Archive for category Mobile
A Motorola MPx200 in my hands and Premio Palinsesto Italia Contest
Posted by Albegor in Euro Coins Pocket Collector, Mobile, Software on November 6, 2004
Much work is going on behind the scenes around here and the next week is going to be even busiest.
Since I’m an expert at making things at the last minute ;), yesterday I’ve been able to send a participation dossier for the italian contest Premio Palinsesto Italia containing the latest 1.4 beta version of Ecpc and a preview of the desktop PC version with the same interface of the Pocket PC one, although I use it only for development purposes since the final desktop PC version will have a better and extended user interface.
Finally a contest with some money for the winners, something that might be vital lymph for the next projects if the submission will pass the selections and will go up to the final round. Let’s hope for the best, finger crossed!
I even got my first Smartphone this week, a Motorola MPx200. I don’t like the clamshell design, but I must say that the integration of e-mail, SMS, MMS, Outlook contacts and so on surprised me positively. It only needs a stylus! 😉
And considering that it’s very similar to a Pocket PC from a development point of view, you might expect a Smartphone version of Ecpc well before the desktop PC one.
If you like to read the blog and you check it out for updates every now and then, I suggest you to use the Mozilla Firefox browser and setup up a weekly check in the bookmark manager.
Tabbed browsing and an efficient bookmark management are the killer features which made me to switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox as the default browser. Give it a try!
Another quick news: I’ll make a test of the revolutionary BatteryLife Activator. 8)
Update: since version 1.0 of Firefox the development team discarded the notification option in the bookmark manager since it was buggy. I hope to see it again, or maybe provided by some extension plug-in.
New Devices and Old Friends at SMAU 2004
On Friday 22 October I’ve been in Milan to attend SMAU 2004, the 41st International Exhibition of ICT and Consumer Electronics, the biggest event of this kind in Italy.
Although it’s getting smaller at every edition and this year even the big telecommunication operators such as TIM, Vodafone and Tiscali weren’t present, I’ve been able to spot something interesting in both the Windows Mobile and Palm worlds, to meet some old friends and to make a few new contacts.
In particular it has been a pleasure to meet again with Giorgio Cifani and Pino Paparone, the two Italian Microsoft MVPs for mobile devices, Enrico of Pocket PC Italia and Diego, editor of the Italian magazine Il Mio Palmare. There was even the troupe of Netcafé walking around the stands. 🙂
Here are some pictures I shot at the show. The first one is pretty curious. The new Asus A730 in VGA landscape mode with its 1.3Mpixel integrated camera pointed towards the HP stand, where visitors could find notebooks and printers, but alas none of their new iPAQs…
In the Windows Mobile corner of the big Microsoft stand Enrico showed me the new Qtek 9090, the Qtek 8010, the iPAQ 1710 and the Sagem My S7. For the Palm side of things at the Palmosoft stand I’ve been able to make a confrontation between the Tungsten T3 and the brand new Tungsten T5, both in 480×320 landscape mode.
At the end of the day I even got a good deal by purchasing the 2 DVDs box of the Schindler’s List movie, which I was searching for some time but I was not willing to pay it at full retail price. 😉
Essential Development Software
Posted by Albegor in Euro Coins Pocket Collector, Mobile, Software on October 18, 2004
As I came back spending much more time in front of the compiler than I did in the previous months, I’ve also started searching for development tools which could increase my productivity or simply make the coding activity easier.
So, when I went back to the Wholetomato website I’ve really been pleased to see that Visual Assist X now supports even the Microsoft eMbedded Visual Tools which I use to build my software for the Pocket PC platform.
In short Visual Assist X is an enhancement to the so called Intellisense, but this definition is too much reductive. If you’re a developer using Microsoft IDEs just try it and you’ll immediately miss it after the trial version will be expired.
So I did and then I’ve purchased a license. On the Wholetomato website there’s also my quote rotating among their many testimonial comments. 🙂
Since Ecpc will soon go multiplatform I’m in the need of a more professional installation tool than EzSetup which I’m using now.
I’m evaluating e-PocketSetup and Installshield X, both finalists in the Pocket PC Magazine 2004 Awards. Unfortunately they doesn’t seem to offer a license model for hobbyists or independent developers.
The choice is an important one because when distributing your software the installation is the last thing you work on, while it’s the first thing the user has to face.
Yes, this means Ecpc version 1.4 is almost ready, although I might delay its release if the two new translators who’re working on the french version will complete the translation this week.
Speaking about good software…
Posted by Albegor in Como, Euro Coins Pocket Collector, Mobile, Software on September 24, 2004
While I was working as waiter at the recent Workshop Ambrosetti, the international meeting about economy taking place annually at Villa d’Este during the first week of september, I had the unexpected chance to exchange a few words with Carlo Rubbia, the 1984 Physics Nobel Prize, and you can imagine my satisfaction when I told him that I choose his quote, “Hardware is nothing without software”, as the topic for the written composition at my school-leaving examination, a quote which is now printed on my business card. 😉
So, speaking about good software, I think I’ve finally found the best hard disk defragmenter tool on the market, Raxco’s PerfecDisk, a combination of speed and efficiency which is uncommon in current defragmenters.
Just after purchasing it I also discovered an invaluable system recovery tool on Raxco’s website. It’s FirstDefense, a tool which works with the concepts of “snapshots” and “anchored data” to safeguard from system failures a hard disk with WindowsXP and the NTFS file format or even to quickly boot to a clean OS installation.
Had I discovered it earlier I would had a better time the two times my system crashed, so now I’m passing the advice.
Getting back to good Pocket PC software, I’ve just upgraded to RepliGo version 2.0 and I’m satisfied of the new features Cerience introduced, like bookmarks, text searches and live hyperlinks among the favorites.
