jkOnTheRun Mobile Media Edition

jkonTheRun Video Geek Session- Fujitsu P1620, part 1

Download the full-quality, VGA 640 x 480 file here in .mp4 format. 92.5 MB

After many delays, the Fujitsu P1620 finally arrived at James' house. This morning we got to chatting about the differences in this refresh of the P1610. We went on and on so much about it, that we cut this one off at seven-and-a-half minutes. Hey, we realize you have other things to do than sit around and watch us geek out for a half-hour!

Part one offers up a general overview of the hardware as well as how quickly James got back into a smaller-screened touch-enabled Tablet PC. We hit upon some of the options that Fujitsu offers, cover the battery life expectations and discuss the touch sensitivity of the screen. Make sure you catch my interpretation of Palm rejection too. ;)

jkonTheRun video: add kinetic scrolling in Mac OS X

Download the full-quality, 640 x 480 .mp4 file here. 78 MB

Like that kinetic scrolling on the iPhone so much that you want it on your Mac? You'll definitely want to check out Smart Scroll X, a third-party application I read about on MacUser. The app is $19, but there's a free trial, which I took full advantage of to show you a short video demonstration. Smart Scroll X is easy to configure for a mouse, trackpad or keyboard and I like how you can reverse both the X- and Y-axis control. Even better is the Grab-and-scroll, a function similar to the Flicks navigation we Vista Tablet PC users have enjoyed.

I could see this coming in handy for folks that are tired of scrolling again and again in the page of an app since this works not just with Safari, but in native Cocoa apps on the Mac. It was a huge help to me earlier today in TextEdit for example. You can really get around fast with this software. Oh, and sorry in advance if I get you sea-sick with all the scrolling in this vid!

jkonTheRun video: first look at the AT&T Palm Centro

Directly download the full-quality 480 x 320 .m4v file here. 57 MB.

I think 2007 will be the year where mobile technology vendors proved that inexpensive doesn't necessarily mean cheap and unusable. It happened with the Asus Eee PC and then again with Palm's Centro for Sprint. The trend continues in 2008 now that a Palm Centro has arrived on AT&T's GSM network. This $99 Palm OS smartphone has definitely impressed me over the past few days of hands-on use, but I'm just getting started. Remember, in my years of using mobile tech, I've never purchased a Palm device so this loaner is intriguing. Folks that use feature phones don't have to spend much more to get a full-featured smartphone and I think that's why we're seeing so many Palm Centro units fly off the shelves. The full press release has all of the details follows and in this short video, I give you a very quick look at the device and its capabilities. I'll have more thoughts over the next week or two before I return the unit.

jkonTheRun video: iPhone eBook reading with TextOnPhone

Download the full-quality, 480 x 320 .m4v file here. 79 MB

Yesterday I mentioned TextOnPhone, an eBook web app for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. Here's an eleven-minute walkthrough to give you an idea of what it offers. I specifically did this demo in a "worst-case" scenario by using EDGE, i.e.; I shut my WiFi radio off on the iPhone. You can see the performance of the experience, which overall, I think is very good. The application wisely caches ahead a number of pages so that you really don't need to wait for pages to load. There are some basic user customization settings and some excellent eBook reading lists and I'm very impressed that the app remembers where you left off in a book. Overall, I was pretty impressed in the short time I've used TextOnPhone.

jkOnTheRun video: walkthrough of MSN Direct on Windows Mobile

Directly download the full quality, 480 x 320 .m4v file here. 47.2 MB

So what exactly does that MSN Direct download bring to your Windows Mobile device? In this under-seven-minute video I give you a quick walkthrough using my Dash; a Windows Mobile 6 device. There's a few opportunities for improvement in the application, but if you want basic News, Weather and Stocks on your Today screen (and you have enough room for them), this could be useful. There are plenty of third party applications that can provide the same info, if not more, but not all of them are free. Then again, I'm not sure I'd call this implementation "free" exactly; no it doesn't cost you anything, but there's a fair share of ads. They're not obtrusive, but they're there as you'll see in the video.

Geek Session- jonesing for new stuff

Download the full-quality, 480 x 320 .m4v file here. 49.7 MB.

Kevin and James are each jonesing for new geek stuff, and not the same thing.  What we would like may surprise you and you'll have to watch the chat to find out what we wish we had in our hands.  Neither one of us can have what we want for different reasons so you might say we are lamenting what we can't have.  Have a look and see if you might want what we wish we had.

jkOnTheRun Video Geek Session- HP iPAQ 310 Travel Companion

Download the full-quality, 480 x 320 .m4v file here. 83.8 MB.

The planets must be aligned in perfect harmony: yesterday HP launched their iPAQ Navigate service, James and I are heading to CES and an iPAQ 310 Travel Companion just arrived for each of us in time for our trip to Vegas! These units appeared late yesterday and we've had little time to play with them, but today we took a break from our CES preparations to have a 12-minute video chat about the units. Our first impressions are favorable and we'll tell you why in this video. Of course, the proof is in the pudding, so we'll be totin' these along all next week for our vacation convention coverage. These 800 x 480 touchscreen devices should come in handy and not just for navigation. Check the conversation we have to see what I mean.

jkOnTheRun Video Geek Session- HTC Advantage

Download the full quality, 480 x 320 .m4v video here. 69.4 MB

Yup, we've covered the HTC Advantage before, but while chatting today, James asked my opinion on the device. I just got a few minutes of playtime with it last week during our trip to New Mexico, so my first thoughts are shared. There's a brief overview of the device for those who haven't seen it followed by a some good banter on if this would be the one device we would take somewhere if we could only choose one device *gasp* to take.

We took your great feedback into account in this video chat... well, other than the comment about two ugly guys; there's only so much we can do there! ;) We used headsets this morning but there's an apparent echo that we have to work out yet, plus I think we need to invest in some production-quality lighting. Hey... on a blogger's salary, we have to make due, but we'll keep working towards improvements if people like the video chat format!

jkOnTheRun Video Geek Session- Wibrain UMPC

Download the full-quality 480 x 320, .m4v file here. 76.8 MB

This video is the first of what we hope to be many video chats that we'll will be posting about whatever geeky topic comes to mind. That's the reason for the Video Geek Session tag as that is exactly what these sessions will be. This inaugural chat is timely as today Kevin got a box from the FedEx man with a new WiBrain UMPC inside. We take a look at the WiBrain and talk about the features of this innovative device and we think you'll enjoy it. A big shout out to Dynamism for supplying the evaluation WiBrain for Kevin to test.

jkOnTheRun video- HTC Advantage in action

iTunes compatible version (M4V format, 33.6 MB 21 minutes)

WMV version (WMV format, 14.4 MB, 21 minutes) 

I have been getting a lot of questions from folks about the HTC Advantage and after thinking about it I decided the best way to answer them and give viewers a taste of what using the Advantage is like was to shoot a video.  This was recorded using the remote control software that Kevin Tofel found and told us about a while back, My Mobiler.  The screen capture was done using Camtasia Studio on the Lenovo ThinkPad x61.  It was shot to give a near 1:1 look at the Advantage screen so you get a very close feel for what the screen looks like. (NOTE: the iTunes version is half-size, WMV is full size VGA). There is a low-res small YouTube version for the bandwidth challenged.

In the video you will see what is pre-installed on the Advantage, a few programs that I have installed and a look at web browsing.  If you come away with an idea of what it feels like to use the Advantage then my mission is accomplished.  Enjoy the show!

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