Smartphone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

"As ubiquitous as Wi-Fi networks are, they're not everywhere, and open Wi-Fi access points designated for public use are becoming more and more rare every day. You can pay to subscribe to Wi-Fi networks, but that can be expensive over time - as can buying latte after latte at your local coffee shop. The cellular networks will sell you a USB or ExpressCard-based wireless modem for anywhere Internet access, but they'll charge you an extra monthly fee (usually in the $50 realm) for the privilege of this service. There's a better way, and it involves using your Windows Mobile phone in a way you might not have considered before: as a wireless modem."

If you're new to tethering, check out this informative column on the Windows Mobile web site. It just happens to be written by our very own Jason Dunn, so if you have any queries or comments, feel free to fire them off in this thread and I'm sure our head honcho will attend to them, as always.

"The mobile phone – now with significant computing power – [will be] the primary Internet connection and the only one for a majority of the people across the world," the Pew Internet & American Life Project writes in a new "Future of the Internet" report. "Telephony [will be] offered under a set of universal standards and protocols accepted by most operators internationally, making for reasonably effortless movement from one part of the world to another."

This survey isn't too far from reality. From what I hear from all of my friends that have visited Japan in the last few years, this is something that is already taking place there. My friend Brad who recently just returned from a visit to Tokyo was describing to me in great detail how this older gentleman on the train was showing him a World of Warcraft-like MMO that is only playable from your phone and not a desktop computer. Even now with the release of devices like the HTC Touch HD, Apple iPhone and T-Mobile G1, users are ditching the laptops in favor of doing their casual browsing on these mobile devices. Heck, even I can't remember the last time I pulled my laptop out when I was watching TV and wanted to do some quick browsing during a commercial break. I would go as far as saying that these experts are more than a few years off and as mobile phone technology advances we might see a drastic turn to mobile web browsing as early as 2012 - if not earlier!

"Mippin audience grows to 10 million monthly page views across 146 countries... Mippin, a free mobile media service that makes discovering, consuming, and sharing content on mobile phones easy, today announced that Judy Gibbons has joined the team as CEO. Additionally, in advance of the new 3G phone launch Mippin has further enhanced its service for iPhone. The refined version benefits from even faster performance and a number of user interface improvements that make finding, discovering and sharing interesting content more intuitive and effective."

So I took a bit of time to play around with Mippin today. I expected Mippin to be a fun and refreshing content portal based off of the upbeat and giddy press release that was sent my way. Unfortunately after playing around with it, it becomes quickly apparent that Mippin is no different from the dozens of other web portal applications out there. From what I could see there was no real benefit to using this service over any of the content, news and media portals that are provided by your carrier (e.g. - AT&T's http://home/). Now don't get me wrong, I don’t really think there is anything wrong with this service. The problem is that what Mippin has done has been done so many times before that I have literally been more impressed with cereal boxes than I was this service. A little word of advice to those out there working on 'the next big mobile content portal' - it has already been done! Move along people! Try building us something original and new… and maybe even useful if you want to be daring! Just please for the love of all things mobile and good stop rehashing the same old junk over and over again!

"New software from TapRoot Systems can make a 3G smartphone become a Wi-Fi hotspot, allowing you to connect a laptop or other Wi-Fi-equipped hardware to the internet. The software, called WalkingHotSpot, is compatible with Symbian S60 and Windows Mobile smartphones. It will work with both HSDPA and EV-DO, but will allow voice calls to come through while using the data connection only on HSDPA phones. A free beta demonstration will be available for consumers to test soon, but TapRoot intends to sell the software directly to carriers, allowing them to provide it as a service. It doesn't intend to sell the software directly to end users."



The first thing that should be pointed out is that your HSDPA or EVDO Windows Mobile handset will need Wi-Fi capabilities in it for this service to work. The demo version of WalkingHotSpot, which will be available through TapRoot's website, will only support one Wi-Fi connection at a time… which I feel is pretty lame. If I wanted to connect just one laptop or computer to the Internet through my phone, I would much rather follow the steps in Ed Hansberry's Internet Connection Sharing story which was posted yesterday. At least with Internet Connection Sharing, I would not be limited to a Wi-Fi enabled handset and would be able to utilize my aging but high-speed enabled Samsung Blackjack.

