Will you be around Orlando, FL this Weekend?

If you are in any way interested in Development for Windows and Windows Mobile devices then you are invited to attend a FREE event Saturday and Sunday.

The weekend event is called Microsoft Community Summit 2008 or ]InBetween[ or Tweener (?!?!). The whole event is FREE. This event involves several minor events held during the weekend in between the TechEd Developer (happening this coming week) and the TechEd IT Professionals (the following week). It is a group of events organized by the Florida user group communities in the Orlando Convention Center.  It will have Sessions, .Net University, Open Space, Certification, Exam Cram, Train The Trainer, SQL University, SQL Saturday, Visual Studio U events.

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Why Developers need to know about SQL Server Compact Edition (SQL CE)?

So you are a developer who works on applications that run on the desktop; or you are a project manager who has only heard of SQL Server Compact Edition… In any case, if you have hardly heard of SQL Server CE, or you are assuming that SQL Server CE runs only on portable devices, then you should read on to learn about some new powerful options available for your environment of choice.

Well, SQL Server CE in not only intended for devices who run on the Windows CE platform (Windows Mobile, Xbox 360 and many others among then) but also for PCs running XP and Vista:

WHAT? You didn’t know? Never mind, keep reading then…

While SQL Server comes in many flavors, SQL Server Express is not the smallest of them all. Yes, it’s free and it can run in your desktop if you want it… but do you really want to run a SQL Server on your desktop? Is that the smallest you can go?

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Windows XP Service Pack 3 Released

I know that many of you are waiting for this release: Windows XP SP3. 

Windows® XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) includes all previously released updates for the operating system. This update also includes a small number of new functionalities, which do not significantly change customers’ experience with the operating system. This white paper summarizes what is new in Windows XP SP3.

Windows XP Availabilty Extended

Mac users quickly jumped on the latest Mac OS, but the same can’t be said for Windows users, as many have become averse to Vista.  Thus MicroSoft decided to extend XP’s shelf life by six months and they are offering an unprecedented downgrade on certain SKUs.

June 30, 2008 will be the cutoff date for XP sales.  Consumer support on XP ends 4/14/09.

Source: Engadget

The Ultimate UMPC is Not a UMPC!

According to Microsoft, a UMPC is supposed to be:

photo courtesy of Engadget

“About the size of a paperback book, the UMPC is small and light enough to fit easily into a carry-on, a purse, or a backpack. And yet, the UMPC features a powerful processor, a big, bright display, easy-to-use input options, and support for the latest connectivity standards.

The UMPC offers a display of 4-7 inches and touch capabilities, all in a package that weighs less than 2 pounds. But don’t underestimate this small computer—it can run all of the same Windows Vista-compatible software you’re already familiar with.”

We certainly have seen some of these ideal elements in UMPCs, but as far as running “Windows Vista-compatible software” using a “powerful processor” is concerned, this project is a failure.  Some recent reviews illustrate the concept:

From JK on the Run’s WiBrain review on slow performance, “For example: opening up Microsoft Word 2007 takes 6 seconds on the Q1P. The same task on the WiBrain routinely takes 9 seconds.” 

And on the screen resolution,
“Here’s where compromise, as it so often does with mobile devices, comes into play: due to the high res and the excellent trackpad, I found myself rarely using the touchscreen. Items are too small to accurately touch when it’s easier to just use the trackpad, cursor and mouse buttons.”

From Pocketables’ OQO Model 2 Review on slow performance, “If you can tolerate nothing less than the top-of-the-line powerhouse desktop systems, then something like the OQO Model 02 (or any UMPC, for that matter) will definitely not make you happy.”

Photo Courtesy of Ultramobile PC

From UltraMobilePC’s Vega Review on its 5″ screen size, “For example, I use contact lenses and I do not need reading glasses unless the letters are too small, like the ones printed in some drug boxes. I do not need reading glasses at all to use any of the UMPC with a 7 inches display but I felt the need of my glasses using Vega.

From UltraMobilePC’s Amtek T770 Review on battery life, “…the battery life is between 2 hours and 2 hours 15 minutes according to my tests.”

