iPaqHQ

David Haskin has written a great story that David will really like. I urge you to follow the link below to read the entire article. (warning, its long) 

Palm wasn?t the first to introduce a PDA, as any fan of the Apple Newton will tell you. And it isn?t the first to offer a smart phone for $200 or less. Similarly priced phones such as the Nokia E62 and the BlackBerry Pearl are already available. Smart phones typically can access e-mail and the Web, manage personal information and be used for phone calls.

But Palm had the marketing savvy 10 years ago to make the Palm Pilot a widespread success. And it likely still has the savvy to turn the smart phone, which so far has been embraced primarily by early adopters doling out as much as $600, into a mainstream tool for consumers. The irony is that the victim of lower smart phone prices will be Palm?s first big innovation, the PDA.

?Clearly, PDAs as a growth market are done,? said Neil Strother, a mobile devices market analyst at research firm NPD Group Inc.

Full Article: Another nail in the PDA?s coffin?

Reviewer : Jack Cook
Vendor : iGo
Price : $129.99 

A perfect Bluetooth keyboard solution ? AGAIN!

Several years ago after I had acquired my first iPAQ, I decided that even though it was terrific for those routine tasks, large amounts of text entry was tedious. It was then that I found my first Stowaway keyboard with a built-in connector for my iPAQ. It worked very well for extended text entry. Eventually I upgraded my iPAQ to the 3900 series, and I was pleasantly surprised that Think Outside had made an adapter for the keyboard enabling me to continue to use this terrific piece of technology.

Time went on and new devices came my way so I eventually retired my keyboard and started to use alternative methods of software based text entry. I was happy but never quite as satisfied as I was with my keyboard. Then Think Outside introduced their Stowaway Infrared Wireless Keyboard which was an almost perfect solution. It had an integrated cradle and you could adjust the IR wand to get the best connectivity. It was good ? no ? at that time it was great, but the best was yet to come.

Read the rest of this entry »

We?ve all known this to be coming for what? A year? Finally today, Cingular and HP announce the HP iPAQ hw6920 series Mobile Messenger.

HP and Cingular Wireless today announced that beginning Oct. 31 Cingular will be the first carrier in the United States to offer a new HP iPAQ handheld device with five wireless communications technologies.

With the HP iPAQ hw6920 series Mobile Messenger, customers can use Cingular?s nationwide GSM/GPRS/EDGE wireless data network, Wi-Fi, GPS, infrared and Bluetooth? wireless technologies^(1,2,3) to connect business customers to their information, whether it?s corporate email or more robust industry-specific applications.

The built-in GPS (global positioning system) receiver enables customers to receive directions on their hw6920 series to points-of-interest around town and to impromptu destination choices. The hw6920 series will debut with Cingular?s first generally available, location-based solution ? TeleNav GPS Navigator? from TeleNav, Inc.

With TeleNav GPS Navigator, HP iPAQ users can get turn-by-turn voice and onscreen directions directly on the device for use when driving or walking. TeleNav GPS Navigator, which also provides information on more than 10 million points of interest and additional search tools, is available as a subscription service from Cingular. HP iPAQ customers also can choose from several other GPS navigation options ? including Microsoft Pocket Streets or HP Navigation Maps and Software.

?HP is making it simple for customers to stay connected and work effectively when on the move,? said Alain Debost, director, Handheld Business Unit ? North America, HP. ?By combining the iPAQ hw6920 series wireless email, voice and fast data access with Cingular?s expansive network, we are allowing customers to tap into the information and rich content they want, when they want it.?

Cingular?s EDGE network is the largest national wireless data network in the United States, with availability in more than 13,000 cities and towns and along about 40,000 miles of interstate highways.

?The HP iPAQ hw6920 series is a powerful communications tool that will give our business customers multiple ways to stay connected to important information,? said Cathy Quaciari, director, B2B devices, Cingular Wireless. ?Whether it?s through a wide area, local area or Bluetooth connection, customers will be able to access their email and other corporate data while having location-based capabilities with the device?s built-in GPS receiver. It?s yet another jewel in the long and fruitful collaborative alliance between HP and Cingular.?

The Microsoft Windows

Do remember hearing about the uncoming HP iPAQ rx4540 series last month? It?s here and it?s pretty neat!