The real magic however lies in the full version of the WalkingHotSpot, which will only be marketed to carriers in the hopes that they will in turn sell it to us consumers as a subscription based service. Carrier supplied versions of TapRoot Systems' software should support simultaneous Wireless Fidelity connections from a single handset and would even allow you to receive voice calls while using your data connection through AT&T's HSDPA network! While I hate subscription services like TeleNav, this program would be way to cool to just pass up.

I am sitting at the airport and decided to plug my TyTN II in to guarantee that 100% charge before I board so I can watch movies on the flight and then I think of all of those emails in my outbox in Outlook 2007 on my laptop. I don't have a WiFi account here and can't justify $8 to send them now as opposed to 1am when i get home, but then I remember the "Internet Connection Sharing" icon in WM6 on my TyTN II. I have never played with it before and thought now would be as good of a time as any.

I started the connection on the device, it told me to go to my PC and connect to the bluetooth PAN. I opened Vista's network settings, clicked on "create a new connection" then scrolled down to the PAN setting. Clicked it and within 10 seconds I was online. I was absolutely floored it was that easy, and those that know me know that I hate bluetooth. I've never had a bluetooth connection work so flawlessly.

So, my EDGE connection was surprisingly fast, my emails are sent, and this post got posted all on that little connection. If you have it on your device, do you use it often, or ever?

"Microsoft has brought on a new hire - a former founding member of Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie's Iris Associates - to help the Redmond software company port the Windows Mobile operating system to new form factors. Len Kawell, whose title is "Distinguished Engineer in the Mobile Communications Business Group," is charged with "defining the application model for occasionally connected rich Internet applications in the mobile environment," according to his biography on Microsoft’s Web site. Kawell is also working on scaling Windows Mobile to "new kinds of devices with larger screens and faster processors - also known as Mobile Internet Devices, or MIDS," his bio adds. Microsoft hasn't talked much (if at all) publicly about MIDS; instead, the company has been championing ultra-mobile PCs (UMPCs) as the form factor most likely to occupy the space between notebooks/Tablets and cell phones. But Microsoft’s processor pal Intel has been touting both UMPCs and MIDS. Intel distinguishes the two by noting that MIDS tend to be smaller (five-inch screen size) and not providing the ability to monitor "office apps.""

Windows Mobile on a phone? Great. Windows Mobile on a Mobile Internet Device (MID)? I'm not sold. Part of the appeal of an MID is its larger, high-res display, and if the hardware and software are integrated well, it should provide that advertised rich Internet experience. Now, these devices have been shown to work great with Windows and Linux, and because these operating systems offer a great set of browsers, frameworks, and plug-ins, they usually have no problems delivering that core experience. What about Windows Mobile? It's instant-on and favours batteries a little better, which is great for a device of this form factor. However, plain and simple, Internet Explorer Mobile sucks, and most of you know it. Microsoft can't possibly use this as a selling point for an MID. There would need to be radical changes to the browser in order for it to be successful. Otherwise, you'd be better off sticking with an iPhone or iPod touch. Smaller screen size, but at least Safari is a heck of a lot better at rendering pages big and small.

Product Category: UMPC / Internet Tablet
Manufacturer: Nokia
Where to Buy: Pricegrabber Low Price Search
Price: $134.99 to $199 USD
System Requirements: None, it is it's own system!
Specifications: Linux Operating System with built in WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. 4.3-inch 800x480 pixel screen, 128MB Flash memory, expandable RS-MMC memory slot, USB 2.0, 3.5mm headphone adapter and built in microphone for VoIP

Pros:

• Light-weight, all-in-one, portable computer
• Plays music and video
• Desktop-like Internet browsing experience (2 years before the iPhone!)
  

