Understanding Application Lock on Windows Mobile Standard Devices

Touch screen or no touch screen. There’s more differences between Windows Mobile Standard and Professional than the touch capability of the screen. Application security is one of the major differences. When you install software on Professional based devices, the most you are asked is if you trust this unsigned application. If you say yes, then that application has full access to the device and any API’s that it would like to interact with. That’s not the case with Windows Mobile Standard based devices. When installing an application on Standard, you will still be asked if you trust this unsigned application.

Beyond that, if the application is signed with a certificate that is in the privileged store, then it will run as a privileged application. If it’s signed with a certificate that is in the unprivileged store, then the application does not have privileged access. What’s all that mean? Well, unless the application is privileged signed, then it won’t be able to access restricted parts of the device. There are a couple good articles over on MSDN that outline the security model on Standard devices. I recommend reading “Windows Mobile Powered Device Security Model” and “Application Security”.

So what actions are considered privileged? Without turning this article into a developers focus, I’ll just say; typically this is anything that interacts with the core functionality of Windows Mobile. If you are looking for more details on exactly what APIs, and registry settings are effected, then check out this article on MSDN.

This is all great, but how do you turn off privileged mode so that your favorite application can run without any problems. You can change the security values on your device using the codes outlined on this MSDN page. You need to define what security policies you want to change and build an XML provisioning file with those inside. Then using a privileged application, run this settings file on the device. And that is the tricky part of this whole process. Finding just the right application that is signed with the correct level of privilege to allow you to change the two-tier security level on your phone is not an easy task. Stay tuned for part II of this article entitled “Removing Application Lock on Windows Mobile Standard Devices”, where I will provide the answer to that very question.

HTC Snap vs Samsung Jack – FIGHT!

Being a big fan of the Messenger style Windows Mobile devices, I was pretty excited to see HTC return to this market with the Snap (T-Mobile Dash 3g, Verizon Ozone, etc…). While they were away, Samsung really stepped up their game and released a number of devices. HTC typically does a great job on the hardware, so let’s compare it to the latest and greatest device from Samsung and see how it fairs.

Processor

Both the HTC Snap (also known as the T-Mobile Dash 3G) and the Samsung Jack sport a 528MHz processor which provides a wealth of power for general tasks. Despite the fast processor, I have noticed some lag on the HTC Snap. Especially on opening the start menu after a fresh reboot. It’s a good 4-5 seconds waiting for the start menu to populate. It draws the windows almost instantly, but it takes a while to show the available programs. Advantage – Jack

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How To: Push Email for Windows Mobile

Windows Live Mail (Hotmail) has the ability to push email to your Windows Phone. That’s fantastic news for every WinMo user with Blackberry envy! Of course, there are many corporate users with an Exchange server than can push email but for the rest of us this is great.

I actually had my phone set up to simulate getting push email by having Gmail SMS me on new messages. Having my phone check Gmail every 10mins would drain the battery WAY too quickly. If the SMS looked important enough I would do a send/receive on my email to get the message. Not great but at least it notified me right away.

With Windows Live push email service you will truly get push email but there are a few caveats that I wanted to point out to help those that are trying to work with this service.

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A Closer Look – The Samsung Jack Reviewed

It may not be called BlackJack, but the new Samsung Jack is the third release in the popular BlackJack series of smartphones. The original BlackJack and BlackJack II devices both reached the million plus sales mark. Can Samsung repeat that success with this new phone? If first impressions are any indication, then the new Jack should easily live up to the reputation of the BlackJack’s before it and reach that million seller mark.

Here’s a rundown of the technical specifications for the new Jack:

• Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard (Non-Touch)
• 528MHz Processor
• 256MB ROM / 256MB RAM
• Supports 16GB MicroSD
• GSM/GPRS/EDGE – 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz
• 3G UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA – 850 / 1900 / 2100 MHz
• HSDPA – 3.6 Mbps
• 320 x 240, 2.4 inch screen
• QWERTY Backlit keyboard
• 1480 mAh Battery
• 3.2 Megapixel Camera
• WiFi – 802.11b/g
• GPS
• Bluetooth 2.0
• 4.4 x 2.4 x 0.5 inches (H x W x D)
• Weight – 3.6 ounces

