Mobile Trends

As reported by Geekzone the annual spb pocketpc survey has been released.

Plenty of interesting trends in that information, but one that stood out for me was HP’s decline in the market to HTC based devices, HP’s decline has been 2004 = 57%, 2005 = 29%, 2006 = 17%. The other surprising information was the Dell Axim X51v is the most popular individual device.

Another interesting trend is using the device as a phone was the only functionality growth from 36% to 56% of people.

Would be interesting to see the exact numbers of the participants for the survey but still very interesting information.

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Locking my Palm Treo (sorry about the random calls)

I have been playing with the Palm Treo for a few weeks now and must say I really like this device. Its great to see another manufacturer take on board the Windows Mobile OS.

The only problem I have been having is that I have been randomly ringing people as I couldnt activate the keyguard … it wasnt that hard in fact it was under settings I just missed it on my way through. To manually lock it, it is option (white button lower left corner) and the off button. A big apology to those people that have received random calls from my pocket lately :).

The official launch of this device in Australia was meant to be yesterday but that has been postponed. I am sure I will post something for the next launch.

Techtalkblogs weakness thoughts

Techtalkblogs is definately a great resource to get a lot of interesting blog information channeled into a simple format but there is one problem I dont like and thats information I dont feel is relevant for me. I dont really care that somebody’s dog is sick and I am sore they dont care that I have just recently passed my masters.

So how to solve this ? I really dont know it would be good that I could ignore posts from particular people or particular categories for certain individuals. Obviously this would need a change in the techtalkblogs to allow particular views or find a newsreader that will give me that functionality.

What do you think ?

Robotics Olympics

I met Nic from Microsoft (Singapore) in the Gold Coast at the Robotics Olympics. I always love hanging out with people who are passionate about technology and there was plenty of those at this event.

We definately had fun watching the robotics in action, to get an idea of what this is all about check out his vidcast on his blog. Sorry about the shaky camera work nic 🙂

I think j3 will be working on getting an entry to singapore for next year … maybe even in the robot dance.

Completed My Masters Degree

Two years ago I made the decision to start my Master Degree with Charles Sturt and the IT Masters course. Having a new born child and of course running j3 has definately seen some interesting time conflicts.

Tonight I got the news that I have passed my last subject so I have now completed the masters degree. I really cant believe I have passed a university course, after my checked education history, it is a really great christmas present.

With tonight being christmas party, I no doubt will celebrate this with the team.

Microsoft Mobile Partner Conference (Seattle)

I am off to the Microsoft Mobile Partner Conference next month to catchup with the Redmond team. Some of the new features are pretty cool so cant wait till I can show the world.

I am hoping I can weasel over to the robotics guys at the same time and get some headsup on the stuff they are working on.

Robotic Olympics

Last week I popped up to the Gold Coast to check out the Robotic Olympics. It was great to sit and chat with some Microsoft guys (Dave Lemphers, Chuck Sterling, Nic Fillingham) and some ex-Microsoft Guys (Joel Pobar)

I was really impressed with the way the Korean and Japanese governments have got behind their kids, Korea actually booked a whole plane to get their students out here. It really put the Australian effort to shame.

We sat their stunned as these 10/11 year old kids where recompiling C++ code that was edited in notepad. I am guessing thats where the future of robotics will be for another generation.

We took some footage for MSDN Channel Nine so hopefully I will link to that soon.

Gold Coast User Group Tonight

I am heading over to the Gold Coast user group meeting tonight with Dave Lemphers, I am bring my robot along for some fun. Its always great to meet other people who are keen on technology.

Maybe even convert some people over to the world of mobility, embedded and robotics 🙂

SWMUG Christmas Party Aftermath

What a great night it was, we had organised a mystery bus tour which basically meant we started at Microsoft and had no idea where we were going. The end result was a lot of fun with little missions to make the night competative, we ended up trying to convince total strangers to join our tour for points. We also went ten pin bowling think 25 people two lanes, golf driving range and trivia questions.

It was back to Microsoft for Xbox, beer and pizza to unwind and have a chat. We also gave away two i-mate devices as part of the fun (thanks Microsoft) plus lots of other freebies including tshirts and other various items.

Bring on the new year and lots of more exciting events, would love to see you at the next one.

Mobile Live is well alive

This is definately cool … pop over to ideas.live.com and you can check live for your mobile device.  You can download the client from http://wls.live.com/ of which there is a windows mobile version and for those who dont have a windows mobile device your not left out there is also a J2ME client as well.

This definately will be handy so go and check it out.