TamsPPC - the PocketPC Blog

The HTC dual has been covered on TamsPPC before - anyways, the device’s manufacturer has just announced that the device will be sold unlocked(OTC) in the USA.

The notable thing about this is that HTC has so far sold its devices via carriers - OTC sales of HTC devices were rare, and usually happened via specialist retailers like Amazon or Expansys. Now, HTC apparently wants to enter this small but lucrative market on its own.

A spokesperson is quoted as saying that the majority’s of HTC’s business will still happen via carriers - however, more devices will become available unlocked for “device enthusiasts”…

via ExtremeTech

I have been a freak of printing solutions for handhelds for a very long time(ever since TealPrint hit my Palm IIIc) - and naturally was very excited when I first heard about ActivePrint for PocketPC.

After having read the web site, I wanted to know more about what the app can do - here we have a little FAQ session with Charles W. Teel, the president of Pocket Watch:

Can ActivePrint print in color?
Yes, the only limitations are what your printer can do.

Can ActivePrint print without a PC?
ActivePrint gains its wide compatibility for documents and printers through the utilization of software on a Windows XP/Vista enabled desktop/laptop. As a result it does require the use of a desktop or laptop through your ActiveSync/Mobile Device Center connection, a TCP/IP or WiFi connection, or through the use of the ActivePrint ToGo add-on (comes with the Professional license).

Can other apps use ActivePrint to print their own data?
On Pocket PCs ActivePrint integrates with the Context Menu system in the File Explorer as well as the Document Lists of programs like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and RepliGo. There is also a .Net Compact Framework based SDK available which other developers can use to utilize the ActivePrint printing system from any .Net CF based application they write.

A review of this application is coming as soon as I am back in Vienna - should you have any questions now, just post a comment and I shall get them answered for you!

The Nokia N71 used to maintain our sister site TamsS60 could be used to grant internet access to my hp ipaq rx4240 - but getting it set up isn’t particularly easy. The images below show my configuration for Hutchison 3G in Austria - I’ve used it to skype around quite a bit in the last few days:

First of all, go to Settings and create a new dial-up connection. First of all, name your connection. I named it Drei; but you can name it whatever you feel like - the name has no effect on the datalink:

Next, enter the following phone number. The *99# numbers are special commands that instruct the phone to establish a GPRS/UMTS link; rather than dial a number for a “voice call”:

After that, enter the user name and password(Hutchison wants drei.at as password and user name):

Then, click the extended button and configure the settings as following(I didn’t need the CGD string - if you need them, your carrier usually has them available for you):

After that, use the bluetooth tool to connect to the dial-up networking service on your phone, and select the connection you just created. If all is set up correctly, your Pocket PC now is connected to the internet!

Should you have your Pocket PC linked up with another type of phone, please let us know your settings!

P.S: CHECK YOUR DATA COSTS! Surfing without a data contract can be VERY EXPENSIVE!

After your upgrade to Windows Mobile 6, you still miss some applications which weren’t included in the upgrade. In the lower part of this site, there are two packages with this software. You have to download them from the German uploading service Rapidshare.

Package 1 - Contents:

• Adobe Reader LE
• Arcsoft MMS 4.2.8.1
• HTC Audio Manager
• HTC Bluetooth Printing Plugin
• Midlet Manager
• Windows Live 10.6.30.2100
• HTC Network Plugin (virtual folder for Windows network resources)
• Microsoft PowerPoint Mobile
• Remote Desktop Mobile
• HTC Streaming Player
• MS VoIP addon
• Windows Update
• Settings needed if you have Windows Vista (Device Center)
• Sound Fix (if you have sound problems)

Package 2 - Contents:

• another Arcsoft MMS 4.2.8.1
• enabling MMS messaging
• enabling Windows Update
• additional resources for MDA III in Windows Vista

In the next parts of this article we will write how to install certain apps, how to fix bugs that appear often, and solutions and tricks for other problems.

In the first article about WM6 for Blue Angel, you learnt how to prepare the upgrade. Today, we will have a look at the flashing itself. You can read the documentation in the xda-developers wiki here:

http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=HTC_Blueangel_WM6_Home

Even if your flashing process will be successful, there are many bugs yet. So better have a look at the xda-developers forum, wiki and the following parts of this article.

According to this wiki page, I downloaded an archive which contains the update program. The SD card has to be removed. Then you must start your device in the bootloader mode (hold and press the power button, the button for voice records on the left site, and then the reset button). Now put your device into the cradle. To play it safe, I also deactivated ActiveSync on my computer. The update installer detects some data of your device and then flashs it.

The flashing process is the most dangerous part. If something goes wrong, your device could be damaged. Don’t disconnect your mobile from your computer or your computer from power supply. Also, all applications on your computer should be closed in order to reduce the possibility of a crash which could interrupt the flashing process. And make sure that your phone’s battery is full. In most cases, 50% and more (in other cases: 100%) are recommended.

After flashing you have to do a hardreset. Three options (”Enable KITL”, “Clean Registry Hive” and “Format Storage”) should appear. The first one has to be “No”, the second and the third one “Yes”. This can’t be done using touchscreen - you need the two keys (Camera and Voice Record) on the left side. One key will change the option, the other one its value. Once you are ready, press the mail button. You can find a detailled description here.

