Author: Kevin C. Tofel

With all of the Apple Tablet hysteria this week, it’s nice to see that Cupertino hasn’t forgotten about its other products. My Apple Wireless Keyboard found a firmware upgrade today. Although most any tablet with Bluetooth can use a wireless keyboard, I’m guessing this is just coincidence and not an upgrade to “make the keyboard work” with an anticipated product. Of course, this is good fodder for the conspiracy theorists out there.

No, there’s no mention of any tablet compatibility in the release notes. Instead, we get something even more useful: better battery performance! Apple says:

“This firmware update improves battery performance of the 2007 aluminum Apple Wireless Keyboard when used in combination with other bluetooth devices (eg. Magic Mouse, some bluetooth headsets, tablets) and addresses an issue with the 2007 aluminum Apple Keyboard and the 2007 aluminum Apple Wireless Keyboard where a key may repeat unexpectedly while typing. The update also addresses other issues.”

OK, I added and then struck out the word “tablets” in there, but we have to keep leaving clues for people to talk about, right? Seriously, better battery life on wireless peripherals is always welcome. And don’t forget, if you have a seemingly dead Apple Wireless Keyboard, a little bit of tin foil can revive it faster than you can say “Apple Tablet.”

Now that the official word from T-Mobile indicates they’re getting the HTC HD2 in the U.S., you’d think there are no more surprises left. But wait, there’s more! Aside from already having the most potent platform under the hood with a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon, the U.S. version of the HD2 gets a few booster packs in the form of memory and storage. And we all know what more memory and storage can do for a phone, right?

So here’s the deal, according to WMPowerUser who has a link to the official HTC product page. ROM is getting a boost over the 512 MB offered in the European version, to the tune of 1 GB. RAM gets a subtle bump also — from 448 MB to 576 MB. Egads, I’ve owned full Windows UMPCs that only came with less memory than that! And T-Mobile won’t be including a measly 2 GB microSD card either. No, the local version will see a 16 GB microSD memory card included. Aye carumba!

Now if the price comes in around $200 to $300, I think these handsets will move faster than hotcakes in a local diner in the morning. And that will surely help Microsoft with their smartphone market share numbers. I’m also wondering if these Windows Mobile 6.5 units will then qualify for a WinMo 7 upgrade in the second half of the year. Surely, they’ll have the horsepower.

Part of the “Plus” for Palm’s Pre on Verizon is double the memory and storage than that of the Sprint version. But I’d also call turning the handset into a mobile hotspot a “plus” as well. Sure it costs you $40 a month, but you’re getting 5 GB of bandwidth just for the tethering feature, in addition to the 5 GB you can use directly on the phone. Of course, you need that Mobile Hotpost software, which is made solely for webOS devices on the Verizon network. Enter some enterprising PreCentral forum members who caught the software inadvertently available for Sprint devices.

The Mobile Hotspot software alone doesn’t do the trick, however. There’s a patch involved as well as the freeTetherD app — once you have all the bits, you’re good to go. Of course, this isn’t a Sprint-sanctioned approach, so you’re on your own when it comes to responsibility to your contract’s terms of service. It’s really quite a shame that webOS device owners on Sprint aren’t offered this functionality. I’d definitely call it a value-add and while some would rather not pay, I know I’d be willing to ante up some coin for MiFi-like functionality on my phone. Clearly the hardware is capable and the software is readily available — what the issue here?

For the record, I did purchase MyTether for $10 months ago. The software enabled both Bluetooth and USB tethering but I found it too flaky to use on a regular basis. Eventually, as new webOS updates arrived, the stability of the application worsened. While the one-time payment was appealing, I’d still be apt to pay a carrier each month if I could count on the software and the service.

I’m going to leave all the speculation up to you on this one, but I will say this — this video found at VentureBeat has that traditional Apple advertisement “look and feel” to it. Assuming this is legit, we’re looking at a slate device  running Mac OS X with an on-screen keyboard and promises a “revolution in personal computing.” And even if it’s not legit — is this the type of device you’re expecting to see unveiled this week?

