At the current CeBITe largest stands does not belong to producers and sellers of computers. None. Dominant position in the exhibition are telecommunication companies, providers of communications services and suppliers of relevant equipment. One of the most impressive in size exhibition stands belongs to Germany's largest wireless and wireline companies - Deutsche Telecom - and occupies a good third of the pavilion rather big N 26. Take a quick look at the directions, which involves developing communications industry at the junction with handheld computers.
Pocket PC moved. Aside smartphones
For some reason, the traditional producers of Pocket PC on CeBIT'e behaved surprisingly modest. Unlike Palm-oriented competitors, they are not satisfied with entertaining shows, rallies and demonstrations. Casio booth located in Hall number 1 among suppliers of industrial and printing equipment. Tables with Cassiopeia'mi and Pocket Viewer'ami, discreet plakatiki obviously bored managers. Here on display - industrial terminals.
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Our question about the plans for the production model Casio Cassiopeia E-125 is one of the stand staff, turned out to be the manager for Pocket Viewer, readdressed to his colleague, who was responsible for digital cameras. A few minutes later it became clear that an expert on CPC somewhere came out and asked us to wait five minutes. Ten we got bored and we went on. On the stand of HP (in the same huge first pavilion) in the corner were the good old Jornada 720 and Jornada 545. Juzat they were not allowed, but no one specifically and did not try. Expected novelties are not held. What caused such apathy - is hard to say. I would not want to repeat the situation of 1999-2000, when producers in droves stopped doing keyboard for Windows CE PDAs. Although today the situation is different (but the producers are the same:)) IPAQ'i with radios were seen in large numbers in the hands of the stand staff Microsoft.
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Unlike vendors PDA, cell phone makers seem to confer on the Pocket PC high expectations. As many as three large manufacturers - Siemens, Sagem and Mitsubishi Electric - showed products based on the Pocket PC. The most interesting of the family of PPC-Smartphone seemed to me Andromeda - a joint creation of Siemens and Casio. About this project recently hodilo many rumors. Ostensibly he was stopped, allegedly the product does not appear. Manufacturer Casio generally reluctant to commenting on the theme of joint smartphone. Nevertheless, the device appeared and was shown to journalists and the general public. Andromeda outwardly similar to its "mother" - Cassiopeia E-125 - but it has a streamlined body and a small antenna. From her that the novelty has inherited a beautiful screen, synchronized with your computer via USB and the operating system Windows CE 3.0 for Pocket PC. We do not just try to work with Andromeda, but even got a call from her to another phone and told each other a few words. Everything works, but only when the headset is plugged. Without a headset and microphone to use the Andromeda as a phone can not even dial the number will not succeed.
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The lifetime of the batteries should last for one day of standby time. Alas, in this and other smartphones are not provided by a separate battery for the phone and private - for your computer. So what if the only battery smartphone village before the evening, the owner automatically loses not only information but also mobile phones. And vice versa. At least to the nearest electrical outlet. In such a situation the best selling accessories for the Andromeda could be the car charger, extra batteries and solar cells to recharge:) Andromeda aroused genuine interest in writing and electronic media. We had to almost pull the device out of the hands of journalists to at least a little look at it. In the sale of novelty will arrive in July and August under the brand Siemens SX-45. Price in Germany is expected within DM 2000. Near Andromeda smartphones from Sagem and Mitsubishi Electric (phone brand Trium) looked a sort of gray mice. Monochrome displays, and all just 16 MB of RAM. But a half times lighter and thinner than SX-45, and allows you to talk on the phone without connecting headphones.
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Outwardly, the two devices are quite similar. Despite the black-and-white screen, no Sagem, or Mitsubishi can not guarantee longer battery life than its promises to Siemens for Andromeda. Again, it does not provide separate food and PDA phone. Very close to a color a competitor is expected and the price of both new products: about $ 1000. Data not yet offered through the normal channel of GSM. Although the Trium Mondo, and includes support for GPRS, it has the support of only two channels and is not a particularly remarkable achievement. Of course, all the producers promise to equip their products with support for GPRS in the very near future. When it comes - time will tell.
