Where Are All the Flipping Smartphones?

When you look around at the type of mobile phone that the average person is using you’ll notice that the majority of phones are flip based. I’m talking about the average person like your mother, Aunt, Cousin, Grandparents, etc… Not the techno-geeks or early adapters. Just the average Joe and their phone. They’re typically cheap flip based devices that offer nothing more than the ability to make phone calls and send some text messages.

So what am I getting at? Well, there is a demand for the flip form factor. There’s no question that there are a number of dumb flip phones on the market today. But where are all the smart ones? RIM recently announced a new BlackBerry device to their line-up, the BlackBerry Pearl Flip. None of the other smartphone manufacturers have a flip phone in their product lineup. HTC did have that SmartFlip device, which was a pretty nice first attempt at making a flip phone. Especially if you had the Cingular version with more memory and a larger battery. Before that, we had Motorola, who made 2 different flip based smartphones – the MPX 200 and 220. While the 220 was plagued with problems, both devices where extremely popular for their time. That’s it for the Windows Mobile camp. Sony Ericsson had that P990 Symbian based device a number of years back. However, that wasn’t really a flip phone. It was more a PDA with a protector that covered the keyboard. And Nokia has the Communicator device, but that’s not a flip phone, it’s more of a clamshell. You can still make and answer calls without flipping the phone open. You only need open the phone to use the keyboard. Aside from the Communicator, Nokia does have a Series 60 flip phone – the N76. However, the N76 is already 2 years old.

It certainly looks like all the major manufacturers are ignoring this market segment, except for RIM. I don’t understand why these companies are avoiding such a popular form-factor. There’s no doubt that people like the flip design, so why not offer more smartphone devices with it? I can understand that there is some concern because of the hinge and the risk of that breaking, but I think the majority of manufacturers have been able to make solid hinges that don’t easily break.

The only other concern that I can think of is that the form factor doesn’t allow for easy text entry. Most standard flip phones are using T9 with the standard 12 key layout. Smartphone users tend to want a full QWERTY layout. While this could be hard with the traditional flip phone, I can’t imagine it being a show stopper. I actually prefer the landscape screen found on most messenger style devices over the portrait screen found on the typical flip phone. Combine the full QWERTY with the landscape screen and you’ll have a wider flip phone than most. Nothing’s wrong with that. The option is to use the portrait screen with a SureType-like keyboard. This would provide the traditional flip form factor.

I can’t imagine any other reasons on why this design hasn’t happened yet. I’m growing sick of the traditional smartphone designs. It’s time for a change, let’s see if any manufacturer is willing to step up to the table.

Exploring the New Bell Experience on Windows Mobile

There’s no shortage of manufacturers that are tweaking and extending Windows Mobile these days.  The latest addition to the group is Bell Mobility - one of Canada’s big 3 carriers. Bell announced that they would be releasing a new interface, referred to as the “Bell Experience” on their upcoming Windows Mobile phone.  The phone in question is a Touch Pro from HTC and the interface is not a simple rename or quick modification of the TouchFlo interface that HTC has loaded these devices with. Instead Bell has actually created a new interface that, surprisingly, looks pretty nice.

Fellow MVP, Mark Arteaga, has had the chance to play with this device for the last couple weeks as he tours across Canada presenting at the Windows Mobile TechDays sessions. He’s posted a number of screen shots showing off this new interface. The image I used here is from the new entertainment tool Bell has provided.  Mark has a complete collection of images including the new Today screen, how to customize it, and even the more accessible volume settings. Check out the images and what Mark has to say about this new interface and let us know what you think.

Personally, I think it’s pretty nice change.  I don’t know if it’s enough to get me to switch from the GSM network to Bell’s CDMA based network.  However, for the average customer this could really make Windows Mobile a much easier platform to use, while still providing the great power and extensibility one would expect from Windows Mobile.

Microsoft’s SMTP Patch could Delete your Email Accounts

A number of news sites have been reporting about Microsoft releasing a patch that fixes an issue with sending email on your Windows Mobile 6.1 device. The patch is available from the Outlook Mobile team web site and claims to fix the problem. I’m sure it might do that, but there are a number of things that they fail to mention. So before you go and install this patch, read the issues below and weigh the decision to install or not.

#1 The patch will restart your device without warning. If you’re in the middle of typing an email, have some applications open with data not saved, or perhaps you are trying to avoid rebooting the device - period, then you’re in for a nice little surprise. There’s no mention of a reboot on the Outlook Mobile site or during the install.

