Touch screen devices are nothing new but since the debut of the iPhone, actually even before it launched, OEMs have been adding advanced touch capabilities to their devices.  One of the first touch phones to appear was the HTC Touch, a Windows Mobile smartphone that added a touch interface to make reaching for the stylus something that is done less than before.  The Sprint Touch is a newer version of the HTC Touch that has extended the touch interface to make it more capable for the user.  Joel at geek.com has posted a thorough review of the Sprint Touch and finds it easy to use sans stylus.  Take a look at the review and see if you agree with Joel.

InfoWorld reports today that Windows XP will double the price of the Asus EEE PC. While it’s true that PCs with Linux installed in lieu of a Microsoft Windows operating system are less expensive, the XP license effectively doubles the lowest end model. OEM licenses of Windows are typically less than what a consumer would pay off the retail shelf. Best Buy currently offers a full version of XP Home for $199, so Asus should certainly be paying less than that; this is a real shame.InfoWorld goes on to say that in mature markets, the high end EEE PC will cost $1,000 while that same laptop in emerging markets will cost $500. Surely, that’s not because the XP license is costing Asus $500, is it? If it is: I will personally buy an EEE PC and donate it to an underprivileged child.This does raise an interesting business question, however. We’re starting to see some very low cost computing devices. When you can get the basic hardware on a retail store shelf and offer it for a few hundred dollars, should the OS effectively double the price?

One reason that big corporations give for being slow to adopt mobile devices for employees is the ease of losing the device.  I always thought they were just using that as a cop-out for adopting new technology but this statement on InformationWeek just blew me away:

Most startling stat I heard: One NewYork-based financial services firm loses one laptop per day and fivesmartphones per day in taxicabs, says John Pironti, chief informationrisk strategist for the consulting firm Getronics. A common outcome:The cab companies sell off the gear after 30 days. How that’s for riskybusiness?

If this is true their IT staff must be the most miserable in the industry.

We are always covering how people use their wireless technology on jkOnTheRun and we have an opportunity for you to help a student working on his Masters degree in Communications Technology.  John Spinks of Strayer University is doing research for his final project that looks at how people use their mobile technology and he’s running a survey to help gather data for the project.  The survey only takes 5 minutes to complete and you’ll help this guy out.  I took it and the questions posed are thoughtful questions aimed at determining how you use your wireless technology and what you’d like to see in the future.  Give it a go and help John out.

The surprise contest that evolved out of the funny video of Kevin unboxing a Leopard was a fun one and we got a lot of good entries.  The correct answer to the question that asked "what is the prize?" is of course a full boxed version of Vista Ultimate and the lucky winner is Chris van Gorder.  Chris will be receiving his prize shortly so join me in congratulating him for winning a full copy of Vista Ultimate.  How cheeky of us to give a copy of Vista Ultimate on Mac OS X Leopard launch date.  We bad.

Don’t forget this is the first year we’ve had in quite a while (ever?) where the Daylight Savings Time start and end dates were changed. DST started earlier and ends this weekend, which is later than usual; I’m sure that Ben Franklin and William Willett are smiling down on us right now. Or maybe they were an hour ago?Palm owners will can make sure they’re not losing an hour of light by reviewing the information at the Official Palm Blog. There are links for both Palm OS and Windows Mobile devices; chances are you’ve already got the update from the pre-DST time frame, but if you missed it, now’s the time… and now you know why you’ve been an hour late to every appointment since springtime.

Hi, you don’t know me personally, but I’m in your index a bunch. I’ve been a good mobile tech boy this year and recommend your services to everyone I know. I like all of the little features you add along the way. I’m even thinking of saving myself about $150 a year by dropping my Exchange account to use your mail application; it’s even better with mobile devices since you added IMAP support.Lots of my friends are excited about the new Gmail 2.0. The Contacts look really helpful and I can keep all of my friends information there. I know you and the Google Elves are working really hard to bring Gmail 2.0 to good kids everywhere, but if you can check your “Naughty and Nice” list again, I’d appreciate it because I’m still waiting for IMAP. I know you usually don’t make mistakes with information like this, but I think I got on the wrong list. I’ll try really hard to be even better this coming year.Your friend,kctP.S. – Yes, it was me that put out the cookies for your web engineers last night. Hope they liked them.

Say what you will the HTC Advantage is an interesting device that is trying to figure out what it wants to be when it grows up.  Or maybe it won’t grow up and will just stay a small notebook-like PDA.  I think the Advantage is having a hard time figuring out what it is, a speakerphone, Skype machine, PDA, blogging machine or an ebook reader.  Actually it is all of these and more.  I decided to put the Advantage through its paces all day today so here’s how it went.

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This morning the unthinkable has happened:

All other sites work but Google can’t be accessed. The Internet may collapse!

UPDATE: it’s back! This was very strange as I was unable to access google for 30 minutes! It made me realize how dependent I have become on google and it was very unsettling indeed.

If you like the overall design of the Asus R2H UMPC but want an 800 MHz A110 CPU on the inside, it looks like your dreams come true this November. Mobility Site indicates that the current Pentium-driven R2H stock is about hit zero and that the Intel A110-based units are ready to take their place. From what I can see, this is still an 800 x 480 display with the same 512 MB of RAM installed. If the unit still has the 256 MB of on-board RAM, that will get you up to 768 MB of memory out of the box. The other big difference is a key enabler of mobility: an integrated HSDPA module for speedy mobile connectivity.