Miscellaneous hardware & software news & hacks & tips; future plans

[Guest Menneisyys]

1. Hardware

a. HTC is going to introduce some new devices in early May – at last! While I certainly consider HTC’s models boring, unimaginative and far from multimedia- and gaming-friendly, I really hope they will, at last, come up with something more appealing for the generic users. I recommend THIS thread for more info; particularly my post posted at 04/10 15:36 CET, where I explain why I don’t consider HTC’s current lineup imaginative or even interesting and what functionalities I find the most lacking.

HowardForum's related thread is also worth checking out for other rumors / guesses. Hopefully, one of the forum members who has contacts at HTC and has always provided us with some rumors will fill us in with some insider info again :D

b. at CTIA Wireless 2008, there have been several new devices at Microsoft’s booth, all with the new, just (at CTIA) announced 6.1 version of Windows Mobile:

Amoi 6711: a simple Smartphone with GPS:

A newcomer to Windows Mobile, Velocity, has announced two new models:

Velocity 103: a VGA Pocket PC model

Velocity 111: a QVGA Landscape Pocket PC model

Both Velocity models come with 128M RAM / 256M ROM, GPS and HSDPA. They have no goodies like 3D hardware acceleration, FM radio or TV receiver. HowardForums has a VERY long and interesting thread on these devices.

There also was a working (at MWC, it still didn’t work) prototype of the E-Ten (now: Samsung) V900, one of the most interesting VGA handsets because of its digital TV receiving capabilities. (I only wish it had a slightly bigger screen – it’s suffering from the same problem as i-mate’s new phones.)

(See for example THIS for more info & shots.)

c. AximSite has allowed discussing the (cooked) WM6 upgrade for the Axim x50/x51 series. This is certainly very good news and may also mean I also seriously rethink my not discussing these questions at all to be on the safe side. After all, it’s time to install (and, probably, report on) the latest WM6 upgrade on my HP iPAQ hx4700, which is still probably the best bed-time e-book reader.

For example, the cooked version of Windows Mobile 6.1 has just been released for the Dell Axim x51v, sporting a lot of niceties. See the related thread HERE and HERE for the WinMo Professional / Classic versions, respectively. (Yes, the former is a PPC Phone Edition version so that you can run by default PPC PE-only software like Esmertec Jbed without additional hacking - that is, copying the "placeholder" SMS.dll and phone.dll files to \Windows, as is explained in the MIDlet Bible.) I'll soon test and report on it.

You can only hope that the current (!) HP iPAQ lineup also receives cooked 6.1 (and, in the future, later) OS ROM versions - HP has just announced they won't release any WM6.1 updates for their current devices. I don't want to comment on HP's decision because I don't want them to make angry with me - you surely know what I think :(. Currently, there're no HP 6.1 ROM cooking-related threads at the, say, iPAQ 210 forums of BrightHand or AximSite. THIS and THIS threads may be of interest.

d. There is a brand new article on the S-E Xperia X1 HERE.

e. i-mate's new models, the 8502 and the 9502 (see my review & remarks HERE) have started shipping and are available in Europe as well (through Clove). The related HoFo thread, packed with shots of the new models (on, for example, page 15), is worth checking out, along with a brand new review of the 8502 HERE. The reviewer, generally, likes it very much, except for the lack of microSDHC support. The latter is quite a letdown if it can't be fixed...

