Despite Intel complaining recently about their market share declining, there's a revolution brewing in PMC (Personal Mobile Communication) devices that leaves room for opportunities. While we're not quite at the Star Trek communicator device stage at, I think we're closer to something even more exciting. Especially for those of us that don't live and travel on starships. Don't believe me? Alright, let me tell you, with a slight detour.

Google is showing its genius again by making their Google Talk IM (Instant Messaging) backend available via an API, and by following the Jabber/XMPP standard, several other companies have come out with talk client software for GoogleTalk. I'm trying out Chatopus's 30-day trial to see if it suits my own communication needs, which is a possibility if I get accepted into Ether's beta program.

What's Ether? Darren Rowse wrote something about Ether recently. It's a new service that will let you communicate with paying customers for your phone-based, email-based, or digital content-based services. They don't get your service without first paying for it (apparently to your Paypal account). And the times of day and days of week that you are available for consulting is configurable.

This is a killer application of the Internet, and I'm impressed with what little I've read about Ether. (They're still in closed beta.) But this could be the type of application that really turns the world into a global village. Imagine, if you will, the ability to have a paying customer contact you on your smartphone (PalmOS, PocketPC, or otherwise). They've already paid you up front, via a broker (such as Ether). Your smartphone rings, you answer it, and the customer's image (still or live video) appears. If you've enabled your image, depending on the service you're offering, you could really build credibility with your clients. That is, those clients who are half way around the world and wouldn't otherwise be able to work with you in person. While it's not exactly "in person", it's more personal than a phone call or email.

Besides business uses, there's also the personal side. Imagine being able, for example, to talk with your therapist for a few minutes, instead of trying to fight traffic and find parking. You feel better for your conversation, and even better than you don't have to pay for a complete hour. And your therapist feels better for being able to help more clients. Me, though, I can't wait to talk to my grandma face to face. Twenty five years between visits is far too long.

Technorati Tags: tech watch, PMC, mobile devices, personal communication, smartphones

So it's the end of the 4th day with my new PalmOne Treo 650. What have I got to show for my purchase? Absolutely nothing. I've spent the last several days finding, downloading and installing all manner of software on to my Treo. Instead of the 20-30 weblog entries I would typically have posted to my blogs on Mon-Thurs, I only have 11, excluding today's posts. Not very productive. Okay, I lied. I did write most of the posts about PalmOS-based devices, so I got something out of it.

But I had to stop writing to go buy a SD (Secure Digital) memory card today. My Treo wouldn't let me add any more software, and I still hadn't set up my test environment. My intent, as I mentioned in the last post, is to set up an environment to test RSS feed readers, etc. mostly in preparation for creating a number of free RSS-based services. I'm doing this for both desktop/ laptop computers and mobile devices (PalmOS for now). I've got several months of research and design still to do, so this isn't a short-term project.

What I was hoping was that my Treo would let me stay online when I was in places where I couldn't use my laptop to get on the Internet. I was hoping to see whether I could use software like Skype or GoogeTalk to communicate with other bloggers around the world, with whom I am collaborating.

So far, I'm worrying about the cost of exceeding my monthly mobile data limits, which aren't very generous. On top of that, trying to browse RSS feeds and websites (either online or off) on a 320x320 device isn't exactly a joyful experience, And despite the free Dataviz Documents to Go software, trying to browse MS-Word, MS-Excel and Adobe PDF files is only slightly better. Plain text, on the other hand, is very easy to browse and absorb.

In fact, I went to the Gutenberg Project and downloaded a few dozen of the top 100 books in the new Plucker format, designed for PalmOS-based devices. I've always wanted to read ALL of the classics in literature, but trying to build a hardcover library of out-of-print books hasn't always been easy. Or affordable. And when I ran out of space on the Treo, I had to stop adding e-texts.

I was lucky enough to find a 256 Mb card on sale at Staples (staples.ca, staples.com). Mine's a Lexar brand, but other than a great price ($30+taxes), one brand is pretty much the same as any other. Solving space problems is generally pretty easy and affordable.

