Smartphone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

"Way back in November 2007, we location-enabled all of our Google Maps for mobile clients to bring location awareness to the masses and improve the local search experience. Using My Location, millions of you have been able to easily find yourselves on a map at the touch of a button. But what about finding other people? Lots of you have been requesting to see where your friends are on a map, too. Well now you can with Google Latitude. Latitude is a new feature of Google Maps for mobile, as well as an iGoogle gadget, that allows you to share your location with your friends and to see their approximate locations, if they choose to share them with you. You can use your Google account to sign in and easily invite friends to Latitude from your existing list of contacts or by entering their email addresses. Google Talk is integrated with Latitude, so you and your friends can update your status messages and profile photos on the go and see what everyone is up to. You can also call, SMS, IM, or email each other within the app."

Unlike previous Google Maps for mobile innovations, Google is making the new Latitude feature available to Windows Mobile users from day one. To start spying on connecting with your friends, fire up your mobile browser and grab the app from google.com/latitude. It's 100% opt-in, and you can choose just how much or how little information you want to share, and with whom.

"Microsoft has made some stumbles in the mobile world, but a strategy shift made more than a year ago will soon pay dividends, the company's top Windows Mobile executive said in an interview with CNET News. Andy Lees, the executive brought over from the server unit a year ago, said that Microsoft's efforts to make sure that its mobile software could run on a wide range of phones resulted in an operating system that failed to take advantage of advances in hardware. "We aimed to go for a lower common denominator," Lees said. Microsoft was also limited by the origins of Windows Mobile, which was developed to power handheld computers that neither connected to a network nor handled voice. "We started out when we were in PDAs (personal digital assistants) and then a phone got strapped to the back of the PDA," Lees said. The company also failed to recognize that phones--even those that were used for business--were still as much personal as they were professional."

The first four paragraphs of the CNET/ZDNet article accurately highlight some of Windows Mobile's flaws, and why the once-venerable smartphone operating system, at times, appears feeble next to relative newcomers, iPhone OS, Android, and webOS. But it's not all doom and gloom for Microsoft. According to Andy Lees, we'll see some breakthroughs over the next 18 months, with the first set expected as soon as mid-February as Microsoft takes the stage at MWC. Lees hinted at an increased reliance on the cloud, the need to improve the core of Windows Mobile in order to keep up with the competition, and a closer relationship with OEMs (which we can only hope translates to more frequent and more consistent updates for all consumers).

Is this the right approach? Sound off in this thread.

"Great news! We are now live with our new and updated Windows Live services for mobile. Go to http://mobile.live.com from your mobile phone's web browser and check it out. There are a lot of new features and services that weren't even available for our beta users. We're really excited about these new mobile experiences! The new and updated mobile web services include Windows Live Home, Photos, Profile, People, and Spaces. These complement our existing mobile services, like Hotmail and Messenger. (An update to Hotmail for mobile web is on its way in the coming months - check this blog for more mobile news as it becomes available). With this release, we are extending even more of Windows Live to mobile devices, but with a mobile twist. To get started, all you need is a phone with a browser and a data plan. Using these services doesn't require a download - all you do is go to the new Windows Live website at http://mobile.live.com."

Microsoft's quest to roll out its new and improved Windows Live applications and services has extended to mobile devices. Windows Live Home, Photos, Profile, People, and Spaces have all been updated. Visit the Windows Live Team Blog for a detailed look, or check it out for yourself.

"We're excited to announce the availability of Google Maps for mobile version 2.3 with Street View on Nokia S60 and Windows Mobile. Street View was previously released on Google Maps for Android, BlackBerry, and iPhone. Street View lets you access street level imagery to help orient yourself when looking for places, businesses, or getting directions. Say you're going to meet with friends at an unfamiliar restaurant. Now you can search for it in Google Maps for mobile, click on "Street View", and see what the place and surrounding area look like. Similarly, say you need to get to a shop in a part of town you don't know. Find it using your phone, get directions to it, and see how to get there with full-screen panorama images of every step along the way."

Google Maps 2.3 has arrived, but this release is more than just a bunch of bug fixes. It includes walking directions, transit alerts, POI reviews, and Street View support, so you can take the sights of the United States, Australia, France, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, and Spain with you wherever you go. It's a free download from google.com/gmm.