#2 The device restarts in Flight Mode. I’m not sure why it was necessary to put my device into Flight mode (turning the cellular radio off) in order to fix this bug. There are some people that might be using the device in a locked down or kiosk state and they might not have access to re-enable the cellular radio. There are others who might not even know how to toggle Flight mode. If you put my device into Flight mode, you should be taking it out as well. 

#3 And biggest issue that I came across - All of your IMAP or POP accounts could be deleted or inaccessible. I had 4 different email accounts on my device, but only 1 of these accounts had this SMTP problem. In that problem account I had 2 emails saved as draft because I wasn’t able to send them. The first was a short one-liner and no big deal.  The other email was a proposal that I had spent the better part of an hour working on while my kids flipped and tumbled through their gymnastics class.  After installing this patch my phone no longer shows these email accounts when I go into Outlook Mobile.  They are not listed in the Switch Accounts window and they are not present when I push left or right from the inbox.  The only accounts I have left are the default Outlook account and my SMS messages.

All of these issues are unacceptable and 100% avoidable through proper testing and communication. It’s nice to finally see Microsoft issuing patch’s to the consumer directly. However, without the proper testing you’re just wasting everyone’s time. It’s not like I have a weird or hacked phone.  I’m using a BlackJack II from Samsung and AT&T - one of the most popular phones on the market today.

This gets back to the point I made in an earlier post about Microsoft employee’s actually using the device without Exchange Direct Push as so many of us do.  I would love to see how many MCB team members are actually connecting their device to IMAP or POP email servers.  Just like desktop ActiveSync, I think I can count the number on one hand.  Microsoft, if you want to be in this game and compete against the likes of Google and Apple, you need to be more ontop of things and bring your A game to the table. 

I’m off to re-create all my email accounts on the device and then retype my lost proposal.

Custom In-Car Mounting System from ProClip Reviewed

I don’t think I need to sit here and tell any of you that driving and using your electronic devices is a bad idea. Your attention should be focused on the road and the other cars around you on the road. Trying to dig your phone out of your pocket, or trying to hold it and the steering wheel at the same time, is just asking for problems.

There are plenty of universal mounts available for your car. Most of them try to accommodate every device style and shape plus every cars unique dashboard. I’ve tried a number of these, but in the end it’s just another waste of $9.99 or whatever they’re charging for that crap. On a recommendation from a couple friends, I have recently outfitted my car with the ProClip system. ProClip has an interesting approach - they separate the device mount from the car mount. The ProClip web site has a simple wizard that will walk you through the process. First you select a manufacturer and device type to get the holder that works for your device. Then you need to select the make and model of your car to find a dash mount that is specifically designed for that car. The two parts then connect together providing the best possible fit for your unique device car combination. The two parts can connect directly to each other, or you can insert ProClip’s “Move Clip” between them. The Move Clip is simply 2 pieces of plastic, one half is cut with a v-shaped groove, and the other half has a matching v-shaped protrusion. By attaching one half to the dash mount, and the other half to the device holder, you can easily slide the two together and quickly remove or swap the device holder.

All said and done, it really didn’t take long to install. I spent more time washing and cleaning out the inside of the car than I did installing the mounts. There’s no marks on the interior of the vehicle at all - no screw holes, no drilling, no nothing. The dash mount just clips in around a vent, or inserts between the trim on the dash. I was pretty sceptical at first, as I’ve wasted so much money on those cheap mounts, that I didn’t figure something that sounded this easy could be true. However, It really didn’t take long for me to see how mistaken I was. Read more

Why is Sync Still so Hard with Windows Mobile?

The fundamental idea behind a personal digital assistant (PDA) is to have all your appointments, contacts, tasks, and reminders with you while you’re not sitting in front of your computer in the office. I’ve been using Microsoft’s mobile platform since the iPAQ 3600 series way back in 2000 (I think?). There’s been one thing that hasn’t changed over all these years and revisions of the flagship mobile operating system from Microsoft - Sync. Despite numerous revisions to Active Sync (more commonly known as ActiveStink among the community) or Windows Mobile Device Center, as it’s now called on Vista, and Windows Mobile, there are still lots of people having lots of problems.

