CNet Video On Both iPAQ 4000 Models

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://news.com.com/1601-2-5097192.html">http://news.com.com/1601-2-5097192.html</a><br /><br />"CNET's Patrick Houston checks out HP's latest iPaq models, the 4150 and the 4350, which feature integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless capabilities."<br /><br />It still blows me away that 3 years ago, $499 got you an iPAQ, no slot, 32MB of RAM and a 12 bit color (dusty) screen. Today, you get an integrated keyboard, WiFi, Bluetooth, SDIO, 16 bit beautiful transflective screens and 64MB of RAM, all in a smaller and lighter package. 8O

[DubWireless]

Integrating Bluetooth... what are they thinking Ed????

funny, at the Pocket PC Summit both HP and MS were very positive and upbeat on Bluetooth... after reading the coverage on Bluetooth here you'd think it was dead! wierd eh! ;)

[jfreiman]

The only Bluetooth device I can ever see myself using would be stereo headphones for a PocketPC.

It would be GREAT to not have to worry about the cable from my back pack or pocket to my head!

However, I see no Bluetooth profiles for iPaqs which would allow such a thing. Also, googling for bluetooth headphones wasn't promising.

[dean_shan]

The only Bluetooth device I can ever see myself using would be stereo headphones for a PocketPC.

It would be GREAT to not have to worry about the cable from my back pack or pocket to my head!.

I have been dreaming of those for years. Why hasn't anyone made them yet?

[Sslixtis]

They just sold me the 4350! SWEET! :lol:

[murph]

i'm third on that list for the bluetooth headphones. it makes so much sense with the cell phone/mp3 player combo taking off.

[jnunn]

It still blows me away that 3 years ago, $499 got you an iPAQ, no slot, 32MB of RAM and a 12 bit color (dusty) screen.
$500??!! That was a bargain. I paid $600 and waited MONTHS for mine. Of course, I am still using it (exclusively) so the cost of ownership is $200/year and decreasing until a VGA PPC OS comes out. I know, the screen is dusty and the battery is weak but its speed (on the 2000 OS) is still decent compared to the latest PPCs.

[moaske]

Personally, i've always insisted on having a CF slot. But man; are these devices small !!! 8O This small form factor turned me around for sure !
Does anyone know if the Stowaway-XT will be compatible with this sweet machine ? :drool:

Have to say it again: :drool: :drool: :drool:

[Wiseblood]

So this guy sounded JUST like the guy from microsoft a few weeks ago who was touting the smartphone.

So they both insert "so" at the response to just about every question.

So this is, frankly, a rather weird affectation. But I see a trend. Is this a West Coast Techie thing. Is this a Bill Gates thing? At least they didn't rock back and forth . . .

So what do you think?

[Ed Hansberry]

So this guy sounded JUST like the guy from microsoft a few weeks ago who was touting the smartphone.

So they both insert "so" at the response to just about every question.

So this is, frankly, a rather weird affectation. But I see a trend. Is this a West Coast Techie thing. Is this a Bill Gates thing? At least they didn't rock back and forth . . .

So what do you think?
"So" is the defacto way to start a sentence in Redmond. I find myself doing it for a few days after a trip there.

[Thinkingmandavid]

Toshiba has displayed a bluetooth head phone set and was showing it off while connected to a laptop. they were listening to music from the laptop tothe headphones via blue tooth, so it was cool. that was a while back, but i dont know when it will be available to the general public.

[PetiteFlower]

I have been dreaming of those for years. Why hasn't anyone made them yet?

Lack of perceived demand?

[Sean Murphy]

I got my 4155 a few days ago and I love it. It has a nice feel and the Wi-Fi has been a true zero-configuration thing. I connected to my work and home networks without any headaches.

I now have the 4155 and my MPx200 smart phone and I am invincible!

[PetiteFlower]

So, that was really freakin annoying!

[dhpss]

The only Bluetooth device I can ever see myself using would be stereo headphones for a PocketPC.

It would be GREAT to not have to worry about the cable from my back pack or pocket to my head!

However, I see no Bluetooth profiles for iPaqs which would allow such a thing. Also, googling for bluetooth headphones wasn't promising.

