TamsPalm – the Palm OS / web OS Blog

Aceeca’s PDA32 has been in our labs for some time – unfortunately, the current revisions of the device lack both Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity.

Aceeca has now announced the following:

As mentioned in our last newsletter, development of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for the PDA32 was underway. As of today we have completed the majority of work required to implement these additional options and we now anticipate shipping limited quantities of wireless units in late June. We will keep you advised if this schedule changes.

Aceeca is a relatively small-scale company which of course has benefits and challenges. A significant benefit is that we can work with companies looking for customization targeting niche markets. We are even able to offer customized products for relatively low volume orders, in many cases as low as 100 pieces per annum. The challenge for us however is that our engineering resources are often stretched, meaning major product releases take longer than desired. We are very sorry for the inconvenience this has caused some of our customers.

In addition, the following upcoming news updates are promised:

• Which OS?
• Rugged Low-cost Tablet
• US$149 Linux Handheld
• MEZ1500 Rugged Barcode Scanner
• MEZ1500 Rugged RFID Reader
• Garnet Home Automation Controller
• Hacker-friendly Policy

Stay tuned for further info as we get it…

The European Commission is bent on making new plans soon. The plans (not evil) will bring the European roaming rates in line with national tariffs. The new proposal, if sources are correct, will bring down the cost of roaming voice calls in the EU.

The new tariff will be bringing a sigh of relied to people who to and fro between different EU countries. The whole tariff reduction operation is phased and is proposed as follows:

• EUR0.24 per minute from EUR0.39 (currently) from July 2014. Nearly 40% reduction.
• From July 2016, higher roaming costs would effectively be abolished for voice calls altogether
• Text messages will be capped at EUR0.10 per SMS until July 2016 instead of current price of EUR0.11.
• A further cap will also be introduced on retail data roaming, which sources say may force operators to set a limit on the cost of downloading data from a device while abroad.
• The data roaming cap is expected to be initially set at EUR0.90 per MB , compared to a current average charge of EUR2.50 per MB.

If we recall, last year a legislation was introduced to limit data roaming bills to EUR50 per month (unless a customer requests a higher or lower limit) to stop instances of “bill shock” caused by consuming large amounts of mobile data while abroad.
Such a crackdown on roaming rates could have serious ramifications for mobile operators such as Vodafone, Telefonica/O2, Deutsche Telekom/T-Mobile and France Telecom/Orange. The EU is expected to sign off the draft proposal next month. What is interesting here is that this can challenged by operators.

If this draft is passed, it will be a harbinger of financial relief to customers. Whatever happens, India will still be at the top of consumer relief as the tariffs here are way (and by saying way, we mean wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy) down by what the EU wishes to accomplish by 2016.