The device is 9″ by 1″, although the center section is slightly thicker. I can’t find a video of the device in use, but my guess is that you hold it by the center part while the rest of the PEG moves back and forth based on your motion. Tremont Electric, the company behind PEG says that you can also strap the unit to your arm or leg. The PEG connects to mobile devices through a USB 2.0 cable, but the company plans to sell adapter tips for devices that use non-standard connectors.

You can’t get a PEG just yet, but the company is taking names and e-mail addresses for pre-orders. The Personal Energy Generator looks to have a pre-order price of $148, so I wouldn’t consider this a cheaper alternative than paying for electricity. However, that’s not my goal here — I’m simply looking to reduce my power demands a little at time. No matter how miniscule the power savings, I’m after it.

The HD2 is looking to be the WinMo phone to beat with the best hardware configuration currently available. The Snapdragon processor running at 1 GHz wrapped in a casing that is thin and light start the magic. The large display coupled with the first WinMo-powered capacitive digitizer round out the offering, and make it easy to understand why enthusiasts find the HD2 to be the phone of the hour. An extensive review of the HD2 at Mobility Minded covers every aspect of the phone, and is a must-read for anyone trying to understand why the phone has tech enthusiasts buzzing.

The folks at Modaco understand that some folks have to see things for themselves and have published an extensive video demonstration of the HD2. You’ll need to set aside a full 44 minutes to watch the whole thing, but the video covers every aspect of the phone, including the new HTC Sense interface that drives the HD2. The video clearly demonstrates that HTC has made complete operation of the phone finger-friendly, something they had to do to make Windows Mobile 6.5 work with that capacitive digitizer. No stylus is required to use this bad boy thanks to HTC Sense.

• Fuze Meeting: Share everything you see with everyone in high definition, anywhere on any device.

At the HD2 launch this week, CEO Peter Chou let slip that the company is “carefully looking into [the netbook] category and how it can be part of that.” He went on to state that HTC would not be happy making a “me too” netbook, instead they would be looking to add extra value to such a product.

HTC is no stranger to the special, small notebook market. Their HTC Shift was one of the most innovative such notebooks, and it was released almost two years ago. The inability of low-performance components to run Windows Vista adequately, coupled with a high price tag, doomed the Shift to market failure. If you recall it had a dual processor setup that ran Windows Mobile alongside Vista. Could we see a HTC netbook running both Windows 7 and Android in the cards?

In a side-by-side comparison, one could argue that pics from the iPhone 3GS look better than those from a Droid. That doesn’t mean you can’t make the Droid photos a little better. Adobe released a mobile Photoshop app for the iPhone a few weeks back, and the same title hits the Android Market today. The free software is limiting in terms of what picture qualities you can change, but I find myself using it on most of my pics. In fact, just yesterday I tweaked this little number using Photoshop for iPhone.

Harvesting the feed corn

What I like about the app is how simple it is. You just choose what function you want and then slide your finger left to right for the adjustment. You can save the photo locally or save and upload to Photoshop.com where you have 2 GB of free storage.

Image Credit: mobile.163.com

If you had any doubts about Dell’s Mini 3iX coming to AT&T in 2010, the FCC is here to dispel them. Unwired View says the FCC has tested the device with the typical confidentiality clauses in place, so there are no new device pics to peep unless you like looking at profiles and labels. The confidentiality on photos and the user manual expires on April 21, 2010, however that doesn’t mean the device might be available before then. In fact, I’d expect we see it as a working prototype at January’s Consumer Electronics Show. Probably the most interesting tidbit in what’s publicly available are the tested frequencies, which do jive with AT&T’s network for both voice and HDPA data.

I still think my Dell Axim was a great PDA back in the day — I found it well-designed and built solidly. I’m expecting the same from a Dell Android device. Word on the street is that the Mini 3iX will be the same as the Mini 3i found in China (shown above), but with the addition of Wi-Fi and 3G.

I noticed the Google Docs function when the sync feature launched, but it didn’t hit me that it might be useful. And it is useful when you need to get at your bookmarks in the sky — as long as you can get to your Google Docs, you can grab your favorite bookmarks and import them to nearly any browser. Here’s how:

1. Log in to Google Docs and look for your Google Chrome folder.

2. Select the folders or subfolders you want to get at. In my case, I selected the Bookmark Bar folder, which will grab all of the contents within it.

