TamsPPC - the PocketPC Blog

Samsung seems to feel like fighting the iPhone with its WM-powered Omnia handset – the picture below comes from a very popular Austrian weekly magazine:

Its rather technical text can be translated as follows:

Take the future into your hands. The new Samsung lets you surf the web at 7.2MBPS, navigate, watch XVID&DIVX videos and email with a single touch of the screen. Or, what about the 5MP camera?

…

By the way, the Omnia is the first smartphone with Windows Mobile 6.1 and full MS Office support.

Even though I myself am not sure if the ad isn’t too difficult for the iPhone crowd, it nevertheless is nice to see Samsung peddling its Omnia actively even in “remote’ parts of the world!

We have covered the hoops that my friend prince-of-darkness had to jump through after purchasing an Omnia in the past. Courts mammoth promised a digital photo frame, but simply didn’t deliver it.

However, it looks like all is now settled:

The dispute is settle. After lodging an official report to Samsung Malaysia and Menteri Perdagangan Malaysia finally Court Mammoth give me the outstading item which they are suppose to give me earlier on when i purchase the Samsung OMNIA during the courts mammoth promotion on 8-10 August 2008

They had given me the 7 inch iSmart Digital Photo frame and 2 unit of 1GB microsd card. They are suppose to give me the TV output cable but they say they dont have the stock and ask me to settle for 2 unit of 1gb micro SD crd instead and i agree.

The TamsPPC team congratulates prince-of-darkness on standing up for his rights!

Silicon Alley Insider’s Dan Frommer doesn’t seem to be too “deep in-side” the mobile computing market - as he bemoans that Microsoft’s Scott Rockfeld stated that the company does not plan to build a smartphone of its own:

So it seems what Microsoft could use most in the short term is a better marketing plan — to cut through some of the Apple and Google noise and remind consumers that they exist. Right now, few people are probably saying, “Gotta get me one of those Microsoft phones.” But as Apple, RIM, and Google (GOOG) expand their efforts, Microsoft will have to solve that somehow.

Dear Dan: the strength of the Windows Mobile platform is its “diversity”. Hundreds of licensees produce Windows Mobile/Windows CE boxen - while RIM or Apple fans have to choose from the limited offerings of their manufacturer of choice, Windows Mobile fans have the “pains of the large choice”.

This allows customers to remain loyal to the OS (and their applications) without having to stick to the brand: if someone no longer wants to enjoy the pains of using Asus crap, he can always switch to quality manufacturers like Aceeca, HP or HTC without loosing his application suite.

Manufacturers invest a lot of money into their devices: for them, fighting against the OS manufacturer will always leave behind a sour taste as the OS team will always be tempted to assist its hardware team.

Companies like Palm and Nokia have invested huge amounts of money to spin off their OS’s to some extent: this was done in order to motivate licensees to be interested in the platform (and to allow an arrogant PalmSource executive to tell them to pay x00000$ up-front or f### off).

If Microsoft would enter the hardware market (even with a web-browser-armed Zune spin-off), many licensees would be miffed and would start to think about alternatives. As alternatives are abundant nowadays, these thoughts would hurt the “diversity” of the platform…

What do you think?

P.S. We interviewed Microsoft’s Thomas Kritsch last year - the interview could be very interesting…

Microsoft’s Pocket Internet Explorer is based on Internet Explorer 4 (which is more than 6 years old and completely outdated). IE6 is not exactly cutting-edge either, but still has a respectable market share: this has animated Microsoft’s Windows Mobile team to integrate it into the next release of their OS.

The screenshot below hits us via the-unwired; the web site claims to have it from Microsoft’s Andy Lees, who is the senior vice president of the mobile computing segment of the Redmond-based behemoth:

Unwired have posted a good set of screenshots as they were provided by Andy Lees - unfortunately, I think that they are looking at mock-ups rather than real screenshots. I will look at the technical reasons in a jiffy: in the mean time, lets analyze why it is unlikely that Andy Lees uses prototype software.

