ActiveSync 4.5 has been working as well as can be expected of it (works about 85% of the time) on my PC running XP for a number of years now. I have a USB-to-mini-USB cable plugged into a powered USB hub that I’ve used with a number of mostly HTC Pocket PCs and Smartphones during this time. However, for the past couple of days I have not been able to sync any Windows Mobile device via ActiveSync 4.5 if they are plugged into any USB hub (I’ve tried two completely different hubs). The devices do sync (sometimes anyway) if plugged directly into a USB port on the PC itself. The hubs work fine with other USB devices (mouse, printer, flash card reader, etc.). So, I’m pretty sure the hubs, their cables connected to the PC, and the power cords (both are powered hubs) are working.
Category: Pocket PC/Phone Edition
Pocket PC or Pocket PC Phone Edition
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TyTn Windows Mobile 6 Oddball MP4 Video File Format
The HTC TyTn is a great Pocket PC Professional Edition device. Mine was upgraded to Windows Mobile 6 last year and has been working great. I noticed one oddity about it that finally turned to bite me yesterday though. I noticed that the only video recording format supported is MP4. This didn’t bother me until I tried to bring video recording I made of the line formed outside of a local Apple store yesterday. Nothing I had on a Windows PC or Mac could bring the MP4 file in and edit it. I tried Windows Mobile Maker, VLC Player (which can transcode files), iSquint, and iMovie. All of them complained about the files audio track. I finally ended up uploading the raw MP4 file to YouTube. YouTube was able to deal with it. But, I wish I had be able to put a title on it and maybe splice in a shorter second video file I made.
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Why it is Hard to ID the “Best” Mobile Device
Just for fun I decided to score my iPod touch, TyTn Windows Mobile 6 Pocket PC, and Dash Windows Mobile 6 Smartphone on 10 features. The highest possible score is 3 and the lowest is 1. So, a higher total is theoretically better than a lower one.If you look at the scores, you might guess that I carry the TyTn Pocket PC around most of the time. Unfortunately, that guess would be wrong. I always take my Dash Smartphone out with me if I am only carrying one device. And, if watched me wander around my home, you would probably see me using the iPod touch.
The reason is that the my unscientific scorecard did not place weights on the ranked features. When, I am running around town, the most important features to me around the voice phone, one-handed use, RSS reader, PIM, and Email. When I am at home the most important features are web browsing and reading (but not writing/responding to) email. Email is a tricky one because when outside of the home I want one device that I can use for both reading and writing email. On the other hand, when I am at home, I just need to be aware of email and can wander over to a desktop or notebook computer to actually compose a response.
The Pocket PC (touch screen) probably trumps the Smartphone (non-touchscreen) with its unweighted score when outside of the home. But, once weight is placed on one-handed use and (a feature I did not rank) durability, the non-touchscreen Smartphone wins. I hated using my phone in the rain when I used a Pocket PC Phone Edition device. I felt that the touch screen technology was just too fragile. The Smartphone, on the other hand, seems to be tough enough for most outdoor weather conditions.
The big problem with the iPod touch and iPhone for my personal use is that they don’t have a physical thumb keyboard. As, I’ve mentioned many times before here, I still can’t type comfortably on iPod touch’s screen keyboard. That is why I never use it to reply to email or tweet on Twitter.
There is no perfect mobile device for me yet. So, I’ll continue to use a couple of best-of-breed devices in different situations for now.
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Windows Mobile Owners Circle Changed Its Name to TotalAccess
Microsoft changed the name of its end-user brand loyalty site from Owners Circle to TotalAccess. Some, but not all of the articles that Tyson Greer, Jason Dunn, and I wrote have been moved to the tips and tricks section of this site. -
Mobipocket eBook Reader: Don’t Install it on an HTC Advantage
I decided to try out the free Mobipocket eBook reader on my HTC Advantage 7500 since that Windows Mobile Pocket PC (Professional Edition) has a big display and good battery life. I also downloaded a free ebook from Feedbooks.Although the screencap above is in landscape mode, I ended up switching to portrait mode to actually read the book. I don’t recommend doing this (switching from landscape to portrait using Mobipocket’s internal screen control) though because it leaves the Advantage in this mode after exiting the reader and leaves it in a state where you cannot access parts of the screen. I had to soft reset the Advantage to get access to the screen. And, even then I had to manually change the screen orientation. A second attempt left a status bar at the bottom of my landscape oriented screen that would not go away until I soft reset the box again. So, I removed it and will not be trying it again.
The reading experience on a Pocket PC has never been a good one. I remember trying Microsoft Reader back when it used to come installed on Palm-size PCs. That was not a good experience either (though it did not mess with my display the way Mobipocket does). I’ll wait to see if an ebook reader appears for the iPhone/iPod touch (I have a touch). I suspect the ebook reading experience will be pretty good on that platform.
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Silverlight Powered WindowsMobile.com Goes Live and Breaks Articles Links
The Silverlight powered version of Microsoft’s WindowsMobile.com went live. But, in the process, it looks like a lot of links were broken. Jason Dunn, Tyson Greer, and I wrote a bunch of Windows Mobile 6 articles for Microsoft.com last year. All of these articles are still valid and apply to Windows Mobile 6.1 devices. If you search for any of our names, you will see links to these articles. But, all the links are broken. Too bad, there is a lot of good information for Windows Mobile device users that disappeared with these links.