by Frank McPherson, author of How To Do Everything With Windows Mobile

 
I think one of the longest debates tied to Windows Mobile is the price of the software for the device. I noticed that when the iPhone App Store first appeared it seemed the average price per app was $10, though there are exceptions.

For the most part I think the sweet spot of Windows Mobile software has been $20. Now that eWallet is available on the App Store I see the price for it is $9.99. As this is one of the first Windows Mobile apps that I know of to cross over, I am curious on what the affect on the pricing for Windows Mobile software.

I wrote a comment on Ilium's blog asking their point of view on the price difference between the Win Mo version, $19.99 and iPhone. It is going to be a interesting debate.

Labels: 2008, software

posted by Frank at 12:06 PM 0 comments Links to this post

 
Until now, the only way to access the most Facebook features on a Windows Mobile device is to use Internet Explorer and the Facebook mobile web site. Today I have learned about a new Facebook app called FriendMobilizer that does more than just upload pictures, you can use it to access the majority of Facebook features. I haven't checked it out yet, but I will soon.

Labels: 2008, software

posted by Frank at 8:33 PM 0 comments Links to this post

 
Another web browser has become available for Windows Mobile Professional devices. TouchBrowser from Makayama is mimicing many of the features of Safari on the iPhone. Check out the YouTube video, it looks interesting but it is too bad they don't have a trial version to download.

Labels: 2008, software

posted by Frank at 10:01 PM 0 comments Links to this post

 
One thing that I lost when I gave up the Blackberry and switched to Windows Mobile was the ability to have custom alerts for email from specific users. By default a Blackberry either vibrates or plays a sound whenever you receive an email. I immediately found that behavior annoying and I turned off those notifications, however the downside is that then I may miss an important email.

A co-worker showed me how I could create rules using the Blackberry desktop software so that I could have the Blackberry vibrate whenever I received an email from a specific person. I therefore created rules to vibrate when I received emails from my boss, or when I received emails flagged for high importance.

Unfortunately, Windows Mobile does not have a similar feature built-in. You can configure text messages and email separately, and I played around with creating rules to have Exchange send me a text message whenever I received an email from a specific address, but I couldn't figure out a way to either not forward the entire message to my phone or not send a copy of the text message to the person who originally sent me the email.

Watchflag is a new program for Windows Mobile that provides the ability to create custom alerts for email messages. You can create rules that alert you for email received from specific addresses, or with certain words in the From field, and you can create rules that have certain words in the subject. The rules can also be specific to whether you receive email marked for high importance.

Watchflag provides several different alert options, including Light Up The Screen, Wait For Acknowledgement with or without a repeating alert, Vibrate, light the LED, or play a sound. You can define different sounds for different rules, and the sounds can be MP3 files in the /My Documents/My Music folder on the device. One thing I think the program should do is use the /My Documents/Ringtones folder for alerts as well since ringtones are usually smaller in length. The program also doesn't provide a way to only make rules active during specific times, though the program's author has stated this is a feature they plan to add.

I've been using this program for about a week now and have been pleased with the results. It does seem as though there is a small hit on battery life, which the program author acknowledges particularly if you have rules including Wait For Acknowledgement, which I have found seems to be needed to be sure you actually notice a vibrating alert. If you transitioned to Windows Mobile from Blackberry you might want to try this program out!

Labels: 2008, software

posted by Frank at 6:33 PM 0 comments Links to this post

 
Yesterday I wrote about TrueConnect and how I discovered it could be used to copy and paste information from eWallet on my Pocket PC to my desktop computer. Wingman wrote a comment asking if I had tried MyMobiler, which I did not know about. One big benefit it has over TrueConnect is that it is free. Another big benefit is that it supports IP-based connectivity, meaning that you can connect the Pocket PC to a desktop computer using a LAN connection like Wi-Fi. It doesn't support connections via ActiveSync & Bluetooth, but a posting in the forums suggests that it works with Bluetooth PAN connections, which I have to try.

MyMobiler also has a built-in Explorer for transferring files and a skin that includes buttons for quickly accessing Messaging, Contacts, and more on the Pocket PC. I assume that the skin can be changed, which I may consider doing if I keep using this program because the icons are a light gray that is a bit hard to see on the black background.

