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March 30 Silverlight 1.0 for MobileFonte: http://silverlight.net/learn/mobile.aspx Bringing Silverlight to devices expands the reach that developers and designers have when creating rich internet applications. This enables them to easily leverage content, assets, and code that they are using today for browser-based Silverlight applications. Support for Silverlight on devices will quickly help change the landscape for the types of user experiences consumers can expect from their phones by bridging rich interactivity, wireless data, media and more. Q: When will Silverlight 1.0 be available for mobile? Q: What form will Silverlight take on mobile? Q: Which version of Silverlight will run on devices? 1.0 or 2? Q: What tools will be used to develop Silverlight mobile applications? Check back soon as we post links to the MIX 2008 presentations on Silverlight 1.0 for Mobile.
BBC: Protótipo de celular com Google AndroidFonte: http://googlediscovery.com/2008/02/29/bbc-prototipo-de-celular-com-google-android/ Confira acima um protótipo de celular utilizando a mais nova versão do Google Android. Flagra em vídeo registrado pela emissora britânica BBC. Google Gears para Windows MobileFonte: http://googlediscovery.com/2008/03/04/google-gears-para-windows-mobile/ ganhou hoje uma nova versão para aparelhos com Windows Mobile 5 e 6. Ao disponibilizar a execução de aplicativos offline em aparelhos móveis, o Google espera ajudar a tornar a experiência da mobilidade mais rápida e com menos obstáculos. Google Gears funciona exatamente da mesma maneira que em PCs, se você possui uma aplicação que usa o Google Gears, sua aplicação irá funcionar em aparelhos com Windows Mobile. March 29 Google mais rápido no Windows MobileFonte: http://googlediscovery.com/2008/03/19/google-mais-rapido-no-windows-mobile/
Para instalar a aplicação é muito simples, acesse mobile.google.com e clique em “Google Search(Download)”, a aplicação tem 300kb de tamanho, e após instalada, um campo de buscas é adicionado a interface. No teste realizado pelo Google Discovery, utilizando um aparelho de modelo HTC Touch, ao tentar realizar uma busca, uma estranha notificação avisa que “o arquivo updater não está com um certificado confiável ou mesmo não é possível localizar um de seus componentes“. Alguém está recebendo esta mensagem também? Notícias Relacionadas Google Gears para Windows Mobile » Google Mobile ganha recurso que permite realizar buscas sem digitarFonte: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/googlediscovery/~3/256411550/ e Renê Fraga O novo recurso, segundo Rogers, permite que você navegue através de categorias de empresas, sem que você tenha que digitar uma palavra em seu dispositivo móvel. “Não consegui descobrir o que “lcb” significa, e aparentemente nada funciona nas categorias - não há sequer um para “Googleplex”. Estranho, e bastante inútil se você não vive em Mountain View na Califórnia”. Double Up Your Pocket PC As A WebcamFonte: http://www.etenblog.com/2008/02/27/double-up-your-pocket-pc-as-a-webcam/
The one spec that I always skip when buying a Pocket PC is that of the camera. After so many years, I have come to given up it ever being able to take great pictures. Instead, I rely on a digital camera, which does a really great job. I was starting to think the Pocket PC camera was just a waste of space (though some of you might disagree) and wondered if there were any useful applications for it. And that was when I came across Ateksoft’s WebCamera Plus software, a nifty piece of software that tries to give more credit to the built-in camera that I give it for. Introduction
WebCamera Plus is one of 3 applications developed by Ateksoft. For those who have followed the company since they started, you might have known that WebCamera Plus was actually once a part of CoolCamera. However, after some version upgrades, WebCamera Plus and CoolCamera went their separate ways. For those interested, WebCamera Plus is currently at v2.0, that version was released on December 17th 2007. You can download a trial if you want to test it out. Currently it retails for $19.90 and the advantages of that over the trial is that you get an application without limitation, free support and upgrades, information when new versions are released and higher priority for request of customized features. So will you be spending be spending your money on this of a dedicated web camera instead? Installation
Installing was rather straightforward. Because you will be using the captured images (or video) on your PC, Ateksoft decided to create an all in one package where the PC and Pocket PC version were installed from. This could be convenient for some but it was rather troublesome for me because I seldom use ActiveSync. I would have preferred an alternative where I could download the PC and Pocket PC version separately such that I can install them accordingly Initial Setup There is really nothing to setup (if you are using ActiveSync connected via USB). All you had to do was to launch the PC application and then the Pocket PC application and they will find each other and connect. From there, you can just launch the application of your choice that you will be using the webcamera with and configure accordingly. Because this new version supports microphone, you can also configure your chat client to use the phone’s microphone instead of your default microphone (if you have one). I also tested out WiFi over LAN and Bluetooth setup and in both cases, the PC and Pocket PC connected just fine and streaming was smooth. The WiFi connection took some tweaking because it was initially set to autodetect and that did not work too well so I had to enter the IP Address manually and everything was good. The Bluetooth one was rather straightforward though and I faced no problems there. The developers also mentioned that you can even connect the over 3G and GPRS and while I do not have either to test, I reckon it should be possible with some tweaking. Customizations Galore When you are all done with the initial setup, you can go ahead and place your video-conferencing calls. However, if you are facing problems, be it with video/audio quality, you’ll be glad to know that you can get them sorted out. That’s because, there’s a wealth of customization options available for you.
Camera settings For example, from the Pocket PC application that you see above, there are a lot of different settings that you can play around with. You can even set the resolution of the picture from the default 240×320 to 2MP. However, when I did this, the video was very jerky because the frame rate was about 4 per second. While the default settings worked fine for me, you might need something different and in that case, I am sure you’ll be glad that Ateksoft has provided you with so many options. It Was Smooth Enough Like I said earlier, the default settings posed no problem to me and it was smooth enough that the person I tested out the video conversation with did not even know I was using my Pocket PC as a webcamera. However, that will not always be the case because there are many factors that determine video smoothness such as frame rate and the connection being used. Live Help
This is something I found rather interesting. You could use your Pocket PC screen as a video source and conduct a video conference with it. This way, you could show, in real time, step by step, how to do something on your Pocket PC to your friend who could be hundreds or even thousands of miles away. No longer do you need to record a video and then dub a voice over it. Connection Freedom
This has got to biggest, or at least one of the biggest, selling points for this application. You can now roam freely while conducting your video-chats. As long as you your Pocket PC is connected to your PC (be it wireless or wired), you no longer have to be in front of your PC to conduct your chats. Just moved into a new house? Call your friends and give them a tour of it. Thanks to the WebCamera Plus now supporting your Pocket PC’s microphone, you can talk and tour at the same time. Mobile road warriors would find this really useful because they can now leave one more device at home How Do I Prop This Up? This was one thing that got me thinking. The software works great and all but if I want to have a video conference with my friends, does that mean I have to hold the device the whole time? Because of the Pocket PC cameras are positioned, unless you have a clamp to prop it up the right way, you might have some trouble using it for long periods of time. An alternative is to use a stack of books or something similar to get the height you want and then rest the Pocket PC there. Summary What I Like
What Can Be Improved
Conclusion This could be the cheapest web camera (or the most expensive if you factor in the cost of your Pocket PC) that you ever have. Even if you argue that you could shell out a bit more and get a better resolution web camera, do bear in mind that not many applications out there support such higher resolutions. In fact, I think with the exception of Skype, all other common applications like Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger do not support them. So you are still back to lower resolutions. So is this camera worth it? I would think so, especially if you are in need of a web camera. Or if you are always on the road. Finding a holder or clamp to keep it in the right position can be a bit challenging though so you might want to factor it in. For those of you still wondering about how great it is, you want to give the trial a go here. Or if you are already decided, you can place your order here. What are your experiences with this application? Change The Standard File DialogFonte: http://www.etenblog.com/2008/02/28/change-the-standard-file-dialog/
Have you ever tried opening or saving a file on Windows Mobile? You would know how much a pain it is because of the way Windows Mobile works. I really have no idea why it was programmed this way but I guess someone in Microsoft thought this would be the easier for people who were using Windows Mobile and thus designed it that way. WRONG!! The Problem Just what am I talking about? The file dialog box. It’s the box that pops up on many occasions such as when you are trying to add a file to your email or when you want to save a file from Pocket Internet Explorer. It’s a real pain because of 3 things: One, you cannot choose the hierarchy of the folder, you can only choose the name. So if you have 2 identical folder names (one on storage card and the other on main memory) such as My Pictures, how do you know which one contains your file? You don’t until you open the folder from the dialog box and see if it’s there. Which brings to problem number 2. That is, when you open the folder, all the files get listed. Great if you have very few files. Not so great when the numbers are big. Even worse, if the there are a lot of files in that folder and it turns out, that’s not the folder you are looking for. Time wasted isn’t it? The third problem is that the folder list only goes down one level deep. That means you can only access folders /My Documents/AAA and /My Documents/BBB from the menu but not /My Documents/AAA/111 and /My Documents/BBB/222. If you use many folders within folders, you would know what I mean. The Solution The solution is rather simple. All you need is to download and install this application, do a soft reset and configure. And that’s it. You’re all good to go. For those needing a step by step guide, read on.
