SafeMode 3 released

You're having issues with your device and notice that a driver or application is preventing from booting normally? I think you will more than happy to have SafeMode installed on the device. Similarly to the computer, SafeMode lets you boot your device into safe mode and fix your issues.
 
Download a trial from http://www.monocube.com/

Black Friday is coming

Mark your calendars, Black Friday is coming over at Handango on Friday 28. Expect massive savings on software.            

www.handango.com

Historia 1.0 Beta

Here's your chance to try a call logging application that works better than the one that's built into Windows Mobile. To join the beta program, send an email to support@festinger.net and a free registration key will be sent.

Features:

# Detailed information on each call .
# sorting by any column.
# 15 lines of calls per page.
# Copying a number.
 
Learn more at http://festinger.net/forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=1          

Spb Software Creates Finger-Friendly Interface for Major UK Carrier

Spb Software, world's leading Windows Mobile software developer creates an Spb Mobile Shell-powered touch screen interface for O2 Xda Zest. Designed exclusively for O2's latest Xda handset, the 'O2 Menu' helps to make the device ideal for those subscribers new to the Xda phones. The O2 Menu is carefully fitted to O2's style and brand, and is integrated with the built-in Opera Mobile, for seamless Internet browsing.

The new O2 Xda Zest is expected to encourage the conventional handset users to switch over to the more powerful Xda smartphones. The Zest's impressive 2.8" TFT screen with the sleek finger-friendly touch interface make for extremely easy device navigation, optimal for novice PDA users. Erik Staaf, Head of Own Branded Devices says: "Our established O2 Xda range has proven very popular with experienced PDA users but we are now pleased to also offer early entrants to the market a Pay & Go handset without an overcomplicated user interface."
 
Read more at http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/about/pressreleases/2008/nov25.html

Forward your text messages to an email address with txtForward.

This is nice application and a useful one. txtForward lets you forward SMSs to an email address and is quite useful as a way of archiving text messages. I spotted this utility on Jason's Langridge weblog: http://blogs.msdn.com/jasonlan/archive/2008/11/24/txtforward.aspx
 
You can download the software from http://electricpocket.com/txtforward/
            

Take Control over Wireless Data Spending with Spb Wireless Monitor 3.0.

Spb Software releases Spb Wireless Monitor 3.0 - a powerful software solution that offers full control over all types of smartphone data connections by monitoring them in accordance with configurable tariffs and data plans, and providing per application data traffic reports. First brought to market in 2002, Spb Wireless Monitor, formerly known as Spb GPRS Monitor, accounts for the lack of a built-in data tracking tool in Windows Mobile devices. A four-time prize winner in the Smartphone and Pocket PC magazine's Best Software Awards, shipped in over a dozen devices by ASUS, HTC, O2, Samsung, and T-Mobile, the Spb Wireless Monitor has over 3,000,000 loyal customers worldwide. The new name of version 3.0 comes with massive enhancements in features and abilities. 


With the growing popularity of mobile Internet and captivating online services - crossing the data plan limits and receiving painful phone bills is common, especially with the high cost of roaming. Spb Wireless Monitor 3.0 prevents unwanted mobile service charges and gives subscribers control over their mobile data spending, by measuring data traffic, calculating the network charges, warning of costly data usage, and reporting which application exactly generates what kind of data traffic.

The new Wireless Monitor supports both touch and non-touch screen devices, it can manage CDMA, GPRS, 3G, and even Wi-Fi and USB connections. Spb Wireless Monitor can provide per application traffic and cost reports, allowing users to single out guilty applications, responsible for high data charges. The new version has a modern, multilingual user interface and can manage several connections simultaneously.

You can find this press-release online: 
http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/about/pressreleases/2008/nov18.html


Spb Wireless Monitor for Pocket PC product page:
http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/wirelessmonitor/

Spb Wireless Monitor for Smartphone product page:
http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/smartphone/wirelessmonitor/

Microsoft Store now open

Microsoft now have their Store open. This is the place where you can purchase both software and hardware products. For now, the store is accesssible to some countries only inclusing the U.S., UK ans some asean countries. More will be added later. Check it out at http://store.microsoft.com/home.aspx?lc=1033

Adobe developing Flash 10 for Windows Mobile

Mobile Crunch announces that Adobe will release Flash 10 for Windows Mobile devices late next year. Flash 10 will allow viewing of flash enabled sites on a WM device. At the same time, Microsoft is also developing Silversight mobile which offers the same functionality. However, Redmond has not anounced a release date yet.

