TamsPPC – the Windows Phone Blog

I first saw Brian Fling’s book on Mobile Design and Development on a local connection. Mark A. M. Kramer, an Austrian maven of the mobile computer scene read and praised it – can the tome stack up in the largely empty area of mobile user interface design books?

Brian starts out by looking at the history of mobile and the mobile landscape as it is today. Long-term followers will not find much new stuff here, but it nevertheless makes for an interesting read.

He then moves on to “mobile strategy”. Topics include questions like “What is special about mobile”, the influence of “context” also is explained in some detail. Finally, various options for creating a mobile app are explained – some of them are somewhat obscure and definitely aren’t something you deal with every day.

The next part analyzes the design process for mobile applications. These chapters are what make the book really interesting – you are introduced to design, prototyping and user testing methods for touchscreen and non-touchscreen applications.

The second half of the book looks at the design and creation of mobile web sites: frameworks, compatibility et al get covered in extreme detail. Native application developers are largely left twiddling their thumbs…

As usual for O’Reilly, the book is well-written and readable even for non-native English speakers. Code examples are provided in various web languages; an ample amount of images is included for clarification where beneficial.

In the end, Mobile Design and Development is a great book if you want to create a mobile web app. Creators of native applications can’t use half of the book: if you are interested in the mobile design process, it is a good if somewhat paper-heavy tutorial. Web heads, on the other hand, should buy it straight away…the 23$ shouldn’t hurt…

PackT can be considered the newest kid on the block of tech publishing – consider them the APress of “design-related technologies”. Their book on “User Programming for Busy Programmers” hit my desk. But can the 80-page booklet stack up?

William Rice starts out by looking at a few “common myths” of the trade. What is user training, what isn’t it? Who needs to be trained?

Afterward, the book takes a strictly wizard-like approach. A repeating template not dissimilar to the one found in use cases takes you step-to-step from nothing to running user demo, which can be deployed to third-party instructors.

Style-wise, PackT is different from other, more “established” publishers. Their visual presentation is more “to the bone”, and less playful – the whole book didn’t contain a single image. Nevertheless, it was well written and easy to understand.

In the end, I predict that PackT has a bright future ahead of it. This book fulfills its need – if you have just been enlisted to teach at an university or often write manuals and online help systems, you definitely can benefit from it. The price of 13$ for the paperback is ok…

Introductory books for Visual Basic .NET are dime-a-dozen. Unfortunately, this is not true for books which are focused on the mobile aspects of the language. APress’s tome is a classic – can it still stack up?

Larry Roof and Dan Fergus start their text with a thorough look at the 2003-ish mobile device landscape, the .NET Compact Framework in general and also provide a few hints on UI design. Afterwards, topics like controls, files and XML get covered in painstaking detail.

Once this is done, the book goes on to provide a very thorough introduction to databases. If you ever wondered about how to keep databases in sync, use SQLCE or whatever – your answers should be in here.

Loose ends like help systems, P/Invoke, generating reports with third-party components and even networking are also treated in individual chapters. While this coverage can not be called complete in any way, it nevertheless provides interesting starting points for further study.

Finally, a few appendices cover “small stuff” which didn’t fit anywhere else…

The book’s presentation is somewhat atypical: it is divided into independent chapters, which provide you with a dense mix of code and explanations. It’s a bit strange at first, but understandable – being a non-native English speaker, I had no issues understanding the tome.

Even though the book is now hopelessly outdated in some aspects, I nevertheless consider it a must-have for every Visual Basic developer. If you are developing mobile apps, head over to Amazon and cough up the 21.5$…

HTC’s handsets traditionally had problems with the cameras, while most SE cameras had good ones. The XPERIA X1 is a SE handset made by HTC – whose influence was stronger?

First of all, two outdoor shots – they tend to turn out well:

Medium-range outdoor shots also work out well as long as there’s enough ambient light:

In-doors, getting shots sharp sometimes turns out to be difficult:

As soon as lighting gets worse, images get horribly blurry due to insane shutter times:

At night, handholding an image is impossible:

Macro-wise, the handset is decent at best:

In the end, the X1 finds itself squarely in the middle as cameras are concerned. Some images turn out excellently, while others suck – other manufacturer’s handsets are better…

Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA X1 was the first device which went beyond the VGA resolution which had become the standard on high-end Windows Mobile devices of the time. OK – but can it stack up in practical use?

Our first shoot-out partner was Palm’s Treo 680. The X1 has no issue dispatching its (excellent) reflective screen:

HP’s ipaq 4240 has an excellent transflective display. The XPERIA ties:

Finally, a bunch of comparison shots next to a Nokia N96. Its color rendering is a bit off, but the white and black levels can nevertheless be compared:

When it comes to an assessment of contrast and resolution, the XPERIA’s screen leaves little to be desired. 800×480 and a contrast ratio similar to HP’s infamous rx4240 make for an excellent experience – until you venture out into the sun. Even though the strong backlight keeps you covered most of the time, it does so at a high energy cost…a true reflective screen would have been better (but would have had worse contrast indoors).

Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA X1 got a fair share of kicking in the initial reviews: the keyboard is unusable, blah, blah. At TamsPPC’s, our XPERIA is now in continuous use for half a year – does it stack up?

On the first glance, the XPERIA’s front is dominated by the large screen:

The keys below the screen are of good quality, but have problems with the coating peeliong off. The X Panel button unfortunately can not be redefined:

The back of the box is plain except for the battery door and the camera:

Removing the battery door reveals the reset button (below the stylus) and SIM door:

Sliding the handset open reveals the keyboard. It got loads of flak – but I have to admit that it works flawlessly for me. Actually, I consider it one of the most efficient keyboards currently on the market:

The top of the handset contains the 3.5″ headphone jack and the power button. This placement is somewhat annoying, as plugged-in headphones tend to get in your way while you type:

Sony Ericsson’s MiniUSB port is on the left side along with the speaker:

The right side houses camera and volume buttons:

A wriststrap can be connected at the bottom:

Finally, a shot of the toothpickesque stylus:

In the end, there is little not to like about the X1. I personally consider it one of the best handsets currently on the market – don’t understand why it was bashed as much as it was…

Please forgive me the delay in getting this review up and running – I was too busy enjoying my XPERIA X1. Let’s see how big the box is:

Our first size comparison victim is a Treo 680. The XPERIA is as long, but significantly slimmer:

HP’s ipaq Data Messenger also has a slide-out keyboard…and is significantly bigger:

HP’s ipaq Voice Messenger is a bit larger, but lacks the slide-out keyboard:

Nokia’s N96 is shorter, but thicker:

Nokia’s XPressMusic 5800 has a similar form factor:

Finally, a few shots next to some classic PDAs. First, the ipaq 3600

Next up the rx4240

And finally an iPod touch

In the end, Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA X1 is an extremely sleek device with a slightly weird form factor. The device is in fact much smaller than it looks. I love it, others hate it – let’s see if the physical properties are easier to rate…

This device was purchased off Hutchison Austria. It was part of the first charge, and should thus be relatively stock. Nevertheless, no warranties…

Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA X1 is intended to be a premium product – and the good impression starts when unboxing the device:

The box contains three sub-boxes which spell out the word XPERIA when closed:

Opening one of the boxes reveals the device. As this unboxing was done some time after purchase, the battery is already in the device:

Removing the device box leaves you with two further boxen.

One of them contains a spare stylus, wall-wart, headset and USB cable (missing in this shot):

The other one contains a bunch of short fold-out cards which introduce you to various aspects of the device:

Along with the regular bunch of manuals

In the end, there is little not to like about the X1’s packaging – it contains all you ever need except for international tips and a memory card. The inclusion of a second stylus is generous; a second cable would have been helpful due to the slow trickle-charge speed.

O’Reilly has had a long tradition of publishing small and slim portable reference books. As C++ is an extremely common programming language in mobile, I was given a sample copy of their Pocket Reference. Size-wise, it is about as big as three PDAs next to another…

As this book is not intended as a learning but rather a reference tool, reading it from start to end is not as easy as with other books. However, I tried and succeeded – if you already have a pretty good understanding of C/C++ and object-oriented programming, you should be able to grasp the concepts within a few minutes of thinking around.

O’Reilly has put a lot of work into the index. If you are looking for something, you will usually be able to find the relevant piece of text very quickly.

Please let me put this in writing once again: you are NOT able to learn C++ from this book. Novices, look elsewhere! People familiar with Java may have a chance, but are also advised to look elsewhere.

Text-wise, there is nothing to bicker about. The book is clear (for a reference), and contains enough tables and graphs to visualize stuff where needed:

Cutting a long story short: the 10$ this book costs are well invested, especially if you tend to program offline a lot (netbook) and have a nasty habit of forgetting rarely used syntax elements. The book covers all important things except for using C code in C++ programs – this is a purchase you will not regret IF you are already proficient in C and have at least basic knowledge of object-oriented programming.

Microsoft C# is a difficult language: its neither C, C++ nor Java, but looks similar to all three of them. It nevertheless provides an easier transitional path to .NET for people who know C or Java (for them, VB is completely new) – can APress’s Beginning C# 2008 show you the way?

The book starts out by looking at the basics of the .NET framework – what is CIL, why are things implemented the way they are and so on. The next two chapters look at variables and strings: this is not ideal for beginners, as it does not allow you to start coding immediately.

Afterwards, the book looks at exceptions and object-oriented programming. Generic data structures and delegates also get a chapter of their own. When this is done, chapters look at multithreading, data storage, databases and LINQ – every important piece of C# gets covered except for P/Invoke.

Christian Gross’s text structure is very “head-heavy”. Blocks start out with a bunch of code, which gets explained afterward: things like syntax samples are used rarely. This means that quite a bit of thinking is needed to get into some concepts, which means that casual reading is not as easy as it is with other books.