Dogfooding is very common at Microsoft’s - however, it usually is limited to people inside a specific team and doesn’t affect other teams. Seeing that Andy is a manager rather than a developer, I have to question the value that he presents to a beta testing team.

While the look of the scroll bars could also be caused by Windows CE (Windows CE scroll bars look like Win95 ones), the scrollbars in PocketPC programs come in 2D only. As the rest of the program clearly uses PocketPC widgets, there is little reason for this UI mixup.

Finally: the screenshots come in VGA resolution, which was very popular in the times of IE6 (many Windows 95 boxen support VGA only). If Microsoft would want to show off its amazing rendering engine, why should they do it on VGA and not on QVGA (where achieving good rendering is much more difficult)?

Don’t get me wrong: IE6 for WM is coming (one day). In fact, it is very likely that a Windows Mobile developer will read these lines using an internal beta of it. Unfortunately, the screenshots were deemed unfit for some reason or another - which is why mock-ups were created in order to keep the rumor mill in check.

What do you think?

HTC’s Touch Diamond shipped before HTC’s engineers completed the calibration application for its tilt sensor - the Touch Pro has the program in its ROM.

If you currently own a Touch Diamond on the latest ROM version and feel like calibrating your tilt sensor, hit the link below for further info:
http://mobilitytoday.com/news/008930/htc_diamond_gsensor_fix

Just in case anyone of you still uses Microsoft’s proxy-based web browser called Deepfish – the program now faces a fate similar to the one faced by older versions of Blazer for Palm OS.

Microsoft will shut down the proxies on the 31st: as Deepfish relies on its proxies in a fashion similar to Opera Mini, this marks the end of the useful life of the program. The reasons are said to be the advances in mobile web browsing technology on smartphones:

When Live Labs began working on Deepfish, we set out to prove our theory that there was an unmet demand for a better mobile browsing experience than what was available at the time we started the project in 2006. It wasn’t our intent to create a full browser for the preview, but rather simply demonstrate that a novel and simple new user experience was the best way to achieve that. The positive reception and incredible demand for the Deepfish technical preview went a long way towards proving that. And now, thanks in part to Deepfish, many better alternatives are emerging.

Mobile browsing is now advancing to the point where mobile devices rival the desktop—which is what we wanted to see. User experience advances such as usable touch and intuitive zooming interfaces weren’t widely available at the time. Deepfish helped drive that innovation. And now that the marketplace has caught up to where we thought it needed to go and continues to advance.

For our dedicated users still using the technical preview to this day, we are sorry to announce we will be retiring the proxy service on September 31, 2008. The Deepfish client will no longer function after that date as a result.

Users currently using Deepfish have multiple options. If your device supports Java applications, getting Opera Mini is a good option as this also is a low-bandwidth, proxy-based browsers that delivered excellent results at our sister site TamsPalm (review here)

Another possible approach would be a native version of Opera – while this delivers excellent rendering performance, it needs loads of bandwidth/transfer volume and isn’t free…

One of the beauties of the PocketPC business is that there literally is a new device to write about every day. Read on for news on the latest offerings that may (or may not) become available to you soon:

RoverPC Q7
Don’t ask me who RoverPC is – this Russian company seems to have a huge PR problem, as its only news outlet is a cool but obscure blog called JAMPB. Nevertheless, the boys are said to introduce the box shown below in October for 15990 Rubles (aka 650$ or 440 Euros):

The specifications of the box are as follows (1:1 from JAMPB):

RoverPC Q7 is able to work with bands EDGE, UMTS is equipped with all the relevant capabilities of wireless communications, such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Large trehdyuymovy screen allows not only to experience restrictions on work, but also provide additional benefits, such as large capacity of the text in one line. In addition screen supports touch technology management.

In addition, RoverPC Q7 is equipped with a powerful processor - 520 MHz. Camera 3 megapixels, perfectly balanced software allows the user to RoverPC Q7 fully enjoy ample opportunity communicator.

