Away for a well earned rest

normal service will be resumed early in May

We’re taking my parents away for a week  to celebrate one of my Mother’s milestone birthdays (she’ll kill me if I divulge the truth ) so expect minimal blogging for the time being.

I’ll be posting an in depth review of the E650 when I get back and may use a bit of blogmailr whilst away if anything tickles my fancy.

have fun

Alasdair

Living with the Orange E650 – part VI

more about the latest Orange SPV

well over a week in and I’ve found a really really really annoying feature and I can’t find a way to change it – help anyone?

I use voice dialing quite a lot – it’s much easier when in the car and as I type this I have my Jabra Bluetooth headset in my ear to keep two hands free – it’s a bit Nathan Barley but hey two hands like two monitors is the best way forward :).

on the C600 when you press the Jabra button to get voice dialing you get a discrete tone and with the latest ROM update you get the voice tag played back as the hone dials – on the E650 you get this the first tone is the dulcet pressing of the voice activation key the second one is the ear splitting speak after me prompt and the double tone is the error – it’s so annoying – I use this a lot and I could really do with being able to change this – it’s fine when using the phone on loudspeaker but it’s deafening in the headset – help!

technorati tags: E650, SPV, Orange

Lest we forget – part I

an occasional series exposing just how spoilt we are today

I’m a big fan of the blog of James and Kevin it’s a great resource for the latest and sometimes greatest  (?) in mobile technology – I certainly get freebie envy as they seem to be inundated with stuff.

The blog has a great example of an enticing strapline (using mobile devices since they weighed 30 lbs) and inspired by this I’ve decided to get on with showing my pile of rubbish accumulated mobility solutions. 

I’ve also been inspired by the fact that some of the internal IS guys were whinging they could only get 17 Mbits from their broadband – me I remember leaving the PC on dialed in overnight to download the 17 Mbytes of Mozilla when I moved from CompuServe to Pipex and the web proper… oooh they don’t know they’re born :|

like most geeks I accumulate old technology but to my wife’s eternal gratitude I’ve been disposing of bits and bobs ( I kept the CPU and BIOS ROM of my first IBM compatible PC – I couldn’t part with all of it ) I have however been backfilling the mobile solutions I have used over the years similar to the way I have been backfilling my vinyl on MP3.

I call it my trailing edge technology – it has to have been the pinnacle or close to it when launched but has bounced off the leading edge and is tumbling of the trailing edge when I catch it :)

so first is an occasional series 1994….. the Toshiba T1910CS and the Motorola 3200 GSM :

The Tosh sports a 386sx 33 processor and a whopping 110 Mbytes HDD, 8 Mbytes of RAM it’s runs Windows for workgroups 3.11.

the Motorola 3200 is a single band GSM phone with a capacious 100 alpha numeric memories – no data capabilities and a battery life (from memory) of 12 hours with at most 60 mins talk time , it can RECEIVE point to point short message service messages (texts to you and me) but not send them :)

I’ve seen this described as the first GSM phone – certainly in the UK it was preceded by a Panasonic model whose name escapes me. and yes it is active on Cellnet – it  requires an old SIM with a squarer smart chip – the newer SIMs with oval chips with rounder edges require less power and this phone doesn’t recognise them.

The whole kit and caboodle – excluding accessories weighs in at 8 lbs (17.6 kg)  spare batteries  would add a touch more so we could be pushing 20 kg –  the 3200 is mine IIRC it cost about £300 at the time, the Tosh cost me a sandwich and a can of pop.

technorati tags: mobility, flexible working, vintage technology

Office Mobile – Standard or Professional – Part II Excel Mobile

More reasons to buy Windows Mobile Professional?

