BostonPocketPC

While I have had the opportunity to have a lot of short "hands-on" time with a number of devices over the past year, I just this week made the first investment in a new device in almost a year (my last investment was an i-mate SP5m at MEDC 2006 last May). My new T-Mobile Dash is an attempt to find the right blend of Smartphone and Pocket PC Phone Edition, hopefully making this my true primary device. Those who know me well enough know that I move quite frequently between devices, with my SP5m used as a "weekend\leisure device", and my i-mate K-JAM as the "work week device".

A few days of non-stop use of the Dash is leading me to believe my wishes will be fulfilled I have been very impressed with the size, performance and battery life.

I plan on providing a detailed write-up of my experiences with the T-Mobile Dash this coming week. A few more days of usage and getting some commitments out of the way (including my presentations today at Code Camp 7: Deer In The Headlights) will give me the time and experience to pass along more detailed information. Stay tuned...

Word comes from MobilitySite of OnCourse Navigator 6 finally being released. As someone who (from time to time) has relied heavily on a Windows Mobile GPS solution to "get from Point A to Point B", OnCourse Navigator offers some pretty compelling features:

• Plug & Go - Insert the included memory card into your device, OCN6 will automatically launch, installed in a few seconds and you are ready to GO!
• Easy to use - Simple and intuitive menus give you the perfect navigation experience.
• Stunning 3D - Impressive 3D navigation view with smart zoom to automatically zoom in for each turn and zooms out right after you made a turn.
• Detailed maps of USA and Canada pre-loaded - Seamless navigation across North America, for example Los Angeles to Toronto.
• Choice of 3 or 12 million POIs packages - Easily locate restaurants, hotels, gas stations and more. POI database covers a huge 3 millions listing on OCN6 Deluxe edition and 12 millions listings on OCN6 Premium.
• Zero Risk: 30-day, 100% no-questions-asked money-back guarantee.

MobilitySite has a short video overview available, and the OnCourse web site offers a video demonstration as well.

MobilitySite also mentions discounted pricing between now and April 10th, and is also having a contest with the prize being OnCourse Navigator 6 and a Bluetooth GPS unit. Chris Leckness is definitely a busy boy these days

Our good friend and Mobility Guys associate Chris Leckness was fortunate enough to make it down to Orlando, FL this week for the CTIA Wireless 2007 Conference. It has been a while since I have had the opportunity to attend this conference, but I can tell you it is a must-see for anyone interested in the cellular industry.

Chris was good enough to post some great "First Look" videos while he was there and post them MobilitySite, including:

• HTC Advantage Hands-On
• Toshiba G900 Video First Look
• Asus Aries Smartphone Video First Look
• HP iPAQ 500 Video First Look
• HTC VOX Video First Look

If you want to check out the "latest and greatest", this is a great chance to do so.

Great work, Chris!

Well it's been a while, but word comes direct from Hudson Mobile has released a new version of their great product Phone Dashboard -

We know it has been a while, but Hudson Mobile is very pleased to announce the availability of Phone Dashboard 2.0, the leading utility for Windows Mobile-based phones.

Phone Dashboard helps save you money because it keeps you from going over your monthly minutes. Phone Dashboard also saves you time by allowing you to easily view, sort and export your calling history for expense tracking.

A recent review in Pocket PC Magazine called Phone Dashboard "darn near perfect" and we think you'll agree!

Phone Dashboard allows you to:

• Keep track of your phone and text message usage at a glance on your Today Screen
• Configure alerts based on your cell phone plan so you are warned of potential overage charges
• Simplify expense tracking by exporting your phone's call log to a spreadsheet
• Easily review your past call history through graphs and a flexible call log
• Check the current network status and signal strength
• See if you are headed for a large monthly bill with projected usage statistics

With release 2.0, we extend Phone Dashboard to track SMS and MMS message usage as well as call usage - a feature that has been in popular demand. Other new features include more options to customize your phone plans including flexible weekends and call rounding, and improved logging, usability and performance. Now more than ever, Phone Dashboard gives you a complete picture of your phone usage.

For a limited time, Phone Dashboard 2.0 is available at a 25% discount from the already low retail price of $14.99. Just put Phone Dashboard in your cart on Handango (link here) and enter promotional code 88ABC493.

If you are a current, registered user of Phone Dashboard, the upgrade can be downloaded for free and your existing registration code will continue to work. (instructions here) We recommend that all users upgrade to the latest software version.

If you are a user of IP Dashboard, and have since purchased a Windows Mobile phone, now is a great time to trial Phone Dashboard. You can download a risk-free trial of Phone Dashboard here.

We'd like to thank all of our reviewers and loyal users for the wonderful feedback we've received on Phone Dashboard. Please keep your suggestions and product ideas coming!