3. Once you’ve selected the folder, choose More Actions, Export. Leave all of the default settings and continue. Google will zip the contents and your computer should automatically download the compressed file called bookmarks.html.

4. Now that you have all of your Chrome bookmarks from the cloud, simply import the bookmarks.html file in your browser. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera and most other browsers support HTML importing of bookmarks. Here’s my end result in Safari.

Of course, this is just a one-way deal — you’re not actually synchronizing bookmarks back-and-forth between Chrome and another browser. But it can be handy if you’re on a different device that’s not running Chrome and need to get at those bookmarks.

Could the six-hour runtime of a netbook go to 36 hours in the future? It sounds possible based on recent ionic battery projects. Battery technologies simply haven’t undergone a major change in years, so most of our runtime gains have come through more power efficient hardware. But if I’m reading the news right, ionic liquid powered batteries might be the breakthrough to change that. According to Cody Friesen, a professor of materials science at Arizona State and founder of Fluidic Energy:

“[A] metal-air battery using an ionic liquid as its electrolyte not only functions significantly longer–because drying out is no longer a problem–but it also gets a big boost in energy density. “These liquids have electrochemical stability windows of up to five volts, so it allows you to go to much more energy-dense metals than zinc.” He says his research team will target energy densities of at least 900 watt-hours per kilogram and up to 1,600 watt-hours per kilogram in the DOE-funded project.”

As I see it, this technology is really geared for electric vehicles with large batteries. But I could envision this technology making its way down to notebook batteries. And if it did, you could “cram” more energy in a battery without increasing the size and weight.

Some quick math using the project’s median target shows why I’m hoping this comes to pass. If a 1 kilogram / 35.5 ounce ionic battery can hold 1250 Whr of juice, that’s about 125 Whr per 0.1 kilograms / 3.5 ounces. That works out to an energy density of 35.7 Whr per ounce of battery weight. The battery of my Toshiba NB205 battery weighs 11 ounces, so an ionic battery of similar weight could offer 392 Whr as opposed to the 63 Whr my current battery offers. I’m all for more efficient electric cars, but the ability to run my netbook for nearly a week of work time is pretty appealing too.

Likes

• Display — the screen is brilliant and very resolute. It is a joy web browsing on the Droid.
• Build quality — the phone is solid in the hand and is the best built Android phone I’ve tried so far. The slider works perfectly, and feels like it will stand up to the tests of the road warrior. The Droid feels a bit heavier than expected as a result of the solid metal build. It is impressive how thin the phone is considering it has the sliding keyboard.
• Android 2.0 — this new version of Android is more polished and fits the Droid well. It’s not a huge jump from version 1.6, but it’s decent.
• Call quality — I have been pleased with the quality of audio calls. There have been no issues of any kind.
• Web browsing – the Android browser works really well on the large screen of the Droid. It is fluid to manipulate with the finger, and the double-tap method of column zooming makes up for the lack of pinch and zoom.
• On-screen keyboards — the soft keyboards in Android 2.0 work well in both portrait and landscape. I prefer on-screen keyboards over physical ones, and the Droid versions work really well. The predictive text and auto-correction work very well.
• Camera — the 5 MP camera on the Droid can take good pictures, if I am patient with it. The flash is a welcome feature, and the video recording is very nice.
• Google Maps Navigation — this is fantastically useful and would be even more so with the Droid car dock which I don’t have.

