Microsoft Strategist questions President Obama's choice of the Blackberry

I guess we are all aware by now that President Obama (Who?) is keeping his Blackberry. Now the question is: Will the President still use the Windows CE powered phone chosen by the NSA? Don't have an answer for that yet; we'll just have to watch his belt.
 
Besides all the buzz, one Microsoft enterprise mobile strategist, Randy Siegel, is questioning the President's choice of the Blackberry and said that "You would be sending your data outside the country". Randy Siegel talked to Andrew LaVallee of the Wall Street Journal. Read the complete article here.

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Microsoft Tag

In Japan, small barcodes of sorts are popular on advertising. Snap a picture with your phone and save contact information or go to a company's mobile website all on your phone.

Microsoft has their own take on this now with Microsoft Tag. Jason Langridge's blog shows us a picture comparing Microsoft's HCCB format Tag as compared to QRCode and Datamatrix codes where Tags can be smaller in size and are multi-colored rather than black and white.

Microsoft's Tag concept takes the concept to the next level, though, by including a reporting mechanism that logs every time someone scans one of your codes, even if it's just a vcard. And there is an option in the application for your phone to allow location tracking, so you can now when and where someone scans your code.

The application is available for Windows Mobile, Symbian, Palm OS, Android, and iPhone.

Links:

• Download the app to your phone via http://gettag.mobi/
• Try creating your own tags at http://tag.microsoft.com/
• Microsoft Tag's team blog http://blogs.msdn.com/tag/
• Lots of details at http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2009/01/19/microsoft-tag.aspx and http://www.microsoft.com/tag/content/what/

HTC announces new HTC Cruise, introduces HTC FootPrints

The HTC Cruise was specially designed to be more a GPS device in HTC's line of products. However, the company has more than one GPS-enabled devices in its portfolio, so I wonder why they are proposing an updated version of the Cruise. While the design has changed, the hardware is pretty much the same. Software wise, they introduced HTC Footprints.
 
"With the introduction of HTC Footprints, you have a mobile phone that lets you grasp all the precious details of the instances that make up your life."
            
"The best part about HTC Footprints is that you can use them to find your way back to the hidden little café you visited last year, or the elm tree under which your loved one popped the big question. And if you want, you can simply flip through your collection and laugh about the times that helped create who you are today. HTC Footprints is like a journal of your life's highlights, making them always within your reach."
 
Will the Footprints be extended to other HTC GPS-enabled devices?

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Improve touchscreen sensitivity on the Diamond and Touch Pro.

Before anything else, you try this hack at your own risk.
 
According to 1800pocketpc, it is possible to improve the sensitivity of the Diamond and the Touch Pro through a registry hack. In case you are not comfortable manipulating the registry, a .cab file is also available for download here.
 
Unfortunately, I do not own any of these devices. If you try this hack, I would appreciate a feedback.
 

1. Go to  HKLM/Drivers/TouchPanel using your registry editor   
2. Change the PressureThreshold value to 80866 in decimal ( NOT hex )   
3. Now goto HKLM/Software/OEM/TFLOSettings, Change FingerPressure value to 1  in decimal ( NOT hex )   
4. Soft-Reset your device  

 
Source: http://www.1800pocketpc.com/2009/01/14/hack-increase-touchscreen-sensitivity-on-diamond-touch-pro.html

            

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Vito Techonology apps now Omnia compatible

Vito Technology, the now well known Windows Mobile software developer, has released a version of its applications that now support the Samsung Omnia. Note that the Omnia looks similar to the iPhone in that it has more touch features rather buttons.
 
The new release includes:
 
Winterface, AudioNotes, Astro-Navigator, SMS-Chat, FunContact and Voice2Go.
 
Website: http://vitotechnology.com 

            

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Future HTC devices leaked

Spotted a listing of future HTC devices posted on wmpoweruser.com. I was impressed by the number of front-faced keyboard devices with one being the new Excalibur, which is my all-time favorite device. This one has 3G.
            

