Windows Mobile Smartphone
Microsoft released an update to WMDC (ActiveSync for Vista)…
Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC) 6.1
The biggest win probably goes to Smartphone (Standard Edition) users who can now sync files with Windows Vista (Windows XP users could do so with ActiveSync). The surprise for me is that the download worked with Firefox. I didn’t have to switch back to IE to download the file to my Vista box.
Sorry this post’s title sounds so much like an advertisement. But, you may have seen me mention their eWallet product (which I’ve used since version 1.0 on an HP 320LX Handheld PC) and rave about it here.
So, if you’ve been thinking about getting Ilium Software’s eWallet (stores sensitive info in an encrypted file), their 10th anniversary celebration week would be a good time. Ilium has it on sale for $10 (regular $29.95) for the Professional Edition on their anniversary page:
Ilium Software 10th Anniversary
You can also read a bit more about their annivesary on their blog.
I moved eWallet and NewsBreak when I migrated from my SDA smartphone to a Dash smartphone which was also a move from Windows Mobile 5 to 6. Both apps to seem to run ok though I’ve noticed a long pause in NewsBreak (RSS reader) that I didn’t see on the SDA WM5 smartphone. I’m trying to collect more details about this and will report the info to Ilium once I can see some pattern.
I’m still putting the T-Mobile Dash with Windows Mobile 6 through its paces. If you click on the tiny preview screencap above, you’ll see a transcoded version of a short video I recorded using the Dash smartphone today. I recorded to AVI (Motion Picture JPEG) format which records frames at 176×144 pixels. You probably don’t want to record a feature length movie in this format. But, it does a decent job of recording video given its inherent limitations. And, if you are not carrying any other video recording device, it is better than nothing!
Microsoft has been telling us not to fret about not being able to sync Outlook subfolders and to use Categories instead. OK, fine. I’ve been doing that since 1997. But, um, look what’s missing in the Windows Mobile 6 Standard Edition (Smartphone) Calendar… Yep, the Category field is not there anymore. If I missed it, just let me know. ‘Cause I actually use Categories when I create an appointment. The Category field still exists in the Windows Mobile 6 Professional/Classic Editions (Pocket PC/Phone Edition) though. So, it is a little bit of a mystery why it was removed from the Smartphone. Maybe only “professionals” need categories for calendar events? I dunno.
I maintain another blog (OgasaWalrus.com) where I focus on one of my other personal interest topics: Freeware and Free & Open Source Software for proprietary systems (Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows). I decided to mention the cover story in the current issue of PC Magazine and wanted to include a photo of the cover. However, I was too lazy to go to the Mac where my scanner is connected to, scan the cover, convert the image from TIFF to JPEG and then post it to my blog.
So, instead, I brought out my Dash (Smartphone), took a handheld shot of the cover from OneNote Mobile, synced the Dash to my PC (using Bluetooth since I was also too lazy to connect a USB cable), and let ActiveSync take care of copying it over to OneNote on my PC. After copying it from OneNote to a photo editor, a quick rotation and crop, I posted the blog item. The cover shot is not nearly as nice as a scanned image (see a previous blog item about a PC World magazine article for comparison). But, it is more than good enough for a quick blog item. If you haven’t tried OneNote and OneNote Mobile for your Windows Mobile Smartphone, give it a try. You might find it as useful as I have.
The T-Mobile SDA (Windows Mobile 5) smartphone didn’t place any EXIF data in its photos. The T-Mobile Dash (Windows Mobile 6), however, does. It doesn’t store much EXIF data. But, the Dash at least identifies itself as the camera type. This means that if you use it to upload photos to sites like Flickr, statistics about camera types will tally it correctly and viewers of your photos can tell it is a camera phone. It also stores data, time, and resolution and file size. I noticed that flash information is also stored even though the Dash does not have a flash (or one that is evident to me).
The Dash’s camera controls are not as intuitive as the SDA’s. But, more on this later. For now, I’ll just add that I received my MicroSD card on Saturday and finally have enough storage space to test photos and video recording on the Dash. More later…