Latest In Tech » M.S. Smartphone

Youtube on the Motorla Q (Part 2)

sarvinc — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 23:42:33 +0000

An ever prevalent thread here is youtube on this or that. Forum poster Zbop has an updated how-to at Treocentral.

Youtube on the Motorla Q

sarvinc — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 04:37:36 +0000

More info can be found here

Linux on the Palm

sarvinc — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 05:08:31 +0000

It looks like Linux hackers had to do what Palm has been promising for years now; release Linux for the Palm platform. If I had seen this coming, I probably wouldn’t have moved to Microsoft’s Smartphone OS. Of course, if I had known how bad the Smartphone OS was going to be, I probably would’ve just killed myself. At this point I’m not sure if anything will save this sinking ship, but at least it means there’s life, after Palm Inc. dies, for our Palm OS devices.

Semi Start Menu for Microsoft’s Smartphones?

sarvinc — Tue, 01 May 2007 01:00:38 +0000

SmartToolkit adds quick access to the My Documents folder, a few control panel items, a text editor, and a lot more. Plus it’s free. For now it’s comes as an .exe . In this case I’m not sure what the difference is between a .cab and a .exe, but it goes on your phone either way.

In my impromptu testing I’d have to say that the product is still in alpha and it shows.

GrandCentral Goes Mobile

sarvinc — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 06:32:05 +0000

I could make some sort of pun out of GrandCentral, cell phones, and terminals, but I’ll spare you the grief. Looks like GrandCentral now sports a mobile interface so you can check your in-box from your phone. If you don’t know what GrandCentral is David Pogue sums it all up pretty well here.

Microsoft; Why we removed Bluetooth DUN

sarvinc — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 23:15:45 +0000

Kudos to Microsoft’s mobile team. On the Windows Mobile Team blog they’ve been asking developers what they would like to see in the smartphone, and producing personal programs they needed on their phones. Now the developers are even addressing negative feedback they’ve received from WM5 AKU3. Specifically, people want to know why Bluetooth DUN has been dropped. The answer looks pretty simple, from the article:

So you may be thinking, ok, Internet Sharing is really cool but why did you need to remove Bluetooth DUN?!? My car kit or Mac does not support Bluetooth PAN and I relied on this legacy technology.

Actually, Microsoft did not remove Bluetooth DUN completely. We still ship this technology to our OEMs. It is included in an optional package that OEMs and operators can decide to ship on a per device basis.

or is it…

Internet Sharing is also in an optional package. We did change one thing though. Internet Sharing is included by default and Bluetooth DUN no longer is.

I’d like to think it’s simply Microsoft culling legacy technologies, but I can’t think of a reason why you’d want to cull a technology you’ve already put the work in to producing. I hesitate to say that the actual developers are practicing some sort of anti-competitive behavior, but the previous statement does seem odd. If it’s made optional, and it’s not included, then for all tense and purpose it has been removed.

Smartphone Network Analyzer

sarvinc — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 03:55:10 +0000

You just can’t fault Microsoft for producing some pretty handy/ free software tools. It’s even better when said software is produced for both the smartphone and PPC platforms. Want to run ping and ipconfig on your phone? Microsoft has you covered. I’m pretty sure I can find a reason to use this a long with zaTelnet.

Speed Up Motorola Q Browser?

sarvinc — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 06:01:13 +0000

After my really non-scientific tests with OpenDNS turned out so er… well I decided to OpenDNS on the Motorla Q. Of course, instructions for Palm OS and Win Mo 5 phones are already available. In order to do that you’ve got two options. First, the manual way involves a few steps:

We’ll be editing your registry with the free PHM registry editor so go download it
Open up PHM and drill down through HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> Comm -> Cellular Line -> Parms -> TcpIp
Switch to Values with the left soft key
Select DNS
Change the two strings in “Value data:” to 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220
Select Done with the left soft key
Now comes the not so clear part, reset your phone and check to make sure your new settings are still set.
Try browsing http://welcome.opendns.com/
If you get the “Oops” dialog try emptying your cache, browser history and cookies.
Give it a few minutes and try again
If it still doesn’t work go back up two steps and repeat, it took my phone about 15 minutes to finally switch over

The easier way involves downloading a program you can find here. Follow the directions and give it a few minutes.

Drop me a line and let me know if this actually speeds your phone up.

New Flexmail Beta for PPC and Smartphones

sarvinc — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 18:14:36 +0000

It you’re like me you find the smartphone email program anemic at best. Here’s to hoping Flexmail can do better!

Known issues include:

Mark for download for ActiveSync accounts will not download attachments (this is scheduled for Rev 3)
We have one report of Draft Messages getting deleted if you create another one
New Keyboard shortcuts do not work when viewing an e-mail (this is scheduled for Rev 3)
Left navigation through address tabs stumbles across <...> chars
Refresh folders not renaming local folders (this is scheduled for Rev 3)
POP sync gets very slow when downloading e-mails from last X days (this is scheduled for Rev 3)
Keyboard shortcuts only support number keys, not letter keys on the T-mo Dash
Mail does not go to Sent folder and simply disappears on sending (this one I have to qualify as one we have been investigating for )
This one is sort of more of a PIE issue, but if a partial message is downloaded and its HTML and it breaks at an image URL giving a partial image URL, PIE can act a bit strangely
Message list size column shows size of message downloaded instead of total size of message (this is scheduled for future)

Link to more information, link to beta

Yahoo does a little Windows Mobile

sarvinc — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 07:25:33 +0000

Yahoo! has announced a revision of it’s Yahoo! Mobile; now Yahoo! Mobile 2.0. In full web 2.0 catch phrase effect; “At its core is the carousel, used to navigate intuitively among the various Yahoo! Go widgets: your own personal channels for email, local info & maps, news, sports, finance, entertainment, weather, Flickr™ photos and search.” From the press blurb

Key features of Yahoo! Go 2.0 for Windows Mobile include:

Search reinvented for mobile consumers — oneSearch(TM) is designed to recognize the intent of a search term and presents relevant content — not just a list of web links to PC sites — on the results page. Results are grouped by subject making it easy to read through and drill down to get more details.

Be local, no matter where you are — The Local & Maps widget gives quick access to comprehensive local directory information for businesses across the US, enhanced with ratings and reviews from the millions-strong Yahoo! community. Interactive maps feature the ability to search directly for businesses, get driving directions and real time traffic updates.

Rich, highly personalizable content from millions of sources — Current headlines and a breaking news ticker in the News, Sports, Entertainment, Weather and Finance widgets keep consumers connected to the information that matters to them. Consumers can customize to receive content from the millions of sources on the Web that publish in RSS.

Photo sharing keeps consumers connected to their community — The Flickr(TM) widget integrates one of the Web’s most innovative and prolific photo-sharing communities, making it easy to upload(1) and manage images from their camera phone. Consumers can also easily share photos, view their friends’ pictures and browse or search the millions of images.

Streamlined e-mail keeps consumers in sync — The E-mail widget allows consumers to quickly respond to, delete or compose new messages or view attachments with a single click — all automatically synchronized with their Yahoo! Mail account in real time.

I couldn’t actually test the program; annoyingly it seems to still be in beta. Yahoo! Mobile differentiates its self from competitors, like Handmark’s On Demand a paid application, by pushing content to the phone. The most interesting feature; personal info, including your contacts and email, remain in sync with your Yahoo! Web account.