Jason Langridge's WebLog - MR Mobile!

Rick was kind enough to point out to me that we’ve just released this great guide for Executive Technical Decision Makers.  It outlines the reasons why Windows Mobile is a great platform for Organisations to deploy.

It’s available in PDF format to download from HERE

If your Windows Mobile device came without Windows Live services you can now download the Windows Live for Windows Mobile client.  It doesn’t include Windows Live Messenger but does give you the ability to synchronise your Live Contacts, Hotmail/MSN/Live email and even post photos to your Windows Live Space.

You can download the client from HERE

Constanze Roman and Maarten Struys are delivering a web cast for developers today which covers the subject of Unit Testing within Visual Studio 2008.

If you are a developer then this webcast could be very useful.  You can sign up to the webcast HERE it starts at 10am Pacific Time (GMT-8)

So I used to think I was 'cool' when I had the 'Red Wine' version of the Blackjack 2.... now I can fully embrace my metro-sexuality with the new colours from Samsung.  The Blackjack 2 is now available in both Blue and Pink.

Following my blog about the Sprint Touch getting 6.1 I thought I would also let everyone know that Sprint also released an upgrade for the Sprint Mogul to Windows Mobile 6.1.

You can download it from HERE

Yesterday Qik entered Public Beta.   Qik allows you to record/stream live video from your Windows Mobile device straight to the web.

Right now the Motorola Q9c, Motorola Q9h, Samsung SGH-I600 and Samsung Blackjack II is supported.

Support is coming soon for: HTC Shift, HTC Touch, HTC Touch Diamond, HTC TyTN II

The beta started yesterday and runs through till July 31st – you can sign up HERE

ZDNet has details of a recent Blackberry Security Vulnerability that allows an attacker to compromise the PDF attachment viewer service and allow that attacker using a specially crafted email to cause memory corruption or even execute code remotely on the attachment server...

You can get more details from RIM HERE

As you are probably aware we have licensed the Exchange Activesync Protocol to Apple which is great news as it extends the family of potential devices for connecting to Exchange! 

With the iPhone 2.0 being available for over a week now I’m starting to get questions from customers about how it compares with a Windows Mobile device for Push Email with Exchange.  

This is not an extensive comparison but simply a collation of observations so please feel free to provide any comments on features/capabilities I’ve missed or misrepresented.

This is an interesting development that my colleague Jeff forwarded to me…

In their own words…

AstraSync™ is a new software plug-in for BlackBerry® Smartphones that performs two-way over-the-air synchronization of email, calendar and contact data with a Microsoft Exchange 2007 or MailSite Fusion server.

AstraSync does this by implementing the Exchange ActiveSync and DirectPush protocols.

This means that a customer can use their existing Blackberry Devices whilst removing the need for the Blackberry Enterprise Server infrastructure. 

I haven’t tried it but would love to hear from people who have!

The Live Mesh team have just opened up the beta to anyone in the US (plus if you change your Windows region to EN-US anyone in the World).

Live Mesh is a seriously exciting piece of technology that allows you to connect your devices and information! 

I’ve been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to test it for a while now and I’m even more excited by the fact that it even now has a  mobile portal.

You can sign in with your Live ID at http://m.mesh.com and access all your information their too!

Our partner Avanade, the global joint venture between Microsoft and Accenture, has launched Avanade Mobile Solutions – for SAP® applications, a solution platform providing offline remote access to select SAP solutions on Windows Mobile devices.

The solution platform provide access to three SAP applications; SAP NetWeaver ® Portal, SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence, and SAP Business Workflow. It is an extensible platform which could also be used for mobile sales (CRM) or field force enablement.

You can get more details about this announcement HERE

Opera have just released into Beta their 9.5 browser.  This browser comes pre-installed on the HTC Touch Diamond.

I blogged a while back about how it compares to the iPhone Browser so if you want to try out the Beta go HERE to download it.

We’ve recently published a great case study for BT Payphones.  BT Payphones, a division within BT Retail, has approximately 400 maintenance engineers who are now equipped with a Windows Mobile device and a solution they developed themselves using the .NET Compact Framework.

BT Payphones operates a field workforce of 400 maintenance engineers to repair and maintain its public payphones. Until recently, slow, cumbersome laptops restricted their retrieval of new work while on the road. The organisation uses devices running Windows Mobile® software combined with an in-house application called Minerva, which offers engineers an always-on, real-time work distribution system. Users can view and select new tasks at any time, from any location. Built-in satellite navigation guides them to new jobs quickly, and seamless integration with back-office systems ensures data captured in the field can be used in a timely way to support the business. The solution has already reduced fault repair time by 10 per cent, and increased engineers’ productivity by 20 per cent. BT Payphones also expects future analysis to reveal a reduction in fuel costs and carbon emissions.

You can get more details and download the case study from HERE

We’ve just published a great case study of the SportsDo solution that is a sports tracking system using real-time data on Windows Mobile. 

The solution combines XML web services and GPS data to allow you to track your performance.

You can get more information about what they do in this document as well as a high and low res video

With SlideIt, instead of tapping each letter, just point to the first letter of a word and slide the stylus to the subsequent letters. Space is automatically added at the word’s end when you lift the stylus.  SlideIt claim you can get a typing speed of over 50 words per minute.

Check out the video above or drop by their WebSite and download it from HERE