Further Configuration
The File Dialog Changer can be configured to have exceptions. This means that if for some reason you want to use the default file dialog instead of this new one, you just need to add it to the exception list. Not many will use this option so don’t worry if you have nothing to add here. How Do I Know It Works
Something’s wrong Compose a new email and add an attachment. If you see the screen shot on the left, it means you did something wrong. Retrace your steps and see where you went off-course and correct it. If you see the screen shot on your right, congratulations. How Do I Use It? When the file dialog comes up, it will be in /My Documents/. Use the left soft key to navigate to the root and then navigate accordingly from there.
If you do not like smal icons but prefer a detailed view, use the right soft key to bring up the menu. There, you can switch between views and create a new folder if needed. Other Options You could install Spb Pocket Plus which has this feature and does not need any configuration. However, that is a commercial software while the one provided here is free. On top of that, this one allows you to add exceptions but the one in Spb Pocket Plus does not. Does this work for you? What other options do you use? Thanks to Werner Ruotsalainen from Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine for providing this guide. Google2Go Brings Google (And More) To Windows MobileFonte: http://www.etenblog.com/2008/02/29/google2go-brings-google-and-more-to-windows-mobile/
Google2Go was just released this week and already has caused quite a storm in the Windows Mobile world. I was rather interested with Google2Go because it filled a void that Google had created (in my opinion). You see, while the iPhone has a specially designed suite of Google applications which makes accessing them so easy on their platform, Google decided it was not necessary for the Windows Mobile platform. But I guess the developers of this software had other ideas and thus created this application. Introduction
Google2Go is similar to Yahoo2Go. It was developed by Bryan Burkholder, one of the two behind The Tech Turf. Currently at 0.272B, this software can be considered at it’s infant stage but the potential for it is big. It’s free for you to use. It’s a .exe file so there’s no need for installation. Just copy to your device and run it from there. Creating a shortcut to it would be a good idea if you plan on using it frequently. So how does it fair? Only qVGA Landscape
One thing you’ll notice when using Google2Go is that it only supports 320×240 landscape resolutions. If you try to launch it while in portrait mode, the application would look rather weird (like in the screen shot above). Also, there have been reports that it does not work on VGA screens. A quick check with the developer shows that he is aware of the problems and plans to fix them. SIP Does Not Pop Up
SIP not coming up Well it’s not all the time but it does happen frequent enough. I realized that when I tap on a box that is part of the application, my SIP does not pop up. For example, say I choose maps and want to enter my search criteria, my SIP is not there and there is no way to launch it (unless you mapped your SIP to pop up to a hardkey). However, when I tap on a box when I am on a website within that application (such as Gmail or even searching on Google), the SIP does pop up. I guess the reason for this is tied to the landscape issue. Most Windows Mobile devices are in landscape mode when their QWERTY keyboard is slid out so I guess that is why no SIP pops up. Just a random guess. Google Services Available
Google Search
Google Calendar
Picasa Not all Google services are available, just the more commonly available ones like the ones you see above. Still I think this is a decent list which should suit most users. The Google services are identical to the ones that you would see if you were to access them through Pocket Internet Explorer or Opera Mini but the idea of having it all consolidated into one place is great. I initially thought that this was just an application that made use of Pocket Internet Explorer but it was more than that. For example, when you access your Gmail, you would notice several buttons just above the icons which corresponds to the various shortcuts that you can use. When you go to another feature (say search), you can change between searching the web and images. While not available in all features, it is a rather nice option to have. Other Services Available It’s not just Google services that you can access with Google2Go but a few others as well. There’s Amazon.com and eBay.com as well as Weather.com. This proved useful for me because I used these services rather frequently but I wonder how users who do not would find it. There’s also Wapedia (sort of like a mobile encyclopedia) and Dictionary.com for you to access from it. Settings?
At the moment, there are no settings that can be configured but considering that the developer put an icon to it suggests that that could soon change. Which I think is a great idea because everyone would have their own preferences as to which features/functions they would like to have. I also hope that the developer would consider letting users choose which browser to use to view the sites. While Pocket Internet Explorer might be sufficient for now, it would be great to use Opera Mobile 9.5 or even SkyFire when they come out. Conclusion This is a really great application. Sure there are lot of bugs in it. Sure the icons remind you of Apple’s iPhone (the developer is working on changing this). But I think once these kinks are worked out, this application would be installed on many a users’ device. It’s simple, it’s clean and it works. Google may have forgotten about Windows Mobile users but thankfully Bryan Burkholder did not. Speed Up Internet ExplorerFonte: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/EtenBlogDotCom/~3/246548742/ de Tariq Bamadhaj When you surf the web, do you find that it can sometimes take a long time to locate the web address that you just entered but once it does locate it, you can get the contents of the site so much faster? Is there something wrong with your device? Well not really. It’s just been set to default settings which is why it’s so slow. To speed it up, you just need to change a setting which should take you less than a minute and voila, you will be having a much shorter ‘location’ time. The Reason Why is it so slow? It’s all about the DNS which stands for Domain Name System. All the internet address are actually a series of numbers in the following format: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx. To simplify things, the powers that be have linked such numbers to a URL. For example, microsoft.com’s DNS is 207.46.197.32 so if you were to enter that into your browser’s address bar, it would take you to microsoft.com. Of course it would be much easier to just remember and type microsoft.com right? So in a nutshell, when you type microsoft.com, the query gets sent to your network’s computers which will look up it’s DNS and then find the site which it then sends to you. Now the reason for the slow down is that your network may not have a high priority on the DNS lookups or it could just be plain overloaded. As a result, you might see the ‘locating’ status for quite a while. The Solution All you need to do is use a custom DNS server. You don’t have to get one for your own, there’s a free version and I will walk you through the guide. 1. Go to Start > Settings and then select the Connections tab. Tap on the Connections icon. 2. Under My ISP heading, tap on Manage existing connections. 3. You will be presented with a screen similar to the one above. Choose the connection that you usually use for surfing (if there are more than one connection) and click on the Edit button. 4. Tap Next a couple of times until you reach the screen above. Usually, you only need to tap Next twice to get here but your provider might have changed the settings so do check. When you finally get to this screen, tap the Advanced… button and then select the Servers tab. 5. You will be presented with the above screen. Select the option for Use specific server address and enter 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 in the DNS and Alt DNS row respectively. 6. You should get the screen shot above. Once completed, tap on the OK/Close button in the top right corner of your screen. You will be brought to the previous screen at Step 4. Tap Finish and you are all set. Steps take from OpenDNS. Additional Points So there you have it. Simple steps to go about speeding up your Pocket Internet Explorer. Thanks to WMExperts for this tweak. Google Calendar Sync: Getting StartedFonte: http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=89955 Google Calendar Sync allows you to sync events between Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook Calendar. You'll be able to determine the direction of information flow, as well as the sync frequency. Staying on top of your Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook Calendar events has never been easier! Keep in mind that it's not possible to sync events on secondary calendars at this time. Google Calendar Sync will only sync events from your primary Google Calendar and your default Microsoft Outlook calendar. Get startedTo begin syncing, follow the steps below:
Once Google Calendar Sync is installed on your computer, the Google Calendar Sync Settings window will appear:
In the Settings window, enter your email address and password and select the Sync Option you prefer. For more information on each Sync Option, please visit Google Calendar Sync: Options You'll also be able to set the time interval for syncing to occur. Please keep in mind that 10 minutes is the minimum time interval allowed. After the initial set-up, you can access the Google Calendar Sync Settings window again by double-clicking on the calendar icon in your Windows System Tray. Icon StatusTo access the Google Calendar Sync Settings window, just right-click on the calendar icon in your Windows System Tray and select "Options".