Velocity Mobile 83
As Velocity Mobile’s 103 recently started to ship, the manufacturer no longer is a vaporware peddler. Their latest offer is called 83:

This machine seems to be similar to the Touch Viva – it doesn’t include 3G. The rest of the specs is pretty impressive though:

• quad-band EDGE
• GPS
• WiFi
• 2.8-inch QVGA screen
• Dual microSD slots

This little gem will drop in November for a rather steep 500$…

For some weeks now, I am searching regularly for 16 GB microSDHC cards which I can use in my next smartphone, the MDA Vario IV (HTC Touch Pro). First without success, but since yesterday, some search engines show first results, like this one for $115, or this one for €54. Members of online forums like xda-developers.com confirm that the phone supports these big cards.

Is a smartphone owner able to use so much memory? Well, the most ones probably are not. Even 4 GB is enough for a user who has few navigation cards and some music. But the so-called power users often have a huge music collection they want to carry around (which is often even much bigger than 16 GB, so they can only take parts of it). Or they want to watch movies on their phone. As two of the new HTC phones, the Touch Diamond and the Touch Pro, have a VGA screen (640 x 480 px), they can show movies in almost TV / DVD quality, of course with stereo sound on their headsets. Another possibility is to have an offline Wikipedia on the card. However, because of the new data flatrates, high speed mobile internet connections, etc. it is not used very often.

So, if you want to have a lot of music, photos and movies on your card, perhaps an offline Wikipedia and several backup sets, etc., you should have a closer look at it and perhaps calculate if you can use 16 GB. And don’t forget to check if you mobile phone supports it - many phones only support 4 or 8 GB.

Finally, the HTC Touch Pro is availble at T-Mobile Germany as the MDA Vario IV and costs about 660 EUR without a contract. Special features of the phone are the screen with VGA resolution, Wireless LAN, GPS and the new TouchFlo 3D interface.

There are some differences to the HTC model, for example the box. Or the software, which has some modifications, but is still Windows Mobile 6.1. It might also - like other phones, e. g. the MDA Vario III (HTC Kaiser) - lack some additional software packages.

MDA Vario IV on T-Mobile.de

MP3 playback and add-on programs have been available for a variety of smart- and dumbphones for literally ages. Apple’s iPod touch / iPhone devices have had one single, groundbreaking feature that made them the darling of the press: the excellently-integrated iTunes store.

iTunes is integrated right into the device, and allows customers to purchase a variety of content over-the-air. This insane accessibility is what makes it stand out…and it looks like SPB now plans to bring something similar to the Windows Mobile platform.

While initial reviews of the product (one English, one German) were rather negative about the (pretty expensive) program, I think that we should focus on the consequences that this announcement will have for the Windows Mobile world.

Should SPB adds a music module, Windows Mobile devices are more-less on par with the offerings found in iTunes - in fact, the added TV functionality would give the feature edge to the SPB solution.

The final issue remaining is deployment: IMHO, SPB should give the client away for free in order to gain a bigger customer base for peddling wares to. The current approach hinders individual adoption of the product, and thus keeps users of the inferior Handango InHand application from switching on their own.

As of now, quite a few open questions remain (regarding content sources,…). However, the TamsPPC team is currently pursuing an interview with an SPB official - stay tuned for further info as we get it!

Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA X1 has been in the rumor mill’s sights for quite some times - most of the rumors have been about delays. However, it looks like the XPERIA X1 will truly hit the road soon: the prestigious online retailer Expansys USA has just added the device to its front page:

Unfortunately, clicking the product doesn’t reveal too much - the company currently takes non-binding preorders only…

Expansys has taken orders for the Velocity Mobile 103 for quite some time - it looks like the first press samples have now hit the road:

The device was reviewed by a new BrightHand analyst called Kevin, who did not state where he got the device from. Nevertheless, his review was pretty positive overall - the mayor nuisances he found were occasional slowdowns and a stylus holder that damages the stylus tip.

