TamsPPC – the PocketPC Blog

Don’t ask me what eekers the man pictured on the left has – Mike Channon has created a web site containing literally thousands of useful documents related to HTC’s handsets.

He describes his page as follows:

Here you will find a collection of Service Manuals, User Manuals, dismantling guides and disassembly videos.

The emphasis is placed on PDA Phones manufactured by HTC, but some of the more popular models form other makers are included. Many of the manuals are of a technical nature and are not designed for the everyday user. In fact, using these guides to dismantle your phone will invalidate your warranty

As all of the stuff seems to be free, hit the link below for a really cool resource:
http://www.mikechannon.net/

PocketPCThoughts Jason Dunn just came back from Microsoft’s latest Mobius conference, and posted a rather detailed 5page wrap-up of the topics covered.

He has a nice summary of all presentations, whose topics ranged from mundane things like Windows 7 to more interesting stuff like HTC’s view of the future and a variety of interesting stats.

As usual, the full scoop can be had here:
http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/news/show/91879/mobius-2008-winter-edition.html

The US roll-out of HTC’s Touch Pro has kept us busy for the last weeks – now that AT&T has burned its fuze out, Sprint and Verizon remain waiting. Here’s what we know:

Verizon gets Touch Pro November 24th
Engadget Mobile reports that the Verizon version of the Touch Pro (with slower CPU) will become official on the 24th of this month; and will hit stores on the 1sr of December.

The machine will cost whooping 419$ on a 2yr contract (!!!) – the 70$ mail-in rebate brings the device down to still-insane 350$ (unlocked GSM Touch Pros currently go for 600 Euros).

Fuze reviewed
BrightHand’s Ed Hardy brings a small preliminary review of AT&T’s Fuze. He generally likes the device, but is annoyed by the aggressive AT&T branding.

Getting a device onto CNet isn’t easy – if a manufacturer manages to accomplish this, one can reasonably except the device to sell in at least one market.

Even though I thoroughly dislike the reviewer (Bonnie Cha) for her tendency to work inaccurately, the review contains quite a bit of useful information. The hardware of the machine generally seems to be well-done: the issue is Velocity Mobile’s custom UI system called Odyssey. Bonnie found it to be lag-prone, even though Qualcomm’s 400MhZ CPU can not be considered excessively slow.

The full scoop can be had here!

Supporting bloggers and online journalists has not always been easy for traditional PR agencies: while people like your truly can have huge reader counts that exceed these of many magazines, their demand for high-speed access to samples can easily overburden PR agents (there are no deadlines – its minutes that count).

Nokia’s blogger relations are handled by a firm called TalkingHeads, who do an excellent job most of the time. Sony Ericsson now cloned their web site with a portal called xperiancers:

As of now, the web site is devoid of useful content – as it looks now, it will be centered around lifestyle stuff rather than information useful to readers of TamsPPC. The page’s layout doesn’t make your life easier either…

Brave souls (with loads of time to waste) can give them a click at the URL below:
http://xperiancers.com/

Currently, nobody knows if the XPERIA X1’s case will be silver or black. The review at SM@PE’s can’t clarify this issue (they have photos of silver and black devices), but makes for excellent reading nevertheless.

First of all: the keyboard and hard keys really seem to suck. The reviewer’s opinion is similar to the Boy Genius’s: the buttons feel loose, lack a pressure point and generally can’t fight the Touch Pro’s (which IMHO isn’t that great, either).

The XPERIA X1’s “panel” software seems to satisfy the editor – it’s concept is similar to Dynamo’s, but goes a lot further. Gadgets can be added to increase the functionality, and thumbnails are constantly updated.

Further information and a bunch of YouTube videos can be found here…

The boys at PocketNow’s recently reviewed the Touch Pro, and didn’t like it too much. Tracy&Matt’s review follows a few days afterwards – and their impression is more positive.

Mr. Matt concludes that the Touch Pro:

… is by far the best phone I have tested; I think it is a great size, not too big or too small. It has all the functionality and speed that I need day to day.

The price tag? Well, anything worth buying is invariably not cheap, and this is no exception, it is relatively expensive in the PDA world, but it is probably the best on the market at this time.

Is it the Ultimate device? It is very close, I am sure they could get it a little thinner in time, the camera and rear speaker could do with an upgrade, in my opinion, that apart it is very impressive. …

Get the full scoop here:
http://www.tracyandmatt.co.uk/blogs/index.php/2008/08/22/htc-touch-pro-review

I have worried about the quality of the Touch Pro’s keyboard in the past, and am now happy to see that it isn’t as bad as I originally expected it. PocketNow’s Brandon Miniman has reviewed the device, and stated that the keyboard is “generally easy to use”.

