Okay folks, the good news is that I was able to migrate the database to the new server - puh what a work if you don't have direct access to the database but MyPHPAdmin only and doing this with a 56K modem. The modem is the bottleneck, it's more or less "not possible" for me to upload all the stuff around with the modem but help in form of my new DSL access should comes today.

However, I have some bad news from my point of view - but is it really bad? What do you think!? I played a little bit with the new

Hi Arne,
Well, there wasn't much to see on this year's Cebit but anyway: Like last year, I've put together a small mpg-clip page on my site.
Have fun,

Thomas Scheen

Gomadic Corp. has recently released a new USB Car Charger and a USB Travel Charger to provide the mobile professional with a simple, convenient and affordable mechanism to quickly (and safely) recharge their PDA. Simply plug the USB end of your Power Sync cable (also available from Gomadic) into the integrated USB socket, plug the adapter in to your car’s cigarette lighter or AC Outlet and you’re ready to go.

During the next week, I will not post to much stuff here on PPCW.N because I will migrate to a new server! You know what it means, downloading and uploading the MySQL database and getting all the time this message on my new SQL database: "Error 500: Internal Server Error". Yes, that's what I like... Also I have to do tons of uploads (all the pictures and the stuff) with my 56K modem because I'm still waiting for my DSL access which I should get next week.

However, I wouldn't be Arne if everything changed, unchanged (and my girl friend and my parents know what this means ;-)... So expect some changes - nothing dramatic but every server change is the perfect moment to do/try something new. However, the most important for you will be, that the new server will provide you the sites faster and for me it's important to have more included volume and I doubled the storage space too (but also the price...).

Cheers ~ Arne

Calculator.org have a free scientific, engineering, statistical and financial calculator for PocketPC.
The developers of Calc98 have made the Pocket PC version of their calculator software available for download and use free of charge from Calculator.org.

Softwinter has released version 2.1 of Sentry 2020/CE, is an enterprise security tool utilizing transparent encryption to protect important information stored on Pocket PC computers.

The latest version includes enhanced look and feel for Pocket PC 2002, performance optimizations, bug fixes.

Sentry 2020/CE is available for download from Softwinter website.

Yesterday I found this project which runs in New York City and several other cities in the US and Canada and yes, that's what I think the wireless Internet should be, an public accessible network:

NYCwireless provides free public wireless internet access to the New York City community. We seek to build on the philosophies of 'open source' and 'free software' and create a philosophy and application of 'open networks'.
This is a movement to take use of the airwaves for the purpose of providing distributed, free, always-on mobile Internet access through wireless local area networks. NYCwireless seeks to expand on similar projects in other cities by providing a platform and medium for community-based networking and content development. NYCwireless is composed of independent volunteers providing wireless access points and Internet bandwidth for public usage.

Since yesterday, Real.com provides its Real One Player for mobile devices also in a Pocket PC conform StrongARM version. With the Real One Mobile Player you can stream audio and video now on your Pocket PC. Before the Real One Mobile Player was available for The Nokia 9210 Communicator only.

Andreas from Pocket PC Thoughts found this article about the first Sony Ericsson 3G handset on a Swedish Webazine:

VoiceStream is showing on its web-site its version of the O2 xda. Interests can register also register on the VoiceStream web-site to get more information if available.
A price isn't given as well as VoiceStream isn't talking about the supported frequencies, so it's not clear now if it will support 1900 MHz only or if it will dual-band or even triple-band?

Cheers ~ Arne

After the (great? ;-) success of the first edition of the Pocket PC book for Pocket PC 3.0, my publishing house decided to release a completely rewritten second edition for Pocket PC 2002. Hell, it was a hard work the last months and it's even harder (at least for me) to rewrite a book then starting from the scratch. But anyhow, "Das große Buch Pocket PC 2002" is hitting the market soon and can be pre-ordered at Amazon.de (affiliate link). Here what you get for your € 24,95 (in German):

This SoftPaq contains updated drivers to improve interoperability with other devices.

Fixes

• Fixes 3Com ActiveSync interoperability issues
• Fixes interoperability with Digianswer devices and file transfer
• Fixes Status Dialog feature

Supports Pocket PC 2000 & Pocket PC 2002. Imagine next to your entertainment center a PC tower. This tower's audio output connected to your stereo's auxiliary input and a Wireless Network Card connecting the tower to your home network. Now imagine the same tower with a 20 Gigabyte hard drive filled with your favorite songs. This tower becomes your Wireless LAN Jukebox. You can manage the jukebox with other PC's on your network by simply copying your favorite songs to the Jukebox directory because this directory is shared across your network. You can control the PC with pcAnywhere or VNC since a mouse nor a monitor is connected to it. But how do you play your songs? Sure the Tower is connected to your stereo but using a control system every time could take a while to log in and connect. Time for the Pocket PC. The Pocket PC along with our software can provide a portable interface that can control all aspects of your audio entertainment. Because our software connects via Wireless LAN you are only limited in distance to the range of your Wireless LAN.