Velocity Mobile used an excellent VGA screen on the 103, and integrated a funky updater application called VOTA. VOTS worked exceptionally well, and allows users to get software updates to the core applications/OS with a single click.

As for shipment: Kevin claims that the machine is said to hit the USA “this fall”, and will be sold OTC only!

Further information can be found here…

So far, very little is known about Windows Mobile 7. A bunch of UI mock-ups leaked out a few months ago, but the OS was never heard of since. CNET’s Ina Fried now resurrects the corpse, only to kill it off again - she claims that the operating system has been delayed by half a year.

Originally, rumors have stated that the OS would hit licensees desks by “early next year”. An insider source now told Ina that Microsoft had to inform its partners about a delay - the OS is now expected to hit their desk H2 2009!

As licensees usually need at least half a year (rather: one year) in order to produce devices, this means that it’s unlikely that we will see native WM7 devices before 2010. Microsoft itself has denied the rumors, and has instead stated:

… other improvements are expected to debut sooner, most notably an improved browser that brings the rendering engine of Internet Explorer 6 onto Windows Mobile. That update, still expected this year, should pave the way for Windows Mobile phones to display rich Web pages, including those that are home to Flash content and Ajax applications.

… In addition, a number of carriers and handset makers have been working with Microsoft to add new touch interfaces and other features, separate from Microsoft’s operating system updates. …

“Customers don’t have to sit back and wait,” Rockfeld said. “There’s tons of stuff coming from us and our partners.”

What do you think?

Let’s face it: the native UI of Windows Mobile 5/6.x can not compete with the UI found on other platforms like S60 and especially the iPhone. In case you don’t trust me - please look at the two screenshots below:

Yes, folks, I am aware that the iPhone’s colors are not ideal for reflective screens. But today’s market isn’t about us power users anymore…the reason why the iPhone grows so fast is that it recruits its owners from the plethora of non-smartphone users around the world.

Manuifacturers like HTC have reacted to the Cupertinian threat by sprucing up their Windows Mobile devices with proprietary UI systems like TouchFLO 3D. While this definitely helps them compete against the Apple boxen, the long-term effects of these UI systems are what makes me feel bad about them (and makes me understand why Apple prohibits programs that duplicate internal functions).

People expect phones based on one platform to behave similar. As most folks are lazy when it comes to adjusting to new technology, the availability of inferior device with a “similar UI” is enough to prevent many of them from upgrading to a device with a “different UI”. This concept is what builds brand or platform loyalty.

Tools like TouchFLO break this tradition. A user coming from a HP ipaq will be shocked to see the new “artsy-fartsy crap”, whereas people switching from a HTC Touch to an ipaq 914 will miss the “smooth transitions”. The end effect is the same - the customer feels unhappy as he has to relearn.

Custom user interface replacements are similar - believe it or not, but many users eventually forget which feature is OS native and which one not if only they are similar enough. Thus, users switching to an iPhone 3G without their favourite apps could very well end up disappointed: my new iPhone’s music app can no longer do xyz…

So far, so good - but who’s the one to blame for the situation? IMHO, the majority responsibility lays on OS manufacturers. If customers demand features which are not in their OS’s, OS vendors should IMHO try and step up to generate an unified experience (think Palm OS and media players - Palm eventually bundled PocketTunes with almost every handheld it shipped). Microsoft should have overhauled its UI constantly (and Apple should stop making features desktop-exclusive)…if that would happen, many problems would be solved…

What do you think?

HTC’s Touch Viva may not be too impressive a box - a 200MhZ OMAP CPU feels a little, um, 2005 nowadays. Nevertheless, the box may have made an impressive gift for less tech-savvy friends - unfortunately, it looks like our UK-based readers will not be able to enjoy the box pictured below:

Coolsmartphone claims that the box will not be deployed in the United Kingdom: while this will probably not be significant in terms of 3G frequencies, price-sensitive customers will probably balk at the higher price caused by importing expenses…