Database Users

Using multiple Universals as desktop replacements

This may may be a little premature as the Universal has only been available for such a short while, however I would really appreciate the input of the expert knowledge that makes this one of the greatest forums in the world.
I am starting a small business within the next few months and will initially have a workforce of around 6 people. The majority of the work will involve taking calls, using word+excel+powerpoint, viewing and reviewing small online videos and data input to an online database. The staff will also be dispatched to the field and will need to work remotely.
So my theoretical question is whether the universal could be used as a desktop replacement for use within the office where a central server/computer provides wifi connection and as a remote terminal whilst in the field.
The questions I have therefore are:
Do you think I will be able to bring the VGA out onto a 15” monitor? either natively via USB or via an adapter such as the ‘IGO pitch duo’ or ‘Margi’ etc. My knowledge here is limited, but if activesync can show this on the desktop. Could the internal display on the universal be routed to an external monitor instead of the main screen, I believe Nydot has some software to help achieve this. Will this be an appropriate UI, I can not expect staff to use a 3.6" screen all day long.
Will I encounter problems with multiple devices in one room? I.E. Sharing a wifi connection, multiple Bluetooth headsets and keyboards used in a confined space.
Will I be able to use VOIP on each of the six phones running with different numbers at the same time through one broadband connected computer?
Also if anyone can foresee other problems that may arise from the use of pocketpcs instead of desktops/laptops please let me know. Does anyone know of any other small companies that already have tried or succeeded at this before now?
Thanks in advance, your views on this will help greatly, as I would hate to buy six universals and then have to buy six laptop/desktops as well.
Jamie Honey

From experience
Hi and good luck with your startup,
I used to run a business in the UK on behalf of a friend from UAE, back in 1992. I got a Psion organiser and a printer, but boy, it is painful to work on a small device all day long. We already have problems with well designed macro systems with eye strain and rsi.
So i will recommend you get a few PCS and a couple laptops for field work and a couple pda's and people can share and swap, it will also create variety which is good for business morale, and since you will be using the windows platform, no problem with syncing and sharing...
Just an advice...
Regards
Nabil H

Hi Jayman,
As far as I'm aware, the JasJar doesn't have an external VGA output that would allow you to view internal screen contents on an external monitor.
The only way this could be achieved would be by using some type of SDIO card that facilitated a VGA output function.
The HTC Himalaya Device (XDA2 and XDA2i) have an interface underneath the battery that supports a little backpack that has a VGA output and a CF card slot. However the Himalaya doesn't have all the features of the JasJar.
As long as you configure your Wifi devices correctly (DHCP/Static IP - no duplicates, you will have no problems. The same goes for your bluetooth connections. For bluetooth you will need to implement a strict naming scheme for the devices in order to avoid confusion.
I'm not too sure about the VOIP query - i'll research that and get back to you later as i'm curious about that as well.
Pocket PCs are not ergonimcally condusive with an intense longterm working environment. As Nabil2000 stated, your employess will eventually feel the ill health effects associated with working in a "cramped" position on such a small device.
Hope this helps
Good luck with you business idea
Qaz

So Jayman, what did you do in the end?
xerxes

TV / Radio on HTC Uni's

Does anyone know anything about the release date, or whether the devices have been released.... for the Pocket PC that allows you to watch live TV feed via the SDIO Port?
I know there was a company that said March 06, but they've sorta gone quiet... there's radio devices out there, and devices for the PALM or CF Card... But anyone know anything about one that will be compatible with the MDA Pro???
:-/

Tv and Radio only via WIFI or 3G connections via subscriptions or internet based feeds only.
dont know any that will allow this via an SDIO slot, but would be interested if found, suspect if used it will be a massive battery drain.

There was something meant to have been released in March:
http://msmobiles.com/news.php/4782.html
But can't find anything else about it... :-(

You might consider this
If you want access to TV/Sat/Cable or your DVD player you might want to try this.
http://www.slingmedia.com/
It has a mobile player.

Re: You might consider this
Celestial said:
If you want access to TV/Sat/Cable or your DVD player you might want to try this.
http://www.slingmedia.com/
It has a mobile player.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there anything cheaper than $249 :-/ ??

here is the site:
http://www.eopstech.com/eops/index.html
doesn't open on my side (looks like it's hosted on a dialup connection :lol: )

ady said:
doesn't open on my side (looks like it's hosted on a dialup connection :lol: )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't open on my side either :-( Is this somewhere that sells them? Makes them??..

