Windows Mobile for Partners : Devices

update on my SP5

stevecla01 — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 12:39:48 GMT

A week in and I'm loving this phone. The HTC guys have done a stunning job on the design and finish of the unit - it really looks like a well polished product and will stand out from the crowd. Although marginally bigger than my previous SP3 (C500) and SP3i units it's worth in in terms of the keypad which is comfortable and the joystick seems solid so far. The killer feature remains the WiFi inclusion and all of my colleagues in Microsoft have "oohed" and "aahed" when a press the little button on the top right that allow you to quickly enable wireless. It has a good set of config options for WiFi including 802.1x support which means I was finally able (when i found the time) to get this on to our corporate network today with certificates enrolled.

As it comes from iMate, the eTrust client is also installed and downloading the new signatures over WiFi is a breeze. The camera is pretty solid too though if I was being picky I'd say it would benefit from a flash but that's a minor detail on an otherwise excellent unit. The acid test was showing it last night to the MD of Doherty IT Solutions who was very impressed and now has one on order.

My SP5 has arrived

stevecla01 — Sun, 09 Oct 2005 01:55:41 GMT

News just in - I just took delivery of an iMate SP5 Smartphone. This device is getting pretty close to my ideal single mobile device - a smartphone with Windows Mobile 5, Bluetooth *and* WiFi. I'll be road testing over the next few days and reporting back but you can land one yourself from eXpansys. I just got it connected with WEP key to my home WiFi network and will be testing out Skype tomorrow. Any questions, just shout!

iMate seen on the Tube!

stevecla01 — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 12:01:38 GMT

One of our team here at Microsoft UK spotted an iMate poster on the Tube last night and she couldn't resist whipping out her Windows Mobile device to take a snap. Nice to see the devices starting to pop up in places like this - word is getting out :)

Announcement coming on Monday....

martinb — Sat, 24 Sep 2005 13:05:00 GMT

There has been lots of speculation about certain hardware manufacturers and Windows Mobile on the web for a while now. Mike Hall from the MED product group in Redmond has posted a little teaser video on his blog that hints at an announcement coming on Monday from the Windows Mobile group, Verizon and a certain well known hardware manufacturer.

Check out the video at http://blogs.msdn.com/mikehall/archive/2005/09/23/473531.aspx

QTEK 9100 (Wizard)

stevecla01 — Sat, 24 Sep 2005 12:54:37 GMT

Well I know Jason has been blogging about his new Pocket PC Phone Edition - the HTC Wizard - and I decided I should do the same. This is a fantastic device that has pretty much everything you need - the once excpetion vs. the Universal is 3G which is a shame but I'm prepared to let that slides given the size of the Wizard. It's not much bigger than the old iMate Jam (which is now looking on forlornly at the Wizard in my hand) but has a better camera (1.3mp), wifi, more memory and of course Windows Mobile 5. The slide out keyboard works a treat and is very usable compared to some others I've used. I know several people were keen to know if Skype works and I'm pleased to say that works great too. I've loaded up some of my favourite apps (Infomill's Parts Arena, Tube 2 & Egress and they all work great too. It's a bit of a killer package I think and I suspect it'll ship in big numbers as it becomes available. Our friends at eXpansys are already taking pre-orders on the QTEK and iMate versions. I'll post some photos later today so if you want to see it compared against anything or ask questions, feel free!

Samsung i300 coming from O2

stevecla01 — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 23:15:26 GMT

O2 are now listing the Samsung i300 Smartphone ont their coming soon pages. This device has a 3GB hard disk - and no restrictions on how many music tracks you can store til you hit that 3gig limt!

Vodafone & Windows Mobile

stevecla01 — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 19:07:02 GMT

I've worked with Vodafone for a long time on Windows Mobile and it's a pleasure to now see a range of devices bearing a Window Mobile OS on their UK site. The QTEK 8020 smartphone is there along with the QTEK2020i Pocket PC Phone Edition and the VPA Compact (aka Jam). That round out the major operators in the UK now all offering Windows Mobile devices - O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone. Hurrah!

