Review: WriteSHIELD crystal-CLEAR Screen Protector

Reviewer: Andy Mason (Warthog)
Product: WriteSHIELD Crystal-CLEAR Screen Protector
Manufacturer: PPCTechs
Price: MSRP – crystal-CLEAR 2-Pak kit, $29.00; Deluxe 2-Pak kit, $36.99

I am very meticulous about all my tech toys and, for the longest time, did not see the need for screen protectors. After using my Dell Axim x50v for about a year, I began to notice very faint scratches on the screen from text entry and repeated stylus taps. That’s when I decided that maybe screen protectors were not such a bad idea. When I purchased my Axim x51v, the screen protector went on before the unit was ever powered up!  However, when I switched to the HTC Mogul several months ago, I decided that I could live without a screen protector. “After all it’s a touch screen, and it has a jog wheel and a dozen buttons for navigation so the screen won’t be subjected to constant stylus abuse like the Axim,” I reasoned.  Well, unlike the Axim, the Mogul is a phone and gets smudged from coming into contact with my face and from using my fingers on the touch screen.  Additionally, I have found that I use the stylus more than I anticipated.  The need for a screen protector soon became evident. I have a WriteSHIELD installed on my x51v and have encountered no problems with it whatsoever.  I contacted PPCTechs to see if they had a protector customized for the Mogul. They did and they were willing to send me a crystal-CLEAR Deluxe 2-Pak kit for review that I present for your consideration.

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The Pocket PC IS NOT DEAD!

So says Cnet. The rest of the world has already conceded that Pocket PC is dead. Sure, there are tons of people that still use Pocket PC devices daily. Many of our own readers are using them. There is no shame in that, but sales numbers indicate that the Pocket PC has been 6 feet under for years now. The recent resurgence of the iPAQ line of Pocket PC last year seem to being pretty well though.

Cnet’s, Andrew Lim talks about the Socket SoMo 650-m, a business oriented, rugged Pocket PC…

No, you haven’t travelled back in time: this is a PDA. It might not do futuristic things like make phone calls, send text messages or take pictures, but if you’re not bothered by those fancy features then this might be right up your street. It’s called the Socket SoMo 650-M and costs around $670–which we think is ridiculous.

Aimed at the service industry, this rugged Windows Mobile 5 PDA looks retro, but it’s extremely sturdy and boasts a large touch screen, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, an Intel processor running at 624MHz, and an SD and CF slot with the option to add barcode scanners for when you fancy scanning all the tins in your cupboard.

What are your thoughts, What keeps you using a Pocket PC rather than moving on to a converged device?

Easy Sync 2.8.6 Review

Active Sync will synchronize files between your pocket pc and your desktop, but it is very limited in how it does so.  Desktop files must be placed in your pocket pc’s My Documents folder.  That means that all files to be sync’d on your pocket pc must be in the My Documents folder.  What if you want to place files on a flash drive on your pocket pc?  What if you want to sync files from a network to your pocket pc?  Active Sync won’t help you.  But Easy Sync will.

Easy Sync claims it has bidirectional sync, one way transferring of unlimited number of files, supports transferring over network, and syncs several devices.  It won’t replace Active Sync, but will enhance it.  Here are some of its features:

• Bidirectional synchronization, one-way upload and download
• Able to process unlimited number of files and folders
• Supports Storage Card and Network locations
• Sync multiple devices with one computer
• Real time monitoring of changes made to files
• Flexible scheduling
• Filter by mask (e.g. *.txt, *.mp3, etc.)
• Sound notifications and pop-up messages
• Simple and intuitive user interface 

So how does it perform?  Read on.

