Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Delivering new innovations and development best practices to the Windows Mobile platform with Visual
Studio 2008, the .NET Compact Framework 3.5, SQL Server Compact 3.5, a working Supply Chain application,
over 5,000 lines of commented code plus over a hundred pages of helpful documentation.
Adapt your App :: Create a single binary that runs unchanged on Windows Mobile Standard or Pro, Portrait or
Landscape, Rectangle or Square. No more wasting time building separate executables to accommodate
different screen sizes or input methods.
Sync Services for ADO.NET :: Synchronize your data between SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server Compact 3.5
using the new Sync Framework. Keep all your occasionally-connected mobile workers on the same page.
Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Store and Forward :: Reliably push messages to servers or other
devices via Exchange Server 2007. Programmatically notify peer devices that they have new orders waiting for
them and need to sync.
MapPoint :: Guide delivery drivers to their customers via either the shortest or quickest route. Integrated
mapping means you’ll never get lost again.
LINQ :: Use the new Language Integrated Query to filter results from Generic Object Collections. Query both
your objects and XML using a familiar, SQL-like syntax to boost developer productivity.
Custom Controls :: Capture signatures and dazzle your end-users with 3D and Alpha-blended controls that alter
their behavior depending on the platform they’re running on.
Notifications and Online Help :: Formerly only supported on Pro, say hello to Popup Notifications and Online
Help on Standard. Popup Notifications, also known as “toast,” display an HTML message and then disappear
after a pre-determined amount of time. Using Online Help on every screen reduces your applicationtraining
costs.
Language Switching and Localization :: Change Language/Regional Settings inside your app and watch text and
Online Help speak a different language. Don’t wait until your application is finished to realize that it needs to
be world-ready.
Time to Market :: Stop reinventing the wheel and use this Accelerator as the foundation for your next
Windows Mobile development effort. If you don’t want to use the whole thing, pick and choose the
components that are the best fit for your project.
Find out More :: The first Windows Mobile Line of Business Solution Accelerator has been downloaded tens of
thousands of times and has served as the foundation for some of the largest and most important Windows
Mobile projects in the world. Visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsmobile to accelerate your career as a
Windows Mobile developer.
Professional Square Std Portrait QVGA Professional Portrait Std Landscape QVGA
10
June/July 2008 (Vol. 11, No. 3)
28, 30
Top 5 Accessories; Power Solutions
2 S M A RTPH O N E & POCKET PC Jun/Jul 2008
58
Enterprise Solutions
52 Welcome to the iEnterprise
How does iPhone 2.0 impact the business environment?
60 Celio REDFLY
A paradigm-shifting “mobile companion”
66
Mobile video from vTap; Zumobi mobile widgets; Hubdog mobile content; Mippin RSS
feed access; Skyfire Web browser; more
Cheap
Recycling old phones; Color code cables; Perform restart immediately; Call history
symbols; Windows Mobile tips on YouTube; more
Trick
60
Redfly Mobile
Companion
Jun/Jul 2008 S MARTP HO NE & P O CK E T P C 3
From The Editor
Rich Hall
Executive Editor/Publisher
Hal Goldstein • hal@Smartphonemag.com
Editor/Publications Director
I’ve Got to Admit It’s Getting Better Richard Hall • rich@Smartphonemag.com
Enterprise Editor
Nathan Clevenger • nclevenger@Smartphonemag.com
A
Associate Editor
s it turns out, John Lennon and Paul McCartney seemed to know something about the Dan Hart • dan@Smartphonemag.com
way Microsoft approaches software development. Witness the latest release of the Online Editor
Jim Karpen • jim_karpen@Smartphonemag.com
Windows Mobile OS and application suite—version 6.1. Internet Explorer has a new
Contributing Editors & Writers
zoom feature that makes it easier to move around Web pages. A new “Getting Started” Nate Adcock • natestera@mail.com
application makes life easier for the new user. A built-in Task Manager lets you switch to open Robert Altman • robert.altman@itrgroupinc.com
Chris De Herrera • teched@pocketpctalk.com
apps or close them down completely. And there’s a number of enterprise-related enhancements Clinton Fitch • management@clintonfitch.com
that improve messaging capability, make it easier to swap Office 2007 files, and manage mobile Dan Hanttula • danh@semperaptus.com
Tim Hillebrand • chief@synergetics.org
devices. For more on the WM 6.1 enhancements, check out the lead article. No, Windows Tom Jaros • tom@empowermobility.com
Mobile still isn’t perfect. But it’s getting better all the time. Jim Karpen • jim_karpen@smartphonemag.com
Adam Kornak • adam.kornak@microsoft.com
Don Overlander • overlander@itrgroupinc.com
We’re also seeing improved—and more interesting—devices based on the Windows Mobile Eric Pankoke • epankoke@gmail.com
software. In this issue, we publish a “first look” review of Sony Ericsson’s new XPERIA X1. Mike Riley • mike@mikeriley.com
Werner Ruotsalainen • werner@smartphonemag.com
It will be released sometime in the summer, running the Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional Jan Saalfeld • jan@junipersys.com
software. The X1 is the first Windows Mobile device to sport a Wide VGA (800 x 480 pixel) Patrick Salmon • psalmon@enterprisemobile.com
David Seagull • davids@smartphonemag.com
display, and one of the first to incorporate the new Qualcomm processor. More importantly, John Stewart • jstewart@cirruses.com
it comes with a customizable “Panels” user interface, which should make the user experience Ed Zabrek • medicaleditor@smartphonemag.com
Alan Zaks • alan@smartphonemag.com
on this device better.
New Products Editor
Noah Ouellette • noah@Smartphonemag.com
The focus on improving the Windows Mobile user experience is in part due to the success
Copy Editor
of Apple’s iPhone. With Apple’s decision to open up the platform to third-party applications, Wayne Kneeskern • wayne@Smartphonemag.com
and with the release of a Software Developer’s Kit for their device, the iPhone will be better Art Director
able to compete with Windows Mobile in the area of third-party applications. And because Al Constantineau • albert@thaddeus.com
Apple has recently decided to license Exchange ActiveSync for the iPhone, they will be better Cover Design
George Foster • george@fostercovers.com
able to compete in the enterprise niche as well. We discuss this in the enterprise section, in
Customer Service
an article titled “Welcome to the iEnterprise.” In addition, Hal discusses it and the future of Michelle Talley • michelle@thaddeus.com
Windows Mobile in his Pocket View column at the end of the issue. Marge Enright • marge@thaddeus.com
Executive Advisor
World Mobile Congress is the largest trade show dedicated to mobile technology, and this Rita Goldstein
year’s event showcased a lot of exciting new devices, components, accessories, and more. We Customer Service; Subscriptions
To change address or clear up any problem with your subscription, contact
saw the XPERIA X1 there along with other new smartphones, we demoed the new version of our subscription department info@Smartphonemag.com
the Opera Mobile Web browser, and we talked with manufacturers about new, more powerful We welcome tips, articles, and reviews
and less power-hungry chipsets to power these devices. You can read about it in our Mobile For article and Tips guidelines: www.Smartphonemag.com/submissions
World Congress 2008 report. To publicize your product: www.Smartphonemag.com/publish.asp
Printer Quebecor World Midland, 1700 James Savage Rd
Midland, Michigan 48640 USA 800-448-4288
There’s a lot more in this issue, but I’m over my word count already. Be sure to check out Newsstand Distribution Curtis Circulation Company
the table of contents, or just thumb through the magazine at your leisure. 760 River Road, New Milford, New Jersey 07646 USA 201-634-7400
Newsstand Coordinator Carl Kopf & Associates 203-944-9466
I think you’ll discover that Windows Mobile… is getting better all the time. Reprints The Reprint Outsource, Betsy White
w.betsy@verizon.net 717-394-7350
mailing list rental Worldata, Jay Schwedelson
jay@worldata.com 800-331-8102 x176 www.worldata.com
Advertise Suzee Dittberner • suzee@Smartphonemag.com
913-344-1352 Fax: 913-469-0806
Rebecca Jones • rebecca@Smartphonemag.com
913-344-1392 Fax: 913-469-0806
Smartphone & Pocket PC (ISSN 1528-5456) is published by Thaddeus Computing Inc. at 110
North Court Street, Fairfield, IA 52556, USA. Periodicals postage paid at Fairfield, Iowa, Midland,
MI and at additional mailing offices. Subscription rates payable in U.S. dollars, checks drawn
on a U.S. bank, or by credit card—one year: $19.95; two years: $34.95. Postage: Within United
States free; outside United States add $18 per year. Published bi-monthly, plus one bonus
issue, in late fall/early winter. Please allow four to six weeks for receipt of first issue. Executive,
Editorial, Circulation, Marketing Offices: 110 North Court Street, Fairfield, IA 52556. Telephone:
641-472-6330, Fax: 641-472-1879. Advertising Offices: Ascend Media, 7015 College Boulevard,
Ste. 600, Overland Park, KS 66211; Telephone: 913-469-1110; Fax: 913-469-0806.
© Copyright 2006-07, Thaddeus Computing Inc, all rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced without written permission. Reasonable efforts are made to provide
accurate and useful information, but the reader must make his or her own investigations and
decisions; the Publisher and Editorial Staff cannot assume any responsibility or liability for the
use of information contained herein.
POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to Smartphone & Pocket PC,
Thaddeus Computing Inc, 110 North Court Street, Fairfield, IA 52556.
“Windows” and “Windows Mobile” are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
New iPhone-like interface in Pocket Plus on the Today screen and tap- send it back for repairs while it is still under
for touch screen devices and-hold until the menu comes up. Then, go to warrantee.
Al Harrington
Add >File... and use the File Explorer to go to
Recently I bought a copy of your maga-
Windows/Favorites, and then tap the Favorite
zine at a store while traveling. I read with
interest the news item titled “New Software
you want to have a shortcut to on your tab. High capacity SDHC storage cards
Tap OK and that is it! (Note that my instruc- Can my AT&T 8525 Pocket PC Phone Edi-
gives iPhone-like interface to WM devices.” I
tions assume that you have the Favorite stored tion device use the higher capacity (over 2 GB)
liked what I heard so much that I went on the
on the device already.) Additionally, you can SDHC storage cards?
Internet and downloaded a copy of Mobility-
do this same file shortcut to virtually any file Charles A. Cohen
Flow’s new Touch Commander software for
saved on your device with Pocket Plus. Just
my Verizon XV6700 smartphone. It is a good Unfortunately no. Support for MicroSDHC
follow the same routine. I do this quite a bit
piece of software. cards is in the newer AT&T Tilt, but not in
with documents myself.
I’ve created a video showing you the step- the 8525.
by-step on how to do this on my YouTube David Shier, Contributing Editor
channel (youtube.com/clintonfitchdotcom).
Look for the video “Adding Internet Explorer
Favorites to Spb Pocket Plus Tabs.”
Clinton Fitch, MVP-Mobile Devices
E-TEN accepts acquisition offer from Acer Windows Mobile to be ported to Mobile Internet Devices
Taiwan-based mobile device vendor E-TEN Information Systems has Microsoft recently hired new personnel to work on porting Windows
announced that they have accepted an acquisition offer from Acer Inc., Mobile to new form factors, including Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs).
the world’s third-ranked PC vendor. Expectations from the deal are for Previously, Microsoft only promoted ultra-mobile PCs (UMPCs) as
greater penetration of E-TEN products and services on a global level the form factor that would come between laptops and smartphones.
while at the same time allowing for improved local support to existing Both types of devices feature larger screens and faster processors than
customers. The company is seeking to expand the footprint particularly smartphones; MIDs are distinguished from UPMCs in that they lack
of their Glofiish-branded products in a smartphone market that is ex- the ability to view office applications and typically have smaller (five-
pected to grow by more than 30 percent by 2011. inch) screens.
Sybase launches iAnywhere Mobile Office, encryption New phone records calls and simulates ambient noise
Sybase has announced the launch of iAnywere Mobile Office, a wire- Gigabyte Communications has announced a new
less e-mail, PIM, and security solution that is aimed at improving the Windows Mobile-based phone that can record
mobilization of business processes by including multiple functions to calls and messages as well as hide the caller’s
exist in a single e-mail client. Also announced was the launch of a location by simulating background noises. The
new mobile device encryption program that saves battery life by do- background noise “Wisetalk” software includes
ing decryption on demand only and preventing lock-down of a device different preset noises such as “airport,” “con-
while GPS is active. cert,” or “meeting room.” Other features of the
quad-band GSM-based Gsmart MW998 include
Boingo releases Wi-Fi support Wi-Fi (b,g), Bluetooth 2.0, a 2.8-inch VGA touch
software for WM 6 devices screen, and a 520 MHz processor.
Boingo Wireless Inc. recently released a ver-
sion of their Boingo Mobile Wi-Fi software for Proximity technology to be added to Windows Mobile
Windows Mobile 6 devices (mobile.boingo. Microsoft has announced plans to collaborate with RFID vendor Sirit
com/download). Boingo Mobile allows users to implement near field communications (NFC) to Windows Mobile.
to automatically connect to the world’s largest This “proximity technology” will provide “contactless” payment, se-
network of Wi-Fi hotspots around the world cure access, control of home entertainment systems, and other features
at any time. to Windows Mobile devices. NFC technology is already used widely in
Japan, where commuters can purchase train tickets or pay for parking
Nvidia unveils new CPU for Windows Mobile devices by waving their phones in front of sensors. A report on NFC conducted
Nvidia recently unveiled its first CPU, a “system-on-a-chip” for Win- by ABI Research projects that 30 percent of all phones worldwide will
dows Mobile devices. The APX 2500 will hit the market late in 2008 incorporate NFC technology by 2011.
and will feature an ARM11 processor and a variety of graphics tools
such as a CSAA filter for 2D and 3D modes. The processor will be Microsoft announces Windows Mobile 6 version of Silverlight
an “Ultra Low-Power GeForce” (ULP GeForce), which will require Microsoft recently announced a new Windows Mobile 6 version of
low CPU cycles for video playback, resulting in overall low power Silverlight, a cross-platform multimedia plug-in similar to Flash. The
consumption. The APX 2500 can also support up to 12 megapixels in plug-in will provide animation, vector graphs, and media playback, and
cameras and 1280 x 720 pixel displays. will support WMV, WMA, and MP3 content. The 1.0 version of the
software will be available for Windows Mobile 6 phones in the second
Spb releases 2.0 version of “next-generation user interface” quarter of this year.
Leading Windows Mobile software developer
Spb Software House recently released version Windows Mobile receives Federal security certifications
2.0 of their user interface plug-in Mobile Shell. Microsoft recently announced that both Windows Mobile 5 and 6 have
Version 2.0’s improvements include gesture- obtained U.S. Federal security certifications, enabling the operating
based navigation to launch programs within systems to be used in secure operations such as combat and reconnais-
any other program, a tabbed window that sance missions, battlefield medical triage, logistical support, and more.
includes all functionality, full-screen menus The new certifications also allow Windows Mobile devices to be used to
for weather, time, contacts, and alarms, ani- authenticate government employees on secure networks in conjunction
mated transitions from screen to screen, lower with government-issued identity badges.
memory consumption, and more.
HTC to introduce next generation CDMA phones in India
Microsoft announces Windows Mobile support for Flash Lite HTC and Reliance Communications have announced an agreement
Microsoft announced a licensing agreement with Adobe to include na- to promote next generation CDMA devices in India. The move marks
tive support for Flash Lite, Shockwave Flash (SWF), and Adobe Reader HTC’s first venture into the Indian CDMA market, which is rapidly
LE (lightweight edition) on Windows Mobile phones. The Flash Lite growing. In conjunction with this announcement, HTC also introduced
browser plug-in will enable Internet Explorer Mobile to work with two new devices, the P3000 and the S720, which will run exclusively on
popular Web video, animation, and document-sharing technologies, Reliance’s wireless network. The network will cover 15,000 towns and
similar to the desktop Adobe Flash Player, which is the most widely villages and provide voice, data, and video communications, including
used cross-platform player. With Adobe Reader LE, WM devices will high-speed CDMA 1X mobile Internet access.
be compatible with all PDF documents. Neither Microsoft nor Adobe
has set a timeframe for the software integration.
Social.FM to be distributed
through Handmark
Industry News business applications come in second with
16 percent. Two years ago, business apps
were at number one with 18 percent, while
A distribution agreement has recently been “World’s smallest” Bluetooth
announced between Social.FM, a Web mu- headset released entertainment came in third place. The most
popular device for mobile content in 2007
sic service, and Handmark, a mobile media
A Bluetooth headset was the BlackBerry Pearl, according to the
distributor. Social.FM provides over-the-air
weighing less than 6 report. For Windows Mobile Standard users,
access to your music collection, social con-
grams (.21 ounces) and entertainment application sales easily came in
nectivity and access to your buddies’ music
measuring l.3 inches first with 36 percent, while business app sales
libraries, and thousands of radio channels,
long and .63 inches wide came in a distant second with 12 percent.
podcasts, and other audio. Handmark reach-
was released by INVI-
es five major operators (AT&T, T-Mobile,
Sprint, Orange, and Telus) in the U.S., Can-
SIO, who claims that Gates foresees big technology leaps
the G5 is the “world’s Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates recently spoke
ada, the U.K., Austria, Germany, and the
smallest Bluetooth headset.” The headset pro- about his vision of technological leaps in the
Netherlands.
vides up to 4 hours of talk time and 150 hours next 10 years to the Northern Virginia Technol-
New findings on mobile Internet of standby time and comes with a “Protective ogy Council. He speculated that the most im-
and consumer usability published Charging case” that charges the headset each portant advances would be the ways in which
time it is placed in the case. When used with people will interact with computers, such as
A recent study commissioned by Bytemobile
this portable rechargeable charger, INVISIO speech and handwriting recognition technol-
found, among other things, that mobile users
states that the G5 provides up 20 hours of talk ogy and touch screen interfaces that will inte-
in the U.S. are accessing the mobile Web on
time and 30 days of standby time. grate a wide-ranging amount of information.
a daily basis more frequently than those in the
U.K. (57 to 46 percent); mobile video isn’t Entertainment application Gates also spoke of television as becoming a
being watched mainly because of device con- sales outpace business apps targeted medium in which viewers could se-
lect customized content for news, sports, and
straints (such as screen size, memory capac-
According to the annual Handango Yardstick entertainment. Gates also noted that he fore-
ity, and battery life); 96 percent of consumers
trend report that tracks smartphone applica- saw nothing that would impede the advance
want their mobile Web browsing to function
tion purchases, entertainment software gar- of technology, pointing out that academia and
the same as their PC browsing.
nered the highest percentage of application corporate researchers continued advancements
downloads with 17 percent last year, while after the Internet stock bubble burst in 2000.
M
icrosoft recently introduced Win-
dows Mobile 6.1, an upgrade of the
Windows Mobile operating system.
It adds new features and capabilities
to the previous (6.0) version, enhancing your
Web browsing and day-to-day use of Windows
Mobile. It also adds new features and capa-
bilities of interest to the enterprise users. This
article looks at some of the more important
enhancements. Fig. 5: Non-touch screen smartphones have a new Home
screen with a sliding menu.
New Getting Started app
The new Getting Started application is ac- Figs. 1 & 2: Getting Started main screen (touch screen left,
cessed in the Programs folder on touch screen non-touch screen right).
devices and from the Start menu on non-touch
screen smartphones. Select the Getting Started
icon to display topics of interest to new users
(Figs. 1 & 2). The user selects the desired topic
from this list to learn more about the features
and capabilities of their device (Fig. 3 & 4). Figs. 6 & 7: Internet Explorer Mobile’s new Zoom feature, as
The topics include Make a call, Set date and seen on a non-touch screen smartphone. The left screen
time, Set up e-mail, Set up a device password, shows the thumbnail (Zoom Out) view of the Web page with
Set up a Bluetooth headset, Set background the outline of the zoom selection box superimposed over a
on the Today or Home screen, Set ring tone, portion of the screen. The right screen shows that portion of
Transfer music, and Add/remove Getting the screen zoomed in on.
Started (which removes the Getting Started
icon from the Today/Home screen, but does Figs. 3 & 4: Getting Started individual tip screen (touch screen
not remove the feature from the device). left, non-touch screen right).
Home screen’s Sliding Panel
Microsoft enhanced the Home screen on non- or move e-mail. Finally, Windows Mobile 6.1
touch screen smartphones to include a “sliding includes optimizing the bandwidth utilization
panel” option (Fig. 5). As with earlier versions for Exchange, POP3, and IMAP4, which is very
of the OS, the Home screen displays the date, important to enterprise wireless data users. Figs. 8 & 9: The Clock & Alarms application on non-touch
time, upcoming appointments and tasks, and screen smartphones allows you to set a second alarm (left)
other information. However, the new option Enhancements to and set alarm sounds, types, and volume (right).
slides a virtual magnifying panel over these Internet Explorer Mobile
elements as you scroll down the page, enlarg- A very cool feature added to Internet Explorer
to wait until the whole Web page is download-
ing them and making them easier to read. Mobile is the ability to display a Web site in
ed before being able to Zoom Out on it. This
thumbnail view and to select a portion of that
Improved Messaging screen to zoom in on. Press the soft key labeled
may be especially slow if you’re connected to
the Web via cellular GPRS networks.
Microsoft has made some significant enhance- Menu and select Zoom Out to see the Web site
Enterprise customers will appreciate the
ments in the Messaging application. For enter- in full-page “thumbnail” view, similar to what
ability to customize the Internet Explorer Mo-
prise users Microsoft added Exchange Auto- you see on your desktop PC (Fig. 6). Note that
bile homepage. The customization provides the
Discovery, which makes it easier to set up in this view, the outline of a small rectangular
synchronization with Exchange. Users are now selection box is superimposed on the screen.
Use the directional pad to move the selection Chris is a special correspondent and contributing author for
able to download e-mail from all accounts at Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine. He maintains one of the
the same time. Microsoft added auto-complete box to outline the portion of the screen you best Pocket PC Web sites (pocketpcfaq.com), Pocket PC news
for e-mail recipients, which makes it easier want to view. (On touch screen devices you (pocketpctalk.com) and discussion boards (forums.pocketp-
cfaq.com) as well as Tablet PC news (tabletpctalk.com). Chris
for users to enter e-mail addresses on small can use the stylus to drag the box around the is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for Mobile Devices
keyboards and touch screens. Also, Windows screen.) Then press the soft key labeled “Zoom and Tablet PCs, and writes articles on the Pocket PC and
Mobile 6.1 added the ability to select multiple In” to display the selected area in full screen smartphone for his own Web site and for other mobile computing publications.
Chris regularly participates in various newsgroups (including Microsoft.public.
e-mail items in the list so you can easily delete view (Fig. 7). Keep in mind that you will have pocketpc.activesync). You can reach Chris at teched@pocketpctalk.com.
you have made changes to a document open in ier by exporting their Outlook settings from a
Word Mobile, and use Task Manager to close desktop PC to the Windows Mobile device.
the application, you may lose those changes.
It’s best to close documents and data screens Managing Mobile Devices—
first, before closing the application with the System Center Mobile Device Manager
Task Manager. Last fall, Microsoft released a new server
to manage Windows Mobile devices called
Update Wi-Fi configuration System Center Mobile Device Manager (SC-
Figs. 10 & 11: The new Task Some Wi-Fi enabled devices ship with third- MDM). SCMDM actually adds Windows
Manager app as seen on a
party Wi-Fi configuration utilities built into Mobile Devices to Active Directory and pro-
touch screen device (left)
and a non-touch screen them, and some come with a Microsoft util- vides group policy management of the device
smartphone (right). ity. If your device uses Microsoft’s, you should security as well as a separate VPN connection
note that it has been enhanced in WM 6.1. optimized for Windows Mobile. Windows
Fig. 12: An enhanced Microsoft added the ability to configure the Mobile 6.1 is required to support SCMDM.
Microsoft Wi-Fi Configura-
Wi-Fi network you are connected to as well as SCMDM is covered in detail in the Enterprise
tion utility ships with
many Wi-Fi enabled identify whether the network is connected to section on page 55.
devices. the Internet or Work (Fig. 12). With unsecured
Wi-Fi networks, you can now connect with Windows Mobile 6.1 Upgrades
one click to select the network by name. Some carriers and manufacturers have already
enterprise the abil- announced the availability of Windows Mo-
ity to use an HTML Office Mobile 6.1 bile 6.1 upgrades for their devices, including
page to replace the Microsoft incorporated the Office Mobile 6.1 AT&T (Tilt and BlackJack II), Palm, (Treo
homepage. The update into Windows Mobile 6.1. Office Mo- 750), and Sprint (Samsung ACE, Moto Q9c,
html page could bile 6.1 adds the ability to save documents in HTC Touch and Mogul). HTC will offer it for
include a disclo- the new Office 2007 format. This is an im- a number of devices, including the TyTnII and
sure about Internet portant feature for general and enterprise us- a US version of the Touch Dual. Finally, Win-
usage, how to contact technical support, and ers alike, allowing them to share documents dows Mobile 6.1 will ship in a few months on
links to the company’s homepage. with friends and associates using Office on multiple devices from the top US wireless car-
their PCs. However, you lose the ability to riers. If you have another device, check with
Enhanced Clock & Alarm feature save new Word and Excel Mobile documents the manufacturer or wireless carrier that sold
The Clock & Alarm feature on non-touch in the 2000 and 2003 formats. If you regu- you the device to see if an upgrade will be
screen smartphones has been enhanced to larly send Word or Excel documents created made available.
allow you to set a second alarm (Fig. 8). In on a WM 6.1 device to someone using a pre-
addition, you can now select from a variety 2007 version of Office on their desktop PC, Enhancements improve
of alarm sounds, alarm types (e.g., increasing that person will have to install the Microsoft your experience
sound, vibrate, vibrate followed by sound, Office 2007 Compatibility Pack on their PC With these new features, Windows Mobile 6.1
etc.), and alarm volume (off, loud, and 1-4) to open them. It can be downloaded for free builds on the capabilities of 6.0 to make it an
(Fig. 9). In previous versions of the OS for from Microsoft’s Web site (go to microsoft. even better user experience. I expect that many
Windows Mobile Standard (non-touch screen com/downloads and search on “Office 2007 users will like the new thumbnail approach in
or smartphone) devices, you accessed Clock Compatibility Pack”). Internet Explorer Mobile. And the Getting
& Alarm from the Settings folder. In WM 6.1, Started feature will really help beginners get
it’s a separate application in the Start menu. Other enhancements to WM 6.1 their feet wet and quickly come up to speed on
Again, this is an enhancement to the non-touch A number of enhancements made to Windows their new Windows Mobile device.
screen version of the OS only. Mobile 6.1 are of particular interest: Windows Mobile 6.1 also expands and
• Bluetooth headset auto-pairing: Makes it tightens the integration with the enterprise.
New built-in Task Manager easier to pair your device with standard Blu- Many users will like the new Task Manager
Many of the previously released Windows etooth headsets. because it allows them to see what applica-
Mobile devices had third-party task managers • Bluetooth phone address profile: This en- tion is using the most resources. Also, the
built into them, but Microsoft added its own ables the transfer of phone book information enhanced features in the Messaging applica-
to Windows Mobile 6.1. To access it, go to the across phone-enabled Bluetooth devices. tion will make users more efficient. The other
Programs folder on a touch screen device or the • Network Time (NITZ) Description: Au- important enhancement is the support of Of-
Start menu on a non-touch screen smartphone. tomatically updates the time on a device when fice 2007 file formats and the integration of
The new Task Manager is similar to the one it moves into a new time zone or receives a OneNote into the Office Mobile suite. These
on your Windows desktop PC. It allows you to Daylight Savings Time (DST) change from the new features should benefit both enterprise us-
see the list of running applications, the amount cellular network. ers and administrators. n
of RAM they are occupying, and the percent- • Cut, Copy, and Paste capability added to
age of the CPU power they are using (Fig. 10 Windows Mobile Standard (non-touch screen)
& 11). You can sort the list by Memory, CPU, smartphones.
or the Name of the applications. In addition, • Enhanced “Getting Started CD” not only
you can easily select an application and ter- contains user-installable versions of Mobile
minate it by selecting the End Task soft key. Device Center and ActiveSync, it includes
Be careful terminating applications with open software that helps the user set up their device
documents or data screens. For example, if and an application that makes e-mail setup eas-
T
he hot news at this year’s Mobile World Congress show was calls. Apparently, the version of the XPERIA released in Europe will be
the premier of Sony Ericsson’s new XPERIA X1, a Windows capable of capturing VGA videos at 30 frames-per-second, while the
Mobile touch screen smartphone with a “Wide VGA” display, U.S. version will only be capable of QVGA video at 24 fps.
a unique “arc slider” keyboard, and the customizable XPERIA
Panels user interface. Wireless capabilities
The XPERIA includes a quad-band GSM phone with GPRS and tri-
Wide VGA display band UMTS data capability. In addition, the device incorporates 802.11
From the front, the XPERIA looks like a traditional Windows Mobile b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP wireless capability. The XPE-
touch screen device. But it sports a “Wide VGA” color display. Measur- RIA also has an integrated FM radio.
ing 3 inches diagonally, it’s not the largest display on a Windows Mobile
device, but its 800 x 480 pixels make it the highest resolution screen Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
we’ve seen, which should make the display easier to view. The XPERIA is a touch screen smartphone based on the Windows Mo-
bile 6.1 Professional software. A full description of the software found
Arc slider QWERTY keyboard on Windows Mobile devices can be found on page 78. A description of
Other Windows Mobile devices have slide-out keyboards, but the XPE- the enhancements made to the platform with the release of 6.1 can be
RIA’s 42-key QWERTY keyboard has an unusual “arc slider” design. found on pages 8 of this issue.
