Author: James Kendrick

My gear kit for trips changes from time to time save for one area that seems to always stay the same — power adapters. My kit always has a mobile power strip, adapter for a laptop, adapters for at least one phone, a MiFi; well you get the picture. The power adapter situation has called for me to carry a cable stash on all trips containing all of those adapters, plus the power strip to plug them all in. I don’t know how I missed the Chargepod, but it does look like it could replace the entire kit and caboodle.

How do you describe the Chargepod? Well, it looks like a futuristic hub of sorts, with jacks all over the place. A closer look points out all that can be done with it. The Chargepod will power and charge a laptop along with 3 mobile devices like phones, or that MiFi I mentioned. It does all of that while also providing a 3-jack USB hub, and it does it all in a mobile package not bigger than many of the phones it can charge. It fits my mobile philosophy that the less you bring on trips, the easier time you have.

The Chargepod is not cheap at about $200, but if you add up the cost of the multiple adapters it can replace that’s not so bad. It should be noted that the system uses universal adapters for mobile devices to be used, so your gear must be supported. Most phones (and that MiFi) use either micro-USB or mini-USB adapters so they would all work for the most part. Unfortunately, each adapter costs extra, so while they have adapters to fit over 3,000 different devices, it can get expensive. Some folks believe that convenience is worth paying for, so if that’s you have a look. It’s a pretty slick system, but I have not used one myself. They do have smaller battery-powered chargers that work with one or two phones, if less is more for your particular case. I’d love to hear from anyone using the Chargepod, especially what you think of it. Leave a comment and share your experience.

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Wireless Power: Beyond Charging Mats and Solar Panels

Our platform focus continues this fine Sunday with the e-Book Echo, our take on the week in the digital publishing world. I’ve weighed in before on the confusing area of international e-book publishing rights. It seems almost arbitrary which books can be purchased outside the U.S., as apparently each vendor needs an agreement for each country, author, and sometimes even individual books. How unclear this can be for artists was driven home this week in a comment left on jkOnTheRun by novelist David Hewson:

As an aside you might like to know that anyone buying the Kindle ‘International’ edition can’t buy my ebooks. That routes people through the US store and my US publisher doesn’t have US rights for some territories including the UK. So I am now getting complaining emails from UK Kindle owners saying ‘Why aren’t your books out as ebooks?’ Which they are – but for Sony in the UK from the UK publisher.

It is one almighty mess right now outside the US.

Confused yet? I know I am the more I hear about how this works (or fails to work). A conversation I had with Barnes & Noble last year addressed the mess from the e-book seller’s standpoint. They indicated they must often negotiate an agreement with each and every country in which they want to sell a given e-book. This must be done for each book they wish to sell, which is why you may notice that some books cannot be sold to consumers in a given country.

This situation is going to become more troublesome as the e-book industry grows, and it’s critical that the players get a handle on this. If an author wants his/her works sold as e-books, and their publisher does too, then it should be much simpler to sell them online without all of these lawyers involved. No disrespect to the legal profession, but when something relatively simple becomes so difficult due to legalities, it’s rarely a good thing for any involved parties.

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The Price of E-Book Progress

Last night I was faced with a rare situation, as my wife was meeting some friends for dinner and I had to eat alone. I decided to head over to the local Denny’s and have a quiet dinner, which would give me a chance to read a good e-book. I thought about it for a bit and decided to take a device with me that would not only provide a good reading experience but also let me go online if I wanted. It made sense to take a gadget that would take advantage of the free Wi-Fi in Denny’s should I so desire. I took a long look around Mobile Tech Manor and came up with the perfect solution, the Viliv S7 convertible netbook. Or maybe it’s a UMPC, I’m less sure what fits that category than ever before given the rash of slates, netbooks, etc. It turned out the loaner S7 was the perfect choice for this session, and here’s why.

By way of a refresher, the Viliv S7 is a 7-inch convertible netbook, with a swiveling touch screen that goes from a laptop configuration to a slate tablet. The device is very small and easy to carry, and while the keyboard is not adequate for touch typing, it is perfect for short online sessions with a minimal amount of expected typing. What makes the S7 so versatile is the dual configurations, a perfect fit for my expected needs for this trip to Denny’s.

I had no desire to take a “real” notebook with me, that was overkill and simply too big. I could have taken a smaller pure slate UMPC for the portability, but I wanted a better input scheme should I need it. The Viliv S7 combined the best of both worlds so that’s what I grabbed on the way out the door.

