Windows Mobile

The Bing blog (kind of has a ring to it, huh?) announced...

Bing for mobile now live at m.bing.com

I was, to be perfectly honest, confused by this title. I thought it meant their Windows Mobile app had been updated. Instead, it means that the mobile-friendly site found at...

m.bing.com

...was updated to add NFL game inforamtion, flight status, and localized information for movies. But, here's the thing that annoyed me. The Microsoft Bing team (and it is important to note that Bing is a Microsoft product) said:

Great news for you touch phone owners in the U.S.: we have a new version of Bing just for high-resolution touch devices.

So, I thought, "Hey, that's great. I have a relatively new HTC Touch Pro2. That must be a high-resolution touch device!" Right? Wrong... This feature is reserved for the iPhone, Zune HD, T-Mobile G1, Verizon Imagio, or Samsung Omnia. If you have a Microsoft Windows Mobile based HTC Touch Pro2 with what I consider to be a high resolution touch device, you don't see these touch features. Instead, you can use the touch-confused Bing app for Windows Mobile (initial screens are touch friendly but detailed screens after drilling down are not). The Microsoft folks in the Bing group should really pay attention to the Microsoft Windows Mobile smartphones a bit more.

If you are curious about what it is like to take a Windows Mobile software development project from inception to market, keep track of Chris Tacke (an independent developer who was awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional designation) in a blog series named...

Project Resistance

The code for this project will eventually be availble from Microsoft's Codeplex code repository site...

http://resistance.codeplex.com/

The project is defined as:

Project Resistance is intended to be a fully transparent view into the process of conceiving, developing and selling an application for Windows Mobile. The idea here is that anyone will be able to look at how sausage gets made.

We're going to start by creating a production-quality application, following best practices for coding, etc. etc. All of the source code will be published here, and we will blog about the process, the thoughts we have, and the hurdles we encounter. Bear in mind that Alex and I are already experienced WinMo/Win CE developers, so it's not going to be a beginner's How-to type of process. We're not here to teach you how to wire up an event.

And, the Windows Mobile application itself is described like this:

The application is going to be very simple, but something that's actually functional. It will allow you to select color bands on a resistor and it will tell you the resistance. Alternately you will be able to give it a resistance and the application will tell you what the color bands will be. If you have no idea what any of that means, take a look at the Wikipedia entry on resistors. Essentially a resistor has stripes on it and the stripes correlate to numbers, which tell you the resistance in ohms.

My T-Mobile HTC Touch Pro2 is still running Windows Mobile 6.1. So, I haven't even tried 6.5 yet (hey, T-Mobile, what is up with that?). However, Pocket Now claims they have Windows Mobile 7 screenshots to share with us...

Windows Mobile 7 Exclusive Screenshots and Analysis!

PocketNow provides pairs of screenshots (top & bottom instead of left-right for some reason) that compares screens from the current Windows Mobile 6.5 to 7. You might want to open a second window to their screenshots using the link above to follow along with my commentary that assumes the screens shown are early version of what Windows Mobile 7 will look like

1. Calendar view: It seems to show roughly 25% of what can be shown today in the name of finger friendliness. People who want to see as much useful calendar information as possible in a glance (like me) will not like the 7 calendar view.

2. Dailer: The buttons on the 7 screen are label-less. Personally, I prefer the labels or the option to choose.

3. PocketNow mixed up the comparison for the Contacts app. They show a 6.5 Contacts screen with a 7 Inbox screen.

4. Inbox (email): Again, the 7 version loses a lot of information compared to what 6.5 provides now. The 7 Inbox does not have time/date information, size, or even a message count (total + unread).

5. Text Message interface: More finger friendly on-screen keyboard. Of course, this only matters for devices without a physical keyboard.

6. Settings: Tabs seems to have disappeared in 7. And, the big buttons leave less room for actual settings to toggle. It looks like Windows Mobile 7 users may have to go through many taps and screens to make simple settings changes. This can be done in a single window with tabs right now.

Based on what I see, the Windows Mobile 7 screens are prettier but much less functional that what we have now. I hope these shots are either a fake or early UI designs that are going to be dramatically changed for the better by the time Windows Mobile 7 is finally released in late 2010 (if you believe the rumors).