Presenter-to-Go Now Provides Multi-Lingual Support for Pocket PC Users

FREMONT, Calif. (3/18/02) - MARGI Systems, the leading provider of mobile presentation solutions that turn handhelds into professional quality presentation devices, today announced the new Type I CompactFlash version of Presenter-to-Go for Pocket PC's, available April 1, 2002. Presenter-to-Go is a complete presentation solution providing corporate executives, sales, and marketing professionals with a simple, fast and flexible tool for the delivery of high-quality color presentations. The Type I CompactFlash card extends the reach of the Presenter-to-Go product line to the broadest range of handheld devices available. Further, by introducing multiple language support for the Pocket-PC versions of its Presenter-to-Go product line including CompactFlash and PC cards, MARGI is strengthening its position as a worldwide provider of solutions for mobile presentations.

PRESENTATION: MARGI Systems released Presenter-to-Go Type I CompactFlash card

Pharos Science & Applications Inc., the leader in advanced, affordable navigation solutions for Windows Powered Pocket PCTM 2002 and other Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), and Microsoft Corporation are teaming up at CTIA Wireless 2002 from March 18-20 in Orlando, FL to let attendees test drive mobile GPS navigation for themselves.

Attendees can visit the Pharos booth in the Microsoft Partner Pavilion (Booth #1103) and receive a Pocket PC and Pharos' Pocket GPS Navigation for use. From there, they are given coordinates and directions to get to various points around the Orange County Convention Center to obtain clues.

In conjunction with Audiovox, Verizon Wireless and Sierra Wireless we'll be announcing the launch of Audiovox's integrated Pocket PC 2002 device - the Thera - the first CDMA/1XRTT integrated wireless Pocket PC device for the US market, which will ship on Verizon Wireless's network. Find here the lates specifications and pictures of this new Wireless Pocket PC, specially designed for the US:

Back from CeBIT I reinvestigated for myself what saved my daily life, using a Pocket PC and a GPRS enabled mobile phone on my trip. It’s always the same on trips like that, you carry a lot of gadgets with you while you will use at least only a handful. Here is my personal top 10 list what I will never miss in future again, if I’m going on one week trips like CeBIT or any other conventions:

At CTIA Wireless 2002 in Orlando, FL, Microsoft will build on momentum from GSM World Congress by reinforcing the changing dynamics of the mobile industry and Microsoft's central role in enabling the wireless ecosystem. At the show, US carriers will announce their commitments to offer Windows Powered wireless devices

If you still plan to go to CeBIT this year, realy don't forget to take your Wireless LAN card with you. The - by Mobilcom and Cisco - provided coverage and speed is more than enough to access the web from almost everywhere on the CeBIT area.
When I uploaded the news to PPCW.N last week, I took the Mobilcom W-LAN all the time. It supports HTTP, FTP, SMT and POP3 so you will not miss any service you used to use on your home desktop. On this place I want to give Mobilcom a big thank you for providing this free of charge service! It was perfect and you saved my life. The W-LAN is also accessible with your Pocket PC and Mobilcom uses a proxy server to optimize the pages for the PDA access. The results aren't as bad as you may

So, it happened, the first German Pocket PC Fan Fest was held in Hannover which was at least a European Fan Fest and I have to admit that it was such a great event! It was information, socializing, fun and dance and I think, we showed the US guys from Microsoft that the Europeans are also able to celebrate the Pocket PC! :-)

After Beth Goza and Stefanie Rothenbücher from Microsoft gave the instructions what to expect on this evening, the Fan Fest started. Like on the Fan Fests in the US (I was attending the NYC Fan Fest last year) there was also a Q&A person for problems available - in that case me as I was the only representative MVP. But why to write about an event where photos are available - have a closer look here and enjoy... :-)

Cheers ~ Arne

Audiovox is presenting in hall 25 a CF card sized GPRS module. This module is GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz module and should be available during the second quarter. It will be released in Europe as well as in North America! So folks in the States, that's real good news for you. :-)

A price was given with around 200 - 250 US$. That's not so expensive if it is true... Find the specs and pics below.