Duplicates is the biggest issue that I have been facing since the very start.  I don’t know how or why, but with every sync Outlook adds another copy of a reminder or appointment. The included image shows all the reminders in my calendar and I’ve highlighted the current crop of duplicates (click the image to see a larger version).  These are just the ones that fit into the screen shot.  Unfortunately, there are plenty more. Ultimately, I have to spend about 30 minutes every month or two, just to browse my calendar and remove these duplicates. Frustrating? Absolutely! What’s worse, is that I have personally brought this to the attention of people within Microsoft on a number of occasions and yet nothing has been done about it. Or if something was done, it didn’t fix the problem.  We’ve been through a number of copies of Outlook, ActiveSync, and Windows Mobile.  You would think that over all these years, and updates that they could have hammered out where the problem is coming from and done something to correct this.

As the mobile industry welcomes Apple and Google into it’s arena, Microsoft has to get their act together and create a solid sync experience. I won’t even get into the fact that the iPhone found all my email accounts in Outlook and ported them over the the phone without a single hiccup (Another thing Microsoft should have done years ago!). iTunes, Apples’s poorly named sync tool, actually works very well when it comes to transferring contacts, reminders, and what-have-you to the device. And while I haven’t actually had hands-on time with the new G1 Android device from Google, I haven’t read about any real problems getting personal information onto the device. In fact, from what I understand, it sync’s from the cloud pretty easily and hassle free.

Microsoft needs to show that they mean business in this space and with today’s Sync solution, they are a long way off. There needs to be a fool-proof, easy to use Sync tool or customers will start looking elsewhere for the Smartphones and PDA’s.  Not everyone is running or wants to run Exchange just so they can sync details with their phones.  I challenge the entire Windows Mobile, ActiveSync, and Outlook teams at Microsoft to turn off Exchange Direct Push and only use desktop ActiveSync for the next 6 months. Maybe then you will understand the frustrations and problems of your customers.

Laws to Prevent Cell Phone Use While Driving are a Bad Idea

A number of local governments across North America and around the world are looking at laws or have already passed laws that prevent the use of cellular devices while operating a motor vehicle. There is a lot of people drive on the roads today who are far too focused on their phone conversation and not enough on the road in front of them or the drivers around them. However a law that is aimed at cell phone use does solve the problem. Well, it solves 1 aspect of the problem - cell phones. It doesn’t address the other distractions that drivers engage in. The Ontario government has recognized this and is taking a slightly better approach by banning the use of MP3 players, GPS units, and cell phones. If made into law, you will still be able to use the devices, just not touch them. While this is better it’s still not the right approach. Now, before anyone jumps the gun, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be allowed to use these things while driving. I am saying that any law focused on improving the safety of our roads should be aim at anything that takes the drivers attention away from the task at hand. It shouldn’t be limited the technology of today, but at anything the driver gets into while driving.

How many times have you seen someone eat fast food, reading the newspaper or a book, putting on make-up, or even shaving while they are driving? How many times have you seen a driver reaching down to grab something off the floor of the passenger side of the car. Typically this is the result of them dropping said item moments earlier when,they were trying to use it instead of focusing on driving. This is so common that I can’t even count the number of times I’ve seen it. Oh, here’s a great one I saw the other day: the sun visor was down, a GPS unit was mounted directly above the steering wheel on the windshield, and the driver was eating some sort of fast food. Now before we go any further, I want you to really think about this setup. With the sun visor down, the amount of available windshield to see out of, is significantly reduced. Lets add a GPS directly above the steering wheel and you now have just a small amount of space to view the road and cars ahead. But wait, we now need to take at least one hand off the wheel to hold our fast food. This is a tragedy just waiting to happen and the worse part is these new laws do nothing in this case. (Some US states have banned windshield mounting of devices. Unfortunately, not here where I live.)

I do a fair amount of driving each day in both heavy and light traffic and I have seen each of the above and more! What good is a law focused on limiting cell phone use when there are lots of people chowing down on hamburgers and fries? This is just as dangerous as talking on the phone, in my opinion.

It’s great that the government is looking at new laws to help make our roads safer, but the law really needs to have a broad focus and shouldn’t be limited to 1 or 2 technologies. Anything that takes your attention away from the task at hand, driving, should be illegal. It’s plain and simple. We don’t need to create a law each and every time. If we do it right from the start then we won’t need 20 different laws just to say that you shouldn’t be messing around with X, Y, or Z while driving.

A Fresh New Look At Mobile Jaw - Kind Of

Back when I was first building Mobile Jaw, I had picked another CMS as the backend system to power the site. I also had a site design made up that was specific to that CMS. Due to a number of short-comings in that system, I switched over to WordPress. That switch resulted in many long nights as I ported the site design over to work on WordPress.  In the end, I had a working template, but I was never really 100% pleased with it. The original author had used nested tables to a level that boggles the minds of even the greatest HTML designers and I wanted those gone.  The port job was “good enough” to launch the site, but ultimately I wanted a faster, lighter, and more flexible design.

