After publishing my Mobius 2006 Thailand Day One article immediately after the first day, I have to admit I was proud of myself - normally it takes me many days to transform my session notes into a complete article, so this was a big improvement over previous Mobius events. Well, you know what they say about being proud of yourself - here I am publishing the day two article (a much shorter piece to begin with) a full week after it happened. I was essentially busy and/or travelling from the second day of Mobius through until Tuesday AM, and have been catching up on email and other tasks ever since. So you’ll have to pardon the lateness, but here’s the Mobius day two article.

Derek Brown, BMO Director (Marketing Director) for Microsoft Thailand, started day two with a session called “Emerging Markets & The Next Billion PCs”. His introduction was a brief overview of how the Pocket PC launched and how the first “Pocket PC Wireless and Beyond” event came to be (the precursor to Mobius). There was some wistful (and wincing) talk about the Palm-size PC evolution into the Pocket PC, and the things that Derek oversaw during his time on the Windows Mobile team in Redmond (including the infamous Mobile Experience Tour). Living in Thailand, Derek had a unique perspective on the military coup that occurred, and he showed us some photos of what things were like in Bangkok. Soldiers, tanks, and guns ? but everything was peaceful, people were posing for photos with the soldiers, citizens handing out flowers and cheering for the military. It’s about as benign as a coup can be.

Thailand is an emerging market, with 65 million people, and most of the population still lives in rural communities. Piracy is a concern Thailand ? Microsoft believes in bringing technology to people, but as a business they also want to sell software. Respect for intellectual property is lacking in Thailand ? there’s about 79% piracy rate, which includes software piracy, movie piracy, and other forms of IP theft. He discussed open source and governments ? Microsoft is happy to compete with open source solutions, but they dislike government edicts that give an unfair advantage to open source solutions. [more]

Dell Axim x50/51/v owners:

We?ve partnered with Proporta to create the Dell Axim Awesome Accessory Kit that includes six items: a Magnesium case, a Aluminum case, an Alu-Leather… Read More

As they do every year, Smartphone and Pocket PC Magazine and their board of experts have evaluated hundreds of pieces of software to distinguish the best of the best in dozens of software categories. The awards help to increase the quality of applications that are developed in the Windows Mobile community, and to inform consumers of the latest and greatest software for their device.

To… Read More

“To be honest - I fully expected to hate the Pocket Loox T830… So - why was it, after a period of using the T830 as my only Pocket PC, that I changed my mind to such a extent that I am seriously contemplating buying one?”

Duncan of Firstloox.org has finally delivered on that review he’s promised - a very comprehensive look at the T830, warts and all. There actually weren’t many (warts, I mean), and there are a lot of plus points - the battery benchmarks are amazing. I’m disappointed with the quality of the camera, but the rest of this device are all that could be hoped for. First units are tentatively expected to be shipped within the next couple of weeks. If you want to check out other reviews of the T830, both Solopalmari and GPSPassion have them, though these are on pre-production versions.

Handheld is mobile GPS device first, full-fledged Pocket PC second, and entertainment hybrid third.

While the interface on the 3125 still is taking some getting used to, I’m quickly learning the menus. But now I’m experiencing a bit of button envy - from both sides!

First, having an actual number pad through which I can dial numbers is something I’ve always missed since switching to the XV6700. But the complete lack of a QWERTY keyboard to do the most simple messaging, surfing, and… Read More

“I RECENTLY arrived at a hotel about an hour before a room would be available. So I sat in the lobby and opened my laptop. Just as I expected, a message popped up on my screen. ?Do you want to join the wireless network ?Free Lobby Wi-Fi?’ ? I clicked Yes, and off I went to E-mail Land…As I waited for a big file to download, I was suddenly taken aback. ?Just as I expected?? I’d actually taken it for granted that I’d get online in three seconds, at no charge, at high speed and with a single mouse click? Why, to any normal person of, say, 1995, that would be considered a freaky, utopian, futuristic miracle. I know because I was one. (A normal person in 1995, not a futuristic miracle.)”

Thus begins a very cute little story (great for Friday OT reading, although a free NYT reg is required) by David Pogue, lead technology columnist for the New York Times, about his experience before the days of pervasive Internet access, back when Internet access in some places meant acoustic couplers and lots of crossed fingers — such as on his honeymoon in Indonesia. And now that I think about it, those day seem really distant; I’m essentially bathed in Internet access, even when I was sitting in the lobby of a small hotel in Italy a few weeks ago. How time flies… have a great weekend, everyone!