On a BusinessTime 200 tariff you can get the 8020 for £25 with a monthly charge of £22. For many organisations, a shared user plan is useful and Vodafone offers this with their ShareTime tariff's.

T-Mobile will be selling HTC Wizard Pocket PC phone too !

stevecla01 — Sun, 04 Sep 2005 22:20:15 GMT

This article on msmobiles reminded me to add to my last post that T-Mobile was showing off the HTC Wizard at our TechNet event last week. For those who go to play with it, I think you'll agree this is a cracking ltitle unit. Looking forward to seeing it in the TMO stores!

i-mate K-JAM GSM/GPRS Pocket PC

stevecla01 — Sun, 04 Sep 2005 20:20:17 GMT

Well mine is on order from those fine chaps at eXpansys and I think this could be very close to the killer device for me. The i-mate K-JAM is pretty similar in dimenions to the exisiting Jam/M500/MDA Compact but has Windows Mobile 5 and a keyboard - along with Bluetooth and a phone of course, this is a pretty fine combination that will let me do all the PIM stuff, have a range of applications like BikeDo and ALK CoPilot and not bulk out the fine Italian threads.

It's due in a few weeks and as soon as I have it, you can expect a report here along with a long queue as my desk to "borrow" it

This just made me think how far things have progressed since the original iPAQ and I'm thinking of bringing a whole bunce of my devices out of the graveyard (bottom draw) and putting a photo on here. hmmm

32mb RAM, 16mb ROM and, and a 4086 colour screen.

HTC Universal coming to O2 in the UK

martinb — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 19:36:00 GMT

Some eagle-eyed people have spotted that the HTC Universal is in the latest O2 catalogue in the UK. Check out their news item here.

A scan of the catalogue page is here.

RAM, ROM, NAND, NOR--that's a lot of capital letters...

stevecla01 — Sat, 20 Aug 2005 21:53:58 GMT

Mike Calligaro wrote a great blog entry on Persitent Store recently and why it's so cool. His latest entry on: RAM, ROM, NAND, NOR is equally excellent. There are many types of memory in mobile devices these days and it's useful to know your acronyms when you go shopping.

I like this simple view of things - "by and large, the amount of RAM you have determines how many things you can run at one time. And the amount of ROM you have determines how much of your stuff you can keep around"

Windows Mobile on Channel 9

stevecla01 — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 18:08:14 GMT

If you'd like to see some of the cool new devices coming soon from Microsoft's Windows Mobile hardware partners, check out the recently posted Channel 9 video at http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=95972 The Samsung SGH-i300 is just one of the devices included with it's 3GB hard drive!

Eric Engineer comments on the developer additions in Windows Mobile 5 such as managed API's.

Why Persistent Storage Is A Good Thing

stevecla01 — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 17:40:09 GMT

This is a question I've found myself answering several times over the years - why dosn;t a Pocket PC retain it's data when the battery runs down completely. This article from the Windows Mobile team blog gives a terrific explnation as to Why Persistent Storage Is A Good Thing as there are some significant benefits beyond persistent storage - such as much better battery life. Well worth a read if you want to understand some of the under the cover stuff in Windows Mobile 5 (for Pocket PC) - this has been around since day 1 on Smartphone of course.

Hellomoto - flash intro to the Q

stevecla01 — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 23:48:28 GMT

Check out this briliant Flash intro to the Motorola Q - Hellomoto
You can also register for more information on the Q as it becomes available

More Motorola Q coverage

stevecla01 — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 23:44:00 GMT

This time in the Sunday Times business section - Paul Durman writing about HTC devices also commented on the Motorola Q. He notes that "Immediately after last week’s column on mobile e-mail, Motorola unveiled the Moto Q — Q for qwerty keyboard, that is. As slim as Motorola’s market-leading RAZR handset, and narrower and more stylish than a Blackberry, this is a stunning product. It will be here early next year and you will want one" I want one now :)