Pocket Slay

Pocket Slay is a risk type turn based stratergy game that will keep you occupied for hours with stacks of levels (or islands) to conquer and a multitude of computer opponents to battle for the ultimate territory. The more territory you get means the more troops you can aquire (there is 4 different strengths of troops available) if you build a force too strong it will send you bankrupt. Trial version available here... or buy the full version from here...

Im Back from Holidays

Well i hope everyone had a great and safe Christmas, ive just returned a day before the new year from a week or so on holiday. We traveled over 700 Km's in the last 10 hours which gave me the perfect opportunity to test out the recently purchased GPS unit,

there was 2 things i discovered..

1. I need to look for more updated maps, there was a few things it didnt have updated (like a round about that used to be on a highway and no longer is)
2. Having a 400 hz CPU while running tomtom and gps bluetooth means a 4 hour battery

The battery i was able to overcome thanks to a $10 Pocket pc car charger from ebay i got a few months ago. Anyway ive had a chance to test a stack of new games that ill be posting after a good nights sleep.

Merry christmas to all.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Wish you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Chess player caught cheating with wireless device

CNN reports how a chess player got caught cheating using his mobile to win games. "An Indian chess player has been banned for 10 years for cheating after he was caught using his mobile phone's wireless device to win games, chess officials said on Wednesday.
The player, Umakant Sharma, had logged rating points at a rapid pace in the last 18 months and also qualified for the national championship, arousing the suspicion of officials and bemusing rivals." Read more...

Best wishes for Christmas

On behalf of Pocket PC Mauritius team, I wish you all out there a Merry Christmas and thank you for visiting our blog. We also that Santa brings you the best of the PDAs or Smartphone running Windows Mobile. Have fun.

Ringo Mobile - Your ringtone manager

Very often I receive emails from visitors to this blog with something like this in the subject line: How do I set an Mp3 file as my sms ringtone?
Electric Pocket now has a definite answer to this with their Ringo Mobile software.

Features:
Easily use MP3 & WMA ringtones on your Windows Mobile Phone
Set personal ringtones for your friends
Set personal SMS alert tones for friends
Set different ringtones for address book groups
Set different SMS alerts for address book groups
Over 50 Free MP3 ringtones, to download and install!

A trial version is available here for Pocket PC and Smartphone or you can buy it for $19.95.

Mobile Phone Telescope

Ok so what to get a pocket PC owner for Xmas, how about a pointless telescopic lens for a camera phone. That's right a company in Hong Kong has come up with a telescopic addon for a mobile phone or pocket PC (they don't sell them for Pocket PC but judging from the pic it would work the same way) at $19 US I still don't think this is something ill run out and get More...

Free: Snowed In 5 - Flaked Out

Now in its 5th Year! "Snowed In 5 - Flaked Out" is THE definitive Christmas give-away. Enjoyed by gamers worldwide - downloaded over 100,000 times - free games don't get any better! Now available as a FREE DOWNLOAD until 31st January for these devices:

Pocket PC - e.g. Ipaq (QVGA, 240x320), Dell Axim x50v (VGA, 480x640), Treo 700w (Square, 240x240)
Smartphone - all models (QVGA, VGA and square screen), e.g. MotoQ, Orange SPV
Symbian S60 - e.g. Nokia 6600
Symbian S60 V3 - e.g. Nokia E60 (352x416), Nokia E61 (320x240)
Symbian UIQ - e.g. Sony Ericsson P800, P900
Symbian UIQ V3 - e.g. Sony Ericsson M600, P990, W950
Symbian S80 - e.g. Nokia 9210, Nokia 9290 (1st edition) and Nokia 9300, Nokia 9500 (2nd edition)
Symbian S90 - e.g. Nokia 7700
Desktop PC - runs in windowed and full screen mode!
GP2X Console

Download here

Q&A: How to modify default date format?

