Thinkworx

I previously wrote a post about deciding whether to upgrade from Windows Mobile 5 to Windows Mobile 6. It has now been a couple months that I have been exclusively running Windows Mobile 6 and here are a few follow-up thoughts…

Battery Life

In my previous article one of the 2 critical decision points was battery life. Several sources have insisted a significantly reduced battery life after upgrading to Windows Mobile 6. While admittedly there may be a slight reduction, the impact, however, has not been significant enough to consider it a major issue. I have found that a by just adjusting the synchronization schedule, reducing it to only the hours of use, has greatly extended the battery.

HSPDA

The second critical decision point was the higher data transfer rates available through the use of HSPDA in Windows Mobile 6. This has been considered the primary advantage for most Palm Treo users upgrading to WM6. Once again, this has not turned out to be a critical point. The speed increase may be slightly noticeable, but not as dramatic as expected.

Other Perks

So after additional use I have found other features that I really like in Windows Mobile 6. At the top of the list is improved ability to share your Internet access with your laptop/PC. The Internet Sharing program allows you to quick and easily share your 3G connection to a Personal Area Network (PAN). While also being able to do this with WM5, I find this new program to make it much easier.

Remote Desktop for Mobile Devices - I recall in previous Windows CE/Mobile versions having the ability to open a remote desktop connection, but in WM5 I did not natively have this option. I was happy to see it come back in WM6.

Storage Card Management - With Windows Mobile 5 I had a lot of problems with my Mini SD card extended memory being recognized by the Operating System. After certain operations it would no longer be visible. I have especially had problems with the media catalog getting corrupted and causing several problems on the extended memory card. Since upgrading to WM6 I have not had any of these problems.

If you are using Windows Mobile 6 on your device let me know what you think of it.

I came across new Windows Mobile Applications today that I am trying out on my Palm Treo:

Fring: Fring is an easy way to connect to all your social networking services. It supports Skype, MSN Messenger, ICQ, Google Talk, SIP, Twitter, AIM, and Yahoo, all over WiFi or your data plan.
Most phones, most operating systems

This looks like a great application for those wanting to chat on their mobile or to make cheap phone calls through SkypeOut or other SIP services. It is easy to setup and is especially great for those with integrated Wi-Fi, allowing you to use your mobile phone without a SIM card!

I was, however, disappointed that you can’t make free Skype calls to your Skype contacts, apparently you can only make SkypOut calls. It is also limited as a Twitter application as it only allows you to send updates and not view those of others.

HelloTxt - HelloTxt is an aggregate of microblogging services through which the user can insert their messages on all main microblogging services in a simply and simultaneous way.

Useful service to post updates from your mobile device directly to a series of common social network platforms. One post can be sent to Twitter, Facebook, Bebo and many others. The other nice feature about HelloTxt is that it allows you to see other updates from within the same application.

Have other useful Windows Mobile applications? Let me know about them!

A brief list of recently news/articles or sites that I have come across this past week:

• London Metropolitan Police will be implanting chipsin all police officers so administrators can monitor their movements.
  • http://www.wxpnews.com/MK44BT/080415-Police-Chips
• Black Ink Project registration is now open. Free course hosted by Jeremy Palmer
  • http://www.theblackinkproject.com/
• Windows SP3 Release dates: April 21st for OEMs and April 29th on Windows Update. Expected to provide speed boosts of up to 10%.
  • http://www.trustedreviews.com/software/news/2008/04/16/Windows-XP-SP3-Release-Date-s-Confirmed/p1
• Twitter has finally sucked me in. I signed up this week, even though I am still highly skeptical of its value. We will see how it goes.
  • Follow me at http://twitter.com/tbowcut
• Four-Day Work Weeks - Proof of their effectiveness
  • http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/966-urgency-is-poisonous
• Windows Mobile 6 Goodies - a list of interesting apps for your smartphone or PDA
  • https://island.byu.edu/blog/34/windows-mobile-6-goodies

Want a place where you can log your travels, map your trips, post your trip pictures and gain access to a wealth of useful information such as trip planning guides and packing lists? Okay, maybe you weren’t looking for all of that, but you can find it anyway at TRAVELLERSPOINT.

This is a nice “Web 2.0″ site that has put together some useful information together with a nice list of tools and resources all free of charge. True to form of most Web 2.0 sites, they have also added a flavor of social networking, allowing you to add friends, share information and create a free travel blog. In addition, they have a Facebook app that allows you to post your travel map on your Facebook page (image above is my travel map)

This touching video sends a strong, personal message given by an inspiring example of courage and faith during a very difficult time.

