Computing Unplugged - How PDA software is born, plus news

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June 14, 2004 INSIDE THIS ISSUE How PDA software is born This week's news

STYLUSCENTRAL: WE'RE MORE THAN STYLI! Whether you're looking for soft cases or hard, auto holders, keyboards, memory cards, readers, software, cables, tethers, and, of course, the largest collection of styli, StylusCentral.com is the place to be. Home of the "What Fits My PDA?" perfect-fit database, if you need it for your PDA, we've got it. 100% Satisfaction guaranteed and free shipping on U.S. orders over $30. For the best selection of PDA Styli on the Web (and lots more), click here.

WIFILE GIVES YOU WIRELESS ACCESS TO YOUR FILES! Amazing new software lets your wireless Palm OS device access files on corporate networks, school servers and home computers. Edit documents and spreadsheets, listen to music, view or upload photos, and more. Works with smartphones, WiFi and Bluetooth devices. Download a FREE Trial at Hands High Software.

MOBILE NOTE TAKING: NOTE STUDIO FOR PALM & PC Note-taking software that works the way you think. Manage a collection of notebooks on your Palm & PC. "Now, this is great!" Download the free demo today.

MAKE DIABETES EASIER WITH DIABETES PILOT Track carbs, glucose, medication, exercise and more. Diabetes Pilot helps you manage your diabetes. Organize your records, look up food info, find trends, print reports for you and your doctor. Diabetes Pilot features an integrated food database with information on thousands of foods. Visit our website today! Get a free trial and more information at http://www.diabetespilot.com.

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DEVELOPER'S VIEW
How PDA software is born
By Dennis Crane

When you're syncing a new program to your PDA device, have you ever realized what people had created it, why they had done this and how they had caught the idea? Sometimes I'm asking myself these questions. Working in software development industry for years, I saw the life of many software projects from the inside. Each program had its own destiny, successful or not, but almost each time I thought -- "How did that programmer get the idea for the program?"

The human mind's work is real magic that I'm trying to learn all my life.

This article is just a set of my own observations. It's focused primarily on the idea's development rather than on actual coding (that's another topic for a special article that I hope to write one day). This article is definitely biased. But I'm sure that this could be interesting for all people who deal with PDA software -- users, developers, distributors, IT managers and writers.

All these ideas could be applied to software in general, but as I've worked with PDAs for the recent several years, I can fortunately use samples from Palm software industry. So, how PDA software is born ...

Eureka! Invent it
Likely, many of us have heard the story about a man who had seen in a dream a must-have program that pushed him or her into the Fortune 500. I've also heard a couple of the legends. Frankly, I don't believe it. Ideas don't appear suddenly. Everything in the world has certain reasons. Let leave this case for those who want to believe in legends. I'm going to focus on more prosaic things.

Clone it
Junior programmers flood the market with tons of programs. They got their first Palm just a week ago and they want to write something, no matter what, just to tell the world, "Look what a cool programmer I am!"

Usually, they don't worry about the original idea of the program. Often, they simply copy a first program they saw somewhere else. So, when we're searching a program in a software directory, we have to squeeze through the trash pile of ugly clones: useless notepads, awkward list managers, and poorly designed solitaires. I confess, being a college student in pre-PDA epoch of first PCs, I had written a couple of such useless programs for PC.

[For beginning programmers, building these "starter" programs are essential. But though they're excellent training tools for the developers themselves, early programs by any developer is often not necessarily commercial in quality. We encourage novices to program, but if you're purchasing a product, you should make the distinction between supporting a promising talent and purchasing a solution for a problem. -- DG]

Figure A shows two sample Tetris programs by different developers. Can you find 10 distinctions? Hardly!

FIGURE A

Can you find 10 distinctions? Hardly!

Learn a lot more about how new products are created by tapping your mouse here for the rest of the article.

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COMPUTING UNPLUGGED NEWS CENTER
This week's news
Want to get the very latest mobile and wireless news? The Computing Unplugged News Center is updated every day with news of product releases, industry info, tips, techniques, and pointers to great mobile and wireless resources on the Web. Here's this week's news:

Rock climbing robot
The spider-like robot, called Lemur, was developed by engineers at Stanford University and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, as a prototype for a fully autonomous rock climber. It can already follow a human climber up an irregular surface without any guidance from a controller.

Jeyo Mobile Extender for Outlook
Jeyo Mobile Extender for Outlook adds mobile SMS messaging capabilities to your Outlook application by connecting your Outlook with a Windows Mobile Smartphone or Pocket PC Phone Edition device. It allows you to exchange text messages with other mobile phone users anywhere around the world directly from your Outlook and manage your SMS data with ease.

Interview with Sony's Masa Chatani
PC Watch has an interview with Sony's CTO Masa Chatani regarding the new Sony PlayStation Portable. The interview has been translated by Babelfish from the original Japanese, so have some patience.

Build-it-yourself robot
If you're the kind of person who spends hours on build-it-yourself radio-controlled models, you'll love the Robovie-M walking robot. Assembly requires weeks, if not months, — though the work itself requires no more technological finesse and intelligence than does, say, a model kit.

Company wants Spyware Control Act blocked
A New York company that makes Internet pop-up ads has asked a judge to block enforcement of Utah's new Spyware Control Act pending resolution of the firm's challenge to the law's constitutionality. WhenU.com Inc. claims the law that took effect last month is "arbitrary and Draconian" and violates its free-speech rights.

Comcast draws line against spam
Comcast began selectively blocking a network loophole commonly exploited by spammers. The cable giant, whose broadband Internet service has more than 5.7 million subscribers, said it will block what's known as "port 25" for accounts suspected of sending mass amounts of unsolicited email.

