Extending the netBook Lifespan

[dukibean]

Personal overview:

The hardware specifications may (or may not) be dating, but the office apps in ROM and shareware additions certainly are . . .



Personal comment:

Like most of you here, I really want to use my netBook as long as I possibly can. For anyone working in the New Media industry, I imagine wholly productive use of a netBook is becoming more-and-more difficult and time-consuming as the months go by. As desktop applications evolve and formats change, I have to cope with an expanding number of manual workarounds to keep information flowing to and from colleagues via our sturdy, little machines.

It may be that I'm in the minority, but I feel that an increasing number of tasks are taking me longer-and-longer with a netBook. I don't really mind too much because I enjoy using the machine, but I know there will come a day when I will be forced to leave it. This is precisely the point that prompted me to write this, and ask the question: what exactly would it take to make the netBook more productive for me?

Well, I'm not holding my breath for any further OS or hardware improvements from Psion, so that leaves the developer community. Just what could they offer . . .


Backup:
This fast, furious and reliable CF back program from Ralph Sprenger is just what the netBook ordered. The problem is it does 'C disk' backups only. I've emailed Ralph and he's almost convinced of the need to implement D to E backups, too. If you haven't tried it, I certainly recommend the application. If you like it, please mail Ralph and tell him how fantastic D to E functionality would be.

Web: www.psionwelt.de/ralphsprenger
Email: ralph.sprenger@gmx.net


nConvert:
Perhaps neuon's most widely known and respected application. The trouble is, it just doesn't go far enough. I've exchanged a few emails with contacts at neuon and they say that there is plans to update the converters, only the author is busy at the moment. Please feel free to request again . . .

Email: app.manager@neuon.com


Opera:
Where would be without this one? Many people have already contacted Opera regarding an overhaul of v5 for ER5. My gut feeling is that this resides in the same bag as future netBook OS revisions. Looks like direct email contact is to be avoided these days, too.

Post: Opera Software ASA, P.O. Box 2648 St Hanshaugen, NO-0131 OSLO, NORWAY


VPN Client:
I'm probably a minority with this one, if not a singularity. However, I notice that Teklogix has licensed a VPN for the CE flavoured netPad. We have wired and wireless ethernet access, but I have to be in the office and physically connected to a corporate LAN to make use of my netBook's connectivity. Surely such a portable device should allow remote access to corporate networks . . .


MBMView:
An old favourite, and absolutely essential to anyone in New Media. Its starting to creak, though. Image size restrictions, inability to handle newer compression formats and lack of animated GIF support make manual workarounds necessary. I recently read that the author had sadly died. A great shame. A superb EPOC application.


EpocSync:
Lack of file synchronisation within Psiwin has always been a mystery to me. Still, with EpocSync you get can part of the way there. The ability to sync with FTP servers is truly brilliant. The downside is that the sync logic doesn't delete and archive files. A lot of manual maintenance is required to keep sizeable directory structures tidy. Still, a least you have all you files in the right places. Why not contact the author, Malcolm Bryant, if you would like improved sync functionality.

Web: www.freepoc.org
Email: malcolm@freepoc.org



Personal outlook:

Maybe a cult following will form around ER5, akin to the Amiga OS, and those in the know will keep it alive (OPL has just been made open source - of sorts). Maybe Psion will update ER5 once or twice, maybe they will drop it for CE and maybe they will adopt newer Symbian platforms. Regardless of any speculation, I know that I have a massive task to undertake in the future . . . converting all of my ER5 files to newer formats. The mere thought of it makes me shiver :(

Long live the netBook and ER5 :)

[Steve Moore]

I agree that things are dating, and that we want the long-battery-life, instant-on, no-pissing-about-with-windows clarity and speed of the thing.

I have the GPRS solution, LAN (in office) WLAN (at home) with broadband and it is fantastic. I have FTP working fine with the office and the little VGA card which is great

Getting all my shit together with this has taken time (and years of using Psion) and plenty of help from here and Psion and elsewhere, but quite honestly I'm REALLY happy with it.

