Free: HTC Today screen for your PDA

PocketNow has HTCs Today plugin available as a free download on their website. The plugin I refer to is the one that can be seen on HTC's latest devices: TyTN II and Touch. You'll have quick access to your contacts, software and a rather big digital clock on your main screen. It's a cool plugin. Download at www.pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=news&id=4618.

Posted on the GO!

Review: FunContact by Vito Technology

Since the launch of the iPhone a couple of months ago, the handheld community has endeavored itself to emulate Apple's interface and port it to Windows Mobile platform. Vito technology is the latest to come up with an iPhone-like interface application and went even further by developing a website with icons similar to the iPhone. Six applications are listed there, but only two are available for download; FunContact and AstroNavigator II. The first named is the subject of this short review.

All in all, FunContact is an application that replaces the default Contacts interface on your device with some nice features. I've installed it on my Eten M500 Pocket PC running Windows Mobile 5. After a successful install, Vito took over the Contacts soft key. I lost my stylus a long time ago and never felt the need to purchase a replacement. So I'm quite an expert at using my thumb to find my way on the device. I tapped Contacts and FunContact took 9 seconds to load, which is a bit long. Once it's opened, the application is very responsive though.

At the bottom of the screen are four buttons. The first one, with the A, is your contacts list. Not much to say about the button itself except that it's big enough to manipulate with the thumb. The font's size makes it easy to differentiate contacts at a glance. You do not need to pull out your stylus to search your contacts. Use your finger, most likely your thumb, to scroll through the list. It required that I pressed a little bit on the screen to move up or down the list. If you have a lot of Contacts, you might find finger scrolling somehow inefficient, especially if you're in a hurry. There is a better way of doing it.

On the right side of the screen is the alphabet column. Touch it with your finger and a box appears with the selected letter in bold. Drag your finger along the column and it changes to the next alphabet in the list. This is a quick and easy way to flip through your contacts while on the go.

Tap to view a contact details. The way a contact card opens is quite cool. Actually the screen revolves on itself to display the card. The latter shows the contacts photo, the different phone numbers and email addresses of the selected contacts. It displays each number on its own line with a SMS button at the end. Tap the SMS button will open the new SMS screen and of course sending a sms to your Home/Work/Mobile phone number. Obviously, your Home/Work phone device must support SMSs for this to work. Tapping directly on the phone number initiates a call. Another useful feature on the screen is the star next to the contacts name at the top of the screen. Tap on it and its color changes to gold. Go back to the main screen and notice that the second button has a gold
star on it. Each contact that has the star highlighted is added to a favorites list for quick access.

The third button displays most recently dialed numbers and incoming calls. Tap to start a new call. The forth button is a menu list. The first choice lets you create a new contact. The second one lets you sort your contacts by First name, Last Name and Company. FunContact is available in five languages: English, Italian, Spanish, German and French. You can set the language you want using the Language option in the menu list. The other two options are Minimize and Exit.

Conclusion

FunContact does make it easier to navigate through the contacts list and the overall design is cool. I did not find it as flashy as announced by Vito though. The ability to scroll using the fingers is nice but does not necessarily warrant spending $19.95 for it. I hope the good folks
over at Vito Technology will review that. The contact card can be improved to include more details, like IM addresses. It can be re-designed to use the free space between the phone numbers and the SMS buttons. An idea would be to have adjacent squares that are big enough for the finger.

Extreme Text - New threaded texting for Smartphones

Extreme Text is an application that brings threaded capabilities to Windows Mobile Smartphones. This application will work on non-touch screen devices only. Using the default messaging program, it also adds new features like emoticons, photo contacts etc. Giving you a true instant messaging experience. Download a free trial at www.birdsoft.biz/extremetext.htm.

Posted on the GO!

Gmail is now IMAP enabled

I'm not sure there was an announcement for this, but checking my Gmail settings, I noticed that IMAP was added. If you have had issues the Gmail POP3, you will like IMAP. Why? Your emails will remain on your device when synchronizing. There has been a lot of complaint regarding this. On each sync, already downloaded emails would simply disappear from the Inbox. I'm going to try the Imap.

