TamsWMS – the Windows Mobile Smartphone Blog

A Chinese manufacturer called ZTE CORPORATION has created the device pictured on the left for MoviStar – it is intended to be an ultra-cheap (no WiFi, no 3G) WMS.

Specs-wise, the device looks decently equipped for a WMS:

• Support for communications standards: GSM 850/1800/1900 MHz, GPRS / EDGE
• Dimensions: 113h65, 4h14, 5 mm
• Weight: 130 gr.
• Display: 2.5-inch, 320×240 pixels resolution, displaying more than 65 thousand colors
• Camera: CMOS, 1.3 MP
• Memory: 64 MB
• Support for microSD cards up to 4 GB
• The battery capacity of 1000 mAh, Li-Ion

As of now, nothing is known about pricing and release dates. Nevertheless, I predict that the device will be at least reasonably successful – if the price is low enough, the unchallenged low-cost smartphone from Nokia (Nokia E63) will have a new competitor…

via JAMPB

The device pictured on the left has received an undeserved amount of TamsWMS frontpage space due to the huge delays in its release: while originally planned to drop in 2008, the release was pushed back more and more as time went by and prototypes popped up at ebay’s.

A T-Mobile USA roadmap found its way into the usually reliable The Boy Genius Report; they confirm the previous rumor of an announcement on the 28th of January.

2009, that is.

Microsoft originally intended to give away a new beta of Windows 7 to the attendants of its PDC conference – unfortunately, the file is said to have leaked out into BitTorrent networks according to DownloadSquad.

ZDNet’s Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has taken the beta for a spin, and was pretty happy overall. His main point of grief was the newly-arranged Task bar, which he considers overloaded and difficult to use.

He generally was happy with the performance and stability of this early beta (!!!) – hit the link above for a few images!

A recent Wall Street Journal report states that the US Christmas sale season didn’t go too well, with average losses of about 20% across all categories.

The electronics/appliances market was among the ones hit the worst; having to net a -27% loss on a year-to-year perspective. Online sales were the only sector which remained somewhat constant, with a Y2Y loss of about 2%:

Few retailers were counting on the holidays being robust when they placed conservative orders for merchandise last summer … By October, retail sales were declining faster than expected amid the steady drumbeat of bad economic news.

… Among the biggest losers were electronics and appliances, which fell a combined 26.7% versus a 2.7% gain last year. … E-commerce showed the most resilience, with online sales falling just 2%. …

Image: US Government: Dorothea Lange, via Wikimedia Commons

This review originally appeared at our sister site TamsPPC, as TamsWMS did not exist when it was created. I have decided to re-run it now…as the new Voice Messenger might just hit our office shortly…

After having looked at the camera of the 514 in the last part of the review, it is now time to look at the actual ’system specifications’.

First of all, the 514 runs Windows Mobile 6.0 standard edition (an inofficial 6.1 upgrade is said to drop here) – this means that its 176×220 screen is not a touchscreen. More screenshots of the operating system and included software are coming soon BTW.

From a hardware perspective, the ipaq is powered by a 200MHZ TI Omap850 CPU. While this probably sounds very slow, keep in mind that this is not Windows Mobile as we know it from PDA’s! For Smartphone, 200MhZ seems to be more than enough to ensure lag-free operation…

HP gave the ipaq 62 MB of user memory that is used to store all kinds of data(e.g. photos, call logs, messages,…). The device’s program memory totals up to 45MB – more than enough for running of programs simultaneously.

Memory expansion is handled by a MicroSD slot – as of this review, 1GB of storage seems to cost 10 to 20$ at Amazon’s.

Last but not least, Windows Mobile for Smartphone can of course be extended with programs written for it – your PDA programs will probably not work. The images below show IliumSoft’s ScreenShot while getting installed and while running:

Overall, the hp ipaq 514 voice messenger’s hardware is good enough for its intended usage. As already stated before, this is NOT a mobile workstation but rather a data viewer….and this is a job that it can tackle really well!

The folks at Engadget’s are known to be extremely good when it comes to all things rumor: unfortunately, their analyst team sometimes gets carried away by bad or humorous feelings.

Their latest stunt is a gift list “for your biggest enemy” – while the idea sounds funny, some of their selections are nothing short of bone-headed:

• Celio REDFLY
• Meizu M8
• Treo 800w

P.S. I could recommend a gift for your enemy: an Asus product of your choice. Its crap cheap due to bad design…and when it breaks down, things get really really funny…

A recently-leaked Rogers presentation has revealed that the Motorola Q11 could eventually pop up at the Canadian carrier some time in 2009:

As of now, nothing further is known – stay tuned for info as we get it!

Even though I personally consider Windows Mobile devices superior to iPhones in almost every aspect except design, the huge reach of the latter has led to a huge plethora of peripherals being developed for the iPhone connector.

The folks at WebNetta’s have figured out a way to connect a T-Mobile G1 device to iPhone chargers and audio peripherals – while I am not sure if the ExtUSB pinout of the G1 is 100% similar to the one found on our Windows Mobile boxen, I am pretty sure that there should be no differences.

If anyone of you has spare iPhone/iPod stuff laying around and isn’t afraid of a bit of soldering, hit the link above for the full scoop!

This review originally appeared at our sister site TamsPPC, as TamsWMS did not exist when it was created. I have decided to re-run it now…as the new Voice Messenger might just hit our office shortly…

Traditionally, business phones have never had integrated cameras – these can make nasty problems when entering a company’s lab, for example. However, hp Austria seems to market the device at prosumers too…which usually don’t mind an integrated camera.

