Mobile News: Oct 25, 2011

If the bird cut off the feet,

If wings are cut off, too,

This bird will die of boredom,

Because it will not be able to sit.

(Folklore)

Introduction

In my hands was full of "gentleman" a set of mobile users, consisting of Casio Cassiopeia E-100, and expansion cards: Casio Digital Camera JK-710DC, Xircom Compact Ethernet10, Xircom Compact Modem 56 GlobalAccess. All this allowed me to carry out extensive testing capabilities of this device. I took great interest in this work. About the hardware is already much has been written and the topic is not as interesting as the software for this device. Therefore, I shall in this paper to consider all aspects of the software for PsPC. This is my personal, biased opinion and you may not agree with him:).

Solid disappointment

Chasing the success of the Palm, Microsoft tried to make a similar device. And turned Palmsize PC. In the first minutes of dating, this unit makes me just an annoyance and a persistent feeling that something I do not understand. All that was good in Windows CE 2.0 for HPC, cruelly cut off in favor of fashion, only to PsPC was similar to the Palm. Now I understand why M $ went so bad case with PsPC. Sell machines without Internet browser, Word, Excel and other programs - is just silly. Windows CE - a powerful, file-oriented operating system and deprive the user free access to the files (no Explorer) - does not fit into the limits of decency. Some applications have access only to certain directories. Well at least that supplied the program Casio Menu, you can use to run various programs! The file manager is not enough! Producing apparatus that focuses on communication, without the browser program (the more so because he was present in Windows CE 2.0) - Top incompetence! No internet browser! Thing that I was most amused / saddened - is the lack of close buttons application. Can you imagine, to close the application you must do the following sequence: Start-> Settings-> System-> Tasks-> End Task! In the Palm - all understandable. OS can not multitask. When you call one-party applications - is automatically closed. But in a multitasking operating system is unacceptable! Simultaneous operation of multiple applications, especially Ethernet, performance drops dramatically. By the way, running applications do not appear on the TaskBar, therefore, to switch between them, you need to: Start-> Settings-> System-> Tasks-> Switch To! No Task Manager! I'm not talking about the absence of normal text and table editors! For many, this can become a big problem. In general, in his "factory" as PsPC is a "pathetic, pathetic spectacle - a nightmare!".

Designer DIY. System Program

"No, because it will not go!" - I decided, and began to carefully deal with PsPC. I want to say that I hold in respect of the following concepts: software should be free (F) or shareware (S). First of all, I needed a manager application that would allow us: to cause the application to switch between applications and close applications. The rest - to taste. Searching and trying several programs I found that I was completely happy with - ATmini Plus (F).

Well, now you need to find a file manager. It is desirable that he was dvuhokonny, type Explorer. I stopped at Tascal Explorer (F).

For optimal settings PDAs me very useful program Palm Tweak (F). It allows you to: associate file types with applications that enable / disable the animation of windows, set Scrollbar, making installation Software Input Panel; regulate Font cache size and much more.

Tech-c, continuing the conversation. To work is absolutely essential editor Registry. Did not have far to go - Tascal Regedit (F). Our choice!

Now, you need to deal with sound output volume control on the Taskbar. You can use the MS PowerToys for PsPC (F) or program MuteMe (F).

It remains to find something to edit the text and tables. Selecting table editor is small, and I would give preference to SpreadCE (F). With a text editor, the situation is very bad. A large number of Notepadov and no WYSIWYG editors. I took PocketNotepad (F).

Softonic

Courtesy of Michael Fadeev of Paragon and the company MakTsentr I was able to test the fully functional version Russifiers Paragon LEng v.2.1.30 prerelease and FiztehSoft CENAT 1.0. CENAT 1.0 - comes with all its MakTsentr PsPC. This version supports full Russification interface, support for Russian virtual keyboard. WIN1251 encoding is fully supported in Internet browser, and Inbox. Support for KOI8-R stated, but does not work correctly. The advantages include a great job of translating system messages and DLL (see the screenshots). The disadvantages - lack of complete shutdown of Russification interface during the installation and the inability to establish a program under Windows 2000 (I think, from a Windows NT 4.0, too).

Paragon LEng v.2.1.30 prerelease - completely rewritten new version of the LE for PsPC. This version supports full Russification interface, support for Russian virtual keyboard. WIN1251 encoding is fully supported in Internet browser, and Inbox. KOI8-R support is promised in the next version. From "Ping" was gone. Everything works fine. Check the duration of battery life with the established LEng (Lenguage Extender NEW Generation) I could not because of lack of time, but judging by everything, everything will be fine as it was applied a fundamentally different approach when writing programs. Possible joint work with the program handwriting - PenReader, but by the time of this writing, a new version of PenReader, unfortunately, was not ready. The advantages of LEng include the ability to disable the complete Russification of the interface at installation. The disadvantages are not as fully localized user interface (as it should?). By the way, we must pay tribute Paragon, found me and the other beta testers, bug when the full Russian localization missing some non-standard interface menu Start-> Programs-> Utility and Accessories, has been fixed for a couple of days!

