TamsWMS – the Windows Mobile Smartphone Blog

Well…what should be said. Documents To Go for Windows Mobile Standard covers everything that needs to be covered in order to view documents on the go. Editing is also possible to some extent(some crucial features aren’t supported).

The program has never been known for flashbang features – it always was a work horse that did the essential things well. Version is just that – dumping few files onto my phone via ActiveSync and editing them on the go has never been so comfortable before.

Documents ToGo was very stable and responsive on my QTEK 8500(which is – by no means – a high-end machine). The program needs 5910k of storage memory and can be installed onto a memory card without any issues. When running, each application needs a max of 10MB of RAM…I didn’t see any out of memory messages on my device.

In the end, everybody who uses Office Mobile a lot should definitely upgrade to Documents To Go. Even though the product still misses a few features I’d love to see(e.g. support for comments, change tracking and stylesheets); it nevertheless is a tremendous improvement over the programs that come preinstalled.

Do yourself a favor – get the program in the TamsShop for just 30$!

After Part 1 looked at Word and Excel, this part of our review will look at PowerPoint, PDF and ZIP file support:

PowerPoint
The PowerPoint editing facilities found in the PowerPoint module are extremely weak – changing slide order and texts is all that can be done on the go:

However, existing ppt files are rendered nicely. The following pictures show a few slides from a rather fat photo presentation I love to use for torture testing – the diagonal blue lines are a rendering error:

Charts seem to render well, too:

PDF files
Nowadays, Adobe’s PDF format is an essential data exchange tool – everything that can be printed out, can become a PDF. Thus, PDF reading is an essential feature for mobile devices…

Anyways, the PDF part of DocumentsToGo starts up with a file selection dialog(which is slightly confusing, as the memory card,.. can only be accessed via the menu):

My first test file, a device loan contract, was rendered flawlessly – although texts look really weird on higher zoom levels:

Changing to reflow mode remedies the situation a bit – however, I still don’t find particularly much love in my hearts for the fonts used:

Issues from the JPG magazine always make a lovely torture test due to the sheer size of the data involved – although rendering times were a bit long(approx 20secs on my 200MHZ QTek 8500), the outcome turned out to be very usable most of the time:

Unfortunately, the screen sometimes turned off right after rendering finished – a small but nevertheless annoying nuisance…

Zip file support
The zip file support in DocumentsToGo 10 mainly covers extracting files via a simple but well-done UI – compressing files and folders is not possible:

However, the applications allow you to zip up files before sending them out…

So far so good – all parts of the project have been covered? But does purchasing the program pay out? Does it work well? Find out the final verdict – stay tuned for Part 3.

Arkanoid, the game of paddle+ball+brick, has been a very popular game ever since Taito made it popular with its famous Arkanoid of DOH series. Windows Mobile Smartphones have had its fair share of Arkanoids over the years…and MobileStream’s Meteor Breakout wants to be the best. But can it stack up?

Meteor’s interface is generally very well-done. The splash screen takes you to a level selection toggle, where one of the nine available campaigns can be chosen. However, menus can not be existed with the right soft key(even though a label is at the bottom right of the screen):

After starting a game, one immediately notices the creativity of the game designers. Levels look really cool, and none is similar to the one before it. The engine supports a huge variety of brick types, leading to a very interesting overall gameplay experience:

A variety of powerups is available to spice up the game like in every other Arkanoid clone. For all who are new to Arkanoid, a powerup changes the behavior of the paddle if you touch it.

The variety of powerups is astonishing. For example, there are two different ’shoot’ powerups and three ball modifiers – more than I ever saw before:

Meteor’s levels are spiced up with enemies that can be destroyed by hitting them a few times with a ball. Some enemies survive more than one hit, and some of them even fire back:

Last but not least, the game has excellent sound effects and a very cool background jingle tune…

This review looked at version 1.07 of Meteor on a QTek 8500 – it wasstable except for abug in conjunction with the low battery alert. Meteor needs 2643 KB of memory and can be run from an external memory card. A variety of versions is available for landscape and portrait-screened devices.

Overall, congratulations to MobileStream. Meteor Breakout is the new king of Arkanoid clones for and is available for almost all platforms. The WMS version of the game unfortunately has slightly confusing menus – other than that, game has extremely interesting gameplay and looks damn cool – a must have for every Arkanoid lover…
Meteor Breakout for QVGA
Meteor Breakout for QVGA landscape
Meteor Breakout for Motorola Q series

AstraWare’s GTS Racing is considered a classic handheld game, as people who want a car racer still flock to this 2004ish title in hordes. Its developer Pazzazz Games now delivered an update called GTS World Racing and put it on a TamsWMS device for review – will it stay on top?