So what's the problem most PDAs, smartphones, or other mobile computing devices? Screen space, of course. Despite all the extra bit depths, etc., the 320x320 pixel screen of the Treo is simply too small for my regular computing needs. Now, I'm not as mobile as I used to be. Back a decade ago, when I used to publish my monthly print review magazine, I might be in 3-8 cities on any given day. I sure could have used one of these then. Except that they didn't exist then. Heck, the Internet wasn't even public yet.

Obviously, I'm expecting too much on such a small device. Don't get me wrong. I still love my Palm Treo, even more than my old Palm V, which bit the dust after many butterfingered drops onto concrete. I just wish I had something mobile and unobtrusive. I seem to recall an old Wired magazine (print) article in the early- to mid-90s about heads-up displays (HUDs) posing as sunglasses.

These fabled HUD devices project an effectively large screen in a tiny display area, and connect unobtrusively to a small computer known as a brick because of its shape. Brick computers are typically small enough to be carried on your person. And I know that these HUDs exist, but they're still rather costly. You could, of course, build your own HUD, but walking around in public looking like a two-bit cyborg may just draw unwanted attention.

By the way, if you haven't seen the home page of the Lexar site, they're advertising a brand new CF (CompactFlash) card that's not only 4 Gb but 133x speed. Four Gb!! I'm not going to be like Bill "The Borg" Gates and say that 4 Gb should be all anyone will ever need for a memory card. Because I won't be happy unless I have a 4 Tb (Terabyte) card on a device that I can wear on my body. With a heads up display and a digital camera mounted in my cornea, snapping pics of everything I look at with the blink of an eye.

Technorati Tags: tech watch, palm, palmone, treo, palmpilot, palmos, PDA, mobile devices, productiivty, MPC, HUD, heads up display

MPC: Mobile personal communicator. It's been about 6 years since I last dropped my old Palm V PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) on the ground and it forever stopped working. The $50 aluminum hardshell rhino case didn't make a difference. That was $700 (Cdn) down the drain. What's worse is that all of the PDA apps that I'd downloaded or was creating were lost when I accidentally trashed a 17Gb drive on an older computer last year (along with 300 songs I'd composed over 5 years).

What was I doing? Trying to create a partition so that I could install Linux (an operating system I'd installed dozens of times on a standalone basis) as part of a dual-boot system with Windows 98, since I didn't have space on my Win XP laptop. Try as I might, the data on the drive was lost forever, without expensive data recovery services that I just didn't have the funds for. Even scouring the sectors one at a time with a special recovery program didn't help.

What's always a wonder to me is that for someone who has 29+ years of computer programming and various other technical background, that I have such trouble with technology that should be functionally simple to set up. I'm one of those people that can write 5000-line computer programs with triple-void, amorphous data structures in C (don't ask), but can't always program a VCR or a simple digital alarm clock.

I'm also one of those strange anomalies that's part Luddite and part gadgethead. I love my electronic toys, but don't ever try to convince me that any of them are really going to save society or even help my productivity. For example, I just got a brand spanking, sparkly PalmOne Treo 650 smartphone that's a combo phone and PDA. In other words, an MPC (Mobile Personal Communicator). As for using the device for productive work, instead of using yesterday and today to write the 10-15 weblog posts I had scheduled, all I've done, besides the post you're reading, is waste two days trying to find free palmos (productivity) software :)

What's more, a totally annoying feature of the PalmOne Treo is that it shuts off every 30 seconds by default. Unfortunately, for mobile warriors like myself, 3 minutes is the limit before the device shuts off, unless I'm actively doing something with it or to it. Not exactly productive for someone that's on the go a lot, especially if I'm getting frustrated turning the damn thing back on again all the time. (Was this intentional design? If so, why aren't the options a bit more generous?)

Oh, okay, I also plan to use Treo 650 to browse weblog feeds while commuting, or whenever my laptop is offline. And write a number of RSS-based applications for my free RSS-based WebFeedMail project. But for now, I'm simply procrastinating by tell myself I'm just doing research.

Technorati Tags: tech watch, palm, treo, palmpilot, palmos, PDA, mobile devices, productivity, MPC

Infoworld reports that Microsoft has just released their new Office Live package. This package is intended for small U.S. busineses, according to the product manager, who want to create an online presence. Anyone who was expecting an AJAX (Asynchronous Javscript and XML) based version will be disappointed with this release.

