MobileViews Blog

Category: Windows Mobile

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

  • HTC Daylight Savings Notification Message – Useless to Me

    20091101_daylightsavings

    The more I learn about the HTC Touch Pro2 I bought in August, the less I like it. I really dislike that HTC removed much needed hardware features like the navigation pad and various keyboard keys (OK, Start, Tab, etc.) it really reduces the usefulness of the TP2 compared to other Windows Mobile phones I’ve used that provided those features.

    But, I mostly dislike the TouchFlo 3D features (which I’ve turned off) and other HTC modifications (which I can’t) to Windows Mobile. I noted this morning, for example, HTC’s message about the changing the clock from Daylight Savings to Standard Time. I suppose this is useful to many people. But, I imagine that people in my part of the world where we don’t observe Daylight Savings or the switch back to Standard Time may have been confused by the message. In fact, I had to make sure it had not “fallen back” and set the TP2’s time to what would be the wrong time for me (it did not, fortunately).

  • Mini-Podcast 12: Recorded in a Noisy Downtown Area Using an HTC Touch Pro2

    Although I only started podcasting regularly starting late last year (2008), I’ve been testing mobile podcast recording options for about two years now. I’ve tried a bunch of Windows Mobile Pocket PCs and smartphones, a LiveScribe Pulse Smartpen (which actually does a pretty good job of it) and an iPhone 3G. I would say the LiveScribe pen has the best recorded sound quality of all those devices. But, the problem is that because of the pen’s odd design and lack of a pen tip cap and pocket clip, it is not something I carry with me except when I know I am going to use it.

    It is a bit early to say for sure, but it looks like the HTC Touch Pro2 may be the right device for mobile podcast recordings. Its recordings have small but noticeable audio compression artifacts. But, I think the overall audio quality is acceptable for podcasts (especially short ones like my infrequent, so far, mini-podcasts). However, I was very impressed by signal-to-noise ratio (me talking vs. everything else) in this podcast which was recorded in busy downtown area next to a busy street.

    – You can listen to the podcast right now from your web browser by using the embedded player above.
    – You can also subscribe to the podcast in iTunes or this RSS feed.
    – You can also point your smartphone’s browser at mobiletoday.podbean.com to listen to or download the MP3 file over the air to your phone.

  • Mini-Podcast 11: HTC Touch Pro2 Voice Notes Recording Sound Quality Sample

    The T-Mobile HTC Touch Pro2 is a Windows Mobile 6.1 touch screen smartphone. It comes bundled with a voice recording app called, reasonably enough, Voice Notes. I used it to record this brief (1 minute 10 seconds) Mini-podcast 11 to give you an idea of its recording sound quality. I think it sounds reasonably good although there is noticeable audio compression that gives it a kind of AM radio sound quality to it.

    This mini-podcast was recorded in a reasonably quiet room. I’ll test recording a mini-podcast outdoors to see if the Touch Pro2 might be a useful tool for on-the-spot interviews/conversations for future podcasts.

    – You can listen to the podcast right now from your web browser by using the embedded player above.
    – You can also subscribe to the podcast in iTunes or this RSS feed.
    – You can also point your smartphone’s browser at mobiletoday.podbean.com to listen to or download the MP3 file over the air to your phone.

  • Podcast 27: Celio Redfly Terminal for Windows Mobile – Conversation with Colin Kelly Jr.

    Although I’ve been a vocal critic of the Celio Redfly dumb terminal device for Windows Mobile smartphones (I own the original C8 model), Celio’s Marketing Communications Manager, Colin Kelly Jr., was gracious enough to accept my invitation to talk about Celio’s various Redfly products for this podcast. We discussed a couple of upcoming products too including:

    – Redfly Mobile Dock
    – Redfly for BlackBerry
    – Redfly for Android

    The podcast is 40 minutes and 30 seconds long.

    – You can listen to the podcast right now from your web browser by using the embedded player above.
    – You can also subscribe to the podcast in iTunes or this RSS feed.
    – You can also point your smartphone’s browser at mobiletoday.podbean.com to listen to or download the MP3 file over the air to your phone.

  • Blast from the Podcast Past: Podcast 4 with Ilium Software

    I just found out that one of my long time favorite mobile software development firms has a Twitter account. You can follow Ilium Software at…

    @IliumSoftware

    Ilium’s Ellen Craw and Marc Tassin were one of the very first podcast guests on the MobileViews Podcast (then called the MobileAppsToday Podcast). You can listen to it using the embedded podcast player above.

  • Microsoft’s Loke uei Tan Demos HTC Snap’s Quick Photo Taking Ability

    Anyone who has ever used pretty much any cameraphone has experience the huge delay between bringing the camera app up, pressing the “shutter” button and actually taking the photo. However, based on this brief video demo by Microsoft’s Loke uei Tan, it looks like HTC has solved this issue in the upcoming HTC Snap (Standard Edition – no touch screen).

    I giving a lot of thought to replacing my T-Mobile Dash with either the HTC Snap or HTC TouchPro2. Hmm.