Remembrance Day ~ Lest We Forget

Today is Remembrance Day (Armistice Day) here in Canada. Remembrance Day, and Veterans Week (the week leading up to it) is the time of year that we go to extra lengths to ensure our Veterans sacrifices are NOT forgotten.

The following quick remembrance is from the Veterans Affairs Canada site.



Veterans Affairs Canada

Each year, Canada marks Veterans' Week from 5 to 11 November. Veterans' Week is a time to honour and remember all those who served Canada in times of war, military conflict and peace. Throughout the week, commemorative events and activities will be held in communities across Canada. This year, we call upon all Canadians, especially youth, to take an active role in commemoration. Taking part in remembrance events develops a deeper understanding of the sacrifices and achievements of those who have served and continue to serve our country. As Canadians, we have endless opportunities to become involved in remembrance. We can talk to a Veteran, visit a local cenotaph or monument, read a book or attend a Remembrance Day ceremony. When we take an active role in commemoration we become part of a legacy of remembrance and gratitude. We also set an example for future generations so that the torch of remembrance continues to burn brightly.

Palm Daily Quote 3.0 Released by Tamoggemon

Tamoggemon Software has released a whole new version of Daily Quote. Palm Daily Quote 3.0 is brand new, with new features and new compatibility modes.

“A quote a day keeps the jackass away” – Tam Hanna

Ever saw a quote and felt like taking it on the road with you? Ever felt like having your handheld greet you with a quote whenever it starts up? Ever wished that 2Day or ZLauncher had a Quote-of-the-day function? Tamoggemon Daily Quote does it all!



The latest version of Daily Quote gives you access to the following new features:

ZLauncher plug-in
ZLauncher users all over the world, rejoice! Our product can now be integrated into your favorite launcher via a simple plug-in. It then provides a Daily-Quote-powered quote ticker that is available whenever ZLauncher is opened!



Quote-a-day mode
Quote-a-day mode configures Daily Quote to update the displayed quote only once a day, instead of choosing a new one from the database whenever a quote is displayed.

Improvements to popup engine
The DailyQuote popup engine has been overhauled completely so that it is now 100% compatible with security applications and incoming call dialogs. Get a call? Daily Quote will not interfere! Handheld locked? A quote will be waiting for you after unlocking the handheld!

Combined with our existing features like 2day integration and quote databases that can be edited on the go, Daily Quote is the most comprehensive quote management / display solution for Palm OS!

A 14 day evaluation version is available for free from http://www.tamoggemon.com/pdq/download.php and existing customers get a free upgrade under Tamoggemon’s free-update policy. The full version costs only $9.95 and can be purchased from MobiHand!

Make sure you check out the 14 day trial, and the extra quote databases too...

Good Things -- Small Package

Last month the New York Times posted a good review (by David Pogue) of the newest Palm Smartphone -- the Centro.

(Mostly) Good Things in a Small Package
...

That must be what Palm was thinking when it unveiled the Centro, its new keyboard-equipped cellphone. It’s almost identical to the company’s popular Treo smartphone, but a little smaller and cheaper.

Your first reaction might well be to shake your head in dismay. Is that the best Palm can come up with? How could this great innovator of the ’90s have gotten so lost in the woods? People used to go nuts on every rumor of a new Palm device. Web sites ran reviews of every carrying case and stylus. Corporate geeks used Graffiti, the PalmPilot’s handwriting-recognition alphabet, even on whiteboards and notepads.

Not anymore. Lately, Palm’s innovation engines seem to be running on their last wisps of steam. There was a momentary flicker of hope last January when Palm’s founder, Jeff Hawkins, introduced the Foleo — a superthin, category-busting, laptoplike “cellphone companion” — but Palm canceled the Foleo last month.

So for two years, Palm’s “new” products have been little more than minor variations on the Treo — and the Centro appears to be yet another one.

Palm hoped that by trimming the Treo’s size and price, it would create a totally different product, a new crossover phone for people who have never before owned phones with alphabet keys. (By Palm’s reckoning, that’s 95 percent of cellphone buyers.)

But here’s the funny thing: the strategy works.

The Centro’s rounded plastic case, available in red or black, is 2.1 by 4.2 by 0.7 inches thick. That’s about a fifth of an inch smaller than the Treo 700 in every dimension. Doesn’t sound like much, but on gadgets that live in your grip, microns can feel like miles. And at 4.2 ounces, the Centro is also 34 percent lighter than the Treo.

...

Be sure to click through and read the entire article

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.”

...

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

SanDisk Introduces 8GB microSDHC Card

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.