MobileViews Blog

Author: todd

  • Smartphones Are NOT An Enterprise Tool

    One of my big beefs with Windows Mobile’s roadmap for the past few years has been its focus on the Enterprise and mobile carriers instead of the consumer. So, here comes the Information Week 500 survey, and it reports that…

    And those smartphones? Just 10% consider “issuing smartphones beyond a few top executives” a most-effective strategy of the past 12 months,…

    IMHO 10% maketh not an enterprise strategy (as IW points out above). In the meantime, while people synching with Exchange Server may be OK, ActiveSync and WMDC remains broken. Windows Mobile is a great platform. But, it needs to be refocused on its core customers: Individuals on the street who go and buy their own phone and don’t have an IT department to support them.

  • Windows Mobile Comm Manager Oddities

    Windows Mobile Comm Manager

    Windows Mobile communications related oddities continue to baffle me after a decade of using the product. Various versions of the Comm Manager (T-Mobile Dash version seen above) have been in all Windows Mobile 5 and 6 devices I’ve seen. And, yet, the ActiveSync button (7 in the screen cap above) does not consistently work across devices. It works fine (brings up ActiveSync on a T-Mobile Dash running WiMo6 and an HTC Advantage 7500X running WiMo5). But, it does nothing on an i-Mate K-JAM running WiMo5. Most people won’t be bothered by this. But, if you sync wirelessly using Bluetooth like I do, it is a small but annoying issue.

  • Odd Results from YP.com (Yellow Pages)

    YP.com

    This started out as a quick note about the m.YP.com Yellow Pages website formatted to be mobile browser friendly. But, it turned out to be a post about what looks like a little search engine issue over there. I tested it searching for the word dogs in areas that are familar to me. However, I didn’t get many useful results (though the results I got were on target). Then, I tried the search you see in the image above. And, well, the result was pretty weird. If anyone from YP.com would care to comment, I’m sure a few people besides myself would be interested to learn how your search engine decided on this result.

  • iPod touch Support Area Went Live

    Apple’s…

    iPod touch Support

    …website went live. And, according to Engadget, units are showing up in Apple stores. My unit still hasn’t shipped. So, I guess I won’t be playing with one as soon as those you who are buying off the shelf. In the meantime, however, the 85 page iPod touch manual is available on Apple’s website as a PDF download.

    The good news is that the support pages are up. The other good news is that the touch is so close to the iPhone that Apple is essentially repurposing its web pages for the touch. The bad news is that Apple didn’t bother to take out iPhone related references to things like the EDGE network or even the word iPhone out of the documentation pages.

  • Priorities 1 and 2 for Windows Mobile 7 Should be Fixing IE and ActiveSync-WMDC

    I was just thinking about Mel Sampat’s clever OutSync that I blogged about yesterday. Microsoft obviously has some bright and talented software developers in its ranks. And, you know what? I think none of them should be involved in cutting a single line of code for clever stuff like OutSync? Why? Microsoft should be focusing its energies on just two problems: First, fix the horror that should not be named but instead has two names: ActiveSync and Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC). This has been broken since Windows CE Services 2.0 (1.0 was actually pretty stable) for a decade now and needs to be fixed. Second, Internet Explorer. IE for Windows Mobile is damaged goods. Operamini gives a much better visual experience but suffers from its Java roots that creates a keyboard navigation problem for those of us who expect certains keys (like Back) to behave a certain way. Who know what happened to the Microsoft Labs SeaDragon project? It made a splash and then disappeared.

    In the meantime, the Apple iPod touch is on its way to customers in the next three or four weeks. And, since a lot of Windows Mobile users already carry an iPod for their music and video, it isn’t much of leap to think some percentage (like me) will swap out their old iPod for an iPod touch and start playing with Safari on it. From what I’ve seen on the iPhone, it looks like a pretty good mobile browsing experience.

  • OutSync Syncs Facebook Photos to Outlook Contacts Entries

    Microsoft’s Mel Sampat released a free utility called OutSync that syncs your Facebook contacts’ photos with Outlook. The side-effect for Windows Mobile users is that the photos become attached and visible to contacts on a smartphone. Of course, I consider ActiveSync and WMDC so flaky that I refuse to add anything that might even slightly upset the delicate balance and duct tape that appears to keep sync working for me (some of the time, anyway).

    You can watch a video demo of this on on10.net.