When I got to Denny’s I spun the screen around into slate configuration, and fired up the book reader. I have both Kindle for the PC and eReader Pro installed, so I was covered for handling content in either format. The 7-inch screen is an awesome display for reading e-books, as it can display a full page the equivalent of a paperback book. I simply tap the screen to turn the page, it couldn’t be easier. I ate my salad, a very nice one BTW, and read a good book with the slate sitting on the table in front of me. It was a wonderful experience, with a great leisurely pace to enjoy both the meal and the book.

Once the meal was done I decided to go on the web and catch up on things that happened during the day. I swiveled the screen around into laptop configuration and fired up the Google Chrome browser. I am finding Chrome to be the best browser on netbooks with the limited hardware they have; Chrome is just as fast as can be for handling multiple tabs. The 1024×600 screen was a joy to use in the browser, and it was nice having the keyboard for inputting key commands in the browser.

I also fired up TweetDeck to catch up with my Twitter friends, and switched back and forth between it and the browser. I caught up on my email for the day (inbox zero, in fact), and generally had a fun session on the web. The S7 was a joy to use and I was so glad I brought it to Denny’s.

The point of this is not to prove how good it is to have a big stable of gadgets to choose from. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but the point is to get folks thinking about intended usage scenarios when considering what device (or what type of device) might fit the bill. I’m confident a bigger device would not have been as enjoyable, in fact I probably wouldn’t have even carried a bigger slate with me. I didn’t want to be compromised in how I could use a gadget during my meal, and this 7-inch device was perfect. Easy to carry, easy to use.

Truth be told, I could have taken a smaller slate device, or even one of my smartphones would have worked. But the S7 made everything I did much easier, and more importantly more enjoyable. The bigger screen and real keyboard was nicer to use, and made all the difference in the world. The entire session was a real joy, and that’s priceless.

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10 Mobile Predictions for 2010

The week marches on and today being Saturday means it is time to recap the recent happenings in the world of Windows Mobile. The public unveiling of the next generation smartphone OS from Microsoft occurred this week. Windows Phone 7 Series was officially launched at the Mobile World Congress in Spain, and the first demonstration of the new platform dazzled the receptive audience. Microsoft is still not divulging detail about the new OS, but promises more as the year progresses.

Here’s what we know for sure about Windows Phone 7. The new interface is based on the ZuneHD interface, augmented with “live tiles” that are widgets sitting on the screen. These tiles tap into the user’s social networks, providing live updates from the uer’s contacts. The OS is very people-centric, with live views into contact’s interactions with Facebook, Twitter and other communication methods. The screens of tiles are organized into six “hubs”, that gather the tiles into task oriented groups. These hubs are People, Pictures, Games, Music + Video, Marketplace and Office.

The Music + Video hub will present a new experience on the Windows Phone 7 devices, with both the Zune and xbox live products integrated into the smartphone. Microsoft did not provide details on exactly how this integration will take place, but the Zune Desktop will be the method for connecting the Windows Phone 7 to the computer. It looks to work like the iTunes/ iPhone integration on the Apple side.

More details about the new OS has been promised at the Microsoft MIX developer’s conference coming soon. Hopefully we’ll hear more about the hardware requirements that will be in place for Windows Phone 7, and perhaps how the OS can be customized by developers, OEMs and carriers. The first new phones running Windows Phone 7 Series will not appear until the holiday season this year, so there is plenty of time for details to emerge.

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The App Developer’s Guide to Choosing a Mobile Platform

HTC plans to release two new Android phones overseas this spring, the maker of the Nexus One — considered by many to be the best Android phone around — said this week. The first will be dubbed the Desire, and will be HTC’s effort to bring the same capability as the Nexus One to the carrier-subsidized market, unlike the unlocked Google version. It packs many of the same components, including that snappy Snapdragon processor, but adds an optical trackpad.

And if the early look at the second phone, the Legend, that HTC provided is any indication, that device will be the sexiest smartphone around — Android or no Android — due to its aluminum unibody construction, similar to that of Apple’s MacBook. The same optical trackpad will be used on the Legend as on the Desire, indicating HTC may make it a standard feature on its entire Android line going forward. Both phones will start to appear in Europe and Asia in March or April. No word yet on plans for a U.S. debut, but hopefully a deal with a U.S. carrier will be inked to bring them stateside not too long afterwards.