At US$29.95/m for the Basics version, Office Live's purpose is to supposedly help a business create and manage an online presence. This includes the ability to create a website, web analytics to study your web traffic, a domain name, and 5 email accounts. Bump up to the Collaboration version and you get 20 business applications. The Essentials version throws in an extra 50 email accounts.

My opinion is that this package is only really for any small businesses (10 employees or less) who don't have someone with the experience to create a web presence on their own, with existing tools. At $29.95/m, that's about $360/yr, every year you use it. And that's just for the Basics. My hosting costs me US$3.95/m and the domains are US$8.95/yr, for a total of about $56/yr. Occasionally, domains are only US$1.99 for the first year.  Loads of email accounts are included free with the hosting package.

If my web traffic rises and I need a virtual dedicated server, that'll cost me about US$35/m. But I suspect most small businesses wouldn't need to do that. As for website managment, content management, and web analytics, I use quality free and/or OpenSource software tools. Sure, there's a bit of learning involved, but what's wrong with that? Take the money you save each year and send one employee to a basic webmastering class. That knowledge will serve you well, assuming you can hold on to the employee.

Well, I suppose if Google and Yahoo have gotten into the hosting business, why shouldn't Microsoft? Personally, if you're already doing business on the Internet, I think you should consider holding off until Microsoft puts out an AJAX version.

Links/Sources: Infoworld - Microsoft's Office Live services debut with e-mail, Web hosting services.

Technorati Tags: computingnews, computing news, office live, microsoft, manage website

Leon Erlanger, in Network World Canada magazine (links below), writes in two detailed articles about the vulnerabilities of VoIP (Voice Over IP), and some steps being made towards security and protecting VoIP communications.

At the heart of the problem is that VoIP is based on the Internet Protocol (IP), and thus is currently no more secure than email. As more people use VoIP, and as new tools allow, security attacks will like become more common as unsavoury types will find it easier to annoy people in a new medium.

For example, if it was as simple as pressing a button to send a large list of recipients a single audio file consisting of a telemarketing type of message, wouldn't phishers and spammers and the clueless do so? Of course they would. Erlanger calls this activity SPIT: spam over Internet telephony.

The balancing act is in adding security layers while trying to keep lag time down. If you've ever spoken to someone overseas a decade or more ago, you know what it's like waiting for someone to respond, wondering if they've got the message.

If you've watched any of the news coverage of the Iraq war on TV, you've also seen journalists nod their head while actually waiting for the anchorperson's voice to reach them. VoIP runs the risk of these time lags, when security and compression layers are added onto the processing of audio files. No doubt these problems will be worked out over time.

Links/sources: Network World Canada (Mar 3/06 issue) - Leon Erlanger - VoIP Vulnerabilities, Doing VoIP the Right Way (free registration may be required)

Technorati Tags: computingnews, computing news, voip, internet telephony, communications, security

According to Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper (with files from Reuters), Intel's market share for computer chips is declining (Intel). Reasons include competition with AMD (American Micro Devices). In fact, Intel announced a reduced sales forecast, which affected tech indexes on the stock market.

It seems to me that this sort of thing happens every few years for Intel, and yet they always bounce back, reinvent themselves. Intel shares typically have a semi-consistent up-down cycle as well. The problem is that the downturn of Intel stocks tends to shift a bit from year to year, and if you spend the time research a few years of share prices and can afford a sufficient number of shares, you stand to make some money.

I seriously doubt, as I have in the past, that Intel will allow themselves to permanently decline. Surely they'll come up with some new chip for some new device, which will cause share prices to rise again. At least, I'm sure shareholders will hope so.

Technorati Tags: intel, chips, cpu

I've posted an entry on my Talespinner fiction journal regarding a new device called the LongPen (found via Digital Inspiration), which allows authors to remotely sign books for fans. Yesterday was intended to have been a historic occasion, with fans at the receiving end in my hometown. Unfortunately, the transmission-receiving laptop failed.

Technorati Tags: talespinner, tale spinner, telepresence, longpen, remote signing