I really enjoyed delivering my presentation on “Windows Mobile Widgets 101” this past Wednesday at the Boston/New England Windows Mobile User/Developer Group. The goal was to show just how simple it was to get started with widget development. With the Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Toolkit now available for download, now is as good a time as ever to get ahead of the game.

I have put my presentation deck (as PDF) and samples together into a single ZIP file for download. Enjoy!

Sorry for the late notice, all. I honestly thought that we were not meeting until NEXT week. Way too hectic a month thus far… ;-)

Our next Windows Mobile User/Developer Group meeting will be TOMORROW (June 17th) starting at 6:30 PM at the Microsoft offices in Waltham, MA (201 Jones Road, 6th Floor).

Among our topics this month -

“Windows Mobile 6.5 Overview” – With the release of the Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Toolkit, developers and users are getting their first good looks at the latest Windows Mobile OS offering. In this presentation, you will see some of the highlights for both Professional and Standard Edition devices.

“Introduction To Widgets” – With the upcoming release of Windows Mobile 6.5 comes the unveiling of a new application type for Windows Mobile – the widget. In this presentation, you will receive an “Anatomy of a Widget”, how you can create them, what they can do and how you can deploy them to the masses.

As always, there will be lots of items for giveaway!

Boston Power is at it again. The 4 year old company located in Westborough, Mass is scheduled to hold a press conference this Monday June 1st, 2009 in Auburn, MA where it proposes to build a factory to make lithium-ion batteries for laptops and electric cars.

We have been covering Boston Power since we met them at CntrStg during CES 2009 about their great Sonata battery that came to the market at with the Enviro batteries for the major consumer HP notebooks.

Going green is their their vision is durable and  longer lasting batteries that maintain their capacity. In line with their green vision they don't want to waist any of the federal grant money on a new building, but will plan to convert and old Filene's Basement warehouse into a 600 employee factory.

The move to add the automobile industry for their battery technology is major step for Boston Power. The battery developed for the automobile industry will be called Swing.

References:

1. Boston-Power
2. Xconomy Boston: Boston-Power Asks Feds for $100 Million to Build Better Batteries for Electric Vehicles; Filenes Basement Warehouse Could be Reborn as 600-Employee Factory
3. Cnet:  Boston Power plans battery plant for cars, laptops

If you are familiar with the many Windows Mobile twitter applications like PocketTwit, ceTwit, TinyTwitter, Twoble, etc. - it usually requires additional downloads like .NET CF 3.5, Java, etc. to work and it takes a while for the application to get started and sometimes they crash or your Twit post gets lost in the ether of the internet never to return. The folks at Trinketsoftware have a new one for you called Twikini 1.0, which was just released out of beta and after a few quick changes from comments made to the developer via Twitter in a day it quickly jumped up to version 1.1. It has been my Twitter client on my various Windows Mobile devices for a few months now. I used to use PocketTwit, but it was way to bloated and would occasionally crash, but it is also a twitter client with a lot of features, that has pretty large memory and processing requirements to run smoothly.

Twikini is only a 110K download and takes up a mere 240K of space on your device and it runs pretty quick since it is using C+.Twikini offers a powerful and efficient way to use Twitter on your phone, but still is very simple and easy to use. It allows you to quickly update your favorite twitter feeds in the background, and leverages the camera, GPS, media, touch screen, keyboard, graphics and storage capabilities of your device. Also the same code runs on both touch and not-touch screen phones and is very easy to use on both platforms.

Main Features

• FAST! Unlike other Twitter apps for Windows® Mobile, Twikini is written entirely in native C++ code for maximum performance and the fastest load time possible.
• Simple, uncluttered, and customizable user interface. Choose from a variety of themes for the best reading experience. (Screenshot 1, Screenshot 2, Screenshot 3)
• Post tweets using a full screen editor. Optionally, set your location (either manually or using GPS) along with your status updates. (Screenshot)
• Twitpic integration to post photos with your status updates. Select existing photos or click new ones from your device's camera.
• Read status updates just like browsing a web page. Quickly reply, retweet, favorite, or email other people's tweets. (Screenshot 1, Screenshot 2)
• Windows Media Player integration. Automatically tweet the song and artist you're listening to.
• Single download that is compatible with all Windows® Mobile devices - both touch and non-touch.
• And lots more...

