My Digital Life

Daylight Saving Times - Don't forget to update your Windows Mobile device if you have not done so...

In the US and Canada we will "fall back" into Standard Time on November 4th , If you have not updated your device previously, I would recommend doing to now. the Windows Mobile update can be found here.

You can download the update directly on your Windows Mobile device using Pocket Internet Explorer and this URL http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile.

The Windows Mobile mobile update page.

The week of October 29th in My Digital Life

Last Saturday, I received a Verizon Samsung SCH-i760 Windows Mobile phone to review for pocketnow.com. This phone has an interesting form factor with a numeric phone keypad on the front and a sliding qwerty keyboard. It has a 400MHZ processor and will be an interesting comparison to my T-Mobile Wing's 260MHZ overclocked processor. This will be my first video review. The video reviews are usually made up of 6 clips lasting about 3 minutes. They detail the aspects and operation of the device. I posted the  first in the series (the unboxing) today at pocketnow.com. This is an interesting medium, which requires more practice on my part...I am using my Sony DSC-W70 7.2 MP still camera to shoot the videos. I am consistently amazed at the quality of the videos it takes.

I finally finished my comparison of Windows Live Search 2.5 and Google Maps applications for Windows Mobile. During the process, I was amazed how much better Windows Live Search was than Google Maps. The article should get posted shortly on pocketnow.com.

These days it seems Apple makes news every couple of days. Today, the Wall Street Journal had article about Apple's new policy on the sale of iPhones. They will no longer accept cash and are limiting purchases to 2 units per person (the previous limit was 5). They are trying to stem the flow of sales to resellers. Tim Cook, Apple's COO mentioned in a conference call with analysts last week that Apple estimates that out of the 1.4 Million iPhone solds, 250,000 were purchased by customers intending to hack them (a fairly significant number). The iPhone dev team has finally put together a simple method to jailbreak version 1.1.1. Instructions can be found here. I may restore via iTunes this week and try it.

This week:

• Work on part 1 and 2 of my video review of the SCH-i760.
• Finnish a review of the iqua BHS-303 Bluetooth headset. Bluetooth headset are getting better and better, this one is quite impressive so far
• I am also adding a Sirius satellite receiver to my BMW. After my navigation computer and radio tuner upgrade, this should be plug and play. The real work will be installing the antenna inside the X5's rear spoiler, but the X5world instructions are excellent.

GMail gets IMAP

Google is in the process of implementing IMAP support for GMail (link). I mention in "process", since the option has not yet shown up on my settings page under Forwarding and POP, the new page link will display Forwarding and POP/IMAP.

It looks like they are targeting their help to iPhone users...

Windows Mobile - Office 2007 compatibility update

After announcing the update, Microsoft pulled it from its website. I found a link on Howard Forums which points to a download of the .cab file.

I installed the file last night. It is huge at 6.1MB so I placed it on my Storage Card. The installation created a Windows directory on my Storage Card. I am wondering if the installation would have just overwritten the previous Office Mobile files in Storage Memory. After the installation I got into a continual reboot situation which necessitated the removal of the omap850_sdhc.dll (per my post), very bizarre. I may try reinstalling in Storage Memory.

After I got passed the reboot problem, I synced some Office 2007 files and successfully opened them.

The week of October 15th in My Digital Life

As of yesterday Directv has launched over 70 of the 100 HD channels promised by year's end. They have started an all out media campaign to enroll HD subscribers by touting their lead over the cable companies. This is a good, given that it will take some time for the cable companies to react. The cable companies are stuck in the mire of having to transmit older analog signals which eats up a major portion of their bandwidth. They have to start managing bandwidth in the same way Directv has done from day 1. It will be interesting to see how many cable subscribers Directv is able to capture.

Last week the iPhone dev team finally broke through Apple's new encryption mechanism in the iPhone's latest firmware. Currently there seems to be only one solution to unlock the GSM phone; iPhoneSimFree (IPSF) is a paying service ($59.99) which seems to truly unlock the phone vs patching the baseband radio firmware. I plan on trying this method this week, however I have to first restore my baseband radio firmware in order to use IPSF. The process is the same as when I used patched the baseband in the first place, I just have to use Apple's original baseband firmware.