Dislikes

• Keyboard — the physical keyboard is better than no keyboard, but it will take getting used to it. The keys are very flat and it is easy to make typos while using it. The single biggest problem with this keyboard is how there is no predictive text nor auto-correction while using it, even though they exist for the on-screen keyboard. Including it with the real keyboard would have offset the typing difficulty a great deal.
• Camera — the slow operation of the still camera has it appearing on the list of dislikes, even though the video camera is something I like. It is possible to take pretty decent stills with the Droid, but the slow operation and non-intuitive controls usually require taking several photos to get one just right.
• Plain home screen – I was spoiled by the great HTC Hero widgets due to the Sense interface, and the Droid seems very plain without good widgets. There are a lot of widgets available in the Android Market, but it requires searching through them to get ones that I like. The Droid home screen only has a few application icons on it as it ships, and it needs some additional functionality out of the box. Only having the standard three home screens that Android provides is not a liability compared to the seven on the Hero, as there are no cool widgets to put there anyway.
• Power cord – this seems nitpicky but the USB charging cord that comes with the Droid is so short to almost be unusable. I have an outlet on the floor, just inches from the corner of my desk, and the cord will barely reach the corner of the desktop for charging. The Droid almost perches on the edge of the desk as a result.

That’s the extend of my evaluation so far, but I will continue to use it and share that experience. I’ll also be shooting some video soon of the Droid in action. My current feeling is that the Droid is the best phone currently available on the Verizon network. If I had an upgrade available I would consider getting a Droid. I probably wouldn’t pick one up at full price.

HOSTS: James Kendrick (Houston), Matthew Miller (Seattle) and Kevin C. Tofel (Philadelphia)

TOPICS:

Motorola Droid in the house!
Droid or Droid Eris?
Tethering for Droid is $30, but gives you another 5 GB
HTC HD2 coming soon. Windows Mobile on Snapdragon with a capacitive display
Microsoft names a Windows Mobile distribution partner
Kevin’s triple-booting netbook is going to explode: XP, 7 and Moblin
RIM gains marketshare — are integrated phones doing better than licensed ones?

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Image Credit: zol.com.cn

Is the venerable ThinkPad name getting slapped on a large netbook/ultra-light notebook? All signs appear to be yes, although many of them are speculation and rumor. Most of these thoughts are coming from ThinkPadToday which states that Jan. 5, 2010 is the date we’ll see the ThinkPad X100e with these potential specs:

• 1.6 GHz AMD Athlon Neo or 1.4 GHz Intel CULV
• 12.1-inch display at 1280 x 800
• 3 GB of RAM
• Integrated mobile broadband options
• Corresponding Ultrabase

With Lenovo’s current IdeaPad line, I’d expect such a device to cost north of $600, if it does indeed appear. I’d chalk this one up to complete rumor except, there have been a fair number of photos floating around. With the legendary ThinkPad keyboards, I’m sure many would like to see this rumor come true.

The one thing I’m not yet clear on is if the extra $30 a month is a plan feature or not. If it’s a feature, you should be able to add and remove it at any point during your contract. I used to do just that with my old XV6700 on Verizon back in the day. My expectation — hope, really — is that this is how it will work. I’m not sure I’d want to commit to the extra $30 for the length of my contract, but that’s just me. Oh and no truth to the rumor about the keyboard blanks — they’re not used to start and stop the tethering.

“Microsoft is pleased to announce Bsquare as the first distributor for the Mobile Indirect Channel initiative. Microsoft continues to enrich and expand its Windows Mobile ecosystem and build upon the stability, reliability, performance and richness of Windows Mobile,” said Daren Mancini, general manager in the OEM division at Microsoft. “As developers and OEMs expand the number of mobile applications, services and devices, Microsoft is taking a new approach to sell and support Windows Mobile to a broader base of both consumer- and enterprise-focused Windows Mobile customers. Bsquare is uniquely positioned to leverage its deep knowledge of the Windows Mobile operating system, ecosystem and marketplace and serve the broader base of customers with its consultative approach.”

It is too early to gauge the implications of the agreement, but it may indicate Microsoft is positioning itself to produce Windows phone hardware directly. Having an outside company handling the software platform would give Microsoft a buffer from potential partner complaints of competing with licensees. Microsoft has not stated they will produce phone hardware, but it has been rumored for some time.

The full press release is after the jump.

Bsquare named first distributor for new Windows Mobile channel strategy

Bellevue, Wash., Nov. 5, 2009 – BSQUARE Corporation, the leading software solutions provider to the global embedded device community, today announced that it has signed an agreement with Microsoft Corp. under which Bsquare will be the first company to distribute Windows Mobile software and mobility applications internationally.