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Motorola unveils new WM Smartphone, MotoSurf A3100

 
 
Yesterday Motorola showed three new devices at CES among which is the A3100, a Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional powered phone.
 
"Managing your social and work life just got easier with the MOTOSURF A3100. The touch tablet's customizable home screen is layered on top of the familiar Windows Mobile 6.1 software and has many applications that can be accessed with the tip of a finger, a stylus or an omni-directional trackball. The home screen icons can be personalized to give 'live' feeds on weather, news, personal and work e-mail, messaging and calendar events¹.  WiFi¹ and 3G connectivity make the experience seamless and fast.

 

"We developed the MOTOSURF A3100 as a true social smartphone," said John Cipolla, senior vice president, product development, Motorola Mobile Devices. "Home screen personalization and access to a whole host of applications gets the info you want –  fast, and at your fingertips."

 

Whether toggling back and forth between documents while on the go, listening to MP3s, video conferencing on the run, updating your Facebook status or using aGPS to navigate from point A to B, MOTOSURF puts every aspect of your life, personal and professional, just a touch away¹.

 

MOTOSURF A3100 will be available in multiple regions beginning in Q1 2009, including Asia and Latin America." 
            

Besides the A3100, two other non-Windows Mobile phone were shown. The W233 is probably the most environmentally friendly phone on the market. Recycled materials were used to build the phone.

 

Read more...

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Pocket Player 4 released

Pocket Player 4 has just been released. Check out the features below before downloading a trial from http://www.conduits.com/products/player/download.asp.

• Full music and video support: MP3, AAC*, M4A*, WMA, WMV, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, and WAV!
• Protected WMA support, u-Law, A-Law, AU, and ADPCM WAV (used in Voicemail attachments) playback
• Podcast subscriptions* auto-download new content to your device!
• Media Browser menu system, with touch scrolling and gesture support!
• Media Library auto-imports 1000+ tracks with ease, with support for all common metadata tags for all media formats, including lyrics and ratings!
• 10-band Equalizer and Preamp, with presets!
• Universal Plug-and-Play (UPnP): browse and play content from your desktop!
• Internet radio streaming support for Shoutcast (MP3), AAC (including aacPlus, HE-AAC v1, HE-AAC v2)*, Windows Media (MMS) stations
• Web guide for Internet radio, MP3 blogs and podcasts, with pause, auto-resume and seek functionality!
• Voicemail playback (WAV email attachments), integrates with your Inbox!
• Visualizations and downloadable Album Art support
• Full support for Windows Mobile 5 (Pocket PC and Smartphone), WM6 and Windows Mobile 6.1 compatibility!
• Support for Bluetooth stereo headphones (A2DP), buttons (AVRCP), and mono headsets (Audio Gateway)!
• Skinnable (Pocket Player, WMP, and WinAmp WSZ skins) for all device resolutions with color change ability
• Themed and skinned Today plugin on touchscreen devices
• Reads tags such as ID3 (v1/v1.1/v2), MPEG-4, APE and ASF; scans device in background
• Gapless playback with adjustable crossfading
• Playlist manager, auto-generating smart playlists!
• DSP Plugin support, including time stretch and Bass Boost
• User-managed Bookmarks support; jump to a file and time
• For Podcasts and audio books: bookmarks, "Seek to last position", Auto-resume
• Hardware button mapping, button locking, one-handed navigation, including support for scroll wheels
• Adjustable sleep timer, automatic screen shutoff function

Dash in black

T-Mobile has just released a black version of my favorite Smartphone. Yes, the Dash or HTC S620 is and remains my favorite phone. It's thin, powerful, has a great keyboard and a sleek design. Unfortunately, the new Dash seems to be just a color upgrade. The specs haven't changed, thus no 3G. There has been no announcement from HTC about the release  of an unlocked version of the Dash. Learn more T-Mobile website.