MobileViews Blog

I can probably count the number of commercial apps I have kept up to date from 1997 on one hand. Let’s see: Microsoft Office (ok, that is cheating a little since that is one hand by itself), JASC (now Corel) PaintShop Pro, and, hmm, that might actually be it. If you know me or have read this blog in the past, you know there is one other app I have used for a long time: Ilium Software’s eWallet for Windows Mobile. In fact, Handheld PC Magazine (now Smartphone and Pocket PC Magazine) published my Top 10 Products list back in their July 1998 issue. And eWallet was my favorite app then (followed by Ilium’s ListPro) too.

Ilium turns 11 years old next week (Happy Anniversary!) and is celebrating by giving stuff to you! Head over to the Ilium Software Blog between June 2 and June 6 to learn how you might get one of their great anniversary freebies.

Here’s hoping Ilium hangs around for a long time because I’ve been using eWallet since version 1 and want to keep using it for many more years to come.

As a boutique blogger (i.e., low traffic site , my blogs tend to be more like a personal note taking service. Basically, I write about stuff that interests me or annoys me (tech related stuff, of course). If other people find it interesting too, great. Otherwise, blogging is way to quickly note things down that interest me. I’ve been twitter-ing with friends for over a year now. But, I figure most people have no interest in what I ate for lunch (even friends or what book I read or movie I watched. So, I created a new Twitter account purely for personal quick tech related note taking (140 characters or less per tweet). You can find it at…

http://twitter.com/toddogasawara

I promise not to be a Twitter fire hose that clutters up your Twitter stream You can see what I’ve posted in the past day since creating this new public Twitter account. See you on Twitter!

My old friend Frank McPherson appears to have had a bit of problem with his TyTn II (I’ve been having my own issues with my Dash). In his case, part of the solution was to upgrade to the just released Windows Mobile 6.1 for the TyTn II. You can check out his May 25, 2008 entries to get a bit more info about the TyTn II with WiMo 6.1 at…

Pocket PC Hints and Tips

FYI: WiMo 6.1 does not give Professional Edition (touch screen) devices a spiffy new look like it does with the non-touch screen Standard Edition. And, it doesn’t include the new improved Internet Explorer browser that was talked up a month or two ago.

MacRumors has an interesting report about an Apple patent filing for solar power technology…

Solar LCD Powered iPods, iPhones, and Laptops

I wonder how practical this is given that most iPods and iPhones seem to be in light blocking cases of some kind and Macbooks are generally used indoors? Any solar energy experts out there have any opinions?

Just read about this on Slashdot and went to see the site myself…

PDA’s Banished To Oblivion This Half Term

While I can appreciate the reason for the apparently opt-in ban, it doesn’t make sense to me. I think it is a good idea for kids and parents to all carry phones to keep in contact when separated (either by design or accident). I also use my phone’s camera a lot. We’ve always had fun at theme parks with phone, digital camera, GPS, and all kinds of other e-gear that have actually enhanced the experience IMHO.

I just read somewhere (sorry, I can’t recall the reference) that Craigslist is the most viewed site on mobile devices. From what I can figure, this is the address for their mobile site…

mobile.craigslist.org

The image at the top of this blog is pretty much what this site looked like on my iPod touch. Clicking on any link results in a reasonably mobile friendly page. But, I had a hard time reading the main cluttered page on my mobile device. Is there some other mobile friendly page on Craigslist that I missed?

TwitPic is a free web service that lets you attach a photo web link to a Twitter tweet. Here’s how you do it, head over to TwitPic and sign-in with your normal Twitter account name and password. Then, click on Settings and add the special email address it shows you to your cameraphone’s email contacts list. The address is in the form of: twitterusername.secretstuff@twitpic.com. If you send a photo to this email address, the email subject line will become your tweet text and a weblink to your photo will appear beside this text. Anyone who clicks on your TwitPic photo link will be able to see your photo.

The T-Mobile Dash running Windows Mobile 6 has one really annoying bug: Once you set the phone to vibrate profile, event notifications always vibrate even if the profile is set back to normal. However, there is a workaround if you use a Bluetooth speaker or headset. The Dash comes with Voice Command in firmware. If you set it to send voice notifications to the Bluetooth device, the darn Dash will still vibrate for event notifications, but it will provide a text-to-speech notification via the Bluetooth device.

Just read this article over on Information Week about Fedora 9’s (Linux) USB Live feature that lets you store your preferred desktop on a 2GB USB flash drive. This desktop is not from your own Fedora desktop. Instead it is a prepackaged image that Red Hat calls CustomSpins.

Red Hat’s Fedora 9 Loads Portable Desktop On USBs

These desktops can be booted and run directly from the USB flash drive. I haven’t tried it yet. But, it is on my list of things to do

You can find more information about this on Fedora’s web site at…

Fedora Live Images

Addendum: Just found an additional Linux on USB flash drive article on Information Week: How To Run Linux From A USB Flash Drive

I usually don’t mention a service I haven’t tried yet. But, I’m almost ready to hit the sack and don’t want to start playing with anything just now. And, yet, this service seemed interesting enough to blog it as a kind of reminder to myself to try it out tomorrow.

kwiry (which I suppose is pronounced “query”)

…is a free service that helps you jot something down from a phone and lets you retrieve the results from a desktop web browser. They push the idea of text messaging queries to the service. This caused me to lose interest at first. However, reading on I noticed it also lets you send the query via email too. My phone plan only includes a handful of free text messages. But, my email is free (unlimited data). So, that is a much better fit for me.

It apparently somehow ties in to Twitter (another favorite of mine) and other social network services. So, I’m definitely going sign up and take a closer look at it tomorrow.

Good night, all!

I sometimes use my iPod video’s Sleep Timer. One nice side effect I found is that the Logitech speakers I use also turn off it is on battery power (vs. plugged into a wall socket) after the iPod shuts down. One oddity, though, is what happens the next time I turn the iPod on, it immediately turns off again. This only happens once though. However, I remember being surprised the first time I noticed this.

I’m not quite sure what the cause of the other iPod sleep problem I’ve noticed. That is, every once in a while (perhaps a couple times per week), the iPod won’t turn off the usual way. I found that locking and then unlocking the iPod (it starts out unlocked) restores the ability to turn off the iPod.

I’ve never used the iPod touch’s sleep feature since doesn’t work with the dock on the Logitech speakers I have.

I went on a rant a few months ago chiding Microsoft for their assumption that most of their Windows Mobile customers live in an IT Utopia where mobile devices are managed by dedicated highly trained IT mobile device support staff with exactly the right management tools. Well, according to this Information Week article…
Trouble Ahead: Most Companies Don’t Have A Mobile Device Management Plan

Not only have most organizations in InformationWeek’s recent survey of 307 business technology managers not adopted mobile device management strategies, most of them–52%–don’t even have plans to buy or implement tools that would help them corral proliferating wireless devices.

The article goes on to report: Those who haven’t adopted such products and don’t plan to cite three reasons: lack of need, cost, and complexity.

So, it looks like most of us, whether inside or outside the enterprise, are on our own when it comes to mobile devices.