Cellphone Jamming On The Rise

The New York Times ran a good article last week on the rise of "vigilanty cellphone jammers".

Devices Enforce Silence of Cellphones, Illegally

...

As cellphone use has skyrocketed, making it hard to avoid hearing half a conversation in many public places, a small but growing band of rebels is turning to a blunt countermeasure: the cellphone jammer, a gadget that renders nearby mobile devices impotent.

The technology is not new, but overseas exporters of jammers say demand is rising and they are sending hundreds of them a month into the United States — prompting scrutiny from federal regulators and new concern last week from the cellphone industry. The buyers include owners of cafes and hair salons, hoteliers, public speakers, theater operators, bus drivers and, increasingly, commuters on public transportation.

The development is creating a battle for control of the airspace within earshot. And the damage is collateral. Insensitive talkers impose their racket on the defenseless, while jammers punish not just the offender, but also more discreet chatterers.

“If anything characterizes the 21st century, it’s our inability to restrain ourselves for the benefit of other people,” said James Katz, director of the Center for Mobile Communication Studies at Rutgers University. “The cellphone talker thinks his rights go above that of people around him, and the jammer thinks his are the more important rights.”

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Be sure to follow the above link and read the rest of the article

SanDisk Introduces 8GB microSDHC Card

SanDisks New 8 Gig microSDHC is smaller than a dime SanDisk recently held a Hollywood Block Party event to introduce it's new "micro Secure Digital High Capacity" (microSDHC) 8 Gig memory cards. Their intent was to make 18-25 year-olds more aware of the expansion slots built into most electronic devices these days... such as smartphones!

... The development of the 8GB card has proliferated from the flash technology that SanDisk has already developed, but the company says the technology used in production was significantly difficult. The new 8 GB card can hold over 5,000 high-resolution photos, 2,000 digital songs, or 5 hours of high-quality M MPEG 4 video. Pretty impressive considering the card is smaller than a dime.

Although the 8 GB may be a wake-up call for consumers in realizing the capacity for storage in mobile devices, the consumption of content is really driving the introduction of memory this size. “More and more consumers are recognizing that convergence onto a handset really makes a lot of sense…instead of carrying multiple devices,” says Dan Hogan, Manager of Worldwide Marketing Mobile Markets for SanDisk.

...

As for an even higher capacity flash card on the horizon, consumers will have to wait and see. “As we move into a higher storage capacity, we move into new territory. The applications will expand but it will also be a question of how much consumers will want to pay for a 16GB card,” reflected Wong. The 8GB microSDHC card currently retails for $139 and the 8GB M2 card for $149.


According to SanDisk product website, the microSDHC features:
  • High storage capacity (8GB) for storing essential digital content such as high quality photos, videos, music and more
  • Optimal speed and performance for microSDHC compatible devices
  • Speed performance rating: Class 4 (based on SD 2.00 Specification)
  • High Quality microSDHC card backed by 5 year limited warranty
  • Built to last, with an operating shock rating of 2,000Gs, equivalent to a ten-foot drop **
  • SanDisk microSDHC 8GB card ships with Bonus MobileMate™ Micro Reader
  • o High speed USB 2.0 compatible transfer rates
  • o No additional card adapters required
  • o Compatible with Windows Vista and certified for Windows XP and Mac OS X


    Be sure to click on the link to read the entire story.

  • Handheld PDA Market Still Shrinking

    According to a recent research report, the Handheld PDA market is continuing to decline. Where Handheld is defined as PDA that does not include cellphone features. The reason this definition makes such a difference is that most smartphone users (Palm especially) don't see their smartphone as being "distinct from" or "not a" handheld PDA. It's like a research report saying that "home DVD movies" are dead, because everyone's buying HD-DVD players... Here's news for the researchers... smartphones are still handheld and PDAs!


    PDA market still shrinking dramatically with no end in sight
    Handheld makers saw their market contract substantially for the fifteenth consecutive quarter, according to a research report released today. The market volume is down about 70% from its peak in 2002 and IDC expects this trend to continue for at least another five years.

    Playing in the handheld market today - with “handheld” being defined as a PDA without cellphone capability - isn’t much fun. Once again, the shipment volume of such devices declined significantly in the third quarter of this year.