As usual, the game supports a variety of race modes – some of them can take up to an hour to finish:

Three car types are available – unfortunately, the cars specifications are static and can’t be changed as races proceed(no upgrading here):

The tracks are set up in sixteen locations all across the world. Each difficulty level modifies the track layout(and, amusingly, changes the ambiance in some cases) – the shots below show a few track samples:

AstraWare populated the tracks with a few occasional trees, tunnels…and that’s it. For a 2007 game, the tracks appear literally dead most of the time…

After starting to play GTS:WR on my QTek, I was happy to see that the default control settings worked a lo9t better than on my Treo. Unfortunately, people wanting to use mechanical transmission are out of luck: even though the game seems to support this, you cannot assign buttons to change the gear(which leaves your car in 1st all the time).

The game’s sound effects are horribly annoying and essentially consist of high-pitched humming that barely resembles a car’s motor – IMHO, they are the worst ever in a handheld racing game. As for background music: sorry, no such luck either.

This review looked at version 01.00.02 on a Qtek 8500 running its stock WM5.0 ROM. The game needs 3079K of memory and can be run from an external memory card.

GTS World Racing is a decent game that – unfortunately – has been left behind by the evolution of racing games on other platforms. The tracks are plentiful, but the game’s action is sterile compared to other racers(things like nitros, car upgrades, cops, damage models… apparently don’t exist in Pazzaz Village). AstraWare usually manages to get at least the controls right: unfortunately, GTS World Racing is the exception to the rule. Cutting a long story short: fingers off until a significant update is released…

P.S. In case anyone of you is looking for a REAL racing game and happens to own a S60 phone: give Steve Townsend’s racer a pop. Its one of the best games on the market IMHO….

The idea of replacing an alarm clock with a PDA/smart phone is almost as old as the idea of the PDA – I can recall missing meetings because my Palm IIIc’s speaker was too silent to wake me up successfully. Nowadays, speakers are louder and manufacturers sometimes even include basic alarm clock functionality into the ROM – can CT AlarmClock stack up?

Connective Tools did an excellent job with the application’s interface – it is very simple. The time below the orange icon is the wakeup time(it is the same for all seven daya); the check boxen below indicate if the alarm will trigger on a specific day. Finally, the left soft key turns the entire program on or off:

A variety of useful applications can be found in the Options menu:

When the alarm time arrives, the program displays the following form and plays back your selected alarm sound:

I am a real fan of the Early dismiss feature: being an insomniac who sometimes wakes up early, it allows me to silence the device so that it doesn’t ring at the usual wakeup time.

This review looked at version 2.6 of the program on a QTEK 8500 running its stock WM 5 ROM. The program needs 336KB of memory and can be run from an external memory card!

In the end, this 5$ app makes an excellent and feature-rich alarm clock. People who plan to use their Windows Mobile Smartphone as an alarm clock should download the free trial to see if their phone’s speaker is loud enough – if it is, this is definitely worth your money!

Use the discount code CHEAPYPUS to get 20% off the product in the TamsShop! This discount code is also valid for the PPC and Palm OS versions of the game!
AstraWare’s Palm OS side-scroller Zap2000 remains one of the most popular handheld action games ever – it was bundled with some versions of the Treo 600 and is included into the ROM of a lot of GSPDA phones. The title’s age has provoked a few new launches including the excellent – now, AstraWare tries to reclaim the crown..

The game is organized into levels; each of these contains a few areas:

Each area contains primary and secondary targets – while secondary targets can usually be taken apart with a single shot, primary targets can take quite a beating(and have cool damage textures):

There is a huge variety of primary and secondary targets – players will definitely not get bored with this game:

At the end of each area, a ‘tally’ is made and bonus points are awarded:

Platypus’s power-up system unfortunately isn’t based on money – instead, special waves of enemies drop colored stars that provide approximately 30secs worth of one of four advanced weapons. Unfortunately, the timer starts to tick immediately after the object is picked up and keeps running even when you shoot – not exactly amusing for a shooter pro:

Some bonuses can be shot. Weapon stars sometimes change their color under fire; bonus fruits break up to provide more points(but are more difficult to catch):

The graphics are comic-like, but provide an amazing amount of details in some scenarios. Volcanoes in the background erupt, ships fly along…someone spent a lot of time tinkering with this:

This review looked at version of Platypus on a QTek 8500. The game was exceptionally stable in the reviewing period. Platypus needs 4693KB of RAM, but can be run off an external memory card.

