Monthly Archive for July, 2004

New HP iPAQs showing up online

Published
by
Josh Bancroft
on July 12, 2004
. 0 Comments

XScale.de - Hochaufl?sende Bilder aller iPAQ-Neuheiten - The center of your mobile life.

Lots of info is trickling out onto the web regarding the imminent availability of HP’s new line of iPAQs. Xscale.de has photos and specs of the upcoming models:

That’s the HS4705 model. Notice the touchpad that replaces the rocker-type D-pad? It will be interesting to see how well that works. It’s supposed to provide a mouse-like pointer for navigation. I don’t really understand the point, when you have a touch screen (one handed navigation? Hmm…), but oh well.

Here is the nitty gritty on the new models:

  • rz1715 (est. USD$279) - small and sleek, 203MHz Samsung CPU, 25 MB user accessible RAM, SD slot. Basically, the next-generation low-end replacement for the 1910. I’m dismayed that there’s so little RAM, and the CPU isn’t much of an improvement over current models. I’d pass on this one, unless you just want a basic PDA. Nice price, though.
  • rx3415 (est. USD$399) - same form factor as the rs1715, but adds Bluetooth, 802.11b wireless networking, and a 1.3 megapixel (1280×960) camera. This one has a more respectable 56MB of user accessible RAM, and also sports a Samsung processor, though the specs don’t say how fast it is. With the added processing burden of wireless and the camera, let’s hope it’s more than the rs1715’s 205MHz. The integrated wireless and camera make this unit quite attractive, especially since it seems to be wedged into a very svelte and trim form factor (114×71x16mm, 5.2oz).
  • rx3715 (est. USD$499) - appears to be identical to the rx3415, except that it carries a whopping 152MB of RAM! Wow. That’s the most on-board RAM I’ve ever seen in a PDA. 96MB is part of the iPAQ File Store, which means it’s non-volatile Flash ROM that won’t be lost if you hard reset the device. Lots of memory + integrated wireless + small form factor + camera = drool.
  • hx4705 (est. USD$649) - This is the unit pictured above. 4 inch screen, 624MHz Intel Bulverde CPU, CF and SD slots, integrated Bluetooth and 802.11b wireless, 135 MB user accessible memory (80MB iPAQ File Store), and that funky touchpad. This is the big mama enterprise iPAQ. I wonder if they’re going to try to do fingerprint security via the touchpad, a la the 5400/5500 series?
  • h6315 (est. USD$599) - This is the Phone Edition device that we’ve been hearing about forever. TI processor (no word on speed), every kind of wireless you can think of (GSM/GPRS, Bluetooth, 802.11b WLAN), plus it’s a phone. The rest of the features are pretty standard fare (SD slot, 64MB RAM, etc.), though the 1800mAH battery is pretty beefy. It’s nice to see a Pocket PC Phone Edition that includes WiFi. This unit will go head to head this fall with the Motorola MPx for the title of Best Pocket PC Phone Edition - will its lack of a QWERTY keyboard hurt it, or will it come out on top?

I probably won’t be participating in this upgrade cycle (famous last words, I know), mainly because right now, my iPAQ 4350 (with integrated wireless and QWERTY keyboard) + MPX200/MPX220 Smartphone suit me just fine. The new iPAQs are definitely attractive, and I’ll be recommending them to people looking to buy a PDA, but there’s just not quite enough compelling novelty to make me seriously consider upgrading my 4350. Yet.

Of course, the year is young, and I have yet to hold one of these babies in my hot little hands, so who knows what will happen…


Game Collector vs. Player

Published
by
Josh Bancroft
on July 12, 2004
. 1 Comment

I’m kind of ashamed to admit that my gaming backlog is pretty huge. Over the last couple of years, I’ve found that I spend less and less time actually playing games, though I still love them, and keep up with what’s new and exciting on my platforms (Xbox, Gamecube, GBA, PC). Coupled with the strange desire I have to scour all of the cheap game deal sites to find good games for cheap, I’ve found that I’ve become more of a game collector than a game player. Of the last several dozen games I’ve purchased, I haven’t finished any of them. There are a couple that I haven’t even played. For some reason, though, that doesn’t lessen my enjoyment of the games themselves. I get satisfaction in just owning a good game.

