snippets of bits & bytes

Copying, pasting, moving, and deleting blocks of text on the IPAQ Voice Messenger is easy

ProfJulie — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:34:42 GMT

Copying, moving and/or deleting blocks of text on a Windows Mobile standard (non-touchscreen) phone may not be as convenient as it is on a Windows Mobile professional (touchscreen) phone, but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy:

First move the cursor where you want to start selecting text you want to copy, cut or move.

Then Select Menu > Copy/Paste > Select Text (See 1st screenshot above)
Now when you move the Voice Messenger's optical navigation button right/left and up/down, the text will be highlighted. Move the optical navigation button to select all the text you want to copy, cut, or move.

After you've selected all the text you want to copy/cut/move, select Menu > Copy/Paste (see 2nd screenshot above)

To MOVE text:

select Cut from the menu
move your cursor to the place in your document where you'd like the text to go
select Menu > Copy/Paste > Paste

To DELETE text:

select Cut from the menu.
You're done.

To COPY text:

select Copy from the menu
move your cursor to the place in your document where you'd like the text to go
select Menu > Copy/Paste > Paste

Here's a great video that demonstrates this procedure on a Windows Mobile standard phone and the last half of the video shows you how to do it on a Windows Mobile professional phone.

GPS on the IPAQ Voice Messenger

ProfJulie — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 22:21:57 GMT

I haven't had many problems using GPS on the IPAQ Voice Messenger, but I've read lots of forum threads from users who have. One thing that has been missing in Windows Mobile Standard phones (no touchscreen) is the GPS applet, which is readily available on windows mobile professional phones (touchscreen).

Today, after searching around the internet, I found a CAB file that reveals the GPSID applet on non-touch screen Windows Mobile (Standard) devices (sometimes referred to as Smartphones). I installed the CAB file on the IPAQ Voice Messenger and it works great!

The Microsoft_Smartphone_GPSID Settings.CAB file can be downloaded from MoDaCo or if you do not want to register at MoDaCo, the file can be downloaded here.

To install the CAB file, just copy it to your Voice Messenger, then use File Explorer to navigate to it. Select the file and a wizard will install the software to the device. You can access the application by selecting Start > GPSID Settings icon.

Sending audio email from your computer doesn't get any easier than this!

ProfJulie — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:02:00 GMT

HandyBits Voice Mail is a lightweight, easy-to-use application that is free to non-commercial users.

To send out audio email from your computer all you need to do is 1) open up HandyBits, 2) select the Record button, 3) record your message, and 4) then select the Send button. HandyBits opens up your email software and attaches the recorded message (a WAV file) to a new email message. You can add a written message and anything else you want to include with the audio message before you send it.

This is cool! Send yourself (or others) free, postdated text reminders from any browser (mobile or not)

ProfJulie — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:36:19 GMT

Check out www.textmemos.com - a free, ad-free, web-based text messaging service where you can send yourself or others scheduled reminders (or other text messages) at specific dates and times.

You can text messages from your computer and even from your internet connected mobile device.

I've got the website bookmarked in Opera mobile browser on my old Ipaq hx2410 Pocket PC, and I can send myself text reminders to be delivered at just the right day and time.

You won't be charged anything when you use textmemos.com to send text messages, but, of course, the recipient of your message may still have to pay to receive them (depending on the plan they subscribe to through their mobile operator).

MyMobileR: Version Mismatch error . . . Resolved

ProfJulie — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 04:12:09 GMT

If you run MyMobileR on multiple computers you may have received the error message below:

Please install MyMobileR on your mobile (Version Mismatch)
[Configure Mobile]-[Install]

The Version Mismatch error occurs when your computers and, by extension, your windows mobile devices are not running the exact same MyMobileR version and build number. You can check the version and build number by right clicking on the MyMobileR icon in the taskbar of the computer and then selecting "About."

Resolving the error is easy:

First, reinstall the same version and build of MyMobileR to your computers, as needed.
Then soft reset your Windows Mobile device.
Next, navigate to the \windows folder on the Windows Mobile device and delete remote.exe
Finally, connect the mobile device to your computer. MyMobileR will install the correct version and build to it.

If you ever upgrade My MobileR on a computer, make sure you install the upgrade to all your computers.

From Desktop to the Digital Cloud

ProfJulie — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:00:07 GMT

Here’s an interesting discussion about cloud computing. Be sure and click through to the article on the website (From Desktop to the Digital Cloud) and read through the interesting and thoughtful comments there.

