Windows Mobile Louisville

Ahh, the lure of SPB products!   When I got my new HTC Touch Pro2 at the beginning of the month, I vowed that I would stick with the default TouchFLO 3D on the device for a while, giving it a chance and running it through it’s paces (typically, I have been a Mobile Shell affectionado).   I was doing fine until I received an email from SPB this weekend, with a review copy of version 3.5 of Mobile Shell.   In all honesty, I have been quite pleased with the improvements to TF3D, so I wasn’t feeling compelled to install Shell or any other UI at the moment.  HTC made some improvements in areas I felt were lacking before, so the UI is pretty darned good. 

But simply knowing that SPB has been in the woodshed hammering out enhancements to Mobile Shell had me very tempted.  I mean, who doesn’t get excited when SPB releases something?!   Needless to say, I installed version 3.5 of Mobile Shell and began playing.  Here are my findings… (more…)

We’ve talked about this on the site and at our monthly meetings for some time now - cloud computing, particularly via mobile devices, is the future.  Sarah Perez over at Read Write Web penned a nice article worth checking out.  Read it here.

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.

Google Mobile App gives you faster searching on your Windows Mobile device, with easy access to your favorite Google applications from the Today screen. There’s no need to wait for a browser to open to begin a search, and with search history available to reduce typing, you can get your search results with fewer clicks than before. For an even speedier experience, you can add the Google Mobile App to the start menu or configure a hardware key to provide easy access from within any application on your phone.

Check out more highlights of Google Mobile App on Windows Mobile in this video:

UPDATE: Here is a video with much better quality!  Yaroslav Goncharov from Spb Software runs through a 10 minute demo of Mobile Shell 3.0, and all I can say is WOW! 

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While the filming is absolutely horrid, you can get the idea of what Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 will look like (albeit blurry) here.

Looking forward to this being released, particularly since WM 6.5 is still solid months away!

I know that Microsoft is on the cusp of announcing and releasing some very cool mobile stuff, but Google is certainly turning on the heat lately as well.  Let the race continue, for we all win when there’s competition going on! 

From the Google Mobile Blog:

Until today, you’ve only been able to view Google Docs spreadsheets on your mobile devices.  Last night, we launched new capabilities to Google Docs for your phone that allow you to add new rows, edit existing cells, sort by columns, and filter by terms.  Now you don’t have to wait until you get to your computer to update a spreadsheet, whether it’s your expense tracker, time sheet, or your wine rating spreadsheet.

To check out these new capabilities, just go to m.google.com/docs in your mobile browser and log in.  If you are a Google Apps user, go to docs.google.com/a/your-domain.

Pretty cool.  I have several Google Docs “out in the cloud”, and up to now, I saw no compelling reason to pull them up on my Diamond, since all I could do was look at them.  This changes the game considerably.

UPDATE:  I just went to some of my spreadsheets on my Diamond, and they are still showing in the same, boring HTML format.  I think that Google has made this feature available only for the iTurd and Android devices…  more later…

The mobile version of firefox, otherwise known as Fennec, has been released in a pre-beta version.  The browser is intended for the Touch Pro and it’s variants around the world.

Not sure why it is intended only for the Touch Pro at this point, but it will likely be released for other devices further on down the road.  As it is, initial reports state the browser is horribly slow, but remember, this is a pre-beta release…

You can download it here.

The last update to Live Search mobile was exactly a month ago -

Not sure what the updates are at this point, but you can get the latest version (4.1.2029.1) of Windows Live Search mobile by going to wls.live.com on your device, or go here on your desktop.

If you like the movies, it’s time to celebrate!

Windows Mobile now offers a mobile application for Netflix. The new Netflix application for Windows Mobile phones makes it simple to manage your Netflix experience from a mobile device. You can search the entire Netflix library for your next film, get complete movie details, and even manage your DVD queue. Easily update your queue by moving films up, moving films down, or removing films from your queue.

A feature exclusive to Windows Mobile is the ability to play previews right on your Windows Mobile device. After watching a preview, you can then add the movie to your Instant Queue so you can instantly watch the movie on your Xbox 360.

Managing a Netflix account while mobile has never been easier, thanks to Mobile Manager for Netflix and a Windows Mobile phone.

This is not the first Netflix app we’ve seen for Windows Mobile - in December, we mentioned that Pyxis Mobile released SmartFlicks - but it’s always nice to have several to choose from!

ActivePrint Traveler Client has been released for Windows Mobile Smartphones and Windows Mobile Professional Devices. Anyone running Windows Mobile 5 or 6 can now easily print with ActivePrint Traveler. And the best part is this is the most economical version of ActivePrint at only $3.99! This also makes it one of the least expensive mobile printing solutions for the Windows Mobile platform.

With ActivePrint Traveler on your Windows Mobile phone you can print Photos, Contacts in your Address Book, Web Pages, Plain Text, Contents from the Clipboard, and Office documents including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint (Windows Mobile Classic or Professional Required). Print no matter where you go with ActivePrint Traveler!

Try it free for 14 days at http://www.activeprinttraveler.com.

How does ActivePrint Traveler work? It is probably the simplest mobile printing solution for your phone. So the short answer to this question is very easily.

Let’s say you’re like most of us who use mobile phones and you take photos everywhere you go using your phone’s built in camera. Wouldn’t it be great if you could easily have that photo printed while away from your home or office? With the ActivePrint Traveler installed on your phone you can. After you’ve taken the photo simply run the ActivePrint Traveler app and choose the “Photo from Album” option. Depending on the phone you’re using you will see a list of the photos currently stored on your phone, including the one you just took.

Just select that photo and then tell ActivePrint Traveler if you want multiple copies, or if you want it to print in portrait or landscape mode, and then send it. Your photo will then be safely and securely sent to our server where it will wait in your free account.

Later that day you return to your home, your office, or the hotel you’re staying at and run the ActivePrint Traveler Helper Application (available for free here) on a desktop or laptop with a printer. This program will then automatically download and print your photo from your account.

So it’s as simple as this:

1. Take a photo
2. Send it to our server to be printed
3. Run the ActivePrint Traveler Helper Application on a PC to have your photo printed

And you’re not limited to just photos. You can print contacts from your address book, office documents (including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.), Adobe Acrobat PDF files, appointments from you calendar, web pages, and more!

There are no IP addresses or port numbers to juggle - just your email address and a password that you choose.

Pretty cool!