Category: Mobile Devices

  • Google Docs Blog Looking for Eee PC/Small Screen Comments

    I’m not a regular reader of the Google Docs Blog. So, this is a bit dated (from June 18).

    Google Docs on the Eee PC

    One of the Google Docs team members bought an Eee PC, tried Google Docs on it, noted a few oddities, and now asks the public: What could we change in Docs to make the experience better on the smaller screen? Let us know by leaving a comment.

    One sidenote: Google Docs and many AJAX-y sites don’t work well on the OLPC XO. My recollection is that the cursor disappears when typing in a Google Docs text window. I should fire up the XO and confirm that this is still the case.

  • Google Talk for the iPhone


    What? Another site only for the iPhone? This time Google announced Google Talk for the iPhone. Just head to…

    http://www.google.com/talk

    …on your iPhone or iPod touch (my touch is in the photo above). If you have a Windows Mobile device, don’t bother. The talk link above just takes you to the normal Google Talk page that tells you to download the Windows XP/Vista client.

  • Friendfeed iPhone Formatted Site


    Yep, another major (large) website built something specifically for the iPhone. This time it is Friendfeed.com. If you don’t have an iPhone or iPod touch, you can visit…

    http://friendfeed.com/i

    …to see what it looks like. The photo above is the site on my iPod touch.

  • Mobipocket eBook Reader: Don’t Install it on an HTC Advantage


    I decided to try out the free Mobipocket eBook reader on my HTC Advantage 7500 since that Windows Mobile Pocket PC (Professional Edition) has a big display and good battery life. I also downloaded a free ebook from Feedbooks.

    Although the screencap above is in landscape mode, I ended up switching to portrait mode to actually read the book. I don’t recommend doing this (switching from landscape to portrait using Mobipocket’s internal screen control) though because it leaves the Advantage in this mode after exiting the reader and leaves it in a state where you cannot access parts of the screen. I had to soft reset the Advantage to get access to the screen. And, even then I had to manually change the screen orientation. A second attempt left a status bar at the bottom of my landscape oriented screen that would not go away until I soft reset the box again. So, I removed it and will not be trying it again.

    The reading experience on a Pocket PC has never been a good one. I remember trying Microsoft Reader back when it used to come installed on Palm-size PCs. That was not a good experience either (though it did not mess with my display the way Mobipocket does). I’ll wait to see if an ebook reader appears for the iPhone/iPod touch (I have a touch). I suspect the ebook reading experience will be pretty good on that platform.

  • Silverlight Powered WindowsMobile.com Goes Live and Breaks Articles Links


    The Silverlight powered version of Microsoft’s WindowsMobile.com went live. But, in the process, it looks like a lot of links were broken. Jason Dunn, Tyson Greer, and I wrote a bunch of Windows Mobile 6 articles for Microsoft.com last year. All of these articles are still valid and apply to Windows Mobile 6.1 devices. If you search for any of our names, you will see links to these articles. But, all the links are broken. Too bad, there is a lot of good information for Windows Mobile device users that disappeared with these links.

  • Wait Until Aug. 29 If You Want to Break Your T-Mobile USA Contract

    As I’ve mentioned in the past, US mobile carriers really seem to dislike texting. T-Mobile is raising its rates fro 15 cents/text to 20 cents/text. It was as little as 10 cents/text about 18 months or so ago. However, it might be a good thing for T-Mobile subscribers who want to break their contract to go buy an iPhone 3G from AT&T Wireless. According to this RCR article…

    T-Mobile USA subscribers get an out: Carrier raises texting fee

    …this may constitute a material change of the contract you currently have and lets you get an early out of their contract without paying termination fees.