In the meantime, the folks at Mozilla are hard at work on Mobile Firefox. But those hoping an Android version would soon appear to challenge the Webkit-based browser had those hopes dashed this week. A VP at Mozilla said in an interview that the Android version of Firefox wouldn’t arrive until late in 2010. When pressed as to why, Jay Sullivan indicated that Android is harder to code for than Mozilla originally thought:

“Android has been built on a Java platform, whereas [Firefix Mobile] is based on C and C++ code. Until last year when [the Open Handset Alliance] released the NDK (native development kit) which allowed native code as part of the app, it was simply impossible.”

The Dell Mini 10 netbook is a very nice specimen, as witnessed by Kevin’s video below. It has just about everything a netbook user could want and then some, given word that WiMAX is now an option. The new option is unlocked, so it can be used with either Sprint or Clear in the U.S., giving up to 10 Mbps performance. The option is $60, and you’ll have to get a data plan which is extra. Maybe Kevin can get his hands on one of these babies with 4G?

Better Battery Life Motivates Mobile Chipmakers

Having a smartphone connected to the web can be a useful thing, if it’s leveraged correctly. The web is a vast fountain of information, and having the right tool on a smartphone to zero in on that one nugget of information is priceless. It is especially priceless if it is free, like Google Shopper for Android. Google Shopper doesn’t break all new ground, but it adds a useful feature to Android phones that is easy to use. The app uses the phone camera to scan product bar codes, and then returns detailed product information right on the phone.

This is not new technology, as ShopSavvy has been doing this for a while. What Google Shopper adds to the mix is the ability to also scan the cover of books, videos and games by using the phone camera. Google’s vast online storage of information can recognize these product covers and figure out what it is. Alternatively, Google Shopper lets you speak the name of a product to get information, which is returned quickly to the phone display.

Product searches can be saved in the app for future reference, or shared with friends using Gmail, IM or Twitter. Makes it easy to show friends what they can buy you, and where they can find it.

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Cool, Calm and Connected: 3 Design Principles for Connected Objects

The end of another week is drawing to a close which means I get to share the past week with you. My home office, Mobile Tech Manor, was so busy that I didn’t have time to prepare for this column. It was one of those weeks where late Thursday evening I realized the week was almost over. Those are rare and frankly wonderful weeks, as it’s great to find the work week has flown by in a blur. Monday was a holiday in the U.S., and it was also the first day of the Mobile World Congress. I ended up working quite a bit as a result, as big announcements were flying fast and furious at the MWC.

MWC

The MWC is one of the biggest global exhibitions that is centered around the smartphone segment. It is held in Barcelona, which this year was colder than usual. There was a lot of buzz about the cold on Twitter from those in attendance.

One of the most anticipated announcements at MWC was the unveiling of Windows Phone 7 by Microsoft. This announcement has kicked off seemingly endless discussions about the new interface, the widgety home screen, etc. I like the new interface, I find it clean and simple, yet modern. I think it goes a long way to bring Windows Phone 7 into the smartphone world of today. While I’ve heard complaints about the plain tiles that comprise this screen, I find them refreshing. I also believe that had Microsoft made them more sophisticated (3D, e. g.), then the performance of the graphics would likely take a hit. There are a lot of them on one screen after all, so keeping them simple is better for graphic performance.

I do have one concern that I haven’t seen covered anywhere. These tiles are “live” in that they are constantly updating information from both the phone and from the web. There are social network tiles, contact info tiles, well you get the idea. These tiles may end up tapping a 3G network pretty hard, with so many conduits into the web working all the time. I wonder how that will affect data network data caps, always a concern. I also wonder how this will end up affecting battery life on Windows phones.

I have seen battery life take a big hit with simple widgets on various phones. Twitter widgets running in the background can drink a battery on some phones in short order. This makes me wonder about having all of these tiles open and running at the same time on Windows Phone 7.

We’ll find out more about this over the next few months, as Microsoft didn’t unveil much detail about the new platform this week. They have a lot of time to fill before any new phones appear at the end of the year so they will no doubt be trickling out more information during the interim.

HTC must have the biggest phone design team in the business, as they produce more phone models than anybody. They unveiled three new phones at the MWC, and all of them look really sweet. The Desire is the new object of my desire, as it brings all of the goodness of the Nexus One (which they also make), and updates it with some new touches that I like. The optical touchpad beneath the screen is wonderful, and putting the brand new version of the Sense interface is awesome. I hope the Desire makes it to the U.S. this year, I’d love to give it a try.

