Touch Screen Gadget

Kenwood All-in-One GPS and Multimedia Units

Posted by admin | Category: Car & Bike, GPS Navigation & Guidance System

Kenwood Electronics Canada has announced a pair of new in-dash Double DIN DVD receivers, outfitted with audio, video, and navigation functionality via a built-in Garmin system.

The DNX5120 and DNX7120 contain complete maps of Canada, continental U.S., Hawaii and Alaska, along with over 6 million points of interest. The system uses internal flash memory for the navigation software.

Both models are equipped for use with satellite and HD radio, as well as Bluetooth devices. They also boast high-speed, USB Direct Control for controlling an iPod directly from the receivers’ touch-screen display. They also include a Sirius SSP interface for connection to a Sirius SC-C1C direct connect tuner.

The DNX7120 features a 6.95” TFT LCD touch-screen display with a new GUI and user-customizable icons for the start-up screen. The display employs Kenwood’s exclusive Reverse Tilt mechanism with angle memory save to preserve the angle settings, even if the power is disconnected. This unit also incorporates Kenwood’s Dual Zone feature, which allows the front seat passengers to view the navigation screen and listen to satellite radio while rear seat passengers enjoy a DVD, for example.

Kenwood’s System Es and System Q provide audio equalization and fine-tuning of the system for each vehicle. Two external switches can be set up to control a garage door opener, security gate or virtually any external device from the receiver’s front panel. The DNX7120 is now available for an MSRP of $1,900.

The DNX5120 ($1,500) features a 6.1” TFT LCD touch screen display with a user-programmable start-up screen, selectable icons and variable-colour illumination of the front panel controls. An AV input on the front permits the connection of an portable audio/video player or camcorder.

[hereshow]

Popularity: 3% [?]

DT Research’s WebDT 310 Tablet review

Posted by admin | Category: Tablet PC & UMPC

Tablet PC sales hit just a relatively small 4.6 percent of the overall mobile PC market last year, according to research firm IDC, but are poised to grow significantly faster as more applications enter the market that take advantage of their functionality.

That’s worth keeping in mind, too, as an increasing number of service and commercial businesses have been trying to use tablets to boost productivity and work flow, with a large portion of this growth in the Industrial Mobile Tablet market.

As the first in this segment with an integrated bar code scanner, a 2 Megapixel camera, and a Magnetic Stripe Reader (MSR), all-in-one; San Jose, California based DT Research’s recently released WebDT 310 and 360 models aim to address the requirements of many vertical markets.

The WebDT 310 that the Test Center recently evaluated has a 10.4 inch touch screen and weighs two pounds (versus the 360’s 8.4 inch touch screen at 1.8 pounds). The highly customizable units are fan-less, with solid state memory and a solid state drive. Options include hot-swappable/wearable battery packs, and the customer’s choice of Windows Embedded XP, CE, or Tablet PC operating systems. This allows companies with existing commercial applications to continue running them without re-engineering.

While many tablets are available with the choice of scanner, camera, or MSR, DT Research claims that this is the first device available with all three (each as an added option). At the bottom of the screen are three customizable buttons to the left, and four on the right. There is also a fingerprint reader in the center. Our evaluation unit was fitted with protective bumpers on the sides and an elasticized hand strap in the back. The horizontal placement of the hand strap makes long-term use of the tablet in landscape position very tiring. Portrait orientation was much more comfortable. In addition, although the fan-less design makes the WebDT virtually silent, this causes the back panel to get very hot.

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Popularity: 3% [?]

Windows Mobile 6.1 improvements

Posted by admin | Category: Smartphone, Windows Mobile

Microsoft recently introduced Windows Mobile 6.1, an upgrade of the Windows Mobile operating system.

It adds new features and capabilities to the previous (6.0) version, enhancing your Web browsing and day-to-day use of Windows Mobile. It also adds new features and capabilities of interest to the enterprise users. This article looks at some of the more important enhancements.

Improved Messaging

Microsoft has made some significant enhancements in the Messaging application. For enterprise users Microsoft added Exchange Auto-Discovery, which makes it easier to set up synchronization with Exchange. Users are now able to download e-mail from all accounts at the same time. Microsoft added auto-complete for e-mail recipients, which makes it easier for users to enter e-mail addresses on small keyboards and touch screens. Also, Windows Mobile 6.1 added the ability to select multiple e-mail items in the list so you can easily delete or move e-mail. Finally, Windows Mobile 6.1 includes optimizing the bandwidth utilization for Exchange, POP3, and IMAP4, which is very important to enterprise wireless data users.

