Smartphone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

"If you have a QVGA Smartphone like the HTC Vox / s710, you know well enough that most existing games and other graphics-based Smartphone apps (Windows Mobile 6 Standard) out there only use a postage-stamp sized screen area. An example of this is PDAMill �s Flux Challenge , which, being designed for the traditional low-res (176*220) Smartphone resolution, only uses part of the available QVGA screen estate"

Menneisyys has posted a very helpful tip in our forums and I wanted to make sure that all of our readers got the news on this one. If you have any games or applications that don't run full screen on your QVGA Smartphone, then you might want to try out the solution Menneisyys has shared with us. There's a number of steps, but the end result is worth it, in my opinion.

Check out the original thread for more details and further discussion on this handy tip. :)

"Web Information Solutions, Inc., is announcing its full support for Windows Mobile 6 today. Web Information Solutions� products include the award-winning and top-tier Pocket Informant 2007 Rev 3, FlexMail 2007 Rev 2, FlexWallet 2006, and VoiceMinder 1.6 all have been adapted to work especially well on Windows Mobile 6 devices - as well as current Windows Mobile 2003 and 5 devices. Furthermore, WebIS is announcing that its upcoming FlexMail 2007 Rev 2 release will not only bring some of Windows Mobile 6 Messaging features to Windows Mobile 2003 and 5 users such as full HTML email support and keyboard shortcuts, but will massively improve upon the Windows Mobile 6 messaging with full folder search, a refreshed interface, full two way IMAP IDLE support, a new Account template feature for common email ISPs and much more. In addition its upcoming Pocket Informant 2007 Rev 3 release will also include a new Today plugin, Contacts Search improvements that go beyond Windows Mobile 6, Timed Category Filters, and many redesigned user interface features to match and work with Windows Mobile 6."



WebIS, the makers of fine software applications like Pocket Informant and Flex Wallet, are announcing full support for Windows Mobile 6. Wish there were more details about the Smartphone related updates in this press release.

"Microsoft Corp. today announced record fourth quarter revenue of $11.80 billion for the period ended June 30, 2006, a 16% increase over the same quarter of the prior year. Operating income for the quarter was $3.88 billion, a 30% increase compared with $2.99 billion in the prior year period. ... �We delivered a very strong finish to the fiscal year highlighted by customer demand for our recently launched products of Xbox 360�, SQL Server� 2005, Visual Studio� 2005 and Microsoft Dynamics� CRM 3.0, which fueled a combined 31% revenue growth of their business groups for the quarter,� said Chris Liddell, chief financial officer of Microsoft. �Our upcoming launches of Windows Vista�, the 2007 Microsoft� Office System, Exchange Server 2007, and other key products position us to continue to deliver strong revenue growth in fiscal year 2007. We are also very pleased that both the Microsoft Business Solutions and the Mobile and Embedded Devices businesses achieved profitability for the full fiscal year.� ... The company also announced that its board of directors has authorized new share repurchase programs, comprised of a $20 billion tender offer scheduled to be completed on August 17, 2006, as well as authorization for up to an additional $20 billion ongoing share repurchase program with an expiration of June 30, 2011."



The Mobile and Embedded Devices Division which is responsible for delivering Windows Mobile had a good fiscal year, not only did they end the 2006 fiscal year in black but the Windows Mobile based phone licenses grew by 90%. The other big news announced during the earnings report was the $20 billion share re-purchase plan which seems to have given the Microsoft stock some much needed boost. Fiscal year 2007 will be a big one for Microsoft, Vista and Office - the big money makers are slated for launch early next year. Also before the end of the year we might see the launch of Zune, Microsoft's answer to the iPod. And let's hope that they will launch Windows Mobile .Next as well. :wink: Getting back to the earnings report, Microsoft recently announced changes to its financial reporting structure, beginning with fiscal year 2007 Microsoft will report financial performance based on five operating segments - Client, Server and Tools, Online Services Group, Microsoft Business Division and Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division. Mobile and Embedded Devices earnings will be bucketed under the Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division, so I am not sure if we will see the kind of financial details that is available now in the next quarter. For those of you who find the earnings press release boring to read, check out the PowerPoint presentation over here; it will provide you with all the information in a snap.