Cheers ~ Arne

Don't forget to join the first European Microsoft Fan Fest tonight in Hannover:

When: Thursday March 14, 2002 19:00 pm

Where: Diskothek Xcelsior, Bahnhofstrasse 8, 30159 Hannover

What: A Pocket PC Fan Fest is a night of fun and friends, as people meet and talk about all things Pocket PC! There will be chances to win

Pretec's European distributor, Euric AG, is presenting the Pretec GPRS CF card in Hall 19. The card is a type I card which should works with every Pocket PC, Pocket PC 2002 and Windows CE 2.11 P/PC. It is equipped with an additional, rechargeable battery with 650 mA.

The GPRS module is a Class B which allows you theoretically a downstream up to 115 KBps while it uses 5 channels for downstream or 4 for down-, 1 for upstream. The CompactGPRS card should be released during the 3rd quarter, a price wasn't given today.

Cheers ~ Arne

Fujitsu Siemens is presenting on its booth in hall 1 the LOOX Pocket PC 2002. The price was given with 699,00 € and the targeted competitor is the Compaq iPAQ H3870. Fujitsu will offer the LOOX for less as the H3870 costs today.
Also presented is the GSM/GPRS jacket. The final decision about the price isn't done today but, as the Product Manager told me, it should be less then the Compaq Wireless Pack. From the functionality it is based on Siemens' IC35 GPRS module. Find here some pictures I snapped. My overall impression "It's one of the most fanciest Pocket PCs we will see in near future"!

Cheers ~ Arne

Pocket Presence, the company behind Running Voice GSM, presents this year on the Casio booth in hall 1 its Voice over IP solution for Pocket PCs. I had the chance to test it and it's amazing, Running Voice IP supports full duplex on a Pocket PC that you can use it in a corporate environment like a telephone to talk with other Pocket PCs or desktop PCs.
If you take the Fujitsu LOOX for example, you will be also able to hold it like a Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition as it has the speaker on the top and the Microphone on the bottom.

ZDNET Japan has some cool pictures of the Siemens Fujitsu LOOX available. The most impressive one for me is the wireless kind of pack they has there. As you can see on the picture, it has a SIM card slot which means it is the GSM/GPRS module already announced. It's a little bit huge, I hoped to see a smaller one but doesn't matter, good to see, they are really working on it... :-) Looking forward the bright wireless Pocket PC future... :-)

Cheers ~ Arne

Do you wonder how the Smartphone 2002 and Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition compares? Have a look here of the latest snaps I shot on möbius 2002.

Cheers ~ Arne

We had some interesting discussions this morning about the Mobile Internet and its way. So what is the Mobile Internet for you, is it full blown HTML on a Pocket PC or even Smartphone or is it also W@P or even SMS? Is it about the technology Internet with its standards like Web/HTTP or Instant Messaging or is it at least about information you need if you are mobile? Tell me your thoughts about it.

The second topic we talked about was the success of Wi-Fi vs. Bluetooth

BVRP Software is pleased to announce our presence at CeBIT 2002. This, Europe's largest IT event, will take place in Hannover, Germany from 13th - 20th March, 2002.

You'll find BVRP Software on stand F15, Hall 27, where we'll be presenting our latest software innovations:

Stockholm, March 11 2002 - Pocket Presence today announced cooperation with Casio Computer, which means that the product Running Voice IP will be demonstrated in Casio's booth at CeBIT. Running Voice IP is a unique application in that it provides wirelessly connected Pocket PC devices with full voice-over-IP capabilities with unparalleled sound quality.

"Wireless voice access, the true killer application for PDAs in the enterprise environment, is within reach with Running Voice IP. I think that Running Voice IP on a Cassiopeia will generate a lot of interest at CeBIT", said Soenke Prestin, Product Manager at Casio Europe GmbH.

As I wrote on Saturday, this years möbius Europe is about the wireless world, Microsoft already presented on the 3GSM World Congress and will demonstrate again on CeBIT this week.
At this point Microsoft gave the möbius Europe group (which are Webmasters, Professionals and MVPs from Europe and the States plus Canada ;-) a more detailed and closer look what's going on at the devices side and what's going on at the service and backend side. It looks as we will get a lot of new information and will talk about the Wireless Pocket PC 2002 Edition and Smartphone 2002.

Unfortunately, as I stated before, we are a little bit disconnected here but anyway I will use my GPRS phone to upload the latest news and views, stay tuned!

Cheers ~ Arne

Alright, it's time to pack the bags and leave the house. From tomorrow I will be in Göttingen for the next 2.5 days where Microsoft is holding möbius 2002. Like möbius 2001 last autumn in Redmond a lot of Pocket PC and PDA enthusiasts will come together and talk with Microsoft staff about the latest developments. This time - I'm sure - the wireless world will be in focus while last year in Redmond the Pocket PC 2002 launch was in the focus.