As you slide the display up to expose the keyboard, the device tilts As mentioned, Sony
slightly to make it easier to use the keyboard and view the display. As Ericsson built a cus-
with other devices, the display rotates to horizontal viewing mode when tomizable “Panels”
the keyboard is in use. (The device incorporates integrated motion sen- user interface into
sor technology to auto-rotate the user interface.) the XPERIA,
XPERIA Panels
In an attempt to overcome the real (and
perceived) limitations of the standard
Windows Mobile OS, the XPERIA
will include a user-customizable nine-
panel interface to launch your favorite
applications and access news, weath-
er, slideshows, and more. It also
includes a Media Experience
Panel, which allows you
to navigate seamlessly
through captured photos
and video clips, pictures,
photo tags, games, music,
videos, and more.
Other features
The XPERIA is powered by a Qualcomm MSM7200 528 MHz processor,
which also has built-in GPS capability. It was unclear at press time whether
the device incorporated a graphics accelerator or not. It has 128 MB of
RAM, 256 MB of flash ROM, and additional file storage can be added
via the microSD card slot. A 1,500 mAh Lithium Polymer rechargeable
battery provides power, but usage estimates were unavailable.
An iPhone killer?
Everyone seems to be very excited about this device. Some see it as a
challenger to the iPhone, offering not only a simple user interface but
things the iPhone doesn’t have, like the Wide VGA screen, ArcSlider
keyboard, better (3G) broadband connectivity, and a smaller form fac-
tor. The 3.2 megapixel camera is also an advantage. The unanswered
question is whether the XPERIA’s Panel interface will be as easy to
use as the iPhone’s UI.
Price may also be a big advantage—if the device is sold by a wire-
less carrier. No formal announcements have been made, but speculation
is that the XPERIA will be priced in the $200 range at launch, compared
to the $400-$500 price of the iPhone. The price of the XPERIA assumes
that, like the iPhone, it will be sold by a wireless carrier and require a Xpedia X1 (left) and Apple’s iPhone (right)
2-year service contract. If it is sold as an unlocked GSM device without
a service contract, you can expect the price to be considerably more.
The iPhone does have an advantage over the XPERIA in terms of
The high resolution display, FM radio, and a variety of other hardware
internal storage space. Exact figures have not been released, but the
features discussed in this overview certainly support the entertainment
XPERIA ships with 256 MB of flash ROM, and a portion of that is
end of things. And Windows Mobile offers plenty of productivity fea-
used to store the Windows Mobile OS and applications. That probably
tures. Will the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 change the game? In the
means that it will have 150-170 MB of file storage. You can add file stor-
end, the consumer will decide. The Xpedia is expected to ship in the
age to the XPERIA with a microSD card, but that will raise the price.
second half of 2008.
So, for example, if you wanted your XPERIA to have similar storage
We’ll publish a review of the XPERIA as soon as we can get our
capacity to the $400 version of the iPhone, you’d need to purchase an
hands on one. In addition, as we find out more information about the
8 GB microSD card, which will set you back another $140. You’d be
XPERIA, Werner Ruotsalainen will post it on our blogs. (Go to smart
spending $340 for the XPERIA and $400 for the 8 GB iPhone—still a
phonemag.com/blogs and click on the “Menneisyys” link at the top of
savings but not quite as compelling an advantage. NOTE: The iPhone
the page.) n
has no storage card slot.
Sony Ericsson is promoting the XPERIA as a “game changing” con-
vergent device that will blend productivity and entertainment features.
S
print is now offering the new Samsung ACE, a souped-up and vice with cosmetic and internal changes. Sprint customers will also enjoy
slightly redesigned version of Samsung’s second generation a faster processor than its AT&T brother has. The ACE uses Qualcomm’s
BlackJack smartphone. From the front of the device, it’s a little 312 MHz processor instead of the BJ II’s 260 MHz TI chip. This addi-
difficult to tell the ACE and BlackJack II apart. But there’s a tional speed helps the ACE do an adequate job as a tiny road warrior.
world of difference under the hood. The ACE’s body is also thinner than the BJ II, making it easier to
hold, especially if you have small hands. The 2.3-inch screen is well-
Slim, sleek world phone suited for watching Sprint TV, one of my favorite Sprint features. The
The ACE is a true world phone, with CDMA and GSM network capa- ACE’s controls consist of two soft keys, a shortcut to the Today or
bility. In the U.S. it connects to Sprint’s CDMA network. Outside the Home screen, a Back button, Talk and End keys, and a square four-way
U.S. you can slip a SIM card into a slot under the battery and use it on directional D-pad with a select button situated in the middle. The BJ
almost any international II’s rounded four-way D-pad is slippery and less comfortable to use
wireless network. than the ACE’s. The left and right soft keys “toggle” with the Home
The ACE is a small and Back key using a concave curve, giving the user the illusion and
and attractive Windows feel of two separate keys. The D-pad, in between the two “togglers,” is
Mobile Standard de- slightly elevated and has more space for scrolling up, down, left, and
vice that’s easy to carry right without inadvertently activating the surrounding buttons.
around with you in your A microSD expansion slot is located on the upper-right side and is
pocket or purse. Like protected by an attached cover. Immediately below the microSD slot is
many other Windows a thumbwheel, which can be pressed to select items, and a second Back
Mobile smartphones button below it. The thumbwheel makes it easy to scroll up and down
these days, it has a when reading long documents or surfing the Web. Having the Back
QWERTY thumb key- button near the thumbwheel lets you quickly escape from the current
board below the display. menu or applications. This combination of the thumbwheel and Back
What sets the ACE apart button enhances the one-handed experience. In addition, if you firmly
from its competitors is its hold down the thumbwheel for a few seconds, it brings up a “quick
very thin, sleek profile. launcher.” This convenient feature lets you open several applications
Ergonomically designed including the Alarm, Task Manager, Calendar, and Edit features. The
for one-handed opera- Edit features allow users to program applications into this cool addi-
tion, I found the device tional Thumbwheel feature. In addition, when you press and hold the
very comfortable to use side “Back” button, it activates the camera.
as a phone and data de- The keys on the full QWERTY keyboard are slightly peaked in
vice. Its candy bar form the center (like a roof), which makes text entry an easier and more
factor, 5-way navigation enjoyable experience. The backlit keys make the device well suited
button, and thumb wheel for typing in dark or dim areas. The keys are a bit crowded, however,
make it perfect for one- making it more difficult to type if your thumbs are larger than average.
handed operation. Other The number buttons are placed in rows 3, 4, & 5 and stand out against
features include Blu- the non-numeric black keys due to their gray color. The function key
etooth 2.0, push e-mail acts as a “NUM Lock” for multiple numeric entries.
capabilities, and good The left side of the ACE contains the rocker volume control and
call quality. covered power/USB sync/headphone adapter. Unfortunately, Samsung
For wireless con- has included yet another proprietary adaptor port. I truly wish there
nectivity, the ACE runs could be industry standardization when it comes to power, sync, and
on Sprint’s fast EVDO charging adaptors. At least the ACE will charge when connected to the
Rev. 0 and 1XRTT net- USB port of a computer.
work. At the time of this On the back of the ACE there is a 1.3 MP camera/camcorder (sans
review, there was no upgrade path to the faster EVDO Rev. A network. flash), speaker, and removable, replaceable battery. An additional ex-
Globetrotters should be aware: while roaming abroad, you will be de-
ploying the slower GPRS network. Edward M. Zabrek, M.D., F.A.C.O.G., is our chief medical editor, and a full time Ob-Gyn Hospital-
ist working for Delphi Healthcare Partners at NorthBay Medical Center in Fairfield, California. In
More power; better user experience this role, he has found that the use of Windows Mobile medical titles has enhanced patient
safety at the point of care. He has an ambitious dream to “evolutionize” the practice of patient
Astute cellular shoppers will notice that the Sprint ACE bears a striking care with Windows Mobile devices. Formerly an independent consultant to Samsung Electron-
resemblance to AT&T’s BlackJack II. They’re essentially the same de- ics’ Wireless division, he is always seeking ways to advance this dream. He can be reached via
e-mail at MedicalEditor@smartphonemag.com.
Fast processor for a non-touch screen device Battery Life 1.5 (out of 1.5)
Stability 1.5 (out of 1.5)
Bright, brilliant screen great for Sprint TV
Connectivity Options 0.25 (out of 1.0)
True world phone with CDMA for the U.S. and unlocked GSM for the rest of the world Cost 0.5 (out of 1.0)
Cons Speed 0.5 (out of 1.0)
Lacks Wi-Fi Warranty/ Support 0.5 (out of 0.5)
Lacks built-in GPS Compelling hardware and software features 0.25 (out of 0.5)
Included accessories 0.25 (out of 0.5)
No EVDO Rev. A upgrade will be offered
Included software 0.25 out of 0.5)
Proprietary AC/USB Sync/Headphone port Things missing from the device that should have been there 0.25 (out of 0.5)
Significant specs (Full specs in At A Glance, pages 78-85)
Hardware
CPU/Memory 312 MHz Qualcomm MSM6500, 64 MB RAM, 128 MB flash ROM
Wireless CDMA (800/1900 MHz) / EVDO data; Unlocked GSM (800/1800 MHZ) / GPRS; Bluetooth 2.0, (no Wi-FI)
Keyboard 37-key QWERTY thumbpad
Display 2.3-inch QVGA color (non-touch screen)
In the package Samsung ACE smartphone, 1,300 mAh battery and battery cover, AC charger, two charger adapters (for U.K. and Europe), wired headset, USB data cable
Software
Operating System Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Standard
Microsoft apps See At A Glance, page 78
Third-party apps Sprint TV, Sprint Software Store, Phone As Modem Service Plan
S
ometimes you can tell a book by its cov- but like the Media Player button, they can be
er, as is the case with the MWg Atom reprogrammed.
Life. It comes packaged in an attractive A miniSD card slot is located on the top
blue box with a substantial magnetic edge of the device, along with the power on/
flap cover. Lift the cover and you’re presented off button. A 2.5 mm stereo headphone jack
with an attractive smartphone cradled in the is located on the bottom edge of the device,
center of a blue field. To its right you find an along with a recessed soft reset button and a
abbreviate list of its rather substantial specs. standard mini-USB connectivity port.
On the top back of the Atom Life we find
Traditional PDA layout the lens aperture for another 2.0 megapixel
The MWg Atom Life is a small Windows camera along with a small self-portrait mirror
Mobile 6 Professional device. Although it in- and a mini-LED strobe flash (a nice feature
corporates an unlocked GSM phone, it has a that’s missing on many other devices). Finally,
traditional PDA layout without an integrated the battery cover on the back of the device lets
QWERTY thumb keyboard or number pad. It you access the 1,530 mAh removable battery;
ships with a comprehensive printed user man- the SIM card slot is located under the battery.
ual, a set of comfortable ear buds with extra
pads, several international plug converters, an Sleek and powerful device
AC charger, a USB sync/charge cable, an extra nestles in your hand
stylus, and a Getting Started CD. Sadly, there Without question, the Atom Life is a handsome
is no carrying case or cradle provided with the unit that begs to be taken home. It’s a sleek,
device. Also, it is an unlocked GSM phone, shiny black device that nestles in your hand
which means that you must provide your own as if it belongs there. It’s also responsive and
SIM card before the phone will function. quick, thanks to its 624 MHz Intel processor.
Above the 2.7-inch color QVGA touch Finally, it has one gigabyte of onboard flash device that connects via mini-USB port, which
screen you’ll find an LED panel that lights ROM, 795 MB of which is available for file allows me to use inexpensive and readily-
up when your battery is low and when you’re storage. You can bring plenty of reference available cables from third parties instead of
charging your device or receiving incoming documents, PowerPoint presentations, digital expensive proprietary cables. I also like the
messages. To the left of the LED panel is the images, videos, and music files with you wher- idea that it’s an unlocked device, which lets me
lens for a front-facing camera, which allows ever you go. Most smartphones do not come slap in my own SIM card and be in business.
you to take self portraits. It can also be used for close to this kind of power. It’s too bad that the phone’s video confer-
video phone calls, but unfortunately, no U.S. It’s obvious that this machine is designed encing capability is not yet supported by U.S.
wireless carriers support this feature yet. for a serious business user, but multimedia/ carriers. Hopefully, our hodgepodge of com-
Below the display is a five-way navigation gaming users would like it as well. The built- peting carriers will get their act together soon
button flanked by six hardware buttons: the left in FM radio is a nice touch, but it only works so we can catch up with the rest of the world.
and right soft keys, the Call and End Call but- when the ear buds or another stereo headset is Finally, I was initially disappointed that
tons, and buttons that activate the Start menu plugged into the 2.5 mm audio jack. (I wish such a powerful device did not have a QWER-
and Windows Media Player. The last button device manufacturers would stick to the more TY keyboard. However, I accepted it and soon
can be reprogrammed by the user to launch standard 3.5 mm jacks.) Interestingly, when found myself texting away with the help of
other applications. Stereo speakers flank the the buds are plugged in, you can tap on the TenGO (tengo.net), one of a number of excel-
hardware buttons. headset icon in the lower left corner of the lent third-party soft input panels available for
On the top left edge of the device is an screen to listen through the built-in stereo touch screen devices.
opening for attaching a wrist-loop lanyard. speakers. I was disappointed that I could not
About an inch below it you’ll find two volume get the FM radio to play through Bluetooth Timothy S. Hillebrand, Ph.D., president of Synergetics
control buttons, and the infrared port is located to headphones, but I was able to use them to International, is an archaeologist and mobile technology
enthusiast who enjoys writing archaeological adventure
at the very bottom of the left edge. The stylus listen to Media Player music. novels, traveling, and working in his Japanese garden. He
silo is located on the top right edge of the de- There are so many nice features built into is a blogger and the Windows Mobile editor for Handheld
Computing Magazine. He has contributed hundreds of ar-
vice. Below it are two additional application this unit. I love the voice dial and wireless ticles and reviews to various publications. He offers a workshop for the legal
launch buttons. By default, these activate the management applications. The brilliantly clear profession on how to become e-legal, e-literate, and e-mobile. His e-mail
voice recorder and the built-in digital camera, 2.7-inch screen is nice too. I also appreciate a address is: chief@synergetics.org.
S m a rt p h o n e I n si d e r
Smartphone Insider provides the inside scoop on today’s hottest smartphones, including strengths
and weaknesses, problems and solutions, user feedback, news, and tips & tricks.
by Dan Hart & David Seagull
I
n a temporary departure from past editions of Smartphone pend mode with Wi-Fi on,
Insider, this edition will focus on two Windows Mobile de- they take substantially lon-
vices without built-in phones: the HP iPAQ 110 and 210. The ger than other devices to
110 and 210 are widely considered to be the top standalone turn back on (2-4 seconds).
PDAs currently available and have garnered quite a bit of at- If you want to avoid this,
tention from mobile enthusiasts since their release in late 2007 turn off Wi-Fi before you
and early 2008. Also referred to as the iPAQ 111 or 114 and 211 turn either device off; this
or 214, they are the first PDA-only devices to be released in the way they shouldn’t take as
U.S. in almost two years. long to turn back on. Also
note that when both iPAQs
Strengths do come on after the brief
• 110 is very light and thin: only .54 inches thick and one of delay, tests have shown that
the lightest available (3.7 ounces) they are immediately avail-
• 210 has the largest and clearest display available (4-inch able for use (as opposed to
VGA) some devices that power
• 210 has largest capacity standard battery on the PDA market on immediately but have a
today: 2,200 mAh delay before responding to
• 210 has both a mini-USB port and a 24-pin connector for screen taps).
charging and connectivity • Some have found that
• 210 is rated to withstand five-foot drops the 210’s battery life is less
than desirable, since it may
Both iPAQs wear down before a full
• Updated PXA310 624 MHz processor that is faster than the day’s usage of Wi-Fi, e-mail,
older Intel 624 MHz processor and media playback. An ex-
• 32 GB expandability available with SDHC/IO card. The tended battery (with twice the
210 also has a CF card slot. capacity) is available for the
• 256 MB of flash ROM built in 210 from lionbattery.com and
• Solid and durable other online vendors. An ex-
tended battery for the 110 is
Weaknesses also available. Note that us-
• The Up button on the 210’s D-pad can be difficult to press ing an extended battery will
due to a design flaw. require a bigger back panel;
• Some reviewers have complained about the lack of volume the larger battery and panel
and clarity of the external speaker on the 210. extension will add size and
• Some CF cards may cause a battery drain in the 210. weight to the devices.
• Users complain about poor battery life on the 210.
Tips & Tricks
Limitations & Solutions • Remember that under
• Neither iPAQ has dedicated soft keys; however, the Calen- Start >Settings >Buttons,
dar and Messaging hardware buttons can be remapped to serve both iPAQs have the ability
as the left and right soft keys under Start >Settings >Buttons, to remap the three hardware
which aids one-handed use. buttons to perform up to six
• The 210’s touch screen requires a little more force to be functions, three with a stan-
applied to it to enter commands than on other devices, which dard press and three more
can cause some initial annoyance. With time, however, this issue with the secondary press-
proves to be less noticeable as you get used to it. and-hold function.
• If both iPAQs are turned off or automatically go into sus- • Both iPAQs have a light
S m a rt p h o n e I n si d e r
sensor that automatically adjusts screen backlight settings to the Yes when the prompt pops up). On the next screen, there is a list of
ambient brightness, which saves battery life. To enable this setting, cell phones that you can choose from. After choosing one, directions
go to Start >Settings >System tab >Backlight >Brightness tab and will be provided on the following screen to connect to the specific
select the Auto Sensor On checkbox. phone.
• Enabling the ClearType option on the 210 (Start >Settings
>System tab >Screen >ClearType tab) makes a noticeable differ- Odds & Ends
ence in smoothing out the pixilation of text. • The 110 and 210 (as well as accessories) can be purchased di-
• Both iPAQs have a Voice Notes hardware button that will open a rectly from HP at shopping.hp.com/handheld for $299 and $449, re-
new Voice Note when pressed, which adds the convenience of being spectively. The iPAQs are also available from other online vendors
able to quickly record something with the use of one hand. The Voice like expansys-usa.com and amazon.com. They are also carried by
Notes button is located on the left side of the 210 and on the right electronics vendors such as Circuit City, Wal-Mart, Target, Sears, and
side of the 110. Note that the microphone aperture is located on the others.
bottom side of both devices to the left of the connectivity port(s). • Both iPAQs ship with a leather slipcase. If you want a different
• Both iPAQs have a built-in BT Phone Manager application that case, there are a number of online vendors, including ipaqcases.com,
allows you to connect to an Internet-connected cell phone via Blu- pielframa.com, and pdair.com. n
etooth and use it for connecting to the Web. Go to Start >BT Phone
Manager, and your device will load the Configuration screen (tap
Software and Accessories
D
ue in part to the market’s tepid response to Microsoft Vista program in this article that had problems running on it.
and Apple’s phenomenal success with their iPod and iPhone The safest bet is to download and install the Free Edition first to
products, Apple’s Mac computer line is becoming more visible make sure its basic synchronization features work with your Mac and
among the technical and executive ranks. However, many of Windows Mobile device. SyncMate is spec’d to work with Mac OS X
the same users are reluctant to trade in their Windows Mobile smart- 10.4 and higher and sync with both touch and non-touch screen devices
phone for an iPhone because of the latter’s limited data synchronization running Windows Mobile 5 or a later version of the OS.
capabilities and limited third-party software offerings. This becomes a
problem for these users because Apple’s OS X does not provide built-in
support for synchronizing Address Book and iCal calendaring/schedul-
ing data with Outlook on Windows Mobile devices. Fortunately, several
commercial solutions exist that not only help solve these issues but also
enhance the experience beyond basic syncing needs.
Fig. 2: PocketMac’s Device Selection asks for the size, not the model, of a user’s WM device.
PocketMac
PocketMac for Windows Mobile 5/6 (pocketmac.net) also helps solve
the Windows Mobile to OS X data synchronization problem. Priced at
$29.95, PocketMac offers most of the features found in competing pro-
grams and has some not found anywhere else. For example, it includes
Excel Mobile and Word Mobile viewers that are useful for those Mac
Fig. 1: SyncMate Expert Edition ($39.95) adds iTunes and iPhoto synchronization and other users who do not have Microsoft Office installed on their computers
features. but need a way to view Excel and Word documents that were created
on their Windows Mobile devices.
SyncMate The most recent version of PocketMac supports Windows Mobile
SyncMate (eltima.com) is available in two versions. The Free Edition 5 or higher devices. Users of older Pocket PCs will have to get the
allows you to sync documents, text messages, Contacts, and Calendar Windows Mobile 2002/2003 edition, and multiple device owners like
entries between your Windows Mobile touch screen device and a Mac me, with older and newer devices, will have to shell out $60 for both
OS X computer. The Expert Edition adds iTunes and iPhoto synchro- versions of the product. I haven’t tried installing both versions on the
nization and other features (see Fig. 1). Priced at $39.95, the Expert same Mac, but I’m concerned that there might be conflicts between the
Edition is similar in price (and features) to its strongest competitor, two since PocketMac’s online knowledgebase indicates a problem (as
Missing Sync. well as a solution) regarding the existence of multiple PocketMac Ports
SyncMate installation was straightforward and ran well on an older that can block the devices’ visibility to the program.
G4-based Apple computer, but it failed to recognize my Windows Mo- As with SyncMate, I also had problems getting PocketMac to work
bile device when I installed the program on an Intel-based MacPro.
It recognized the USB port but failed to activate its synchronization
Mike Riley was previously employed by RR Donnelley as the company’s Chief Scientist, responsible
routine when I plugged either my iPAQ 6315 or HTC Advantage into for determining innovative technical approaches that improved the company’s internal and external
the computer. Alas, this could be related to its 1.0 entry, as this is the content services. Mike is a frequent contributor to several technical publications and specializing in
emerging technologies and new development trends. Mike was also the co-host of Computer Con-
youngest product in this category. It’s possible that the MacPro I tested nection, a technology enthusiast show broadcast on Tribune Media-owned CLTV. You can contact
SyncMate on had issues of its own, since SyncMate was not the only Mike at mike@mikeriley.com.
correctly on an Intel-based MacPro running the 10.5 (Leopard) release In summary, PocketMac is an adequate product for OS X Tiger
of Apple’s operating system. PocketMac has released an update to its users. Leopard users (the OS that currently ships with every new Ma-
program specifically optimized for Leopard compatibility (pocketmac. cintosh computer today) should consider waiting until PocketMac re-
com/updates.php), but even that version failed to synchronize properly leases a final, fully supported Leopard version before considering the
with my HTC Advantage (I had no problems with the Tiger version, product. Additionally, while the issue of needing different versions of
however). Granted, the Leopard version I tested was still considered the program for multiple devices and the problem I had syncing with
beta, so hopefully these issues will be resolved soon. It also perplexed the HTC Advantage are probably only important to a small percentage
me to see the program’s “Device Locator Assistant” configures device of Windows Mobile users, they do lessen the strength of my recom-
type based on the display size and appearance rather than the actual mendation for this product.
model of Windows Mobile device I had (see Fig. 2).
In addition to Calendar and Contacts, PocketMac also synchronizes
music and photos with the Mac user’s iTunes and iPhoto libraries, respec-
tively. Setting up these associations is as easy as checking a box (Fig. 3).
Fig. 4: The main screen of the Missing Sync application for Windows Mobile.
Fig. 3: PocketMac Synchronization options are easy to activate and offer the ability to save
music and photos to a Windows Mobile removable storage card. Missing Sync
Priced at $39.95, Missing Sync for Windows Mobile 5/6 (markspace.
Running on Tiger, the program worked as advertised, and while not com/missingsync_windowsmobile.php) is one of the more expensive
as peppered with colorful icons and dialogs compared to the competi- Windows Mobile syncing solutions available. However, it also proved
tion, PocketMac’s options are easy to identify and activate. Options to to be the most reliable solution. I had no problem installing it on the
synchronize photos and iTunes music in addition to the usual Calendar, older PowerPC and the Intel platform running OS X 10.5, and it de-
Contacts, Tasks, and Web Favorites worked consistently. tected both of my Windows Mobile devices on both platforms. Missing
Fig. 5: Running a virtualized version of Windows XP on an Apple OS X host. Fig. 6: Running Microsoft ActiveSync in VMware’s Unity Mode.
Sync is one of the most established solutions in this space, offering a which can be freely downloaded and perform such diverse functions as
wide range of device and operating system support. It also offers a broad network monitoring and Web application servers, Fusion is my top rec-
and flexible range of synchronization options, including an integrated ommendation for OS X users seeking a virtualization environment.
e-commerce shopping tab for Windows Mobile users seeking an easy
way to directly purchase and install commercial Windows Mobile ap- The drawbacks of virtualization
plications. The interface is easily accessible yet packed with helpful Expense is one drawback of this approach. You not only have to pur-
information and flexible options (see Fig. 4).The only thing I didn’t chase the $80 Fusion program, you also have to pay for a valid version
like about the program was its application activation scheme, which of Windows XP or Vista to install on the Mac. This approach is far more
locks the program to a specific computer and device. Users have to expensive than the other solutions discussed in this article.
remember to de-authorize the program before installing it on another The second and more serious drawback is that, while the synchroni-
computer. If they don’t, they will have to contact Mark/Space for ad- zation solutions available to a Windows PC are more robust, they only
ditional assistance. allow you to sync with personal information managers running within
Overall, Missing Sync was the clear winner in the battle of the na- the Windows Virtual machine. Mac OS X applications like Mail and
tive OS X Windows Mobile sync solutions and one I heartily recom- iCal and the file systems they use have no connection to the virtual
mend. However, another option exists for owners of the Intel-based Windows environment. Thus, while virtualization might keep your
Mac computers. Microsoft Exchange and authentication/authorization backend servers
happy, it won’t make life any easier for the OS X user seeking a way
Create a virtual Windows PC to synchronize their schedule, contacts, and files between a Windows
on your Mac with VMware Fusion Mobile device and the OS X platform.
For those OS X users fortunate enough to own a newer Intel-based
Apple computer, there is another approach to Mac-Windows Mobile A true Mac companion
synchronization: “virtualization.” This refers to the fact that an Intel- Thanks to the solutions presented in this article, users of Apple OS X
based OS X Mac can run software that turns it into a virtual Windows computers can use their WM device as a true Mac companion.
PC (see Fig. 5). You can then install ActiveSync (or any Windows As mentioned, OS X users with an Intel-based Mac can create a
synchronization solution) on the Mac. Two products exist that allow virtual Windows PC on their Mac and run ActiveSync or other Win-
you to do this on the OS X Intel platform: Parallels Software’s Parallels dows-based synchronization software. This is the most expensive so-
solution and VMware’s Fusion program. lution discussed, requiring the VMware Fusion software, Microsoft’s
Even though Parallels was the first virtualization program com- Windows XP or Vista licenses, and the Windows version of Outlook
mercially available for the Intel-based OS X platform and brought sev- installed on the Mac. It has the disadvantage of not being able to sync
eral innovations such as their Coherence mode (what VMware calls with Mac OS-based Personal Information Managers.
“Unity”) and the ability to run 3D accelerated games inside a Windows If you’re looking for a free solution, check out SyncMate. If you need
virtual machine, Parallels is relatively unknown on non-OS X platforms iTunes and iPhoto synchronization, consider purchasing SyncMate’s
(even though like VMware, Parallels offers versions that run on Win- Expert Edition, but only if the Free Edition works for your device.
dows and Linux as well). As mentioned, there are a couple versions of PocketMac available.
