John at myITforum.com

CrackBerry.com, the "Number One Site for BlackBerry Users and Abusers," was launched today. BlackBerry users looking to indulge their inclinations or control their CrackBerry habits now have a website on which to find both a fix and a cure. The site is dedicated to users of Research In Motion's ubiquitous personal e-mail and phone devices, often called "CrackBerries" because of their addictive nature.

Club i-Mate has launched a website for their Ultimate series of Windows Mobile phones. 

Check out the Ultimate 7150:

	Each device in the Ultimate range has the latest VGA visual screen technology.	• Size: 110mm x 74mm x 18mm   • Screen: 3.8" Primary Touchscreen Display 2.2" OLED Secondary Display
	Standard Specification   All Ultimate devices come with the following specifications. • Operating System: Windows Mobile® 6 Professional • Processor: Intel Bulverde 520MHz • Quad-Band GSM/EDGE • Tri-Band UMTS/HSDPA 850/1900/2100 or 850/1700/2100 • Memory: 256MB ROM + 128 MB RAM • Screen: VGA 262K Color LCD Touch Screen • WiFi 802.11b/g/e/i • Bluetooth® v2.0 + EDR - up t 1.3 Mbps • Mini USB high speed - 480 Mbps • Direct Video Out XGA • Micro-SD card slot • 2.0 mega pixel camera • Battery: 1400mAh • FM Stereo Radio

Ultimate is a new and exciting range of devices from i-mate™, the specialists in Windows Mobile® devices. The devices are designed with the latest in mobile technology to help you get the most from Windows Mobile® and i-mate™ solutions.

Innovation by Design
The i-mate™ philosophy of Innovation by Design has been used in every sense to create a product range of devices that aims to re-define the category of Windows Mobile® devices.

From the 520MHz Intel processor, to the XGA direct video out, from HSDPA connectivity to the 262k colour VGA LCD touch screen, every component of every device provides the latest and best in mobile phone and PDA technology.

Besides having the assurance of superior technical specifications, customers also have the comfort of choice with five
distinctive form factors available.

This means all Ultimate devices support the full range of benefits provided by the latest version of Windows Mobile®. For example:
• Enhanced mobile messaging and time management solution
• Secure and simple corporate access
• Faster connections to contacts
• Faster and easier application development and distribution.

 

Palm used to dominate the market with the best gadget. What went wrong?

Mike Elgan over at Computerworld has written a great piece on Palm.  I have to admit, I agree with a lot of what he writes.  There was a time many moons ago that I refused to carry a Windows CE/Pocket PC/Windows Mobile device.  I preferred the Palm OS for how speedy it was, and how easy it was to use.  I poked fun at those few that actually dared carry the original version of Window CE, until HP released the first HP Jornada.  It’s a great piece on “what went wrong”.  Check it out when you get a few minutes.

“The once-mighty Palm Inc., still successful on paper from the momentum of past glories, is doomed to decline and failure. It wasn't always thus. Here's my preemptive postmortem.

About 12 years ago, I met with a man I didn't know, who worked for a start-up I was unfamiliar with, to see a product I'd never heard of.

The man was Ed Colligan. The start-up was Palm Computing (though it had recently been acquired by modem maker U.S. Robotics). And the product was code-named Touchdown, later to be branded the Palm Pilot.”

Both J.J. Abrams and William Shatner have been talking about Star Trek XI, targeted for a 2008 release. Abrams ("Lost," Mission: Impossible III) confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that the script is done, and it will be trimmed sometime soon.

Abrams said it's a story that even non-Trekkers can enjoy. "On the one hand, for people who love Star Trek, the fix that they will get will be really satisfying," he said. "For people who've never seen it or know it vaguely, I think they will enjoy it equally, because the movie does not require you to know anything about Star Trek. I would actually prefer [that] people don't know the series, because I feel like they will come to it with an open mind."