Earlier this month at the Consumer Electronics Show, Boost Mobile announced new unlimited calling plans using Sprint’s network. Those plans seem a dime-a-dozen today, but tucked in the press release was mention of special unlimited plan for BlackBerry devices. Sounds great, except for one small problem — Boost Mobile doesn’t carry any BlackBerry devices. Or at least they didn’t. As of today they do — while the BlackBerry Curve 8330 isn’t the latest and greatest ‘Berry out there, you can scoop one up from Boost for $249.99 with no long-term contract. The same device on a Verizon month-to-month plan is $429.99 as of last check.

Of course, the upfront cash outlay is only part of the equation and that’s where the new BlackBerry Unlimited Monthly plan from Boost comes into play. For $60 each month, Boost offers nearly unlimited everything: 3G data access for the web, email, voice minutes, and texting. But if you need beefy hardware, this might not be the BlackBerry for you. The 8330 doesn’t offer Wi-Fi and only sports a meager 2 megapixel camera. The Verizon version also mentions that it’s an EVDO Rev 0 radio, not the faster EVDO Rev A. But for small business owners or productive-minded consumers, the no-contract deal might trump some hardware shortcomings, no?

There aren’t too many computing devices still using the 1.8″ hard drives that we saw in the first UMPCs. But if you still have one of them and are looking for a storage upgrade, Active Media Products might be worth a look. The company today launched a new 1.8″ Zero Insertion Force SSD drive with capacity up to 128 GB. The Parallel ATA / IDE interface combined with the flash memory offer up to 80 MBps for reads an 38 MBps for writes on the SaberTooth ZX drive. While those speeds might not be stellar, some of those older devices only came with 40GB of storage way back in the day, so you can get a nice capacity bump while reducing heat and power consumption.

AMP breaks out all of the supported devices on the SaberTooth ZX product page, but I see a few golden oldie UMPCs on the list: my Samsung Q1 UMPC, the HTC Shift, the ASUS R2H and various pocketable Fujitsu Lifebooks like the U810 and U820. As far as netbooks and notebooks go, the HP Mini 1000 line and the MacBook Air appear also. AMP set the suggested retail price for 128 GB at $379, so this one won’t come cheap. Such is the price we pay for limited 1.8″ drive options.

In an iTunes world, synchronizing music to a non-Apple device remains a challenge for some. We saw it with the Palm Pre — which had unofficial iTunes support shuffled on and off quite a few times. For the record: that song stopped playing months ago. And this challenge is evident even more with the bigger Android user base. With the Nexus One, I’m doing what I did with the Palm Pre — using DoubleTwist. And the platform appears poised to take over the stage when it comes to music management on mobile devices.

TechCrunch expects a formal announcement out of DoubleTwist sometime today. T-Mobile has apparently signed a deal to promote DoubleTwist as a media management platform and will showcase in-store banners to promote it. Not only that, but you might see DoubleTwist pre-installed on some T-Mobile Android handsets as part of the deal. That bit is actually intriguing to me, mainly because you currently don’t install DoubleTwist on a mobile device. Instead it resides on your PC or Mac, just like iTunes, where it manages the content and converts for use on hundreds of devices.

Note that I said it “converts for use.” That’s one of the reasons I abandoned iTunes for DoubleTwist months ago. The other reason is that I’ve only bought DRM-free music from Amazon’s MP3 store, which is also integrated into DoubleTwist. The conversion functionality within DoubleTwist means you don’t really have to worry about file formats, codecs and the like. DoubleTwist knows which devices support which formats and it simply converts as needed, depending on your specific device or devices. Granted, DRM-encrypted tunes are still a no go — DoubleTwist doesn’t “crack” the DRM for you, although that’s kind of ironic. The program was created by Jon Lech Johansen, aka DVD Jon. Jon created the DeCSS application which cracks the protection on DVDs.

Although DoubleTwist may not appear as polished as iTunes, I can’t help but recommend it. It works as advertised for both audio and video files. Just this weekend I schlepped the entire Beatles catalog from my Mac to my Nexus One via a custom playlist without a hitch. With most people wondering how to get their iTunes library to various mobile devices these days, DoubleTwist’s simplicity and effectiveness can make it a hit on Android, Palm, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices, not to mention the Sony PSP and Amazon Kindle.

