1. Uses rechargeable batteries – cheap to run
2. Has a docking station for charging and USB connectivity – easy to use and always ready
3. Has a USB mass storage interface – no drivers or other software to install
4. Used SD cards - which I have plenty of
5. Is small and light
6. Is robust enough to not need a carry case
7. Is cheap

Ebay came to the rescue again and I managed to find a Nikon Coolpix S2 for

So that’s the good bit,  the not so bad bits were:

1. I got the Tablet and the power supply, no manuals, disks etc.  No loss really
2. They had installed their standard image onto the machine,  not too bad an image as they go, but unbelievably on a TABLET they had installed XP Pro!!

For the average user this would be a bit if a issue, but not for me as I was going to blow the image away anyway and install Vista.  This is what I did to get a completely clean Vista install:

1. First off I wanted to delete the IBM hidden system restore partition as I don’t need this backup capability.
2. To do this you need to go into the BIOS by pressing F1 during boot and pick security,  and then PreDesktop and then select disabled.  The partition will then be visible to Vista
3. Boot from the Vista DVD by pressing F12 during boot, initially go into repair operating system, and open up a command prompt
4. At the command prompt run diskpart – you will use this to delete the partition (5GB)
5. The following instructions DELETE ALL YOUR PARTITIONS, i.e destroy all data on your disk!!!
6. I don’t remember the exact DISKPART command but it goes something like this.  Type SELECT DISK 0, LIST PARTITION, SELECT PARTITION 1, DELETE PARTITION OVERRIDE.  do this for every partion on the disk. 
7. Reboot and hit F12, this time install Vista rather than repair.  You will only be presented with the option to do a customized install because you have deleted the old partitions
8. Install Vista
9. In my case at the end of the install both wireless and wired networks were working fine so I left Vista alone for an hour to download and install all the updates
10. I then installed an Anti-virus product, in my case the free and excellent AVG Free
11. The I installed the excellent Thinkvantage system update utility and installed everything except the rescue and recovery tool (this is the backup product that I didn’t want to use)
12. This downloads and installs most of the drivers, help files etc that you need, but strangely a few are missing.
13. You also need to install the Active Protection System, this is needed it you want the auto-rotate function to work
14. And you want the Shortcut menu
15. Once you have installed the shortcut menu press the key associated with it – between screen rotate and escape, and pick settings (lower left) and enable ActiveRotate
16. That’s all I’ve noticed so far

1. I have my Treo on my desk all through the day, its a waste of space, so I decided that it would make a great clock.  To achieve that I needed to configure it to keep the display illuminated when it was docked during normal working hours.  CradleCare does this well and Big Time is a great clock with a large display giving date and time and two additional time zones (I normally work with Australia and the East Coast of the USA).
2. Mobile reception in my house is dreadful and I get quite a few mobile calls, which is a real drag.  I wanted my Treo to automatically forward all calls to my business line when its docked and unforward when its undocked.  CradleCare does this as well.
3. I have wireless email but I find I don’t use it that much, as most of the time I am out I don’t want emails intruding into my quiet time. What I need more is a copy of my Inbox, all my Sent emails and a few key folders like my Admin folder (that has all my licence keys, order numbers, procedures etc in it) my Wireless email doesn’t do this so as an experiment I have switched back to using mNotes again.  mNotes is very slick!  If I really need emails on the move I can get them on my Tablet PC.
4. I find it annoying that after a restart the phone doesn’t get turned on and the SD card doesn’t mount.  PowerUp and CradleCare again do this just great
5. I always forget to sync up, so I need a way to automate it, CradleCare to the rescue again!
6. To make sure that the clock gets displayed after each hourly synch I need a way to restart it automatically,  AfterSync (freeware) does this.
7. I love podcasts and need a quick and easy way to get them onto the phone,  I have a 2GB SD card and I used to pop it into an external reader.  I tried card export but it Wasn’t reliable.  Then I found the less flashy Card Reader and it works perfectly,  I have never had an issue with it even copying over 1GB of files at a time!

All in all I think the software cost about

1. uninstall any earlier version of palm desktop
2. restart Windows
3. make sure nothing else is running (i.e. don’t start any applications)
4. install palm desktop
5. when it hangs at ‘removing backup files’, bring up task manager (right click on the task bar) , go to process tab and kill any and all ‘idriver.exe’ instances
6. Installation should then continue

IF this doesn’t work first time, give the process above another try, some people report that it doesn’t always work first time, although I have never had to repeat the process myself.

tscon.exe 0 /dest:console

Under Vista to achieve the same thing the command needs to be:

tscon.exe RDP-Tcp#0 /dest:console

this command needs to run as administrator, so in my case I right click on the shortcut on my desktop and pick “Run as administrator”

when combined with synergy, this allows me to:

1. use my tablet display but my desktop keyboard and mouse for casual tasks
2. click on a saved RDP config file that brings up a full screen RDP session to my Tablet on my left hand screen when I want to do some more serious work, I prefer this because I get a lot more screen area to work with and because under Vista UAC prompts can not be responded to using synergy, but they can be responded to over RDP
3. right click disconnect.bat when I have finished with my RDP session, which leaves my tablet just where I started and without having to login etc, I can just continue working with it using synergy.

