Hello List,
Today I stumbled upon an article at Pocket PC Thoughts site
(http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/) about Compaq iPAQ developer
conference, and much to my amusement found the following:
<citation>
Expansion packs also support Flash memory which, when docked with an
iPAQ, can automatically install drivers. Cool! I wonder why more vendors
don't do that - I imagine it's a cost issue. They can also support
software installs - imagine having a VGA output sleeve that would host
the presentation software! Another feature that I haven't seen used is
the ability to un-install drivers when the sleeve is removed. You can do
the same thing with CompactFlash cards - imagine having an 8 meg CF card
with a cool game on it that, when inserted, would install itself into
the registry, create a shortcut, etc.
When you're done playing the game, you remove the card and it removes
the registry entries, shortcuts, etc. Functionally, it's like a Gameboy
- applications are placed on CF cards like a console cartridge system.
The Pocket PC has had this functionality since April 2000, but I've yet
to see anyone really use this (I think the Microsoft Fun Pack did part
of what I'm describing). Developers, take note: this may be a "hook" to
consider in the future.
</citation>
Now, I'm a fairly new to Newton, but AFAIK, this technology has been
available on Newton since 1995, and these guys just start doing
_something_ like the old Newton has, and call themselves "cool"! I could
not resist posting a comment on their message board:
<citation>
Apple Newton had auto-installing drivers on cards and software that was
installed/uninstalled on-the-fly when a card was inserted/removed back
in 1995. Nice to see Pocket PC is finally starting to catch up!
</citation>
So far nobody answered that, either because they didn't read the
comments to this article, or because they didn't have anything to say!
:-)
Cheers,
Gleb Dolgich
http://www.proggle.com
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