I’ve moved a lot of my files out on the cloud, but I’m not ready to move everything out to the cloud. I have concerns about security and ownership of the files, but the thing that concerns me the most about cloud computing is getting a consistent, reliable, and fast internet connection. The college where I teach is committed to wifi and is constantly upgrading and expanding its wifi network, even still I have yet to achieve a reliable, consistent wifi connection when I am on campus, even when I’m standing right next to a wifi router. For the upcoming semester, I am hoping to work from the cloud, but I’ll have all my files backed up on my thumb drive….just_in_case…

Listen to Podcast: WBUR_111756439.mp3

On Point with Tom Ashbrook Podcast / Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:40:16 = GMT

You may also enjoy the New York Times Article, Lost in the Cloud by Jonathan Zittrain (one of the participants on this podcast).

Why carry a smartphone & an MP3 player?

ProfJulie — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:23:06 GMT

Yesterday this post by adamzea on Twitter got me thinking because most of the time I’m one of those silly people that carry a Smartphone and an MP3 player (specifically, a Zune). I used to wonder the same thing as Adam, but that changed last Fall when I was gifted with a Zune. So the question then is, “Why carry both?”

My answer to Adam’s question is “I know my Smartphone can play music too, but I carry a Smartphone AND a Zune for the following reasons (in order of priority)”:

1. Battery Life: The battery life on the Zune is phenomenal compared to the battery life of my Smartphone. If I’m going to be on the move during the day, I like to reserve the battery life of my Smartphone to primary functions (phone calls, checking email, light surfing, GPS navigation, maybe picture taking). The Zune only needs to be charged every couple of days, but even if I wind up depleting the Zune during the day, I can manage a day without music.

2. Syncing tunes to the Zune is probably 3 or 4 times faster than syncing tunes through ActiveSync to the Smartphone, so the Zune is usually ready to go most of the time and the Smartphone is not. I don’t listen to DRM encrypted tunes, so I know I could use a USB card reader and just copy tunes directly to the memory card I use with my Smartphone, but the SD slot on the Smartphone I’ve been carrying lately is inside the casing. So I have to remove the casing first to get to the SD card (call me lazy if you like).

3. Media Management: The Zune handles podcasts and books much better than the mobile version of Windows Media Player. If I turn off a podcast or book before finishing it, the Zune remembers my place, but Windows Media Player does not. There is third party media software, like Pocket Player, that provides the functionality that WMP lacks (like bookmarks), but lately, I’ve been trading out devices frequently, so I’m taking a more moderate approach to installing software to my winmo device and prefer to use the existing software.

So those are my reasons for carrying both a Smartphone and an MP3 player. If you carry both, what are your reasons?

Technorati Tags: Zune, Smartphone, MP3

Good Summertime Online Viewing

ProfJulie — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:52:58 GMT

Tired of what’s on television and looking for some good television? Please let me share some great shows that have already aired on television, and are now available online. I’ve only posted first episodes to get you started. Be sure to check them out right away because they won’t be available for very long.

Kings

The full videos are available on Hulu until September 20, 2009. Season one episodes are currently showing on Saturday nights on NBC. But you really need to start with the first episode and watch them all in sequence. Here’s the 1st episode to get you started.

Damages

Damages on the FX network will be starting it’s third season sometime after the first of the year. If you’ve missed out on this show, you can catch the first season on Crackle. Hopefully Crackle will get season 2 posted soon – I’ll keep my eyes open and post back if/when they do.

Can you recommend any great shows for some good summer viewing?

Technorati Tags: Hulu, Crackle, online television

Accessing FriendFeed from a Mobile Device

ProfJulie — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:56:53 GMT

FriendFeed is another web-based social network...you can think of it as Twitter on steroids...or maybe a mashup of Facebook and Twitter.

You can aggregate most of your web-based activities into FriendFeed, you aren't limited to 140 character posts, and discussions with your FriendFeed "friends" show up as threaded discussions.

Before you can use FriendFeed, you need to register for an account, get the account set up with links and feeds from all your other web-based activities and then get some friends and start posting.

Here are some links to get you started:

You can work on your FriendFeed account from a mobile device, either by installing a mobile client to your winmo device or by accessing a mobile website:

Mobile Client: FriendFeed for Windows Mobile

You can learn more about this latest release of FriendFeed for Windows Mobile and you can download the FriendFeed CAB file, which expires on 7/29/2009, directly to your device.

FriendFeed for Winmo comes some high overhead since it requires that the .Net Compact Framework 3.5 be installed on your handheld.