Of the two companies, VMware is clearly the market leader in the To find out which one is suitable for your device, check out the “Which
virtualization technology arena, and their Fusion program ($79.95: vm PocketMac is for Me” page (pocketmac.net/devices_by_manufacturer.
ware.com/products/fusion) ships with a stunning set of features, includ- html). Unfortunately, a free demo version of PocketMac is not available.
ing the aforementioned “Unity” mode that melds a specific Windows Based on my experience with the program, I think this product needs
application, such as ActiveSync, onto the OS X desktop, making it look a demo version so you can test it first to make sure it works with your
like a fully native OS X application (see Fig. 6). Considering VMware’s version of the Mac and your Windows Mobile device.
market position, their commitment to the OS X platform, and their vast Finally, readers seeking the most compatible, problem-free program
library of Virtual Appliances (pre-packaged virtual machines), many of should take a close look at Missing Sync. n
I
’d like to welcome all our readers to my ter the conference, I met with the MSN Direct Portege is designed to be used as a clamshell
report on Mobile World Congress 2008. folks to learn more about it. It’s similar to a device only—you cannot rotate the screen to
MWC is the world’s largest exhibition for RSS client that uses some kind of a bandwidth- Portrait mode for one-handed PDA use. The
the mobile industry. Up until this year, the friendly push protocol to receive real-time up- keys on the QWERTY thumb keyboard are
event was known as the 3GSM World Con- dates. Currently, MSN Direct client software is pretty easy to use, but the screen was fairly
gress; this is why it is still often referred to only available for the Windows Mobile 6 Stan- small compared to the physical size of the lid.
as 3GSM. dard (non-touch screen) smartphone (phone. This seems to be a problem with other new
One of the first things I did was to meet with msndirect.com/phone/index.html). However, clamshell-only Windows Mobile devices, such
the folks at Spb Software House. They demoed they promised a touch screen version very as the Asus M930(W) (a.k.a. P930).
the latest 2.0 version of Spb Mobile Shell, an soon; I’ll also announce this when it becomes
alternate and customizable user interface for available.
Windows Mobile touch screen devices. I plan
to post a review of it and some similar pro-
grams on the blogs sometime in the future.
I also had the pleasure of meeting with
some of the top folks from i-mate, a worldwide
vendor of Windows Mobile devices. Original-
ly, HTC manufactured all of i-mate’s devices,
but that relationship ended a year ago. In spite
of rumors being circulated online, i-mate’s
representative confirmed that they would not
be switching back to HTC as their device
manufacturer. I also asked them about their i-mate
decision to use the Intel PXA 270 processor in I-mate was finally showcasing their new Ulti-
some models of their Ultimate line, instead of mate 8502 and 9502, in addition to their some-
the newer Marvell PXA310/320 CPUs. They Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 what older 8150 and 6150. The 8502 has a
said they were investigating using the Marvell A big crowd was gathered around the Sony Er- QVGA display, but the other three have VGA
processors in future devices. icsson booth to look at demos of the new XPE- touch screens. For more on the advantages
RIA X1, a Windows Mobile 6.1 touch screen (and disadvantages) of these devices, go to our
Microsoft announcements device with a custom “Panels” user interface. I blogs (smartphonemag.com/blogs) and search
I met with Microsoft’s John Starkweather won’t go into detail here because the XPERIA on “i-mate’s new devices.”
and asked him about the rumors of talks with is covered in a separate article on page 10.
Microsoft and Nokia. I’d love to see a high-end Samsung SGH-i780
Nokia phone similar to the N95, N82, or the This model was the most interesting Windows
just-announced N96 but powered by Windows Mobile device at the show, particularly for
Mobile. Unfortunately, it looks like it’s un- fans of smartphones with thumb keyboards on
likely that Nokia will offer a Windows Mobile the face of the device (like the Treo, Black-
phone any time in the near future. However, Berry, and some Windows Mobile
Sony Ericsson did announce the XPERIA X1, smartphones). The SGH-i780 is a
a multimedia-friendly WVGA touch screen big step ahead of the other square-
device powered by Windows Mobile. screen Windows Mobile devices in
I also attended Microsoft’s press confer- that it has a larger-resolution (320
ence, which took place on Monday afternoon. x 320 as opposed to 240 x 240)
The most important news here—in addition to square screen and the latest-and-
the Sony Ericsson XPERIA announcement— greatest PXA310 Marvell CPU.
was Microsoft’s statement that it was going to Toshiba Portege G910/920 The downside of this device is that
invest far more resources toward enhancing I also had a chance to play with the new the square screen is not compatible
the gaming and entertainment capabilities of Toshiba Portege G910/920, a Windows Mo-
Windows Mobile—a long-awaited move. bile 6 Professional device. The most interest- Werner Ruotsalainen is the world’s leading expert on WM
They were also showing MSN Direct in ac- ing thing about this series is the 3-inch wide software. In addition to being Best Software Awards Nomi-
tion at the press conference. MSN Direct is a WVGA (800 x 480 pixels) touch screen dis- nations Manager and administrator and lead/blogger for the
Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine blogs, Werner is an MS
digital service that allows portable devices to play. (The XPERIA X1 also has a WVGA Mobile Devices MVP and works for ITConsult-Pro (itc.hu), an
receive information from MSN services. Af- touch screen.). Also of note is the fact that the IT consulting company. werner@SmartphoneMag.com
with most legacy games, the battery life isn’t core and fixes two of the biggest omissions The Sennheiser folks, which run probably
great, and it includes a touchpad instead of a in the browser. It now has the ability to save the most famous and popular audiophile head-
hardware D-pad. For a more detailed review, complete Web pages and find text within the phone brand, announced a brand-new earbud
go to our blogs and search on “SGH-i780.” pages. model—their first A2DP product (which will
be released later this year). I really hope the
Other Windows Mobile sound quality will be on par with the high-end
devices I saw at the show Sennheiser wired earbud headphones.
I saw a number of other interesting new Win- Samsung has also announced the SBH-700
dows Mobile devices at the show, including: and SBH-500 at CES; LG showed their HBS-
Gigabyte MS808: Gigabyte’s new VGA 250 over-the-ear phones and the MSB-100 A2DP
flagship model features a lot of goodies, in- speakerphone. See smartphonemag.com/blogs/
cluding the new Marvel PXA310 CPU and a index.php?p=2486 for more information.
DVB-T/H and DMB TV receiver.
E-TEN V900: Based on Samsung’s new
S3C6400 chipset, the V900 is another multi-
media-oriented Windows Mobile touch screen
device with a VGA screen and a DVB-T/H and
DMB receiver. As with the Gigabyte MS808,
see the separate “Digital TV” section in this
article for more info.
MDA Compact IV: This T-Mobile device
has a VGA screen and is similar in form fac-
tor to the HTC TyTN and AT&T Tilt. It has Kingston Technologies’ SD card slot adapter (left) and 4 GB
pretty nice specs too—certainly worth a look Opera Mobile 9.5 has the ability to load saved Web pages. microSDHC card (right)
if you’re a T-Mobile subscriber and you can
Once saved, Web pages can be loaded Kingston memory cards
put up with VGA on a small screen.
from the “Saved pages” menu within Opera Kingston Technologies was showcasing their
Asus P750: Asus’ new touch screen
Mobile. They also have a new and very use- latest products at MWC, including a new 4 GB
phone is certainly worth paying attention to. It
ful Favorites synchronization feature, which microSDHC card, which I will review on the
has a small 2.6-inch screen that is capable of
I did not get to test, but is working very well blogs. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any firm
displaying VGA, but must be hacked to do so.
in the desktop version of the browser and Op- dates on when they would release their 12/16
For more info on the VGA hack, go to our blogs
era Mini. The new version lets you zoom in GB microSD cards. The most I could get out
and search on “P750.” The info is also available
and out of the page view using the stylus or of them was “sometime in 2009.” (SanDisk
on the MoDaCo.com forums. If you’re looking
via a menu option. It also has an accelerating has already announced and sent samples of
for a relatively cheap VGA device with a key-
scroll feature, similar to the one found on the the 12 GB card to hardware manufacturers for
pad on the front, and can put up with the small
iPhone’s Safari browser. compliance/conformance testing.) Five years
display, make sure you check it out.
Finally, the address auto-completion feature ago, when I first tested their 128 MB SD card,
HTC X7510 (Athena/Advantage): This
has also been enhanced; instead of displaying I found that the data write speeds were very
is a spiced-up version of the old X7500/7501
a drop-down menu, Opera Mobile now shows slow. Fortunately, this is not the case with their
model with 16 GB of flash memory instead of
you a full “Known links” page containing both current models.
the 8 GB microdrive found in the original. It
the title of the page (when it has one) and the
has a slightly reworked QWERTY keyboard,
but it’s not much better than the one found
URL. This is definitely an improvement over Digital TV
the previous method. Digital (mobile) TV was one of the most popu-
on the X7500 series. It’s a large device—too
large for me! lar topics at MWC. There are several new sys-
Bluetooth tems worth checking out, including DVB-H
HP iPAQ 210: This is HP’s new WM 6 There have been several new and interesting
Classic device—a PDA without phone capa- (Europe, Asia, Australia, some South Ameri-
Bluetooth products at MWC; most importantly, can countries, Modeo in the U.S., etc.), T-DMB
bility. The 210 has a large 4-inch color VGA Bluetooth A2DP headphones and external am-
touch screen and a fast 624 MHz processor. (South Korea and Germany), and 1Seg (Japan).
plifiers/speakers. All major Bluetooth acces- Unfortunately, there haven’t been any new
Some users have reported low speaker volume. sory manufacturers came up with devices of
It’s thicker than its predecessor, the highly-re- MediaFLO-compliant devices, let alone ATSC
interest, ranging from Nokia to Plantronics. receivers—at least not for Windows Mobile,
garded iPAQ hx4700, but it’s currently one of One of the most interesting products was
the only large-screen VGA devices available which means with the exception of DVB-H
Plantronics’ Voyager 855, a traditional Blu- solutions, Windows Mobile users in the U.S.
running Windows Mobile. (The other is the etooth headset easily convertible to a pair of
HTC X7500 series mentioned above.) are pretty much left out in the cold. There is no
full (stereo) A2DP headphones—without add- news on the DTMB (a.k.a. DMB-T/H; used in
ing bulk. The lack of an external receiver, the
Software and accessories price, and the very low weight make this a nice
China and Hong Kong) front either.
DVB-H is currently the most widely ap-
choice, should you like in-ear headphones. proved digital mobile TV standard, and there
Opera Mobile 9.5
Nokia, in addition to showing the successor have been several new smartphones sporting
I spent a lot of time at Opera’s booth look-
of their popular HS-12W, the fairly expensive a DVB-H receiver. The most important of
ing at one of the biggest hits at the show—the
BH-903, and the over-the-ear headphones, them are Nokia’s N78 and N96, which run
recently-announced Opera Mobile 9.5. The
also showcased their new external Bluetooth the Symbian OS. The high-end N96 even has
mobile version of their popular Web browser
amplifier and a DVB-H transmitter (more on hardware video, sound decoding, and good
is based on a complete upgrade of the Opera
this in the “Digital TV” section).
battery life—hopefully this is the route Win- will lack XGA output and (with the lower-end promising new flexible display technology that
dows Mobile manufacturers also go. Nokia versions) 3D acceleration. folds over the device to close.
has also showcased their new external DVB-H Again, as new information becomes avail- Most eBook readers are based on the Linux
transmitter, but it’s only compatible with some able, I will post it on the blogs. OS, but the Readius is built on Windows CE.
of their Symbian smartphones, and currently It won’t directly run Windows Mobile applica-
there are no plans to make it compatible with Not Windows Mobile, but of interest tions, but Windows Mobile developers would
Windows Mobile. have a relatively easy time recompiling their
Some new, high-end DVB-T/H & T-DMB applications to support the new device. This is
solutions for Windows Mobile were announced very good news because Windows has third-
or showcased at MWC. These include the Gi- party CHM support, while Linux doesn’t. This
gabyte MS808 and the E-TEN (now Samsung) means it will have support for several eBooks
V900. Unfortunately, neither of the units on not readable by the other dedicated eBook
display were in working order. Both of these readers. Readius has a tri-band GSM phone
models support, in addition to DVB-H and T- built into it, with GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, and
DMB, the much more widely deployed (but HSDPA data capability. It also has Bluetooth
not exactly mobile-friendly) DVB-T. Unfor- 2.0, but lacks Wi-Fi.
tunately, it seems you can either have DVB or Readius does not ship with a Web browser,
DMB, but not both. That means, if you pur- but it’s not a locked system. If a third-party
chase a DVB-T/H-enabled device, you won’t browser were available, it could be installed
be able to use it in a country using DMB. The From left to right: i-mate/HTC Universal, Skype Phone, HTC on the device and you would be able to browse
S310/Oxygen, Nokia N95.
opposite is true for DMB-enabled devices. the Web over a GPRS or 3G data connection.
(Note: I will publish a Digital TV Bible in the Skype Phone All in all, this device has a lot of potential.
near future. Check the “Menneisyys” section Skype was showing off a non-functioning pro- However, the developer needs to improve the
of our blogs to find it.) totype of its yet-to-be-released Skype Phone. It foldable display. Currently, it doesn’t display
will be relatively inexpensive (about $150). PDF docs well because its effective screen reso-
New chipsets for Windows lution is about 350 x 280 pixels, which is con-
Mobile devices You can expand storage memory on the
siderably worse than on the other eBook read-
Skype Phone using microSD cards, but you
Chipsets (also referred to as CPUs) are the heart must remove the battery to do this. Interest- ers. The Polymer Vision folks promised that the
of every computing device. The newer chipsets ingly, the phone makes its Skype calls over a final version will be released in the second half
are faster, consume less power, and offer more GSM voice connection—it does not have in- of this year and will have a higher-resolution
features (3D graphics accelerator, H.264 video tegrated Wi-Fi! The only way this might be a screen. No word yet on the price, but they seem
decoding, etc.). There were several very inter- less expensive solution is if Skype introduced to be targeting a high-end user, so it probably
esting chipset announcements at MWC. The an alternate protocol that greatly reduced their won’t be cheap. See smartphonemag.com/
most important ones are as follows: bandwidth usage, so that their services could blogs/index.php?p=2478 for more info. n
TI OMAP 3: The new OMAP 3 chipset is be used on low-speed EDGE connections.
much more powerful than its TI predecessors. However, they did not discuss any plans to
For example, it supports H.264 decoding and do this.
3D graphics acceleration out of the box, along
with a lot of other goodies. And, it’s already in
mass production.
Nvidia chipsets: Nvidia has announced
that they will come out with a full applica-
tion chipset consisting of not only a graph-
ics accelerator (as was the case with its older
Windows Mobile chipsets), but a full hardware
platform. They have already demonstrated its
HDTV decoding/playback capabilities and an
iPhone-like 3D user interface. Unfortunately,
we’ll have to wait at least 9-10 months to see
actual devices based on it.
Samsung chipsets: A year after the an-
nouncement of their S3C6400 platform, which
will be used in the E-TEN/Samsung V900,
Samsung announced the new and considerably
better S3C6430 chipset. Among other things,
the new chipset will incorporate 3D graphics Readius has a flexible, folding display that may be the wave
of the future.
acceleration and much lower power usage.
Let’s hope the new chipset finds its way to
Windows Mobile devices as soon as possible. Polymer Vision
Qualcomm chipsets: Qualcomm also an- I also saw a demo of a phone-eBook reader
nounced a new chipset, but the specs are pretty combo device called Readius by Polymer Vi-
vague at this point. However, it looks like they sion (polymervision.com). The Readius had a
My Favorite
Accessories
They protect my Windows Mobile device,
add capability, and make using it easier
and more enjoyable.
Mike Riley is an advanced computing profes-
sional who specializes in emerging technolo-
gies and new development trends. You can by Mike Riley
contact Mike at mike@mikeriley.com.
I
have owned a Windows Mobile device since the original “Windows CE Handheld PC”
was introduced nearly ten years ago. In that time, I have seen hundreds of hardware
and software innovations flourish within the Microsoft mobile ecosystem. I have shared
some of my favorite software titles in past articles, and introduced readers to a number
of hardware add-ons that make Windows Mobile devices more usable. What are my favorite
accessories? The current countdown begins with…
5: Styra–Ballpoint Pen
$19.95 boxwave.com
One of the most useful improvements I’ve made to the various touch screen devices I’ve owned
is investing in better styli. My father gave me a Cross pen set when I graduated from college,
and that gift has set my expectation for what a high quality writing tool should be. Unfortu-
nately, nearly all of the styli bundled with Windows Mobile products simply don’t have the
weight and satisfying tactile feel of quality writing implements.
I wasn’t the only dissatisfied customer, and early on companies began offering replacement
styli for touch screen handhelds. My current favorite is the Styra from Boxwave. It not only
delivers better balance, but also includes a ballpoint pen hidden under its cap, for signing hotel
registers, deposit slips, etc. Best of all, it fits in the stylus silo on your device. (When you order
it, make sure and specify the device you will be using it with.) No, it doesn’t have the same feel
as a Cross pen, but it’s light years ahead of the plastic sticks that ship with devices.
PDair cases are available in a variety of styles, including metal cases, leather wallets, flip cases, clear
plastic cases, and more. Whenever a new Windows Mobile user asks me where they can go to buy an
attractive, high quality case, I point them to pdair.com without hesitation.
T
he AC power adapters that ship with Windows Mobile devices and to keep them from damaging other items packed with the charger.
are usually bulky, ugly, and expensive to replace. Fortunately, The system incorporates an “Intelligent Chip” that prevents overcharg-
there are a number of third-party power solutions that are more ing of your device, and this latest version of the product provides more
portable, more stylish, less expensive, and offer far more func- power (up to 5.5 volts DC) for the more power hungry devices.
tionality. Because there are dozens of products in this category, you The VersaCharger PRO can be purchased directly from the Boxwave
should be able to find a solution that will let you “pull the plug” on Web site (boxwave.com). The charger by itself is priced at $25.95. You
your antiquated adapter and upgrade to a more “powerful” charging can purchase it with a miniSync cable for $35.95 and with a miniSync
solution. cable and the airplane adapter for $47.47.
the power cable and charge almost any mobile device on the market. Disposable power solutions
The iGo everywhere automatically adjusts the current and voltage to If you don’t want to bother with the before-mentioned charging sys-
the appropriate settings for each device. tems, a power source with disposable batteries may be the best solu-
The iGo everywhere85 is priced at $129.99 and ships with the iGo tion for you. These devices use readily available alkaline batteries to
dualpower accessory (for charging two devices at once) and connector recharge your handheld. Because of this, they can be an especially
tips for many popular laptop models. Tips for most mobile phones, practical solution when you’re in a foreign country and don’t want to
PDAs, MPG players, portable gaming devices, and other mobile de- bother with plug adapters or power converters. And because they don’t
vices can be purchased separately for $9.99 each. All of these items can use an expensive rechargeable battery or require electronics for convert-
be purchased from iGo’s online store (igo.com) and many nationwide ing AC to the appropriate DC voltage, they’re priced much lower than
retailers including Best Buy, Brookstone, and Radio Shack. Other ver- the other solutions in this article.
sions of the “everywhere” power kit, with higher and lower power
production, are available on the iGo Web site as well. Fig. 5: The Lil’ Sync AA Battery Adapter is
designed to recharge your device using standard
Portable battery recharging system double-A batteries.
Another innovative idea is the USB Powerstick from Ecosol Solar
Technologies. Powerstick is a portable battery that recharges itself via One of the most feature-rich dis-
a PC’s USB port. I realize that if you’re on the road and are recharging posable power units available is the
a portable battery from your laptop PC, it’s like “borrowing from Peter Lil’ Sync AA Battery Adapter (Fig.
to pay Paul.” But it does reduce the number of AC power adapters you 5) from Pocket PC Techs. This unit
have to bring with you. You only need one to power the laptop; you can accepts four standard AA batteries,
keep the rest of your mobile devices charged via the Powerstick. It’s which can be disposable alkalines or
actually a great solution for world travelers. In addition, because USB rechargeable NiCAD, NiMH, or Li-
is a worldwide standard, you can charge the Powerstick from someone Ion batteries. (The latter three bat-
else’s PC anywhere you are. tery types must be recharged by a separate charger.) This battery type
flexibility can help keep your costs down. For example, you might use
Fig. 4: The USB Powerstick recharges NiCADs with the device for most situations, and purchase disposable
when inserted into your laptop’s USB port alkalines if your trip is extended and you run out of charged NiCADs.
and uses a custom cable to connect to and The device features a special Voltage Reduction Circuit that allows
recharge your device. you to configure the device for the type of battery being used with it.
Because Powerstick is slight- This protects the electronics in your Windows Mobile device by provid-
ly larger than a pack of gum (Fig. ing the correct amount of current to it. It also allows Battery Adapter to
4) and weighs only 1.4 ounces, completely deplete a set of alkaline batteries so that you get every last
it can easily travel with you in “drop” of power transferred to your device.
your pocket. To recharge it, you The Lil’ Sync AA Battery Adapter is priced at $19.99 and is avail-
simply insert its USB connector able directly from pocketpctechs.com. It can be used with the sync/
into any PC’s USB port. Power- charge cable that came with your Windows Mobile device or an optional
stick has an 8-bar LCD power Sync-N-Charge cable ($20).
gauge that indicates when it is
completely charged. (It takes about 90 minutes to charge it to 90% of Other solutions with disposable components
its 750 mAh capacity.) To charge your device, remove Powerstick from A number of other disposable power solutions are available for Win-
the PC, attach the appropriate cable, connect it to your device, and press dows Mobile devices, including Battery Adapter Pro ($22.50; boxwave.
charge button (the only button on the device). com), Energi To Go Instant Cell Phone Charger ($19.99; retail avail-
The device comes with eight phone connection cables, an iPod ability listed at energizer.com), iGo powerXtender ($15.99; igo.com),
cable, and a miniUSB cable (which recharges many of the current Turbo Charge ($19.99; turbocellcharge.com), and USB Battery Ex-
smartphones). A complete list of phones that are compatible with the tender ($7.99; apc.com).
Powerstick is available on their Web site (powerstick.com/catalog/
Solar solutions
function_compatibility.php).
Ecosol Solar Technologies Inc. claims that the sealed Lithium Poly- If disposable batteries seem like a waste of natural resources, you might
mer battery is good for more than 1,000 recharge cycles. The USB take a look at solutions to power your device by converting the sun’s
Powerstick is available directly from powerstick.com for $69.95; it’s rays into electricity. Forget power outlets and external batteries, and
expected to be available in stores by summer 2008. leave your AC adapters behind. These ecologically friendly solutions
are perfect for extended camping trips and other situations where access
Other portable battery charging solutions to batteries or power outlets may not be available.
A large number of similar products are available, but most of these The Solio Classic (Fig. 6) from Better Energy Systems is a folding
solutions require that you use the longer and more unwieldy sync cable set of solar panels that charge an internal 1,650 mAh rechargeable bat-
that came with your device to connect it to the battery. In addition, tery. The Solio’s internal battery can hold its charge for up to a year.
they require a separate cable to connect the battery to an AC or DC Once charged, you can use that battery to recharge most mobile devices
power source. Products in this category include APC Mobile Power twice. The unit ships with a Mini-USB tip that will connect to many
Pack ($69.95; apc.com), JAVOedge High Capacity Portable Battery Windows Mobile devices. In addition, a variety of additional “tips”
Charger ($49.95; javoedge.com), Mobile Power Pack ($69; pocket are available that allow you to connect to and recharge a Sony PSP,
pctechs.com), and Mobile Device Charger or Mobile Device Charger GameBoy, GPS system, digital camera, and other devices.
Micro ($58.95 and $44.95 respectively; proporta.com). Better Energy Systems also offers the Solio Magnesium Edition, a
more ruggedized product that can better handle the impacts and shocks
short) that powers the system is filled with a mixture of alcohol, sodium
borohydride, and alkaline, which the company claims isn’t harmful to
the environment, even if the battery is thrown away. But Medis includes
battery recycling information with the unit and the box is pre-addressed
to ship to a recycler (you must pay the postage). Alternately, the DLFC
can be recycled at your local battery recycling center.
The DLFC cell is only slightly larger than a deck of playing cards
and has a two-year shelf life. That means you can store it for two years,
without activating it, and not lose any power. You activate it by remov-
ing a safety strap and squeezing the case. Then you plug the power
cord that comes with Power Pack into the battery and connect it to
your phone or PDA (Fig. 7). This creates a “draw” on the system and
the power pack begins to produce energy. According to Medis, it can
recharge a cell phone up to ten times. The specifications provided by
the manufacturer show that the DLFC cell has a 4,500 mAh capacity,
the largest of any of the battery-powered systems featured in this article
(see chart at the end of this article).
Fig. 6: The Solio Classic is one of three alternate-power charging systems from Better Energy
Systems LTD that harnesses the sun’s rays to recharge your Windows Mobile device.
of outdoor use. This product is compatible with iGo power tips (cov-
ered in the “Comprehensive charging systems” section of this article)
which means it is compatible with a vast number of devices and should
continue to be well-supported as new devices enter the market. The
Magnesium Edition has a slightly more capable 1,800 mAh battery
built into it.
The Solio Hybrid 1000 has a longer and wider single panel design
and a less capable 1,200 mAh battery. Its advantage is that it can be
clipped to your gear and will charge the battery while you’re hiking
or biking. The other Solio chargers have a fold-out design that is less Fig. 7: The 24-7 Power Pack is a “green” battery that will recharge your device multiple times
conducive to this type of mobile use. The Hybrid 1000’s battery can also and then can be turned in for recycling.
be charged via a USB port when connected to a computer.
The Solio Classic is priced at $99.95, the Magnesium Edition at The 24-7 Power Pack “Starter Kit” (with one DLFC battery, the
$199.99, and the Hybrid 1000 at $79.95. All three are available on the charging cable and connection tips for an iPod, Treo, and mini-USB
Better Energy Systems online store (store.solio.com). Each includes devices) is available for $29.99 from poweritanywhere.com. Additional
a different set of device connector tips (check solio.com for more in- fuel cells can be purchased for $19.99 and additional tips for the system
formation). If a tip for your device does not ship with the charger, it is (there are more than a dozen, including tips for other phone models, the
probably available for $9.95. Sony PSP, DVD players, and more) are less than $5 each.
Medis 24-7 Power Pack 3.8 x 2.67 x 2.23 6.5 3.6 - 5.45 4500 mAh 220mA Proprietary fuel cell
USB Powerstick .93 x 4.13 x .59 1.4 5 750 mAh 700mA Internal Lithium Polymer battery
VersaCharger Pro 4.01 x 1.77 x 1.61 2.5 5.3 - 5.5 N/A 1000mA AC/DC/USB
* The iGo everywhere85 changes the output voltage and current based on the “tips” that are connected to it.
W
hether its PIN numbers, bank ac-
count information, passwords,
or credit card numbers, the vast
majority of us have an ever-ex-
panding amount of confidential information
that we need to keep secure. If we don’t, we
open ourselves up to credit card fraud, identity
theft, and other hazards. This problem is com-
pounded by the fact that today’s world is very
mobile. For example, I carry around much of
my personal information with me on my Win-
dows Mobile device so I can access it quickly
if the need arises. But my mobile device is
small, and it’s relatively easy to misplace it or
have it stolen. For me, keeping that informa-
tion secure is of paramount importance.
Over the last few years, I have used eWal-
let Professional from Ilium Software to keep
my personal information secure. It is one of a
number of “electronic wallet” applications that Fig. 1: A PC version of eWallet ships with the Professional Edition of the program.
let you store, organize, and password-protect
personal info on your Windows Mobile device.
