Tim Hillebrand on Mobile

How to create a lean, mean, and clean Windows Mobile machine

Spring is here, and it’s time for a little housekeeping on your Windows Mobile device to clean out the cobwebs that have accumulated over the winter. I have some helpful suggestions on how to keep your machine lean, clean, and mean.

Unavoidably, Windows Mobile devices can get bogged down with open programs running in the background, installation files, duplicate contacts, Internet history, invalid registry entries, broken links, temporary and cache files, duplicate files, old email and attachments. These things and more can begin to pile up and affect the performance of your machine.

First things first: scrub the system

You need a practical method of purging the system with a thorough housekeeping regimen. This can be a tedious task, some of which you can do yourself, but it’s better to have an application dedicated to this purpose. I believe I’ve tried all of the system scrubbers out there and by process of elimination discovered the best. This one so far outshines the others that there is virtually no competition, no contest whatsoever. It’s a nifty little Swiss Army knife for system tweak, repair, and maintenance that is not just a tool kit but a whole repair shop . It’s called SKTools and is available at http://www.handango.com for $14.99. Trust me. This is the single most important investment you can make in your little pocket pal.

There really isn’t room in this article to review fully all the features of this incredible application, but let me list a few so you will get the idea. It will clean old files, duplicates, bad registry keys, optimize and tune up settings to improve performance, purge temporary and cache folders, delete junk files, eliminate bad shortcuts, manage storage cards, and free up RAM. It will also let you view and manage running processes and check out CPU usage and services. It can run benchmark performance tests and optimize the registry.

One of the useful functions I appreciate is in the PIM arena where my system gets messed up with duplicate appointments, contacts, and tasks from syncing multiple machines. I don’t know what I’d do without SKTools’ ability to purge duplicates that just keep growing. Sometimes I have had as many as a dozen dupes. You can even get it to wipe out the whole PIM database if you want to start fresh.

Your first spring cleaning task is to get a copy of SKTools and run it often.

Next thing to do

Take a look at all the applications you have installed on your device. A quick way to do this is to go to Start>Settings>System>Remove Programs. Here you will see a list of all the applications installed on your machine. Use this list to go to the download location where you got the program to see if it comes in a CAB file version.

Copy the CAB file for all your applications onto your storage card. That way, if you ever have to restore your system or buy a new device, all you have to do is tap the CAB file, and it will reinstall. You’ll save yourself immeasurable time.

Backup, Backup

Once you have cleaned out the cobwebs and copied the CAB files, you must back up your system so that you can restore it should disaster strike. But you will restore a nice clean system without a bunch of garbage. To perform the backup, you need a backup application. Yes, you can backup files with ActiveSync and SyncCenter, but that does not include programs and system configuration that can take many hours of work to recreate.

I repeat, you need to invest in a system backup program. There are many good ones out there such as SPB Backup, Resco Backup, Sprite Backup, Mobile Backup, and WebIS Toolbox. Your device may even come with one already onboard. However, if you have followed my advice and purchased SKTools, you will be glad to know that backup is just another one of its manifold features.

Perform the backup. Do a complete backup of everything, not just selected pieces of the pie. You’ll be glad you did. Back it up to the storage card on your device.

Backup

When you’re done with the backup, copy it to another storage card as a double safety precaution. Now you are able to withstand a disaster and can restore your full system just the way it was that took you so much time to custom-configure. If the worst happens, and your device is lost or destroyed, you will even have a back up to append to the new machine, and you will not have lost everything.

Get organized

As long as we’re tidying things up, it doesn’t hurt to get a little more organized while we’re at it. Most people, and I was always one of them, have good intensions about getting all their personal, private information together so that it easily accessible and secure. That’s one of the things a PDA can do for you with the help from some secure wallet software. I happen to use eWallet, but there are several available, and they are all good and do the same thing. Some of the more popular ones include SPB Wallet, CodeWallet, and eWallet. Get one.

Now you will be able to consolidate all of your important private formation such as credit cards, bank accounts, insurance, vehicle vins, passwords, IRS stuff, software registration codes, online accounts, and more. You can access it all with a tap or two and secure it with encryption and password protect it. Another nice feature is that you can sync the data with your desktop and laptop for quick access and easy inputting. Plus, it’s a kind of backup.

If you ever have to restore a system, you will still need to enter the user names and passwords to activate the programs. Your eWallet records will save the day for this purpose.

You’ll be glad you have a secure wallet. I once had all of my credit cards stolen. No problem, I pulled out my WM Pro looked up the numbers in eWallet and called all the credit card companies before the thief had a chance to use them. That would have been impossible without eWallet.

May I offer one more little organizational hint as part of turning over a new leaf for spring? It is axiomatic that those who keep to-do lists accomplish more than those who don’t. Accordingly, I’d like to recommend that you consider acquiring a list-making program. My favorite is ListPro, but there are other good ones available. The important thing is to get one and use it religiously to keep you on the straight and narrow. It’s such a pleasure to check off those items as you accomplish them. I think you will be impressed with yourself and how much more you accomplish.

Maybe a list application should be the first thing on this spring cleaning list, and then you could enter the other tasks and check them off as you knock ‘em off.

Optional treats for your pocket pal

As long as you’re spoiling your little pocket pal, why not get him a new suit of protective armor? There are so many choices for cases, I don’t even want to get into it here. While you are in the protective mode, I’d suggest investing in a screen protector so that you don’t wear out your screen or scratch it.

Two other accessories I think go along with maintenance include a spare battery and an extra stylus. I know I’m always losing or misplacing my little poker, and a battery to extend its life on a busy day or long trip can save your bacon. Without them, it’s kinda like driving without a spare tire.

Hope you enjoy your spring cleaning and having a lean, mean, and clean machine.

Keep connected!

22 Killer Apps for SMS enhancement

Perhaps you are new to the world of text messaging or you haven’t bothered to look beyond the native functionality your phone provides. You may be surprised at some of the enhancements available to make texting more productive, secure, enjoyable, and even profitable.

One of the many things I appreciate about my Treo 750 is its ability to thread SMS chats into conversations by contact. On most machines, the built-in Windows Mobile SMS utility simply lists messages in the order received, which rapidly becomes a jumble.

Several third-party applications make threading possible and handle it in elegant ways.

SMS Threading Clients

Extreme Text is a threading utility that has many desirable features. It creates an index of conversations by contact and allows you to associate a photo if available, or you can use a stock graphic. Tap on the contact in the list to open the conversation thread. The conversations appear in order received.

You can change the color of the outgoing and incoming messages. Tapping on the menu and then options brings up an impressive array of customizable choices including color theme, select color, borders, message list format, message font height, emoticons message no date, auto capitalize, word wrap on entry, use signature, signature, confirm delete, sort by newest, system shortcut to XT. No other threading program offers such a rich list of feature variables.

While this program is pleasing to the eye and easy to use, I have a couple of wishes for future iterations. I wish you could turn off incoming messaging popping up on the screen for security purposes. I wish that the program were finger friendly for scrolling through messages like SMS-Chat, for example. I also wish it had an option to call the contact from the message display.

You can secure a copy of Extreme Text or try it out for free by visiting http://www.birdsoft.biz/extremetext.htm. It costs $14.95. While it has many admirable features, it does not accommodate hyperlinks, highlighting, cut, copy, and paste functions.

Pocket SMS is a threading client that will also organize your incoming and outgoing text messages by conversation for your convenience stamped with time and date. New incoming messages are grey in color but revert to black text when read. However, you can change the color scheme in the main menu. Your outgoing messages are headed with ME:, and the incoming have the correspondent’s name. Time and date stamping is an option.

I appreciate the drop-down box for easily finding recipients. I also appreciate messages not being displayed on the desktop when they arrive for security reasons. You can call any of your correspondents from within this program, which is a nice convenience. Pocket SMS will allow cut/copy/paste within a new message, but not in one already sent. It does not allow hyperlinks either. PocketSMS also lacks many of the features described for ExtremeText above.

