Monthly Archives: July 2007

Microsoft Windows Mobile Staff Blogs Collected in a Single Feed

Yahoo Pipes aggregation of Windows Mobile staff feeds

I’ve found nine (9) Microsoft staff related to Windows Mobile work that have blogs. Some blog almost daily (like Jason Langridge). Others, well, they are not so regular. So, it can be a bit of work to follow what each has to say and figure out what is new. It finally occurred to me that Yahoo! Pipes provides the perfect tool to not only collect these blog feeds for me but also for anyone else interested in Windows Mobile. So, I used it to create a single feed sorted by blog post date that makes it easy to see what is new in Windows Mobile. You can find it at…

Collection of Microsoft Windows Mobile Staff Blogs

Note that this feed collection itself has an RSS feed. So, you can subscribe to this single feed for your in-house Windows Mobile news.

Microsoft Robotics Studio 1.5 Adds Support for Windows Mobile

If you’ve been following Windows Mobile based robotics projects like WiMo, you’ll be happy to learn that…

Microsoft Robotics Studio 1.5

…(released on July 9, 2007) adds formal support for Windows CE and Windows Mobile through its .NET Compact Framework porting of runtime and other files.

Canon PowerShot A710IS (6X Optical Zoom w/Image Stabilization)

Canon PowerShot A710IS and S1 IS

The Canon PowerShot A710IS has been available since last fall. You can see it on the left compared to the Canon PoweShot S1 IS (current version is S5, btw). Although it only has a 6x optical zoom (with image stabilization) compared to the 10x for the S1 (and 12x for the S5), its smaller size won me over. I think it may tend to shoot a bit overexposed compared to the Panasonic Lumix TZ3 I wrote about in an earlier blog entry. But, for the most part, I am very pleased with the A710IS. And, I really like the fact that it runs on two standard AA batteries (vs. the proprietary batteries needed by the Lumix). I wanted to have an Amazon affiliate link to it. But, guess what, Amazon is no longer directly carrying it. I suspect Canon (or Amazon) may be pushing the Canon PowerShot TX1 camera with 10x zoom and near-HD video recording. If you can find a A710IS, is will probably be heavily discounted. And, you can probably expect a new model to replace it this fall. But, if you find it at a good price, you might want to consider it.

Sample A710IS Macro photo below…
Testing Canon A710IS Macro

Microsoft Business Contact Manager for Windows Mobile

Years ago when I was beta testing Office 2003, I tried out Microsoft’s Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2003 and liked it a lot. Unfortunately, much of Microsoft is not in tune with Windows Mobile and there was no way to sync up BCM with a Pocket PC or Smartphone (which had just come out during beta testing). So, imagine my surprise when I read the contents of this blog post with the bone dry subject title…

First Half of Year 2007

Among other things, the post has download links for BCM for both the Pocket PC and the Smartphone… For free… And, both versions support Windows Mobile 6. Nice…