Which brings us to today!  I’m proud to announce updated look and feel as Mobile Jaw moves to a fully WordPress compatible, fast, and flexible design. There are a couple things that still need tweaking and if you find anything that doesn’t work or just doesn’t look right, please feel free to post in this thread and let me know!   The rest of the tweaks are minor and will be coming over the next few weeks.

I hope you like the new layout. It’s not a drastic change by any means. And yes, I realize that if I just listened to Chris from the start, things would have been a lot easier.  I will always do as Chris instructs from now on.

Android Already Facing Security Concerns

The week-old Android operating system that powers T-Mobile’s G1 smartphone is off to a rough start as a team of experts from ISE have identified and successfully exploited a security vulnerability on the device. The vulnerability is located in one of the 80 open source packages assembled by Google for Android. Further, the vulnerability is related to a buffer overflow in an older version of the package and has already been fixed. However Google didn’t use the latest version of this package for Android.

ISE has not released full details about this issue and are working with Google to resolve the issue. It looks like the impact of this vulnerability is limited to running any code with the privileges of the web browser application and information that it has access to. So a web site would have to trick the user into entering confidential information or cookies and cache from the browser sessions. 

What concerns me is the speed at which this has been found. It makes me wonder if  there are many more just waiting to be found. There will always be bugs and issues when it comes to software development, but this exploit doesn’t seem to be overly complicated and should have been caught before the release.

Ultimately, this will be a good test of the over-the-air update feature of Android.

You can read more information regarding this exploit on the ISE web site.

Customize the New Sliding Panel Home Screen on Windows Mobile 6.1

I’m sure that everyone with a Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard (non-touch screen) device has been busy playing with the new sliding panel home screen. The question routinely comes up on how to modify the panels and their order as well as add new panels. The answer was easy – simply edit the corresponding xml and registry settings. Unfortunately, the answer may have been easy, but actually doing it can be difficult for some.

Enter CHome Configurator from mind of tlogix over at Smartphone: Nuts & Bolts. This utility will ease the pain of customizing the new sliding panel home screen to your liking. CHome Configurator allows you to add new panels, and modify or delete existing panels without having to mess around with xml files and registry settings. Best of all, this utility is FREE! So you can easily and affordably customize your 6.1 home screen. Now, I would love to see a home screen theme that takes advantage of the sliding panel design. Who’s up to that challenge?

Once you’ve download the 2 CAB files (one for the application and another for the Icon Pack), copy them to your device and install them. Both of these CAB files are pretty small and I would recommend installing them to the device and not the storage card.  I’m sure it might be possible to place them on the storage card, but you wouldn’t want to risk any problems using the home screen if the storage card becomes corrupt or is removed.

So, download CHome, customize your home screen and share with us the changes you made. I’ll be playing around with it over the course of the next couple days and I’ll post back with the additions and changes that I’ve made. 

One thing to note; If you are running a Windows Mobile Professional device, this application will not work for you. The sliding panel home screen is available on Standard (non-touch screen) devices only. This is due to the fact that Pro devices do not use the same XML based configuration for the today screen.

The New HP iPAQ Voice Messenger Smartphone - Take 2

Jack Cook posted about a new voice messenger device from HP earlier today. What’s interesting to me, is that HP might have learned from their past mistakes on this device.  The original Voice Messenger device from HP was a horrible unit with poor screen, low memory, and no real appeal or wow factor to speak of.  To be fair, the voice software that came on the device was pretty cool, but aside from that, there was nothing that made anyone want to own one of these.

I rode HP hard about this device from day one, and I’m excited to see that they listened to what the community had to say and came back with what appears to be a pretty sweet device.

The new Voice Messenger comes with a sure-type like 20-keypad device, integrated GPS, WiFi, 3G, Quad-Band, Bluetooth 2.0, 128MB SDRAM / 256MB Flash ROM, a 1260 mAh battery, and a 3.1 megapixel camera. Best of all, it runs Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard edition.  It’s great to see that some companies still see the value in having a non-touch screen device.

Visit HP’s web site to learn more about the new Voice Messenger Smartphone. I haven’t seen any information on price or availability yet, but I would expect this to be shipping in the next month or so. I think I’m going to need to get my hands on one of these for review.

Next Page »