Bsquare will begin supporting approximately 30 select Windows Mobile partners with licensing, technical support and go-to-market activities as their current direct agreements with Microsoft end. Bsquare will offer personalized account management and highly-responsive technical support to ensure these Windows Mobile OEMs are successful with current Windows Mobile products.

“Microsoft is pleased to announce Bsquare as the first distributor for the Mobile Indirect Channel initiative. Microsoft continues to enrich and expand its Windows Mobile ecosystem and build upon the stability, reliability, performance and richness of Windows Mobile,” said Daren Mancini, general manager in the OEM division at Microsoft. “As developers and OEMs expand the number of mobile applications, services and devices, Microsoft is taking a new approach to sell and support Windows Mobile to a broader base of both consumer- and enterprise-focused Windows Mobile customers. Bsquare is uniquely positioned to leverage its deep knowledge of the Windows Mobile operating system, ecosystem and marketplace and serve the broader base of customers with its consultative approach.”

“Mobility solutions are one of the most sought after technologies in the workplace today,” according to Philippe Winthrop, director of enterprise mobility at Strategy Analytics. “Given the opportunity for improved flexibility and performance of a workforce, mobile platforms that can support the needs of both knowledge works and field/fleet service professionals provide valued scalability to IT and line of business managers.  Growth in this market will only accelerate as markets continue to exit this global recession.”

Bsquare will work closely with Microsoft to take the Windows Mobile platform to a broad set of mobility OEMs and operators worldwide.  Bsquare will enable new mobility OEMs to get to market more quickly with its TestQuest automated testing products customized for Windows Mobile devices. Bsquare also will provide Windows Mobile reference designs and board support packages in partnership with leading silicon vendors, communication stacks, technical support, training, engineering services and other value-add products to the broad base of Windows Mobile customers.

“Being named Microsoft’s first Windows Mobile distribution partner is a significant milestone for Bsquare. Windows Mobile is the only mobile operating system that enables solution providers to offer seamless integration of applications and connectivity for device users to enterprise business centers making it the obvious choice not only for handsets but also for ruggedized devices such as data collection terminals or telematics devices,” said Brian Crowley, Bsquare’s president and CEO. “We anticipate working with new and existing Windows Mobile OEMs and moving them to market quickly with our experience in all phases of Windows Mobile development and by offering our breadth partners support throughout their development cycles.”

Bsquare will distribute Windows Mobile software internationally including Windows Mobile 6.5, the latest version of Microsoft’s mobile software launched October 6, 2009.  New Bsquare customers will include both handset manufacturers developing Windows® phones for consumers and rugged device manufacturers shipping data collection terminals to businesses and other OEMs.

Bsquare currently distributes Windows Embedded licenses in North America and offers system integration services at 10 development centers located in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Taiwan, China and India.  During the last 12 months Bsquare has worked on service engagements with 15 unique Windows Mobile customers on projects such as Windows Mobile porting, application development, quality assurance testing and LTK (Logo Test Kit) testing preparation.

For more information about Windows Mobile licensing and to take advantage of special training offers, visit www.bsquare.com/windowsmobile

About Bsquare

Bsquare is an industry leader with a proven track record in providing engineering services and production-ready software products for the smart device market.  Since 1994, Bsquare has provided device manufacturers with software solutions for personal navigation devices, point-of-sale terminals, handheld data terminals, smart phones and many other device categories allowing them to get to market more quickly and cost effectively.

For more information visit www.bsquare.com.

It is only logical, but we should point out that the Intel Wi-Fi components must support this capability. Intel’s latest components seem to support it just fine once the proper drivers are installed. You can see the virtual network connection appear once everything is in place. Just follow the simple three-step process outlined in the link above to get a virtual router up and running.

Image courtesy I started something

Software stuff

One of the writing projects I am working on required me to refer to some material that I have in eReader format. I wasn’t aware of it but there is a Mac version of eReader Pro so I installed it on the MacBook. I usually only run eReader on my phones, or occasionally on a slate PC. The Mac version provided the best way for me to refer to the material while working on my project and it was good to find this version existed. I must say it’s a “no-frills” version and lacks a lot of features found on the phone versions, but it was better than nothing.