If you compare these specs to the BlackJack II, you’ll notice that the processor is a whole lot faster, and the battery is a whole lot less. The BlackJack II sported a 260MHz processor, while the new Jack has a 528MHz processor. That’s a pretty significant upgrade in speed and it’s noticeable. The battery goes from 1700mAh down to 1480mAh. That’s a drop of 220mAh! We’ve got a faster phone with a smaller battery and if you guessed that battery life dropped, then you would be right. The BlackJack II would easily make it through a day and most of the second day before it would need a charge. With the Jack, you will get 24 hours our of a charge and then need to charge it. If you have a busy day, you’ll need to charge it when you get home. Otherwise, you’ll probably need to charge it on the way to work in the morning. [ ..Read More.. ]

Taking a Tour of the T-Mobile Dash 3G

Also known as the HTC Snap, the T-Mobile Dash 3G is HTC’s latest Windows Mobile Standard based device. It’s the first messenger style device since the original Dash was released all those years ago. The Snap features a much faster 528MHz processor, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, a Trackball for navigation, 256MB ROM / 192MB RAM, 2.0 Megapixel camera, Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, 7.2 Mbps HSDPA, a 2.4 inch screen, and weighing in at 4.23 ounces. Besides the physical specs, the device comes loaded with Office Mobile, Google Maps, Live Search, QuickGPS, TeleNav, a YouTube client, T-Mobile My Account application, a number of IM applications, and some video and camera utilities.

There’s a couple things I noticed right away. First, the scroll speed on the trackball by default, is slower than I would have liked. I changed it from Normal to Fast and that made it more responsive. The other thing that caught my attention is the mouse pointer that appears when you open IE Mobile. I changed the speed of the trackball for IE as well, but still found the trackball to be very unresponsive in IE Mobile. Once you learn that the trackball doesn’t support diagonal motion, you start to get better response out of it. At that point, two swipes would get me all the way across the screen. [ ..Read More.. ]

Hard Resetting the Propel Pro Smartphone

Occasionally something goes wrong and your device becomes unresponsive or perhaps you just purchased a used Propel Pro off eBay and want to wipe it clean before you start configuring it for your personal needs. Regardless of the reason, I’m going to tell you what you need to know to hard reset the device and make sure it’s back to the factory default.

The Propel Pro, also know as the i627, shares a lot with the Samsung Jack (i637) including the process of hard resetting and just like the Jack, there are 2 different methods for hard resetting the Propel Pro – Master Clear and Master Reset. The Master Reset function will reset the phone back to factory settings. The Master Clear option will reset the phone and wipe clean the user storage locations.

If the phone still starts then you can wipe the phone from the Start Menu by pressing Start / Settings / Security and then select the reset method of your choice. You will then see a prompt to enter a password before the wipe takes place. By default, the reset password is 0000 (that’s four zero’s).

If your Propel Pro will not start, you can still perform a reset. From a powered off state, press the power button while holding down the “F” key on the keyboard. Keep holding down the “F” key until you see the format menu. Here is where you can select which type of reset you would like to do. Press 1 for Master Clear and 2 for a Master Reset. After making your selection, the device will then be wiped.

Now you’re back to the beginning and can start to customize the device to your liking.

UPDATE: I mentioned above that during a hard reset from the Security menu, the phone will prompt you for a password. That’s not the case with the Propel Pro. It will take do the wipe as soon as you say “Yes” to either method. So PLEASE be careful when doing this!

Google Reader on a Windows Phone

When it comes to using Google Reader on a Windows Mobile phone you do have some options.

For those that don’t know; Google Reader is an RSS reader so that you can keep up with your favourites sites and blogs without having to open each one individually. It is a fantastic service, especially when time is slightly crunched. One of the best things about it is that when you read an article from any computer or platform it will show as “read” in all others. If you used a regular RSS reader you most likely will have to manually mark messages read on other platforms to keep them up to date.

Mobile Internet Explorer version
In Windows Mobile you can view a simple version of Google Reader by opening Mobile Internet Explorer and typing the address reader.google.com. You will want to go to the desktop version first and add the sites you want to follow, but once that is done you will see any updates to the site in Google Reader on whichever device you are on.

iPhone version in a Windows Phone
The Windows Mobile version does the trick and is certainly quick but if you want to have a slightly more robust mobile experience you can use the iPhone version of the Google Reader. It will not work in Mobile Internet Explorer but will work in Opera Mobile or iris Browser. Simply type in the address www.google.com/reader/i/

Speeed Reader
Another option is to use an RSS reader. Speeed Reader is actually built specifically for Google Reader and is nice and quick to use. It will show your folders; open a folder and you will see the specific sites listed with the number of new articles showing. Nothing overly fancy, it just works nicely.

