MobileViews Blog

Category: Windows Mobile

Microsoft Windows Mobile Pocket PC, Pocket PC Phone Edition, and Smartphone

  • Zumobi 1.1

    Zumobi 1.1 was released earlier this month. So, I finally decided to try it out on my TyTn (Windows Mobile 6 Professional Edition) last week. The interface is nice and, I guess, finger touch friendly. But, it seems a bit slow on my Pocket PC. The content in the available Tiles didn’t interest me much. However, Version 6.1 lets you create your own Tiles from RSS feeds. So, I should try to do that sometime. However, it seems to me that it is actually faster to scan through RSS feeds using a more conventional looking interface like Ilium’s NewsBreak.

    I’ll play around with it a bit more, build a tile or two, and post some screencaps here later.

  • Windows Mobile PowerShell Provider

    I haven’t taken a close look at this yet, but this sounds very very cool! I found it mentioned in Jeffrey Snover’s blog…

    PowerShell Access to Windows Mobile Devices

    …and then hopped over to the Nivot Ink blog to learn more…

    Windows Mobile PowerShell Provider

    Here’s the feature list from that blog entry…

    • Copy, Move, Delete items between folders on your device (including Storage Card) with standard PowerShell Cmdlets
    • Move/Copy files to/from your device and your desktop with ConvertTo-WMFile and ConvertFrom-WMFile
    • Get device information and manipulate and explore the registry with a rich device object returned from Get-WMDevice
    • Invoke-Item against remote items to or execute or trigger their associated applications
    • Invoke-Item with -Local switch to attempt to execute a remote file in the context of your local desktop (e.g. office docs or images/videos)
    • New “Mode” attributes specific to Windows Mobile file attributes: (I)nRom, Rom(M)odule
    • File/Folder objects’ attributes can be modified with .Attributes properties just like FileInfos etc.
    • Tab completion with MoW’s PowerTab Download

  • Windows Mobile WiFi Fussiness

    Windows Mobile WiFi stability seems to have hit its peak with Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition. My Dell Axim X51 could connect to pretty much any unsecure or WEP wireless access point (WAP). It did not support WPA. My Windows Mobile 5 devices seemed a bit fussier about which WAPs they would connect to. Older WAPs seemed to cause the most issues. Windows Mobile 6 devices (all of mine are upgraded devices, I don’t have any native WM6 boxes) supports WPA. And, connecting to WAPs seems like a real hit-or-miss proposition here. It again looks like older WAPs (even with the latest firmware for the model) cause the most problems. But, it seems like my iPod touch doesn’t have the same problems I’m having with my Windows Mobile devices. It is pretty frustrating to see the SSID for a WAP and then watch my WiMo devices flail about trying to connect and fail most of the time. Some WiMo boxes are better than others. But, I’ve never quite figured out which ones work best under what conditions.

  • Apple MobileMe: What About the Rest of Us?


    My first opinion of Apple’s MobileMe was: OK, so they renamed .Mac, it has more storage, it costs the same (US$99/year), and… wait… It is what I wishes Microsoft Live would give Windows Mobile users like me.

    I used to sync my WiMo smartphone daily with my PC. But, that has become such a chore and a statistical probability rather than a sure thing that I don’t do that anymore. I still sync a couple of times a week to make sure I have a backup of my current calendar and contacts. But, it is a chore. I hope the Windows Mobile and Windows Live team can get together and provide similar functionality for WiMo smartphone users soon.

    The one big iPhone issue for me is still the lack of a physical keyboard or a Bluetooth keyboard option. I still can’t type worth a darn on my iPod touch. So, I still can’t use it effectively use a email or data entry device.

  • Back to Basics: Cameraphone Sports Mode Setting


    Generally speaking, the cameras on most phones are much slower than even the slowest of the first generation consumer digital cameras back in the 1990s. So, I’ve never really expected to get much in the way of action shots with my cameraphone and ignored the so-called Sports Setting the camera configuration. However, while waiting for my daughter at her gym today, I decided to play with that setting to while the time away.

    You can see one of the photos I took using the Sports Setting using my T-Mobile Dash (AKA HTC Excalibur). On this particular phone, this setting reduces the resolution to 640×480 (which makes sense) and takes three (3) photos in succession after pressing the selection button. You can adjust the number of photos it takes per squeeze in the configuration menu.

    I’ve shrunken the photo from the original 640×480 to make it blog-friendly. It won’t make anyone throw away their Digital SLR. But, the result was better than I expected. I guess I should try some of the other camera phone settings too now.

  • Google Maps Mobile Adds Bus and Train Directions: But Not for Windows Mobile

    Google announced Google Maps for Mobile 2.2 which adds bus and train information. However, it is not available for Windows Mobile devices yet. If you try to download it on a Windows Mobile device, you will get version 2.1. The blog item announcing 2.2 says that it is available for the Blackberry and many Java-based phones.

    If we Windows Mobile users feel left out now, just wait until next week when the geeksphere is abuzz over all things iPhone which will also NOT work with Windows Mobile smartphones. Sigh.