Q: Default regional settings is for USA. The date format is Friday 15 December 2006. If I set it to English UK it drops the day and I can only have 15 December 2006. Is there any way I can set it to region UK and have the day in the date please? Some kind of registry tweak or something?

A: If you have a registry editor, try this: Go to HKLM/nls/Overrides/
Change the Value data for SSDte to the date format you want. To include the day, type dddd/mmmm dd/yyyy as the value data. Do a soft reset and you will be able to select the new date format from the Regional Settings applet.

Warning: Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

Adventures with Bluetooth GPS

Well i finally got my hands on a bluetooth GPS unit for my pocket pc. im planning to cover what i had to go through in the initial setup to get it all working. seeing as how i didnt want to spend a whole lot on it i managed to pick up a GPS unit for $80 Australian from ebay and was quite surprised how well it actually works.

First of all GPS is all well and good but you need a mapping program to use it with, for that i grabbed a copy of Tomtom. Now im using version 5.1 but the latest version is 6, i couldnt see alota difference in the versions other than some screens being a different colour and a few more options. There is a patch you will also need with tomtom if you dont plan to use a standard tomtom gps.

Secondly i grabbed a copy of updated bluetooth drivers for my phone, this gives you some new options you dont get with the standard 2003ce bluetooth.

Also pick up VisualGPSce which you get for free from here this will save you having to try and start tomtom every 5 seconds when you start to get into the port setups.

Once you have bluetooth upgraded and everything installed pair with the GPS (this will be covered in the user manuals as each unit is different) you need the outgoing port to be open using port 5 (very important this) once you are paired up you should see some communications start to pick up in tomtom or VisualGPSce.

I was actually quite surprised how easy it was to get going (well had a few restarts) but also how well it worked considering the price. I have a friend who uses a Navman according to the specs on both the cheap ebay GPS will connect faster on cold startup.

So far ive found it very handy indeed.

Space Trader v1.1b

I love these old space trader games (i am a massive elite fan), you know the ones where you fly around the universe buying and selling wares (some illegal) and try not to cross the over the "wrong side of the law". This is one of those brilliant free to download games (but if you really like it dont forget to drop some cash to the developer. You can see more screenshots here... or download from here...

Q&A: Remote Desktop Client for Smartphones

Q: Does Windows Mobile 5 - Smartphone Edition include a remote desktop client?

A: Windows Mobile 5 pocket PC edition comes with a Terminal Services Client but this feature is not present in the Smartphone edition. But don't despair. Luckily, there are third party solutions out there that you can try. I came across .Net VNC viewer which works on both Pocket PC and Smartphones. VNC Viewer lets you remotely connect and control your desktop PC. Mocha Remote Client for Windows Mobile 1.2 only works on Pocket PCs.

Skype 2.2 Beta for Windows Mobile - Smartphone Edition

It's great that Skype is now functional on Windows Smartphones. Version 2.2 beta is avalable for download here. Don't know what Skype is? Read more here.

Some of its features:

Free calls to friends and family from your mobile phone.
Save on mobile calls — at home, in the office or when travelling.
Anywhere, anytime — no need for a computer.

Pocket IE and Default home page

Q: The default behaviour for Pocket IE when you open it is for it to show the last web page you were viewing. Is there any way to force the browser to open with the Home page instead?

A: This behaviour is due to the fact that you are not really closing PIE when you tap the X button. Windows Mobile only minimizes the application. This is why you're getting the last visited page each time you "maximize" or restart PIE. There are plenty of free task managers that you can download that will really close any app you use on your device. Try Magic Button. It's really nice, easy to use and free.

You can download Magic Button for free here.

Mitsubishi Unveiling Double-Screen Concept Phone

According to Telecoms Korea, Mitsubishi Electronics presented a dual screen phone during the Hong Kong ITU World. Now, I don't really grasp the idea behind this, but itlooks like another useless addition to a phone while there are much more important issues that need attention. I'm here referring to new ways to make our devices more powerful and faster, fix the batteries problem etc.