Hi to everyone on the forum. This is my first post. I'm recently the owner of a new HTC Universal (T-mob MDA Pro).
Just thought I'd let you kno - I'm a PhD student working on mobile digital TV. I'm working in 2 European projects aimed at delivering mobile digital tv based at Brunel University. I currently have one of the digital TV SDIO receivers mentioned here. It's a prototype from a company called DibCom. It's a DVB-H receiver. DVB-H sends boradcast data in bursts so a receiver only has to be powered in bursts thus saving battery life. DVB-H braodcasts were tested in Oxford not so long ago. DVB-H broadcasts are not gonna be around until a few years yet so to test the chip I have to set up my own digital DVB-H channel and broadcast to myself! I'm working on user interface terminal applications, middleware and protocols. My job is to create the interactive side of the broadcasts - basically creating the interactive services like you see with regular DVB-T freeview only for mobile devices (and hopefully much better!). So interactive sports, shopping, gaming etc can all be done on your mobile device. That's the plan anyway! I'll try to attach a pic of the prototype chip here (taken with my MDA PRo!)
All the best guys!
LLOYDY

cool sounding job man.
what do you believe the DVB-H reception will be like, I find freeview starts to go all blocky when its windy so I have no idea what DVB-H will be like if i was on the move (maybe on the bus or something).

Well this is why also the reason we needed a new technology to deliver to mobile devices. DVB-H doesn't need line-of-sight to the transmitter like DVB-T does. It will use "transmitter" and "receiver diversity" so that one strong signal can be singled out from lots of signal echoes and bounces. It is designed specifically for mobile use. One of the projects I'm working in is called PLUTO (Physical Layer DVB (that's the U!) Transmission Optimisation) where we're working on this exact issue. See http://www.ist-pluto.org for more info on this. The second project deals with broadcasting applications and user interfaces voe rthe new network etc and is called INSTINCT World (due to commence in September). INSTINCT World is a world-wide project with China being the newest member so far.
But... we'll soon see! All the best,
LLOYDY

So if this isn't coming out for ages.... why was msnmobiles saying the device for Pocket PC will be out March 06?
And there's already one out for the PALM devices using the CF card...
:-/

If you have windows xp media center you can use www.orb.com for live tv and whatever media files you have on your pc. I use it all the time to watch sports while my wife is shopping at the mall. EDGE speeds are adequate to watch but it is a little hard to read the scores on my wizard. If you can get onto a wifi connection the picture comes in perfect. The program tests your internet speed connections so gives you the best picture for your internet speeds. Best of all it is free and works really well.

Sorry for being misleading: I wasn't saying the devices won't be out until next year (I've had mine for well over a year now), I was referring to the broadcasts - broadcasting in the UK (and most of Western Europe I believe) won't start until next year sometime (I'm unsure about the USA). DVB-H still hasn't got a designated broadcast radio band yet. This is all still up in the air. I'm sure there are many companies about to release or have already released the receiver chips. Nokia have released their DVB-H capable phones already and I have been working with a few of them. Only thing is they use their own proprietary software and drivers which cost $$$. I'm working to develop an open standard across the board and eagerly awaiting the JSR272 (a proposed API from Java ready for mobile television and multimedia). As you can see the Digital TV Group is a member of the projects I'm working in and these are the people who set the digial TV standards.
@Jeeb75:
The media streaming your referring to though is Internet streaming. This is completely different and is an inefficient use of internet traffic/bandwidth (until internet router broadcasting protocols are properly used at least). With DVB-H you will get clear, crisp Digital TV and services over-the-air just like you can pick up a standard TV channel a home. Thanks for the info tho - I enjoy getting TV streams on my Universal.
Again, I apologise for the misunderstanding. Hope this helps!
LLOYDY

Just in case anyone's interested in this, just found out from the manufacturer, that the items are available now, and work on analogue signals, so will work now too.
USD$150 is the price at the mo, which isn't toooo bad when you think of how much a portable TV would cost...
I'm gonna order one, and if anyone want's to know about it, will update this in due course
Dave.

jmdrizen said:
Just in case anyone's interested in this, just found out from the manufacturer, that the items are available now, and work on analogue signals, so will work now too.
USD$150 is the price at the mo, which isn't toooo bad when you think of how much a portable TV would cost...
I'm gonna order one, and if anyone want's to know about it, will update this in due course
Dave.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
More info/details please

