TamsPPC – the PocketPC Blog

A thread on PocketNow.com comparing the home screen of various versions of the Windows Mobile UI have made me think about what really disturbs me about Windows Mobile. After quite a bit of thinking,. I think that I have found my culprit…it’s the annoying top and bottom toolbars which IMHO are way to wide(especially in landscape mode):

If the image above wouldn’t be so sad, one could laugh about it for hours. A spreadsheet cell is tinner than the bottom toolbar, and the same is valid for the bottom one.

My personal request to the Windows Mobile team can be expressed easily – but the toolbar size by half. They are still tappable(case frames aid inaccurate users) – and we could get a nice extra bit of information on-screen!

Being perfectly honest, I have never really liked the looks of my rx4240’s bigger, GPS-enabled siblings in the rx5xxx series. No VGA screen, too big – sorry, but I prefer the small and handy rx4240. Anyways, HP has now released the long-awaited 310 travel companion – and I am sad to announce that the device is completely uninteresting and will no longer be covered on TamsPPC.

HP had the completely boneheaded idea(sorry Stefan, but there is no way I can defend this) to drop Windows Mobile from the equation, making the 310 a GPS-only box. While it probably still runs WM, users can no longer access the classic WM user interface and add additional applications.

As much as this has merits in terms of reduced support costs(see my Garmin interview here), the problem is that these “dumbbox” machines IMHO should not be placed in the iPaq brand. Compaq has always kept the iPAQ brand Windows Mobile touchscreen-only(except for one exception, an old monochromatic BlackBerry) – and the latest non-touchscreen addons don’t really make much sense for me. Don’t get me wrong – I love the idea that HP produces standalone GPS boxen. But I don’t like them being called iPaq…

CNET rates the product 6.3/10(good) due to a variety of routing-related quirks; get the final scoop here:
http://reviews.cnet.com/car-gps-navigation/hp-ipaq-310-travel/4505-3430_7-32595205.html?tag=nl.e404

P.s. I shall personally feature on TamsPPC the first person that manages to get a full WM UI running on that box! Hack it all the way to china, boys!

Currently, the developers of the Linux distribution Kubuntu are asking their users which additional applications could be integrated into the next version of the distribution. People which have created an account on the Wiki page can write new propositions or add checkmarks to existing ones.

As I am looking for a solution which enables me to sync my Palm (and Pocket PC) with my Linux computer, I added “a good and reliable solution to synchronize data with Palm PDAs and Pocket PCs“. There are a few programs (KPilot, for instance, or SynCE for Pocket PCs), but none of them really worked here. One didn’t find my PDA, another one cleared all databases (!). Syncing my Pocket PC was even more difficult, I had to do much on a console (which I hate) and it never worked stable. And after a reboot, I could do the whole procedure again.

What I want is a synchronization solution which needs one little and easy configuration. After that, it should work stable and reliable. The next version of Kubuntu will be released next year. If there will be a better PDA support then, I will probably install it on my computer.

Do you want this, too? Or how do you sync your PDA with Linux? If you are also interested in this feature, you can write that onto the Wiki page, or, if you don’t want to register there, you can write a comment here.

Palm has changed the look of the underlying Microsoft operating system significantly in an attempt to make it easier to use(screenshots of WM6 for Smartphone are available in the ipaq 514 review). The images below are intended to give a quick ‘overview’ of the changes:

At first glance, one immediately sees that Palm has completely overhauled the main menu and phone screen of the Palm Treo 500v. The phone screen now is similar to the Treo 600’s – you can enter numbers of characters, ant the 500v analyzes its address book on the fly, presenting you the ‘best’ matches:

Hitting the home button should pop up a list of applications – on the Treo, it instead gives you a rather clumsy menu allowing you to access last-used applications, a few panels for settings like ring tones and bluetooth, and a variety of other stuff:

While this is great for light users, a heavy user will not be satisfied with the difficulty of reaching third party applications…BTW, getting back to the usual menus is not possible.