On my flight back from the MVP Summit from Seattle I had the honor of sitting next to a hardware engineer that worked on the Xbox and accessories for it and other devices like the Zune. He actually thought I worked for MS as well (I was sporting a Zune shirt and Windows Mobile bag) until I corrected him and talked about some cool things I had NDA privledge to and other things like my PSP and the accessories I had for it as well as Windows Mobile devices, UMPCs, Tablet PCs and other geek stuff. One of them being the new Xbox 360 Elite which has some new covers and quieter disposition with built-in HDMI support.

It will be coming in a nice glossy piano-black finish and silver trim like the pre-release developer boxes as well as with a black wireless controller(also available separately for $49), matching black headset, HDMI cable- for HDMI ouput, 120GB Hard drive to support Xbox Live HD movies and upcoming IPTV content that was demoed at CES 2007 (it will also be available separately for around $179 retail(US). However it won't ship with a built-in HD DVD drive, which would have been nice and easily warrant an upgrade for the suggested retail price of $479.

Also to match the color schema of the Elite the following accessories for the Xbox 360 Elite console will also be available separately:

Now the question remains on April 29 should I purchase this for $479.99 (U.S.), upgrade my current 360, purchase a 360 core for $299 or less with the 120GB hard drive and save a few bucks or should I wait to add another Media Center Extender to the house? At least there are some options...

At our last meeting we talked about the decision making process of choosing the correct Windows Mobile device and new naming conventions for Windows Mobile 6 and the differences between Classic, Standard and Professional. If you get confused one of our members came up with a simple mnemonic for remembering the differences P->Professional=Pocket PC Phone, S->Standard=Smartphone, C->Classic=Is just simply that, a Classic Pocket PC. I know its helped me remember which was which. There is a great breakdown of the differences of WM5 and WM6 that we disscussed at the meeting with images here and the PDF is posted up by Jason Langridge here

Now to get you hands on using and testing an Windows Mobile 6 device is a bit hard now a days since there are no devices shipping with it yet. To see the new features of Windows Mobile 6 you can use the Windows Mobile 6 Flash demo to get a handle of the new features, UI and how it works. If you want to test your applications you will have download the Windows Mobile 6 Software Development Kits and if you are developing for both the Smartphone, I mean Standard and Professional (includes Classic) there are two separate SDKs to download. Here is the breakdown of the emulators included in the SDKS:

• Windows Mobile 6 Standard SDK
  • Windows Mobile 6 Standard (176x220 pixels - 96 dpi)
  • Windows Mobile 6 Standard Landscape QVGA (240x320 pixels - 131 dpi)
  • Windows Mobile 6 Standard QVGA (320x240 pixels - 131 dpi)

• Windows Mobile 6 Professional SDK
  • Windows Mobile 6 Classic (240x320 pixels - 96 dpi)
  • Windows Mobile 6 Professional (240x320 pixels - 96 dpi)
  • Windows Mobile 6 Professional Square (240x240 pixels - 96 dpi)
  • Windows Mobile 6 Professional Square QVGA (320x320 pixels - 128 dpi)
  • Windows Mobile 6 Professional Square VGA (480x480 pixels - 192 dpi)
  • Windows Mobile 6 Professional VGA (480x640 pixels - 192 dpi)

In order to install the Emulators unlike in the past, this is not a stand alone install and requires Visual Studio 2005 even though some blogs said it was, you will also need to install the following:

1. Device Emulator 2.0 Beta
2. Compact Framework 2.0 SP1
3. Windows Mobile 6 Professional SDK (Standard, Professional or both)

So make sure you have Visual Studio 2005 with SP1, the programs will even prompt you if don't have it and will help you along. Note this will not work with Visual Studio Express. Hopefully a newer emulator will exist that is standalone, but I wouldn't count on it coming soon. I am hoping something will be available after MEDC. Also if you are installing it to a Vista machine you may encounter the following: 'Getting Installation Issue --> Could Not Access Network Location Common7\IDE\ProjectTemplates.' Frank Zandona has a solution by re-registering the VBScript.dll:

regsvr32 %SystemRoot%\system32\vbscript.dll

With the SDK there are some very cool tools included here are some of them: CabSignTool signs a .cab file and all its executable content; Cellular Emulator v1- emulates voice and data connections; Device Emulator v2 - new and improved SDK emulator, FakeGPS & GPS Settings-allows you emulate a GPS from a text file of NEMA data, Hopper- for stress testing; Local Server Framework- allows development of test application servers that run locally over localhost on the device;

Also for more information on developing applications for Windows Mobile 6 be sure to read this fabulous whitepaper: What's New for Developers in Windows Mobile 6  and check out the Windows Mobile Developers Wiki.

