TamsPPC - the PocketPC Blog

For anyone who has ever needed to write product documentation for a mobile application, or write a review on a piece of software on a PocketPC or Palm device, one of the most laborious tasks is having to get the screengrabs that show off the applications various features and abilities. Fortunately, a great developer by the name of MTUX has come up with an application to remedy that.

It’s called My Mobiler, and it goes way beyond just taking a screenshot of what is currently displayed on the device. Essentially, it allows you to do everything you would normally do with a stylus and onscreen keyboard on your main computer, no more having to reply to an SMS using the stylus to peck at tiny letters. On top of all those great features, My Mobiler supports connecting to the IP of your handheld, so you can leave it in it’s cradle in another room and connect via WiFi. I was unable to try this, but the functionality is there.

However, My Mobiler was not without fault, I did find it fairly slow to respond to mouse clicks, and I was often able to type faster than it could transfer to the PocketPC. Even with those small flaws I’d still be more than happy to recommend My Mobiler to anyone who needs to control their PocketPC without wanting to pull out a stylus and start pecking away.

The Austrian Games convention recently offered us the opportunity to get a little interview with Thomas Kritsch from Microsoft Austria. Thomas is the marketing manager for the XBOX platform - and spoke a bit about the XBOX 360 and a lot on mobile devices/gaming - enjoy(picture courtesy of abc texte/Dr. Doris Maria Kohrs)!

What should my readers, who own an XBox 360, do now?
If the console is defective, contact customer care. The console will be picked up, fixed and returned for the next 3 years in Austria…

Should consoles be sent to service preventively?
Not every console is defective. If you have a console at home, it can work well. If it breaks, see above…

As far as I know, the XBox and the PPC both run in the same department at Microsoft’s. Is there any collaboration?
No. The XBox is in Entertainment/Devices department, a department responsible for Games4Windows, the XBox and Microsoft’s mice/keyboards/… . As for the PPC, no idea to whom that belongs…but it isn’t in my department.

Why doesn’t Microsoft attempt to converge Games4Windows to PPC?
We license our games out, but have no own development for mobile games. Stuff like Ages of Empire can be licensed.

How are these licenses given out? Flatfee or profit cut?
Sorry, this is not my department. Out licensing department can decide what’s best on a per-game base, and the results are not being published!

So a house can just walk up?
Yes. Go to licensing and tell us what you want to do…

As for the Zune, will there be games?
No! The Zune is a dedicated media player that is NOT programmable. It is a media player and does nothing else.

Do you plan such an interface?
Can’t say as of now (giggles).

Do you plan to integrate PPC and Zune somewhat? Where is the difference between a 16GB rx4240 and a small Zune? Won’t they converge as SD cards get bigger?
The difference is, that the Zune is intended for people who do NOT need the PocketPC UI. They want media and that’s it - and that’s what the Zune UI is developed for!

Will Zune maybe converge in an “iPhoneish” fashion?
The brand Zune will remain independent. However, we can always expand the Zune functionality later…

What OS is the Zune based on? WM or another RTOS?
No idea. This is information that also won’t be released. The UI needs to work - and that’s it.

Traditionally, business phones have never had integrated cameras - these can make nasty problems when entering a company’s lab, for example. However, hp Austria seems to market the device at prosumers too…which usually don’t mind an integrated camera.

Anyways, the hp ipaq 514’s back includes a 1.3MP CMOS camera without flash or automatic focusing…can it stack up?

The camera application itself appears not very thoroughly-designed. For example, the digital zoom can be enabled from the 5way…while brightness can be adjusted only deep inside a menu:

While the camera supports a variety of white balance modes, it does NOT support any kind of image effects. It can also record 176×144px videos - nowadays, mobile devices can do much more…

Here are a few sample images made all over Vienna(click for full size, against Nokia N71):
ipaq

Nokia N71

In the end, neither the Nokia N71’s nor the ipaq 514’s camera can replace a digital camera. The ipaq manages to deliver pretty good images with punchy colors, decent noise and acceptable sharpness - good enough for showing on-screen. The N71, on the other hand, creates significantly better videos and also bigger images.