MobileViews Blog

Microsoft released the production versions of Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC) for Windows Vista on January 31. WMDC replaces ActiveSync for Vista users. There are two versions available…
Microsoft Windows Mobile Device Center Driver for Windows Vista (x86)

Microsoft Windows Mobile Device Center Driver for Windows Vista (AMD64)

Please note that you must check which version of Windows Vista you are using. I suspect that many people with AMD Athlon 64 based PCs (like me) are running the 32-bit version of Vista for driver compatibility. So, just having an Athlon-64 CPU does not mean you should download and try to install the AMD64 version of WMDC.

Reader Z.M. asks: Two products I have seen, the Cisco/Linksys WIP330, and the Y5 World handset use Windows CE/Mobile for the OS and browser, but they do not have the full UI suite you see on Windows Mobile mobile phones. They both use what looks like the same 3rd-party UI kit for a telephony UI. I was wondering if you know who makes this software?
Microsoft provides the base platform for Windows CE that is used in embedded devices such as the ones you mention (and many more). This base platform is then molded and enhanced by independent developers to create products like the ones you mention. This is a large number of embedded systems developers working to develop these kinds of products.
Windows CE is also the underlying platform for Windows Mobile devices: Pocket PC, Pocket PC Phone Edition, and Smartphone. The Windows Mobile Shell, Office, and other teams add on the features you see on Pocket PCs and Smartphones based on Windows Mobile.

Reader J.V. asks: Would a BlackBerry with Ev-DO technology (such as the 7703e) be usable in Japan? Would a BlackBerrys on GSM/GPRS and EDGE networks be usable in Japan?

Most of the world does not use CDMA/EVDO. Most of the world tends to be GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS. Japan’s NTT DoCoMo invented W-CDMA used by both FOMA used in Japan and UMTS used in a lot of places (except for most of the US where we tend to lag behind in the wireless world).

I took a look at taking my GSM/GPRS phone with me when I visited Japan back in 2005. I ended up leaving it behind. In speaking with people who visit Japan regularly, it seems that they tend to buy a phone with rechargeable SIMs (fixed number of minutes). If you read the article I wrote about my trip for O’Reilly’s MacDevCenter…
Japan Primer for the Mac Techno-Tourist

…you’ll find a section sub-titled Mobile Phones, Broadband, & Wi-Fi Hotspots that provides links to sites that discussing phone roaming options.

Microsoft Windows Vista is finally available for anyone to purchase/upgrade. Are you ready to sync your Pocket PC or Smartphone with Vista? Here’s some references for you to check out if you’re planning to use Vista with your Windows Mobile device.

Microsoft Windows Mobile Device Center

Couple of important notes from this page. First, if your device pre-dates Windows Mobile 2003, you can’t sync it with Vista and WMDC. Second, the oldest version of Outlook supported is XP (2002). I’ve seen some sites say Outlook 2000 is supported. But, that is not indicated on Microsoft’s WMDC page. Third WMDC appears to still be in a beta-release stage.

Synchronizing with Vista -Windows Mobile Device Center FAQ

The site above is maintained by fellow Mobile Devices MVP Chris De Herrera.

Troubleshooting Vista Windows Mobile Device Center

Finally, the blog entry linked above is by Microsoft’s own Mr. Mobile Jason Langridge.

Happy Vista-ing, folks!

I’m not much of a SMS (texting) user myself. But, if you are, you may want to take a look at Ben Hirashima’s…

TxtMan

It is currently freeware. However, its web page has a notice that a more robust commercial version is being developed.

While doing some research for a blog entry for a new site I started contributing to this week (Inside Port 25), I learned about some reasonably priced add-ons for Pocket PCs and Smartphones that add the ability to detect orientation and motion (sort of like the Apple iPhone). You can learn more about these products at…

pocketmotion.com

I haven’t bought any of their products. So, I’d be interested to hear from anyone who has. They sure sound interesting and are reasonably priced consumer gear.

The…

Windows Mobile Live Messenger Web Client

…is takes Live Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger) out of the mobile client world and into the mobile web client world. The overall experience is not too bad. I still prefer having a Mobile Live Messenger client but recognize that having a web version allows for more frequent updates and, hopefully, more iterative innovation.

These mobile web client experiments by Microsoft and others will probably most benefit, um, Apple, Inc. What? You ask? Why?

After the initial afterglow and reality distortion field diminished as MacWorld 2007 receded from reality to memory, Apple took a lot of heat in the press because their initial stand is that they will not permit applications to be installed on the Apple iPhone by the end user. However, the iPhone reportedly has a full Safari browser. If this is true, this means the iPhone should be capable of fully participating in Web 2.0-ish activities in a way that current web-enabled phones cannot. So, applications could be delivered or redeployed as web apps like Windows Mobile Live Messenger Web Client. Assuming you are always connected either by EDGE (phone data) or WiFi (wireless broadband), you would always have access to web-enabled applications.