Using Twikini:

The controls are very simple - up and down on the directional pad (d-pad) allows you to scroll between your twitter follows with a highlight of the tweet post you are on. To retweet someone's Tweet all you have to do is move your d-pad to the right, to respond to a tweet click on the left d-pad it’s pretty simple really. In your response you have options to add a Picture; Shorten URL with a choice from several services like Bit.ly, Digg, and TinyURL;Add GPS Coordinates and Add GPS Location to your message.

Under Options ->Tools - You also have some other options as well such as Tweeting your Song Info of music playing over Windows Media Player,(which may bother some if its quite frequent, but people want to know what you are doing right?)

You also can go to the selected User, which will bring up their twitter information – followers and who they are following as well as their twitter bio information such as webpage and location. Here you also have the option to Follow/Stop Follow this person, send them a tweet, DM (direct message), view a larger picture or view their current given location on a Google map.

You can also view their updates via the left soft key.

I really like the built-in Twitpic integration, which never is displayed correctly in Internet Explorer Mobile and would only show up in something when redirected or rendered like when using Skweezer or another browser like Skyfire or Opera. It would be nice in future versions would support some other future picture formats that others use like Ping.FM that I see regularly pop-up in Tweets, but TwitPic is pretty much becoming the standard. An option I would more like to see would be automatic Skweezer redirection for quicker render of links in tweets and shortened URLs as an option to the user.

Some of the cool things is that Twikini does is support multiple accounts and allows you to switch between them, there is no timeline merge and personally I kind of like that so you can keep things separate. It would be nice to have them running at the same time, but with some sort of notification bubble, sound or toast of a DM (Direct Message) and allow it to tell me which account it was sent to.

Another thing is that when the Twitter timeline refreshes it now keeps your current position in the timeline. However when you tweet, RT aka retweet or respond it still automatically places you back at the top of the Twitter stack and you have to scroll down to where you left off and if you are not quick enough you may be caught in another refresh.

Another feature request I would like to see would be the ability to have search of topics aka # as something added to the timeline as well as separate like how it handles multiple accounts. Another would be the automatic filling in of those you have messaged in the past as soon as you type the @ sign it will give you suggestions like a spell checker, which may be another added feature, but most of the time people are shortening their tweets with abbreviations and text-speak.

Configuring Twikini

Under Options->Tools you can customize how you use Twikini. Under Timeline display you can adjust the Font Size-small, medium, large; Theme for general appearance; and how you display the name either Full Name or Twitter Screen name. I am using the HTC Black Theme you have several of those (7) to choose from as well so the interface is slightly customizable to your liking – Windows Default, HTC Black, Summer,Seattle, Cheesecake, Cool Winter, and Lounge.

Under Automatic Refresh you can change the refresh interval from disabled so you can manually choose when it refreshes, or have it automatically refresh in intervals every 2, 5, 10, 15, 30 minutes or every hour. Here you can also choose a notification sound of new Tweets and not to auto refresh when you are roaming.

Under Data Download you can choose to download images as well as how many tweets. The default is 20 with other choices of 50, 100, and 200 –which is the slowest and had problems rendering the screen when refreshing. Best sweet spot was 50 with no lag and 100 was good when you check it fairly infrequently.

The last option allows you to clear Twikini’s Cache folder, which it stores for 3 days to increase performance and decrease data download.

You can also check for updates of the application by going to Menu->Twikini->Check for Updates and it will go to a webpage and compare your version with the latest version available and if its older a link to update. It would be nice if had ApptoDate support so you would be automatically notified when updates became available. However, the application is very stable so far, but the developer pushes out updates with new features fairly frequently and following @twikini on Twitter is the best way to know of updates. :)

Summary

Overall, Twikini has won the spot on my device as my preferred Twitter application due to its quick response and overall stability, plus it doesn’t kill the battery on my phone if I leave it on all day. You can get your copy of Twikini for any Windows Mobile device from here with 14 day trial and for with a starting price of $4.95 it won’t break the bank.

