TamsWMS - the Windows Mobile Smartphone Blog

The Windows Mobile Smartphone news and opinion source

May 2nd, 2008

Samsung i600 - for cheap

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…

April 17th, 2008

Samsung SGH-i620 reviewed

The Samsung SGH-i620 seems to be a smaller version of Palm’s Treo 500’s with a QWERTY keyboard slider - in fact, it even has a similar ribbon user interface.

Anyways, the girls at GearDiary have now completed their review of the box, and generally found it good(except for the slightly weird keys on the front).

Get the full scoop here:
http://www.geardiary.com/2008/04/13/the-samsung-sgh-i620-windows-mobile-smartphone-review-part-two/

April 7th, 2008

HOAX: Touchscreen support for Windows Mobile Standard

In case anyone of you ever stumbles upon the image below, claiming to show a Windows Mobile Smartphone getting controlled by a pen - you are looking at a hoax:

The story originated at PocketNow.com, and was intended as an April Fools joke. Copying over touch.dll is completely useless; manufacturers will never deploy expensive digitizers without the software to support them(the digitizer is usually not a fixed part of the screen assembly).

P.S. The story is not entirely fictional, though - falling prices for VGA screens have begun to force various manufacturers to reevaluate the deployment of these displays…

April 6th, 2008

The PPC Techs Lil’ Sync USB Mobile Power Pack

Just in case you aren’t happy with the battery lifetime of one or more of your gadgets: our sister site TamsPalm currently has a review of PPC Tech’s new mobile device charger that allows you to charge your favorite device on the go:

Please get the full scoop over at TamsPalm’s!

April 3rd, 2008

VodaFone UK Voicemail Notification update for Treo 500v

Palm has just released a small update for the Treo 500v - in case you have a VodaFone UK SIM card in your 500v and do not get voicemail notification SMS; please head over to Palm’s web site and download a small .cab file that should fix the problem:
http://kb.palm.com/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE/,/?St=2,E=0000000000901692981,K=1272,Sxi=17,Case=Obj(2233)

April 3rd, 2008

Apologies for downtime

Dear Readers,
please accept our apologies for the downtime yesterday evening!

Our web hosting company, brainsware, has performed various optimizations on the server that hosts the Tamoggemon content network. These optimizations have become necessary due to our explosive growth in the last months - a big thank you to all those of you who keep visiting us and talking back!

Anyways, the new server system should now serve pages significantly faster, leading to a greatly improved overall surfing experience - both we and brainsware are perfectly aware of our sub-par loading times in the last few weeks; and are actively working to improve the situation!

Best regards
Tam Hanna and the Tamoggemon/brainsware teams

March 31st, 2008

Samsung ACE - video review

Samsung’s CDMA/GSM crossover device ACE has been mentioned on TamsWMS some time ago. However, news services based in Austria do not have much of a chance to get a sample - instead, all I can do is offer you links to interesting reviews.

Anyways, the folks at PhoneScoop.com managed to get their hands on an ACE - and have posted a thorough video review to YouTube:
http://tamswms.tamoggemon.com/2008/02/19/samsung-ace-launches-on-sprint/

March 22nd, 2008

Motorola: a Windows Mobile Smartphone doesn’t need to be a phone

The folks at Engadget’s have somehow managed to get a first picture of Motorola’s upcoming TEAM handsets. For all those of you new to the term, Motorola TEAM stands for Total Enterprise Access & Mobility; and basically means a bunch of VoIP enabled devices that allows employees to cooperate more effectively(probably aimed at Cisco’s ip-Phones, which are widely deployed in Austria).

Anyways, the devices pictured above are said to run Windows Mobile Standard(6.1), and have only a WiFi radio for use with a VoIP system. Yes, you it’s true - the devices do not have a cellular radio of any kind.

As of now, no further information is available - stay tuned!

March 4th, 2008

Tam Hanna at the CeBit, Palm User Meeting

Dear Readers,
yours truly will be in Hannover this Friday. I will attend the following tradeshows and would be happy see one or more of you:

The CeBit

First of all, I will definitely attend the CeBit - which is one of the biggest computer fairs worldwide. Expect loads of hands-on pictures and interviews to leak out in the coming months!