"Here�s a great tip for us Smartphone users. This will let video play in full screen in Windows Media Player"

I love tweaks. Here is one for Media Player fans. As always, be aware of the risks and do a backup if you can before you try these kinds of things. I of course try most tweaks without backups, but that's just me. :lol:

"Modern cult classic 'The Shawshank Redemption', which stars Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins, is to become the first full-length movie to be available for download by mobile phone after a deal between Nokia, Granada Ventures and Rok Player. The movie from ITV's licencing division, Granada Ventures, comes in the form of a digital chip licensed by Rok Player, which can be inserted in multimedia-card-compatible mobile phones. The film will cost Nokia phone holders �16.99"

Wow, this is a pretty sweet deal Nokia has signed on for here. :roll: They want to sell you a mobile version of a full length movie for around $30, roughly $10 more than a DVD copy of the same movie. Needless to say, I sure it won't play nicely on your big screen TV, I'm sure it won't be digital surround sound, and I'm sure it would cost less for you to just buy the DVD and make your own mobile version using a simple tool like Mobile Media Maker. At least then you can watch the movie on any DVD player or Windows Mobile phone you want! :wink:

The guys at Pocket PC Techs are always working hard at providing the Pocket PC community with cool accessories, upgrades, and lets not forget about the repairs. :wink: I was a little disappointed to read that they now have a memory upgrade for the new JAM/O2 XDA Mini/Qtek S100 Series Pocket PC Phone Edition device, and nothing to offer the Smartphone community. :( I would love to see a memory upgrade for those of us using Smartphones. What do you think of an extra 64, 128, or 256 MB hard wired into your phone?

"The first thing you notice when you pick up the Audiovox SMT 5600 is how tiny it is! It�s about the size of one of Sony Ericsson�s T610�s, with maybe a millimeter more in height. The screen is a very large 2.2�, noticeably bigger than the Motorola MPx220�s 2.0� screen. The screen is bright and clear, easily visible in direct sunlight."



Phonemag.com has posted a review on Audiovox's new Windows Mobile based SMT5600 Smartphone. They've included a couple pictures comparing it with a Sony Ericsson T610. I'm surprised to see just how close these two are in size. :D

"LEng for Windows Smartphone is Russian localization system for mobile phones with Windows Smartphone operating system (smartphones). LEng for Windows Smartphone includes Russian keyboard support, Russian regional settings and Russian interface translation. LEng features include:

• Russian keyboard input in any application
  
• KOI-8, Windows 1251 and DOS Cyrillic encoding support
  
• Sending and receiving emails in Russian
  
• Browse Russian Internet pages
  
• Use Russian format of date, time, numbers, etc."

Paragon Technologies plans to have support for Greek and Czech in the near future. You can download a trial version or purchase the application for $37.95 here.

I was sent some information about the Mitac Mio 8390, and have pulled the following specs from the document: � "CPU: Intel Delhart 200 MHZ � Operation System: Microsoft Smartphone 2003� Video Display 1: 2.2� Trasflective Color LCD� Physical Characteristics: Dimension 99.03(L) x 50.98(W) x 24.2 (D)� Weight: about 125g� Backlighting: Brightness to be user configurable� Resolution: 176*220� Portrait Mode On/Off MechanismHandset shall support a manual mechanism to turn display on/off is required. MP3 shall be able to run with display offPower on press 1/10 secPower Off -press 1/10 sec. � Display 2: EL LCM (ColorBlue as default ) Display Icon-Clock, call ID, Missed Call, Battery level , GSM signal strength, Status Icons-Vibration, Unread message ( refer to S/W SPEC-SRS )� Memory: ROM 32 NOR Flash, 16 NAND Flash RAM, 32 MB SDRAM � GSM: GPRS Tri Band GSM/GPRSEGSM: 900/1800/1900� Camera: CMOS Camera, 300K Pixels� Battery Type: 750mAh Talk Time 3hrs + Standby Time 70-100 Hrs"