Here’s a small video demonstrating the ribbon interface in action:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-643186891885846593&hl=en

Once you wish to access one of the many options not provided in the ribbon interface, the standard, clumsy Windows Mobile smartphone UI with its insanely-long lists is right in front of you again(this time in widescreen, with the shortcut keys arranged in alphabetical order(!!!)) – Palm didn’t change anything here:

In the end, however, Palm’s changes and modifications are nothing except a drop of water on a very, very hot stone. WM Smartphone needs to be overhauled – and no matter of carrier/manufacturer investment(short of a complete OS rewrite) can fix that…

What do you think?

Former Openwave browser chief Christian Sejersen has joined Mozilla some time ago – and has just posted an article about Mozilla coming to mobile devices powered by Windows Mobile 6 to his blog:

We will first focus our efforts on two platforms/devices running on ARM11 processors (ARM v6):

* Linux – first device working already is the Nokia N800 (possibly update to N810) running Linux (maemo)
* Windows Mobile 6 – a good first device is the HTC S730

These platforms are either already up and running or will be soon – and will allow our community to start testing UX with different hardware characteristics e.g. screen size (N800/N810: 800×480 vs. HTC S730 320×240) and touch-screen vs. non-touch-screen.

As many people will quickly notice there is no Symbian version here. We are aware of the millions of Symbian devices in the world and this is just a start and a good area to focus. We’d love help on Symbian if anyone is interested.

As of now, information on what/when/where we can expect Mozilla-powered web browsing is not available. However, please stay tuned – we will keep you updated!

While our HP spokesperson has not yet provided us with a sample of the 110 classic PDA, the folks at BrightHand’s have managed to pick up such a box for review(and even list a few retailers selling it for approximately 300$).

The 110 can be considered the “low-end” part of the recently-introduced(and delayed) WM6 ipaq series; differing from the 2xx in the omission of the VGA screen.

BrightHand’s Adama Brown describes the 110 as

a surprisingly well designed and built model, with good if not extraordinary features, at a reasonable price.

We are currently expecting our own sample – meanwhile, get the full scoop here:
http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=13511

While the following bits of information won’t really help pissed-off developers like me implement a setup routine that installs version 2 of the compact framework onto their client’s devices; it could still offer a bit of explanation on the motivations behind the omission.

This podcast was recorded at a Microsoft conference some time ago, and has Robert Levy(a Windows Mobile project manager) talk about .NET CF 2 and also about why it isn’t included in the WM5 ROM. Cutting a long story short: the reason is timing. The framework simply wasn’t finished in time…

Anyways, get the full scoop here(makes a good listen while on a commute):
http://blogs.msdn.com/mikehall/archive/2005/05/03/414495.aspx

Determining the line height of a font is very important thing for programmers creating applications that use changing texts as part of their UI. However, Microsoft(for some reason) decided to remove the .Height attribute from the .net CF Font object.

However, the height and width of a text can still be determined – if your code has access to a Graphics object. The object’s MeasureString method returns a SizeF parameter containing the height and the width of the string passed in….the values, of course, are in pixels!

The code example below creates a moving bar that permanently changes its color. In the middle of the bar, the text contained in drawString is displayed in white – this animated GIF simulates the effect:


ElseIf Globals.Globals.TextMode = textmode_enum.series60 Then
Dim drawString As String = TextParser.getDateText
Dim myFont As New Font(System.Drawing.FontFamily.GenericSansSerif, 12, FontStyle.Regular)
Dim myTextBrush As New SolidBrush(Color.White)
Dim myBackBrush As New SolidBrush(Color.FromArgb(Int((254 * Rnd())), Int((254 * Rnd())), Int((254 * Rnd()))))
Dim y As Integer = Int(((MainForm.Height - 4 - gfx.MeasureString(drawString, myFont).Height) * Rnd()))
gfx.FillRectangle(myBackBrush, 0, y, MainForm.Width, 4 + gfx.MeasureString(drawString, myFont).Height)
gfx.DrawString(drawString, myFont, myTextBrush, (MainForm.Width-gfx.MeasureString(drawString, myFont).Width)/2, y + 2)
End If


Enjoy!