When your events are actively syncing between Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook Calendar, you'll see arrows in the Google Calendar Sync icon:
When events aren't actively syncing, your calendar icon will look like this:
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Get assistance from other users in the Google Calendar Help Group.Review our known issues page.Troubleshoot further.The End Of Windows Mobile?Fonte: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/EtenBlogDotCom/~3/248975028/ de Tariq Bamadhaj Last week I asked readers what they looked for in a Pocket PC and they let their thoughts be heard which were lated consolidated with mine in this post. It went pretty well and so this week, I would like to ask you, the reader, another question. This one pertains to Apple and their announcing of the iPhone SDK as well as their licensing of the Microsoft ActiveSync/Exchange earlier last week. There were a lot of reactions from both supporters of both camps and a lot of sites were covering this announcement. But my question to you is rather different. Instead I ask you: Is It The End Of Windows Mobile? Here are some points that you might want to consider when you leave your comments: Feel free to add your thoughts that covers points that I did not bring up. In addition, here are some articles that you could read about what other sites are saying on this issue: I am sure you can find many more articles to read up on. It’s still fresh news so expect more sites to come up with articles on it soon. In the mean time, feel free to leave your comments below. But please do so before March 16th because that is when the comments will close. Unbrick Your Eten GlofiishFonte: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/EtenBlogDotCom/~3/249294591/ de Tariq Bamadhaj Did you do a ROM upgrade with a cooked ROM recently and it bricked your device? That usually happens when you flash your device with a ROM that was not meant for your device. Scenarios include flashing your Glofiish X500 with a Glofiish X500+ ROM or even a Glofiish M800 ROM. When this happens, your device is bricked (or some call it semi-bricked) because you can’t seem to do anything with it. It’s nothing more than a brick. Even flashing with the right ROM the next time around will produce an error: Os Image is NOT compatible with this hardware. So what do you do? Until recently, you could not do anything except to send it back to Eten for repairs. And since you are not suppose to be uploading cooked (unofficial) ROMs to your device, your warranty is void and you would need to pay for the repair. That’s the good case scenario. In a worst case scenario, they’d refuse to repair your device and you are stuck with it. Well that was in the past, things are different now. Preparation Now you can repair your device on your own if this does happen to you. But first, you will need to download and install a Hex Editor. There are some free versions out there and in this example, I am using the freeware Hex Editor XVI32. If you do not know your way around, I would recommend that you download that program but if you know your way around, any application works fine. The other thing that you need to prepare is the ROM that you are going to use to fix your device. You will need the temp.dat file. Usually when you download a cooked ROM, you will see a similar file but called temp.bin. Just rename it to temp.dat and use that instead. If you prefer to use an official ROM, then follow the steps in Flashing Your ROM From SD Card up to step 3. Step by Step Now that you have prepared the things you need, it’s time to get fixing. Feel free to click on any of the screenshots below to get a larger picture. 1. Launch your hex editor. This is my startup screen. 2. Click on File > Open. A window like the one above will pop up and you navigate to the location of your temp.dat 3. Once loaded, you should see something similar to the screenshot above. 4. Click on Address > Go to. 5. A box will pop up. Under the Go to heading, choose hexadecimal and enter $38. You should get the screenshot as above. When you do, click OK. 6. You will then be brought to the cell in question. Enter 0A 3D 72 F4. The end result will look like something above 7. Once done, save the file in temp.dat (which is the original filename). You can now use this recently edited file to unbrick your device. Just follow the steps to Flashing Your ROM From SD Card and your device should come back to life. Some Notes Have you tried this? Does it work for you? Thanks to Cyril of Eten Users Forum for coming up with the ‘magic bytes’ and thenenea for outlining the steps in Eten Blog dot Com’s forum. Share Your Thoughts: The End Of Windows Mobile?Fonte: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/EtenBlogDotCom/~3/253200126/ de Tariq Bamadhaj The first Share Your Thought article was about what users looked for in a Pocket PC. It was well received with many of you leaving comments on what you looked for in a Pocket PC. For those who have yet to read the article that consolidated all these comments, including mine, you can do so here. It went pretty well and I wanted to do it again. This time, the question I asked was: The End Of Windows Mobile? as I wanted to know what users thought about the Microsoft Licensing ActiveSync/Exchange to Apple and the iPhone’s SDK. Unfortunately, due to the server problems I encountered last week, there were not as many comments as before. However, those that did leave comments gave rather insightful and well-thought out ones. ActiveSync/Exchange License For starters, I was curious why Microsoft would want to license ActiveSync/Exchange to Apple and spmwinkel echoed my thoughts when he mentioned that it was all business. With so many people buying the iPhone, it only makes sense to get a share of it, somehow. However, he also added that Microsoft would not be dumb enough to do something as major as this without having a backup plan for Windows Mobile. I too hope that is the case. On another note, I feel that Microsoft could be doing this to reduce or even eliminate RIM (makers of BlackBerry) from the enterprise. Right now, it’s a toss up between BlackBerry and Exchange but if Microsoft had Apple’s support (in the form of the iPhone), it might not be long before RIM may just be forced out. Plus, their recent outages do not really help their case. SDK The SDK was really big news. Not only is it released, Apple is also pouring a large amount of money into encouraging developers to create new applications for the iPhone. And even though they will be getting a cut of profits, it would only be 30%. Now compare that to the 70% that Handango (which is supported by Microsoft) takes from developers and you can see why the grass is greener on the other side spmwinkel hopes that these developers do not switch camps immediately and leave us all high and dry because it’s their software that makes us users of Windows Mobile. Instead, he hopes for continued support. However, in the event that they do switch camps, hopefully, it would be more of a gradual transition rather than an overnight thing. While I hope that never happens (they could always expand and focus on both Windows Mobile and iPhone), that would be the best alternative. Xavier pointed out what many potential users were thinking as well: that now with the SDK, there is no reason for them not to come on board. There will be a host of applications. But what GBot says rings true as well: It would take a lot of 3rd parties currently supporting Windows Mobile like the hardware manufacturers and software developers to ’shrivel up and die’ before we see iPhone’s SDK crushing Windows Mobile. And in that timeframe, Windows Mobile has sufficient time to evolve and meet consumers’ needs. So it looks like the SDK is a big factor in getting new users but it’s not the killer blow many are predicting that will wipe out Windows Mobile. Time is needed to develop the applications for Apple and with that time, Microsoft must work on Windows Mobile if it hopes to continue being a force. iPhone Over Windows Mobile Why would anyone want to buy one? Well for now it seems, they are going with the flow. But when the applications start coming out, it could be a different reason altogether. Xavier claims the iPhone can do more than what Windows Mobile does while spmwinkel says it’s more a case of ‘a history of third party software development, and an existing, experienced, consumer base’ and ‘lots of solutions/forums/software/tweaks are already available’ that are driving users to Windows Mobile. For me, I say to always purchase a device based on your needs. Which means the iPhone, without a built-in GPS chip and keyboard, is out of the equation for me. GBot mentions about the fanatism of iPhone users and becky couldn’t agree more. And I do see it in some users, though not all. The iPhone is a great phone, but it is not meant for everybody. Taunting someone if Windows Mobile can do this because the iPhone can seems rather immature if you ask me because it all depends on what I need it to do. I mean, so what if you can take an X-Ray with the iPhone, why would I need such a feature? Microsoft & Windows Mobile So Windows Mobile is still alive and kicking but Microsoft needs to do a lot more to get it going. For starters, where are the TV ads? I have seen so many of the iPhone and Apple ones but the closest I have seen for a Microsoft product is Sync. Where are the ads for Windows Mobile? Even Apple has more Windows ads than Microsoft (remember their Apple vs PC ads?) So if Microsoft wants Windows Mobile to have a larger share, they have to go out there and advertise it. But that’s not all, they have to work on Windows Mobile’s system as well. Send us updates over the air (OTA). Don’t let it be done through device manufacturers alone. Look at the iPhone. Apple can upgrade it effortlessly and you should let your users experience that as well. Conclusion One thing’s for sure. The hype over the iPhone, while it may have been blown out of proportion in some cases, is something that Microsoft needs to tackle. They have a good base with Windows Mobile; it needs some fixing and standardization but nothing they can’t come out of if they play their cards right. As to the impact of the licensing and SDK, it is not something that we will witness overnight. Rather, it would take several months or even a year or 2 before we start to see its impact on other platforms. In that time, let’s hope that Windows Mobile has evolved into something better. Pocket Informant 8 - Even Better Than Desktop OutlookFonte: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/EtenBlogDotCom/~3/254041408/ de Tariq Bamadhaj Usually, when developers create a new software, their main purpose is to fill one of the many gaps created by Microsoft in the Windows Mobile platform. Not to replace the applications that you use on your desktop. So when one such software comes along and actually does that (not intentionally I guess), even users who do not use it will know about it. And the software that I am talking about in this case is WebIs’s multi-award winning title: Pocket Informant. Intro Pocket Informant 8 is one of the most feature-packed applications out there. So much so that if I were to talk about every single one, I could make it into April’s series. It supports a whole series of Windows Mobile version, from Pocket PCs to Standard, from WM2003 (for Pocket PC) to WM 6.1 (for both Pocket PC and Standard) and almost all sorts of display resolution that currently exists. Even if it doesn’t, you can be sure that Alex and his team will be working to bring it on-board. That’s because Pocket Informant is heavily updated (about once a month on average) to rid of any bugs and improve the user experience. The version that I am currently reviewing is 8.02 Build 1164 which is the latest available right now. It retails