Nino.Mobile

Chris Tacke is blogging

Win2k3 .NET / WebSphere security eval

I was perusing some older Microsoft blogs and came across this post by Vittorio Bertocci from September of this year.  Here's the link straight to the executive summary. ...wonder how I missed this original posting; nonetheless, it is a good read.

-Nino

The Mobile Minute 12

After recovering from a bout of gluttony yesterday (way too many tasty desserts), yours truly is back on the wagon. 

• Develop SmartPhone 2002 Applications with Embedded VB (eVB) - Catch the story at msmobiles.com and smartphonethoughts.com.  They both link to here - make sure you RTFM as there are a number of Registry edits to make - oh, and this hack cannot co-exist with the Smartphone 2002 SDK. I'm a little conflicted on this one.. I think it is neat that John Cody sorted this out; however, I am not in favor of continuing to use a clearly deprecated language (yes, eVB is deprecated - for example, you must install the eVB runtime on a Windows Mobile 2003 Pocket PC device, an eVB app won't run natively) despite this opening up this platform to more developers.  Your thoughts?
•  Want to beta test a SQL CE bulk loader library?
• Pocket PC Developer Network has published their first newsletter.  Subscribed.
• Vassili Philippov of pocketpcdn.com has published a Q&A article entitled How to create a spin control like in Microsoft programs?
• Also at pocketpcdn.com, Andrey Lebedev published a Q&A that answers a question I've heard asked quite a bit: How to avoid multiple entries in the task list for the .NET application?
• From MoDaCo: Database Conversion Wizard Power Toy
• Omar Shahine shares his thoughts about buying a Tablet PC fr his father link from tablula pc.
• More Omar:  He's been running Lonestar (cool!)
• Tablet PC Corner has some nifty phots of the upcoming Toshiba M200.  (Here's the English translation)
• Also from Tablet PC Corner, a review of the new Acer C302MXi  (English translation)

-Nino

The Mobile Minute 11

Yesterday I received an e-mail from the fine folks over at expansys (or http://www.expansys.com for those of you outside the US) that my QTek 8080 would be delayed until January.  *sigh* They did offer, instead, an i-mate 8080 which is slated to arrive in the next week; I, of course, switched. 

• Today there was a posting on the Internet that Orange was recalling the SPV E200 due to customer complaints (FYI: this is the same phone as the QTek 8080 and the i-mate 8080).  Orange subsequently released a statment stating that they were not recalling the phone and that they were not aware of any of the alleged customer complaints. Look here, here, and here
• PPCW.net is having a Christmas Raffle
• Paschal posted about MobileRSS on Tuesday, amongst other things (wonder if he reads my blog...)
• Chris DeHerrera has updated his ActiveSync Troubleshooting Guide
• An Open Letter To Developers From A Pocket PC User  (aka  it's all about the CABs)
• OpenNETCF.org Desktop.Communication Library v2.2  has been released

Lastly, I realized earlier today that I simply forgot to post yesterday...oops!

-Nino

Eric Sink's coolness

James (who I think is cool) writes yesterday that Eric Sink is cool.  I agree - but not for the same reasons.  Yes, Eric's insight he shares with us through his blog is cool; the articles he has written are cool (and quite good!). 

Here's why I think he's cool:  http://dotnetjunkies.com/weblog/seichert/posts/3638.aspx  Thank you, Eric, for owning up to the problem in a public forum - you set an example for others, and you've earned, for what it's worth, my respect. Yes, I realize that this wasn't an earth-shattering issue; however, an issue such as this is damned annoying [to the customer], and could lose a customer (I've seen it happen - no, it wasn't me).  And for those of you who are wondering, yes, I experienced this issue first-hand with my single-user edition of Vault.  Entering the key was a fairly frustrating experience (particularly when one is in a hurry). Glad you're going to fix it.

-Nino

The Mobile Minute 10

Issue 10 has:

• MPx200.org has an Apples to Apples comparison of the four major carriers and how they stack up in three common scenarios
• Today (ok, yesterday technically in my time zone) WLNP kicked into effect. Yeah!!  Look here, here, and here.  FCC has an expanded list of items here.  
• Alex Feinman has published a plethora of good samples at his site.
• The Open NETCF folks (Alex Feinman is one of them) have released v1.2 of their IO.Serial library.
• coolsmartphone.com has a review of the popular Jabra bluetooth headset (yep, mine is on order - it should work perfectly with my soon-to-arrive QTek 8080)

      I almost forgot, I'm in the .NET CF SP2 beta - it is looking good so far; I believe that Microsoft is looking for an end of year release for SP2 (updates to that timeline anyone?)