Ilium recently released eWallet 6.0, a signifi- lost, you would still have your wallet infor- Using eWallet
cant upgrade of the program that adds many mation safe and secure on a server, which you eWallet 6.0 installs on your Windows Mobile
useful features. (This review looks at the touch could access once you get eWallet re-installed device via an ActiveSync (Windows XP) or
screen version of the program; a version with on another PC. Windows Mobile Device Center (Windows
similar features is also available for non-touch One of the more exciting new features Vista) connection. It requires approximately
screen smartphones and Palm OS devices.) is still in beta. Ilium is working on a system 4 MB of storage space on your device. The
called eWallet Web Companion. It allows you
Enhancements to eWallet to access your wallet file, stored on a secure
program is available for touch or non-touch
screen devices running Windows Mobile 2003
As with previous versions of the program, site, from Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, iP- or later. The “Professional” edition includes a
eWallet 6.0 allows you to password-protect hone, or any Web-enabled mobile device. It desktop PC version of the program (Fig. 1) that
your personal information. However, the new has multiple layers of security and encryption occupies about 12 MB of hard disk space.
version increases this protection to 256-bit so you can be assured your vital information By default, eWallet creates a start-up
AES FIPS encryption (the current U.S. Gov- won’t get out in the public. When it’s released, “wallet” on your device called “My Wallet.”
ernment standard). This protection applies to you’ll be able to access your personal informa- You cannot rename this, but you can create
both the Windows Mobile and the desktop PC tion from a public PC or another mobile device additional wallet files from either the Win-
versions of the program. without having to install eWallet on it. More dows Mobile or desktop PC version of the
Additionally, you can now configure eWal- information about this feature is available on program.
let to perform an automatic backup of your Ilium Software’s Web site (iliumsoft.com/site/ Once the PC version installed, you can syn-
wallet file each time you close or lock the ap- ew/ew_olbeta.php). chronize eWallet data between the mobile and
plication. This means that you no longer have Finally, Ilium worked with the folks at We- PC versions of the program. This is accom-
to worry about losing data in the unlikely event bIS in the development of eWallet 6.0. This plished with the SyncPro application, which is
of a corrupted wallet file. You can also syn- new version of the program incorporates some built into eWallet. SyncPro works in conjunc-
chronize your wallet file to remote locations of the best features of WebIS’s FlexWallet pro-
from the desktop PC version of the program gram, including the outstanding FlexWallet Clinton Fitch is a Microsoft MVP in Mobile Devices and owns
via the Secure FTP feature. By doing this, you icons. In addition, you can import FlexWallet Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com! and HPC:Factor. Clinton has been
writing in the Windows Mobile community for nearly 10
effectively create an offsite copy of your wal- data files into eWallet 6.0. A full description years and can be found online participating in various fo-
let. Why is this important? Suppose you have of the process is on the Ilium Software Web rums and blogs including the Ask The Experts blog here at
your laptop PC and your Windows Mobile site (iliumsoft.com/site/ew/ew_fwmain.php). Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine. In his day job, Clinton is
the Unified Communications Product Manager for Spanlink
device in the same bag and it is stolen at the More integration of FlexWallet features into Communications. Clinton is married, has two teenaged children, and lives in the
airport. Although your equipment would be eWallet will be coming later in 2008. Dallas, Texas area. He can be reached at management@clintonfitch.com.
Figs. 2 & 3: eWallet lets you save credit card, PIN numbers, etc., in a data card (left). The main Figs. 4 & 5: eWallet organizes your data cards into “Card Type” categories (left). When creating
screen of the program displays a list of your cards, organized by category (right). a new card, select the appropriate category and a blank template is displayed, with the most
common data fields for that type of card (right).
tion with ActiveSync or Mobile Device Center Top 10 List since 2004 because it’s easy to use (with desktop component with which you
to sync eWallet data between your device and and easy to customize. In addition, it has great can synchronize data) is available for $29.95.
PC. It also allows you to sync eWallet data online and live tech support. Ilium Software A free demo version of the program is also
with a server, an FTP site, or a USB thumb is one of the few companies that still offers available. You can purchase eWallet through a
drive. toll-free phone support for their products. And variety of online retailers, including the Smart-
One of the long standing advantages of when you ask them a question, they give you phone & Pocket PC magazine online store
eWallet over similar programs has been its an accurate and reliable answer. Couple this (smartphonemag.com/swstore). You can also
ability to allow you to create virtually any with the product itself and you have a very purchase it and find out more about it on the
type of data card to hold any type of data in compelling solution. Ilium Software Web site (iliumsoft.com). n
your wallet file (Fig. 2). You can also catego- The eWallet 6.0 standalone program (with-
rize those cards to make navigation easier and out the desktop PC component) is available
to allow you to find your information quickly for $19.95. The eWallet Professional program
(Fig. 3). Included in eWallet are several built-
in categories, including credit cards, automo-
bile cards, password cards, ID cards, and other
common card types.
When you create a new data card, you are
presented with a screen that lets you select the
category of the card. Select the desired cat-
egory and a blank card template is displayed,
with the most common data fields used for that
type of card. For example, if you select the
Credit Card category (Fig. 4), you get a blank
template with data fields that let you enter the
Card Provider, Card Type, Card Number, etc.
(Fig. 5). (Tip: You can rename the data fields
by tapping and holding on the current field
name.) Fill in the data fields, customize the
appearance of the card, add attachments to the
card, specify a background photo if you want,
and select OK or Done. The final step is to
enter the name of the new card. Note that if
the built-in categories don’t meet your needs,
you can create new categories easily. Select
New >Menu >Category >New Category and
fill out the data screen.
W
hether you’re a hardcore road that person in your Contacts list. Obviously, appointments, Voice Command will announce
warrior or a desk jockey who it’s great to use this hands-free application your appointment subject and location instead
would simply like to access work while you’re driving, but it makes navigating of the usual reminder sound that’s played. You
documents from the neighborhood through the Windows Mobile interface much can even ask the software “What’s my next
Starbucks, you can turn your PDA or smart- easier in any situation. For example, saying appointment?” and it will respond with the
phone into a fully functional wireless office. “redial” calls the last number you dialed, and corresponding information for your next ob-
Of course, Windows Mobile comes with all the “callback” dials the number of the last per- ligation.
basics to access your e-mail and documents, son who called you. This is much easier than As its name implies, Voice Command lets
but with a few quick upgrades, you can make
your handheld a powerful wireless office that
opens the latest Office documents, verbally
screens your calls, records your ideas, and
even let’s you access information on your
desktop computer when you’re miles away.
even set the software to read SMS messages ever, recordings and regular notes are listed
aloud. And, the software can be configured to together, making it more difficult to find the re-
only speak during “free time” in your calen- cordings. In addition, I prefer to have the most
dar, so your new assistant won’t disturb you recent recordings displayed first in the list, and
during a meeting. Voice Command supports it’s difficult to do this. On a Windows Mobile
Bluetooth headsets, allowing you to access its device, you can sort a file list by Name (the de-
features while your phone or PDA is stashed fault), Size, Type, and Date. But when you sort
away in your briefcase, pocket, or purse. by Date, it displays the oldest files first and the
most recent files at the bottom of the list. You
Get More from Voice Command! can display the most recent files at the top of
the list by selecting the Date option twice. As
You can configure Voice Command to only read e-mails you can see, too many screen taps are involved
aloud if they’re sent as high priority messages. Set in the process. Because I have Note2Self set
this feature if you’re expecting a critical e-mail; when up to send recordings to my own Inbox, the
it comes in, Voice Command will read it aloud to you most recent recordings always appear there at
without any interaction on your part. This can be helpful the top of the list! I open the message, listen to
if you’d like people to send you important updates while the note, take any necessary action, and then
you’re in meetings or while driving, but don’t want to be Fig. 4: Note2Self is a pop-up voice recorder that delete the message. Very efficient!
disturbed with less important messages. allows you to create a voice recording and then
e-mail or save it with two quick key presses.
Voice Command 1.6 is priced at $39.95 and Get More from Note2Self!
is available for Windows Mobile 5/6 devices. ting down thoughts, ideas, discoveries, and If you have an actual assistant to whom you dictate
(Note that it is built into some of the newer just about anything that comes to mind while letters, notes, and other information, you can enter
Windows Mobile 6 phones.) Installation re- you’re on the go. Unfortunately, it isn’t always his or her e-mail address into the Note2Self configura-
quires 4 MB of storage memory and the pro- feasible to pull out the stylus or use the slide- tion. When you click the “Stop & Send” button, all the
gram uses approximately 7 MB of RAM when out keyboard to record a quick thought. Ideas recordings you make will go directly to the assistant for
its running. The U.S. version of the program can leave the mind as quickly as they come, transcription. This can also be a great way to quickly
is available for touch and non-touch screen so it’s important to be able to capture them send notes to your spouse, or a fun way to communicate
devices. Currently, the French, German, and quickly and without much effort. between friends. To create a private note for yourself,
U.K. English version of the program are only Note2Self instantly begins recording a click “Stop & Save” instead.
available for touch screen devices. In addition, voice note with a press of a hardware button
the Bluetooth feature requires a device with that you define. This also causes the Note2Self Note2Self can be configured to send the
the hardware capability to route Bluetooth main screen to pop up (Fig. 4), displaying the e-mails with voice recordings via ActiveSync,
audio and implement Microsoft’s Bluetooth current recording time, and the file size of the your wireless e-mail service, or the WebIS No-
stack. More information about Voice Com- recording. It also displays three soft buttons te2Self Sending Service (an optional service
mand, as well as “Buy” links are available on that allow you to stop the recording and send available for a monthly fee). The program’s
Microsoft’s Web site (microsoft.com/windows it to the e-mail address of your choice, stop and configuration menu lets you set the e-mail ad-
mobile/voicecommand/default.mspx). save the recording, or cancel the recording. dress and create a custom Subject line to in-
Note2Self also solves one of the biggest clude with the voice recording file attachment.
Record ideas quickly, the pet peeves I have with Windows Mobile. The By default, the program saves the voice note as
instant you have them built-in Notes application on touch screen de- a .wav file, which is a more universal format.
Windows Mobile devices are great for jot- vices features a voice record capability. How- However, you can set the application to record
Figs. 1 & 2: TouchPal has five tabs above the keys that let you quickly access its Figs. 3 & 4: TouchPal in Predictive mode Fig. 5: Tap on second tab Fig. 6: Tap on third tab to use symbols
features. You can enlarge the keyboard to make the keys larger and easier to hit. (above) and Precise mode (below). to use the Numbers pad. and special characters.
A
“soft keyboard” program places a virtual keyboard on the touch bination of four characters from the standard QWERTY keyboard. For
screen of your Windows Mobile device, allowing you to enter example, the first key in the upper left corner, below the tab bar, contains
text by tapping on the screen. A soft keyboard is built into all q, w, 1, and a semicolon. You move your finger or stylus up, down,
touch screen devices, but a number of third-party alternatives right, or left to select the desired character. This mode is usually used
are also available. I have yet to find one that can match the speed and for inputting passwords or URLs, going back to make corrections, etc. I
accuracy of typing on a near-full-sized portable keyboard like the iGo was getting pretty fast using it as my standard text entry mode. You can
Stowaway Bluetooth Keyboard, but soft keyboards are definitely ad- quickly switch between the modes by sliding the Enter key upwards.
vancing.
Recently, I came across TouchPal (from CooTek), as well as Thumb- Learning to use TouchPal
Key and SlideIT (from Dasur). These are some of the best soft key- Using TouchPal in Predictive mode was frustrating at first because I
boards on the market, but how do they compare to a physical keyboard? thought you had to use the sliding motions. I ended up turning on the
This review focuses on TouchPal, but I’ve included a brief section on Precise input mode to get the hang of the keyboard first. The advantage
the amazing capabilities of the Dasur programs as well. I conclude with of the Predictive mode is that you only need to enter a few letters of
a section that compares soft and hard keyboards. each word, and let the word guesser pick the best hit. You can enter
text surprisingly fast in Predictive mode, but the speed usually comes
TouchPal’s predictive and precise modes at the price of accuracy. The faster you go, the more mistakes TouchPal
TouchPal (cootek.com) has a smart tabbed layout approach (Fig. 1) that makes, and you have to go back and fix incorrect words.
lets you access the options of a full keyboard in a small screen footprint. After a frustrating first hour, typing with my fingers became a little
The tabs let you quickly access the QWERTY keyboard and other fea- easier, but I wasn’t able to enter text as fast as I can with my favorite
tures described later in the article. When first installed, the keys and tabs full-screen soft keyboard, Sunnysoft Interwrite (sunnysoft.com). Full-
are barely large enough for fingers; fortunately, the whole thing can be screen soft keyboards are okay for entering text in a Word Mobile
resized (Fig. 2). In addition, you can switch your device to landscape document, for example, but don’t work as well with activities like chat
viewing mode to make the keyboard more accessible (no resize in this because the keyboard occupies the entire screen and you have to switch
mode, however), and the keyboard can also be shifted right or left of between the keyboard and the program to send text.
center, suiting your preference. The keyboard has two modes of entry: As mentioned, the TouchPal keyboard can be resized, which makes
Predictive and Precise. it easier to use. Unfortunately, the resizing feature only works in portrait
In Predictive mode (Fig. 3), you simply start typing a word, and after viewing mode. The word-prediction engine is good but not perfect. For
a few letters TouchPal will display the words it “thinks” you need in the example, it can be a real pain to use when you’re going back to make
tabs above the soft keyboard. When the word you desire appears in one changes, because it will suggest a word every time you enter a keystroke.
of the tabs, simply tap to enter it. If you make no selection and simply I also found that it was easy to forget which text entry mode I was in.
tap on the Space key, TouchPal enters what it “thinks” is the most likely So, for example, if I thought I was in Predictive mode, but was really in
word, which it has outlined in one of the tabs (note the highlighted word
in Fig. 3). The program is amazingly good at “guessing” the correct
Nate Adcock is a systems test and integration engineer with experience managing and admin-
word from the list as you type, allowing you to continue entering text istering a wide variety of platforms and network environments. He is a former military weather
without the distraction of constantly having to select words. forecaster and has worked extensively with the Pocket PC OS and handhelds for several years.
In Precise mode (Fig. 4), you must manually select each character In addition to working on his own hobbyist blog (natescrap.blogspot.com), he is also a regular
contributor to Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine’s Blogs and was an expert judge in our recent
by sliding your finger or stylus over the keys. Each key contains a com- Best Software Awards 2007. natestera@mail.com
Fig. 7: In Professional version, tap on Fig. 8: Tap on the fourth tab Figs. 9 & 10: TouchPal’s Help/Options tab lets you tweak the basic Fig. 11: SlideIT (above)
the third tab to use icons. to use direction pad. options (left) and access a comprehensive Quick Start guide (right). Fig. 12: ThumbKey (below)
O
ver 90 experts judged more than 850 nominations for the Smart- The purpose of publishing the comments is to give insights into a
phone & Pocket PC magazine Best Software Awards 2007. Our variety of products—not to show how the judges voted. For the sake
judges had plenty to say about their favorite products. In this of brevity, we’ve included only 1-3 comments per product and edited
issue we are publishing their comments about the programs them for clarity and conciseness. A listing of the 2007 winners and
nominated in the Communications software category. We will publish finalists can be found on our Web site (smartphonemag.com/awards/
their comments on other software categories in future issues. main.asp).
Touch Screen
The comments in this section They could improve the product BlueMusic files. (Steven Hughes) It did not
were for the touch screen version by adding a macro edit feature to teksoftco.com work on my WM 6 device. (Chris
of the application. We indicate assign custom triggers for more Touch and non-touch screen Brunskill)
if a non-touch screen version is advanced mice with more buttons. BlueMusic redirects any audio
available. (Mike Riley) sent to the speaker through the Call and SMS
Bluetooth transmitter on your autoblocker/rejecters
Bluetooth
device to a Bluetooth headset. It
even gives you control over ring- Call SMS Blocker
BlueMouse winmobileapps.com
teksoftco.com tone volume and will automati-
cally resume music after you end Touch and non-touch screen
Touch screen only This application is simple to use,
BlueMouse works as advertised! a phone call. It works well not
only with music, but with VoIP but the interface could use some
I installed the app easily and was work. It was tested on and worked
immediately able to use my Blu- and GPS. (Steven Hughes) The
setup process is complicated. with a Palm Windows Mobile de-
etooth mouse without any prob- vice, which handles SMS a bit dif-
lems. Where has this product The developer needs to combine
the three-file setup into a single ferently. (Jon Westfall)
been all my life? (Amy Zunk)
installation file. The installation
also occupies a lot of memory.
Call recorders & language support is a big plus; CAB installation file is required
answering machines lack of profiles is a big minus. All for each of these. Inexperienced
in all, this application is a “must users might have trouble dealing
have” for WM phones. (Raj Pillai) with this multi-CAB file installa-
They could improve it by adding tion process. (Julie De Jong)
features that dealt with unread
mail, missed calls, signal strength,
etc. (Remzi Semsettin Turer)
VITO AudioNotes
vitotechnology.com
Touch and non-touch screen
AudioNotes has a well organized phoneAlarm
user interface. (Gianni Carfagno) pocketmax.net
This is a good program that sup- Touch and non-touch screen
ports all devices, but the quality of PhoneAlarm has a Today/Home
speakerphone recordings is poor. screen interface that allows you
(Helio Diamant) to turn phone-related features off
and on at set times of the day. The
Fax program is skinable, and there are
a lot of skins to choose from, as
eFax well as a well-supported user
efax.com
forum to help create your own.
Touch and non-touch screen
(Steven Hughes) This great ap-
This online fax service lets you
plication allows you to set up to
send and receive faxes as e-mail
seven different user profiles on
attachments. There are three lev-
your phone. (Julie De Jong)
els of the service, two of which
involve a monthly fee; the third is PhoneWeaver
free. I would like to see a fourth sbsh.net
level added that is less expensive Touch screen only
than the mid-level ($16.95 per PhoneWeaver has a simple and
month) service but with more fea- appealing user interface that lets
tures than the free service. (Helio you start using it without hav-
Diamant) ing to read the manual. Multi-
Phone dialers Jeyo Mobile Companion based VoIP service. (Remzi Sem-
jeyo.com settin Turer)
Touch and non-touch screen
You can save your SMS on your SMS autoreply /
PC or send and receive SMS us- mass sending
ing your PC with your Windows
Mobile phone attached to it. It’s
a good backup solution for SMS
and for sending out mass SMS. If
this included the MMS folder, it
would increase its usefulness a
hundred-fold. (Carlo Guerrero) Express Talk VoIP Softphone
nch.com.au
EZdial 2 Smaato Cost Touch screen only
mesoftware.biz smaato.com/network.php This VoIP program has a robust
Touch screen only Touch and non-touch screen set of features, but is too com-
EZdial 2 is an innovative and This full-featured program helps plex for casual users. It’s great
Auto SMS Reply
clever solution that works well me manage my minutes usage, for a business environment. (Tim
bytesurge.com
but is somewhat redundant on GPRS usage, and SMS messages; Hillebrand)
Touch screen only
phones running Windows Mo- it’s fairly easy to set up. It’s free,
Auto SMS Reply is the best ap-
bile 5 or later version of the OS. but displays advertising, which Fring
plication in this category—very
It needs to be more customizable was not a problem for me until I fring.com
complete and very stable. (Helio
and have better support for skins. went out of town and had to sync Touch and non-touch screen
Diamant) A handy utility, but it
(Vijay Rathour) the ads. They should develop a Fring is a communication tool on
needs multiple message capabil-
commercial version of the pro- steroids. It not only allows you to
PhonePlus ity, the ability to send to specific
gram without the SOMA Launcher VoIP from your Windows Mobile
groups, and recognize, record,
mesoftware.biz advertisements. (Julie De Jong) device, it lets you communicate
Touch screen only and categorize new senders. (Tim
with different networks. Best of all,
Hillebrand)
The phrase support and SMS edi- it’s free. (Remzi Semsettin Turer)
tor in PhonePlus are very help-
SMS Answering Machine
ful when you’re on the go. It has Mundu Speak beta
boointeractive.com
an attractive interface, functions speak.mundu.com
Touch screen only
fast, and works well. However, it Touch screen only
This software turns your Windows
doesn’t attempt to integrate into Mundu Speak is the most fea-
Mobile device into an SMS an-
OS style or give customization ture-packed chat client for touch
swering machine. It has multiple
options. (Vijay Rathour) screen devices I’ve ever seen.
message capability, can send mes-
(Alan Zaks)
sages to groups, and recognizes
and records new senders with the
Spb GPRS Monitor ability to categorize them. (Tim
spbsoftwarehouse.com Hillebrand)
Touch and non-touch screen Synchronization
GPRS Monitor is a long-time fa-
vorite of mine that has improved CompanionLink for Google
over time. It’s a perfect way of Calendar
monitoring your wireless connec- companionlink.com
tion expenses. (Carlo Guerrero) PC program; syncs with touch and
The program has nice graphics non-touch screen devices
Phone info access - WM and is easy to set up. However, If you use Google Calendar, you
they need to expand it to address Skype for Windows Mobile need this product. It handles Cal-
Phone Dashboard more phone functions: tracking skype.com endar (multiple and shared) and
Minute Tracker minute usage, SMS messages Touch and non-touch screen Outlook synchronization. The
hudsonmobile.com sent, etc. (Julie De Jong) Skype has always been my VoIP developer needs to add Bluetooth
Touch screen only application of choice, no matter
This one has a great user inter- SIP and VoIP the platform. It’s easy to install
and Wi-Fi connectivity support.
(Dick Grier)
face and really nice graphics. It and works with any type of hard-
4Talk
captures and displays informa- ware I throw at it. (Amy Zunk) Intellisync
tion about minute usage and text 4pockets.com
Touch screen only intellisync.com
messaging (SMS/MMS); setup is X-PDA PC program; syncs with touch and
easy and precise. Add data usage Finally, a program that lets you
globaliptel.com non-touch screen devices
(GPRS/EDGE, etc.) to this appli- pair two or more touch screen
Touch and non-touch screen Intellisync is a robust applica-
cation and it will be perfect! (Julie devices to create a mini walkie-
X-PDA is a great, feature-rich tion, but they need to reduce the
De Jong) talkie network. (Alan Zaks)
application for users with a SIP- bloat. (Krishna Iyer) This is an
enterprise-level synchronization, Instant Messaging & IRC Phone tools and tasks. For example, you can snap
push e-mail, and mobile device
Agile Messenger synchronization pictures of drawings, diagrams,
management product. It’s expen- and text written on a whiteboard
agilemobile.com
sive! (Dick Grier) Jeyo Mobile Companion during a business meeting, send
Touch and non-touch screen it to the scanR service, and have
jeyo.com
Agile Messenger is a feature-rich a perfectly usable version in your
Touch and non-touch screen
and user-friendly instant messag- inbox when you get back to your
Mobile Companion is a simple
ing client that lets you send text, computer. (Joel Evans)
product that can backup and re-
voice, photo, and video messages.
store as well as import and ex-
I loved the fact that you can shoot
port SMS data, Call History, and Spb GPRS Monitor
a video and then instantly share it
Phone Book information. (Reyn- spbsoftwarehouse.com
with your friends or associates. It
old Flores) I just love the ability Touch and non-touch screen
also offers interoperability across GPRS Monitor is great for some-
to control my handset through my
just about every IM service out one who needs to count their
PC—it saves me from having to
there. (Joel Evans) minutes and usage for expense
control two devices simultane-
ously. (Bradley Gillett) reports—it saves a lot of aggra-
Missing Sync vation. (Amy Zunk)
markspace.com SMARTFilter
Mac OS program; syncs with novomobile.com VITO VoiceDialer
touch and non-touch screen de- Touch and non-touch screen for Smartphone
vices SMARTFilter lets you divert calls vitotechnology.com
Missing Sync is a must-have and block calls and filter them by Touch and non-touch screen
for Windows Mobile users with callers or by your Calendar, pre- VoiceDialer provides solid voice
Mac desktops or laptops. It has venting inappropriate interrup- recognition, even in the noisiest
even more features than Active- tions. (Andreas Erle) environments. You can also re-
Sync/Mobile Device Center, and cord more than one voice tag for
works like a charm on my Apple Fring scanR a Contact so that you can voice
G5 with synchronizing my office fring.com scanr.com dial someone’s mobile, home, or
Touch and non-touch screen Touch and non-touch screen
sheets, iPhoto Albums, iTunes another phone number. (Joel Ev-
Playlists, and much more. (Alex This one offers the best possible ScanR lets you use the built-in ans) n
Januschewsky) number of services (everything I camera on your Windows Mo-
want and more) as well as voice bile phone for business-oriented
Non-Touch
communication supported on Wi-
Fi and 3G, which is very stable in
Screen the last version. The user interface
is a little complicated; it doesn’t
indicate statuses beyond acces-
The comments in this section are
sible/non-accessible. It’s also dif-
for the non-touch screen versions.
ficult to understand who is away,
We indicate if a touch screen ver-
busy, or anything else. A help file
sion is available.
and quick status table would help.
Bluetooth (Helio Diamant)
Bluezard Mundu IM
wm-soft.com messenger.mundu.com
Touch and non-touch screen Touch and non-touch screen
This has great functionality, but Mundu IM has a simple to use in-
it can be quite confusing the first terface that really shines. Within
couple of times you use it, espe- seconds you are effortlessly log-
cially if you are not familiar with ging in and chatting with your
Bluetooth capabilities or are not buddies from just about every
very tech savvy. I found the con- instant messaging service—you
trols to be somewhat cumbersome can even share photos and files.
and clunky. (Bradley Gillett) (Joel Evans)
Like most versions of Sudoku, there are The object of this game is to run around Unfortunately, given the current crop of titles
two modes: “notes” and “answers.” When you each level smashing everything in sight. Each in this genre, Holy Beasts is average at best.
place a number in a square as a note, you’re level is broken up into different areas, and all
simply reminding yourself that the number targets in an area must be destroyed before you
could go in the square, and when you’re plac- can move on to the next. There are only two
ing the number in the square as an answer, that things you can do with your character. The first
means you believe that number belongs in that is to move it left and right, and the second is to
square. To switch between modes, you either swing its mallet. You can control these actions
have to click the pencil at the bottom of the with your stylus or hardware buttons. I had
screen or select the Mark (or “notes”) mode difficulty controlling the game with the stylus
off of the menu, also accessible from the bot- (see next paragraph). I also had a problem with
tom of the screen. Either way, this breaks up the hardware controls. You see, the game is
the flow of the game. The one nice part of the played in Landscape viewing mode with the
interface is that each square is “region” sensi- hardware buttons to the right. Unfortunately, The premise is somewhat cool. You get to
tive, so if you want to make a note that you I and about 10 percent of the population are play the game as one of four characters: a drag-
think a 1 belongs in a particular square, click left-handed, and there is no option to rotate on, a phoenix, a flying tiger, and a flying turtle.
the upper left corner of that square to record the screen so that the controls are on the left. (Who wouldn’t want to play as a flying turtle?)
the 1. Upper middle is 2, upper left is 3, and Shame on Goo Studios for that oversight! Sadly, beyond the look of your avatar, there
so on. The down side to this is that the squares As mentioned, I had a problem with con- really seems to be no difference in the way the
are small enough that you’ll often find yourself trolling the game play with my stylus. It was game plays. In fact, there’s really not much to
marking or unmarking the wrong numbers in caused by the fact that the “tap points” con- the game play at all. Auto-fire is always on,
a square. trolling the left and right movements were too leveling up is automatic when you’ve collected
The other big drawback in this version is close together, making it difficult to change the the right number of bonuses, and there are no
that it lives up to its name. Once I started play- direction of your RoboRabbit. In addition, you special weapons of any sort to fire. In essence,
ing on my own, I found it difficult to complete pretty much have to have the stylus right on the game could almost play itself.
a game in under 20 minutes—in Easy mode! top of the hammer to swing it. All this makes Graphically, Holy Beasts maintains the
I don’t mind if puzzles build up to a very dif- moving and hitting an object an exceptional style of painted backdrops and colorful, well-
ficult level, but they shouldn’t start there. challenge. Add to this the fact that the game animated sprites that I’ve come to enjoy from
Graphically, there’s not a whole lot you can is timed, and you’ll begin to see why I oc- Beijing Huike games. There are also some
do with a grid comprised of smaller grids. Im- casionally wanted to pull my hair out. On the pretty neat creature designs in this game. The
possible Sudoku does have some skins avail- other hand, I liked the fact that the game is music is very good as well. On the other hand,
able, but they don’t really add to the game all about smashing things and appreciated the as is also the norm with their games, there are
play, and in a couple of cases actually make the contemporary “Itchy and Scratchy” graphical no sound effects. I would think that even stock
numbers hard to read. There’s no background design. ones would be better than nothing. If you want
music, and the sound effects become pointless The graphics are colorful, and the charac- something pretty to look at and that requires
before too long. ters are well animated, especially when they little effort on your part, Holy Beasts is for you.
If you’re willing to deal with the interface go “splat” under your hammer. I like the use Otherwise, there are plenty of other shooters
issues I mentioned and don’t expect any easy of word bubbles for things like “splat” and out there more worthy of your time.n
games, you might want to look at this one. “bam” as well. Each level takes place in a
Otherwise, I don’t recommend it. different area, so you’re not seeing the same
background over and over again. The music is
Killer RoboRabbits From Mars (B+) pretty decent, and varies with the levels.