A German developer just wrote a patch for WM2003 allowing the popular BT headsets to connect to PocketPC http://pdassi.de/vshop/product.php?id=1438&prod_id=13048

This patch (cost: $3.5) requires some "eMbedded Visual Basic Runtime" for PPC 2003 available at Microsoft Web site. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/resources/downloads/developer/evb.mspx

Once installed your PPC can then establish a BT connection between your BT capable PPC(iPaq) and your BT headset to listen to music or use VoIP e.g. New Toshiba e805 app (discussed here: http://www.brighthand.com/article/Toshiba_Making_Handheld_for_VoIP?site=PPC )

Some examples:
Stereo BT headset here: http://www.openbrain.co.kr/e_site/e_products/e_products03.htm or BT Nokia here: http://www.nokiausa.com/nokia_accessories/item_details/1,6384,product:HDW-2,00.html)

[jeff]

The only Bluetooth device I can ever see myself using would be stereo headphones for a PocketPC.

It would be GREAT to not have to worry about the cable from my back pack or pocket to my head!.

I have been dreaming of those for years. Why hasn't anyone made them yet?

Bandwidth.

Bluetooth maxes out at 768kbps, and you're lucky to get anything near that. CD quality sound is 150kBps, or 1.2Mbps, so you can either pass lesser quality sound or compressed data. Compression isn't a great solution since you need a real-time compression technique on the PPC and the headphones will have to include enough electronics to decompress. That takes a hit on battery life and the double compression adversely affects sound quality.

I see someone posted a link to a pair that currently exist. I'd be interested to hear what they can do.

[hoxbox]

I paid $450 for Palm Vx back in the day.... still my only PDA :)

[fyiguy]

So this guy sounded JUST like the guy from microsoft a few weeks ago who was touting the smartphone.

So they both insert "so" at the response to just about every question.

So this is, frankly, a rather weird affectation. But I see a trend. Is this a West Coast Techie thing. Is this a Bill Gates thing? At least they didn't rock back and forth . . .

So what do you think?

John is actually a pretty cool guy, in talking with him in person, (he didn't say that many so's or ums, it looks like that was from the pressure of being on camera) John explained where HP is heading and their vision of wireless communication inside of at least one product in each product categories to allow all their product lines to "seemlessly connect with one another" to Don, myself, and Dave English-(one of the few people of the press that is a real PPC zealot and really loves handheld technology), got to ride with him and two gentlemen from NavTech, in a Hummer Limo around Las Vegas showing off their latest BT navigation system, more on that here (http://www.bostonpocketpc.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1871&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0).

Don and I then got to speak with John and few others from HP the next day discussing HP's current business focus of their horizontal strategy and demonstartiong some of their new upcoming technology. Some of it was truly drool-worthy like the new HP TC1100 Tablet PC - with a Pentium M(no longer the slower Transmetta), Fast IR,BT, and WiFi in a,b,and g flavors(since it isn't using the Intel 802.11b radio, it isn't labelled as a Centrino) with an improved display, better graphics chipset-the NVIDIA GeForce 4 Go w/32MB, max memory of 2GB, a built-in SD slot, and HP got rid of the battery in the pen.

Another really cool product was their new digital projector (mp3130) that communicated via WiFi to their presentation laptop. It also had a built-in CompactFlash/SD card slot for storing presentations so a laptop isn't needed(I believe this was an add-on option).

They were pretty much tight-lipped with their future on handhelds, but did say some exciting new products will be coming soon...

When you hold the new HP PPC handhelds in your hand, you realize how simply amazing these PPCs are with such a small form factor, lightweight, solid feel, and loaded with so many features... these handhelds soon become very lust-worthy...

If you wish to read more on HP's vision Don wrote up a great synopsis of our meeting in HP's hospitality suite during CTIA/Pocket PC Summit here (http://www.bostonpocketpc.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1882&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0).

[PetiteFlower]

Well, since most people listen to mp3s on their PDAs, not CDs, and the baud rate on mp3s is much lower then 768k, it shouldn't be a problem for this type of music, right?