You certainly cannot complain about the price at $7.50, which represents an excellent value for a good solid program that does what it is supposed to do—thread messages. To try it out or purchase a copy, go to www.pocket-sms.com. It does not support hyperlinks, highlighting, cut, copy, and paste either.

Textr is another stringing client that places all your chats in order with photos, timestamps, and popup notification with various customization features by www.mykesoft.com for $14.99. Whoa! Textr is on sale this week for only $4.95. Goferit!

What I like most is that you can turn off the popup notification message. You can also send a message to multiple recipients. But it does not support hyperlinks, highlighting, cut, copy, and paste either.

If you are a finger-friendly screen advocate and like to be able to flick around on screens with your finger, SMS-Chat is for you. The conversation strings float over the screen with the flick of a finger. And while the presentation is colorful, you are stuck with the original scheme, for there is no customization allowed.

Of all the programs, I would say that SMS-Chat is the most fun and flashy. But, it too allows messages to pop up on the screen when they arrive, which I wish could be turned off. It also lacks customization features that ExtremeText offers. I criticized this program in its first edition because it did not allow hypertext nor cut, copy, and paste, but in its second edition these features are present. So, hooray.

To get a copy of SMS-Chat, go to www.iwindowsmobile.com. It costs $14.95 to buy and is free to try.

Broadcasting, Filtering, and Converting

If sending to groups is important, you will want to check out Skb Group SMS. It will allow you to edit groups from your contact list and arrange them in tree view. Not only is it ideal for managing groups and organizations, but it will also serve you well as a marketing tool. It costs $32.99 and is available from www.handango.com.

Another broadcasting application is Pocket Mobile Club Personal for $29.00 from Inspire-Tech Pte, Ltd available from www.handango.com.

Qimsoft SMS Assistant will send to groups, but it will also reject span and has an auto reply feature. It costs $19.95 from www.qimsoft.com.

SmartSMSFilter Light is another filtering application that allows you to accept only the incoming message you want. It costs $9.95 from www.palmarysoft.com.

This one’s a hoot. 3jam will let you broadcast a message to multiple recipients and then each recipient’s reply goes out to the entire group. You can really have some fun with this one, particularly if the recipients are unaware of the consequences: use with caution. It’s a free download from www.3jam.com.

WebMessenger Message Alerts lets you set rules and filters for incoming email and SMS. Get it at www.webmessenger.com for $24.95

If you are in a situation where can receive email but are not allowed to text, Pocket SMS to Email will save the day by converting text messages to email. It costs $18.99 and is available from www.levantersoftware.com.

Jeyo Mobile Extender for Outlook is an application that lets you back up your SMS messages to Outlook and then treat them as you would email. You can search, print, organize, and protect them. Another valuable tool for your SMS environment that is a $19.95 investment from www.jeyo.com.

MobileArchiver is a similar application that costs $19.95 from www.handango.com.

Sneaky, Stealthy SMS

I’ve been harping about security and incoming messages popping up on the screen. Here’s the solution to protect your privacy and save you from embarrassment: Easy Secret SMS lets you select contacts to put on a watch list, toggle screen pop up on/off, and password protect your records. It costs $28.99 from www.celsoft.com and is a good investment in your peace of mind.

If you don’t want to keep secrets and want to be obnoxious, you can use Flash Manager to make SMS messages pop right up on the recipient’s screen without even going into the inbox. If costs $4.99 from www.cartystudios.com.

Ringtones

If you wish, you can assign a specific ringtone to your favorite chat buddies. You can easily do this within the native WM environment or purchase third party software such as Rintones Delux or phoneAlarm LIte, but it’s not really necessary.

Message Forwarding

Should you wish to forward incoming messages from phone A to phone B, Windows Mobile SMS Spy will do it for you. You can even install it on someone else’s phone and forward to the messages to your phone. The program works in the background without anyone the wiser. It costs $54 and is available from www.loongsoft.com.

Desktop/Laptop SMS

Yes, you can send SMS messages with programs like Google over the Internet, but you cannot receive messages back, so what good is that? It’s like throwing out a baited fishing line, making a catch, but you can’t reel it in. Here comes Efficasoft Mobile Express to the rescue. With this program, you can use your PC to send and receive SMS just as you would on your phone and manage the results for $11.95 from www.efficasoft.com.

Delayed SMS

Delayed SMS Sender is a useful tool, for it allows you to select the time a message will be sent in the future. It’s great for time-sensitive invitations or even marketing campaigns. It’s available from www.sansango.com for $9.95.

Romance

SoftNest has created 45 carefully crafted love related SMS to help in your courting. It can be yours for only $1.99 from www.softnest.com.

If you want some really corny pickup lines that will surely get you slapped if you even have the nerve to use them, try texting 4INFO with the keyword PU for pick up.

Conclusions

While it is nice to have some options for accomplishing the task of stringing SMS conversations, there is really no one perfect program yet. Turning off new messages popping up on the screen when they come in is an important consideration. This could be a serious security issue if not embarrassing sometimes. Not being able to support hyperlinks, highlight, cut, copy, and paste is a huge consideration for me.

Luckily there are some supplemental products that help with these lacks, but wouldn’t it be nice if there were a single program that subsumed all of these functions?

Anyway, I hope you have learned something about how to make your SMS experience more productive, secure, enjoyable, and profitable.

Maybe you have a favorite SMS application not mentioned that you’d like to share. Please tell us about it.

Keep connected!

Sensuous Sextopus will Satisfy your Needs

My life was a mess; Sextopus has saved me from embarrassing, inexcusable, inappropriate, unmanageable, and extreme entanglements. It was love at first sight. The sinewy appendages, the inviting receptacles, and the penetrating blue eyes were irresistible. Instantly, I knew I couldn’t live a moment longer without Sextopus.

Sextopus is so amiable and highly adaptable; its only purpose is to conform to the master’s needs graciously without complaint. It’s just a matter of appendage adjustment.

Similar to the octopus, a distant cousin with eight tentacles, Sextopus only has six. But oh what it can do with those six appurtenances. It is a wonder to behold.

A characteristic peculiar to the echinoderms of which the Sextopus must be related is the ability to regenerate severed appendages. Lop off the arm of a starfish, and it will grow a new one. A Sextopus has the same ability, but even better. You can just rip one off, and it can be instantly replaced with one more suitable to your liking and special needs.

Are you beginning to think a Sextopus might be right for you too? Let me tell you a little more about what this little beauty will do for you.

Evenly situated around its silvery, circular, sensuous body are seven receptacles. One is a mini USB port for energy input. The other six are sockets for appendage attachment. Each tentacle radiating from the axis is approximately three inches long. The terminus of each extension can come in many forms depending on what you wish Sextopus to accommodate and make happy.

With the introduction of Sextopus in your life, you will immediately experience a newfound freedom from an angry, intricate network of electrical conduits that seem to grow by accretion with no organized plan. You will no longer depend on this snarling, sinuous snake pit powered by cumbersome charging units that take up two plug spaces and may require extension cords, multiple outlets, and power strips.

Sextopus will gladly give a charge to six of your friends at the same time without any compunction whatsoever. All you have to do is make sure Sextopus has a commensurate counterpart and is ready for action.

I tend to be quite discriminating about the company I keep by exclusively selecting companions of the mini USB species. This includes Windows Mobile devices, Bluetooth headsets, headphones, keyboards, GPS units and receivers, cameras, video eyewear, satellite radios, MP3 players, car kits, chargers, and more. But once in a while some aberrant form will creep in such as an iPod. But no problem, a sextopod can even give pleasure to an iPod and related forms.

One of the tentacles I received has a female USB tip. Accordingly, I can plug any USB cable into it to charge whatever thirsty pal I please using the USB cable that came with that device, which may have some weird proprietary connector.