The negatives of MyMobiler versus TrueConnect is that it doesn't have integration with SMS, so you can't use it to send SMS messages from Outlook. For me I find that to not be a required feature of TrueConnect, and I think there are some other options to provide such functionality. MyMobiler also doesn't provide a button for enlarging the display, but I think that can be changed by editing a text file for settings. You can maximize the display which puts the Pocket PC window at the middle of the desktop and blanks out the background, which is useful for giving presentations.

The big negative for me for using MyMobiler is that it doesn't work well with eWallet. In eWallet you can tap and hold on the user name or password fields and tap copy in the pop-up menu to copy those items to the clipboard, which TrueConnect transfers to the Windows desktop clipboard. MyMobiler doesn't work with these pop-up options, instead I have to edit a card, select text, and then copy it to get it on the clipboard and over to the PC, which is many more steps that I would have to take over TrueConnect. I have posted a message on the forum at the MyMobiler web site to see whether the program author is willing make the program work with eWallet.

I'll be keeping my eye on the forum to see what type of response I get. Nevertheless, if you are looking for a way to connect your Pocket PC with a desktop computer for transfering information I can recommend that you check out MyMobiler.

Labels: 2008, software

posted by Frank at 8:36 PM 2 comments Links to this post

 
I've written often of how Ilium Software's eWallet is perhaps the most important Windows Mobile application for me. I use it to securely store all bits of information, particularly passwords, to the numerous web sites that I subscribe to. Most often I will find myself at a web site that I need to log in to, reaching for my Pocket PC to retrieve my user id and password for that site. When this happens I am reminded of something that I really wish I could to, which is to highlight text in a card, tap-and-hold and use Bluetooth to transfer the text over to my desktop PC precisely at the cursor location.

Yesterday I discovered a program called TrueConnect that brings my vision for sharing information between my handhelds and desktop PCs closer to reality. To use the software you connect a Windows Mobile device to a Windows PC and after the connection is made you can do one of two things. You can move the mouse cursor off the right edge of the screen (or any other edge depending on how you configure the software) and the cursor appears on the device, where you can then manipulate the device using the mouse and keyboard. Imagine using this feature with a Pocket PC sitting in a cradle right next to your computer, it allows you to manipulate the device without ever having take the Pocket PC out of the cradle.

Another feature that TrueConnect provides is to display the Pocket PC screen on your desktop computer, again you can operate the device using the keyboard and mouse on the desktop computer. You can enlarge the display even as large as the entire size of your computer monitor, though at full screen QVGA displays are pretty pixelated. The 2x enlargement is very legible and about the right size for a window on the screen. I tested the full size display using my Tablet PC in portrait mode and it was decent, and a bit funky manipulating the device using the Tablet PC stylus.

Now, here is the feature I really like. TrueConnect allows the sharing of clipboard contents between Pocket PCs and desktop computers. So, back to the beginning of this article I described my vision for squirting information between my device and computer, with TrueConnect I can highlight text, copy it to the clipboard, then move the cursor over to the browser window on my desktop and paste the content. With eWallet I click and hold the mouse (simulating tap and hold) on the user id and password fields on the Internet site cards and click copy user id or copy password in the context menu that pops up. (Unfortunately, this only works on Pocket PCs, or Windows Mobile Professional devices because SmartPhones, or Windows Mobile Standard devices do not have clipboards to support copy and paste, an odd lacking given how so many SmartPhones now come with QWERTY keyboards.)

My vision is not completely realized, unfortunately, because to use TrueConnect you must have the device physically connected using a USB cable. So far I have not seen any documentation saying that you can use Bluetooth, but given how Bluetooth connections are made for ActiveSync connections, it may be possible but I have not had time to test it out. Ideally I would like a tap and hold feature that would just send the text to the desktop and insert it without further interaction on my part, but I can live with copy and paste.

Labels: 2008, software

posted by Frank at 5:54 PM 1 comments Links to this post

 
In the Windows Mobile news this past week is an announcement that Microsoft will be including Zumobi with Windows Mobile, and I see the point. I've installed the beta for Zumobi on my T-Mobile Dash, and I fail to understand why someone would want the software. It provides a different way to browse through little applets, but it doesn't provide a way to actually browse your device. The software is a huge memory hog, requiring 10 MB to run, an almost impossibility on most Windows Mobile devices. I don't see how Zumobi makes browsing any easier and it doesn't include a compelling applet that makes it worth the memory hit.

Labels: 2008, software

posted by Frank at 10:53 AM 0 comments Links to this post