I checked out dibcoms website, from what I can tell, they are only making the internal chipset for the all in one analogue and DVB h tuner, not any ready to sell devices

I'm currently reviewing the SDIO analogue TV tuner from Eopstech. Both its power and sound is off-board due to the bandwidth limitations of SDIO.
Also, due to the bandwidth limitations, the bigger the screen size, the lower the frame rate. On my Magician in portrait mode, its very good. It slows down a bit in landscape. On the Universal in landscape it can be quite gittery but still watchable. The most annoying thing about it is the external battery pack which is quite bulky and only lasts 2.5hrs. However, you can plug headphones, power and an external aerial into it.
lloydcody: can you upload the pictures you posted to the forum itself or resize them pls.

lloydcody, couldn't you lose your job by disclosing those pics on here? I would take tehm down if I was you..... (although I wouldn't know if you have signed a NDA)

I haven't got a job - I'm a student! Just thought I'd let you guys know that mobile TV is soon on its way. There's nothing wrong with the pics. This is not a hush-hush project - far from it. I'm part of an open standards project not some secret corporate prototyping.
You can buy one of these chips yourself if you're interested - though they're not cheap!
@nedge2k
What do you want me to do with pics?
LLOYDY

LOL. Sorry, and thanks for clearing that one up. How much are the chips?

Android and IR Remote Control

Hey all,
I am interested in the idea of using my phone to control my home theatre equipment. The ability to control any IR equipment with your phone would be a very neat feature and a nice selling point, especially as Google has made clear their intentions to enter the home automation field. However at present it seems very hard to do this with Android.
I know that a solution is to use an IR transmitter connected to the 3.5mm headphone jack. The leader in this market seems to be a company called ThinkFlood who have a product called RedEye Mini. Here's an explanation of how it works...
http://thinkflood.com/products/redeye-mini/#how-does-it-work
Unfortunately for us Android users the software is in beta testing and the RedEye Mini hardware is not compatible yet.
I am wondering if anyone can shed some light on this project and whether it can be achieved yet by any other means?
Also does anyone know whether native support of IR hardware has been considered for Android. Seeing as this technology could very easily be built into phones it seems like a smart move for Google with their home automation drive and all.
I am interested to hear your thoughts and solutions.
Thanks

The concept of home automation would be improved if IR were not used at all. Line of sight comms is very limiting. On the plus side of course it means there are fewer radio waves flying round my house and frying my brain!

I agree 100%. I need to keep all the brain cells I can
Unfortunately though most home theatre equipment still relies of IR and I believe it will for a few more years. Google should jump on IR if they are serious about home automation.

if you use XBMC than there is an nice app to control it and many more.

Controlling the PC is easy as apps can communicate with it via my home network. The problem I have is using my phone to communicate with other equipment such as my TV and AV receiver. For these the only way I can think of controlling them is via IR.

edcoppen, as far as I know you have 2 options for IR on Android:
1/ - Already available DIY solutions -
You can check the Androlirc application (that would be me!)
And a friend of the project has developed a enhanced Audio2IR module that is called Irdroid (mine was just a proof of concept)
You'll have to be (or get) familiar with LIRC to go down that path.
2/ - Anounced and "soon to be available" IR equipped Android devices -
Touchsquid
Conspin Andi One
That a lot of link dropping for a first post, I hope xdadevelopers will let me submit that... (Submit...) Yeah, that's what I thought, you'll just have to look for web sites by yourself then.
Anyway I think we're gonna get some action in the IR/Tablet world soon... Until we get rid of that 30 years old, one way tech (on the plus side, it "owns" 100% of the market and the battery autonomy for a traditional remote control has to be measured in years... that's close to an infinity in the Android world)!

Quite interesting that there will be IR equipped mobile devices any more. I thought the technology would die out. I actually still carry my Nokia N73 with me and from time to time change the channel on the TV in the pub. Great fun!!!