The German Palm User Meeting

This year, Tamoggemon Software will have a stand at the Germany-Wide Palm User Meeting in Hannover. Please stop by for a chat, to have a play with a load of devices, and maybe even for a fun game! Of course, non-palm-users are also whole-heartedly invited!

March 1st, 2008

Daylight-saving time update

In case anyone of you lives in one of the time zones mentioned below, please head over to the Microsoft web site and download a small RAM patch for your Smartphone:

Arabic Standard Time
Adjusts DST start dates and end dates for the Baghdad time zone to reflect changes that have occurred since the earlier cumulative time zone update was created in August 2007.
Australia: Central Australia Standard Time, Australia Eastern Standard Time, Tasmania Standard Time
Adjusts DST start times and end times for these time zones so that DST starts and ends on the same day. This adjustment was made after the earlier cumulative time zone update was created in August 2007.

Further information on the update is available in the Microsoft Knowledge base.

February 13th, 2008

Sprite Archie is compatible with Windows Mobile Smartphones

In case anyone of you still wonders if Sprite Archie(the SMS/call log archiving tool for Windows Mobile) is compatible with touchscreenless Windows Mobile Smartphones - I am proud to bring you the following quote from Sprite Software’s support team:

Sprite Archie is fully compatible with WM5 and WM6 Pocket Pc (touch
screen) and Smartphone (non-touchscreen) devices. There are some devices such as the Palm Treo devices which use a third party SMS system so Archie will not work on Treo devices.

In case anyone of you feels like some archiving goodness, feel free to get the app over at Sprite’s web site!

February 11th, 2008

GIVEAWAY: Proporta Alu-Leather case for HP 514

The box pictured below is very afraid of being thrown into the bin by this lovely critter - she has grown tired of it sitting on our TV set and now wants to throw it out:

Please have mercy with the box - it contains a perfectly-ok and completely unused Proporta Alu-Leather case for the hp ipaq 514 business messenger. It was intended to be reviewed along with the unit, but somehow the review wasn’t completed in time. It has never ever been used, but the screw for the belt clip has been lost:

I am now willing to give it away for free to anyone who is willing to cover the posting fees(about 7€, can be paid via PayPal).

Jokes and Doris aside…our friends at Proporta’s have allowed me to give away this sample as I personally don’t have such an iPaq. In case you feel like giving it a pop, just email me at Tamog@gmx.at and we’ll figure out how to get it to you the fastest/cheapest way.

February 10th, 2008

CeBit press department discriminates bloggers/online mediums…once again

The German CeBit tradeshow is commonly known for cool devices, sometimes a load of snow and a great press center. Great - for all those who are let in. For most tradeshows, getting in is a matter of proving that you publish something - not so for the CeBit. I have just received my press card for this year’s trade show - please look below for a comparison to last year’s(on the right):

This year’s version states “ONLINE JOURNALIST” right across the Press text - sort of like bloggers are second-class journalists who basically are completely irrelevant to today’s technology world and who are just let in as an act of courtesy from the CeBit media department. Many bloggers have press cards from renowned journalists associations(e.g. yours truly) - but still aren’t worthy of proper treatment in the eyes of the Deutsche Messe AG.

Please keep in mind that this isn’t the first time the Deutsche Messe AG discriminates online mediums(and bearers of press cards not issued by German agencies) - 2000, journalists from really big news sites(e.g. Tom’s Hardware and The Register) were banned from entering the tradeshow). Last year, everything went well - and this year, the bork-ups begin all over again. It feels like a late revenge stunt - hey, we can’t kick you out, but we can still discriminate you by giving you a differently-looking(or stamped) press card.

Dear readers, please help make this public.

Continued here

February 5th, 2008

Vito SMS-Chat and Sprite Archie for Windows Mobile Smartphones

In case anyone of you is also reading our sister site TamsPPC, you will probably have found out that Windows Mobile PocketPC’s recently got threaded SMS support(and some sort of weird SMS archiver). Both of these applications currently are incompatible with Windows Mobile Smartphones.

However, the TamsWMS team has asked both companies for a statement - let’s see when we can let loose SMS-Chat and Sprite Archie on our Windows Mobile Smartphones!