MOBODOJO

Six years ago today, PDA Handyman opened to the public. Our first reviews were of Casio’s ruggedized Cassiopeia EG-800STD and their budget-minded BE-300 Pocket Manager. We also offered long-term updates on Handspring’s Visor Deluxe (the blue one) and Compaq’s seminal iPAQ 3135 (that’s the grayscale model). Finally, we took a quick look at the specs of the somewhat anticipated Royal Electronics Lin@x Linux-based PDA, which was unveiled at 2002’s CES show in Las Vegas. We were also running Palm InfoCenter headlines on the site, and they had just leaked Palm i705 pictures and were discussing the rumored release of Palm’s M515 and M130 devices. Talk about retro!

We want to thank all of our readers for six years of great support and sticking by us through thick and thin (and ignoring my periodic brain farts), and we look forward to another six years of some of the most amazing portable devices, software, and services that we can report on for you.

No, this is not a rumor, but based on the language in the press release, this may not be news based on incontrovertible fact. Polymer Vision, the spin-off from Philips Electronics, makes really, really cool rolling and folding displays, and they have announced they’re ready to start selling them by mid-2008. The catch is that release language suggests that they need partners to do that and will not be making the devices themselves. Feel free to read the release yourself (its Flash, so go here: News>Press Releases and select the first item dated 22-01-2008). You may see something in it that I do not.

However, they did release some details which strongly suggests they have at least a marketable reference platform ready to ship to hardware partners and developers. The device, pictured above, sports a 400MHz ARM11 processor, can support up to 8GBs in microSD format, offers “Tri Band/3G HSDPA”, support Microsoft’s ActiveSync and USB mass storage protocols, Bluetooth 2.0, and weighs in at a mere 115g. No idea of pricing or carrier partnerships. This could be very cool, if it materializes. In another release they talk about units actually coming off the production line. Go figure.

Love your iPhone but find the battery life a tad annoying? You’re not alone. In fact, Mophie should now be a very, very close friend of yours, all for a mere US$99. Yup. Order your Mophie Juice Pack iPhone battery life extender pack and you’ll (purportedly) get an additional 8 hours of talk time, 250 hours of standby time, 7 hours of video playback time, and up to another 24 hours of audio playback time. Of course, all these times are subjective, seeing as how they are estimates which can be modified how you use your iPhone. It looks pretty slim. Nice.

Just so you know, the image is showing the keyboard in a half-open position. It lays flat and straight when you open it all the way. What you have here, though, is the new Matias full-sized folding portable keyboard with numeric key pad and all function keys which, when not used, folds in half and fits into most lappy bags. It’s primarily designed for Macs, but it does support Windows if you like that sort of thing. I’m a little sad that its not Bluetooth, but that means its never needs batteries or won’t work when its not charged. Price is also sweet at a mere US$59.95. That is what I’d expect to pay for a good desktop keyboard, and this one’s portable! Neato!

They’ve gone and done it. Everex is now setting its sights directly on ASUS and their oddly named Eee PC with their only slightly better named CloudBook. Aside from its display-on-stilts technology, it looks like Everex may have the right idea here. At least I’m interested, and that takes a lot. Unlike the Eee, though, the CloudBook is more than ripe for Windows XP.

This little guy packs a 1.2GHz VIA C7-M ULV processor, 512MBs of RAM, a 30GB platter drive, a 7″ 800×480 display, B&G Wi-Fi, ports for Ethernet, DVI, USB, and the usual audio, and a .3MP webcam. They even manage to get a trackpad onto it, though I can’t tell where. The only thing its missing is Bluetooth. All this for US$399 at Wal-Mart or ZaReason.com. We’ll just have to see if it doesn’t suck.

If you’ve been convinced that no mobile browser would ever equal the quality of the web on your full-blown desktop OS, you may be disillusioned of that idea real soon. At DEMO 2008, a special event held ever year to promote the concepts and technologies the show promoters believe to be super hot, SkyFire announced its new mobile browser of the same name. The idea here is that SkyFire will offer exactly the same web on your mobile phone as you get on your desktop. Free. I have a few problems with that. First, how can anyone create a workable business model built around a free product which has no discernible source of revenue. Second, I can’t imagine how useful an unmodified web will benefit mobile users where small screens rule the roost.

The first round of private beta testing goes to Windows Mobile 5 and 6 devices which have full keyboards. They also state that Symbian devices will be supported soon. There’s a video presentation on YouTube and a complete explanation of the software at the site. Good luck, guys!

Apple apparently had it right all along. People want systems which are all integrated and powerful. While power has never really been a problem as long as size never was, integration proved difficult for a number of reasons. Its clear now, though, that several companies are starting to see the Apple light and are running flat out into it. First Dell, then a few others, and now NEC in The Philippines.

The POWERMATE P5000 is a converged, integrated device which behaves like a media center and laptop at the same time. Unfortunately, its bogged down with 2006 technology as indicated in an older ATI X1200 video card. It does look nice, though, and at 4Kg (around 8 pounds) its not that heavy to lug around (unlike Dell’s monster which weighs in at 25 pounds).  Another nice touch is the detachable keyboard unit, which is wireless and has an integrated mouse stick. The whole unit only needs one power cable and a wireless broadband connection. No pricing details just yet.

[Editor's Note: The individual in Manila who put together the story decided to post the entire 7MP product image on the web page, so if you're on a slow connection, don't click. Here it is. -Ed.]