The same treatment for Excel Mobile

Excel Mobile
Professional	Standard
Only one mode	Separate View and Edit Mode
Sheet Overview not available	Overview Feature available
Cell Text not available	Cell Text Feature available
Accelerate Scrolling not available	Accelerate Scrolling
Page Up and Down with 2 and 8 keys not available	Page Up and Down with 2 and 8 keys for Power users
Save and Save As both available	Only Save As available (No direct Save)
File opens in Normal Mode	File opens in Full Screen Mode
File Delete is available from Opened file	File Delete is not available
AutoFilter is available	AutoFilter is not available
Modify Sheets option is available	Not available
Clear Formats/Contents/All options available	Clear Cell All only available
Cell Right/Left/Center indent available	Not available
Row/Column Auto-fit available	Not available
Paste Special available	Not available
the file is modified, clicking OK closes with Saving changes	If the file is modified, selecting File > Close checks if the changes need to be saved
Insert/Modify/Delete Chart available	Only View Chart available
Toolbar available	Toolbar not available
Row/Column Headings and Scrollbars can be turned On/Off	Not available
Beam option is available inside the application	Beam option not available
Rename/move option available	Not available
Revert to Save Option is available all the unsaved changes and reopen the last(this will drop saved version of the file)	Not available
Rows and columns resizing is available	Not available

 

technorati tags: E650, Windows Mobile 6, Office Mobile

Office Mobile – Standard or Professional – Part I Word Mobile

you need to have a reason to buy Windows Mobile Professional – Right?

I’ve had comments and a couple of emails asking about functions on the E650. The E650 despite it’s natty design is a Windows Mobile Standard ( e.g. smartphone ) device, there are distinct differences of functionality in the Office Mobile suite between  WM standard and WM professional devices which are summarised in the following table

Word Mobile
Professional	Standard
Document opens in Edit mode	Has two modes : View and Edit
Create New Documents	Cannot Create New Documents
Font formatting can be done (has Font Dialog)	No Font Dialog
Paragraph formatting can be done	No Paragraph formatting
Toolbar is present	No Toolbar
Create New Numbered and Bulleted List	Cannot Create New lists
Has tools such as spelling check, word count,and insert date	No tools
Cut/Copy/Paste functions	No Cut/Copy/Paste
Default zoom level is 100%	Default zoom level is 75%
No different scrolling modes	Page scroll and line scroll

the create new documents is the biggest bugbear – it seems a little stingy and as there are already workarounds for this it seems a little pointless to omit it.

hopefully this will be addressed in the patch that  provides office 2007 compatibility to WM6 devices when it’s launched later this year.

I suppose that we have to look at this as a positive as at least we have some (if compromised) native Office functionality on Standard devices now – saves installing third party applications.

technorati tags: E650, Windows Mobile 6, Office Mobile

RIM announces new Blackberry Application Suite for Windows Mobile 6

Give them enough Blackberry flavoured Rope ?

this via the::unwired

Research in Motion (RIM) the makers of  Blackberry have announced Blackberry Application Suite  for Windows Mobile based devices. BAS is planned  to provide a rich Blackberry application environment on Windows Mobile devices.

BAS will appear as a standard app in the programs list and will extend access to Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) for corporates and Blackberry Internet Services to WM devices.

It’s a very interesting move and one that completes the move of Blackberry from the company that co-CEO James Balsillie   described as ‘a niche device player‘ back in 2005 to a software services company in 2007.

the  plan is that BAS will expand the penetration of Blackberry services to Windows Mobile devices which Microsoft must view as a massive fillip to WM sales as if you have Domino or GroupWise in the enterprise you can now have a slinky WM 6 device that adds easy application development  to your BES access.

over time all it can do is drive Windows Mobile Sales and as Jason intimates it’ll make the transition from BES to Exchange Activesync all the more attractive and a natural progression.

I can’t help feeling that Blackberry may have shot themselves in the foot.

technorati tags: Blackberry, BES, Windows Mobile 6

Living with the Orange SPV E650 part V

a first grumble

I’ve blogged about the glitch I discovered the other day when using the find as you type on the keyboard.

I’ve found a grumble – you can’t seem to change the home page of pocket Internet explorer – you’re stuck with windows live search. grrrrr

I hate this kind of imposition – I’m sure that there’s a reg hack somewhere in there and I’ll have a rummage providing resco explorer works  however it’s an eval handset so I’m wary of too much modding.

technorati tags: Orange, SPV, E650, Registry Hack

[EDIT: Resco Reg editor 2005 does work on WM6  –  in the registry there’s no explicit home / start page key I can find but there is an entry in HKCU\software\Microsoft\Internet explorer\main for search page. There’s also a startmenu option in HKCU\software\Microsoft\shell but I’ve not messed around with them]