Posted on the GO!

Touch Commander - for a one touch access to your PDA's functions

The success of the iPhone and HTC Touch 3D interface has probably inspired MobilityFlow to develop a similar, if not better, solution for existing and upcoming devices. Touch Commander is a $14.95 application that lets you use your finger to sweep across the screen in much the same way the TouchFlo technology does.
The site claims that Touch Command works on "any model of PDA powered by Microsoft Windows Mobile 5 or higher." I've tried it on my Eten M500 and it does not work. Let me know should anyone get it to work.

http://www.touch-commander.com/

Microsoft Introduces New Technology and Collaboration to Accelerate Business Smartphone Adoption

Seeking to catalyze large-scale adoption of mobile smartphones by
corporate customers, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer today unveiled
several strategic offerings to help people and businesses better embrace
mobile technology. The company announced its first dedicated mobile
device management server and a strategic new business alliance to
complement the growing success of the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating
system and help more businesses take advantage of mobile solutions for
their employees.

Read more at:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/oct07/10-23CTIA2007PR.mspx

Free: Dashwire web dashboard lets you access your WM device from your computer

Dashwire Inc. has launched a new service that "automatically mirrors the content on your phone to your personal web account." This free tool then lets you send and receive sms; add and edit contacts; organize photos and videos; Listen to voicemail; set internet favorites, ringtones, speed dials and transfer contacts and settings to your new phone.
Go to www.dashwire.com To learn more and try it. Registration is required.

Posted on the GO!

Q&A: My device does not display caller ID

Q: When I receive phone calls, the phone number is displayed instead of the caller ID. Thus, I sometime do not know who's calling. My phone number format is 123 4567. How can I resolve that?

A: Some HTC devices have that problem where they are unable to compare and retrieve the caller when a phone calls arrive. This is happening because the number of digits in the phone number, which is 7. Many countries use 8 digits and by default, some devices are setup with the default value 8 in the following registry key: HKCU\Control Panel\Phone\CallIdMatch. Change the value to 7 and soft reset. This is it.

Tipster: Maurisystems Ltd

Posted on the GO!

Unable to sync Outlook data with Windows Vista and how I solved it.

I came across multiple posts about issues where only files and Favorites would sync with Vista and WMDC but not Contacts, Calendar and Tasks. I experienced the same issue this week-end after installing VistaUltimate. Deleting existing partnerships did not help. My Outlook data did not sync even though my HTC S620 would show up in WMDC and synced my favorites. A hard reset was an option since I had the same data on my Pocket PC, but I was determined to resolve this without hard resetting.

I connected my Eten M500 and it synchronized flawlessly. Same for my wife's HTC S310. With the help of a fresh beer, I went to create a new standard account on my PC. I logged on with the new account and started Outlook 2003 to create a profile. Then I connected my Smartphone. The screen to delete an existing partnership came up since I was already synchronizing with two PCs - My
home and Work PCs. So I deleted the office partnership. WMDC saved my new settings and I named my new connection as Home instead of the default Windows PC3. Amazingly, my device started synchronizing with the PC. I went into Outlook and all my data were there. But I wasn't done
yet since I wanted to sync using my own Vista account.

I logged off and logged back on using my own account. Since Outlook already had data from my Eten, I deleted them all, connected my Smartphone and deleted one existing partnership. After that my device synchronized with the PC. I went into Outlook and they were all there.

Just to verify, I disconnected the phone, added a new contact and appointment and connected again. Confirmed, the issue was resolved.