The weekends were made for hacking and this one started off with a bang. Brandon took it upon himself to tread where I have in the Android space — namely porting Android to other devices. I have Android 1.6 booting on my Intel Core Solo UMPC, but that’s not the ideal device for such a platform. Brandon had a far better idea in the Nokia N900, which he now has dual-booting both Maemo and Android!

As he says, it’s more of a proof-of-concept, which is the same road I was taking in my efforts. I can already see that he has some screen calibration issues to work out — that’s no surprise because I found the same issues in my project. But it’s early yet — Brandon just got Android booting, so let’s give him a little time to tinker, shall we?

This whole approach also reminds me of the answer I give when folks ask about the evaluation Nokia N900 I’m using — people want to know if the N900 is right for them. I tell them exactly what’s illustrated by Brandon’s video: the N900 is far better suited towards power users and those that like to tinker and hack than it is for mainstream folks.

Earlier this week, the folks at Skype updated the latest and greatest beta version for Linux. Beta 2 of Skype 2.1 adds some features that Windows and Mac users have enjoyed for some time now — screen sharing, quoting of chat messages and support for different user interface styles. Also in the beta build is support for High Quality Video and super wideband audio, but if I recall correctly, those were introduced in a previous version. The screen sharing can be full screen or just a selected portion according to Lifehacker.

To get the beta build running on your Linux distro, your system needs are pretty meager — a 1GHz processor, 256 MB of RAM, 20 MB of free storage, a video card with Xv support, and of course, a microphone and headset jack.

Skype is one of the few apps I install on every machine I have simply because I find it so useful. The screen sharing feature trumps my other oft-used app for audio / video chatting, which is Google Talk. You can collaborate on documents in real time with Google Docs while chatting on Google Talk, but it’s just not the same. The fact that Skype is supported across platforms also makes it a key app. It’s getting to the point where I need an app to be usable on nearly every type of architecture whether it’s an operating system, mobile platform or the web itself.

What’s one of the fastest ways to move handsets off the shelves? Offer a BOGO, or Buy One, Get One deal. That happens from time to time but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one on the launch day of a handset that’s new to a carrier. Yet that’s exactly what’s going to happen when the Palm Pre Plus hits Verizon next week. The official Palm blog spilled the beans and says that the deal will run from launch day through Valentine’s day, which gives you nearly three weeks to nab two for the price of one.

To be clear, the deal is pretty specific. When you purchase a Palm Pre Plus for $149.99 (after rebate and with a two-year commitment), you get a free Palm Pixi Plus after rebate — not another Pre Plus. Essentially you save the $99.99 it would have cost you for the Pixi Plus in the end. Not a bad deal if you have two folks that like to play cards in webOS and one of them would prefer a non-sliding, slightly slower device.

For all of the waiting, hype and promise of Intel’s PineTrail netbook platform, you have to wonder — did it meet expectations? One way to answer that question is to review a PineTrail-powered netbook and compare it to the ol’ N270 and N280 Atom devices. That’s exactly what Brad Linder did at Liliputing with his review of the ASUS Eee PC 1005PE.  Brad ran his usual thorough barrage of tests on this $370 device and walks away with this thought:

“If you have an Asus Eee PC 1005HA or 1008HA and you’re looking for a reason to upgrade to the latest model, there’s only one here: The Asus Eee PC 1005PE gets spectacular battery life. Performance-wise, it functions like virtually every other netbook that’s been released since mid-2008.”

That’s not to say the 1005PE — or any other netbook with the N450 CPU — isn’t worth a look, but much of the PineTrail hoopla lost some of its luster for me when Intel opted for the integrated GMA 3150 graphics. Having said that, it’s worth reiterating the battery life benefit brought by the new platform. Brad had no issue getting through a full day of work on the netbook and even had a few hours of juice to spare. ASUS claims a 14 hour run-time, but 10 is a realistic number with normal use. Combining judicious power management with the Super Hybrid Engine to underclock the CPU might eke out a good 12 hours in a pinch. And that is impressive on the 63 W/hr battery. I just wish there was a little more delivered by Intel after all this waiting — maybe I’m getting too demanding in my old age?

