December, 2004

December meeting had an excellent turn out.  Traditionally December is a tough month for members to get to the meetings.  We had a full house come out for our first annual SWAP meet and also listen to a few of the members cover the whole gamut of mobile technologies available from under $99 all the way up to $3500 plus.  We even welcomed two new members!  Check out the Presentation BY CLICKING HERE.  Also our host John Williams gave a quick presentation on new mobile techy items just around the corner.  Check out his presentation HERE.

Earl was the "new gadget person" this month presenting his portion using his new Axim x50v VGA Pocket PC directly connected to the Laptop projector with a just a cable and his PDA!

November, 2004

4 YEARS and still growing !!! November Meeting marked our 4th Anniversary.  It was 4 years ago that a group of guys met at the Greentree Holiday Inn for the Microsoft Extreme Event (where nationwide - Beth Goza from Microsoft welcomed the Pittsburgh Pocket PC Group into existence). The First Picture is of the group that started it all (all founders are still members today).  The November meeting was in Pittsburgh at Eckert, Seamans, Cherin & Mellott, LLC, where a large group of members met to listen to Joe Morgo and Andy Ai present on Voice Over IP.    I think everyone walked away excited at the prospect of VOIP.  Attached is the presentation on Vonage (seamless service that uses your current phones) and SKYPE (the free service).  Also some documents on VOIP Technology . 

Vance Huggins was the "new gadget person" this month.  He showed us the latest from ATT wireless with a Mobile 2003 SE Phone running Media Player 10 ... 

October, 2004

Hopefully everyone arrived at the correct meeting location for October.  Last minute emergency had us back in Pittsburgh at Eckert, Seamans, Cherin & Mellott, LLC, where a small but close group of members met to discuss and show off some new gadgets that had.  Andy Ai pulled out the newest Color Blackberry unit to ooh and aww the group.  That was followed by Wayne McCurdy and his TMobile Mobile 2003 Pocket PC Phone ...  As we head into another Christmas season we expect the group to be sharing more neat new gadgets by year end.

September, 2004

The September meeting was back in Pittsburgh at Eckert, Seamans, Cherin & Mellott, LLC, where we were discussed 40 things to do with your Mobile Device.  Three members provided presentations and demonstrations.  Bill Lewellyn showed us how to play back TV shows on his Dell PocketPC and then went on to show us how he remotely using his cell phone for a WAP connection to his PC at home scheduled it to automatically record to his Hard Drive a BBC News cast later in the week.  Finally he used a USB camera and streamed the video wirelessly via 802.11b adhoc to the Pocket PC.  Folowing that we had a presentation by Joe on using going mobile when StarGazing and Viewing Photos on a PocketPC.  Next up the Pres Wayne showed us all sorts of neat programs and utilities, including a program to bring any document you like with you, a PowerPoint for Pocket PC Program, and a program to take your favorite DVDS on the road.  Batting cleanup was our host John Williams showed us all the stuff the Garmin GPS Palm unit was capable of ...  We assigned about a dozen programs for our members to review for the upcoming meetings.

August, 2004

The August meeting was hosted at Shaw Environmental, Inc. in Monroeville, where we were all introduced to Mobile Music with Satellite Radio Service.  Two members provided presentations of connectivity that demonstrated the various hardware and methods to connect to Satellite Radio.  It was an excellent comparison of the two players in the market XM Radio and Sirius Radio.  Both had their pros and cons based on what type of music or news/sports you wanted to hear.  Kirby Lynch put on an excellent PowerPoint show to discuss the background and technology behind Satellite Radios.  CLICK HERE to check out the presentation from August.

July, 2004

For July we met downtown Pittsburgh where we first heard from Mike Farb about how FedEx Ground is utilizing mobile technology (the Industrial Style Handhelds using Pocket PC OS) and how they are using in-house applications development to deliver "The World on Time".  We saw the older and new units and learned how the drivers find where they need to go and send back information both end of day and real-time for package deliveries. 

Richard Schmidt from Inmedius spoke about his firm's sophisticated operational knowledge management solutions, which use the latest in mobile technology.  Inmedius has developed applications used by the US Navy's F/A-18 SuperHornet program and the U.S. Joint Explosive Ordnance Disposal (JEOD) force (Inmedius technology is being used right now in Iraq!), as well as many other military agencies and industrial companies.  Inmedius is a local Pittsburgh company with global reach  Check out Inmedius at www.inmedius.com. 

It was a fantastic opportunity to see how REAL companies (not to mention our military forces) are using MOBILE TECHNOLOGY to capture, share, and utilize expert knowledge to increase efficiency, reduce cycle times, and improve safety and operational readiness - whether it's to get an F-18 in the air faster or as Richard showed us, help our military safely diffuse an explosive device or every day to get our mail order items safely to our door ...

June, 2004

The June meeting was hosted at Shaw Environmental, Inc. in Monroeville, where we were all introduced to Mobile Connectivity of all kinds.  Several members provided presentations of connectivity that ranged from ad-hoc wireless to cell phone modems to infrastructure wireless connections.  The ad-hoc and poor man's cell phone connectivity communication presentation is here.  The 802.11b presentation is here.  Others will be posted in the future.

May, 2004

The board needed a spring break so no meeting was held for the month of May.

April, 2004

The April meeting was hosted at Eaton Electrical offices, where we were all introduced to Mobile Digital Video.  William Lewellyn showed us a presentation on digital video definitions, ripping, and viewing on your digital device.  For those new to digital video have a look at the presentation.

March, 2004

The March meeting was hosted in Monroeville at Panera Bread, where we were all introduced to Mobile Digital Music.  Wayne McCurdy showed us a presentation on digital music.  For those new to digital music have a look at the presentation.

February, 2004

The February meeting was hosted in downtown Pittsburgh at the law offices of Eckert, Seamans, Cherin & Mellott, LLC, where we were all introduced to Mobile Digital Photography.  Phillip Stearns, our president, gave an outstanding presentation for our users looking to get into Digital Mobile Photography.  For those new to digital photography have a look at the presentation.

January, 2004

The January meeting was held at the offices of Shaw Environmental, Inc. in Monroeville.  We discussed and had a presentation on a Toshiba Tablet PC.  All of us had a chance to try the tablet as well.  In addition, we celebrated Phillip's birthday after the presentation.  Happy Birthday Mr. President!