P.s. If anyone of you knows how the MS boys format the code that they put onto their blogs so neatly….PLEASE let me know!
P.s.2 If anyone knows WHY Microsoft removed the Font.Height property from .NET CF, please let me know too!

The Palm Treo 500v screamed ‘consumer device’ from the moment that it arrived in our labs – last but not least, Palm finally included a headset in the box. The white housing of the machine gave the machine a completely different look and feel…can it stack up in everyday use?

Sizewise, the 500v is a lot slimmer but a bit wider than the Treo 680(equivalent to 750/750v):

After unpacking the machine, one immediately notices that the front of the unit was redesigned. Instead of the classic application buttons, the Treo now has two ‘generalpurpose’ and two special-purpose buttons(more on the keyboard later):

The screen has a glossy cover that magically attracts scratches. Leaving the unit in a Proporta Gadget Bag for a day and passing it through an airport scan produced a few nasty scratches. The back of the 500v contains the speaker, the camera and a VodaFone logo. The backplate of the 500v isn’t attached with a button anymore – instead, it is just pulled off to the bottom.

Doing this reveals the removable battery(not compatible with 680/750), the SIM slot and the memory card slot(uh-oh):

The Treo 600’s top-mounted power button is back(although it doesn’t do anything even remotely useful), and Palm also included the classic volume buttons:

Last but not least, the bottom of the 500v reveals a MiniUSB port and the 2′5 inch headphone jack:

Overall, the Treo 500 is similar to the hp 514…both devices have nicely done hardware with a fatal flaw. Palm managed to get charging/syncing, data input and overall design perfectly right…and distroys the otherwise-perfect device with the waaay-too-sensitive screen cover. Nevertheless, like the 514, the 500v is a well-done device…for all those of you that can live with Windows Mobile 5 Standard.

Tune in soon for a look at the 500v’s screen.

The 3rd program of the Spb Business Pack – Spb Diary – is a replacement for the default Pocket Outlook today-plugins.

The installer lets you choose if the program should disable the Pocket Outlook today plugins automatically. It is recommended that you let it disable them – SPB Diary replaces them completely Now lets take a closer look at the program. You will notice that it is divided into 3 parts: the left column has several tabs to toggle between calender view, tasks, contacts, notes (displays word documents, excel sheets, voice notes and hand drawn notes), messaging and special events.

Now what’s so special? At first, you may notice, that if you have an appointment in the next seven days and Spb Traveler installed, there is a small icon at the right side of the date which shows the weather for this day. Tap on it and a window with a detailed weather view will appear.

The appointments are listed in a neatly arranged way:

The contacts tab lists all contacts of Pocket Outlook in different ways: the default list and photo thumbnails (if you have assigned a photo to the contacts. Those which don’t have a photo will be shown as text) :

The mail-tab is very different from the one Pocket Outlook uses, there isn’t only listed how many unread messages you have. Spb Diary shows all messages stored in the ‘Inbox’-folder with sender, subject and the time when it was received. New messages are shown with a bold font.

Interesting for those who can’t remember birthdays: the ’special events’ tab shows upcoming anniversary’s and birthdays:
Overall, SPB Diary is a potentially-useful add-on for your PocketPC’s today screen. Get the free trial to see if it suits your taste – if you like it, get it for 20$ in the TamsShop.

While stumbling across the net in order to find a way to pick fonts in .net CF, I stumbled upon the following site offering a variety of interesting code samples:
http://samples.gotdotnet.com/quickstart/compactframework/doc/default.aspx

While the page’s formatting probably is horrible, the examples found on it could potentially be helpful!

Do you know other pages containing .net CF sample code? If yes, please give us a holler!

The lack of a color picker dialog in the .NET CF(yes, the desktop framework has a ColorPicker class – but .NET CF doesn’t contain it) has annoyed hell out of me for quite some time – even the 10yr old Palm OS contains a well-done color picker. Anyways, problems are here to be solved – please allow me to present you my own ColorPicker(running in .NET CF 2.0 on a hp rx4240, blots are due to GIF compression):

Using this is very simple – just download the form file here and integrate it into your project like you would do with any other form.