And on performance, “If you are a regular user that does not care about performance but you want an integrated webcam and microphone without having to pay a extra money, yes, you will find in this machine these features…”

Photo courtesy of Hanno’s Blog

Hanno’s Everun Review on odd size resolutions often found in UMPCs, “800×480 is the recommended screen resolution that Microsoft chose for UMPCs, yet the OS has menus that don’t fit. What good is the promise of being able to run standard software when the screen estate is too small for it?”

You get the idea.  The processor’s are too slow for the (bloated) OS, the screen resolution is all wrong, rendering many UMPCs unreadable without a magnifying glass, the OS’s menus don’t fit on the screen, multitasking is impossible due to lack of memory and processing power, and battery power is generally lackluster, if not putrid.

Indeed, not all UMPCs fail in every area.  Some are better than others.  But there is a lack of consistency across the board regarding features and performance.  UMPCs range in size, keyboard type, connectivity options, price, screen sizes and many other features, so lumping them into one category and saying they are inadequate may not be completely fair, but I have not read one UMPC review that has made me want to run out and get one.  To be sure, spending $800 to $2400 for lackluster performance in a package that is not quite pocketable, and is fraught with compromises, hardly intrigues me.  Pocket PCs are too small.  I need a larger screen to view spreadsheet data among other things.  Laptops are too big.  So I find myself aching for a UMPC. 

The Ultimate UMPC

Find the Ultimate UMPC after the break

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Microsoft Pulls Out The Rug

Remember yesterday’s offer of a free copy of Windows Vista Ultimate, Office Ultimate and other MS software?  Yeah.  It’s gone.  But MS still wants to track your every move anyway as explained here:

“To participate in the Automated Feedback Program, you’ll need to download and install software on your home computer. You will be installing a small application called “Windows Feedback Panel” on your computer. This application starts up automatically every time you log in to Windows and silently gathers and records information about the use of your home computer on an ongoing basis.”

I have a friend named Winston Smith, who works at the Ministry of Truth.  He said this is normal and that our well-being depends on knowing that BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.

Officially MS replied to those still seeking the “deal”, “Thank you for your interest in the feedback program. Due to high volume, we have reached our ‘while supplies last’ limit and have closed our free product incentive on 12/11/2007 at 2pm.”

They are rumored to soon have a new contest, however.  I believe, according to unnamed sources, that it involves an all expenses paid trip to Oceania in return for just a little bit of personal information.

Read more at Engadget

Back to the Future

I think of an operating system as the ground, or earth, that the computer relies on.  It is the base, the rock, the framework, and it must be a solid foundation to support all the components that will spring forth from it.

With that in mind, I ask, have we progressed in the 25 years that I’ve been using computers?

The first computer I ever used was the Apple IIe.  It had no hard drive, so we had to put a 5.25″ disk into the disk drive to run it.  It used a command line interface, and didn’t have much software.  But BASIC was all we needed to make magic happen.  At the time it didn’t seem very capable, but we were amazed by the possibilities.  I used to make schematic diagrams of my programs at home, and I couldn’t wait to enter them into the computer and watch the results pop up in color.  It truly thrilled me.  I couldn’t wait for the next best thing, surely it would be even better.

And it was.  In 1984 my girlfriend’s dad bought a Macintosh.  It sported a GUI in black and white.  It had a recycle bin, cool fonts, and could create incredible looking documents, like the resumes I used to make. 

That was high tech.  Now computers had become useful for business.  I knew one day I would get my own computer.  And I couldn’t wait.  Actually, I did wait.  For quite awhile.

Then in 1992 I got an IBM XT.  It flew.  The 6 mHz proc had a turbo button that would kick it all the way up to 8 mHz.  I actually wore driving gloves and a seat belt to use it.  Surely I jest. 

I remember getting my first spreadsheet program and trying to use it with the XT.  I would enter all my data, and somewhere on the sheet I’d put a formula in and press enter.  It would take 20 seconds to calculate.  I also remember buying the Jeopardy Game.  Ok, the graphics weren’t too hot, but it was a fun game.  Unfortunately, this was not a usable computer.  This was my first warning sign that “progress” was not always progressive.