for $29.95 which some might find a bit pricey but after going through this review, you might see why $29.95 is actually a steal for this application. When I started this review, I was wondering how I should go about it. One route was to discuss all the features listed. The other was to discuss how it could help you. I decided to go for the latter because I am a firm believer that a powerful software is no use if it does not help you. Setup Installation is rather straightforward for this application. At just under 4MB for installation size, it is rather big to install on the Main Memory but that is where it is recommended. Sure you could install to Storage Card but I would not recommend it. After installation and launching the application, you will be presented with the above screen which asks you to choose which role you want for this application. What this does is make available (or unavailable) certain features, depending on your needs. You could choose Pocket Outlook With Benefits where it consolidates your PIM without giving you too many options that confuses you, which is perfect for those starting out, or you could even choose Power User where you get to experience the power of this application. For those who plan to use this for mainly for tasks or appointments will have an option for each as well. What I like about this version of Pocket Informant is that it allows you to choose whether Pocket Informant should be the default Calnedar, Task and Contact application. This means, even if you tap on the default icons for any of those functions, it will still bring you to Pocket Informant. However, if you prefer to use another program as your default Contact application for example, you can make the changes during setup as well. Settings This is just one of the many areas that Pocket Informant shines (and can give you a headache as well). Just about anything that you want to customize can be done here. From fonts to colors to how the application behaves. Depending on the role that you have set earlier, certain settings may or may not be available to you. So far, I have yet to find a tweak that I needed to make that was not covered in the settings so I am pretty happy with that. Views Because Pocket Informant performs a lot of functions, it uses Views to help you navigate. Again, what you see int he screenshot above may not be what you get on yours because I am running mine as a Power User. Those with a numpad can easily navigate from one view to another by pressing the corresponding number beside each view. Or you can just tap on it. The options available are Events, Agenda, Day/Week, Week, Month, TimeLine, Journal, Notes, Tasks, Contacts and Search. All of which I will show you just how they would make your life easier to manage. Ever wanted to know how many days before a certain task is due or before your next appointment with the dentist? While you could do the former from the Tasks screen, appointments were a different story, especially if they were in the distant future. This is where events come in. You can track both appointments and tasks from a single screen. Just tap and hold on an appointment or task and choose to add it to Events and the next time you enter this view, you will see how many days before it’s due. So the next time you need to plan something (like that anniversary or birthday dinner), you can stay on top of things much easier. Similar to Evens with the exception that you do not need to add it to the view. As long as the appointment or tasks takes place or is due within the said number of days that you’ve set up Agenda, you’ll see it here. Perfect for those who like to see what their schedule is like for the next 2, 3 or even 31 days. This is actually as zoomed in as it gets for your daily activities. Remember the good old days when you would enter your appointments in your paper journal and then select the duration of time? Well, this is what happens over here. You get to see, in greater detail, just how packed your day is. One great way use I find for this view is to look for free time in a given day but I am sure you have other uses for it too. Similar to Day/Week but it shows you all the appointments you have for the week. Not really useful for me because I am running a qVGA screen resolution but those on VGA will find that you can see a lot more information and find it useful. If you are a user of icons, this view would serve you well, even if you are running on qVGA. Ever wanted to know what’s in store for the month? While Agenda can do this and lists out all the appointments and tasks in detail, the month view takes a summarized version. It shows you, in terms of time bars, when you are busy and the tasks count due. If you use icons a lot, you can also see what kind of events are coming up. Need a more detailed itinerary? Just tap on the day in question to pull up a list of your agenda. Or if you need to compare certain days, just highlight them and Pocket Informant will zoom into them for more comfortable viewing. What if you wanted to compare categories instead of dates/days? That’s where TimeLine comes in. And you can even use it to track several projects (if you put them into categories) so you can see which days are taken up a lot of time for a particular project and maybe re-arrange them for a more balanced week. To really maximize this view, you will need to have your appointments added to the category that you are dealing with in TimeLine. Otherwise, all you get is a blank screen (like what you see above). Ever made a phone call and then forget what it was about at the end of the day? If you used the Journal feature of PI8, then those might just be a thing of the past. Think of a journal as a note that you can attach to anything (a task, appointment or phone call) or to nothing at all. It’s like your thought or summary for the day. For example, using the same phone call, you could program PI8 to create a journal with each entry so you enter details about the call and remember later on what was discussed. The confusing thing is that you can attach notes as well to these same items so it is really up to you how you want to go about using this feature. Or you could not use it at all if you choose not to. The thing to keep in mind is that you will need JournalSync (from WebIs as well) if you want to sync those journals to your Outlook. Not as souped up as PhatNotes but it does add some nice features over the default Notes application you get with Windows Mobile. These include formatting (bold, underline, italicize), alarms, colors and even adding categories. If you are an avid note-taker and did not get PhatNotes, you might want to check out PI8’s Notes feature. It might just be the thing you need. One my my used-features is Tasks and you’ll be surprised just how powerful this gets. For starters, you can create what is called Hierarchical tasks. These are tasks consisting of parents and childs. Say you have a task of fixing up the garage. Int he past, you might have to create a new category just for that one task if you wanted to keep track of it properly. With this feature in PI8, you actually set that task as the parent, and everything else that will help you complete the task as a child. These could include, cleaning out the trash, painting the walls, repairing the door and so forth. What’s great is that if you have 5 child tasks and you complete one, your parent task will reflect that it is 20% (1 in 5) completed. And it automatically does that with each completed child tasks. So the next time someone says your tasks ain’t moving, you can show them it actually is. But that’s not all. Another useful feature which I use is the Task Status. This let’s me set how the task is handled. For example, if I have passed the task to someone else, I can choose Delegate so I can still remind myself to check with them on its status. Or I could mark it In Process and set how much of the task is completed. I could even forward it or mark it completed where necessary. How’s that for a great way to manage your tasks? No PIM would be completed if it does not handle your Contacts and PI8 does this as well. So what can you do with this feature? For starters, you could change the contact data preference. That is the data that you see beside each contact, sort of like a default data. You could change this to a work number for your Boss, a mobile number for your wife and even an email/IM address for your overseas friends. Set it in any way you like. The Call Log feature that comes with Contacts is great too. While Windows Mobile 6’s default phone application has something similar, you can now view the Call Log of a particular contact, right down to how many minutes were for incoming and outgoing calls. And if you want to send a text message or email, just tap the corresponding data and (if you have set up your phone properly), it will bring you to the appropriate application to do your composing. Having all these data would not be useful if you could not find them easily and quickly. Which is where the Search function comes in. What’s great is that you can choose how to search, be it only appointments or contacts or both journals and notes. There are even parameters like date and privacy that you can toggle. The Search feature is available in almost every View so you could search for a particular contact instead of scrolling down the list. But in situations where you need to search across several views (features), you will find that this feature is a great one. One useful feature I just found out with this version is that of Soundex. Basically, this searches for similar sounding terms in contacts. So if you were looking for Smith but you had saved it as Smyth, it would bring up that result as well. Too bad I am not able to search for free time. Other Useful Features While the views/features highlighted above already makes PI8 stand out, there are a few others worth mentioning as well. Time Bars These are the bars that you see at the top of Day/Week view as well as those bars in the middle of the box in Month view. It actually gives you a glimpse of the activity status for the day. For example, in the Day/Week view, it actually shows which hours you are looking at with the bolded lines at the end of each representing the start and end of your work hours. The middle bold line stands for noon. In Month view, the top bar represents AM while the bottom, PM. With that in mind, you get a graphical representation of how packed your day is and what activities you have in store. While I use the default (Free, Busy, Out of Office, etc), you could customize this to your schedule for even better management. Time Zones Ever had an appointment in another timezone and not sure how to enter that appointment’s details? Well PI8 makes it easy for you. Just set the appointment in the timezone it’s in but before you hit save, make sure you change the timezone which is located towards the bottom. Once done, you will see the appointment in your timezone but when you head over there and switch the timezones on your device, it will automatically be updated. For example, if I am in a -5hr timezone and I set an appointment for 11am at a -8hr timezone, it will show that the time for that appointment starts at 8am. When you switch to the -8hr timezone, it will change back to 11am. Not to worry about confusion because it will be formatted differently. One Hand Use (Touch Mode) It’s all the rage right now and WebIs has also incorporated that into PI8. You can enable scrolling (they call it Touch Mode) in any or all the views so that instead of using the scroll bars, you can just scroll across the entries like you would on an iPhone. It’s pretty smooth and you can familiarized (and enjoy it) very quickly as well. Entering time How about entering numbers? Well when you have numpads as big as those, how difficult can it be to enter them with your thumb? This