Unfortunately, Miniman wasn’t too happy with the device. He worries about the build quality, keyboard lags, thickness and OTC price.

Get the full scoop below:
http://pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=reviews&id=1094&p=4

I have really liked the so-called Music Genome Project’s streaming radio service called Pandora – unfortunately, licensing concerns no longer allow them to send to Europe.

Nevertheless, Windows Mobile users in the USA will soon be able to enjoy Pandora on the go (if they have a hefty data plan). Tom Conrad, the CTO of Pandora’s mother company, stated that a version of Pandora is upcoming for WM in a recent wmpoweruser.com interview:

…
Without question I’ve learned a lesson about commenting on unreleased products… truth is it was almost two years ago when I shared on our blog that we were working on a Windows Mobile build of Pandora. At the time I really believed it was less than 90 days away from release. I guess it’s never a good idea to talk about products that you haven’t yet released.

…. our deals with Sprint (and then later AT&T) came through. With those deals in place we started shifting our mobile development priorities to sync up with what the carriers wanted us to do — without exception that was to so-called “feature phones” and not smart phones. …

The good news is that we do have a team working on Windows Mobile versions of Pandora. Given my track record it’s probably best not to comment on the “when” but it’s certainly not a question of “if”.
…

So far, HTC’s web site has been among the most annoying on the internet (along with Sprint’s) – you had to give up your email address and get an account in order to get ROM updates for your (purchased) device.

According to SmartphoneThoughts, the company has now seen the light of day. From now on, you just need to enter the serial number of your machine in order to get your hands on updates.

P.S. Other device makers give out updates to everyone. I consider it somewhat likely that HTC intends to introduce “tracking information” into the updates eventually…which could be very helpful when it comes to quenching the flow of “inofficial updates” seen at xda-developers…

The folks at BrightHand’s have managed to somehow generate stats that show which devices stir up the most “user activity” – their results are posted once a month and usually provide pretty interesting reading.

When looking at the chart, we see Apple, Windows Mobile and PalmOS powered devices and a dumbphone. the Palm TX managed to get back into the list, while the HTC Mogul, Nokia N96 and the ipaq 110 flew out:

Here’s the exact ranking:

1. HTC Touch Diamond
2. iPhone 3G
3. HTC Touch
4. ipaq 210
5. HTC Touch Pro
6. Samsung Instinct
7. Xperia X1
8. Palm Centro
9. iPod touch
10. Palm TX

In case you feel like comparing it to last month’s mind share rankings – please use this link!

Nowadays, having an MP3 player running in the background is a no-brainer for the average workstation or laptop. Unfortunately, PDA processors aren’t as fast – decoding a fat, high-bit rate ogg file slows my Treo down quite a bit.

The folks at SmartphoneMag’s now did a comparison of CPU usages – amusingly, Resco Audio Recorder came out leading the pack. Windows Media Player was among the worst products, beaten only by HTC Audio Manager and two small apps from mostly unknown developers.

As CPU usage also indicates power drain, a program that needs less processor power will lead to longer battery life while playing MP3’s with the screen turned off.

Their full list is available at the link below – give it a click when it comes to choosing your favorite media player:
http://www.pocketpcmag.com/cms/blog/9/audio-player-cpu-and-therefore-power-usage-benchmark-update

Toshiba’s latest Communicator-lookalike has just been reviewed by Brandon Miniman from PocketNow.

The device didn’t fare too well. Even though Brandon liked the insanely high screen resolution and the keyboard; bugs, slowness, dim screens and a variety of other issues led to a final rating of just 2.5/5.

The full scoop is available at PocketNow:
http://www.pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=reviews&id=1086&p=1

Palm OS users have had real-life user groups for some time – so far, PocketPC and Windows Mobile Smartphone folk haven’t ganged up in significant numbers.

Microsoft now wants to gather its mobile users in a special portal called Windows Mobile TotalAccess, which replaces the former Windows Mobile Owner Circle:

The page contains a bunch of hints for novices and quite a few goodies(free themes, ringtones, etc) – should you have a few spare minutes, give them a click at the URL below:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/en-us/totalaccess/default.mspx

The so-called SideShow technology found in most versions of Windows Vista is one of the few real and visible improvements in the new OS.

Cutting a long story short, SideShow is a protocol that allows PC data to be pushed to small SideShow devices, where it can then be displayed even when the host is powered off(due to caching).

Drivers that allow Windows Mobile devices to function as SideShow terminals aren’t new – but Microsoft now released a developer preview of an official driver that transforms Bluetooth-capable WM5/WM6 devices into SideShow stations.

As of now, the program still is in early beta – daredevils with Vista(/me is excluded) can give it a pop at the link below:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=79f19684-f862-4e02-a2b0-0003b4565f34&DisplayLang=en