jamespr's WebLog

Blogging on http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile

2007-06-14T03:06:00Z

Thanks to Khush for pointing out I hadn't updated my blog in a long time!

It made me realize I hadn't really signed off with this blog and had left everything hanging. YOu can find me, from time to time, blogging on http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile

James

Blogging From Latin America

2005-09-28T02:04:00Z

I got a mail this morning from our DPE star down in Brazil Fernando Zandona telling me that he's switched his blog from his native Portuguese to English. Personally, I think having a Portuguese blog was pretty cool but I guess it cuts down your readership a little :)

You can catch up with Fernando here : http://blogs.msdn.com/fzandona/

Welcoming Palm to Windows Mobile

2005-09-26T21:32:00Z

If you missed the webcast this morning, Bill Gates (Microsoft), Ed Colligan (Palm) and Denny Strigl (Verizon Wireless) announced a partnership to bring a Palm device running Windows Mobile software to the Verizon network.

You can watch the webcast here :

If you're new to the Windows Mobile world, my name is James Pratt and my team looks after our developer platform including articles, webcasts, events, our MSDN presence and a bunch of other stuff. We've pushed live some materials today to help Palm developers find out more about Windows Mobile, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/mobility/windowsmobile/howto/palmos/default.aspx

And of course, if you're a Palm developer who's interested in the new Windows Mobile device, my blog and the Windows Mobile team blog (http://blogs.msdn.com./windowsmobile) are a great way to keep in touch. Let us know if the content above is helpful and what else you'd like to see.

James

A Little Something Special Coming on Monday

2005-09-24T19:05:00Z

This seems like it says what it can before Monday ...

http://www.microsoft.com/winme/0509/25267/SFO_Teaser.asx

What are you doing with your i-mate JASJAR?

2005-09-22T21:17:00Z

My good friend Mike Hall is wondering what PDC attendees are doing with the i-mate JASJAR they purchased.

http://blogs.msdn.com/mikehall/archive/2005/09/15/468020.aspx

Answers to HW Questions from PDC Panel

2005-09-22T20:51:00Z

The results are in! The panel consisted of :

Jim Mann (HP)
Jeff Samitt (Lenovo)
Mike Booth (Motorola)
Bert Keely (MSFT, Tablet Architect)
Jeremy Jacobson (MSFT, Windows Mobile Hardware Engineer)
Derek DiPerna (MSFT, Cellular Network Expert)
James Pratt (Panel Host ... expert in nothing!)

We had a lively 1.5 hour discussion with lots of good questions from the audience. In response to the questions you asked on the blog :

Q: Will devices converge so that everything ends up running just Windows on small hardware?

A: This came up a few times and the answer was always consistent. While we may one day be able to build devices that can run full Windows in a small form factor the characteristics of a device are defined by what users want to do and not all users want to run full Windows. We were pretty certain that devices wouldn't ultimately converge.

Q : When will we see devices with dual screens?

A : Some already exist today for Windows Mobile. The platform supports it but it's up to the OEM to build it. There doesn't appear to be much demand. There were some cool Windows Vista based Tablet PC demos during the show of devices with dual screens.

Q: When will we see devices with built in hard drives?

A : Imminently. The Samsung i300 has a built in 3Gb hard drive for example.

Q: What are the current limitations on smaller, thinner PDAs?

A: Mike from Motorola alluded to the challenges of getting all the "stuff" required to run Windows Mobile into a very thin form factor. Nevertheless, the Motorola Q is a very thin looking device. Ultimately, it comes down to how practical it it to use a small device. Once the screen gets below a certain size, a user may have difficulty tapping items or reading them. One audience member asked the opposite question : when will screens get big enough that my baby boomer eyes can see them!

Q: When will we see an end to different WiFi and Bluetooth stacks?

A: We didn't get to this question but from my perspective, competition and choice are a good thing in any market as it drives cost down and innovation up.

Q: When will I get one device that does it all?

A: I asked this question in terms of, "when can I get my Star Trek Tricorder?". By which I mean a device that has apparently low battery consumption, limitless bandwidth wherever I am, accepts natural speech input and can connect me seamlessly to exactly the resources I need when I need them without me having to filter search results. The answers varied from : you could build it today to not for another 20 to 30 years. We'll see how we're doing at the next panel!

