TamsWMS – the Windows Mobile Smartphone Blog

Coming from Austria, yours truly has a healthy dislike of government agencies – wherever the government gets involved, idiocy and bloat usually follow suite.

Travelers and gadget heads in the USA will soon enjoy even more of the above-mentioned. PCWorld reports the following:

Buying your next laptop computer or smartphone online could suddenly get a lot more expensive if a little-known U.S. Department of Transportation proposal to tighten rules around the shipment of small, battery-powered devices by air goes through, says an industry group opposing the move.

Airline passengers would be affected too, as rules banning spare lithium-ion batteries in checked-in luggage would also be extended to alkaline and nickel metal-hydride batteries, argues George Kerchner, executive director of the Washington D.C.-based Portable Rechargeable Battery Association.

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For air travelers, this means that you are no longer allowed to put batteries or accumulators into checked luggage – which is just insane. More on that can be had at the URL above.

P.S. This is a non-political blog. However, I think that the Terrorists have already won their “war” with us – air travel is such a hassle nowadays that many evaluate taking the train more and more. One can always circumvent security measures if one really wants to.

WebKit is the browser engine used by almost every mobile device – except for Microsoft and RIM’s current devices. It thus is interesting to see which mobile company does all the work…

neugierig.org performed an analysis and ended up with the chart below:

Not much to add here…

HTC once was synonymous with Windows Mobile. Unfortunately, the introduction of Android changed that – the company also has very strong foothold in this market.

AndroidCentral now got their hands onto the chart below:

If it really is true, this lends a load of extra credibility to the WM7 rumors we heard recently. Keep in mind that no OEM would put up with this on a long run – and it looks like Microsoft is starting to reap the fruits…

Various editors have recently received a “bullet-point” list of features and statements about the upcoming version of Windows Mobile. At Tamoggemon’s, we don’t just post them – but also embed some analysis for yours truly.

So, take a look at the items below – italics is the leak, our answer is in normal next:
· WP7 will be announced at MWC, and there will be a demo, but this will be just the UX
What else should they show? Devices?

· MIX will have specific developement focus sessions on WP7
· WP7 supports both Sliverlight (out of browser) and XNA
· Silverlight is version 3.0, with elements of 4.0 plus mobile specific features such as sensors etc
· XNA apps can be developed using XNA GameStudio 3.1
· SL apps developed using Expression Blend 3.x and VS2010
· MS will release a mobile version of VS / Expression which will be free, and VS2010 / Expression Pro will have a free add-on

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· WP7 will have an equivalent of .NET CF embedded into SL, but no SQL.
· WP7 will have isolated storage which is accessible using LINQ
· The UX of WP7 is based upon a theme called “METRO” and is similar to Zune HD, but with a completely new “Start” screen.

Doesn’t look good for business apps, which is a core feature of WM.

· No multi-tasking (applications will pause when in the background, however they will support notifications using the MS Push Notifications environment)

Plain stupid. I don’t think they are dumb enough to give up on the main benefit of their platform.

· No .NET CF backwards compatibility, however a proportion of the data and business logic in .NET CF could be ported

See above.

· MS were confident to have devices ready for Sep 2010
· No MS manufactured device, however much tighter control of manufactring process, so as an example each device has a 3D processing chipset, and MS provide all of the device drivers. So no platform builder. This enables OTA updates and simplified model for ODM’s
· Marketplace will support buy and try before you buy, as well as an API
· ODM / OEM will not be able to modify the “Start” screen, so no more HTC Sense / TouchFlo etc.

While I understand this – many at Microsoft’s are extremely pissed at the diversification, I don’t think OEMs will have one bit of that.

· MS are actually ahead of schedule which will surprise the analysts / journalists
· Browsing experience is currently faster / better than iPhone 3G, and they are aiming towards 3GS.
· Browser is based upon desktop IE7 codebase, but with some IE8 functionality
· No in browser Flash or SL
· WP7 has full integration with XBOX Live, and ability to purchase games
· WP7 will use the Zune software for music, videos, photos sync
· WP7 only supports app installation through service based delivery i.e. marketplace, so no side-loading
· MS will provide a hosted push notifications environment

Peanuts.

To be honest: I dare to speculate that at least part of this information is bogus. If it isn’t, Microsoft really seems to want to fulfill its promise of “dual platforms”: one of tzhem for entertainment (WM7), and the other one (WM 6.5.3) for business.

