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Thursday, July 29, 2010

Personal blog for Pocket PC Phones

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5/6/2010 4:07 PM:

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10- wow!!!

Not sure about the Android OS yet...but this is VERY tempting!!! Take a look at this baby and the full information page over at Sony Ericsson...it even has most of the USA covered for 3G etc:

GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
UMTS/HSPA 900/1700/2100
UMTS/HSPA 800/850/1900/2100

Now with a price tag expected around $600 (current quote from Expansys-USA), it's a little hard to swallow...but I can dream!

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5/6/2010 4:01 PM:

A good Twitter client for Windows Mobile...?

So Android has one, the Blackberry has one and (of course) the iPhone has one...but there are no impressive, fully functional Windows Mobile Twitter clients available (and I have tried LOTS)...that is until now!

moTweets from Panoramic Software Inc. has come up with a winner! Available in two versions...the free version is supported by advertising (minimal) with the the paid version costing $3.99...

Finally- enjoy!!!

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9/20/2009 2:39 AM:

Not Windows- iPod Nano...sorry!

Not quite Microsoft phone related but I thought I would post about my iPod Nano upgrade to the 5th generation as I am really pleased- I even got my "IM" saying engraved on the back of it!!!

This is the first iPod with an internal speaker, camera, radio etc...they have put together a reasonable package! Sound from the in built speaker is, as you would expect, poor but it is there!!!

Other features such as the increased screen size etc work brilliantly, especially when watching wide screen movies!!! I am really happy with the upgrade!

Now for the LOL- my 7 year old daughter heard that I was upgrading and said...quote..."Why does Daddy need a new iPod...What is he doing with his old iPod....I'd like an iPod"...They get older every year, eh???

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9/5/2009 2:13 PM:

Sony Xperia 2 / 2a

I completely LOVE my Xperia phone- despite it not being able to access the 3G network with T-Mobile (due to the 1700/2100 band combination)! It is one of the best phones I have ever owned (hence the reason I have two)...I thought this phone would last me a while but now, throwing a spanner in the works, Sony have announced the launch of the Xperia 2/2a!!!

The unit comes in a similar color scheme as the X1 - black and silver (I have a silver X1 but I'd go with the black X2)...

Now I'm not sure I will upgrade to this unit as it still won't support the USA 3G network and to be honest I have never needed that "extra" speed on my phone- I have a netbook for heavy internet surfing. But as my experience with phones has shown, 'never say never' - the specifications are tempting...

Screen
- 800 x 480 pixel
- 65,536 color touchscreen
Memory
- SanDisk microSD / microSDHC (up to 16GB)
- Phone memory 110MB*
Networks
- GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
- UMTS/HSPA 850/1900/2100
- UMTS/HSUPA 850/1900/2100
Available colors
- Elegant Black - Modern Silver
Sizes
- 110.0 x 54.0 x 16.0 mm
- 4.3 x 2.1 x 0.6 inches
Weight
- 155.0 gr
- 5.5 oz

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8/2/2009 5:27 PM:

So how much did it cost???

Now that we are back home, I thought I would post a blog about the total cost of the SIMS cards abroad (with data access).

My wife has a T-Mobile USA Shadow- we bought 4 "web boosers" with T-Mobile UK for her (at a cost of 2.50 GBP each for 5 days). She used the phone sparingly and after putting 20 GBP on it coupled with the initial 10 GBP I loaded it with, she came back with a balance of a little over 19 GBP...so her total cost was about 11 GBP (connecting to our Exchange server for emails every 60 minutes)...

I have an imported Sony Experia phone- High Speed capable and for some reason, I did not have to keep getting the "web booster"...it just worked (after setting up the internet access point (see previous post)). We used my phone as the primary point of contact and, as some of you may know, SMS messages in Europe are VERY popular. With an average of 3 calls per day and over 10 sent and recieved text messages each day, I had to put an extra 40 GBP on my phone (on top of the original 10 GBP). I came back with a balance of 5 GBP...

In all, I cannot complain as I was on the internet a LOT with the phone, it still used the Direct Push for emails and all my supplemental applications (such as weather and RSS feeds) were functioning perfectly...

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7/24/2009 5:35 AM:

SIMS work!!!

The SIMS we bought work perfectly- I had to look up the internet access point for the T-Mobile UK data services but other than that, everything is flawless.

The UK has MULTIPLE places to top up the SIMS via an e-card and so far I have put on about 20 GBP. I've been texting and talking on the phone every day (as well as internet access) so I am happy!