numpad comes up when you have to enter the time in appointments, which is really useful. Selecting dates can be a little bit trickier though but still doable with the finger. Linking You don’t usually have appointments with strangers do you? You tend to know the person you are meeting with, even if they are your clients. Which means, you would have their contacts. Now imagine you are setting up a lunch meeting with them. You can now link their contact details to that appointment so that when you look at your appointments, you can contact those involved easily. Weekly Planning That’s what WebIs calls it but it consists of Daily Notes, Mission Statements, Goals and Compass/Roles. This is a nice touch for those of us try to accomplish certain tasks or who just want to keep track of progress. That’s where Daily Notes come in. It’s like a Journal entry where you could write just about anything that happened to you that day. Mission Statements and Values are phrases that you enter to help you remind yourself what you belief in in times where you are faced with a conflicting situation. With Goals, you can set one up and add the steps needed to accomplish it. You can even set up appointments and tasks to go hand in hand with your goal. Compass/Roles are based on the 7 Highly Effective Habits so if you practice this, it would definitely come in handy. While one may argue that these features are what you can already do with the rest of PI8, for example Goals could be handled with Tasks, I feel that having them in a separate category is a nice touch where you can just focus on it. At the end of the day, it’s your PIM so use it in the way that works best for you. Templates/Macros Macros Sometimes you have very similar data to enter. This could be a tasks that happens every now and then or a certain type of appointment. With templates and macros, you can quickly fill up these data. Just set it up once and the next time you need to create one, you’ll find that it can be done very quickly. Online Update You already know that this application is updated pretty regularly but how can you keep track of it? One way is by using the integrated upgrade check. It connects to the site and checks to see if there is a newer version available. If there is, it advises you to download and install it. If not, it will let you know as well. No more having to check back at the website to see if you are running the latest. There Are Others As Well These are not the only features that PI8 offers. In fact, there a lot more than what has been mentioned in this review. If you are interested to find out more, just head over here here. Summary What I Like What Could Be Improved Conclusion As you can tell, I really love Pocket Informant. I have been using it since I started using a Pocket PC and it’s served me really well. When you consider how much it cost to buy an Outlook License (about $90 on Amazon.com), the $29.95 that you are paying for a license of Pocket Informant is actually a steal. On top of that, you can do a whole lot more with Pocket Informant that you possibly could with Outlook on your desktop. We all got ourselves a Pocket PC because one of the reasons (or the only reason) was to better manage our lives right? Then this is the application that helps you do just that. Your PIM should be linked for better usage and that’s just Pocket Informant does. Give it a trial if you are not convinced. Those who already are can spend the $29.95 to get a license here. The Safest Way To Flash Your ROM From SD CardFonte: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/EtenBlogDotCom/~3/254681930/ de Tariq Bamadhaj So far, we know that there is only 1 way to flash your ROM from the SD Card of which I have written a guide here. However, that method is rather risky in a sense that if you were to load a ROM that was not meant for your device, you would brick it. This has happened many times as users tried to flash their Glofiish X500+ ROM with a Glofiish X500 ROM. To fix this problem, you could follow the steps here to unbrick your device. However, wouldn’t it be better if the device prevented you from using a ROM that was not meant for it in the first place? Step By Step Well, that is now possible. Actually it was possible from a long time ago, just that we did not know about it. So what is the safest way to flash a new ROM to your device using SD card? 1. Using a normal SD card of at least 512MB in capacity and formatted in FAT (also known as FAT16), place the temp.bin file in it. If the file extracted is temp.dat, change it to temp.bin before transferring. 2. Place a file called USBDLUpdate_Console.exe in the SD card as well. You should now have 2 (and only 2) files in the SD card:USBDLUpdate_Console.exe and temp.bin. 3. Put the card into your device and navigate to a file explorer of your choice. 4. Tap on USBDLUpdate_Console.exe to let the update begin and let it run. 5. It is completed when you see the words Waiting For USB Connection (or something similar). 6. The update was done successfully and in the safest way possible. The Reason Behind It USBDLUpdate_Console.exe is a Soft Bootloader that is loaded into the RAM when you do a ROM upgrade that Eten had planned for you (the one where you connect your device to the computer and run the .exe ROM on it). This application kills Windows Mobile (temporarily) so that the upgrade process can take place. It will prevent you from flashing your device with a ROM that was not meant for it (be it official or not). When you follow the steps to flash your ROM using bootloader mode (which is most probably what you have been doing up till now), the device will read from any .bin file in there, regardless of its name. This means, even if you put a file with the name eten.bin, it will attempt to (and will successfully) update the device with that file. It ignores the USBDLUpdate_Console.exe file that you have placed in the SD card because it is not activated which means your device is ‘open’. So What Should I Use? To be on the safe side when flashing a cooked ROM, use this method. In the highly unlikely event that the ROM was messed up by the developer, you’ll know that your device will not proceed with the upgrade. If this method does not allow you to flash your device with the new ROM AND you know that this ROM was meant for your device, then you can go ahead and use the bootloader mode directly. But if you did that and later found out that it was the wrong ROM, then you will have to unbrick your device using these steps. If that still doesn’t solve your problems, looks like you’ll have to send it in for repair. Some Things To Clear Up Thanks to the-equinoxe from Eten Users Forum for this tip. Turn Your Pocket PC Into An FTP ServerFonte: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/EtenBlogDotCom/~3/258733133/ de Tariq Bamadhaj How do you transfer files between your computer and your Pocket PC? There are quite a few ways, depending on the situation right? For one, you could use the Explorer function when you are connected via ActiveSync. Or if you are using a remote program like SOTI’s Pocket Controller, you can use their File Explorer application as well. But what if you do not want to use ActiveSync you ask? Well, you could always use WM5Storage (currently at v1.8). While this does not require an ActiveSync, you are connected at USB1.1 speeds and through a wire. Would you prefer a wireless option and faster rate? If you say yes, then here is one option that you might want to look into: MochaSoft FTP Server for Windows Mobile. It used to be a commercial software but you can now download it for free. Don’t be worried if you see the registration screen because you can register it using the following username and password: Those credentials are given by the company, in case you are wondering, in this page which describes it’s features. So how does this application fare? Do you need it? Finding The Application Well before we go into the gist of the application, here is a problem which you might face when getting the application. When you follow the link above which describes the software, you will notice a download button at the end of the page. Click on it and you will be taken to another page which is where you can get the software. Now here is where the fun begins. I scrolled to the second table, the one that says Product (with touch screen) because I am using a Pocket PC but I could not find anything remotely connected to FTP there. I though it had a different name so I proceeded to download and install all 3 applications that you see in that table. Unfortunately, none of the applications were the ones I was looking for. So where is the application you ask? Well it’s actually found in the last row on the third table (with the heading Older Pocket PC devices (with touch screen)) with the name Mocha FTP Server, Pocket PC 200x or Windows Mobile. Released as freeware. That is the application you want to download. First Look When you first launch the software, you see a screen like the one above, making you assume that it’s a commercial software. Well it used to be but you can now get it free. Go ahead and click Trial if you want to use it or Register to register the product. You can use the following credentials to get your free (legal) copy: Once passed that screen, you will the next screen above. This shows you the status of the FTP server, which is run by your Pocket PC. The I.P. Address is the one that you want to take note of because that is what you will want to key into your browser (be it Firefox, Internet Explorer or any other browser of your fancy). To get started quickly, you will type the following into the address bar of your browser: ftp://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx where you replace the x with your IP address. Using my screen shot as an example, I would type in ftp://192.168.1.44 and hit enter. You will then be presented with a web page that looks like something below: Don’t be alarmed, that’s the normal way an FTP server will list it’s files (unless it’s modified). That same file directory is the one that you would see if you were connected to your Pocket PC via ActiveSync or any other file browsing application. You can practically access (and transfer to your PC) any file on your Pocket PC from that screen, be in /Windows/ folder or those found in your storage card. Is It Safe? So that’s the number 1 question on your mind? Not to worry. By default, anonymous logins are enable, meaning anyone can access your Pocket PC if they know the IP address to connect to. User configuration screen You can change this setting by going to File > Settings, and under the Users tab, make sure that the check box beside Allow anonymous login is empty (that is no tick). If you do that, anyone who wants to connect to your Pocket PC FTP server would need login credential and you can create one by tapping on Add and filling up the form. You can even grant access rights, that means whether you want the user to only be able to read the files on your device or read and write files to your device. Network tab The other 2 tabs (Network and Other) are not important and can be left as is. If you are facing problems with connections, look here to change some settings as that could be the cause of the problem. Can I Copy Files To The Pocket PC? Yes, but not through your browser. Remember, this is an FTP server application that you are running so it supports the standard FTP commands. To copy files to your Pocket PC, you will need an FTP client. The one I am using in this example is FileZilla which you can download for free. After installing FileZilla, launch the application and go to File > Site Manager to set up the connection. A box similar to the one below will pop up: Click New Sites and then enter a name for that site. I called mine Pocket PC. Here are the options that you will need to change: If you allowed