- Missing first lines

- Re: Musing on Psion, so incredible

- Moving to Palm OS - for the second time.

- Austin - Psion 5mx Pro infrared failure

- EPOC machine on offer REPEAT

- Re: Radio on a Nokia 800

- Dell M1330

- Advantage x7510 and Dell XPS M1330

- Symbian phones with keyboards

- Abiword on Nokia 800

- Epoc machine on offer

- Psion 5mxPro Infrared failure

Date: Sat, 08 Mar 2008
From: Digest administrator
Subject: Missing first lines

Dear subscribers,
I beg your pardon. Due to a small bug in my digest composing program, the first lines of all postings were truncated.
Thank you Steve, Chris, Harold and Ian, who pointed me to find the error.
I attached all postings with complete text.

With best regards
Rolf Vonau
The Digest Team

Date: 6 Mar 2008 13:25:59 +0000
From: Fer <address truncated>
Subject: Re: Musing on Psion, so incredible

Just linking to Austing last message admiring the 5mx.... I want to write about my Platonic-love relationship with my 5mx.

For one year I looked at this little machine in magasines, internet, UK shops, etc... I even tried one for 2 weeks before deciding to buy one, and i finally bought  my 5mx, back in 2002.

I bought it because it looked an awesome gadget to have and prices on ebay were half of what they costed at the begining.

But unfortunately, I have hardly used, although i was always amazed of this little machine. I suscribed to the psion magasine, and of course this digest, which i always read.
I also bought a buble jet infrarred printer to have a nice little full independent station. I basically kept renewing the backup battery without using it.
I dreamt on see it one day connected to the internet through infrarred modem, but I thought it would be too complicated for me, and stayed as a dream.

Why i hardly used it, is for a combination of reasons, all of them down to my personal live or my incompetence, some of them:

a) Just before I bought it, I had moved from UK to Korea and soon started working at a school, since then I always had an internet PC near me, either at work or home, or at any corner on the streets of Korea.

b) It took me more than a year to sync a win 98 with the psion, then i changed to win XP and took me another year to sync with my XP home PC, but for some mysterious reason I could never sync with my new XP PC at work, it would not recognised. It read that once i tried with the old version of psiwin on XP unsuccessfully it would not work with the upgrade version of psi win and it was necessary to perform some type of erasing function, which i did....

Anyway, I am just saying why i did not use it much, due to my incompetence mainly.

However, I could at least transfer+convert my files without problem by using the easiest alternative of a 64 Memory card, and since i did not use email
or other "advanced" features the files on the card worked just fine for me. I did downloaded some games, and played them  :)

But my point here is to say, that everytime i take it out of the case for some sporadic task, I am utterly amazed of its possibilities.
I am now using it to complete the w/sheets for an online course. I like just take my psion, and the book and complete the exercises, without having to take a laptop to the coffee shop, or to the school dorm.

I am amazed, as Austin said, how many years ahead of its time this PDA was. We are talking about how many years since it was created? was it not launched around  1996? And yet, I found it an amazing little machine, that
is the most effective at getting the job done, and with the longest ever battery life.

I was wondering what those engineers from the 90's could build Today?

Also surprises the big amount of units produced?, it seems hundreds of thousands were made?  When i bought mine back in 2002, production had
already been discontinued, and there was the biggest user's community, a 5mx magasin, and there was a pile of them new on sale on ebay. I checked today
on ebay and still you can find new ones on sale. We are talking about 10 years later, and there are still new units on sale.

It is a very unique machine and I really admire the design team behind it.
-------------

Now, in other orther of things, last week i saw on a Korean newspaper the WIBRAIN, i did some search on the internet and to my surprise there was info and lot of videos on youtube. Has any of our digest members had any experience with it?

Sorry for the long message, but since I always read, and never write, I thought to compensate a little bit :)

Thanks a lot , and regards from Korea.
Ferdie

Date: 6 Mar 2008 13:52:06 +0000
From: Wajira Perera <address truncated>
Subject: Moving to Palm OS - for the second time.

Dear All,

I was the Psion user from 1995. My route passed through Psion 3a,  3mx,  Ericssion 218,  Treo 90, Nokia 9300, and finally ended up at Palm Treo 680 a couple weeks ago. This final move was dictated by the loss of my Nokia 9300.

To me, loss of Nokia 9300 is almost a blessing in disguise, except that the Treo 680 cost me a packet.  When compared to 9300, 680 is amazingly easy to use, and fits perfectly with my need for one-handed use, for example, while driving.  Task switching is faster than in 9300 with multi tasking. There are enough and more software for Palm OS, to cover whatever you want to do, and the best part is they are mostly free. Only software I have paid for was Ultrasoft Money, which syncs with MS Money seamlessly.

