ProClip Announces Availability of Mounts for iPad

ProClip has been fast at work on creating an iPad mount for their popular device mounting solution. They have created 3 different mounts for the iPad. The first mount is a holder with a tilt swivel allowing you to move and rotate the iPad while it’s in the mount. The second and third are a basic wall mount with out swivel – one in black and the other in white. These are available for order today on the ProClip website – Holder with Tilt Swivel, Wall Mount Black, and Wall Mount White. If you’re not familiar with the ProClip system, you will also need to order a vehicle mount. The vehicle mount attaches to your car and then the device mount connects to that.  Check out my review of the ProClip system to see more information on how it works.

Truth be told, the iPad is a large device, and there is a very good chance that it will block something on the dash of your car. Further, you need to decide if an iPad is really something that you need mounted on the dash of your car. I think this would be too much of a distraction for a great number of people on the roads today. Thankfully, ProClip has thought of this too, and they are looking into creating a car headrest mount that would attach to the back of the front seats allowing the passengers in the back seat to view the screen. Now that’s smart.

Budget Smartphones: Comparing Cameras

In a little bit I will be putting together a comparison of two low end smartphones; the Nokia 5230 and Palm Pre. The Nokia 5230 sells for just $180 with no contract on the WIND Mobile network and the Palm Pre for $299 on the Bell network. I was actually going to include the HTC Hero from Telus but just noticed they have cranked up the price to $499 from $379 and even sell it for the ridiculous price of $249.99 with a 3 year agreement. That is highway robbery, so don’t even bother. Way to go, Telus!!!

Before I get underway with the full review I wanted to post a picture from each of these phones, as the camera on each is quite good. To test them out I took the same shot twice on each phone and picked the best for each one.

The Nokia 5230 only has a 2 megapixel camera, so I really wasn’t expecting much. Of course, as has been said many times before, it’s not about the megapixels. The 5230 really does prove that point! Pictures are extremely clear and snapping photos is quite quick. I can’t tell you how nice it is to have a fast camera on a smartphone! So many take way too long to snap and save, but the Nokia is very…snappy.

The Palm Pre has a 3 megapixel camera and is shockingly good, in my opinion. Colours are very vibrant, as is detail and it is also a very fast camera. I found I could snap pictures as quickly as half a second apart!

Enough blabbing! Here are the example shots; the first being from the Nokia and the second from the Palm Pre. Clicking the image will bring up a full sized photo. Tell me what you think!

HP Announces Intent to Acquire Palm for $1.2 Billion

HP announced today that they have entered into an agreement to purchase Palm, pending regulatory approval. The deal is valued at approximately $1.2 billion and has been approved by both Palm and HP boards of directors and is expected to close in HP’s 3rd quarter ending in July 2010. While this sounds like a great deal, one has to wonder if Palm will suffer the same fate as the iPaq did when HP acquired Compaq many years ago.

Of course, there is hope that this could be a match made in heaven. For Palm, the influx of money and manufacturing knowledge and resources is a huge asset. For HP, it provides them with an OS that they can grow across multiple devices and platforms. Palm has been doing some good things with their WebOS over the last year and they have a very loyal following. So it will be interesting to see if HP can keep the momentum rolling.

The complete press release is below. Take a look and share you thoughts with us. Are you interested in buying an HP Palm Smartphone?

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Capacitive or Resistive – Understanding the Different Touch Screen Types

This is an issue that I’ve long since ignored. For the longest time it was never a concern for me because I mainly used non-touch devices. I find happiness in a front facing keyboard that allows for fast text entry. Typically that means a non-touch device. So I have spent a lot of my time using Windows Mobile Standard (previously known as Windows Mobile Smartphone) based devices. I’ve seen discussions go on for pages and pages over these two technologies and which ones is better and why.

Over the last while I’ve been testing out various touch devices and that has caused me to step back and take a look at capacitive and resistance screens.  There is a really good article over at AllAboutSymbian.com that clearly shows and compares capacitive vs resistance screens. What it comes down to is this – resistive screens require resistance (ie: pressure) to work. You can use your finger or a stylus to apply the pressure required. Capacitive screens don’t work on pressure, they require an electrostatic charge from your finger to determine where on the screen you are touching. Because of this, there needs to be about 5% humidity for them to work correctly. So it can be hard to work it in extreme cold conditions. While capacitive screens can cost more, they provide a number of benefits like being easier to view under direct sunlight, and the ability for multi-touch applications.

Overall user experience is also a key with capacitive screens. They’re much easier to interact with than resistive based screens. If you’ve been using a resistive screen, generally you can move to a capacitive screen with out noticing much of a difference. However, if you’ve been using capacitive for a while and try to switch to a resistive screen, there’s no doubt that you’ll notice a difference and have problems interacting with the screen. Without realizing, I recently switched to a resistive screen and noticed a number of issues interacting with the device. Once I made the connection about the screen type, I just made sure to apply a little more pressure on the screen and things have been great since.

Get to know your touch screen so you can better enjoy that device!

