XDASite.com

Then and now

m@rtyn — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 08:49:53 GMT

Just a quick walk down Memory Lane. Not far, only a mere 10 years (OK, for me, it's not that long ago). Remember the early days of the Pocket PC? Here is a small reminder of what, in 2000, was at the bleeding edge of mobile technology.

And just to have a wee bit of comparison, here is also an infomercial for the HTC HD2

About the only thing these two have in common is the 65K colour display, though of course, the resolution has since much improved. Remember your first mobile phone? I first went mobile back in 1996 and had a Philips mobile (do they even make phones these days?). Display was a one line LCD and the phone book had room for up to 100 names and numbers!! It even had a pull out antenna.

Feel free to have a ramble down your memory lane and reminisce about it here. Remember when Raider was called Marathon? Or something from back "then" that you want to compare with "now"? Something that makes you go "Ahh, those were the days!"

Touch Weather

m@rtyn — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 10:08:23 GMT

Your phone doesn't have HTC's TouchFLO3D? Or, you're bored of the weather graphics that it does have? Well, here's just the thing that you might have been looking for. Touch Weather. This has got to be one of the most appealing, eye-candy, weather apps there is for WinMo. And it comes in two flavours; Free and Pro (Pro costs �3.25 at current exchange rate). If there is one thing that we Brits like to talk about, it's got to be the weather. And with this app, you'll always be in the know as to what the weather is doing either at home or in far flung Timbuktu (or even in Grimsby, should it interest you!).

OK, as far as the weather at home is concerned, a quick glance out the window is usually enough to tell you if you need an umberella or a parasol. But what if you want to know the weather conditions later in the day, or tomorrow? Touch Weather will be able to give you the forecast for the coming week and also what the weather is likely to be morning, afternoon, evening & night of the coming week. And all in glorious rich animation. The weather conditions are animated, as they are in TouchFLO3D, but they fill the entire screen in Touch Weather. Touch the screen in order to call up the options, and from there, you can add cities, change the background, etc. Also when you touch the screen you are presented with additional details about the weather, such as chances of precipitation, sun-rise and sun-set times, moon phase and so on. Stuff you don't need to see all the time but may be of interest.

And what do you get for your hard earned money? Well, in the free version you get all the basic functions:

Animated daily weather forecast;
Amazing video effects;
Global weather;
50000+ locations worldwide;
Several weather aggregators and forecast reliability rating.

For the paid (�3.25) Pro version, you additionally get:

Weekly weather forecast;
Detailed daily forecast (morning, afternoon, evening, night).

The only system requirements are that you are running WinMo 5 or above. I have installed it to both my Orbit with qvga display and to my Diamond 2 with wvga display and it works on both without problems. According to the Touch Weather website, it will also run on square screens too. So something for nearly everyone. Obviously, due to the higher resolution of the Diamonds screen, the graphics look fantastic. But even on an older lower resolution screen, the graphics don't look shabby.

There is a free 15 day trial of the Pro version, which if you don't buy after the 15 days, reverts to the free version without the weekly forcast and detailed daily forecast. For more information and downloads, go to http://www.touch-weather.com/

First Class Service?

Genesis — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:45:16 GMT

Dear fellow members.
I sit here in the dark, weeping, cold and alone, and.. well you get the picture!
My beloved HTC Touch HD has malfunctioned!
Last week, for no reason during a call, it just switched off and re-booted.
Ha thought I, silly windows! an hour later the same.
I did a hard reset, it did it again.
I flashed the ROM, reloaded the software, it did it again!
I flashed once more, added no software and it kept doing it.
I rang HTC (whom I registered the device with Feb 09) gave them the IMEI number, they bought up my details and as it has a TWO year warranty calmly emailed me a couple of documents to print including a label and sent a nice UPS man knocked on my door 18 hours later to take it away. It went this morning with a promise to fix and return in 8 working days, they've even given me a tracking ID to see how the repair is going.
This, I hope, is the start of a tale of very good customer service from HTC, I'll keep you updated on progress with hopefully a happy ending in the next few days.... :)

Nokia N900

smithbill — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:46:31 GMT

I've recently bought an unlocked Nokia N900 from Carphone Warehouse (�440 in Feb 2010).

My first few days using the N900 has resulted in a catalogue of observations and largely frustrations with what it CANT do or doesnt do very well. I wont go into the handset features and specifications here - there are hundreds of reviews of the N900 out there that cover the details better than I can. Instead I'll list some of my usability 'gripes' below. At the end i'll summarise what i've concluded so far.

