Window Mobile Needs some Browser Love!

Its already been said many times but it bears repeating over and over until it happens. Windows Mobile needs a marquee browser!!

One of the most significant parts of the iPhone experience is the Safari browser. It is truly a very well down browser, based on the WebKit engine. While it lacks flash it renders pages quickly and accurately. With multitouch, zooming in and out is easy and almost fun. The only thing Mobile Safari doesn’t do well (other than that flash thingy I mentioned) is text reflowing; in other words automatically having the text on a page fit the screen based on it’s zoom level.

Actually, the just announced HTC Hero running the Android OS also has a WebKit based browser but it does what the iPhone doesn’t. HTC has made some wonderful modifications and the Hero’s browser will have both flash support and text reflow. But, like Mike I still have a hard time liking that “chin” on HTC’s Android devices. Lose it already! It isn’t a distinctive feature that adds…anything good to the phone!

Sorry, lost my head there.
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Disable the Sent TXT Message on Windows Mobile

As my SMS’ing has increased over the last little while I’m getting more and more annoyed with the message sent notification that shows up on after sending a text message on a Windows Mobile Smartphone. Yes, I know that it will actually go away by itself if you leave it alone, but I’m a mover and shaker and I want move along to another task. Having that message pop up is just annoying.  So, without further ado, here’s the registry hack you’ll need to do in order to stop that message from showing.  This should work on pretty much any Windows Mobile Standard / Smartphone (non-touch screen) device.

First thing is to fire up your favorite registry editor. Your phone doesn’t have one installed, so you’ll have to get one and install it first.  I recommend PHM - it’s good and it’s free. In your registry editor, go to HKLM \ Software \ Microsoft \ Inbox. Create a new key with the name of Settings. Then select that key and create a new String value (you should now be under the new key Settings, that you just created) and set the name as SMSNoSentMsg and the value as 1  Reboot your phone and that’s it.

Change the Default Home Page for IE Mobile on Windows Mobile

This post was originally posted on my personal blog a while back (long before Mobile Jaw came to exist). I’m re-posting / moving it here as my personal blog is about to get a fresh start and I felt that many people could still benefit from this information.

Please Note: The following information applies to Windows Mobile Standard 6.0 devices and older. If you’re device has a touch screen, or is running a newer version of Windows Mobile Standard, then this does not apply to you.

You wouldn’t think this was a hard task. After all, you can do it very easily on the Pocket PC. However, for some reason known only to the developers at Microsoft, it’s not an easy task for Windows Mobile Standard (Smartphone / Non-Touchscreen) based devices. I know that some are you are wondering why anyone would want to change the default home page on IE mobile. To all of you I say "Why not?" and "UNLIMITED DATA".

So, let’s get down to how this is done.  First, you will need a good registry editor.  If you don’t already have one, grab a copy of PHM or even SOTI’s Pocket Controller - then you can edit from the desktop. Browse to the following location HKLM / Software / Microsoft / Internet Explorer / AboutURLs.  In this section you should see a number of entries labelled home_04xx that has a value of file://\windows\default_04xx.htm The trick here is to pick the correct entry.  For me, it’s home_0409, edit this and change the value to whatever you want to use for your home page - http://www.google.com I think the different entries are for different languages.  With a little testing and you should be able to figure out what page your device is loading.

I would be interested to hear what others find as their default home page and what language they are using on the device.  It would help others to figure out what entry they need to edit to get the same results.

That’s all there is to it.  Get going and change the your mobile home page.

LG Announces the GW550 Messenger Smartphone

Earlier this year, LG committed to making Windows Mobile the main operating system used on their smartphone devices and over the next 4 years they would ship a whopping 50 devices based on Windows Mobile. With that in mind, the other day at CommunicAsia, LG announced a new business oriented smartphone called GW550. While the name is less than inspiring, the device looks like it could be a winner. It’s a Windows Mobile Standard based device, which means that the device does not have a touch screen. The GW550 is a typical messenger style device with a QWERTY keyboard below the screen. It features a 2.4 inch display with QVGA resolution, a 3 megapixel camera, HSDPA 7.2 Mbps, HSUPA 2.0 Mbps, Quad-band GSM with ‘global’ 3G support, and a 1300mAh battery. There’s no information provided about when the device will be available for purchase or what the expected price will be.  We also don’t know what sort of customizations LG has done to the software on the device.

It’s still very early and hard to say if this device is going to be a smashing success or not.  If LG has packed it with a powerful processor like HTC and Samsung are doing, along with a GPS and WiFi, I can’t see any reason why this device won’t be a hit.  Hopefully we’ll learn more about this device in the coming weeks. I would love to get my hands on a unit and give it a run through.

(Source=PhoneArena.com)

HTC Snap Smartphone Reviewed at MobilityMinded.com

It’s been a long time since HTC had a Windows Mobile Standard device.  The Excalibur is a great device for it’s time, but it lacks many of the more popular features found on today’s Standard edition devices. Earlier this year, HTC announced an all new Standard edition phone to replace the Excalibur and it’s finally starting to ship.  You can find this device in many of the popular online mobile retail outlets as well as on various carrier networks.

The question is, does HTC still have it?  Is this new Standard edition device enough to win back the market which they once owned? Or does Samsung and Motorola (to a lesser degree) still have the market on messenger devices cornered? The Excalibur was my device of choice for a short time.  I then switched to Samsung’s BlackJack line of devices and haven’t looked back because HTC just didn’t have the features that I was looking for. 

All that should be changing with the release of HTC’s Snap smartphone.  Remo Knops from Mobility Minded has got his hands on the new Snap smartphone and posted a detailed review of the device.  Take a chance to read his review and let us know your thoughts on the Snap.  Is this too little too late from HTC or is it just what the doctor ordered?