2. Software

a. CorePlayer 1.2.2 has been released for Windows Mobile; see THIS for more info (and also my multimedia-related articles / Bibles). (For Symbian, after the already-released 1.2.0, 1.2.1 is promised in the near future)

b. Adisasta WinMobile Download Accelerator updated has been updated to version 2.0. It seems to be FAR better than the version reviewed in The definitive guide to downloading files, images and saving Web pages with Pocket PC-based Web Browsers. I’ll review it some time, along with a comparison to the best downloader tool until now, HandyGet.

c. there has been a real plethora of new MIDlet Manager & Opera Mini-related releases I haven’t posted a separate article on. I’ve reported them at the bottom of my Opera Mini 4.1 review and the system-level invocation article. Note that the devs of the two new scripts are constantly releasing new patches in THIS thread. Note that these new posts are in no way Opera Mini 4.1-related; for example, I've elaborated on the latest 3.1 Jbed versions in the MIDlet Bible. The last post explains where to get the latest Jbed 3.1, which sports all the necessary goodies in ONE app: it can be installed on a storage card (with REALLY minimal manual hacking), supports sound and M3G (truly 3D games) and is VERY fast.

d. SmartGear, one of the best handheld / desktop console emulators for WinMo, has been constantly evolving. Currently, it’s at version 1.0.4. It’ll soon (in some weeks) receive SNES support, written in assembly (!!!). I really hope Larry comes out with a SNES emulator that will be WAY better than anything else on the platform.

e. You may already know WMWifiRouter (of, for example, you've read the article Another long-awaited breakthrough: dial-up Internet Sharing over Wi-Fi!), an excellent tool making it possible to share the dial-up (cellular) connection of a Windows Mobile handset via Wi-Fi. Now, there's an even more advanced, even cooler (and, currently, free; WMWifiRouter has gone commercial in the meantime) application with far more wide-reaching capabilities, ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) Control.

It's available in THIS thread and, in addition to sharing traditional dial-up connections, it's able to share even Wi-Fi or BT connections via any kind of a client connection. This means you can use your Windows Mobile handheld as, say, a Wi-Fi card for your non-Wi-Fi-capable notebook (via USB or BT PAN). I've always been receiving questions about using a Wi-Fi enabled WinMo device as a Wi-Fi card for notebooks; now, this has become a reality.

(Note that, for Symbian, a somewhat similar, albeit more restricted app, WalkingHotSpot, has just been announced / demoed at CTIA Wireless 2008; it's, currently, only available for mobile network operators. The developers stated they may release it for the public as well.)

f. Version 6.1 of I'm InTouch, a decent remote desktop controller (see related Bible HERE) app, has just been released. The major new feature for version 6.1 is audio support, allowing users to stream audio from their computer with I'm InTouch installed to another desktop or laptop computer. Currently this feature is not supported for Pocket PC's but the plan is to include it in a future release. The other main upgrade for this version does apply to Pocket PC's, multi-monitor support. You can now attach as many monitors as you want to your host computer and view them all from another computer or Pocket PC. The user has the choice of viewing all their desktops simultaneously or choosing to view them one at a time.

g.VITO Technology has just released EyePhoto (current version: 1.0). I'll compare it to the other "big names" in the category (Pocket Artist, Resco Image Viewer, Spb Imageer, XnView and PQV) when I have the time (for review links of the latter, see THIS).

h. While Microsoft hasn't delivered the rumoured, brand new and, as opposed to the earlier (and current) Internet Explorer Mobile (aka Pocket Internet Explorer, PIE) versions, fully-fledged Web browser (including built-in H.264, Flash and Silverlight support), they have added zooming capabilities to the one in Windows Mobile 6.1. See for example THIS for more info & links.

i. In THIS article, I've reviewed RDM+, which, currently, I consider the cheapest remote desktop controller application if you only have one handheld and definitely need file transfer capabilities. (The otherwise most recommended and free LogMeIn Free doesn't have the latter and other commercial apps all have a $50+ yearly (!) subscription fee, while, technically [for example, data usage-wise], they may be much worse than RDM+.) RDM+, in the meantime (at the time of writing the article, I wasn't aware of this), has turned out to have a desktop PC client (just like LogMeIn and all the other clients) readily accessible HERE (for free!), which makes it even more appealing and cost-effective. Now, I only wish it had remote Outlook database access features like I'm InTouch or sound / copy/paste / clipboard synchronization capabilties like Microsoft's own RDP client.

