MobileViews Blog

Category: Windows Mobile

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

  • Sprint HTC Mogul EV-DO Rev. A Upgrade

    I don’t have an HTC Mogul. But, if I did, I’d be pretty happy after reading this report on Wired.

    Sprint Phone First to Use Fast Network

    Sprint said Monday it was releasing a software update for the Mogul phone, made by HTC Corp. of Taiwan, that will enable the phone to connect at Rev. A speeds. Downloads speeds should be 600 kilobits per second to 1,400 kbps, up from a range of 400 kbps to 700 kbps with Rev. 0. It will be capable of uploads of 350 to 500 kbps, up from 50 kbps to 70 kbps.

    According to HTC, this upgrade will also enable the Mogul’s integrated GPS.

    Nice. I’d be interested to hear what your Mogul Rev. A experience is if you upgrade your device on the Sprint PCS network.

  • Google Greasing the Path from Windows Mobile to Android

    Google Calendar Outlook Sync

    No one has ever accused the folks at Google of being dumb. And, despite their stock (along with nearly every other firm’s stock) tanking lately, the Googlelonions are still a smart bunch. On Tuesday, they provide Google Gears for Windows Mobile. This sure looks like a testing ground for preparing people for working with Google’s Android based phones later this year. Train up those Windows Mobile users so they can defect easily later. Smart. On Wednesday, they provide a tool to sync Google Calendar with Microsoft Outlook. Provide an easy way to move the all important calendar data from Windows to the Googlesphere. Brilliant. Now, we just need a simple mechanism to move Contacts data from Outlook to Google and the road to Android will be nearly finished. Very very smart.

    I wonder if Microsoft is paying attention to any of this. Or, are they too focused on Yahoo!?

  • Zoho Writer + Google Gears Mobile + Windows Mobile = Winner

    Zoho Writer Google Gears Mobile enabled

    I installed Google Gears for Windows Mobile today and tried out the Gears-enabled Zoho Writer on a Windows Mobile 6 Professional Edition (an HTC TyTn) device. The result is not perfect but is far far ahead of what anyone else (including Google and Microsoft) have available for Windows Mobile.

    After installing Google Gears Mobile, I went to…

    mobile.zoho.com

    …and logged into my Zoho account. It showed my five most recently edited Zoho Writer documents. I clicked the Go Offline link and watched the documents download relatively quickly over a WiFi connection. Taking the TyTn completely offline (no WiFi, no cell data), I used Internet Explorer to navigate between the five documents very quickly. No editing is possible yet. So, it is all read-only. This is a great start though and I’m looking forward to watching both Google Gears Mobile and Zoho create more great connected/disconnected web applications to use on the go.

  • Google Gears for Windows Mobile 5 and 6 (this is huge!)

    This is huge news in so many ways…

    Google Code Blog: Power up your mobile web applications

    Google Code: Google Gears on Mobile Devices

    Google Gears is an API for creating rich web applications and provides the ability for taking those rich web applications offline. Google Gears on Mobile Devices supports Windows Mobile 5 and 6. A quick read of their documentation shows that it apparently supports both the Pocket PC (Classic/Professional) and Smartphone (Standard).
    Zoho (quickly becoming my favorite Web 2.0 service) has already announced: Zoho Writer Extends Mobile Support, Adds Offline Capability for Windows Mobile Using Google Gears. This release only allows viewing documents, but they are promising editing in the future. But, the big news is that their use of Google Gears for Windows Mobile means that you can take the online Zoho Writer documents with you offline (e.g., when you are on a plane or otherwise unable to get on the Internet). I’m planning on taking this feature for a spin soon and will report back here.

    Ironically, it looks like Google is Microsoft’s best friend in regard to saving their Windows Mobile platform from being obsolete as a web access device (compared to the Apple iPhone). Up until this announcement I had written off Windows Mobile as an obsolete web access device. Google Gears for Mobile Devices changes everything.

  • HTC Advantage 7500 Camera Went Bad

    HTC Advantage 7500 camera went bad

    The main camera in my HTC Advantage 7500 (1st generation) went bad about six weeks ago. The rest of the system is fine including the secondary camera next to the LCD. I’ve tried the obvious remedies like wiping the camera lens area and performing a hard reset. Never seen anything like it before. Switching to a 1st generation TyTn until I get an idea of how deal with this problem. Too bad, the HTC Advantage has the best digital photo quality I’ve seen in a Windows Mobile device so far.

  • 2008 Daylight Savings Time Fixes for Windows Mobile 5 & 6

    I thought this Daylight Savings issue was fixed in last year’s patch. Guess not. Here are the links for the CAB file download as well as the desktop (setup.msi) installer version.

    Update for Windows Mobile for PC (KB949168) (SETUP.MSI)

    Update for Windows Mobile for PC (KB949168) (WMDST2008-1.CAB)

    FYI: I just installed the CAB file installer version on my Dash. It restarted my smartphone without even giving a warning that it was about to do so.