Anyways, the hp ipaq 514’s back includes a 1.3MP CMOS camera without flash or automatic focusing…can it stack up?

The camera application itself appears not very thoroughly-designed. For example, the digital zoom can be enabled from the 5way…while brightness can be adjusted only deep inside a menu:

While the camera supports a variety of white balance modes, it does NOT support any kind of image effects. It can also record 176×144px videos – nowadays, mobile devices can do much more…

Here are a few sample images made all over Vienna(click for full size, against Nokia N71):
ipaq

Nokia N71

In the end, neither the Nokia N71’s nor the ipaq 514’s camera can replace a digital camera. The ipaq manages to deliver pretty good images with punchy colors, decent noise and acceptable sharpness – good enough for showing on-screen. The N71, on the other hand, creates significantly better videos and also bigger images.

Most books on design patterns and/or application architecture are insanely expensive and not particularly well-suited to the demands of mobile application developers.

Fortunately for us, Microsoft’s patterns & practices group has just released a freely-downloadable ebook called “Rich Client Architecture Pocket Guide”. The 1MB PDF file looks at all things mobile – if you feel like giving it a spin, hit the URL below!

Rich Client Architecture Pocket Guide

Image: Wikimedia Commons / Andyindia

As I recently was on the verge of hardresetting my rx4240 as it refused to connect to my PC, I think that sharing the following bit of info could save a lot of grief!

Cutting a long story short: Microsoft’s firewall is the one to blame. If all exceptions are blocked via the “no exceptions” checkbox, ActiveSync will recognize devices but will not be able to connect/sync.

The workaround is simple but dangerous – allow exceptions in the firewall settings.

This review originally appeared at our sister site TamsPPC, as TamsWMS did not exist when it was created. I have decided to re-run it now…as the new Voice Messenger might just hit our office shortly…

Traditionally, HP has included excellent screens into their mobile devices. Years ago, their ipaq’s set the standard for color screens that were well-readable both indoors and outdoors, and the rx4240’s screen returned TFT technology in a truly magnificent fashion. So far so good…how’s the 514’s screen?

From a technical standpoint, there is little new to say about the 514’s screen. 176px wide, 220 high, 16bit color – a classic mobile device screen, especially for Series 60.

In a side-to-side comparison with its excellent-screened sibling, the hp ipaq rx4240, the 514’s colors are a bit less ‘punchy’ than the rx4240’s(both at highest brightness, which is approximately the same).

Also, the ipaq’s screen can be dimmed way lower than the 514’s:

The Treo 680, Palm’s pinnacle in terms of screen quality, also manages slightly better colors – however, its black is less dark:

Dimming the screen of the 514 is not particularly satisfying – the minimum brightness that can be reached still is very high. The rx4240’sa screen can be turned down really low, and the Treo’s transflective screen can even be switched to reflective mode:

In everyday use, the screen did a good job though – no problems whatsoever except for its tendency to pick up fingerprints…

Overall, the ipaq 514 Voice Messenger isn’t intended as a ‘handheld workstation’ type device – and the screen reflects it’s target usage scenario. Nowadays, mobile devices can have screens with much higher resolutions…but the 514 doesn’t need this. Its screen does its job well with strong colors and a nice maximum brightness – not more, not less.

PocketPCThoughts Jason Dunn just came back from Microsoft’s latest Mobius conference, and posted a rather detailed 5page wrap-up of the topics covered.

He has a nice summary of all presentations, whose topics ranged from mundane things like Windows 7 to more interesting stuff like HTC’s view of the future and a variety of interesting stats.

As usual, the full scoop can be had here:
http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/news/show/91879/mobius-2008-winter-edition.html

This review originally appeared at our sister site TamsPPC, as TamsWMS did not exist when it was created. I have decided to re-run it now…as the new Voice Messenger might just hit our office shortly…

When hp first announced the 514, I felt stunned. Why does hp enter the market for touchscreen-less phones – an arena that companies like Siemens left years ago and where Nokia reigns supreme? Is Windows Mobile 6 really mature? On the other hand, hp has had a history of creating great hardware… . hp’s press department offered us a loaner 514, which I gladly accepted – can it stack up?

Indeed, the 514 is completely different…it doesn’t look like anything HP ever built before. Here are a few comparison shots next to a Nokia N71, a Treo 680 and a hp ipaq rx4240:

The left side of the ipaq contains a standard 3.5inch headphone jack, a MicroSD slot and the 2way volume toggle:

The right side contains the voice command button:

At the bottom of the ipaq, there is HP’s now-standard MiniUSB port and the microphone.

The keyboard of the 514 should be a standard multitap keyboard…but it doesn’t feel as well as its peer on the Nokia N71. The keys don’t have a ’snappy’ feel, have a very smooth pressure point, are too close to one another, their tops are way too smooth. Also, the placement of the space character is unusual:

HP hides the 514’s battery behind a small door in the back. The SIM card cannot be exchanged without removing the battery:

Overall, HP’s Voice Messenger is a well-done box – except for the keyboard. For me, keyboards must work well… before looking good…the 514’s designer apparently got this sequence wrong. HP uses industry standard ports for all peripherals(!!!)…if the keyboard would receive a redesign, this would be a great box!

Tune in soon for a look at the ipaq’s screen!