Desktop To Go!

The Size of a Paperback and Most of the Functions of a Real PC - New York Times

A short piece on the new Samsung Q1 UMPC. Its a cool little thing. If only it had a camera, so I could mophoblog (MObilePHOtoBLOG) from it!

GrandCentral: The New Way to Use Your Phones

GrandCentral: The New Way to Use Your Phones

Great article in the New York Times this week about Grand Central.com (how is it that domain was not already taken?) personal phone number service, who's motto is "One Number For Life". Click on title for link to Grand Central.

At first I thought this service would be superfluous for me, since I only have one number, my mobile. Yet as a traveler, who might occasionally use VoIp, or foreign sim cards, I realize this could simplify things even for me.

David Pogue lists some of the features offered by Grand Central:
Be warned, however: GrandCentral offers a huge list of additional features that aren’t so simple. If you’re not careful, GrandCentral can turn into a full-blown hobby. For example:

CALLER NAMING Every GrandCentral caller is announced by name when you answer the phone. (“Call from Ethel Murgatroid.”)

How does it know the name? Sometimes Caller ID supplies it. GrandCentral also knows every name in your online address book, which can import your contacts from Yahoo, Gmail or your e-mail program.

Callers not in these categories are asked to state their names the first time they call. On subsequent calls, GrandCentral recognizes them.

LISTEN IN For what may be the first time in cellphone history, you can listen to a message someone is leaving, just as you can on a home answering machine.

Your phone rings and displays the usual Caller ID information. You answer it. But before you can even say “Hello,” GrandCentral’s recording lady tells you the caller’s name, and then offers four ways to handle the call: “Press 1 to accept, 2 to send to voice mail, 3 to listen in on voice mail, or 4 to accept and record the call.” Your callers have no clue that all this is going on; they hear only the usual ringing sound.

If you press 3, the call goes directly to voice mail — but you get to listen in. If you feel that the caller deserves your immediate attention, you can press * to pick up the call.

This subtle feature can save you time, cellular minutes and, in certain cases of conflict-avoidance, emotional distress.

RECORD THE CALL Hitting 4 during a call begins recording it; GrandCentral then treats the recording as a voice mail message. Here again, you can immortalize the historic calls of your life, or just create a replayable record of driving directions. GrandCentral notes that laws in some states require both parties to know that a call is being recorded.

RINGBACK MUSIC This bizarre little feature is evidently popular with young cellphone users in Europe, but is still rare in the United States. It lets you replace the ringing sounds the caller hears while waiting for you to answer (what Lily Tomlin would describe as “one ringy-dingy, two ringy-dingys”) with music—in GrandCentral’s case, any MP3 file of your choice.

This does imbue your own personal phone with a certain corporate, Muzakish feel. But hey — who wouldn’t want to seem more European?

CUSTOMIZE GREETINGS Control freaks, rejoice. You can actually record a different voice mail greeting for each person in your address book: “Hi, sugarcheeks” for your sweetheart; “Can’t take your call right now, I’m out looking for a better job” for your mother.

You can also specify, on a per person basis, which of your phones ring, which ringback music plays and whether the call goes directly to voice mail.

Finally, you can tell GrandCentral to answer certain people’s calls with the classic three-tone “The number you have dialed is no longer in service” message. Telestalkers, bill collectors and ex-lovers come to mind. Never has technology been so deliciously evil.

SWITCH LINES Anytime during a call, you can press the * key to make all of your phones ring again, so that you can pick up on a different phone in midconversation, unbeknownst to the person on the other end. For example, if you’re heading out the door, you can switch a landline call to your cellphone — or as you arrive home, a cell call to a landline, in order to save airtime minutes.

PHONE SPAM FILTERS GrandCentral maintains a database of telemarketer numbers that is constantly updated by reports from its own subscribers. Your phones don’t even ring when a telemarketer in that database tries to reach you.

QUICK CHANGES With a quick click at GrandCentral.com, you can direct all calls to voice mail when you don’t want to be disturbed; direct all calls to a new, temporary number (like a hotel); or prevent your home line from ringing during work hours.

WEB BUTTONS You can install a “call me” button on your Web site — a great, free way to field calls from your eBay, MySpace or dating-service Web page without actually posting your phone number.

I would encourage you to read the whole article. It is excellent!

This is definitely something every nomad needs.

Hands-on with Vulcan's Flipstart handheld PC - Engadget

Hands-on with Vulcan's Flipstart handheld PC - Engadget
Thet have had some hands on the Flipstart over at Engadget. Click the link and read the comments, which shows there are still a lot of fans for the Toshibo Libretto.

Also, several more pictures of the Flipstart in the main post.

Flipstart (Reservation) Release

Flipstart
The new Flipstart is here, the new Flipstart is here! Actually, what is here is a chance to reserve one when they do come out at the end of MArch 2007. Wait, that is within the next 2 weeks. Interesting marketing.

I have been following the development of this little palm-sized laptop for many moons, so long in fact, that I had totally forgotten that I had left my email address to be notified when it dropped. Today I found the newsflash email in my inbox, much to my delight. Here is a photo I grabbed from the email.
You can't get much more portable than this, but the thing that sets it apart from the other UMPC's is the "instant on" feature. How great would it be to not have to wait for your laptop to power up each time you turned it on?
Memory: 512
Hard Drive: 30 gb
Price:$1999.

My-Symbian.com - Symbian OS S60 3rd Edition Smartphones Software and News

My-Symbian.com - Symbian OS S60 3rd Edition Smartphones Software and News

Good news for those of us in the U.S. drooling over this phone, er, uh, I mean "convergence device".

"Sat, 03.03.07
Nokia E90 FCC approved and US 3G bands compatible?
Check out this FCC.gov page for all the usual FCC stuff (internal and external photos, test report, SAR report, user guide, etc.) regarding the Nokia E90. As Engadget discovered in one of the documents, it seems that the E90 is going to be compatible with all WCDMA frequencies used in the United States: 850, 1700 and 1900 MHz (strangely, however, the document doesn't mention any European frequencies).
Posted by Michal Jerz @ 17:08 in S60 3rd Edition category "

Ultraportable Panasonic R5 update

Thanks to this fantastically lightweight and portable UMPC, and the Four Season's $10.00 per 24hr wifi access availability through the hotel, I got to sit poolside this morning to write this and the previous post! I have carried and used this Panasonic R5 far more than other laptop, because it is so lightweight and the battery lasts longer than that bunny. I heart my R5. It truly is ultraportable.

Nokia E90 Release Update

In Houston this weekend, so I went to the Galleria Mall because there is a Futuretronics store there. The always have the latest phones first (and at the highest prices), so I figured if there was a Nokia E90 available in retail, it would show up there. NO sign yet, but they think they will get an E90 sometime in March. It is March 11th, so that means within the next 3 weeks!

As Far as price, though it is estimated in the gadget blogs to go for $1000.00, I have seen in on electronics websites for a s low as $799.00, pre-order, which sounds like a bargain comparatively. I am learning to justify the price by no longer looking at it as an expensive phone, but a phone, GPS, PDA combination. (Yes, it does play Mp3's, but I'm not sure that is a totally feasible use, given battery life usage.) So if I add up the price of those 3 devices, plus the advantage of easy on web access, the price starts to seems reasonable.