BostonPocketPC

After the announcements of Netfix, Best Buy and Wal-mart decision to only sell the Blu-ray products, Toshiba is giving up on their HD DVD players and recorders. However they will keep supporting their current customers with their HD DVD products.

It looks like the Blu-ray and HD DVD battle will be shorter as the battle we had with VHS and Betamax video tapes.

You can read more here

From all of us involved with BostonPocketPC.com and the Boston/New England Windows Mobile User and Developer Groups, we wish you a happy, safe and prosperous New Year. May 2008 bring you all joy and success!

January 1 also marks a special anniversary for us. Today marks the 6th birthday of BostonPocketPC.com. Every year I am amazed that another year has come and gone so quickly, and this past year is no exception. So much has happened in the Windows Mobile world in what seems like such a short period of time.

I would be remiss if not to once again thank all of those out there who have managed to keep us all going these past 6 years. Readers, writers, sponsors and friends have managed to keep someone with a sometimes short attention span to stay interested and enjoying this endeavor for all these years. My sincere hope is that Year 7 brings a renewed focus and energy to the web site.

I was just reminded of a feature available to the web site that many of our readers may not be aware of. If you use Windows Live Messenger, you may want to take advantage of our Windows Live Alerts functionality.

By simply clicking on the "Windows Live Alerts" graphic on the left side of our page, you can sign up to receive notifications whenever new posts are made to the BostonPocketPC.com web site. They appear in the same fashion as other Windows Live Alerts, and provide you with one-click access to the latest the BostonPocketPC.com has to offer.

Please consider giving it a try today!

Sorry to sound like an old PC game/TV series in the post title, but it is the only thing I could come up with at the moment

The last couple of months have been an extremely hectic period for me in both my professional and personal life. While I have managed to make it to our user group meetings, even that has been quite the undertakings. Business-related travel has been very good for my frequent flyer/traveler programs, and not so good for everything else.

What this all means is that unfortunately the site has had to suffer in recent weeks. I am working to change all of that and bring things back to a more "expected" standard for news, reviews and information. I ask that you be patient as this occurs. In addition, some very exciting changes will be happening in my life that will hopefully translate to an increase in my contributions to the Windows Mobile community. I cannot go into detail quite yet, but trust me - you'll know as soon as possible

Thanks go to everyone for your continued support!

After reading good friend Chris Leckness' post on MobilitySite yesterday, I could not help but think how well I could relate. Chris was apologetic for not being online much in the last couple of weeks for very well-justified reasons. I, too, have been neglect in posting for the last couple of weeks. Lots of business-related work and travel have left me with little time, and that has mostly been spent making up for absence with the family. I did, however, say "mostly".

In the teeny-tiny amount of free time remaining, I have been working behind the scenes to take our web site to the next level. Without going into too much detail just yet, I can say to prepare yourself for big changes ahead. Our goal - bring the community back into the interactive fold, with more discussions, more input and more content!

I should be able to let you in on more of this shortly (in the next several days). Hopefully, this post and the posts in the next couple of days will have you excited enough to stay close (and hopefully join the conversation).

Due to an unforseen work emergency I will be working late and won't be able to conduct the meeting tonight and Don is off in Toronto on business. We will make it up next month with a pretty good agenda with a mix of Developer and Enthusiast/Enterprise focus for the next meeting. We will nail out an agenda to fit both and post it up well in advance.

Again I am sorry for not being able to do this at the last minute, but we will make it up to next month! :)

If you are a Windows Live Alerts user, you might be happy to hear that you can now add BostonPocketPC.com to your Live Alerts! Windows Live Alerts will allow you to receive notifications of new posts here at BostonPocketPC.com. They can be sent to Windows Live Messenger, e-mail or your mobile device.

To sign up, simply go to our homepage in your desktop web browser. Directly under the RSS subscription on the left side of the page, you will see the Windows Live Alerts sign up. Click on it, and away you go!

CBS Corp. announced today that it has signed a new deal with Sling Media to create the CBS Interactive Audience Network along with several other significant companies including AOL, Microsoft, CNET Networks, Comcast, Joost, Bebo, Brightcove, Netvibes, and Veoh.   This announcement is set to position CBS as the most widely distributed professional content provider online. Can you say a move in the right direction?

