20/04/2000

Microsoft unveils Pocket PC

At long last, Microsoft, along with Compaq, Hewlett Packard and Casio, have unveiled their new Pocket PC devices. And why they didn't just call them Funky PC's, I don't know!

These new machines aim to give Palm a good run for it's money - with better, higher resolution colour screens than the recently introduced colour Palm, more memory, full web browsing, (as opposed to the 'web clipping' favoured by Palm and some seriously funky design work - especially by Compaq.

Features such as MP3 support and eBook readers will broaden the appeal of these devices away from the 'technophobes' and towards the mainstream consumer market.

With the announcement of these new machines, the handheld market continues to grow and mature. Pocket PC has a, long,  long way to go before it can even think about touching Palm's installed base - but with the new OS, great hardware design, and consumer friendly features, Pocket PC is now more than a credible alternative to it's rivals. Click on the links to the right for more info!

2/04/2000

New Apple PDA to be more than Palm clone

The long awaited Newton replacement from Apple is to be much more than a Palm clone according to sources. The device seems set to run OSX - Apple's next generation OS that is scheduled to ship later this Summer. But is this desktop OS suited to a handheld machine? Just look at how Microsoft's Windows CE, which has it's origins in Windows 95, was not entirely suited to a handheld device due to it's desktop OS connection. Microsoft have realised this, though, and have returned to a cleaner, more intuitive interface in the new Pocket PC's 'rapier' OS. It also seems likely that there'll be two - or more - devices in Apple's  new PDA family with a basic model running an enhanced Palm OS and the business version using OSX

30/03/2000

Microsoft shows off it's "Dr. Who" technology

Micorosoft recently previewed it's MiPad (Multimodal Interactive Notepad), technology which brings speech recognition and 'spoken language processing' both together under an interface dubbed Dr. Who.

This technology was seen to be running on a Windows CE machine! Does this give us some pointers on where we're going to end up with PocketPC?

 26/03/2000

Wiredguy.com reviews PocketPC

Check out http://www.wiredguy.com for the first review of Microsoft's PocketPC operating system, (codenamed Rapier). Makes very interesting reading!

18/03/2000

****STOP PRESS****

The Pouch is now up and running!!!

Click on the tab above to drop by and have a chat!

16/03/2000

Handspring to open European offices

Handspring Inc., has announced that it will open its European headquarters later this spring. At a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland, the company outlined plans to locate Handspring International SARL in Geneva. Handspring produce the Visor range of handheld computers that are expandable using their unique 'springboard' technology. Springboard allows hardware components such as modems and digital cameras to be easily 'snapped' into place.

For more details, follow this link: http://www.handspring.com

09/03/2000

Speak and sell

IBM has shown a demo of it's speech recognition technology, (used in it's ViaVoice product), running on a Palm III machine.

The Personal Speech Assistant, (PSA), comes in the form of a hardware add-on that plugs into the back of the Palm unit and contains the embedded speech engine as well as additional hardware components such as flash memory.

As well as offering speech recognition, the unit can also perform text to speech. The demo took place at the Mobile Insights 2000 conference in the US. Once the technology has been fully developed, IBM hope to licence it widely and see it become a big selling point for up and coming Pocket PC's and PDAs.

iPoint

A few years back, Rod Cambridge proposed a new type of mobile information system to some of the industry's key players. His ideas were rejected. However, with the advent of technologies such as Bluetooth, things may be about to change. TopPocket shares his iPoint vision with you...
 

02/03/2000

Palm IPO extremely successful

The widely anticipated Palm IPO took place early on Thursday raising $848 million. Shares were trading at around $136 initially and reached $165 on the first day. The IPO itself was considered very successful; America Online, Motorola,  and Nokia have bought Palm shares in a private placement that occured at the same time as the IPO.