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New Windows Mobile fare from Motorola?

Behold, thanks to the cagey cats at the Boy Genius Report, a rendering — as in not yet a prototype — of what BGR says will be an upcoming phone on Verizon.

We're getting very few details on the lineup, except some code names (that's the Flash, above) and that we should see them in 2009.

What caught our eye (and that of a keen BGR reader) is what appears to be a Windows logo as the second button on the bottom of the Flash.

The next question: If this indeed is a WinMo-destined phone, will it launch with Windows Mobile 6.5 — or even make the leap to (and wait for) Windows Mobile 7? We can only hope that this radical a style from Motorola would feature the newest Microsoft has to offer.

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SeeqPod: Playable search for Windows Mobile

ReadWriteWeb.com is reporting the MP3 search engine Seeqpod will release a Windows Mobile application that will allow users to search for and stream music through their Windows Mobile phones. The application will sell for an introductory price of $10 (regular price will be $15) and will include playable music search, discovery, Wikipedia articles on the artist and updating collections of playlists. The company claims that this will turn any Windows Mobile phone into an iPod

SeeqPod is a search engine that seeks out playable web content including video, audio, slideshows and Adobe Flash files. SeeqPod will let users call up specific songs and artists, include links to purchase songs and a fully skinnable player. In tinkering with the website version, SeeqPod is an interesting service and it will be equally interesting to see how they adapt this service to the Windows Mobile environment.

If SeeqPod is as popular as the company expects it to be, it will also be interesting to see what legal issues develop. SeeqPod asserts safe harbor under the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act (OCILLA for short?). In a nutshell, SeeqPod promises to adhere to search standards set forth in copyright laws in a fashion not to uncover copyrighted/protected material that has been illegally loaded to the internet. According to their website, Seeqpod

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Two Touch Screen Tricks

In our morning rounds, WMExperts came across two touchscreen tricks for those who have found their touch life becoming a little stale. In line with such holiday classics as fruitcake and musical greeting cards, we share them with you, knowing full well that most people don't much like fruitcake -- but there's always that one crazy aunt who can't get enough. Consider these tips in the same category:

Un-docking your keyboard: Our friends over at Pocketnow.com are offering a registry hack that will allow you to undock your screen keyboard, allowing you to move it to top, side, etc. You

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3

Catch BB App Suite on the Blurrycam

You're probably better off just looking at the pictures, but if you didn't believe that the BlackBerry Application Suite, aka an entire BlackBerry OS running on top of Windows Mobile, was real, above is your blurry video proof [via CrackBerry.com].

Three thoughts:

  1. Ignoring the slowness, it looks to us like this is a better touchscreen implementation of the BlackBerry OS than the Storm. Click-Screen may have been a clever idea, but this won't cripple your thumbs.
  2. Not ignoring the slowness: what gives? Is this software designed to make users throw up their hands and say “bah! Give me a real BlackBerry!” or what? Yes, we know it's probably Alpha or Beta at best, but really, do you think that the entire BBOS on top of WinMo is going to be snappy?
  3. BGR has the rundown on what works and what doesn't. What works: PIN and most OS functions. What doesn't: GPS, calling, WiFi (really?).

The lack of WiFi support is a puzzler, because WinMo has fantastic networking APIs and any application, including this one, ought to be able to get on it without a problem. It's possible that RIM is trying to code this 'close to the metal' instead of using standard WM APIs. If that's the case, cut it out RIM. Microsoft went to great lengths to help set up WM so you could program for multiple form factors at once using their standard APIs. Wasn't the whole point of this endeavor to allow people to use a BlackBerry on different form factors?

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One group of questions we get a lot of around here deals with various types of syncing with Windows Mobile (see other guides: "How to sync with Google", "MediaCenter", "LiveMesh", "Calendar/Live Mail") . Often we know a solution but every once in awhile, one of our readers has a unique trick up their sleeve like that cool ActiveSync "Gues Mode" hack.

In this case, rc46 is a big "Notes" user on his phone and computer (Outlook), but he found the lack of syncing options to be...lacking.

Specifically, WM Notes does not support categories, offer a way to organize and is even "off" by default (yeah, you need to turn it on). Luckily with some elbow grease he figured out a way around these limitations and greatly enhanced his Notes use.

Care to know how he did it?

Read on for details. (And if you have a cool trick that only you know about, share it with us!)

