Software upgrade “shot in the arm” for Pepper coming soon…

Posted on January 6th, 2006 in Pepper Pad.

More info about the Pepper’s software update is around, and it’s oh so tasty. It’s also been officially announced – more coverage on Engadget.

The applications page on pepper.com has been updated with the three major application enhancemnets coming in Pepper Keeper 2.1:

  • MobiPocket Reader: looks like Pepper hooked up with MobiPocket for an e-book reader. They say you can download content from MobiPocket to your Pepper Pad or Pepper Desktop. Will it work with MobiPocket’s publisher software, so I can convert PDFs for reading on the Pepper? Geez I hope so.
  • Flickr-enabled Photo Library: performance improvements to the already good Photo Library are bundled with Flickr enhancements. You’ll be able to put your Flickr account info on the Pad and publish your photos to Flickr. Did you know that the Photo Library already has lots of easy to use retouching tools – like red-eye reduction, cropping/rotating and more? For me it’s like the best parts of Picasa but portable.
  • TitanTV-enabled Remote Control: I already wrote about setting up the Pad’s excellent Remote Control app, but now it will be integrated with TitanTV’s interactive program guide. You’ll be able to tap on the IPG and the Pepper will automatically take you to the channel, no matter what TV or Satellite/Cable box you have. Sounds frickin’ sweet, except that TitanTV only has US program data – I live in Canada and use StarChoice Satellite TV.

This is all in addition to the stuff I’ve already talked about: Linux 2.6 kernel, speed improvements, hardware-accelerated video playback, FireFox 1.5 update, and development libraries.

 

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4 replies

  1. Doug says:

    Added on January 6th, 2006 at 10:47 am

    I’m looking forward to the update as well. I’ve been satisfied with mine so far
    (but I do get tired of the “why don’t you just buy a cheap laptop/tablet” comments from people).
    I read something recently that I thought said a new version of the pepper hardware (battery, antenna, …)
    would be out later this year. Do you know if I remember that correctly or not?

  2. chuma (blog author) says:

    Added on January 6th, 2006 at 11:02 am

    When people ask me that question, the main response I shoot back is “I don’t want to spend my time managing ANOTHER Windows POS”. Also, I haven’t seen these “cheap tablets” anywhere… everything in that range is over a grand.

    The “new hardware” thing you read might have been from the guy at mypepperpad.blogspot.com – he said that he send his back for a repair and they replaced part of the case to improve the WiFi reception. I asked Pepper Support about it and they said that it was only an issue on the ver-r-r-y first few units that were shipped – since mine is a rev “A004” (first four digits of the serial number) it already has the improved case.

  3. Jonathan Wise says:

    Added on January 9th, 2006 at 12:12 pm

    I actually read there’s a rev. 2 pepperpad coming out this year… not sure where, probably engadget

  4. chuma (blog author) says:

    Added on January 9th, 2006 at 12:34 pm

    Jon – thanks for the post, I just checked it out. (One day I will attend a CES… one day…)

    Anyways. My feeling is that some of that stuff will be in the upcoming software update – WMV9, VoIP, UPnP discovery, Bluetooth 2.0. I don’t own a G-class wireless router, so the network update is moot for me. (Besides, the network card is socketed anyways, so I could probably replace it today if I wanted to).

    I do want that better battery though! Curse you, bleeding-edge hardware!