Today launches the nineteenth contest in the Pantech Matrix Pro Giveaway and it’s here at Boston Pocket PC from now until May 6th.

Here are the rules for our contest:

The contest begins on May 3^rd, 2009.  To enter you will need to send in a picture of your current phone and give us a short description how the Pantech Matrix Pro will enable you with "The Power to be You". It can be as simple as your phone doesn't have 2 keyboards or maybe it doesn't have any keyboards and you need one to dial numbers, send a text, email or Tweet about your current location with its built in GPS and take a picture to show what you had for breakfast. Whatever it is please tell us in 25-150 words and enclose a picture of your current phone and email your entry to pantechpro@bostonpocketpc.com by 11:59PM EST on May 6th.

You must reside in the United States in order to win and receive the Pantech Matrix Pro phone plus a $100 gift card for accessories or service with AT&T Wireless.

You must meet all the requirements mentioned above in order to be eligible for the random drawing.

The winner will be chosen at random and contacted via email, so please use a valid email address when entering. The winner will have 24 hours to respond and will then be announced here on Boston Pocket PC on May 7th, 2009.

Good Luck!!!

Today another contest to win a Pantech Matrix Pro goes live over at ChipChick, where there contest is a perfect gift for Mother’s Day:

We’re giving one away for Mother’s Day, along with a $100 credit for AT&T’s web site. E-mail us how your mom would you use the Pantech Matrix Pro in a special or a quirky way. The winner wins a brand spankin’ new Pantech Matrix Pro along with a $100 credit for AT&T Wireless store online.

For more details on their contest head here. Helena Stone aka Chip Chick also has an in-depth review posted here.

Be sure to head back here for details on our contest which begins on May 3rd  and to check back daily on the details of the 25 other chances to win a Pantech Matrix Pro, with tomorrow’s contest beginning at VivirLatino . Remember you still have time to enter the contest over at Tools for Thought.

Hey everyone likes contests right? How would you like to win a new phone? I am sure you would. Well you are just in luck starting today you will have 26 chances to win a brand new Pantech Matrix Pro and a $100 gift card that can be used for buying accessories or used toward your service plan and AT&T Wireless.

Your first chance to win starts today over at Tools for Thought:

Here’s what I want. I want you or anyone to post in the comments or email me the coolest cloud-based work setup they use on a daily basis, with a least one example of how it allowed you to do something you couldn’t do previously. “Coolest” here can mean a few things:

• The most efficient: e.g. how you run your life through a personal wiki or WebDAV
• The most dramatic: how you use Backpack and Twitter to dispatch work to a team virtual assistants in St. Croix (real-world examples please, not creative writing)
• The most elegant: how you eliminated your additional computers and run them as virtual images on Amazon EC2 from your netbook
• The most democratic: how you’ve replaced all of the files and applications on your hard drive with free and open source web apps

You have 48 hours from “now,” 12:00 a.m. Thursday, April 16, 2009, until midnight Saturday, April 18.

For more details on their contest head here.

Participating Websites:

Tools for Thought
Launch Date  15-Apr
Award Announcement  19-Apr

ChipChick
Launch Date  16-Apr
Award Announcement  20-Apr

VivirLatino
Launch Date  17-Apr
Award Announcement  21-Apr

slashgear.com
Launch Date  18-Apr
Award Announcement  22-Apr

modaco.com
Launch Date  19-Apr
Award Announcement  23-Apr

Gadgetell
Launch Date  20-Apr
Award Announcement  24-Apr

GeeksRoom
Launch Date  21-Apr
Award Announcement  25-Apr

OSNN
Launch Date  22-Apr
Award Announcement  26-Apr

Techmamas
Launch Date  23-Apr
Award Announcement  27-Apr

Clintonfitch
Launch Date  24-Apr
Award Announcement  28-Apr

Justanothermobilemonday
Launch Date  25-Apr
Award Announcement  29-Apr

Geek.com
Launch Date  26-Apr
Award Announcement  30-Apr

MediaBlab
Launch Date  27-Apr
01-May

Smartphonethoughts
Launch Date  28-Apr
Award Announcement  02-May

Mobilityminded
Launch Date  29-Apr
Award Announcement  03-May

The Gadgeteer
Launch Date  30-Apr
Award Announcement  04-May

Geekzone
Launch Date  01-May
Award Announcement  05-May

Techie Diva
Launch Date  02-May
Award Announcement  06-May

Bostonpocketpc
Launch Date  03-May
Award Announcement  07-May

GearDiary
Launch Date  04-May
Award Announcement  08-May

MobilitySite
Launch Date  05-May
Award Announcement  09-May

AbsoluteWindows
Launch Date  06-May
Award Announcement  10-May

Mobilejaw
Launch Date  07-May
Award Announcement  11-May

Experiencemobility
Launch Date  08-May
Award Announcement  12-May

HackCollege
Launch Date  09-May
Award Announcement  13-May

Gear Live
Launch Date  10-May
Award Announcement  14-May

As with any contest there are rules for each different contest but these rules apply to all of the participating 26 sites:

• Winners are limited by geography to US residents only. This is due to the fact that the phone is locked to ATT’s network and service credit/gift card is redeemable only within the US
• Individuals who have won at another site are ineligible to win at another

Good Luck!!!