I have been working on a Windows Mobile Google Maps vs Windows Live Search comparison, just to learn today that there is a new version which includes voice recognition. This is a pretty big leap frog over what Google offers. I will have to see how well it works. My client update feature did not light up, so I downloaded it using Pocket IE at http://wls.live.com. The version is 2.5.2840.19676. The new version includes gas prices, pretty cool.

This week:

• Rework my comparison of Windows Live Search 2.5 and Google Maps for Windows Mobile.
• Update my iPhone to 1.1.1 and use iPhoneSimFree to unlock the phone.

Ilium Software releases Tipster 2.1 (a free Windows Mobile application)

Ilium Software just released version 2.1 of their free Tipster tip and tax calculator.

Per Ilium Software Blog:

"Tipster 2.1 is fully optimized for Windows Mobile 5.0 and Windows Mobile 6, and is compatible with your Pocket PC (Windows Mobile Professional) or Smartphone (Windows Mobile Standard) device. Visit our free products page to download your copy of this great free application today!"

Windows Mobile - T-Mobile Wing messaging button (number 4)

The messaging button (number 4) on the right side of the Wing allows you access the Messaging application directly with a single press, holding down the button will invoke the Voice Notes application. I remapped the messaging button hold function to use VoiceMinder from WebIS which emails me my voice notes, since Exchange ActiveSync does not synchronize Notes (you have to connect up to a PC).

Another feature the message button performs is cycling to mailboxes while your are in the Messaging application. I had been using the D-Pad right and left actions but this gives me another navigation options.

BTW; if you want to change your button to application mappings, all you need to do is use the start/settings/personal Buttons application. The only button that has a press and hold feature is button 4.

I have modified the default on button 3 to launch the CommManager application and button 4 hold to launch the VoiceMinder application.

Windows Mobile - Daylight Savings Time update

Microsoft just released a Windows Mobile update for Daylight Savings Time for both 5.0 and 6. I thought the DST fix was part of Windows Mobile 6, I guess I was wrong.

From Microsoft:

"This release updates time zone registry data for New Zealand and Western Australia in addition to US, Canada, and Mexico DST related issues in 2007."

Download link.

Zagat Survey announces .mobi web site

Zagat Survey, the restaurant, hotel, and nightlife rating organization announced the availability of their web site formatted for mobile devices, zagat.mobi. They provide free restaurant, hotel, nightlife location information for major metropolitan areas, however if you want to view the detailed rating information you will have to pony up a $24.95 yearly subscription fee which is well worth it since the reviews are mostly generated by locals.

Zagat.mobi provides a wide selection of search criterias.

The paid subscription provides detailed review information. You can dial the establishment directly and SMS or email the information. The Find Nearby functions is also very helpful, however there is no mapping functionality. I would love to have this type of information integrated with Windows Live Search.

Zagat Survey also has a Windows Mobile application called Zagat To Go which does include a basic mapping capability, however it does not allow you to dial the establishment's phone number directly (my number one pet peeve with the application), you can't even cut and paste it. I reviewed version 4.0 on pocketnow.com here. Version 5 is now available, other than support for Windows Mobile 5.0 and 6, it has few enhancements. The annual subscription fee is $29.95.

Windows Mobile - Messaging application account picker screen option

The Windows Mobile 6 messaging application displays an account picker screen by default when pressing the messaging button or tapping the link to the messaging application.

The account picker screen. I use Outlook E-mail 90% of the time so having this extra layer to go through is cumbersome.

You can change the messaging application's behavior to display the last mailbox folder accessed by un-checking the "Display account picker when opening Messaging" under Menu/Tools/Options.

The Outlook E-mail inbox display, when you need to switch from one mailbox to another you can use the right and left D-Pad, no need for the extra display.