-----Original Message----- From: Carolyn White [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Saturday, September 16, 2000 9:36 AM To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Cc: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Subject: Akepad stands alone Neil, As always I enjoyed reading your view on things. (Thanks) If you could be so kind, would you please explain this a bit more to me. Does this mean you can't store the data on the (MapXtend) PDA but you can with ArcPad? Sorry, I don't own a PDA so some of it is hard to visualize. Thanks for your patience. csw "MapXtend will not stand alone as far as I can tell in that it requires on the PDA: 1) Palm Computing 3.1 (or higher) operating system (Super!!!!), 2) TCP/IP connection (double bummer!), 3) and a server - Oracle or SQLServer. ESRI's AkePAD costs over $500 per PDA but it can stand alone, has good KISS synchronization features, and has built-in integration to GPS receivers. MapXtend (also has the GPS PDA guts but) seems to be in the domain of MapInfo's "Server Based Deployment" which means that the licensing will likely not be real affordable for small shop developers. This may not be absolute but as of this posting there are no pricing schedule(s) for MapXtend." Carolyn S. White, PhD Program Coordinator Assistant Professor, Sociology Room 1445 Digital Computing Lab Voice: 217-333-6751 1304 W. Springfield Ave. Fax: 217-244-7089 Urbana, Il 61801 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ********************* Carolyn - I have been thinking about PDAs and their pending effect on GIS (and should I coin it?) gCommerce. What follows is long winded response to your small question... The "gCommerce" issues of the stand alone PDA design, in our interest ArcPAD, or "socialized" PDA as suggested by MapInfo's design in MapXtend, is not a simple one. From our narrow perspective of GIS it implies thinking about one of the really big issues of the information age - ubiquitous computing and access to everything anywhere. So..... To start: You don't know where to go if you don't know where you are. Michael Capellas, President and CEO of Compaq issued at the recent CTIA Wireless 2000 "four fearless predictions" for the next four years in the wireless world, all of which will be very good for the consumer if they hold true. These predictions are: "VoIP will be a truly disruptive technology...so much so that telecommunications costs will drop by more than 70%.' "60% of all calls will be wireless, and a growing percentage of those consist of purely data.' "In four years, there will be 1 billion (with a B!) internet access devices.' "True convergence will be in place so that the consumer will not be able to differentiate between computing and communications companies. Instead, they will only see information companies." You question, "Does this mean you can't store the data on the PDA but you can with ArcPad?", was one I put to MapInfo several months ago when I first heard about MapXtend. It is my opinion that Oracle seems to dominate future thinking at MapInfo in this regard and I'll say that is good. Oracle is not much interested in the databases that could exist in the Access/Office world (stand alone). They are I am certain interested in the one billion internet access devices Michael predicts. And he is not alone! These macro trends and Oracle's alliance in fact affect the design of MapInfo's interest in the PDA. And we who live and breathe MapInfo should think deeply on this as well. Some background on the PDA battle between WinCE and PalmOS. The issue that seems to be the gut of the problem is a difference in how WinCE and PalmOS look at the PDA user. Microsoft has seen them as they would see the traditional PC user - alone at his Windozed workstation/PDA using the internet to gain additional information or as an embedded CPU and process that say manages a gasoline pump with a credit card access. And you have to "pay" attention to what Microsoft does. WinCE was first and foremost in my mind a way for Microsoft to reach out to the RISC (read non-Intel) processors - all silicon foundries need an OS. They needed something that looked, walked, and sounded like Windows but one that would not alienate themselves from Intel. It fit Bill's perception of a windozed world. Palm on the other hand decided that the "utility" of a PDA would require tight integration between the hardware design and the software. The very reason they have succeeded is in keeping it simple (or so we are told - I think there is more to it). Microsoft's WinCE can exist in a traditional WinTel computer (Libretto and other tiny laptops) as well in the host of RISC chips and their PDA Palm-look-alikes. I look at WinCE as Bill's attempt to slip the less than dainty foot of Windoze into Cinderella's glass slipper - or Palm's success (Still selling 7 or 8 to one over WinCE devices and did Bill really get caught on email telling his group to alter WindowsME such that PalmOS would not easily synchronize to Office?). Should your PDA carry huge RAM and virtual RAM in a tiny format (the WinCE design) or will it evolve around the concept of a small but powerful design with wireless access to essentially the WWW? This is a doubly difficult issue for we at Red Hen who support farmers, foresters, and the like. The necessary wideband wireless networks will just not appear "out there" like they are projected for our urban majority. Certainly wireless will be on the "go" our urban concentration - estimates are widespread availability next year! The cell phone technologies are lathered up over somehow getting a meter on the total bits moved versus simple time counting. And from what I hear and read the wide band 3G supporting technologies will be running upwards of 256 and over Kbaud - and in not so far distant future wireless will be faster than your LAN Ethernet! http://www.gsmdata.com/3G.htm One last confounding trend is the emergence of an ever more sophisticated PDA. How big of a memory space does a PDA need? How many devices must it connect to? Now this is where the choices really get interesting. WinCE is not the PDA for me nor does it seem to be for MapInfo. I like Palm and Palm's attitude toward licensing of its OS. Its licensing model may be what Bill and Microsoft are forced to do - someday. As of today I believe SONY, Nokia, IBM, and Handspring have licensed the PalmOS. What is interesting is that any innovation developed by them individually that extends the PalmOS must be provided to all PalmOS licensors - sort of a Linux open source but with rules. (Could someone help me here?) If you study the "next" designs pending from these PalmOS licensors you will see each has: A) an extended memory design - Handspring its Springboard; SONY its Memory Stick (up to 256MB these days), IBM with an internal proprietary design; and Palm has a as yet not widely mentioned memory definition; and B) wireless connections via cell phone technologies and stuff like Bluetooth. You can make cell phone calls now on Palms and CEs, SONY is investing heaps in SONY Style cell phones for Europe, and Nokia, well I understand that they are looking to license their "wireless" techniques everywhere.... SO .... to answer your question. Yes I believe MapInfo's MapXtend should have reasonable internal storage and superior synchronization of GIS stuff while the wireless widebanders sort themselves out. We need the PDA for not only Professional but Mapx and its Spatialware extensions for the really big servers things that will someday be all around us. I am willing to learn Java if they will help us while we await the promise of GISing anywhere at any time.... Just let us be one of the PalmOS 100,000 developers..... Thoughts? MidNight Mapper aka Neil PS - MapInfo has been working with the Palm group for many years.... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from this list, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put "unsubscribe MAPINFO-L" in the message body, or contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