In the interest of saving money (we’re planning on buying a house later this year), though, I’m going to try to spend less money on new games, and focus on playing through the games in my backlog. The first game to get this treatment is Metroid Prime.

When I first got the game, and played it for bit, I was a bit put off by the difficulty of the controls - it’s sort of a first person shooter, like Halo, but the controls are different. My muscle memory was tuned to the Halo style of console FPS control (a task which in and of itself took some getting used to). So when I started Metroid Prime, it was difficult to get Samus to do what I wanted her to do. That, coupled with the difficulty of the “intro” level (I hate “OMG you have 1 minute to escape from this level before it blows up and you DIE!” levels), the game got shelved for a while.

I decided to give it another shot this weekend, and I’m very glad I did. I’ve finally gotten used to to the controls, at least to the point where they’re not a barrier to enjoying the game, and I got past the “intro” level, and into the main game. All of the exploration gameplay that made me love the original Metroid and Super Metroid is here, and I’m loving it. Getting ability upgrades and items (Samus lost her high-powered weapons and suit abilities after the “intro” level) is great motivation to explore. Save points are spaced out just far enough that the game’s not too easy, but not frustratingly hard, either. And the presentation of the game (graphics, sound, etc.) is aboslutely top notch. Metroid Prime is one of the greatest console games of this generation.

Anyway, expect more updates on what I’m playing as I begin in earnest to work my way through my gaming backlog.


Windows Mobile 2003 for MPX200. Sort of.

Published
by
Josh Bancroft
on July 8, 2004
. 1 Comment

msmobiles.com - Windows Mobile 2003 for MPx200 released - with a bitter sweet taste

User “@nonymous” has made a German Windows Mobile 2003 ROM for the Motorola MPX200 Smartphone available. You can get it at msmobiles.com (follow the link above). Though the ROM is in German, you can easily change the UI to English with a simple registry hack - instructions here.

@nonymous claims that the new ROM increases the standby time of the phone up to 4 or 5 days, plus it includes all of the features and benfits of WM2003 (optimization/speed due to being based on WinCE.NET 4.2, improved Inbox, etc.).

If you’re dying to get Windows Mobile 2003 on your MPX200, and are willing to take the risk of turning it into a very expensive paperweight/void your warranty, then this is your chance. If you didn’t already know, performing a ROM update involves a hard reset, so all data, settings, and applications you may have installed will be lost. Plus, this is a completely unsupported ROM - there’s no way Motorola or your carrier is going to help you do this. Caveat haxor.

Personally, I’m don’t know whether I’m going to do this or not. The MPX220 is slated to come out Real Soon Now(TM) (I’m hearing August from credible sources), and it’s always a pain to reinstall/reconfigure a device after a hard reset. If I start feeling feisty, maybe I’ll give it a shot. You can bet that I’ll post about it here if I do.


2005 BMW M5 Officially Launched! (drooling ensues)

Published
by
Josh Bancroft
on July 8, 2004
. 0 Comments

July Launch of the E60 M5

Not that I’ll be able to afford one in the next couple of decades, but if I had my choice of one car, any car, today, it would likely be an M5.

The new M5 has an all-new V-10 engine that makes over 500 horsepower. The only transmission option is the SMGIII (sequential manual gearshift) paddle system, that allows both manual and automatic shifting by means of a computer-actuated clutch (not a traditional slushbox automatic). The SMGIII will be the first 7-speed transmission in a production car. The new M5 features an “MDrive” button on the steering wheel that toggles between customizable comfort and performance profiles that you set up in iDrive. You can adjust tons of settings, including the “Active backrest width”. Awesome.

I’m still a little hesitant to fully embrace the new Bangle-ized style of recent BMWs. I think it’s going to take a little while, but it’s definitely growing on me.

Check out the link above for lots of details and photos.

One day, it will be mine…


Xbox: PGR2 Long Beach Booster Pack

Published
by
Josh Bancroft
on July 6, 2004
. 0 Comments

PGR2: Long Beach Booster Pack - First Info & Screens

I snagged the Paris booster pack for Project Gotham Racing 2 a while ago - one new city (Paris) with 8 or so new tracks, and 7 or so new cars. It’s great fun, and got me interested in PGR2 again (so much so that I played it more than once in a week!).

