A variety of Windows Mobile devices, accessories, and wireless technologies were on display
We were very saddened to see the terrible destruction and loss of life in New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina. We hope that Pocket PC magazine readers will consider donating to help the victims through the charity of their choice, or through the Red Cross (http://american.redcross.org).
New Orleans hosted this year's CTIA, the largest trade show for the wireless industry. Over 80,000 attendees and almost 1,000 exhibitors packed the Morial Convention Center. New Orleans may be The Big Easy, but the show wasn't. The Morial is the length of 14 football fields, and we got our fair share of exercise visiting booths, meeting with developers, and looking for wireless Windows Mobile solutions.
Also available were special interest group meetings, including the Mobile Entertainment Summit (with an emphasis on games and content delivered via cell phones), the Tower Summit (for mobile operators who build and maintain cell towers), the Smartphone Solutions Summit, and the Mobile Content Developer Workshop. Cell phone manufacturers were out in force, as were mobile operators like Cingular, T Mobile, Sprint and Verizon. HP had a solid presence, as did other manufacturers like Samsung and Siemens and Audiovox. Accessory vendors showed off cases, chargers, and everything in between.
CTIA floor
Headsets, GPS solutions, and more
A variety of interesting accessories were on display at CTIA.
Wireless headsets
We met with the top two wireless headset makers.
Jabra (http://www.jabra.com) showed us their line of Bluetooth-enabled headsets, including the BT800, an innovative device with built-in caller ID, menu, and volume control. Also of interest was their A210, a Bluetooth adapter that plugs into a 2.5 mm mobile phone headset jack, allowing the phone to communicate wirelessly with any Jabra Bluetooth headset.
The Jabra BT800, a Bluetooth-enabled wireless headset for Smartphones and Pocket PC Phone Edition devices.
The Plantronics booth (http://www.plantronics.com) had a variety of wired and wireless headsets for Windows Mobile devices. In addition, they showed us pre-release versions of some new entry-level and premium Bluetooth headsets due for release this summer and fall. Perhaps the most interesting thing we saw at their booth was a yet-to-be-released product called the Voyager 510s. This "multi-point" Bluetooth system includes a headset and an adapter that adds Bluetooth capability to your desk phone. This allows you to answer calls from your desk phone via the wireless headset, and also use the headset with a Bluetooth-equipped mobile phone when you are out of the office.
The Plantronics MP2500 Bluetooth headset.
New GPS software releases
Both Tom-Tom and Destinator were on hand at the show to announce new versions of their GPS routing software.
Version 5 of Destinator from HSTC (http://www.destinator1.com) is available now for the Smartphone (Destinaotr SP), and for the Pocket PC (Destinator PN) in the second quarter. It supports the landscape/portrait display switching of Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition (Pocket PC only), and switches maps automatically as you move from location to location. In the new Pedestrian mode, the software figures out where you are, checks the time of day, and adds a time-accurate shadow on the display to help you orient yourself with reference to the position of the sun. That's a clever bit of value-added programming that will make it easier to stay found and harder to get lost.
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