You are conceptually accurate in calling "Smartphone" nothing but a Pocket PC bolted to a cell phone, but it is like comparing Windows 3.1 to Windows XP; they may SEEM the same, but you can RARELY expect a program written for XP to run on a 3.1 system. Sprint engaged in the common practice of marketing hyperbole, a concept I can appreciate and sympathize with since I watch our marketing guys twist my technical words around all the time. Marketing will tell you it isn't important to be 100% technically nitpicky correct about dumbing down concepts to a form they think a end-user could understand. I can see the conversation at Sprint....

Engineer: "Our Smartphone is almost ready to ship, so you need to finish the advertising propaganda soon."

Marketing: "What the hell is a 'Smartphone'? Does it constantly change wireless carriers to find the best long-distance rate?"

Engineer: "Uh, no. Smartphone is a new type of hardware and software platform from Microsoft. It can do all the same things a PDA can do, and it has a built-in cell phone!"

Marketing: "...what?"

Engineer: "It is a whole new device category, but it can browse the web, play games, handle contact and calenders, and all those other things you can do with a Pocket PC."

Marketing: "...sooo... it's a Pocket PC with a cell phone"

Engineer: "..."

Marketing: "See, I can sell a Pocket PC with a cell phone, but no one knows what 'Smartphone' is so it will confuse them. They need to understand it is just like a Pocket PC. Can I see your prototype?"

Engineer: "Sure, here."

Marketing: "How do you turn it on?"

Engineer: "The power switch on the front."

Marketing: "Wow, that's confusing. Can we fix that? Oh, never mind."

Engineer: "...yeeeaaaah...."

Marketing: "HEY! This looks exactly like my iPaq! I though you said this was something different!"

Engineer: "Uh, well, it is quite a bit diffe..."

Marketing: "GREAT! No worries! I can sell a Pocket PC with a cell phone!"

Engineer: "... great, whatever... "

The Jack is different, it has donut type metal
rim like an audio port on the back of a VCR, but
very tiny.

Sounds like it could be some sort of compound connector that also has microphone input and maybe even power and serial communication. Still, if standard headphones work I would expect our audio transmitter to work... assuming the hardware can even drive it, which we still don't know.

Although, some remote control pda software works
on my pda, Total Remote, did display the best
graphics, and crashed less. It did support file
sizes up to 5 megabytys ( that it the largest
file I downloaded and displayed )

Cool! At least we don't suck in ALL areas. ;)

If I had the time to play with it on a perfect
ppc that could run the software, I am sure it
would be a blast.

An infrared blast? ;)

My recommendations to Griffen Tech and TR is two
fold:
-->First, develop or support a ccf editor. such
as tonto to produce better graphics on our pda's

What is wrong with Tonto now? I think it supports 24bit color, and it is theoretically possible to make a CCF that was so optimized for the Pocket PC it probably wouldn't work right on the old Prontos, so I am not sure what else is missing. What are your thoughts?

-->Second, Is to get the support from a major
PPC developer. I and others would flock to that
PPC just for the combination. You have read
it on the forums, users are buying pdas just for
use with TR. (I do not trust the compatability
list)

As I touched on before, we have a very tricky balancing act to juggle the needs of ALL of the Pocket PC vendors. We do not want to alienate HP and the iPaq by formally endorsing the Dell Axim, nor would it be fair to users that might assume we ONLY support the Axims.

The other major issue is that almost all Pocket PCs lack the necessary hardware to do "real CIR", and I am quite certain that the vendors are more concerned with the cost of components than picking the best hardware for the job. CIR is paid much lip service by PPC companies, but the reality is they do not want to commit ANY additional expense for what is perceived as a VERY VERY small niche market. There was one time I saw a prerelease Pocket PC that had a combination IrDA/CIR port, with REAL CIR hardware, and it worked GREAT! The company ended up going with a normal IrDA port because the IrDA/CIR part cost about 50 cents more. If you assume that there will be about 6 million units produced you see they saved _THREE MILLION DOLLARS_! I think everyone has learned from the disasterous Nevo deal; too few users will care to justify the shocking expense.

That is why Total Remote has such potential among the ODMs; they can tempt a customer into buying their PPC because it can be used as a remote control, they point them to us for a sale, we do all the support and work, we can offer PPC remote control to ANYONE who wants it, and the ODM can save the vast majority of their user base from the extra expense of hardware they will never use.


--Don