Now if you wanted to be able to hook them up to your discman, I can see the concerns, but not for your PDA or mp3 player.

[Thinkingmandavid]

So the bt head set will only work with iqaqs? What if you put a bt card and then synced wiht the bt head set? the i could listen to my mp3's :wink:

[Janak Parekh]

Well, since most people listen to mp3s on their PDAs, not CDs, and the baud rate on mp3s is much lower then 768k, it shouldn't be a problem for this type of music, right?
Only if the headset itself has electronics to decode the MP3s. The Bluetooth Headset Profile sends uncompressed or trivially-compressed audio, I believe. You'd need a different Profile to support a compressed stream. I do believe people are working on it out there...

--janak

[Majestic]

The 4350 looks like a nice replacement for my 5455 BUT it won't take my 1gig microdrive. :( I kinda like having the sleeve with the battery because it gives me longer use on the road between charges.

Other than that, I really like the looks of this one. Nice keyboard. Sell my Stowaway XT. :)

Blah. I'll have to wait till I see one in person.

Fred


http://news.com.com/1601-2-5097192.html

"CNET's Patrick Houston checks out HP's latest iPaq models, the 4150 and the 4350, which feature integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless capabilities."

It still blows me away that 3 years ago, $499 got you an iPAQ, no slot, 32MB of RAM and a 12 bit color (dusty) screen. Today, you get an integrated keyboard, WiFi, Bluetooth, SDIO, 16 bit beautiful transflective screens and 64MB of RAM, all in a smaller and lighter package. 8O

[fyiguy]

Well, since most people listen to mp3s on their PDAs, not CDs, and the baud rate on mp3s is much lower then 768k, it shouldn't be a problem for this type of music, right?

Now if you wanted to be able to hook them up to your discman, I can see the concerns, but not for your PDA or mp3 player.

Note BT peaks at 768Kbps in bursts, it isn't a constant stream, what most BT stereo headset do is actually cache the music onto onboard memory ranging from 32MB-128MB the quality of mp3s transmitted is actually 8 ~ 320 kbps, 44.100 kHz. For WMAs you are talking roughly in the range of 8 ~ 193 kbps, at various sampling frequencies - 8.000, 11.025, 16.000, 22.050, 32.000, 44.100 kHz.

Note the headset profile is not really meant for listening to audio formated files, but rather POTs quality audio, and mp3s sound like they are being played over a phone.

Also there are some Low Power Bluetooth Stereo Headset and Music Adapter Reference Designs Incorporating A2DP Profile reference designs are being worked out by Impulsesoft.

"Targeted at OEMs developing CD / MP3 player, Audio system, in-car entertainment systems, TVs, Mobile phones, Multicasting for Conference, laptops, PCs / PDAs, gaming devices, these solutions will help customers deliver Bluetooth entertainment solutions early to the market. Developed around iBTStack -- Impulsesoft's embedded Bluetooth stack, incorporating the Bluetooth SIG's Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) profile, iWISH and iWISA are designed to deliver unmatched stereo quality audio.

iWISH is a complete hardware and software offering that will enable OEM's to bring Bluetooth stereo headphones early to the market. iWISA is a plug-in device for existing audio systems enabling them to wirelessly transmit stereo quality audio to other wireless devices like stereo headsets. An extensive support for codecs, including subband, MP3, WMA and a low bill of material help provide flexibility and cost advantage to OEMs. In addition, features like intuitive MMI, power saving system and noise filtering for hi-fidelity in iWISH and iWISA will help OEMs deliver superior Bluetooth entertainment products to the market. "

Toshiba had their BT headset on demo at CeBIT Germany and the folks at OpenBrain have a stereo BT headset as well, but I don't know of any support for the Pocket PC even though the OpenBrain website said it will work with PDAs...

[PetiteFlower]

The 4350 looks like a nice replacement for my 5455 BUT it won't take my 1gig microdrive. :(

Heh, well just wait until your microdrive dies, since non-solid state memory has a decidedly limited lifespan, especially if it's heavily used. The 5455 is still pretty new, keep it another year, by then the 1 gig SD cards might even be affordable, upgrade then :)