"Being developed to improve user interface, the double-screen phone supports touch screen and a subtle click sensation that ensures correct function of the device even when wrong buttons are pressed." Read more...

Speed up your Pocket PC/Smartphone

SpeedBooster is a software that will allow you to focus the CPU to certain tasks, that require more hardware power. It has an easy to use interface, quite the opposite from the advanced internal functionality. It runs on multiple platforms Pocket PC, Smartphone, both the 2003 and the 2005 platforms. Get as much as you can out of your Mobile Device right now!

16 days unlimited trial
Real time CPU usage indicator for all of your Tasks
Easy "switch-to" function, with a single Action key press
Powerfull CPU priority control functions
Multiple platform support: works with most of the 2003 and 2005 devices, both Pocket PC and Smartphone
Cool interface, easy to use and great results

Download

LG Unveils Mobile WiMAX PDA Phone

LG Electronics revealed its PDA phone for Mobile WiMAX for the first time to the public. The phone, unveiled in ITU World in Hong Kong, features Window Mobile PPC O/S, touch screen, Bluetooth, a 2 Megapixel Camera, mini SD, and supports both Mobile WiMAX and cdma2000 1x EV-DO. The PDA phone is set to be rolled out in Korea in the second quarter of 2007.

Unless I'm wrong, this is LG's first PDA phone running Windows Mobile. No more fancy chocolates...

Belkin Cable-Free USB Hub

The Belkin Cable-Free USB Hub, the industry's first USB Hub that does not require a cable to connect to the computer, will be available for purchase in mid-December. Utilizing Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology with the Wisair chipset, this Hub allows you to place your laptop anywhere in the room so you can print, play music, scan, download photos, and burn CDs from anywhere in the room. Surely your wallet will complain about the $199 price tag.

Free: Send SMS to groups

This is yet another missing feature of Windows Mobile and quite a surprising one. One would expect to be able to create distribution lists in Pocket Outlook, but Microsoft thought otherwise. Fortunately a developer came up with OS SMS, a freeware for Smartphones running WM5. Besides being free, this soft lets you create groups of 10 contacts and send SMS quickly to groups instead of having to manually select these names from Contacts. Hopefully, the developer will fix the Distribution lists issue in a near future. Download

Podcast pick #1 Comedy4Cast

Comedy4Cast is one of my favorite Podcasts, I never miss an episode. Ive been listening to this one for quite sometime now (since about episode 25 from memory). This is clean comedy at its finest and there are a number of ongoing characters that appear as themes for an episode ranging from the "nerdy/tryhardish" Danny Hillcrest (movie reviewer) to the rather well spoken Hamm or even the Basically Podcast show with Lenny Treetop (previously sponsored by Generic Tomato soup), each episode brings about a new adventure for the characters or offers insite into the creator, Comic Genious Clinton Alvord. All in all i highly recomend giving it a try. You can listen to the current and previous episodes here...

Tsk tsk

According to a recent article on Techdirt.com the FBI now has a legal precedent to use Mobile phones in order to spy on people, this is using otherwise inactive mobiles (not in a call) to eavesdrop on people near enough to the receiver to be picked up as a sound file. While im a big believer in "if you don't have anything to hide..." I still think this is just going a bit too far, more Here...

Locate a GSM phone anywhere...kind of

This service is new and you will agree with me, is also pretty useless. But try it, you will be surprised by the results.

Approximate margin of error:
10 metres (max.) for mobile phones in Europe and the U.K.
25 metres (max.) for mobile phones in the U.S.A., South America and Canada.
50 metres (max.) for mobile phones elsewhere.

http://www.celtascortos.org/moviles/eng/index.htm

Print anywhere on the web

It was to be expected that after online docs and spreadsheets, the next logical step would be online printing. This is now possible with PrinterAnywhere. The software is very easy to use and you can even try it online. Best of it all, it's free. Go ahead and give it a try.

http://www.printeranywhere.com/