Samsung’s Smashing New Smartphones

Samsung has officially announced four new Windows Mobile devices. There was no mention of price or availability of the 3 Windows Mobile Professional and 1 Standard devices. However, it is expected that they will be available in the next couple months. The Professional devices all build off the incredibly successful Omnia product line. The first device is the Omnia II which will feature a large 3.1 inch AMOLED display with 480×800 resolution, 800 MHz processor, TouchWiz 2.0 user interface, and Samsung’s Dolfin internet browser that supports viewing of up to 5 web pages simultaneously. The Omnia II, also known as the Jet, will also sport a 5 megapixel camera, GPS, FM Radio, Bluetooth, WiFi, DNSe and SRS Sound Effect technology, as well as DivX and Xvid video support. The Omnia Pro will have a slide-out QWERTY keyboard allowing fast and easy text input. The 4 row keyboard will slide on the left side of the device. The Omnia Lite will scale things down a little with a 3 megapixel camera and aGPS.

The final phone, and the only Windows Mobile Standard based device announced, is built from the extremely popular BlackJack I/II line of devices. The new Omnia Pro B7320 phone is very much the same as the Samsung Jack that has been released on AT&T’s network. The only noticeable difference in features is that the B7320 model will add an FM Radio.

The Omnia II and Omnia Pro devices appear to be very nice units. I’m not so sure about the Lite at this time, we’ll have to wait and see how that one turns out. And the B7320 (Jack) device is a solid follow-up to the BlackJack II. Samsung is sure moving hard and fast in the mobile space. It will be interesting to see what HTC announces later this month at their big event.

HTC Touch Pro 2 Gets Reviewed

Back at Mobile World Congress, HTC announced the new Touch Pro 2 device which builds upon the successful Touch family of products – specifically, the Touch Pro (no surprise there, eh?). The Touch Pro 2 has recently become available for purchase. Currently the device is shipping with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, but HTC has publicly said that they will be releasing a Windows Mobile 6.5 upgrade for this device. So if you’re looking to move from your current device, but you want the latest and greatest version of Windows Mobile and you don’t want to wait until the fall, then this device is a great option for you.

Recently the Gear Diary review team of Judie Lipsett and Drew Guttadore joined forces with Clinton Fitch to post a really interesting 3 person review of this hot new device. I had a chance to play with this device for a short time back in early March, and it’s an amazing piece of hardware. My initial thoughts back then, was that the Touch Pro 2 could be the first device that makes me want to switch back to a touch screen device.

Check out the review (on ClintonFitch.com or Gear Diary)  and let us know what your thoughts are on the Touch Pro 2.

Palm Pre - Latest from Palm is Reviewed Around the Web

I’m pretty sure that you’ve heard a little rumble about Palm’s new smartphone over the last couple days.  Palm has been trying hard to generate some buzz around their all new smartphone which runs their new “webOS”. So far, it seems to be working.  It hasn’t reached the level of buzz that Apple managed to generate.

Palm first announced the Pre back in January at CES in Las Vegas. Last Saturday, Palm, along with Sprint, officially launched the Pre to mixed reviews.  It’s still early and there’s a lot of miss-information floating around about this new device.  The biggest concern seems to be around battery life and whether the device has enough power to make it through a day. We’ll have to wait for more tests to see how it fairs with daily usage.

If you’re looking to learn more about Palms new device, check out the list of reviews that Craig has assembled over at GearBits. It’s a great list of reviews and provides a great amount of information about the Pre. Give it a read and see what people are saying about the latest device from Palm.

Touring MyPhone - Microsoft’s Online Backup for Smartphones

In February of this year, Microsoft announced the beta for a new product called MyPhone. With MyPhone, Microsoft is looking to provide simple and easy backup of your device to the cloud, where you can safely manage and restore the data to a new device or to your existing device in the off chance that some horrible event has caused you to lose your phone or the data it contains. The private beta has recently been lifted and the service is now available for everyone to test and enjoy.

The MyPhone service will not backup your entire device.  It will only consider certain items when backing up. MyPhone provides 200MB of space to backup your Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Text Messages, Photos, Video’s, Music, and Documents. On a side note, if you are already sync’ing your email, contacts, and calendar with Exchange, MyPhone will not back those up. When it comes to documents, MyPhone won’t just backup anything in your My Documents folder. It looks for specific file types that it will backup. 

To get started with MyPhone, head over to MyPhone.Microsoft.com and create an account. Then grab your smartphone and browse to MyPhone.Microsoft.com/Install to download and install the device client. When you first run this client, you will be prompted to accept Microsoft’s legal terms and then sign-in using your Live ID. This will connect your phone with the account you just setup at the MyPhone website. The last thing that you need to do is select if you want to synchronize automatically or manually. The default when you select Automatically is to sync once a day in the middle of the night. This can be changed by selecting Menu / Schedule from the MyPhone app on the device. Here you can pick between Daily and Weekly and change the actual time of day that the backup runs. Read more

Unboxing the Samsung Jack at Mobility Minded

Johan van Mierlo was able to get his hands on the new AT&T Samsung Jack smartphone and has filmed an unboxing video showing off the device in all of it’s glory. The Jack sports a similar keyboard to that of the Motorola Q9, but as the picture below shows, the Jack’s keyboard is a smaller due to the overall device being smaller. Samsung will be releasing a Windows Mobile 6.5 upgrade to the Jack later this year. Samsung and AT&T recently released the Propel Pro smartphone, which is similar to the Jack but the keyboard slides up and underneath the screen. Check out the full unboxing videos over at MobilityMinded.com (Part 1, and Part 2) and let us know your thoughts on this device. Is there a Samsung Jack in your future? 

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