James

SMS Voting App for 5.0 ... With Source!

2005-09-16T21:42:00Z

It was my pleasure here at PDC to meet Dave Glover. Dave is one of Developer Evangelists from Down Under (Australia). Dave showed me this cool 5.0 Smartphone app he's written for collecting informal surveys during presentations, meetings etc. Participants can SMS their vote to the device and it records and tabulates the results.

It's written in .NET Compact Framework 2.0 and uses new managed APIs in Windows Mobile 5.0 for intercepting incoming SMS. Interestingly, if you search in VS 2005 help for SMS Interception it'll take you directly to Dave's sample.

You can find more information as well as his source code here

PDC Announce : Plantronics Headsets Arrive!

2005-09-14T21:36:00Z

Any PDC attendees who ordered a Plantronics headset with their promotional device yesterday and were given a voucher when they collected the device, should bring their voucher to the Mobile Planet booth to exchange it for the headset. Good ole FedEx!

What do YOU want to know abou the future of mobile device hardware?

2005-09-12T04:26:00Z

I'm hosting a panel this coming Friday (9/16) at PDC about "Future Directions in Mobile Device Hardware". I have a panel of experts from both Microsoft and OEM partners including HP, Motorola and Lenovo. We'll be covering both Tablet PC and Windows Mobile topics.

Rather than ask specific product questions, I'll be asking about hardware directions, industry challenges and the like. For example :

"What is the biggest challenge you face in creating compelling mobile device hardware?" I"m aiming to get some discussion of usability as well as features v battery life.

""What's the most important area of technology innovation that will improve your products?" Trying to get discussion around technologues that will be important in the near to mid-term future.

"We're starting to see phone devices with 4 radios (cellular, wifi, gps, blue). What's the next important innovation or adition to devices?"

"Do you think integrating 3D hardware into device platforms is important?"

So there's some of the questions I'll be asking around. While I've got this panel of industry experts in device hardware and cellular comms together, what do you want to know about the future of mobile device hardware?

Arrived at PDC 05 (9/11/2005)

2005-09-12T03:55:00Z

It's good to be back in LA for the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC). When I was here 2 years ago for PDC 03 I remember Whidbey (Visual Studio 2005) and an early build of Longhorn (Windows Vista) were the talk of the show. We - the mobile devices team - were getting developers going with Smartphone 2003 and were merely hinting at the innovation coming in Magneto. If I recall, I lost my shirt in a "bet" with Ori Amiga during his session ... I challenged him to get his Smartphone Developer Kit up and running for one of his demos, he accepted, succeeded and I lost my shirt. I was fortunate to be wearing a T-shirt under my shirt.

2 years on and PDC 2005 is less than two days away. In the mean time, we've shipped Windows Mobile 5.0 including many of the features we talked about at PDC 03 have come to fruition (managed APIs for messaging, telephony and calendar as well as the Stat and Notification Broker). Already this year, there's already quite a buzz here in the LA Convention Center. PDC attracts a very specific kind of person and that's someone who is DYING to find out about new technology. And they're arriving early and in numbers. I was sat in the Network Operations Center this afternoon having a meeting and you could hear the noise around CommNet go up a couple of decibels every 10 minutes.

And as for technology, there's quite a feast on offer. Attendees will be getting hands on with Windows Vista, there are Office 12 banners all over the place so I assume they'll be learning about that. I'm sat right now in the GIANT hands on lab area containing hundreds of PCs as far as the eye can see ... well, my short sighted eyes at least.

And what of Windows Mobile? We're focussing on 5.0 for this show although we have a nod to the future with our "Future Directions in Mobile Hardware Panel". We've tried to provide some more "practical" content so we have Marc Brown talking about how he built and got rolled out the internal Microsoft Pocket Expense application. We have Andy Sjostrom coming in to share his top ten tips for business solutions built with mobile devices. And ... we have a little something special to share with attendees but you'll have to wait until the conference starts to find out about that :)