Reader D.K. says: I’ve been reading your blog and site for some time, and am one of the myriad people who greatly appreciate the lengths you’ve gone through to help us plebieans disseminate the complexities of what’s now the WM platform.After being cursed with the imate sp5 (and wm5 for smartphones - what a crock), I’ve decided that I’m going to switch over to a full fledged wm5 pda-phone. I’ve got my eyes set on the htc p3600 (trinity), but it’s still stuck using the samsung 400mhz processor and worse yet, has only 64mb of ram. You had mentioned that a few manufacturers are producing and will soon produce 256mb phones, and I was wondering if you knew if HTC has any underway. It would be a shame to spend nearly $800 only to discover that the phone is obsolete a few months later.

D.K.: Thanks for the kind words. But, you might have read about upcoming phones with 256MB RAM at some other site. Generally speaking, I tend not to write about rumors and unreleased products? Why? (cough, cough)… Mostly because I don’t catch wind of many rumors or get juicy insider tidbits

That said, the HTC P3600 is a pretty nice looking Pocket PC Phone Edition. I would not be too concerned about the 400MHz Samsung chip. You will probably find it quite acceptable. I’ve got two first generation Windows Mobile 5 Phone Edition units: An iMate K-JAM (195MHz) and an iMate JasJar (520MHz). While the JasJar is definitely much faster than the somewhat pokey K-JAM, the K-JAM is quite usable. I usually carry the K-JAM around as my daily use Pocket PC (I use an SDA as my phone).

I also don’t find the 64MB RAM a limitation. However, I tend not to install a lot of apps on either my Pocket PC or Smartphone. And, I keep all my data on a 1GB mini-SD. So, I haven’t felt any storage crunch issues yet.

Of course, unless you must-a-gotta get a new phone now, it always pays to be be patient and wait for the usual round of announcements of new phones that seem to come out in Spring and Summer.

Slate has a retrospective on the camera phone in their article (and podcast)…

The Camera Phone

The first commercial camera phones came out a few years later. And, of course, here in the US, we didn’t figure it out until just a few years ago. But, we certainly seemed to have gotten with the program since then, eh?

Have you ever wanted to get more precise information about your cell phone’s signal strength. This Popular Science article briefly describes what the Field Test Mode is and how to interpret its value.

Popular Science: Stop Dropped Calls

The article links to this 4-page PDF file that provides detailed instructions on how to find this value on dozens of phones.

wpsantennas.com Cellular Phone Field Test Modes (PDF file)

One of the innovations that came with Microsoft Windows Mobile 5 for Pocket PC users was non-volitile flash RAM and the storage of key Windows Mobile databases in this RAM. This meant that both Pocket PC users would no longer lose their contacts and calendars when a battery died. Since Microsoft presumed that Pocket PC users would no longer need to restore their system from a hard disk through ActiveSync, they removed the Backup and Restore function for Pocket PCs in ActiveSync!

IMHO, this was a truly bad idea. Let’s say you lose or badly damage your Pocket PC (or Smartphone for that matter since it was never able to Backup/Restore over ActiveSync since it always had non-volitile flash RAM for PIM data). You go ahead and get an identical new Pocket PC. You know have to rebuild the Pocket PC from scratch. Sure, ActiveSync will repartner with it and flow data from Outlook. But, you have to reinstall your applications, rebuild email definitions for Messaging (Inbox), type in your name, etc., etc. In other words, you end up wasting an hour or more rebuilding your setup. This is something that ActiveSync Restore could have handled mostly unattended in much less time and hassle.

Manufacturers didn’t help matters much either. Prior to Windows Mobile 5, many Pocket PCs came with manufacturer supplied backup-to-storage-card utilities. These utilities archived your system RAM contents to a storage card in a single file. This file could be easily copied to your hard drive and further archived on a CD-R, thumb drive, or network store. But, many WM5 Pocket PCs don’t have these add-on utilities in firmware.

So, now what? Fortunately, there are other people who, like me, believe that a simple single file archival backup is a good idea. I use Spb Backup from Sbp Software House on my i-Mate K-JAM Pocket PC Phone Edition. It’s simple, fast, and has a notification area on my Start window to let me know when I last performed a backup.

If you use a Windows Mobile Pocket PC, you might want to consider heading over to the recently launched…

Spb Club

This online destination is produced by Spb Software House which created and sells numerous Pocket PC and Smartphone applications. One of my must-have Pocket PC apps is Spb Backup. But, more on that tomorrow when I rant a bit about backup assumptions for the Pocket PC.

Joining this free online site gives you access to free Pocket PC ring tones, free Pocket PC themes, and access to support for Spb Windows Mobile products.