Quite honestly I couldn't give a stuff for music, AVIs etc. on this device, as it is a work tool (I'm not taking it to the pub you know) but you're right, some things need sorting -

- proper PowerPoint viewer please
- better Office 2000 support both ways
- quicker incremental backup (even with Ralphs programme I have 1000s of e-mails and they take a finite time for each file to be scanned which means it still takes AGES
- better photo support generally (and colours in Opera)
- better, USB, PC sync would be good, but honestly once you have it working it seems fine.

I would suggest we all try and fund a skunkworks project at Teklogix to sort three or four things (what about starting with a vote on this thread) - say we all contribute £ 100 or so?? and see if we can move things along. Alternatively it may be that they just implement a CE.net solution (which isn't too bad - I've been trialling it on a Siemens SIMpad for a client) and we give up the fight.

...

[diem]

I was thinking along these lines myself last night. ER5 is beginning to show its age, and given the move to Unicode (in ER6) and Symbian in general, it is looking extremely unlikely that Psion will produce either another OS rev or an EPOC "netBook 2".

For what I do, netBook does not yet have any serious drawbacks. As far as further development is concerned, I don't think all the money in the world would encourage Teklogix to do any skunkworks developments - they just don't have enough staff! My take is that we will have to become self-sufficient, more of us will have to take the plunge and get into OPL (or C, or Java!) and develop for ourselves the things that are missing. On that front, nConvert has a (published?) API to allow 3rd partys to write convertors, for example.

The stumbing block will be the browser. Opera are currently focussing elsewhere, and I'm guessing that V5 for EPOC will most likely not see another revision. As you suggest, all we can do is keep the pressure on. If nothing is forthcoming in the next 6 months, perhaps we should change tack and ask them to open-source the code? At the end of the day, there are only a few serious bugs to be sorted - not beyond our collective ingenuity I'm sure.

Bottom line: the machine may be showing its age, but until there is another device out there which can do the same job, I'm not shiftin'...

[pliskens]

Concerning support for office 2000 and so on. I use Nconvert to convert my files to other platforms, I have contacted Neuon concerning the development of more concertors and they reported that there are plans to release a sdk so users can develop their own convertors.

Perhaps we can assemble a team of programmers who are interested in developing some additional applications for the netbook? We will need people of all kind of experiences I for one would like to learn who is interested?
There are a lot of very good applications available onder the Gnu license which are fairl easy to port to Epoc R5.

[pro2type]

Agree about the great Backup software from Ralf Sprenger.

But actually he made a beta containing D to E backup almost a year ago. So it shouldnt be a problem implementing it in a new version.

[diem]

Originally posted by pliskens
Perhaps we can assemble a team of programmers who are interested in developing some additional applications for the netbook? We will need people of all kind of experiences I for one would like to learn who is interested?

I'm up for it - I'm a Java programmer mainly these days, but I'm up for having a go :)

I'm looking at the feasibility of writing an MS Networking client for netBook, tho' not sure how well it will work since its a broadcast protocol - not a good fit for a device that turns itself off all the time!

[dukibean]

Sounds fantastic, Yan. Any plans for a VPN client to compliment it?

:D

[diem]

Not at this point. I've never done any sockets programming, so this will take me a while as it is ;)

[netBookBabe]

Originally posted by dukibean
Any plans for a VPN client to compliment it? :D I gotta give dukibean marks for persistence! ;) You'll be getting the "Psanta" title, next, Yan! :D

Julie

[dukibean]

Persistence marks gratefully accepted :p

I could dispense with my laptop for 90-95% of the time if my netBook had a VPN. The ironic thing is, if there was a netBook VPN client my company would buy the machines for certain employees . . . the IT department has taken a great interest interest in my machine since I installed 158 and connected it to their LAN.

[netBookBabe]

Originally posted by dukibean
. . . the IT department has taken a great interest interest in my machine since I installed 158 and connected it to their LAN. Did you feel that gentle nudge, Harvey? ;)

Julie