Internals aside, Brad likes what the redesigned chiclet keyboard has done for his typing skills. On the netbook, he hit a whopping 96 words per minute, which he says is about the best he can do on any keyboard — full-sized or otherwise. ASUS also reduced the size of that battery bump, making for a thinner-looking device. Not bad for an incremental upgrade.

Whether it’s due to patents in place or just a gentleman’s agreement, you can’t overlook the missing multi-touch on the Nexus One handset. Actually, the device itself does support multi-touch, but those features aren’t enabled in the native Google apps. There’s no pinching in the browser, for example, although a third-party client does offer it. It didn’t take too long for the famous cyanogen at XDA-Developers to add multi-touch back into the native Android browser though. Redmond Pie tipped us off on the seemingly simply steps, which of course require you to root the device and install some extra bits. Here’s a quick peek at how it works after the device update.

I personally haven’t done this yet on my Nexus One, mainly because I got used to not having such functionality shortly after I pined for it. I can always install the Dolphin browser if I really miss the feature. Besides, I’m still trying to use the device as “stock” as possible because that’s how the majority of Android owners use theirs. That doesn’t mean I won’t be rooting around in the near future, but for now, I’m keeping it real.

On our last podcast I said that now is the “perfect storm” for the ARM processor platform. The architecture is more capable than ever while remaining power efficient, and is good enough for random bites of Internet and mobile application functionality. ABI Research seems to agree and even went one step beyond — it believes that more ARM processors will power Ultra-mobile Devices than x86 chipsets just three years from now. ABI’s definition of Ultra-Mobile Devices is fairly broad: netbooks, MIDs, smartbooks and UMPCs all fit the bill. Call them what you want, I’d agree that these device classes are poised for ARM acceptance.

Why is that? There’s a change in the mobile winds. Mobile used to mean a crappy experience for the web or software as compared to the traditional desktop experience. So to meet needs, we looked for that same desktop experience in a smaller form factor. Compared to solutions available today, that’s not exactly the definition of mobile — or at least it’s not the only mobile game in town. The real growth has been outside of the desktop world — in ARM-powered handsets and other mobile devices.

The mobile experience is better than ever and part of the reason is that hardware has caught up. Instead of slow, clunky processors, we’re now seeing robust platforms that enable the mobile world to be useful and fun. If nothing else, the tremendous growth of Apple’s iPhone has proven that, much like the speedy Snapdragon in my Google Nexus One. That same ARM processor is the driving force behind the HTC HD2 — it has given Microsoft’s Windows Mobile new life and a fresh breath of excitement unlike any I’ve seen in the past few years. And my colleague Stacey over at GigaOm adds another factor: porting desirable functionality like Flash to ARM makes the platform even more compelling.

Netbooks are probably the lone exception to my thesis, of course. You can’t argue the fact of this x86 phenomenon. But if ARM-powered smartbooks or Chrome OS computers can come in at a compelling price-to-value ratio, I think ARM will even make inroads here too. Thoughts?

Need to jot a quick thought down while in the browser? If you’re using Google Chrome, you might want to keep an eye on the Chromepad extension highlighted over at the How To Geek. I’d say this one is in early development, but it’s good enough to tap out some text when the mood hits. Chromepad adds a button to Chrome — hit it and you get a text-only area to file a note. The window for entry is sizable via grab-and-drag or you can hit the Menu button for a Release Window option. That provides you a floating area to move anywhere on the desktop.

I pegged this as “early development” for one key reason: Chromepad doesn’t yet save the text in any standard document format like a .TXT or other file. Instead, it uses the “Local Storage” feature of HTML5 to maintain your notes. While that’s less than ideal, this approach does keep your notes intact even after a browser shut-down. Clearing your browser history, however, does wipe out any noted information, so you’ll want to cut, paste and save anything important prior to that. Still, it’s not a bad start and sure beats having to open Notepad, TextEdit or some other application outside of the browser.