Wow!!! All I can say is that we are really impressed by the open hearts and amount of giving people are willing to do especially in these tough economic times. Many entries were to give away the entire prize if they won. We at Boston Pocket PC feel really honored and privileged to be part of the 50 participating sites with the help from HP, Microsoft and Buzz Corps, looking to spread some magic to change people's lives for the better in the HP Magic Giveaway. We are also glad that we didn't have to pick a winner (because it would have been too hard) and chose to go with a random drawing from all the eligible winners.

This is how the drawing was done. All eligible entrants were entered into a spreadsheet, then sorted alphabetically to eliminate time of entry, then placed in a list randomizer , which assigned a random number, then a random number was chosen at random selecting our winner.  And the moment you are waiting for...

Our winner is Evan Brammer.

Here is his entry:

Let's start here:

I have the privilege of working for a fantastic education organization in Indonesia that builds high-quality international schools for the wealthier Indonesians and then uses that money to benefit the less fortunate. These are referred as "pelita" schools.  I teach at Sekolah Pelita Harapan in Lippo Cikarang.  My wife and two kids moved with me here half a year ago from the States to be a part of this great work. 

What is great about what the Foundation does is that they take the money they "make" from the higher level "pelita" schools to then build two other types of schools: "dian" schools for the middle class (these schools break even as far as funding goes) and then "lentara" schools (where all of there funding comes from outside sources because the students families are unable to pay for an education).

The mission of the Foundation is to build ten pelita schools, one hundred dian schools, and one thousand lentara village schools.  What is great about the lentara schools are they are completely free to the students, most of which would have no opportunity for an education.  They are in Indonesian villages and while they are staffed with high quality Indonesian teachers, they still have very limited access to quality resources.  That is where the magic begins.

What I would do with with the HP Magic Giveaway computers is to help every level of the schools that I mentioned to give them better opportunities at a world class education.

First, I would set up the Touchsmart in my classroom, giving my students (the future leaders of this burgeoning nation) a jumpstart into 21st century learning; helping them to not only be content consumers, but more importantly content producers.  We would use it to create dynamic kml tours for Google Earth for geography and blogging for English.  We could then use those and many more resources that the students and teachers create to pass down to both the dian and lentara village schools.

We (my class) would donate one of the laptops to a nearby (or faraway) lentara village school so that the teachers and students from both my school and the lentara school can exchange ideas, lessons, and friendships.  This would greatly benefit both parties as the lentara schools would have better access to content and the pelita students would be able to have a greater knowledge of a constituency here in Indonesia that all too often is forgotten: the village poor.

For the remaining computers (and Kung-Fu Panda), they would most likely be used as tools in one of the three levels of schools.  I can see the Mini 1000 being used as a field computer to gather data from the eco-garden that we are trying to build.  The other laptop could be used as a mobile training computer, used to train both dian and lentara staff in new methodology.  Truly, the opportunities in education would be endless.

Thank you for even giving us the opportunity to compete.

Congratulations Evan! We look forward to hearing howthose touched by your magic of winning made out.

Don’t forget to to check out all the 50 sites participating in the HP Magic Giveaway at HP's Magic Giveaway site and check back here for other chances from other sites when their contest goes live.

This is the time for giving for many and this year will be even harder for some people to give than they have in the past. Boston Pocket PC wants to help by giving you a really cool prize, the ability to give to those you find are need of some cool new technology from HP and Microsoft with some help from Buzz Corps.

The HP Magic Giveaway Contest is also about the magic of giving. We are all going through rough economic times and could use a little help to make the world a brighter and better place. The magic to help bring a little magic into the lives of others will be the following items:

• HP TouchSmart IQ816 PC

• HP HDX 18 series Premium Notebook PC

• HP MediaSmart Connect

• HP Pavilion dv4 series Entertainment Notebook PC with Windows Live

• HP Mini 1000 with XP

• HP Photosmart C6380 Wireless AIO multifunction printer

• HP 564 Photo Value Pak

• Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate/Home Premium or Microsoft Windows XP pre-installed on all units (Mini 1000 runs XP)

• Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition (Student-Teacher Edition) – 1 DVD with 3 licenses

• Corel VideoStudio X2

• Kung Fu Panda (DVD & Blu-ray)

The total value of this prize package is over $6000 in prizes!