There look to many steps here, but in reality, most of these are straight forward, so don't be alarmed.

Part I: Enable Notes in ActiveSync

  • Perform an ActiveSync and leave WM device connected to PC.
  • On PC in Active Sync go Menu -> Tools -> Options
  • Now check the box that says notes and wait for the sync to complete.
  • Now disconnect WM device from the computer

Part II: Organize Your Notes

  • On the WM Device make a folder inside My Documents called "Notes"
  • Move all the notes that are currently in My Documents into that new "Notes" folder
  • Next inside the "Notes" folder make sub-folders for categories such as "Personal" "Business" and so on.
  • Now on the WM Device move the appropriate notes into these folders.

Part III: Time to Sync Again

  • After you sync look in Outlook on the desktop and you will see all the notes are automatically renamed with the folder structure as part of the name.
For example, the note titled "Christmas List 2008" will be changed to "Notes\Personal\Christmas List 2008"
This allows the notes to be sorted by category on the desktop as well as the WM Device even though no Outlook categories are really assigned on the desktop.

One downside: rc46 mentions is that the "Notes" application on WM won't show this new structure, so he recommends browings your notes and opening directly via File Explorer/Resco Explorer

Part IV: Adding New Notes

  • Open Notes and write away
  • New notes will then be saved to the folder "Device\My Documents\Notes\"
  • Open File Explorer and move new Note to appropriate sub-category created earlier

Part V: Creating/Modifying Notes on the PC

  • Create new Note as usual
  • Save as usual (do not attempt to add to sub categories)
  • Sync with your device --> Note synced to "Device\My Documents\Notes\"
  • Later, move Note on device to appropriate sub-category

Finally, rc46 has some closing advice:

I know this sounds like a bit of a hassle but in reality it isn't. Personally I just wait until I have about 10 or so un-catagorized notes in either the "Device\My Documents\" folder or the "Device\My Documents\Notes\" folder before I even bother with organizing them. Then I just do them all at once. Its really not a big deal once your used to it.
One weird little data point is for some reason sometimes you need to un-plug your handheld (disconnect it from the desktop) and then plug it back in before the notes will sync correctly after moving around notes in different folders. Just clicking the sync button in active sync wont do it. Must be an active sync bug?
Another little trick to quickly finding the note you are looking for is to use Resco Explorer instead of WM File Explorer. Just click on the binoculars and type some of name of the note and click search. You will find it right away.
This has been working for me for months now and I sync to 2 different PC's and have over 2000 notes.

So there you have it folks: the best way to sync and organize all your notes, with believe it or not, very little effort.

Thanks rc46 for the great tip!

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5

Browser Wars

Gizmodo.com has been busy testing browsers on Windows Mobile devices asking the question,

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105

Fuze Sweepstakes Extravaganza!

HTC is launching a new site to promote the HTC Fuze on AT&T called How I Fuze. It's a clever little number that emphasizes how to get around TouchFlo 3D and shows off various other features of the Fuze. Using Flash, you can actually hover your mouse over the Fuze's interface and slide it around like a finger. It's a great way to introduce the Fuze to a wider audience.

As a part of the new site, HTC is actually giving away Fuzes at the site. One a day for 120 days. That, friends, is a lot of Fuzes. Oh, and one winner will get $25,000 in cash, four more will win a $15,000 AmEx card. Zowie.

HTC's largess doesn't end there, though, they've also given WMExperts a Fuze to give away ourselves. Pow. Want to enter here? Here's the deal:

As you know, we're currently in the midst of the Smartphone Round Robin. If you head over to our Updates Page, you'll find six articles as of this writing (and probably one more at CrackBerry.com later this week). So we're sending you on a scavenger hunt. Go and read up on what these non-Windows Mobile users think of the Fuze and find one thing they were frustrated with, then come back here and tell us how you might address that. At heart, the Fuze is one beefy, extensible, and customizable device, so there's virtually no niggle that can't be wiggled into submission. Basically, tell us how you would Fuze.

Get'er done before 8am eastern time on Friday, December 19th. We'll pick a winner at random from all the posts that offer at least a minimal piece of Fuze advice in the comments on this post. The Rules: You can only enter once and you must live in the United States to qualify (it is an AT&T phone after all). You must 18 years or older and not an employee or contractor of Smartphone Experts or HTC to qualify.

