Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 24

Has anyone seen or used this cool notepade that puts your hand written notes right into your visor? I often go into a meeting and write notes into my visor, but this seems it will make the process easier by having a larger area to write on. The case looks pretty cool also.

check it out at http://www.seikosmart.com

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Looks cool

It looks pretty cool - I hadn't seen it before.

It looks like it communicates via the IR port which would mean you would have to put the Visor in sideways - I don't know if it would fit right.

Also, what's up with the "standard AAAA battery" that comes in the pen? Am I the only one who hasn't heard of a AAAA battery before?

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AAAA's do exist. I guess as things got smaller, batteries had to also. (I just wonder what happened to "A" cells, not to mention B's.)

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Hmmm, your right about the IR port. I am gonna e-mail the company to see if it is Visor compatable.

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It's not. They may make one in the future.

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I saw one of those things in a franklin planne store in the mall one day an then never saw one again. It looks like a great idea to me. Never again would I carry 1000's of sheets of paper in my binders for school, though that would require me to buy the 8mb SB.

In doing some more reading it says that if you have multimail installed it takes 640k. Besides AvantGo or e-books, that has got to be one of the largest programs made for Palms. And then you also have to store the text.
BEN

[Edited by BEN on 09-11-2000 at 04:24 PM]

Registered: Mar 2000
Location: alexandria, virginia, usa
Posts: 4

Instant Messaging by Ecrio for Handhelds

Attached is artilce from C-Net News. Would someone please e-mail me or post how to put a link to web site in messages. I am a newbie and would like to know how to do this. Thanks.

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Start-up offers instant messaging on the go
By Paul Festa and Stephanie Miles
Staff Writers, CNET News.com
September 7, 2000, 10:25 a.m. PT
Two of the hottest technology trends of the past year--instant messaging and handheld computers--are coming together.

Start-up Ecrio today will demonstrate instant messaging software that uses handwriting recognition and will work on handheld computers from Palm and Handspring, as well as on Microsoft Pocket PC devices and Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)-enabled cell phones.


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The company will demonstrate the software at the DemoMobile 2000 conference in Pasadena, Calif.

Ecrio's system, called Rich Instant Messaging Platform, tailors messages according to the destination device's display and bandwidth capabilities. Ecrio contact lists, called by some instant messaging systems "buddy lists," let people know what type of device their contacts are using.

The company plans to strike deals with wireless carriers, Internet service providers and Web portals that would offer its technology to customers as a software download. For the system to work, the sender, recipient and instant messaging service would have to have Ecrio's system software.

Ecrio chief executive Nagesh Challa said negotiations with service providers are under way, but he declined to say with whom. And, as might be expected in the insular instant messaging world, Ecrio's software does not interoperate with other messaging systems, such as AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, MSN Messenger or Yahoo Messenger.

Ecrio's demonstration comes as the Internet's key players in content, services, hardware and software begin to tackle instant messaging for handhelds and other wireless devices. Ecrio will face competition from some of the major players in the device business, including AOL, Yahoo, Palm and Microsoft, which are all looking to bring together two of the most popular emerging technologies.


13 messages
Why text messaging on a phone?
Why Text Messageing on a Voice Device? Why-rless

Agree with WhizKid ie; Yahoo IM dcrellim

There are several IM clients for PocketPC already... WhizkiD

a definite necessity

instant messaging on the go ... It's called a cell phone Orkel


More commentary


Even these major companies face significant technical and marketing challenges as they attempt to bring these products to market, however. With the exception of Research in Motion's (RIM) BlackBerry two-way pager and wireless personal digital assistant (PDA), no handheld device on the market comes equipped with the always-on Internet access that instant messaging requires.

Palm to date has offered Internet access only through its Palm VII, which has been plagued by slow and intermittent connections, and through add-on modems for its older devices. Similarly, Microsoft offers Internet access only through add-on modems or cell phone connections on its Pocket PC PDAs.

Further, these devices do not come with usable keyboards. Data entry in general is widely acknowledged to be a looming trouble spot as handhelds become more popular as a means of connecting to the Internet. Handwriting recognition is still seen as difficult to use, and software keyboards--which are used to augment handwriting recognition--are considered unwieldy.

Competing technology designed for specific Palm or Microsoft-based devices is in the works. Palm already offers wireless Internet messaging software that works with its Palm VII series devices. Ecrio is focusing on making its instant messaging product interoperable with a wide variety of hardware, according to the company.

"Using our messaging system, you can write on the screen of a PalmPilot, draw pictures and send business cards," Challa said. "We're looking at how to make it more user-friendly, more device-agnostic and more data-type agnostic."

Interoperability may give Ecrio a competitive edge, but Palm dominates the market for handheld devices, rendering interoperability a secondary concern for many people. Palm controls about 60 percent global market share, according to market researcher International Data Corp., and about three-quarters of the domestic handheld market.

Yahoo already has laid plans to offer its instant messaging software on Palm-based devices. Earlier this week, America Online said it would make its market-leading AOL Instant Messenger system available to some Palm users through a deal with OmniSky.

Palm has scrambled to emulate challenger RIM, which offers always-on Internet connectivity--a key to support for instant messaging.

In announcing its merger with Software.com last month, Phone.com cited wireless instant messaging as one of the potential fruits of the alliance.

Funded by angel investors and based in Cupertino, Calif., Ecrio has been at work on the instant messaging software since its launch a year and a half ago. The company already makes software for a product called SmartPad, marketed by Seiko Instruments, that lets people write on paper and input that data into a Palm.

Challa described SmartPad as an intermediate step on the way to the instant messaging software.

Ecrio lets service providers add the option of inserting animated messages using its Animink technology.








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Registered: Jan 2000
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Posts: 391

It's just a sketch pad. It doesn't do handwriting recognition or anything... I'm sure it's a big seller in Japan where writing is so graphical but I couldn't imagine using one.

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quote:

---

Originally posted by Tom LaPrise
AAAA's do exist. I guess as things got smaller, batteries had to also. (I just wonder what happened to "A" cells, not to mention B's.)

---

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Re: Instant Messaging by Ecrio for Handhelds

quote:

---

Originally posted by drewhat
Attached is artilce from C-Net News.

---

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