Platform agnostic

This week I noticed that I have become truly platform agnostic, in both computing and smartphones. I have always tried to be agnostic for objectivity, but I realized this week that I have reached the point where I rarely think about the platform in hand. This realization shocked me, as normally you think the platform you use is so important that whether to use it for a given task must be a consideration. I gave a lot of thought this week to the way I am working and realize I rarely think about platform any more.

I am using Windows and OS X about 50-50 these days. When I am heading out the door to work remotely, I usually grab a notebook based on convenience of use, and never the platform. I honestly don’t care if it’s Windows or the Mac, I just grab a notebook and go. This is madly liberating, as it means the tools are comparable for the work I do. This is no doubt largely due to the cloud nature of my work, the tool is simply a conduit into the cloud. The software tools I use locally are to the point that they are equal on both platforms, and not a consideration for any given task. Madly liberating, I say again.

The same holds true for smartphone platforms. Those familiar with my mad obsession with smartphones know that I have four smartphones I have purchased and use. These are on four different phone carriers, and on four different platforms. I have webOS, BlackBerry, iPhone and Android in use. These are on Sprint, Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile, respectively. I have threatened to cancel some of these carriers due to the high cost, and in fact did cancel T-Mobile a while back. I have to confess that T-Mobile talked me into keeping the service so I’m still a customer.

Thinking this week on my platform independence, it became apparent that which platform I use is irrelevant for the task at hand. I just grab one of the phones when I head out, and don’t worry about the choice. They all work fine, and I have yet to regret bringing one phone and not another. This is due to the comparable capabilities of all four platforms, as the apps I use put them on equal footing with a couple of exceptions.

I still find Sprint Navigation on webOS to be the best in class, so when I am heading out to someplace I haven’t been before I always grab the Palm Pre. I love the navigation solution, it’s the best I have used on any device. I also like how easy it is to add new destinations over the web. I visit the Sprint navigation web site, add the new address, and I’m good to go. When I fire up Sprint Navigation on the Pre in the car, I hit the Sync button and all new addresses added at the desktop appear in the list. I tap the desired one and off I go. It just works.

I read a lot of e-books when I have free time, and until this week this often meant I had to take the iPhone 3G with me. Kindle on the iPhone is a great reader, and it meant the iPhone came along almost always. This week Amazon released Kindle for BlackBerry, and I immediately installed it OTA on the Storm. What a great reader the Storm is, with the large screen and the new Kindle app. I can turn pages in the book by either clicking on the page or by swiping it. I have been carrying the Storm all the time since this app landed, so Kevin’s contention that people choose smartphones based on apps is a valid one in my case.

Personal

I have been a Type 2 diabetic for almost a decade, and have been treating it with a combination of oral medication and insulin injections. I have been able to keep it under proper control until recently, but my metabolism has changed and it is not responding as well to the meds as it should. Next week I am having a continuous glucose meter installed in my body that will monitor the level every 5 minutes. This will enable my doctor to get an idea how my system is changing, and thus how to treat it properly.

I only have to have this meter in my body for four days, so it’s not a permanent change. It’s mobile tech enabled which I find fascinating given my obsessions with mobile tech. My glucose meter, used with the old finger stick method, can interface with this continual meter and store the results. I’m not yet sure how this all works together, but I’ll know more next week. It’s awesome when medical tech crosses into the mobile tech arena.

e-Book of the week

I finished the great fantasy series by James Clemens I have been discussing for a few weeks, and this week returned to the Nic Costa series by David Hewson. I am in book four of this series, The Lizard’s Bite, and it’s moving along nicely. It’s a joy swapping between the Kindle 2 and the BlackBerry Storm reading this book.

Wrap-up

That’s the week as it went down, and there was a lot of pondering on the tech I use as you now know. Until next week, take care of yourself, and be safe.

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The App Developer’s Guide to Choosing a Mobile Platform

It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for another Palm Press, our weekly look at the world of Palm. It’s been fairly quiet on the Palm front of late, with the news being dominated by happenings at the Mobile World Congress. A quite bit of news slipped in from Mark/Space, the folks behind the Missing Sync utility. While Mac users have had 2-way calendar syncing for a while, a new Windows version has been released that offers full 2-way syncing with webOS phones, too. While many Pre or Pixi owners are content with native Google cloud syncing (and I’m one of those), some like to have their phones paired to a computer. The new Missing Sync will keep the Pre or Pixi in sync over Wi-Fi, even while sitting restfully on the Touchstone charger.