anonymous connections, you can click connect and transfer away. If you did not, then you will need to make some more changes: Once done, click connect. If you get an error, check your settings as something you entered must be wrong. So now that you get the directory of your Pocket PC on the right window and your PC on the left, you can easily transfer files between the 2 devices just as easily and quickly. What Else Can I Use This For? Well, because this is an FTP server, your device can be really useful in some instances. Like if you want to share files with your friends, you no longer need to send them via Bluetooth. Just fire up this application and give your friends your I.P. address and you can transfer your files to a maximum of 25 friends at one time. How’s that for file sharing? This is just one of the ways you could use this application. I am sure you can think of more useful instances based on your situation. Why Should I Use This? Well I have already covered some really good reasons but there are a few others why you would want to have this application. For one, it keeps the connection alive. Unlike other applications that allows wireless file transfer (like Total Commander’s FTP feature), this one keeps the connection and device alive as long as it is running. With Total Commander, my device goes into standby after 2 minutes (the time which I set on my Power Settings) and as such, I have to keep an eye on it. With this application, I could turn it on, leave it to transfer files between my PC and Pocket PC and go off to do something else without worrying about the connection being cut. It also has a security timer which automatically cuts off inactive sessions which makes it safer for you to operate. What other reasons do you need to use this application? What I Like About The Program What Could Be Improved Conclusion If you are constantly transferring between files between your PC and Pocket PC or even among friends, this is an application that you will want to install. It’s free and has a very small footprint but it makes your file transferring process a lot easier and faster. If you have to download it, you can do so here. What are your experiences with this application? Browsing The Web With SkyfireFonte: http://www.etenblog.com/2008/03/28/browsing-the-web-with-skyfire/
There were a lot of hype about the Skyfire browser when it was first announced at WMC ‘08 last month and many were eager to get onto the limited beta. I was one such person. But I was not in the first round (or first few rounds for that matter) of the beta and so had to be contented with the reviews made by those who were lucky enough to get into the beta. Well, earlier this week my luck finally changed and I was finally allowed in. I downloaded my Skyfire beta and set off to see if this really was the browser that would save Windows Mobile. Intro There could be several versions of Skyfire out there since it’s released, or there could be only one. I am not sure on that. But what I am sure is that for this review, I am running version 0.55.0.3812. For those interested, it’s free to join the beta, the only requirement is that you must register with a US mobile number here. I am not sure why it’s only limited to those in the US but the only way you can download the browser is through a text message that they will send you when you get accepted. While it says that you also need an unlimited data plan, you could also surf with a WiFi connection if you choose. First Look Installation was rather straightforward and after that, you would need to setup an account with a username (the email that you used for beta sign up) and a password. The reason for this is because of how Skyfire works. Rather than dealing directly with the website which is what you get on Pocket Internet Explorer, your data is routed through Skyfire’s servers where it is rendered for your device. Thus the need to log onto the system. Many have raised concerns over their private data being handled this way but Skyfire has assured that the data is heavily encrypted and there should be no cause for concern as the company handles data in the strictest confidential. Let’s just hope no hacker breaks into their system and steals our data.
Starting up Skyfire… What I have noticed during startup is that it is rather slow. This is most probably due to the authentication that happens on every run. Unlike Opera Mini where you might need to manually allow the application to run, Skyfire does this automatically. Which makes it appears to have a rather slow start up. But once it’s all done, you will be greeted with the screen below where you can start surfing.
Usage & Handling
How it looks like zoomed out For the uninitiated, Skyfire works very similar to Opera Mini. You visit a site and you get a zoomed out version of the site. Tap on a region of the site that you want to visit and it zooms in on that area. Not the region you want? Then zoom out and tap another region. So far so good right? Well here are some observations. Page Rendering Speed Skyfire claims to be the fastest browser out there for Windows Mobile. I am not too sure how true that is because I am not able to compare it side by side. However, when you consider that pages are rendered on their server and then transferred to your device, it would make sense that it is faster than Opera Mini which renders the page on your device when it first loads. However, that is where the claim stops because each zoom in or out on the Skyfire requires data to be transferred back and forth between server and device and this is significantly slower when you compare to Opera Mini. Not only that, you can imagine the amount of bandwidth that Skyfire consumes due to the way it operates. It’s no wonder they advice you to be on an unlimited data connection! Readability
Without SmartFit Pages rendered in Skyfire where a pleasure. Note that because your device is now seen as a desktop browser to the sites you are visiting, you will be getting the full version of it. Which in some cases could mean that the words may flow out of view and you would have to scroll left and right on top of up and down to read an article. But Skyfire has a useful solution for you. By activating Smart Fit which is found in Settings, the page is rendered so that it fully fits your view and the only scrolling you need to do it up and down. I found this to be really useful when reading news from sites like BBC and New York Times.
However, I would recommend that you do not scroll too fast. That’s because the page needs to render and if you do, chances are the text will become blur before they come into focus shortly or you will get a checkerboard effect which means the server has not sent you the page yet (which it will come to shortly). This seems to suggest that Skyfire is useful for reading articles but not so much so when you are just skimming through a site. Supports Multiple Formats Including Videos
Browsing Gmail This is one of the strengths of Skyfire. It seems to support a whole host of page formats from the basic HTML to even AJAX. The above is a screen shot of my Gmail account when viewed from Skyfire. Pretty cool eh? And the best part is, it works. That means I could click on the link or even use the checkboxes to navigate and manage my Gmail.
Browsing YouTube That’s not all. It also supports the main YouTube site natively. That means you could be surfing the site, just like you would on your desktop. Click on a video to watch and it loads AND plays natively inside Skyfire. You can even adjust the sound if it’s too loud or soft. No longer do you need to use the YouTube hack to play it’s videos in Windows Mobile. Was this really the browser I was looking for? Well not quite. While it could render a lot more page formats, it still fell short when it came to internet banking. This, however, is on a case by case basis and depends on how your bank sets up its banking portal. In my case, 2 of the internet banking sites that did not work properly with PIE/Opera Mini worked great with Skyfire but 1 of them did not allow me to enter any details, making Skyfire unusable in this instance. No SIP Switching Option On thing that bothered me about Skyfire is the fact that I cannot change SIPs from within the program. I can’t even call out the SIP when I want to. This is really bad because some SIPs that allow you to create a word before placing it in the text field (like HTC’s PhonePad and CooTek’s TouchPal) will not work properly with Skyfire. You have to enter one character and tap enter in between each character if you want to use such SIPs. Troublesome don’t you think? Which brings me to my second rant on being able to choose SIPs. If my usual SIP does not work, shouldn’t I be ale to change it from within the program? Apparently not in Skyfire. That means I have to exit the program, switch SIPs and then launch Skyfire (slowly) again. All this could have been avoided if I were allowed to switch SIPs inside Skyfire. What I Like About It
What Could Be Improved
Conclusion All in all, I think Skyfire has a lot of potential. It’s slow in some areas which I hope that they can work on to speed up and fast in others. The fact that it supports a lot of formats and even plays videos is a really nice feature. The zooming in and out can be rather troublesome in the beginning but after a while, one can definitely get used to it. It’s unclear how long this beta is going to continue or when the browser will be officially launched. At the moment, it is still a very rough diamond but if it’s cut properly, Skyfire can definitely be the browser that saves Windows Mobile and bring back surfing the internet to it. Have you used Skyfire? What are your experiences with it? Tags: free software iNAVI K2, Um Navegador GPS com Mapas em 3DFonte: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/digitaldrops/~3/259620247/inavi_k2_um_navegador_gps_com.html de nick@digitaldrops.com.br (Nick F. Ellis) A empresa Coreana Thinkware apresenta o iNAVI K2, um navegador GPS que se destaca da concorrência porque tem mapas com prédios em 3D! Ele é uma evolução do modelo iNAVI G1, e vem com um cartão de memória SDHC de 8 GB, 256 MB de RAM e uma tela LCD de 4.8” com resolução de 800 x 480 pixels. O iNAVI K2 também tem um sensor geomagnético (G-Sensor) de 3 eixos que detecta o norte e calcula a direção do seu carro! O sistema de navegação também traz informações completas sobre a direção das ruas, é claro. Além de ser um GPS, o iNAVI K2 também tem receptor para TV DMB, player de vídeo, fotos e MP3, leitor de e-books e mais. O iNAVI K2 deve ser vendido pelo equivalente a US$ 550 na Coréia do Sul. Infelizmente ele não deve ser vendido em outros países, muito menos aqui no Brasil. Leia também: iNavi G1, um GPS com Mapas em 3D, Receptor DMB e Karaokê. Via AVING e Navigadget. Clique abaixo para ver outras imagens. Review: Extreme AgendaFonte: http://www.mytodayscreen.com/review-extreme-agenda/ I have been trying to review Extreme Agenda for Windows Mobile Professional almost since its initial release several months ago. This is a review which, quite frankly, has been giving me fits because it has been so difficult to write. Not because of anything in the program. In fact, as we will discuss, it is really a great program, which I have been eager to write about. The difficulty I have been experiencing is based upon Birdsoft’s insane development schedule. You see, every time I planned to start the review, I would get an email from Birdsoft telling me about the new features to be included in the next upgrade. Since I started reviewing it, they have had something like a dozen upgrades (OK, maybe that was a slight exaggeration), all of them with extremely worthwhile features. I finally found a way to defeat this problem, however, by convincing Birdsoft to give me an advance copy of the next version. As such, this review is based on the upcoming version 3.25.