HTC Announces Legend, Desire and Mini

At Mobile World Congress today, HTC announced 3 new devices based on Windows Mobile and Android operating systems.

The HTC Mini is based on Windows Mobile 6.5 and brings the experience of the HD2 to a smaller footprint. The HD2 experience is truly something special. If HTC can make this into a smaller device, it will be interesting to see and use. The single best thing on the HD2 is the screen. If they can pack the processor and power into a smaller footprint, will the device be as attractive? It’s a hard question to answer. With a smaller screen, they will need to make sure that the smaller screen is just as brilliant as it’s larger brother or it won’t succeed.

The HTC Legend and Desire are both Android based devices. The Legend is like version 2 of the Hero, adding a AMOLED screen LED Flash, optical trackball, a faster processor – 600MHz, and some more memory.  The Desire is HTC’s version of their Nexus One phone, but with an optical trackball and an extra button.

You can read check out the press release over at MobilityMinded – HTC Mini, and HTC Legend, Desire. And then let us know what you think of HTC’s latest devices.

Microsoft MVP Global Summit Time

As you’re reading this, I’m traveling to Seattle to attend the this years MVP Summit. The summit is always a good time to get together with the other Mobile Device MVPs as well as the product group and various teams behind Windows Mobile.

This year, the summit falls at the same time as Mobile World Congress (and the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver). If Microsoft decides to share Windows Phone 7 at MWC, then I expect the product teams will have more to share with us. Unfortunately, a lot of what we talk about is under NDA. Rest assured, that whatever I can share, I will share. And I will also take with me a list of issues and questions that I have gathered from your comments posted on Mobile Jaw over the last while.

I’m looking forward to seeing everyone again.

Quantum Physics Used in New Pressure Sensitive Mobile Touch Screens

There’s an article over on the BBC web site that talks about a division of Samsung that has started to license a quantum physics “trick” known as Quantum Tunneling Composite. For example, the technology could be used to allow you to scroll a web page faster the more pressure you apply to the touch screen.

Quantum physics is one of those classes that I never really got along with at university. So I won’t pretend to understand exactly what’s happening here. The end result is a pressure sensitive switch that’s about the same thickness as a human hair, and only requires power when it’s pressed.

The article makes no mention about what devices and manufacturers are planning on using this technology or how it will effect the price of the unit. Regardless, I think it’s awesome use of technology and I can’t wait to give it a run myself.

Driving and Texting is Worse Than…

Once again cell phone use while driving is in the news. This time it’s because of a study that found that you are more likely to be in an accident if you are sending text messages while driving. It’s not just a little more likely, it’s something like 23 times more likely. This isn’t the first study done about the dangers of cell phone use while driving. The popular TV show Mythbusters did an episode that determined that it was more dangerous to talk on the cell phone while driving that it was to drive drunk. There are dozens of studies done on this, and lots of real world examples. There is no question in my mind that it’s flat out stupid. You’re going to get in an accident, it’s just a matter of when and how bad.

Cell phone use in the car is getting a lot of attention now from the media as well as the government. So much so, that laws are being introduced that will make using a cell phone while driving illegal. While I agree that you shouldn’t be using the phone while driving, I don’t see the need for a law specifically to deal with cell phones because that’s saying that reading the newspaper is ok, or that putting on make-up while driving is fine. When the reality is that neither of those are acceptable. Any laws created should address anything that takes the drivers attention away from the task of driving. It doesn’t matter if it’s eating a burger from a fast food restaurant, reading the newspaper, putting on make-up, shaving, browsing through music on your MP3 player, talking / texting on your cell phone, or anything else. If it takes your attention away from the task of driving, it should be illegal.

The only things that come out of creating a law to address cell phone use while driving is short-sightedness and the need to create a new law in a couple years when the next-great-thing is found to cause a distraction to drivers. Get it right the first time and deal with all the distractions and not just cell phones.

The Cell Phone Evolved

I’ve had my fair share of cell phones over the years and it’s always fun to compare new devices with old units.  Design and functionality are always changing. New devices are considerably smaller than just a year earlier. Well, here’s a pretty cool site that covers off some of the more popular and unusual mobile devices between 1983 and 2009. There a couple places where the timeline jumps a little, but it’s pretty cool to scroll through all the different devices. Of all the phones I’ve had, it’s still a small number compared to the number of devices on this list.  Check it out and let us know your thoughts.  How many have you owned?

Daylight Savings Time – How Did Your Devices Do?

Today we entered into Daylight Savings Time by moving our clocks forward by 1 hour. As a result, today is only 23 hours long and it’s a little brighter out for a littler longer. If you haven’t switching your clocks at this point, I strongly recommend you do it now before you’re late for work tomorrow – unless, of course, you live in some area that doesn’t observe daylight savings.

So the real question is; How did your devices handle the change? All of my devices switched without any problems. The only clocks I had to manually adjust are the dumb ones like the wall clock, stove, and microwave. What about your devices, did any of them fail to change, or perhaps they jumped more than 1 hour? Let us know!

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