Summer 2003
A (Jornada) journey into PalmLand
by Bruce Gillespie
When that insatiable lust for gadgets bites, its bites hard. Some of us feel it harder than others. One would think that such vices would wane with maturity but not, so it seems. It started off innocently enough....Before I start my confession I would like to discuss a theory of technology that I have studied, namely The Social Construction of Technological Systems (SCOT). Not just another techno buzzword, no this is a very insightful theory of one of the factors that determines the path of technology, first disucssed by Wiebe Bijker and colleagues (see references below). Although technology can influence the path of a society, society and social cultural needs influence the path of technology as well. A crucial factor that results in a particular technology finding success is that it embraces a human need, and in a Darwinian way what ‘fits' needs best finds the most success - in an evolutionary sort of way. The technology can even get used in ways the creators never intended, opening up an unanticipated paradigm. The global success of the Internet is based on the way that people used it, and found uses for it. I mention this because I was finding a use for a gadget in ways I had not anticipated.
I was driven towards acquiring a ‘palmtop' computer since I had a very particular need: simply put I needed the universe in the palm of my hand. This could be achieved by the portable version of The Sky astronomy package I have been using on a Windows desktop & notebook for years. Not only do I need to see what's happening in terms of constellations and planets at any given moment, I also need to plan my life around the phases of the moon, as most amateur astronomers do. And how many times have I found myself trying to explain the geometry and location of a constellation? Words and hand gestures have not sufficed. What a pleasure it would be to be able to have all this information instantly accessible - good enough reason to get a Palmtop!
I have been through a continuum of small digital storage devices (also called Personal Digital Assistants - PDA's) since their invention to store addresses, contact, logins, password and miscellaneous data. It started off with a few small Casios, then it was a series of Psions but the mass and bulk of these devices lost favour to a trimmed down flat file in a cell phone. So perhaps it would be useful for storing contacts as well. I started looking for a suitable unit, and given that there was a possibility this gadget might end up in the morass of the great unused, a limit was put on the budget and perhaps even a second hand unit would do. My needs were the Pocket Windows Operating System to run The Sky and a RS-232 serial port to hook up to the telescope. After scoring ebay for seller who was prepared to ship outside North America (is it really that difficult?) it was fortuitous that I acquired a slightly used Hewlett Packard Jornada 525 from our suppliers at a reasonable price. And then the fun started.
Palmtops are driven by a pen-like stylus that you tap away with on the screen. The Jornada has a colour screen and it immediately impressed (although only 256 colours). You install software applications and transfer data via a link from your PC on which a program called ActiveSync, which has to be installed on your PC. Most models come with USB cradles however I used the Jornada's Infrared link to establish the connection and before long I had The Pocket Sky running without much hassle and was reasonably impressed with performance and usability.
I felt the excitement of a new world of computing being opened up. In my searching for product specs and reviews on-line, I was continually distracted by reviews of other uses and applications which often led to links to software downloads and this is where I succumbed. For instance, you will agree that a dictionary is vital writing companion. The decision to do an on-line purchase and download of the pocket PC version of the Oxford English Dictionary was not dwelled upon (although I did give it a test first by installing a demo that only gave access to the ‘L's). No doubt the taping away is going to be a bottle-neck hence a fold-up accessory keyboard sounded like an essential accessory. And it wasn't long before I had a suite of networking utilities installed (ever heard of port scanner?) - there is also a VNC client available which looks good. Some of these apps are freeware, others are shareware, but all at a very modest cost.
It seems most Pocket PC's have some basic audio facilities, much the same thing as a sound card on PC. Turned out the Jornada has a built-in microphone and the facility to do a recording of conversation or meeting in a very easy to use way. although there are limitations with this model: it does not store to compressed format and there is no level control on the inbuilt microphone, nor a jack for an external one. However a much more important use for the Pocket PC became apparent - playing music stored in mp3 format. I have been waiting for a solid state (that is no moving parts) mp3 player to reach the market that would accept Flash RAM cartridges, since most portable mp3 players have built-in Flash RAM that you can't swop out. Also being able to using a Flash RAM Drive connected to your PC to transfer your music files makes it much more practical than trying to squish 100MB through a slow Infrared link. So it was fortuitous that the Jornada included a Media Player application which can play mp3 files, but it needed an upgrade in the form of more RAM memory to store the tunes. A 256MB Compact Flash Cartridge was acquired, which immediately found use since that capacity stores about 2 CD's of music (all legitimately ripped it must be said). Solid state is a big thing, and although portable CD/MP3 players are fine devices, it's just a matter of time before develop trouble since they are mechanical precision devices with parts that are going to wear out (and I have been through a few of those as well).