Key features of the smart design include:

• Choose to view digital content in either landscape or portrait mode to maximize the viewing pleasure of videos, photos and games. 
• A scroll wheel for a single, smooth, one-handed operation for access and navigation of digital content. 
• A large 2.8-inch-wide anti-glare touch screen to quickly launch media applications for entertainment gratification.
• The HP iPAQ rx4000 Mobile Media Companion series, which is built on Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 Software for Pocket PC, also includes a suite of connectivity options, such as integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, enabling consumers to stay connected on the go.
• Built with integrated Wi-Fi, consumers can connect to their email and the Internet to get real-time information and download music or movies. Consumers can also download VoIP software to make free PC-to-PC calls and fee-based calls to landlines and mobile phones, staying connected to loved. 
• Bluetooth technology enables consumers to connect to other Bluetooth devices, such as wireless stereo headphones, mobile phones and wireless printers. 
• Built on Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 Software for Pocket PC, consumers can synchronize their calendar and contacts with ease, while getting work done on the go with popular Microsoft applications, such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

UPDATE: A little late, But CorePlayer is now officially available for purchase here, Mobihand.

With only 6 days to go before the official release of CorePlayer, I?m sure many of you are eager to know what features it?ll offer and how it?ll look and feel on your Pocket PC device. Well, here is a taste of what to expect from the highly anticipated CorePlayer, which to be released on the 16th of this month.

Screenshots: Download screenshots of CorePlayer (tech demo) that I captured running on WM2003 SE.

Release notes from CorePlayer:
The CorePlayer Multimedia Framework is a culmination of over 2 years of development effort under BetaPlayer and TCPMP. From the initial onset the major goals were to NOT deliver a bloated over featured crippled media player? but rather to deliver on a promise of simplicity, efficiency and unlimited end user power. Power is potential and the potential of what we ?will? give the end user will not be equaled by any other media player, on any platform.

Wonder why this has not been done before? This is NO small task. . . and many in the community have stated ?release it now? ?where is it?, etc.. Well as simple as that may seem its not all that simple at all. Aside from legal/IP licensing ? there are costs associated with doing something as monumental as this? and while not to bore you? releasing it over the past 6 months was not an option. What is however is creating something unique in in the multimedia space? a dual licensed Open Source / Closed Source Multimedia Framework.
With 1.xx now being released to the general public and OEM licensees? the “1.0″ core is much more then the sum of it components?. as we feel that it is this 1.xx foundation that is crucial to what we are building off of for the future and what a next-gen multimedia framework is.
So, what is ?Next-Gen?? Well it is not an easy answer? but let me try. We like to thing “build it, use it, change it”?. and then start all over again. While it is ?great? to experiment and change the norm, the end result must lead us to think about what the end user would want to do but not necessarily what he should do as other media players do. Ultimately we feel what matters is to simply empower the user to let them do what they want.

A similar mantra we use is “Listen, Think, Change”, those three actions that when stated together give meaning to Chaos. It plays a factor of what we do here at CoreCodec on a daily basis? and we hope that when the 1.xx CorePlayer / BetaPlayer line is done that you will be happy with the results.

Source: Aximsite

Here is our CorePlayer1.xx timeline (note I am leaving alot out on purpose so be warned).

- CorePlayer 1.0
We will be initially releasing it on CE, Windows Mobile, Smartphone, Palm and Symbian
- Universal Skins? allows users to create an entire UI for all aour supported platforms within a single skin file. Whats cool about U.S. is that you can skin ANYTHING within our player? that means media library, options menu, playlist, player, eq, etc? if you can imagine it? you can do it.
- Best in Class Codecs: CoreAVC (H.264), CoreAAC v2.0, CoreASP, CoreMP3, CoreWMA, CoreWMV, CoreDVD,,, hey? we even support midi
- Advanced streaming suite for (UDP, HTTP, MMS, RTP, RTSP). Noting that 1.0 only has HTTP and UDP till 1.2.
Future desktop codecs coming are CoreVC1 and CoreAC3 and Microsoft Janus.

CorePlayer 1.1 will feature
- Initial bug fix release

CorePlayer 1.2 will feature
- Our CoreTheque database and Media Library
- Windows XP / Vista
- CoreCaster ?Ready?

CorePlayer 1.4 - 1.5 willl feature
- Seek and Share Social Network Sharing
- CoreSync / CoreTunes integration
- Linux Ports and OS X ports?

Our price will be a reduced $19.95 marked down from $24.95

Thanks to betaboy and CorePlayer for providing with the Tech Demo and information on their upcoming product.