If you are a Windows Mobile 5 user on Windows Vista, you may have experienced problems with trying to set up your storage card on the device to synchronize with Windows Media Player 11. Microsoft has issued an update (via Windows Update) to address the issue -

If you have not checked Windows Update in the last couple of days, be sure to do so when you have the chance.

At CTIA Wireless 2007 keynote Microsoft's Peter Knook announced that Cingular aka "the new AT&T" will provide free updates to new and existing customers to three of their Windows Mobile Devices from Windows Mobile 5 to Windows Mobile 6. The devices that will be getting the free update will be 3 of their newer and popular devices: the Samsung Blackjack, Cingular 8525, and the Palm Treo 750. Palm made their offical announcement here.

The update will be a downloadable update (you will need to flash your device) with a projected date of availability being around 2H of 2007. All new devices sold after proper testing is performed will ship with Windows Mobile 6. So if you were waiting on which devices will be supported this may make your decision making process a bit easier. For more CTIA 2007 coverage and pictures of some nice phones and devices revealed be sure to check out the blogs provided by Jason Dunn here and Chris Leckness here.

As developers, we can <insert sarcasm>NEVER</insert sarcasm> be satisfied with what we have today. We are always looking to the future to see what is in store in the ways of tools and technologies.

If you are not already aware, the next release of Visual Studio (codenamed "Orcas") will include the .NET Compact Framework 3.5. This new version has a lot of new features, including the addition of Windows Communication Foundation ("WCF") for .NET CF. This particular feature is something I am particularly excited about, a I personally feel some of the most applicable use cases for WCF pertain to mobile devices.

Some of the bits for the .NET CF 3.5 are already available as part of the Orcas CTP (more information online at MSDN). If you are interested in .NET CF details, be sure to check out the .NET CF Team Blog, as well as Mark Prentice's Blog. Mark specifically has some nice "how it works" posts -

• Whats new with .NET Compact Framework 3.5
• Introduction to Windows Communication Foundation for the .NET Compact Framework Messaging Stack

Support for Windows Mobile 6.0 allows for improvement on award-winning CalliGrapher application

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA March 26, 2007 - PhatWare Corporation, a leading provider of software products and professional services for mobile and desktop computers, announces the release of CalliGrapher 8.5.  The award-winning handwriting recognition software for Windows-Mobile devices includes a Write Pad SIP and is now optimized to support Windows Mobile 6.0, including full-VGA and Square QVGA square screen devices.

Named the best software for handwriting recognition for Microsoft Windows Mobile based Pocket PCs by industry experts for five consecutive years, CalliGrapher analyzes pen strokes written in any application window or in the designated Write Pad area, then converts those pen strokes into text and sends the recognized text to the target application. Employing advanced fuzzy logic and neural net techniques, CalliGrapher recognizes arbitrary alphanumeric strings, as well as words contained in its integrated dictionary.

To address the customer's needs in a fast-growing market of phone-enabled Pocket PC devices, the new version of CalliGrapher supports new screen resolution and improved inking capabilities introduced in the new version of  the operating system. Calligrapher 8.5 has also been enhanced to include new icons, updated help and documentation.

"PhatWare is excited about the recent improvements made to CalliGrapher," said PhatWare president Stan Miasnikov. "Our continuous upgrades will continue to improve the user experience. Our goal is always to provide our customers with the best.”

CalliGrapher 8.5 has additional performance improvements. The software supports devices running on any Windows Mobile based Pocket PC or Smartphone equipped with a touch screen. CalliGrapher 8.5 can be purchased from the PhatWare Web site for $39.95 and is a free upgrade for registered users of CalliGrapher 8.0 or later. Owners of older versions can upgrade to CalliGrapher 8.3 for $24.95. For a limited time only, PhatWare offers additional $10 discount for new and existing CalliGrapher users. For more information about CalliGrapher or other PhatWare products, visit www.phatware.com.

This week, LingvoSoft is offering a 25% discount on their wonderful assortment of dictionaries, phrase books and flash cards for Windows Mobile devices. If you have been holding off on translation software before that trip abroad, now is the time to purchase.

In addition, this limited-time offer can be used in conjunction with other discounts at the LingvoSoft web site. So don't delay!

There are moments when I think about how long we've been covering Windows Mobile news here at BostonPocketPC.com. I had one of those moments today when I received news of IntelliGolf 8.2 shipping. It reminded me that we were excited to hear news of IntelliGolf shipping for the Pocket PC 2002 OS. Where does the time go?

Today, Karrier Communications announced the shipment of its new IntelliGolf version 8.2 golf scoring and GPS software for all existing platforms. These include Windows Mobile-based Pocket PCs and Smartphones, Palm and Treo handhelds, Java-based smartphones (e.g. Sony Ericsson, Nokia, etc), and Windows-based PCs. A RIM/Blackberry version of IntelliGolf will be shipping in the coming months.