June 6th next Saturday will be the launch day of the Palm Pre and to some it may seem a very odd day to launch a new product, but both Sprint and Palm already expect long lines of people wanting to buy the phone with many camping out for one, me I will be on vacation, but may check the local Sprint store there. Palm and Sprint have already said they anticipate they won’t have enough Palm Pre’s to meet the anticipated high demand, that is a good and bad thing. Good in that there is a demand, bad in that some people won’t purchase it, even at a later date or may even wait for another rumored carrier to pick it up. Still all the capabilities of the device aren’t fully known, but some reviews have surfaced like the one at BGR. Palm and Sprint have been working hard to market this product and have some interesting websites and widgets at their This is Now Website.

What we know so far:

“The Palm Pre takes full advantage of Sprint’s Everything Data plans,” said Avi Greengart, research director for Consumer Devices at Current Analysis. “The Pre has been expressly designed for multitasking among multiple web pages and applications. It also builds on Palm’s heritage in PDAs by managing your digital information – whether that’s on a corporate server or on the web.”  Still no mention about tethering the Pre to a laptop.

Palm Synergy

• Linked contacts – With Synergy, you have a single view that links your contacts from a variety of sources, so accessing them is easier than ever. For example, if you have the same contact listed in your Outlook, Google and Facebook accounts, Synergy recognizes that they’re the same person and links the information, presenting it to you as one listing.

• Layered calendars – Your calendars can be seen on their own or layered together in a single view, combining work, family, friends, sports teams, or other interests. You can toggle to look at one calendar at a time, or see them all at a glance.

• Combined messaging – Synergy lets you see all your conversations with the same person in a chat-style view, even if it started in IM and you want to reply with text messaging. You can also see who’s active in a buddy list right from contacts or e-mail, and start a new conversation with just one touch.

This week at The Wall Street Journal's D: All Things Digital conference, Palm, Inc. introduced attendees to the latest features of the Palm webOS platform, including Palm media sync, the integration of Twitter in universal search, and a beta version of its App Catalog. Jon Rubinstein, Palm executive chairman, and Roger McNamee, Palm director and co-founder of Elevation Partners, debuted the new webOS features and mentioned some more information like:

• ActiveSync – remote wipe and address lookup – (I am assuming access to the GAL and some server search too?)
• GSM – in a few months so will it be on the rumored AT&T, who wants the Pre pretty badly as well as Verizon, but Bell Mobility in Canada is getting it too.
• OTA Updates – push updates like Android every other phone should do this too (hint,hint)
• 12 Apps at Launch – Pandora, Fandango, Citysearch, Linked In,(more on this below)

Palm Media Sync

Palm media sync is a feature of webOS that synchronizes seamlessly with iTunes, giving you a simple and easy way to transfer DRM-free music, photos and videos to your Palm Pre. Simply connect Pre to your PC or Mac via the USB cable, select "media sync" on the phone, and iTunes will launch on your computer desktop. You can then choose which DRM-free media files to transfer.

"We designed Palm media sync to be an easy and elegant way for you to take the content you own and put it on Pre, and it's just one of the ways we think you'll be amazed by webOS," said Rubinstein. "We've had an overwhelming response since we introduced Pre at CES, and with availability just days away, we can't wait to let everyone see firsthand what the excitement is all about."

Pre also acts as a mass storage drive, letting you side-load your media content. Once connected to a computer using the USB cable, Pre will appear as a drive on the computer desktop. You can drag and drop music, photos or video files onto your Pre, or drag files from your Pre to the computer. And, just like a digital camera, Pre works directly with your computer's default desktop photo software to seamlessly import photos captured with Pre's built-in 3-megapixel camera.

In addition to listening to music transferred from your desktop, you can use the on-device Amazon MP3 store to purchase individual songs or full albums over-the-air. You can search by artist, song and genre, and preview and purchase music files. You can then download purchased tracks when you're connected to a Wi-Fi network.