Microsoft has already begun hinting towards the release of Windows 7, the next version of Windows as the successor of Windows Vista, to potentially already be released in 2009! This obviously gets everyone excited, but does Microsoft really want to recreate the same hysteria about their next operating system while Windows Vista is still trying to take root?

I understand that Microsoft needs to generate interest in the OS a great deal in advance to prepare its millions of reselling partners, but by creating this excitement they are going to slow Windows Vista sales even more! Windows Vista has already had a poor adoption rate, especially in the enterprise environment, hinting towards another release already in 2009 will likely further encourage them to skip Vista entirely. Do they really want to make Vista the successor to Windows Millennium Edition (ME)?

Up until now Microsoft has maintained a policy of silence concerning their plans for Windows 7 to avoid being unable to deliver on previously promised features, as happened with the release of Windows Vista. However some details are now beginning to come forth:

• MinWin - A slimmed-down kernel called MinWin that uses 100 files and 25MB, compared to Vista’s 5,000 files and 4GB core and is so small it lacks a graphical subsystem.
• 32-Bit / 64-Bit Editions - Operating system will come in consumer and business versions and in 32-bit and 64-bit editions. (Wasn’t Windows Vista originally hypothesized to only be released in 64-bit? Are we ever going to be able to break away from 32-bit?)
• Data Protection and Encryption - Further extension of Bitlocker and EFS to potentially have data encrypted all the time, everywhere.
• Windows 7 Wireless Platform - An extensible media framework that will allow for seamless roaming between various wireless technologies (WiFi, WWAN, WIMAX, etc.)
• Windows 7 Parent Control Features: “Family Safety” services are being developed for both Windows Live and Windows 7 Parent Control.
• Get a longer and more detailed list at UX Evangelist

To help encourage anxiety for the new operating system Microsoft on Thursday declined to extend a lifeline for Windows XP, saying that only a limited number of specialized machines will be sold with the operating system after June.

Sources:

http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9911470-56.html?tag=bl

http://www.news.com/Next-version-of-Windows-Call-it-7/2100-1016_3-6197943.html

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,144152/article.html#

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7

http://uxevangelist.blogspot.com/2007/11/windows-7-and-windows-8-wealth-of.html

My apologizes to anyone who visited the Thinkworx blog in the last 24 hours. I woke up yesterday to find that the site had been hacked into with all pages displaying the image below.

As far as I can tell the server hosting the site had been compromised, probably affecting all sites hosted on the server, rather than a targeted attack on this site.

After contacting my web host (2M Host) they were quickly able to get the site restored, but unfortunately it was restored to a very old version. After several messages trying to convince them that what they restored was not the April 6th, 2008 version, as they claimed, I finally gave up and proceeded to restore the site myself. Fortunately, once I had discovered the site was compromised I checked the database contents, which I found to be intact so I immediately downloaded a backup version and used this to restore the site.

Personally this was my first time getting hacked, since it isn’t an experience that I would like to repeat even if it wasn’t a hack directly on my site, I will be more security conscious from this point out. It also turned out to be an opportunity to move to WordPress 2.5, which, by the way, if you are using WordPress you will definitely want to use, this upgrade has a nice redesign of the dashboard and back-end administration with some nice new features.

I didn’t realize the familiar and annoying sounds of Windows could sound so good…

Hopefully I am not the only fool out there to have posted about Google’s public April Fools’ joke, Virgil! Apparently Google is historically known for their annual hoaxes.

So a word of warning come next year…don’t believe any news on April 1st, even if it is on the Official Google Blog.

So really, did anyone else fall for this? Help me feel better!

If this wasn’t posted on the Official Google Blog I probably wouldn’t have believed it. Google is teaming up with Sir Richard Branson to form Virgle, the goal of which is the establishment of a permanent human settlement on Mars.

If you ever dreamed of being a pioneer here is your chance. The adventure begins in 2014. Destination: Mar’s Lunae planum area of the north side of Kasei Valles. Need some more convincing? Check out their 100 year plan:

• 2010: Choosing a Site
• 2014: Low Earth Orbit
• 2015: Virgle Base 1
• 2016: Flying to Mars
• 2108: Virgle City

Private space exploration has picked-up a lot of momentum in recent years with hopes of creating a space tourism industry, but this seems to be a little over ambitious. Probably more of a publicity stun than anything, but it will be interesting to see reactions to this news.

Before I sign-up I need to see if the post office will forward my mail.