Behind my displays I have a 30W 1 Meter fluorescent light fitting which kicks out the equivalent of 3*60W bulbs,  I added a small inline toggle switch for easy access. 

The effect is excellent, I get a nice background of reflected light that means I can clearly see everything on my desk, but I also get this great glow behind the monitors which is really easy on the eye.  Overall I am very pleased with the effect, and as a twist I assembled it all during a conference call briefing this afternoon – one of the best conference calls yet!

Our employees were vital contributors to our most successful year in National’s 47-year history, and we wanted to equip them with the tools to help us create more value for our customers

This is pretty original,  I’ve heard of companies giving their employees similar gifts for great performance, but never the whole workforce.  It seemed to me a pretty bold move, especially when you consider how they plan to use the iPods, once all their employees have them:

We’re looking for new and more effective ways to communicate with our employees — and the iPods will help us do both,” said Brian L. Halla, National’s chairman and CEO.

I got more insights from a Podcast by Podtech:

National Semiconductor announced Monday it’s just given every one of its 8,500 employees a 30GB video iPod. But employees won’t just be catching up on soaps or rocking out at work. Jeff Weir, the company’s director of Worldwide PR, said the company will be podcasting corporate messages, product information and the like – right into its employees’ earbuds.

I really liked this idea,  I think the iPod could a great corporate communications channel and this certainly seems to the the vision of the company as I listened to the podcast, however I was a little disappointed the more I heard:

1. There was a lot of focus on the delivery of broadcast quality training and corporate communications, produced professionally from a studio,  this ruled out a lot of potential content
2. The idea of letting individuals within the business podcast was not being considered
3. The idea of routinely recording audio and web conferences and making them available had not been considered
4. The idea of ad-hoc communication via podcasts, for example letting managers podcast weekly status reports etc was not on the agenda
5. Microsoft channel 9 type video blogging that would increase cross company awareness had not been considered

Overall it seemed an opportunity missed and many of these additional use cases could have been achieved just by providing managers with an iPod and an external microphone.  Even so it seemed that National Semiconductor would have generated a lot of goodwill with it’s employees and that’s worth a lot right, wrong:

1. Even though National spun the iPods as a reward to the employees, those leaving the company were asked for them back, which generated a lot of negative press
2. It seems that a lot of employees didn’t seem to understand the importance of the iPod as a necessary part of the new way of doing business at National and decided to give their iPods away or sell them on eBay,  as soon as you can no longer assume everyone has an iPod it’s value is reduced.

Would I have done the same?  Not on reflection, instead I would have given every employee a Windows Mobile 5 Phone (assuming they were a Microsoft Exchange user), and a 2GB SD card and a USB cable for work and home.  I would have also made it clear that it was a company tool, that they had to use until they left the company at which point they could keep it.  That way I would have:

1. provided everyone with a platform for mobile email, calendar and applications
2. reduced my phone handset costs
3. still provided a great platform for podcasts
4. not had the problems with people leaving, because they could take it with them

Although I guess I would have created myself another problem – who picked up the bill for the mobile data usage!

As we speak to customers, we are hearing about the growing use (some call it their “addiction to”) of Blackberries and other PDAs. This has made us curious about a few things regarding how people at your company use them and how you use them.

If you read through the 38 comments to the post you get a really good insight, at least I found it very useful

• small enough to take anywhere *****
• worked great as a phone *****
• seamlessly receive push email in the background without impacting mp3 playback ******
• basic calendar, mainly used in day view ***
• ability to lookup people in company address book for email and phone numbers  X
• mp3 playback of mainly podcasts and recorded conference calls ***
• rock solid stability ***

Overall conclusion:

I really liked it, but won’t be keeping it.  In the end it just doesn’t compare with the Treo 650 which with a few important additions is optimised for me to be the perfect device.

Detailed conclusions:

The SP5 is a compromise device,  if you start out wanting a great phone with a well integrated contact address book then you are onto a winner.  The fact that you also get calendar integration and email are real bonuses.  Because I have a Tablet I hadn’t expected to use the SP5 to send emails - I have never been very comfortable with a keypad – but the SP5 has well integrated voice email functionality so I ended up using that a lot whenever I needed to send or reply to email.

