Flurry of PalmOS news

A couple of news in connection to the PalmOS industry

First up, HTC has begun shipping for PalmOne's new PDA smartphone aka PalmOne Treo 650 previously called the 'Ace' or Treo 610. The device would feature a 312Mhz Intel XScale, 32Mb RAM, 320x320 resolution LCD, Bluetooth, 1.3Mp digital camera and runs on PalmOS 5.4 (Garnet).



Source: The Register UK

According to ABCNews.com, Skype for PalmOS would be released next month. Skype is my favourite 'VoIP' program that I regularly use on my PC and Pocket PC device to make free international calls. Skype also features SkypeOut where users can make PC to landline/mobile calls for a small fee.

Source: ABCNews.com

Hong Kong PalmPilot User Group has some pretty nice specs up regarding a new GSL PDA. The device is a new PalmOS PDA smartphone running PalmOS 5.4. The device is rumoured to have a 2.2" LCD 176x220 resolution LCD capable of 18-bit colour. It would contain 32Mb Flash ROM and 32Mb RAM. It would also contain a VGA digital camera. It is not known whether the device would be fitted with Bluetooth (if not a real shame). GSL only market their XPlore PDAs in Asia.


Source: HKPUG

MantraGroup's (weird name) Causerie Messenger (even weirder name) is an instant messeging program for PalmOS which supports most major instand messeging clients. Users of AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), ICQ, MSN, Yahoo! Messenger and Jabber can now use their GPRS or WiFI connected PalmOS device to chat with each other anytime and anywhere they want. I think this is a cool nifty software. I am curious whether it can dethrone the ultimate IM PalmOS software VeriChat.


Source: MantraGroup

But where is the successor to the popular Palm's Tungsten T3?

New Malaysia Hall in London opened

Received an e-mail today informing me that the Malaysia Hall Canteen in London has just reopened (since it was closed down last year) yesterday.

It would be situated in a new location. Instead of nearby Marble Arch where the old Malaysia Halll was it would now be located in Queensway, a popular hang out for Malaysians. The address is:

Malaysian Student Department
30-34 Queensborough Terrace
Queensway
London W2 3ST

Nearest tube stations: Queensway, Bayswater

Map Aerial Map

The operating hours are:

Breakfast 7.30am - 10.00am
Lunch 12.00pm - 4.00pm
Dinner/Supper 5.00pm - 9.45pm

Call +44 (0) 7770 220 608 for more information. There are of course some rules. The restaurant would only be opened for Malaysians (please bring passport or IC). Non Malaysians are welcomed if accompanied by another Malaysian. This is because part of the costs are subsidised by the Malaysian goverment using Malaysian tax payers money.

Fags duty rise by 40%

Good news came out of the Malaysia 2005 budget report. Duties on ciggies are set to rise by 40%!!!

Why is it good news? Because prices of a pack of fags in Malaysia is dirt cheap. A pack of 20 usually costs around RM4-RM5 which equals to less than a British pound! For comparison on the UK the price of a pack of Dunhill costs roughly £4-£5.

Hopefully this would force people to give up or atleast cut back on smoking. I don't smoke so I don't really care but I do know people who do. Cronic smokers not only in KL but also in London and Paris are quire irresponsible in their smoking habit where they like to huff and puff at non-smokers.

Now I pray that the Malaysian government would next implement law to introduce mandatory non-smoking sections in public places such as restaurants.

Another good news came in the form of tax relief for book purchases. The previous limit of RM500 has been increased to RM700.

BBC Radio One Lottie's Essential Selection tracklisting

Below is the track selection listing for Pete Tong's Essential Selection show starting 10th September 2004 prepared by BBC Radio One's resident DJ Lottie.

And of course you can always listen to the week's show again on BBC Radio One online.



