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I called in sick today after not getting much sleep (something I ate disagreed with me or I have a mild virus of some kind). I had hoped it would clear up in a couple of hours so I could either wander back to work or get some work done at home. But, that didn’t happen. I was reminded though that mobile technology can be really useful when you are immobile too. I didn’t feel comfortable sitting at a desktop or notebook. But, I wanted to check my email and see what was going on in the world every couple of hours. So, I kept a WiFi-enabled Pocket PC (an old Dell Axim X50) nearby. It helped me avoid listening to the blaring music on CNN, MSNBC and other news channels. I basically just used the built-in email and browser as well as Ilium Software’s NewsBreak to keep me up-to-date when the urge to be connected for a minute or two struck.

An iPod with a decent set of external speakers (headphones are uncomfortable too when you are not at 100%) with a bunch podcasts provided informative and (again) non-annoying ambient sound. The speakers were the Logitech mm50. Its sound quality is pretty decent. But, I wish its integrated rechargeable batteries had a bit more battery life.

Nothing complex or fancy here. But, these mobile products sure kept me from suffering from the ol’ sick day summer cabin fever syndrome. Stay healthy folks!

The…

ThinkOutside Stowaway Bluetooth Keyboard for PDA

…has been around since December 29, 2004 according to Amazon.  But, having had disappointing experiences with various other Stowaway keyboards (I have a bunch piled up including iPAQ and Jornada specific ones as well as the infrared versions), I avoided buying the Bluetooth version until this past week. The one I bought is the older Universal model (larger than the Sierra model). Its price had dropped to around $85 and I felt the urge to write using a Windows Mobile Pocket PC or Smartphone. So, it seemed like the right time to try another near full-size keyboard.

It arrived today and I paired it with an HTC Advantage 7500 (Windows Mobile 5) Pocket PC Phone Edition after downloading the latest drivers from the Thinkoutside (iGo) website. The software installation and Bluetooth pairing went surprisingly smoothly. I say “surprising” because I remember how the infrared keyboard’s drivers had messed up a Pocket PC so badly that I had to perform a hard reset to get it working again. Testing it with Word Mobile went well. The keyboard feels pretty comfortable. And, the keyboard has all the right keys (Windows key, OK key, etc.) to work with a Pocket PC.

So, I’m nearly three years late to the Bluetooth keyboard game. But, I figured one or two other people might be in the same boat as me and find whatever I note in the next week or two useful. More later on this BT keyboard testing.

Every now and then I toy with the idea of catching up with the rest of the world and starting a podcast. But, being a mobile geek, I would, of course, prefer to record it using a Windows Mobile Pocket PC or Smartphone. The question is: Would the sound quality be good enough for podcasting? So, I created two audio recordings to help me decide. If you visit my new alternate multimedia blogging site, you can listen to a 30 second test recording found at the link below…

Audio Recording Test

This web site has a built in audio player. So, you don’t need to download anything to hear the test recording.

The recording consists of two pieces. I recorded the first part using a Microsoft LifeChat LX-3000 USB headset/microphone. The second part was recorded using a Windows Mobile 6 Pocket PC. Both recordings were made in the same room with a large Voronado fan blowing in the background to simulate a noisy environment. Both recordings were made using 16-bit 44KHz mono setttings.

Only two transformations were applied to the recording. First, the combined audio file was sent through the GigaVox Levelator to even out the volume differences between the two recordings (the Pocket PC recording was much louder than the headset recording). Second, the resulting WAV file was transcoded to a MPG audio file to reduce its size.

The USB headset recording is much quieter (you don’t hear the fan as much) than the Pocket PC recording. But, I think the overall Pocket PC sound quality is decent enough to use for short podcast recordings. And, the ambient sound might even add a bit of real-life to the recordings (vs. a somewhat sterile but quieter USB headset recording).

Ever notice that Word Mobile truncates file names it creates from the first line of text? Word automatically creates a filename based on the first line of text. Unfortunately, it truncates the name to the first 21 characters of the line (and adds a .doc suffix). This may seem like a lot compared to the good ol’ 8 character DOS file name length, but seems pretty short for a 21st century system. You can, of course, change the filename to avoid name collision. But, I would have preferred having at least 64 or even 128 character file names since I do a lot of writing using Word Mobile which is later copied over to my desktop.