Use a free Exchange server to sync up your calendar with one person and task list with another.

Hi boys and girls,

Do you remember when Ask The Admin covered a very interesting topic of Free Exchange services? For those who don't, you can look here, here and sometimes here.

In a nutshell, this article talked about how me and my fiance' had to plan our wedding and had tons of appointments flying in from both directions.

In order to get our two phones talking to one another and playing nicely, I used a free Exchange hosting service called www.Mail2Web.com to enable my WinMo PDA and my fiance's Blackjack to sync calendars every 10 minutes logging into the service through ActiveSync, as if they are the same phone. As a result, both phones would have the same calendar information, and keep it that way every ten minutes.

I've had this system going for some time now, and it's been working just fine. I haven't even had to login to the control panel for anything!While figuring out this howto, I noticed in my own phone that WinMo gives you 4 categories of info items to sync, (as illustrated by the image so cleverly placed on the top of this blog) - Contacts, Calendar, Email, and Tasks. I realized that my fiance's BlackJack also had the choice of 4 different points of info to sync. This meant that every WinMo device can choose which information to sync with an ActiveSync Server Source and more importantly, which information NOT to sync with an Exchange Server. So we've established that my fiance's BlackJack and my ATT 8525/Hermes were acting as if they had the same calendar - consider them synced.

So this was a real world problem solved by the fact that 2 people have phones with WinMo and Activesync, and the availability of a free exchange service @ www.Mail2Web.com.
Now onto the next real-world problem: The Admin and I have a lot of tasks involved with keeping our beloved website up and running, current and fresh. Throughout the months tasks have come and gone, but certain tasks fell through the sieve and got replaced by more current, more urgent tasks that took precedence at the time. So basically tasks were getting lost. Since neither of us used the built in Tasks application in WinMo, this presented the perfect opportunity to put my theory to the test.

I know that I already have 2 people logging into MY Mail2Web account to sync calendars. But what would be wrong with 3 people logging into that same account - except that my Fiance' will only sync Calendar information, and The Admin will only sync Tasks information (and NOBODY syncs Contact information).

So I had the The Admin log into my Mail2Web account through his ActiveSync Server Connection and sync only Tasks, and I had my own phone begin to sync Tasks with the same service it was already syncing to for Calendar information, which coincidentally my Fiance's phone was simultaneously syncing Calendar information with as well.

Problem solved:
Me and the Admin with synced Tasklist,
Me and the Fiance with synced Calendar.
Free.
Automatic.
Just the way we like it.

AskTheAdmin.com.
Free Tech Support for the Masses.

Commodore 64 (the one you used to play Bruce Lee on.)

Sync Windows Mobile Calendar, Tasks and Contacts between more than one device.

Hey boys and girls!

Have you ever been in a situation where you wished you could sync calendars with somebody who is seemingly unconnected? On top of that, you wished that somehow, by some magical force, those calendars can sync automatically, wirelessly and invisibly; involving no further effort beyond the initial configuration, and that this calendar should follow you wherever you go. Naturally (who wouldn't, right?).

So here is my situation:

Fiance' 1.5 wants to perform a systems upgrade to wife 2.0.

Now we've teamed up towards common goals before. Planning a vacation, weekend getaway or even organizing a trip to the movies takes some collaboration right? After all, we're busy people in this day and age. We have our own agendas. But now we are faced with the largest team effort we have ever faced collectively, together. It's not the vows I'm talking about, it's not the commitment. It's not the prospect that this is the person you will be staring at for the rest of your life. No. That doesn't scare me one bit. What scares the holy crap out of me is planning the wedding. This big, monster of a team collaboration project. If you succeed, you win the reverence and admiration of over 150 guests, including family members, friends, coworkers, and possibly bosses. If you fail, FOR SHAME TO YOU (as my Russian family would say). Pure embarrassment. So basically, failure is not an option. So fiance' 1.5 and I were faced with a conundrum. How do we stay in sync? How do we go about speaking to multitudes of wedding service providers and making appointments with these people simultaneously, while being able to see at a glance whether or not there are any appointment conflicts. So this is our problem - we need to stay connected, within a 10 minute lag time from one another - no more, no less. But who has the time to call each other every 5 minutes, and in between other phone calls, to make sure were not conflicting?