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1

Windows Mobile Team Does YouTube

Need a little video help with finding your way around Windows Mobile? Well, our own How-To section is nothing to sniff at, but here's another option.

Microsoft has recently opened up a channel over at Youtube.com to showcase

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You'll be forgiven for not remembering that RIM announced that they planned on doing this back in April of 2007, but it does in fact look like RIM is making good on virtualizing the BlackBerry OS on top of Windows Mobile. As our friends at CrackBerry.com note, this is more than a worthy successor to BlackBerry Connect, it looks to pretty much blow it out of the water.

For us, though, well, we still prefer Windows Mobile to the BlackBerry OS and would have liked to see RIM continue to develop BlackBerry Connect by adding their PIN messaging service to it. Instead, RIM's plan is to try to head off Microsoft's device-choice advantage by hijacking it. We suppose Microsoft won't entirely mind -- a WM license is a WM license, even if you can't see it underneath the Java-based OS from Waterloo.

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As reported at TreoCentral, Palm launched an official app store for their PalmOS and Windows Mobile Treos last night. Where by “App Store” we mean “icon in your program listing that launches a browser the takes you to an online store.” Which is only marginally easier than just going to http://software.wmexperts.com on Pocket IE, but we digress.

Anyhow, it's another option for purchasing applications for Windows Mobile. Note that last, the App store seems to work just fine on Windows Mobile devices not called “Treo,” as you can see from the image of it running on a Sprint Touch Diamond at right.

Heck, if you don't want to even head to Palm's page to install the 'app,' you can just point Pocket IE to and get pretty much the same effect.

Make no mistake, though,the onus is on Microsoft here to get an on-device, native app store up and running on as many Windows Mobile devices as soon as possible. It's pretty clear that the killer app store for developers must an app, not a web store. Hurry up, Microsoft!

Oh, and Palm / Pocketgear: a 50% cut for developers seems a might bit thin, don't it?

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Alltel Launches Alltel Mobile Email App

Today Alltel announced that they're going to be offering simple push email to their Windows Mobile customers in the form of an app they're calling “Alltel Mobile E-mail.” We call it “Seven” and know and love it in its free Beta Program form. The Beta offers their latest and greatest and it's one of my first-installs on any mobile device.

If you're not down with the Beta, though, Alltel will ship their email app (which integrates with Outlook Mobile) on new devices and should offer a download to existing customers as well (link to that pending). The release brings Alltel up to speed with the other big US wireless carriers in offering a version of Seven's push email client on Windows Mobile, each branded with the carrier's respective identity.

So we're curious because it's a perennial question: Have you found a solution to get push email for your email that isn't Exchange? What is it?

[via phonescoop]

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Wikipedia finally gets proper mobile site

 

There have been a number of ways to settle bar bets using Wikipedia from your phone. Wapedia

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All I want for Christmas…..

Looking for a gift for that

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sprinttreopro.png

We've been telling you about that Sprint Treo Pro (PRT850HK) for sometime now (DSL Reports) and even showed some exclusive screenshots of it running Mobile IE 6.

BGR later confirmed that it has a slated release date for January 11th (right on time for CES).

Now EngadgetMobile gets an internal sheet showing all of this again. What is interesting though is that this is indeed replacing the 800w. This is sort of expected, but not confirmed until now.

Oh 800w, we hardly knew ya!

Specs are still mostly unknown at this point, though we're not expecting too much of a deviation from its GSM cousin. Camera is still a ho-hum 2.0mp, so no bump there.

Full retail is an average $549 (slightly cheaper than the 800w at $599, attributable probably to HTCs lower-cost production system)

Also, the date is pushed back till January 25th from Sprint and January 21st from Brightpoint (resellers, perhaps telesales for business). But don't be surprised to see Palm show this off during CES a week earlier.

Now if we can only get some actual pics of the device...

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3

What Is Pink? It Ain't No ZunePhone.

If you hadn't heard, the latest swirl of ZunePhone rumors have been well and truly smacked down again, to much rejoicing. That hasn't kept the internet from chasing the next rumor ball like a bunch of 8-year-old soccer players. This time around it's 'Project Pink,' and the leaders of this particular pack are Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet and Paul Thurrot, who both speculate that Project Pink has something to do with:

  • Zune Mobile services (instead of hardware)
  • The technology arising from the Danger/Sidekick acquisition
  • Unicorns

Ok, we added that last one and to be perfectly honest, their speculation rings quite true to us. How about this for some fun: Engadget's post on the subject reminds us that both Danger and Zune are in the “PMX Group” (that's Premium Mobile Experiences to you). Taking a look at PMX, where the relevant groups are situated, led us to a fun little nugget.

