MobileViews Blog

Author: todd

  • Dual Booting Linux/Windows OLPC in the Future?

    Computerworld’s article…

    OLPC developing dual-boot Windows, Linux OS for laptops

    …reports that there are plans to produce an OLPC that can dual-boot Linux or Microsoft Windows. When I first heard people suggest this, I was against it. I couldn’t imagine how to shoehorn something as huge as Windows Vista or even Windows XP into the tiny flash drive space built into the OLPC. But, the idea is starting to grow on me… especially as I find the various little limitations in the mini-Fedora environment it has now (like the inability to print out of the box — and, yes, I used yum to install CUPS but that seemed to blow up during the installation).

    Here’s what I wish would happen though. Back in 2004 I wrote a slightly tongue-in-cheek blog item asking Microsoft to Open Source one of the best lightweight operating systems ever released: Windows 98 SE. It runs fine with 128MB RAM (or less) with a few gigabytes of hard disk and has excellent driver support for WiFi, printers, and a host of other peripherals. Imagine running it on a flash based storage device like the OLPC or the Asus EEE PC. This won’t happen, of course. But, it sure would make for a great little light weight, low cost, well supported ultraportable.

  • Back to Basics: Soft Reset

    Have you ever found your Windows Mobile smartphone (Standard or Professional Editions) in a state best described as frozen? This can happen in several ways. The most common experience on a non-touch Standard Edition device is that it becomes so slow that I can’t seem to get any action to work on it. Can’t dial, can’t launch an application, can’t even navigate. Recently, my HTC Advantage touch screen device (Professional Edition) has refused to turn on once in a while (perhaps 3 to 4 times in the past month).

    Personally, many of my apparent freeze ups are usually related to some kind of Internet Explorer related memory management problem. The usual problem is that the cache gets large and slows the entire device down. A little patience while slowly navigating to the IE option to clear the cache usually resolves the problem. However, when my Standard Edition seems completely frozen to the point where the on/off button does not work, I usually end up pulling the battery out, put it back in, and turn on the phone. I’ve never had a problem with this procedure. But, your mileage may vary. So, proceed with caution.

    Pulling the battery out and putting it back in amounts to a kind of hardware soft reset. The difference between a soft reset and a hard reset is that a hard reset puts your device back in the state it was at the factory. Data, configuration information, and applications added after you received it will disappear. A soft reset restarts the system but leaves data, configuration, and software alone.

    Pocket PC/Professional Edition touch-screen devices have a recessed dedicated soft-reset button somewhere on its chassis. The location differs from model to model. The button is usually very small and fit to the point of the stylus that came with the device. Ballpoint pen and other larger tips will not work. Pressing the reset on the HTC Advantage has brought it back to life each time. But, I’m not a huge fan of using this button. The reset on my old Compaq iPAQ 3650 actually wore out because I had to use it so much on that box. There are free soft-reset software utilities available. But, these don’t help if your unit is completely unresponsive.

  • Book: Windows Mobile Data Synchronization with SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server Compact 3.1

    I just read Rob Tiffany’s (a Technical Product Manager in the Microsoft Windows Mobile group) blog and noticed he has a new book out (with a very long title :-)…

    Windows Mobile Data Synchronization with SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server Compact 3.1

    If you need to use SQL Server held data with your WiMo smartphone. This book might be a good place to start looking (haven’t read it myself, btw).

  • Microsoft Releases iPhone Clone in 2009?

    The Inside Microsoft blog has a very interesting entry titled…

    Windows Mobile 7 To Focus On Touch and Motion Gestures

    …with what looks like dozens of Windows Mobile 7 screen captures. From the looks of it Microsoft discovered the Apple iPhone and is trying to catch up to it by 2009 (Windows Mobile 7’s projected release according other blogs discussing it). The problem (for Microsoft) is that Apple will have probably moved on to other new concepts by then. Too little too late, I think.

  • Zune Oddities… Also 2.3 Firmware Upgrade

    Microsoft seems to have been busy providing point upgrade releases since they released the Zune 2.0 firmware upgrade a few months ago with the introduction of the 2nd generation of Zune devices. The 2.3 upgrade came out in mid-December. But, I only recently plugged in my 1st generation Zune to the PC to upgrade it. I’m not really sure what the upgrade since I don’t see release notes area on the Zune.net Support page.

    I wanted to note a couple of Zune oddities (some good, some not so good) that are probably NOT related to the upgrade though.

    Video files for the iPod need to be more-or-less prepared to meet the iPod’s supported video formats (screen size, etc.). The iPod wouldn’t, for example, deal with the MacBreak video podcast high def video format. So, I was surprised to see that the Zune Podcast webpage provided the CommandN video podcast in the H.264 video format that, I think, even the iPod doesn’t accept. I had forgotten that the Zune attempts to convert video files into a format it can accept during the sync process. This conversion process is very very flow. I think it took something like a half-hour to convert the three CommandN video podcast files.

    I mentioned recently that I tried out the Amazon MP3 DRM-free service by buying an EP release (6 songs). The Zune PC software saw it fine but only synced 5 of the 6 files to the Zune. Like the awful Windows Mobile Device Center for Windows Mobile smartphones, the Zune software provides no options to try to fix problems. In its effort to be user friendly, both the WMDC and Zune software are actually user hostile. I tried to force an update by moving the missing MP3 file to another directly, update the Zune client’s file sync with the hard disk, move the MP3 file back to its original director, and then force a sync again. This time the file appeared, BUT a file that had synced with the Zune originally disappeared. Weird… Microsoft really needs to take a look at iTunes on the Mac.

    That said, the Zune 2.x firmware is an improvement on the Zune device itself. I’ll be playing with it a bit more.

  • OLPC Info and Quick FAQ Page Created

    I created a brief OLPC XO information and QuickFAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) page to help OLPC users find more information about their device. You can find the page at…

    MobileViews OLPC Info

    Here are two examples of OLPC information you might not see elsewhere: First, I tested a USB keyboard with the OLPC and found that the Shift key does not work. The Caps Lock does, however, does work. Second, I tested the OLPC with a USB flash thumb drive and found that it auto-mounted under the /media directory. However, the usual umount command did not work. I had to use the lazy unmount option to soft-remove the thumb drive before physically removing it.