Size – great, very small and light, keys are a reasonable size
Sound – the external speaker was very loud,  much louder than the Treo,  sound via the headset was ok too.
Battery life – reasonable – about one day of intensive use
Stability – I have had to restart it on average once every 5 days, once because it completely froze and all the other times because it slowed to a crawl.
Bluetooth – not tested
Storage – Mini SD card, under battery.  Not very easy to change but I used a 1GB card and so it was fairly roomy, drag and drop of files made it easy to add/delete files without taking the SD card out of the device.
PC integration – ability to copy files to and from the SD card was very reliable,  I copied hundreds of MB’s at a time without a hitch, application installation was quick and easy.  I actually didn’t need to use ActiveSync as all my sync was wireless via OneBridge which is just as well as I had an issue with Active Sync, caused by using Windows 2003 Server.
Speed – just acceptable, no where near as fast as the Treo, switching between applications was painfully slow at times.  However music always played just fine
Launcher – I dislike the fact that I can not control the order in which the applications appear, but otherwise it works ok
Buttons – rubbish there are not enough hardware buttons and no modifier keys to make the few buttons it does have dual use.  I really like hardware shortcut buttons on my Treo so this was a big usability issue for me
Wifi – never got it configured, not sure what I would use it for
Phone – great, I think the signal strength was better than my Treo, the speaker phone was loud and easy to use.  The call history is good, quick redial is good.  I particularly liked the fact that you could do a type down search against the call history.
Contacts – great,  but I really wanted directory lookup, which didn’t work in my configuration – OneBridge GPRS connection to Lotus Notes.  I particularly liked the type down search
Email – great for reading, even with the small screen emails were easy to read.  Wireless synchronisations worked well, ticking away in the background.  On the Treo OneBridge can not run in the background with an mp3 playing without causing the mp3 to stutter every 10 seconds or so,  so I had to use on demand sync.  Great for sending email as well provided you already have the person in your address book, or are replying to an email.  In both cases sending is only viable if you are a keypad wizard or – in my case – you are happy to record and send voice notes.  I think voice notes are fantastic and seem a much better idea than sending terse emails that are easily misinterpreted
MP3 player – I really didn’t like Windows media player,  it’s handling of podcasts is poor, its library management is fiddly, the lack of a slider to skip backwards and forwards in long podcasts was annoying, the headphones were ok, but I really missed the ability to use the button on the headset to control the media player.  On the Treo you can use Headset control to turn any wired headset into a remote control.  I tried 3 or 4 alternative media players Pocket Player was the best but it’s no where near as good as Pocket Tunes on the Treo.
IE – ok if you are really desperate to browse the web,  but obviously the screen size and slow speed make it a real challenge.
Task manager – rubbish, but then I don’t use task management in Notes, so I never really used it
Calendar – poor – the day view is pretty good,  I personally hated the week and month views but I am sure others must use them for something.  Creating personal appointments works, but you can not create meetings, invite remote attendees and have this information sync to Lotus Notes.
Voice Notes – I had high hopes for the voice notes function, but the quality was very low and their was no hardware button for it.  I use CallRec on my Treo and this is amazing well integrated, especially if you make most of your voice notes whilst listening to podcasts or music like I do.  It also records phone calls.
Camera – pretty good, much better than the Treo as expected.  I am a big fan of good camera’s in phones I think they are incredibly useful, especially with good desktop integration like that promised by OneNote
RSS reader – I tried out NewsGator Mobile.  I had very high hopes for it,  the usability and speed were acceptable and I think it would have saved me a little time at my desk because I could use it whilst queueing etc.  In practice as it was a beta I found too many bugs in the synchronisation to be able to use it much.

SP5 vs Treo 650

I have used a Treo 650 for over a year so when I was asked to test the SP5 it was only on the condition that I could keep the Treo in case the SP5 failed to impress.  I knew the Treo would be hard to beat!  What surprised me was how subtle features made the Treo the better SmartPhone for me, and also how good the low cost/free software is for the Treo.  It seems obvious to me that the developer community has taken to th palm platform and the Treo in particular with great enthusiasm and fixed many small usability issues.  

The SP5 wins over the Treo in only a few areas:

• Smoother multi-tasking, in particular this is noticeable with the email background synchronisation that never seems to affect other functions of the device.  On the Treo OneBridge in particular causes mp3 playback to stutter
• Smaller and lighter, the Treo is not a small device, however you do get a keyboard!  However the weight really affects me now as I have a couple of great clip in cases that are very easy to use, and get close to the dock in case experience of the Blackberry.
• Voice notes/Email integration,  this is very slick and easy to use on the SP5.  Definitely a feature I will be requesting on Treo.
• PC integration, especially the ability to drag and drop files from the desktop.  I use Card Export on the Treo to do the same thing,  but it’s not as reliable or as easy to use

The Treo wins over the SP5 in all other areas,  but particularly worthy of note:

• The media playback experience, especially for podcasts and recorded events
• The larger screen and keyboard, make reading longer documents easier
• The touch screen, means that more functions can be surfaces for easy access, on the SP5 you have fewer features and the few there are are hidden away behind several menus
• The voice recording, this really is very slick on the Treo,  as I do a lot of my research on the move,  I listen to a lot of podcasts, conference sessions, analyst briefings, recorded conference calls etc on my Treo.  Using headset control I can pause/play/skip them with a single headset button click and now with CallRec I can record snipets from them, or record notes for myself – ideas, web sites, book names etc – with a single side button click.  If a make or receive a phone call my media player auto-pauses and restarts after the call and I can also record all or any part of the call with a single side button click as well.

