TamsWMS - the Windows Mobile Smartphone Blog

Designing cases for flip phones has traditionally proven difficult due to the radical shape changing involved when such a device is put to use. Other companies have attempted clip-on and leather cases before - can Brando’s silicone case stack up?

Brando’s products ship in envelopes from Hong Kong; they are delivered to your mailbox when you’re not there. Contents always arrive intact:

Brando additionally packed up its stuff into transparent blisters:

The case itself consists of two sleeves that are pulled over the parts of the device. Since the case fits rather tightly, getting it on and off is a bit fidgety. These images show the process:

As usual for Brando’s products, the case does not obstruct the keyboard. The thin layer of silicone can not be felt when typing:

The camera and outside screens are not covered by the case. While this allows for excellent usability, an encounter with keys will probably not end up well.

QTek’s 8500 is designated as a music phone and thus has special media keys(that permanently get activated by mistake). Brando covered these with foil - which means that pressing them accidentally is less easy…

Syncing can be done without removing the phone from its case:

Brando also integrated a cutout at the bottom - no idea what this one was for. Like with most other silicon cases, exchanging the battery and/or the memory card requires you to remove the case:

The case does not allow the phone to close fully. This causes the phone to keep on the main screen at all times and disables the music keys on the outside(which I hate passionately). Unfortunately, pressure from the top causes the motherboard to flex somewhat - which IMHO is unhealthy on the long run.

In the end, this silicone case will make silicon case fans happy - all peripherals can be accessed easily, and it is available in four funky colors(blue, black, white and pink). Unfortunately, the closing issue(which IMHO can not be eliminated completely due to the slimness of the phone) turns out to be quite a nuisance - decide yourself if you feel like investing the affordable 10$ at Brando’s.

Samsung’s low-end i200 was handled at this year’s CeBit - the electronics giant now announced when it will be let loose on the masses:

AkahibaraNews quotes Geesung Choi, the president of Samsung’s Global Telecom Business:

Samsung i200 will be launched in the European market in June and will enter other market within a month.

European market…looks like the TamsWMS team can be at the very front of the line for that one. Stay tuned - we’ll inform you as we get further info!

The Pantech Duo has seen a nice bit of blowout action a few weeks ago(AT&T paid you 50$ is you purchased such a box with a contract) - indeed, the nice little box seems to be pretty useful(pictured below):

Engadget Mobile has now claimed that a successor called Pantech Duo 2 C820 with the following specs:

Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard
CE OS 5.2.19581

Available storage 110.03MB
Total Storage 121.98MB
Available memory 30.8MB
Total Memory 64.04MB

ARM1136EJS (MSM7201A)

As of now, not much more information is available as of npow - but stay tuned for news as they emerge!

People following our sister site TamsPPC closely will probably already know the Celio RedFly(more info here) - in case you are new to the topic, it essentially is an “external screen” for Windows Mobile devices.:

So far, RedFly support has been limited to touchscreened Windows Mobile devices. However, according to BrightHand, the company now plans to support touchscreenless devices that run WM 6.1(no chance with WM5 or 6).

P.S. In case anyone of you feels like risking 500$ - give their preordering page a click via this link…

In case anyone of you wants a Samsung i600 and lives in the USA or the UK, Expansys is your friend.

The box pictured above runs Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone and has 64MB of RAM/128MB of ROM. It includes a HSDPA radio, has BT 2.0 and a 1.3MP camera - other than that, there is little else to see here…a solid QWERTY phone…

Anyways, the purchase links are here:
Expansys UK - 99.95GPB
Expansys USA - 177$

P.S. Don’t ask me why their German sub-branch doesn’t match these prices…

The Samsung i640v was covered just a few hours ago - now, I am proud to bring you even more news on Samsung’s QWERTY slider phones.

The fine folks at MobileBurn.com managed to get their hands on a white SGH-i620 for VidaFone Italy(aka GSM) - Michael Oryl generally was pretty happy with the box, citing the touch-sensitive controls as his main grief(inadvertent activation). He also claims that the i640 has a larger screen and a WiFi radio.