Down with weird proprietary connectors. Up with mini USB!

The breeder of the Sextopus is a company known as Callpod. (I think they should change the name to Sextopod, but that’s just my humble opinion.) Actually, Callpod could probably ramp up its breeding program and create even more engaging species including Octopods and Decapods. Maybe then the company name should be something like Multipod. Podapus?

If you visit the Callpod Website, (www.callpod.com) you will find an exhaustive list of appendages that will accommodate almost any species of device you can imagine. Unfortunately, it didn’t have one for one of my cameras, so it still has some evolving to do. The nice thing about it though is the genetic engineering. Just let them know what you want and they will try to accommodate the demand. By the way, this charger is not meant for high energy consumption units such as laptops, so don’t ask.

There you have it. Sextopus is a solution to the universal problem of cable confusion. Why not let a Sextopus simplify your life and satisfy your frustrations? Just imagine a peaceful stable with your favorite devices radiating out from and serenely surrounding a sensuous Sextopus providing soothing sustenance. You will get a real charge out of a Sextopus, which could be yours beginning at $49.95. You can also get a car charger from Callpod to sustain the mother ship and take your feeding farm on the road. It even comes with a zippered nylon carrying case.

If I have not painted a clear enough picture for you, check out this video: http://callpod.com/tv

Keep connected!

Proporta’s New Dual Car Kit Charger

I am always impressed with what Proporta, my favorite accessory supplier, comes up with next. This time it’s a dual car charger. You plug it into your cigarette lighter receptacle; it has two USB ports for charging two devices simultaneously.

It comes with two cables. One has a standard USB connector on one end and a mini USB connector on the other. The second cable has a standard USB connector and a plug that will fit into a variety of adapters that come with the set.

You get three adapters that connect to iPod, Sony, and Nokia. None of these are of any interest to me, so I just pulled out a spare USB cable, and I’m set to charge up any two devices in my car and keep them topped off ready for use.

If none of the supplied adapters work for your specific devices, Proporta has a vast array of connectors. You need only ask, and there’s an excellent change they will have what you need. By the way, you get one free extra adapter of your choice with this bundle.

Personally, I try not to acquire any devices with goofy proprietary connectors so that I can just use a standard USB mini cable and that’s that. I apply this rule to my Windows Mobile devices, Bluetooth headphones, car kits, GPS receivers and units, camera, and any other juice-thirsty critter I may acquire.

There’s not too much more to say about the charger kit except that it comes in a nice velvety black bag with a drawstring. I guess I should mention that it has an orange interior giving it a sort of Halloween feel. Actually, it’s reversible if you want to turn it inside out and have an orange exterior. It seems Proporta anticipated this behavior because Proporta is printed on both sides. On the black side there’s a magnetic cable holder thoughtfully attached. You can also use the bag to protect one of your devices.

Aw, one more thing, I found tucked inside the bag two, red, window decals with the following inscription, “No GPS Stored in Vehicle.” This is a nice touch that could give a potential thief pause and save your windshield or windscreen as I’m sure the folks at Proporta would put it.

This handy accessory can be yours for $36.95, and shipping is free for the rest of the month. Check it out at Proporta.

A Stranger in a Strange Land Revisited: 30 Reasons Windows Mobile is superior to iPhone

Last week I published an article about my initial experience with my brother’s pride and joy, his iPhone. I found the iPhone to be lacking in several areas compared to my Windows Mobile Professional device. Since then I have been delving deeper into the virtues of iPhones and found even more astonishing lacks that I hadn’t noticed or had taken for granted would naturally be there. The inability to highlight, copy, cut, and paste is one example.

In this article, I have included my initial observations and added some new ones for a condensed list of 30 features lacking in the iPhone. I say condensed because I have subsumed some items into a single point. For example, rather than list all the peripherals the iPhone does not support, I merely say that it doesn’t support peripherals. At the end of the article, I try to be fair by pointing out what I like about the iPhone in its current stage of evolution.

I suppose you could call this a wish list, but it is still an inventory of what I found lacking in an iPhone. There may be more, but I grow weary of the process. Here is my condensed list:

1. It won’t perform simple computer operations such as word processing, spreadsheets, relational databases, and PowerPoint presentations

2. You can’t use your own MP3 sounds to make ringtones.

3. No GPS

4. No MMS

5. No expansion slots

6. No flash camera

7. Doesn’t take videos

8. Doesn’t have dual cameras for video conferences and self-portraits; you can’t take screen shots either; only has 2.0 MPX

9. There’s no QWERTY keyboard or even a phone keypad. Instead, it has a klutsy popup input panel. It took me five minutes to type my name correctly without any errors owing to my fingers being on the gorilla end of the scale. The input panel is made for fingers of a five-year old.

10. Can’t even perform the simple operations of highlight, copy, cut, and paste

11. Doesn’t have an eBook reader program

12. No InfraRed--can’t beam files, photos, tunes, text, contacts, applications

13. Doesn’t have Bluetooth 2.0

14. Can’t use wireless Bluetooth headphones

15. Won’t work with optical eyewear players

16. Doesn’t have 802.11 g/e Wi-Fi

17. Doesn’t have universal mini-USB connector for syncing and charging

18. Doesn’t have real downloadable programs, only Web Apps that force you to go online to use. What if you don’t want the expense of going online or there is no connection? Apple boasts 600 Web Apps. Windows Mobile has 12,000+ actual programs.

19. You can’t transfer files between devices or even to a MAC with an iPhone, and there’s no peer to peer connectivity possible either.

20. There’s no removable battery. You have to send the unit to Apple at your own expense and suffer downtime. Wow.

21. There are no peripherals for the iPhone such as a Bluetooth keyboard, mouse, headphones, GPS, printer, scanner, hard drives, storage cards, video eyewear, or projectors.

22. There are no voice commands for viewing photos, videos, files, listening to tunes, or running applications. I really enjoy bossing my pocket concierge around with voice commands. You can’t talk to iPhones; you have to poke them in the tummy with your finger to get them to do anything.

23. You can’t watch and control your home TV DVR remotely from anywhere in the world

24. There’s no FM or satellite radio

25. You can’t use an iPhone as an extension of your desktop monitor and move the mouse and data between them.

26. Touch screen is not sensitive to a standard stylus, only a blunt instrument like a finger or a ball-peen hammer.

27. Finger gestures are crazy-making on a page with lots of hyperlinks because you cannot point precisely

28. Cannot change page transitions or animations

29. You cannot control your computer or anything else remotely with an iPhone; you can’t even have the fun of using it in a bar to change the TV channels surreptitiously.

30. No programmable hardware buttons for easy control and access to such functions as volume control, camera, and digital recording.

Conclusion

My initial conclusion is reinforced even more:

When you want to do serious handheld computing, you need a machine that means business and serves for more than poking fun at with your nose picker. I appreciated my tour as a stranger in the strange land of the iPhone, and thanks for the finger frolics, but I’ll stick with my far more powerful Windows Mobile device.

However, I hasten to acknowledge that the iPhone does what it does very well indeed. I never had it hang up on me and never had to reset it. The screen is crystal clear and the graphics a pleasure to view. The finger-friendly navigation has its problems and limitations but it is still a smooth solution that is fun to do. Everything on the system is easy to implement and ideally suited for consumers who do not know about or care about power computing on a handheld device.

The bottom line is that in a year, iPhone has made a huge splash in the handheld market and is a tremendous success by any measure. I am grateful to Apple for raising the bar and Microsoft had better pay attention if it wants to compete. I am also pleased that Apple took control of its product instead of the sponsoring telco (AT&T) dictating the terms. This is a healthy precedent that I hope will eclipse the power of the telcos and be the end to the silly stuff they put on phones to fill their pockets.