First you should see a white screen for about half a minute, then Windows Mobile 6 should boot on your phone. As soon as the coloured stripes appear, your device is booting. After ~ 10 seconds a “Windows Mobile” screen should appear. After another 10 - 15 seconds you can set up your device using the Welcome application.

If Windows Mobile 6 is not running correctly or you have problems during the flashing process, have a look at the Wiki pages mentioned above. If you can’t find a solution, ask in the xda-developers forum.

The next parts of this article will show you how to install missing software, how to fix certain bugs of this ROM image and other tips and tricks.

The people at xda-developers.com found a way to install Windows Mobile 6 on the HTC Blue Angel (also known as MDA III and others). They have created a page in their wiki with a wizard which describes in detail how to install WM6:

http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=HTC_Blueangel_WM6_Home

After the update, the memory management will be different:

With Windows Mobile 2003 SE, you have the RAM memory (about 100 MB) both as a data memory which contains installed programs, data and as a program memory which contains programs while you run them (you can define how much memory each part has). In your file manager, you find “Storage” which is an internal flash drive (about 43 MB) where you can put backups etc. The operating system is saved in the ROM memory, and there is also an Extended ROM memory which contains .cab files that are installed after each hard reset (in my T-Mobile MDA III: ClearVue apps, TrueFax, …).

Windows Mobile 6 will be flashed to the ROM memory. It uses the RAM memory as a pure program memory (like your computer). The internal flash memory acts as your data memory (hence your data won’t be lost after an empty battery anymore). The Extended ROM memory won’t be needed anymore. As you now have only 40 MB of data memory, you can merge the internal flash memory and the extended ROM memory to one big data memory with more than 60 MB.

The wiki site tells you how to do so. You have to install a .cab file which contains four small tools which you can find in your program folder. You must unhide and unlock the extended ROM memory. Using the .exe file, you must format it.

After this, the update process can begin. Expect the next article soon.

WM5torage is a free application for PDAs and smartphone with Windows Mobile / MS Smartphone 5.0 and 6.0. Using this application, your PDA acts as a USB mass storage device and you computer will detect it as an external drive (like USB sticks, card readers, MP3 player and so on).

You just have to connect your device to a computer (via USB connection), start WM5torage and activate it. Then your computer should detect a USB mass storage device and will mount it as an own drive. While WM5torage is connected to the computer, your memory card / flash memory is unavailible on the PDA because it needs to be unmounted.

There are different additional options, for example whether your computer may write or only read on it. Also, LED and vibration can show read / write activity. Multiple cards are supported, but only  one can be choosen at a time. You can even mount your Flash memory and data memory, but this can be problematic: When these memories are mounted at PC (= unmounted on PDA), your PDA may crash.

The application worked fine on my MDA III running Windows Mobile 6. I could mount my data memory and memory card; mounting my flash memory crashed the device. While mounting my memory card worked fine (4,1 MBs are transfered in ~ 8 seconds), mounting the data memory was very slow and almost crashed my computer.

For me, Skype is one of the most useful programs ever created - ever since I received my Icemat headset, Skyping with colleagues has simplified business and leisure life. However, even back then, Skype’s reliability let me down…a few versions(”you must upgrade, blahblah”) were simply incompatible with my Windows 2000 workstation and slowed it to a crawl.

When the ipaq rx4240 arrived, installing Skype onto it was my #1 priority. It never let me down(I once had a 5h voice call)…until version 2.2 came out and fu**** up voice calls for good.

Anyways, the rx4240 CAN do Skype voice calls…if you manage to get your hands on an old 2.1 version of Skype. Just delete the borked-up 2.2 release off your ipaq and install the file found here.

After that, your ipaq can do voice calls again - here’s a Google Video of my rx4240 bugging the call test service.

P.s. No idea why Skype dropped support for Samsung CPU’s from Skype v2.2. I forwarded a copy of this post to Skype’s press department…let’s see what they say…

iambic’s recently-released Agendus for PocketPC can automatically match its language to your PocketPC’s ROM. While this is good for most of us, people like me(with a german ipaq) are not happy about it.

Luckily, changing the Agendus language is easy. Open Agendus, Click Preferences, Open the Menu of the new form and click All Views. A screen similar to the one below will be shown:

The toggle on the very bottom lets you choose the language. Close Agendus in the Task Manager and restart it to activate your choice!

Welcome back to the TamsPPC article on Linux for the ipaq h41xx - in case you missed the first post with installation instructions, please find it here. Anyways, this article assumes that you have installed Linux as outlined in the first part and have reset your handheld into Windows CE once again. Now, follow the following steps:

Step 1 - Back up your data
Running an already-installed Linux onto your ipaq flushes the RAM of the machine(Linux needs it to work). So, please back up all the data on your PocketPC before attempting any of the steps below! Your data WILL BE LOST!

