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  • PHM Pocket PC Toys Suspend and Reset Work on Windows Mobile 6 PDA

    PHM Pocket PC Toys

    I wrote about the old (last revised in 2004) PHM Pocket PC toys last year. But, since we have moved from Windows Mobile 5 to 6, I thought it was worth mentioning the SUSPEND and RESET utilities from that toy kit works fine with a Windows Mobile 6 PDA (Pocket PC). I use the suspend utility to reduce wear and tear on the Pocket PC’s on/off button. And, yes, actually wore out the button on an iPaq 3650. Reset performs a soft reset without needing to push in the sometimes ill designed soft reset button on a Pocket PC. Some software do not need to be revised and updated to be useful. These two single minded utilities are good examples of such software.

  • Vista 8GB SD Card Compatibility Update Coming June 22

    There’s a note on the Windows Vista Team Blog about a…

    New compatibility update for SD cards

    …for large (8GB or more) SD cards and improved support for SDHC and SDIO cards. I bought my first 4GB SDHC cards last week and was surprised to find that none of my older SD card readers (including the one built into my desktop) could read it. Fortunately, Sandisk included their MicroMate SDHC card reader with the card itself. I’ll test it with a Vista desktop as soon as the update becomes available on the 22nd.

  • Tips for ActiveSync with Bluetooth

    ActiveSync Connection Settings

    Using Bluetooth from a Windows desktop or notebook and anything else seems a lot harder than it should be. And, since Microsoft’s Windows Mobile ActiveSync is a general pain in the neck itself, the combination of Bluetooth and ActiveSync often is a test of patience and some detective skills.

    Here’s some info that might help you get your Windows Mobile device to sync over Bluetooth with ActiveSync running on Windows XP. Note that even if you do everything right, it still might not work. I could never get my T-Mobile SDA smartphone to sync over Bluetooth, for example. But, I was able to get a Windows Mobile 6 smartphone and pocket pc to sync over Bluetooth.

    1. Install Outlook first
    2. Start up Outlook, activate it and configure it
    3. Install ActiveSync
    4. Partner your Windows Mobile smartphone or PDA using a USB cable. Note that the initial partnership must be performed using USB
    5. If a Bluetooth device is not installed yet, install it and configure it now
    6. Note which COM port is assigned to Bluetooth’s incoming port. You should be able to find this in your device’s configuration utility. Mine happened to be assigned to COM4: (see screen cap above)
    7. Open up ActiveSync without any device connected to the PC
    8. Select your device (if you have more than one synced) and open up the Connection Settings window
    9. Check the box next to Allow connections from one of the following:
    10. Select the port you found in step 6 from the pulldown menu
    11. Click OK
    12. Set Bluetooth on your PC to allow it to be discovered
    13. Turn on Bluetooth on your Windows Mobile device
    14. Have your WM device search for other Bluetooth devices
    15. Pair it with your PC
    16. Make sure that the ActiveSync service is visible on your WM device and select it
    17. Start the ActiveSync app on your WM device
    18. Select Connect via Bluetooth

    If all is well, you should see ActiveSync start up on your PC and normal syncing should occur. If not, well, there are all sorts of possible problems. I’m not even going to try to figure out the myriad of ActiveSync awfulness that can happen. Couple of thoughts though:

    • ActiveSync and XP’s Suspend and Hibernate do not always play well with each other. You may need to reboot once in a while to get ActiveSync to work if you Suspend or Hibernate regularly like I do
    • Bluetooth drivers seem to lose their way now and then. Try unchecking the box from Step 9, apply it, then check it, and apply again.

    Good luck. ActiveSync continues to confound many of us after more than a decade of existence under various names (Windows CE Service, ActiveSync, WMDC). So, again, even after going through these steps correctly, you may find as I did that some devices just won’t sync over a Bluetooth connection.

  • Sync-ing a Plain Ol’ Phone with a PC

    Data Pilot Universal Phone Suite cables

    One of the phones in my household is a Sanyo Katana phone. Although it is not a smartphone, it does have Bluetooth, a camera, and the usual applications that phones have these days. Originally, I paid for web service and photo uploads. But, since those features were rarely used, I moved the phone back to basic voice service. We still wanted to get photos off of the phone now and then though. So, I went in search of something cheaper than $15/month to do that. This weekend I found the…

    Datapilot Cell Phone Data Transfer Suite Universal (Amazon affiliate link)

    …at my local Costco and bought it. The box contained a bunch of cables for various phone models as well as a USB Bluetooth dongle. I installed the suite’s software and tried Bluetooth first. The Windows XP PC and the phone seemed to pair ok. And, it looked like contacts information could be synced. But, there didn’t seem to be a way to copy the photos off of the phone.

    I tried the USB cable next. Getting that to work was an exercise in frustration. But, I eventually managed to get it working (don’t ask me how) and was able to move the photos over. I can understand how the average review of the 39 reviewers on Amazon gave it 2 out of 5 stars. It gave me a bit more appreciation for ActiveSync (but not that much :-). On the other hand, if we use this Datapilot Suite for more than 3 months, it will have paid for itself.

  • More Windows Mobile Press Confusion: Maximum PC This Time

    Word Mobile Edit ModeLast month I noted the PC World magazine article about Windows Mobile 6 smartphones that incorrectly said that Word Mobile and Excel Mobile on WM6 smartphones could not edit documents. This month iti s Maximum PC magazine’s turn to get it wrong. The Smartphone State of the Union article in the July 2007 issue of Maximum PC includes mini-reviews of many smartphones. Page 44 has a 1/3-page review of the T-Mobile Dash says: You’ll be able to open MS Office documents but not edit them. Given paper publication lag time, this article was probably written way before Windows Mobile 6 became available. Pre-WM6 smartphones did not come with Office Mobile components. So, the review may be speaking of some third party viewing application (but does not clarify this). WM6, however, does provide mobile versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Word and Excel do have edit modes. But, they are just that: Modes. It is not seamless experience like what you find on the desktop or Pocket PC. It is more like old moded vi editor in UNIX. You need to select Edit Mode from the Word or Excel initial menu (the Word menu is shown here). A different menu structure appears at that point and you can edit an existing document.

  • Nintendo DS Browser Model Issue

    The Nintendo DS Browser (Amazon affiliate link) became available in the US earlier this month (although it had been available in Japan and Europe months before). Reading through the comments on Amazon, I learned that while the item is simply listed as the Nintendo DS Browser, it is actually specifically for the second generation DS Lite model. The Opera browser itself is on a standard small DS cartridge while a memory expansion card is provided in non-standard sized GBA card that only fits in the DS Lite model. So, if you have the first generation Nintendo DS, make sure you get a version specifically for that model.