In an excellent and thoughtful article, Hal Goldstein, the Publisher of Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine offers a list of five things for which we can thank iPhone: http://www.pocketpcmag.com/cms/_archives/Apr08/PocketView

Finally, I want to point out that the iPhone platform is still in its infancy. I remember when I first made the switch from Palm to Pocket PC. There was an embarrassing lack of applications for the latter platform, and it took a while for developers to create them. Apple has opened the door for third party developers to create applications for the iPhone, and I expect the flood gates to open wide with a plethora of new software. Just around the corner is the release of a second version of iPhone, which may have already addressed some of the issues I raise in my list, but I’m not an insider here. In any case, I expect that most of the items on the list above can be checked off as time goes by. But, for now, I’m sticking with my WM device and will wait until I can do things like word processing with a Bluetooth keyboard, take videos, use Bluetooth headphones, highlight, copy, cut, and paste before I consider an iPhone seriously.

Keep connected

SplashMoney

Compared to the money transaction program I’ve been using, SplashMoney is the ultimate supreme being, the granddaddy of the universe. Instead of a black and white ho hum presentation, SplashMoney opens in full Technicolor with spiffy icons and lives up to its name from the first impression.

Delving deeper into SplashMoney, I found it to be a transaction recording program that probably has no equal. For instance, to my knowledge no other similar application allows you to access your bank accounts live online and sync data.

SplashMoney will allow you to create accounts for credit cards, loans, bank accounts and many other kinds of accounts. You can enter transactions, keep a running balance, create and print reports, pay bills, and synchronize data from handheld to desktop and vice versa. It will also import transactions into accounts. Of course, it will help you to keep your accounts accurately balanced as well.

You can even transfer funds between accounts online using SplashMoney. This program accommodates categories, classes, and split payments for detailed accounting and tracking purposes. You can do scheduled payments and reminders. It has auto-fill and memorizes transactions.

Reports can be customized, color adjusted, and even displayed as pie charts. They can also be synced and exported.

If you are budget-minded, no problem, you can set up budgets for anything you wish, track your progress, and generate reports. You can also keep a record of upcoming transactions for projection purposes.

If you are an international entrepreneur, you can setup currency conversions and automatically convert transactions as they are entered into the system.

For the security conscious, you can create a special password to protect your information. Splash money also offers Blowfish encryption for an even more secure environment.

There is much to appreciate about this powerful little bookkeeper. Try it for 30 days, and you will probably wonder what you ever did without it. It can be yours for $29.95. Visit www.splashdata.com to get your copy.

A Stranger in a Strange Land: a Windows Mobile guy meets iPhone

My brother, the cinematographer, is a Mac kinda guy. So, naturally he packs an iPhone of which he is very proud. While visiting me last week he was showing off the virtues of his iPhone with a bit of a smug air and a tinge of superiority.

He quickly established that the iPhone makes phone calls, surfs the Web, does email and SMS, takes pictures (but has no flash), and it does it all on a really cool, high-resolution, finger-friendly touch screen.

Perhaps a little reluctantly, he let me try it. The first thing I had to check out was the finger-friendly interface. Sure enough, you just touch any icon on the home screen, and the tapped application appears. I suppose this would seem cool to a cellphone user, but not too impressive to an old Pocket PC packer.

Within the application, you can use your finger to scroll around, but you can't use the keyboard or a joystick 5-way button because they don't exist. You can even zoom in or out on a screen or photo by pinching your fingers together or spreading them apart—very cool.

This is all well and good until you get to a Web page that has many hyperlinks such as the results of a Google search. Try to expand, contract, or scroll the screen, and the slightest touch invokes the hyperlink and drives you nuts.

The iPhone has neither keypad nor keyboard for inputting. Instead, it has a QWERTY popup input panel that requires finger tapping. The keys are far too small for my fingers that are on the gorilla side of the scale; the keyboard is more suited to the fingers of a five-year-old.

It must have taken me five minutes to type my first and last name without any errors. This is not my idea of productivity.

Oh well, the obvious solution was simply to use the stylus from my Windows Mobile device for more accurate inputting. I thought it strange that the iPhone didn’t come with one. I whipped out my stylus, started to tap the iPhone screen with it, and I thought my brother was going to have a heart attack. You'd think I was accosting his screen with a jackhammer. That's when we learned that styli do not work on the iPhone screen, which seems to require heat from your finger. I wondered if you can use iPhones outside in the winter. You can’t use them with gloves either.

We had been talking about a family member whose contact info I didn't have. My brother found it in his iPhone. "Great!" I said as I grabbed my Windows Mobile 6 Professional Phone. "Just beam it to me, bro."

"Huh. What's that?"

We learned that an iPhone cannot beam contacts, photos, files or anything else because it doesn't have an InfraRed port. Hmm... Apparently you cannot beam or synchronize wirelessly either even though the iPhone has both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. The iPhone comes with Bluetooth 1.2, not 2.0 and Wi-Fi 802.11 b, not b/g. Oh well…

I wanted to show him a bit of the surrounding countryside. I told him I had a universal Window mount that we could put his iPhone in, and he could keep track of our progress with his GPS. I just assumed that his fancy phone would have GPS. Nope.

Well, no problem if he didn't have built-in GPS. I told him I had a GPS program that included maps. All he had to do was plug it into his device, and we'd be in business. I asked him what kind of SD slot he had because I can accommodate standard SD, Mini, and Micro card slots.

What? The iPhone has no expansion slot. He informed me that the iPhone had no expansion slots because it had an 8 GB memory and didn't need any expansion. Of course, my device has infinite memory because it does have expansion slots that can also be used for certain peripherals.

His battery was getting low from all the texting he had been doing. (By the way, he could do SMS, but not MMS, and no IM either.) He couldn’t just slip in a spare battery because the iPhone battery is not removable. His iPhone had no car charger. No problem. I handed him a live mini-USB cable so he could charge up his battery. He had a questioning look on his face. That's when I found out that the iPhone does not use the almost universal USB connector. Bother...

During our excursion, the conversation turned to a topic about which I had written an article. I knew I couldn't beam it to him. So, I said I would just email it to his iPhone as a Word.doc attachment so that he could add his thoughts to it. That's when I learned that iPhones don't do docs--no word processing, no spreadsheets, no databases, no PowerPoints or anything else expected of a normal computer. You can’t even use an iPhone to move documents from one MAC to another. Hmm… You can’t connect peer-to-peer with an iPhone either.

Now I was curious about just what programs you could actually load onto an iPhone to increase its productivity. On the Apple site, I went to the iPhone section where I've heard boasts of over 600 applications available. Of course there are well over 12,000 applications for Pocket PCs, but you have to start somewhere, and iPhone is a new platform. I realize it will take a while for developers to catch up.

I was surprised to discover, no I was shocked to discover that there were few programs that you can actually download and install on an iPhone. Almost all of the applications reside on the Internet; they are called Web Apps. They remind me of Gadgets for Vista. You have to go online to use them. But what if you don't want to incur the expense of getting online or there is no connection available?

Most of the applications seem to be some kind of list tool of one kind or another to keep track of stuff from photos to songs to money to you name it. But, I hasten to point out that these are simple listings, not complex spreadsheet programs or relational databases. There was a fare share of games too--in other words, fun little applications, but no serious productivity tools.

My interest perked up when I saw a section called Productivity. This must be where they keep the cool stuff that let's you do actual computing. Nope. No word processors, no spreadsheets just more list keepers is about as serious as it gets.