Some would argue that Google Maps navigation is a “killer app” on their Android handset. That makes me wonder if Nokia’s Ovi Maps would then be deemed a “killer app killer” — the handset maker today announced free map navigation (both walk and drive) forever on Nokia handsets. Google Maps is free, you say? Sure it is, but Nokia is one-upping the freeness with offline usefulness. And not just on one subset of devices either. The free navigation service is initially available on 10 different models with detailed maps in over 180 countries. Nokia also claims that their hybrid-vector mapping system uses 10 times less bandwidth than Google’s, which is a carrier’s dream. And the ability to use the navigation features even while offline keeps the consumer happy, too.

Nokia didn’t stop there though. Included with the new Ovi Maps are value-add services — traffic data and travel guides from Lonely Planet and Michelin are included too. Integrated into the system there is also a location sharing feature that works directly with Facebook, similar to FourSquare. It’s not a “check-in” per se, but it essentially functions like one — a quick share tells your Facebook friends exactly where you are.

The new Ovi maps currently supports these handsets: Nokia X6, Nokia N97 mini, E72, E55, E52, Nokia 6730 classic, Nokia 6710 Navigator, Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic, Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition, Nokia 5230. Prior the Consumer Electronics Show, I might have dismissed this news as a non-U.S. centric bit. But after hearing how Nokia is committed to empower consumers in developing nations, the new Ovi Maps fits right in with that strategy.

It came as no surprise when Palm said it would partner with Verizon after Sprint with the Pre and Pixi. How could it be when Verizon’s CEO let the news slip even before the handset debuted on Sprint? Unexpected, however, were the hardware specification bumps. Verizon’s removal of the center button found on Sprint’s version wasn’t a shocker — it’s quite common to see minor or cosmetic tweaks for the same handset on different carriers. But who was counting on double the memory and twice the storage capacity?

PreCentral took an early look at Verizon’s Palm Pre Plus to see if these changes improve upon the original. When it comes to memory and storage, how could things not be better? More is good. In fact, the extra memory makes the phone fly a little faster when opening apps, although in-app use didn’t seem to vary. That extra RAM helps with multitasking, however — 50 apps opened simultaneously in testing, which is nearly a full deck of cards. C’mon Dieter — you couldn’t open two more for the Jokers?

Another huge Verizon differentiation is the Mobile Hotspot option. With it, you gain Mi-Fi-like functionality as the Pre Plus becomes a mobile hotspot for sharing 3G over Wi-Fi. The service tacks on another $40 to the monthly bill, but it’s a sweet option and provides you another 5 GB of monthly data for the phone. I wish more handsets — and carriers — would offer this. At the end of the day, Dieter tackles the question that current Palm Pre owners on Sprint are asking: Is it worth it to switch? For Dieter’s needs, it is, but for people happy with their current Pre on Sprint, probably not. My take — if you’re in a good Sprint coverage area and don’t need the Mobile Hotspot functionality, it’s probably not worth the cost to switch.

Admittedly, I’m eagerly anticipating Google’s Chrome OS later this year. In fact, I couldn’t wait that long, so I installed an early build on my netbook to poke and prod. Not all of you live in the ether between cloud and browser like I do, and that’s fine. We each have different computing needs and tasks to do — it’s only fitting that we have differing opinions on a browser-based operating system. But I believe that some are drawing conclusions too early in the game. Google’s operating system for the future just might not be as limiting as you think.

I felt that way prior, but after reading a very lengthy, candid interview over at Ars Tehnica, I have even more faith that Chrome OS could easily meet my needs — and maybe yours too. The engineering director for the Chrome OS project, Matthew Papakipos, and Eitan Bencuya from Google PR sat with Ars to chat about Chrome OS, HTML 5 and where this is all heading. I recommend reading the entire interview if you’re even remotely interested in Google’s operating system efforts, but this tidbit solidified the hope I have for the platform:

“Another big aspect to what we’re doing is we’re integrating a whole media player into Chrome and into Chrome OS. People often get confused about this, and it’s a fairly subtle but important point. Because in a sense what we’re doing is integrating the equivalent of Windows Media Player into Chrome itself… …[f]or example, you might just have a USB key that has a bunch of MP3s on it, so you want to be able to plug that in and listen to those MP3s. There might not be any controlling webpage for that activity, but it’s clearly something you need to be able to do in any reasonable operating system or browser. So we’re doing a lot of work to make Chrome and Chrome OS handle those use cases really well.”