Orange Broadband Upgrade

a big fat DOH from Orange

I keep getting pestered by Orange to upgrade the free broadband account that I’ve had installed in a family home in Cumbria it’s only a fiver to upgrade to 8 Meg and unlimited* downloads so I thought I’d have a look at hat speed I could enjoy…….

 mmmmm it seems Orange’s definition of an upgrade  is rather unusual :)

technorati tags: Orange, Broadband

Living with the Orange SPV E650 part IV

another snippet for your delectation

I’ve just discovered quick shortcuts for emails :) well actually I knew about them before however I’ve just started using them, the mark read key is a godsend

When in an email account press and hold 0 for an aide memoire

When you’re in your email account just press and hold the relevant key to get the appropriate function.

You can use these both from the message list and when within a specific message.

a little aside on the HTML email access, the document that Jason posted to compare WM5.0 & 6 and when Exchange 2007 adds functionality suggests that you don’t need Exchange 2007 to get HTML mail – it appears you do :(

technorati tags: windows mobile 6, E650, shortcuts, tips

Living with the SPV E650 part III

Even more hands on experience with the latest and greatest Orange SPV to date

Fetchmail is a great feature it allows selective download of email – removes a previous annoyance where when you clicked to download the rest of a message you  performed a full synch and were forced back to the top of the message and had to scroll down.

this is a pretty jerky video of Fetchmail in operation – makes life a whole lot easier

technorati tags: windows mobile 6, fetchmail

Orange E650 now available to existing customers

now you all get to have a go :)

well you would if it wasn’t out of stock – I suspect we’re going to see a great deal of this over the coming weeks.  

at least they’ve corrected the specification

technorati tags: E650, Orange, SPV

My Web 2.0 name

better than pornstar or star wars names ?

[ off topic alert]

Matt over at Bad Language posted about web 2.0 names – my name has been the bane of my life since email became prevalent, Alasdair is just too complicated for most people, the usual assumption is that it’s Alistair.

It’s a great filter – anything that isn’t spelt as Alasdair gets binned, however it’s great for the excising of vowels necessary for a good Web 2.0 tag so… my Web 2.0 name : Alasdr

Technorati tags: Web 2.0, Alasdair

HTC announce official Windows Mobile 6 Upgrades for their range

Upgrades Will be available from June with the associated lag for operator take up  This via solopalmari (great Italian practice) HTC have announced the official upgrade policy for their range of handhelds  the statement indicates that the following HTC devices will be supported by official Windows Mobile 6  upgrades:

HTC Advantage,

HTC Tytn,  

HTC P3300

HTC P4350. 

HTC S620

Some of our operator-branded devices. that use of the word some worries me …… the official statement is as follows

Windows Mobile 6: upgrade strategy statement

Microsoft recently unveiled Windows Mobile ® 6, which offers improved usability and more PC-like functionality than previously available. Enhancements include the ability to view emails in rich HTML format, and to manage emails quickly and easily through new shortcuts and new calendar views.

The HTC S710 is one of the first Windows Mobile® 6 devices to ship, and will be followed by a range of products based on the new operating system in the coming months.

HTC is also offering WM6 upgrades for the most popular devices in its current range. This includes recently launched “messaging” products, which will enjoy the greatest benefits of Windows Mobile 6, such as the HTC Advantage, the HTC TyTN, the HTC S620, and the HTC P4350.

The upgrade will also be available for the award-winning HTC P3300, plus some of our operator-branded devices. The upgrades will be rolled out from June, in line with our operator partners’ strategies. You’ll be able to find the latest releases as they’re made available at: http://downloads.europe.htc.com

FAQ:

Why have these devices been chosen?

We have chosen devices with a particular focus on “messaging”, where users will enjoy the greatest benefits of Windows Mobile 6 (the HTC Advantage, the HTC TyTN, the HTC S620, and the HTC P4350). The upgrade will also be available for the award-winning HTC P3300. 

Will other devices be added?

Potentially. We’re in constant discussions with our operator partners, and if they’re seeing significant demand from their customers for a specific device then we will always consider it. 

When will the upgrade be available?

The upgrades will be rolled out from April. 

I’ve heard that [operator] is not offering the upgrade. Why is that? Can their customers get the upgrade from HTC direct?

