Windows Mobile Louisville

I only make backups every so often, namely whenever I make any changes to the settings or adding new software, e.g. before and then, after I install the program.  I don’t regularly need to back up my contacts, calendar and email because, I have all of that synced to my work’s Microsoft Exchange Server.  Luckily, I had just made a full backup a couple of days ago, before it all went south…

We bought a baby pool from Target a couple of weeks ago, and I finally got it blown up and filled with water on Saturday morning.  In the afternoon, we thought it would be nice to let (our 1yr old daughter) Isabel play in the water and for us to rest and take a soak. My wife Kate and Isabel where already in the pool.

I put my Touch Pro into the pocket of my swimming trunks (I was planning on putting it on the side with the towels in the stroller - ahh, the best laid plans of mice and men!).  I was playing outside the pool before splashing Kate with Isabel’s help, so I didn’t remember I had my phone in the pocket.  Then I got into the pool…

20 minutes later - O Shi……..!!!  I found the phone in my pocket when I began to towel off!  Of course it didn’t work (it sort of did, if I use the second battery, but not 100%).  My mind (and heart) began racing.

I quickly called up Sprint - it was about 4:30pm on a Saturday afternoon at this point.  I was up front with them and told them the Touch Pro was in the water for about 15 minutes before I found out.  They where very nice about it and told me to call Asurion (the company which handles Sprint’s insurance).  After less than 10 minutes on the phone with a wonderful bloke, he told me that a $50 deductible would be added to my next bill, and that my brand new Touch Pro would arrive via UPS by Tuesday (it would have been next day, but it was late on a Saturday, so it would take a little longer).

Sure enough, my replacement Touch Pro showed up on Tuesday as stated.  After opening the brand new phone in the full box (not just in a padded envelope), it only took an hour to activate the phone, change it over to my phone number, and install the full backup.  It was so easy.  It was as if I had my old Touch Pro still in my hands (without the water dripping from the keyboard!).

The only piece of unfinished business is that I have to order a new WriteSHIELD screen protector from Pocket PC Techs.  They simply have the best screen projectors known to Mankind.

Sprint and Asurion were soooooo wonderful and easy to use and talk to.  I’m very pleased with how the whole thing ended up.  It could have been so much worse! 

You never know when disaster will strike, so make sure you have your data backed up, and for heaven’s sake, make sure you have device insurance!

If you are a Skype user, you’ll want to download and install the latest CAB file, as the app is now out of beta.  You can get the file here.

Found this over on Mobility Site:  

Qipit is a free mobile online copy service.
Copy documents, whiteboards and handwritten notes with your camera phone (or digital camera) to store, fax, email or publish!

• Turn documents, notes and whiteboards into digital copies (PDFs)
• Email or fax qipit digital copies via email, your online Qipit account, or right from your phone
• Store all of your paper documents and notes as digital documents for easy archiving and sharing
• Tag your qipit documents for easy searching and sorting
• Publish and share your documents on the web  

Qipit isn’t exclusive to just Windows Phones, but our devices certainly make using Qipit very easy! And it’s free!

Discuss it here.

I always have a spare battery for my device with me, including when flying on a plane.  On my recent trip, I happened upon this sidebar in the Delta inflight magazine:

This is good info to know! I keep my spare battery inside a small plastic case, so I’m covered, but there have been times I have had other lithium batteries in my checked bag (camcorder, etc), so I am going to keep that in mind the next time I fly!

Last week, my wife and I went on a trip to the Finger Lakes region of upstate NY for a nephew’s graduation.  While I know that it’s far from being a metropolitan area, my Sprint connectivity was so bad, my Touch Pro was reduced to being nothing more than a PDA like I had in 2001. I will add that my wife, my parents and one of my sisters are all Sprint users as well (with varying phones) and they too, had no signal or a very weak one…

I found myself cursing the lack of connectivity countless times while on the trip.  It became painfully obvious how much I depended on a data connection to perform much of what I do. 

I could not:

• send or receive emails
• send or receive texts (Text messages arrived hours later, when I experienced a moment of connectivity)
• Tweet my vacation moments or upload TwitPics
• check Facebook
• access Evernote
• send a JOTT
• Goosync my calendar
• Live Mesh my synched folders
• search for something on Google or Bing
• update my RSS feeds
• update my weather forecasts
• and, of course, make a frickin’ PHONE CALL!