$14.95; Touch screen version only and free
demo available
Killer RoboRabbits has a high difficulty
level similar to the old MegaMan games on Smartphone &
Pocket PC
Purchase smartphonemag/swstore the Nintendo. Just like those games, however,
Killer RoboRabbits manages to be enjoyable
With a name like Killer RoboRabbits From
magazine’s
enough that I can almost forget about the dif-
Mars, how could you not want to try this ficulty. Throw in the colorful atmosphere and
game? It’s actually quite fun—and difficult. If decent soundtrack and you’ve got yourself
you’re as coordinated as I am, you’ll probably a pretty good side scrolling smash-em-up 4 FREE weekly
E-mail newsletters
spend lots of time replaying the same levels game.
over and over again.
Holy Beasts (C-)
$8.99; Touch and non-touch screen versions
www.PocketPCmag.com
and free demos available
Developer huike.cn/enindex.asp
Subscribe to:
Purchase smartphonemag/swstore • News
• Web happenings
After the release of Demon Hunter, it seemed • Games
like Beijing Huike laid low for a couple of • New products
months. Now all of a sudden they have several
new releases for Windows Mobile devices, in-
cluding the side scrolling shooter Holy Beasts.
in one convenient book. SlovoEd Express: Italian Dictionaries s $40 lution for Windows Mobile Pocket PCs.
$9.99 A multilingual translation service with dic- Dasur; www.mobiletextinput.com $12.95-9.95
MobileReference.com tionary databases. Paragon Software; www.penreader.com
www.MobileReference.com $24.95 Travel Guides
Sprite Archie l s
Paragon Software; www.penreader.com DK Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guides
Text and Reference Monitors your SMS and Call activity and logs
& Maps: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Las this activity to e-mail so that you can refer
Info Managers Vegas, London, Madrid, New York, Paris,
eBook back to it at any time.
Handy Weather s Prague, Rome, Vienna l s $14.95
Complete Works of Josephus, 7-day weather forecast, weather details, cur- Each Guide $29.99
Flavius ls u Sprite Software Ltd
rent conditions, and maps for 40,000 cities. Mobile Systems Inc. www.spritesoftware.com
Contemporary maps, timelines, family trees, $14.95 www.mobi-systems.com
coinage, and units of measure as well as mod- Paragon Software; www.penreader.com SwitchProfile! s
ern history and analysis of Josephus’ works. Time Utilities A utility which allows you to switch sound pro-
$9.99 Utilities PocketAlarm l
files automatically at a desired time.
MobileReference.com $4.75
Misc. Utilities Includes many different alarms.
www.MobileReference.com Connective Tools
$14.95
Works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau ls u Call Jockey s www.connectivetools.com
Sergey Khmaruk
Includes Confessions and other major works. Quickly, discreetly simulate an incoming call. pocketalarm.googlepages.com ZoomBoard l
$5.99 $6.45 An onscreen keyboard for quick and accurate
MobileReference.com Connective Tools User interface / finger typing on Windows Mobile Pocket PCs.
www.MobileReference.com www.connectivetools.com menu improvers $9.95
CT Scheduler s Launch Manager l VITO Technology; vitotechnology.com
Multilingual Dictionaries Turns smartphone into fully automated assistant. A fast way to launch hundreds of applications
SlovoEd Express: English, French, German, $9.75 and Call or SMS contacts in style on your Win- Task Managers
Italian, and Spanish Dictionaries l s Connective Tools dows Mobile device. GoodWin l
Multilingual translation services with diction- www.connectivetools.com $14.95 A touch-oriented Windows Mobile launcher
ary databases. Fantastic Bytes and task switcher for Pocket PCs.
$24.95-34.95 Soft Keyboards fantasticbytes.com $19.95
Paragon Software; www.penreader.com SlideIT l Handy Converter 1.2 l s VITO Technology; vitotechnology.com n
Input text on touch-screen enabled devices. An all-in-one currency and unit conversion so-
z x c v b n m
http://keyboard.resco.net
F
irst off, I want to thank Don Overlander and Rich Hall for their Verizon & AT&T won big—what does it mean?
incredible help in wrapping up the enterprise section for this By Robert Altman
issue. My first child, Jonathan, was born right in the middle of
crunch time, and Don and Rich really helped me out by picking Implementation
up the slack. Thanks guys!
58 Surveyors, Snow Shoes, and a Rugged PDA
Future Enterprise Editor Jonathan Clevenger Team uses ruggedized Archer Field PC for environmental survey on Utah’s Monroe
Mountain
Our lead-off story for this issue is
By John Stewart & Jan Saalfeld
a piece I wrote about Apple’s licens-
ing of Exchange ActiveSync from
Applications
Microsoft, allowing them to incorpo-
rate Exchange synchronization into
the iPhone. Additionally, Apple has
53 Choosing an Enterprise Handheld
finally released its iPhone SDK. All Both HP and Socket Mobile are targeting the enterprise user. How do their new devices
compare and which one’s best for your mobile deployment?
this makes the iPhone a potentially strong player in the enterprise
market, which may have surprising consequences for Microsoft. By Don Overlander
After that, we do a head-to-head comparison of the HP iPAQ
55 System Center Mobile Device Manager
210 vs. the Socket SoMo 650—the leading Windows Mobile PDA
New Microsoft solution elevates the Windows Mobile device to the status of “First Class
devices on the market today. While consumers may not be as ex- Citizen of the Enterprise”
cited about devices without phones anymore, there is a significant
By Patrick Salmon
market for these units within vertical deployments. Don Overlander
gives us his views on these two devices from the perspective of an 60 Celio REDFLY
enterprise user. A paradigm-shifting “mobile companion” to Windows Mobile smartphones
We’ve all heard about the FCC’s 700 MHz auction. Now that AT&T By Nathan Clevenger
and Verizon have won and Google is nowhere to be seen, what does it
mean to us and the entire industry? Robert Altman provides us with the Development
details and his perspective on the impact the results will have.
One of the most significant new features of Windows Mobile
6.1 is the ability to join an Active Directory domain and become a
61 Four Ways to Make your Mobile Solution Better
Tips for mobile developers and project managers on how to improve the success of your
“first-class citizen” of the enterprise. System Center Mobile Device
deployment
Manager is Microsoft’s new product to enable this in the back-end, as
By Tom Jaros
well as provide numerous security and device management features.
Patrick Salmon gives us the details, and how we can implement this 62 Line of Business Solution Accelerator
within our own organizations. Microsoft’s free solution accelerator speeds up enterprise application development
You may have heard about the Celio REDFLY, but you might
By Don Overlander
also be a little unsure about exactly what it is and what it does. I had
the opportunity to spend some time with a pre-release model, and
provide my first impressions and views on what may very well be a
paradigm-shifting device. comes from the trenches to give us four key tips to improve the success
When the U.S. Forest Service needed to understand the impact of of our mobile projects.
seismic oil and gas explorations on sensitive species, John Stewart Microsoft recently re-released their Line of Business Solution Ac-
and his 14-person crew were sent to perform a biological inventory celerator, designed to show off many of the new features in Visual
in waist-high snow on the north face of Utah’s Monroe Mountain, Studio 2008, .NET Compact Framework 3.5, and SQL Server Compact.
armed with snowshoes and ruggedized Archer Field PCs. John and Don Overlander gives us his impressions of this free tool, and a detailed
Jan Saalfeld tell us how they overcame the challenges to complete look at what it provides.
the project. If you have questions or comments, you can always e-mail me at
Mobile development projects often appear to be deceivingly easy, nathan.clevenger@smartphonemag.com.
especially to first-time mobile developers. Unfortunately, there are
often complications that appear farther down the road. Tom Jaros
Marc Barnes, president; Adrian Thayer, forest technician; and Maggie, company dog, of IRMForestry.com
Recon
rugged solutions for the mobile enterprise.
www.trimble.com/rugged
now starting
at under Win a Nomad
Visit our community site to see more
www.trimble.com
Public Safety Agriculture Utilities © Trimble Navigation Limited. All rights reserved.
Enterprise Solutions
L
ess than a year after the iPhone first launched, all of the key issues to influence .NET Server sales related to mobility.”
I had with the device have been addressed. First and foremost, Given that context, it is absolutely no surprise that Microsoft chose
there is now an SDK which allows the development of native to license Exchange ActiveSync to Apple for the iPhone. While it gives
applications. And while Exchange integration would eventually the iPhone significant competitive ammunition versus Windows Mobile,
have arrived from a third party, Apple decided to bite the bullet and it actually accomplishes that by standardizing on back-end Microsoft
deliver it out of the box. Along with that comes a variety of device server products, where Microsoft makes all of their money anyway.
management and security features which demonstrate that Apple is While I don’t believe for one second that Microsoft has given up on
aggressively targeting the iPhone for the enterprise. Windows Mobile, Apple has certainly raised the bar, and Microsoft will
need to step up to the plate on a number of levels and execute a series
New features and capabilities of dramatic enhancements to their own platform.
In addition to providing a relatively robust SDK to develop rich,
smart-client applications, Apple licensed Exchange ActiveSync from The flipside
Microsoft to be able to provide the following features: While the iPhone is a great device for the average consumer, it is not
• Push e-mail for everyone. For instance, the form-factor, touch-screen keyboard,
• Push contacts and inability to swap batteries are serious downsides for some users.
• Push calendar And while the SDK goes a long way in enhancing the platform, the
• Global Address List iPhone development platform doesn’t come close to the richness of the
• Certificates and Identities ecosystem around Visual Studio and the .NET Compact Framework.
• WPA2/802.1x Given the fact that Apple must approve all iPhone applications, and
• Enforced security policies with all distribution going through iTunes, there are many software
• More VPN protocols developers and enterprises alike that will not necessarily appreciate
• Device configuration these requirements. Additionally, there still is no support for products
• Remote wipe like SQL Server Compact or System Center Mobile Device Manager,
which are significant challenges primarily for enterprise organizations.
IT’s response Although security is dramatically improved, there still is not yet the
Enterprise IT organizations are always looking to leverage existing in- flexibility provided by other platforms.
vestments, and one of the greatest benefits of Windows Mobile has been
out-of-the-box integration with Exchange Service. This has been one My views
of the reasons that Windows Mobile has been gaining ground against While the iPhone still isn’t perfect, it has reached a level of maturity
BlackBerry, and now Apple has decided to leverage Microsoft’s mo- where IT organizations, small and large alike, need to place the iPhone
mentum and license Exchange ActiveSync for the iPhone. This will on their radar if they haven’t already. This is good news for Apple and
allow the iPhone to offer some of the key benefits also provided by great news for Microsoft. As twisted as it seems, an alliance between
Windows Mobile using Exchange ActiveSync, not to mention the fact Apple and Microsoft on Exchange ActiveSync will only increase prof-
that iPhones will now integrate seamlessly into any organization that its for both companies, as they are now perfectly positioned to steal
provides Exchange support for Windows Mobile. There will still be market share from BlackBerry as the next enterprise deployment cycle
the many organizations with significant BlackBerry investments who rolls around.
will continue down that path because of the investments already made My final thought is to make sure you don’t forget Windows Mobile.
(including the firms running Lotus Notes who are not able to provide Unlike the iPhone, it’s not just a smartphone; it’s a robust platform
Windows Mobile support without a third-party product anyway), but if for enterprise applications. In fact, it’s the mobile platform that Apple
anything this will only accelerate the adoption of Exchange ActiveSync uses in their retail stores to process sales of iPhones, using Windows
as the industry standard for mobile synchronization. Mobile-powered Symbol/Motorola handhelds.
In the end, if iPhone sales go up, Microsoft makes money on the
Microsoft’s perspective Exchange Server licenses. If they go down, Microsoft makes money
As someone who has spent the last decade focused entirely on building on Windows Mobile.
applications for Microsoft’s mobile platform (since Windows CE 1.0), Not a bad arrangement! n
I’m torn when I look under the hood and examine the pure economics
of the situation. Microsoft’s profit (or loss) related to sales of Windows Nathan Clevenger is the Enterprise Editor for Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine, and also runs the Mobil-
ity Practice at ITR Group, a Microsoft Gold Certified consulting firm. Nathan strongly believes in technol-
Mobile devices is minor compared to the enormous profits and incred- ogy not for the sake of technology, but rather to improve capability and efficiency. An avid evangelist of
ible margins in the sales of server and client licenses for Windows mobile computing, he is dedicated to raising awareness of the potential for this technology in business
today. His email is nclevenger@pocketpcmag.com.
and Exchange Servers. Given that, it is no surprise that the formal job
description for those Microsoft employees who are out there selling
Windows Mobile specifically states to use “Windows Mobile devices
T
he HP iPAQ 210 and the ety of peripherals available from
Socket Mobile SoMo third parties, and these would
650-M are Windows have to be tested on both devic-
Mobile 6 touch screen es. However, Socket Commu-
devices marketed to the enter- nications offers a wide variety
prise user. Neither of these has of peripherals that are designed
integrated phone capability. to seamlessly integrate with the
As you can see from their 650’s hardware and built-in soft-
photos, they are similar looking ware. The 650 has the edge over
devices. They also share similar the iPAQ in this area.
specifications, which include 128 As far as third-party or cus-
MB of RAM and 256 MB of flash tom software is concerned, both
ROM, and 624 MHz processors. devices run the Windows Mo-
The iPAQ has a 4-inch color bile 6.0 software. Both should
VGA touch screen and the SoMo be equally compatible with ex-
650 has a 3.5-inch color QVGA isting software, and neither has
touch screen, but aside from that, a significant advantage over the
the differences between the two other in terms of the develop-
devices are relatively minor. How ment of custom software.
then do you select the device that
truly fits your needs? The iPAQ 210: An executive
HP iPAQ 210 and the Socket Mobile SoMo 650-M workhorse with style
Targeting the mobile enterprise If you are in the market for a
workhorse machine with pure executive appeal, the iPAQ 210 is prob-
The differences between these two devices begin to show when you ably the best choice. With a full 4-inch VGA screen, glossy black and
look outside the basic specs. But even then, they are subtle and choosing matte silver finish, and smooth rounded edges, this device has a lot of
one over the other can be a tough decision. It basically comes down to style and will not embarrass you in the boardroom. The iPAQ is also
which side of the “gray market” you find yourself in. This gray market ideally positioned to take advantage of existing business infrastructure
encompasses skilled technicians and managers whose duties combine and extend to a business-centric mobile platform. With its wireless
functions of both the blue and white collar workforces. Since this is capabilities and options for third-party add-ons, this platform is a solid
the target market for both devices, and since they are similar devices, foundation that makes a good choice for deployment to business and
to choose between them it’s necessary to examine a few key indicators. field sales professionals.
Note also that if you are deploying a number of these devices, you have While I have seen some accessory concepts to make the iPAQ 210
to consider how well they will be accepted by your targeted users. In more durable for rugged field use, it is not directly marketed toward
this, visual appeal and “status” may play as much of a part as durability the ruggedized field force automation market. Much like a powerful
and reliability. sports car, you may not want to take the iPAQ 210 too far out in the
field—that’s where the SoMo comes into its own.
Setting the stage
Since both devices have all the necessary Microsoft Office Mobile appli- The SoMo 650-M: Stylish presence with industrial tenacity
cations built into them, both provide a solid out-of-the-box deployment If you want to give your field force a reasonably stylish presence
platform for supporting access to corporate spreadsheets and documents without giving up any of the rugged industrial strength they need, the
for the connected, mobile managers who are occasionally expected to SoMo 650-M is the obvious choice. Designed with a ruggedized yet
take up blue collar duties. The biggest differentiating factor here is going professional-looking black and blue finish, and smoothed corners and
to be how dependant your users will be on screen real estate and legibil- edges designed for impact protection (up to 3.3 feet onto concrete), the
ity. If the target audience is very document-oriented, or deals with large
amounts of data on screen, the iPAQ is going to provide a much better Continued on page 54
viewing experience overall because of its larger VGA display.
Donald Overlander leads the usability engineering efforts for Mobile Enterprise application devel-
Another extremely important (and perhaps definitive) issue is going opment at the Minneapolis based consulting firm ITR Group. His efforts are focused on designing
to be the cost involved in integrating peripherals and software on the Windows Mobile applications using a patent-pending methodology for automating the usability
testing and heuristics analysis of interface design on mobile platforms. He can be reached at donald.
devices after the base hardware has been decided upon. There are a vari- overlander@itrgroupinc.com.
I
lives. Imagine if (or when) mobile video-conferencing becomes com-
n the recent FCC auction for the upper 700 MHz band (previously mon for the mobile worker. Without safe-guards, video-conferencing
used for television broadcasting), Verizon and AT&T won an aston- could easily swamp the network’s capacity, making calls and e-mail
ishingly large number of licenses. Verizon invested $9.6 billion and unreliable. Verizon’s goal is to open their network, but also to retain the
won nearly the entire coveted C block. AT&T invested $6.6 billion right to limit the impact new applications (such as video-conferencing)
and won 227 B block licenses; this is in addition to their $2.5 billion will have on the existing applications (i.e. voice and e-mail).
purchase of spectrum in the lower 700 MHz band last October. In all, The other significant impact of the recent auction is that AT&T and
Verizon and AT&T invested $9.6 billion and $9.1 billion (respectively) Verizon are both investing in comprehensive (geographical) networks.
in acquiring new spectrum for developing their networks. While the original 800 MHz (cellular) band was divided up into 734
These numbers represent a major investment in the future of wire- Cellular Marketing Areas (CMAs), the 700 MHz block C is divided
less communications; they also represent a significant victory for the into 12 Regional Economic Area Groupings (REAGs). Verizon won 7
two main wireless communications carriers in an effort to maintain of the 12 REAGs, covering the entire continental U.S. and Hawaii. The
their current business model. To understand the significance of this, it remaining 5 REAGs (not won by Verizon) are: Alaska, Puerto Rico,
is important to understand the two competing communications models: the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Gulf of Mexico, Guam and the Northern
Infrastructure and Application. Mariana Islands and American Samoa. For its part, AT&T’s winning
bids will supplement their existing 700 MHz spectrum (lower 700 MHz
Infrastructure and application models Block C, purchased from Aloha partners in October).
The infrastructure model is concerned with providing the infrastruc-
ture irrespective of how it will be used; this is best exemplified by the
Lower frequency—better reception
Internet itself. The Internet is a collection of interconnected networks; The last important detail is the spectrum frequency itself. Shorter fre-
it is not defined by how it is used. Further, no one “owns” the Internet, quency waves (represented by smaller numbers) penetrate solid-matter
and hence, no one controls what applications or devices are used on it. (like walls) better than longer frequency waves. The effect of this is sim-
In contrast, the application model is concerned with providing a lim- ple and significant: better reception, especially inside office buildings.
ited number of applications (ways in which the network is used) and Where does this leave the emerging mobile enterprise network? Based
is typically owned and controlled (perhaps even policed) by a single on the efforts of both AT&T and Verizon to create consolidated networks,
entity which is able to determine how the network is used and what it is their growing recognition of the importance of open networks, and the
used for. There are a great number of examples of this type of network, shift to the better-penetrating 700 MHz band, it is likely that we will see
including the current wireless networks, the (wired) phone network, and many improvements in the wireless telecommunication network in the
even the electrical grid. Each model has advantages and disadvantages. years to come. Expect a transition to 700 MHz networks to bring better
The infrastructure model is like an unpaved road; it lends itself to open- coverage (inside metropolitan areas), new phones and devices, and new
ness and innovation but requires a more sophisticated user (driver) and applications for mobile professionals, all while maintaining the current
suitable devices (vehicles). The application model is more of a limited- quality we presently depend upon. It seems clear that both AT&T and
access highway; it is better suited to low-maintenance, ready-made uses Verizon are positioning themselves to support the future of the mobile
(like a daily commute or cross-country drive). Innovation and openness enterprise. n
are sacrificed to ensure a consistent and suitable environment for the
Robert Altman is a software engineer with Minneapolis-based consulting firm ITR Group, specializing
existing applications and uses. in desktop and mobile development, software architecture, and improving the development process.
Robert has been writing software since 1990 and now works almost exclusively in C# and Microsoft
Open access and comprehensive networks .NET. In his spare time, Robert raises two children, two rats, and is an avid cosmology-buff.
H
ow do you go about taking an untrusted and unmanaged Win- time-PIN that is used to validate the device’s “Domain Enroll” (Start/
dows Mobile device and elevating it to the status of “first class Settings/Connection/Domain Enroll).
citizen of the enterprise?” The answer is to deploy Microsoft’s Through enrolling, the Enrollment Server will work with the Device
Systems Center Mobile Device Manager 2008. One of the Management Server to create an AD Machine object. This is ultimately
interesting things associated with SCMDM 2008 is found in the “As- managed through Group Policy, of which there are more than 130 present-
sumptions” section of the product documentation: “To deploy MDM, ly. There are too many GP capabilities to list here, but application allow/
you have to have a general understanding of the following:” deny, turning off cameras, and creating a corporate “today” screen are but
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 three examples which come to mind. The device itself will be furnished
• Domain controllers with a Machine Certificate issued from the internal CA which it will sub-
• Global catalog servers sequently use to establish an IPSec session to the Gateway Server.
• Active Directory Directory Service The Enrollment and Device Management Servers may co-exist on
• Group Policy management the same x-64 server. This is not recommended as a best practice for
• Virtual private networks (VPNs) security reasons, but is a supported configuration. For resilience and
• Network protocols high availability purposes, both servers may also be load-balanced.
• Domain Name System (DNS) The Gateway Server is a headless standalone server that resides in
• Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) the Perimeter Network (DMZ) and is completely managed from the
• Microsoft Internet Information Service 6.0 (IIS) Device Management Console located in the internal network. The pur-
• Certificates and Secure Socket Layers (SSL) pose of this server is to establish IPSec connections, distribute internal
Conspicuous by its absence is any mention of Mobility. The reason IP addresses (akin to DHCP), and monitor the state of the connection to
for this is quite simple; Microsoft has created a product which lever- the device. When the device changes its native (i.e., carrier-provided) IP
ages existing investment in infrastructure, licensing, and administrative address, the Gateway will use IKEv2 and MobIKE to ensure the end-to-
expertise in order to facilitate uptake and adoption of Windows Mobile end connection remains intact and thus shields the LoB application from
devices as a trusted and truly first-class citizen of the enterprise. SC- the consequences of roaming and poor or unreliable connectivity.
MDM 2008 itself is entirely built on open standards including IPSec, The infrastructure is depicted in Fig. 1.
OMA-DM, LDAP, DNS, DHCP, and X.509. Security
By way of lending perspective, a product such as Microsoft Ex-
Microsoft refers to “Dual Factor” in a somewhat misleading sense. The
change Server 2007 began as something comparatively simple that
SCMDM 2008 Gateway Server exists to permit the device to establish
addressed a business need, and has matured into a highly complex
an IPSec tunnel to itself within which any protocol may be run. It is
application with numerous dependencies.
anticipated that the most prevalent protocol will be SSL; therefore,
SCMDM 2008 has numerous dependencies out of the box, as listed
this creates a “Double Envelope” of SSL within IPSec for additional
in the Assumptions above. That said, however, the technologies upon
security. Given the trusted status of the device, passing user credentials
which it depends are all mature and well understood in the enterprise.
across within an SSL session may be considered “Dual Factor,” but
And SCMDM 2008 proves that a product can not only be elegant and
that’s very much a stretch. Strictly speaking, “Dual Factor” is defined as
beautiful, it can be complex as well. It has been so well thought through
“Something you have, and something you know,” such as a SmartCard
and designed that even though it may be a 1.0 product, it performs ex-
(something you have) with a PIN or passphrase that must be associated
actly as advertised. It does indeed elevate the Windows Mobile device
with it (something you know). Taking the device as the “something
to the same trusted and managed status as a PC or laptop. This is one
you have” and your user credentials as the “something you know” is
of the best products yet to come out of Redmond.
unlikely to be bought into by corporate Security teams.
Components One advantage amongst many is that regulatory requirements such
SCMDM 2008 comprises three distinct components: Active Directory as HIPPA are automatically met owing to all traffic being encrypted—
(2003 Native Mode only), a Microsoft CA (Enterprise Edition), and so long as the traffic continues to be encrypted between the Gateway
SQL2005 SP2 (any version, depending on the size of the deployment). and target LoB host.
All of these components run on Windows Server 2003 (again, any 32 or Continuing the focus on security, SCMDM 2008 turns off split-tunnel-
64-bit version except for the CA, which must be installed on Enterprise ing. This is a good thing. The act of connecting to your corporate network
Edition). Dependence on Universal Groups mean Mixed Mode Active while also being connected to the Internet effectively creates a bridge
Directory is not supported, nor is a third-party CA (although the MS between networks and thus creates a huge security risk. SCMDM 2008
CA is designed to function as a subordinate of an existing third-party forces all traffic from the device to pass through the gateway, after which
Public Key Infrastructure), SQL200, or MySQL. it is routed either to the LoB application (MS Exchange, CRM, Siebel,
The first step in trusting a device is Enrollment. This is carried out Oracle, whatever), or out to the Internet, and thus the user’s Web surfing
by the Enrollment Server which is an IIS instance running on Win- experience can be made subject to corporate policy on Internet access.
dows Server 2003 SP2 64-bit. All SCMDM 2008 components must Another very clever thing Microsoft has done is that while the termi-
be installed on this same platform; no 32-bit. Ideally, the Enrollment Patrick Salmon, CISSP, CCNP, is a Mobility Architect with Enterprise Mobile of Watertown, MA. He
Server should be protected by a reverse proxy for reasons of security. has been working with SCMDM 2008 since March 2007, wrote the Beta1 & Beta2 Deployment
The administrator will create an enrollment record (or the user may do and Planning Guides, and has implemented SCMDM 2008 with a number of enterprise customers.
Enterprise Mobile’s team of experts has carried out more than 20 SCMDM 2008 deployments in the
it themselves through a self-enrollment portal) which creates a one- U.S. and Europe and are the go-to team for this product. (PSalmon@enterprisemobile.com).
AD and the device itself such that AD thinks it’s applying Group Policy
directly to the device when in fact this never happens. It’s very well
thought-through and implemented.
The Device Manager stores inventory information about the device in
SQL Server 2005 and acts as the mechanism for pushing Group Policy
and applications out to the device. Because everything is stored in SQL,
there is a rich and quite comprehensive reporting mechanism, also.
One very nice feature is that a lost device may be wiped—and ow-
Fig. 1 Fig. 2 ing to the encryption capabilities introduced with WM 6.0, the entire
device including any SD cards can be encrypted. A further benefit to this
nology “VPN” is used, it doesn’t mean the same as it does with a laptop or encryption is that any SD card encrypted on one device cannot be read
PC-initiated connection. With your laptop, when you VPN in through, say, elsewhere; this is by design. Device wiping does not end there, however.
a Cisco Concentrator or Nortel Contivity, successful connection will mean Taking the example of the user who loses their phone and notifies the
that you can see everything in your corporate network. With SCMDM helpdesk to wipe it, should they subsequently find it, the wipe may be
2008, however, the device is only permitted access to resources which are cancelled so long as it hasn’t already been executed. Wiping works by
explicitly made available to them. This leads into the next point: the Device Manager sending an alert through the Gateway to notify the
The device connects to the Gateway, but this is a standalone server device to connect. Upon connection, the device is immediately wiped.
with no knowledge of the internal network. So how come the device is Overall, Microsoft has done a tremendous job with this new product.
“Domain-Joined?” Simply put, it isn’t. It just looks that way. Out of the box it functions exactly as advertised, and is very much “set
The mechanics of joining a mobile device to an Active Directory do- it and forget it” once it’s installed. Device and User administration
main are very different when compared to a laptop or PC, but the end re- is carried out by the familiar MMC snap-in, which means there’s no
sult is the same: an AD object will exist and Group Policy can therefore be learning curve for administrators. The following picture (Fig. 2) is of
applied to it. The differences—and similarities—begin and end there. the Administrative interface, which will look very familiar:
Microsoft’s brilliance doesn’t end there. If the device never touches It is not, however, perfect. Some may find the limitation on there
AD, how does Group Policy get to be applied? The answer: the Device being only one Device Manager in a forest unacceptable. In this version
Manager. When the device’s AD object was created by the Device Man- there is also no integration with Systems Center Configuration Manager
ager, it assumed a status akin to “I created you, therefore I can continue (or any other COTS Application Distribution product), so Windows
to direct you.” (It’s similar to a parent-child relationship until they turn Software Update Services is leveraged extensively. n
into teenagers.) The Device Manager will function as a proxy between
Celio Redfly Continued from page 60 under the pressure. Thankfully, there are often software alternatives
that provide a much better experience—Skyfire or Opera offer higher
performance browsers, for instance.
