The decision is totally in the hands of the equipment
manufacturers. They will make it based on the number of color-screen
Palm-size PCs they sold, the number of upgrade chips they think they
will sell, and the cost involved. Cost and ease of upgrade will depend
on how the ROM chip is attached to the motherboard (i.e., is it on a
slip-in board, or is it hardwired to the main board). Rumor has it
that both HP and Casio will let you trade in your existing unit for a
discount on a their new Pocket PC. No word on what Compaq's plan is.
Casio's Cassiopeia E-10, E-11, E-15, E-100, and E-105 Palm-size PCs
work with many Nokia cellular phones. As of this writing the work with
the Nokia 5110, 5190, 6110, 6130/nk702, 6150, and the 6190. The
connection is a physical one using a cable, not an infrared interface
like the HP tip below.
Yes, you can connect the HP Jornada Handheld PC Pro to a cell phone
to check your e-mail or browse the Web. The Motorola TimePort works
with a Jornada 680/690. The Trio Phone Manager software included in
the Jornada Package lets the two devices communicate via their
infrared ports. Note that Web browsing may be slow using this method.
Others mobile phones with infrared ports work with the HP Jornada
680/690. These include: The Ericsson SH888 and I888; Ericsson phones
with DI 27 and DI 28 IR plug; Nokia 8810, 7110, 8850 and 8210 phones;
and the Siemens S25.
Rumors have it that you can still get your Philips Velo Handheld PC
(and presumably the Nino Palm-size PC) repaired through Philips.
According to my source, it takes about a week and they ship you a
refurbished unit instead of repairing yours. You should always back up
your data before sending any computer off to be repaired. Non-warranty
repairs cost a flat $100. The Phillips phone numbers are (888)
275-8356 or (888) 734-8356.
Casio chose to save videos created by its Digital Camera Card in
its proprietary .CMF format. As it turns out, it's not so proprietary
after all. In fact, it's so similar to the first version of MPEG that
all you have to do to play it on a standard MPEG player is change the
file extension of the video file from .CMF to .MPG.
Casio have never made a secret of this. Very early on I read a
review of the E-105 that mentioned that Casio had combined the MPG
format with a different form of sound recording because it enables the
file to take up less size. The review actually pointed out that the
Casio Movie Player could handle MPEGs if you changed the MPG suffix to
CMF. It works the other way around, also, but you lose any sound in
the .CMF movie.
MpegTV (www.mpegtv.com)
recently released a beta version of PocketTV, a free MPEG movie player
for Windows CE devices. Many free or inexpensive MPEG players are
available for desktop PCs.
How confidential is your e-mail? Most corporate e-mail systems
require users to dial directly into company servers, leaving the
Internet and the Web completely out of the transaction. Free mail
services, on the other hand, use the Web as the communications
mechanism. Your e-mail waits on someone else's computer system between
the time you login and the time you view it. And while the companies
involved do their best to safeguard their systems and your accounts,
the system is not as safe as a secure company server. Avoid using free
mail services for confidential e-mail.
You can take the Excel documents you create on your desktop PC with
you on your H/PC or Pocket PC. You can even connect your H/PC to a
printer and print the document out. If it's a large document and you
only want to print out a portion of it, drag your stylus across the
screen to select the portion you want to print out. Then go to the
File menu, tap
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