The Mobile Client allows you mark favorites and to view and publish to the Public, Home, Personal, and Professional feeds and to any groups you belong to.

Mobile Website: FriendFeed To Go

If you prefer to use a mobile website (no software needed), you can access FriendFeed To Go, a mobile website that can be accessed from any mobile device.

Before you can use either FriendFeed for Windows Mobile or the Mobile Website, you’ll need to retrieve the Remote Key that is associated with your account.

You can find me on FriendFeed here.

Technorati Tags: FriendFeed, windows mobile, mobile cloud

How to Recalibrate the Battery Sensor of an iPAQ

ProfJulie — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 18:55:46 GMT

Lithium Ion batteries do not have a memory and so nothing can be gained from allowing the batteries to become fully depleted. In fact, full depletion of Lithium Ion batteries can shorten their life and can even damage the battery.

The iPAQ has a battery sensor in it that may need to be recalibrated every now and then. For example, when I first started using an extended battery in my iPAQ hx2415, the iPAQ did not recognize the extended life of the battery and kept responding to the battery as if it were the old battery. After I ran the battery sensor calibration procedure on the device, the iPAQ properly recognized the extended battery.

This procedure was originally posted on HP’s website, but the page was removed some time ago and so the link I have for it no longer works.

For a Windows Mobile 2003 iPAQ

Charge the unit for 30 minutes (no more, no Less) only powered by AC Adapter and 22-pin connector and not connected to the PC/Cradle (make sure the unit is switched/powered off).
Remove the power and perform full 'Hardware Reset' and then 'Soft Reset'.
Charge the unit again for 4 hours connected to ac power only.

For a WM5.0 (or later OS) iPAQ

This recalibration procedure was posted long before WM5.0 devices were around, so I modified it to make it applicable to WM5.0 devices. Success with this procedure with newer Windows Mobile units is mixed:

Charge the unit for 30 minutes (no more, no Less) only powered by AC Adapter and 22-pin connector and not connected to the PC/Cradle (make sure the unit is switched/powered off).
Remove the power and perform full 'Hardware Reset' (or clean reset) and then 'Soft Reset'.
Charge the unit again for 4 hours connected to ac power only.

Final Notes

All data, user settings, and user-installed software will be deleted from the unit when this procedure is performed, so be sure to sync your data to a computer beforehand. Be prepared to spend some time afterwards reinstalling applications and setting up email accounts, wifi connections, etc. Restoring from a backup file is not advisable since it could reset the unit’s battery sensor back to the way it was before the recalibration procedure was performed.

Make sure the unit remains switched/powered off during this charge period. Following the procedure exactly as outlined in the steps above enables full calibration of the battery with the unit.

After a software reset the power Leds (Light Emitting Diodes) should now be on and the battery should be showing 100%. If the unit still fails on power do the following checks:

Test the AC Adapter at another location/power source.
Swap test The AC Adapter if possible.

If the recalibration procedure does not resolve your battery issue, you may need to purchase another battery

Technorati Tags: battery recalibration, iPAQ

Twitter Mobile Websites

ProfJulie — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:28:48 GMT

There are some great windows mobile twitter clients that can be installed to a WM5.0 or WM6.x device, but not many choices if you have an older windows mobile device. About the only application I am aware of that supports older windows mobile devices is Tiny Twitter, which is limited and buggy.

I still use an IPAQ hx2415, which runs windows mobile 2003se, so I searched around and found the following Twitter Mobile websites. You can use these websites from any internet connected mobile device and you don’t need to install any software. Since I post to multiple twitter accounts, I’ve assigned a twitter account to each of the listed websites and so I use all of these mobile websites regularly. I’ve listed the websites in order of preference.

dabr (http://dabr.co.uk/) allows me to reply, send direct messages, retweet, share pictures via twitpic.com [see: http://twitter.com/dabr]

twitstat (http://www.twitstat.com) allows me to mute friends, mark favorites, reply, retweet, direct messages, search [see http://twitter.com/twitstat]

tweete (http://m.tweete.net/) allows me to reply, send direct messages, flag favorites, share pictures via twitpic.com [see http://twitter.com/tweete]

slandr (http://m.slandr.net) allows me to reply, send direct messages, apply geo tags, search, share images via twitpic.com or mobypictures.com, view the public timeline. The only thing I don’t like about this website is that advertisements (albeit small ones) are sprinkled around the tweets. [see http://twitter.com/slandr]

Twitter’s mobile website only gives limited access to my twitter account, so I don’t use this website much

Technorati Tags: twitter, mobile cloud

78x4ymfq2d

Queries Related to iPAQ Choice Web Site

ProfJulie — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:57:29 GMT

Customers may contact HP support requesting help with issues related to the applications or software downloaded from the iPAQ Choice Web site.