IntelliGolf version 8.2 adds support for Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system, GPS keep-alive on handhelds/smartphones, RCGA (and USGA) handicap posting with Member ID, IntelliGPS course designator, and continued free access to over 23,000 digital scorecards for use with IntelliGolf version 8.x. Other companies charge up to $59.95 in annual subscription fees or up to $19.95 per course download for similar course access priviledges. IntelliGolf is the leading "Golf Scoring and GPS Software" in 125+ countries worldwide.

You can find out all about the new (and existing) features of IntelliGolf at the IntelliGolf website.

I can't seem to recall how many times I have been asked by folks about the availability of CAD software for Windows Mobile devices. Well, word came to me of Shape, a CAD application for Windows Mobile devices from OMNI DATA. Shape provides the ability to create CAD drawings on a Windows Mobile device, as well as the ability to export the drawings in DXF format, making the result highly compatible with desktop CAD packages.

You can check out more information (including lots of screenshots) at the Shape home page. The web site lists Shape at $99 USD, but a trial version is available (the trial version is fully functional expect for export abilities).

Back in January, we reported on Netwasp's aquisition of KamWare's ThemeMaker. Many people may not be aware that Netwasp also is the owner of PocketThemes.com and its e-Commerce sibling PocketPCMall.com. Well, word has now come that Netwasp has re-launched these two longtime web sites -

In its heyday PocketThemes was the number 1 resource for all things ‘Pocket PC themes’; linked to by every major player in the industry and used by everyone wanting to publish that “must-have” theme”. Due to a number of technical and organizational reasons both sites went down a few years ago and, although the top spot in Google went over to Netwasp’s other community themes site (PocketPCThemes.com) PocketThemes has already proven it can rival the best of them.

PocketPCMall is the eCommerce brother of PocketThemes providing a wide variety of themes and software dedicated to Pocket PC users. The site can boast the largest collection of Animated Today and FlashThemes themes anywhere in the world, as well as themes for FlashThemesPro and the soon to come FlashDash.

If you haven't paid a visit to PocketThemes.com lately, now would be a good time to do so.

With links to nearly 1000 PDA-friendly websites, Pda Home Page makes a compelling argument for being your first stop for Mobile Internet discovery.

I suggest taking a look at Pda Home Page on your mobile device. My guess - it will be the newest addition to your Mobile Favorites  

For those who haven't attended the last few Club Pocket PC - Boston meetings, I want to make sure to announce early that there will be no meeting in April. The reason - the Microsoft offices in Waltham (particularly, the presentation rooms) will be undergoing renovations the week of scheduled meetings. While we may miss one month of meetings, we can eagerly look forward to seeing the results of the renovations!

We will next meet on Wednesday, May 18th at our normal time of 6:30 PM. Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.

For all you New England-area .NET developers - Code Camp 7: Deer In The Headlights is coming to the Microsoft offices in Waltham, MA on Saturday, March 31st and Sunday, April 1st. As always, this community-oriented event (organized, run and presented by community members) is a fantastic, fun and FREE way to learn about a variety of .NET development topics.

If you take a moment to view the current presentation list,  you will see that I am slated for two sessions:

"Leveraging Speech in .NET Applications and Windows Vista"
One of the more overlooked features provided in the .NET Framework 3.0 is the new Speech namespace. When combined with Windows Vista, this new functionality opens the door to a number of developer possbilities around speech-enabling desktop applications.
In this presentation, you will learn about the new Speech API, and see how you can implement both text-to-speech and voice recognition for applications.

"Windows Mobile Application Performance Best Practices"
While the Windows Mobile platform has evolved greatly since its inception, developers are still challenged by the limitations in mobile devices. Limited in screen size, reduced memory and and power-efficient CPUs make Windows Mobile development performance-oriented development even more essential when compared to traditional computing platforms.
In this presentation, you will learn a variety of programming techniques to make your Windows Mobile applications perform common development tasks in efficient and user-friendly ways.

There are still spaces available for this event, so don't hesitate to register today!

Hello Everyone. I got a note the other day from Phatware about PenCommander 2.0 for Tablet PC and wanted to share it. Here is the link to PenCommander 2.0. Below is the note.

"PhatWare’s popular PenCommander 2.0 application has successfully completed certification testing at VeriTest for the Microsoft “Certified for Windows Vista” logo program.

The "Certified for Windows Vista" logo is a compatibility designation for applications and devices that have passed a rigorous testing program on computers that are running Windows Vista. The technical requirements for this designation target four core areas: reliability, security, compatibility with Windows Vista and future operating systems, and installation and removal.

PenCommander for Tablet PC features a new powerful technology which allows you to use your pen to call up commands that can control your computer in almost limitless ways, such as editing documents, inserting often-repeated text into documents, and launching applications."