A couple years later Radio Shack had a sale on computers.  They offered 0% financing for 12 months.  I needed a computer for my business, so I plunked down my $1700, and took home a 486!  Woohoo!  That was a huge upgrade for me.  It had a 14.4 modem, and 4 MB of memory.  But I wanted to use Microsoft Office which had a minimum Ram requirement of 8 MB.  So I went to CDW and bought 4 MB more.  For $200.  Two hundred dollars.  By the way, Office came on 7 3″ floppy disks.  Imagine how lean it was that the whole thing could fit on 7 1.44MB disks, or about 10 MB.  Now you need a DVD to contain the monster.

My 486 served me well for several years.  Eventually I upgraded the modem to a blazing 28.8 model, signed up with AOL, and discovered the Internet - or at least AOL online. 

I’m fast forwarding now to 1998.  Windows 98.  Yup.  We make fun of it now, but computers running 98 didn’t need tons of memory or speed.  And they ran tons of software.  It really wasn’t a bad OS.  And my Pentium II computer had something that I only dreamed of.  A cd burner.  I couldn’t believe I could actually create my own frickin’ cds!  That surely rocked. 

Notice a trend?  With the exception of the XT, computers were progressing nicely. 

2002 was a great year.  I decided to build my own computer.  I picked out the best components I could find.  I had a blazing Athlon proc, an LCD screen, Windows 2000, a super fast cd burner, tons of ram (528 MB), and put it all into my high tech mobo.  It cost me $900 for everything.  Half the price of my Radio Shack computer and 100 times more potent.  This computer is still lightning fast.  It is also the end of the line for progress.

With an expanding family we needed more computers.  So I bought a Windows XP laptop in ‘03.  The lappy cost me a serious $1600, but Windows XP was supposed to be a tremendous improvement over 2000.   So why did they need SP2?  That laptop is now run by my kids, but they complain about the speed.  It’s a dog.  It’s so freakin’ slow that it’s painful to watch.  I just upgraded the Ram from 256 Mb to 1 GB, but I fear that XP is so bloated that it can’t get out of its own way.  Remember the analogy I made at the beginning of this post?  While 2000 is like a rock solid foundation upon which lie all my components, XP is molasses.  Have you ever jogged on the beach?  Jog a couple miles and that’s Win XP.  I have to restart it fairly often to clear out all the gunk.  Meanwhile, the last time I restarted my 2000 was, uhm, uh, I can’t remember.  It’s been several weeks, if not months, since I restarted it.  2000 rules.

So 6 months ago I bought another lappy.  Three kids and a wife on two computers doesn’t work.  This Inspiron 1505 has Windows Vista and a dual processor.  Two processors!  It also had 1 GB of Ram.  This, I thought, would fly.  And fly it did, like a penguin.  I upgraded the Ram to 2 GB, b u t   i t ‘ s  s t i l l  t o o  d a r n  s l o w .  Not only is it slow, it needs to be restarted every two hours of use, otherwise it begins to crawl.  Then, to add to the misery, stuff just stops working.  Like Internet Explorer will just shut down and then restart itself.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve spent an hour or two writing a post only to lose it to a random shutdown.

This computer plays music, movies, surfs, creates movies and does tons of other stuff.  But it needs 2 GB of Ram, two processors, and many many Gigs of storage just for the bloated OS.  And with all this processing power you still get instability.  I ask, how can this be?  Since windows appeared 12 years ago with Windows 95, haven’t we gotten to the point where we are just adding cool new features?  Is it that hard to test these new features before they come out?  They’re incremental, not revolutionary for cripes sake.  It’s not like we are rewriting history.  The base code has been there all this time.  I am not complaining about hackers and trojans and stuff like that.  I just feel that the OS itself should be a rock, like 2000. 

So have we really progressed?  I’ll tell you one thing, my Apple IIe didn’t have random shutdowns.  And it was pretty quick, too.  If I try to play a UTube video on my Vista ultra super powerful lappy, it stops every 15 secs because it can’t download and process the video quickly enough.  But my Win2k eats ‘em up and begs for more. 

I think I’m going to put Win2k on both of my laptops.  And the lord may strike me down for what I’m about to say, but I might get me an Apple for my next computer.

