Tracy and Matt

If you are anything like me, there are a few soft keys on your Pocket PC mobile device that you just don't use. Personally I don't use the contacts or the voice dial buttons on my HTC TyTN. In fact I find the voice dial button really annoying as I seem to keep pressing it by mistake.

Our friend Fabien got in touch to let me know that he had come across a piece of software that allows you to modify what each soft key does without having to get your hands dirty and play around with the registry. Furthermore Fabien has written an extensive tutorial on how to change the key settings.

The piece of software required to make these changes, 'WM5NewMenu', also has some other useful features.

"WM5NewMenu" is a configurable application launcher for Windows Mobile 5 with several preconfigured actions to create new items for your Today soft keys such as a SMS, MMS, Word documents, Notes, etc.

Basic features WM5NewMenu version 2.02:

Check out the full tutorial on Dafabmobiles.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Tracy & Matt]

Dopod has been busy and has just officially announced 5 new HTC devices, one of which is the new HTC Herald, the replacement to the HTC Wizard. This makes Dopod the first to official state that they will offer the HTC Herald.

Another first is the Dopod M700 which is a previously unseen device. The M700 will be a HTC Artemis style device (Minus the GPS) and will be focused on music. It will feature the Open Mobile Alliance Digital Rights Management (OMA DRM) protection, in addition to a built-in FM radio, 256MB flash storage and bundled 512MB microSD media.

An additional bit of information of note is the presence of Blackberry Connect on the HTC Excalibur, more squarely aiming the device as a Blackberry substitute.

Dopod C720W Dopod C720W Specification: Quadband GSM with EDGE TI OMAP 850 processor 1.3-megapixel CMOS camera 2.4-inch 340x240-pixel LCD with 65K-color support 128MB ROM; 64MB RAM microSD expansion slot Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP and AVRCP 802.11g, USB and infrared 111 x 62.5 x 12.8mm; 130g Availability: Before end Nov 2006 Price: $571.32 Dopod C800 Dopod C800 Specification: Quadband GSM with EDGE TI OMAP 850 processor Slide-out QWERTY keypad 2-megapixel CMOS camera 2.8-inch 340x240-pixel LCD with 65K-color support 128MB ROM; 64MB RAM microSD expansion slot Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP and AVRCP 802.11g, USB and infrared 109 x 59 x 17mm; 168g Availability: Before end Nov 2006 Price: $781.27 Dopod D810 Dopod D810 Specification: Quadband GSM with 3G, 3.5G and EDGE Samsung 400MHz processor 2-megapixel and VGA CMOS camera 2.8-inch 340x240-pixel LCD with 65K-color support 128MB ROM; 64MB RAM miniSD expansion slot Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP and AVRCP 802.11g, USB and infrared 108 x 58.2 x 18.4mm; 150g Availability: Before end Nov 2006 Price: $825.80 Dopod M700 Dopod M700 Specification: Quadband GSM with EDGE TI OMAP 850 processor Built-in FM radio 2-megapixel CMOS camera 2.8-inch 340x240-pixel LCD with 65K-color support 256MB ROM; 64MB RAM microSD expansion slot (512MB card included) Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP and AVRCP 802.11g, USB and infrared 108 x 58 x 16.8mm; 130g Availability: Before end Nov 2006 Price: $699.20 Dopod P800W Dopod P800W Specification: Quadband GSM with EDGE SiRF III chipset for GPS TI OMAP 850 processor 2-megapixel CMOS camera 2.8-inch 340x240-pixel LCD with 65K-color support 128MB ROM; 64MB RAM Built-in FM radio microSD expansion slot Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP and AVRCP 802.11g, USB and infrared 108 x 58 x 16.8mm; 128g Availability: Mid-Nov 2006 exclusively at Courts Singapore and mobile operators Price: $762.82 Source: CNet Asia Matt [Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, HTC Artemis, Dopod, HTC Trinity, HTC Herald, HTC Excalibur, Tracy & Matt]

Our good friend Paul from MoDaCo has just published the worlds first review of the i-mate SPL.

By all accounts, Paul is pretty impressed with the device.

"There's no doubt about it, 'thin is in'! A craze for super thin phones kicked off by the Motorola RAZR shows no sign of slowing, and with Samsung now blazing the thin-device trail too, the boundaries really are being pushed - at least in the feature phone market."

i-mate SPL Specification

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, MoDaCo, i-mate, i-mate SPL, Tracy & Matt]

There is no doubt about it, the HTC Herald is making quite a stir at the moment. Slated to be the successor to the HTC Wizard, similar in specification but a whole lot thinner at just 18mm thick.

PDAClub has the first review and some excellent comparison photos.

The HTC Herald is a successor to the HTC Wizard, now a low-end device compared to the HTC Hermes. The HTC Herald brings some improvements to the table, such as an improved 2 megapixel camera, AKU 3.2, WIFI G, and a much thinner design.

There are further hardware changes, such as moving from miniSD to microSD cards, and the loss of the infra-red port. One welcome refinement is the ability to switch the device on merely by sliding out the keyboard, and apparently the sliding mechanism itself has been improved.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Orange, M3100, HTC Herald, SPV, Tracy & Matt]

Many PocketPC users, especially new users, are frustrated by the way in which the close button works on PoceketPC applications, merely minimising the running program without actually terminating it.