 

Other enhancements to WM 6.1

A number of enhancements made to Windows Mobile 6.1 are of particular interest:

• Bluetooth headset auto-pairing: Makes it easier to pair your device with standard Bluetooth headsets.
• Bluetooth phone address profile: This enables the transfer of phone book information across phone-enabled Bluetooth devices.
• Network Time (NITZ) Description: Automatically updates the time on a device when it moves into a new time zone or receives a Daylight Savings Time (DST) change from the cellular network.
• Cut, Copy, and Paste capability added to Windows Mobile Standard (non-touch screen) smartphones.
• Enhanced "Getting Started CD" not only contains user-installable versions of Mobile Device Center and ActiveSync, it includes software that helps the user set up their device and an application that makes e-mail setup easier by exporting their Outlook settings from a desktop PC to the Windows Mobile device.

Managing Mobile Devices—System Center Mobile Device Manager

Last fall, Microsoft released a new server to manage Windows Mobile devices called System Center Mobile Device Manager (SCMDM). SCMDM actually adds Windows Mobile Devices to Active Directory and provides group policy management of the device security as well as a separate VPN connection optimized for Windows Mobile. Windows Mobile 6.1 is required to support SCMDM. SCMDM is covered in detail in the Enterprise section on page 55.

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Popularity: 12% [?]

Philips X800 next inline for iPhone Killer

Posted by admin | Category: Mobile Phone, Smartphone

Move along iPhone; make some space for the newest iClones launched in the touch-phone market. Philips has announced two upcoming touch-screen phones — the X800, a full touch-screen phone, and the Windows Mobile-based Xenium X-Connect, a touch-screen handset.
The X800 will have a 2.9-inches 262K color TFT touch-screen display with 240 x 400 pixels (wide QVGA) resolution. It will offer 2G GSM connectivity, Class 10 GPRS; but no EDGE, HSCSD, or WLAN. It will have a 2 mega pixels auto-focus camera, microSD (TransFlash) memory card slot, Bluetooth, office documents reader, and handwriting recognition. The company claims it will offer up to 850 hours of standby time and up to 8 hours of talk-time.

The Xenium X-Connect meanwhile, will flaunt a slightly bigger 3-inches touch-screen. The phone will run on Windows Mobile 6, and will feature an integrated GPS-receiver, Bluetooth, USB, and microSD memory card slot. There’ll also be GPRS, UMTS, and HSDPA for connectivity.
Not much has been revealed about either phone that includes their pricing and availability.

[techtree]

Popularity: 2% [?]

Astak Ebook Reader 3 types screen size

Posted by admin | Category: Education

The Astak Mentor is a joint project between PVI (screens), Netronix (assembly and design and Touch expertise), and Astak (end design and sales). It was developed in-house in Taiwan and is now being refined in San Jose, California. Source.

It will come in 5″, 6″ and 9.7″ screen sizes. The operating system will be Win CE with splash screen on boot; and it will support English, Spanish, German, French, Chinese (Big 5), and Japanese. It will include eReader in firmware, and may include MOBI if Amazon drops its requirement for exclusivity. It will also support TXT, PDF, RTF, HTML/CHM.

 

 

 

 

 

Key Features

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Popularity: 3% [?]

Canada Bell distribution for LG Vantage and Samsung Ace

Posted by admin | Category: Mobile Phone, Trend Watch & News

LG Vantage (not "vintage", ok?) is a good looking slider that features a full touchscreen display and also an alpha-numeric keypad, hence its owners will be able to control the mobile phone using two methods. Under the name of Vantage, we actually have the LG AX-830, which was released in the US about one month ago, as LG Glimmer.

Besides the 2.8 inch TFT touchscreen display with 262K colors and 240 x 400 pixels, the new Canadian Vantage brings dual-band CDMA connectivity, a 2.0 Megapixel camera with flash and video, a 512MB memory card (it can be replaced with another one of up to 4GB), media player, voice dialing, handsfree, speaker phone and so on. The phone weighs 4.4 ounces (125 grams) and,
Enlarge picture when closed, it measures 4.01 x 2.05 x 0.59 inches (102 x 52 x 15 millimeters). Bell will start offering the fancy slider on the 16th of May, for $375 with a 1-year contract agreement or $275 with a contract for 2 years (the retail price, free of any contract, is $425).

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Popularity: 17% [?]