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In no particular order, on the N900:

1) it seems impossible to delete WiFi connections. In other words if you ever connect to a public WiFi HotSpot (eg. Macdonalds or in an airport) it seems you cant delete it from the list of stored connections. Most annoying.

2) I have two email accounts set up on my N900. A personal account and a hotmail account which gets quite a lot of SPAM. I'd like to be able to set my personal account to download email whenever its connected on WiFi and the hotmail account on manual. Unfortunately there only seems to be one setting for all accounts - either they are all on auto-download or all on manual.

3) the N900 has a physical slide out keyboard. Unfortunately whenever you reach a type-in edit box on the screen, if you have the keyboard open then you have to use the keyboard to type anything in. There is no way to pop up an on-screen keyboard. If the physical keyboard is closed then clicking in an edit box automatically pops up an onscreen keyboard. The result is a lot of swapping between using the stylus on the screen and switching hands to type on the physical keyboard.

4) when the onscreen keyboard pops up it fills the whole screen. So you have to type your text and hit return (or down button) to enter the text into your application.

5) on the onscreen keyboard some punctuation marks are on a separate screen which you have to get to by clicking a punctuation tab. Because some characters like full stops and forward slashes and all numbers are on the other tab, when you are entering something like a web URL you have to keep flipping between tabs to enters letters, then full stops, back to letters, then slashes, back to letters etc etc

6) when the handset is idle it dims the screen to black. It does this after says 30secs or 1min etc. With my old Orbit it would dim to say 25% then after another period it would black out. On the N900 it only dims and within abt 2secs it blacks out. Prodding at the screen once its blacked out wont waken it up. You either have to open the keyboard or press the power button on the side.

7) the power button is a ludicrously small square button located right in the middle of the top side of the handset. Its awkward to press (especially if the keyboard was left open) and so when the handset had blacked out its annoyingly awkward to waken it up again. It would have been better if the power button was larger and offset to the right (ie. easily under your index finger as you hold the handset in landscape mode).

8) so far i've found no way to 'soft reboot' the handset - there's no menu option or application that will power off the handset (or better still would be to auto reboot). Instead, you have to hold the tiny little centred powered button for 2-3secs and the handset will go off. You then have to hold it down again to power the handset on.

9) the SMS txt messaging on Maemo 5 is threaded ie. you have bubbles of conversations. There appears to be no way to store/file SMS messages in anything like folders.

10) Maemo 5 only seems to support 2 ringing profiles - General and Silent. You cant create new profiles. You cant assign ring tones to individual contacts.

11) perhaps the biggest disappointment is Ovi Maps. Its rubbish. Basically its how GoogleMaps was about 2-3years ago. It has no turn-by-turn voice navigation and the maps are by default downloaded over a data connection (I believe on Nokias other Symbian devices MapLoader can be used to download the entire maps and store them on the handset but I dont think this is entirely operational on the N900).

12) Of course TomTom is not available for the N900. GoogleMaps cant be installed (although you can view a GoogleMap via the inbuilt web browser).

13) Nokias DataSuite allows you to sync contacts etc. However, their new version of this OviSuite doesnt work with the N900 at all (yet). The old DataSuite 7.1 only provides partial support for the N900.

14) DataSuite does not provide web 'pass through' like ActiveSync does - so you cannot use the internet connection on your laptop from within your handset connected on a USB cable (I used to plug my Orbit into my work laptop and leave it checking email, weather etc periodically through my work internet)

15) On my trusty old Orbit I used to use MyMobiler all the time to control the USB connected handset from my work laptop. With the N900 there seems to be no equivalent. The closest I have come is to run a VNC server on the N900 and then to connect to the handset using a VNC client on the laptop. Unfortunately this doesnt work over USB, you have to be connected over WiFi to use an IP address to connect to the handset (and its quite slow with low colour palette).

Well thats the main gripes I have found so far. With the main issues for me being poor data sync with no data pass through and lack of voice navigation software.

All that said its clear that Maemo5 is a powerful OS with a LOT of potential. Its basically a full blown Linux implementation in a tiny box. There are lots of geeks out there who have ported things like Android, Mac OSX, Ubuntu and even Microsoft Windows 95 and 98 to run on the N900 (quite weird seeing Win98 running on a phone!)

There are dozens of Linux based applications which can be installed under Maemo5 using a fairly idiot proof catalogue of downloads. Many of them are quite smart (games like Doom, implementations of programming languages, web servers etc etc etc). However, many of these kinds of apps in the Linux world are not fully tested and could be considered as experimental home concoctions.