And EPOC there too ...
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Quite a different type of smartphone revealed Nokia. To be faithful to the end, the Nokia 9210 - a phone-PDA. Retained the same concept as in the models Communicator 9000 and 9110, only instead of running GEOS get the latest Symbian EPOC OS Release 6. Version of EPOC for 9210 has some very serious differences on the operating system that we used to see on PDAs Psion Series 5mx and Revo. So, Nokia has refused to touch the screen, are very convenient to work with the keyboard. Something like this work was organized on the PDA Psion third series. By the way, the user interface of the new Nokia awakens downright nostalgic memories of the good old Psion 3c. The same icons, the same movement arrows and control by hot key combinations, easy menu system. Some teams are made for quick access from the main menu on the right side of the screen and called four special buttons on the top cover. Ekran just wonderful. More precisely, the two screens - the phone outside and inside the computer. Computer-made color, so in the shadow of the stand looks great. However, in our experience, these screens are virtually invisible on a bright sunny day.
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Communication capabilities fully meet its 9210 title and purpose of the communicator. Nokia supports synchronization and file sharing on your PC, send and receive faxes, e-mail. Built-in MS Word and spreadsheet Sheet can open attached files like Microsoft Office 95/97/2000, and save your own documents in these formats. Provides even viewer presentations MS PowerPoint. Device has two built-in browser for viewing HTML and WML (WAP) pages of the Internet. Owner of 9210 can exchange electronic business cards, not only with other communicators, but also with all kinds of PDAs based on EPOC R5, or Palm OS. But the Pocket PC do not support the exchange of vCard, so there will not be able to share contacts. We have managed a little experiment. Transfer cards with the Palm Vx was successful, but in the opposite direction did not work. Visor generally refused to communicate with the communicator to the IR, but it is a problem of Palm OS 3.1, with its curves of an infrared port.
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Also, we were not able to pass on the 9210 photograph from a camera Casio QV-3000. I admit that I just acted improperly by trying to include infrared cameras (used it for the first time in my life). Our colleagues from Elekton "were more fortunate. But their picture is transmitted from 9210 to Russia by e-mail to the addressee was not reached. Did not like the Communicator significantly slows. When downloading an application, the computer thinks for 7-10 seconds, and only then reluctantly began to draw a picture. When you open the menu delay is less tangible, but will have to wait a couple seconds, and the menu is painted pieces. The speed of these operations like Cassiopeia A-11 with one notable russificator:)), and by today's standards looks just not right. Manager of Nokia, talked with us, explained that it presents a series of working prototypes, and the final version everything will be fixed. Want to believe it, because pesky little things are quite capable of spoiling the future of the whole a very interesting device.
Something new
Another concept of the smartphone was seen at the stand of Taiwanese cell phone manufacturer Sendo. Sendo Z100, the size of slightly more popular Siemens SL-45, only the screen is made of colored and enlarged two times.
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The unit operates under the Microsoft Smartphone Platform - a special operating system for mobile phones, also known as the Stinger. A sort of truncated Pocket PC, even superficially similar. Integrated applications let you store a large notebook, keep diary, making notes, etc. Implemented synchronization with MS Outlook and the ability to create and install additional applications. The screen is not touch-sensitive, so the pen input is not in principle, is supposed to use only a small alphanumeric telephone keypad. Although the developer offers a system of predictive text input T9, is unlikely to work with the text will be convenient and quick. Firms Landware and Targus worth thinking about folding keyboard for smartphones such, it will clearly be an accessory N1. Able to see the only real working prototype of the Z100. A feeling that it was indeed snatched from the hands of designers before the exhibition. Apologizing for a bad screen (much inferior to the images on the advertising leaflets), the manager Sendo assured that by the time of launching the model into production (approximately the beginning of next year) all deficiencies are corrected, and the screen quality is much better. The authors, translation:
