Divergence

I've written about why, although digital technology is converging, digital products should diverge. I've recently become interested in the Nokia N800 web-tablet. It's a small (think PSP) touch screen based computer which looks ideal as a portable web browser. It has bluetooth and WiFi connectivity, but no cellular connectivity; it is not a phone. A recent blog posting, "maybe your phone doesn't need to be smart" covers some of the good reasons why a bluetooth cell phone plus an N800 could be a really good combination.

My own analysis is that I want my cell phone to be small enough to carry with me at all times - in the pocket of my jeans. This means the phone must be small (thinner than my current Nokia 6822 which can unfold to reveal a qwerty keyboard); robust; work well as a phone(!); and have some non-phone functions (i-net, diary, ...) but it doesn't need to be very good at those things. The 6822 works just fine with the Google Mail Java app for instance. Ultimately, of course, the size of the phone will limit the screen size which ends up limiting its usefulness. I think carrying a second, larger device, with more functionality sounds just.

Of course, today the N800 seems to be lacking a key application, a diary which syncs with other things (Outlook, Google Calender). But I'm sure this will get fixed soon.

Palm and my Medion 8818

I can't sync my Palm (well Treo to tell thr truth) to my new PC. The Palm website helpfully says:

Please note, we provide no support for use of our software or for synchronization of our devices with these operating systems:

• Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
• Windows XP Media Center Edition
• Windows XP Professional x64
• Windows Server 2003
• Windows Small Business Server 2003
• Windows NT Server
• Any Windows Terminal Server version
• Dual- or Multiple-CPU computers

I score twice - Windows XP Media Centre Edition running on a dual core. So what did Palm mess up so badly?

New PC ups and downs

The reason I've not reviewed my passport holder thoroughly is that I have just bought a new PC. It's not just a PC, it's a "Multimedia Internet Entertainment PC". Actually, its a Medion 8818, which is a E6300 (core duo) powered machine with 1 Gbyte of RAM, a Lightscribe DVD writer, a DVD reader, TV tuner, some 256 Mbyte video card with HDI, DVI and VGA out. I also bought a new 19" monitor. Yes, Aldi did well out of me on Sunday. (For those of you not in the know, Aldi is a low-end supermarket chain that sometimes does amazing offers on expensive goods).

Anyhow, I've been busy clearing of the viruses that came installed (e.g. MS Office 60-day trial) and installing the essentials of life (Google Earth, Google Pack, Firefox, ...). However, I have a problem; when I sync my Palm to my new PC I get the blue screen of death! I've now spent about three or four hours looking into this problem - which has pissed me off no end as part of the reason for buying a ready built PC is so I didn't have to debug something I'd built. Anyhow, Microsoft pointed the finger at an NVidia driver problem (there is an obscure problem with the interaction between power management software, threading in the NVidia driver and dual core processors). I tried NVidia's new drivers and their suggestions without luck. Then I looked on the Palm site. Palm doesn't support Windows Media Centre. I don't know why, I don't care, but problem over as far as I am concerned. I was thinking of returning the PC but I think I'll have to ask Santa for a new PDA instead.