Smartphone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

Jason was pretty excited about this update, but unfortunately, he's unable to post about its availability due to becoming available prior to his return from Japan. So, in his place I shall announce the news. Fabrizio, being a left hander, was getting pretty frustrated with the design of all of the Thoughts Media sites. He spent a fair amount of time over the last month working on a new design that significantly improves the experience for lefties on our sites.

To enable the left-handed template you need to login and click on the "User Profile" link. Under the "Settings & Options" section, you need to click on "Edit Options" and then scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page under the Miscellaneous Options heading you will see a section for Forum Skin. Simply change this value to “Lefties - Thoughts Media” and then click the “Save Changes” button on the page. I have helped test the new design over the last weekend, but since I’m not a left hander, I didn’t really see what all the fuss was about. I invite all lefties to login, change the template and post your feedback on the new site design and I would like to thank Fabrizio for making the Thoughts Media network a better place for both left and right hander’s.

"Not yet ready to be rolled-out, Sling Media today confirmed that it's indeed working on an updated SlingPlayer Mobile for Windows Mobile. However, Sling Media today announced that - in addition to the currently supported Nokia S60 handsets - it's going to release the long awaited SlingPlayer Mobile for Symbian UIQ smartphones which will be launching this summer. Furthermore, Sling Media confirmed that the Nokia N95 8 GB gets some update love as well to better support the big and beautiful screen which Sling Media intend to fully leverage with an updated SlingPlayer Mobile for Symbian S60."

Arne Hess over at the::unwired has received confirmation from Sling Media that it is working on an updated player for the Windows Mobile platform. Next week at the CTIA the company will be demonstrating its products, so hopefully we will soon hear about the enhancements. SlingPlayer has been on my wish list for quite some time now. Since I do not own a 3G smart phone, I have been putting off the purchase. I am hoping that the new SlingPlayer enhancements and the plenty of 3G smart phone choices that we now have will convince me to take the plunge soon. In case you are shopping for one, our sister site Digital Home Thoughts is reporting that Woot has $69.99 deal on SlingBox Classic.

One of the big Windows Mobile 6 features was its ability to check and install updates automatically. As a T-Mobile Dash user who received the free Windows Mobile 6 upgrade, I was hopeful like others that Microsoft will be putting out minor updates and patches just like it does for its desktop version. And that my Dash will remain free of glitches and improve over time. I was hoping that I might get a new home screen, or better patches to fix a couple of annoying glitches - like the alarm clock that can't be turned off and the reminder that won't play a sound in normal profile. I am sure there are other issues with the Dash and possibly with the other Windows Mobile 6 devices out there. But I haven't heard from a single ecstatic reader who said that his/her smart phone automatically updated itself and corrected an annoying problem. Other competing products that do not even have an auto update tool like Windows Mobile have seen plenty of updates. I know Nokia N95 has seen a lot of firmware update action, so has the media darling - the Apple iPhone. So does this mean that Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6 is perfect? Who is at fault - Microsoft, the manufacturers or the carriers? Microsoft, please put this feature to some use. Show us that it works.

"Can’t believe we missed this! The brand new Motorola Q9 with Wi-Fi we just got? Yeah, that has Windows Mobile 6.1 on it! We’re getting the video up soon, but for now, check out our full Windows Mobile 6.1 gallery, and the new things we found!"

Wow! Double wow! The recent Mobius related posts had mentioned the existence of Window Mobile 6 update, and we knew that we would be getting some more details soon. But I wasn't expecting it to happen so quickly. The first big news item is that Motorola is working on an AT&T branded Q9 with Wi-Fi, you can check out the details in this Boy Genius Report post. The even bigger news item is that it is running Windows Mobile 6.1 Beta. It features a new home screen with left-right scrolling for missed calls, emails and other functionality. Head over to this post for more details. After checking out the screenshots, we can agree with the Mobius attendees about their comments. It is true that Windows Mobile 6.1 features a lot of must-have features and improvements, like copy-paste, threaded SMS, recent programs in start menu, auto-complete for To: field while composing emails and much more. It also has something called the Getting Started wizard, that I am sure will make newcomers to the Windows Mobile world feel comfortable. I am super excited about the features I have seen so far, and can't stop wondering the improvements that might be in the Internet Explorer. Unfortunately the Q9 with Wi-Fi comes with Opera pre-installed, so we will have to wait a bit longer to uncover the Internet Explorer improvements. So what do you like the most about the Windows Mobile 6.1 feature set?

"Microsoft Office 2007 introduced new Open XML-based file formats for Office applications. These new file formats reduce file size, improve security and reliability, and enhance integration with external sources. To allow Windows Mobile users to work with Office documents created in the Open XML formats, Microsoft has developed an upgrade for Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, and PowerPoint Mobile applications. This upgrade to the Office Mobile applications allows viewing and editing of Word documents and Excel workbooks and viewing of PowerPoint slideshows created by using Microsoft Office 2007. ... The Office Mobile application suite includes Microsoft Office Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, and Microsoft Office PowerPoint® Mobile for Windows Mobile 6 powered devices, helping users manage and review documents. Microsoft Office Mobile includes support for rich reviewing and minor editing capabilities as well as support for rights-managed documents. The primary user scenario enabled by Office Mobile is viewing e-mail attachments, performing minor edits, sharing document versions, and opening documents from an SD card or a SharePoint server. Office Mobile provides a high-fidelity document viewing experience, with capability to edit as well as fast performance in loading the first page of the document."

If you have switched over to Office 2007 on your desktop or get a lot of Office 2007 documents via email, then head over to the Microsoft Website to download this much needed update. This update will only work for those who already have the older version of Office 2007 installed on their phones. Those who did not get Office Mobile pre-installed can purchase this software.