NOTE: This Web site is not an HP Web site and is not maintained by HP. It is a third-party Web site providing certain services related to HP iPAQ Pocket PCs. HP does not control and is not responsible for information outside the HP Web site. The third-party Web sites are not maintained by HP and the HP privacy policy does not apply here.

See full article here: HP Support Documentation

Technorati Tags: IPAQ Choice Web site, HP Support

Delicious bookmarks & tags from a mobile device

ProfJulie — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 05:54:27 GMT

I just signed up for delicious to help me keep track of my bookmarks, and I installed a del.icio.us plugin to the Fuze. The plugin works with Internet Explorer and allows me to add bookmarks, tags and notes from the Fuze (or any other winmo device).

I can also access the Delicious mobile website from any mobile device at http://m.delicious.com

Installing Mozilla's mobile version of Firefox to the Fuze

ProfJulie — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:30:46 GMT

Fennec is what Mozilla is calling its Windows Mobile browser.

You can learn about Fennec Alpha 2 for Windows Mobile 6.x here and download a CAB file here.

When I tried to download the CAB file directly to the Fuze, nothing happened so I downloaded it to my computer and copied it over to the Fuze.

Wow! Opera Mobile 9.7 beta for mobile devices. . .

ProfJulie — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 06:19:54 GMT

Opera Mobile 9.7 beta looks just like the full desktop version with much of the same functionality and so much nicer than the crippled version that shipped on the fuze.

Check it out here and you can download the cab file directly to your mobile device here.

posted from the Fuze

Just got my first Zune

ProfJulie — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 05:25:22 GMT

Listening to music on my new Zune and really enjoying it. I think this will be a great addition to my repertoire of gadgets.

Sent from the fuze

Looking for a free IM client for your handheld?

ProfJulie — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 04:54:22 GMT

Check out Palringo. It's a great instant messaging client for both the computer & the mobile device.

Palringo can be used for MSN, Yahoo, AIM, GTalk. It's free and works well too.

Get Palringo here or you can download Palringo directly to your device, from Palringo's mobile website.

emailed from my hw6925

Organizing my Books

ProfJulie — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 05:35:00 GMT

After looking around and trying out several different book inventory applications, I finally decided to purchase MediaMan3 to catalogue all my books.

I’m loving the software! I’ve already inventoried about 700 books and there’s still more to go. Once I get all the books loaded into MediaMan, I plan to export the list to CSV file. Then I will upload the file to my GoodReads account and I will also import the file into Listpro so I can carry the list around with me on my windows mobile devices.

Technorati Tags: Books, MediaMan 3, ListPro, GoodReads

Carry Frequent Shopper Cards in your Winmo device

ProfJulie — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 05:08:00 GMT

If you don't like bulking up your wallet with all those bar coded award and frequent shopper cards that so many stores are using nowadays, you might want to check out this free Bar Code application by Koushik Dutta. You can download the .CAB file directly to your handheld.

After you’ve installed the application to your winmo device, open up the application, select New, then input a description on the top line and the bar code numbers on the bottom line. The software will convert the bar code numbers into the bar code, itself.

You can see from the screenshot below that I've got 4 cards set up on my HTC Fuze.

So the next time I’m at PetSmart, instead of scanning my frequent shopper card at the register, I’ll pull out my HTC Fuze.

Technorati Tags: Mobile Camera, HTC Fuze, Bar Code

Turning a CellPhone Camera into a Webcam

ProfJulie — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 04:21:00 GMT

Today I installed the Mobiola Web Camera 3 software to the HTC Fuze. This software turned the Fuze's camera phone into a high quality wireless (WiFi or Bluetooth) or wired (USB via ActiveSync connection) web camera. The setup was straight forward and easy and it worked very well. You can download a 7 day trial version and see for yourself how well it works.

You'll install a server file to your computer and a client file to your windows mobile standard or professional device. Then when you want to turn your windows mobile device into a webcam, just launch Mobiola Web Camera for Windows Mobile on your desktop computer, open up the application on the windows mobile device and select either ActiveSync or Wifi connection option. The help file that comes with the software tells you how to set up these connections, but it's pretty intuitive and easy to use.

Here's a YouTube video that explains how it works in more detail:

Technorati Tags: mobile camera, webcam, HTC Fuze