Not a standalone computer Overall, most of these issues should be resolved over time as soft-
The REDFLY may look like a small laptop PC or Palm Foleo (may it ware developers optimize their applications for flexible form factors,
rest in peace), but it’s not a standalone computer; it requires a Windows and as Windows Mobile devices continue to receive faster processors
Mobile smartphone to be within Bluetooth range or connected via USB and more computing power.
cable. If you don’t have a smartphone, or if you don’t always carry it
with you, the REDFLY is not for you. If you need to run complex, The enterprise potential
graphic-intensive applications or full-featured PC programs, a laptop is I believe that the greatest opportunity to utilize this product is for specific
probably a better choice. However, if you are looking to simply access line-of-business deployments within the enterprise. While consumers
communication, collaboration, and productivity-oriented applications and individual professional users may struggle to find justification for
on the road, the REDFLY might work perfectly. the $499 price tag, this presents a very significant cost savings to the en-
terprise not only in hardware costs, but also in connectivity, deployment
The rough edges management, and support costs. Additionally, organizations can custom-
As a first generation product, the REDFLY is not perfect. The majority ize their specific line-of-business applications to run on Windows Mo-
of problems were related to display compatibility issues (i.e., getting bile while maximizing support for the enhanced REDFLY experience.
applications designed for VGA and QVGA devices to display prop- Specific deployments simply requiring a larger screen or significant data
erly on the REDFLY’s 800 x 480 screen). This presents somewhat of a entry may not be possible on a handheld device today, which may require
chicken-or-the-egg dilemma, as software developers will not necessarily full-blown laptops and tablets often in addition to smartphone devices.
ensure compatibility until a large amount of units are on the market, and The REDFLY now enables an entire class of enterprise deployments to
consumers will not necessarily purchase the units until there is greater be not only feasible, but quite economically effective.
levels of software compatibility. Fortunately, Microsoft continues to en- The REDFLY may change the rules of the mobile productivity game.
courage developers to build apps with flexible UIs, and more devices are While it is not for everyone, a very significant user base will be able to
incorporating non-standard screen resolutions. This will likely motivate capitalize on the potential of the REDFLY. By improving the usability
developers to support the REDFLY’s resolution and aspect ratio. and capability of the smartphone experience, the REDFLY could cre-
Besides the display issues, there are performance issues. Some of ate a paradigm shift, where the smartphone truly becomes the “server”
these are inherent to the REDFLY’s architecture (rendering video or in a “personal area network.” The only question is whether users and
games with high-resolution graphics will have poor performance), but enterprises will take advantage of it. For more information, visit Celio’s
other applications like Internet Explorer Mobile simply decide to choke Web site (redfly.com). n
Frost & Sullivan, the Global Growth Consulting Company, partners with clients to
accelerate their growth. The company's Growth Partnership Services, Growth Consulting
and Career Best Practices empower clients to create a growth focused culture that For more information:
generates, evaluates and implements effective growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan employs w w w. f r o s t . c o m
over 45 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging 877.Go.Frost
businesses and the investment community from more than 30 offices on six continents. For
myfrost@frost.com
more information about Frost & Sullivan’s Growth Partnerships, visit
http://www.awards.frost.com.
Enterprise Solutions
Y
ou don’t usually pack snowshoes into the GPS-equipped Field PCs running ArcPad before the research
for a survey project, but John Stew- crews were deployed.
art and his 14-person crew had to GPS capability was essential to the survey. Without it, field crews
when they performed a biological would have to rely on map and compass skills, and likely spend more
inventory in waist-high snow on the north time finding the sampling point locations. Having topo maps displayed
face of Utah’s Monroe Mountain. was also crucial to efficiently navigate around complex and hazardous
Stewart and crew, working for Cirrus terrain. With GPS, field crew members could eliminate the guess work
Ecological Solutions, were on the 11,000- and navigate to where they were supposed to be quickly and safely.
foot-high mountain in Fishlake National
Forest to perform surveys that would be Helicopters and snow shoes
used by the U.S. Forest Service to deter- Accessing the survey points was difficult because the deep snow pack
mine whether and how to authorize 120 at the higher elevations being surveyed made many of the roads im-
miles of seismic oil and gas explorations passable. To meet schedules, the team used a helicopter to transport
near Henries Hollow. Seismic studies in- the surveyors to the inaccessible areas. Each morning, this aerial “taxi
volve setting off controlled explosives service” dropped the crew off in pairs at the tops of the mountains, along
and monitoring the resulting shock waves with their backpacks, snow shoes, and other equipment (Fig. 2). At the
with geophones strung out over miles of end of the day, field crews used GPS to find the pick-up zones.
terrain, and the Forest Service wanted to The helicopters were equipped with GPS navigation systems, but
avoid disturbing sensitive species where the pilots didn’t have project information loaded into them. Instead,
those lines crossed public lands. As part of Cirrus personnel used their Field PCs to guide the helicopter pilot using
their project, Stewart and his crew laid out ArcPad’s navigation features.
transects for their biological survey based Although a helicopter ferried field crews to the beginning of the
on these seismic lines. survey lines atop Monroe Mountain, the surveyors had to navigate to
individual sampling points on their own. That’s where the snowshoes—
Preparing for the survey and the PDAs—came into play.
Fig. 1: The Archer Field PC with
a Universal Extended Cap. The crew used eight Juniper Systems Archer The survey lines ran straight up and down the mountains. Five lines
Field PCs (junipersys.com), each equipped were spaced 300 meters apart and sampling points were located every
with a Universal Extended Cap housing a GPS receiver (Fig. 1). These 300 meters on each line. The up and down part was sometimes the least
Windows Mobile 5 devices were used to inventory bird species designated of the surveyors’ worries. When the snow melted, surveyors walked the
“sensitive” by the U.S. Forest Service. To prepare for the survey, predeter-
mined “sampling points” (i.e., specific locations where the data would be
John Stewart is a biologist working for Cirrus Ecological Solutions, a Logan, Utah-based consulting firm
collected) were laid out along the survey transects using ESRI ArcGIS 9.2 that provides a wide range of natural resource and environmental planning and permitting services.
(esri.com) on Cirrus’ office computer. Each of the Field PCs used on the He is responsible for organizing, conducting, and analyzing the results from field surveys over desert
and mountain terrain to identify sensitive species of both plants and animals for a variety of clients in
project was loaded with ESRI’s ArcPad software, which would be used the Intermountain West.
for navigation during the survey and to record inventory data.
Jan Saalfeld is VP of Sales and Marketing for Juniper Systems, the company that makes the PDA
For navigation purposes, a base map of USGS 7.5 minute topo- discussed in this article. Juniper designs, manufactures, and sells high-quality, rugged Archer and
graphic quadrangles was overlaid with shape files of area roads, survey Allegro CX Field PCs, a business partner of ESRI since July 2002. ESRI’s ArcPad software runs on
both Archer and Allegro Field PCs. Jan has 20 years of experience providing mobile data collection
transects, and existing Forest Service survey data. All this was loaded solutions to natural resources applications.
Fig. 3: The Field PCs displayed a map of the area with the
surveyor’s current location marked by a “you are here” icon.
Twelve topographical maps were required to
cover the entire sampling area. To make naviga-
tion even easier, high-resolution ortho-corrected
aerial photography of the area was also loaded.
All 12 maps and the aerial imagery fit on a single
1 GB SD card, with file storage space to spare.
In fact, Stewart had maps for the Henries Hol-
low area and two additional projects loaded on
his PDA.
Celio REDFLY
itself, the REDFLY is able to provide a very respectable eight hours of
battery life. While Bluetooth may be the most convenient way to con-
nect, the REDFLY also has the ability to connect via USB cable—and
charge the smartphone in the process. The USB port also allows you
The paradigm-shifting “mobile companion” to connect it to an external keyboard, mouse, or flash memory drive.
Finally, the REDFLY has a VGA-out port, which allows you to connect
by Nathan Clevenger to a projector or larger monitor.
W
For mobile information workers
hile the REDFLY may be one of the most innovative prod- Information workers are becoming more mobile and are always look-
ucts of 2008, it is also one of the most misunderstood de- ing for ways to accomplish more with their smartphones. But given the
vices on the market. The REDFLY presents a truly signifi- physical size of the screen and keyboard on these devices, this can be
cant paradigm shift in the world of mobile computing, but quite a challenge. The REDFLY was developed to take the smartphone
whether the marketplace will overcome their confusion to embrace it experience to the next level—making device control and text entry
is a question that will only be answered over time. It is not a product more efficient and viewing of information easier. It was not designed to
that is right for everyone, but there is a large segment of professional provide a full desktop computing experience, but there are many users
and enterprise users who could revolutionize their mobile productivity who will find that it more than meets their needs. In fact, this article
if they were able to properly utilize this tool. was written using a REDFLY.
What exactly is a mobile companion? Simplicity is the key
From the outside, the REDFLY looks like a sub-notebook computer; Simplicity is the key to the REDFLY. You do have to install a software
from the inside… well, there is no inside—under the hood it has no driver on your Windows Mobile device, but after that you’re up and
processor or memory. In simplest terms, the REDFLY is the modern running in minutes. Since you already know how to use the applications
equivalent of the “dumb terminal” that connected to mainframe comput- on your smartphone, there’s no training involved. Since nothing is actu-
ers 20 years ago. In this case, however, you ally stored on the REDFLY, there are no re-
are connecting to the smartphone in your dundant copies of your information requiring
pocket instead of a mainframe. Simply turn synchronization. And if your REDFLY is lost
on your REDFLY, connect via Bluetooth, or stolen, there is no personal data at risk. For
and you can access the full power of your enterprises struggling to manage devices and
Windows Mobile device. data in the field, it is much easier to secure
The REDFLY does not technically and support a deployment of smartphones
“run” Windows Mobile. Instead, it acts as a (especially with new products like Microsoft
remote keyboard and display, allowing you System Center Mobile Device Manager—
to control and view any application running see page 55). The REDFLY can peacefully
on your WM device. The REDFLY has an coexist in that environment, while laptops
8-inch display with a resolution of 800 x present significant security and management
480, a near-full size keyboard, and a touch- challenges.
pad mouse. It measures 1 x 6 x 9 inches and
weighs two pounds. Since it’s not actually Continued on page 56
powering a processor or accessing memory
Remote Desktop from anywhere with the REDFLY plications. While there was a certain amount of latency, the more
After using the REDFLY for a couple of days, there were still some that I used Remote Desktop on the REDFLY, the more that I began
things I couldn’t do. Not only do the mobile versions PowerPoint and to get used to the lag.
some other applications lack the features of their desktop PC coun- The experience was not perfect, but it was good enough to chal-
terparts, there are many PC applications I use on a regular basis (e.g., lenge my assumptions. On a recent three-day trip, my $2000 Alien-
Microsoft Project, Visio, Expression, and Visual Studio) that aren’t ware laptop never left its case. I lived on my smartphone, and when
available for Windows Mobile. However, I was certainly impressed I needed a larger screen to read long documents or a bigger key-
with the device, and I could picture myself taking the REDFLY to board to type extended amounts of text, I pulled out the REDFLY.
brief meetings, on day trips, and maybe quick overnight trips. But I Whenever I needed to run an application that I didn’t have on my
couldn’t see myself leaving behind my laptop for extended trips, let smartphone, rather than bothering to boot up my laptop, I used the
alone replacing my laptop with a REDFLY altogether. That is, until REDFLY to simply connect to my Terminal Server at the office or
I tried connecting to a Terminal Server using Remote Desktop on my Vista machine at home using Remote Desktop. While I am the
the REDFLY. By configuring the Remote Desktop Client to display first to argue for the importance of connection-independent mobile
in full screen mode, and setting the option to fit the remote desktop smart-client applications, especially for specific line-of-business
to the screen, I discovered a very seamless experience where I was purposes, I find it very difficult to criticize the usability and sheer
able to run instances of both Windows Server 2003 and Windows simplicity of running Remote Desktop on the REDFLY. Given the
Vista in a native 800 x 480 resolution display. The performance of enterprise trends towards thin-client architecture (whether it be Ter-
the high-speed HSDPA wireless connection on my smartphone was minal Services or Citrix), and the cost of deploying and managing
more than adequate to run all but the most graphic-intensive ap- laptops vs. a Windows Mobile smartphone/REDFLY combo, I can’t
imagine enterprise IT not giving the REDFLY a second look.
I
f you’re in the business of authoring complex enterprise mobile so- Learn the job
lutions, then application performance, user interface familiarity, and For enterprise mobility developers, translating a client’s business pro-
overall stability are at the top of your client’s list of must-haves. The cess into a usable mobile solution can be quite a challenging task. In
following are four things that you can incorporate into your daily some cases, the development team may already know the type of busi-
coding routines to achieve the results your clients are looking for. ness the client is in. Other times they may be particularly skilled in a
component needed for the overall solution but not all that familiar with
Do your heavy lifting on the desktop side how the client anticipates to use it.
Mobile devices, as powerful as they have become, still possess limited One valuable technique to address these concerns is to designate
resources. Because of this, developers usually have to take special pre- one developer to be in charge of learning the client’s business process
cautions to maintain application performance. inside and out. Ultimately, this would entail visits to the client in order
One way to accomplish this is to identify areas in your client source to witness the business process first-hand. Developers should be willing
code that produce read-only datasets from “data munging” and that to immerse themselves in all aspects of the job, documenting the subtle
could just as easily be performed in server source code on a desktop points and properly assessing work flow.
PC. If one or more areas are found, move them to the desktop and take By doing this, the development team will be able to create a user
advantage of the additional resources that reside there. All that would interface that is immediately familiar to the field worker and much
need to be downloaded now is the resulting read-only datasets, thus easier for them to learn. If they were to try to do this just from a design
reducing your data footprint and time to access the results. specification, they would likely not achieve the same results.
Basically, as long as the visual cues are kept simple and in the con-
Normalize, refactor & reuse text of the client, field workers will be able to effectively leverage the
Redundancy in mobile software applications, whether it’s in application mobile solution and be more productive.
data or actual source code, is at the top of the list of things that foster
bugs, performance issues, and application bloat. You can reduce these Meeting the client’s needs
problems in your mobile apps by simplifying the data and creating These are just some of the many techniques mobile developers can le-
reusable chunks of code through either object-orientated methods or verage to meet the needs of a client. Use the Web to find out more about
general purpose APIs. these tricks and others that will help you make your mobile applications
As examples, normalizing redundant, read-only data before it makes as good as they can be. Good luck and go mobile!
it to the mobile device reduces your data footprint, the time to download
it, and the time to look it up. Reviewing your source code ensures that
it is being developed to specification. Reusing it through good object- Tom Jaros is the owner of Empower Mobility LLC and a veteran mobility developer with over 16
years of mobile software development experience. He provides a mix of design to deployment
orientated design promotes application stability and performance, and expertise in both product and enterprise mobility software spaces. He possesses a BS in Computer
also simplifies debugging. Refactoring it keeps it clean, readable, and Science and is an active board member of the Vermont Software Developers Alliance, a non-profit
compact. Normalizing it reduces the chances for bugs and performance organization that helps Vermont software companies grow and prosper. He can be reached by e-mail
at tom@empowermobility.com.
issues to occur.
A basic rule of thumb is, as long as proposed changes clearly im-
prove the overall performance and code readability of the application
without negatively affecting the overall design or end-user experience,
then it’s probably a good thing to do.
M
any development teams have overlooked the original Line make sure the application’s interface fits the user experience demanded
of Business Solution Accelerator (released in 2006), spend- by your customers.
ing hours or days developing their own solutions when they
could have been on the fast track to success with the pre-built Professional development standards
and best-practice focused code available for mobile applications that One of the best-practices evident in the design of the Solution Accelera-
the LOB accelerator provided. tor and supported by the resolution-aware examples in particular is this:
The updated Microsoft Windows Mobile Line of Business Solution Develop for WM Standard, test on WM Professional. Unless you are
Accelerator for 2008 brings a new round of innovative updates and solid fortunate enough to know the single device or specification that your
best-practices to the Windows Mobile Platform, showcasing many of application will (ever) be distributed on, this best-practice belongs in
the new features released in the .NET Compact Framework 3.5 and SQL your development process.
Server Compact 3.5. This sample Line of Business application features Designing and developing for Windows Mobile Standard, with its
a set of sample projects, thousands of lines of commented, easy-to- lack of a touch screen and generally single mode (keyed) input as a ba-
understand code, and an updated Supply Chain application that brings sic platform, and then extending the application to function on Windows
all the concepts together into a working model. Aimed at developers Mobile Professional at its optimum, provides the greatest flexibility and
and teams who need to utilize the Windows Mobile platform to its increases the potential for successful deployment.
fullest in consumer or enterprise applications, this update to the LOB
Solution Accelerator provides all the tools, concepts, and best-practices Data access in Compact Framework 3.5
to get on the fast track to success. Best of all, you can quickly adapt the As more and more businesses of all sizes depend on automating their
whole application, or select only those components you want to use. mobile workforces, the ability for those companies to create solutions
Some of the most exciting features of this release are: for their mobile line of business is becoming critical. These applica-
• Intelligent Resolution Awareness tions will need to scale well to support the thousands of potential us-
ers present in deployments by international organizations. The Line of
• LINQ
Business Solution Accelerator brings out the elegance of data access
• Managed Stored Procedures and Triggers with the v3.5 releases, delivering some powerful new features to the
• Sync Services for ADO.NET Windows Mobile platform with an easy-to-understand business model.
• WCF Store and Forward Examples provided show how clean data operations can be with man-
aged stored procedures, triggers, and LINQ extensions. The comments
• MapPoint throughout the sample application point out where other coding choices
• Notifications and Online Help could be made to make data access and management tasks even more
• Language Switching and Localization transparent.
Resco
Visual Studio Add-on for ERP/CRM Integrators
MobileBusiness Toolkit Includes Sales Force/Field Service application prototype
Route
Orders
planning
http://dev.resco.net
NEC 900C will also run most Handheld PC 2000 software when you add the ‘Bonus File’ provided on the free Resource CD.
Actual
Size!
Type on it Yourself – Risk Free for 30 days!
Create Spreadsheets
Complete Package includes: HP Deskjet 656c Printer
‚ $300 of the BEST commercial software included
on our Great Handheld Software & Resource CD Only $5 with purchase of 900C
‚ LinkSys Wi-Fi Card ($79 value) See our Web site for details....
‚ 64 MB CF Card Card ($10 value)
‚ 1-Year Warranty ($99 value)
‚ Free Shipping (within Continental U.S.)
‚ 30-Day no-questions-asked return policy!
www.UsedHandhelds.com 800-373-6114
The Greatest
Pocket PC & Smartphone
Resource on the Web!
NEW!ne
FREE Pho s
Resource
Page
www.SmartphoneMag.com
5 Great Reasons to Buy an
HP Jornada 720 or
NEC MobilePro 900C from us
1. $300 of the BEST commercial software included
on our Great Handheld Software & Resource CD
„ Full featured Softmaker WordProcessor and Spreadsheet
„ DVD Catalyst to convert video/DVDs
„ Lextionary dictionary
„ PocketBible by Laridian
„ MBA and Biz Calculators
„ Pocket OnSchedule
Contact Manager
„ PocketDOS
T
he crowd is waiting in anticipation. The opening act just left the tour and got to spend some time discussing the secrets of Cheap Trick’s
stage and the crew is setting up the guitars and equipment for the success all these years. Amazingly, I found that mobile technology plays
main act to hit the stage. After every tiny detail is in place, the a huge part in making tours go smoothly. Even better, Windows Mobile
lights go down, and the crowd screams their approval. devices, Microsoft UMPCs (Ultra Mobile Personal Computers), and
Year after year for almost 30 years, Cheap Trick has been enter- Microsoft Office all play a key role in the management of the band’s
taining their fans with award-winning songs like “Surrender,” “Dream schedule.
Police,” and “I Want You to Want Me.” Few of us fans, however, know I also asked Rick how other entertainers like him use mobile tech-
of what actually goes on backstage or on the road to make shows go nology. Some of his answers surprised even me.
off without a hitch. Believe it or not, mobile devices play a key role in
helping bands and their management put on shows flawlessly. Adam: Thanks for meeting with me, Rick. So what is Cheap Trick
I was lucky enough to meet the guitar legend Rick Nielsen while on up to today?
Adam: Sounds like you travel a great deal. Whether traveling for
concerts or other business, what tools do you take with you to manage
your schedule, i.e. mobile technology?
We use MS Word or Excel apps with our itineraries and use paper
copies so we can write notes on them when things come up. Our road/
tour manager carries a thick notebook of stuff. While she has it all on
the computer, she needs to constantly make changes—like what kind
of car we want, is my wife going to be there, etc. She has her hands
full babysitting for four over-39 year-olds and all the affairs and the
crews. It’s a logistical nightmare. She’s gone through five computers
in five years. It’s brutal.
Adam: I know you like to use all kinds of mobile devices as well?
Adam Kornak is the Lead Mobility Strategist for Microsoft’s Financial Services Group, special-
izing in wireless and mobile solutions in the financial services industry. He has over 17 years
of experience in the field of information technology, business process re-engineering, and
business strategy. His current role within Microsoft is managing the mobility business for the
financial services group. Adam has written a number of books and articles. He is the lead author
of The Enterprise Guide to Gaining Business Value from Mobile Technologies and Cap Gemini
Ernst &Young’s Guide to Wireless Enterprise Application Architecture, published by John Wiley
Cheap Trick photos courtesy of Mike Graham & Sons. His books are available at amazon.com.
Rick N: E-mail, texting. I’ve seen from the execs from the large com-
panies to the regular work a day guy, and everyone on the plane is
watching movies, or playing solitaire or games like Sudoku.
When you’re on the plane, you are away from the office. It’s
handy to keep your mind active yet not working on your job
full-time. I use it for music. I use my computers for tracking
musical ideas on my portable phones & PDAs—it’s really
handy to have. One of the disadvantages I’ve found (since
I was a math major as a kid) using my cell phones—I have
to look up people’s numbers. I don’t have people’s numbers
memorized like I used to.
Rick N: Great stuff! I like the GPS mapping on the BlackJack II. It
just blows my mind—I love having that, instead of having separate GPS
Rick N: I like high-tech toys that work for me. units for cars. It’s really handy to have something right in your hand.
I have it on my computers, but it’s fun if you are riding in a car… but
Adam: What kind of mobile devices do you use? when you are walking or if you need something in a hurry, or want to
hear the latest news, having a phone that can reach out to more things
Rick N: I always have at least two phones with me at all times. At than just the telephone is wonderful.
home we have three lines, four telephones, and two other numbers with
my wife’s business. My daughter has the latest technology with stuff
I’ve never heard of (I’ve got the bills to prove it)… three sons & two
daughters-in- law, all using mobile devices from the earliest stuff to the
latest technology. I have a Samsung BlackJack II, iPhone, Palm Treo,
Palm 500v Motophone, HTC Touch Dual, many Apple computers, a
Fujitsu P1620—a mini computer which is really handy. Everyone on
our road crew has a computer and at least one phone. We are a traveling
telephone company.
Adam: What types of things do you like or dislike about some of the
different devices?
Rick N: There is something different about each one that I like and
dislike. I’m a guitar player. I took typing in the 7th grade and I’ve never
gotten any better at QWERTY than I am now, which is pretty terrible.
I wish all keyboards were bigger but I don’t want to carry around a
bigger keyboard. So I’ve gotten by with using the sides of my fingers
or a stylus. I hate abbreviating—the only time I think abbreviations are
good is when people are giving speeches.
Rick N: Well I haven’t tried it with every one of them. But when it Adam: What is your idea of a perfect device?
does work it’s always a crowd pleaser. It is frustrating when it doesn’t
work—usually when I want to show it off. I’ve had it for about three Rick N: For me, a cross between the iPhone and the newest Motorola
Q 9. I can’t wait to get my hands on the Motorola Q 9. It’s more Rick from Microsoft PCs, Macs, Windows phones, and just standard flip
Nielsen-friendly. I need something more substantial. I just got back phones, also. There are things that people like about Windows devices
from Japan. They have devices that we don’t have and we have devices and things they don’t like about Macs and vice versa. There are advan-
they don’t have. The Japanese were complaining that their devices were tages and disadvantages to all these different technologies. I happen to
getting so small they were losing them. I like the Treos even though they like my Windows Mobile devices for e-mail because they have great
are getting smaller. I like the touch screen and good graphics. You want keyboards. The BlackJack II is one I use regularly on tour. It also has
the screen to be x size—have half a screen & half keyboard. A hotspot great GPS capabilities for mapping locations, and just by chance right
corner to back to applications or keyboard—more to do here! before you and I starting talking I got a text from Billy Corgan. He’s
Adam: I know you have an Ultra Mobile PC that you carry on the road an interesting guy.
with you, the Fujitsu P1620. What do you like about that device?
Adam: Do you see these same people using mobile devices like
Rick N: I absolutely love it! It’s very light, incredibly small and yourself? In other words, it sounds like you’re doing more than most
compact, and extremely powerful for a small machine. Overall, it just rock bands when it comes to using mobile devices for managing their
knocks people out when they see it because of its small size and what calendars, e-mail, writing music, and the like?
it’s capable of doing.
Adam: On the flip side, I know you also use Macs. What do you like Rick N: You’re right, but I just love this technology and I find it
about the Mac? helps me save time in ways I never thought possible. I even use a
mobile device as my TV remote. The
only thing it seems that these mobile
devices don’t do for you is do your
work for you. They just aid and help
in doing your work, which is great. I
still use a paper and pencil occasion-
ally, but it’s awful nice to have things
scanned to your device or take pic-
tures whenever. I used my Windows
Mobile device once to take a picture
of a song I wanted to take with me on
the road.
Adam: How do other entertainers that you work with use mobile
devices? Feel free to name some of your favorite bands you’ve worked
with.
Rick N: With the bands that I’ve worked with, everybody has a phone,
first of all. Even our drummer, Bun E. Carlos has a phone. For the
longest time he never even had a phone, but he saw all the things you
can do with them and broke down. You really see everything, though,
M
obile content continues to explode as mobile carriers and access Internet content, you use Zumobi widgets (or “tiles”) to access
major Web sites realize that cell phone users are a huge new AccuWeather, stock quotes, AP national news, AP sports, Flickr, MTV
audience for content. movie news, and even a couple games. Zumobi includes a default set of
Just two issues ago (Feb/Mar ‘08) I wrote about all the 16 tiles, which are displayed on Zumobi’s main screen (Fig. 3).
mobile portals available to you. And now I’m here yet again to write
about additional convenient ways to get Internet content on your device. Fig. 3: Zumobi’s main screen displays 16 user-
These include free applications for searching and watching videos and definable tiles that let you access Internet content
free mobile widget platforms. quickly.
Mobile video via vTap You can go to the gallery on the Zu-
mobi Web site to select from scores of
vTap (vtap.com), one of the more impressive freeware applications I’ve
additional tiles in 10 categories to create
tried, lets you search for videos on the Web and then play them on your
a set of 16 tiles that most suit your inter-
device. It gives you access to the universe of Web video, from YouTube
ests. The categories include Entertain-
to Yahoo Video to Metacafe. You simply type in a keyword, and as you
ment, Finance, Games & Humor, Kids,
enter letters, vTap immediately starts showing a list of results. This
News, See & Hear, Shopping, Sports,
character-based incremental search expedites your search.
and Travel & Weather. While many of
the tiles are related to Internet content,
some are small applications such as a
Check List utility. When you find one you want to add, you send it to
yourself and it arrives in your Zumobi Inbox on your device. You then
select which of the default tiles to replace with the new tile.
You need to register on the Zumobi site in order to use the applica-
tion, which you can download via your desktop computer or directly
to your device.
Microsoft is strongly behind this approach to mobile content and
is partnering with Zumobi to help market and distribute this freeware.
Zumobi is ad-supported, so you’ll see advertising prominently in the
interface.
Figs. 1 & 2: vTap allows you to search on any topic and displays a list of related videos (left).
Tap the desired video and select the Play button to stream it to the vTap player (right).
When you select a search result (Fig. 1), the video downloads to your
device and plays in the vTap player (Fig. 2). I tried videos from several
different services, and they all worked fine. However, my Verizon Treo
broadband connection downloads at about 100k, which is faster than
some data services but not as speedy as Wi-Fi. Because of this, I typi-
cally had to wait while the video downloaded.
The vTap Tools menu lets you access other features, including Book- Figs. 4 & 5: Plusmo makes it easier to access Web
marks, History, Past Queries, Safe Search, and more. In addition to the content on your Windows Mobile touch screen device
ability to search for a video by name, vTap lets you search on topic (left) or non-touch screen smartphone (right).