Latest Palm version of Windows Mobile rumor

Posted by admin | Category: Trend Watch & News, Windows Mobile

The second half of 2008 has long been considered a very uncertain period of transition for Palm. The embattled handheld maker will presumably be attempting to tread water on the residual sales of the popular Centro smartphone alongside a handful of new Windows Mobile-powered devices, all while presumably prepping the Nova OS for release sometime in 2009. What exactly Palm’s upcoming Windows Mobile device lineup looks like remains the most pressing question facing the Palm faithful as we kick off the beginning of the summer months with just a small handful of rumors to contend with.

As usual, all of the information presented here combines a great deal of speculation based largely on Palm’s past releases plus a handful of leaked images, specification and online chatter. Of course, we’ve had a few leaked images, roadmaps, and specs over the past year to go on as well. All of the content of this article is essentially speculation and conjecture based on Palm’s traditional device history and should in no way be interpreted as an actual Palm release schedule.

For references purposes, this site has a handy repository of nearly every Palm device ever released with their internal codenames.

Codename: Zeppelin / Possible Product Name: Treo 800w (CDMA) / ETA: July 22

Notes: This fabled device (AKA the "Mercedes Treo" mentioned by Ed Colligan in late ‘06) has been making the rumor rounds for well over a year now and is approaching legendary status. While official specs have been very slow to emerge, the general consensus is that the device will be powered by Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, have a 320×320 recessed touchscreen, a ~400mhz CPU and 128mb of RAM with 256mb of ROM. It should also achieve a series of notable milestones, such as Palm’s first EVDO REV-A handset, Palm’s only GPS-enabled device, and Palm’s first smartphone with integrated wi-fi capabilities. Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and a 2.0megapixel camera round out the hardware specs.

Codename: Otto / Possible Product Name: Treo 500 (GSM) / ETA: Out Now (outside USA)

Notes: Introduced in September 2007, the Treo 500 remains a Europe-only device due to its tri-band GSM radio. The Treo 500 is Palm’s first "outsourced" smartphone with Asus being Palm’s ODM.

Codename: Drucker / Possible Product Name: Treo 800w (GSM) / ETA: July 22/ Q3 ‘08

Notes: Much like how the Centro debuted in domestic CDMA flavor prior to its global launch in GSM guise, a mildly updated GSM version of the 800w that, depending on the source, is schedule to launch simultaneously alongside the CDMA version or possibly later in Q3.

Right now our best bits of information regarding this device are the slides from the leaked Vodafone presentation back in January. This device’s rumored specs are identical to its CDMA brethren, aside from a flush-mounted touchscreen (another first for Palm).

Codename: Wanda / Possible Product Name: Treo 500 Successor (GSM) / ETA: September 2008 (Europe only?)

The "Wanda" is expected to be a minor refresh of the ho-hum Treo 500 that appeared late last year. The main additions to the Wanda’s spec list are integrated GPS functionality as well as much faster 3G HSDPA support.

Codename: Skywriter / Possible Product Name: "Centro-like device running WM 6.1" / ETA: Q3-Q4 ‘08?

Notes: This is a new term previously unpublished prior to Tam Hanna’s announcement last week. Several possibilities exist as to the exact identity of this this mysterious device. The codename "Skywriter" evokes the image of a lightweight, stylish device (ala Centro) designed around text messaging and e-mail. This product’s codename is also strangely reminiscent of the old i705’s "Skywalker" codename.

Finally, a much less likely scenario could have Palm releasing a new higher-end budget device combining the current’s Centro formfactor and touchscreen with the more robust Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional OS. One advantage of introducing a low-end device under the Centro moniker would be the gain support for 3G GSM networks or EVDO Rev-A, Bluetooth 2.0, Google Maps’ location and/or GPS capabilities and A2DP wireless headphone support, none of which is possible under the aging Garnet OS. However, Palm would be forced to likely offer such a device at higher price than the Garnet-based Centro due to Microsoft’s Windows Mobile licensing costs…unless, of course, Palm and Microsoft have been able to renegotiate their licensing pricing in order to push more WM Pro-based devices to the lower end of the smartphone market.

If Palm could hit the ground running this summer and fall with two 320×320 WM 6.1 smartphones, they would enjoy near-exclusivity in this particular segment (WM 6.1 320×320 touchscreen w/ full QWERTY keyboard) of the market, though a cheaper touchscreen WM Centro could potentially steal sales from the flagship Treo 800w, risking further dilution of the Treo line’s cachet.

