Monthly Archives: March 2008

One-Click Access to Google Mobile Apps

The Google Mobile Blog has a tip for Blackberry 8800, Samsung Blackjack, and Nokia  N95 owners…

Fast tip: one-click access to Google mobile applications on your phone

My Dash (Windows Mobile 6 Standard Edition) does not have the option to assign buttons or other physical inputs (volume slider) to applications. However, all Professional Edition (Pocket PC Phone Edition) devices do have this feature. You can find it in Settings->Buttons.

Sprint HTC Mogul EV-DO Rev. A Upgrade

I don’t have an HTC Mogul. But, if I did, I’d be pretty happy after reading this report on Wired.

Sprint Phone First to Use Fast Network

Sprint said Monday it was releasing a software update for the Mogul phone, made by HTC Corp. of Taiwan, that will enable the phone to connect at Rev. A speeds. Downloads speeds should be 600 kilobits per second to 1,400 kbps, up from a range of 400 kbps to 700 kbps with Rev. 0. It will be capable of uploads of 350 to 500 kbps, up from 50 kbps to 70 kbps.

According to HTC, this upgrade will also enable the Mogul’s integrated GPS.

Nice. I’d be interested to hear what your Mogul Rev. A experience is if you upgrade your device on the Sprint PCS network.

ActiveSync for the iPhone? Keep in Mind it is Exchange ActiveSync, Not Desktop

Apple announced that they licensed ActiveSync from Microsoft to let the iPhone directly sync with Microsoft Exchange. I could make some snide remarks about ActiveSync here (all well deserved). But, the thing to remember is this: They are NOT talking about syncing an iPhone to a PC using ActiveSync. This is purely an over-the-air sync directly to the Exchange Server. I hope the iPhone experience with Exchange Server is a good one. Nothing is worse than the desktop ActiveSync/WDMC experience that has been emotionally maiming Windows Mobile users for years.

Here’s an interview with Microsoft’s corporate VP for Exchange to provide the details on this Microsoft-Apple licensing.

Q&A: Microsoft Helps Connect Apple iPhone Users to Microsoft’s Exchange Server

Google Greasing the Path from Windows Mobile to Android

Google Calendar Outlook Sync

No one has ever accused the folks at Google of being dumb. And, despite their stock (along with nearly every other firm’s stock) tanking lately, the Googlelonions are still a smart bunch. On Tuesday, they provide Google Gears for Windows Mobile. This sure looks like a testing ground for preparing people for working with Google’s Android based phones later this year. Train up those Windows Mobile users so they can defect easily later. Smart. On Wednesday, they provide a tool to sync Google Calendar with Microsoft Outlook. Provide an easy way to move the all important calendar data from Windows to the Googlesphere. Brilliant. Now, we just need a simple mechanism to move Contacts data from Outlook to Google and the road to Android will be nearly finished. Very very smart.

I wonder if Microsoft is paying attention to any of this. Or, are they too focused on Yahoo!?

Zoho Writer + Google Gears Mobile + Windows Mobile = Winner

Zoho Writer Google Gears Mobile enabled

I installed Google Gears for Windows Mobile today and tried out the Gears-enabled Zoho Writer on a Windows Mobile 6 Professional Edition (an HTC TyTn) device. The result is not perfect but is far far ahead of what anyone else (including Google and Microsoft) have available for Windows Mobile.

After installing Google Gears Mobile, I went to…

mobile.zoho.com

…and logged into my Zoho account. It showed my five most recently edited Zoho Writer documents. I clicked the Go Offline link and watched the documents download relatively quickly over a WiFi connection. Taking the TyTn completely offline (no WiFi, no cell data), I used Internet Explorer to navigate between the five documents very quickly. No editing is possible yet. So, it is all read-only. This is a great start though and I’m looking forward to watching both Google Gears Mobile and Zoho create more great connected/disconnected web applications to use on the go.

Google Gears for Windows Mobile 5 and 6 (this is huge!)

This is huge news in so many ways…

Google Code Blog: Power up your mobile web applications

Google Code: Google Gears on Mobile Devices

Google Gears is an API for creating rich web applications and provides the ability for taking those rich web applications offline. Google Gears on Mobile Devices supports Windows Mobile 5 and 6. A quick read of their documentation shows that it apparently supports both the Pocket PC (Classic/Professional) and Smartphone (Standard).
Zoho (quickly becoming my favorite Web 2.0 service) has already announced: Zoho Writer Extends Mobile Support, Adds Offline Capability for Windows Mobile Using Google Gears. This release only allows viewing documents, but they are promising editing in the future. But, the big news is that their use of Google Gears for Windows Mobile means that you can take the online Zoho Writer documents with you offline (e.g., when you are on a plane or otherwise unable to get on the Internet). I’m planning on taking this feature for a spin soon and will report back here.

Ironically, it looks like Google is Microsoft’s best friend in regard to saving their Windows Mobile platform from being obsolete as a web access device (compared to the Apple iPhone). Up until this announcement I had written off Windows Mobile as an obsolete web access device. Google Gears for Mobile Devices changes everything.