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A Great Review of the HP iPAQ 210

If you are still wondering if you should get the HP iPAQ 210 Pocket PC, Werner has the ultimate review for you. This review goes into great detail…

While certainly not without problems (touchscreen insensitivity, low-volume speaker, button reassignment problems, no official operating system upgrades, slightly worse outdoor visibility of the screen without backlight), I pretty much like the new iPAQ and I think it’s a decent upgrade from the hx4700 adding painfully missing features (SDHC, for example). Particularly if you’re a multimedia geek and would like to play back AVC videos (where the new PXA310 already excels when used together with the latest CorePlayer; and, according to the CoreCodec folks, this is just the beginning!), you’ll certainly love the new device. While the “cooked” 6.1 HP iPAQ hx4700 Windows Mobile ROM’s are in no way bad (just the contrary – they’re EXCELLENT and, finally, take away entirely the compaction issues), the new PDA is indeed better in many respects.

Head over and check out his excellent review and make sure to check out Jake Rich’s 1st Impressions as well.

Fun Contact 2.0 Contest WINNERS!

Sorry for the delay, gang. I was out of town last week and it slipped my mind that I forgot to announce the winners before I left. The winning answer was: 249 contacts.
The three closest guesses, without going over, were:
1) Gamblinman - 229
2) byron1957 - 227
3) zacksba - 225
(Note: Jake Speed also guessed 225, but lost the coin flip to zacksba)

Winners, please contact me via PM or email with your contact email address so the software codes can be delivered to you.

Thanks, everyone!

How to make your Windows Mobile touch screen finger-friendly

Clearly, one of the innovations that iPhone offers is the slick, finger-friendly touch screen interface. It has been heralded and embraced by a public of enthusiastic nose miners. Well, if you want to join the crowd of finger frolickers, and you have a WM touch screen device, don’t despair. There are several ways you can turn your little pocket pal into a finger-friendly navigator.

While a finger-friendly screen is not part of the Windows Mobile operating system per se, several developers have seized the opportunity to offer programs that feature finger flicking screen changing.

What if you wanted to turn on finger scrolling for almost all of your applications that involve multiple pages such as contacts and Websites? What if you could pan a Webpage scrolling up and down and from side to side? This is now completely possible with the installation of a single program that contains this feature.

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New windows mobile utility ceSnipURL

TiltSite.com’s Vince Koser has just released ceSnipURL Version 1.0 which is totally free! Check it out:

I’m pleased to announce the 1.0 release of ceSnipURL.  I created this little utility to allow me to shorten URL’s to make them more friendly for use in twitter and sms messages or mobile email, preventing links form wrapping in email helps them maintain their clickability when sending them.  Using them in SMS saves you precious characters and allows more text space to describe the url your sending.  You could use URL shortening services via the web but the clipboard interaction is more cumbersome than using a small utility.

Features:

• Auto places url’s from clipboard into conversion window on application launch
• After conversion the snipped url is placed on the clipboard for use in your sms/email or application of choice
• Very simple one screen application
• Built in checking for update via the about screen

As always its 100% free no strings attached.  Let me know if you have suggestions or issues via the contact form.

Hit the download page to get the latest 1.0 release [download]

 

Vince also authors ceTwit Version 1.1 that is also totally free and can be downloaded also from his website! Thanks Vince!

You can download all Vince’s Software by CLICKING HERE

 

30 Reasons Windows Mobile is Superior to iPhone

Last week I published an article about my initial experience with my brother’s pride and joy, his iPhone. I found the iPhone to be lacking in several areas compared to my Windows Mobile Professional device. Since then I have been delving deeper into the virtues of iPhones and found even more astonishing lacks that I hadn’t noticed or had taken for granted would naturally be there. The inability to highlight, copy, cut, and paste is one example.

In this article, I have included my initial observations and added some new ones for a condensed list of 30 features lacking in the iPhone. I say condensed because I have subsumed some items into a single point. For example, rather than list all the peripherals the iPhone does not support, I merely say that it doesn’t support peripherals. At the end of the article, I try to be fair by pointing out what I like about the iPhone in its current stage of evolution.

I suppose you could call this a wish list, but it is still an inventory of what I found lacking in an iPhone. There may be more, but I grow weary of the process. Here is my condensed list:

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Hey iPAQ Owners, No 6.1 for you!