Granted, it depended on where I was in the Finger Lakes region.  At times, I had a decent connection, but more times than not, I was in search mode, eating away at my battery like crazy.  PRL updates did nothing for me.  And to add insult to injury, my brother, who has an XV6800 on Verizon, had absolutely no issues, and was even watching the US Open via Slingbox on his device, sitting right beside me!  Obviously Verizon has a bigger stake in the Finger Lakes region than Sprint…

It really made me realize how vulnerable a data connection and cloud computing can be.  It’s great when there’s a connection, but when there’s not, you are screwed.  And what would that have been like for a web OS device such as the Palm Pre or Android?  I’ll bet that Sprint won’t sell many Pre’s in that area!

That experience was painful, and the gears are turning in my head to figure out how I could better survive a “no signal” situation in the future.  I will still employ all of the cloud computing services I use (Mesh, Evernote, etc), but I would advise to anyone who uses data heavily: have a contingency!

Oh, it’s good to be back in Louisville, with a strong signal and my precious data!  :)

Happened upon this quiz over at Pew Research:

Users of communication technology range from “Digital Collaborators” and “Media Movers” to “Tech Indifferents” and “Off the Network.” Take the quiz to find out which group you’re in!

No surprise, I’m a Digital Collaborator!
As a Digital Collaborator, you use information technology to work with and share your creations with others. You are enthusiastic about how ICTs help you connect with others and confident in your ability to manage digital devices and information. For you, the digital commons can be a camp, a lab, or a theater group – places to gather with others to develop something new.

If you have Live Search on your Windows Phone, open it and after a few moments, hit the Menu softkey - it will say there is an update available.  The update brings the Bing branding to the app, but so far, I’ve not seen anything else that is different.  Further updates are due some time later this year, incorporating more of what Bing is about.

Thanks to my brother Martin for discovering that last night and pointing it out to me!

Qualcomm subsidiary FLO TV says it will begin expanding its mobile TV service this weekend, since analog TV broadcasts have ceased in the United States. The company also says it is working with OEMs to provide tools and support for integrating receivers into Windows Mobile phones.The FLO TV service broadcasts multiple live and time-shifted digital television channels to phones and other mobile devices using the 716MHz to 712MHz spectrum, equivalent to analog UHF TV Channel 55, according to Qualcomm.

Because of interference in some locations from Channel 55 or adjacent stations, FLO TV was only available in 19 markets around the country, much to Qualcomm’s chagrin. Thanks to the DTV switch, however, fifteen new FLO TV markets will go live this weekend, the company says, including Boston, Houston, Miami, and San Francisco. It’s said service will also be expanded in existing markets such as Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, DC. Read the rest of this entry »

Twikini is yet another Twitter app (amongst numerous available) for Windows Phones, and it’s pretty snappy!  I stumbled upon it over at WM Experts and after trying it out today, I’ll say I’m very impressed. 

I’ve been using PockeTwit for quite a while now,  but Twikini could become my new Twitter app of choice!  The app is very fast, and has a full assortment of cool features.  I look forward to running it through it’s paces thoroughly, then I intend on doing a comparison review of Twikini vs. PockeTwit and the other offerings.   After the break, I give a quick-and-dirty first impression.  Here are some of the features:

• It’s written entirely in native C++ code which makes it blazingly fast.
• The interface is straightforward, simple and uncluttered.
• You get a full-screen editor for posting tweets, and there are lots of options (adding a photo, shortening URL, adding GPS coordinates or location…)
• It’s easy to send & receive direct messages.
• Along with Twitpic integration for posting photos with your status updates, you can view Twitpics right in the app (without having to open a browser) which is very cool.  Lots of people are tweeting with Twitpics included.
• There’s Windows Media Player integration, which is interesting.  You can tweet the song you are listening to (does that qualify as TMI?!).
• Shorten long URL’s with shortening services including Bit.ly, TinyURL and Digg.
• There is one single CAB file that is compatible with all Windows® Mobile devices - both touch and non-touch.
• And lots more…

More comments after the break… Read the rest of this entry »

AvantGo will shutter it’s service on June 30th, and it’s a sad end to an era. 

For those of us “veteran” Pocket PC users, AvantGo was one of the first ways we captured news items and articles from various sites to read at our leisure on our Pocket PC’s.  I recall when (back in the early years of this decade)  I’d be sitting on a plane, tethered with a cable to my Motorola StarTac phone, doing one last sync of AvantGo before they closed the door to the plane!  I thought I was the man, reading web clips from the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and numerous other sites! 

But times have changed, and now with robust browsers, fast data connections, podcasts and RSS feeds, AvantGo has gone the way of the dodo bird.  I had not used AvantGo in years, but it’s always sad to see something that provided such a great service fade off into the sunset.  I felt the same way when Mapopolis folded.  Developing apps & services sure can be brutal…