My Digital Life

My Windows Mobile application list as of January 3rd

My new AT&T Tilt has brought a new environment with a host of updated applications found in Dutty's DualTouch ROM. I am pretty much using the same set of applications I have been using. The one very nice feature of the ROM is that applications like Battery Status and Total Commander are included in the ROM (I added an In ROM section). With over 110MB of available Program memory I have installed all of my application in Program Memory. I am currently at 88MB, which is excellent.  This leaves my 2GB free for media and documents. I tried to use the HTC Home screen but found that the spb Mobile Shell was still superior along with PocketBreeze. So my Today screen remains the same.

There is very nice utility called AdvancedConfig version 1.1 which allows you to tweak all of the performance variable and suggests appropriate settings.

duttythroy has a great library of application cabs here.

Eventhough Dutty's post on xda-developers says that the .NET Compact Framework 3.5 is installed in ROM, I had to install the .NET CF 2.0 for Zagat To Go and the AdvancedConfig utility reports .Net CF version 2.0.6129.0 so I am not sure what is going on..

Device Information:

• PPC Model: Kaiser
• OS ROM version: CE OS 5.2.1933 (Build 18533.dutty's) V2
• Radio ROM version: 1.27.12.32
• Carrier: T-Mobile USA

Additions:

• AdvancedConfig version 1.1
• duttythroy Adobe Reader version 2_00_288531
• Google Maps version 2.0.012

Upgrades:

• Omega One 1-Calc version 2.3.1
• PhatWare Phatpad version 4.4
• Ilium Software eWallet version 6
• BatteryStatus version 1.04.203 Beta4 Build 0253 (built into ROM)
• JetWare Bluetooth HFP Extensions version 1.31
• C. Ghisler & Co. Total Commander version 2.5 Beta 3 (built into ROM)
• Windows Live Search version 2.5.2908.31943 (I love the speak feature)

Replacements/Removal:

• Back Country Navigator  version 2.3.3 (I don't use it enough)
• Holux's GPS Viewer 1.5 (similar although less powerful application GPS Test 1.04 built in to ROM)

Is not stable with Windows Mobile 6:

• SWC Ltd - MultiIE version v4.0-d72

Need to Try:

• Stowaway Keyboard and Mouse drivers version 4.51
• Fizz Software Ltd Fizz Weather version 2.4
• Gougelet PE XnView Pocket version 1.35
• Sunnysoft's Backup Manager 4002 (review here)
• SlingPlayer Mobile version 1.5.098

In Storage Memory:

• Spb Mobile Shell version 1.5
• PhatWare Calligrapher version 8.5
• JetWare Bluetooth HFP Extensions version 1.31
• WebIS Pocket Informant 2007 revision 4
• SBSH.net PocketBreeze version 5.3
• Windows Live Search version 2.5.2908.31943 (I love the speak feature)
• WebIS VoiceMinder version 1.6
• Omega One 1-Calc version 2.3.1
• PhatWare Phatpad version 4.4
• Ilium Software eWallet version 6
• Ilium Software Newsbreak version 2.0
• Zagat To Go Version 5.0.14
• Developer One ScreenSnap version 6.1

In ROM Memory:

• C. Ghisler & Co. Total Commander version 2.5 Beta 3
• BatteryStatus version 1.04.203 Beta4 Build 0253 (no overclocking with the Kaiser)

On 2GB Mini SD card:

For the moment I have no need to install application on the SD card...

Microsoft finally releases Windows Mobile Office Mobile 6.1

Office Mobile 6.1 has now been officially released for Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC and Windows Mobile 6 devices. 

Per the Microsoft web site:

"To allow Windows Mobile users to work with Office documents created in the Open XML formats, Microsoft has developed an upgrade for Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, and PowerPoint Mobile applications. This upgrade to the Office Mobile applications allows viewing and editing of Word documents and Excel workbooks and viewing of PowerPoint slideshows created by using Microsoft Office 2007

Other improvements include:

• Enhanced viewing experience for charts in Excel Mobile
• Ability to view SmartArt in PowerPoint Mobile
• Ability to view and extract files from compressed (.zip) folders"

This upgrade only works for Windows Mobile powered devices that have an earlier version of Office Mobile. If your Windows Mobile powered device does not have Office Mobile applications, this upgrade will not work for you. You can purchase Windows Mobile full Office Mobile suite from handango.

The .msi install is available free from Microsoft here.

Google Maps Mobile 2.0

 

Update 11/30/07: After using the new version of Google Maps yesterday, here are my thoughts. This is a nice feature but currently it is not very usable unless you are driving along roads like interstate highway where cell towers are placed along the side of the road. Driving from point a to b on an interstate highway gives you pretty good location accuracy, however once you drive into a neighborhood the location information is not very accurate and I find it less than useful. Hopefully Google can tweak their calculation to make this feature more usefull.

Google just released a new version of Google Maps for Windows Mobile (download link) which includes an interesting beta feature that attempts to determine your location based on the cell tower you are connected to and your signal strength.

The feature worked with my T-Mobile Wing, however I could not get it to work with the Verizon i760 ("your location is temporarily unavailable"). On the T-Mobile Wing, it told me that my location was within 1700 meters from the tower. Unfortunately it did not give any indication of direction from the tower. Right now the beta feature does not seem to useful, however I think it has potential if they can figure out direction from the tower. I will be trying it in different locations today and will report back.

 

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 6 - Message flags

One of the feature I use daily in the desktop version of Outlook is flags. Flags are very useful to highlight a message and add a reminder without having to create a task. I sort my inbox by flag, then by date received. This provides me with my flagged email at the top of my inbox view. 

In Outlook 2003, flags and categories were linked together. Flags could have categories associated with them. This allowed you to categorize as well as highlight messages with one action. In Outlook 2007, the Office team decided to break out categories and flags. Categories are now separate from flags. From a view perspective this broke the way I sorted my messages, since categories are now sorted independently from flags. I have not been able to sort the messages in Outlook 2007 the way I had them in Outlook 2003. I have found categories to be very useful in the past but now that I can't sort them within flags I find that I don't use them as much. I do however use flags quite a bit and now with Windows Mobile 6 and Exchange 2007 we have the ability to use flags in Mobile Outlook.

A tap on a message displays the menu with the flag options.

The only missing feature in Windows Mobile 6 is the ability to set an associated reminder on the message. Also message flag reminders are not synced to Windows Mobile 6. Hopefully, the next version of Windows Mobile will provide these features.