Category: Windows Mobile

Google released a Google Maps client for Windows Mobile that installs from a CAB file that can be downloaded and installed directly from Google (no need to sync with a PC). It is also a native application. No Java Midlet needed. This means it is fast and looks good on a Windows Mobile device. I tested it on an old Dell Axim X50v running Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition. As you can see from the screen cap, the satellite image view looks nice and clear on its screen and the menu looks like most other native applications.

You can download it directly to your device from: http://google.com/gmm/

The application can also show a traditional looking street map, locations of businesses, real-time traffic for certain cities, and driving directions. I’m very impressed by what I’ve seen. I hope we see more native Windows Mobile apps from Google in the future.

On the odd chance that you don’t read the many other (and better known) sites and blogs that discuss Windows Mobile devices (ok, you may stop laughing and rolling around now), I thought I’d do my bit and offer this public service announcement. Last year the U.S. Congress decided to change the start and end dates for Daylight Savings Time in the US. This, of course, is causing all kinds of cyber hand wringing (for good reason I should add). Fortunately for we Windows Mobile users, Microsoft provides detailed instructions for dealing with this on a Pocket PC/Phone Edition or Smartphone. You can find the page linked below…
Daylight Saving Time 2007 Update

I upgraded one of my PCs from Windows XP Media Center Edition to Windows Vista Ultimate Edition last month. However, that PC was not my main PC (the one I sync my Windows Mobile devices to). If you go back through this blog, you’ll find that I did sacrifice a WM Smartphone to sync with the Vista box to test Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC). So, how did I get the data over to the Vista box for testing? I just copied the files over. There are a number of ways to find where your Outlook.pst and other Outlook files are stored. Here’s how I do it (since I can never remember where it is from one time to another).

• Start Outlook 2003
• Click on File, then Open, the Outlook Data File.
• Click on the pull-down menu at the top left
• Note the path for your Outlook files
• Exit Outlook
• Copy the files to a thumb drive or some other sufficiently large storage device. If you use Outlook for email (I don’t), it may be large. If you don’t use it for email, it will probably fit on a small thumb drive. My Outlook.pst is just a bit over 5MB large. And, I turned off archiving.
• Make sure Outlook 2003 (or 2007) on the Windows Vista PC is activated and ready to go.

I took my Outlook 2003 Outlook.pst file and plopped it in the Outlook 2007 folder on my Windows Vista PC. This migration process seemed to work fine for me. Your mileage may vary.

Although I have a PC setup running Windows Vista Ultimate Edition and the new Windows Mobile Device Center (ActiveSync replacement), my main PC that syncs with most of my Windows Mobile devices runs Windows XP Media Center. Since…

Microsoft ActiveSync 4.5

…was released for those of us still syncing Pocket PCs and Smartphones with XP, I decided to upgrade from 4.2 to 4.5 today. No problem right? Simple upgrade, right? Wrong…

The upgrade process itself went smoothly. However, when I brought up ActiveSync 4.5 (without any WM device attached to the PC), I noticed it had lost all of its device partnerships! This meant that I had to re-partner every device. The pre-Windows Mobile 5 devices partnered quickly as usual. However, because Windows Mobile 5 devices keep their PIM data in slow non-volatile RAM, the partnership for WM5 boxes took forever. I’m talking what seemed like 5 to 10 minutes per device.

The Windows Mobile platform is over 10 years old now. This sort of problem should have stopped happening during the last century. ActiveSync continues to be a user-hostile application and continues to earn its nickname of ActiveStink. Let’s hope its successor, WMDC, doesn’t earn its own pejorative nickname.