Tel.Me, an Austrian manufacture of MP3 players, will announce its latest product - a Smartphone - on CeBIT next week. The T919 will come as a dual band GSM and GPRS phone and includes a digital camera, MP§ player PIM functionalities and a colored touch screen with 32768 colors by 256 x 128 pixel.

Not given are any information about the OS. Therefore it's not clear if it will use its own proprietary, Windows CE or EPOC operating system. Here the hard facts:

Since I've tested the the Margi Presenter-to-Go card I'm really impressed of its possibilities. Therefore I did some deeper investigations how it works in real life environments. Specially I'm fascinated to use it with a video projector instead using a more expensive Notebook.

Thanks to Compaq I got one of its fantastic iPAQ projectors - the iPAQ MP2810. The most important for me was to see how presentations looks with this high-end projector using a Notebook versus an iPAQ. So I made some sample presentations to compare it by myself and also my Girlfriend had a look which presentation is running on which device. She uses projectors in her job near daily, so she was the perfect test candidate. Here are the results.

The 2 pictures below are real photos I made while I used the iPAQ MP2810 video projector. Can you spot any differences? I'm sure you can't.

Within the last days, there was some problems with my Mazingo channel. As a result the synchronization with your Pocket PC was horrible slow and responds with a lot of error messages.
This was because I left some code in the PHP script, which forced Mazingo to make unnecessary downloads. Now, this bug is fixed AND I’ve added an additional PPCW.N channel to Mazingo - PPCW.N Lite.

Just got this news from Jiang from Microsoft Research:

Hi Arne,
We released Microsoft Portrait 1.1. Portrait video has colors! We add basic colors of a video to the original black/white portrait video. Now portrait video looks like watercolor but still keeps low bitrate property. Please check the "Plus watercolor" box in Tools->Options->Video menu in PC version to enable watercolor effect of portrait video.

To navigate on the CeBIT you need 3 things: A map of the CeBIT, an exhibitor guide and if you want to go there fully equipped, you need a GPS receiver. ;-)
As the years before Palmtop Publishing is giving its CeBIT Exhibitor Guide away for free. So download your copy today and don’t forget to sync it to your Pocket PC.

MARGI Systems, the leading provider of mobile presentation solutions that turn handhelds into professional quality presentation devices, today announced the availability of their Presenter-to-Go Software Developer’s Kit (SDK). The Presenter-to-Go SDK allows developers to directly access the Application Program Interface (API) on the Presenter-to-Go graphics card. Presenter-to-Go offers a simple, cost-effective means of presenting high-quality, color presentations directly from a wide range of handheld devices and displayed at 1024 x 768 resolution. The Presenter-to-Go SDK targets handheld software developers, such as Conduits Technologies, who require high-resolution presentation output, and wish to write their software to a hardware card.

Wow, what's up with Deutsche Telekom? It took 5 days only to reconnect me to their network! Cool, thanks for this. Even if I thought it became a horror trip again (the first 3 calls with their customer service seemed so) I found the right number here in Munich and they connected me/ported my number without any problems.
Unfortunately it's an analog line only but DSL is already ordered. So I have to surf the web with my good old Elsa (also insolvency now) 56K modem and now I know what DSL means for me. The file upload to my web server really takes time... :-( Anyway, I'm glad to be back on the Net as GPRS really becomes to expensive for me to use it all the time!

Cheers ~ Arne

Thanks to Compaq EMEA, several weeks ago I got a carrier test sample of the Compaq GSM/GPRS Wireless Pack. This means that it is fully functional and works as the commercial versions will works later. However, some features aren't available in the sample version or other features are available, which will not be included later.

The Compaq iPAQ Wireless Pack for GSM/GPRS Networks broadens the functionality of Compaq iPAQ H3600, H3700 and H3800 Pocket PCs to include data and voice capabilities. The Wireless Pack combines Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) technologies to allow users to access the Internet and send and receive email and Short Message Service (SMS) messages, in addition to making wireless phone calls. The Wireless Pack essentially converts the pocket PC to a mobile phone and wireless data device that can be easily and conveniently taken anywhere also because it supports GSM 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz.
I'm using the Wireless Pack for 3 weeks now. But first some hard facts:

If you are going to Hannover, don’t forget to download the map of Hannover free of charge from Microsoft. This downloadable map is dedicated for Microsoft’s Pocket Streets 2002. However, this will helps you to orientates in Hannover.