Read the article on Mobile Crunch:

http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2008/11/16/adobe-to-demo-flash-on-mobile-but-only-windows-still-working-on-the-iphone/

SMTP fix for WM6.1 released

The Outlook Mobile team released a patch to fix a problem that prevented users to send email. Here's a description of the problem:
"This feature allows operators to specify an alternate server that can be used only when your device has a problem accessing your mail account’s SMTP directly. When can this happen? Some mail services, like those provided by ISPs, only allow access to their SMTP servers when you are directly on their network. With this feature, it’s supposed to be easier for end users to send mail on a Windows Mobile device."

The fix can be downloaded from the Outlook Mobile Team website:
http://blogs.msdn.com/outlook_mobile/archive/2008/11/12/wm-6-1-smtp-fix-released.aspx

Vito announces new Weather 1.2

Note that this application is free and now includes all U.S. cities. Check it out at http://iwindowsmobile.com/vito-mobile-weather.html

Spb releases Spb Keyboard 4.0

It's been a long time since Spb released the first version of screen keyboard software which I have been using on my good old Eten M500. At the time, the keyboard software was very handy to type without the stylus. So the next logical step for me was to simply get a device with a real keyboard. Ever since, I have had devices with front face keyboard and one with a slide keyboard. While Spb Keyboard does make text entry easier on touchscreen devices, I won't go back to a device without a hardware keyboard. If you're looking for a good soft keyboard, I certainly recommend Spb Keyboard 4.0. A trial can be downloaded from http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/keyboard 

SPB Software release SPB Traveler 2.0

SPB Software released Spb Traveler 2.0 –" an expert mobile travel assistant application that is a pleasure to handle. The new Spb Traveler 2.0 offers a revolutionary animated finger-friendly user interface, a subscription-free flight search engine (powered by OAG), an animated 3D Globe with real satellite image of the sky, and a Geo Game for fun and learning.
 
Winner in Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine's Best Software Awards, Spb Traveler provides valuable tools and information to travelers such as world time and global weather service (powered by Foreca, the trusted provider of msn.com), tip calculator and multilanguage phrase book, as well as currency, unit, and clothing size converters. In all it does, Spb Traveler 2.0 has the speed and usability of an Spb Mobile Shell-powered interface, topped off with high-class 3D animation and gestures."

Read the complete press release at http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/about/pressreleases/2008/nov04.html

BIO.ID - New Text notification alert app with eye iris scanner support!!!

That one made me laugh. In a nutshell, BIO.ID is a text notification alert with more features than the built-in one and to make the app fun to use the author added iris scanner support as well as fingerprint recognition. Of course these features are fake. They are just themes that you can use to impress.
 
BIO.ID features:
 

3 themes: eye iris scanner, fingerprint scanner, voice reconizing

2 voices: woman, man, to announce messages, or short vibrating without announces

"You've got message..." repeats after a minute, then every 3 minutes, up to 10 times (to save battery)

auto-deleting every message marked as Read in Inbox, or when you open some message to read

delays of deleting: 15 seconds, minute, 15 minutes, one hour, or on the next morning

modes of deleting: move to Deleted Items folder, or delete completely 

 
A trial of the software can be downloaded from http://www.jgui.net/bio.id./index.html. Yes it's not free. Purchase price: $9.95 on Handango.          

Sprint Picture Mail Officially Released (finally)

Sprint has released Picture Mail for its Windows Mobile phones finally.

To download:

OTA: Open Internet Explorer and assuming that your homepage is the default Sprint page, click "Shop for Games & Applications". Then choose "Free/Demo". Then choose "Picture Mail Application Available NOW!".

PC: To download to your PC to then load onto the phone, go to http://softwarestore.sprint.com/wap/phones.php and choose your phone from the list. Then again click "Shop for Games & Applications". Then choose "Free/Demo". Then choose "Picture Mail Application Available NOW!".

Install it via the cab and then configure it. To configure it, go to Start > Programs > Configure Picture Mail. Tap on "Tap to Add" then choose Online Albums. That sets it up to work with the Sprint Picture Mail website. You can also configure your Photobucket and MySpace accounts there too if you want to use either of those.

To send a regular picture mail message, open a picture and then choose Menu > Send Picture Mail.

To upload a picture to MySpace or Photobucket once those are configured, choose Menu > Post to Service.

When sending a picture mail, you can add more than one picture to each message too. Select the portion labeled Media and then choose Menu > Add to add additional pictures to the message.

More info. at http://www.wmexperts.com/articles/sprints_picture_mail_app_offic.html

Check the forum at http://discussion.treocentral.com/showthread.php?t=173377 for help and questions.

