MobileViews Blog

Category: Windows Mobile

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

  • 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.

  • The Problem with Video Podcasts on a Windows Mobile Device

    Video, unless specially prepared, is often an unsettling experience on a Windows Mobile device. Although I’ve been using Ilium Software’s NewsBreak since its 1.0 release, I only recently tried the podcast retrieval feature added (I think) with their 2.0 release. I decided to try the Geekbrief.tv video podcast since it was included in Ilium’s default list. The video podcast looked like an old stop-motion movie when viewed on an HTC Vox smartphone. So, I decided to try it on a Dell Axim X50v. Although this is an older device, it still has a fast CPU and video accelerator. Video motion on this was much smoother than on the Vox with its relatively slow CPU. However, the video and audio were out of sync.

    Although I haven’t tried to view this specific video podcast on an iPod video, I do subscribe to other video podcasts on the iPod and do not see any video or video/audio-sync issues on that device.

  • WiMo Smartphone 2 and 8 Keys Browser Navigation

    Scrolling through a long web page on a Windows Mobile smarpthone (Standard Edition) can be a giant pain using the up or down arrows on a navigation pad. However, you can (sometimes) use the 2 and 8 keys to page up and down (respectively) through a web page in Internet Explorer. And, yes, it works on smartphones like the Dash with QWERTY thumb keyboards instead of a conventional numeric keypad.
    Note that the 4 and 6 keys do not scroll left/right as they do when using Operamini. And, it doesn’t do anything on a Pocket PC (Professional Edition) – presumably because you can use a stylus to quickly move through a page. And, this keyboard trick doesn’t work on all pages. The infamously mobile device unfriendly CNN.com website inexplicably grabs the keys to use with their little used bottom of page menu section (this doesn’t happen with a desktop PC, btw).

  • The Multipurpose End Call Button

    You definitely know that pressing the End Call button on a Windows Mobile (Standard Edition) Smartphone ends a call 🙂 And, you probably know that pressing and holding the End Call button locks the keyboard (left soft-button and then * unlocks it). But, did you know that a simple press (and then release) of the button when you are not in a phone call moves you from whatever menu or app screen you are currently on back to the Today screen? This works on Pocket PCs with a End Call button too, btw. You can get back to the previous window (if you pressed End Call by accident) by pressing the Back (left arrow) button (this doesn’t work on a Pocket PC Phone Edition, btw).

    The End Call button is often bigger and easier to find than the Home button. So, this can be a quicker way to get back to the Today screen to, for example, make a phone call or quickly check for an upcoming appointment.

  • Tried Opera Mini 4 Beta 2 on a T-Mobile Dash Smartphone

    After being impressed by Open Mini 4 Beta 2 on a HTC Vox smartphone, I decided to try it on another Windows Mobile 6 smartphone: The T-Mobile Dash (HTC S620). The Vox has both a QWERTY thumb keyboard (pull out) as well as a standard numeric dialer layout. The Dash, on the other hand, just has a QWERTY thumb keyboard (my favorite of the various thumb keyboards I’ve tried). Opera Mini seems to place the keyboard in numeric keypad mode when in browse mode because I was able to use the 2-4-6-8 diamond pattern embedded in the QWERTY keyboard layout to quickly navigate around a web page. The Dash has a very reasonable square layout for the numeric keypad on its keyboard. The Vox, on the other hand, has a slightly asymmetrical keyboard layout that makes navigation a bit harder.

    CNN.com was still unreachable (although alive from any other device I tried). But, other sites I tested looked and worked fine with Opera Mini.