YouTube video courtesy of spbsoftware

I am not happy with the fragmentation going on with the Windows Mobile graphical user interface (GUI). We have HTC's TouchFlo 3D (which I've turned off on my Touch Pro2), Sony's Panels, VITO's Winterface, and Spb Software's latest update to their alternative Windows Mobile GUI...

Spb Mobile Shell 3.5

Spb Mobile Shell 3.5 lets you have up to 5 home screens (sort of like the iPhone) and the ability to use widgets that provide various functions. Like TouchFLO 3D, Mobile Shell also provides prettier interfaces for email and contacts. However, prettier does not necessarily make something more functional. I, for example, found that HTC's TouchFLO 3D's prettier interfaces got in my way and slowed me down. In fact, even after turning off TouchFLO 3D, I found that HTC's UI modifications makes the Touch Pro2 look quite a bit different from other Windows Mobile 6.1 device interfaces. The nice thing about add-ons like Spb's and VITO's is that they can be completely turned off if necessary returning you to Microsoft's native GUI.

Spb Mobile Shell 3.5 is priced at $29.95.

Someday someone will write a case study about Microsoft missed mobile opportunities to tie in their own products to Windows Mobile. Microsoft bought and had Hotmail up and running many years before Google's Gmail. The same goes for a web-based calendar, contacts, and even Exchange Server ActiveSync. Then, there's the half-hearted attempts like the travesty that was Access for the Handheld PC back in the 1990s and OneNote Mobile during Office 2007's development period. I was excited about OneNote Mobile (see my 2005 blog item below)...

Microsoft OneNote Mobile 12 Beta-1 for Windows Mobile Smartphones

...until I actually tried it. Even, then, in the pre-Evernote mobile days, OneNote Mobile seemed to have promise until it deleted my entire OneNote notes collection (I had a backup though). Since then, I've moved to Evernote and never looked back.

According to ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley, Microsoft is taking another crack at OneNote Mobile and adding some kind of SharePoint integration for Windows Mobile...

Microsoft to add OneNote and SharePoint clients to next Office Mobile release?

But, why would anyone want to use OneNote with Windows Mobile when Evernote already does a good job of synching Windows Mobile smarpthones with their cloud service? I haven't seen anyone using OneNote in years. And, if SharePoint Mobile requires ActiveSync or Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC) to sync with a SharePoint server, you will always have stale data on your Windows Mobile smartphone. I hope Microsoft bypasses ActiveSync and WMDC on the client in favor of OTA (Over The Air).

Windows Mobile And Bing Navigation from Michael Gannotti on Vimeo.

From Microsoft's Windows Phone Blog...

Video: Windows Mobile And Bing Navigation

The somewhat long (about 7 minute) video tells a story of landing at Atlanta's airport at night and navigating to a hotel using only Bing Mobile's navigation features. Michael Gannotti's smooth delivery (almost no "ums", very few pauses) has an infomercial quality to it which almost put me off. I tend to expect people like me stumbling through these little video demos.

Nice story. Here's the problem though. I just downloaded and installed the latest Bing Mobile on my HTC Touch Pro2. It didn't seem to be able to use the TP2's GPS at all. It placed me about 20 miles north of my actual location when I tested it outside under a clear sky. The free GPSToday was able to located me within about 50 meters of my actual location. So, I know the GPS was getting validate satellite data. So, I don't think I would trust Bing Mobile to navigate me from an airport to a hotel at night.

YouTube video courtesy of tellmezone

I knew about Tellme's voice search feature. But, I didn't know it was able to perform speech-to-text to the extent that it could be used for sending text messages. According to this demo from the Bing community blog, it can...

Use Your Voice to Text, Call and Search with Bing

This feature is probably unique to the Samsung Intrepid as sold by Sprint since I don't see the feature in the latest version of Bing mobile for Windows Mobile 6.

I've found voice commands of limited use of the years although I have been voice dialing a lot more recently.

Microsoft's Windows Phone Blog excitedly announced...

New Windows Phones are Here!

Microsoft PressPass' official press release says...