*** Lottie's Essential Selection 10/09/2004 ***

Danny Howells And Dick Trevor Feat Erire 'Dusk Till Dawn (Shapeshifters Edit)' (C2 Records) A Studio 'SOS (Skylark Radio Edit)' ( Ark Records) Deep Dish 'Flashdance (Guetta & Garraud F*** Me Im Famous Mix)' (Positiva) Greens Keepers 'Keep It Down' (Classic Records) Mylo 'Drop The Pressure' (Breastfed) Kelis Feat Andre 300 'Millionaire' (Virgin) Scissor Sisters 'Mary (Mylo Remix)' (Universal) Faithless 'Miss You Less, See You More (Pete Heller Newschool Vocal Remix)' (Cheeky) Shakedown 'Love Game (Galactic Boogie Club Mix)' (Kitsune) Ettienne De Crecy 'Grokster' (PIAS) Mutiny Feat Lorraine Cato 'Holding On' (Underwater) Two Culture Clash Presents Switch & Miss Thing 'Love Guide' (Wall Of Sound) Annie 'Chewing Gum (Vocal Mix)' (679 Recordings) Alter Ego 'Rocker (Erol Alkan's Deaf Disco Re-Edit)' (Skint)

***DJ On The Phone - Simon Marlin From The Shapeshifters***

Dr. Kucho 'Lies To Yourself' (Disc Doctors)
Julian Delfaud, Alex Gopher, & Ettienne De Crecy 'Fast Track' (Super Discount) Felix Da Housecat 'Rocket Ride (Soulwax Remix)' (Emperor Norton) Unknown - Unknown (White Label) Tiefschwarz 'Blow' (Inter nat ional Deejay Gigolos)

***House Rules With Ministry Of Sound In London ***

Tom Neville 'Buzz Junkie' (UMM) Hughes & Spier 'Revelation' (Elementary Group)

*** The Buzz Chart Compiled By DMC In London ***

Playford & Gray 'Symptoms Of You ( Lottie 's Mix)' (Missdemeanours) Wink '518 Acid' (Ovum) Superchumbo Feat Celeda 'Dirty Filthy' (Twisted) Freeform Five 'Eeeeaaooww!' (Ultimate Dilemma) Chemical Brothers 'Electronic Battle Weapon 7' (Freestyle Dust)

***Buzz No.1***

Dirty Vegas 'Walk Into The Sun (King Unique Sunstroke Vocal Mix)' (Parlophone)

***This Week's Essential New Tune***

Gisli 'TV - The Devil (Radioslave Remix)' (EMI)
Unknown - Unknown (White Label) Pick It Up E.P. 'How Y'all Funk' (Dubsided) Sean Dimitrie Feat Tim Fuller 'So Hot (Swags Refix)' (Odori)

***Eclectic Selection***

Hot Chip 'Playboy' (Moshi Moshi) Diefenbach 'Make Your Mind Up' (Wall of Sound)

***Weekend Hot Mix***

Kasabian - 'Unknown (Freaks Remix)' (White Label) Grant Nelson 'Etnicity Part 3' ( Swing City Records) Ttr.Oy 'Unknown' (White Label) The Electric Ecstasy Club 'Jesus Loves The Acid' (Bugged Out) Phonique Feat Die Elfen 'The Red Dress (Tiefschwarz Remix)' (Dessous) Rozlyne Clarkes 'Dancing Is Like Making Love' (ARS Productions)

This is Lottie's gig diary:

December

Fri 26 Dec - Lush, Portrush

Wed 31 Dec - Turnmills, LondonJanuary

Fri 16 Jan - Centro, Singapore

Sat 17 Jan - Atmosphere, Kuala Lumpar

Sat 24 Jan - Manipulate, North WalesS

at 31 Jan - Passion, Coalville

Sat 14 Feb - Bed, Sheffield (Radio 1 Live - Valentine Night with Pete Tong)

February

Sat 21 Feb - Turnmills, London

Sat 28 Feb - Lush, Portrush

Sat 6 Mar - Home, Sydney

Sat 13 Mar - Shindig, Newcastle

Sat 3 Mar - Basics, Leeds

Glad that she is coming to KL. But I would be in London then. Those in Sheffield are damn lucky. Lottie and Pete Tong!

Source: BBC Radio One

Mobile phone musing (I really have no life)

I have never been a fan of Nokia mobile phones. Not sure why. However for the past few days I have this crazy urge to purchase a Nokia 7610 from o2 for GBP100. I did a couple of checks on the internet. It has bluetooth, probably the most important feature on any mobile phones. It has a high resolution screen (for a mobile), has capability for mp3 (although I won't use this). Most importantly it runs on Symbian Series 60. This is important to me for only one reason:


Screen: The reason why I want to buy a Series 60 mobile. I also happened to own TomTom Navigator for Pocket PC but I don't bring my PDA everywhere whenever I get lost.