-Nino

The Mobile Minute 9 (Re-booted and ready to go)

Hello to my three readers out there.  I back to the world of blogging - posting and reading (I sure had a lot of catching up to do!).  Our project is to a point now where I can breathe a bit (and resume my life!), so back to the digital presses for The Mobile Minute. When I announced in The Mobile Minute 8 that I would be in absentia this week (as well as that I missed a .NET CF chat), Neil Cowburn gave me some (well deserved?!?) er, feedback.  Quite a few things have happened in the last week; I won't attempt to re-hash them all in this edition.  Here's what's on deck today:

• Jonathan Wells, Product Manager for .NET CF posts to microsoft.public.dotnet.compactframework announcing six (6) new whitepapers. I have some weekend reading to do :-)         Please note the follow-up post by Alex Feinman - he has some concerns.
• Article  on debugging unmanaged DLLs P/Invoked from managed code (by Alex Feinman of the OpenNETCF.org brain trust.   Here's his post to Usenet)
• Tom Scheidegger (a .NET MVP) posted a list of .NET CF samples over on MS-Download. 
• From way back on November 13, Neil Cowburn has a post about the lack of System.Guid.NewGuid() on .NET CF
• I had not checked the Case Studies section of the Smart Devices Developer Community in a while and I see that there are more listed here than last I checked.
• Tablet PC giveaway by Microsoft
• Some good stuff in the Mobile Communities.   (interesting teaser about moblogs on the home page there)
• AT&T has launched their EDGE network  (even if I was an ATTWS subscriber - I'm not; I use T-Mobile and love it - I wouldn't see EDGE in the Cincinnati area for a long time due to Cincinnati Bell Wireless who is an ATTWS affiliate - they have some hokey arrangement that ends up being less optimal for the end users  screwing the end user.   You know what Mark Twain said about Cincinnati...
• Windows Mobile Support sites
• Database viewer app on Handago
• Photo-review of the SPV E200 - which is the same phone as the QTek 8080 that I have on order and should be receiving in the next two weeks ...oh the waiting!
• msmobiles.com has an article on Using ActiveSync over Bluetooth with Smartphone 2003 phones

-Nino

The Mobile Minute 8

Yep... that's snow I saw today..cool!  Work has me extremely busy; I hope to be back to a daily or every_other_day type schedule by mid-next week. Apologies..

A few things before I hit the hay...

• Dell gets closer to the mobile phone market with a GPRS card: Dell TrueMobile 5100 GPRS...with T-Mobile service and with AT & T service
• I missed this MSDN chat on .NET CF programming
• www.mobway.com - new Smartphone enthusiast site from the UK
• CTIA accepts WLNP - from RCR wireless news
• I've been seeing a lot of press about this NetPerceptor control ..haven't had time to try it out yet
• Microsoft will present a bit of content on Smartphone at COMDEX - msmobiles.com has the story. This will be your last chance to see Juha Christensen [Corporate VP of the Mobile Devices Division] as a Microsoft employee. He's leaving at the end of this month
• James has a link to the upcoming Paul Yao book - free E-book. :)
• saw that Dell has a digital music player -- anyone get one of these yet?

hehe .. the 5 second rule - courtesy of Steve Makofsky

-Nino

The Mobile Minute 7

Tonights tidbits brought to you from a very cool (I won't say cold yet until it's below 32F in the day) Cleveland, OH...after an interesting four-hour debugging session.

A few things from the Mobile & Embedded Developer Center:

• They have an RSS feed (just thought I'd mention it.. nothing too exciting)
• Vodafone has a contest; they are "seeking developer applications that demonstrate excellence in programming and showcase the use of mobile Web services using Microsoft's Visual Studio.NET and Vodafone SMS Web services "
• Chris Muench tells us How to Maintain a Single Binary for Pocket PC and Smartphone

Other news:

• Tips on how to avoid multiple entries in the task list with a NET CF application
• Smartphone and Crypto API on deVBuzz.com
• Fujitsu demos an SVGA handheld. 
• The OpenNETCF.org wizards have released Communication v2.0
• Apple fans: a version of Rendevous for Windows Mobile 2003 has been released.
• /spCrypt - over on GDN "System.Security.Cryptography for .NET Compact Framework. wraps the Crypto Api, and has a web service unit test to prove compatibility with the full framework "
• And published way back in October, "Mobile Wireless Applications—Whats the Best Way to Write Them?" - talks about .NET CF and J2ME

And it's all over the mobile news sites today: Verizon debuts the Samsung SPH-i600.     Look here and here.

-Nino

Wireless Local Number Portability (WLNP)

Everyone's asking, the FCC has answers here:   http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/NumberPortability/