Techweb reports that an unnamed market research firm (might be Gartner since it is mentioned later in the article) says that Smartphone shipments were up 75.5% in the first half of 2006.
The article says the report shows that North America is the only region where PDAs outsold Smartphones. Personally, I find that hard to believe even assuming that the popular Palm Treo line is considered a PDA instead of a smartphone.
HP’s web site shows their soon-to-be-released GPS, WiFi (802.11b and 802.11g!), Bluetooth, music/photo/video playing, Windows Mobile 5 powered handheld device with a 3.5″ LCD screen (bigger than the Zune’s) with a price of $599.99.
HP iPAQ rx5915 Travel Companion
So, whatever happened to the $500 GPS-enabled UMPC anyway? In any case, CNET has a video review of this new GPS-enabled iPAQ available at the link below.
HP iPaq rx5900 Travel Companion
Too bad it doesn’t have a QWERTY keyboard of some kind…
Engadget has a step-by-step illustrated tutorial showing how to use a Verizon Wireless Pocket PC Phone Edition (Windows Mobile 5) XV6700 as mobile modem for a notebook. You can find the article at…
Guy Williams posted the following question on my O’Reilly Windows DevCenter blog. My response includes a bunch of llinks which might be a bit much for the blog response box there. So, I’m posting a reply here.
I just bought a Treo 700wx from Sprint. I cannot get ActiveSync to recognize the phone (when the phone is connected via USB cable).
The error says “Active Sync cannot connect to the Windows Mobile powered device. To troubleshoot the problem, click ok.”
I spent about 8 hours yesterday along with many (10+) calls to Sprint to get the phone working with the Activesync software that came standard with it. I went through levels 1,2 and 3 of Sprint support. I was connected this morning to Sprint’s special “TREO Activesync” department. No one could get the software running so that I could sync with the Treo 700wx.
At this point, I am at a total loss regarding what to do. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
The first thing you should check is whether you have a software firewall (e.g., Zone Alarm) running. If so, check out my blog item:
ActiveSync 4.1 for Microsoft Windows Mobile 5 devices released
If that is not the case, check out the following ActiveSync troubleshooting guides.
Microsoft.com: What Does the Troubleshooter for ActiveSync Do?
PocketPCFAQ.com: ActiveSync 4.x Troubleshooting Guide – General
There’s also an item specifically focused on the Treo 700w (one generation older than the 700wx) at:
The USA Today article Bluetooth watches to show who’s calling reports that Fossil and Sony-Ericsson teamed up to create a Bluetooth watch that displays Caller-ID information on the watch and lets you send the call to voice mail if you don’t want to pick up the phone to answer it. It looks like the watch only works with Sony-Ericsson phones that it says that support for other Symbian based phones is planned. The watches will be available by the end of October under Fossil’s “Mobile Wear by Abacus” brand, the regular Fossil brand, and a Sony Ericsson-branded version. Prices will range from $200 to $250.
Mel Sampat, a Program Manager in the Microsoft Windows Mobile product group tells us there is nothing to worry about if you plan to use Visual Studio 2005 SP1 and Windows Vista to develop software for Windows Mobile devices. A link to an 8 minute video demonstrating using Visual Studio with Windows can be found at the end of the blog entry…