If you have any questions or other options please feel free to comment. We want to hear from you.

Btw, be sure to add MobileJaw.com to your reader profile!

I’m at work right now, but I will add some screen caps later.

A Couple New Toys for Me

Recently I was able to get together with our Editor in Chief, Mike Temporale for a quick bite and snag a couple of great phones to play around with; the Samsung Omnia and HTC S740 (THANKS MIKE!!).

The Omnia is a slate-style Windows Mobile Professional device running on the Bell Mobility network. I already have a Bell account, so I just switched over to this phone. Using it as my main phone and loving it. The screen is a good size and it is quite lightweight.

It does take a bit of time to get used to a new phone, so I will be sharing some thoughts.

Since the Omnia is still available from Bell I will be posting about some of the apps I have put on it and how I have customized it for my liking. It may not be the latest Windows Phone but it is a great smartphone that is a little less expensive.

The HTC S740 is a Windows Mobile Standard device that is unlocked for use on Rogers. Since I don’t have a Rogers account I am simply using WiFi with this one. Its a great little smartphone with a very nice sliding keyboard. I gotta say, this is one well made piece of hardware.

This one is just going to be for playing around. I actually have always used the Professional version of Windows Mobile and wanted to see what the Standard version was like.

More to come.

Twikini Updated and Reviewed

I’ve talked about Twitter clients a fair amount around here, including a review of the beta version of Twikini back in May. Since that post, Twikini has seen a couple of releases and there’s another release coming up really soon that adds support for posting a link to your exact location using Google Maps. In my review I listed a couple things that were missing from Twikini that I felt was needed to make it a hands-down winner in the Windows Mobile space. I’m please to say that the most recent version has addressed just about everything on that list. Twikini supports multiple user accounts, skweezer for browsing links, sending Direct Messages, as well as showing TwitPic’s without actually having to open the twitpic website. Needless to say, Twikini has been my Windows Mobile twitter client of choice for a while now. If you haven’t checked it out, I recommend you do. It’s well worth the $5 price tag.

If you haven’t read my past review, it’s right here. For something a little more recent, I also recommend you take a look at the review posted by Clinton Fitch. Clinton does a great job of going over the features and showing you all the screen shots you can manage. It will give you a full understanding of what you can expect from Twikini before you even download it.

Microsoft’s MyPhone is Great But…

Microsoft’s MyPhone service allows you to backup your Windows Mobile device to the cloud in case of loss or accidental deletion. It’s a very simple application that will backup your data once a day at a given time. It only uploads the items that have been added or changed. When you get a new phone, you can just install the MyPhone client and it will sync all your contacts, photos, music, and appointments. If you don’t have data, you can still use MyPhone. Just configure the client to do a manual sync and make sure you ActiveSync your phone first and then you can run the backup. It’s worth having a backup.Since I have an unlimited data plan, I leave my phone to backup every night at 11:30pm.

I came across a bug with MyPhone while I was on vacation and out of cellular coverage. As I mentioned, the MyPhone client is set to backup my phone every night. However, since I was out of cellular coverage I disabled the radio on the phone. Why waste the battery having it try to find a cell tower when I know it won’t. However, MyPhone would still run and try to run the backup despite not having a cellular connection to work on. It would then display an error message about failing to backup. Now, I can understand that there is a need to let the user know that the backup failed. However, if the cellular radio isn’t even on, then I don’t see the point. The radio would have been turned off for a reason – MyPhone needs to check the status of the radio and respect that. I use the phone as a clock, and in the morning I grab it to see the time. Because of this, I had to clear the error before returning to the home screen and seeing the time.

MyPhone still ranks tops in my books, but Microsoft needs to address this little bug. Oh, and while you’re at it, they should also think about allowing you to name each phone that connects. As it is now, I have 5 “Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard” and 1 “Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional”. I can figure out which device the Professional one is. But I’m not sure which of the Standard ones I should be deleting. It would also be nice if I could connect multiple phones to the same MyPhone account and decide if I want to keep their information separate from each other or merged together so that they all have the exact same content. I’ve got a lot of other nice-to-have’s for MyPhone, but for now, let’s just start with fixing the problem with trying to sync even when the radio is off.

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