New in at TotalPDA, Acer’s latest addition to their handheld product line - the Acer C530 - provides a multi-functional all-in-one GPS PDA solution in a sleek and lightweight form factor. Featuring a top of the range PDA specification combined with the latest GPS technology, the C530 perfect for the mobile professional.

Operating on the latest Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system, and with the full MS Office suite, the C530 is perfect for synchronising important documents. Also featuring full connectivity options in the form of Bluetooth and WiFi, it’s perfect for those moments where you are caught without your sync cable.
continue reading "Acer Introduce New C530 GPS PDA"

HTC have finally released the much anticipated HTC TyTN II (aka HTC 4550 or HTC Kaiser). It seems that the during the development of this unit, HTC were determined to pack in every feature developed to date, bar none, and have come up trumps with this amazing device.

Do you want full PDA functionality with the complete Windows Mobile® 6 Professional suite? You’ve got it. How about a fully connected Quad band mobile phone sporting Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi, 3.5G HSDPA connectivity delivering file download speeds up to nine times faster than 3G. Yup! Did you need a 3 megapixel CMOS camera with autofocus capability? It has that too. And if you were worried about losing your way on holiday, or for that important business meeting, the Kaiser also has a fully integrated GPS receiver, plus a taster version of TomTom navigator (which includes the TomTom software, but requires that you purchase the maps for your region).
continue reading "HTC Kaiser - TyTN II – The King of PDA Phones?"

The IT-Observer has printed a long-ish release from Pointsec Security on information security. The key to safe (in terms of data security) device disposal appears to be: encrypt, encrypt, encrypt.

The Companies Act in the UK, and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the US (which a growing number of UK organisations, especially those that trade with the US, are implementing) mandate that high levels of security and compliance are introduced in companies both large and small.

Despite this, recent research has shown that 55 per cent of mobile devices in active use by UK organisations are unprotected.

Three quarters of respondents in the DTI Information Security Breaches Survey of 2006 stated that the theft of a laptop or mobile devices had been their worst security incident - proving extremely problematic, not just in terms of reconfiguring their systems, but the unknown long-term use of the data and public perception of trust.

On thinking about it, this is so simple I can’t believe I didn’t think of it first. Then again, I can be kind of old school. The Smart PDA has an article on turning your smartphone or PDA into a ‘portable computer’. What the author means is using your smartphone or PDA much like some people use flash drives — those that store mobile versions of most-used applications, allowing the user to work on documents at any desktop or laptop, completely eliminating the need to synchronise multiple document versions.

What you’ll need is an application that tricks the computer you’ve connected your device to (via USB) into treating your device’s memory card as a separate drive (without synchronising), and another application that launches software stored on your device’s memory card.

This is a brilliant idea, provided you’re not one of those people who loses or changes their mobile devices easily!

TotalPDA does not vouch for this software in any way.

Microsoft are to announce the new Windows Mobile 6 platform at next week’s 3GSM trade show in Barcelona, although devices with the new system aren’t expected to ship until spring. There will be three versions — Windows Mobile Professional for Pocket PC (touchscreens), Windows Mobile Standard for smartphones (non-touchscreen) and Windows Mobile Classic (for PDAs without integrated phones).

Windows Mobile 6 is expected to be backwards-compatible with version 5 software, and the article adds another tidbit. Although there won’t be a VoIP application coming standard with Windows Mobile 6, the system will be able to handle VoIP telephony if network carriers / device makers decide to add such support.

TowerGroup predict that cyber-criminals and identity thieves will be focusing on mobile phone banking this year. According to them,

“Over 200 mobile viruses have already been identified, a number that is doubling nearly every six months.”

They note that the current mobile commerce options offered by the financial services industry are not robust enough when it comes to security. More people are using their handhelds for financial services and other mobile commerce functions, and so “… the mobile commerce industry beyond financial services players must step up to take more aggressive and immediate action to circumvent the potential of fraud and theft.”

It’s a bit worrying when a Microsoft engineer starts an article about mobile security with

“Security” and “mobile application development” rarely appear in the same sentence.

Never fear, it’s just his way of getting your attention. The convenience factor of handhelds makes the application of robust security procedures more than a little difficult. However, it should always be noted that a handheld is a computer, just like your desktop or laptop, and we all know what chaos ensues when an employee loses a laptop!

As author Marcus Perryman notes,

User interface design is very tricky for the restricted screen real-estate and the limited input of a numeric keypad. It’s important to get the balance right between the amount of information displayed and the number of key presses needed to access data. Passwords are an integral part of this challenge. Making users enter a 10 digit alpha numeric password every 30 seconds might mean the corporate security officer gets a good night of sleep, but it’s likely to make users simply switch the device off and use pen and paper. Plus there is always the risk of users taping the password to the back of the device (I’ve seen it happen!).

In these circumstances, the trade off might consist of removing some restricted data from the mobile application in order to allow for a shorter password. Or, consider a two stage lock in which the user is required to enter the full password at less frequent intervals and a short PIN number to confirm the user identity at more frequent intervals. Biometrics are available for some devices, and other two factor solutions such as a smart card or card swipe can also simplify user input.

Windows Mobile does provide applications for developers to write secure mobile applications — Cryptography Application Programming Interface (CAPI) and Data Protection Application Programming Interface (DPAPI). So, if you’re a business user, make sure that the applications you download contain the necessary security precautions!

One range of PDAs that uses biometric security is the HP iPAQ 2700 series.

If yuo plan to be in Hong Kong some time soon, the government’s transport department has announced a six-month trial of a free service making the department’s CCTV traffic coverage available to PDAs with 3G. Anyone who’s ever been to Hong Kong knows how bad the traffic can be, so this would be an extremely valuable service.

A couple of years ago I would’ve scoffed at the idea of downloading a portion of the World Wide Web and keeping it for later. These days, when my smartphone takes a 2GB storage card, downloading a 5MB programme and a 50-plus MB ‘web pack’ doesn’t seem so silly after all.

Webaroo is a company that does just that (their latest version is 1.3). I think it’s a brilliant idea (though, judging by the comments on the mini-review on TechCrunch, not new). Most of us don’t always need the absolute latest information, and if we’re thinking of doing some offline browsing, it’s going to be in a situation when Internet access is either non-existent, patchy or prohibitively expensive.

In the UK, for example, there are Wi-Fi hotspots all over the place, but they are’t exactly cheap to access, and most of them aren’t secure, so I won’t want to be doing anything involving passwords and accounts anyway, i.e. I will be doing aimless surfing and news reading. If I was waiting to meet someone at a coffee shop and I had a web pack on my phone to read — say Asian news — I could, for free.

At the moment, they only support Windows Mobile 2003, 5.0 and Pocket PC phones. To install Webaroo on your desktop or laptop, you’ll need to be running Windows XP SP1 or 2000 SP4. So it’s quite limited, but I presume they are working on expanding their market.

TotalPDA does not vouch for this software in any way.

The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft has announced the COMPASS 2008, a GPS-enabled PDA that has been designed for use during the Olympic Games in Beijing in, you guessed it, 2008. The device speaks and writes in Mandarin to make sure you don’t get any surprises while trying to get around and eat in China, and has already been successfully tested in the capital city.

Shop assistants and taxi drivers are reportedly ‘enthusiastic’ about the system, as I imagine they would be in comparison to dealing with mime / increasingly desperate gesticulations while listening to what is effectively gobbledygook.

(Disclaimer: Your writer has lived in China, and has borne witness to abovementioned mimes and gesticulations. With great amusement.)

Via The Raw Feed.