But you see there is a problem. GBP100 is just too expensive for a subsidised mobile phone. If they would just drop it a little bit maybe to GBP50 then I would be happy. However I am giving myself more time to think about it. But I have to say it again - I want it because I want to be able to use TomTom Navigator Mobile version once its released on the Series 60 platform.


Screen: K700i's camera is a disappointing VGA with interpolation cheat to gain 1.3Mp

My girlfriend has just upgraded to a Sony Ericsson K700i and I would be returning to London next week. That way I could test the unit to see if it is suitable for me for the next one year (I don't upgrade my mobile every other month unlike my fellow Malaysians). The K700i is free on any o2 tariffs and I am in the process of moving my high street account to the online account so hopefully no upgrade fees (in this case GBP60). Personally I think the K700i is well made although it is still not as nice as my classic T610 or my broken Ericsson T39m. If o2 does not budge and keeps selling the 7610 for GBP100 then I might just have to get the K700i. Mind you the K700i has some nice feature such as FM radio so now I won't be able to miss Pete Tong's Essential Selection and Sara Cox 3-5 (once she returns from maternity leave) and the ability to play mp3 proper.


Screen: Ah...what a beautiful sexy thing...the girl looks nice too.

Back to Nokia... They have just announced the paper release of three new mobile phones. All are shiny and totally aimed at the fashion slaves (me). I did stood out and that is the 7280. It would be in a 'candy bar' format and this time literally. Judging by the spec its probably the same thickness and width as a Mars Bar. It has no keys, not something new, Xelibri of Siemens has been offering non keypad mobiles for a year now. It has a slider too and a crappy VGA digital camera. This unit will run on the Symbian Series 40 operating system so its compatible with loads of applications out there. Wished they would fit in Series 60 SE though since that is the more popular Symbian OS. Bluetooth yes.

In other news evil Vodafone has announced the release of their second PDA cum phone called the VPA III. This is identical to the o2 XDA IIs that I posted yesterday and is based on HTC's platform.

Screen: I prefer o2's XDA IIs design. This one looks like a plain XDA II.

o2 XDA II successors announced

The guys at TekGuru has managed to obtain a draft press release on the upcoming XDA II successors formerly known as XDA III and XDA IV. It would now be bizarrely called the XDA IIs and XDA IIi. I don't know what they were thinking, however lets have a look at the specs itself first.

o2 XDA IIs
* Windows Mobile 2003 2nd Edition Software for Pocket PCs
* 3.5" Transflective TFT-LCD 240 x 320 pixels, 65K Colour,
* Size: 125(L) x 72(W) x 19(T) mm
* Processor - Intel PXA263 400 MHz, memory - 96MB ROM, 128MB SDRAM
* GSM/GPRS o Internal antenna, Quad band, 850/900/1800/1900 o GPRS class 10
* Infrared, USB, Bluetooth and Wireless LAN (802.11b)
* Colour CMOS 0.3Megapixel camera, with mirror
* 205 grams with battery, expansion: MMC/SDIO
* 12 buttons, 5-way rocker, slide-out 39-key QWERTY keyboard
* 1490mAH LP battery * Standby/PDA/Recover/Talk: 168/17/72/4

Looks good to me. The 240x320 resolution is a little disappointing as is the heaviness of the darn thing. The inclusion of the slide out QWERTY thumboard should be interesting though. The XDA IIi would feature a 1.3Mp digital camera and probably a faster processor as well.


Looks a little too thick for my liking but the design is awesome and light years ahead of the XDA II and HP's new iPAQ h6xxx series. It is certainly way more beautiful and fashionable than the upcoming ugly brute known as the Motorola Mpx.

I happened to have just completed my yearly o2 contract and have been looking at mobile phones to complement my Palm Tungsten T3 and Hewlett Packard iPAQ h4150 when this news came out. However the specifications are very similar to my iPAQ but the cost is a bomb. Knowing o2 this would probably cost 300quid with a data plan contract. So its either the Sony Ericsson K700i (to be my sixth Ericsson phone) or Nokia 7610 (to be my first Nokia mobile).

Source: TekGuru UK

SP2

Updated my parent's PC, my father's Acer centrino laptop and my mother's Acer centrino laptop to Windows SP2. Also updated Office 2003 to SP1.

Took a damn fuckin' long time to update through out WiFi network although I have to point out that this has nothing to do with WiFi. Its more to do with Telekom's retarted StreamyX connection.