Cons:

• Can be unstable at times
• Cannot upgrade to newest operating system
• Doesn't run Windows Mobile ;)
  

Summary:
The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet is a non-phone device designed for those who would like to check emails, surf the web and perhaps listen to some music or watch a movie without the need for a laptop. Does it fill a needed void or does it miss its intended mark? Read on to find out.
Read more...

"Publicly disclosable details about the future of Windows Mobile are still sparse, but we can let the door open a bit wider on what was shown at this year's Mobius with regard to the next two versions of Windows Mobile. We all know that 6.1 is around the corner, but it's the next two versions beyond that which are really interesting. Post-6.1, WinMo will indeed have its app suite revamped, including a desktop-grade port of IE to Windows Mobile, which Microsoft is replacing pocket IE with and directly targeting mobile Safari. Likewise, the rest of the consumer-centric apps (photos, media, etc.) as well as the messaging suite will be upgraded to be a bit friendlier. This whole experience won't be too foreign to long-time users, but is the next step in the right direction."



Ryan Block of Engadget fame has given us a little of the inside scoop of what to expect from the upcoming releases of Windows Mobile. Besides the replacement of Pocket Internet Explorer, which was long overdue, it appears that Microsoft is finally starting to take the pleading cries of their customers seriously. For years we have been begging for "duh"-like features for the Standard platform and for years Microsoft has slowly trickled them out in the most sub-par ways possible. A perfect example of this would be Office Mobile. While Office Mobile throws us miles ahead in the right direction of where Windows Mobile Standard users have wanted to be for years, Microsoft still managed to shoot the application in the foot by removing the ability to actually create new documents. It seems as though Apple's iPhone has managed to finally light a fire under the rump of Microsoft in the same ways Netscape did many years ago. Whether or not Microsoft actually pulls through with these pseudo-promised changes to our favorite mobile operating system is still up in the air, but so far the future looks auspicious.

"In this video, Kevin C. Tofel from jkOnTheRun shares just how easy is it to use the phone as a modem with Internet Sharing. How easy is it? Kevin says 'It almost couldn�t be easier, but if you�re new to the whole 'tethering' aspect of using a phone as a modem, I�ll show you just how quick and easy it is over Bluetooth.' Thanks Kevin � it�s terrific!"



This is one of those things that I do not use very often, but when I need it, it is the best thing on the planet! A few months back the city was working on something near my apartment building that required them to start digging a giant hole right out front. I don't know what they did, or how they did it, but somehow they managed to knock everyones cable out in my building. For a week no one could watch TV (well... good TV) or hop on the Internet if they happened to be a Comcast customer. My saving grace was my Smartphone, which I remembered could be tethered to my laptop. If it wasn't for my Samsung Blackjack, I would have probably gone insane! :D

�jB5 is a new browser from the guys at Jataayu. Open a free account and download it here for nothing. It's a slick and nimble browser which works extremely well on the Smartphone (Windows Mobile Standard) interface. The user interface has been designed exclusively for the Windows Smartphone and, if I'm honest, the speed and rendering simply knocks spots off the in-built Pocket Internet Explorer. It supports many different web formats lets you alter your cache size, favourites and history - plus you can turn images on or off to reduce your data usage.�



It is refreshing to see a new mobile browser appear on the horizon. After using Pocket Internet Explorer for several years now, I am ecstatic at the chance to actually replace it with a more streamlined browser. Unfortunately, trying to download jB5 from Jataayu�s website has almost been as frustrating as trying to find a browser to replace Internet Explorer. It appears that no matter what I do I am unable to access their download pages and continue to get kicked back to their homepage. Hopefully this is just a minor glitch and not a cruel means of �torture by curiosity.� :lol:

"Unlike the PC-based Internet, companies often can't simply put up a Web site to deliver a service, such as photo sharing or Internet voice calling, to mobile users. That's because mobile phones are constrained by less memory and slower Internet connections than PCs and because browsers may not be able to interact with some phone functions that might enhance an application, said Tony Cripps, an analyst at Ovum."