Then I must say that SpbTime, the advanced time tool from Spb Software House, has been a new discovery since I find myself often using its timer and desktop clock functions, with different skins.
Well that’s just what I need to keep up with my software projects… time!
But I must also say that Ecpc 1.4 is progressing nicely.
Acurious note about Rubbia: during his lunch a sommelier approached him and asked what was the status of his project for the atomic propulsion space engine and Rubbia told him that the research is proceeding, but in the USA, not certainly in Italy…
Ecpc 1.4 in progress and hosting change
Posted by Albegor in Euro Coins Pocket Collector, Mobile, Software on April 22, 2004
I haven’t been able to keep the site updated lately due to personal matters I had to take care of, but I haven’t been inactive at all and I can say that the recent release of the developer tools for Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition, which officially introduced support for the 480×640 display resolution on VGA capable Pocket PCs, gave a boost to the development of the next version 1.4 of Ecpc since now I’ve got the opportunity to integrate the high resolution graphics resources I was making for the desktop version even on the Pocket PC one.
More details when I’ll have a screenshot of the desktop version of Ecpc to publish. 😉
In the meantime I’m changing the hosting service for the website, so there could be some problems in accessing it during the next days until I complete the migration.
The forum will be closed, but that shouldn’t be a problem since it seems you prefer to contact me by e-mail for general or technical support questions.
Albegor.com on Il Mio Palmare and article about QQAAXX
When I got a copy of the issue number 13 of the italian magazine Il Mio Palmare, I was surprised and pleased to see my website mentioned in the overview about the scene of italian mobile application development! 🙂
This is the third time in a row, as you can read in the Magazine Reviews section I just updated, so I can’t but be grateful to them.
Since this issue they added a section, both on the CD and the magazine, about software for Smartphones to the usual ones about Palm OS, Pocket PC and Psion. A good move, in my opinion.
Also, Dario, CEO of QQAAXX, was glad of the article I wrote about QQAAXX’s product line for the local daily newspaper La Provincia.
You can read the article at this link in PDF format where you can notice this is the first time they wrote the address of the website below the sign, WOW! 🙂
Ecpc 30% discount for the first birthday of Pocketland.de
Posted by Albegor in Euro Coins Pocket Collector, Mobile, Software on February 3, 2004
The german e-shop Pocketland.de is celebrating its first birthday and each day of this week they will be offering a selection of the 3000 and more software currently on sale on their site with discounts starting from 20% on the regular price.
I virtually jumped over the party bandwagon together with other software developers registered on Pocketland by offering a 30% discount on Ecpc! 🙂
Yes, you can get a full copy of Ecpc at the price of 9,52€ just by going to the Ecpc product details page on Pocketland.
I wish a happy birthday to the Pocketland staff and a happy e-shopping to their users, but remember that this promotion will end on 9th february. 😉
New links and second Hardware Upgrade Technical Workshop
Posted by Albegor in Euro Coins Pocket Collector, Mobile, Software on January 26, 2004
The last week has been busy in terms of public relations and I’d like to thank all the webzines that published the announcement of the new release of Ecpc and led you here to browse the website! 🙂
In particular thanks to the portuguese websites Pocket PT and Palmtops On-line, which I added to the Links page, although I have some other links to add as soon as possible.
The weekend has been pleasant since on saturday 24th I attended to the second Technical Workshop organized by Hardware Upgrade, the leading webzine about technology in Italy, after the first one organized at SMAU 2003.
The main theme of this workshop was about Video chips and DirectX 9. The focus was on the latest powerful video cards for PCs, but since the event was sponsored by ATI, at the end I had the chance to get in touch with an ATI manager asking for more info about the introduction of new chipsets for mobile devices like the Imageon 2300. 😉
The event was interesting and the atmosphere relaxed, thanks also to the location, the Michelangelo Hotel in Milan, and also to the participation of many members of the Hardware Upgrade forum.
So while they’re discussing how fun the event was, I’d better go back to my to-do list…
Euro coins pocket collector 1.3 RELEASED!
Posted by Albegor in Euro Coins Pocket Collector, Mobile, Software on January 16, 2004
Ecpc version 1.3, now completely translated in portuguese, is finally released!
Take a look at the list of the improvements in the Updates page and then Download the Demo to see them in action on your Pocket PC! 🙂
You’ll notice the setup file is now bigger due to the addition of the support for devices with MIPS and SH3 CPUs.
To celebrate the first release of the new year I’d like to offer the chance to purchase the full version of Ecpc with a 20% discount on the regular price until the end of january.
All you have to do is using the promotion code CF6C33 once you add Ecpc to the virtual shopping cart on Handango.
Add to this 20% a favorable Euro/Dollar exchange rate and this looks like a great opportunity to buy the full version! 😉
Remember that the Forum is at your service for any kind of feedback or question about Ecpc or even to swap Euro coins.
Wireless report about the Mobile Fun Awards and incoming Ecpc version 1.3
Posted by Albegor in Euro Coins Pocket Collector, Mobile, Software on January 12, 2004
Writing the first post of the new year, was there a better way to do it than mentioning what has been the most significant event of the past year? 😉
As I received the latest issue of the magazine Wireless I was pleased to read their report about the Mobile Fun Forum 2003 and the article about the Mobile Fun Awards. You can see a scan of the page in the Reviews section.
I’ve installed and tried a lot of software for my Axim X3 lately, so I need to update the list of my Recommended Pocket PC software as soon as possible and write some comments about the Axim X3 itself, reporting also interesting results after overclocking it.
In the meantime I’ve added to the Links page a useful resource for anyone willing to get in touch with the Pocket PC world, the Pocket PC Community Newsgroups.
A last news: I’m almost ready to release the version 1.3 of Ecpc! 🙂