Now it was my turn to give him a quick demo of what WM6 Professional phones can do. I started with the dual 3.0 MPX camera that takes pictures front and back and is set up for teleconferencing. Then I showed him how I could not only scroll in a finger-friendly fashion through various applications and on Websites, but also use a stylus and joystick. I showed him my actual QWERTY keyboard and a variety of screen input applications that go way beyond QWERTY. I showed him how I could beam stuff to other devices and printers using wireless technology consisting of IR, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi. I showed him SD cards with mini and micro caddies. I demonstrated how I could create, edit, and read Microsoft office documents and send them to other devices. I showed him my built-in FM radio and how I could listen to Sirius and XM satellite radio as well. I let him see how I control my TV and DVR at home from my pocket pal from anywhere in the world and watch live and recorded TV on it. I couldn’t resist showing him the built-in GPS navigation, star gazing, and tracking abilities. I showed him some of my favorite peripherals such as a Bluetooth keyboard, printers, scanners, and video eyewear, none of which is available for iPhones. I showed him how I could access data and control my home office computer from my handheld. Then I hooked up my trusty little Bluetooth mouse and connected my pocket pal to my desktop monitor to demonstrate how it becomes an extension of the big screen and the cursor travels freely between them.

You can’t do any of this stuff with an iPhone. By the way, you are not going to increase your literary IQ on an iPhone either because they don’t do eBooks. How sad.

One of the things I enjoy most is just bossing my little pocket concierge around with voice commands to do my bidding and telling it to run applications, view photos, play music, and make calls. You can’t talk to iPhones; you have to poke them in the tummy with your finger to get them to do anything.

For sure, iPhones are fun, but when you want to do some serious handheld computing, you need a machine that means business and serves for more than poking fun at with your nose picker. I appreciated my tour as a stranger in the strange land of the iPhone, and thanks for the finger frolics, but I’ll stick with my far more powerful Windows Mobile Professional device.

HanDBase 4.0

I must admit that I have been aware of HanDBase for some time, but have largely ignored it because my databases are in the millions of records and would swamp the memory of a PDA.

However, upon the prompting of a friend, I took another look at the new version 4.0 recently and was more than a little impressed with what I found.

HandDBase is a sophisticated relational database that will work on almost all PDA platforms. It allows data entry, record searching, sorting, filtering, printing, and syncing with desktop and handheld devices. It will import/export Microsoft Access or other ODBC compliant databases.

You can construct your own custom-designed database using fifteen different kinds of fields from text to numerical to date to calculating and more. It also lets you create forms for data input with a nifty drag and drop designer. The form designer is impressive. You can select colors for text, background, buttons, as well as button functions and button shape. There are drop down boxes, radio buttons, and free text fields that can contain up to 2000 characters. You can even insert graphics in the forms.

HanDBase comes with a desktop form designer application as well. You can also sync data with a desktop computer if you wish.

There are unlimited ways to use HanDBase. For example, in the personal arena, you may wish to make shopping lists, packing lists, to do lists, guest, and gift lists. You can construct a database to handle recipes, car and travel information, bible study, workouts, and weight loss.

In the realm of business, you can use HanDBase for tracking inventory, customers, deliveries, estimates, invoices, and much more.

In the medical and professional field, there are innumerable tasks that HanDBase will perform for you with respect to patient/client records and vital information access at your fingertips.

When properly equipped, HanDBase can accommodate barcode scanning into a database, which has huge implications.

HanDBase strives for universal compatibility between different types of databases, handheld, and desktop platforms.

If you are concerned about security, HanDBase allows you to encrypt your data in many different ways on several levels. Developers can lock certain aspects of a program so that users can’t mess with it.

Truly, the applications are only limited by your imagination. If you are not up to the tedium of constructing your own database, HanDBase will build it for you for a small fee. Not only that, but there are over 2000 ready-made databases already online on the Website that you can download free.

Some of the most popular examples of ready-made free databases include WeightWatchers guide, Jenny Craig meal buying list, music collection, herbal medicines, home to do list, teacher’s grade book, and recipes.

As I already mentioned, HanDBase is a relational database so that you can link to other databases and pull up data in specified fields. For this purpose, it also allows field mapping between various databases.

Here is where I could go into a mini-tutorial on how to use HanDBase, but the excellent online video tutorials make it unnecessary.

Almost anyone’s personal life, business, or profession can benefit from the power HanDBase. You owe it to yourself to check it out and give it a try. There is a 30 free trial. If you decide that it will change your life forever and you cannot live without it, you have several purchase options ranging from $39.95 to $99.95 depending on the plug-ins and addons.

Conclusions

Let me make it perfectly clear, if I have not already done so, HanDBase has won me over, and I highly recommend it. However, I do think it is weak in the report area (unless I completely missed something). For example, if you need the statistics on how many people in your database have orange hair, blue teeth, and purple ears, you could create a filter, but not a report with statistics.

If you are looking for a simple list program, you may be better off with something like ListPro, for it can be a little tedious going through all the motions to build a database just for a simple shopping list. But, you may find that there is already a database that suits your needs for you to download free.

And, clearly, HanDBase is not for huge multi-million record databases because of the limitations of handheld memory and processing power.

Nevertheless, with these limitations in mind, HanDBase offers a handheld solution for individuals, businesses, and professionals who want to be organized and have access to critical information at their fingertips on the job and in the field. Don’t forget that data can be transferred between devices and synchronization keeps all records up to date.

HanDBase is an amazingly powerful program for handheld data access, input, and manipulation.

The UMPC Evolution: Samsung’s Q1 Ultra

Two years ago a cover story in Smartphone and Pocket PC magazine introduced the UMPC, and Samsung’s Q1 was the first to make it to market. At the end of the article, I asked if the new UMPC would replace the Pocket PC, or whether it would even survive as a platform. Samsung’s second generation device shows that the developers have been paying attention to user feedback. The new Q1 has impressive improvements that make it an attractive computing choice. Recently, at the Consumer Electronics Show, I observed several second generation entries and that more manufacturers were coming out with new models. Apparently the UMPC is gaining a significant foothold as a viable platform and computing alternative.

Outside: first impressions

First impressions and appearances reveal significant differences in the new Q1 compared to the original version. Perhaps most noticeable immediately is the QWERTY keyboard split on either side of the screen near the top. On the left is a joystick with mouse and Internet control buttons. On the right, is the navigation panel with an enter button, and below that are left and right mouse button keys.

Viewing the same seven inch screen is a more pleasurable experience now because instead of the 800 x 600 resolution, it has been bumped up to 1024 x 600 eliminating most sideways scrolling.

Another new feature is the fingerprint scanner on the lower left corner of the front panel. Instead of no camera on the first Q1, there are now two cameras, one in front, one in back.

Along the top, above the screen to the left are a series of indicators for power, battery, and wireless connections. On the left is a bank of four buttons for volume, and a menu for various system controls, and a handy UDF or user defined button. There are dual microphone pinholes at the bottom of the screen. A button that activates the camera is on the top right.

Gone is the CF port replaced by a standard SD card slot on the top of the unit accompanied by a 3.5 mm earphone jack and USB port. On the left is a lanyard connector, an AV Station button, and a locking power slider.

On the right side is the power input and a removable cover housing LAN, USB, and VGA ports. On the bottom right corner you will find the stylus silo. On the backside, there is a battery cover latch and a foldout stand.

Inside

Samsung has improved what’s under the hood too with more hunk and computer power by installing an Intel Core2 Duo ultra low voltage 800 MHz processor and one GB of RAM. Unfortunately, the review model I received came loaded with XP, but it will start shipping with Vista in the second quarter of 2008.

The LCD 7 inch WSVGA screen is set to 1024 x 600. For audio it offers H/P out, stereo speakers (1.5 x 2) and array mic.

It sports an 8mm, 1.8 inch, 60 GB hard drive for built-in memory plus a standard SD expansion card slot.

The wireless setup includes WLAN (802.11 b/g), Bluetooth, Wired LAN (RJ45), and optional HSDPA/WIBRO, but no InfraRed. I/O ports include H/P out, DC-in, USB x 2, VGA, SD slot, RJ45, and SIM CARD (HSDPA) slot (optional).

