MobileViews Blog

Year: 2007

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

    You might think this a trick question. How could figuring out what applications run on a Windows Mobile device be difficult? You run Windows Mobile software on Windows Mobile devices, right? Kind of…

    There’s a number of factors that makes answering this question a bit more difficult than it ought to be. First, there’s the Professional vs. Classic vs. Standard Editions (aka Pocket PC Phone Edition, Pocket PC, Smartphone). Software designed to run on a touch screen device (Pocket PC) might not work well or at all on a non-touch screen (Smartphone).

    Second, the basic graphical user interface (GUI) for the Pocket PC line changed dramatically starting with Windows Mobile 5. That’s when Microsoft took away the bottom area to use it for the two giant (relatively speaking) soft keys to match the Smartphone UI. This bottom area of the Pocket PC screen was used for menus prior to WiMo 5.

    Third, you might run into legacy software designed for older Windows Mobile/Windows CE devices such as the Handheld PC, Palm-size PC and old Pocket PC veresions. For many years, Windows CE devices used multiple processor architectures. If you see applications that have versions for the SH3 and ARM processors, you are probably looking at very old software. There is, however, a decent change that old ARM based applications might run on your current generation Pocket PC. However, it may look odd or not run 100% correctly.

    Fourth, and this might surprise you, Microsoft actually drops features with each succeeding WiMo generation. For example, the current WiMo 6 does not have a way to use ActiveSync or WMDC to sync and transform Access databases from the original MDB format to CDB. This means that older database applications that depended on this transformation feature won’t work.

    Fifth, different generations of devices had different or no support for the .NET Compact Framework. So, .NET CF based applications won’t work on those older devices.

    Sixth, there are other kinds of applications besides native and .NET CF apps such as Java. Stay tuned for Part II of this discussion about running applications on a Windows Mobile device.

  • New Google Interface for iPhone/iPod touch

    Google Interface for iPhone and iPod touch

    I just read on TechCrunch that Google quietly launched a new interface for Apple’s iPhone (and iPod touch too by default). If you have your iPhone (or iPod touch with WiFi turned on) handy, just head over to google.com. You don’t need to type a special URL. Your iPhone will be autodetected and sent to the new interface. Switching between web-areas (say from Home to Gmail or Calendar) is instantaneous.

    Heading over to Google with a Pocket PC or Smartphone redirects you to the older and, unfortunately, uglier, mobile device interface. This widening gap between the iPhone and Windows Mobile devices should be a great concern to Microsoft’s Windows Mobile team. iPhone Safari users (and iPod touch users) are clearly getting a more satisfying mobile browsing experience than Windows Mobile Internet Explorer users. This is clearly reflected in the Gartner data I quoted in my previous blog that shows the iPhone browser use marketshare has eclipsed Windows Mobile browser use marketshare in the less than 6 months since the iPhone launched.

  • iPhone Browser Marketshare Greater than Windows Mobile

    According to the Gartner data reported in this Computerworld blog item…

    iPhone browsing marketshare closes in on .1%

    … the iPhone browser marketshare eclipsed the total Windows Mobile browser marketshare in less than half a year. That is pretty impressive considering that Windows CE/Windows Mobile has been around since late 1996. The iPhone checks in with 0.09% of the browser market share while Windows CE (aka Windows Mobile plus a few other devices) had a 0.06% share. Something listed as simply iPod in the list is probably the iPod touch and has a 0.01% share. If you add that to the iPhone, it has a full 0.10% browser share. I guess this explains why so many sites are building iPhone tuned web pages. The iPhone clearly has momentum in the mobile browsing world.

    Other points of interest: The Nokia S60 series has a 0.01% share (same as the iPod touch). The Hiptop shows up with 0.02%. Windows XP is #1 with a 78.37% share. And, Windows Vista is a distant second with a 9.19% share. The Mac is divided into two categories: MacIntel (3.59%) and Mac OS (presumably PowerPC based with 3.22%) with a combined share of 6.81%.