Amazon has just sent out a few invites to developers who indicated “interest” in the Kindle – it offered a further form, offering you to “apply for a place” in the Kindle developer test program.

Amazon has now posted an FAQ for Kindle developers – the most relevant questions are below:

# What APIs are available to me in the KDK?
The KDK is comprised of two sets of APIs:

* Java version 1.4 Personal Basis Profile (PBP) APIs for mobile devices.
PBP JavaDocs can be found at http://java.sun.com/javame/reference/apis/jsr217/.
* Kindle custom APIs which complement the PBP APIs and provide UI components, JSON and XML parsers, HTTP and HTTPS networking, secure storage, and other features. Other APIs like audio and dictionary access will be available in a future release of the KDK.
KDK JavaDocs can be found at http://kdk-javadocs.s3.amazonaws.com/index.html.

# I’ve already built a Java Micro Edition (J2ME) application. Can I port it to Kindle?
Yes. You should be able to modify existing Java applets and J2ME software to run on Kindle.

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As of now, Tamoggemon has not been accepted – stay tuned!

I guess that quite a few people at Redmond’s were extremely pissed when Apple’s iPad hit the road – while their product was technologically more advanced, it took an iPad to dake the world by storm.

Dick Brass, a former Microsoft VP, stated the following in a New York Times (anybody surprised by this?) op-ed:

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“The much more important question is why Microsoft, America’s most famous and prosperous technology company, no longer brings us the future, whether it’s tablet computers like the iPad, e-books like Amazon’s Kindle, smartphones like the BlackBerry and iPhone, search engines like Google, digital music systems like iPod and iTunes or popular Web services like Facebook and Twitter,”

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Given that the New York Times has already distributed total crap about Microsoft in the past, Micriosoft’s response via PC World was less than a bored “meh”:

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“At the highest level, we think about innovation in relation to its ability to have a positive impact in the world. For Microsoft, it is not sufficient to simply have a good idea, or a great idea, or even a cool idea. We measure our work by its broad impact,” wrote Frank X. Shaw, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of communications.

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Not much to add here…

As usual, our friends at BrightHand’s have just released their mindshare stats.

The top-ten is below – as always, the position in brackets refers to last month’s place:

1. HTC HD2 (1)
2. Samsung Moment, Android (3)
3. Nokia N900 (2)
4. BlackBerry Curve 8530 (new)
5. Nokia E63 (9)
6. BlackBerry Bold 9700 (6)
7. Motorola Droid, Android (4)
8. BlackBerry Bold 9000 (returning)
9. Nokia E71 and E71x (returning)
10. Samsung Omnia II (10)

Recent reports of extra memory on the HTC HD2 have caused quite a few nasty memories for Germans: we were flooded with “fake” memory sticks a few years ago.

In order to prove that the extra RAM on the HD2 was real, an xda-developers member created a test program:

In light of recent discoveries about the HD2’s hidden 128MB RAM, I’ve written a small application which uses the native Win32 API to allocate as much memory as it can (up to 2GB), and verifies it.

Notes:

* This application is designed to test the limits of your device’s memory. In particular, to test if the HD2’s additional 128MB is actually usable or not.
* This application will attempt to allocate as much memory as it can, OS limits notwithstanding. The application allocates memory in the OS’s shared memory space, which means that it isn’t privy to the usual 32MB address space limit.
* Because the application isn’t limited to 32MB memory usage, you don’t need to run multiple instances to consume your memory. Just one instance will do.
* This application does not use .NET, and instead uses the direct low-level kernel memory management functions (VirtualAlloc and VirtualFree) to reserve, commit, and free virtual pages. This means that the application has much more precise control over memory, and can consume memory until only a couple of megabytes remain.
* This application verifies the memory it allocates, by writing a byte pattern to the memory, and reading it out again. This is necessary because the Windows CE kernel does not commit pages to physical memory unless the memory page is read/written from at least once. This also guarantees that the memory is, in fact, usable and valid.

Hit the link below for a CAB and the source code:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=627404

Apple’s announcement to use a micro SIM in its iPad caused quite a bit of waves in the mobile industry – no other box has used this smaller format so far.

The illustration on the left shows the site difference – and CNET reports the following:

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The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), which sets the standards for SIM cards, tells us that except for the size of the plastic around the chip, micro SIM cards are identical to the SIM cards we normally find in phones.