Then, do the following to make the user pick a color:

Dim colorX as color
colorX = ColorPicker.getcolor()


Feel free to do with this code whatever you feel like. However, no warranties are given on anything….and posting a link to an app that uses it always is appreciated!

Dear Readers,
we have just updated the software powering TamsPalm, TamsPPC and TamsS60. These updates are required to keep our news sites working safe and fast…we apologize for the necessary downtime!

As always, software updates can cause small malfunctions. Should you encounter any, please accept our apologies and leave a comment here so that we can fix them!

Best regards
Tam Hanna & the Tamoggemon analyst team

HTC’s TouchFLO – based Windows Mobile systems have managed to get a cult-like following soon after their initial release…the Touch and Touch Dual now get a sibling called Touch Cruise:

As the name says, the device is based on TouchFLO and contains a GPS transceiver.

Further specs as following:

Key specifications:
• Qualcomm® MSM7200™ chipset
• Built-in GPS receiver
• TomTom® GPS navigation software
• 400MHz CPU
• TouchFLO™
• 256MB/128 MB ROM/RAM
• Wi-Fi® connectivity
• Bluetooth® 2.0
• GSM/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA up to 3.6Mbps
• 2.8” QVGA Touch Screen
• FM Radio
• microSD™ memory card slot
• Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional

Resco Defender(aka tower defense for Windows Mobile) recently scored a rave review from TamsPPC. Due to our long-standing cooperation with Resco, I am proud to present you an exclusive interview with the game’s creator – enjoy:

Please tell us a bit more about yourself.
My name is Juraj Mojik and I am a game developer & programmer at Resco.net.

Have you designed other applications/games for mobile devices before?
I have designed and programmed these games for Resco – Seal Ball, Table Soccer, Diamonds and Defender. I also participated on Resco Brain Gain.

Where did you get the idea to create Defender?
Tower defense games are quite popular lately. It is because they are simple and very addictive. We have tried it on ourselves here at Resco so we know what we are talking about

After some research we found out, that there is no remake for Windows Mobile which fits our needs. So we decided to make our own concept.

What were the main issues you faced while bringing Tower Defence action to the PocketPC?
The issues are almost the same with any game idea that should be played on so many devices – how to make it look good on so many different display resolutions and orientations. We decided to make the whole game map visible all the time instead of scrolling a larger map. We had to layout the information and control elements in such a way, that the game view is maximized on every device.
– square screen

– portrait mode

– landscape mode

Also we had to think about the controls – stylus and keyboard – to make the game as easy to play as possible. The main goal was to keep it simple and fun.

The game’s enemy hoardes sometimes have really astonishing capabilities. How did you work out the balancing?
This is the work of my colleague Michal, who is also a graphic artist – he has spent hours playing Resco Defender and setting the stats for the enemies and the towers. He has set the Medium difficulty to be challenging for him and derived the other difficulties by weakening or strenghtening the enemy stats. He tried to set the game to be entertaining from the beginnig to the end so you have to build and upgrade towers at every level from 1 to 100. I think he was quite successful.

Why didn’t you include a dedicated set of levels/missions? A terrain editor?
We thought that the most entertaining way how to play tower defence games is the creative one – where you do not have a set of levels, but everything is up to you – how you build your maze.

What is your favourite ‘tower layout’? Why?
I prefer long horizontal lines from left to right. Only in the middle I create short vertical lines (arranged like teeth) so the enemies have to go around every top of a vertical line, where I position a boosted black magic tower – very effective for destroying ground enemies. I use almost every type of tower possible to create maximum efficiency:

What is your favourite tower? Your favourite creep?
My favorite tower is the Teleport tower, because wisely used it can have destructive effects. Also the overall graphic effect of this tower is nice.

My favorite creep is the pink one – which we call cloner – the one which when destroyed falls apart into four small ones. I like it because there is a lot of money for this one.

Can we expect a sequel?
We have a lot of interesting ideas, but only time (and success of the first one) will show if we make a sequel. But we would love to.

Anything you would like to add?
We love to hear from players that Resco Defender is entertaining and fun. Thank you for your support.