Microsoft Unveils New Windows Phones Worldwide

And, of course, there were lines winding around city blocks all over the world clamoring to get a new Windows Phone. Oh wait! I think that was a scene from a lunch counter I was at yesterday.

Oh well, at least I can tell you about my personal experience after upgrading my T-Mobile HTC Touch Pro2 to Windows Mobile 6.5. Oh wait! There is no upgrade. Nor is there any response from T-Mobile either to my personal tweet query...

@TMobile_USA Any info on a Windows Mobile 6.5 update for the HTC Touch Pro2?

...or questions posed to T-Mobile on their...

T-Mobile Touch Pro2 forum

The sad thing is that I was actually looking forward to updating my TP2 from 6.1 to 6.5 so I could try the updated and, some say, more functional Internet Explorer mobile browser.

Hmm, I'm guessing that Gizmodo's John Herrman is not impressed with Windows Mobile 6.5...

Windows Mobile 6.5 Review: There's No Excuse For This

After reading that subject line, I hopped over to T-Mobile.com, logged in, and checked to see if TMo had a Windows Mobile 6.5 update ready for my HTC Touch Pro2. Not finding it there, I popped back to the article and continued reading.

Anyone who has been following Windows Mobile's decline from near-greatness (hey, it had its moments as a mobile platform leader a few years ago) won't be surprised by John's comments and assessment.

At best, Windows Mobile 6.5 is a last ditch effort to through thin sandbags at a rising river of superior mobile platforms like the iPhone, webOS, and Android. Microsoft had to throw something into the fray while it kept working on the much delayed Windows Mobile 7.

So, what am I hoping to get out of this apparently substandard release?

- A better web browsing experience. The current Windows Mobile 6.1 web browser is near useless. Yes, the IE6 based browser in Windows Mobile 6.5 is also ancient. But, it is less ancient that what I have now. And, if it does half as well as Skyfire, Opera Mobile or Safari Mobile, that will be ok (my bar is not set very high)
- I'm hoping the specific upgrade for the Touch Pro2 will break fewer apps. For example, Celio's Redfly beta driver locked up the TP2 to the point where I had to perform a hard reset. My perenial favrotes from Ilium Software, eWallet and Screen Capture, work at about 90% and 40% levels on the TP2 running Windows Mobile 6.1
- Better support for the TP2's crippled QWERTY keyboard (it is missing about a half-dozen important keys).

On September 25, I vented my disappointment about this discovery...

Yuck! T-Mobile HTC Touch Pro2 Doesn't Embed GPS Location Data in Photos

The iPhone can auto-embed GPS data into its photos. So, can the various Nokia S60 based phones. So, why can't the recently released HTC Touch Pro2 from T-Mobile? I have no idea what bizarre design decision led T-Mobile and HTC to not even provide an option to embed GPS location information in this Windows Mobile smartphone's photos. However, my old friend Steven Hughes of the...

Boston Pocket PC User Group

...suggested I try the freeware...

GeoTerrestrial GPSToday

So, I installed it and the associated GeoTagger applet on the Touch Pro2. The installation went smoothly but the apps didn't seem to do much without registering as a user with GeoTerrestrial. The main problem with using GPSToday with GeoTagger to add location information to photos is that it is done after the fact. So, you need to go run GeoTagger after taking a photo or photos at a particular location. It would be nice, though potentially battery draining, if GeoTagger could keep a GPS track log and then match its location timestamps with photo time stamps. This would let you GPS location tag photos even days after taking a set of photos. So, GeoTagger is, at best, a partial solution that requires leaving the camera mode.

The rest of GPSToday is quite interesting. Its most interesting aspect is its ability to go through the Windows Mobile Contacts list and map out addresses associated with each contact. You can see these addresses flagged in GPSToday's map viewing mode. The problem here is that it runs very slowly on the relatively fast Touch Pro2.

In summary, GPSToday and GeoTagger are powerful tools for a Windows Mobile smartphone. However, its after-the-fact photo geotagging requires too many steps to be truly useful and requires you to remember to run it before moving to another location to take more photos. GPSToday's other features are very interesting and powerful but run too slowly on the Touch Pro2. Its slow operation reduces the incentive to use it regularly.