    ...

    Llamas said that the PDA market is unlikely to go away completely since it still has “a loyal, if shrinking, following in developed economies, especially among enterprise users. In emerging markets, the appeal of the handheld devices seems anchored in the fact that, in the absence of a monthly service plan, it has a lower total cost of ownership compared to mobile phones and/or the converged mobile device."


    Be sure to follow the link to read the entire article.

    VersaMail Not Compatible with Gmail IMAP

    There's a new post on the Palm Blog. In a nutshell, it says that the IMAP support in VersaMail is not compatible with the IMAP in Gmail. So much for a great idea. Unfortunately there seems to be no plans to "repair" VersaMail, especially since Palm is recommending we switch to ChatterEmail, yes, it is also owned by Palm, and will cost us an additional $39.95.

    Palm VersaMail Compatibility with Gmail

    There's been some discussion around Palm's VersaMail client being compatible with Google's Gmail. We wanted to clarify that currently Palm Treo and Centro smartphone customers can access their Gmail accounts using the POP email protocol. While VersaMail supports the IMAP protocol, there are some known incompatibilties and limitations with Gmail. For example, VersaMail does not support IMAP-IDLE, which is used by Gmail to deliver continuously updated email. For Gmail users on the Palm OS, there are aftermarket email solutions that support IMAP-IDLE on Treo and Centro like ChatterEmail.

    Bringing the JezzBall feeling to Palm OS - BallZ 1.0 Released

    Attention – High Addiction Potential!

    Tamoggemon Software has just released BallZ 1.0! BallZ is an implementation of Microsoft’s evergreen JezzBall concept for Palm OS 5 handhelds and smartphones.


    For decades, JezzBall has been popular due to its non-violent yet challenging, action-loaded game play. Tamoggemon Software has managed to adjust the JezzBall concept to mobile devices while keeping the original feel intact.

    The registered version of BallZ contains 30 colourful and unique levels. The speed of the game can be adjusted to the player’s skills in 5 steps; moody background music and sound effects create an immersive game play experience rarely seen on a mobile device.


    BallZ is compatible with all Palm OS 5 handhelds that have a colour screen (including Treo 600). The program costs $14.95 and can be purchased at MobiHand's. A free 14 day trial is available from tamoggemon.com

    Palm cancels the Foleo

    From CNET News.com:

    Faced with biting criticism of the Foleo, a Linux-based psuedo-laptop gadget, Palm has decided to cancel the first generation of the device.

    Palm CEO Ed Colligan broke the news on Palm's official blog Tuesday after the close of the stock market. Just last week, a financial analyst predicted that Palm would have to delay the Foleo's launch until September or October because of serious software-related bugs, but Colligan decided to kill the entire project instead.

    Palm unveiled the Foleo at the D: All Things Digital conference in May to widespread skepticism, despite the fact that Palm founder Jeff Hawkins considered it "the best idea I've ever had." The Foleo is basically an underpowered laptop that's designed to give Treo users a break from typing e-mails on a small phone keyboard. However, few could figure out why smart phone users--who ostensibly own a laptop already--would want to buy a separate $499 device that could do little more than send e-mails. [Read more]

    2 TXs bricked in less than 10 days!

    That's right, over the past 10 days I've replaced 2 Palm TXs. And boy I'm pissed.

    The first TX handheld, which I've owned for over a year, was bricked after I attempted to copy PicselBrowser from my RAM from the expansion card, via ZLauncher, and it didn't show up in the launcher view. I was going to attempt to find it with PalmInsider Pro, but on lauching, my device went into a reset. One problem, on resetting, it would get stuck at the grey Palm logo part. Hard reset, soft reset, cold reset, warm reset, and even a zero-out reset did nothing. I let the battery die and recharged it, with no luck. I ended up getting it replaced.

    Then, just yesterday, I was doing a wifi network hotsync and the connection was lost and when I went to look at new TX, it was in a reset loop. This time, the reset would stay on the grey screen for a few sec, then go blank and reset. Once again, none of the resets did a thing and letting the power die did nothing.

    If anyone has any ideas on why it's been happening, and/or how to prevent future problems, email me at jason@canuck-pda.ca.