For years Microsoft refused to make any changes to the way that this worked. Third party applications have been available but these tend to be rather over-kill.

The clever folks at HTC have come up trumps and released their own Task Manager application that allows you to choose what to do when you click on the close button. Task Manager will be featuring in all HTC Pocket PCs shipping with AKU 3.2 onwards.

What an excellent and simple idea, hats off to HTC!

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Tracy & Matt, HTC, HTC Task Manager]

Rumour has it that Acer will be making a return to the Smartphone market by releasing a new device either late this year or very early 2007.

Acer chairman, JT Wang, has been quoted to say "The smartphone, which is outsourced to Compal Communications, will be marketed as a BlackBerry handset for the SOHO and small- and medium-size enterprise (SME) sector".

Acer's most recent Windows Mobile based device (Pictures above) is the VGA screened Acer N311, is very small and thin, and if Acer caries forward this experience we can expect to see some really attractive designs next year.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Tracy & Matt, Acer, Acer N311]

There are lots of images in this post so please be patient if you are using a slow connection. Click any of the images for a larger view.

I used to be a big Smartphone fan. In fact I have had almost every type of Smartphone device released over the last six years. However, once Orange released the SPV M1000 (HTC Himalaya) I have been a PocketPC device fan through and through. Sure I still have some Smartphone devices that I play with but I use them more for software testing than for day-to-day use. I find that PocketPC mobile devices work much better for me with the touch screen and, more recently, the advent of slide-out keyboards.

The HTC MTeoR is one of the few Smartphone format devices that I have seen for a while that has really grabbed my attention. Lately my HTC TyTN has started to feel a bit big in my pocket so I have been considering a ‘Candybar’ Smartphone.

Smartphones have progressed a lot recently with the advent of push-email and now 3G connectivity they are becoming a more realistic alternative to PocketPC mobile devices.

So can the MTeoR win me over and turn me back in to a Smartphone user?

As I mentioned before the HTC MTeoR incorporates 3G which makes it the worlds first 3G Windows Mobile Smartphone, what’s more, the MTeoR is a slim, pocket-friendly size make it a highly desirable device.

Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 technology with Direct Push, gives you instant access to your emails, this coupled with 3G connectivity make this device a pleasure to use.

There is a back-mounted camera and this shoots stills at up to 1.3-megapixels, but has no flash or self portrait mirror. The picture quality is nothing special and is much the same as any other 1.3mp phone camera.

On the front you’ll find a 5-way joystick style navigation control. What’s quite nice about this is that it has a rubberised middle which makes it easier to use.

The Smartphone menu has recently undergone some changes (since I last had a smartphone anyway). You don’t have to click ‘more’ to see the next screen of options, you can simply scroll down.

‘Jog Wheels’ have been recently added to several devices and the MTeoR has its own version. This isn’t a wheel as such but more of a self centering rocker on the left hand side of the device. This works well when scrolling through emails or webpages.

The overall dimensions are 112.4 x 49 x 14.8 mm. The MTeoR weighs in at just 120g and feels nice in the hand. I like the

One thing ‘missing’ from the MTeoR is WiFi. It seems that people have come to expect WiFi to be included with every device now. I must say that WiFi isn’t something that I miss, I seldom use it on my TyTN and don’t know of any hotspots that I might use other than the WiFi at home where I would use a PC anyway.

The HTC MTeoR accepts microSD cards which seem to be the HTC standard now. The memory card slot is situated on the left side of the device. There is a rubber cover over the microSD card slot which I liked. I have dropped other devices from time to time and this almost always resulted in the memory card ending up on the floor. When this happens with a microSD card it can be pretty hard to find!

Like the other HTC devices coming through at the moment, the MTeoR has a combined USB/Headphone socket. As a result you can only use the woefully inadequate headphones that come with the device unless you want to modify them and use your own. Either way, until HTC release the splitter that has been on pre-order with Expansys you’ll not be able to Sync/Charge the device at the same time as listening to music. This is something that bothers people wanting to use these devices in their car.

Having switched to the MTeoR from the TyTN I find myself trying to press the screen on quite a regular basis. Not having a touch screen is taking some getting used to and is probably the thing I miss most compared to PPC. I would love to see a device of smartphone format with a touchscreen.

The other thing it takes a while to get use to again is using T9 as the text input method. I used to be quick quick at tapping out a message and could do it without looking. It took me a few days to get used to it again and after that I was away. What helped out here was the fact that the keys on the MTeoR are really positive and not too small.

So has the MTeoR turned me in to a Smartphone user? Well, no BUT I have to say that the HTC MTeoR is quite possible the best Smartphone I have ever used. If you are a Smartphone user thats looking to upgrade, you are going to love this phone!

HTC MTeoR Specification

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Tracy & Matt, Orange, C700, HTC Breeze, HTC MTeoR, Orange SPV C700]

Many people are not aware that copying CD's that they own to their MP3 player is actually illegal in the UK. Despite there being a wealth of software tools, such as iTunes, that are designed to do just that.

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) is calling for a "private right to copy".

It would decriminalise millions of Britons who break the law each year by copying their CDs onto music players.

Making copies of CDs and DVDs for personal use would have little impact on copyright holders, the IPPR argues.

Copyright issues have, in the past, been steered too much by the music industry, the report said.

Source: BBC News

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): mp3 players, Pocket PC, copyright, media players]