"Windows Mobile 6.1.4 includes the new Internet Explorer Mobile 6, a full-featured browser for Windows Mobile devices that brings the same high-quality browsing experience to the user as desktop browsers. Internet Explorer Mobile 6 supports desktop-quality rendering and has the best compliance support of all versions of Internet Explorer on a Windows Mobile device to date. Several new features and improved support allows users to complete tasks quickly and easily."

Microsoft has updated its Windows Mobile emulator images to 6.1.4. This release includes the new Internet Explorer Mobile 6 - which isn't exactly a stellar upgrade to this infamous browser, but a welcome one nonetheless. For a list of new features, check the Windows Mobile Team Blog.

These images will appeal most to developers. For the end-users reading this, you know the drill: if you want Internet Explorer Mobile 6 on your device, you'll have to wait and hope that your respective OEM or carrier feels ever-so-generous and blesses you with an update.

Microsoft has just launched a new developer portal for Windows Mobile to help advertise upcoming events, showcase applications, and introduce you to a number of team members and MVPs. And, of course, there's no shortage of guides showing you how to turn that idea in your head into a working Windows Mobile application.

"Adobe® Photoshop.com Mobile is the easiest way to upload, view, and share your photos online from your phone. All you need is a supported Windows Mobile phone and your Photoshop.com account ID. Photoshop.com Mobile beta will be available as a free download in September."

The beta of Photoshop.com Mobile - announced a few weeks ago - is now live, but only for US customers. Only a small handful of Windows Mobile devices are currently supported, but that list is set to grow, and you may still get lucky with your unsupported device, anyway. Anyone plan on using this service?

"Previously, when you went to google.com from your phone’s browser and performed a local search, the results were tailored to the last location you entered. Now, using the Gears Geolocation API, Search with My Location approximates your actual location using the same Cell ID technology used by Google maps for mobile. So if you want to find sushi nearby, just type "sushi" and Google will return local business listings around you. If you want to know the forecast, type "weather". If you want to search somewhere else, specify a location in the query like "pizza Kansas City."

• On your mobile device, go to www.google.com/m
• Click the Location link
• Tell it to install Gears. A Windows CE CAB will be downloaded that you need to install.
• Soft reset your device when the install is done.
• Launch PIE and allow Google Gears access to your browser

It isn't perfect. It thinks I am 13 miles northwest of my present location, which is odd. The tower locator system that the Google Maps tool uses can always get me to within half a mile of my real location, and usually under 1,000 yards. It also isn't on the iGoogle page yet on your device, so you either have to pick the iGoogle personalized page to search from, or the generic Google Mobile page, but not both.

Right now it is limited to the US and UK, and there are a list of unsupported devices, so check the blog post before installing.

Your eyes aren't deceiving you. Indeed, that's e.aspx">Live Mesh for Windows Mobile running on a Palm Treo Pro. And there's word coming out of Tech.Ed Australia (where the aforementioned was demoed) that it will soon be available for public consumption. Any Live Mesh users here looking forward to this?

"Adobe® Photoshop.com Mobile is the easiest way to upload, view, and share your photos online from your phone. All you need is a supported Windows Mobile phone and your Photoshop.com account ID. Photoshop.com Mobile beta will be available as a free download in September."

Adobe claims that Photoshop.com Mobile will only support the MOTO Q, Blackjack, and Treo 700/750 series, although we're willing to bet most other Windows Mobile devices will handle it just fine as long as Flash is installed. At any rate, we'll let you know the moment it's available.

"A few weeks ago we released Google Maps for mobile with Transit directions for BlackBerry and Java-based handsets. Now, with the release of version 2.2 of the application for Symbian S60 (3rd edition or later) and Windows Mobile (2005 or later), we're happy to say that Transit directions will be available to a bunch more smartphone users around the world."

Google Maps 2.2 is now available for Windows Mobile. It adds Transit directions for over 50 worldwide cities/regions, star ratings for businesses, faster search, and user-generated content. Simply point your mobile browser to google.com/gmm to download.