A Kaufman Brothers analyst is predicting Palm will ship one million webOS phones this quarter, a princely sum. Palm’s last quarterly numbers were released prior to the impact of the new Verizon deal for the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus, and the analyst feels this will make a big impact on Palm’s bottom line. It is predicted that around 600,000 phones will be shipped to Verizon this quarter, a volume higher than previously anticipated. If these numbers hold up, the future for Palm is much brighter.

I had a conversation with Adobe regarding the expected appearance of Flash 10.1 on webOS and they have indicated they are still on track for release in the first half of this year. While it had been previously stated that webOS would be the first platform seeing Flash 10.1, they are now indicating it will likely hit Android and webOS at around the same time. Flash 10.1 is already in a private beta and is on track for delivery soon. It has also been reported that Flash 10.1 would be hitting webOS shortly, but this does not seem to be the case.

Late last year we reported that Bsquare had been named a distributor for Windows Mobile products. Microsoft had awarded the channel distributorship to Bsquare, allowing them to license and support Windows Mobile products going forward. This relationship is about to muddy the waters for Windows Phone products, as a press release by Bsquare announces the launch of “Windows Phone 6 Starter Edition” for “new and emerging markets.”

So what is Windows Phone 6 Starter Edition, you ask? That’s not clear, although Bsquare indicates there will be a version without Office Mobile, long part of the Windows Mobile/ Phone ecosystem.

Bsquare will offer two versions of the Windows Phone 6 Starter Edition SKU: Multilanguage versions with and without Microsoft ® Office Mobile.  The Windows Phone Starter Edition SKU supports 2G (GSM), 2.5G (CDMA2000 xRTT, EDGE, GPRS), CDMA (Rev A, EV-DO Revision A) and TD-SCDMA radios.

It’s not explained in the release what constitutes a “new and emerging market,” or how this Starter Edition might impact existing Windows Mobile 6.5.x distributions. Are you confused yet? It was only yesterday that word leaked out the Windows Mobile 6.5 would be known as Windows Phone Classic. Now we throw a “Starter Edition” on top of that, which is reminiscent of the Windows 7 Starter Edition, a netbook fixture. You must be confused by now. Fortunately for Microsoft it has a few months to figure this all out and clue us in to the big picture.

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The e-book reader segment is as hot as firecrackers right now, but it’s important not to overlook smartphones as capable readers. Amazon knew that would be the case early on, with the release of the Kindle for iPhone shortly after the debut of the Kindle reader. Selling content for multiple platforms can only be a good thing for Amazon. The company’s promise to produce a Kindle app for the BlackBerry has been fulfilled, with the reader app now available for download from Amazon.

Kindle for BlackBerry can be used to browse the Kindle online store, manage the bookshelf, and to read books. Like the iPhone app, the BlackBerry version works with Whispersync to always keep the current reading place (and annotations) in sync across multiple devices. This feature alone makes the Kindle platform enjoyable to use, as users can start a book on the Kindle, and pick up where they left off on the iPhone (and now the BlackBerry) if desired. The smartphone versions of the Kindle reader can be used without a Kindle reader being in the picture at all, however.

Only e-books are supported in this version, as magazines, newspapers and other content the Kindle can access are not available. The app is only available in the U.S., perhaps international support will come in the future. The app is free, and only available on certain Blackberry models. Models currently listed include the Curve, Storm, Bold and Tour.

Image courtesy Amazon

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The Price of E-Book Progress

We ran across the PeeWee PC almost a year ago, and for parents of small children it still could be a good first computer for them. Not everyone may be in a position to spend a few hundred dollars on such a PC, however, so the folks at PeeWee have introduced the PeeWee Kit. This software kit, available on a USB flash drive or on CD, combines security features and software for the kiddies into an affordable package. The kit will turn any PC, and I’m thinking a cheap netbook fits the bill nicely, into a computer optimized for the younger set.