Twitter in Universal Search

Palm also announced that Twitter search is integrated into webOS universal search.⁽³⁾ Universal search is about finding what you want quickly, whether it's an on-device contact to call, a place you're trying to get to, or a Wikipedia article for encyclopedic information. Just start typing and Pre will figure out if you're looking for a contact, an application, or even let you search the web via Google, Google Maps, Wikipedia and now Twitter. Universal search uses Twitter's search service to sort through real-time current events and news, so universal search now covers every aspect of search on the web: general info, location, encyclopedia, and news.

Twitter's ability to show what's going on right now is a perfect fit for what universal search and Pre are all about. You don't have to be a Twitter user to benefit from Twitter in universal search. It's available for all users, even if they don't have an account, so anyone can keep on top of real-time news and the latest trends.

App Catalog

Rubinstein and McNamee also gave conference attendees an advance look at the beta version of the App Catalog, which will be available on Pre at launch. The beta version will feature applications from developers such as AP News, Citysearch, Fandango, Pandora and uLocate.

"We've received excellent feedback from participants in the Mojo SDK early access program and look forward to the SDK's public release. Developers are very enthusiastic about the platform's ease of use and industry-standard development model," said Rubinstein. "We're excited to launch Pre with the beta version of the catalog, which will give a taste of how the overall webOS ecosystem will work."

The App Catalog was demonstrated at the conference using Fandango's webOS application, which takes advantage of Palm Synergy(TM), a key feature of webOS. It also uses Pre's location-based services to find theaters near you, and lets you watch trailers, buy tickets, add showtimes to your calendar and get directions to the theatre.⁽¹⁾ Also included in the beta App Catalog will be Pandora, which makes use of the platform's multitasking capabilities, running elegantly in the background while you're using other applications. It highlights a unique aspect of the notification bar that lets you know what song is currently playing, and control pause and play without having to go back into the application.

The Palm Pre phone will be available from Sprint on June 6 for $199.99 with a two-year service agreement and $100 mail-in rebate. More information is available at www.sprint.com/palmpre and www.palm.com. Also be sure to tune into the official Palm Blog and Twitter feed.

Either way the Palm Pre will be a changer in the Mobile handset space and from what we saw at CES 2009 the Pre has a lot of potential and Palm and its investors are betting that it will live up to the hype.

Many of the cool contests here like the 31 Days of the Dragon,Boston Pocket PC’s HP Magic Giveaway Contest, and Pantech Giveaway have been done with the help from the great folks over at Buzz Corps. Buzz Corps is now evolving into its new identity:  Ivy Worldwide. 

“The rapid growth of social media has given us the opportunity to overgrow our boundaries, and along with that evolve the concept and name of our company.  While our company name and offerings are changing, we will still carry out the same philosophy which is that we work with the community to create programs that deliver mutual benefits for your sites and our clients. With the new name we’ll also need a new logo and this is where we would like to ask for your help. 

We know there are a lot of talented people on sites like yours who might be looking for some extra cash or a way to show their creative skills. If possible, would you mind sharing the word with your readers about our logo design contest?  Hopefully one of your readers might win the grand prize of $2500 cash or other prizes like an HP Mini, HP Printer or Wacom Tablet. “

I made up the above quick logo in less than 10 minutes as you can see I am by no means a professional graphic artist. If you are or have aspirations to be one here is a chance to to show your stuff and get noticed and put some cash and prizes in your pocket as well.

For full contest details visit: www.ivyworldwide.com

The Windows team has introduced the Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 for multi-touch enabled computers. The application is not available for public download but will be available to OEMs who will have the option to pre-install these applications on PCs designed for Windows Touch. After general availability of Windows 7, it may even be released for public download. However, if you want to get your hands on the touch capabilities of Windows 7 now without waiting to download this pack, you can take advantage of multi-touch capabilities in in-built applications such as Paint, IE8 and Windows Media Center.

If you were at CntrStg at CES 2009 you got a chance to interact with many of the applications below as well as some that aren’t listed, those too may be included in some OEM products.