User interface features include a QWERTY key pad. Dial Keys, Enter, Mode Switch (Joystick, Mouse), Shutter/Internet, CAD, Meun, UDF button, MIO, Volume +/-. It facilitates multimedia instant on with hot-start.

Other features include fingerprint scanner and dual camera. The unit measures approximately 9 x 5 3/8 x 1/ ¼ inches. It weighs one pound, 14 ounces, which is a heck of a lot less than a laptop.

In the box

The contents of the box are rather minimal. There is an AC adapter, a set of ear buds, and a nylon sleeve case. There are two CDs. The System Software Media disk was not compatible with my Vista desktop, so I could not run it. The System Recover Media disk was dated 2005, curiously before the advent of the first UMPC. Let’s not forget the wrist strap. And that is it. If you want to accessorize, the rest is up to you. There is no printed or CD manual. There is an icon on the desktop that takes you to an onboard manual that is somewhat comprehensive.

Samsung has several accessories available, which include a navigation pack for GPS (car cradle, car adapter, GPS receiver, map), USB external keyboard, and extended life battery of 8.5 hours. The standard battery has a predicted 4.5 hour usage. There is an optional external optical drive and a docking station.
Software

The unit comes with an array of software to assure your productivity right out of the box with the usual compliment of XP and Microsoft components from games to utilities and applications. Samsung has plugged in some of its own useful tools, and there is some third party software as well.

I think it is too bad that you only get a trial version of Microsoft Office. When the trail expires, I will probably take advantage of Google’s free software alternatives or OpenOffice.

For the Tablet mode, there is Windows Journal for pen input and Microsoft Touch Pack for Tablet PC.

Observations

I found the new keypad awkward to use, and difficult to see without a backlight because of glare from the shiny black surfaces. I never did like the dialkey alternative, which is still available for those who wish to use it. The input panel works well enough with a stylus if you prefer it. However, any serious inputting should only be attempted with an external keyboard, USB or Bluetooth.

My ThinkOutside Igo Bluetooth keyboard paired right up using the native driver already onboard. It worked really well, and turned the UMPC into a real productivity device that I would be pleased to take anywhere. But, without the keyboard, its usefulness is more limited.

Unfortunately, I am one of those leftys who drags his hand behind the pen tip and smears the ink. Accordingly, when I try to write on the UMPC screen I create a pickup sticks of jagged lines on the screen, and my writing goes mostly unheeded by the system. I doubt that right-handers would have this problem if they don’t touch the screen with anything but the stylus. So, for me, the Tablet PC approach with the digital pen works better for handwriting. But, I actually prefer the convenience of the touch screen.

The screen has greatly improved for outdoor viewing. Before it was like looking into a black mirror. Now you can adjust the backlight.

The joystick is so sensitive, that it is just plain annoying. Thank goodness for the touch screen. Use your finger or a stylus instead for efficient precision pointing. For best results use a USB or Bluetooth mouse.

No, I do not think the UMPC will ever replace a Windows Mobile Professional device. Even though it is eversomuch more powerful, it is still bulky in comparison and far less convenient. The real question is whether it may replace a laptop or Tablet PC.

The answer to that question probably lies in the way it will be used. It is a wonderful device for portable, handheld inputting for inventory, medical forms, and other repetitive tasks. I certainly would not want to take extensive notes or write a novel on one without an external keyboard. Its lack of an optical drive could be another problem for some users.

But, by the time you pack an external keyboard, mouse, optical drive, and cables, you may prefer the convenience of having a laptop or Tablet with a larger screen.

I have enjoyed the convenience of size and found the 7 inch screen perfectly adequate for inputting if I have an external keyboard. I have used it for PowerPoint presentations and appreciate its small size on the road. I really like its larger screen for GPS applications on trips. It’s a great media center too. I like to put it in my kitchen while cooking dinner and watch TV via Slingbox or look up recipes, or talk on the phone via Skype or plug in my MagicJack and yak away while I burn the beans.

What about price? I have seen the price vary from $779 to $1099, which is quite a variance. But, at $799, I should think that even with laptop prices dropping dramatically, this UMPC is definitely a buy worth considering. It is not yet at the $500 level that Microsoft envisioned initially, but perhaps it will be as consumer demand increases.

I would recommend waiting for one pre-loaded with Vista unless the XP units are substantially less. It is strange that I should receive an XP review unit when I saw them with Vista at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.

Certainly there is a place for the UMPC platform. I am happy to see it maturing and expanding. Samsung, the first to enter the market, has made another valiant entry with its second generation Q1 Ultra.

SMS-Chat Revisited

When I first tried SMS-Chat I was enthusiastic about it because it was fun, flashy, and new. I also liked the finger scrollable screens. But, after having used it now for a while, I am beginning to develop a wish list for the next version.

While there is much to like about this creative chat program that automatically threads your messages by recipients for convenience, there is room for improvement to make it even better.

First of all, I would like to see this application have a robust settings menu that would include such choices as font type, font size, font color, background color, and themes.

Leaving color and style behind, there are much more important functional considerations. Perhaps my biggest wish would be for the ability to highlight/cut/copy/paste. It’s nothing less than maddening not to have these normal, expectable functions available. It should also have automatic first word of a sentence capitalization as an option. “I” and contraction words should automatically be capitalized as well. Why is there no predictive text engine for faster inputting? Why not just use the one that comes built-in?

Another serious shortcoming is the lack of hyperlinks. I often send a hyperlinked URL to associates, and that is not possible with the current version of SMS-Chat. It is perhaps because of this single factor, more than any other, that I have returned to my tried and true faithful Treo with it superb built-in SMS and MMS applications.

I’d like to be able to sort messages in certain ways and to tag and group them in other ways. I’d like for there to be an auto text module for pat phrases such as out of office, call you later, on the phone, etc. There should also be a nice gallery of emoticons available for quick input to spice up messages. It would also be worthwhile to have a larger input panel. The send button could be a softkey at the bottom of the screen.

While it is sometimes convenient and desirable that a new message automatically pops up on your screen, there may be other times when it is totally inappropriate. Accordingly, this feature should be an option. Similarly, there are times when it may be desirable to encrypt messages. This should also be an option for security purposes.

It would be convenient to have a call button should you wish to place a quick call to someone who just texted you without having to get out of the program to do it. It would also be desirable to be able to zap in a signature when you wish.

As long as we’re thinking expansively here, why not include an MMS module as well for sending graphics and audio along with text?

While I like the way SMS-Chat becomes part of the messaging tree menu, I think it would be better if this program automatically integrated all pre-exising messages into it and simply merged with the existing message tree as the one and only Test Messaging choice. At least this could be an option in case you wished to keep your previous messages separate or use it as a separate service.

Another feature I would like to see is the ability to sync messages with a companion desktop program. Perhaps this could be sold as a separate module. The desktop version should also have the ability to send text messages singly and by broadcasting to an entire list. I believe this operation alone could have tremendous commercial application and could sell for a significant sum.

I have great respect and admiration for the developers at Vito Technology. I consider them to be major contributors to innovative, functional, and fun software for the Windows Mobile market. I hope some of these suggestions will serve to make the next release of SMS-Chat even more useful.

Check out SNS-Chat at Vito Technology.

To Plus or Shell: that is the question

Spb Software has two excellent Today screen launcher type programs with a great deal of overlap. Which should you choose to enhance your pocket pal?

Clearly, Pocket Plus is the more robust in features, but Mobile Shell is prettier and combines fun with function.

Pocket Plus Features

In my quest to make this evaluation and come to some conclusion, the moment I installed Pocket Plus I remembered why I stopped using it some time ago even before the advent of Mobile Shell. The reason was simple. It requires that you install it to main memory, and that real estate is just too valuable in my estimation. However, I must say that the latest iteration uses a much smaller footprint, so I thought I’d give it another try.

