All Things Mobile and Wireless
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Bye bye, ActiveSync! Hello, Windows Mobile Device Center (at least for Vista). If you plan on using a Windows Mobile based Pocket PC or Smartphone with Windows Vista, you will need to learn a new and more unmemorable name for the software that syncs with mobile devices. You can find the download for it at…
Microsoft ® Windows Mobile ® Device Center Beta 3 for Windows Vista™ (x86)
You wouldn’t think a simple X in the upper right hand corner of a Microsoft Windows Mobile Pocket PC/Phone Edition would cause so much heated discussion. But, it does. The reason? A Windows Mobile Pocket PC somewhat resembles its older and larger sibling: Microsoft Windows. In all its various versions (from 1.0 to Vista), clicking the X in the upper right hand corner causes the application to close (most of them, anyway).
This doesn’t happen on a Windows Mobile Pocket PC. Clicking the X on a Pocket PC simply leaves the application running in the background and brings the previous application placed in the background to the foreground (makes it visible). Mike Calligaro, of the Microsoft Windows Mobile Team, explains the rationale behind this design choice in his blog entry…
Found this PC Magazine news item via the MacRumors site.
T-Mobile Talks Up 3G Network—and Apple?
The article reports Dotson singled out Apple’s efforts on the desktop as a “great precursor of where I think the marketplace is headed in 3G,” leading to speculation that T-Mobile, not Cingular, will host Apple’s much-rumored iPhone project.
Yet, it also says that Dotson focused on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and not the iPod. So, maybe Apple is going with T-Mobile instead of Cingular? Why? Although Cingular has the largest US mobile footprint, T-Mobile has a larger worldwide footprint.
Zack Whittaker over at MSBlog.org asks how to upgrade a Windows Mobile 2003 2nd Edition Pocket PC to Media Player 10 Mobile. And, the answer is: Not from Microsoft. Windows Mobile devices are more like applicances than computers. The large ROM-based applications like Media Player must be burned-in rather than simply installed on top of whatever is there. These firmware based applications are updated by the device manufacturer (not Microsoft). It tends differ from manufacturer to manufacturer. My Dell Axim X50v device, for example, got its Media Player 10 Mobile upgrade with the large AKU2 upgrade Dell made available last year. HP and other firms provided similar upgrades.
Techweb reports that an unnamed market research firm (might be Gartner since it is mentioned later in the article) says that Smartphone shipments were up 75.5% in the first half of 2006.
The article says the report shows that North America is the only region where PDAs outsold Smartphones. Personally, I find that hard to believe even assuming that the popular Palm Treo line is considered a PDA instead of a smartphone.
HP’s web site shows their soon-to-be-released GPS, WiFi (802.11b and 802.11g!), Bluetooth, music/photo/video playing, Windows Mobile 5 powered handheld device with a 3.5″ LCD screen (bigger than the Zune’s) with a price of $599.99.
HP iPAQ rx5915 Travel Companion
So, whatever happened to the $500 GPS-enabled UMPC anyway? In any case, CNET has a video review of this new GPS-enabled iPAQ available at the link below.
HP iPaq rx5900 Travel Companion
Too bad it doesn’t have a QWERTY keyboard of some kind…
Engadget has a step-by-step illustrated tutorial showing how to use a Verizon Wireless Pocket PC Phone Edition (Windows Mobile 5) XV6700 as mobile modem for a notebook. You can find the article at…
Guy Williams posted the following question on my O’Reilly Windows DevCenter blog. My response includes a bunch of llinks which might be a bit much for the blog response box there. So, I’m posting a reply here.
I just bought a Treo 700wx from Sprint. I cannot get ActiveSync to recognize the phone (when the phone is connected via USB cable).
The error says “Active Sync cannot connect to the Windows Mobile powered device. To troubleshoot the problem, click ok.”
I spent about 8 hours yesterday along with many (10+) calls to Sprint to get the phone working with the Activesync software that came standard with it. I went through levels 1,2 and 3 of Sprint support. I was connected this morning to Sprint’s special “TREO Activesync” department. No one could get the software running so that I could sync with the Treo 700wx.
At this point, I am at a total loss regarding what to do. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
The first thing you should check is whether you have a software firewall (e.g., Zone Alarm) running. If so, check out my blog item:
ActiveSync 4.1 for Microsoft Windows Mobile 5 devices released
If that is not the case, check out the following ActiveSync troubleshooting guides.
Microsoft.com: What Does the Troubleshooter for ActiveSync Do?
PocketPCFAQ.com: ActiveSync 4.x Troubleshooting Guide – General
There’s also an item specifically focused on the Treo 700w (one generation older than the 700wx) at:
The USA Today article Bluetooth watches to show who’s calling reports that Fossil and Sony-Ericsson teamed up to create a Bluetooth watch that displays Caller-ID information on the watch and lets you send the call to voice mail if you don’t want to pick up the phone to answer it. It looks like the watch only works with Sony-Ericsson phones that it says that support for other Symbian based phones is planned. The watches will be available by the end of October under Fossil’s “Mobile Wear by Abacus” brand, the regular Fossil brand, and a Sony Ericsson-branded version. Prices will range from $200 to $250.
Mel Sampat, a Program Manager in the Microsoft Windows Mobile product group tells us there is nothing to worry about if you plan to use Visual Studio 2005 SP1 and Windows Vista to develop software for Windows Mobile devices. A link to an 8 minute video demonstrating using Visual Studio with Windows can be found at the end of the blog entry…
Got a note from Shawn McCollum letting me know about his mobile portal site tuned for web-enabled phones (work on PDA format screens too). Its set up to help you find information and display in a mobile friendly format using the Google mobile transformation service. You can search for specific web formats/services such as websites, news, and flickr. You can find it:
NPR has two overlapping (shares content) streaming audio reports about GPS for Cell Phones…
GPS Is Smartening Up Your Cell Phone
…about GPS being an open resource on Nextel phones but not phones from other US mobile phone companies.
Power of GPS Phones Locked Away from Most Users
…adds a bit more focus about why the phone companies have not opened up the ability to develop services for the GPS in many cell phones.