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This means that you can cut existing SIM cards to size – have fun, tinkerers!

Image: Wikimedia Commons / Justin Ormont

We’ve already seen our fair share of Windows Mobile 6.5.3 – it leaked in the SDK, on MSDN, was shown at the booth and has been available to ROM heads for ages (hi, Kristin ).

According to the::unwired, the OS has now been confirmed officially:

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Windows Mobile 6.5.3 GUI and ease of use enhancements include capacitive touchscreen support, platform to enable multi-touch, touch controls throughout system (no need for stylus), consistent navigation, horizontal scroll bar replaces tabs, magnifier brings touch support to legacy applications, simplified out-of-box experience with fewer steps and drag and drop icons on Start menu:

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Under the hood improvements include browser performance for a page decreased load time, improved memory management, smoothed pan & flick gestures and speed improved zoom & rotation speed. Quality and customer satisfaction includes updated runtime tools (.NET CF 3.5 and SQL CE 3.1) as well as Arabic read/write document support.

iMate has not been in the news too much recently. This could have to do with their recent business “restructurings”, but could also be the fault of their insanely aggressive PR office.

Either way, it looks like something big is cooking for MWC. I just got the following release:

We invite you to join us at the 3rd annual
ShowStoppers @ Mobile World Congress
An invitation-only event
that organizes product introductions, sneak previews and hands-on product demonstrations
for journalists, bloggers, financial and industry analysts, and invited industry guests
35+ companies
Alcatel-Lucent • Anam Mobile • Arantech • Aviant Networks (Harris Stratex) • Bitstream • CellTrust • Cibenix
Dazzboard / Linkotec • Dial2Do • Digital Research Group • Enterprise Ireland • EXFO
i-Conx • iMate • iTraffic • Jivo • Multiplied Media / Poynt • Netcomm • NewBay Software • Noiseworks
Novatel • Nowcasting (askmoby.com) • Nuance • ooVoo • Otterbox • Performance Technologies
Plantronics • Powermat • Powerwave • RedMere • Sentry Wireless • Skyfire • SugarSync • Tango Telecom
TheNOW Factory • Visiarc • YouGetItBack.com• Zapa • plus more to come
Hilton Barcelona
Av. Diagonal 589-591
Barcelona
(Click here for map; the Hilton is easily accessed from the Fira, Maria Cristina train station, and city trams)

Sunday, 14 Feb. 2010
5 to 8 p.m. (1700-2000)
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The release then goes on into a bunch of aggressive rhetorics against journalists who don’t have the time to RSVP, bloggers and other individuals – which is one of these things yours truly really really loves. Nevertheless, I am always happy to hear about a new device manufacturer.

As of now, no further info is available – stay tuned!

Bluetooth 2.x is getting somewhat old in the tooth – it has been around for over two years. Its successor Bluetooth 3.0 has been certified for some time, but has not hit the road so far.

It looks like this will change in the very near future – the Bluetooth SIG has just certified a Samsung phone with a Bluetooth 3.0 radio:

Further information can be had at the URL below:
https://www.bluetooth.org/tpg/QLI_viewQDL.cfm?qid=16289

The folks at Strategy Analytics have provided us with quite a bit of interesting information in the past – the latest is a report that handset shipments have risen by 10% on a year-to-year basis.

Looking at the figures reveals the following distribution:

Unfortunately, things don’t look too rosy for the “market leader”:

“Nokia has outperformed in smartphones, but longer-term challenges still remain, including below-average share of the high-growth touchscreen market and a tiny presence in the influential US market,” the research firm said in a statement.

via MBB

Don’t ask me what the mobile FireFox team is doing – but it most certainly isn’t helping their market share in mobile. Vendors like Opera have made a killing off Windows Mobile and Symbian…and the folks at Mozilla’s have just released their first final FireFox mobile version.

Believe it or not – it is targeted at Maemo:

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Firefox is currently supported on Nokia’s Maemo5 platform and is available for download on the Nokia N900. Users can download and learn more by visiting Firefox.com/mobile. Visit the FAQ for more information.

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Even though I don’t want top be accused of mindless ranting, one question comes to mind: WTF. Why does the Mozilla Foundation release its first-ever browser on a platform which essentially has 5 users world-wide? And why not on a platform like WM?

Ideas, anyone?