InfoWorld has posted a thought provoking article which outlines the challenges placed in front of mobile application developers. It would be nice if in the next few years carriers and mobile phone manufacturers would sit down and hammer out a standard that could be set in place for mobile web browsers. Who would have thought such tiny devices would cause such a headache? ;)

Paul, over at MoDaCo, has made an interesting when it comes to the performance of your mobile internet connection. It appears that a simple change to you DNS server entries can cause a significant speed increase on your mobile device. DNS Servers are used to convert that URL into a string of numbers that the computer can use to help locate the site you're after (that's the simple explanation. ;) ) For whatever reason, the carriers servers are poorly configured or overloaded and therefore are pretty slow to respond.

You can change the DNS settings by pressing Start / Connections / GPRS. Then highlight your carriers connection and then press Menu / Edit. Scroll down and enter a new value for both the Primary and Secondary servers settings. Be sure to write down the old settings so you can switch it back if need be.

Paul lists a couple free DNS servers that you can use. However, they are located in Germany and Belgium. You should try and find a server that is close to you or your carrier to help minimize the response time. OpenNIC has a number of servers located around the world that you can select from. Be sure to pick from the Tier 2 list. As well, OpenDNS has servers available for you to use.

Just a small aside to all this; The same can be said for your desktop. Changing the DNS servers to something faster and more reliable can make a significant improvement in the time it takes to locate a site. Check out the "what we do" section on OpenDNS for more info.

I've changed my settings to the OpenDNS servers and it appears to be significantly faster when locating a site. Try it out and let us know what you find.

"Ok, we have 2.xG mobile data standards like GSM, CSD, HSCSD, GPRS and EDGE and 3.xG standards like UMTS, HSDPA and EVDO available and operational as well as competing standards like W-LAN and WiBro and WiMAX but which standard do you use for the mobile Internet access with your (Windows) Mobile device? I've started with CSD (which was the reason why I've created my first Windows CE homepage back in 1997) and upgraded later to GPRS. Two years ago, I've upgrade agin, this time to UMTS to upgrade to HSDPA this year but what's your current standard/technology you are using to go online on the road?"

Arne Hess from the::unwired has an interesting poll about what type of connection you're using for accessing the mobile internet from your phone. For me, UMTS is not even an option here in Canada. So most of the time I'm using EDGE or if I'm outside of the city it seems to drop to GPRS. :( What about you? And don't forget to head over to the::unwired and answer Arne's poll.

"We recently made a change in the next version of IE Mobile for Windows Mobile, regarding the IE Mobile User-Agent string. It was a little (ok - a lot!) out of date, and it really didn't suit our needs. It was a relic of a long ago fragmented product that just didn't reflect the current state of the browser. What we discovered as we updated the string was that many sites that thought they were properly detecting IE Mobile really weren't doing it the right way. Our own MSN sites had a few problems, which they're updating, so that they'll be ready to go when the new crop of devices hits the market. We've even talked to some very friendly fellows at a big, popular rival search engine company and made sure their seach page will render right when these devices ship. In the interests of helping fix the broken sites out there now, and getting people ready for the future, we're releasing our new User-Agent string right here, along with a pointer to some other information."

Here's some news for anyone that is offering mobile content over the internet. Future releases of Windows Mobile will have some changes to the User Agent string in Internet Explorer Mobile. For a full breakdown of the changes, check out the IEMobile Team Blog.

"Mobile telephony companies need to adapt their business models to compete with major Internet players, analysts agreed this week. Companies such as Google and Yahoo pose a risk to mobile operators, Gartner believes, as they develop mobile versions of their Internet services. This could encourage mobile users to turn to these companies for their mobile Internet services, making the mobile operators just a provider of connectivity and robbing them of crucial revenue in the future."

I don't think the carriers are in any real danger here do you? As much as they would love to charge you a nickel for every time you even look at your handset, I don't think they will be standing in bread lines anytime soon. I also think Google with its primitive Beta offerings and Yahoo have a long way to go in this area as well.