So in summary, there are many many annoyances and irritations with the N900 - so many things that you cant do that my aged old Orbit and Windows Mobile did quite easily. However, there is a LOT of potential with Maemo 5. If Nokia had spent more time useability testing it and getting applications like the Ovi Suite and turn-by-turn navigation software ready then it would be a great device inspite of all the annoyances.

Without a proper data syncing and navigation solution I will have to resort to carrying BOTH handsets around with me! Hopefully Maemo 6 (or MeeGo) will resolve many of these deficiencies.

If anyone has any solutions for some of the things i've listed above please post them here! Any good web sources of tools, utilities etc for Maemo5 would also be useful.

Bill

Windows Phone 7 Series vs. WM6 & WM6.5

m@rtyn — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 08:34:06 GMT

Just saw this posted at Engadget.com. It is a quick comparison between WM6, WM6.5 and WP7S.

Funny how times change. When WM6 came out it was touted as being finger-friendly and virtually stylus-free. Well, not according to this comparison. What has also been omitted in the comparison are at least two more categories: Flash and Multi-tasking. Both were in the "older" WinMo systems but are lacking in WP7S. Another thing that I have noticed, though it has nothing to do with this list, is that so far, there has been no mention of any Office programs. Basically a core of the existing WinMo OS.

You may also have noticed in the above table that WP7S is not skinnable. That was another great selling point of WinMo, that you could customise it to suit your needs and taste.

So to summarise: No Flash, no Multi-tasking, no Office (as yet), not Skinnable and no 3rd party UI. Hmm?! Sounds like an iPhone :eek:

WM7 didn't show up!

m@rtyn — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:02:17 GMT

Instead, we have a new star in the OS sky...... Windows Phone 7 Series ! And it looks like nothing that had been expected or leaked over the last few months. As expected, it was launched today at MWC in Barcelona.

The best is, that you take a look at it for yourself. There are two videos available at Pocketnow.com

Quote:

Originally Posted by CoolSmartPhone.com

It'll bring together Xbox LIVE games and that Zune music and video experience - and yes, Zune (as a GUI) is going international, plus there's "live tiles" which show you real-time content on the main screen. On each phone there'll be six "hubs" which bring together related content from the web, applications and services into a single view to make daily tasks simple and easy. People, Pictures, Games, Music+Video, Marketplace and Office. The "People" hub delivers the social side of your life - social networks, photos and instant updates to Facebook, Windows Live and other sites. The "Pictures" hub lets you share pictures and video to your social network, whilst the "Games" tab delivers the first Xbox LIVE experience on your phone - Xbox games, Spotlight feed and gamer profile. The"Music and Video" hub brings online services plus content from your PC, the built-in FM radio and media recommendations from like-minded music fans. The "Marketplace" app takes you into the online application store with the "Office" hub bringing that familiar Microsoft Office experience and mobile applications like SharePoint, OneNote and Outlook.

More info at CoolSmartPhone.com

There seems to be a lot of "Zune" involved in the look and feel of Windows Phone 7 Series, which has also been noted by those in the know. For those who haven't heard of the Zune, it is Microsofts answer to the iPod Touch, though sadly not aimed at the European market. However, that seems to now have been rectified by having Zune as the basis for the new OS. No doubt we will be seeing and hearing lots more over the next few days, so stay tuned! If you want a closer look at WP7S (sorry, but it's easier than Windows Phone 7 Series) then take a look at www.windowsphone7series.com

Another video HERE...... beware, it's nearly 23 mins long!

SPB Mobile Shell 5.0

m@rtyn — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:30:47 GMT

February 15th, 2010 – SPB Software, a leading mobile applications and games developer announces the release of SPB Mobile Shell 5.0, a major upgrade to the world's bestselling mobile application, popular among both end-users and OEMs. Unlike all the previous versions of SPB Mobile Shell available exclusively for Windows Mobile smartphones with touchscreens, version 5.0 is to be released for Android, Windows Mobile and Symbian. Thanks to the new portable SPB UI Engine, SPB Mobile Shell is planned to be spread to more mobile platforms.

Major updates to the new version include a new 3D engine and an improved social networking integration. The former means support for new types of eye candy effects such as 3D Media Player, 3D Photo Viewer, 3D Weather, dynamic 3D widgets and more, while the latter involves message, contacts, photo and status sync with popular services, namely Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

One important innovation in SPB Mobile Shell 5.0 is the Natural Interaction Engine which includes support for G-sensor and multitouch, a dedicated Feedback Engine providing realistic visual and haptic responses, and a Physics Engine responsible for the real-world behavior of all objects.

