Category Archives: Mobile Phones

Alton Towers Theme Park: PDA’s Banished To Oblivion This Half Term


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.

So, How is Craigslist Mobile Mobile-Friendly?


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?

kwiry: Text or Email a Topic to it and Retrieve Search Results on the Desktop

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!

Yahoo Go 3.0 Beta Earns a Tentative Thumbs Up


I noticed that Yahoo! Go 3.0 Beta became available for two of my Windows Mobile 6 smartphones (non-touch): The Dash and the the Vox. None of my professional edition (touch screen devices) are supported by this beta release. After bad-mouthing the Go 2.0 release and suggesting it go away if the Microsoft-Yahoo merger happened (which it will not now), I have to say that 3.0 Beta looks and feels a lot better. It is still extremely slow after testing it over both EDGE and 802.11g WiFi connections. However, the navigation seems to make more sense now (though I still have issues with it) and the Widget technology looks reasonably good. It looks like Go Widgets are stored in the cloud since my widget add-ons moved over to my Vox after adding it while using the Dash. Go 3.0 is a much sticker app than 2.0 was. And, I’m giving it a tentative thumbs up. It is staying on my phones for the time being.

Tiny Twitter for Windows Mobile

Tiny Twitter on an HTC Vox SmartphoneQuick! Name a web service that is as flaky as a bowl of breakfast cereal that doesn’t seem to generate hate even though it seems to be down half the time. Did you say Twitter? I learned about Tiny Twitter from Mobility Site’s Jack Cook. There are versions for Windows Mobile (native code) and Java-enabled phones. So, I downloaded the Windows Mobile Smartphone (Standard Edition) version (there’s a separate download for Pocket PCs — Classic/Professional Edition) and tested it on an HTC Vox smartphone. The one thing that might bother you at first is that you don’t see your own tweets in the display as you do on a desktop or even Twitter’s mobile web site. You do, however, get a richer Twitter experience using this freeware client than you do with Twitter’s mobile friendly website.

Definitely Need a ChargePod

ChargePod

Fellow MVP Sven Johannsen pointed me to the Callpod Chargepod (Amazon affiliate page) multi-device charger (manufacturer page). I’m traveling to Seattle to attend the Microsoft MVP Global Summit and wish I had known about this thing earlier. The sad thing, though, is that charging six devices at once is not quite enough 🙂 But, it sure would help!