j. Particularly if you've ever used a WM5/WM6-upgraded Dell Axim x50 or HP iPAQ hx-series device, you already know how useful ramdisks can be (see my old article HERE). There is a brand new version by Russian hacker AMV007, which is signed and has an option to load with drivers before any application. It also has improved memory management using the VirtualAlloc memory function to avoid using scarce driver/kernel memory. Additionally, it has an option to periodically and automatically save the ramdisk contents to a file, which will then be read from after a soft reset, thereby restoring the contents of the ramdisk. All in all, it's really great! The thread of the new version is HERE.

k. There have been several new Windows Mobile game releases; in my opinion, however, none of them is worth devoting a self-standing review to. See the frontpage of PocketGamer.org or, if you speak German, PocketPlayers Reloaded for more info.

Note that the latter features an article on making Toy Golf (an EXCELLENT minigolf simulation; see review HERE) run on any Pocket PC, which, by default, is only compatible with the Intel 2700G-based, 3D hardware accelerated Dell Axim x50v / x51v. The article states all you need to do is copying libGLES_CM.dll (available for download HERE; it's originally from 3D Benchmark (GLBenchmarkCM.rar) available HERE) \Windows and voila - it runs. (Note that it's in \Windows that you must copy the DLL file to, NOT the home directory of Toy Golf; otherwise, you'll get an "Unable to load texture" error message during loading.) I've tested it on my WM6 VGA HTC Universal and WM6 QVGA HTC Wizard and found it pretty much useless. On the latter, it was completely unplayable because it only shows the upper left quarter of the landscape screen (the game has originally been designed for the VGA x51v); on the former, it worked, albeit a bit slow. Unfortunately, it had orientation problems on both Pocket PC's: it displayed the, by default, Landscape game in Portrait, effectively hiding the leftmost / rightmost part of the screen. In the above-linked article, Damien has presented some QVGA Landscape screenshots running the (hacked) game on his (QVGA) Blue Angel (XDA III, MDA III, Qtek 9090, PDA2K). He didn't explicitly mention whether he started toygolf_qvga.exe or toygolf.exe - more on this later.

If you (also) find the hack not working on your particular model / Toy Golf version, what I recommend is the following. Installing the game (with either the desktop-based installer or executing the CAB file directly on your handset) will install two files onto your handset, no matter whether you have a QVGA or a VGA device:

07/14/2005 08:02 PM 10,848,290 minigolf_dell.cfl

07/15/2005 09:25 PM 1,036,288 toygolf.exe

You will need to extract and rename two additional files from the CAB install file, MINIGO~1.001 and TOYGOL~1.002. Rename them to minigolf_dell_qvga.cfl and toygolf_qvga.exe respectively:

07/14/2005 10:50 PM 9,561,409 minigolf_dell_qvga.cfl

07/15/2005 09:19 PM 1,339,904 toygolf_qvga.exe

Copy these two files to the same directory on your handset where the two other files (minigolf_dell.cfl and toygolf.exe) already reside and start toygolf_qvga.exe regardless of whether you have a QVGA or a VGA device (toygolf.exe is strictly meant for 2700G-enabled devices, it seems). It will NOT need libGLES_CM.dll to run and will be very fast. The only problem will be the logos' and some of the dialogs being too big and (partly) invisible; however, all the in-game controls will be visible.

Also see THIS Russian language thread for more info (Google "translation" HERE).

(This all applies to version 1.10 coming on the x51v CD; the CAB inner filedates are 07/15/2005.)

l. Windows Live for Windows Mobile has officially been released and is available HERE. Unfortunately, it painfully lacks Live Messenger - currently, if you need to install it (and don't want to go for an alternative like IM+, imov Messenger, fring or Agile Messenger), you'll need to look around on, say, XDA-Devs for the installable CAB file. I better not provide you with a URL, just to be on the safe side (hope you understand.) See for example THIS thread for more info on the new release.