Very many thanks to WhiteFlippingJew for the tip-off that PDArcade appears to be making a comeback. Visitors to the site are redirected to PDA Live with a cryptic “coming soon” message. Start your conspiracy theories rolling……

“Integrated volume controls and Bass Boost mode let you take control of your music, while advanced Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate wireless technology ensures clear, interference-free audio with up to 33 ft. range. Extended life rechargeable batteries provide up to six hours of play time. The high carbon spring-steel headband is lightweight yet rugged, and the soft-touch comfort rings provide a secure fit. The FreePulse Wireless headphones are compatible with most audio players, and include custom-fit iPod adapters?just charge, plug, and play!”

The original press release can be found here. The unit is being aimed at the MP3 player/iPod market as it comes with a separate Bluetooth stereo plug transmitter; thus, it’s unclear if you’ll be able to operate this directly with a BT-enabled device without the transmitter device. The MSRP for these headsets is $99.99 USD (seemingly standard price for Bluetooth stereo headsets nowadays). Personally, I like the look of these headphones more than the majority of other Bluetooth headphones and I love the Logitech brand… BUT I’m not too crazy about having the Logitech logo so clearly stamped on both sides of my ears! Your thoughts?

We’ve added support for Windows Live Alerts to PocketGamer, so if you prefer to receive your news updates through MSN Messenger or your cellphone, you can add us to your list by following this link. The Windows Live website seems to be pretty unstable at the moment, so don’t be surprised if it doesn’t load….

Many thanks to Kornalius for letting me know that the Pocket Programming Language has been updated to version 1.02, described as a “major improvement over the last version.”…

“Sony has finally bitten the bullet and issued a worldwide recall of all Sony-manufactured lithium-ion batteries used in notebook computers. Earlier in the day, Lenovo/IBM joined the ranks of Dell, Apple, and Toshiba in issuing a recall for all Sony batteries that ship with their notebooks.”

Huge hassle and embarrassment for Sony aside, there’s something that no one seems to talk about here: why should we assume this is only the case for laptops? Could it be possible that our current PDAs have Sony-manufactured batteries capable of burning/exploding? I hope I’m wrong, but… (ironically, my Powerbook G4’s battery is one of the few that’s exempt from the recall. Oh well… I was looking forward to a free new battery, but it looks like that won’t happen.)

“Astraware and Revolution Software are excited to announce a special Broken Sword promotion to celebrate 10 years since the release of the original Broken Sword. When the game was originally released on 30th September 1996, no-one could have forseen that the game would still be receiving rave reviews a full decade later. ‘Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars’ has been released on several platforms including PC, PlayStation(R), GameBoy Advance(R), and most recently for Palm OS(R) and Windows Mobile(R). Broken Sword is now an award-winning franchise with three sequels. The most recent, ‘Broken Sword 4: The Angel of Death’, has just been released and is currently number 1 in the charts.”

I’m a huge fan of seeing desktop games make their way to successful Pocket PC ports, and this one seems to be no exception. If you’re interested in checking Broken Sword out, now’s your chance to get it with a special discount! Note that this offer only lasts until the end of this Sunday, so be sure to take action if you’re interested.

While traveling, space for all the must have accessories is always at a premium and one of the positive attributes of the original Sonoma Bluetooth keyboard, was its compact size. The Sierra is bulkier but surprisingly fairly compact. The Sierra measures 5.0″ x 3.5″, while the Sonoma measures 5.5?x 3.9?. It is interesting that the Sierra’s rectangular size is smaller than the Sonoma. At first glance… Read More

“The iBlue 737 uses the same advances bluetooth power management as the original i-Blue, Bluetooth auto-off/auto-on, with a rounder form factor. The big news though it the appearance of the MTK chipset I hadn’t seen before, an excellent surprise since it packs the power of SiRFstarIII at about 50% of the power use.”

GPS performance that is equivalent to the SiRFstar III at half of its power consumption? That’s a tall compliment for sure. If you’re in the market for a GPS receiver, hop on over the review to find out what else they had to say about the iBlue 737 (I keep picturing an airplane whenever I say that). As always, give us your thoughts if you’ve tried this yourself.