Get the full scoop here:
http://www.mobileburn.com/review.jsp?Id=4528

The folks at En gadget Mobile’s managed to get their hands on a Samsung WMS device for VodaFone. The box(dubbed i640v) is like a Treo 500, but has the QWERTY keyboard on a slider:

All those of you who hated the Treo 500v’s UI as much as I did should now squeak up in pain, as VodaFone chose to fuxate(aaah, sorry, grace) this box with the same ribbon interface:

Anyways, head over to Engadget for a few more pics!

P.S. A similar device is sold at WirelessImports for 500$.

Use the discount code FUNNYHEX to get 20% off Hexic in the TamsShop!

AstraWare recently ported a few puzzlers from MSN Games to the Windows Mobile platform. Hexic is the second application(coming after Mozaki) that is unleashed onto Windows Mobile Smartphones - can this Bejeweled clone stack up?

Like its sister product Mozaki, Hexic can be played in timed and untimed modes at varying difficulties:

Astraware also gave the program a ‘puzzle’ mode - here, you are assigned specific jobs that must be solved by clearing the board:

Anyways, the goal of Hexic is rotating tiles to form three adjacent ones which then disappear. For example, look at the marked tiles below:

Similar to Mozaki, the game includes a detailed tutorial and in-game help system.

This review looked at version 1.02 of Hexic on a QTek 8500 running its stock Windows Mobile 5 ROM. The program needs 2796KB of RAM and can be stored on an external memory card.

In the end, Hexic is little more than Bejeweled for people with a good spatial sense. People who like Bejeweled will probably like Hexic, as will people who have played it on MSN Games. Get the trial here and see if you can cope with the controls: the full version can be purchased for 9.95$ in the TamsShop.

The office suite found on most Windows Mobile Smartphones is truly pathetic - hell, you can’t even create new files… . DataViz’s DocumentsToGo is considered the king of office suites for Palm OS- can it stack up on Windows Mobile Standard?

General appearance
People who know DocsToGo from the Palm OS are used to having a desktop conduit - this is no longer the case on WMS. Instead, data is put onto the device via ActiveSync…and then open the file from the file manager. Alternatively, the DocsToGo folder in the launcher can be used to access the individual apps(and open the files via a slightly confusing dialog):

Word support
I tortured the program with a small word document(loan form) - the program had no problems rendering it:

Innovatively, the selection of text is handled via a toggle. Once selection mode is enabled, text can be selected with the 5way(it usually moves the cursor):

The program also allows you to add tables, bulleted lists, hyperlinks and page breaks on the go - unfortunately, images cannot be added. Stylesheet-based editing is not supported either.

A variety of zoom levels are supported - unfortunately, some of them produce at least slightly unreadable text(I never liked ClearType):

Excel
The version of Excel included into Documents To Go supports most business spreadsheets. I tortured it with a few, and had no major issues:

Adding new functions is not particularly difficult due to a well-done function picker; the program seems to support all commonly used functions:

Charts can be generated comfortably on the go:

Unfortunately, the product lacks support for conditional formatting and pivot charts - however, they remain in the file when saving and can be used again when a desktop or laptop is closeby.

The parts that I have seen so far leave me convinced that all works like it always did at DataViz’s. The product covers the essential features(except for inserting images and stylesheets) - and literally beats the s*** out of Microsoft’s embedded solution.

Tune in soon to find out about the PowerPoint, Zip and PDF support!

Amusingly, the luxury phone maker Vertu has not seen the need to ask its mother company for a license of it’s S60 operating system - instead; it uses a weird proprietary operating system that can do exactly zilch.

A Russian company called Gresso has now set out to change this by installing Windows Mobile Standard onto two of its handsets made of African Blackwood(sample picture below):

The boxen are rather weak otherwise - they include a QVGA screen, triband GSM, Bluetooth 1.2(no 2.0) and a crappy 2MP camera.

In case anyone of you lives in Russia(no Internet sales) and feels like burning a load of cash on this box, please send a few pictures to me.