Is this really any surprise? HP has always been wishy washy about their “newer OS” support. Remember the hx4700 series debacle? “No, we aren’t going to release and upgrade… Wait, Nevermind, sure we’ll do it…”

Well, here we are in 2008 with a couple newer HP Pocket PCs out there running Windows Mobile 6. Well, bad new is that once again, HP will not be supporting you. There will be upgrade to 6.1 for you. Like I said, this really doesn’t surprise me at all. I’m not ragging on HP really, there are good reasons not to offer this upgrade really, mainly dealing with costs.

The “official” word on this comes from a conversation between HP and Ed Hardy over at Brighthand.

HP will not be offering an operating system upgrade for currently shipping HP iPAQ devices beyond what ships on the device today — Microsoft Windows Mobile 6. 

This decision comes after having evaluated the potential for delays in firmware and software updates, device recertification, and carry-over costs to our customers that are often associated with an operating system upgrade.

HP is committed to continuing its long-standing relationship with Microsoft and will deliver HP iPAQs with Windows Mobile 6.1 at a future date.

What do you think? Are you surprised?

ceTwit Version 1.1 Now Available!

That’s right! TiltSite.com’s own Vince Koser has just finished new version 1.1 of his own creation, ceTwit! Not only functional on the AT&T Tilt & HTC TyTN II, ceTwit v1.1 is also compatible for smartphone and other touchscreen windows mobile devices. So if you use twitter, check out Vince’s ceTwit version 1.1:

New Features:

• Quick paginate on touchscreen devices (info here)
• Ability to follow or unfollow users through the action or context menu
• Check for updates on the about screen
• Moved softkeys to meet MS advised layout (thanks noah)
• Bug fixes on menu item selection for auto timeline update

I just thought I’d mention a few ways I personally use ceTwit on my HTC Tilt during the day.

• Turn on auto refresh 3 minutes and prevent sleep in my desktop cradle at work for my mini twitter appliance
• Keep auto update running with ceTwit in the background throughout the day so my friends messages are always current no waiting to load I can just turn on my phone and look at the timeline
• Update my status on the go without sms charges

ceTwit has a growing list of features, community feedback is all it takes to add new things.  Please download the appropriate version for your device and let me know if I can add or change anything to make it a better program.  ceTwit is now and always will be free.  I’m probably going to release the source sometime soon in case anyone is curious about whats involved in making it work.  If you have any feedback please leave it via the contact form.

Anyway enough rambling here is the download link to pickup the latest version make sure you get the appropriate one for your device.  DOWNLOAD NOW

Priced Right at FREE, ceTwit version 1.1 won’t hurt your pocketbook at all!

Here is the link to ceTwit: CLICK HERE

Where do we go from here? What’s next in Mobile Tech?

Something I have been throwing around in my mind for a couple months is the future of Converged Devices and PDAs. We already know that most of the world considers the stand alone PDA dead, but what about Mobile Phones? We need a phone. We like having tools on our phones to manage our lives, yet there has been no real progress on the hardware side.

Let’s look 1st at the standalone PDA. The Dell Axim X51v was released well over 2 years ago right? The HP iPAQ 4700 series was released just before it. They are both quite similar too. Since their release, what has there been that really exceeds the specs? Nothing really. I was just talking on the phone this weekend with someone that returned an HP iPAQ 100 series Pocket PC. It wasn’t really an upgrade to a 2 year old Dell Axim X51v. Although the HP iPAQ 200 series on paper is an upgrade, it’s not head and shoulders better. That leaves us with the question, “What has to be done to upgrade the PDA and Converged device experience?” Memory, Processor, battery life? What hardware changes need to be made?