I miss one function, though, and that is Faxing in 9300. Readability outdoors too is not up to 9300 level. Battery life is horrible, as I have to charge the Treo every day. There are some cures for that, though, in the form of a software upgrade, and proper resetting of the battery charging process. 9300 also felt more solid, although Treo is quite adequate in that respect.

Treo 90 which I got in 2003 too gave me pretty much the same user friendliness, but 680 is improved in many ways. Most of the free software have developed too in the meantime, thanks to the very large user base of Palm.

I considered Nokia E61i too before settling for Treo 680, and my deciding factor was availability of software. I do not regret my choice at all.

All in all,  I think I will stick to Palm in the future, unless
something drastic happens with Symbian to make is easy to use.

Hope the forgoing will help those who are 'on-the'fence'.

Best regards

Wajira Perera

Date: 6 Mar 2008 18:11:38 +0000
From: John Spillett <address truncated>
Subject: Austin - Psion 5mx Pro infrared failure

Can I suggest Austin contacts<address truncated> who sorted my Psion out for me.

Regards

Date: 6 Mar 2008 19:33:58 +0000
From: Marc Teeuwissen <address truncated>
Subject: EPOC machine on offer REPEAT

Dear Digest members,

on the previous Digest my message was unfortunately beheaded. I don't know what I did wrong, my apologies.
Here's what it should have looked like, hoping the mistake is not repeated on this occasion:

" As has happened on other occasions, I am a digest lurker now stepping out of the shadows.
To the point: I have an MC218 that has not been used for quite a while, simply because I do not do much mobile computing these days.
Rather than keeping it, just for the exceptional machine that it is, I thought I put it up for sale. It's in good working order, used obviously, and comes with necessary extra's. It is a UK version, V1.05.

If people have a serious interest, please private e-m me.

Kind regards, Marc Teeuwissen, the Netherlands "

Date: 6 Mar 2008 22:56:13 +0000
From: Ajai Khattri <address truncated>
Subject: Re: Radio on a Nokia 800

On Tue, 4 Mar 2008, Harold Fuchs in The Digest wrote:

> Is this via Wi-fi? What about using "mobile broadband" (special USB modem with its own SIM card)?

No, I think the radio referred to is an FM radio builtin to the Nokia
N800.

You can also get software to stream Internet radio over WiFi too of
course.

No broadband access but apparently there will be a WiMax device at the end
of April (to coincide with Sprint's roll-out of their WiMax network).

--
Aj.

Date: 7 Mar 2008 19:00:50 +0000
From: Moshe Nahir <address truncated>
Subject: Dell M1330

To Itamar,

> I took the fairly standard version as I don't need to do much heavy work on it. I took it with the fingertop recogniser for logging in but find it a p.i.t.a. to use. Success, I am sure you will like it. The screen is very clear and it is extremely light for a laptop.

Thank much for your comments re the Dell M1330. I have just ordered it and should get it within two weeks, and I am looking forward to using it. From all I have read, including yours, it sounds like a very neat machine.

Apologies for discussing a unit that is outside the mandate of this (great!) list.

Thanks again,        Moshe

Date: 7 Mar 2008 19:51:28 +0000
From: Moshe Nahir <address truncated>
Subject: Advantage x7510 and Dell XPS M1330

To Alan:

>! If you really can wait for - say - 6 months, then I'd recommend the Sony Ericsson X1.-

Thanks again for your comments. The SE looks absolutely beautiful. I am not sure though that I will find it it meets my needs. It seems to have quite a small screen, which is problematic for me as I would use it, among other things, for writing. In any case, the unit I am considering seriously, the Advantage x7510, is not out yet either, so we have some time to ponder.

To Daniele,

> [Dell XPS M1330] is an excellent piece of kit, with a brilliant 13.3" LED screen,  wonderfully legible... It weighs just over 1.8 kg with the standard six cell battery. Get the extra 9 cell battery - well worth it to get a complete day's work without having to recharge... Looks great too.

Thanks for your feedback re the M1330. It seems like you really like it, and I can see why. As I wrote to Itamar earlier, I expect it now in a week or two, and I just can't wait. And yes, I ordered the 9 cell battery. Now all we need is one like it in a handheld size/version.

Greetings,      Moshe

Date: 4 Mar 2008 11:00:26 +0000
From: Lewis Hartman <address truncated>
Subject: Symbian phones with keyboards

I have had a SE P910i for the past 3-4 years and have found it the best device for me, as a large touch screen, easy sync with my netBook through WinXP, good all round organiser and media player.  It is missing a good camera (I have a good digital camera anyway), WIFI, GPS and - relevant to this mail - a proper keyboard.  I like the ability to quickly input text as notes or memos, using the software keypad or text recognition is ok, but a proper keypad would be better - but one that doesn't overtly increase the size of the device - unlike most of the current crop - AND they use Windows!!!.

