MobileViews Blog

Category: Smartphone

Windows Mobile Smartphone

  • Code Wallet vs. eWallet CNET Review

    I rarely mention product reviews on other sites. But, it’s so unusual to see a head-to-head comparison review on a mainstream tech site (CNET’s The Daily Download) that I figured I mention it just because of that. One other aspect of the article is that it compares an app that I’ve been using for around a decade now, Ilium Software’s eWallet.

    Code Wallet and eWallet duke it out for your phone

    And, don’t forget the other major info encryption app that was not mentioned in the comparison article: Spb Wallet.

  • OctroTalk Instant Messenger for Windows Mobile Works with Google Talk

    If you would like to IM with friends using Google Talk from a Windows Mobile Pocket PC or Smartphone, you might want to take a look at…

    OctroTalk

    It is currently in beta-release and free for testing (the current release expires in October if I recall correctly). I tested on a TyTn Pocket PC Phone Edition running Windows Mobile 6. It worked fine IMing to Google Talk. Since Google Talk is based on the protocol developed for Jabber, it should work fine with Jabber as well as its transport gateway.

  • A Tale of Two (USB) Cables

    USB cables

    According to Wikipedia, USB 1.0 emerged in 1995 and 2.0 in 2000. You would think after all these years, its operation should be dirt simple and flawless (although I guess you would think ActiveSync/WMDC would have its act together after 11 years too). So, USB’s finickyness always amazes. Take the two cables pictured above. You would think they would be pretty similar. And, in fact, for the most part they are. The exception is when I try to use the white cable with an HTC Vox smartphone and try to sync it to WMDC on Windows Vista. Windows reports that it sees a USB device but can’t identify. Switching to the black cable solves the problem. And, yet, the white cable works for other functions and devices.

    And there’s more USB-wise. Most of us know by now that there is a difference between powered and unpowered USB hubs. Windows Mobile users also generally know not to use any hub at all when upgrading firmware (plug in directly to the PC’s native USB port). But, did you know that the front ports sometimes deliver less power than the rear ports? This makes a difference to devices that draw a lot of power (e.g., USB hard drives powered through the port).

    So, if you run into sync or other USB related issues, be sure to check all the variables you can: Cable, port position, unpowered vs. powered hub, front port vs. rear port, and whatever other USB variable you can manipulate.

  • Thinkoutside Stowaway Bluetooth Keyboard Works with WM6 Standard Edition

    Just a quick note. The Thinkoutside website doesn’t specifically list the HTC Vox Windows Mobile 6 Standard Edition (AKA Smartphone) as a supported device for the Stowaway Bluetooth Keyboard for PDA. But, I installed the WM5 Smartphone driver for the keyboard on the Vox this evening and it seems to work fine.

    The configuration utility even dealt with the incompatibility between the built-in Bluetooth HID profile and let me disable from a menu. It then enabled its own profile and let me setup usage with the keyboard.

    I sent a test email over WiFi (no SIM card in the Vox to make sure it didn’t go out over EDGE instead) with the Bluetooth connected to the keyboard to make sure that both those radios could work simultaneously while using the keyboard.

    Glad to see all this works with Windows Mobile 6.

  • Cell View Tip for WM6 Standard Editon (Smartphone)

    Windows Mobile 6 Standard Edition Excel Mobile cell view

    Excel Mobile for Windows Mobile Standard Edition (formerly Smartphone – no touch screen) is quite different from the Professional Edition (AKA Pocket PC Phone Edition). In general it has much fewer features than the Pocket PC version. However, it does have a few unique and useful features.

    For example, if you navigate to a cell that contains more text (or numbers) than the cell can display, just press the phone’s select button on the navigation rose and it will pop the entire contents of that cell into a zoomed highlighted cell view.

  • Ilium Screen Capture Tip for Smartphone Users

    Ilium Screen Capture

    Small tip for Windows Mobile smartphone (uh, Standard Edition) users who use Ilium Software great (and FREE) Screen Capture utility. The default capture key for the smartphone version (it also works fine on a Pocket PC/Professional Edition) is the asterisk (*). However, if you have a non-clamshell phone (T-Mobile Dash, Vox, etc.), the key sequence to unlock a keyboard locked phone is Left-softkey Asterisk. So, if you forgot that you have it running, you can’t unlock the phone after locking the keyboard (press and hold the End Call key). Fortunately, Ilium provided options for this utility. If you press the Menu key (right soft button), thre is an option to change the screen capture key. I set it to the pound sign (#). But, you might prefer something else. This optional change also seems to stick. So, you only have to make the change once.