Another program I use heavily was updated this week and I jumped on the upgrade. Parallels Desktop 5 brought tighter integration with both Snow Leopard and Windows 7. I’ve only used it for a day but I am impressed with the improvement over PD4. This new version fully supports the Win7 Aero interface, and while that might seem to be just a visual improvement, it actually adds functionality. Aero Peek works well, and even the Flip 3D function works.

The most impressive addition is in the performance boost that I’m seeing on the MacBook while running Windows 7. It appears that PD5 uses the integrated video memory better than the old version, and that makes Windows 7 run as fast on the Mac as it does on other “real” Windows notebooks that I use. The Crystal window mode is flat-out awesome, bringing Windows 7 seamlessly to the OS X desktop. It’s downright freaky to see Internet Explorer running on the Mac desktop, complete with the gray Mac theme.

Clearing the decks

The holidays are rushing at us already, and it’s the time of year I take a look at all the gear in Mobile Tech Manor and think about getting rid of some of it. It’s my way to get holiday gift-giving cash, while making room for the cool gear I’ll no doubt buy next year. It was harder this year than in years past to decide what to part with, but I finally settled on selling a couple of gadgets.

First up, I am selling the Viliv S5 UMPC. It is the nice 5-inch UMPC that runs Windows XP and is a quite capable handheld system. This is the S5 that has appeared on the site numerous times, and it is in perfect condition. I am selling the S5 and all of the accessories that came with it:

• Viliv S5 UMPC- Windows XP, 1 GB RAM, 60 GB HDD, 5-inch touchscreen
• 2nd battery (~5 hours life each battery)
• Battery charger w/ 2nd power adapter
• Carrying case w/ integrated stand
• Car kit- car charger, mounting bracket

The other gadget I am going to part with is the HP Mini 1000 netbook. This was originally the Mini Mi version with Linux, but I have installed Windows 7 on it. I do not have the Linux restore media, but I think it can be downloaded if desired. I also have purchased an extended battery for it so the whole kit is:

• HP Mini 1000- Windows 7, 10-inch screen, 1 GB RAM, 16GB SSD, 4 GB SD memory for extra storage, standard battery, power adapter
• Extended battery

If you are interested in either of these systems, drop me an email (click on my cartoon head in the sidebar) and make an offer. I will give someone a decent deal on each of them, but please, only serious offers.

Verizon Droid

The Droid only showed up late yesterday so I need to spend more time with it before sharing any real details. My first impressions:

Pros

• Great screen
• Solid build quality
• Android 2.0
• Google Maps Navigation

Cons

• Physical keyboard- better than none but not great
• Weight- a little heavier than expected
• Short power cable- can barely reach from floor to edge of desk
• Camera operation is slow

I’ll have much more detail and some video to share shortly, so this will have to do for now.

e-Book of the week

I didn’t have a lot of free time for reading, sadly, but I did read an early novel by Stephen King. Roadwork is the story that involves road expansion, imminent domain and the madness it triggers in one man. It is a good story, albeit disturbing to experience, which shows it to be well written.

Wrap-up

That’s all the time I have so I hope you get something to take away from this account. Until next week, take care of yourself.

Palm adding more Mojo with Ares (PC World) — We’ve only seen 300 or so apps for webOS so far. Palm isn’t taking submissions from all developers yet, but they are trying to make it even easier to develop for webOS with Ares. This new development tool appears completely web-based, so there’s no SDK to learn. From the description of a demo, it conceptually sounds like Visual Basic — drag-and-drop tools with built-in functionality to use. Hopefully, Ares pulls in more developers for webOS.

Sprint holding pat on ETF (PhoneScoop) — Verizon might be upping their early termination fees on “advanced devices” to $350 starting next week, but Sprint’s staying put on theirs. Is that a competitive advantage? Probably not to most consumers, but still good to know.

Slacker now playing on Android (CNET) — Music streaming on Android gets better today now that Slacker supports Google’s mobile operating system. You’ll be able to use a Now Playing widget on your home screen with the Android version. Check for it in the Market… unless you buy a Droid. Verizon handset owners will find it in the Verizon channel in the Market.