If you have a GPS receiver for your Pocket PC, don’t forget

A revolutionary new multimedia mobile delivery company is now open for businesses. Mazingo Network, www.mazingo.net, is already changing the way thousands of users around the world get their news, entertainment and information. For example, Daron Brewood, who runs a Web site dedicated to Pocket PC enthusiasts(tekguru.co.uk), never carries a daily newspaper these days. In fact, with Mazingo he can get all

Folks! I think a lot of you are looking forward the CeBIT like me, which starts next week in Hannover. If you will attend CeBIT too, don’t forget to take your Pocket PC (or Notebook) and W-LAN Wi-Fi card with you: Mobilcom and France Télécom will build – in cooperation with Cisco – the “worlds largest test LAN”. This means that it is planned to cover mostly all halls and the convention center with IEEE 802.11b. As known today, the access is free of charge during the CeBIT. Details about the configuration wasn’t given.

Since yesterday, I have my new iPAQ H3870 with Bluetooth in my hands (yes, it took a little bit longer to get it but finally... ;-) and yes – the most important for me is the Bluetooth functionality of this iPAQ. However, since I'm playing with Bluetooth I miss one feature and now I know how it should looks like:

It is clear, that Bluetooth will become the common connection interface for Pocket PCs (see also my interview with Martin Croome from Socket Communications) and while every Pocket PC will have Bluetooth in the future – which can be used to share contacts, etc) there is no application which allows me to use my Pocket PC to communicate with other Bluetooth enabled Pocket PC users today. I mean a kind of standardized IM via Bluetooth, not propriety applications designed for a dedicated Bluetooth card only.

SonyEricsson said it has launched the world's first multi media (MMS) handset, the T68i, as one of six new phones in its bid to take on the mobile handset market. The company said the T68i handset can be attached to a digital camera accessory, the Communicam MCA-20, which will enable the user to take photographs and then send them as an MMS message to another phone, email them to a PC, or store them. Shipment of both the T68i, and the MCA-20 will begin immediately in both Europe and Asia, the company said.
The company also announced the launch of the P800, a multimedia smartphone with built in camera, running on triple band GSM and GPRS networks, as well as the Z700, which it described as a "gaming phone".
Both the P800 and the Z700 will be launched in the third quarter. The T68i, P800, and Z700 will all have built in Bluetooth capability.

Yesterday E-Plus (the German share of the Dutch KPN where NTT DoCoMo, the i-mode founder, is shareholder too) announced the availability of i-mode in Germany from 16th March. In the first step, E-Plus/i-mode will offers different news and fun services from business news, to weather to ringtones (see a list of services on the E-Plus i-mode homepage (German only)).
E-Plus will charge 3 € flat per month plus additional access and services charges like 1 Cent per Kbyte for the plane access plus additional content charges up to 2 €.

However - in 2003, E-Plus plans to migrate i-Mode from the chtml based standard to WAP 2.0. For the service launch, E-Plus plans also to

Well, in the previous article I wrote about MMS with my Ericsson T68 and at the same time I got a real Multimedia Message from Japan, where a friend of mine – a 3G Product Manager – currently is.

He used his FOMA P2101V video phone to snap a picture of himself and sent it, including a short notice, from his phone to my E-Mail account:

That’s cool, that’s fancy, that’s the future! I love this kind of services which I call "enhanced personal messaging services" and I think this kind of services are the future. For sure SMS will still alive, specially if I have to transport basic messages like “My lovely girlfriend! I will come later as I will go for some drinks with my friends"; I don’t need to attach any pictures of myself at all but the reply with an attached image of a “Smith and Wesson" could force me to skip joining the evening with my friend and coming back home... ;-)
No, to be serious: I think there are situations where attaching photos will become so useful and even video telephony could becomes a hype with wireless technologies.

But for now, I’m more than jealous of these technologies – already available in Japan...

ApA had new pictures from the SonyEricsson “T68i” including some pictures of MMS. This looks fancy and I want to have it on my Ericsson T68 too. Unfortunately the service didn’t update my phone last week with the latest firmware and I think I have to wait some more weeks.

However, as far as I’ve heard, VIAG Interkom (the German share of mmO2), will launch its MMS service on CeBIT next week, so I need MMS on my mobile phone too! ;-)

As I announced some days ago, MultiIE 2.0 is now available for download. It has been completely re-designed and re-written with support for both Pocket PC and Pocket PC 2002 devices with the same version. There are many improvements over the original 1.x, and many new features as well. Since many people emailed me about uograding to Pocket PC 2002 and not having MultiIE, I have decided MultiIE 2.0 will be a free upgrade to anyone with an existing registration key. But, even if you don't, MultiIE 2.0 is only US$14.95! Many of the features have come directly from requests via email over the last year. I hope you all find a better browsing experience with MultiIE 2.0!