How do I sync/save text messages on my Windows Mobile smartphone?

I rarely use text messaging. Why? Because I don't want to pay extra for the service and I just don't like texting. However, the question above is one I frequently hear. And, until now I didn't have a good answer or solution to offer. However, I just learned about this freeware...

Windows Mobile SMS Sync

...that looks like a good free solution for Windows Mobile smartphone users. Version 1.2 (beta) was just released last month. It works on Windows Mobile version 5 or 6 smartphones.

I want to make it clear that I think the Google Android platform and the T-Mobile G1 are very interesting to me even if I decided to send mine back for a refund. One of the things I really liked about the T-Mobile G1 was that it had a physical QWERTY keyboard. Before sending my G1 back, I learned it had a number of keyboard shortcuts. Here are the ones I noted down while playing with the G1.

Search + b : Browser
Search + c : Contacts
Search + e : Email
Search + g : Gmail
Search + i : IM
Search + l : Calendar
Search + m : Maps
Search + p : Music
Search + s : Messaging
Search + y : YouTube

The Search key is the key with the magnifying glass icon on it on the bottom row of the keyboard.

Windows Mobile Internet Explorer status bars (top and bottom) and the URL (web address) text box take up a lot of screen real estate on your typical Windows Mobile smartphone. However, you can remove all of that to see more of a web page on your phone.

Here's how you can switch between normal and fullscreen Windows Mobile Internet Explorer views:

- Menu
- View
- Full Screen

To get out of full screen view
- Press either the right or left softkey hardware buttons
- Menu
- View
- Full Screen (this unselects the option)

The iPhone Blog has a nice item about...

How To: Choose and Set Up Hosted Exchange on the iPhone ActiveSync

Although Microsoft Exchange Server is usually associated with dedicated enterprise installations, there are numerous hosted Exchange Server services that individuals can subscribe and use. I've commented here on how relatively expensive these services are compared to the simpler (fewer features) IMAP4 mail service that most web hosts offer. However, Exchange Server services also offers calendar and contact syncing among other services. And, this can be a big advantage in terms of simplifying personal information management as well as backing up that critical data.

This blog item from The iPhone Blog looks like a good overview on selecting and configuring a hosted Exchange Server service.

Windows Mobile smartphones (both touchscreen and non-touch models) have voice recording apps. However, if you have a touchscreen model (Professional Edition), you can actually tweak the recording quality to suit your needs and preferences. Here's how you find the settings window:

- Tap Start
- Select Settings
- Tap Input
- Select the Options tab
- Select a voice recording format (quality) from the pull down menu

Generally speaking, selecting a higher KHz (Kilo Hertz) setting results in a better sounding recording. However, the recording will use more storage space.

The T-Mobile G1 has one thing that the iPhone doesn't: A physical QWERTY keyboard. And, while it is not perfect (I prefer the keyboard on another HTC product: The TyTn), the G1 keyboard has some nice features like a dedicated number row at the top (the TyTn keyboard does not have one). One thing it does not have, however, is a single press TAB key.

I spent a lot of years writing software. And, one of the things I learned is that it is a waste of time to move my fingers away from the keyboard to use a mouse. So, once I'm on a QWERTY keyboard, I like to keep my hands there as much as possible. I feel the same way about smartphone keyboards too. And, Windows Mobile smartphones with QWERTY keyboards do a pretty good job of letting me keep my thumbs on the keyboard without forcing me to use a stylus. One thing I use the tab key for is to move from one text box to another (e.g., login name text box to password text box). You'll find the tab key to be invaluable on a Windows Mobile smartphone.

So, where's the single press tab key on the G1? As far as I can tell it doesn't have one. But, fear not, all is not lost. As far as I can figure, the idea is to use the trackball in place of the tab key. Although my right thumb leaves the G1's QWERTY keyboard to get to its trackball to move from field to field, it is not as distracting (for me) as actually having to move my hand into a completely different position to touch the screen.

It didn't take me very long to adopt this G1 strategy and minimize the amount of screen touches (and fingerprint smudges) while using the Android graphical interface or an app. So, remember to use the trackball when using the keyboard and I think you'll find your fingers flying a lot faster when using G1 apps.

YouTube video courtesy of Google Android Team

The team that developed the Android Market demonstrates how to use it on the T-Mobile G1 phone.

One major and one minor comment to the team...

Major comment: Take a look at the iTunes store on a Mac or Pac and on the iPhone. Then, go back to work on the Android store. The web Android Market in particular has some usability problems. It should be a lot simpler and not bother with that annoying horizontal product scroll bar.

Minor comment: Ahem, the name of the game mention is "Bonsai" Blast, not "Banzai" Blast. Banzai is a traditional Japanese cheer related to the concept of "long life" or "long live...". Bonsai is the art of growing miniature potted plants. Sorry, had to get that out of my system.

Google recently released...

Google Calendar CalDAV support

...which provides a simple to configure mechanism to synchronize Google Calendar with the Mac OS X iCal calendar app. Since Google Calendar and the Google Android Calendar on the T-Mobile G1 auto-sync, this means that changes made on the G1's calendar will also get synced back to the Mac without any manual intervention (like plugging in a USB cable or running a sync client).

The Google support item linked above provides simple to understand instructions for both iCal for the Mac and the Open Source Mozilla Sunbird calendar app that runs on multiple operating systems.

T-Mobile and HTC call the navigation nub between the four hardware buttons on the bottom a trackball. It looked and felt enough like the trackpoint nubs on notebooks that I resisted trying it until today. Why? I hate those trackpoint nubs on notebooks.

So, imagine my surprise when I discovered that this so-called trackball (which is not a ball and does not rotate) is more like a tiny touchpad. I think it is good enough to almost let me use the T-Mobile G1 one-handed for a number of tasks. I'm really looking forward to seeing a non-touchscreen Google Android phone to see how this navigation feature might work on it. I really miss the true one-handed operation my T-Mobile Dash (Windows Mobile Standard Edition non-touchscreen) phone provided.

I created a brief video (embedded at the top) to demonstrate how the trackball (mini touchpad) works.

One of my many T-Mobile G1 related projects for today was to migrate information from Outlook to the G1. Since Android does not provide any G1 to desktop sync tools, I'm focusing on free and, when possible, Google provided tools and techniques. My Calendar data was the easiest to start with since Google has a tool for that task...

Google Calendar Sync Overview

I copied my Outlook data from my production Windows XP PC that syncs with all my Windows Mobile smartphones over to a test Windows Vista PC running Outlook 2007. I shut down Outlook after verifying all my data was there and then installed Google Calendar Sync.

It automatically started synchronizing with Google Calendar. And, syncing between the G1 and Google Calendar also happened automatically without any intervention on my part.