IntoMobile.com covers the mobile industry on all platforms and do a great job. Check out their site when you get a chance and subscribe to their podcast. Simon covers mainly the Blackberry platform, which is why he asked me to come on to speak about Windows Mobile. You can find Simon on twitter at twitter.com/SimonSage

It was a pleasure to be on the cast and I hope I didn’t get too much wrong (be gentle!!). Thanks to Simon and the gang at IntoMobile.com for having me on the show.

You can listen to the podcast here. There’s also links to download it.

I still use Professional for work and supporting customers, but my primary device, day in and day out, over the last 5 years has been a non-touch Windows Mobile Standard based smartphone. That was the case up to this past weekend when I added a new device to my collection.

After picking up a HTC Hero smartphone running Google’s Android operating system, I finally realized what was missing from my touch experience over the years – finger friendly interface. Everything I have done on this device has been very easy to do without a stylus. It’s still early but, for one-handed operation on a touch screen device, the HTC Hero running Google’s Android is the first device I have used that could be as easy to operate as a Windows Mobile Standard device.

The bottom line is this – Mobile Jaw will have a lot more Android content to come. It looks like this device will be my primary device for the foreseeable future.

To install the Market Place for Mobile application, go to http://mp.windowsphone.com on your device. From there, you can download and install the market place on your device. Once installed, you will be able to browse applications targeted for your region and device type.

It’s great to see Microsoft has made their market place available for older devices as this allows developers to target a much larger install base.  However, the cost of entry for developers is prohibitive. As well, the cost of listing applications for multiple regions in the market place can add up very quickly. It’s a significant step forward for developers and the community but until the cost is addressed, I don’t see the market place being a serious contender. Check it out on your device and let us know what you think.

Samsung offers the following list of enhancements and additions that Windows Mobile 6.5 brings to the Jack:

• Internet Explorer Mobile 6
• Windows Market Place for Mobile
• Modified UI with updated text & icons in several areas
• Enhanced, Java platform
• Battery optimization
• Radio signal optimization
• Fixed, T9 predictive logic (able to use z character)
• Added, RNDIS bypass support (Settings>Connection>USB) for simpler desktop connectivity   
• Added, AT&T WiFi and Mobile Share
• Added, Vlingo for Windows Phone for improved voice recognition

The two big things that you’re going to see after upgrading to 6.5 are an improved web browsing experience thanks to Internet Explorer Mobile 6 and the new Market Place for Mobile. I’m sure that Samsung has done some tweaks to the battery life, but it’s nothing ground breaking. I haven’t noticed an extra day or power or anything. As for the modified UI, take a look at the pictures below and you be the judge if there’s anything there that is so over the top you just have to have it, because, frankly, I don’t see it.

While the market place is a welcome addition, it has yet to receive the praise or attention that it needs from developers to make it worth while. Many developers still see developing for Windows Mobile as a costly endeavor and that hasn’t changed with 6.5.

That leaves us with an improved version of Internet Explorer Mobile. Is it really that improved? YES, and it’s long overdue.  Is it faster, with better support for rendering non-mobile content from websites. The browser now supports full screen mode allowing you to view more of the webpage and less of the standard title bar and softkeys.

So the ultimate question – Is it worth the upgrade? Yes, but only if you do a lot of web browsing on your device.  If that’s not your cup of tea, and you don’t really care about being able to check out applications directly on your device, then I wouldn’t waste the time in flashing your device and then restoring all of your data.

I’m referring to the launch of the new HSPA network by Bell and Telus. Ok, ok, I suppose its technically “networks” but there is so much sharing going on with these two companies we really have to call it a single network. That’s not really a bad thing as it means exceptional coverage for Canadians; up to 93% of the population of Canada according to Bell.

While we are on this topic I should mention that coverage will continually improve over the next short while. Bell and Telus are both in the process of identifying coverage gaps and applying to use each others towers for those gap areas.

Since I’m a Bell customer I’ll let you know my experiences with their network. I’d rather give more print time to Bell right now anyway, because their data plans are fairly decent. More on that in a bit.

Bell’s HSPA network went live on Wednesday, November 4th, well ahead of their original schedule. The plan initially was to launch in early 2010 which was then bumped to late November. Bell moved that date to Friday the 6th and just a week before launch bumped it again to be on the 4th. I like that! I don’t remember the last time Bell was aggressive with a roll out. Maybe spells a new mindset at Bell? I hope so.

Bell’s real motivation for rolling out in November was to be all set for the Olympics in Vancouver in February 2010. They even signed a sweet roaming agreement with AT&T to snag all the roaming iPhones when they visit.

Being the cautious Canadian that I am and in showing great restraint I didn’t run right out and hook my plan to Bell’s new network at the time of launch. I waited a good and proper 4 hours…then ran in! I had an unlocked AT&T Fuze (aka a GSM version of the HTC Touch Pro) burning a hole in my pocket.