Without attempting to write a user’s manual, let’s review some of the manifold features in Pocket Plus. It is designed to be a Today screen ad-on that accommodates several of its own plug-ins such as Pocket Weather, Diary, and Phone Suite.

It basically displays up to six tabs on the Today screen that allow you to add any custom content you wish from system functions to files, folders, and applications. You can even nestle folders within folders or group related applications. You can customize the appearance and arrangement too. The tab contents appear on the Today screen for easy access.

What I really like about the Today screen view is that you can organize the icons by dragging and dropping where you want them, a function sadly lacking in Shell where it’s tedious to organize, add, and subtract items. Plus makes all this a breeze in comparison. You can even drag icons from one tab to another. However, I discovered that Plus does not make all applications available, which is disturbing.

A handy optional battery bar indicator appears across the top of the taskbar that takes up virtually no Today screen space.

The built-in task manager is customizable with up to 18 functions compared to Shell’s 5 basic functions. It will actually close programs and not leave them running in the background using up system hunk.

Plus adds finger-friendly scrolling to many applications such as File Explorer, Messaging, PIE, Outlook, Programs & Settings, and Search, as well as for many Spb programs. This should make nose miners who like to use their index fingers happy.

Plus also adds the ability to program buttons by adding a tap and hold feature that doubles button functionality. In File Explorer, Plus adds a zip/unzip files function to conserve space. It will also encrypt files for greater security. It offers a properties option, formats expansion cards, and lets you add items to the today screen just like on desktops. It even lets you rename file extensions. The improved file open/save dialog allows you to browse to any directory from within any application.

If you are having issues with your system, Plus allows you to boot in safe mode to mend the problem. You can set it to open automatically after three failed boot attempts.

In Internet Explorer, Plus adds the ability to push the screen around just like in iPhones. It also lets you create tabs as you would on a desktop browser.

Mobile Shell Features

Now let’s take a look at what Mobile Shell will do for you. For a more complete discussion, check out my review of the newly released version 2.0 at http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=9&p=2530&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#more2530

Basically, Mobile Shell offers features contained on three screens.

On the Now screen put up in the Professional view of Shell, you will find weather, message, and phone configuration info at the top. A large digital time display with date dominates the center screen. Below that are upcoming appointments with a calendar bar showing the days of the week. Tap on any day to bring up the day’s activities. At the bottom are four icons. From left to right the first one will take you to the Now screen, the second to Shell’s main navigation or menu screen, the third to a photo contact/speed dialer screen with 16 programmable spots on a 4 x 4 grid, the last icon functions as an OK button that takes you to the previous application.

The Navigation screen consists of a menu six large icons containing related programs. The standard arrangement features Organizer, Messaging, Tools, Programs, Settings, and Multimedia. You can add or subtract and even create a custom button called My Menu and put anything you want in it.

At the top of the screen are 12 more smaller icons representing the most recently and commonly used applications. You can rearrange these, add, subtract, or pin them permanently to a position.

The third screen already mentioned is the speed dialer.

A neat feature of Shell is the ability to gesture with your finger or stylus to bring up these three screens from any application, which is a huge plus lacking in Plus. All you have to do is drag your finger or stylus downward from the left half of the taskbar.

The icons are large and finger friendly for quick and efficient navigation in Shell. The inspiration no doubt came from Smartphone screen layouts. I like it and find it easier to use than Plus’ approach. If you put too many icons on the Today screen in Plus, they disappear off the screen, and there is no way to scroll to them. This is surprising given Plus’ scrolling abilities elsewhere. If you make the icons smaller, they are difficult to see and to identify. You can add labels, but that takes up space.

I found that when I tried to use non-Spb plugins for the today screen the system would get hung up. I even had difficulty using Spb plugins with Plus on the Today screen. So, phooey with Plus on the Today screen.

Conclusion

What to do? Which one to choose? I hated to give up all that super functionality of Plus, but I would not mind regaining the main memory it takes. I love the finger-friendly big icons for easy navigation in Shell its handy speed-dialer, and all the information on the Now screen. Decisions, decisions.

Finally, I realized that I could have the best of both worlds. I simply disabled Plus on the Today screen by unchecking the box in the set up menu. Voila, I have all the super functionality of Plus running in the background and the great navigation and information on Shell’s attractive screens available in the foreground.

I also added feature-rich Spb Diary, a plugin that displays PIM data with Calendar, Tasks, Contacts (with photos), Notes, Messaging (emails & SMS), special events such as birthdays, and a custom tab—all with easy finger-friendly, one-hand navigation on the Today screen.

I decided to include Spb Phone Suite as well because it offers profiles, missed calls and SMS notification, photo speed dial, wireless manager, call filtering, customizable Today plug-in and more.

And that’s how I decided whether to use Pocket Plus or Mobile Shell, and I’m as happy as a leprechaun in a Guinness brewery with the super combined functionality of both great products.

Keep connected…Happy St. Patrick’s Day

AstroNavigator v2.01

What I would have given for AstroNavigator when I was earning my Boy Scout Astronomy Merit Badge. With Astronavigator on board and hooked up to a satellite feed, you just face in any direction, and a picture of the heavens will appear on your screen.

You just tap on any object, and a screen appears with information about it. You can search for and locate any star, planet, galaxy, or constellation.

Recently AstroNavigator acquired a new look with animated screens and finger-friendly screen flicking, inspired no doubt by iPhone. In fact, Vito Technology has created a whole family of finger-friendly applications for nose miners.

I was surprised to receive a notice yesterday that Vito Technology has released yet another version of AstroNavigator.

Some of the improvements include the following:

· Database loading time is significantly faster.
· Searches for stars, constellations, and towns, etc. is faster too.
· Information about heavenly bodies and constellations appear in separate windows.
· The application displays animated images of celestial objects.
· You can now view not only objects above you but also from anywhere on the planet.
· T9 is available to facilitate more efficient searches.
· You can change the time and date of the viewing screen.

While all of these innovations are definite enhancements to an already exciting product, the one that shakes my shovel (I’m an archaeologist) is the latter. It has been my greatest fantasy to be able to travel through time and space since I was a little boy. Now I can, thanks to Vito Technology.

The only problem is that I await clear skies to be able to put it to the ultimate test of actual viewing. Meanwhile, I’m having fun playing with it by traveling through time and space and venturing to other locations to see how the night sky appears from various exotic viewing points.

I’m not much worried about writing this piece before I have a chance to use it under clear skies, for I have been using the program for many years now and have complete confidence in it.

This application is a must have for all star gazers or would be star gazers out there. With AstroNavigator, you are certain to become star-struck. It’s a great investment that will advance your knowledge and appreciation of the heavens above us, past, present, and future. How else can you turn into a time tripper for only twenty bucks?

If you want to earn your Astronomy merit badge or become a time traveler, go to www.iwindowsmobile.com and grab a copy. Of course, you can try it free before you buy. I wonder when McDonalds is going to discover this concept?

SPB Weather Release 1.7.4

Spb Weather is clearly one of the top weather programs available for Windows Mobile devices. If you are already a user, you will want to take advantage of this free upgrade. Otherwise, you may wish to check it out and add it to your bag of tricks.

The main incentive for upgrading is that the new version integrates seamlessly with the new Spb Mobile Shell 2.0, as well as Spb Pocket Plus and Diary. See a review of Mobile Shell.

Let’s take a brief tour of this pocket weather station that can reside on your Today screen or a tap away nestled in Pocket Plus or Mobile Shell tab or icon if you want to conserve the limited display space available. It offers four views ranging from 4 to 7 days depending on the information you want to view at a glance. Tapping on a day’s icon will bring up the detailed forecast for that day to show weather for Morning, Day, Evening, Night, which is handy. If you want to compare your designated weather cities, you can display them in a multiline view. Otherwise, cities reside on tabs.