This need for vigilance will probably become increasingly true when it comes to disruptive technologies like the keyboard alternatives that Microsoft has recently been showing off for small format devices.  I have tried software implementations of them and failed hopelessly to use them effectively,  but I can imagine that kids will soon be using them to enter text as fast as I can on my full sized keyboard!

Anyway the post has an extra treat, it introduced me to the fact that you can download a networked emulator for the Pocket PC that you can use to actually try this integration with SharePoint out even if you don’t have a Pocket PC, and even if you do it should be great for demos over a web conference.  Here are the details from Martin’s site:

The easiest way to investigate this further is to get the Microsoft Windows Mobile emulator from http://msdn.microsoft.com/mobility/windowsmobile/downloads/emulatorpreview/default.aspx. Follow the instructions on the page for getting onto Betaplace and downloading the emulator.

Once you have the installation file, I suggest that you install it directly onto your SharePoint server. This way it is much easier to configure the networking between the server and the emulator.

The emulator will allow you to emulate a smart phone or PDA. I found that the PDA is easiest to work with. Follow these instructions to get a mobile view of SharePoint on your PDA emulator (you should be able to adapt them for SmartPhone if you are familiar with the SmartPhone interface)

-          Install the emulator and start the ‘Emulate Pocket PC-WM 2003 SE(Cold Boot)’ from your start menu

-          Map your real network card to the device by going to File > Configure > Network Tab > Enable ‘NE2000 PCMCIA adapter and bind to’ and click ‘OK’

Note: All of the following instructions are for the device interface itself, not the emulator application, unless otherwise stated.

I already have an excellent Treo 650,  but its locked down by my company so the camera and video don’t work and it’s got layers of security enabled to protect my corporate email, which makes using the media player and phone far too many clicks away for my liking,  plus I am unable to have push email active at the same time as the media player,  just too many compromises .  My colleagues and I have been discussing the options and most of us seem to be deciding that right now convergence is not quite there for us, and we are gradually migrating to two devices.  In my case that means:

• The SPV C550 used primarily as a phone and media player,  always with me
• The Treo 650 used primarily as a wireless email and calendar,  with me when I want to be working an extended day,  or need to be in touch with work while out of the house (I work from home)

This combination is probably not optimal, as it would may be better to use more specialised devices for these two roles,  but it will serve me for a while as I assess the pro’s and con’s of this approach.

I have already discussed the Treo 650,  which I rate very highly,  but what about the SPV c550?

• Very small and light (feels like half the size of the Treo – though its not)
• Fantastic high resolution screen
• Very easy to navigate around with one hand, much easier than a locked down Treo
• Excellent music player, with great hardware buttons that make it very easy to use.  The integration with the phone is great – pause and resume when you make or take a call
• I have added a 1GB storage card, which provides plenty of space for podcasts and music
• Calendar is pretty poor,  but ok as a last resort
• Address book is excellent,  I prefer it to the Treo
• Keyboard is ok,  but my fingers are small!
• Camera seems good,  I really missed the camera.  One of the reasons I was keen to get a working camera again is the functionality in the next version of OneNote that lets me sync photo’s straight into OneNote and then automatically OCR the content,  I am hopeful that this will be a revolutionary feature!!

So what’s not so good:

• I use Lotus Notes at work,  so to sync my contacts and calendar I have to use DoubleLook, (there are alternatives,  but this seems the best option as it also means I can drive Skype from my Outlook address book as well)
• My other headphones microphones (with 2.5mm jacks) don’t work,  the supplied ones are fine
• The USB and Headphone cover is just so inconvenient,  I pulled it out after 8 hours!

• Record audio notes in OneNote
• Listen to music
• Take phone calls
• Listen to podcasts – mainly from IT Conversations

And I wanted to be able to do all of the above:

• From desk
• Walking
• Swimming – I already have a solution for this
• Chilling out at a Cafe or health club
• Shopping
• etc

I knew the solution needed to involve Bluetooth, and a headset that could switch from audio player to phone headset to microphone as required.   I think I have found the solution – Sonorix Bluetooth Audio Player –  its £50 off right now because it’s an old model.  I friend of mine had one about a year ago and loved it.  I have ordered one,  should arrive in a couple of days.