Initially I was a bit worried because the store I called didn’t have any SIMs and I wasn’t sure if they would only activate new phones initially. I called around and found another store with the SIMs but then got the bad news that the new network wouldn’t support data on unlocked phones. WHAT??? It turns out to not be true but there is a bit of work to set up a phone for the data network and Bell didn’t want to have to train all their sales people on how to dig through every kind of phone to figure out where to put the settings in. I can understand that. Being a thorough mobile geek I knew where to input (see, only a geek would say “input”) the settings and with a bit of digging I found the settings.

While at the store I let the store staff know that you actually can use the data network and gave them a copy of the instruction. Hehe, they loved me.

It didn’t take too long to get the SIM on my account and programmed up and we popped it in to test. I had already programmed the data settings in the phone, so once the phone got signal we were live with HSPA data. Woohoo!!

My experience with the network so far has been fantastic. I am getting slightly better signal strength at work and at home with the new network and have found no holes in my area. Speeds have been consistently excellent and I couldn’t be happier. Now, I can mix and match a number of phones simply by popping in the SIM to an unlocked phone. Fantastic.

Bell and Telus have launched with a number of great new phones for the HSPA network, so take a look at their sites if you are thinking of trying them out. Personally, I have my eye on the Omnia II, just have to sell a kidney to afford it. Anyone interested??

The plan I am on is this one:

Smartphone Combo Windows/Palm 60 – Fab Five
Minutes Included:
300 local minutes plus 50 bonus local minutes
Extras:
Nationwide Fab Five: Unlimited local and Canadian long distance calls and unlimited text messages to and from five numbers of your choice
1 GB data for personal email, Internet browsing & instant messaging

For Canada that really is a decent deal at $60 a month. Bell has a strange way of measuring data which means this 1 gig is going to be as good as unlimited for most people anyway.

The settings to enable data on your phone are:

Internet
Navigate to your device’s Connection Settings menu
Enter the new service information within the appropriate fields as follows:
APN: pda.bell.ca
Proxy server: web.wireless.bell.ca
Port: 80
Save changes
Note: for some devices, an extra step may be required to enable Internet services:
Launch your phone’s Web browser
Navigate to the Browser Settings menu
Under Browser Connection, select the new connection profile that you have just created

MMS
Navigate to your device’s Connection Settings menu
Enter new service information within the appropriate fields as follows:
APN: pda.bell.ca
Proxy server: web.wireless.bell.ca
Port: 80
Save changes
Navigate to your device’s Messaging menu
Select Multimedia Messaging settings
Select Message Centre or MMS gateway option
Enter new Message Centre/MMS gateway information within the appropriate field as follows:
MMSC URL: http://mms.bell.ca/mms/wapenc
Save changes
Set new Message Centre/MMS gateway as the “active” gateway (if required)

Tethering2
Navigate to your device’s Connection Settings menu
Enter new APN information within the appropriate fields as follows:
APN: inet.bell.ca
Save changes

If anyone has questions, fire away! If you are on the new network, give us a shout-out with your experiences.

Update:

I took a look at Telus’ site and their plans have changed and are in line with Bell’s. You can get a similar plan to the Bell one above for $65/month (only 250 mins rather than Bell’s 350). If I’m not mistaken, I think Telus has done away with the System Access Fee as well.

Before performing this upgrade, be sure to backup any personal information you might have on the device.  The upgrade will wipe the device and restore it to factory default settings.  If you don’t have a backup procedure in place, I highly recommend you install Microsoft’s My Phone service and backup all your data to the cloud for free.  You can sign up here, or read more about it in my review – here.

I’m off to upgrade my Jack.  If you have any problems or questions about the upgrade process, just post them in the comments here and I’ll do what I can to help.  I’ll post my thoughts on the new ROM once my device is flashed and I’ve had a chance to play around with it.

Update: It looks like the update will not run on Windows 7, even if it’s run under compatibility mode as an administrator. You’ll need a machine running Vista or XP in order to do this upgrade.  When I launched the installer on Vista, it failed the first time. I had to run the installer as an administrator in order for it to work.

For many, the issue with emulators is how to get your data or application on to it. So I thought I would run through installing emulators as well as how to copy your applications to the emulator. Before we begin, you’ll need to download the following things:

• Microsoft Device Emulator 3.0 – Standalone Release (Download here)
• Windows Mobile Emulator Images – Pick any 1 or all of the following:
  • 6.5 Standard and Professional (Download here)
  • 6.1 Standard and Professional (Download here)
  • 6.0 Standard / Professional (Download here)
  • 5.0 Smartphone (Download here) / Pocket PC (Download here)

Once you have the emulator and all the images downloaded we can begin the installation. The first thing you need to do, is install the device emulator.  Once that’s installed, you can move along to installing the emulator images that you want to use.  I have found that installing 6.5 over 6.1 tends to break the emulator image. This can be fixed by running repair on the 6.1 image. If you’re only installing 6.5 images then you don’t have to worry about that.

Once you have things installed, you will notice your have a couple new items in your Start Menu. In my case, you can see the Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional and Standard images listed. Each emulator image has the screen size and type of OS in the name.  So you can be sure about what image you need to run before you actually launch it.