Just in case anyone of you is wishing for a Treo 500-lookalike at a lower price:

The online retailer stootsi.com(no information on who these guys are; so no warranties on anything) currently offers refurbished Dash’s for just 180$ per piece.

In case anyone of you feels daring enough to trust this retailer with a very weird-looking web site, give them a click here and let us know if you got ripped off!

Use the discount code FUNNYMOZ to get 20% off the list price of Mozaki in the TamsShop!

People frequenting MSN Games will probably know Mozaki - a simple puzzler that is insanely amusing. Now, AstraWare has ported the game to WMS’s - can it stack up here?

Mozaki can be played in two modes - it supports both timed and untimed modes:

However, the game principle remains the same. Bricks appear randomly at the right side of the screen; they must then be moved onto the screen to create lines from the border to the center:

Tiles can be rotated on-screen with the 7 key:

If a line of matching colors is established, it disappears:

Ganging up tiles leads to cubes which are worth more points when being removed:

The tile at the bottom right provides with special tiles that are colorless(match all colors) or remove tiles around them:

Replayability is achieved due to the level system. After a few lanes are cleared, the colors at the borders are swapped(adjacent tiles also swap colors); eventually, new colors appear.

AstraWare included a little on-screen-help system - it proved to be extremely useful for me:

This review looked at version 1.02 of the game on a QTEK 8500 running its stock Windows Mobile 5. The program needs 1595KB of memory and can be run from an external memory card.

In the end, Mozaki is an excellent and amusing puzzler - but like many other games for Windows Mobile Standard, suffers from the lack of a touchscreen. Puzzle fans should definitely download the free trial from here - if you like it, get it for 9.95$ at the TamsShop!

Use the discount code SECUCHEAP to get 20% off SecuBox in the TamsShop! The code is also valid for the PocketPC version of the program!

Nowadays, Windows Mobile Smartphones can store literally hundreds of sensitive files. However, data on a memory card can be accessed even if the system is locked - just remove the card, and voila. Aiko Solutions wants to put an end to this…do they succeed at making data thief’s days ugly?

SecuBox is centered around so-called storages. A storage is a fancy expression for a secure archive file; it can contain encrypted files and folders:

New storage files are created with a special wizard. The maximal storage capacity must be fixed while the storage is being created - once the storage is created, it can no longer be changed.:

Once this is done, the file can be mounted and unmounted in the startup screen. Mounted storage files can be accessed just like memory cards:

SecuBox protects the files with 256bit AES encryption, which is considered safe by the US military. The product contains a variety of options accessible via a menu of checkable icons(weird UI…) - for example, all mounted storages can be removed when the device goes to sleep(unfortunately, unmounting can not be tied to the password system(delay timer)):

Last but not least, the product ships with an excellent help system:

This review looked at version 1.4.2 of the program on a QTEK 8500 running its stock Windows Mobile 5 ROM. SecuBox was stable in the reviewing period - no issues here. The program needs 557KB of memory and can be installed onto an external memory card!

In the end, SecuBox provides an excellent(although slightly cumbersome) way to protect your memory card data. If the company would allow images to change their size automatically, security nirvana is reached. But even now, the product is an excellent choice - if you have sensitive data on your memory card, get the program NOW…

The folks at Microsoft’s have always been known for their excellent developer support - in fact, MSDN is so excellent that it sometimes is hard to find just what you need amidst all the other useful information.

Anyways, a Microsoft Employee called Jason Langridge has posted a note to his blog announcing that free spaces are left in the so-called “Developer Mobility Events”. People interested in one or more of the topics in the list below(and who live in the US or can fly there cheaply) are invited to pop over to his web page and register at a city close to them:

• All About Windows Mobile
• Windows Mobile for Line of Business
• The Tools
• Managed Development
• Data Management Strategies
• Performance and Optimization
• A Whole New Level

Get the full scoop here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/jasonlan/archive/2008/04/15/free-developer-mobility-events-in-the-us.aspx

P.S. In case anyone of you manages to get there: PLEASE send videos or at least pictures and a short report to Tamog@gmx.at!