After the break, some connections and the deets on just where we found that logo we slapped inside the Fuze above.

Here's the relevant passage from the Danger acquisition Press Release:

“We imagine a mobile experience that embraces sharing and celebrating relationships and personal moments,” Ho said. “Combining Danger and Microsoft talents together in the Premium Mobile Experiences team is how we’re going to deliver cool, new, fun mobile experiences to consumers. We want people to smile every time they look at their phone.”

The Danger mobile Internet platform, which connects people to their social circles and other rich content, is an integrated end-to-end solution that enables people to interact with their friends, social communities and content through the Internet and Internet services.

So PMX is definitely consumer oriented, it's definitely not a Microsoft-made ZunePhone, it definitely does involve Sidekick-style services, and it definitely should be fun.

But is it definitely related to 'Pink?' Could be, could be. How about this, we find via go ahead, mac my day this channel 9 interview with the VP of PMX, Roz Ho:

Ahem. Yes, that is a very pink office. And yes, there is a very nice pink logo with birds on it. And yes, a large group of folks talking about contact lists. And yes, a lot of playful joking about top secret projects. There's not anything we can draw conclusions from, of course (as noted in the comments), but Ho is definitely talking about working on something big and something secret in the mobile space.

Ok, well, more importantly she's telling her story and generally offering up a great example of how to become a cool, engaging, and successful leader in the corporate world. Yeah, we noticed, we're not made of stone.

Anyway, we really don't know what Pink is, but it's pretty safe to say that it will be something related to mobile services and, well, that it's something they're working on.

What do you think it is?

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11

It’s 10 p.m.: Do you know where your phone is?

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Round Robin: TiPb’s final review of the Fuze

All right, folks. This is it. The iPhone blog has graciously spent the last two weeks with Windows Mobile devices. We

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XDA Flint: Everything but the Kitchen Sink?

The U.K. company O2 has officially picked up the HTC Advantage for their network. Sporting a 5-inch high-resolution VGA display with a detachable (yes, detachable) QWERTY keyboard, the XDA Flint isn

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Windows Live for Mobile gets a big update

Microsoft is really coming through with the upgrades this week. First with Live Mesh Mobile  (OK, less of an upgrade and more

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Unofficial Xperia Panel Creation Tool

It's not especially easy or especially pretty, but my sony ericsson has released an unofficial web app for creating your own Xperia X1 panels. The basic idea is pretty simple -- code up your own HTML files and a few thumbnail screenshots (for the panel browser), upload the files, and then download the panel they conveniently create from all that.

Sure, they're not going to be as powerful as C++ panels, but hey, you don't have to learn C++ to create them. You can even create links in your html file to applications and folders on the Xperia, so you can roll your own quick-start panel as a nice start if you like. Be aware that there are some pretty tight constrictions on what you can do (hint: it has to be supported by Pocket IE 5).

While you're setting up your custom HTML-based panel, we'll be over here wondering if alternate today screen platforms/standards are good for Windows Mobile as a whole. Panels, TouchFlo 3D, TouchWiz... they're all very pretty, but they're all also very proprietary. Do you care? Should you?

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18

More Live Mesh Mobile slots opened

If you didn

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Street View now on Google Maps for Windows Mobile

We

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Pandora slowly growing on Windows Mobile

If you haven't yet used Pandora to listen to music, chances are you

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Redfly mobile companions in stock now

The WMExperts Store has the Redfly C8N and C7 mobile companions in stock.  The C7 has a $30 mail in rebate. Additionally, there's a 25% off coupon that applies to Redfly accessories (only). Use coupon code 'REDFLY25' (no quotes).

A quick shout-out to Redfly for sponsoring the Smartphone Round Robin as well!

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Verizon-Alltel deal cleared by FTC

Cellular News is reporting that the Federal Trade Commission has removed the last hurdle for Verizon Wireless to purchase Alltel Corporation. While competitors may claim to have more bars, the purchase will create the nation's largest wireless carrier.

Having cleared the FTC and U.S. Justice Department

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