Meanwhile, SCI FI Wire caught up with William Shatner, who says the 11th movie will indeed deal with the early years of Capt. James T. Kirk and Spock - and that he will definitely appear in the movie if director J.J. Abrams can find a place to use him. Shatner, who originated the role of Kirk in the original Trek series and several subsequent films, said in the interview that he was invited to meet with Abrams.

"I met with J.J., and they told me they would like me to be part of their film, but they have to write the role," Shatner said. And confirming the rumors, Shatner added, "Yes, we know the story is based on young Kirk."

Microsoft has updated Office Communicator 2005 to version 1.0.559.216.  Go here for the details.

The start and end dates for Daylight Saving Time (DST) will change for US time zones in 2007. DST will now start on the 2nd Sunday of March and end on the first Sunday of November. Softpaq SP34629 will be available to automatically adjust for DST on the correct dates. This is a RAM patch that modifies the registry. This change will be lost if a hard reset is performed on the iPAQ, and the patch will have to be re-applied. These changes are only supported on units with PPC2003, PPC2003SE and Mobile 5.0. It will work on previous versions, but is not supported.

Symptoms:

iPAQ does not automatically adjust to new Daylight Saving Time starting 2nd Sunday of March 2007.

AP - Cisco Systems Inc. and Apple Inc. have agreed to share the "iPhone" name, but both companies are staying tightlipped about what future products might come from the resulting deal to collaborate on "interoperability" between the companies' products.

For those that have been tasked with assisting in the migration to Office 2007.

The Office Migration Planning Manager is a group of tools designed to help administrators during the planning and testing phases of a 2007 Microsoft Office system deployment. The goal of the tool set is to help administrators understand the number and types of Microsoft Office files in their environment and effectively plan for a smooth rollout of the new version of the Microsoft Office system.

 

Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption is a new security feature in Windows Vista that provides protection for data and operating system files stored on the Windows operating system volume of your computer. BitLocker guards this data if someone tampers with the computer's critical startup process. It is designed to use the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) security hardware to provide enhanced protection for your data and to protect early boot component integrity. Encrypting the entire Windows volume with BitLocker can help protect your data from unauthorized viewing, even in the event of physical attacks, such as the theft of the computer or removal of a hard disk.

Microsoft has published the BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool.

Palm has updated their support site for DST patches.  The patches are available for both Palm OS and Windows Mobile devices.

http://www.palm.com/us/support/downloads/dst.html

Palm has updated their Windows Vista support page to include updated products for Windows Vista and Office 2007.  If you’re using Palm products and running Windows Vista or Office 2007, be sure to get the updates.

http://www.palm.com/us/support/windowsvista/index.html

 

Great write up on the 8525 over at Smartphone and Pocket PC Magazine.  Let’s hope the 8525 is one model HTC decides to upgrade. 

According to this story, it depends…

Palm may or may not be fixing your Treo, depending on the model.

Marlene Somsak, VP of Communications for Palm, Inc., emailed and called me concerning the recent Treo vulnerability and my concern over it not being fixed. She is as pleasant as they come. I really enjoyed talking to her, but I didn't like the answer she had to relay.

She told me that Palm will definitely be fixing the vulnerability in Cingular 680's and Sprint 700p in an upcoming "rev", but all other models will remain unfixed (until they can find a reliable solution, if ever).

Somsak relayed that the fixing the bug would require a software patch or ROM fix, both of which "would cause problems to many existing applications." She continued, "Palm has already done the revs they planned on the other models and hadn't planned to do more."

 

The Windows Vista Hardware Assessment solution Accelerator is an inventory, assessment, and reporting tool that will find computers on a network and determine if they are ready to run the Windows Vista™ operating system.

Go here.

Palm has removed all unlocked Treo 680’s from their Palm store except for the Graphite version.  What happened to Copper, Crimson, and Arctic?  They are only available from Cingular.  Originally, Cingular only offered one color, and all the other colors were available unlocked from Palm, now the reverse has happened. 

Derek Snyder, Product Manager for Windows Mobile, discusses Windows Mobile 6 on on10.net.