Unfortunately, the game can only be run in “landscape” mode – this is extremely annoying at first, but becomes somewhat acceptable after some time. Nevertheless, I would have preferred AstraWare to implement some sort of Portrait support(maybe restricting the game to a 240×240 window)…

In the end, Platypus definitely isn’t an epochal work that changes the face of the shooter genre forever. However, it nevertheless is an excellent game that will surely make all shooter freaks very happy. Some tactical subtleties like bonuses that transform when shot add tactical depth – as for the comic graphics…these are a love-or-hate thing. If you love sidescrollers, definitely get this 20$ game in the TamsShop!

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…

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!

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…

Blizzard has been mentioned on our sister site TamsPalm quite a few times due to the incredible mess also known as World of Warcraft customer support. WoW, however, has had a predecessor known as Warcraft 3. This program was popular especially because of its rich map creation possibilities. Tower defense(aka keep critters from reaching a point by building guntowers) has been a recurring topic in these self-generated maps – Resco Defender brought the game to the PocketPC. Now, a smartphone version is available – can it stack up?

Most tower defense maps are designed for XGA screens; Resco thus had to redesign the gameplay a bit. The boys divided the screen into two parts – the bottom part contains the castle, the top part contains a grid.

Selecting one of the grid cells allows you to build various structures – if you can afford to do so:

Each tower has special capabilities – some attack all critters in a defined area, while others slow critters down without actually damaging them. All towers can be upgraded to become even stronger.

Once the first structures are built, the first wave of critters comes in:

Should your towers fail to eliminate all of them, the remaining critters damage the castle. After 20 critters reach the castle, the game is over:

The waves(called mobs) are mostly balanced – however, some of them have special and annoying capabilities. For example, flying critters don’t care much about your walls; bomb critters just tear them down.

At higher levels, the grid can become pretty crowded with literally dozens of critters and towers.

Last but not least, the game also contains a tutorial that teaches beginners how to play:

This review looked at version 1.20 of the game on a QTek 8500 running Windows Mobile 5. The game needs approximately 3MB of memory and can be run from an external memory card.

Overall, Resco Defender is one of the few games that are really really dangerous and should be prohibited by law – once you start playing, there is no way you will put your smartphone down. The folks did a great job at adapting the game’s controls to the smartphone platform. If you love great games, get the game over at the TamsShop!

Further reading:
Interview with the developer

For literally ages, MP3 files could be used as ring tones on various phones running different operating systems. However, one crucial weakness has so far remained – while a ring tone should be loud right from the start, most MP3’s(even radio mixes) start with 10-15 seconds of introductory beat. Vito Software’s RingtoneEditor promises to fix this – can it stack up?

Starting the program presents you the following, rather simple user interface:

Click on a file, and the program starts to play it back at full volume. Press Start to mark the beginning of your ring tone:

After having pressed start, the program allows you to move the exact starting point forward a bit:

The same thing is then done for the end point:

Once the ringtone is complete, you can either save it to your phone or start using it immediately:

This review looked at version 1.2 of RingtoneEditor on a QTek 8500 running its stock Windows Mobile 5 OS. The program needs about 2MB of storage memory and can be installed onto an external memory card without any issues.

In the end, Vito’s RingtoneEditor does exactly what it promises to do – it allows you to take snippets from MP3 and ogg files and use them as ring tones. People who feel like changing their ringtone a lot, will definitely be able to redeem the purchase price of 10$….

AstraWare’s pirate-themed TradeWinds 2 game brought a fresh twist to “travel-and-trade” games on PDA’s…most of them were set up in a space environment before. AstraWare has now ported it over to Windows Mobile smartphones – can it stack up?

TradeWinds is centered around “ports”, which are arranged on a map. Your task is sailing from port to port with goods which can then be sold for a profit:

Each port looks different, but contains more-less the same buildings(some aren’t available in every port):

For example, a marketplace allows you to buy and sell goods(the exchange rates vary from port to port):

The money gained in trading can be invested into your ship’s armament at the shipyard. Alternatively, you can use it to buy more goods and get even richer(:)):

While traveling, pirates can attack you. The battles happen in “real-time”, you just click the target that shall be attacked.
Special ammunition can be fired by clicking its icon in the “toolbar”:

In Story mode, “tasks” are assigned to you that must be completed in order to unlock new characters, ships and ports. Additionally, completing a task gets you a nice cash bonus:

This review focussed on version 1.00 of the program on a QTEK 8500. The program needs approx 4100k of memory and can be run from an external memory card!

Overall, TradeWinds 2 is a must-have for everyone who loves “turn-based” strategy games. One can’t imagine how much fun trading and fighting can be…until one has played this game. The first version of TradeWinds was a bit “shallow” to play, but TradeWinds 2 is much more challenging and less repetitive. It’s graphics and background music are quite nice, too – the price of 19.95$ is a bit steep but justified!

Use the discount code TRADEWINDSWMS to get 20% off the purchase price at the TamsShop