PhotoHunt by MegaTouch Gametime was a popular party game where you have a certain amount of time to choose what is different between two pictures the quicker you find things the more time you have and if you choose the wrong items the less time you have.

Air Hockey by Bendables was was an application demoed at PDC 2008 is also available for download here and there is now a Windows 7 version. :)

The Microsoft Touch Pack is a set of 6 multi-touch enabled apps that will be available with Windows 7; it is comprised of 3 games and 3 MS Surface applications. Here is an overview of each of them:

Microsoft Surface Globe uses the Virtual Earth 3D engine to display a 3D view of the world. Using multi-touch, you can navigate to different regions, get local information, and “pin” your favorite locations. You can even “fly” around 3D models of buildings in some cities.

Microsoft Surface Collage allows you to take your favorite digital photos and arrange and resize them using only your fingertips. Once you have your photos in an arrangement you like, it’s simple to save your collage and make it your desktop background.

Microsoft Surface Lagoon is a screensaver that recreates the natural environment of water and schooling fish. You can run your fingers through the “water” and hold your finger down and watch the fish gather around.

Microsoft Blackboard is a game in which you create a nifty machine on a virtual blackboard. You can then use gestures to rotate and resize gears, fans, see-saws and more to move balloons and balls toward the light bulbs - and victory. If you were a fan of TIM you will love this!

Microsoft Rebound, developed by Fuel Games (lets you use your fingers to propel a ball like air hockey.

Microsoft Garden Pond allows you to guide your origami creations to peaceful areas on the pond or direct them with gestures to complete goals that have been set for you. Gently move the origami by making ripples in the water.

Below is an overview of the native Windows 7 applications that take advantage of multi-touch capabilities:

Paint: The latest version of Paint has new brushes that are designed for multi-touch, you can click on the Brushes gallery, pick any one and try finger painting.

Internet Explorer 8: IE 8 features multi-touch panning; you can place your finger anywhere on a page and drag up or down to scroll the page. You can also go back and forward between pages with your finger using Flicks.

Task Bar: You can also use touch to navigate along the taskbar. The new Jump Lists on the taskbar are touch optimized, instead of right-clicking on one of the icons on the taskbar, you can drag up on it with your finger to open the menu.

Windows Media Center: Windows Media center also allows you to navigate using touch capabilities.

Moreover, programs which are “touch unaware” also have some level of touch control. For example, if someone tries touch scrolling over a window that is touch unaware, Windows can detect the presence of various types of scrollbars and scroll them.

If you want more information on the Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 Rob Bushway has a video over at GottaBeMobile worth checking out as well.

For more touch based applications worth checking out if you have a touch enabled system check out these applications:

Time100 Adobe Air

Solero Music Viewer

Internet TV Viewer aka YouTube

HP expanded their award-winning HP Mini family with three new models, offering their customers sleek, lightweight companion PCs that come in a variety of configurations and designs - all small enough to easily slip into most purses, backpacks, briefcases or coat pockets.

• The new HP Mini 110 XP Edition and the HP Mini 110 Mobile Internet (Mi) Edition were designed for Internet-centric consumers to stay connected to what’s important to them, while at home or on-the-go. The Mini 110 provides consumers with a choice of Pink Chic, Black Swirl or White Swirl HP Imprint finishes.
• The HP Mini 1101 is ideal as a companion PC for small and medium-size businesses and frequent business travelers. The Mini 1101 offers business users a sophisticated Black Swirl design.

The new Mini models start at 2.33 pounds and measuring just over 1-inch thick coming in between $279.99 to $329.99. With a 10.1-inch diagonal standard or optional high-definition LED widescreen display at 1,024 x 576 resolution. Intel’s , a keyboard that is 92 percent the size of a standard notebook PC keyboard, and a built-in webcam and microphone, powered by a 1.6GHz N270 Atom processor and can be configured with and SSD up to 32GB or platter notebook drive maxing out at 250GB. The new HP Minis are designed for consumers and business professionals who surf the web, check email, listen to music and need access to friends, family, co-workers or information while on the go.