It’s really up to the operators to decide how, or indeed whether, to offer the upgrade, so you’d need to speak to them. HTC is only directly offering upgrades for its own brand devices.

Will consumers have to pay upgrade license fees?

 No – the usual licence upgrade fees are being waived.

How much of a difference will users notice with the new operating system?

Windows Mobile 6 delivers the ability to view e-mails in their original rich HTML format with live links to Web and Sharepoint® sites, which means text and images are displayed as they would be on a PC, and are available from a corporate e-mail server such as Exchange Server 2007, from Web-based accounts such as Windows Live™ Hotmail or from a myriad of other popular service providers. Windows Mobile 6 also includes Windows Live for Windows Mobile, which provides customers with a rich set of Windows Live services. For example, now through Windows Live Messenger, people can chat with more than one person at one time, express themselves through animated figures, quickly send a file or image, or record and send voice notes.  The newest version of the platform offers the most genuine Microsoft Office system experience in the mobile versions of Office Outlook®, Office Word, Office Excel® and Office PowerPoint® by bringing capabilities once available only on the PC versions of these products to the small screen. This allows users to neatly view, navigate and edit Word documents and Excel spreadsheets in their original formatting, without affecting tables, images or text, and to view PowerPoint presentations on their device. All Windows Mobile 6 powered devices include Direct Push Technology for up-to-date e-mail delivery and automatic synchronization of Outlook calendars, tasks and contacts through Microsoft Exchange Server. Windows Mobile 6 also offers a set of important device security and management features that include the capability to remotely wipe all data from a device should it be lost or stolen, helping ensure that confidential information remains that way.

as always the adoption of it on any MSP device (like my m3100) is down to the MSP themselves – here’s hoping Orange see sense, it’ll keep me and Rob happy at least

technorati tags: HTC, m3100, Windows Mobile 6 , Upgrade 

The official response to Response Point

what the Unified Communications team really think ( well officially anyway)

I’ve  blogged ad nauseam about my disappointment with Response Point’s route to Market and the missed opportunity I think it represents ( Premature maybe I know as it’s not even this side of the Atlantic yet) and mused about what the UC teams’s position may be on the whole thing.

Eric Swift Senior Director of the Unified Communications group has made this statement. to summarise the position is that the two products are targeted at different customers:

• RP to small businesses that want to simplify the voice experience by replacing their existing telephone system or installing a new one based on Microsoft Software – a fairly narrow church I would think
• OCS is designed to enhance the communications capabilities for larger organizations by working with the telephony and networking infrastructure they have, while using the power of software to provide next-generation communications capabilities to users.

as I’ve made clear the lack of LCS / OCS integration absolutely bamboozles me so I’d hope the statement would shed some light on the roadmap that might lead to integration of RP within the UC portfolio. Unfortunately it doesn’t. the closest we have to a comment comes via Oliver Rist over at Infoworld who has attributed  to Jeff Smith the suggestion that :

Response Point wasn’t going to integrate with Small Business Server 2007 when/if that platform shows up post-Longhorn — even though the Exchange 2007 folks are making a big deal about Exchange’s capability to act as voicemail and call aggregator. Apparently, that’s a Response Point 2.0 goal

Eric Swifts statement does nothing to reduce the confusion:

What about the roadmap for the two products?  Will they come together?  The next steps will be based on the evolution of this dynamic market and the feedback we get from customers.  The teams are working closely together so that both the small and large business customers gain the benefits of software-powered VoIP regardless of the offering built for them.

 

Apparently it’s up to us……. you know my position MICROSOFT RESPONSE POINT MUST INTEGRATE WITH OCS ! ( or LCS or a similar component in the Longhorn SBS variant) and provide unified comm’s on a Microsoft platform to the smaller business.

 

Come on people – get with the program

 

Orange E650 available to purchase on Orange Consumer website

but……. instantly out of stock

the E650 is here – on the orange consumer website true to form for brand new customers only. :(

it’s instantly out of stock so I assume back orders have to be fulfilled (unless it’s a bit of creativity to hit the mid April Launch promised)

oh well I spose all you loyal Orange customers out there with access to the same deals as everyone supposedly will just have to wait.