SPB Mobile Shell has been publicly recognized as the best-selling mobile application across all smartphone platforms for three consecutive years: 2007, 2008 and 2009. At the same time SPB Mobile Shell enjoys popularity among mobile carriers and OEMs. It's been shipped to over 15 device manufacturers, including Sony Ericsson, Toshiba, and O2. To make implementation process even smoother, we have added SPB UI Builder 2.0 a tool-chain for easy customization of SPB Mobile Shell and other products that are built using the SPB UI Engine. It includes APIs for pluggable components, the skin builder and a set of plug-ins for integration with industry strength design products such as 3DMAX and Microsoft Expression Blend.

What's new in SPB Mobile Shell 5.0:
New 3D engine
Natural Interaction Engine
3D widgets
Tight integration with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networks
SPB UI Builder 2.0
Multi-platform support: Android, Windows Mobile, Symbian

*** About SPB Software (www.spb.com) ***

SPB is a leading brand in mobile software, standing for a unique line of popular
consumer products and partnerships with the world's most innovative handset makers
and wireless carriers. SPB's software solutions deliver richer smartphone
experiences and enable subscribers to do more with their mobile data connections.
SPB Software is the maker of the world's single number one bestselling mobile
application - SPB Mobile Shell. For more information, please visit www.spb.com.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fingers crossed, we will have a review of Mobile Shell 5.0 when it arrives on the market together with pricing and release date details.

To get a taste of things to come, here is a video of it's first outing at MWC today. Thanks to PocketNow.com for posting this video :)

Google Maps 4.0 includes "Buzz"

m@rtyn — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 06:55:26 GMT

Google Maps has recently been up-dated to 4.0 and now also includes the Google Buzz feature as a "layer". Buzz is a Twitter type messenger app from, you guessed it, Google. By adding this "layer" to your Google Map, you can see other Buzz users comments in your area, shown on the map.

This is a location aware app, so if you are on your way somewhere and and post a "Buzz", it'll show your position on the map. Other Buzz users can see where you are and also comment on your Buzz. This of course, has also lead to some privacy worries in recent days. But hey, if you don't want the world to know where you are, don't Buzz!

Available to download via mobile browser: m.google.com/maps
(Good tip: Use Pocket Internet Explorer as the above site does not recognise Opera Mobile)

Credit to PocketNow.com for the photo

Mobile World Congress 2010

m@rtyn — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 09:59:59 GMT

Only a few more hours to go (OK, about 48, but who's counting?) to the start of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

One of the biggest and most important events in the mobile worlds calendar. So I assume that we are going to get to see and hear about a bunch of innovations for our beloved toy. And it is also highly anticipated that Microsoft will formally announce the launch of Windows Phone 7 (WinMo7). That said, a formal announcement was also expected at the CES in Las Vegas last month and turned out to be vapour. So all eyes are now focused on Spain for the future of Windows Mobile. Will there be an announcement? Who knows, but Steve Ballmer is going to be there.

Rumours suggest that WM7 will be focusing more on the gaming and multimedia sector than, as previously with WM, on the business market. So, one of the things to go is multi-tasking (applications will pause when in the background, however they will support notifications using the MS Push Notifications environment). Uh-oh! Further features expected of WM7 are listed in an e-mail sent to Mobiletechworld.com:

Quote:

Originally Posted by MobileTechWorld.com

� WP7 will be announced at MWC, and there will be a demo, but this will be just the UX
� MIX will have specific developement focus sessions on WP7
� WP7 supports both Sliverlight (out of browser) and XNA
� Silverlight is version 3.0, with elements of 4.0 plus mobile specific features such as sensors etc
� XNA apps can be developed using XNA GameStudio 3.1
� SL apps developed using Expression Blend 3.x and VS2010
� MS will release a mobile version of VS / Expression which will be free, and VS2010 / Expression Pro will have a free add-on
� WP7 will have an equivalent of .NET CF embedded into SL, but no SQL.
� WP7 will have isolated storage which is accessible using LINQ
� The UX of WP7 is based upon a theme called “METRO” and is similar to Zune HD, but with a completely new “Start” screen.
� No multi-tasking (applications will pause when in the background, however they will support notifications using the MS Push Notifications environment)
� No .NET CF backwards compatibility, however a proportion of the data and business logic in .NET CF could be ported
� MS were confident to have devices ready for Sep 2010
� No MS manufactured device, however much tighter control of manufacturing process, so as an example each device has a 3D processing chipset, and MS provide all of the device drivers. So no platform builder. This enables OTA updates and simplified model for ODM’s
� Marketplace will support buy and try before you buy, as well as an API
� ODM / OEM will not be able to modify the “Start” screen, so no more HTC Sense / TouchFlo etc.
� MS are actually ahead of schedule which will surprise the analysts / journalists
� Browsing experience is currently faster / better than iPhone 3G, and they are aiming towards 3GS.
� Browser is based upon desktop IE7 codebase, but with some IE8 functionality
� No in browser Flash or SL
� WP7 has full integration with XBOX Live, and ability to purchase games
� WP7 will use the Zune software for music, videos, photos sync
� WP7 only supports app installation through service based delivery i.e. marketplace, so no side-loading
� MS will provide a hosted push notifications environment