Upon running one of emulators, you will see an image of a device appear on your desktop.  The screen will be blank, but if you wait a minute or so, it should automatically start booting up the device. I’ve found that initial boot on the emulators can take a good 4 or 5 minutes.  Once you’ve started the image, you can always choose to save the state when you close it so that it doesn’t have to restart every time you want to use it.

Tip: If you’re running a tablet, feel free to grab your stylus and get busy with the emulator image.  It works just like using a regular stylus on the device would.

Now that we have the emulators up and running, let’s get WMDC / ActiveSync setup so that we can easily get files to and from these emulators. To do this, launch Windows Mobile Device Center or ActiveSync (depending on your version of Windows). Edit the Connection Settings page and place a checkmark beside “Allow connections to one of the following:” and then select DMA from the drop down list.

Now we just need to tell the emulator to connect and we’re golden.  For whatever reason, after installing the standalone device emulator, there is nothing added to the start menu.  Which isn’t really a big deal as you can run the emulators just fine. However, in doing this, they missed providing an easy way for people to access the Device Emulator Manager.  To run this, browse to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Device Emulator\1.0 and look for the file called dvcemumanager – this is the Device Emulator Manager. Launch it, and while you’re at it, copy a shortcut to the desktop or someplace handy. When the window opens you should see a list of all running emulators.  If you don’t have one running, head back up a couple paragraphs and get one started.

Remember that you can only have 1 ActiveSync’ed device at a time.  That continues to be true with the emulators. While you can run multiple emulators at the same time, only 1 can be connected over ActiveSync or WMDC at a time. To get this connected, right click on the emulator and select Cradle. That’s all there is to it. WMDC / ActiveSync will start the connection process and the emulator will appear in your file manager like any real device would. You can copy files to it, install applications, and tweak away without worry or causing harm to your everyday device.

WinMoDevCamp will be hitting Toronto on November 11th. Representatives from Bell, Telus, Rogers, and the all new WIND Mobile will be on site. You can register here for the Toronto event.

During some recent research, it came to my attention that Microsoft has taken this application lock and implemented it on Windows Mobile 6.5 touch screen devices. This means that 3rd party applications won’t have free access to the entire device as they have in the past.

So while I found some documentation that referenced this new feature on touch devices, there were no production devices available to test this on – until now. Mobile Jaw reader, Keith Ramsey posted about his brand new HTC Imagio in this thread, about the problems he is having when trying to install applications on the device.  As more carriers release Windows Mobile 6.5 based devices the number of application locked devices will continue to grow.

Previously, I had created a CAB file that would remove security from Windows Mobile Standard devices (non-touch screen devices). So I have now created a similar CAB file that works for touch screen devices. You can read all about application lock – what it is, and how to remove it,  along with the download steps over here.

The quickie details are to copy this CAB file to the device, install the CAB and then browse to Start / System / Settings / Remove Programs and uninstall the MobiControl Device Agent from your device. If you want more details about what you’re doing, what the CAB file does, or why you need to uninstall it after it’s installed, then you should read the above linked article about removing application lock. It will answer all those questions.

If anyone else has a new Windows Mobile 6.5 device, please reply and let me know if you’re seeing the same behavior and if so, did this CAB fix things?

The steps below will walk you through removing this animation and there’s even details about what you need to do to display your own graphic. One special note – If you have a Samsung Jack or Propel Pro, you can not remove the startup animation. If you do this, the screen driver fails to load and you can no longer see anything on the device.  You can, however, connect to the device using Pocket Controller Pro and reinstate the startup animation and all will be fine again. Again, this is only a problem on the Propel Pro and the Jack. All other devices have not displayed this behaviour.

1) The first thing you need to do is remove the application lock from your device (Windows Mobile Standard or non-touch devices only).  To do this, check out my other post about Removing Application Lock.

2) Install some sort of registry editing tool. For on device editing, which is all that would be required in this case, I would recommend PHM’s free registry editor.

3) Run the registry editor and browse to HKLM / System / Startup / 1

4) Here you should find a value by the name of DLL.  Highlight the value DLL and press the Menu / Delete to completely remove it. (Samsung Jack and Propel Pro users – do not delete this value!)

5) Browse to HKLM / System /Shutdown / 1 and you should find another value with the name DLL. Highlight and remove this one as well.

At this point, you should no longer have the startup or shutdown animations. You can reboot your phone and test it out. But I’m not done with this hack.  Instead of the carriers animation, why not add your own image? Here’s the steps to add your own graphic on startup and shutdown. 

6) In the registry editor under HKLM / System / Shutdown or HKLM / System / Startup create a new Value and set the type to be String.

7) Name this new value “Splash” without the quote,s and set the value to be the complete path to your picture. I recommend against putting this picture on the storage card. It should be on the main memory of the device.

Save your new value and back out of the registry editor. Reboot your phone and enjoy the new graphics!

In case your looking for something to replace that image with, here’s a very fancy Mobile Jaw logo in 320×320, 320×240, and 240×320. I just placed the size I need in the My Documents folder and then set the Splash value to “\My Documents\MobileJawSplash320240.png” – without the quotes.  Enjoy!

If you have any problems, let me know. Or if you just feel like sharing your success, I would love to hear about it.