I hate it when they do this.

technorati tags: E650, Orange

Living with the E650 part II

Second in a series of observations on Orange’s latest SPV

i’ve found a bug in the software, not sure whether it’s my device, Orange specific or a wider glitch in all S710 devices so any feedback would be welcome:

The find as you type outlook search is great however when you use the keyboard to input search letters as opposed to the keypad the dual function number keys on the board act like they’re on the pad. So if you hit the c/7 key on the board it actually inputs 7/p/q/r/s.
I’ve let Orange know and they are looking into it.

That said it’s not a massive problem.

Posted using blogmailr from my E650

I’d tag this but although WM6 supports html mail it unfortunately doesn’t support the features in composition

[EDIT] removed corporate email signature thoughtfully added by internal IS determined to identify the company I work for – oops the perils of blogmailr

[EDIT] WM6 does support html features in composition but ONLY IF YOUR IS DEPT HAS UPGRADED THE FRONT END SERVER TO EXCHANGE 2007 like they said they had grrrrrr

Living with the Orange SPV E650

12 hours in and loving it

For  an objective opinion on aesthetics I ask my wife’s opinion. As a geek (note the small g)  it’s easy to get  over excited about tech for tech’s sake but her designers eye usually cuts through any perceived geek chic and gives an honest view.

her opinion of the E650:

 mmmm my contract’s up for renewal how much is it ?

difficult to get a more ringing endorsement than that so it’s a winner on the looks front :)

Performance wise it’s much quicker than the c600, none of the interesting call handling glitches (undocumented features?) of the c600 either (so far). My c600 didn’t like call waiting it always confused it and if I had a call collision e.g. I was ringing a colleague back who was simultaneously ringing me I’d get the this call cannot be completed as dialed error for half a dozen attempts afterwards – none of that so far just nice crisp call quality.

the UI is great – like Vista to XP some things have moved, never having seen a vanilla WM6 standard install before I can’t comment on whether this is an Orange rearrangement or a standard Microsoft thing.  for instance I missed the dedicated comm manager key – I like to be frugal with WLAN, because : 1, it eats battery power, 2, the notification is constantly nagging me as I move around most places I go – too many WiFi AP’s around tbh.

so no hard key but I eventually found the option accessible through the today screen just go down to WiFi status and click the action button 

 

to access comm manager

Organisation seems to be neater in the start menu, there are more logical groupings

address book has the familiar contacts and speed dial

organiser has  calendar,  quick notes (a text input notes app, which disappointingly doesn’t appear to sync with outlook),  tasks and voice notes behind it

quick notes does give me a chance to show predictive text in operation

although I’ve yet to find the add word option when T9 just can’t get it right.

The calendar  status bar is pretty useful – a great step up from WM5 (names obscured to protect the innocent & my employment status)

separate menu cluttering icons for the mobile office suite are abandoned for a top level  office mobile icon which leads to the familiar apps icons

all in all a much crisper menu structure, although I’d still like to be able to rearrange it to my preference, I’ve not had chance to see if this is possible yet.

the keyboard is giving me a bit of finger ache as it’s smaller than the m3100, it maintains the same comforting blue glow, I’m sure I’ll get used to it but the space bar is tiny – I’m always hitting the B key when I mean to hit the space :(

Any glitches, undocumented features ? I hear you murmur……. just one that I have experienced so far: following the install of OneNote mobile I find that if start a new note and decide to swap to landscape mode to use the keyboard  whilst the note is being created OneNote bombs but happily the E650 stays alive.

Not a single reset necessary

so far all in all it’s a great bit of kit – I am not going to want to give this one back – just need Tom Tom to get their  WM6 act together so I don’t keep getting lost :(

technorati tags: E650, SPV, Orange, Hands On

Orange SPV E650 Hands on – first impressions

initial feelings about the new Orange Handset

I’d have to say I’m very impressed, the overall feel of the device is one of very high quality and the matt black finish is great – I suspect it’ll withstand a few bangs.

Call quality is spot on – much better than the c500 and better than the c600

The keyboard action is great – didn’t really get the semi automatic until I tried it – essentially you give it a little push and it does the rest – accompanied by quite an annoying tone which I will kill when I find out where it lives. the board is very usable, smaller keys than the m3100 but even so perfectly adequate even for my spade like fingers.