Selecting your favorite cities is easy from the provided database, or you can specify your own. I’ve never been stumped yet. You can use the weather services available in Spb, select or create your own, a powerful feature.

It’s skinnable and comes with 10 professionally designed options. You can download more for free from Spb, or you can create your own. This allows you to change the weather icons to the ones you prefer.

Spb Weather allows you to specify measurement and unit settings and to synchronize in different ways to keep reports current.

If you are interested in exploring the features of several popular weather programs before making a decision, you may wish to read my article “Weathering Heights.”

You can download a free trial or purchase it at http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/weather/download.html

Spb Weather costs $14.95, which is a small price to pay for instant and up to date access to vital information that can sometimes be a matter of life or death.

SPB Mobile Shell 2.0

There’s a whole host of new features in the latest release of SPB Mobile Shell. It seemed to me that it hasn’t been that long since it first appeared on my Windows Mobile screen, but I guess it was actually a year ago this month. How time flies when you’re having fun with your pocket pals.

When you install the program, you have the choice between the Professional View or Classic View for the Now screen that appears when you first turn on your machine. Accustomed to the Professional View, that’s what I selected because it gives you a digital clock and a lot more information than the classic analog clock view.

The new Now screen in Professional View popped up with some innovations. From top to bottom there are several horizontal ribbons containing vital information. At the very top left, you will see a battery life display opposing a notation of your phone network and connectivity strength on the right. The next row of icons, from left to right displays the weather for your selected city, number of unread emails, text messages, and voice mails followed by the sound level and phone mode (normal, silent, or vibrate). Tapping this icon allows you to change the mode. Basically, SPB attempts to cluster the most important information for you on this screen all available in a glance.

Note that the selection of cities for the weather display is unfortunately rather limited. The closest city I could find near where I live is 100 miles away. This features needs to be improved. However, the new full-screen weather page that appears when you tap the weather icon is very nice with its four day forecast and current day/night/morning/evening conditions.

Next comes the time and date panel prominently displayed, which I appreciate. It has become the way I usually tell time. The bands beneath that display upcoming appointments. A calendar bar at the bottom will allow you to pull up a week’s worth of appointments for any given day, another useful improvement.

At the very bottom is a brand new row of four, finger-friendly icons. From left to right, the first icon will return you to the Now screen. The second icon pulls up the SPB Mobile launcher screen. The third icon is another handy innovation for it allows you to program up to 15 contacts by name or photo for quick dial, which is far better than the old version with only four or five. Finally, there is an X icon, which acts like an OK button that takes you back to the previous application one by one.

Let’s talk about the mobile launcher screen for that is the heart of the program, and it has been severely redesigned. At first, I didn’t like it. Gone was the familiar 3 x 3 grid with nine handy menu icons that contained the most useful applications nested in categories for easy access. Instead there were now only six major icons. In the place of the missing first row of three large icons, there are now twelve small icons representing the last and most frequently used applications.

What I didn’t appreciate at first was the fact that you can tap and hold any of these icons and then pin them to the screen. You can move them around or delete them entirely. You can also select and manage the pinned items and completely customize what appears here. This is reminiscent of the My Menu folder, which still exists, by the way.

Now that there are only six icons on the main launch menu, you have to select which ones are the most important to you. You may choose among Organizer, Tools, My Menu, Programs, Settings, Multimedia, Messaging, and Internet folders. Each has applications within that you can also change (except for Settings). To reorganize these folders, go to Settings, Customize Menu, and then move them up or down. The first top six will appear on the launch menu screen.
The Version 2.0 menu offers both programs and actions. For instance, in the Organizer folder, the Calendar submenu presents a convenience way to create a new appointment or check your calendar at various levels.

My advice is to place the My Menu folder among the six icons and then place whatever items you want in there for quick access. You can even build a custom menu with sub-folders.
There are many ways to customize SPB Mobile Shell to your own specifications. Go to Settings, Spb Mobile Shell where you can select the following tabs: Now Screen, Today, Animation, Tabs, Advanced, Theme, and Weather. The Animation options are new and fun to play with. The Theme choices really change the appearance and mood of your device. Experiment.

Another new feature for version 2.0 is the ability to use Smart Gestures for navigation that give you even more control and quicker access to the depths of your device. This is really a powerful feature because it allows you to use the gestures from within almost any application to activate the three SPB panels: speed dial, Now screen, or launcher. All you have to do is drag your finger from the left half of the taskbar straight down. The three panels will pop up. Select the one you want, and release your finger. To cancel, just release your finger outside the gray area. Actually, it doesn’t work in every single application, only the ones that display a taskbar.

While I was perfectly happy with version 1.0, I am elated with version 2.0 and its new functionality. I think you will be too. I recommend that you give it a try and suspect that once you have it onboard, you will want to purchase it and make it yours. If you’ve never had the pleasure and experiencing all that SPB Mobile Shell can do to streamline your mobile device, you have a treat in store.

If you already have version 1.0, you can upgrade for $14.95; otherwise, it will cost you $29.95. Of course you can try it free before you buy. Check it out at www.spbsoftwarehouse.com.

Congratulations, SPB, you have created another keeper. I wouldn’t want my Windows Mobile device to be without it. Of course, it goes without saying that this finger-friendly screen flicker only works on touch screen devices.

Freedom Keychain GPS 2000 -- An even smaller keychain GPS receiver

A while back I was awed and wrote about what I thought was a miniscule GPS receiver that fit on a keychain. Well, I just received an even smaller one from Proporta.com that is even more awesome.

The Freedom Keychain GPS 2000 comes in black with a rubberized coating, weighs 0.77 ounces, and measures 1.81 x 1.26 x 0.58 inches with a swivel detachable hook on one end. On one side is a slider power switch and a mini-USB port for charging.
In the box, you get a power charger for your car and a USB cable for charging from a computer. There is also a small printed user’s manual with instructions offered in ten languages.

Some of the important technical data are as follows:

· Bluetooth v 2.0
· 10 meter range
· MTK chipset
· 51 channels “all-in-view” tracking
· ARM7EJ-S processor
· Protocol: NMEA 0183/ V3.01, GGA, GSA, GSV, RMC
· Baud rate 115,200
· Frequency L1, 1,575.42 Mhz
· Tracking Sensitivity 158dBM
· WAAS/EGNOS/MSAS enabled
· Position deviation: 10 meters 90% 2D RMS 1-5 meters
· Velocity: 0.1 m/sec
· Cold/warm/hot start: 36/33/1 sec
· Rechargeable 350 mAh Lithium polymer battery

Operation is simple and straight forward. After charging the device, switch the power on and pair it with your GPS navigation device via Bluetooth using the normal procedure.
On the end opposite the keyring hole are a series of LED lights that glow blue for Bluetooth connection, orange for GPS, red for battery, and green for charging.

Once you are paired with a navigation device, you are good to go. This miniscule signal grabber is a powerful little fellow. You don’t even have to have it in plain view of the satellites in your windshield. You can keep it hooked to your ignition key while navigating, and it will receive the signal just fine. You can also put it in your pocket, backpack or purse.

I’m not certain how long the battery lasts. The longest I have used it so far was about four hours, and it was still going strong. It has a power feature that allows the device to go into hibernation mode when there is no activity from your handheld device, and the lights stop flashing. It will wake up instantly with any signal from your navigation device.

You are probably wondering how much this little guy costs, and the answer is $129.95. You can get one from www.proporta.com. Shipping is an extra $4.95, by the way.

If you do not already have GPS software for your pocket pal, I recommend OCN from buy www.buygpsnow.com, Co-Pilot 7 from www.alk,com, and Ostia from www.pharosgps.com. Be sure to get the version that comes on an SD card that will also accommodate micro and mini SD slots. Prices start at $79 for the navigation software.

With this powerful GPSer on your keychain, you will never have to ask for directions again, and you can be a real man.