OVERVIEW A little history: When I first learned of Extreme Agenda a few months ago, my first thought was that Birdsoft was way behind the curve. Here they were, the newcomer in a world of established giants like Pocket Informant and AgendaFusion/Agenda One. How could they possibly hope to survive? Well, a post on Birdsoft’s blog put their position into a bit better perspective. Development actually started in 2001 with a student planner called, “The Dog Ate It”. At that point, Birdsoft started investigating development of a full fledged PIM, but just let the idea fizzle. In their words:
In June 2003, Birdsoft released Ulti-Planner, but by that time, the newcomer was the latecomer. The PIM wars had begun, and all Birdsoft could do was hope to stay out of the crossfire. Birdsoft tried their best, however, becoming the “cheap” alternative, with no upgrade costs. Even this, however, was too little too late. The real hammer for Ulti-Planner, however, was Windows Mobile 5. At the time, Birdsoft simply did not have the resources to convert it for the new Operating System in time to keep up with the others. Ulti-planner languished for some time before Birdsoft picked up development again, converting it into a non-touch screen application. Just on the verge of completion, however, development simply stopped. Again, in their words:
So, it was not until June 2006, well after the market had been established, that Ulti-Planner, now renamed Extreme Agenda, was released for the Smartphone. Finally, in 2007, Extreme Agenda came full circle, landing where it was originally intended in 2003, on the Windows Mobile Professional platform. With this background in mind, we can turn our attention to Extreme Agenda 3.25 (Versions 1 and 2 were not released for touch screen devices.)
The Extreme Spinner: Every PIM application I have used or reviewed lately includes some finger friendly method of jumping between views. They are all nice and easy to use, but none of them are as much fun as the Extreme Spinner. The Spinner consists of eight items, arranged in a circle. Simply grab the one you want and spin it to the red box. From there, you can just tap the icon to jump directly to the selected view. The best feature of the spinner, however, is that it is fully customizable. Any of the eight items in the default view (Today, Week, Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, Wallet, Search, and Notes) , can be replaced with:
Heck, even the background colors of the spinner are fully customizable. Right off the bat, this makes Extreme Agenda stand out from the myriad of other (even more established) PIM programs. I have never used another PIM whose view selection contained such limitless possibilities. Usually, you are faced with either a fixed arrangement of buttons, or a menu of buttons from which to choose. The ability to add shortcuts, contacts, and URL’s makes the Extreme Agenda Spinner one of the easiest ways to access information from anywhere on your device. In fact, I found it to be so useful, I have encouraged Birdsoft repeatedly to tweak this spinner and develop it as a standalone Today Screen Plug-In. Memory: With a few exceptions, Windows Mobile devices offer notoriously poor memory resources. By the time all of the “necessary” items are up and running on my Mogul, for example, I typically have between 15 and 20 MBs of program memory left. As such, every little bit counts, and PIM programs are notoriously memory hungry. When I reviewed Pocket Informant 8 over at Just Another Mobile Monday, I fawned over the fact that Pocket Informant’s memory footprint had dropped from 3.145 MBs to only 2.27 MBs. As such, you can imagine my amazement when I found that Extreme Agenda required only 1.31 MBs of program memory, by far the smallest and lightest PIM program I have ever used. Integration: Of course, no programs operate in a vacuum. Most of us have a myriad of different programs on our devices, some of which work well together and others do not. One of the most popular and useful programs to come to the Windows Mobile platform lately has been Mobile Shell from Spb Software House. Mobile Shell offered a completely new way to interact with your device. Among other fantastic features, it offered complete integration with a variety of programs, I activated the integration and found that it worked flawlessly. The first thing it does is place all of the Extreme Agenda Views into the Organizer on the Mobile Shell Launcher Panel. Thus, directly from the Launcher Panel, you can access the Extreme Spinner, Calendar, Tasks, Wallet, Contacts, and Projects. You can even create a new appointment or task. Perfect. More important than that, however, is the integration between Extreme Agenda and the Now Screen Panel. When you use the professional view (or display appointments in the classic view), all of the calendar functions are tied directly into Extreme Agenda, completely replacing Pocket Outlook. I was impressed by how well Extreme Agenda implemented this feature, but I was more impressed by the way they jumped to the front of the pack. Frustrated Mobile Shell users looking to replace Pocket Outlook need search no further than Extreme Agenda for the full integration they so desperately seek. Views and Interface
Creating New Entries: As much as I enjoyed using Extreme Agenda to keep track of my appointments, tasks, and other personal information, I found creating new entries (appointments and tasks) and editing existing ones to be extremely unappealing. The interface design, which consists of a sequence of text entry fields, each of which jumps to a new screen, clearly betrays this program’s origin as a non-touch screen program. The design and layout of these screens, like other parts of the program, simply never felt like it fit on my Windows Mobile 6 Professional device. I really hope this will be redesigned to be laid out in a more natural fashion, which would fit the design of a touch screen device, while still being accessible to non-touch screen users. Specifically, there is no need to jump between screens. This information should all be contained and entered on the same screen. This is easily accomplished if the program utilizes a single screen, form layout, rather than a list of fields. Of course, this is not to say that the text entry is a complete mess. On the contrary, I really like Extreme Agenda, however, I thought that in order to best compete with some of the bigger programs, these screens could have been easier to use and more intuitive, without switching between multiple screen each time you need to make an entry.
Calendar: Once you have entered your information, it is time to get going. The heart — some might event say the command center — of any PIM is the calendar. The main purpose of these programs is to tell you what you have to do next, and on into the future. In order to replace all of your paper and pencil solutions, they must be able to show a myriad of different views. A good PIM can quickly and easily recreate any organizational structure you might devise (within reason, of course). I felt Extreme Agenda really excelled in this department. Starting with the full month view, it is easy to look ahead to determine your schedule for long term planning purposes. At a glance, you can easily tell which days have appointments with the timeline in each calendar box. Birthdays and other special events are also denoted with an appropriate icon. Weekends are colored in blue, while the current day is green. This makes it extremely easy to orient yourself.
The single day view shows an expanded view of all of the activities for the day. It is color coded to show whether an item is a special event, holiday, or appointment. The day’s events are arranged chronologically, with all day events at the beginning. This makes it easy to move through your day, while keeping an eye on what is coming up next. The only thing I did not like about this view was that it does not show any empty periods of time, and each appointment or event is the same size. While this makes it easy to fit all or most of the day’s information on a single screen, it also means there is no perspective. You cannot tell at a glance which appointments are longer or how much time there is between appointments. As such, I prefer a single day view which displays the entire day, including empty spaces, broken into 30 minute increments (at a minimum, this should have been an option). In this way, a longer appointment will utilize additional 30 minute increments, making it larger on the screen. Likewise, you can easily tell how much time there is between appointments, so you can plan which errands to run between meetings, or squeeze in some time for lunch. Sure, this display would require you to scroll through the day more, but this is a small tradeoff for the perspective it provides.
Of course, the compromise between the month view and day view is the week view, or seven day view. This is the view I used most often, because it allows you to see far enough into the future, while also giving you a nice overview of each day’s events. Like I said, it is the perfect compromise between the previous two views. The selected day (usually today) will reside on top, utilizing the entire width of the screen. The next six days will then cascade down from there in two columns. The only thing I found was that it can be difficult to scroll from one week to the next in this view. You can use the D-pad, however, this is not an option which will generally occur to a lot of touch screen users. There should be a more obvious on-screen control to jump from one week to the next.
As an alternative, you can also view the week’s events in the bar week view. This will show each day in the week, with a timeline showing which periods of time are scheduled. While I really like this type of view, I found it a little hard to follow. For one thing, while the timeline bars were color coded by the type of activity, they were not color coded by category. Separation of events or coding by category would have made this view significantly more useful. Additionally, while the screen is broken up by day, the days are not subdivided by time. This made it difficult to tell what time of day an appointment in the timeline view was scheduled, or how long it would last. These drawbacks are partially resolved by tapping on any day in this view. Doing so will bring up a dialogue beneath the calendar displaying the day’s events. While this helped, it still defeats the at-a-glance benefit of that this view should provide. The purpose of a seven day bar view should be to quickly identify how much time you are spending on a particular category, project, or activity during the week. This view, while useful in its own right, does not really accomplish this goal.