[palminfocenter]

Popularity: 3% [?]

Egg Phone trendsetter for future phone designs?

Posted by admin | Category: Mobile Phone, Trend Watch & News

Could we possibly see, sometime in the future, a Nokia Egg? Or a Sony Ericsson Egg? Only time will tell.
However, regardless of who creates the "mobile egg", we really hope someone will do it. With such a look and features, this mobile handset has all the chances to become a hit, especially among the users who look for a unique mobile phone.

A young designer from Prague, the capital of Czech Republic, recently came up with a fresh and good looking mobile phone concept, called the Egg Phone. Far from being bulky like an egg, the new handset mobile phone has an oval-shaped, curved case that seems to be quite slim and, more important, it can probably fit well in users’ hands.

Roman Tubl, the creator of the Egg handset, imagined the device having "illuminated" margins and a wide touchscreen display with tactile feedback, which represents the only way users can control the device’s functions. Therefore, it seems we have here the very first full-touchscreen phone that clearly differentiates itself from Apple’s iPhone and its design. Which is, obviously, a good thing.

Besides the touchscreen, said to be easy to use, the Egg phone should also have a pretty cool range of features, including: a 3.2 Megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a USB port for both charging and data transfers, Enlarge picture and an internal memory of "up to 4GB". If some 3G speeds and other goodies can also be squeezed in the Egg, then the handset is, at least theoretically, a very attractive one.

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Popularity: 4% [?]

HTC P3470 combine GPS and Windows Mobile

Posted by admin | Category: GPS Navigation & Guidance System, Windows Mobile

HTC Corp P3470 the world’s leading provider of Microsoft Windows Mobile smart devices comes with GPS

At just 108mm tall, the HTC P3470 offers unbeatable value as one of the most compact devices in HTC’s portfolio, featuring a broad range of functionality that today’s consumers desire.
The HTC P3470 enables an easy to use and simple interface for accessing web pages, documents, messages, contact lists and more.
The HTC P3470 features Copilot software, the best sat-nav solution for phones.
The intuitive interface, clear instructions and easy call handling make it the ideal software navigation solution for the P3470.
The touch interface and large 2.8 inch screen ensure the AGPS-enabled sat-nav is easy to use.
“Phones with satellite navigation capabilities are witnessing increasing demand in the Middle East, even as mobile penetration rates continue to rise steadily,” said Kevin Chen, General Manager, HTC Middle East and Africa and CIS. “The HTC P3470 integrates GPS-location into an innovative and high-powered phone that brings location-based experiences to customers looking for power and affordability. We are very pleased to announce this addition to the product portfolio, continuing our commitment to provide an option for every user”.

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Popularity: 2% [?]

Palm OS is going history?

Posted by admin | Category: Smartphone, Trend Watch & News

Recently, an editor from pcworld James A. Martin was talking to an executive at a smart phone software developer. The company had recently released new versions of its software for RIM BlackBerrys, Windows Mobile Smartphones, and other devices–but not for Palm OS smart phones. he asked why.

"It’s a dying platform," she replied, matter-of-factly.

Her reaction wasn’t surprising, given Palm’s long, slow slide from top PDA maker to third-tier smart phone vendor. There’s been uncertainty about the Palm OS’s future for years. Palm Treos running  Windows Mobile became available in January 2006. And Palm has been developing a new, as-of-this-writing-unreleased Linux-based OS for what feels like an eternity.

Still, the software executive’s comment aroused mixed feelings.

In short, he got a strong urge to stray from my Treo  and no doubt many of you have felt similar urges–and even acted upon them.

What You Get

Does that mean it’s time to ditch our Palm devices? Not necessarily. Here are four reasons why Palm OS smart phones are still worth owning.

1. The Treo Touch Screen Isn’t Too ‘Touchy.’ The iPhone/iPod Touch screen is gorgeous, bright, and big, by smart phone standards. But it can be a bit too "touchy." For instance, on my iPod Touch I’ve often clicked accidentally on an e-mail and opened it when I was simply trying to scroll through the list of messages. The more I use the iPod Touch for e-mail, the less it happens, but still, it’s annoying. The iPhone/iPod Touch screen also makes it a bit too easy to accidentally click a link on a Web page. I’ve rarely had these problems with the Treo’s touch screen.

By the way, current BlackBerrys don’t have touch screens, though there have been rumors that a touch-screen BlackBerry is on the way.

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Popularity: 2% [?]

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