The security portion of the PeeWee Kit is designed to provide parents with peace of mind with Junior traipsing all over the big, bad Internet. It couples parental control with the ability to monitor computer usage remotely to provide a safe environment for the little ones. The included software is rounded out with a solid list of educational programs and games to keep the kid’s attention on the learning experience:

• Science House
• Bailey Book House
• Trudy’s Time & Place House
• Sammy’s Science House
• Millie’s Math House
• Thinkin’ Things
• Mighty Math Carnival Countdown
• Zoombinis Mountain Rescue
• Reader Rabbit
• Where in the World in Carmen Sandiego?
• Oregon Trail

The PeeWee Kit sounds like a solid investment for those wishing to get the kiddos familiar with using a computer, while doing so safely and with good purpose. The CD version of the kit only includes some of the programs listed and is $19.99, while the USB flash complete version is $29.99.

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Disney Picks a Fight With ‘Alice’

Microsoft shook things up in the smartphone space by finally unveiling Windows Phone 7 to the geekerati in Barcelona. The updated look for the next version of the phone OS formerly known as Windows Mobile is refreshing, and brings the platform into the new decade with style. What was  unclear was what Microsoft intends to do with the existing version of Windows Mobile, 6.5.x, and many are asking that very question. The answer from Microsoft is that WinMo 6.5 will continue to be supported, and will coexist alongside the new Windows Phone 7. In fact, once WP7 is available late this year, Windows Mobile 6.5 will be christened Windows Phone Classic.

It is great that Windows Mobile will not be abandoned, especially since 6.5 (and 6.5.3) have not been out very long. Phone owners and handset makers alike will be happy to see investments in current handsets not cast aside by the new version. It is not yet clear exactly what Microsoft might have planned for Windows Phone Classic once Windows Phone 7 hits the market. I also wonder what older versions of Windows Mobile will be called in the future. Windows Phone Ultra-Classic? Every time I say Windows Phone Classic, I feel that the new OS should be called New Windows Phone. Coke, anyone?

Image courtesy Istartedsomething

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While it is true that I’ve been using mobile devices since they weighed 30 pounds, my excitement for them didn’t peak until they got quite a bit lighter. In 2004 Sony released a mobile device that changed my mobile world completely. The Sony U70 ultra-portable PC was such a ground-breaking mobile device that it set the tone for all such gadgets to come. Today I have been taking a trip down memory lane, and it hit me that if the Sony U70 was released today it would still be a viable solution for many. The U70 was so advanced for its time that it could probably survive still today.

If I compare the Sony U70 with a device currently available, it would be the Viliv S5. I have tested the S5 extensively, so I can make a good comparison between the two devices. I am comparing the S5 to my memories of using the Sony, so you may have to give me some slack as that was a long time ago. I will admit that the Sony U70 was so revolutionary that the memory is still vivid, so the comparison should be valid.

Both devices are slate tablets, designed to be used in the hand. They are roughly the same size: the Sony U70 had a 5 inch screen and the Viliv S5 a 4.8-inch widescreen. Both devices are roughly the same thickness, and memory tells me the U70 was slightly heavier due to the metal bezel; the Viliv is all plastic and thus a bit lighter. The Viliv has a higher resolution screen, 1024×600 vs. the 800×600 of the Sony U70. Both screens are resistive touch screens and both devices shipped with Microsoft Windows XP, although I believe the Viliv may now be shipping with Windows 7.

The Sony U70 had an Intel Pentium M processor running at 1 GHz, and shipped with 512 MB of RAM. It only had a 20 GB hard drive, which was standard at the time. The Viliv S5 has an Intel Atom processor running at 1.33 GHz, and has 1 GB of RAM onboard. There are models of the S5 available with SSDs, or a 60 GB hard drive is available, I believe.

The Sony had a set of controls on the screen bezels that were the best I have ever used on any handheld device. There was a real joystick accompanied by three mouse buttons, along with several other buttons that provided very useful functions. The Viliv has mouse buttons, but the joystick on the left is more of a D-pad in function and not quite as useful. The Sony had a ROTATE button that instantly rotated the screen into any orientation, and also rotated the functions of all the buttons on the bezel. This made it a joy to use as the button functions always matched the current screen orientation. Device makers should always do this if they provide screen rotation. Another very useful control on the Sony was the scroll pad above the joystick. This provided 4-way scrolling in any program, without having to use program scroll bars.

The Sony U70 shipped with a full dock that handled external monitors and peripherals. It was an instant desktop solution with the dock, especially when coupled with the folding USB keyboard that was also included. With the dock, the U70 could drive an external monitor with a resolution up to 1600×1200, a decent desktop solution. The Viliv S5 does not ship with a dock, nor with a keyboard. Of course, the Viliv is about $600 vs the $2,700 for the U70 six years ago.