In the end, the Amazon price of 30$ voids further discussion – if you are interested in C#, you are unlikely to find a cheaper book which is not “just a reference”. Even though the text structure is not optimal for my taste, I nevertheless got everything I needed…

Hutchison Austria’s HTC Touch 3G has passed through our usual tests – in case you missed one of the installments, enjoy the list below:
HTC Touch 3G review – unboxing
HTC Touch 3G review – size
HTC Touch 3G review – physical
HTC Touch 3G review – screen
HTC Touch 3G review – software
HTC Touch 3G review – TouchFLO
HTC Touch 3G review – camera

So far, so good – but can the Touch 3G stack up?

Life is a game of tradeoffs. If you want an extremely slick and well-built device, and can live with a QVGA screen, the Touch 3G is a dream come true.

Fashion-cautious users will love the slick design, and will furthermore benefit from a degree of customizability not found on other platforms. For them, the Touch 3G is ideal.

Being the tech head that I am, the lack of VGA and QWERTY obviously are a pain in the butt. However, I did love the Touch 3G to an extent that I was sorry to give it back…the high build quality and form factor are impressive…which should say all about this little wonder box.

I personally see its biggest competitor in Hutchison’s criminally cheap XPERIA X1. Customers could theoretically buy an X1, dump it on ebay and get a Touch 3G and some spare cash…but price is a different story. It’s a story fashion-sensitive people most probably won’t care about.

We’ve looked at TouchFLO in the last issue of this review – but there’s more to the little box. Read on for an overview…

Even though Windows Media player tends to be a pretty decent media player, HTC felt like rolling its own:

It obviously was inspired by the iPhone:

A pretty decent photo viewer is included:

HTC apparently sees value in RSS feeds – they have included a program called RSS Hub

Which incidentally was licensed from Ilium:

A voice control solution is included, as is a custom voice recorder:

ZIP files traditionally were difficult to open on handhelds – HTC’s ZIP tool is decent:

A look at two little system addons from HTC – a new keyboard and a task list which can be accessed from the today screen

Finally, a look at the available memory:

The HTC Touch 3G’s software bundle is defined by the name-giving TouchFLO user interface. HTC’s add-ons nevertheless make sense…and should leave most users more than happy…

HTC has never been known for excessively great cameras – as its handsets tend to be for business heads, this is understandable. The Touch 3G could also be interesting for consumers though…can its flashless 3.2MP camera stack up?

Our first test is an outdoor shot – while sharp and with reasonable details, the image is severely underexposed (exposed for the Sky)

In-door shots in decent lighting suffer from camera shake:

Macro shots suck:

HTC has added a “fun pic” feature – here is a sample:

In the end, the Touch 3G’s camera definitely isn’t stunning – I have seen better 3.2MP cameras in the past. Pictures themselves tend to be ok actually…if it werent for the huge problems with focus and shutter time/blur.

A ROM update could do a lot for this device…but the snapshots are good enough for sending around as MMS even at the current stage of the procedures.

As usual – a big thank-you to Hutchison Austria
The Touch 3G is part of HTC’s Touch series..which get their name from HTC’s custom user interface which is dubbed TouchFLO. Each device has its own version of the product…what does the 3G offer?

First of all: HTC immplements TouchFLO as a Today plug-in…which means that the system is easy to disable:

When enabled, the Today screen is dominated by the TouchFLO start screen. Other plugins are banished to invisibility:

TouchFLO is made up of a bunch of tabs. The first one allows you to add favourite contacts:

Messages are presented in an – um – ineffective fashion:

The same can be said about the web tab, which furthermore acts as a bookmark manager:

Some programs can be started from TouchFLO:

Pictures, Music and weather information get one tab each:

A GPS tab is included:

Finally, some settings can be edited in a TouchFLOesque fashion:

HTC’s TouchFLO looks great…but does so at the expense of deeper functionality. Being a power user, the first thing I did was reinstall my own plugins – average users could get quite a bit of value from it though…

A big thank-you goes to Hutchison Austria for doing what HTC could not: they provided us with a loaner of their version HTC Touch 3G at their own expense!
HTC’s Touch 3G has a QVGA screen. This means that we are looking at a resolution of 240×320 – which might not be high, but tends to be universally supported. But how does the screen fare in a real-world test?

Our first competitor takes the shape of Palm’s evergreen Treo 680. It’s a lovely box and had a gorgeous screen two years ago – the Touch 3G dispatches it with ease:

HP’s ipaq rx4240 has one of the best LCDs ever – it tends to beat the 3G by a razor-thin margin:

Finally, a series of shots next to Nokia’s N96:

In the end, I personally think that screen chromatographies must be taken with a large grain of salt nowadays. The Treo 680, which is the weakest device of the batch, has a screen which is more than good enough for everyday use. The Touch 3G is better – so there really should be no issues whatsoever except for low resolution…