"According to Gartner and others, an estimated "20 different cell phone models will be available in 2006 that can connect to Wi-Fi, with about 20 million units expected to be sold this year alone." Forrester has estimated that "a customer switching to Internet calls would cut average revenue per user (ARPU) in half, to $25 (14.50 pounds) for unlimited packages from $50." While the move to dual-mode might negatively impact revenues of mobile only carriers, it might make sense for carriers with both fixed and mobile networks to offer such handsets to better lock in customer loyalty."

You have to expect that any drop in revenue will cause an increase in fees or the length of a contract. While I'm all for WiFi enabled phones, I don't want to see my monthly bill get any larger! :?

"I've been asked a few times recently about setting up Internet connectivity with the WM5.0 emulator; I usually point people to this post: http://blogs.msdn.com/akhune/archive/2005/11/16/493329.aspx . However, if you want to do it without ActiveSync.."

I don't think Microsoft has released the standalone version of the emulator, by standalone I mean that the emulator does not require Visual Studio 2005. :? For those of you, who have access to the emulator; check out Nino's post on how to configure Internet connectivity.

"Here�s something for WM5 Smartphone users out there. What the tweak will do is to allow you to use keypad buttons to scroll up or down PIE instead of using the joystick/ action button. Thanks to �dq366� of MoDaCo for the instructions."



MVP gpcarreon has posted what I think is the best tip ever. The tip solves my biggest problem: I have QVGA screen + EDGE + pIE on my Smartphone but browsing is still a pain. To scroll the page I have to use the joy stick which is slow. :evil: This tip overcomes the problem by creating keypad shortcuts for page up, page down, page top and page bottom etc. 8) Thanks encece, for pointing out this tip. So get your mobile registry editors out and add these settings. Since backup tools are not available, please be careful while modifying the registry. And gpcarreon has a solution for the Windows Mobile 2003 SE users also, check out the Windows Mobile 2003 SE fix over here.
I added the following KeyMaps on my Smartphone:
� Key pad button 2 (Value name: 50) -> Page up (DWORD value: 1)
� Key pad button 8 (Value name: 56) -> Page down (DWORD value: 2)
� Key pad button 3 (Value name: 51) -> Page top (DWORD value: 3)
� Key pad button 9 (Value name: 57) -> Page bottom (DWORD value: 4)
� Key pad button 5 (Value name: 53) -> Full screen toggle (DWORD value: 12)

"The Internet Explorer Mobile default layout fits the page content to the Windows Mobile-based device screen. The Internet Explorer Mobile default fit-to-screen layout can be changed. The Windows Mobile-based Smartphones have a Layout menu that enables users to select the Internet Explorer Mobile layout they want....Web developers use the MOBILEOPTIMIZED meta tag to control the Internet Explorer Mobile layout. Setting the MOBILEOPTIMIZED meta tag is equivalent to the Layout menu Desktop selection. When the MOBILEOPTIMIZED meta tag is set Internet Explorer Mobile does not modify the layout at all for the page containing the meta tag. With the meta tag, the screen width, minus margins, and scrollbars, is used to determine the width for rendering with fit-to-screen"

If you're developing a Windows Mobile-friendly site, this is a good bit of info to have. We'll be implementing this on our site as well, because it drives me nuts to see our carefully designed layout broken by IE Mobile because it's in one-column mode.

"T-Mobile CEO Rene Obermann today hit out at mobile internet doubters, comparing them to the analysts who predicted mobiles would only be used by 25 per cent of the population. Obermann criticised the "cynicism" around mobile internet use and "experts" unimpressed with web access on mobiles. "Experts are usually wrong with these predictions," he said. The T-Mobile boss, however, announced some pretty bold predictions himself. "To date, internet traffic has been fixed line," he said. "Mobile will be the centre of the internet." He added: "The growth of data and internet traffic will displace fixed line." However, Obermann did acknowledge there have been some problems with the internet experience on phones to date, with WAP giving the web on mobiles a bad name."



Really, all he is saying is that the growth of mobile data will out surpass the growth of fixed line. And that's not a big surprise, especially when you're comparing it to a mature product. ;) On a side note, I have to agree with his WAP comment. Sadly, I still see people focusing their efforts on WAP. :?