TamsPPC – the PocketPC Blog

Austria usually is not known for its tech exhibitions – the Reed Messe’s ITnT is the only one which is significant. Dell had a pretty big booth advertising all kinds of stuff there, which is why I felt like venturing there and getting a few quotes from Dell folk on all things smartphone. Anyways, here is what I was told:

I have to be honest: I have not heard anything from this end for quite some time. But don’t get me wrong – I would be both sad and surprised if no such handset would be in the making…

As it looks now, Dell’s latest phones probably are at least 6 months away from delivery. Austrian folk usually hear about Austrian releases 6mo in advance…

Proporta’s aluminum-leather cases have served me extremely well in the past. Unfortunately, the company recently underwent a re-branding process…can their stuff still stack up?

Large white envelopes have signaled the arrival of Proporta-branded goods in the past (shipping via UK)…these can be delivered to letter boxes and generally work well. The individual blisters were redesigned completely – they can now be folded open:

Proportas standard-issue belt clip still ships with every case (and goes straight to the trash at this reviewer’s):

Getting the phone into the case is easy. The device must be slid into the rails while closed; the clamps then grab the keyboard part of the machine:

Opening and closing the case works with minimal obtrusion…if the protective foils have been removed from the back of the screen assembly:

The XPERIA X1 remains pretty usable while in the case – typing is as comfortable as it gets on an x1:

A cutout in the back allows the camera to be used while the phone is in the case. As usual (for Proporta), all other important parts of the phone can be accessed from the outside even when the case is closed:

Finally, here is a bunch of shots showing the X1 in its case:

In the end, I have to say that Proporta’s solution to the XPERIA problem is about as unannoying as it gets. If you need a leather case, get this one…you will not regret your choice. The price of 30GBP may sound a bit steep, but is humane compared to what other manufacturers charge…

Austria rarely has technology shows worth visiting – Reed Exhibition’s ITnT is considered best-of-batch. Samsung was there…but did they show anything new?

As usual, the boys had a huge booth…but weren’t too focused on mobiles.

The mobile division had a small “booth” in a corner. They featured an i780, an Omnia, an INNOV8 and two dumbphones:

Surprisingly, the i780 and the Omnia are offered for the same price:

Don’t ask me why, but the Omnia has the same (IMHO too large) fonts found on the i780. A bystanding Samsung folk told me that I am in the minority – most customers consider even these obscenely large fonts too small:

Stylus freaks will be shocked to hear that the housing of the box does not contain a stylus silo. The stylus is found inside the protective sleeve, which was not shown…

Finally, here’s a shot of the fancy screen rotation animation:

In the end, the devices were there and were usable. Nothing new was announced though…

P.S. Our sister site TamsS60 has a companion article looking at the S60 side of things…

Samsung’s i780 has a very odd screen resolution of 320×320 – it was originally added to WM in order to help Palm recycle its PalmOS-based hardware designs. Nevertheless, Samsung used it first – lets see if the critter can stack up.

Our first contender is Palm’s now-classic Treo 680. Its screen is a lot better at some colors, while the i780 manages to take the lead with others:

HP’s ipaq rx4240 uses a transflective screen, and manages to dispatch the i780 with ease:

Nokia’s now-ancient N71 has a difficult stand against the i780:

Finally, here are two shots showing the impact of the higher resolution. Samsung chose to boost the font size for reasons I will never understand – this unfortunately kills much of the benefit….

Before we come to conclusions, lets keep in mind that this product is now almost two years old – display technology has evolved quite a bit since then. Nevertheless, the i780’s screen gets the job done…if its quality were the only eeker of the i780, the box could win a TamsPPC recommendation…which it unfortunately won’t.

Tune in soon to find out more…

Our UK-based readers will be delighted to hear that the preordering phase for the HP iPaq Data Messenger has now begun at iPaqChoice:

While the device itself is pretty cool, I fear that HP’s asking price of 419 GBP (450 Euros / 592USD as of this writing) is way too steep especially now that the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 is available for less than 100xyz more. This device will probably fail miserably in the consumer marketplace, as it is way too dear for the specs it offers…the device unfortunately looks dated compared to its competition from other manufacturers…

What do you think?

P.S. Businesses will probably love this critter. I wonder why HP doesn’t finally give up on all things consumer…

CNET’s Chris Matyszczyk recently took apart an extremely stupid bit of research on computer gamers – to cut the message short, we all are antisocial and love to smoke pot. I personally have heavy lung problems and thus am physically unable to do so…and none of my mates has ever felt like it either. So far so good.