The final view is the dates view. This will cascade all of your upcoming appointments and events into a single list, which is organized by date. This can be useful to see everything you have coming up over the course of the next few days, however, it was not a view which I found myself using frequently.
Tasks: The task list is probably the area which I used the most, and it is also the area which I felt could have benefited from a slight redesign. While it did fucntion exactly what it was supposed to: displaying my tasks in an organized sequence, I was a bit disappointed by the feel of this screen. It is one of many areas in Extreme Agenda, which I felt betrayed the program’s roots as a non-touch screen program. While I felt it was easy to follow this screen, and the options allow for quite a bit of customization, it simply did not feel at home on a touch screen device. It has the look and feel of an interface designed to be accessed with hardware controls, not a touch screen. Double tap any task and you will be brought to the expanded view screen. I really did not find much use for this screen, however. Unless you have expanded notes to review, everything that can be done in this screen can also be done through the tap and hold context menu, which I found was much easier to access. Overall, while I found the tasks easy to use and navigate, I felt the interface should be redesigned to make it fit more comfortably on a touch screen device.
Contacts: The third piece of the PIM puzzle are contact, which I felt worked well enough in Extreme Agenda. Like many other areas in this program, it does not display a list of contacts, so much as a number of boxed fields, each of which contains a contact. In this case, unlike the tasks interface, this format seemed to work well for contacts. If there is a photo assigned to the contact, it will be displayed here as well.
Double tap any contact and you will be instantly taken to the expanded view for that specific contact. From here, you can call, email, text message, even IM with the contact. Although I found the interface to be less visually appealing than many address book and contact manager programs, I found the functionality was as good, if not better than any contact manager I have used on my device. It was easy to access the personal information for my contacts and I could quickly reach them in any manner I chose with just the tap of a single button. Many programs do not offer this kind of ease of use, and I really appreciated it in an all-in-one PIM program like Extreme Agenda.
Projects: Of course, while it is great to be able to manage your contacts, appointments and tasks, one of the things I have found in my professional life, is that my events rarely break themselves neatly into such categories. Frequently, I will undertake massive projects which involves numerous meetings, events, tasks, and other items. So, how can you keep this all organized and in one place? That is what Projects are for in Extreme Agenda. Simply create a project and you can link any contacts, appointments, or tasks (or even create sub-projects) within the project. This is a fantastic way of keeping your projects on task and moving in the right direction. And boy won’t that make your boss happy the next time you are up for a performance review or promotion.
Extreme Wallet: I have always thought that Personal Information Manager and Secure Information Manager (wallets) made perfect companions. Really, they both perform similar functions: organizing your important information. Yet, there has always been a wall of separation between the two. As such, I was incredibly pleased to find Birdsoft raising the first hammer and attacking this wall. Extreme Agenda is the only Personal Information Manager of which I am aware that includes a secure wallet component.
Compared with some of the other major secure wallet programs, Extreme Wallet may have been lacking some of the bells and whistles such as card backgrounds and intricate graphics, however, I found the basic functions and security to be extremely comparable. Although I initially missed it, I am glad that Birdsoft wrote to tell me that there is a desktop companion which can be downloaded for free by all registered users of Extreme Agenda. You can find it here: http://www.birdsoft.biz/extremewallet.htm. Since I completely missed it on their website, I did not have a chance to fully test it out, but I am sure it is built with the same attention to lightweight full functionality as the rest of the program.
Notes: I have to admit that I have never been one to use my PIM to make notes. If I wanted to write notes on my device, then I would probably use a more robust program like Evernote or PhatNotes. That being said, I found the notes were extremely easy to access and create. One thing I really liked about the Notes View is that it maintains the file structure on your device, making it easy to locate notes, no matter where you have stored them. To create a new note, simply give your note a name and then you can select from the myriad of templates. These templates are great because they offer templates for a number of the more common notes you might make, such as phone messages or to do lists. You can even choose a template which allows you to store your notes in MS Word format for transfer to your desktop computer. Other Features One of the great things about Extreme Agenda are the numerous “extras” which are included in the package. These features are not required in order to use the main features of the program, however, they can make the program considerably more enjoyable. These include gesture controls, Locate With Google Maps, and Auto Update.
Gesture Controls: One of the biggest features to hit the Pocket PC lately is gesture control. Everyone seems to be getting more finger flicking friendly, and the truth is: I love it. Extreme Agenda is no exception to this trend. Flick your finger to scroll from one week to the next, change appointment times, even scroll through long lists of contacts and tasks. The best use of gesture controls came in the date and time setting screens for appointments and tasks. Large blocks denote each number in the date or time. Flick your finger up to move forward, and down to move backward. This worked extremely well, and made setting the dates and times of my appointments easy and fun (well, at least more fun than watching paint dry). Although I really like gesture controls, and I think they fit well with the program, this I do think Birdsoft could focus more on this area to continue to improve the gesture controls. At times, they are inconsistent and did not work well. The same gesture might control different actions on different screens, while different gestures might control the same action. At times it almost seems haphazard and there were some gestures which I was simply fortunate enough to stumble upon. At the same time, the sensitivity of the gestures is also inconsistent. On some screens, a tiny swipe sends things scrolling away, on others, it took a long slow drag to make anything happen. I love the idea of finger gesture controls in this program and Birdsoft is certainly heading in the right direction, however, the implementation is less than adequate. This is one area, however, which I am certain will continue to be improved in future versions of the program.
Locate With Google Maps: You are in a strange city, trying to find you associate’s office. All of the streets are one way in the wrong direction, and you have no idea where you are. You’re ten minutes from the meeting time and completely lost. You could call…but how would that look to your new boss? What to do? I suppose you could just go ahead and slink on home. Kiss that promotion goodbye. Well, Extreme Agenda offers a new option, Locate With Google Maps. Assuming you have downloaded the free Google Maps application to your device, you can simply tap this button from with your contact card and almost instantly you will be looking at a map of the area, centered on your contact’s address. This is one of my favorite features of Extreme Agenda, and it is one I have never seen in another PIM program. The only problem is that it works only with contacts. I wish it would work with appointments as well, so that I could find the location of a meeting by simply opening the appointment information. This is a rather small complaint, however, for a feature which simply blew my mind the first time I saw it. Auto Update: As I mentioned, earlier, Birdsoft might as well be a coding machine. No sooner have I loaded one version, than he is already prepping me for the next update. Fortunately for me, and all users, this minor (but feature packed) upgrades are all free. No only that, they are relatively easy to find an install using the auto update feature. The hardest part about upgrading, in fact, was simply finding the auto-upgrade feature, which is buried deep within the menus. To access it, go into the options, and then tap Menu again from the options. There, you will find the Check for Updates feature. This really should have been more accessible and easier to find. As much as I enjoy the ease of simply downloading the new update directly from my device, many users will likely never stumble upon it. I hope Birdsoft moves it to a significantly more visible location. Conclusion: Anytime you look at an industry with an established powerhouse, it is easy to scoff at the apparent newcomer. And I will admit, the first time I saw Extreme Agenda, I expected it to fall well short of my experiences with Pocket Informant and Agenda Fusion. I was wrong…and, frankly, I was impressed. Extreme Agenda is every bit as powerful and feature rich as the most powerful PIM programs, and has the added bonus of the Extreme Spinner and Extreme Wallet, two features which really make this program stand out among the more established competition. Sure, there is room for improvement, but that only means the company will have more great things to come. What I Like: Extremely feature rich PIM. Includes built in secure wallet. Locate With Google Maps is a real bonus. I love (love) the Extreme Spinner. What Needs Improvement: Check for Updates is buried in the menus, Gestures are inconsistent and do not work well. Interface has a distinctively non-touch screen feel to it. Vital Stats: Name: Extreme Agenda Version: 3.25 Beta Developer: Birdsoft Trial: 10 days Price: $24.95 |
No último mês de fevereiro, o Google anunciou a disponibilidade de uma 
Segundo Garett Rogers, do blog 
including replacing your device’s reliance upon Pocket Outlook with your selected PIM (as long as it was 
To see an expanded view of any day, just tap to highlight it. This will bring a list of the days’ events and tasks into the lower third of the screen. Heck, if it will help, you can even choose to show the next month’s calendar in the lower right corner. Double tapping on any date on the calendar will open the single day view. 
In order to access the secure wallet, you will need to enter the password (which you create when you open a new wallet file). From there, you will have access to a myriad of different card templates, including most major credit cards, software registration cards, website and passwords cards, and many more. Each card has entry fields which are specifically tailored to the necessary content. 
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