All Things Mobile and Wireless
{ Category Archives }
The Official Google Blog noted that the Google Mobile relaunched last week with a new layout and simple access to Google’s mobile products. You can find it at…
For some reason, though, Google Mobile thinks my T-Mobile SDA is a MiTAC Mio 8390. The Mio is an older (Windows Mobile 2003) flip-style smartphone while my SDA is a Windows Mobile 5 based non-flip phone. And, it still says that the Java-based Google Maps for Mobile doesn’t work on the SDA.
Just noticed a blog post by Microsoft’s Jason Langridge: Business Card Scanner for Windows Mobile. In he asks: Is anyone aware of a solution to allow you to take a picture of a business card and then import the details into your contacts? I’ve seen a solution for Symbian but haven’t been able to track something down for Windows Mobile…. anyone know of such a solution?
The scanR Business Cards web application looks like it fits the bill. I haven’t tried this service. But, I did try their earlier Whiteboard webapp that cleaned up photos of whiteboards, turned them into PDFs and emailed them to you. It worked pretty nicely Their business card web application appears to be able to use a photo taken using a Windows Mobile Pocket PC or Smartphone with an integrated camera, clean it up, translate the bits into text, and then deliver a vCard you can import into Outlook.
One of the nice things about T-Mobile’s GPRS/EDGE data service compared to others (such as Verizon Wireless) is that it lets you use your phone as a wireless modem. And, it worked fine until this past April. Up until this past April, I used internet2.voicestream.com (NAT) Access Point Name (APN). It stopped working at that time and I switched to internet3.voicestream.com (public IP). However, when using my phone as a wireless modem using a Bluetooth connection to my Pocket PC with a nice big QWERTY keyboard, I had to drop the connection from 115.2Kbps to 38.4Kbps. I had to use my phone as a wireless modem a bit over the past week. I played with the settings and verified that I was limited to 38.4Kbps. Then, I switched the APN back to internet3.voicestream.com. And, yep, I was able to set the Bluetooth serial connection speed back up to 115.2Kbps.
Ever wonder what would happen if you mashed up a LEGO Mindstorms NXT robotics kit and a Windows Mobile Smartphone? Apparently so did Microsoft’s Brian Cross. You can find his source code and other information about his work on…
WiMo: The Windows Mobile Robot
You can find a video demonstration of an early version (May 2006) of this project by Mel Sampat and Brian on MSDN Channel 9 at:
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)
Arne Hess over at the::unwired has a good review with lots of photos of the HTC MTeoR (aka Breeze) Smartphone running Windows Mobile 5.
The $249.99 LEGO Mindstorms NXT is the first major update for the LEGO robotics technology in several years. Among its many improvements is replacing the infrared wireless control with Bluetooth. Microsoft Windows Mobile developer Brian Cross made use of the recently introduced Microsoft Robotics Studio to get his Windows Mobile Smartphone to control a LEGO Mindstorms NXT robot. You can find his Windows Mobile Team blog entry at:
Reader J.R. asks: Is there an excel, word package that works for the Motorola Q smartphone that recently came out thru Verizon?
J.R. Unlike Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Pocket Phone Edition devices, the Windows Mobile Smartphone devices (such as the Motorola Q) do not have Mobile Office components such as Excel or Word. There are, however, third party packages that may meet some of your needs (reading but not writing). You can read my O’Reilly Network blog item…
Reading Microsoft Word and Excel Files on a Windows Mobile Smartphone
…for more information. If you want to edit Word and Excel files, you should look at Pocket PC Phone Edition products such as the T-Mobile MDA or Verizon Wireless Treo 700w.