Pocket PC or Pocket PC Phone Edition
This Windows Mobile Calendar problem happens all the time to me ever since Microsoft removed the two-way conflict resolution option. Here’s the scenario.
1. Create an appointment on a WiMo smartphone
2. Sync it to Outlook 2003 (or 2007)
3. After syncing, edit the appointment and change it to a different day (i.e., reschedule it)
4. Resync it with Outlook
In my case, the rescheduled appointment is removed and replaced with the original appointment from Outlook. Really annoying.
Of all the problems a Windows Mobile smartphone might have, battery problems rank somewhere in the top three if not number one. Why? If your battery dies at an inopportune time, it doesn’t matter how good the rest of the phone is, you have a paper weight. Having a spare always helps, of course, but the battery itself may not be the problem.
Even though we know that rechargeable batteries have a finite life, I have been surprised to see just how long some of my Windows CE/Windows Mobile device batteries have lasted. While all my Compaq Aero and iPAQs have broken before their batteries pooped out, my HP Jornada devices which date back to 1996 all still work (well, perhaps, except for the HP420, the first color Palm-size PC). The HP Jornada 720 and 820 Handheld PCs still work fine and their respective batteries still retain a charge for many hours of use. Those HP Jornada engineers were just amazing folks.
A while back my T-Mobile Dash battery problem turned out not to be hardware based at all. The problem was that Google Gmail’s IMAP4 server is so slow that it cause the battery to drain 4% everytime Windows Mobile Messaging checks for email. Turning off auto email checking for Gmail restored my battery life.
Lately, I’ve been having battery problems with my HTC Advantage 7500 Pocket PC Phone Edition. This is surprising to me since the battery has been rock solid until the past two weeks or so. Long term WiFi use along with simultaneous Bluetooth keyboard use didn’t seem to phase it in the good ol’ days. So, what changed? I don’t think the battery itself is a problem. Why? I’ve noticed other odd issues with the 7500 during this same time period. It sometimes locks up (won’t turn on) and requires a stylus press of the soft reset buttons. The battery itself is fine during these episodes. I also noticed that both still photos and video recordings have odd artifacts in them during this period. The battery itself seems to love a charge over a short period when NOT in use: WiFi turned off, Bluetooth turned off, GSM/EDGE turned off (I use a T-Mobile Dash as my voice phone).
So, what is going on? I honestly don’t know. But, I’m thinking about either performing a hard reset or upgrading the 7500 to Windows Mobile 6 this weekend to see if that clears up some of the problems I’m seeing.
I wish we had better end-user diagnostic tools to help us dig into these problems with a bit more precision.
I installed Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac this weekend and have been giving some thought to syncing my Windows Mobile smartphone with a Mac instead of Windows XP (I have Vista running but don’t want to use WMDC). Unfortunately, all of the solutions have issues. Here are my options.
Sync my smartphone with Mac OS X’s iCal (calendar) and Address Book (contacts) using Missing Sync for Windows Mobile ($39.95 download). I believe I lose the ability to sync notes and tasks. And, I definitely can’t sync OneNote Mobile.
Sync my smartphone with Microsoft Entourage 2008 using,again, Missing Sync for Windows Mobile. Mark/Space said that Microsoft doesn’t provide a conduit/plug-in to work with Apple Sync Services. The effect of this is that all category information is lost (all categories are consolidated to the category “Entourage”). I use categories a lot. So, hmm. Everything except for OneNote Mobile should sync minus the category information.
Install Windows XP a virtualized Guest OS using either Parallels Desktop for Mac or VMware Fusion. This means I could install Microsoft Office for Windows along with OneNote Mobile. Unfortunately, VM virtual disk drives can take up a lot of disk space. Do, I really want to dedicate a VM and its associated disk space just for syncing a smartphone?
The last alternative is to dump Windows Mobile and buy a phone supported by Apple’s iSync. It is an interesting idea. But, I really like what Windows Mobile has to offer me (despite my disdain for ActiveSync and WMDC). So, that is not a reasonable alternative for me (although it seems to be a valid one for many other people).
If you are syncing a Windows Mobile 6 smartphone with a Mac, please let me know how your solution is working for you. Thanks in advance!
FixMyMovie.com uses the MotionDSP (which is funded by Q-Tel) video enhancement technology to enhance digital video. I uploaded a few seconds of video recorded by my T-Mobile Dash (Windows Mobile 6 smartphone) to see what it could do with the normally fuzzy video produced by this cameraphone. You can find my video test at: Test 1 walking. If you click on the compare button (middle of the five buttons below the video), it changes the display to full display mode and shows a side-by-side video comparison. You can also use the extracted still photo mode (like screen cap above) to compare the original and enhanced image.
I think it did a pretty good job of enhancing my cameraphone video. Couple of things to note though. First, it took quite a while to enhance the few seconds of video I uploaded. This is not surprising considering the amount of work that goes into video enhancemnet processing. However, if you upload a longer video, be sure to allow for sometime before you are able to see the results. The system will email you a notification when it is finished. Second, the service is free in its current beta release phase. However, there is no promise that this service will remain free.
My guess is that Google/YouTube, BiipTV, MSN Soapbox, or some other video site will buy or license this technology. It would probably help a lot of fuzzy videos like mine 🙂
Just read over on Engadget that…
AT&T rolls out iPhone plans for business customers
Hey, I commented just yesterday that Microsoft needs to fix Windows Mobile’s Internet Explorer browser to let it render iPhone-specific sites because business customers and service providers are now looking at the iPhone as a business device. Now, they have an official mechanism to bring it into the enterprise.
So, here’s another request. Come this November, it will be 12 years since Windows CE/Windows Mobile made its debut at Comdex 1996. Since it doesn’t look like ActiveSync or WMDC will be fixed anytime soon, how about some ActiveSync/WMDC diagnostic tools so we mere mortals can debug these bug ridden and undependable beasts?
IMHO, competition is a good thing. Firefox brought back Internet Explorer team from the dead (it had been disbanded after IE6) and encouraged Microsoft to produce the much better IE7 (with tabs and more secure). Here’s hoping that the success of the iPhone pushes the WiMo team to make my favorite mobile OS much much better.
There is nothing wrong with your display. This is what the Digg.com site formatted for viewing on the iPhone (digg.com/iphone) looks like when rendered on a Windows Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition (AKA Professional Edition).
The Windows Mobile product people always ask people to give them examples or use-cases of issues outsiders bring to them. Then, they ask to justify why resources should be spent on solving that problem rather that something else already in the queue. Ok, how about this then…
ISSUE: Windows Mobile 6’s Internet Explorer browser for the Professional (touch screen) and Standard (non-touch screen) cannot render sites designed specifically for the Apple iPhone (or iPod touch).
RESOLUTION: Fix Internet Explorer for Windows Mobile 7 so that it can correctly render web sites designed and optimized for the iPhone.
JUSTIFICATION: It sure looks like lots of major sites are designing web sites specifically for the iPhone’s Safari browser. They are not building sites for WiMo IE. This means your customers (like me) are shut out of these sites (many of which are very useful and/or just plain interesting). The iPhone is making inroads to your customer base: Corporations. Even if you don’t care about individual consumers like me, you probably do care about your corporate clients who can bolt in large numbers.