  • An Actual Mobi Site: ESPN.mobi

    ESPN.mobi

    Ok, despite my comment a while back that there aren’t any dot-mobi sites, I guess there are a few. Here’s one you might find useful as holiday basketball tournaments and college bowl games approach.

    ESPN.mobi

  • Windows Mobile Office Mobile 6.1 Can Read and Write Office 2007 Files

    After a false start a few months ago, the Office Mobile 6.1 update is finally available. Well, at least it hasn’t been pulled back again so far. You can find information about the upgrade at…

    Microsoft Office Mobile Upgrade

    For the first time it is also possible to purchase a package. You can find this on Handango at…

    Handango Microsoft Office Mobile

    I can already tell this upgrade is going to cause a huge amount of confusion. So, lets try to figure it out here. Let’s start with the statement on the upgrade page that says: Have a Windows Mobile 6 smartphone or Windows Mobile 5.0 touch screen device. See where they say smartphone? Microsoft doesn’t mean the smartphone pretty nearly 100% of the world thinks about: Windows Mobile devices that do not have touch screens (aka Standard Edition). These days Microsoft refers to both the Standard and Professional Editions as smartphone. I’m pretty sure the WiMo6 Classic Edition can be upgraded too. So, Microsoft’s own add copy is probably wrong since their use of the term smartphone does not include the Classic.

    Now, let’s look at the phrase Windows Mobile 5.0 touch screen device. This refers to either a Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC or Pocket PC Phone Editon (Classic or Professional in WiMo6 lingo). Their branding shift has messed up the nomenclature so much that it is even hard to clearly say things clearly in their own explanatory copy. Sigh.

    Now, let’s turn our attention to the for-fee full copy of Office Mobile 6.1 for US$49.95. As far as I can figure, this is unnecessary for the vast majority of Windows Mobile 6 device users/owners. However, manufacturers/carriers had the option to remove various pieces from WiMo6 on their device (Remote Desktop Connection seemed to cause the most outcry). So, if your WiMo6 device does not have Office Mobile on it (perhaps a GPS or some kind of semi-vertical market device), this may be for you. Check carefully though. And, note that this is NOT for a Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone.

    So let’s review what can be upgraded according to Microsoft and what should be able to be upgraded though not explicitly stated in their product copy: Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC Phone Edition, Windows Mobile 6 Standard Edition, and Windows Mobile 6 Professional Edition are all eligible for the upgrade. Presumably, this upgrade should also work for the Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC and Windows Mobile 6 Classic Edition devices too. But, your mileage may vary since this is not explicitly said in the Microsoft text on the subject.

    Finally, what does upgrading Office Mobile 6.1 give you? One single thing (as far as I know): The ability to read and write native Office 2007 files (DOCS, XLSX, PPTX).

    Are we all clear now? Probably not. Sigh.

  • Google Maps Mobile vs. Microsoft Live Search Mobile

    Google Maps Mobile no My Location

    Google and Microsoft both recently released new mobile mapping services: Google Maps Mobile and Microsoft Live Search Mobile. Google Maps seems to respond and refresh the screen faster (compared on the same device using the same network). But, its new My Location feature that tries to figure out your location without a GPS didn’t work for me. I tried it in two locations about 10 miles apart.

    Here’s what surprised me though. I generally use Google Maps when using a desktop or notebook PC. And, I might use Google Maps Mobile if I were actually looking for a specific place for which I already have an address and just need to know where it is located geographically. However, I think the Live Search Categories, Movies, and Gas Prices features invites more exploration to see what’s around as a simple interesting exercise.

    There are  couple of things about Live Search Mobile that irritates me though. The fonts on a Smartphone (I use a Dash) are too small for my aging eyes. They look ok on a Pocket PC with a 640×480 screen though. I also found that characters were disappearing and reappearing for every character I typed when searching over an EDGE connection. It was not as noticeable when using a WiFi connection. The speech recognition is if-fy in noisy environments (I tested that aspect in a Starbucks). It seems to be reasonably good in a perfectly quiet room though (but how often to we have that luxury?).