Live Mesh now in open beta

Finally Live Mesh is here in free open Beta. With Live Mesh, you can sync your computer, laptop and mobile device to what Microsoft calls "the cloud". In other words, data that you want to sync via Live Mesh is stored in one of Microsoft huge datacenters and can be accessed anywhere provided you have an internet connection.
 
Unfortunately, the beta program for mobile devices is still restricted to the U.S. and U.K. 
 
To signup and download Live Mesh, go to www.mesh.com.

Tips: Change the default location where camera saves pictures

Out of the box, a device is configured to save pictures to the \My Documents\ My Pictures folder on the phones memory. The issue with that is it fills up memory very quickly. The camera settings does let you change that to the Storage card. In this case the pictures are saved to \SD card\My Documents\My Pictures folder. You can further customize that. Say you want to save your pictures to a location of your choice; for example: SD Card\Photos. Follow the steps below. This change requires you modify the registry, so be extremely careful.
 
Open the registry editor on your device and go to:
 
Hkey_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Pictures\Camera\User\
 
Change the value for DefaultDir to Sd Card\Photos. Make sure you verify the name of your storage card in File Explorer.
 
This is it. From now on,every picture you'll take using the device camera will be saved to that location.
 
A free registry editor can be downloaded from Http://www.phm.lu/Products/PocketPC/Regedit/
 
Note: You do this at your own risk.

Free: GudenSoft Email Scheduler

Spotted this on PocketNow. GudenSoft Email Scheduler is a nice utility that lets you configure the polling interval of each of the email accounts you have configured on your device on one screen. The software is free for download and requires .Net Framework 3.5. Unfortunately, GudenSoft Email Scheduler does not support Windows Mobile Standard. Only WM5 touchscreen devices and later are supported.
 
Download from http://www.gudensoft.com/emailscheduler/
            

Bluehoo, first Windows Azure based app for Windows Mobile

Windows Azure has just been announced by Microsoft and yet an application has already been released based on the new platform. "Bluehoo is a mobile app that helps you make new social connections with the people around you - for business or for please.

Bluehoo uses Bluetooth to discover "hoos" around you right here, right now, shows you those people’s profiles and helps you start conversations."

Bluehoo is still in beta version. therefore free to try. Download a copy from http://m.bluehoo.com/

Now, you're probably wondering what is Windows Azure. Check out Azure's website:

http://www.microsoft.com/azure/default.mspx

KB:You unexpectedly lose the ability to send eimail messages on a Windows Mobile 6.1-based device.

Microsoft has posted a temporary fix regarding the issue in the title above. Note that Exchange-based email accounts are affected, only POP3 or IMAP. Read the KB article from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/958639/en-us

Microsoft, I believe this is an opportunity to test Windows Update on our devices. Get a .cab file ready for a permanent fix and send it over the air.

A cab file that fixes this problem is available on Tracy and Matt's Blog:

Http://tracyandmatt.co.uk/blogs/index.php/2008/10/15/windows-mobile-smtp-fix

Press release: SPB Software creates interface panel for Xperia X1.

Spb Software, the world's leading maker of Windows Mobile applications, develops a user interface panel for Xperia X1. As part of the strategic partnership between Sony Ericsson and Spb Software, Spb has put forth a top-notch, Spb Mobile Shell-based solution that compliments the X1 in both style and speed. Taking advantage of the smartphone's unique panel technology, impressive hardware and dynamic wide VGA touchscreen, this custom version of Spb Mobile Shell is optimized for the new Xperia, and comes with all X1 devices as a free download.

"We are very happy to be working with Spb, one of the most respected Microsoft Windows Mobile software developers in the market," said Mats Ekstrand, VP and Head of Convergence Unit at Sony Ericsson. "The addition of Spb to our panel ecosystem gives Xperia X1 users the opportunity to customize their handsets with an already established interface for the Windows Mobile environment, alongside enjoying the eight other active desktops through the unique Xperia Panel user interface." 
 
Spb Mobile Shell is an application that improves the innate Windows Mobile user interface, making it more direct, logical, and slick. The first version of software came out in February 2007 and quickly gained recognition among end-users and media. Spb Mobile Shell fulfills the highest requirements of in-ROM software, paying a great deal of respect to criteria such as ROM, RAM, performance, battery life, and stability. Customized and improved menus of Windows Mobile devices are achieved without any damage to built-in system features or other third-party software.

"The Xperia panels are an innovative approach to personalization," - comments Yaroslav Goncharov, the Product Manager of Spb Mobile Shell - "With 3D acceleration, the panels are visually appealing for consumers, and at the same time present new opportunities for the developer community."