Handheld PCs

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About Diarist2 (and a little comparison to u*Blog):

Since my test post using Diarist2 (https://hindesite.wordpress.com/2007/06/05/posting-to-wordpress-using-diarist2/) has generated a surprising (but low) amount of traffic via Google, I thought it would be helpful to include a link to the developer. So here it is: http://www.kevdaly.co.nz/

The software itself is available at http://www.kevdaly.co.nz/Software/Blogging/Diarist.aspx and is usually referred to as Diarist 2 – diarist by itself is a fairly useless search term.

Kevin has done a great job with this software, it is really quite easy to use, does the basics, and doesn’t try to be too clever. Installation and setup is straightforward, and it runs just fine on my H5450 iPAQ. It is good for a quick post to a blog, but it can’t edit (or even see) existing posts. You can update posts previously written using Diarist, though, but I think it does this blind, so any changes made using anything other than Diarist will be lost.

You can upload images, and some simple formatting is also available.

The hardest part was finding the XML-RPC path for WordPress.com; it is easy when you know how to find it (and when you know WordPress works fine using the metaweblog api). The path is: http://yourblogaddress.wordpress.com/xmlrpc.php. Of course!

No support for Blogger (pity, although I don’t use Blogger myself much these days I still have a couple of blogs there and admin one other) so I guess emailing direct to Blogger is an alternative there.

If you’ve used u*Blog on Palm, Diarist is very similar and more capable. Setting up u*Blog is extremely confusing, with the requirement to specify host and xml-rpc path exactly, with no explanation, error messages or guides to the syntax, whereas Diarist is relatively straightforward. To digress, the requirement for u*Blog is that the Host field is “yourblogaddress.wordpress.com” – without the leading http:// – and the XML-RPC Path must be given as /xmlrpc.php – with a leading slash. Get either of those wrong (and if you’ve never used u*blog before, you will), and you won’t be posting anywhere, you won’t even get a helpful error message to help you.

That aside, u*Blog is very good software, though it hasn’t been updated for a long time and doesn’t work with the new Blogger. If you are into Palm, you can get it from here.

One gotcha with Diarist, though, is that editing and updating a post will change the post date and time to that of the update; this isn’t what I would expect, and is generally different to how most blogs deal with this issue.

Otherwise, it is all good!

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Posting to WordPress using Diarist2

This looks like excellent software – I’ve been somewhat surprised at the lack of decent software for pocketpc (compared to Palm).

I’ve used u*blog for posting while travelling, but this software certainly looks like it will do the trick for WordPress from a PPC.

[https://hindesite.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/capture0011.png]

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These Guys just don’t get it.

Samsung tries again with new ultralight PC: Scientific American

At the time of the Origami hype and the launch of the UMPC, I predicted that they would be a failure. I’ve used PDAs intensively for several years now, and I reckon I’ve got a pretty good idea of what I would want from a UMPC; and a cost of about NZ$2,000 isn’t one of those features.

Seems I was right:

“Samsung Electronics on Thursday unveiled an upgraded version of its ultra mobile personal computer (UMPC) in a move to boost disappointing sales.

Samsung, together with Intel and Microsoft launched the first UMPC, a very small portable personal computer, at last year’s CeBIT technology trade show as a third computer design alongside laptops and desktop computers.

“We targeted 100,000 units, but so far we didn’t reach that target yet,” Kyuho Uhm, Samsung’s vice president of strategic marketing told a news conference.

Ouch! Less than 100,000 units! There is no way this product will succeed, without sales, the price will be too high, and if the price is too high, there won’t be enough sales.

Samsung next year aims to sell 200,000 to 300,000 units of the new Q1 Ultra model which will be available in May for around 1200 euros or dollars.

Samsung said the keyboard, battery life, wireless connectivity and size had all been improved on the second generation model.

The device had also been given a higher quality screen as well as a GPS navigation chip, a mobile TV chip and two cameras.

H.S. Kim, chief of Samsungs computer business, told reporters at CeBIT that although first time users had no problem with the price of the UMPC, Samsung was thinking of introducing a low-cost version of the upgraded model.”

But the answer isn’t more features for the same price. I want something like the Nokia N800 with more memory and more grunt, able to use a fully featured web browser, with the media capabilities of TCMP on my T3; a 5+ hour battery life, wifi, BT, IR and a good screen.

I want to be able to use web based applications – these are both local (controlling my streaming media server) and remote (being able to access tools like InstaCalc, Google etc). I want to be able to view videos without having to sit in front of a TV or computer screen. I want to be able to read web pages offline, and pdfs and e-books at any time. I want to be able to view photos (not edit them!).

Something like a better Sony PSP at about the same price would be great.

The path that Samsung are heading down will be just as big a failure as the first model; the answer is not more features, but a lower price and easier to use product.