Step 2 - Prepare to boot
As you did in the first step, make sure that you can allocate at least 50 MB of program memory(worst case: hard reset your ipaq). Then, use file manager to go to /linux/ on the memory card from before…and run the haret program from there(not from /linux/rescue)! The ipaq’s screen will fade to grey or to random data:

Step 3 - machine booting
After that, the ipaq will do what all Linux boxen do - display weird bootup prompts. The errors over the “Familiar” image look bad, but the ipaq gets over them in approximately one to two minutes:

Step 4 - get over the basics
Once bootup is complete, Linux will ask you to calibrate your touchscreen by tapping the crosshairs:

After that, a root user and a normal user needs to be created. Linux is a multiuser operating system…and as that, it usually has at least two users configured. The root user is present on all machines; he is the only one who can change system settings(DON’T LOOSE THE PASSWORD). The user is the account that you will use every day:

Step 5 - log in
When the setup is complete(it can “hang” for up to a minute between steps), use the screen shown below to log into your ipaq with the user data created before:

After having logged in, a screen similar to the one below will pop up:

If you see the screen above, you’ve made it - Linux is up and running. The next parts will look at everyday usability…tune in soon!

Further reading:
Linux
Superuser

HP’s ipaq handhelds have been capable to “run” Linux long before ports for other platforms(e.g. Palm OS or Siemens SX1) began to emerge. However, somewhat running and running a productive Linux are two entirely different things - let’s see how the h4150 Linux port fares!

Step 1 - back up your PocketPC’s RAM
Installing Linux onto your ipaq flushes the RAM of the machine(Linux needs it to work). So, please back up all the data on your PocketPC before attempting any of the steps below! Your data WILL BE LOST!

Also, your memory card’s partition table will be modified seriously - so better use an old memory card(I used a 128MB MiniSD card) that has at least 64MB of memory free.

Step 2 - install the files
Create a folder /linux in the root folder of your memory card(NOT in the RAM or ipaq file store). Below that, create a folder /rescue. Then, put the following files into /linux/rescue(mirrored here(single zip archive) for your convinience):
custom.txt
gpe-image-v0.8.4-h4000-1.rootfs.tar.bz2
haret.exe
ramdisk-rescue-0.6.3-r361.rootfs.ext2.gz
startup.txt
zImage-2.6.16-hh7-h4000-20060920151019

After that, hardreset your ipaq h4150 to free up the RAM. Open Settings and allocate at least 50MB of program RAM.

Step 3 - run HaRET, load RamdiskRescue
Now, use File Manager to run Haret in /linux/rescue. The program will boot up Linux and will start RamdiskRescue. There, choose Install Linux and choose the source and target mediums(just choose the SD Card twice) with the 5way.

After having chosen the target medium, the ipaq should best be left alone for an hour or so, while cryptic messages like the ones in the picture below scroll over its screen. The ipaq will repartition the memory card and will unpack Linux files to the EXT2 partition it creates - this alone took an hour on our machine.

Once the copying is finished, the ipaq will announce this with a voice message and will display an image similar to the one below:

Step 4 - hardreset the unit once again
Now, hard-reset the unit once again to get back to Windows CE. You will then launch Linux from there.

Tune in soon to find out more about the first booting process of your ipaq!

Further reading:
installation howto
HaRET info
RamdiskRescue info

While the default theme shipped with my HP ipaq rx4240 definitely isn’t ugly, change always is a good idea - PocketPC’s are pretty skinable by default via so-called themes. Themes can change the color of UI controls like buttons and a few images(start menu and today background)…and they come well-packaged in a so-called .tsk file.

Anyways, pocketpcthemes.com has a variety of themes ready for download - you simply beam them onto your PocketPC and activate them in Settings->Today. Here’s an example of what a theme can do - the theme used here is Genexus QVGA by finthamoussu:

However, if your handheld supports screen rotation, be careful to get a theme that supports both portrait and landscape - if not, distortions like the white area shown below will occur:

What about posting your favorite themes?

Nowadays, most PocketPC’s have a bluetooth transmitter - and all of them have memory cards. Thus, accessing a PocketPC’s memory card via Bluetooth sounds like a cool idea(no need for that sync cable). And indeed, the OBEX protocol allows you to access the My Documents folder of your PocketPC wirelessly - but not the memory card.

However, configuring your PocketPC to share its memory card is easy(sorry for German screenshots as always)!

Step 1: open settings, click bluetooth

Step 2: click services, choose Data transfer, click Settings

Step 3: choose the path you want to share

In the picture above, I chose the root folder of my hp ipaq rx4240 so that I can access both RAM and the memory card wirelessly from my PC and my Treo 680. However, you can choose other folders as needed - for example, your memory card or your Windows folder!

From now on, other handhelds and PC’s can access the ’share’ you created! Have fun with it!

HP’s ipaq h5450 is said to have problems with its sync connector eventually stopping to work. Since these machines are pretty old, sending them in for repair probably isn’t very effective - but BITZ to the rescue! This blog has a very interesting repair guide online:
http://hindesite.wordpress.com/articles/ipaq-h5450-connector-replacement/

This repair guide is very detailed and also contains quite a few cool pictures of the innards of the h5450 - well done, cool pictures(not only for h5450 owners!)…