Unfortunately, this discussion does not bring us anywhere – in fact, it supports the work of these critters. This may sound weird…but think of my now-classic article on egoshooters:

Many of the studies come from attention-seeking, unsuccessful doctors
I never believed this until I experienced it myself…this is a true story!

One day, I was at a bar programming. The DJ kept playing Rap(hey, its a LOUNGE) – and I walked up to him to ‘motivate’ him to play something else. Ok- Assemblage 23- and back to coding. Suddenly, I noted a gal slipping next to me talking to me about how Rap makes people aggressive, etc. Hmm – interesting gal, lets talk. She openly confessed that she decided to write her thesis on this topic for only one reason: to get media attention. This media attention should help her repay her student loan – mad but true!

If we continue from this story, there is only one thing we (as the analyst community) can do to stop the crap: the solution is to stop covering these idiotic bits of “research”. Whenever you get a press release about it, send them a link to this article and delete it without giving it any airtime.

It may sound weird at the first glance – but is the only thing that works. If these men of honour find their family robbed of a cheap way to get press and money, they will move onto other fields of business or will ideally get on the dole.

The first cleanses our industry from this cancer and helps us grow faster, but puts the burden on others. The second would eventually lead to less folks graduating…which means that the overall burden gets reduced over time.

Either way: the only way to handle these issues is the delete key…

What do you think?

Microsoft’s WM team has apparently figured out that the NY Times is not a good medium for discussing the future of Windows Mobile as it lacks experts on mobile computing.

CNET News is a lot better – which is why Andy Lees set down with Ina Fried to make the following statements:

…
“You are going to see a bunch of announcements at Mobile World Congress but also it is going to be the beginning of a 12-, 18-month period where you are going to see a whole bunch of different stuff,” Lees said.
…
He noted that the power of the kinds of phones that come out next year will be incredible, well beyond even today’s devices. Phones next year will have dual-core processors, super-fast data connections, and graphics power rivaling that of the original Xbox.
..

Further information can be had at the link above – hit it if you feel like it!

Windows Mobile 6.5 has recently been leaked to the public – various ROM crafters have immediately started to port it around.

WMExperts reports that various CDMA-based HTC devices have been targeted successfully. Unfortunately, the builds are not usable for productive work…and furthermore lack the new GUI system:

6.5 at this time, is very fast, there is no new GUI, we are having a hard time porting that over, others have got it to work, I will include the files in the kitchens so others can try to make it work has well

As of now, nothing more is known – stay tuned…

BrightHand reports that Verizon’s version of the HTC Touch has finally received its Windows Mobile 6.1 update.

The update brings a faster network connection, among other changes like threaded SMS messaging and an improved Windows Internet Explorer:

The Verizon XV6900 has, at long last, received its upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.1. Also included in this is a faster version of EV-DO.
…

Amusingly, the update is not available from Verizon’s – it must instead be downloaded from a third party called pcdphones…

By all means, use the discount code RIGHTWEATHERPRICE to get 20% off the regular price of SPB Weather in the TamsShop!
The display of weather information is one of the oldest applications for smartphone devices – as always-on internet connection is one of the defining properties of PocketPC smartphones, SPB was in an ideal position to offer a compelling solution – but can it stack up?

SPB Weather supports literally thousands of cities – picking the right one is straightforward:

Unfortunately, rather little information is displayed about the individual places – other products display more:

One of the most impressive features of SPB Weather is its 3D globe view, which can be used to display various parameters. Unfortunately, it is of little use as the program jumps from city to city like a rabbit on steroids…

SPB Weather can integrate itself into the today screen. This plugin is excellent – the screens below show a few of the millions of possible configurations:

SPB Weather has various options – it unfortunately seems to miss a command which disables self-updating while roaming:

Various data sources can be used to supply the data used – as the default source has served me well so far, I saw little reason to change it:

This review looked at version 2.0 of the program on an XPERIA X1 running its stock WM 6.1 ROM without added GL drivers of any sort. It needs about 10MB of memory and can be installed onto an external memory card.

Like many other PocketPC programs, SPB Weather unfortunately got “iPhoneitis”. It is loaded with weird transitions and non-standard UI widgets to the point of obscenity…I have opened the main program two times on my rather fast X1 and closed it immediately due to lag and disgust. The today plug-in, on the other hand, is excellent – my main eeker is that 16 USD (after my rebate) is a bit steep.