Overall, both products are equal. In LEng little differently organized a "virtual" keyboard. If CENAT Keyboard replaces the standard on a Russian language, then LEng adds to existing input devices Russified keyboard. In CENAT have additional settings to the virtual keyboard on the motion of the stylus. But judging by the unconfirmed reports, the new version CENAT will not be soon, and proper support for KOI8-R, we hardly wait. With regard to LEng, then if the Paragon deliver on their promises to eliminate the deficiencies (who are often just promises: (), it will be a very good choice.

Connect! There, Connect!

To connect to a network I used the Xircom Compact Ethernet10. To board began working on the Casio E-100, must supply the drivers. To work on a dial-up lines to use a modem Xircom Compact Modem 56 GlobalAccess. He earned a fine without drivers. I prefer to work ONLINE, so deliberately do not consider AvantGo, although many also work with this program. Let's start with the internet browser. I liked two, iBrowserPlus (S) and Pocket browser (S). For myself, I chose the Pocket Browser. A page can be formatted as for the "big" PC, and especially for PsPC (optional Image Shrink).

Additionally, I installed an updated MS Network Client for Windows CE 2.11, to be able to connect to network resources using the Internet browser.

Configure Inbox to work with the POP3 and SMTP servers were very simple. Need to know the address. But the connection to MS Exchange required reading documentation. So, to connect to MS Exchange server needs to:

As the POP3 and SMTP server address serverovukazat Exchange;
User ID written in the format: Domain NT \ username / Mailbox Exchange (just the "slash" in different directions!)
As a password specifies the password for registration in the NT domain.

For normal operation, the network still need a News reader. Such programs are many, but we all have one drawback. All of them do not work with the Russian language. News Force (S) seemed to me the best choice.

Now I need the program to administer the various systems (computers and active equipment). I started with the simplest - telnet client. I believe that one of the best is vxHpc (S). The program supports a sufficient number of emulation (DEC VT52, VT100, VT101, VT102, VT220, VT320, VT420, Wang 2110A) and file transfer protocols (Kermit, Xmodem, Ymodem, Zmodem).

Ftp client for the role he was appointed Scotty FTP (S).

Now it is time the program Net Force (S), which includes a large number of tools: Network Information, Port Scanner, CharGen, Quote of the Day Service, Daytime Service, DNSLookup, Ping, IP Subnet Calculator, HTTP Fetch, Echo Client, Finger Client , Whois Client, TFTP Server, TFTP Client.

So, this is what is obtained: TFTP server can act as WWW, FTP - weak? No way! Flick of the wrist PsPC transformed into an anonymous FTP server using FtpSvr (F) and the WWW server, which will require CETWebServer (F).

Waiter, I have something for the remote control! Try VNCviewer (F)! VNC runs on a protocol for client-server technology. You can access computers on the basis of Win9x/NT/2000, Unix, Linux, OS / 2, MacOS, and others.

A barrel of honey

Since about that time I began to get pleasure from communication with the Casio Cassiopeia E-100 PsPC. Everything works quickly and well. The functions that I need now is. I began to study in detail the internal software of the PsPC. Has been a pleasant surprise that in the software on the ROM includes Visual Basic Runtime for Windows CE 2.11 and MFC211.DLL. These "heavy" programs often need to run applications. Very well that the E-100 comes with CardBackup. This program allows you to make a complete backup of PDA Compact Flash memory card. Actually, only with the help of this program I was able to quickly generate test Russifiers. Now it is time multimedia. Casio E-100 can be qualitatively play MP3 files, but Casio Audio Player, which is part of the software on CD ROM, a number of disadvantages (the main one being - the inability to work in the background) so I used the MS Windows Media Player for Palm-Size PCs (F). The user interface is built using skin-technology. In addition to MP3 files, this player can play myzyku format. WMA. To install skinov You can use the MS Windows Media Skin Chooser (F).

To play the video engineers and programmers have come up with Casio CASIO Movie Format -. CMF. Casio Video Player is part of the software on CD ROM. To play MPEG video (. MPG) had to use the PocketTV (F). Videos for PsPC in MPG and CMF can be found at PalmSizeMedia.

By the way, Casio Digital Camera JK-710DC besides 640x480 picture can record video in CMF! Camera - an interesting and useful thing, but art photographs with it do not work. But the spy himself may feel full! To view pictures and photos I took advantage of the program TGV (Tascal Graphic Viewer) (S). TGV allows you to view on a PDA file formats: BMP, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, TGA.

To read the book convenient to use the MobiPocket Reader (F), which gives the ability to read text format PDB / PRC, HTML and TXT. For the preparation of Russian texts I enjoyed the program eLib (F).

I almost forgot to tell about another program that allows you to turn in PsPC universalnay remote control that allows you to manage various ustroystvani (TV, video recorders, etc.). The program is called Palm Remote for Windows CE (S). I tried to control a TV Sharp - everything works.

Conclusion

Surely I have missed something (toys, PDF Reader and some other programs). For a full report of one week is clearly not enough, but thanks to this test I found for myself a few important points. First: PsPC quite suitable for normal operation and system administration. The second and most important thing: Microsoft has taken into account their errors and Pocket PC promises to be a really cool machine (built in IE, Explorer, Word, Excel and other applications) and as soon as it appears in our market - I will definitely buy it! I hope that the article would be useful to many beginners (and not only) users PsPC. The authors, translation:

Tale of the ugly duckling