The price alone shows the biggest change in the handheld tech world over the past 6 years. Gadgets have gotten a lot cheaper. As I take this look back at the Sony U70, I am shocked to find it still capable by today’s standards. Actually, it could give most handheld slates a run for the money even today. That shows how far ahead of its time it was. I wonder how cheaply Sony could produce a device today with all of the functionality of the U70. I’d be first in line.

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The State of the Smartbook

Apple’s disdain for Adobe Flash is legendary, so it is not surprising that the iPad will not support Flash in the browser. The iPhone doesn’t support Flash either, so this is simply more of the same. A recent conversation I had with Adobe pointed out something that is not well known in regards to Flash on these devices from Apple. It turns out Flash runs fine, as long as it’s in the form of a native iPhone/iPad app. Adobe has tools to make that easy for developers to do, and told me that more than 40 Flash-based apps have been submitted to the iTunes App Store. Now comes word that the cool Wired iPad app was developed with Adobe AIR, which, Apple’s feelings aside, makes apparent just how much can be done with Flash on Apple’s domain.

To be clear, Safari’s mobile browser will not handle Flash on web pages, and this is by design. No matter what we mere mortals think about that, it is not going to change in our lifetime. Apple has a blind spot about Flash that is not going away, iPad or not. The folks at Adobe have figured that out by now, and it is pure genius that they have produced a tool to get around Apple and let developers get Flash apps on the iPhone/ iPad. According to Adobe, the Packager for iPhone can compile any Flash-based app into native iPhone code. Adobe AIR can then be used to distribute them onto the iPad. No matter how you may feel about Flash, watching the video of the Wired iPad app shows just how much can be accomplished with it on Apple’s own platform.

So will Apple allow this to happen? That’s hard to predict as the company seems to have a true hatred for all things Flash. This uncertainty is where Apple’s tight-handed control over the app approval process raises its ugly head. It doesn’t have to do anything to prevent these Flash apps to get released, it can simply withhold approval. I really hope this doesn’t happen, and I believe Apple will be very short-sighted if it doesn’t approve apps simply because they’re Flash-based. If the company wants to make the iPad the Next Big Thing, it had better make it easy to get good apps like the Wired app on board. Flash or no.

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Spb Mobile Shell has long been one of the best things you can add to a Windows Mobile phone. The tight graphical interface makes for a great user experience, and is reminiscent of the HTC Sense interface for WinMo. Following yesterday’s announcement of the new Windows Phone 7 launch, one of the first things I wondered was how a more locked-down interface would affect HTC and Spb and the special interfaces they produce. Spb is ahead of me in that regard, and have announced that the new version 5 of the Spb Mobile Shell interface will work on Windows Mobile, and is also available for Android and Symbian.

Spb Mobile Shell provides a 3D interface for the home screen that is optimized for touch control. It has long been a top-selling app for Windows Mobile, and it will be interesting to see how well the Android and Symbian versions are accepted. The product page for Mobile Shell still shows the older 3.5 version which is WinMo only. There is no date provided indicating when the new Android and Symbian versions might be available for purchase.

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Smartphones are in a tremendous growth period, with adoption by mainstream consumers fueling sales. As phones become more like handheld computers, the operating system that powers them becomes more important. In spite of the number of smartphones in the marketplace, until yesterday you could count the number of significant OSes using just a few fingers. That has changed due to a number of announcements coming out of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona this week. The smartphone playing field has changed, and not just a little.

Until the announcements yesterday, the smartphone landscape could be defined by five major platforms. These OSes power the lion’s share of smartphones in consumer’s hands. In no particular order the short list was: BlackBerry, iPhone, webOS, Windows Mobile and Android. Depending on who you might ask, webOS and Windows Mobile were both flagging behind the others, and some were even writing off the ability of the two platforms to compete with the others.

A few major announcements coming out of the MWC have dramatically changed the smartphone landscape, and for the better. The smartphone playing field just got more competitive, and that is always a good thing for consumers. Here is my list of competitive smartphone platforms as of today, in no particular order.

BlackBerry –– RIM has made tremendous inroads into the consumer space, and while growth has flagged recently the BlackBerry is still a platform to be reckoned with. We will continue to see the BlackBerry on every major carrier globally.