(Note that there have been some other releases / apps; I just haven’t had the time to test / review them all.)

3. The Competition

a. Nokia’s latest announcement of the Nokia Tube is REALLY interesting. If you can put up with the typically Finnish pronunciation of English, the keynote speech and Q&A session are well worth checking out. A full video is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvBqtx43x90, a shorter excerpt showing the touchscreen in action is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFKyAMQPbmI. While there aren’t much to report on as yet (no fancy 3D demos like those of NVIDIA at MWC - see the YouTube links at the end of the NVIDIA section HERE), the advancement in the last two months, for example, the sheer existence of a reference hardware design is certainly promising and surely shows Nokia is taking adding touchscreen support seriously. (At MWC, in mid-February, the Nokia folks didn’t have any of them – their S60 Touch demo was run on touchscreen-enabled notebooks.) I really hope they will come out with something REALLY cool – after all, their N95 (and, to a somewhat lesser degree, the N82) is already one of the best phones out there – and simply unbeatable when it comes to multimedia, gaming and built-in camera.

Software-wise, the Next-Gen N-Gage platform has, finally, been opened for the more traditional, high-end models like the N95 and N82. Several titles have been announced; head over to All About N-Gage for more info.

b. RIM (BlackBerry)’s generic CTIA booth sneak peak is HERE - not much of interest in this video. However, unlike with MWC, there are a lot of developments to report on.

First, version 4.5 of the OS, with its brand new looks and goodies like HTML mail and A2DP support, is getting closer. See THIS for more info.

Second, pictures and videos of the long-awaited BB 9000 have also surfaced; unfortunately, it won’t have a touchscreen, unlike what has been generally thought.

There are some other announcements as well; for example, a Slingplayer client in late 2008 (up to now, only available for Windows Mobile and Symbian) and an XM Radio client (natively supported, with third-party clients and a Web interface, by Windows Mobile and, via transcoding, on Symbian – see THIS for more info): 1 2).

4. What can you expect from me? Plans for the future

Yes, I know I've been pretty quiet lately. There are several reasons for this:

1. I've been working in real life too (I need to do some work to make both ends meet because, as you may already know, I only write for fun and, except for some gifts like free hardware, mostly from Hal Goldstein, I don't get any money for it)
   
   
2. I've been getting ready for my 45-minute W3C speech on multiplatform (WinMo, Symbian, BlackBerry) Web browsers. I'll soon release the English-language PowerPoint slides.
   
   
3. As you may already know, I've been working very hard on my Digital TV Bible explaining what WikiPedia or even commercial books targeted at non-Electric Engineers fail to explain. This involved reading several books and many recommendations / white papers. This also means I'll post some self-standing book review articles reviewing, for example, Amitabh Kumar’s Mobile TV: DVB-H, DMB, 3G Systems and Rich Media Applications, K. F. Ibrahim’s Newnes Guide to Television and Video Technology, Fourth Edition: The Guide for the Digital Age - from HDTV, DVD and flat-screen technologies to Multimedia Broadcasting, Mobile TV and Blu Ray and several other books on wireless technologies. Not only on digital TV broadcasting / unicasting, but also on CDMA (most University textbooks out there painfully fail at explaining how CDMA really works - I know this because, back in the university time, the textbooks we've used failed at this too) and WiMAX. I'm absolutely sure you'll find it VERY useful and enlightening!
   

[Guest Loewe538]

particularly my post posted at 04/10 15:36 CET

Posts have numbers which are a lot easier to look up than a date / time stamp. I presume you mean #15 but that's stamped at 14:36 in my case.

[Guest Menneisyys]

Posts have numbers which are a lot easier to look up than a date / time stamp. I presume you mean #15 but that's stamped at 14:36 in my case.

Yup, thanks, I've fogotten to look it up after having noticed external links to individual posts don't work when linking to MoDaCo posts.