MobileViews Blog

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  • Visiting Seattle for a Week/Attending Microsoft MVP Summit

    I’m flying to Seattle on Sunday and will spend the week there attending the Microsoft MVP Summit. I’m planning to update this blog while visiting Seattle. But, hang in there if I don’t post as frequently (daily) as usual.

    Check out my MobileViews TumBlog. I’m planning to update it at least a couple of times a day with cameraphone photos while in Seattle. If you are unfamiliar with Tumblr TumbleBlogs, check out the blog item I wrote about it on my other blog focusing on Freeware, Open Source Software, and free Web Services at: OgasaWalrus.com.

    See you on the net!

  • Yahoo! Go for Mobile 2.0 for (some) Windows Mobile Devices

    Yahoo! announced the gamma release of…

    Yahoo! Go for Mobile 2.0 Goes Windows Mobile

    You can find the Yahoo! Go site at go.yahoo.com

    How far it Goes on Windows Mobile is debatable though. The interface looks pretty and slick at first glance. But, then you start to notice things like the soft-buttons at the bottom don’t work. And, wow, is it slow! Of course, this was tested on a relatively slow SDA Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone. So, what about other devices?

    When I tried to install it on an i-Mate K-JAM Pocket PC Phone Edition (WM5), I got a message saying that it was not available for that yet but to check back. So, I tried it on a Dell Axim X50v running Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition (I have the WM5 upgrade disk but never upgraded it). The message there pretty much said that device would never be supported.

    If you have a supported device and want a pretty interface, try Yahoo! Go for Mobile 2.0. If you want a useful fast experience even at the relatively slow EDGE data rates, go back to http://wap.oa.yahoo.com/. Yahoo’s WAP text-based interface is fast and easy to navigate.

  • NewsBreak 2.0 Released

    Ilium Software released a new version of their RSS newsfeed reader client NewsBreak 2.0 on March 6. As I’ve mentioned before, NewsBreak is one of the few 3rd party applications I leave permanently installed on my Windows Mobile Smartphone (it works on Pocket PCs too). So, this latest release was of special interest to me. I’m going to resist the urge to download podcasts and vidcasts since it would probably take too long to download large files over an EDGE connection. However, the new navigation labels do seem much more intuitive and easier to use. I’m sure I’ll discover new things about NewsBreak as I continue to use it (daily).

  • Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition Access Database Synchronizer

    One of the many features that was lost when Windows Mobile 5 came out was the ability to sync Microsoft Access databases with a Pocket PC. A few weeks ago Microsoft provided a workaround that can synchronize data between Microsoft Access database on a desktop and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition database on a device. You can find it linked below…
    Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition Access Database Synchronizer

  • Windows Mobile 6 SDK

    Read this on Microsoft’s Mr. Mobile (Jason Langridge) blog. Microsoft released…

    Windows Mobile 6 SDKs

    Wait a minute? SDKs? Plural? Yep, they have separate SDKs for the Standard (Smartphone) and Professional (Pocket PC/Phone Edition) devices. But, wait? I thought the whole point of this convergence (they took away the bottom menu bar on Pocket PCs in WM5 and replaced it with the screen real-estate wasting soft buttons) was to reduce the distinction between the two device types. Guess not….

  • Jott.com: Speech to Text via Email

    In case you missed Frank McPherson’s comment on my previous blog rant on both speech and handwriting recognition losing to thumb keyboards…

    Frank mentioned a web service I had not heard of before: Jott.com (not to be confused with JotSpot which has a jot.com URL).
    Founded by two ex-Microsoft-ies, this web service lets you call it from your mobile phone, transforms your voice message into text, and then emails the text back to you.

    I’m tempted to try it except for one little problem… I’m always leery of giving out my phone number to any web service. The thought of a security breach that reveals all phone numbers stored by a service or an errant piece of software that starts dialing madly concerns me a lot (obviously). The Jott service requires you to provide your phone number. It probably uses Caller ID to identify you to determine which email address to send text of your voice message.

    If you are less paranoid than me and have tried this service, let me know how it is working for you.

    BTW, you can find Frank’s own blog covering mobile technology at: Pocket pC Hints and Tips.