Diane's Discoveries: CTIA Wireless 2004 Show Report

It was a thrill this year to go to Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association show (CTIA Wireless 2004) which was held in my home state of Georgia. It was great to be back in Atlanta—it was as beautiful as I remembered, with the Magnolia and Dogwood trees just starting to blossom. Each day I made my daily trek from my hotel, through the historic Centennial Olympic Park, and on to the Georgia World Congress Center, this year’s site for the show. The convention center was packed with exhibitors: it took about 30 minutes to walk from one end of the exhibit floor to the other.

Although the show’s primary focus was cellular phones and providers, there were many Windows Mobile accessories and products for me to see. Microsoft (http://www.windowsmobile.com) had a large booth and was showing off the new Motorola Smartphone. This unique device has a clamshell design with a small display that flips up or to the side, and has an integrated dial pad that doubles as a mini-keyboard.

Motorola’s New Smartphone Opens for Landscape or Portrait Viewing.

Dale Coffing (http://www.pocketpcpassion.com) was at Microsoft’s booth, giving very interesting demonstrations of Pocket PC and Smartphone applications, and handing out 32 MB MMC storage cards and copies of Pocket PC magazine.

Having just acquired a Samsung i600 Smartphone, I made tracks for Samsung’s booth to see if they had any new accessories for it. I was not disappointed—they were demonstrating their new Portable Keyboard, a flexible keyboard with a short cable that connects directly to the bottom of the i600 Smartphone and i700 http://PhoneEdition. Portable Keyboard is a flexible QWERTY keyboard 70-80% the size of a standard keyboard. I plugged the keyboard into my i600 and it was recognized immediately—the necessary software drivers are pre-installed on all i600 and i700 devices. Although shorter than a full-sized keyboard, I found it easy to type on—besides, anything beats the phone’s dial pad for text entry. This vinyl keyboard can be rolled up into a bundle about 2-inches in diameter. It comes in handy when you need to send Instant Messages, SMS, or lengthy e-mails. The keyboard retails for $69 and is available on Samsung’s Web site (http://www.samsungusa.com).

Plug and Type Keyboard for the Samsung i600 Smartphone and i700 Phone Edition Pocket PC.

I saw an i600 running the Windows Mobile 2003 operating system at the Samsung booth. I was told that it gave the i600 a big improvement in performance, and from what I saw, it did! Samsung/Verizon plans to release the Windows Mobile 2003 upgrade sometime mid-year 2004. I have no official word to whether or not it’s a free upgrade. As information becomes available, it will be posted on Samsung’s Wireless Phone Support Center (http://www.samsungtelecom.com/support/mit/).

If you need a mobile mount for your device that’s “RAM” tough, check out RAM Mounts. I saw these strong, lightweight units at the MobileCX booth (http://www.mobilecx.com). They are manufactured by National Products Inc (http://www.ram-mounts.com), a company that makes a series of mounting kits and adaptors for Pocket PCs and other devices. Their universal mount fit my Toshiba e805 like a glove. It never “popped” out of the mount on bumpy roads—like some others I’ve used—and there was little or no vibration at highway speeds. I like the fact that you can adjust the mount on its ball-joint pivot to almost any angle, and then lock it firmly in position. A complete kit usually runs under $60.