If SPB would offer the plug-in as a standalone, it would get rave reviews here. As the package currently stands, I feel that better offers are available…

An old English proverb states that the best way to make horse shoes is straight from the horse’s mouth – while this sounds pretty straightforward to me, finding gamers is not always that easy.

Fortunately, PocketGamer took on the job for us and collected quotes from random mobile phone users who were into gaming – their statements range from the mundane to very interesting things which should affect game design decisions.

So, don’t be left out – hit the link above and see what average gamers have to say!

People who are into looking at EXIF files will likely have figured out that yours truly is an Olympus (and Sony) fan – I have thus naturally been dying to hear more about the E30.

And here it comes – digitalcamerareview.com did its job and posted a very detailed review of the recently-released shooter. Their verdict is extremely positive BTW:

There were a few minor bumps in the road for the E-30, but as a rule, we’ve come away generally impressed from our time with this camera. Olympus has certainly packed in all the right features to make this model appealing to the enthusiast market.

With this in mind, I’ll admit that where I’m conflicted on the E-30 has nothing to do its performance or features, and everything to do with its price. For about $1300 at the moment, you get Olympus’s very good, very fresh advanced amateur body. Not only does this price the body-only E-30 above most of its rivals’ kit prices, but Olympus’s full-on professional model is only ringing up a few hundred dollars higher at some retailers right now.

Admittedly, the E-3 is starting to look a little long in the tooth, and certainly doesn’t have some of the cool features and brand new technologies that the E-30 offers, but in exchange you get a highly rugged pro spec camera body.

Other than the possible temptation to jump straight into the pro system, there’s very little to keep Olympus fans from coming to the E-30 in droves. Amid some stiff competition – on both features and price – from some of the best cameras we’ve reviewed in awhile in the 50D and, especially, the D90, it’s hard to tell how successful the E-30 will be in convincing users to jump ship from other manufacturers.

But on its own merits, the E-30 is a good buy for advanced shooters that, with a few operational tweaks and/or a price cut, might just be a great one. In either case, there’s enough that’s different here to make the E-30 worth checking out: after all and especially in photography, different perspectives can be a good thing.

The ISO 3200 shots are extremely impressive to say the least (for Olympus users, that is) – if you are a Four Thirds head, definitely hit the link above!

The two images below hit us via the official Exeda blog – surprise, surprise, the exeda can run Windows Mobile 6.5:

While this may not be too significant from a developer’s point of view (just how many exedas are there currently…two? three?), it nevertheless proves that WM 6.5 can run on WM6-capable hardware.

This means that OEMs have less excuses for not offering upgrades – lets see how this all turns out…

The folks at Expansys’s apparently feel very very safe due to their huge market capitalization – CellPassion reports their latest leak as follows:

Airax Sarkari of Expansys’ Purchasing team writes about Samsung’s Louve and Pivot that will come in sliding and bar form factors respectively.

Samsung Louve
Tytn II like sliding mechanism that makes the screen prop up at an angle to the QWERTY keyboard
Windows Mobile 6.1
3.2 MP cam
Omnia-like homescreen widget

Samsung Pivot (not to be confused with X830)
Successor to the i780 with QWERTY keyboard
Windows Mobile 6.5
5 MP cam with flash
AGPS
Wi-Fi

As the Expansys web site currently is down, I feel that the folks could have overstretched the bow by trying to mess with Samsung – we’ll see more shortly, this could get very interesting.

I have no idea why the floodgates at Microsoft’s have opened recently – but information on WM 6.5 is flooding out from all ends of the company. The latest scoop is below:

Windows Mobile 6.5 will hit handset makers in the middle of 2009
DigiTimes has just received further information on the launch schedule of Windows Mobile 6.5:

Microsoft is expected to start delivering its Windows Mobile 6.5 OS (operating system) to handset makers in mid-2009 following the expected debut of the new mobile OS in the upcoming Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, according to sources at Taiwan handset makers.

Although a number of Windows Mobile 6.5-based mobile devices are expected to hit the market in the third quarter of 2009, most makers are likely to launch their Windows Mobile 6.5 handsets in the fourth quarter for the year-end shopping season, the sources projected.

WM 6.5 hits multiple devices
The recently-leaked WM 6.5 build has enabled the skillful folks at xda-developers to start ports for other platforms including the Touch Pro. PocketNow has the full scoop…