Many folks figured that media playback wouldn’t be possible on Chrome OS because it’s considered to be just a browser. But it’s not — there are actually two platforms at play here: Chrome and Chrome OS. We know that Chrome is the browser, because it exists today. However, that browser sits atop a Linux kernel and those two combined are the Chrome OS. That means Google can add what we consider to be standard operating system functions outside of the browser. Perhaps the client to control those functions is the browser, but you have to think beyond what a browser can do today.

That example aside, the entire article is fascinating. Not only does it explain where Google is heading with the Chrome OS, but also how it’s getting there. Around 200 Google employees are using devices powered by Chrome OS and their usage is tracked at detailed levels. As new features or builds arrive, the engineers see if Chrome OS usage has increased or decreased. It’s like a mini-focus group that indirectly provides requirements which in turn get coded for the test cycle to begin again — iterative development on steroids, if you will.

And while I might look to use a Chrome OS device for most of my workday, that doesn’t mean it can’t be an “every now and then” device for others. In fact, Google isn’t trying to define the target user, which is a very different approach from historical computer design methods. Papakipos explains his personal use-case:

“I have three different machines at home, and I started leaving them in different rooms: one in the kitchen, one in the living room, and one in the family room. And it’s amazing how often you just pick it up, look up one piece of information, and shut it off. And you’re done with that whole transaction in 45 seconds. Which is awesome, because sometimes that’s all you want.”

A fast boot, good browser and usable keyboard might go a long way, no? I’m not going to claim that Google’s Chrome OS will save the planet or be the best operating system on the market — that would be silly. But it is shaping up to be basic, simple and effective for many of the activities we all do daily. There are still plenty of challenges, and therefore potential limitations — JavaScript and HTML 5 access to peripherals are mentioned specifically — but I see plenty to be hopeful about, even with this early build as a primary operating system.

Related Research: Google Chrome OS: What to Expect“

If you’re anything like me, you likely have a good number of USB drives on hand. They’re all over our house actually — these little digital storage cabinets seem to multiply faster than Tribbles. So when the kids need to use one, there’s no shortage of choices. I simply grab the nearest one and hand it over without a thought. I generally assume there’s nothing on them, but occasionally the kids tell me that there’s little or no free space — that’s because residual data is there even though I’ve deleted it from the drive.

Download Squad points out Curb, a free solution that cleans out the trash on removable drives with Mac OS X. I installed the small app this morning and it works as advertised. It couldn’t be easier to dump the extra trash bits from a USB drive either — simply drag the removable drive on to Curb and it takes care of the rest. The result is a squeaky-clean flash drive.

With Curb, you can be prompted for trash removal or have the software simply wipe data without asking. And the application supports three secure removal options as well — Single Pass, 7-pass and 35-pass — plus an option to zero out all blocks after overwriting. I’d love to see Apple build this type of functionality into the native Trash Bin. Instead of dragging a USB drive for ejection, the OS could securely wipe the drive. Until then, I’m using Curb which can be found on the MRR Software site.

Is the $490 price-tag of the enTourage eDGe electronic book reader holding you back from ordering? Maybe a bit of free, useful software will lessen the budgetary pain. enTourage today announced that the eDGe will ship with integrated Documents To Go from DataViz, which saves you up to $30 from adding yourself later. With the included Android software, eDGe owners can view, create and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, as well as view Adobe PDF documents.

If you’re not familiar with the eDGe, you might be wondering just how an e-book reader can handle document input. The eDGe is unique with its dual-display — one is a traditional eInk touchscreen for reading books while the other is a standard LCD running the Google Android mobile operating system. As I read it, the Documents To Go functionality would only appear on the LCD, not the eInk screen. The dual-functionality is clever, but at nearly three pounds in weight might not satisfy the portability needs of some.