I know it sounds crazy, but

Review: Logitech VX Nano Cordless Laser Mouse

Not long after I purchased my first desktop home computer the very first computer peripheral purchase I made for my home setup was a Logitech� Cordless iTouch keyboard and mouse. I loved that keyboard. It served my needs for many years until I decided to upgrade to one of Logitech�s newer keyboard/mouse combos. I have owned three Logitech wireless keyboards and four Logitech wireless mice over the years. They have all been solid devices and continue to function to this day! Tech-envy is the only reason I ditched one Logitech keyboard/mouse for another.

I was offered a Logitech� VX Nano Cordless Laser Mouse for notebooks and I jumped at the chance to review it. Admittedly I entered this review a little biased but, why wouldn�t I? From my personal experience, Logitech has a track record of producing solid peripheral devices. Did Logitech produce yet another winner with the VX Nano? Let�s find out�..continue the review here

Microsoft Blogger Accidentally Leaks Office Mobile Upgrade

A Microsoft Corp. employee on Thursday accidentally blogged about an upgrade to Office Mobile that shouldn’t be available for another couple of weeks. The upgrade, when it becomes available, should solve an incompatibility issue that left Windows Mobile 6.0 users unable to read Office 2007 file formats.

The download page is no longer accessible.

For more information on the upgrade see the following Mobility Site Article:

 Microsoft Office Mobile 6.1: Upgrade for Microsoft Office 2007 file formats

[Editor’s note: I chose not to include employee’s name. The saying “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” comes to mind…..We are all human and make mistakes. I do not know this person (personally), but have followed his blog for awhile. . ~Susan…. who makes her share of mistakes! ]

11/4 Daylight Saving Time: Is your Windows Mobile device ready?

Congress has changed the dates for Daylight Saving Time (DST) in the United States starting in 2007. Canada has adopted similar DST dates. These changes could cause clocks and Microsoft Outlook calendar appointments on Windows Mobile powered devices to display incorrect times for March 11 - April 1, 2007 and October 28 - November 4, 2007 and again in subsequent years.

Changes in Daylight Saving Time

Daylight Saving Time (DST) will now start three weeks earlier (2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March- March 11) and will end one week later (2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday in November- November 4). Changes in DST will cause the following problems for Windows Mobile powered devices in the U.S. and Canada unless the updated detailed above are applied: (Impact between October 28, 2007 and November 4, 2007)

• The device has outdated DST rules and will not honor the new DST transition time. The result is that the clock reads one hour ahead of actual time during the extended DST period.
• Calendar items display one hour ahead of actual time during the extended DST period.

To make sure your appointments on your Windows Mobile devices are accurate, you’ll need to update your device. If you regularly synchronize your device with your PC, you’ll need to update Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Outlook as well.

Microsoft has some tools that will help you make these updates:

• 2007 Time Zone Update for Microsoft Windows Operating Systems
• Outlook Time Zone Update Tool
• Daylight Saving Time 2007 Update Tool for Windows Mobile
• Exchange Time Zone Data Update Tool

Note: All users in the United States, Canada and Mexico should immediately install these updates. Users in other countries should install these updates if they travel to the United States, Canada and/or Mexico or if they make calendar appointments that include attendees that are based in the United States, Canada and/or Mexico.

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WebGuide4 now available free for all Windows Media Center users

From the Unwired:

Doug Berrett, the man behind WebGuide4 just announced that he recently finalized a business deal with Microsoft to make WebGuide4 available to users for free. This means, if you own a Windows XP Media Center or Windows Vista Media Center, you can get it free of charge now to stream and place shift your live TV, your videos and DVDs as well as view your photos and listen your music, from virtually any Internet connected PC as well as Internet connected Windows mobile device.

Furthermore, Doug announced that he’s joining Microsoft to become a member of the Media Center team. Actually he will focus on pushing Media Center into the high-end custom installation market. The custom installation market is a terrific incubator for new ideas and technologies that will eventually benefit the larger Media Center community.

The bad news is, that since he will be busy doing that, he won’t be able creating new features for WebGuide nor continue the current development. He will continue to monitor the Forums, make comments and provide updates for significant bugs but we shouldn’t expect any feature updates in the near future.

Anyway, as of today, WebGuide4 is pretty robust, definitely worth to give it a try if you own a Windows Media Center PC since it unwires all your Media Center content and makes you Windows Mobile device an even better “Portable Media Center” (incl. live TV streaming).

For more information visit WebGuide

Source: the Unwired