Now, here comes word of the next booster pack - Long Beach:

The tracks and scenery look nice, and it looks like the new cars include the Dodge Ram SRT/10 (with the beastly V-10 from the Viper), what looks like a Ferrari 456, an older muscle car from the 60s (’Cuda?), the VW Nardo, and a couple of others.

None of the new cars really jump out and grab me, but it’s always nice to have new tracks and an increased car selection (PGR2 already has well over 100 cars to select from). I’ll probably pick this up when it comes out. When you think about the $5 cost, I tend to compare it to things like magazines - how much entertainment will I get from this $5 compared to buying a magazine, etc. Pretty good value, if you ask me.


T-Mobile not carrying Moto MPX100 and MPx?

Published
by
Josh Bancroft
on July 2, 2004
. 0 Comments

T-Mobile not carrying Moto MPX100 and MPx?

Engadget reports that there’s a rumor going around that T-Mobile has dropped their plans to launch the Moto MPX100 Smartphone (same feature set as the MPX220, but in a candybar format), and are thinking about doing the same with the MPx.

These phones are going to be wildly popular. They’re perfectly suited to T-Mobile’s $19/month unlimited GPRS internet plan. Why in the world would they consider not carrying these phones?

There was no mention of my beloved MPX220 (though there has never been official confirmation that they were going to carry any of the new Moto Smartphones), so maybe it’s still on the roadmap.

I guess it won’t really affect me if they decide not to carry these phones, even the MPX220, since I’ll likely get it unsubsidized from CompUSA, assuming I can unlock it work on T-Mobile. But it just doesn’t make sense to me, why they would decide not to carry what are promising to be the hottest phones of the year…


Motorola A630 = repackaged V600; for sale on eBay

Published
by
Josh Bancroft
on July 1, 2004
. 1 Comment

eBay: Motorola A630

Gizmodo is reporting that the Moto A630 won’t, in fact, be running Windows Mobile, but Moto’s proprietary OS. It’s essentially going to be a repackaged V600. Rats. This would have been an awesome Smartphone. It’s still an great design/form factor, though.

In related news, Gizmodo says that this phone has shown up on eBay already. Current bid is around $500. Pricey, if you ask me, but if you’ve simply got to have it, nothing beats eBay.


Google News RSS

Published
by
Josh Bancroft
on July 1, 2004
. 0 Comments

Google News RSS - Google Mania - GoogleMania -Todo Sobre Google

Want to subscribe to Google News via RSS? Check out the site linked above. It’s all in Spanish, but they offer RSS feeds of various Google News sections, which is nice if you want them in your favorite aggregator.

For anyone who doesn’t know, Google News crawls thousands of news sites looking for the top stories, based on how often they’re posted (and other magical factors based on Google’s search algorithms). So you get a page full of the top news, with links to dozens, if not hundreds, of sources for each story. There’s no human editing, so there’s no bias. You read, and decide for yourself. Highly recommended.


Moto A630 Smartphone with QWERTY keyboard, camera

Published
by
Josh Bancroft
on July 1, 2004
. 0 Comments

Brighthand - Motorola A630 Smartphone Sports Keyboard, Camera

Brighthand has some more info on this interesting hardware design from Motorola. Photos of this unit surfaced a few months ago on PocketPCThoughts.com and a few other sites, but no concrete information was available. There was speculation as to whether the phone would run Pocket PC Phone Edition, or or Windows Mobile for Smartphones. The Brighthand article doesn’t say which OS it’s going to run, but predicts something proprietary. I’m not so sure, though. I think this phone is a great candidate to run Windows Mobile for Smartphones 2003 Second Edition. The screen size of 176 x 220 pixels sets off bells in my head, since that’s the resolution that other MS Smartphones, such as my Moto MPX200, use. If it does run the Smartphone OS, it would likely have to be the new 2003 Second Edition, which includes native support for screen rotation, to accomodate the landscape orientation of the screen. If it does run Smartphone OS, it would be the first such device (that I know of) to include a QWERTY keyboard.

Brighthand reports that it will be available via Cingular some time this summer. I’ll keep an eye out for more info between now and then, since I’m intrigued by the design of this phone.

Motorola is really kicking butt in the hardware design area - first the MPx and MPX200/MPX220, now this. Maybe they’re trying to become the Apple of the mobile phone industry?