News

Alledged photo of iPaq 6300

A photo has surfaced claiming to be the upcoming wireless iPaq 6300 PocketPC. The article claims specs including Bluetooth/WiFi/GSM/GPRS, a single SDIO slot, a Texas Instuments OMAP ARM processor, 64 MB RAM & 64 MB ROM, an 1800 milliamp-hour replacable battery, and an optional snap-on thumb keyboard (pictured).

The overall texture of the casing and the lighting effects on it tell me that this image was forged in a 3D rendering program, probably Bryce 4.0. The flare on the upper left of the case is a dead giveaway--no real lighting condition or effect of photomanipulation would produce this. The buttons have too 'soft' a look, and the power button looks like it's been painted on. The screen shot lacks a wireless signal indicator, and the style of the supposed snap-on keyboard would cover the microphone, making phone calls difficult. This definitely belongs in the catagory of either fake or very early concept art, more likely the former.

http://www.smartfone.net/?m=show&id=262

Opera web browser for mobile tech

Opera Software, makers of the popular Opera internet browser, are touting a new technology called Medium Screen Rendering, or MSR. MSR is designed to intelligently squeeze a web page down to fit a medium resolution screen such as a PDA without disrupting the page's formatting. Opera has already had a decent bit of success with SSR, or Small Screen Rendering, for Symbian based smartphones. According to Opera Software, several as-yet-unannounced products are soon to be released using MSR technology. One of these will almost certainly be a landscape-capable browser for Palm OS 5, judging from the Tungsten T|3 shaped graphic on the Opera site. This may be a derivative product, or it may be a complete port of the Opera browser to the Palm OS--which would be quite a coup, easily surpassing the power and flexibility of any existing browser on Palm or PocketPC.

Opera browsers are already used on Nokia and other Symbian based smartphones as well as Sharp's Zaurus handhelds.

http://www.opera.com/

Treo 610 release?

Rumor has is that a new version of the Treo 600 series, dubbed the 610, will be released in March, and sports a 320 x 320 HighRes screen, Bluetooth wireless, and additional memory over its predecessor.

I must emphasize that this is strictly rumor, and I am heartily cynical about the whole business, as I am about any rumor that exactly matches wishlists. That sort of rumor is all too easy to start--one person idly suggests that maybe so-and-so will come out with a version featuring what they want, then the next person takes it as fact and runs with it. I've seen it before.