Android — Google’s phone platform continues to be the darling of the smartphone world, and this will not change. Many of the top smartphones being produced today are running Android, and Google’s insane development pace will insure that continues. Most top handset OEMs are focusing tightly on Android for future products.

iPhone — Apple will continue to sell millions of iPhones, lack of multi-tasking and Flash notwithstanding. The iPhone continues to grow market share in the smartphone space, and this will continue.

webOS — Palm made a big splash last year with the first innovative smartphone OS to come along in a while, but it was not enough to drive sales numbers significant enough to gain big market share. While the future of webOS is not etched in stone, Palm will continue to be around for the foreseeable future, along with webOS.

Windows Phone 7 — Microsoft made a big splash with the big unveiling of the next smartphone OS from Redmond. Windows Phone 7 shows a tremendous amount of promise, and will likely be a big factor in the continuing smartphone wars. Many were willing to write off the long-term viability of the Windows Mobile platform, but no longer after this week’s announcement of Windows Phone 7. Details of the new platform have not all been divulged, but it’s a safe bet that Microsoft will increase market share once Windows Phone 7 actually hits the market.

Symbian 3 — Nokia’s Symbian platform has never been considered a true smartphone OS, even Nokia has been using Maemo for its own high-end smartphones. That will likely change as the company has just announced Symbian 3, the next major version for the company. Preliminary views have it looking a lot like the iPhone interface, and it is clear Nokia intends to use it to penetrate the smartphone consumer space. Nokia is the 800-pound gorilla in the phone world, and Symbian 3 will be a force to be reckoned with from that standpoint alone.

Meego — A new smartphone platform was just announced that has potential to rock things up in the space. Meego is a joint effort between Intel and Nokia that merges Moblin from the former and Maemo from the latter. The resultant open source smartphone/ tablet platform has the potential to make significant inroads into the smartphone arena, simply due to the two giant companies behind it. This new OS will likely make its way onto smartphones soon, and can potentially become a genuine player.

These are by no means the only smartphone OSes out there, but they are the ones I believe will be significant players going forward. The standard platforms are still on this list, but the newcomers that take a place due to recent events should not be overlooked.

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HTC is making many of the best smartphones on the market today, covering both the Android and Windows Mobile platforms. Today they are announcing three new handsets that push the envelope on both platforms. I had the pleasure of sitting down with HTC before the Mobile World Congress, and they were kind enough to give me the scoop on the three new phones. The Legend and Desire are new Android phones, while the HD mini is running Windows Mobile 6.5.3.

HTC Legend

The Legend is the successor to the popular Hero phone, and HTC borrowed a page from Apple for its construction. The Legend is built using aluminum unibody construction, making the phone extremely durable yet light in the hand. There is no trackball on the phone, instead there is an optical “joystick” for moving around on the screen. The Legend comes with a 3.2-inch AMOLED screen and a beefier processor (600 MHz) than the Hero. It will also ship with an updated version of the HTC Sense interface which has improvements to make working with the interface simpler. There is also a new Friend Stream app from HTC that is part of the new Sense version which integrates Facebook, Twitter and Flickr into one display.

HTC Desire

The Desire picks up where the Nexus One leaves off. The Nexus One is made for Google by HTC, and the Desire is basically HTC’s own version of the Nexus One. Think of it as a Nexus One with the Sense interface (the new version), and you’ll have the Desire. It uses the same fast Snapdragon processor and the same screen as the Nexus One, but HTC has updated the body casing slightly. The Desire also has an optical joystick, which sits just under the 3.7-inch AMOLED screen. The Desire will ship with Flash support in the browser, which should make a lot of folks happy. The new version of the Sense interface will also ship on the Desire, and in addition to the updates already mentioned there are new HTC apps for both phones. The Mail widget now has a list view, and there is an agenda view on the Calendar widget. The home screen weather widget now displays full screen, too.

HD mini

While Microsoft may be cutting the legs out from under Windows Mobile 6.5.3 by announcing Windows Phone 7, HTC is not through with the older WinMo version yet. The HD mini takes much of the function of HTC’s larger HD2, and cuts everything down to size for those who like smaller phones. This phone is about the same size as the HTC Touch, and has a 3.2-inch screen. Everything on the larger HD2 is on the HD mini, but the processor is not as snappy (600 MHz).

All three of these phones should be available in the March/ April timeframe in Europe and Asia. HTC does not have an agreement with a carrier to bring them to the U.S. yet.

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