 Jan 2006 19:34:20 +0700
From: David Steer \(Plus\) <address truncated>
Subject: What would you change about your Psion?

I was reading reviews about the latest PDA offerings, apart from them all being phones, I started to wonder how they compared with my trusty netBook.  With the advent of Windows Mobile 5, there is now a productivity suite that matches what we have been enjoying for more than 7 years!  I started to think could I replace my netBook and I believe that now there are viable options available.  Still I am not going to part with my Psion and get a new device until I am forced to by hardware failures and incompatibilities with things like IPsec and IPv6.

All this made me think about what would I change to make my Psion still completely irreplaceable, well, it isn't much for me:

1) A screen I can read in sunlight/bright daylight;
2) A USB port for faster synchronisation.

My 5mx would get:
1) Colour screen (and the battery upgrade to support that)
2) USB port;
3) built in WiFi or a second card slot to allow for the addition of a CF WiFi card.

That's it! I wonder what else people would change.

This is just about hardware, not software or support and repair.

David