Twikini, Twitter Client for WinMo, Updated!

I posted a Quick Look of Twikini, a twitter client for Windows Mobile back in April, and it garnered some interesting comments. The fact is though, Twitter is here to stay and people want ways to access the service on any platform. Stats don’t lie, and these are not the most recent stats that I’ve seen, but the growth has been phenomenal.

My Phone Beta for Windows Mobile is officially open!

If you missed out on one of the elusive beta codes when Microsoft’s My Phone sync service when it was first released, lament no more. It’s finally become available for everyone, and with the latest update to the mobile client, it’s really starting to look like a viable option for syncing your phone, sans PC.

Quick Look: FaceBook Goes Native on WinMo

Before we were rudely interrupted, Microsoft released the first native Windows Mobile application for Facebook. Unfortunately it’s compatible with WinMo 6.xx, and up. Which may still count a lot of people out on this one.

As with other FB clients I’ve tried, even Facebook mobile offers a simplified interface, and supposedly access to all of the major functions that Facebook users want.

Since the latest update to Facebook, that intentionally made it more of a live stream, rather than a static, always needed refreshing, sort of social service! How does MicroSoft’s offering stand up? Quite well actually…

Kindle DX, or is it XL?

I had a serious Freudian slip this evening, I know I posted about a Kindle on Steroids the other day, and maybe that didn’t help. When I went to pull info together for this post I was searching for Kindle XL. OK, passing on from my seniors moment, all of the  DX action happened while I was tucked up in bed, and my introduction was a short email conversation amongst a few team members, and quite amusing really.

 

The major things you want to know are encapsulated in the  video, but a short round up of features goes something like:

• 9.7-inch E-Ink screen (1200 x 824 with 16 shades of grey)
• 1/3 of an inch thick (10.4" x 7.2" x 0.38")
• 4GB Storage for 3,500 books (a bump from 1,500)
• Unspecified but "long" battery life
• Native PDF support through built-in reader
• Automatic landscape/portrait text rotation
• Line length adjustments (determine the width of text on the screen)
• Navigation buttons moved to right side of screen only
• EVDO (of course) for 60-second book transfers

The price though is what is the most detrimental part of this super size, it has been super sized as well. The DX will set you back a whopping $489, oops did I hear the sound of jaws hitting the floor? So hit the link for some internal JAMM Banter as this happened, and the full press release…

A Post Resurrection! and some answers for Windows Mobile Fans

The other day I told you about some attempted transparency from Microsoft, over at the Windows Mobile Facebook page. I was, to say the least, sceptical at the time, but it seems Microsoft have finally deemed to grace fans at FaceBook with some answers! Answers though that are innocuous, and well, affected by a generous slathering of PR spin, sanitised and no real answers at all. For  example:

Nikita

When will…
…Silverlight be finally on WM?
…there be WM6.7? [With SL and SL in Widgets]
…Widgets get IE8 WebSlices?
…century old base OS controls be shiny like XP>Vista?

Windows Mobile

While we are not dicussing future versions of the product beyond what we announced at Mobile World Congress, I can say we are committed to bringing Silverlight to Windows Mobile in the future.

Quick Look: Celio Redfly Viewer

We all like a desktop solution to edit data on our Windows Mobile devices, it’s just easier, the ill fated Redfly from Celio, hit the market at an unfortunate time, coinciding with the introduction and utter proliferation of the netbook. Although the devices were similairly sized and priced, the disadvantage of the Redfly was that it doesn’t do anything but work off your Windows Mobile device, let’s face it Celio couldn’t even give the hardware away.

 

In what appears to be an astute marketing move, they have released a software Beta, that let’s you use an XP or Vista based PC, in the same way as the stand alone Redfly, whilst still running all of your normal Windows apps. Not having the chance to check out the Hardware, I had to try out the software, up till now, I’ve been using Soti Pocket Controller for the same purpose, but of late I’ve noticed some inconsistencies with screen capture, so another option like this, took my attention immediately. Aware that this is a beta, I thought I’d have a quick look and tell you what I think… [just a note, click on any of the images to see full size]

Shot in both feet! Marketplace!

  I am just amazed at the amount of negatives that are surrounding Microsoft’s latest initiative  for Windows Mobile. We’ve heard that the marketplace would exorbitantly charge developers for inclusions in the app store after their initial five free programs, and that additional charges would be incurred for even minor updates to programs after this limit was reached. So after the initial furore from the Windows Mobile community, it seems Microsoft “Got Smart” and rethought the pricing policy for developers, and thought they had pacified anyone that felt warm and fuzzy over that news.

BUT…

another hiccough, well more of a dry wretch, has hit the carpet, and it’s not pretty and it’s definitely gonna leave a stain. This is a decision that is going to alienate a lot of, well most of, well all current WinMo owners,

“No marketplace for you”, I know that sounds like the soup nazi from Seinfeld, it seems though that’s the road less travelled, and less travelled

My Phone Client gets an Update!

If you’re like me. and have tried the Windows My Phone service out a little bit, but decided that it’s still a bit half baked, undercooked, to be a viable stand alone syncing service for your WinMo phone you probably didn’t set it to update automatically. Besides the fact that you are going to need an unlimited data plan, to support this function, there might be a few tricks that you are missing if you don’t manually sync regularly. One feature that a lot of people have missed is the fact that any updates to the phone side app, are notified, applied at the end of the syncing process.

Now this is not insider info, I noted a tweet this afternoon from @MSMyPhone, dropped the information, so I manually synced when I got home and Viola, an update to be sure. Not sure what it fixes exactly, and the only thing I could find about it at the MyPhone Blog or user forum was this mention,

The update fixes an issue with regards to syncing documents to the device.
Please install the update and everything would work fine.
Thanks
Ravi
Microsoft My Phone Team
Update: http://myphoneteam.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!500D40C76E07BE24!192.entry

So there you have it, you know as much as I do about this now 

VITO Release Winterface 1.3

 

VITO Technology today have released an update for their popular shell application for Windows Mobile Professional devices, Winterface. I know corny name, but this app really enhances the UI of Windows Mobile, and puts access to all of your settings, task management and programs at your finger tips on the today screen.

The main changes are: some UI tweaks, and the ability to go full screen and hide all traces of Windows Mobile on the today screen. The ability to add favourites as shortcuts from MIE and Opera right on the today screen, and various bug fixes.

Have a look at Doug’s review of the initial release of Winterface to get a better overview of how this application works!

Winterface is available for $19.95 Here

Hit the Read more link for the full press release

Mobile World Congress Begins!

If you are an avid fan of mobile technology, or even if you are just slightly interested, it will be hard to miss the coverage on the net this week, of the Mobile World Congress, staged in Barcelona annually. So this week there is going to be a glut of mobile news, and press releases, and new devices, some ho-hum and some ground breaking, but mainly lots of new toys that won’t be available to any of us for a while. Obviously I’m not there, I mean Doug wouldn’t spring for the trip , so I’m hooking in to a few friends, that are a bit more interested in current trends, rather than the latest Diamond encrusted iPhone case that only lets you tweet to the twitter elite.

So to subject matter, the Android OS, where will it be placed in the mobile market this MWC. My friend Sascha Segan is on the ground in Barcelona, and has already made an astute observation, how does android fit into the mix this year? Not very well apparently!