I have been waiting for either Nokia or SE to come up with a device that meets my needs - the Nokia N9x series is very good, but lacks keyboard and touchscreen.  The E90 is too big.  The recent SE P990  P1, etc do not appear to be improved enough over my p910 to warrant upgrade.

I therefore saw - with growing excitement - the new SE X1 - perfect size, shape and spec - BUT it is using WINDOWS!!!!  WHY????!!!

Does anyone know why none of the Sybian manufacturers have designed a smartphone with a built in keyboard using Symbian?  It can't be that hard, and seeing how many of the HTC, etc phones are selling, there must be a market...

Yours rather annoyed.

Lewis Hartman

Date: 4 Mar 2008 11:42:36 +0000
From: Timothy H.D. Williams <address truncated>
Subject: Abiword on Nokia 800

On 4 Mar 2008, at 03:15, The Digest wrote:

> Seems a bit of overkill to install and run a Mac emulator just to 
> run a word processor!

I agree with you - although Nisus did have a function that no other wp 
had; that of reading in French, German and Spanish aloud. And don't 
forget that Word 5.1 for Mac weighed in at 884 kb.

However, I have yet to find a wp that works on the Nokia 800. Abiword 
in its most recent form is not stable. I would certainly use the Nokia 
800 more if I could spell check with it. There's no shortage of Linux 
spell checkers but I don't see where they are ported to the Tablet.

On the other hand, gnumeric is an excellent spread sheet.

I prefer the Nokia 9300 because it is so easy to back up the address 
book to the Mac. Tthere is a bug in the spreadsheet application on the 
the 9300/9500 which means that if you use Excel file format on the 
phone, every time you open a file you find that much of the formatting 
has been lost.

T

Date: 5 Mar 2008 19:51:07 +0000
From: Marc Teeuwissen <address truncated>
Subject: Epoc machine on offer

Dear Digest members,

as has happened on other occasions, I am a digest lurker now stepping out of the shadows.
To the point: I have an MC218 that has not been used for quite a while, simply because I do not do much mobile computing these days.
Rather than keeping it, just for the exceptional machine that it is, I thought I put it up for sale. It's in good working order, used obviously, and comes with necessary extra's. It is a UK version, V1.05.

If people have a serious interest, please private e-m me.

Kind regards, Marc Teeuwissen, the Netherlands

Date: 6 Mar 2008 00:32:21 +0000
From: Austin
Subject: Psion 5mxPro Infrared failure

I have a 5mxPro, which remains (a) utterly invaluable and (b) functionally streets ahead of anything I've yet seen in a hand-held package (check why I think so in my rant below).

Unfortunately, after a couple of times when the infrared seemed to cut off and be a bit inconsistent (I thought it was a phone problem at first) the infrared port seems to have stopped working completely.  I'm pretty sure this is the case because my spare 5mx still communicates with the phone but neither the phone or the spare 5mx can connect to the 5mxPro.  I have tried a soft reset and even a hard reset, to no avail.

Has anyone come across this problem before?  I have been unable to find any mention on the internet despite extensive searching.

Does anyone know if it is possible to fix the problem?  As many of you will know this particular machine is very special because of the extra RAM and I want to hang on to it, rather than "downgrade" back to a standard 5mx.

Just for a bit of fun, and in case anyone needs reminding why I think the 5mx is STILL functionally streets ahead of anything I've yet seen in a hand-held package.  I think this list will give any of the recent handheld devices that have been the subject of much recent discussion a good run for their money in terms of range of usable productivity functionality - though if you want a wifi DVD playing phone, look elsewhere :)

For me it remains competent as a substitute for a laptop for essential tasks when travelling light - e.g. by air to remote locations - standard AA batteries and no heavy charger with keyboard and, on a typical trip I would use these features regularly: e-mail, (basic) web, mapping/ GPS/ directional navigation (UK + Europe) including tidal  marine AND (limited coverage) underground/ subway travel, (basic) Java calculators (e.g. solar eclipse, sunrise etc), word processing/ sheet calculations  charting, contacts, agenda, phone management  sync including SMS, calculation  conversion, a dictionary, handwriting recognition, newsreader and web downloader, graphics  illustration and a range of astronomical functions, web page generation, PDF reader AND writer (from any application that can print).  I could go on but know that some of you will think I'm living in the past... :(

Best
Austin