"Wait no more! The latest bits for Windows Live Client for your Windows Mobile are available for download. To get yours now, point your mobile browser to http://wl.windowsmobile.com If you have Windows Live already installed on your device, you will need to uninstall it first. To do that, go to Settings->Remove Programs, select Windows Live entry from the list (if any) and click Remove. If you don’t find Windows Live on the list, then you are good to go."

There's a new version of Windows Live for Windows Mobile available, but don't expect to see anything other than bug fixes. Like the previous Windows Live release, Messenger isn't included; so, if your device already includes Windows Live with Messenger, get ready to wave goodbye to Messenger if you install this version over the top. If that's not something you want to do, you'll need to wait for your carrier/manufacturer to update Windows Live in an upcoming ROM update, which, of course, could take weeks/months/years to deliver. Uh-huh, that's a topic we just can't rant enough about.

"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!

"Windows® SideShow™ for Windows Mobile® is an application for Windows Mobile 5 and Windows Mobile 6 Pocket PCs and Smartphones that allows you to use your Windows Mobile device as a Bluetooth SideShow-compatible device. This enables you to use your phone as an extra window into your PC. You can both access your computer’s information from your Pocket PC or Smartphone, and control the computer through a gadget interface. While the phone is out of range, or when your computer is off, you can continue to view content sent to the phone previously. This makes it easy to send information to the phone that you'll need later on."



Last year, I trekked over to Beijing with fellow MVPs and other technical community leaders to meet with the Microsoft Research and Windows Vista teams. There, we discussed the direction that Windows Vista was going to take over the next few years. Microsoft obviously wanted to make the user experience better, but they wanted (needed?) ideas. While a great deal of the week-long meeting focused on the product itself, we did spend some time discussing how it could better communicate with the rest of Microsoft's products, and most importantly, take advantage of them. For the most part, it was all about Windows Mobile, and I was brimming with ideas. Can you see where this is heading?

Yes, we discussed Windows SideShow, which at the time was one of Windows Vista's most impressive features, yet sadly, one of the most underused, too. Not everyone has a digital picture frame or a laptop with an in-lid display. But a lot of us have phones, and if you're reading this, it's probably a Windows Mobile phone. I often wondered why Microsoft didn't endow its own mobile product with SideShow support right off the bat. Some third parties cooked up their own solutions, but adoption was far from widespread, and I was sincerely hoping that Microsoft would realize their oversight and rectify the situation by releasing an official solution to bring SideShow to Windows Mobile.

So, here we are, a year later and Microsoft has heeded advice and finally released a developer preview. It's at v0.01, so don't expect it to be rock solid, but it'll still give you a taste of things to come. Our pal, Arne, has given it a test run and likes what he sees. Maybe you will too. Download it, install it, and let us know what you think.

"SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), the proven leader in flash memory, today announced the availability of SanDisk Mobile Ultra, microSD, microSDHC and Memory Stick Micro (M2) flash mobile memory cards, which are available in 2GB, 4GB and 8GB* capacities -- the industry’s first premium mobile phone storage cards. A must-have product for consumers who embody the digital lifestyle, the SanDisk Mobile Ultra high-performance cards are “best of breed” premium cards that provide fast side-loading speeds. This means that users will experience accelerated transfer rates of digital files to and from their mobile memory card and their computer. In addition to speed, SanDisk Mobile Ultra cards allow consumers to “wake up” the multimedia features of mobile phones by increasing the phone’s storage capacity for maps, music, videos, photos, games and other essential applications. For avid mobile phone videographers, events and experiences captured by the phone’s video camera can be quickly and efficiently transferred to social media or video-sharing websites. For added value and convenience, the card is bundled with a MobileMate™ Micro Reader that plugs directly into a USB 2.0 port to assist in this quick transport and easy management of digital content."



If you own a device with a microSD/microSDHC or M2 slot, check out SanDisk's new Mobile Ultra cards. They're available at capacities of up to 8GB and come bundled with a slim MobileMate Micro Reader to make those card-to-computer transfers a breeze. The 8GB Mobile Ultra microSDHC has a $119.99 MSRP tag, but if you shop around, you can probably find a better deal.