Categories, which include News, Sports, Music, TV Shows, Movies, Plusmo
Science & Technology, Travel & Places, How-To, and User Videos. It Plusmo (plusmo.com), freeware that we’ve previously covered, also lets
also lets you access Wikipedia—again via character-based incremental you run mobile widgets that make accessing blogs, RSS feeds, and Web
search. sites easier (Figs. 4 & 5). Over 20,000 widgets are available, according
You can download vTap directly to your device by going to vTap’s to the Web site. The Plusmo site lets you preview the widgets (click on
mobile site (m.vtap.com). Go to vTap.com to find out more about the Get Started/Add/Widgets) in 10 categories, including News, Sports,
product and see it in action on your desktop PC. Entertainment, Fun, Technology, and Fashion. Examples of available
Zumobi, a free “mobile widget platform” widgets include CNN, BBC, ESPN Sports, Engadget, Gizmodo, Mov-
Zumobi (zumobi.com) is a free “mobile widget platform.” (As used Jim Karpen Ph.D. is on faculty at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa. He has been interested in the
here, a “widget” is a small, single-function application that gives you revolutionary consequences of computer technology ever since writing his Ph.D. dissertation–a study of the “digitized
convenient and quick access to specific information or that lets you word” that anticipated the Internet revolution. He has been writing regularly about the Internet since 1994. His Web
site, www.jimkarpen.com, contains selected Internet columns written monthly for the Iowa Source magazine. Contact
perform a specific task.) Instead of using a mobile Web browser to Jim at jim_karpen@smartphonemag.com.
Bluetrek SurfaceSound Compact hands-free system • Rule 1 – Respond to every part of an e-mail that warrants a
The ability to use your device while driving is important for most of response.
us, but more and more states are implementing rules about cell phone • Rule 2 – Respond to e-mails.
use. For the most part, the new laws state that the driver of a vehicle • Rule 3 – Check your spelling.
can’t use a cell phone while the vehicle is in motion. It is a pretty simple • Rule 4 – Consider using traditional letter formatting.
law, and violations can bring some stiff • Rule 5 – Only use “Internetspeak” when appropriate.
fines. Fortunately, there are exceptions to (For more details, read the post.)
these laws that allow the use of a hands- Posted on 2/10/08 by Ben Stanley
free system.
The folks at Bluetrek (bluetrek.com)
have a rather unique hands-free solution
in their new Bluetrek Surface Sound
Compact, a flat, visor-mounted wireless
Bluetooth speaker and microphone. I was
immediately interested in this solution because it uses flat panel speaker
technology developed by NXT, which allows manufacturers to develop
products with extraordinary sound quality, but without the bulk usually
associated with high-quality speakers...
Posted on 2/19/08 by Jack Cook
The quality and success of our magazine flows from the practical wisdom have edited this material for clarity and to avoid repetition. We also
of its readers and their contributions to the publication. “Tips from the include links to the original posts, which may have additional details.
Forums” represents a small sample of the Smartphone and Pocket PC A very big “Thanks!” goes to all the forum members and moderators
wisdom posted on our online forums (smartphonemag.com/forum). We for sharing their knowledge with other users.
Z You could also try Nidesoft Video Con- Fixing Calendar sync error on trash with use, such as the Web browser
verter (nidesoft.com/video-converter. iPAQs 0 caches and temp folders. Apps like
html). MemMaid (dinarsoft.com/memmaid)
I upgraded my iPAQ 2755 to WM 5, and
videolovely (my personal favorite) and SK Tools (s-k-
ActiveSync is successful in synchronizing
tools.com) include routines to automate
Z I use TuneCab to convert protected and all files and Outlook components except
clean-up of these areas for you. You can
unprotected video, audio, and audio- my Calendar, for which AS 4.1 displays a
find good freeware whose sole purpose
books. It works well, with a high conver- “support code: 80070490.” Two computers,
is this type of cleaning, which should
sion speed and super quality. It also has one running Win 2000, the other XP Pro
be done regularly to prevent erosion of
a YouTube ripper and CD ripper. You w/ SP2 demonstrate the same problem.
available storage space.
can download the demo here (tunecab. The Outlook is 2002 w/ SP3 installed. I have
YankeeJeep
com/includes/download.php). disabled Win Firewall, and set security set-
Satori tings as low as possible in Outlook, and no
smartphonemag.com/forum/topic. antivirus is running, but there is no change.
asp?TOPIC_ID=29758 Any suggestions? Any idea what this sup-
port code means? Thanks.
Realign screen when taps aren’t Frank Barch
responding 0 Z I’ve found the answer (I believe) to the
I want to single-tap instead of double- “support code: 80070490” problem for
tap on links and photos while on mobile the iPAQ PDAs. The problem is a corrupt
phones and using the device to browse pim.vol file on your PDA. The solution
Web sites, e-mail contents, or cell phone erases all of your Calendar entries on
programs. Is this possible? your PDA (just resync to get them back).
distinctive To solve the issue, sync up without Cal-
endar (Calendar triggers the issue), go
to your PDA’s File Explorer, hit “UP” to
get to “My Device,” and rename the file
“pim” (“pim.vol” if you look at it from
ActiveSync on your desktop) to “pim. Kilmist Storage Analyzer uses pie charts to display the
old” and do a soft reset. Then sync up distribution of memory.
and things should work fine.
Z Yeah, I’ve found lots of apps that don’t
dsibley
clean up after themselves very well. The
Z Thank you! That fixed the problem on Live Search application from Microsoft
my Dell Axim x51 also. creates a file called “GpsDebugLog.txt”
csavchick that gets bigger as you are using the
Z It worked on my iPAQ 2490! Thanks application. I am just now remembering
again! to erase that after every use.
ACFdude But to identify the problem, I found
smartphonemag.com/forum/topic. an older Pocket PC application named
asp?TOPIC_ID=20126 Kilmist Storage Analyzer (kilmist.com/
ppcStorageAnalyzer.aspx). It shows a
Align your touch screen if it is not responding properly to
taps. Cleaning out storage memory 0 nice pie chart that expresses the distri-
bution of memory use by file type and
Z You should be able single-tap on links My Cingular 8125 is dangerously low on folder location. I was able to use it to
and pictures with your stylus. By default, memory. It shows as having only 0.87 MB identify some files that didn’t need to
it works like that. Are you able to open left. I’ve got a 2 GB memory card in it and be there and cleared up enough space
applications with just one tap? If you was careful to install all of my programs to get rid of the low memory errors, but
feel like your screen is not responding on the memory card only. However, even ultimately there’s no other solution for
to stylus tapping, go to Start >Settings though I specify the storage card as the my Pocket PC other than replacing it. It
>System >Screen and click the Align target of all of my installs, there are cases only has 47 MB of storage space. I see a
Screen button. where a portion of the installation files are lot of newer units that I have interest in
meslierlp put into main memory anyway. So even with 128-256 MB of storage.
though I’ve got another 1.8 GB available on
Z I had to align the screen in both Portrait my storage card, it seems that I’ve reached So now I know, external memory cards
AND Landscape mode. I originally only the limit of programs that this device are no substitute for having a large
aligned it in Portrait mode. It’s respond- can hold; it will be necessary to uninstall amount of built-in memory.
ing fine now. Thank you! something should I decide I want to install alcedes
distinctive anything else. smartphonemag.com/forum/topic.
smartphonemag.com/forum/topic. alcedes asp?TOPIC_ID=29968 n
asp?TOPIC_ID=30048
Z There are also folders that accumulate
Recycling your old cell phone If you do a lot of traveling and carry a ton of electronic equipment
such as a Windows Mobile device, an MP3 player, a laptop,
international power converters, DC adaptors for the plane, etc., each
(Touch screen, Non-touch screen)
of these gadgets unfortunately comes with a number of power and
Recycling your old cell phones, accessories, batteries, and other sync cables.
mobile device objects can help reduce energy consumption and
One way to organize the clutter is to use Velcro color-coded
greenhouse gas emissions. Before recycling your device, make
cable ties. Each device that you carry can then get its own color tie.
sure that you have terminated your service contract and that you
This easy identification system also has the secondary benefit of
have removed all personal data from the device. Here are some
keeping your cables organized and tangle-free.
recycling options:
Color-coded cable ties are available at most electronics stores, or
• Drop if off: Old cell phone items can be dropped off at some
you can purchase them online from a store like Amazon.com for a
retailers and service providers, including Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T, and
very reasonable $2.49.
Best Buy. For a list of links for recycling information, visit epa.gov/
cellphone/cell-recycling-locations.htm. Based on a SmartphoneMag.com blog post by Dan Hanttula
• Mail it in: Sending your old items in to the retailer or service provider VIP site, tip #1363
is another option. Visit the above link for more information.
• You could also try selling your old items on eBay (ebay.com),
Second Rotation (secondrotation.com), or TradeMyCell.com.
Perform restart immediately
VIP site, tip #1360 after uninstalling a program
(Touch screen, Non-touch screen)
Know the Start menu structure In my work as Editor of Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine, I have
to install a lot of third-party software on my device so that I can
(Touch screen) test and review products or edit other authors’ reviews. I usually
In order to take full advantage of the Start menu on touch screen wait until I’m finished with a series of reviews before I delete these
devices, it’s helpful to know how it is structured and how it functions. programs from my device, but that can cause a problem.
The Start menu is divided into three sections:
Some third-party programs require your device
The Start menu on touch screen
to be “restarted” to complete the uninstall.
devices is divided into three
sections.
In some cases, after you
1. Top section: Contains delete a program, a message
links to a maximum is displayed that instructs you
of seven applications. to “restart the device to finish
By default, it lists removing the program,” (right).
Calendar, Contacts, If you tap on OK, a soft reset is
Internet Explorer, automatically performed. If you
Windows Media Player, tap on Cancel, you can continue
and others. You can using your device, but must
configure this portion perform a manual soft reset at
of the Start menu to a later time to complete the
list any built-in or user- uninstall process.
installed application by A problem can arise when you
going to Settings >Menus. (For more on this topic, see “How to are uninstalling more than one program at the same time. In some,
customize the Start menu,” tip #456.) but not all cases, if you uninstall a program, get the “restart the
2. Middle section: Contains up to five applications that have recently device…” message, tap the Cancel button, and then immediately
been launched. (If an item is already in the top or bottom sections, uninstall another program, some of the components of the first
it will not appear in this section.) The last application that you program may be left on the device after you restart it. Again, this
previously opened will be at the top of this section, the previous doesn’t happen all the time, but it’s happened enough for me to
application under that, and so on. notice it.
3. Bottom section: Contains links to the Programs and Settings The solution is, if the uninstall routine tells you that you have to
folders, and to Help, in that order. Note that if an item appears in restart the device, tap OK and do so immediately.
the top section, it will not be listed in the Programs folder. If you
By Rich Hall
remove an application from the top section as described in “How
to customize the Start menu,” tip #456, its icon reappears in the VIP site, tip #2844
Programs folder.
VIP site, tip #1362
NeedHelp?
To unlock the device, select the Unlock option by tapping on
it or pressing the left soft key.
Then, tap on the button labeled
“Unlock,” which appears on the
screen.
Also note that on most phone-
enabled devices (both touch and
non-touch), you can also lock the
device by pressing and holding
the red End Call button. For more
on locking non-touch screen
smartphones, see “Using the
Lock feature on non-touch screen
smartphones,” tip #1165.
Built-in Software
Most of the applications you’ll need are built into Windows Mobile 6 Smartphones and PDAs.
version of a particular application. (Unless otherwise noted, these
I
n addition to the Windows Mobile operating system, these
touch screen and non-touch screen devices come with a variety programs are on both touch screen and non-touch screen devices.
of built-in productivity applications and configuration utilities, The touch screen and non-touch screen versions of these applica-
as well as games and multimedia programs. These programs, listed tions have differences in terms of the features they incorporate and
below, are pre-installed and ready to use, and are a permanent part the interfaces they use.) Finally, some new applications were added
of the device and cannot be deleted. Carriers and OEMs may opt to the application suite with the release of Windows Mobile 6.1. We
not to include all applications listed below, and may substitute their indicate those with “WM 6.1 only.”
ActiveSync / Mobile Device Center and more. You can assign photos to individual contacts and place
Synchronization software that allows your Windows Mobile de- phone calls from the application by selecting phone numbers.
vice to connect to a Windows PC and synchronize Outlook data,
install third-party software, and more. There are two components
to the software: The “client” ActiveSync program that is built into
the Windows Mobile device, and a desktop PC version of the pro-
gram. The Windows Vista version of this program is called Mobile
Device Center.
Bubble Breaker
Bubble Breaker is a puzzle game that challenges you to match
like-colored bubbles to eliminate them and score points. viewing modes to make Web page viewing easier. (The ability to
Excel Mobile zoom in and out on a Web page was added to Internet Explorer
Calculator This is the mobile version of Microsoft’s Excel spreadsheet program. Mobile with the release of WM 6.1.)
Simple math calculator with addition, subtraction, multiplication, It can be found on both touch screen and non-touch screen devices,
division, and basic memory storage functions. but the touch screen version is more feature-rich. For example, it
includes charting capabilities, which are missing from the non-
touch screen version. (The ability to open and save documents in
Office 2007 format was added to Excel Mobile in WM 6.1.)
File Explorer
Offers basic file exploration, including the ability to browse file folders
and delete, copy, cut, and paste files and folders. (Note: This applica-
tion is called “File Manager” on some non-touch screen devices.)
Calendar
Appointment calendar that lets you schedule single or repeating
Messaging
appointments and reminds you of them minutes or hours in ad- Lets you set up and access your e-mail Inbox and text messaging
vance. You can view the appointments by the day, week, or month, accounts. The WM 6 version of Messaging allows you to display
attach notes, and more. HTML-formatted e-mail.
What do you want to do? Phone Phone network Wi-Fi Bluetooth Type-ability Screen size Screen resolution Storage card capacity Touch screen Camera
A little more
Respond to email Yes Yes Yes External keyboard Yes To view Possibly VGA for HTML Possibly for attachments To send photos
efficient
Browse Web Yes Yes Yes External keyboard For URLS and forms Bigger VGA clearer na For clicking links To upload photos
For web multi-player For web multi-player For web multi-player Headphones, other If game supports it, Touch games
Play games Minimal in most cases Bigger To store installed games na
games games games game accessories VGA better usually better
Listen to Bluetooth
To listen from web To listen from web To listen from web Minimal na na Yes na na
music and audio headphones
View and For upload, download For upload, download For upload, download For renaming, reorgani-
na Bigger VGA better viewing Yes na To take photos
take photos to web to web to web zing photos
For upload, download For upload, download For upload, download Depends on
Store data na Depends on application Depends on application na Yes na
to web to web to web application
Phone companies
Keep price Varies depending on Better type-ability adds Smaller screen less Adds cost, most devices
often subsidize cost Adds cost Adds cost VGA more expensive More expensive More expensive
to minimum service cost expensive have one expansion slot
of device
Options: Network, In U.S.: CDMA - Sprint Used to add Options: numeric, small Many shapes: e.g. small Options: 1 or 2 memory
VOIP: talking over the VGA 640x480 pixels vs PPC or PPC with Up to 3 M Pixels.
Comments unlocked, or PDA-only & Verizon, GSM: AT&T, Bluetooth alpha, slide-out, none rectangle, square, large slots for CF, SD, Mini, or
Internet QVGA 320 x 240 phone Most in 1M-2M range
(no phone) T-Mobile accessories (only soft keyboard) “4” diagonal Micro cards
Smartphones (without touch screens)
Price Display RAM/
WM (may diagonal/pixels ROM/ W-Fi Battery /Type Size
Carrier(s) Also known as... OS vary) colors/type CPU Avail. Card Slot BT 802.11 GPS Network Type Life/(mfg est) Weight Comments
AT&T Duo by Pantech 2.2” 240x320 64/128/ GSM/EDGE, Li-Ion 3 hrtalk 4x2x0.78” 1.3 MP camera; dual slide-out QWERTY keyboard
Locked: AT&T 6 $349 416 MHz microSD 1.2
wireless.att.com 256 K Transflective TFT N.A. Quad-Band 240 hr standby 3.9 oz and T9 keypad; 3G capable
Cingular 3125 i-mate Smarflip, Qtek 8500, Dopod 2.2” 240x320 TI OMAP 64/128/ GSM/EDGE, Li-Ion 7 hrtalk 3.88x2.02x0.62” 1.3 MP camera; external media-control keys; Razr
Locked: AT&T S300, Dopod 710 (Based on HTC STrTrk)
5 $349 microSD 1.2
www.cingular.com 64 K Transflective TFT 200 MHz 83 Quad-Band 220 hr standby 3.49 oz form-factor
Hewlett-Packard iPAQ Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, 2” 176x220 64 K TI OMAP 64/128/ GSM/EDGE, Li-Ion 6.5 hrtalk 4.2x1.9x.64”
510 Voice Messenger 6 $319 microSD 1.2 b, g 1.3 MP camera
World GSM Carriers Micro-reflective TFT 200 MHz N.A. Quad-Band 188 hr standby 3.6 oz
www.hp.com
HTC MTeoR Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, i-mate SP JAS, Dopod 595 2.2” 240x320 Samsung 64/128/ GSM/EDGE, Tri-Band. Li-Ion 5 hrtalk 4.4x1.6x.5”
5 $490 microSD 2.0 1.3 MP camera; rocker key
www.htc.com World GSM Carriers (Based on HTC Breeze) 64 K Transflective TFT 300 MHz N.A. UMTS (Europe only) 220 hr standby 4.2 oz
HTC S310 Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, Dopod 310 (Based on HTC 2.0” 176x220 TI OMAP 64/64/ GSM/EDGE, Li-Ion 4 hrtalk 4.28x1.85x.73” 1.3 MP camera
5 $325 miniSD 1.2
www.htc.com World GSM Carriers Oxygen) 64 K Transflective TFT 200 MHz N.A. Quad-Band 140 hr standby 3.7 oz
HTC S630 Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, Dopod C730W 2.4” 320x240 Samsung 64/128/ SD, 2.0
GSM/EDGE, Quad- Li-Ion 6 hrtalk 4.4x2.5x.5”
6 $329 b, g 2.0 MP camera; QWERTY keyboard; 3G support
www.htc.com World GSM Carriers (Based on HTC Cavalier) 64 K Transflective TFT 400 MHz 53/57 microSD Band. UMTS/HSDPA 190 hr standby 4.2 oz
HTC S710 Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, Dopod C500 2.4” 240x320 TI OMAP 850 64/128/ 2.0
GSM/EDGE, Li-Ion 7 hrtalk 4x2x.65”
6 $505 microSD b, g 2.0 MP camera, slide-out QWERTY keyboard
www.htc.com World GSM Carriers (Based on HTC Vox) 64 K Transflective TFT 200 MHz N.A. Quad-Band 175 hr standby 4.9 oz
HTC S730 Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, (Based on HTC Volans/ 2.4” 240x320 Qualcomm 64/256/ 2.0
GSM/EDGE, Quad- Li-Ion 5.3 hrtalk 4.1x2x.76” 2.0 MP camera; slide-out QWERTY keyboard;
6 $554 microSD b, g
www.htc.com World GSM Carriers Wings) 64 K Transflective LCD 400 MHz N.A. Band. UMTS/HSDPA 290 hr standby 5.3 oz second video conferencing camera; 3G capable
i-mate SPL Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, (Based on a TechFaith- 2.2” 240x320 TI OMAP 64/128/ Li-Ion 4 hrtalk 4.51x1.93x.47”
5 $399 miniSD 1.2 GSM, Tri-Band 2.0 MP camera; SLVR form-factor
www.imate.com World GSM Carriers Wireless design) 64 K Transflective TFT 200 MHz N.A. 150 hr standby 3.60 oz
Motorola Q $249 / 2.4” 320x240 Intel Xscale 64/128/ Li-Ion 4 hrtalk 4.33x2.52x.45” 1.3 MP camera; QWERTY keyboard, scroll wheel;
Verizon and Sprint Moto Q 5 miniSD 1.2 CDMA/EV-DO
www.motorola.com 379 64 K Transflective TFT 312 MHz N.A. 228 hr standby 4.06 oz Razr form-factor; Picsel viewer (Office doc viewer)
Motorola Q9m/c Moto Q9 Music/ $229/ 2.4” 320x240 Intel Xscale 64/128/ Li-Ion 4.5 hrtalk 4.6x2.6x.47” 1.3 MP camera; QWERTY keyboard; DataViz Docu-
Verizon and Sprint 6 miniSD 2.0 CDMA/EV-DO
www.motorola.com Motorola Q9c 449 64 K Transflective TFT 312 MHz N.A. 212 hr standby 4.7 oz ments to Go Office Suite
Motorola Q Global 2.4” 320x240 TI OMAP GSM/EDGE, QuadBand 2.0 MP camera; QWERTY keyboard; Opera Mobile
Locked: AT&T Moto Q9 H 6 $499 128/64 microSD 2.0 UMTS/HSDPA,
Li-Ion 5 hrtalk 4.6x2.6x.46”
www.motorola.com 64 K Transflective TFT 325 MHz HTML browser; Docs To Go Office Suite; McAfee
• Dual-Band 200 hr standby 4.7 oz Virus Scan
Palm Treo 500v Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, Locked: Vodafone 2.6” 320x240 PXA270 64/256/ 4.5 hrtalk 4.3x2.4x.65”
6 $Varies microSD 2.0 GSM/EDGE, Tri-Band Li-Ion 2.0 MP camera; QWERTY keyboard
www.palm.com World GSM Carriers 64 K Transflective TFT 312 MHz 150 240 hr standby 4.2 oz
Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, CDMA/EV-DO
Samsung ACE 2.3" 320x240 Qualcomm 64/128/ 4.3 hrtalk 4.6x2.3x.45" 1.3 MP camera; QWERTY keyboard; works on both
World GSM Carriers; SPH-i325 6 $449 microSD 2.0 Dual-Band; GSM
www.samsung.com Locked: Sprint 64 K Transflective TFT 312 MHz N.A. Dual-Band Li-Ion 240 hr standby 3.9 oz CDMA and GSM networks
GSM/EDGE, Quad-
Samsung BlackJack 2.2” 320x240 TI OMAP 64/128/ 5.5 hrtalk 4.4x2.3x.5” 1.3 MP camera with video; QWERTY keyboard with
Locked: AT&T Samsung i607 5 $249 microSD 2.0 Band. UMTS/HSDPA, Li-Ion
www.samsung.com 64 K Transflective TFT 220 MHz N.A. 264 hr standby 3.5 oz scroll wheel
Dual-Band
Samsung BlackJack II 2.4” 240x320 TI OMAP GSM/EDGE, Quad-Band. Li-Ion 7 hrtalk 2.0 MP camera; QWERTY keyboard; scroll wheel
Locked: AT&T Samsung i617 6 $349 128/256 microSD 2.0 N/A
www.samsung.com 64 K Transflective TFT 260 MHz • UMTS/HSDPA, Tri-Band 336 hr standby on D-pad
Samsung SGH-i620 Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, 2.3” 320x240 Intel Xscale 64/128/ GSM/EDGE, Tri-Band.UMTS/ Li-Ion 4.2 hrtalk 4.4x2.3x.46” 2.0 MP camera; second video camera; slide-out
6 $544 microSD 2.0 HSDPA (Europe Only)
www.samsung.com World GSM Carriers 64 K Transflective TFT 416 MHz N.A. 350 hr standby 3.3 oz QWERTY keyboard; touch sensitive Send/End keys
T-Mobile Dash HTC S620, Dopod C720W 2.4” 320x240 TI OMAP 64/128/ 2.0
GSM/EDGE, Li-Ion 5 hrtalk 4.39x2.46x.5”
Locked: T-Mobile 5^ $349 microSD b, g 1.3 MP camera; QWERTY keyboard
www.t-mobile.com (Based on HTC Excalibur) 64 K Transflective TFT 200 MHz N.A. Quad-Band 200 hr standby 4.2 oz
T-Mobile Shadow 2.6” 320x240 TI OMAP GSM/EDGE, Li-Ion 5 hrtalk 4x2x.59” 2.0 MP camera; slide-out numeric keypad; unique
Locked: T-Mobile HTC Juno 6 $349 128/256/ microSD 2.0 b, g
www.t-mobile.com 64 K Transflective TFT 200 MHz N.A. Quad-Band 144 hr standby 5.3 oz “Neo” Home screen UI
Verizon PN-820 2.2” 320x240 Intel Xscale 64/128/ Li-Ion 3.3 hrtalk 3.8x2x.8”
Verizon Pantech PN-820 5 $100 miniSD 1.2 CDMA/EV-DO 1.3 MP camera; flip-style form factor
www.verizonwireless.com 64 K Transflective TFT 312 MHz N.A. 145 hr standby 3.9 oz
Verizon SMT5800 2.4” 240x320 Qualcomm 64/128/ Li-Ion 3.5 hr talk
Verizon HTC Libra 6 $349 microSD 2.0 CDMA/EV-DO 4.1x2x.7”4.2 oz 2.0 MP camera; slide-out QWERTY keyboard
www.verizonwireless.com 64 K Transflective TFT 400 MHz N.A. 163 hr standby
Smartphones with touch screens (Pocket PCs with phone)
Send updated information to Dan Hart, dan@smartphonemag.com or Alan Zaks, alan@smartphonemag.com
Asus P527 Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, 240x320 TI OMAP 64/128/ GSM/EDGE, Li-Ion 5 hr talk 4.4x2.3x.6”
6 $Varies 2.6” microSD 2.0 b, g 2.0 MP camera; FM radio receiver; aluminum casing
www.asus.com World GSM Carriers 64 K Transflective TFT 200 MHz N.A. • Quad-Band 200 hr standby 4.5 oz
GSM/EDGE, Quad- 2.0 MP camera; slide-out QWERTY keyboard, scroll
AT&T 8525 HTC TyTN, i-mate JASJAM 2.8” 240x320 Samsung 64/128/ 4 hrtalk 4.43x2.28x.86”
Locked: AT&T 5^ $599 microSD 2.0 b, g Band. UMTS/HSDPA, Li-Ion wheel; videoconferencing camera; (N/A On 8525);
wireless.att.com (Based on HTC Hermes 100) 64 K Transflective TFT 400 MHz 51 200 hr standby 6.21 oz