It really seems to me that we have peaked on hardware in the Mobile Phone business too. Sure, we are seeing new models pop up every day, but how limited are they by what is available for them to build on? When are we going to see 1ghz or better processors with plenty of ram and no real battery life loss? Is that the hold up? Battery technology to allow for the same or better battery life with faster processors? Are we going to just move on past a standard phone form factor and go for the big MID or UMPC route and just use Bluetooth to get our calls taken care of?

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Are there bugs in the WM6.0 implementation of the IPAQ 21x and 11x?

By the notice on their website, WebIS seems to think so…..

iPaq 21x, 11x users Notice:FlexMail is not compatible with these devices at this time. We believe there are bugs in the implementation of Windows Mobile 6 that HP has on these devices that cause data corruption and crashes with FlexMail. At this time we do not see any resolution until HP updates the ROM. (reference)

The IPAQ 110 that I reviewed was a loaner that I had for about a month.  I didn’t experience any significant problems with it, but having a loaner for a month is not the same thing as owning and using a Pocket PC every day.  Reading through the forums here and around the internet, these new IPAQs do appear to have some issues. 

It is interesting that a credible Pocket PC software developer, like WebIS, has posted a statement like this one on their web site. 

Have you encountered what you believe are bugs with your new IPAQ?

HTC Touch Dual is Coming to America

Remember Eddie Murphy in Coming to America? Great, funny movie. What does it have to do with Mobility? Nothing, but HTC’s Touch Dual is coming to America too!

Today at CTIA, HTC announced the popular HTC Touch Dual will debut in the United States this quarter. The HTC Touch Dual combines an intuitive touch screen integrated with HTC’s TouchFLO technology and slide-out keypad. In addition, this will be one of the first devices to feature Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional software, making it easier for customers to communicate on the go.

In addition to the HTC Touch Dual coming, it will also be sporting Windows Mobile 6.1 and other HTC devices are slated to receive updates to WM 6.1 as well!

HTC also announced its support of the Windows Mobile 6.1 upgrade, which provides new timesaving features, easier phone navigation and management, stronger security safeguards, and support for Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008. The Touch by HTC and Mogul by HTC from Sprint, AT&T Tilt, Alltel Wireless’ HTC Touch and PPC6800, and the HTC TyTN II, will be among the first of many devices available for a Windows Mobile 6.1 upgrade. 

Read on for the Press Release

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Windows Mobile 6 on your Dell Axim - UPDATE

Ok guys… Guess What?

After a long time, some deep thought, a dozen conversation threads in the admin forum, we are ready to allow discussion of Windows Mobile 6 on your Dell Axim.
Some things to consider…

• Windows Mobile 6 was never released for the Dell Axim X51, well any Dell Axim for that matter.
• Running an experiemental OS on a device can be dangerous. There is the chance to ruin your device.

Basicly, it’s ok now, but we still stand by no hosting of files that are not legal here on our servers. Thanks. Just use your common sense when posting.

This is Aximsite and they are Axims and after much thought, why not allow support of devices even though it’s not a legal ROM. We do not promote software piracy, but we do want to allow other Axim users to help you get the most out of your device. We will not be responsible for any damage caused by following any advice on the subject. Please use caution when following the advice and suggestions of other on this subject. When giving advice on the subject, please use care in explaining and helping others. Thanks again.

To discuss this, comment here or in the forums, visit this thread.

Are Windows Mobile Phones Underpowered?

Its been nearly 2 years since the Dell Axim X51 and the HP iPAQ 4700, but those two Pocket PCs are still regarded by many as the best Pocket PC out there. Well, there aren’t really that many standalone Pocket PCs being made anymore. Think about it though, has there been any advances in processors in the last two years? Not really. You can go buy the hottest Pocket PC Phone on the market and still get the same specs as the Dell Axim X51 from 2 years ago. Look at the AT&T Tilt… It has a 400mhz processor. Sure, we need to worry about battery life and using a slower clock speed helps there, but really, it’s been 2 years… where is the low powered, more beefed up chip of the future?

ps. Off topic - Dust off your refresh button, today is a woot off at woot.com