Smartphone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

"Ok� It looks like it's finally here. The false-start in December where the SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition folks pulled the downloads has past. Also, me jumping the gun last week and posting the download URLs before the "official" release is over. I checked with the SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition folks on Friday to confirm that it was OK to post the links today (15-January-2007) and they said today is the official release so I should feel free to post the links. So after all that, SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition and all of the related tools are "live and in color". Enjoy it. The added desktop support now gives us a lightweight, in-process (no server process) database for both desktop and Windows Mobile. Just as important, the database format is compatible so moving a database between a desktop computer and a Windows Mobile device is a simple file copy."



SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition enables the developers to have a compact embedded database for their mobile applications for tablet PCs, Pocket PCs, Smartphones and also regular Windows desktops. Check out the official Microsoft home page for SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition over here for more information.

Amazon has just launched their online video ordering system, and it looks pretty slick - though, unfortunately, it's available to US-based customers only, so I can't actually order any videos. Prices are about what I'd expect: $1.99 for one-hour TV shows such as 24 (with a 20% discount for buying the whole season) and full-length movies range in price from $9.99 to $14.99. That seems a bit high to me, though the price is offset by the fact that the purchase price includes two versions: one DVD-quality download for playback on a PC, and one mobile-ready version for playback on a portable video device. Both downloads seem to be WMV and use Microsoft DRM, so iPods won't be compatible.

Amazon has an impressive array of TV channels, including A&E, Adult Swim, Animal Planet, BBC, The Biography Channel, Cartoon Network, CBS, Comedy Central, Discovery Channel, E!, Fine Living, FOX, FX, MTV and others. Movie studios that have signed on so far: 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight, Paramount, Sony, Universal, and Warner Bros.

Supported mobile devices include the Creative Zen Vision: M, Creative Zen Vision, Toshiba Gigabeat S, Archos AV 500, Archos AV 700 and the iRiver PMC (Portable Media Center). No word on other supported mobile devices, but given that PlaysForSure support is required, I'm inclined to think that Windows Mobile 5 devices will also work, but seeing as I can't order a movie, I have no way of testing this. Someone care to give it a try? Once the DRM authentication happens, Windows Media Player should offer to transcode the video file is necessary.

The whole thing centres around the Amazon Unbox Video Player, a Windows-based software application that serves as the central point for movie ordering and transfers. Unfortunately, this service does not allow DVD burning in a format that a DVD player can read. There's no mention of a Windows Media Center Edition 2005 plugin either, so I think the "TV" portion of this offering is a bit ridiculous. What do you think of what Amazon is offering? Is it compelling enough for you to try? They're offering a $1.99 rebate on your first purchase, so if you're in the USA, go grab a free TV show!

"The market for full track music downloads to mobile devices was twenty times larger at the end of 2005 than it was twelve months earlier, a new study from ABI Research has revealed. "Mobile Music Services" surveyed world markets for downloads of full music tracks, ringtones and ringback tones. It found that global revenues from over-the-air (OTA) downloaded full track songs last year were $251 million, up from $12.4 million in 2004. ABI Research forecasts that by 2011 this figure will be $9.3 billion."

I give up, I just can't stop phones from becoming media players can I? I admit it, I have been defeated! So does this mean that a phone that can only hold 100 songs and not download over the air wouldn't be a good idea? :lol:

I'm a sucker for trying out new technology, so of course as soon as I heard about the MSN Video Downloads site I jumped over and signed up for their basic service. It seemed like a cool service - it provides video content optimized for PMC/Pocket PCs (320 x 240, 500kbps) and Smartphones.I installed the MSN Music Client (which was odd because I already had it installed), and waited. And waited. I was expecting to see some sort of screen after the sign-in process that actually showed me what the hell I was supposed to do. Nope. I noticed that the client was running in my system tray, so I moused over and and saw that it was downloading some video content and would take....three hours? WHAT? 8O There's an option to see the download status, which takes you to a Web page that lists all the files that are downloading. That's a cool integration, but why was it cramming all this content down the pipe at me? I'm not into sports, so why was I getting hundreds of Fox Sports videos? I decided to leave it to see what it would do. For the next three hours, my Internet connection was sluggish as the MSN Videos came hurling down at my cable modem.When it was all said and done, inside the My Documents folder, I had 408 video files, totalling 4.15 GB in size. And because I use data mirroring software, my other laptop and server now had the same video files, so MSN Video was now taking up over 12 GB of space on my network! Gee, with all that content there must be something good, right? I'll never know - I tried playing six random files, and all six files gave me the same authentication error. I tried logging in with my Passport information, since that's the authentication that MSN Video Downloads uses, but no dice. You can see in the error window that it was trying to authenticate from admin.theplatform.com. It seems thePlatform is a DRM service, and MSN is using them for the DRM on these files. Keeping in mind that these files are all free once you log in, why would they have such hostile DRM? And what username and password was I supposed to use've since deleted all the files and cancelled my free subscription - it feels like a beta service that no one bothered to test with real people. If you've tried it out, what did you think? I hope you had a better experience than I did. ;-)

"With content such as sports highlights, news headlines, children's programming, music videos, independent films and comedy shows, MSN Video Downloads is the first online video download service dedicated to portable entertainment. Starting from 6 January consumers can participate in a preview of the service and access videos from more than a dozen of Microsoft partners. The MSN Video Downloads service, will offer free, trial and paid memberships. Digital videos are downloaded daily to a Windows Media Player 10 library, ready to be synchronized with Portable Media Centers. The video content is compliant with PlaysForSure devices, optimized for Portable Media Centers, and compatible with Windows Mobile Smartphones and Pocket PCs that support video. The company promisses full Smartphone and Pocket PC optimization to be enabled at a later date."



Although there is no Smartphone support at this time, it is interesting to see Microsoft's vision for a connected world start to come together. You can check out the current video offerings on the MSN Videos web site.

"Video game retailer Electronics Boutique Holdings Corp. will offer downloads for cell phones in some of its stores starting this holiday season, the company said Monday. While wireless carriers have embraced gaming and game downloads as lucrative sources of revenue, the games to be sold through the EB kiosks are larger and more complex than those typically sold via network download."



They are planning to do this over Bluetooth, which means any compatible (Windows Mobile or Series 60) Bluetooth enabled phone within 30 feet of the store/kiosks will be able to connect and download games. In fact, they mention that the system will detect your phone and you will get a message asking if you want to download a game. Free media and movie trailer downloads are scheduled to start in December, while actual games will begin in January.

"UK-based wireless entertainment provider The Music Solution (TMS) has been selected to provide mobile phone ringtones to the peer-to-peer application, Kazaa, through the Ringtone Channel. TMS has selected Netsize to support the global delivery and European billing of content. Kazaa is the world's most downloaded peer-to-peer software application with over 60 million global users.

The content will be available through Kazaa via a search facility, a dedicated ringtone and logo channel and through an intelligent ringtone-matching link that corresponds with the users' music search requests with a matching ringtone. Users can purchase content from more than 90 countries through TMS's WiDE platform, with mobile business and entertainment solutions provider Netsize managing the global delivery of content and European billing via premium rate SMS across 52 mobile operators."

Between this and Skype, it seems that Kazaa doesn't want to be stuck in the file swapping business any more. ;-)