So now in between surfing The Sky and listening to music out and about, something else caught my attention: it seemed their was a lot of software for interfacing palmtops to the ubiquitous cell phone. This sounded exciting since I am one who suffers from bulking finger syndrome when sending SMS's. I seem to be doing more and more of this every day only because it such an efficient and effective way to communicate short bursts of vital information. To alleviate and expedite SMSing I have installed an app on PC's both at work and home which allows me to send SMS's like an email via the Infrared connection to the phone. Now it seemed I could do the same thing from the Pocket PC - and after a few attempts with quirky software I had a new window to the world of GSM text messaging in operation. The cell phone can also act as a modem via the Infrared port to provide on-line Internet access, and after installing a driver downloaded from the Nokio and a fair amount of fiddling I was on-line although the small browser window limits functionality. Also the need to line up the cell and palmtop's Infrareds ports is not always convenient - it seemed apparent that a use could eventually be found for ‘Bluetooth'. I am sure you have heard this term/feature/jargon thrown about and most punters (most notably cell phone sales people and MCSE's) don't seem know where this fits in the grand scheme of digital things. Such is marketing hype. It's really a form of invisible electromagnetic data communication and uses radio frequencies above that of cell phones. And like Infrared is designed for short range communication between personal appliances and devices. There is even a new buzz word: the Personal Area Network (PAN). To be honest, this concept is appealing because you could be going on-line or SMS'ing from your palmtop with the cell out of sight in your briefcase, handbag or wherever else you may like hide it away from thieves. Now if you have a Bluetooth headset (although still expensive), you are totally wireless and you will certainly have your PAN doing the business for you. You can use you Pocket PC dial up directly from stores addresses, contacts, schedules etc.
You will agree that this level of ‘functionality' and ‘integration' is very appealing, so it's not ut out place to drop another oft used and abused buzzword that the marketeers love: Convergence. I only use this because this is precisely what happened between cell phones and PDA's/Plamtops. The creators of digital cell phone technology has no idea that an incidental feature was going to be so big: text messaging is used so much because people find it practical, efficient and convenient. This has set the design parameters and made cell phones more SMS friendly. Integration with PDA's this is taking it all one step further.
Now why bother with a cell at all if all its doing is the communication and all the interaction is with the palmtop? And the palmtop is not much bigger than the cell? Indeed some PDA's now feature full cell phone electronics, for others there are now accessories that add all the electronics of the cell phone via an expansion slot, in my case I could get a Tri-Band GSM phone that fitted into the Compact Flash socket. It works the other way as well: some cell phones are now starting to look and work like palmtops, they even have similiar operating systems and features. This is technological convergence at work, and a fine example of how human communication and organisation needs are driving the path of this technology. Its also a stage where the markets are huge and sophisticated devices can be mass produced and reach the market at affordable prices.
Now I started to feel I needed an upgrade, and this was only after a few weeks of the Jornada 525. Restraint was called for although I then decided to have a look at a more contemporary model and organised the top-of-the-line HP IPaq 5500 for a product review. This features the Windows Pocket 2003 Operating System, a fast 533MHz CPU and more built in RAM, a fantastic full-colour screen, and built in 802.11b and Bluetooth Wireless communication facilties. It had a much more snappy and nifty feel to it, and before long I was cruising the Internet via the recently installed ‘hot spot' at the MilkyWay Interenet Café (details here). Getting some of the latest Hubble Space Telescope images in superb rendition was a treat- the universe in the palm of my hand indeed! The IPaq supports the Secure Digital format of Flash RAM which seems to have lower power requirements that the Compact Flash, meaning loner battery life although this was not tested. It comes complete with a USB cable and there are a wider range of clip-on accessories that made me feel that fear of want, however it wasn't long before I packed the IPaq back to suppliers and I returned to the more classic and minimalist Jornada, which was indeed finding extensive use as a portable mp3 player. In the interim I have found more applications to upload: for instance a really useful app turns the screen a colour of your choice - which niftly turns the palmtop into a very expensive flashlight, handy for finding the stylus when it inevitably falls under the car seat. Another app turns the palmtop into a universal Remote Controller to reign in all those home entertainment components controllers. No doubt there's more to come, but for now I am confident that this gadget is going to be useful.
The human needs driving this technology is an ancient one, the same one that brought about the phenomenal success of the Internet: the need for human communications. If an affordable technological innovation makes this easier, its more likely to be used more. By being able to download and install software applications on your PDA to fulfil your needs, you are determining its functionality to suit it yourself, in fact you are socially constructing technology. Yes there is a lot of rubbish software out there but there is also some great apps that have been carefuly crafted and thoroughly tested - and these are the ones that find continued use and success. This is why the above discussion is relevant and why this PDA technology is going to be a success. These same communication and organisational needs are driving the convergence of cell phones and PDA's - and it's just about there. Internet content will evolve to suit this format, as it has with hugely successful DoCoMo service in Japan. WAP (Wireless Access Protocol) was a feature touted with the latest cell phones here not so long ago, perhaps before it's time. The Cell Operators will offer attractive always-on line rates once the demand is there and the competition hots up. The end result will be taking the Information Revolution to another level of personal accessibility, and hopefully a consolidation of my electronic gadgets!
Further reading on SCOT:W Bijker, T Hughes, T Pinch (Editors) "The Social Construction of Technological Systems, New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology" (MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1989)
Wiebe E Bijker "Of Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs: Towards a theory of Sociotechnical Change" (MIT Press, 1995)
Merrit Re Smith and Leo Marx (Editors) "Does Technology Drive History? The Dilemma of Technological Determinism" (MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1994)
Bruce Gillespie, "Explaining the success of the Internet: Proto-networks & other primordial cyberspace soup" (unpublished MSc dissertation, Imperial College, London, 2000) http://www.entopia.org.za/msc2000/dissertation/Complete.PDF
Relevant websites:Amazing DoCoMo - http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_03/b3664010.htm
Pocket PC Software - http://www.pocketpccity.com/software-pocketpc.html
Plug for PCB:Palmtops from PCB - http://www.pcb.co.za/pricelists/palmtops.html
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