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6/27/2009 1:40 AM:

Roaming data overseas...?

I'm with one of the major US phone carriers and I made enquiries as to how much it will cost for me to take my phone overseas (calls and, more important to me, DATA)...calls were about 50% more expensive...no surprise there..data was going to be $15 per Mb...WHAT?????

The weather application on my phone alone downloads on average over 2Mb in satellite images etc daily...and what am I supposed to do about the direct PUSH connection to my Exchange server, RSS feeds updates and of course, my internet browsing...I'd be spending on average about $50-$100 per day on data charges!!!

Once again, Google is my friend and I saw a lot of people have this problem... their answer- get local SIMS for your phone. Now this assumes that you have (or can get) your phone unlocked- our carrier was willing to help and did it all for FREE (don't pay the eBay jockeys)

. Once the phones were unlocked (just the wife's actually), we needed SIMS to give people our numbers BEFORE we leave (if you don't need numbers prior to departure, you can wait until you get to your destination and purchase from most supermarkets). For that we found (for the UK) British SIMS, I placed the order on a Saturday and the SIM cards were with us on the Tuesday...not too bad! I then registered the SIM cards on the UK carrier web sites...so far so good!

Now, what will be interesting (and I will post about it) is how it all goes with regards to making it actually work- the card is loaded with cash but will it actually let me access the data (HPSD, EDGE etc) in the foreign country...??

Watch this space...

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6/6/2009 12:57 PM:

Facebook Chat on Windows Mobile?

I use instant messaging on my phone ALL THE TIME...but recently I have got into the Facebook phenomenon...

Facebook (for those that use it) has a quirky little chat application- so how can you use this on your mobile phone...

Turns out there are two nice applications that can perform this task...the first is FIM (Facebook Instant Messaging), written by "blutz" over at xda-developers.com...

The second application is Palringo...I prefer this application as it allows me to log on to several IM accounts at the same time. Palringo currently supports:

Windows Live Messenger (MSN)

AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)

Yahoo! Messenger

Google Talk

ICQ

Jabber

iChat / MobileMe

Gadu-Gadu

Facebook Chat (Alpha)

Unfortunately Palringo does not allow group chats (unless all have Palringo accounts) and does not have a "Today Screen" plug in to show status etc (similar to BeeJive). I'm sure with enough support, these features will be added...enjoy!

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5/6/2009 2:46 PM:

Windows Live 2009 and audio video (webcam) issues- FIXED!

Microsoft are now pushing Internet Explorer 8 and Windows Live "Essentials" as high priority updates. When I first tried Windows Live Messenger 2009 I could not get it to recognize my web cam or audio setup (on ANY of my home machines).

With the recent purchase of the new netbook, I noticed that it DID work before I installed McAfee! Interesting...

Cut a LONG story short (and much installing, uninstalling, testing etc) it turned out to be McAfee SiteAdvisor that was causing ALL the problems...good news...the fix is SIMPLE!!!

I can only speak for Windows XP, but if you follow these steps, Windows Live Messenger 2009 "should" be able to use your video and audio!

1. Click on "Start" and select "Run"
2. Enter "C:\program files\mcafee\SiteAdvisor" (without the quotes)
3. Locate and edit the file called "sasets.ini"
4. Within the file, find the section titled "[msnmsgr.exe]" and edit the key below it to say "Enabled=0"
5. Save the updated INI file and restart the "McAfee SiteAdvisor Service" (Computer Management/ Services)

This worked for me!!!

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4/25/2009 7:11 PM:

Not a pocket PC but...

For some reason, everyone around me was buying these new little netbooks- and for the life of me I could not work out why!!!!!!

We are planning our trip to England and I began thinking about what computer to take- work or one of the home laptops...then I did some research...(Google is my GOD!!!)...

I have software that will convert DVDs to computer ready files, I need something small but VERY internet ready and...well, cut a long story short, the netbook came out a winner! I will be able to let the kids watch DVDs on the plane (without carrying 100+ DVDs as they never know what they want to watch), I'll have email (connected to my phone or WiFi), internet for directions...the list goes on...all in something the same size as their portable DVD player!!!

I picked up the Eee PC 1000HE with the 2Gb memory upgrade for less than $380 from Amazon.com which I thought was a reasonable deal...

I'm listening to internet radio streaming from it right now as I put this little blog together...trying to test out the true battery life using WiFi, streaming audio, web surfing etc...it currently says it has 5 hours remaining...we'll see!!!

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