Billed as an unrehearsed, unscripted, onstage conversation, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates will be on stage together at the Wall Street Journal’s “D: All Things Digital” conference.

The top annual gathering of the digital world will return to the Four Seasons Resort Aviara in Carlsbad, California from May 29 to 31, 2007 for the fifth edition of D. 

More information here.

What a great way to get a sneak peek of Exchange Server 2007 without having to install it yourself.  There are also links to get Exchange 2007 and Outlook 2007 trial software.

Go here.

Welcome to the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Hosted Trial Web site. You can create a temporary account to experience the features of Exchange Server 2007 which will stay active for 5 days. Your account will be pre-populated with sample messages, calendar appointments and contacts to help you have a rich experience. You will be able to send and receive mail, schedule meetings, and adjust your options. You can access your account via Microsoft Outlook Web Access, Microsoft Office Outlook, or an Exchange ActiveSync compatible application. Please review your pre-populated messages for details. 

By registering to the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Hosted Trial, you agree to all related terms & conditions.

Verizon Wireless and Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq: PALM) announced the availability of the Palm® Treo™ 700wx smartphone running Microsoft's Windows Mobile 5.0 with Direct Push Technology, adding another choice to Palm's current EV-DO product offerings for Verizon Wireless customers.

The Treo 700wx smartphone combines broadbandlike speeds on Verizon Wireless' high-speed network with wireless email(1) and rich media capabilities all in one – bringing Palm's world-class ease of use to the Windows Mobile platform. The Treo 700wx has a full QWERTY keyboard for easy messaging, a 1.3-megapixel camera, a bright 240x240 touch screen and support for Bluetooth® stereo headsets.(2) The built-in 64MB of RAM allows the use of a more robust set of applications, while storage can be enhanced by using the SD slot to add memory cards of up to 2GB(2), which are great for storing data, photos, music and video.

Microsoft has posted yet another update to the Microsoft Office Outlook Tool for updating for time zone changes.

Get it here.

One more follow-up to Pandora Internet Radio.  If you move your mouse pointer over the music playing, you can vote whether you like it or not, and it continues to find your preferences.  I selected “I Don’t Like It” to a couple of suggestions, and it is continuing to refine my play list.  Very slick.

Do you use OneNote 2007?  Check out this powertoy for One Note from Dan Escapa.  It sorts tabs in alpha order, something that should have been easy to do from the start.

Before and After:

Interesting little web site.  Have you been here?  You pick the artists or song you want to listen to, it goes out and tries to find the artist and those that have similar music.  If you love music, this is pretty slick.

Ever since we started the Music Genome Project, our friends would ask:

Can you help me discover more music that I'll like?

Those questions often evolved into great conversations. Each friend told us their favorite artists and songs, explored the music we suggested, gave us feedback, and we in turn made new suggestions. Everybody started joking that we were now their personal DJs.

We created Pandora so that we can have that same kind of conversation with you.

JGUI has released a pretty slick Vista skin for Windows Mobile devices.  It includes backgrounds, sidebars, weather, news, etc.  More information here.

 

If you are having trouble getting your device to connect successfully to Windows Mobile Device Center, here' something else you can try.

Connect your device to your Vista machine, and on your computer, launch Windows Update (Start | All Programs | Windows Update).  Hopefully you are not in a domain that uses group policy that has Windows Update disabled.  If you are fortunate enough to not have it disabled, click the "Check for updates" while your mobile device is connected.  There may be an updated driver available (if you have not already downloaded and installed the Windows Mobile Device Center Driver Update here).

If you've tried this, and followed the instructions included in Part 1, you should hopefully now be connecting without issues.  If you're still having issues, I'll be posting more troubleshooting tips.

As I've previously blogged, I was having a considerable amount of trouble getting my mobile device to connect successfully to my Windows Vista machine using Windows Mobile Device Center.  The device I'm using is a Cingular 8525 with the latest released ROM pack from HTC (ROM 2.06.502.3). 