Mobile GBlogger - blog on the go

I came across this nice software from Pocket Watch that lets you post to your Blogger account using your WM5/6 device. The basic version, which I'm using to post this, is free. GBlogger pro is at $15 per year. Both versions let you publish to your blog or save as draft. the differences being that in the free version, a one line advertisement is inserted at the end of the post.
Gblogger Pro has the ability to set Technorati tags/Categories, have indexing services and no advertisements.
While it's cool to have a software that let's you blog from wherever you are, I personally prefer to just send an email to my blog and it's automatically updated. if you need to insert HTML tags, Youtube videos etc, then GBlogger is what you need. To learn more: www.pocketwatchsoftware.com/gblogger.

- Posted using Pocket Watch Software Mobile GBlogger.

New Spb Pocket plus 4.0 released

This popular application has been released with loads of new functionality. The new build is less bulky, resulting in less space on the device after installation. Version 4.0 is also faster than its predecessor. Listed as novelties are:

Smart scrolling

Tabs in IE

New File save/open dialog

Additional actions assigned to hardware button long-pressing

A 15-day trial is available for download or you can purchase it for $29.95. Owners of the previous version can get it for $14.95.

http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com

Posted on the GO!

PocketSMS: SMS management software

PocketSMS is another software for managing SMS on your Windows XP or Vista PC. I wrote another because not so long ago, I blogged about Jeyo Mobile Companion which has the same features. PocketSMS was previously available in German only. The English version is sold for $19.95 and a 30 days trial is available. Download at http://www.thbi.de/us/software/pocketsms/index.html

Posted on the GO!

Vito reveals new website and new software

http://iwindowsmobile.com Is Vito Technology's new cool website to present their new applications. Right now only two of them are available: Funcontact and AstroNavigator II. One application has retained my attention though, SMS-Chat. This software is going to bring threaded sms conversation to Windows Mobile devices, at last. This is great news.

Posted on the GO!

Palm's green initiative

I applaud Palm's initiative to collect old or unused phones, chargers and other accessories for recycling. The recycled parts will then be used into new phones. Instead of throwing your old stuff in landfills or municipal waste, send them back to Palm. In doing so you will help preserve our already fragile environment. Go to http://blog.palm.com/palm/2007/10/project-green.html, to learn more. Bravo Palm.

Posted on the GO!

MySpace goes mobile

A mobile version of MySpace is now available. Point your mobile browser to http://mobile.myspace.com. From now on you will be able to access your blog or email and other popular MySpace services right from your device.

Free WM6 upgrade for Palm Treo 750V

If you own an unbranded version of the 750V, go to http://euro.palm.com To download the image free. Enjoy Windows Mobile 6.

I-Mate annouces two new Jama

The Imate Jama 101 is not so ifferent as its predecessor except that it runs on Windows Mobile 6 Professional. Ok, it's also a little bit more attractive. Then there's the Jama 201 which main characteristic is the builtin QWERTY keyboard. Both devices share the same specs, except in size and these are Tri-Band GSM/GPRS/Edge; Samsung 300Mhz processor; 128ROM and 64MB Ram; 2mp camera. These devices do not support Wifi and 3G. Read more.

Astraware announces the release of Astraware Boardgames

Astraware Boardgames includes 8 games intended for casual Players and non-experts. The package is available for both Smartphone and Pocket PCs running WM 2003 and above. Try or buy at www.astraware.com/boardgames.

Posted on the GO!

Free: Anti-Dupe to remove duplicate records in Outlook

If for some reason, you're starting to get duplicate records on your devices after synchronizing, Anti-Dupe might help solve the issue. This free add-on will delete any duplicates that are in your Appointments, Tasks, Contacts and Email. When you connect your device again to sync, all duplicates should go too. Download Anti-Dupe at www.anti-dupe.com/products/products.asp

Posted on the GO!

Free: FTP server for Windows Mobile

This free utility from Mochasoft lets you Copy/Paste files to and from a Pocket PC. It supports standard FTP commands and up to 25 active sessions. Regarding security, a timer will close inactive sessions and different access rights can be set for users. Go to http://www.mochasoft.dk/freeware/ftpd.htm. FTP server is free. However, a license is required to run it and can be found at the bottom of the provided webpage.

Posted on the GO!