Rob Tiffany's Windows Mobile Accelerator : CDMA

Chapter 1 of my new Book is Ready!

robtiffany — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 04:12:00 GMT

Mobile Data Synchronization with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server Compact > Second Edition

Achieving Global Scalability via Merge Replication Republishing

Download and review the PDF from my Windows Live SkyDrive @

http://cid-8b9c82da88af61fc.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Sync/Ch%201.pdf

The new book shows you how to scale out your Merge Replication Architecture with Republishing. It's chock full of new insight to show you how to get the most performance and scalability out of your system. It also shows you how to make replication Subscriptions available to the Internet via ISA Server 2006 or System Center Mobile Device Manager.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Best Regards,

Rob

What can we learn from the new Amazon Kindle?

robtiffany — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 23:18:00 GMT

As an author and admirer of iconic mobile devices, I’m totally jazzed by Amazon’s new Kindle device. For those of you who haven’t read about this, Amazon just launched its own mobile reading device today that uses a high-resolution, electronic paper display to read books, newspapers, blogs and magazines on-the-go. Obviously, we’re not strangers to the ebook business since we equipped our earliest Pocket PCs with Microsoft Reader and ClearType technology. Unfortunately, the ebook marketplace just never took off. How is Kindle different and why might it succeed where so many others have failed?

Electronic Ink

The Kindle’s new electronic paper and ink technology looks just like you’re reading real paper and ink and doesn’t require a backlight. You can even read books on this device in direct sunlight which doesn’t work very well with computer screens (with the exception of the OLPC XO laptop). Not requiring a backlight means that this device and last for a week without a recharge.

Wireless Everywhere

The Kindle comes equipped with built-in EV-DO wireless so you can download a book, newspaper or magazine in less than a minute no matter where you are. You don’t have to hunt down a Wi-Fi hotspot. What’s more, there’s no monthly subscription, service plans, commitments or bills to deal with for this wireless data access.

No PC Required

Since the Kindle is a wireless device, it doesn’t require a computer and you don’t have to hassle with cables or synching. You don’t have to download content to your computer and then copy it over to your device.

Bookstore Included

The Kindle includes a built-in store that allows you to purchase content OTA from Amazon directly from your device. Books cost just $9.99 and you can sample the first chapter for free.

Content Push

Your magazine, blog and newspaper subscriptions are pushed to you. When you wake up in the morning, you’ll find that your New York Times, Wall Street Journal or other morning papers have been pushed to you overnight and are waiting for you. Magazines arrive on Kindle before they show up at the newsstand.

Check out the details and launch videos at the link below:

http://amazon.com/gp/product/B000FI73MA/ref=amb_link_5873612_3?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=gateway-center-column&pf_rd_r=049SQ69H0WEFBSX1P9N1&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=329252801&pf_rd_i=507846

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Rob

Mobile 2.0

robtiffany — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 07:43:00 GMT

The second annual Mobile 2.0 just wrapped up. The key takeaways are:

Mobile Web (iPhone Safari Webkit sets the standard)
Mobile Advertising (4 out of 10 Japanese click on mobile ads)
SMS (Dominant and growing messaging technology but still underutilized by mobile apps)
iPhone (Shape of things to come and raises the bar for all other handsets)
Mobile Social Networks (Perfect for personal nature of phones)
U.S. is out of touch on mobile data due to cheap flat rate pricing
Speech/Audio (unexploited technology)
Flat data roaming prices needed

The words "Microsoft" and "Windows Mobile" were never uttered at this conference which I find strange based on the tens of millions of devices we have in the marketplace. If I based my view of the mobile landscape on this conference, I would believe that people only carried iPhones and Nokia Nseries devices. One of the speaker panels pushed the notion that truly rich and innovative apps can't be acheived until mobile Linux with open APIs takes hold of the mobile OS marketplace (I guess the Yahoo! guy on the panel hasn't seen his own company's Yahoo! Go application for Windows Mobile yet). While we wait for that to happen, speakers at the conference conveyed that the primary form of mobile app development was web-based (I guess the offline strategy was just a fad). Questions about mobility in the enterprise went largely unanswered. For the most part, the only kind of mobile apps people talked about were for social networking. I wonder how many social networking apps we need?

I often felt like I was in an alternate mobile universe. I came down to San Francisco to avail myself of differing mobile viewpoints than I might have by working for the Windows Mobile product group. I've learned a few things and plan to reach out to this mobile community to better educate them about what Windows Mobile brings to the table.

Rob.