HP Mini 110

• 1.6 GHz Intel® Atom™ Processor N270
• Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition with Service Pack 3
• 10.1” Diagonal LED Anti-glare Widescreen Display (1,024 x 576)
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 (shared) with up to 128MB total available graphics memory
• 1,024MB DDR2 System Memory (1 Dimm)
• 160GB (5400RPM) Hard Drive (SATA)
• HP Webcam
• 802.11b/g WLAN
• 5-in-1 Digital Media card reader
• Stereo speakers
• 3xUSB, 1xVGA, 1xRJ-45
• 6-Cell Lithium-Ion battery
• 10.3″x 6.77″ x 1.04 – 1.09″
• 2.89 pounds
• Syncables cable included (this is a cable with integrated software to sync data between your HP Mini and another PC)
• The HP Mini 110 XP is expected to be available in Pink Chic and White Swirl in the United States on July 8 via www.hpdirect.com/go/mini, pricing to be determined.
• The HP Mini 110 XP Edition and the Mini 110 with Mi is expected to be available in Black Swirl in the United States on June 10 via www.hpdirect.com/go/mini with a starting price of $329.99 and 279.99 respectively.

HP Mini 110 models include the Syncables™ Desktop solution, which provides effortless, automatic synchronization of music, pictures, videos and other files between an HP Mini and a primary notebook or desktop PC. Making the HP Mini a true accessory and companion PC.

HP Mini 1101

• 1.6 GHz Intel® Atom™ Processor N270
• Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition with Service Pack 3
• 10.1” Diagonal LED Anti-glare Widescreen Display (1,024 x 576)
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 (shared) with up to 128MB total available graphics memory
• 1024MB DDR2 System Memory (1 Dimm), supports 2GB with Windows Vista
• 160GB / 250GB (5400RPM) Hard Drive (SATA) or 32 GB SSD
• HP Webcam
• 802.11b/g WLAN, optional un2400 EVDO/HSPA module
• 5-in-1 Digital Media card reader
• Stereo speakers
• 3xUSB, 1xVGA, 1xRJ-45
• 3-Cell Lithium-Ion battery, 6-cell optional (after June 15th)
• 10.3″x 6.77″ x 1.04 – 1.09″
• Starting at 2.33 pounds with SSD option
• The HP Mini 1101 in high gloss black starts at $329 and is expected to be available June 1.

SBSH has released GoNews Touch, a touch-friendly news reader for Windows Mobile Professional. While you might think RSS when you read the phrase “news reader”, GoNews Touch takes things a bit further…

May 25th, 2009 - SBSH Mobile Software is excited to announce GoNews Touch release! GoNews Touch is a news reader application that brings the latest news directly to your smart-phone, aggregating only headlines of your interest based on your personal configuration. GoNews Touch is the first touch-designed news reader application, allowing you to browse through all headlines using only finger navigation!

GoNews Touch Highlights
Powerful News Reader - Supports RSS, Full Text articles using template-parsing, article images and more!
Offline Aggregation - Grab news of your interest and read it even when you're offline
Touch Designed - Designed specifically for use with Touch devices leaving your stylus far behind

If seeing is believing, then check out the YouTube video from SBSH demonstrating GoNews Touch features -

GoNews Touch is available from SBSH for $14.95, and a 14-day trial version is available from the SBSH GoNews Touch product page.

So, you’re wondering what’s new in Windows Mobile 6.5. Maybe you haven’t had a chance to see some of the new features in action. And what about those new applications and services?

If you had the opportunity to get all of the latest Windows Mobile news and announcements in person, then you’re one of the fortunate ones. If not, there is still a way to get an overview of Windows Mobile 6.5 thanks to TechEd Online.

Friend, fellow MVP and co-worker Chris DeHerrera has teamed up with another old friend in Dale Coffing (longtime Pocket PC users may remember Dale from his Pocket PC Passion website) to talk about the new capabilities of Windows Mobile 6.5 in this 12-minute video. Be sure to check it out!