More details at Mobiletechworld.com and also at PPCGeeks.com. But it is intersting to see that MS no longer will allow for manufacturers to add their own User Interfaces on top of WinMo. Bye-bye Sense and co. Not sure I like that. But all should be revealed on Monday at the MWC, so stay tuned (click on the MWC logo at the top of the page to go directly to the web-site)

Also said to be announced on monday is the latest version of Mobile Shell. Oddly enough, it is going to be called Mobile Shell 5.0. What happened to v4.0? Four, supposedly, is an unlucky number, so SPB has decided to spring right in with v5.

As you can see, it is going to be multi-platform, with the exception of iPhone and Blackberry. It also promises to be full of juicy 3D goodness and offer a new Interface engine. Mobile Shell is the best selling application for mobile devices, so no doubt it will be a stunner, as was it's previous issue. Would be nice though, if SPB have made it compatible with HTC Sense this time (without having to use a third party prog like "Detacher" to use it).

Check out the MWC site and follow the news as it happens. Here's hoping that this isn't the end of the line for WM, rather, the start of a new and brighter future. Either that or we will all be assimilated by iPhone :eek:

Which OS do YOU prefer?

m@rtyn — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:13:35 GMT

Brandon Miniman at PocketNow.com has just released a new comparison video, comparing the four major phone operating systems: iPhone, WinMo, Android & WebOS. And as usual, it is chock full of great info about all four. So, apart from the phones themselves, which OS do you prefere (assuming that you could install any OS onto any phone you wanted)?

Watch the video here, and for more info, click the link at the top to go to PocketNow.com

So.....!

UK_Richie — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:02:27 GMT

It's been a while since I was last here, what have I missed?

How to install a Theme from a 'Zipped' File

nodrog — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 10:59:57 GMT

There are more than one way to do thing on a WM device which is more than can be said of other mobiles, I'm just going to mention one way and keep this short and sweet.

File Explorer is a much underused yet really useful tool on your device and can get things done easier that certain other file management systems. You have a .zip or a .rar file you want to open but don't know how. I find that this is usually easier to do on my device than mucking around with a PC syncing it etc. Just do the following and it's as easy as 1 2 3....

Download the RAR and using Window Explorer put it on your device by dragging and dropping (cut&paste), then on your phone open the file in file explorer and PocketRAR should open up showing the spiders.tsk file then press and hold and choose extract from the drop down menu and choose your destination. When you go into your Today Settings you should now see spiders in your list of themes. Ensure to uncheck the box below if you've got a bespoke pic as your today background.

You will of course need Zip or Pocket RAR on you device, you can get pocket RAR from here:
http://freewareppc.com/utilities/pocketrar.shtml
Which unfortunately you will have to sync you phone for. You can use Wooley's guide here:
http://www.xdasite.com/showthread.php?t=1187

Have fun...

Omg!!!!

nodrog — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:29:02 GMT

There I was in a local shopping centre and my eldest asks if he could pop into the charity shop, he's a bit addicted to Lego Bionicles and has discovered the delights of cheap toys a la charity shops, so we go in.

And what did I discover but a gem of an album thus:

It's so bad it's good, and so in that vein are there any of you out there who have or discovered any 'gems' which make you think 'flippin' heck I'm getting old'? Cos I know that's what this did and it's ain't even Jive Bunny....LOL...

Spare Extended Battery anyone?

nodrog — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:43:02 GMT

Hi all,

Found this and thought I should pass it on.

A spare battery for your HTC Touch Pro usually priced at �43.95 but for you guys get it for just �9.73 and with free shipping too!!!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/HTC-Touch-Pr...06842&sr=1-459

That's 78% saving!!!

spb software

noney82 — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:35:00 GMT

well iv just come across.......in the app store

SPB wallet �5.99
SPB quads 59p
and
SPB brain evolution �2.99

was always a fan of SPB brain evolution so i bought it, just as good as i remembered,