August 2006

RuggedPCReview.com takes a very detailed look at ViewSonic's V38r Enterprise Digital Assistant. The V38r is a rugged Pocket PC available either with Windows Mobile or CE .NET. It is a fully ruggedized, IP54-sealed handheld with a 4-foot drop spec suitable for use in demanding environmental conditions. Integrated 802.11b/g, a versatile 1-D imager, superb WiFi performance, and a 1.3 megapixel CMOS digital camera add to the appeal of this economical and quite compact mobile computer. Also interesting is an extended battery that gives the unit full-shift battery life. [See our full review of the ViewSonic V38r.]

Socket SD Scan Card adds scanning to PDAs
Socket Communications announced that Mosaic Sales Solutions, the largest field sales and marketing company in
North America, is recognizing significant cost savings, greater inventory recording and tracking accuracy through the use of a portable data collection solution featuring the Socket SD Scan Card 3E. The Secure Digital Scan Card (SDSC) 3E is a Series 3 Entry Level scanner that adds affordable bar code scanning to inexpensive Pocket PC or Palm OS devices. Based on miniature Linear CMOS Imaging technology from Symbol, the SDSC 3E scans all popular linear bar code symbologies and uses only 57mA of power during scanning to maximize battery life. SocketScan keyboard emulation software sends decoded data to any Windows or Palm application as virtual keystrokes. -- Posted Tuesday, August 22, 2006 by chb

HTC launches its own wiki site
Wetpaint.com announced that High Tech Computer Corp. (HTC), the world's leading provider of Microsoft Windows Mobile-based devices, has chosen Wetpaint to build and host a new wiki Website to help support HTC's growing online community. The Web site, which can be found at www.htcwiki.com, is a place where HTC's customer can share their experiences, offer tips and tricks, and recommend new devices to other customers as well as to HTC. Our take: We're not sure we like the current trend for everyone and their uncle having their own "wiki" instead of ammassing information in the official wikipedia.org that, despite takeover efforts and turf wars, remains fairly useful, but hey, we'll see how it works out. [Go to the HTC wiki site] -- Posted Tuesday, August 22, 2006 by chb

Socket offers speedy 802.11g SDIO card
Socket Communications announced the availability of the Go Wi-Fi! P300 - 802.11g SDIO card for Pocket PCs or other mobile devices running Windows Mobile 2003/2003SE or Windows Mobile 5.0, the Go Wi-Fi! P300 provides a secure wireless connection that is five times faster than previous versions or any other SDIO WLAN card currently in the market. It supports Open, 40/64 and 128-bit WEP encryption, WPA-PSK, AES, WPA-2. 802.1x authentication with EAP-TLS or PEAP. An automatic Power Saving mode balances battery life and throughput speed. The card comes with drivers and Wi-Fi Companion, a program helps manage WLAN connections via powerful graphical utilities. The Socket Go Wi-Fi! P300 will be available August 1st, 2006 through Socket worldwide distribution channels with an MSRP of $99. -- Posted Wednesday, August 9, 2006 by chb

Dell halting PDA development?
Digitimes reports: "Dell halted R&D development of PDA products since the middle of 2005, when Dell's Taiwan Design Center completed development of the PC vendor's last Axim-series device, which was manufactured by HTC, according to market sources. According to the sources, Dell's TDC switched all PDA-related R&D resources to the notebook segment in the middle of 2005, following the company's plan of reducing the number of its R&D staff at its handheld device division at the end of 2004. Dell has not announced new PDAs for almost a year and PDA products that it currently offers are old models that were introduced in 2004, indicated the sources. In addition, the PC vendor has not shown any moves in the PDA phone and GPS-enable PDA segments, the sources noted." -- Posted Wednesday, August 2, 2006 by chb