The screen is fantastic a good 25-30% brighter than the c600 and appears significantly bigger so big in fact I can’t stop pressing it as it really looks like it should be a touch screen. The devices are comparable in footprint although the E650 is slightly thicker, wider and weightier but still passes the shirt top pocket test

The biggest surprise so far is the expansion MicroSD slot is external and Orange have included a 128 Mbytes card in the bundle.

I’ve set up the Bluetooth PAN as suggested by Jason  however  the much vaunted WM6 is much better at juggling connections feature didn’t work, when a call was received I could take it and the PAN seemed to stay connected but I couldn’t access the Internet properly until I disconnected and reconnected the modem on the device – more of this later.

I’ve actually got a massive smile on my face – it’s a great bit of kit looking forward to putting it through it paces.

[EDIT] actually on reflection the best surprise is that when you go to install an app you have 52 Mbytes  to spare on the phone itself – a massive massive improvement on previous SPVs

technorati tags: E650, Orange, SPV

E650 has arrived

brace your selves for a review

I don’t do unboxing shots – they’re a bit lame IMO but as proof it’s here :

pic quality a bit off as I’m using my m3100 camera

it definitely is not UMTS it is EDGE though

technorati tags: SPV E650, Orange, Windows Mobile 6

BT Introduce BT Business Anywhere

BT Fusion 0.5 ? –  great idea but perhaps a little confusing for the average bear?

this via Jason Langridge’s Blog and despite his reassurances I’m yet to be convinced as to how uncomplicated this service would be in realworld usage

what is it?

from the BT  Broadband Office website:

BT’s Office Anywhere brings you a big advance in multifunctional technology. With a BT Office Anywhere handset you can work as effectively when you’re out and about as you can at your desk.

• Office Anywhere brings you advanced phone and data services using a single device. You have real-time access to email, calendar, contacts and documents
  
• The handsets emulate a Windows PC experience, including web surfing with Internet Explorer and instant messaging
  
• A single cost-effective subscription gives you inclusive mobile minutes, inclusive data allowance, and you can make unlimited hour-long VoIP calls to UK landlines from office, private or public WiFi hotspots at no extra charge
  
• a high-specification multifunctional handset with preloaded Microsoft software

in English that’s an HTC S620 Smartphone running Windows Mobile 5.0 with push email (hosted by BT or your own Exchange 2003 SP2) and an integrated VoIP dialer to make calls when in range of a Hotspot

the blurb implies that the dialer logs on to BT Openzone Hotspots automatically which is great but you’ll need to manually log on to another providers service either pay as you go or if you have an Openzone account (an extra) at a roaming partner (say T-Mobile or the cloud ). Openzone accounts are an additional £5 for 500 minutes or £25 for 4000 minutes.

the unlimited VoIP calls are  a less rigorous version of our old favourite unlimited* in that you can only average 4 hours a day over a month to any one number or get hit with an additional ppm charge ( unlikely any but a very few users will  get affected by this I would have thought)

I’d like to see how handoff works between hotspots (if at all) and I am sure there’s no handoff from WiFi to Cellular which is a feature of UMA services

It’s a good hybrid but it needs to be really easy to use, ideally the device needs to do the thinking for the user, I don’t mean any disrespect to the users however all they will want to do is make a phone call with as little fuss as possible.

 

as I commented on Jason’s original post :

in my experience you’ll find geeks using it (but we can do something similar with existing tools); technoambivalents not bothering with that process and just staying cellular and technophobes running screaming from the handset.

all that said It would be a very good solution for lazy mobile users in the office as you could install a BTO hotspot and allow VoIP calls that way.

I’m disappointed with the tariff structure,  ideally I’d want an unlimited data tariff (for emails) to go along with bundled minutes and free VoIP, I think having options for the amount of data you need to use as follows :

	Lite (10MB)	Professional (30MB)	Unlimited
BT Office Anywhere with 250 inclusive minutes	£39.50	£47.50	£54.50
BT Office Anywhere with 700 inclusive minutes	£60.50	£68.50	£75.50

confuses things a little  but I can understand why they do this BT have never being innovators in tariffs really as they have to be wary of the regulator.

technorati tags: BT Business Anywhere, HTC, FMC, VoIP, BT