Yeah, I had a nokia 7650 ten years ago with an IR transmitter/receiver and used to have so much fun changing channels in my sports bar. I reckon the technology has less interest nowadays as we move further into the digital age. The best and easiest way to automate your home theatre and stereo systems is to connect them to a pc and control everything from your phone. there are tons of apps in the market that allow you to do this. I have tried a few and am currently using three I find the best: Unified remote (specifically for their spotify remote, which now a days is my stereo system, but they have tons of other remotes and works great over LAN), phonemypc (for me one of the best vnc apps in the market) and remote desktop client, a great RDP app. Whatever you can connect to your pc (with the right hardware/firmware you can even connect all the appliances in your home, even your lights and air-conditioned, to a main server) you can control from your phone, either through LAN - using your home network - or even away from home using the internet (WAN). IR is an obsolete technology in the digital age.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA Premium App

StreetGuru said:
Whatever you can connect to your pc (with the right hardware/firmware you can even connect all the appliances in your home, even your lights and air-conditioned, to a main server) you can control from your phone, either through LAN - using your home network - or even away from home using the internet (WAN). IR is an obsolete technology in the digital age.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont agree that it is a dead technology... yet! Most AV devices in the home still rely on it and unless i'm mistaken cannot be connected via the PC. Take for example my Samsung TV or my Harman Kardon AVR. I really want to be able to control these from my phone and cant find a viable solution. I have all the apps you mentioned and none of them help me here. You say via the right hardware/firmware can help... but what hardware would you use to connect the two devices I named to a PC, and how mush does it cost?
If an IR transmitter could be built into a watch 10 years ago I see no reason why it coultn't easily be added to a mobile phone. I know its personal preference but I would see it as a strong selling point.

IR hardware range too weak
My older HTC Windows phone had IR support, I had hoped to install AV remote sw on it. Found out the hard way that the IR range on many phones that had the hardware was only a few feet. It was intended as a bidirectional business card sharing type of thing before bluetooth took over. I'm thinking bluetooth is why most phones don't even have the IR hardware built in anymore.
I'm currently looking for a T-Mobile Froyo phone that has IR with sufficient range for AV remote use, any experts out there?
I don't want to depend on any dongles plugged in to the phone, but I would consider an external wireless box that had the IR command set and transmitter and a wireless way to communicate with the phone, preferably bluetooth so I don't have to turn on the wifi radio every time I use it.
i have a new enough Sammy tv to use DLNA etc, but that means turning on the wifi.

USB Host Controller - Looking into android controlled robotic projects

Hello everyone. I have been searching for threads all day and have not found much information about being able to hook up devices into some kinda of USB interface or serial interface on Android devices. The closest thing I can find is this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1202082
There has to be a host controller on these phones right? I would think that if there is a micro SD read reader on the phone, there would be one. Am I the only one thinking this? What is the best way to find out?
My inspiration comes from the ArduPilot project . I think this is pretty sweet but I think it could be way more powerful with a full operating system versus a limited micro controller. An additional fun link of, what most can imagine, my final goal: http://www.wimp.com/helmetcam/
I am posting this on the Evo 4G general thread due to owning it and it would be easy to disassemble, if there is something I need to look into.
I want to look finding (or creating) a robotics application for the android OS to map *connected* servo controllers (not bluetooth connected, Arduino powered, etc..) that will also allow remote users to control the phone multiple threads to control the UV or UAV. Examples: 1: Flying the RC Plane while viewing the video stream on the phone's multiple cameras (integrated or attached). 2: Executing autopilot application and monitoring it's progress through two-way communication from a controlling "base" station (PC, Server, Tablet, etc..). Maybe executing multiple RC vehicles at once.
I have a feeling that this would help many others with other types of monitoring projects (What comes to mind: Home security, Car Security, garden monitoring, etc..) This could also help the creation of other commercial products.
Any input and direction you can give would be appreciated.

Converting old Router/computer To Smart "device" bridge?

So as the title says, I'm wondering if it is possible to convert an old device into a bridge for smart lights/accessories.
I have a plethora of different smart lights in my house that I have a phillips hue bridge for. I was planning to start adding these things to the office and would really rather not have to buy another bridge for there as well because I am lazy and very frugal with my spending. (Made many of my own home controlled led strips using a wireless ballast because phillips charges an arm and a leg for led strips)
I haven't done a lot of research besides a quick google as I am busy with other projects today. But as far as my understanding goes, the bridges are just bonafied wireless access points with proprietary firmware. And I know the phillips hue bridges have been rooted and whatnot before. So I was just wondering if this was possible, and if anyone has tried it before

I don't know very much about home automation or smart lights but, as far as I know, some of them use zigbee or Z-wave. For those you need a bridge or at least repurpose something on which you can add interfaces for those means of communication.
Just my 2 cents...