Our contest is part of a group of 50 blogs and websites that are taking part to make this holiday season a special one as part of the HP Magic Giveaway contest. Our contest is going to be a simple one, but you must meet all the requirements to be eligible to win:

1. We all want new technology for the Holiday season and I am sure there are few people you know, that would like or are in desperate need for some new gear as well.  All we ask is that you email a picture of your current desktop/setup and (if possible sneak a picture of the person/place/charity you want to hook up with gear) as well as write a minimum 100 word description of how it will be used, what it is replacing, how it will benefit the recipient, etc.

2. Email your story and picture(s) to magic@bostonpocketpc.com with the subject “HP Magic Giveaway”.

3. We will conduct a random drawing from all those who submitted a valid entry and post the winner as well as some of the more interesting entries received.

4. Follow the directions. We would hate for you not to be entered to win on a technicality. So read them carefully!

5. You will have only one entry per person so make it a good one!  The contest starts 12:00AM Eastern Daylight Savings Time US  on November 30^th, 2008. All entries must be in by 11:59PM Eastern Daylight Savings Time US December 5th. All entries received after that will not be accepted.

6. No one associated with this site or families are eligible to win, (but are free to enter the other 49 contests) nor are winners of other HP Magic Giveaway Contest contests.

7. This contest is a world-wide contest and open to all that meet the above contest requirements.

8. The winner will then be notified by email and posted here on Boston Pocket PC with their name and winning entry on December 6th 2008.

9. The winner will then choose which item or items they wish to keep and which of the items they want to “gift” and we will wrap it up and send it out for you. There must be a minimum of two other recipients of the prize besides the winner, divided up how ever the winner sees fit and there can be more than two recipients. All shipments must be to valid shipping addresses, no PO Boxes.

10. We request that the winner will submit a minimum 500 word write-up with pictures on how they are using the prize, what they did with the prize, as well as who and how their “gift” recipients are using it which to be posted on Boston Pocket PC within four weeks of receiving their items and distributing their “magic gifts” to others. (If you wish to keep the identity of the recipients and yours confidential you don’t have to include pictures of yourselves.)

11. HP and Microsoft requested that each site also review the items for giveaway so some items may be opened from their original packaging and used for reviews on this site and returned to their original shipping condition. We still have not received our items for giveaway so we may not be able to review any of the items within the time span of the contest, but we will try to review a few - as many have already written in and requested.

Good Luck to all that Enter and don’t forget to stop by the other 49 sites participating in the HP Magic Giveaway Contest to increase your chances of winning this fabulous prize:

Gotta Be Mobile
Barb’s Connected World
Geek.com
Gear Live
Neowin
Small Biz Vista
JK On the Run
Notebooks.com
Geekzone
I Started Something
Bleeping Computer
The Gadgeteer
Planet x64
Digital Home Thoughts
Digital Inspiration
Geeks!
MediaBlab
Geek News Central
The Digital Lifestyle
GearDiary
Last 100
Geeks To Go!
Liliputing
OSNN
Slashdot Review
SlashGear
Gadgetell
Windows Connected
Techie Diva
One Day, One Job
Student Bloggers
Study Hacks - Demystifying College Success
HackCollege
Noticias Tech
Eliax
La Bitácora de Erwin Ried
Carlos Alberto
InfoWester
GeeksRoom
CíberPrensa
Unión de Bloggers Hispanos
Living - In Theory
Moosh in Indy
Morningside Mom
Thoughts on poetics & tech
Techmamas
Stop, Drop & Blog
Down-to-Earth Mama
merlot mom

We are going to be having another great contest here at Boston Pocket PC just in time for the holidays with 49 other sites. It will be called the HP Magic Giveaway contest.  We had such a big success with the 31 Days of the Dragon Contest, the contest pool has expanded to 50 top blogs and websites to spread over $300,000 worth of prizes to some lucky people to give to others in the spirit of giving from the people at HP and Microsoft.

Here is a list of over $6000 worth of kit that is being given away in each contest:

• HP TouchSmart IQ816 PC
• HP HDX 18 series Premium Notebook PC
• HP MediaSmart Connect
• HP Pavilion dv4 series Entertainment Notebook PC with Windows Live
• HP Mini 1000 with XP
• HP Photosmart C6380 Wireless AIO multifunction printer 
• HP 564 Photo Value Pak
• Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate/Home Premium or Microsoft Windows XP pre-installed on all units (Mini 1000 runs XP)
• Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition (Student-Teacher Edition) – 1 DVD with 3 licenses
• Corel VideoStudio X2
• Kung Fu Panda (DVD & Blu-ray)

We will be announcing the details of our contest soon, so come back often to see what we have planned as well as updates on how you can win this prize pack to keep and giveaway yourself from 49 other sites and celebrate the magic of giving.

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