MobileViews Blog

Author: todd

  • 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.

  • 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