Tri-Band Push to Talk on 8525 through future update
GSM/EDGE, Quad-
AT&T Tilt AT&T 8925, HTC TyTN II 2.8” 240x320 Qualcomm 4 hrtalk 4.4x2.3x.73” 3.0 MP camera; slide-out QWERTY keyboard; tilt
Locked: AT&T 6 $549 128/256 microSD 2.0 b, g Band. UMTS/HSDPA, Li-Poly
wireless.att.com (Based on HTC Kaiser) 64 K Transflective TFT 400 MHz • Tri-Band 192 hr standby 6 oz screen
E-TEN G500+ Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, 2.8” 240x320 Samsung 64/256/ Li-Ion 4 hrtalk 4.7x2.4x.9” 1.3 MP camera; FM radio
5 $525 miniSD 2.0 GSM, Quad-Band
www.etencorp.com World GSM Carriers 64 K Transflective TFT 400 MHz 130 • 200 hr standby 6.7 oz
E-TEN Glofiish M700 Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, 2.8” 240x320 Samsung 2440 64/128/ GSM/EDGE, Quad- Li-Ion 6 hrtalk 4.6x2.3x.77”
5^ $639 400 MHz microSD 2.0 b, g 2.0 MP camera; slide-out QWERTY keyboard
www.etencorp.com World GSM Carriers 64 K Transflective TFT N.A. • Band 200 hr standby 5.3 oz
E-TEN M600+ Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, 2.8” 240x320 Samsung 64/256/ Li-Ion 4 hrtalk 4.40x2.39x.87”
5^ $550 SD 2.0 b GSM, Quad-Band 2.0 MP camera
www.etencorp.com World GSM Carriers 64 K Transflective TFT 400 MHz N.A. 200 hr standby 5.82 oz
E-TEN X500+ Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, 2.8” 640x480 Samsung 2440 64/128/ GSM/EDGE, Quad- Li-Ion 6 hrtalk 4.4x2.3x.61”
6 $519 400 MHz microSD 2.0 b, g 2.0 MP camera; VGA screen;
www.etencorp.com World GSM Carriers 64 K Transflective TFT N.A. • Band 170 hr standby 5.1 oz
E-TEN Glofiish X800 Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, 2.8” 640x480 Samsung 64/256/ GSM/EDGE, Quad-Band. Li-Ion 7 hr talk 4.4x2.4x.6”
6 $624 microSD 2.0 b, g 2.0 MP camera; VGA screen
www.etencorp.com World GSM Carriers 64 K Transflective TFT 500 MHz N.A. • UMTS/HSDPA, Tri-Band 150 hr standby 5.2 oz
Fujitsu/Siemens LOOX T830 Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, 240x240 Intel Xscale 64/128/ GSM, Tri-Band. Li-Ion 4 hrtalk 5x2.5x.8” 2.0 MP camera; a second videoconferencing
5 $Varies 2.4” SD 2.0 b, g
www.fujitsu-siemens.com World GSM Carriers 64 K Transflective TFT 416 MHz N.A. • UMTS (Europe) 150 hr standby 6.7 oz camera; QWERTY thumb keyboard
HP iPAQ 600 Series Business Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, 2.8” 240x320 PXA270 128/256/ GSM/EDGE, Quad- Li-Ion 4 hrtalk 4.6x2.4x.7”
6 $599 microSD 2.0 b, g 3.0 MP camera; 3G capable
Navigator www.hp.com World GSM Carriers 64 K Transflective TFT 520 MHz N.A. • Band 250 hr standby 5.1 oz
HP iPAQ 900 Series Business Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, 2.4” 320x240 PXA270 128/256/ GSM/EDGE, Quad- Li-Ion 4 hrtalk 4.4x2.5x.63”
6 $N/A microSD 2.0 b, g 3.0 MP camera; QWERTY keyboard;
Messenger www.hp.com World GSM Carriers 64 K Transflective TFT 520 MHz N.A. • Band 250 hr standby 5.1 oz
HP iPAQ hw6920/6925 Cingular 6900 Mobile 3.0” 240x240 PXA270 GSM/EDGE, Quad- Li-Ion 4 hrtalk 4.65x2.8x.71” 6940/6945 sold direct by HP; 1.3 MP camera on
hw6940/6945 www.hp.com
Locked: AT&T 5 $599 64/64/55 miniSD 1.2 b
Messenger Series 64 K Transflective TFT 416 MHz • Band 168 hr standby 5.8 oz 6925/6945; QWERTY keyboard
HTC P3300 Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, Dopod P800/W (Based on 2.8” 240x320 TI OMAP 64/128/ GSM/EDGE, Quad- Li-Ion 4 hrtalk 4.25x2.28x.66” 2.0 MP camera; FM radio
5* $585 microSD 2.0 b, g
www.htc.com World GSM Carriers HTC Artemis) 64 K Transflective TFT 200 MHz N.A. • Band 200 hr standby 4 oz
HTC P3350 Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, 2.8” 240x320 TI OMAP 850 64/256/ GSM/EDGE, Quad- Li-Ion 4 hrtalk 4.25x2.3x.66”
5 $599 microSD 2.0 2.0 MP camera
www.htc.com World GSM Carriers 64 K Transflective TFT 200 MHz N.A. Band 200 hr standby 4.6 oz
HTC P3600 Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, Dopod D810, Dopod CHT 2.8” 240x320 Samsung 64/128/ GSM/EDGE, Quad-Band. Li-Ion 4 hrtalk 4.25x2.3x.72” 2.0 MP camera; second video conferencing camera;
5 $599 miniSD 2.0 b, g
www.htc.com World GSM Carriers 9100 (Based on HTC Trinity) 64 K Transflective TFT 400 MHz N.A. UMTS/HSDPA, Tri-Band 200 hr standby 4.8 oz iPhone-like look
HTC P6500 Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, (Based on HTC Sedna) 240x320 Qualcomm GSM/EDGE, Quad-Band. Li-Ion 5.3 hr talk 4x2x.7” 3.0 MP camera; fingerprint ID sensor; remote wipe
6 $1,049 3.5” 128/256 dual SD 2.0 b, g
www.htc.com World GSM Carriers 64 K Transflective TFT 400 MHz • UMTS/HSDPA, Tri-Band 290 hr standby 5.3 oz facility; 1 GB internal memory
HTC P4350 Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, Dopod C800 (Based on HTC 2.8” 240x320 TI OMAP 64/128/ GSM/EDGE, Quad- Li-Ion 5 hrtalk 4.3x2.3x.67” 2.0 MP camera; auto-assisted slide-out QWERTY
5* $599 microSD 2.0 b, g
www.htc.com World GSM Carriers Herald) 64 K Transflective TFT 200 MHz N.A. Band 200 hr standby 5.4 oz keyboard
HTC P6300 Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, (Based on HTC Panda) 3.5” 240x320 Samsung Li-Ion 5 hrtalk 5.1x2.7x.74”
5 $639 128/256 SD 2.0 b, g GSM, Tri-Band 2.0 MP camera
www.htc.com World GSM Carriers 64 K Transflective TFT 400 MHz 200 hr standby 7 oz
HTC Touch Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, (Based on HTC Elf) 2.8” 240x320 TI OMAP 850 64/128/ 5 hrtalk 3.9x2.3x.55”
6 $495 microSD 2.0 b, g GSM/EDGE, Tri-Band Li-Ion 2.0 MP camera; TouchFLO touch screen technology
www.htc.com World GSM Carriers 64 K Transflective TFT 200 MHz N.A. 200 hr standby 4 oz
HTC Touch Cruise Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, 6 $694 2.8” 240x320 Qualcomm 128/256/ microSD 2.0 b, g GSM/EDGE, Quad- Li-Ion 7 hrtalk 4.3x2.3x.6”
www.htc.com World GSM Carriers 64 K Transflective TFT 400 Mhz N.A. 3.0 MP camera; TouchFLO touch screen technology;
• Band 400 hr standby 4.6 oz
HTC Touch Dual Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, (Based on HTC Nike/P5500) 2.6” 320x240 Qualcomm 128/256/ GSM/EDGE. Tri-Band Li-Ion 5 hrtalk 4.2x2.1x.62” 2.0 MP camera; second video conferencing camera;
6 $649 microSD 2.0
www.htc.com World GSM Carriers 64 K Transflective TFT 400 MHz N.A. UMTS/HSDPA 180 hr standby 4.2 oz TouchFLO touch screen technology; 3.5G capable
i-mate JAQ Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, (Based on an Inventec 2.8” 320x240 TI OMAP 64/128/ GSM/EDGE, Quad- Li-Ion 4 hrtalk 4.8x2.8x.9”
5 $499 miniSD 1.2 QWERTY keyboard; includes Poker, e-trust AV
www.imate.com World GSM Carriers design) 64 K Transflective TFT 200 MHz N.A. Band 150 hr standby 5.6 oz
i-mate JAQ3 Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, UBiQUiO 501 (with slight 2.4” 240x320 TI OMAP 64/128/ GSM/EDGE, Quad- Li-Ion 4 hrtalk 5x2.6x.5”
5* $599 microSD 1.2 b, g 2.0 MP camera, QWERTY keyboard with scroll wheel
www.imate.com World GSM Carriers variations) 64 K Transflective TFT 200 MHz N.A. Band 150 hr standby 5.1 oz
i-mate JASJAR Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, Qtek 9000, Vodafone v1640, Dopod 480x640 Intel Xscale 64/128/ GSM/EDGE, Tri-Band. Li-Ion 4 hrtalk 5.03x3.19x.98” 1.3 MP camera and a second videoconferencing
www.imate.com World GSM Carriers 900 (Based on HTC Universal)
5 $1,049 3.6” SD 1.1 b, g UMTS (Europe)
64 K Transflective TFT 520 MHz N.A. 250 hr standby 10.05 oz camera; swivel QWERTY keyboard
i-mate Ultimate 6150 Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, 2.8” 480x640 PXA270 128/256/ GSM/EDGE, Quad- Li-Ion 4 hrtalk 4.6x2.4x.61” 2.0 MP camera; NVIDIA GoForce 5500 graphics
6 $549 microSD 2.0 b, g
www.imate.com World GSM Carriers 64 K Transflective TFT 520 MHz N.A. Band 150 hr standby 5.3 oz accelerator; FM radio tuner; video out port
MWg Atom Life Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, 2.7" 240x320 PXA270 64/1000/ GSM/EDGE, Tri- Li-Ion 4 hr talk 4.2x2.3x.7" 2.0 MP camera; second video conferencing camera;
6 $399 miniSD 1.2 b, g
www.mwg.com World GSM Carriers 64 K TFT LCD 624 MHz 795 Band. UMTS/HSDPA 200 hr standby 5.1 oz FM radio
i-mate Ultimate 8150 Unlocked: AT&T, T-Mobile, 2.6” 480x640 PXA270 128/256/ GSM/EDGE, Quad- Li-Ion 4 hrtalk 4.6x2.4x.61” 2.0 MP camera; NVIDIA GoForce 5500 graphics
5 $N/A microSD 2.0 b, g
www.imate.com World GSM Carriers 64 K Transflective TFT 520 MHz N.A. Band 150 hr standby 5.3 oz accelerator; FM radio tuner; video out port
Palm Treo 700wx $549/ 2.5” 240x240 Intel Xscale 64/128/ Li-Ion 5 hrtalk 4.4x2.3x.9”
Sprint and Verizon 5 SD 1.2 CDMA/EV-DO 1.3 MP camera; QWERTY keyboard
www.palm.com 499 64 K Transflective TFT 312 MHz 60 300 hr standby 6.4 oz
Palm Treo 750 2.6” 240x240 Samsung 64/128/ GSM/EDGE, Quad- Li-Ion 4 hrtalk 4.4x2.3x.8” 1.3 MP camera; QWERTY keyboard; upgradeable
Locked: AT&T Vodafone Palm Treo 750v 5* $499 miniSD 1.2 Band. UMTS, Tri-Band
www.palm.com 64 K Transflective TFT 300 MHz 60 250 hr standby 5.4 oz through future firmware to HSDPA
Sprint Mogul Sprint PPC-6800 (Based on 2.8” 240x320 Intel Xscale 64/256/ Li-Ion 4.1 hrtalk 4.3x2.3x.7” 2.0 MP camera; slide-out QWERTY keyboard; 512
Sprint 6 $549 microSD 2.0 b, g CDMA/EV-DO
www.sprint.com HTC Titan) 64 K Transflective TFT 400 MHz N.A. N/A standby 5.8 oz MB microSD card
Sprint Touch by HTC 2.8” 240x320 TI OMAP 128/256/ Li-Ion 4 hrtalk 4x2.4x.6”
Locked: Sprint (Based on HTC Vogue) 6 $499 microSD 2.0 CDMA/EV-DO 2.0 MP camera; TouchFLO touch screen technology
www.sprint.com 64 K Transflective TFT 200 MHz N.A. 240 hr standby 4 oz
T-Mobile Wing T-Mobile, World GSM 2.8” 240x320 TI OMAP 64/128/ GSM/EDGE, Quad- Li-Ion 5 hrtalk 2.3x4.3x.67” 2.0 MP camera; auto-assisted slide-out QWERTY
HTC Herald (100) 6 $449 microSD 2.0 b, g
www.t-mobile.com Carriers 64 K Transflective TFT 200 MHz N.A. Band 200 hr standby 5.9 oz keyboard; OZ IM client; myFaves; Handango InHand
Notes Availability: Dopod, E-TEN, Mio, and some i-mate and HTC devices are only marketed overseas. However, they may be available in the U.S. through MobilePlanet.com, onthegosolutions.com, and other independent vendors. RAM/ROM: The “RAM” portion of the memory is where programs
are run. The “ROM” portion of the memory is where programs are installed and data is stored (in WM 5). “Avail.” is where users can store files such as music, programs, etc. N.A. where that information was not available. CDMA Phones: All CDMA phones include Internet connectivity via 1xRTT. One carrier’s CDMA phone
will not work on another CDMA carrier’s network. GSM Phones: All GSM phones include Internet connectivitiy via GPRS. “Locked” GSM phones from carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile can only be used on those carrier’s networks. “Unlocked” GSM phones can be used anywhere in the world where GSM carriers are found (ad-
ditional charges may apply). Network Types: There are four GSM bands (850, 900, 1800, 1900). North America uses the 850 and 1900 bands; Europe and elswhere use the 900 and 1800 bands. “Tri-Band” phones lack one of the bands, making them less suitable for North American use. There are three UMTS/HSDPA bands
(850, 1900 and 2100). The 2100 band is used only in Europe, while the 850 and 1900 bands are used only in North America. Key ^ Windows Mobile 6 upgrade released * Windows Mobile 6 upgrade announced
PDAs (Pocket PCs)
Send updated information to Dan Hart, dan@smartphonemag.com or Alan Zaks, alan@smartphonemag.com
Display
diagonal Battery
Price pixels Type Additional Software
WM (may colors Processor RAM/ROM/ Wi-Fi Life Size from Equipment Manufacturer (OEM)
Card Comm
OS vary) type CPU Available BT 802.11 GPS (mfg est) Weight (see listing at beginning of section for MS software) Comments
Acer n300 3.7” 480x640 Samsung 2410 Li-Ion 4.33x2.76x.54” In ROM: Lunar View, Pictures, Backup/Restore Utility, WMP VGA screen; has USB Host and Client. Currently available in England
5 $639 64/128/N.A. SD 1.2 b
global.acer.com 64 K Transflective TFT 266 MHz 8hr 4.76 oz 10 Mobile. On CD: Voice Dictionary. and Europe.
Acer n50 2003 3.5” 240x320 Intel Xscale Li-Ion 4.72x2.76x.65” In ROM: Lunar View, Pictures, Backup/Restore Utility, WMP Availiable in 320-MHz version; 128 MB RAM available; has Wi-Fi and
2nd $505 64/128/N.A. SD, CF 1.2 b
global.acer.com Ed. 64 K Transflective TFT 520 MHz 8hr 5.29 oz 10 Mobile. On CD: Voice Dictionary, Pocket SlideShow. Bluetooth, and CF and SD card slots. Available in England & Europe.
Asus MyPal A632/A636 Series 3.5” 240x320 Intel Xscale SD, Li-Ion 4.80x2.88x.77”
5 $599 64/128/N.A. 1.2 b GPS Software, Microsoft Voice Command A632 lacks Wi-Fi
www.asus.com 64 K Transflective TFT 416 MHz miniSD • 1300mAh 6.5 oz
HP iPAQ hx2495 3.5” 240x320 Intel Xscale Li-Ion 4.71x3.01x.65” Decent device with ample ROM memory, large screen. Dual CF &
5 $399 64/128/80 SD, CF 1.2 b HP Protect Tools, iTask, iPAQ Backup, ClearVUE Suite.
www.hp.com 64 K Transflective TFT 520 MHz 1440mAh 5.8 oz SD slots.
HP iPAQ rx5910/5915 iPAQ Wireless; Today Panel Lite; iPAQ Entertainment, A GPS-equiped Pocket PC with a huge amount of available ROM
3.5” 320x240 Samsung Li-Ion 4.74x3.00x.65”
Travel Companion 5 $599 64/2000/450 SD 2.0 b, g TomTom Navigator 6, TeleAtlas Maps, WorldMate Standard (persistent storage).
64 K Transflective TFT 400 MHz 1700mAh 5.99 oz
www.hp.com Edition.
Comm
Card
OS vary) pixels, colors, type CPU Available BT 802.11 GPS (mfg est) Weight (see listing at beginning of section for MS software) Comments
Ecom i.roc x20 Series 3.5” 240x320 Intel Xscale Li-Ion 7.3x3.3x1.5” Three ruggedized models: the 420, 520 -Ex and 620 -Ex. Barcode
5 $Varies 64/128/80 SD, CF 1.2 b Ecom Tools, ecom Edit, KioskMode, AutoInstall.
ecom-ex.de 64 K Transflective TFT 520 MHz N.A 19.4 oz reader modules available.
Hand Held Products Rugged design; built-in 1D/2D scanners, options for Bluetooth,
3.8” 240x320 Intel Xscale Li-Ion 7.3x3.5x1.7”
Dolphin 7900 Series 5 $Varies 64/64/N.A. miniSD 1.2 b Varies Wi-Fi and GSM/GPRS modules. Available in 25 and 35-key keyboard
64 K Transflective TFT 400 MHz 14.8hr 17 oz
www.handheld.com options.
Hand Held Products Dolphin 3.5” 240x320 Rugged design; 3 keyboard layouts; optional modules for WAN, LAN,
9500/9550 Series Intel Xscale SD/ Li-Ion 9.6x3.45x1.66”
5 $Varies 64 K 64/32/N.A. 1.2 b Varies and PAN; weight varies from 19.7 to 25.8 oz.
400 MHz MMC 14.8hr 19.68 oz
www.handheld.com TFT LCD
Intermec 700 Series 3.8” 240x320 Intel Xscale SD/MMC, Li-Ion 7.53x3.5x1.97” Rugged; wireless WAN, LAN, and Bluetooth options; scanner options
? $Varies 64/32/N.A. CF I
Varies
www.intermec.com 64 K Reflective TFT 400 MHz 10hr 17 oz also available. 741 and 751 run WM 5; 761 runs WM 2003.
Intermec 730B Series 2003 3.5” 240x320 Intel Xscale SD/ Li-Ion 7.0x3.5x1.5” Rugged mobile computer; integrated scanner and RS232 port. Avail-
2nd $Varies 64/64/N.A. BT b,g Varies
www.intermec.com Ed. 64 K Transflective TFT 400 MHz MMC 10hr 15 oz able in an I-Safe model for use in explosion-prone environments.
Intermec CK60 3.8” 240x320 Intel Xscale Li-Ion 6.82x3.55x2.08” Rugged mobile computer; RS232 port. Optional scanner modules;
5 $Varies 64/192/N.A. SD BT b,g SmartSystems Support, Wavelink Avalanche Support.
www.intermec.com 64 K Transflective TFT 520 MHz 2400mAh 24.8 oz available with 32-key or 58-key keyboard.
Intermec CN3 3.5” 240x320 Intel Xscale Li-Ion 6.3x3.2x1.1” Ruggedized PPC Phone Edition, Tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE/3G EV-DO;
5 $Varies 128/128/N.A. miniSD 2.0 b,g
www.intermec.com 64 K Transflective TFT 520 MHz • 2200mAh 16 oz 1.3 megapixel camera; QWERTY keyboard
Intermec CN30 Series 3.5” 480x640 Intel Xscale BT
b,g Li-Ion 6.82x3.52x1.35” Rugged mobile computer; integrated scanner and RS232 port;
5 $Varies 64/64/N.A. SD, CF RS232
Varies
www.intermec.com 64 K Transflective TFT 520 MHz N.A 16.6 oz available with 14-keyor 56-key keyboard.
Juniper Systems Fully rugged; available in 16 languages; GPS and bar code scanner
3.5” 240x320 Intel Xscale Li-Ion 6.5x3.5x13.7”
Archer Field PC 5 $Varies 64/256/N.A. SD, CF 2.0 Varies extension options; Class I Div 2 non-incendive option; Serial port;
64 K Transflective TFT 520 MHz 20hr 17 oz
www.junipersys.com USB host and client
3.6” 480x640 Available in 2 models: C model with alpha-numeric keyboard, and
Psion Teklogix WorkaboutPro PXA270 N.A. 3000/ 8.8/7.9x4/4x1.6/
6 $Varies N/A 128/128 SD, CF 1.2 S model with number keypad; Wi-Fi and GSM/GPRS EDGE modules
www.psionteklogix.com 520 MHz 4000mAh 1.6” 16/13.7 oz
Transflective TFT optional; Optional barcode expansion modules
Socket SoMo 650 3.5” 320x240 PXA270 Li-Ion 5x2.9x.8”
5 $Varies 128/256/N.A. CF, SD 2.0 b,g Rugged business class mobile computer; comes with leather case
www.socketmobile.com 64 K Transflective TFT 624 MHz 1200mAh 6.3 oz
Symbol MC35 2.8” 240x320 Intel Xscale Li-Ion 5x2.6x.8” Ruggedized PPC Phone Edition, Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE; 2.0 MP
6 $Varies 64/128/N.A. SD 1.2 b,g
www.symbol.com 64 K Reflective TFT 416 MHz • 1350mAh 6.5 oz camera; QWERTY keyboard; bar code reader
Symbol MC50 2003 $925 to 3.5” 240x320 Intel Xscale b,g Symbol’s Rapid Deployment Client which tracks application Ruggedized Pocket PC; 6 different models: 3 with keyboard, 3
2nd 64/64/N.A. SD Li-Ion 5.35x2.95x1.13” versions, and Symbol’s Mobile Companion (manages without. Each unit can include a scanner, a 2-D scanner, or a 1.1
www.symbol.com Ed. $1200 64 K Transflective TFT 416 MHz RS232 8hr 6.77 oz wireless network connectivity megapixel digital camera.
Symbol MC70 $2,195- 3.5” 240x320 Intel Xscale Li-Ion 6.0x3.0x1.5” Ruggedized Pocket PC Phone Edition; Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE.
5 64/128/N.A. SD 1.2 a/b/g Varies
www.symbol.com $2,845 64 K Transflective TFT 624 MHz 1900mAh 12 oz 28 numeric-key or 44 QWERTY-key keyboard.
Symbol MC9000 Series 3.8” 240x320 Intel Xscale Li-Ion 9.2x7.6x3.6” Rugged design, used for bar code scanning applications, backlit
5 $Varies 64/128/N.A. SD 1.2 a/b/g Varies
www.symbol.com 64 K Color or Mono 624 MHz 15hr 26.08 oz keypad; Also available with Windows CE.
TDS Nomad 3.5” 480x640 Xscale 128/ Li-Ion 6.9x3.9x1.9” 4 different models to choose from; Top of the line specs in most
6 $Varies CF, SD 2.0 b,g
www.tdsway.com 64 K Transflective TFT 806 Mhz Varies/N.A. • 5200mAh 21 oz categories, incl. 2.0 MP camera, VGA screen
TDS Ranger Series 300X/500X/NX 3.5” 320x240 Intel Xscale Li-Ion 10.5x5.2x1.9” Rugged MIL-spec device with thumb keyboard; 3 models with vary-
6 $Varies 128/512/472 SD, CF BT Sprite Backup
www.tdsway.com 64 K Transflective TFT 520 MHz 30hr 2.1 lb. oz ing processor speed, RAM/ROM. Includes 9-pin serial port.
WANTED SmartphoneNotes
Create text notes directly on your
Dead or Alive! Smartphone and synchronize
them with Microsoft® Outlook®
on your desktop computer!
Neiw
n
esig
h nD
aT .36”
Ultr Only 0
BT-368i
{ëj
Bluetooth Enabled
Mobile Phone
BENEFITS:
Bluetooth Enabled
Laptop
|o
~ëiëëyëwëwj²ëoëwj²ëëwkhëëh
z SiRF III GPS Chipset
Visit UsedHandhelds.com
(888)-323-8720 z (626)-968-4145 z usglobalsat.com
*Hardware may require GPS navigation software to meet your application need.
Advertisers Index
3JTech 45 3jtech.com
DDH Software 86 handbase.com
DeveloperOne 17 developerone.com/itjustworks
eXpansys/MobilePlanet 27 expansys-usa.com
Fattafa 35 unifirm.com
Frost & Sullivan 57 frost.com
Illium Software 11 illiumsoft.com/tmi
Mark/Space 19 markspace.com/meetmac
Microsoft IFC, 1 msdn.microsoft.com/windowsmobile
Nomad Electronics 87 nomadelectronics.com
NuShield 86 nushield.com/ppc
Piel Frama 86 pielframa.us
Resco 49,63 resco.net
Sapphire Solutions 86 sapphire-solutions.co.uk
Spb Software House BC spbsoftwarehouse.com
SimonCells 87 simoncells.com
Sprite Mobile 33 spritemobile.com/discountp508
Syncdata 86 syncdata.it
Tekkeon 37 tekkeon.com
Textware Solutions 20 fitaly.com
Trimble 51 trimble.com
UsedHandhelds.com 25, 64, 65, IBC usedhandhelds.com
USGlobalSat 87 usglobalsat.com
Web Information Solutions 41 pocketinformant/ppcmag
Zagg 43 invisibleshield.com
I
n this issue you’ll read about two different sides of the Windows becomes a vehicle for just about everything—news, social network-
Mobile 6.1 upgrade. End-users will find a new emphasis on ease of ing, movies, TV, music—MIDs will be a new generation of devices to
use. Enterprise IT professionals will discover that they can manage deliver these media.
Windows Mobile devices as effectively as Windows laptops and
desktops thanks to new security and control features. Microsoft may want to recommit to software developers
The next generation iPhone will allow the user to load a variety of
The thinking behind the Windows Mobile 6.1 update yet-to-be-developed third-party software. Since the iPhone interface is
Adding security and control features were the final necessary steps to compelling and non-threatening, and all software will be sold through
make Windows Mobile a clear choice for many large organizations. En- iTunes, this should be a boon for third-party developers.
terprise decision makers will find the new 6.1 features compelling, espe- With the opening of the iPhone platform, Apple will likely make
cially when coupled with robust push HTML e-mail, the ability to read inroads in an area that Microsoft has clear leadership and dominance.
Office attachments, and an operating system that supports custom apps. Microsoft championed an open platform since it introduced Windows
Although Windows Mobile devices have an incredible number of CE in 1997. It encouraged third parties by offering software tools that
features, the average person still finds them too intimidating to enjoy. The made Windows Mobile development similar to Windows development.
iPhone proved that a device could offer phone, Wi-Fi, e-mail, Internet, In addition, Microsoft seeded the Windows Mobile development and
music, photos, and video in one device and not overwhelm the user. support community with Microsoft Windows Mobile evangelists, fund-
The new Getting Started application eliminates some of the deficien- ing, a development conference (now defunct), and programs like MVP
cies of the Windows Mobile user interface and helps users get through and Mobius.
the initial learning curve. The new Today Screen Sliding Panel makes I communicate with a lot of software developers and owners of Web
navigating through features more sites that support Windows
intuitive. I’ve used the new sliding Mobile. Many are anxious to
panel on a non-touch HTC S620 The HTC Advantage (left) move to iPhone and Google
(T-Mobile Dash) for a couple of and NEC MobilePro (right) Android development and sup-
weeks, and although it’s not per- port. They no longer feel the
fect, it definitely makes the phone appreciation, attention, or sup-
easier and more fun to use. port from Microsoft, and see
Expect to see the next versions better opportunities elsewhere.
of Windows Mobile designed to I hope Microsoft takes strong,
make devices even more compel- proactive steps to insure the
ling for the end user. ongoing support of Windows
It seems Microsoft wants to trump the iPhone with the XPERIA Mobile developers and knowledge-providers.
X1. Microsoft’s new partnership with Sony-Ericsson demonstrates the
importance of the “wow factor.” However, as Apple proved, substance Microsoft hedging bets and supports the iPhone
must accompany hype. The user experience will be key in making the It was recently announced that Microsoft is licensing ActiveSync for
XPERIA successful. the Apple iPhone. That means that, as the iPhone makes headway in the
Exchange/Enterprise space, Microsoft will still be getting a piece of the
New kinds of Windows Mobile devices action. In addition, there are Internet rumors about Microsoft making
For years I’ve advocated that Windows Mobile technology be used on Windows Mobile Office apps available to iPhone users.
larger devices. I was a big fan of the NEC MobilePro Handheld PC Microsoft certainly wants Windows Mobile to win the smartphone
series with its half screen and touch-typeable keyboard. I am intrigued wars. However, perhaps even more importantly, it wants to get paid
by the HTC Advantage. whenever a smartphone is sold, and wants Microsoft Exchange to re-
Why not use Windows Mobile to make a small, easy-to-use, bat- main dominant.
tery efficient laptop? Given Microsoft’s new emphasis on ease-of-use,
a Windows Mobile mini-laptop would be a great device for novices Focus on user experience and support partners
who want out-of-the-box functionality. Unsophisticated users could Microsoft has worked hard to build devices that appeal to large organi-
have instant Internet, e-mail, music, video, photos, Word, and Excel zations and professionals. They have done an impressive job partnering
all built-in and ready to go. It would also be a boon for road warriors with phone companies, and estimate that 20 million Windows Mobile
who need basic computing functionality and wireless connectivity in a devices will be sold worldwide this year.
small, lightweight form factor with long battery life. Solid state storage However, Symbian, RIM (BlackBerry), Apple, and Google will pro-
means instant-on and no vulnerable mechanical drives. vide stiff competition. Microsoft’s new emphasis on the user experience
It seems that Microsoft is committing to do just that. Microsoft has is a necessity to reach the huge new potential audience and to retain
brought on Len Kawell—a former founding member of Microsoft Chief existing customers. In addition, I look forward to a renewed Microsoft
Software Architect Ray Ozzie’s Iris Associates—to help the Redmond commitment to work with its many smaller partners that have helped
software company port the Windows Mobile operating system to new make the platform so robust. n
form factors called Mobile Internet Devices (MID). As the Internet
Pocket PCs
‰
NEC MobilePro
900/900Cs
UsedHandhelds.com
wayne@usedhandhelds.com • 800-373-6114