Zuma for PDAs
PopCap's Zuma puzzle game is being ported to the Palm and Pocket PC Operating Systems. You can register for updates on Astraware's preview page.

Pocket MSN Beta
Microsoft has posted a beta version of its upcoming Pocket MSN software and service, a handheld version of its MSN network for Windows Mobile 2003 Pocket PC and smartphone devices.

Zodiac goes retail
Tapwave officially announced that their Zodiac products, and games for the Zodiac, will be available in CompUSA stores nationwide starting in June, 2004.

Creative Zen Touch
Creative introduced the Zen Touch, a 1.8-inch hard drive-based portable audio player that holds twice the music and provides up to three times the battery life as a 20GB Apple iPod. The Zen Touch 20GB is available for preorder exclusively at Amazon.com and the Creative site.

Jet-powered PDA
The Personal Satellite Assistant is a robot prototype designed to buzz around the space station, performing a variety of jobs for astronauts and mission controllers: monitoring life-support systems, keeping tabs on the day's tasks and reminding space scientists how to do their experiments right.

Video magazines for mobile phones
Three O'clock Ltd. announced the launch of the first video magazine service for mobile phones. Subscribers can gain free access to 60 video magazines to watch and read on their Java-enabled mobile phones.

Toolbar spreads via IE flaws
An adware purveyor has apparently used two previously unknown security flaws in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser to install a toolbar on victims' computers that triggers pop-up ads. One flaw lets an attacker run a program on a victim's machine, while the other enables malicious code to "cross zones," or run with privileges higher than normal.

SnapperMail 2.0 public beta
Snapperfish has released a free public beta trial of SnapperMail Enterprise Edition version 2. The new version includes IMAP mail support, a refined interface and other new features.

Seagate 5 GB HDD CF
This piece on Digital Photography Review says that Seagate has announced it will produce a 5 GB HDD in the CF Type II form factor.

New Motorola phones
Motorola has launched three new wireless phones, including a GPS-enabled handset that can be used with Nextel's walkie-talkie service. Other new models include handsets that allow for faster downloads and data processing.

Tungsten E a Good Samaritan
palmOne announced that Good Samaritan Society, the nation's largest not-for-profit long-term care provider, purchased 500 Tungsten E handhelds, that will be used to streamline resident information management, improve the quality of care for residents and improve communication between staff members. Good Samaritan also plans to provide certified nursing assistants with Tungsten E handhelds in the fourth calendar quarter of 2004.

palmOne presents at Bear Stearns
palmOne announced that Todd Bradley, palmOne president and chief executive officer, will present at the Bear Stearns 15th Annual Technology Conference in New York on Monday, June 14, at 3:25 p.m. EDT (12:25 p.m. PDT). A live webcast and archive of the presentation will be available to the public on palmOne's website in the Investor Relations section.

IntelliGolf for Smartphones
Karrier Communications, makers of sports enhancing software, announced the shipment of its new IntelliGolf golf scoring software for Microsoft Windows Mobile-based Smartphones. IntelliGolf for the Smartphone shipments will coincide closely with the start of this year's US Open Golf Tournament.

No Apple PDA
Apple's CEO Steve Jobs spoke at yesterday's D: All Things Digital conference where he made it clear that Apple isn't planning to release a handheld.

Cameraless Version of Treo 600
Sprint PCS Group announced a cameraless version of PalmOne's popular Treo 600 smartphone. Available immediately, this noncamera version was designed to address the needs of corporate customers who want high-end devices but don't want cameras in their offices, in a phone or otherwise, for security reasons.

Apple AirPort
Apple Computer unveiled a $129 device that acts as both a portable wireless base station and a way to stream music throughout the home. The AirPort Express features both analog and digital music outputs to connect to speakers or sound systems. The device also plugs directly into a wall outlet, with no need for additional cables or power adapters.

Sony VAIO S Series
The VAIO S series notebooks sport a widescreen display, generous keyboard, a combination CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive, and more within a thin, black case that weighs just about 4 pounds.

PhatNet LAN/WAN Monitoring
PhatWare announced the release of PhatNet, a new network monitoring application for Microsoft Windows Mobile-based Pocket PCs. Able to troubleshoot a wide range of packet-based networks including UDP, TCP, Ethernet, DNS, and NetBios, PhatNet brings new portability, convenience, and efficiency to the critical task of enterprise network administration.

Prominic.NET offers Blackberry support
Prominic.NET, a Lotus Domino application server provider has announced they will now be offering wireless Blackberry support.

visKey for PalmOS
sfr GmbH announced the release of version 2.0 of their security solution visKey for PalmOS. The program locks the computer and a graphic of your choice is displayed, only allowing access if certain previously defined spots in the picture are clicked upon in the correct order.

Sony 12x DVD burner
Sony Electronics is taking the wraps off of a new Dual RW DVD burner that can write to DVD+R discs at speeds up to 12X on certified 8X DVD+R media, allowing for a full write-once disc to be recorded in approximately six minutes.

Mobile Guardian firewall
CREDANT Technologies announced the addition of a personal firewall to its mobile security and management platform, CREDANT Mobile Guardian. The addition of a personal firewall makes CREDANT the only vendor to provide centralized, directory-integrated policy management for creating, deploying and enforcing on-device access control, encryption, application control, and firewall policies.

Astraware Tantric
Astraware announced the launch of Tantric for Palm OS and Pocket PC. Tantric, formally known as Abysma, has players frantically arranging different shapes in a top down fashion to avoid leaving gaps for the impending power sapping bar.

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