So far what has happened since I updated. Nothing. My 3rd party firewall seems to be holding on just fine against any attacks. SP2's firewall is a joke and does not guard against outgoing connections. Those who think that SP2 will protect your Windows PC needs to think again.

Invest in a bloody firewall or move to Linux!!!

Current music playlist

Well Telekom finally sent a contractor to activate StreamyX in our home last week. Connection so far has been well done although it is usually slow at night. But no complain so far. We got the unlimited package at 512k/bits downstream and 128k/bits upstream. The engineer who was here told me Telekom would be upgrading everyone on the 512 by the end of the year to 768k/bits. How nice of them...

But with broadband finally I can access my favourite radio station in the whole World - BBC Radio One and my favourite show - Pete Tong's Essential Selection on Friday evenings (GMT) and John Peel. The beauty of it is I can listen to last week's show anytime I want. The current playlist of Pete Tong's Essential Selection (which is great) due to expire tomorrow is:



*** Lottie's Essential Selection 3/09/2004 ***

Mutiny feat Lorraine Cato ‘Holding On’ (Underwater)
David Morales feat Lea Lorien‘How DO U Feel?’ (DMI Records)
Scissor Sisters ‘Mary (Mylo Remix)’ (Polydor)
Mylo ‘Drop The Pressure’ (Breastfed)
SFB ‘Happy House’ (Azuli)
Scratch Perverts feat Dynamite MC ‘Come Get It’ (Scratch Perverts Records)
Faithless ‘Miss You Less See You More (Alan Braxe Mix)’ (Cheeky)
Astrolab feat Natasha Bryce ‘Nightvision (Paul Woolford’s Electromagnetic Mix)’ (Automatic Records)
Greens Keepers ‘Filipino Phil’ (Classic Recordings)
Shakedown ‘Love Games (Prassay Remix)’ (Wall of Sound)
Two Culture Clash feat General Degree ‘… And Dance’ (Wall Of Sound)
Felix Da Housecat ‘Watching Cars Go By (Sasha Remix)’ (Emperor Norton)
Playford & Gray ‘Symptoms Of You’ (Missdemeanours Music)

***DJ On The Phone – David Guetta***

Deep Dish ‘Flashdance (Guetta & Garraud F*** Me I’m Famous Mix) (Positiva)
AB/DC ‘This Feelin (8 Bit Boy Mix) (Southern Fried)
West London Deep ‘Inside My Head’ (White Label)
Slam ‘Lie To Me’ (Soma Records)
Paterick Alavi ‘Power’ (Work It Baby)

***House Rules – Sankey’s Soap in Manchester***

Green Velvet ‘Flash’// Moodyman ‘Shades of Jae’

***The Buzz Chart – compiled by DMC***

Superchumbo feat Celeda ‘Dirty Filthy’ (Twisted)
Blaze ‘My Beat (Solid Groove Mix)’ (Slip n Slide)
Jentina ‘French Kisses (Switch Mix)’ (Virgin)
Sucker DJ’s ‘Lotta Lovin (Paradise Soul Mix)’ (Kinky Vinyl)

***Buzz No. 1***

Khia ‘My Neck My Back (Lick It) (Tom Neville Clean Mix)’ (Direction)

***This Week's Essential New Tune***

Freeform Five Feat Bounty Killar ‘Eeeeaaooww (Extended Version)’ (Ultimate Dilemma)
Unknown ‘Ttr.Oy’ (White Label)
Minus ‘A Walk In The Park (Josh Wink Runs Through The Park)’ (White Label)
Luca Baldini ‘Neoacid’ (Mantra Vibes)

***Eclectic Selection***

Seenluft ‘Baby Baby (Riton Remix)’ (Klein Records)
Zdar ‘World Order’ (Motorbase)


Pix: Armand Van Helden - sadly not on this week's list

***The Weekend Hot Mix with Lottie***

Etinenne De Crecy ‘Grokster’ (Super Discount)
Style Of Eve ‘Gioco’ (Classic Recordings)
Tiefschwartz ‘Blow’ (International Deejay Gigalos)
Wink ‘516 Acid’ (Ovum)
Nick Holder ‘Bad Girl (Solid Groove Remix)’ (NRK Records)
Stefan Goldman feat Kritina Tuomi ‘Pain (Freakspsychspeakeasy)’ (Classic Recordings)

Note: You would need RealOne Player installed to receive the stream.