"Today at Microsoft Corp.’s online advertising leadership forum, advance08, Brian McAndrews, senior vice president of the Advertiser & Publisher Solutions Group, announced the availability of display advertising across two popular Windows Live for mobile services, the launch of new markets for Windows Live for mobile services, and upcoming advertising plans for its Live Search Mobile offering. This marks the first year that mobile advertising has played a leading role at the industry event that brings together some of the most influential thought leaders of the global advertising community. Announced today, advertisers can now extend their campaigns to social media through Windows Live for mobile in France, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S. by creating banner ads that will be visible across Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Hotmail. This builds upon Microsoft’s initial launch of mobile advertising for MSN Mobile in, France, , Spain, the U.K. and the U.S. where mobile ads are available alongside premium MSN Mobile content. Advertising on Windows Live for mobile is already available in Spain, and later this month will be available in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, further extending its availability for advertisers. All ads placed on these two popular services will adhere to Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) guidelines."



Microsoft has just announced an expansion in the availability of display advertising across its mobile services. You can already see an example of it at http://mobile.live.com/ (screenshot above). I know there's a vocal crowd out there who are strongly against ads in any way, shape, or form, and will go out of their way to block them, but the fact is they are both a direct and indirect source of revenue for many businesses, so denying them that is analogous to stealing. I'm all for mobile advertising - if a business wants to create awareness of their mobile applications and services, they should have a right to do so. My only hope is that given the small displays that mobile devices are endowed with, these ads don't end up being too "in-your-face".

Product Category: Games
Manufacturer: Astraware
Where to Buy: MobiHand [Affiliate]
Price: $9.95
System Requirements: Windows Mobile Classic/Professional (Pocket PC) or Standard (Smartphone) device

Pros:

• Addictive;
• Multiple game modes;
• Looks and feels just like the MSN Games and Xbox 360 versions.

Cons:

• Lacks online leaderboards.

Summary:
Alexey Pajitnov knows how to turn any shape into an addictive puzzle game. Tetris, which needs no introduction, is a testament to that. So too is Hexic, which MSN Games and Xbox 360 gamers should be familiar with. For years, I searched high and low for a Windows Mobile version, but to no avail. Now, that search is over. Thanks to the combined efforts of Astraware and Carbonated Games, Hexic is available for all flavours of Windows Mobile, and it does not disappoint.

Read on for the full review! Read more...

CTIA was where it all happened - the unveiling of Windows Mobile 6.1, the parade of devices running said OS, and the showing off of other bits and pieces that you'd expect to see at a mobile and wireless trade show. Robbie Bach, and a few others, were at CTIA to do the unveiling, so if you're interested in reading or watching the keynote, click here. It's a little over 26 minutes long, or however long it takes you to read a lengthy article, if videos just aren't your thing.

"Running short of time to reshape your body? No problem. Fat Flush On the Go – adapted from the bestselling The Fat Flush Plan by hottest diet contender – Ann Louise Gittleman is now on your mobiles. Experience accelerated weight loss and weight control while managing hormones and bringing out your most radiant looks! It uncovers and corrects the five hidden factors that sabotage weight loss and vitality: liver health, food sensitivities and resulting waterlogged tissues, fear of eating fat, excess insulin/excess inflammation and stress. Fat Flush On the Go addresses these problems with a targeted diet and exercises."



There really isn't much to say about this program other than it makes me laugh to think about it. If you happen to be searching for a nice application to help you get fit and healthy, you might want to try Fat Flush on The Go. You can purchase this application from our affiliate store for a mere $9.95

CTIA was Microsoft's playground for the unveiling of Windows Mobile 6.1, and Microsoft's hardware partners certainly weren't afraid to make a showing. Phone Scoop, in their ever-so-thorough ways, have covered CTIA from top to bottom, and there's plenty of Windows Mobile content for your perusal. Obviously, there's coverage of 6.1 and plenty of eye-candy to drool over if you're a Standard (Smartphone) user. Yes, Professional (Pocket PC) users - you have a reason to be jealous. Moving on, there's more eye-candy and a video of the HTC Touch Dual that's set to invade Best Buy stores this quarter. There's Sony Ericsson's XPERIA X1 in all its glory, and it too is running Windows Mobile 6.1 (a little known fact back when the X1 was first introduced due to NDAs and the like). And then there's a lengthy article on Velocity Mobile, a new entrant into the Windows Mobile market. More on that after the break. Read more...