Craig Kitterman's Interoperability Community Blog : mobile

Open XML documents on Symbian Devices!

craigkitterman — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 18:42:00 GMT

With the latest version (4.0) of Quickoffice Premier from Quickoffice® one can open, edit and save as the Open XML file formats on Symbian OS based mobile devices! This is yet another great example momentum of Open XML across a broad array of platforms and devices. See the You Tube video here!

Windows Vista Media Center Killer App Found

craigkitterman — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 00:54:00 GMT

I pay pretty close attention to Chris Lanier's blog (and others) as I am a relatively new Media Center user, and historically an early adopter of all things entertainment related.

There have been several MCE plug-ins and applications discussed over the past several months, and I have tested a number of them with varied success. Frankly I found most buggy and didn't deliver what was promised. Today however, I read Chris' post on WebGuide 4.1 beta and installed it.

So far, I have been really impressed by this app. From the installation, to the configuration options to the user interface it is clear that it was well written (it just feels really solid & stable) and the user experience was taken carefully into account.

So what does it do?

Allows you to access remotely your MCE content remotely via web browser, or mobile device browser J
1. Images
2. Music
3. Videos
4. DVDs
5. Recorded TV
6. Live TV!
Allows you to schedule MCE recordings remotely from a user friendly, intuitive guide (very similar to the one exposed by the MCE interface)

So far everything is running well and I haven't run into any issues. I will keep playing with it and report back any issues, tips or tricks that I come across. This is a great example of the partner ecosystem working to build solutions that interoperate and add value to the Microsoft platform.

Post to your blog by simply sending an email!

craigkitterman — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 05:10:00 GMT

There is a cool new blogging tool called Blog Mailr that allows you to post message to your blog by simply sending an email to your (secret) blog mailer address. I used it for the first time to post this message.

This is a great idea, especially for those of us who are always on the go, but blog regularly. Rather than having to use a web interface on your mobile device, simply use your email client to post your message. It may also work better for folks on the desktop who are more comfortable with writing messages in outlook (or who have not yet discovered the great blogging features of Microsoft Office Word 2007).

To test the inline image posting capability of Blog Mailer, I have inserted an image taken this morning by my colleague Don Stanwyck at Microsoft of the Snoqualmie Valley this morning (where I live). With several days of torrential downpour, the Snoqualmie river has reached (a record) flood stage.

I hope it doesn’t still look like this when I get home tonight…

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I found the killer Windows Mobile 5.0 app!

craigkitterman — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 01:25:00 GMT

That is, if you love television as much as I do, but don't ever have time to watch. Last Thursday evening I had an hour to kill (and a recently acquired Fry's gift certificate) so I headed to my local electronics superstore. After much deliberation, I picked up a SlingBox (http://us.slingmedia.com/page/home). I had heard a lot about it and the price was right (now < $200). For those who don't know, a SlingBox is a simple (and surprisingly small) hardware device that sits on your TV or set-top box and takes an audio/video signal and a connection to your home network. The resulting magic is a streaming broadcast of your television signal out across the Internet, directly to you, wherever in the world you are. Not only can you watch the video stream, but the SlingBox allows you (with use of IR blaster cable) to control your video source, including a DVR or Media Center PC. This means that you can watch any of your shows (time shifted or live) at any time and from any location. The video quality is surprisingly good too (that is until you blow it up full screen).

All of this is nerdy and new and fun and all, but not even the best part. The Slingplayer application that you use to watch your SlingBox on your PC has also been ported to Windows Mobile 5.0! That's right – you can now watch your DVR recorded TV shows, any time, and ANY place. Airports, coffee shops, busses, taxis, the hammock in your backyard - ANYWHERE (except on a non-WiFi enabled airplane)! Unfortunately my EDGE enabled Pocket PC Phone is just slow enough that the video is jumpy – SlingMedia recommends EVDO or UMTS/HSDPA speeds for optimum viewing. It looks like it's time for another upgrade (despite just getting my phone ~2 months ago)…