MobileViews Blog

Year: 2007

  • Sony Playstation Portable 3.73 Firmware Update vs. WiFi Settings

    I read somewhere that the Sony PSP 3.80 upgrade might be out soon. So, I fired up my PSP for the first time in a long time and checked for system upgrades. 3.80 is not out but 3.73 was available. So, downloaded it over a WiFi connection and upgraded the PSP’s firmware. After rebooting, I fired up the PSP’s WiFi again and was unable to connect to my access point?

    It turns out that the 3.73 upgrade changed something about the way the PSP WiFi settings worked. I ended up creating a new profile (very easy to do) and was back online. I wish Sony had put some kind of warning about this in the informational text they provide during the upgrade process.

  • Back to Basics: Is Turning ClearType On Actually Useful?

    Windows Mobile ClearType

    It was, I believe, at the 1997 Fall Comdex that I first saw Bill Gates announce ClearType technology for notebook LCD displays. The ClearType anti-aliasing technique’s purpose was to render easier to read text on LCD displays. I looked down at my HP 320LX and wondered if we would ever see this technology trickle down to the Windows CE Handheld PC (which had just emerged at the previous 1996 Fall Comdex). It took a few years, but we eventually saw it become available for the Pocket PC (but not the Smartphone). After it became available, I regularly turned it on for each new Pocket PC. After a while (a year or two perhaps), it began to dawn on me that text on the Pocket PC screen might actually be easier for me to read with ClearType turned off.

    I’ve tried toggling the ClearType setting on a number of Pocket PCs over the years. And, in general, I’ve been leaving the option unchecked (turned off). My non-expert guess is that as I became older and Presbyopia (a reasonably normal part of aging) set in, a kind of natural anti-aliasing was created by my visual system. So, turning on ClearType just resulted in fuzzy looking font that was harder to read than a font with aliasing.

    This probably varies greatly from person to person. So, you might want to test using your Pocket PC with ClearType turned off and on a couple of times to figure out which setting looks best to your eyes.

  • Morning Sky Capture by an HTC Advantage

    advantage20071210.jpg

    I recall reading somewhere that many (most?) people consider photos taken with cameraphones to be throw away items. I don’t happen to one of those people. I stepped out to head to work this morning and wanted to take a photo of the sky. I didn’t have a real camera. But, I did have an HTC Advantage with a 3 megapixel resolution. So, I snapped a couple of photos. The one above was resized to 320×240 but otherwise not modified. Glad I had the Advantage with me to capture the sky this morning.

    The photo below was taken 10 years ago with my first digital camera: A Kodak DC20. This image is also not modified. In fact, it is not even resized. The photo below is the full resolution of that 10 year old camera: 493×373. Weird resolution, eh? One thing that struck me though is that comparing the sub-megapixel photos I took 10 years ago with the DC20 has better depth of field than any of my current cameraphones. And, the images from the DC20 seem, in general, to be sharper and have greater contrast than any of my cameraphones.

    So, we still have a way to go before most of the current generation cameraphones catch up to 1997 digital cameras. But, cameraphone photos are still better than none at all.

    Photo from a 1997 Kodak DC20 digital camera

  • Weather.gov Mobile Friendly Sites (U.S.)

    mobile.weather.gov radar page

    To say the weather has been whacky recently is, at best, an understatement. If you are in the U.S. and want to get a better handle on the weather situation, the U.S. National Weather Service has two mobile friendly sites:

    mobile.weather.gov is for devices with mobile web browsers
    cell.weather.gov is for devices with WAP browsers

  • Download Google Spreadsheet to Windows Mobile

    Google Spreadsheet Excel Export

    I only noticed this Google Spreadsheet feature today. But, it may have been available for a while. If you use a Windows Mobile Pocket PC or Smartphone with Google Spreadsheet, it gives you the option to download an Excel XLS file. This worked fine for me. The XLS spreadsheet opened up in Excel Mobile right after the download finished.

    This is a great feature for me. It means that I can frequently used spreadsheets in Google Docs and download them to a Pocket PC or Smartphone when I want to work with them offline. Unfortunately, you cannot email the spreadsheet back to Google Docs as you can with text documents. I’ll guess this feature will appear someday though.

  • Back to Basics: What Apps Run on Windows Mobile? Part II

    Windows Mobile devices are not limited to the native or managed (.NET Compact Framework) code for applications.

    Although Microsoft does not provide a Java runtime, many manufacturers add a Java Midlet Manager to their WiMo products. You’ll need this if you want to use products such as the Operamini browser or some (but not all) of Google’s WiMo products.

    There are also a few programming languages that actually allow you to develop on a WiMo device itself. NS Basic/CE is one that comes to mind since I actually first tried it on my old Apple Newton Messagepad. It lets you create applications using the BASIC programming language. The “CE” part of its name comes from “Windows CE”. I’ve heard about ports of Open Source programming languages such as Python and Ruby for Windows Mobile. But, I have not tried them myself (though I used to write in Python a lot on Linux boxes before I switched to Ruby).

    Some 3rd part Windows Mobile database applications let you create what amounts to an application (from my point of view) with screen forms generator to build graphical interfaces to the database. Syware Visual CE and HanDBase are two database products that I’ve tried and enjoyed using in the past.

    I’m sure I neglected to mention a few things like an add-on scripting/macro tool or an application with built-in scripting. Please let me know if you have recommendations for other products that provide application or app-like building capabilities for Windows Mobile.