Here's the first step that caused Windows Mobile Device Center to quickly respond to syncing now for me.  Go to Start | Settings | Connections on your mobile device (if you're have Windows Mobile 5).  Find the icon for USB to PC.    Click the icon and check to see if "Enable advanced network functionality" is checked or unchecked.  For some strange reason, mine was not checked, so I decided to check it to see if anything happened.  Windows Mobile Device Center "found" my device again, loaded a different driver, and now my synchronization flies when connected.  I'll post some other troubleshooting posts later to detail some other steps. 

Based on some articles I found on the internet, advanced network functionality uses RNDIS to connect rather than a "serial" type PPP connection.  If you're device has the box checked, it may be just the opposite.  Uncheck the box and try again, and see if this resolves your sync problems.

Symantec has issued a security advisory for Verizon, Sprint, & Cingular Treo 650 (Treo650-1.03a-VZW & Treo650-1.12-SPCS), Cingular Treo 680, and Sprint/Verizon Treo 700p phones.

Palm OS Treo smartphones are equipped with a system password lock to secure contents of handheld data from unauthorized access. When this lock is engaged, Treo's built-in Find feature is still accessible and can be used to perform searches on text in Treo applications and databases (e.g. SMS Messages, Memos, Calendar, Tasks, etc).

Search results are accessible, and depending on their size, may be truncated. An attacker may use this vulnerability to retrieve information from a locked device. The built-in Find feature can also be used to access an Edit window and paste previously cut or copied data into the search field of a locked device. An attacker may use this vulnerability to view data that was cut or copied from Treo applications prior to the device being locked.

 Check it out.  Those of you that have T-Mobile, or are thinking of switching wireless carriers, T-Mobile has some great news.  They're slashing data fees.

Link to T-Mobile Slashes Data Roaming Fees  - 2/16/2007 10:29:00 AM - Wireless Week - CA6417246

Don't know how the rest of you feel that are running Windows Vista with WMDC, but what a mess.  If you ask me, the product should have never left beta, and quite honestly, I believe it was pushed out before it was ready because Vista launched without it. 

• The device connects, but takes forever to sync, sometimes never completing at all
• The device connects, but once you change the initial settings, it takes forever to sync those changes (and please don't stop it from trying to update settings or you'll never get it to reconnect)
• The device never connects, period.  The computer just won't see the device to do anything, including browsing the device.
• Troubleshooting guide is absolutely worthless.
• All of the above typically have resulted in attempting to remove all partnerships, remove WMDC from my machine, rebooting, and starting from scratch, yet again.

I blogged earlier today on the mess of ActiveSync 4.5.  It's really beginning to make me wonder what they're doing with Windows Mobile, and whether they attempt to get and use any customer feedback on their products before going final release.  The products reported the same problems during release candidate and beta phases, yet they are released and still have the same problems.  The last great product was ActiveSync 4.2.  Poor response to new devices and programs if you ask me.

As most of us probably are, I've got two different OS's running right now.  One is running Windows XP Pro, the other is running Windows Vista.  The Windows Vista machine is running Windows Mobile Device Center (why the heck does it sync so slow)?  The Windows XP Pro machine was running ActiveSync 4.2, and I recently decided to upgrade to 4.5.  If you recall several months ago, my first experience with 4.5 was awful.  Well, the beta problems were NOT fixed, and the final release version is no different.  After installation, all of my installed programs and all of my device partnerships are gone.  That's right, disappeared on upgrade.  I have to reinstall all my applications again to get them in add/remove programs, and have to recreate all of my partnerships.  This means I have to hard reset my mobile device, and reattach because the computer wants to set up a different partnership than the device will recognize (i.e. things I'm syncing with a different computer).  What the heck happened?  Are all the developers now working on Windows Mobile Device Center and they leave the rest of the folks in the dark? 

As old as the Pocket PC/Windows Mobile platform is, and as old as the ActiveSync technology is, this is truly unacceptable from an upgrade.  This is particularly true since there are no warnings that everything will be deleted on upgrade.  For those of you that are considering the upgrade, beware.