Sling Media’s role will be to distribute free, ad supported, full length as well as clip-based video content from CBS via Clip+Sling and enhanced SlingPlayer software, which will be launched for both Slingbox and non-Slingbox customers this summer. In addition, Sling Media plans to integrate the same CBS content into additional platforms including its forthcoming SlingCatcher.

"We are excited to extend our business relationship with CBS by offering our current and future audiences access to great long form programming from CBS that covers the spectrum from drama and comedy to sports and news," said Jason Hirschhorn, president of the Sling Media Entertainment Group. "CBS is proving they are a leader in the digital media space by embracing new platforms for content distribution. The announcement is an example of true ubiquity as evidenced by the cast of both new and established partners. We are proud to be working with them on this endeavor."

I can see in the future other Viacom entertainment properties moving in this direction as well like MTV, Nickelodeon, VH1,etc. Content will not be no longer be available as live only, but this brings a whole another direction to place-shifting television and Video on Demand. I have been watching "On Demand" CBS content on my Comcast cable box and I am assuming the same content will also be available. Me and my wife were able to catch up on the whole series of Jericho (a season and a half)in a single weekend and we watched it in HD!  I can't wait to see more and via my Slingbox optimized for my Windows Mobile device no less!

First off - a Happy New Year to all of our readers around the world! Here in the Boston area, the new year greats us with - rain :( As a precursor to some additional post I will be making later today, I thought I would pass along information on the first feature we are able to implement as a result of our move to ASP.NET 2.0.

Using your mobile device, simply point your browser to http://www.bostonpocketpc.com. Mobile-friendly, here we come!

The news doesn't stop there, though. Thanks to ASP.NET 2.0's support for over 60 mobile browsers, you can view our site on just about any mobile device browser with Internet access.

None of this would be possible without the constant work of the folks involved in the DasBlog project. DasBlog is a blog/site authoring platform built for ASP.NET. We are actually using a derivative of DasBlog in ThinkJot, which runs under ASP.NET 2.0 and runs with medium trust. Taking the queue from Scott Hanselman's blog post on making DasBlog mobile-aware, I was able to incorporate the changes (NOTE: If you are a .NET developer and not reading Scott's blog or listening to his Hanselminutes podcast, then shame on you ).

I hope you enjoy this latest web site feature!

As we finish up 2006, I thought I would take a quick moment to sum up where we stand here at BostonPocketPC.com. As most of you know, we suffered technical difficulties that were compounded by some hosting provider "complications" (note: the provider issues are a long story best left for another time). As a result, some pretty significant changes have occurred -

1. We are now with an entirely different hosting provider (Orcsweb). These guys are, well, AWESOME. When we first encountered problems, I was actually more concerned about restoring e-mail access. I went to the folks at Orcsweb looking for help. Fifteen minutes later (that is not a misprint), we were configured and running.
2. We are running an entirely different set of technologies (ASP.NET). When I first went through the hosting selection process for BostonPocketPC.com back in November/December of 2001, ASP-based hosting was cost-prohibitive (I left the "Understatement of the Year" for the last day of the year). As a web site that has always been "out-of-pocket", I ended up choosing the most cost-effective solution. As a result, we were PHP- and mySQL-based. You wouldn't believe some of the grief I have received over the years as a Microsoft-focused technology web site using non-Microsoft technology.
   Well, times sure have changed. We are now running on ASP.NET 2.0. I am very excited about this change, as it allows me to finally apply much of the knowledge I have used for the benefit of others for myself
3. We do *not* have the old site content migrated over. The technology challenges are the least of my issues here. Another "long story for another day". In the interim, my best suggestion is to use Google cache if you are looking for something in particualr. Simply search Google and include "BostonPocketPC" in the search. For any hits, use the "Cached" link.
   I know this is an inconvenience, but I ask you to put yourself in my shoes for a minute. Imagine 5 years worth of effort suddenly inaccessible. Believe me, I am the least happy person you'll meet regarding this. I could take the "I'm taking my ball and going home" approach and simply pack it in. Of course, that's also the least likely attitude you will find in my personality make-up.

All of this being said, we now have summed up where we are today. Now the future...

HEY! Would you look at the time! I gotta go... Seriously, though - I think the most appropriate time to look ahead would be tomorrow. It is not only the start of a New Year; it will also be BostonPocketPC.com's fifth anniversary. What better time to look forward?

Until then - We at BostonPocketPC.com would like to wish all of you, your firends and families a safe and happy New Year's Eve. We will save the 2007 wishes for tomorrow