So first I'll list what we are working with:

• A PC at home with Activesync and Outlook, synced nightly with:


• An AT&T 8525 HTC Hermes with an unlimited internet plan - this is my phone.


• An AT&T Samsung Blackjack - this is my fiance's phone - never synced, EVER, WITH ANYTHING - she never even knew it could do that.

At first I started insisting that her and I come home at the end of each day, and enter any and all appointments into MY outlook, and then add herself as a meeting attendee. This creates an email which is sent by Outlook that automatically enters the appointment into her phone, and is updated on my phone when I sync via USB every night. This idea looks great on paper, but requires a bit of a commitment to come home every night and devote X amount of time transferring scribbled notes into outlook.

So at first I searched for a way to sync via IP address. No Dice. It seems M$ removed this after version 3.4 of Activesync . My only recourse was an Exchange server. Now I've never used Microsoft Exchange, and I'm only now becoming familiarized with what Exchange can do for a person, team, or organization. In my case, Exchange would allow my fiance' to enter an appointment into her phone, real time and it syncs with my phone. Since Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone Edition doesn't allow you to add attendees to an appointment, and Windows Mobile 6 doesnt know what to do with vCal items in email, Exchange Server is a requiem for this to work. Considering we're on a tight budget for time and money as it is, enter mail2web.




From the mail2web site:

"mail2web LIVE, our free Exchange Email solution goes beyond webmail to provide calendars, task management, contact lists, advanced rules for sorting messages, and even ActiveSync capability."

mail2web LIVE is just one of the many services this site offers. You basically sign up for a FREE (love that) mail2web live account. A free live account comes with alot of task and personal management features. It's no coincidence that it supports all the various PIM information types that Outlook supports such as Calendar, Tasks, Contacts, Email, and others. For my purposes, I only wanted to use the calendar feature, since I didn't want any of my fiance's contacts, nor did she want any of mine. So of all the features mail2web LIVE offers, Calendar was the magic bullet.

I started off by opening the free mail2web account. This process entailed divulging practically no personally identifiable information about myself. Basically choosing a username, and the desired email address to which I'd like the account associated. As soon as that was complete, there appeared an interesting button with the words "configure your mobile device for this account". Hmm sounds almost too tempting... could this be a trap? It's just too convenient. Clicking this link yields a popup with links to downloading auto-configuration files. For some strange reason this config file didn't work for me. However further digging revealed a "Control Panel" page with an "Activesync Settings" sub-panel. This page is dynamically generated to contain the exact settings for your mail account. Which is the main reason I can't link you guys and girls straight to the page. This page contained all of the settings needed to manually set up my phone to Activesync via this Exchange server, which contains my personal account hosted by mail2web. At this stage I'm presented with a choice on my phone, by activesync, as to which points of information I'd like to have synced with this server. Since this mail2web account is strictly for the purposes of synchronizing my calendar with my fiance's, I was very careful to be sure that only the "Calendar" checkbox is checked. If you're using this service as your personal activesync server, that you and only you will be using, you can just as well check every box and have all your information conveniently backed up to mail2web's servers. But I have a different evil scheme.

My scheme involves both mine, and my fiance's phone, syncing to this ONE account for the sole purpose of retrieving and synchronizing the calendar, and only the calendar.

While this is not what the service was originally meant for it is technically possible, and I'm pretty sure it doesn't go against any of their policies or T's & C's, so I used it to my advantage.

When I was done setting up activesync on my 8525 to sync over the air every 10 minutes with my new mail2web account, I grabbed my fiance's Blackjack and did the same with her phone. I set up her Activesync to connect to the server provided to me by the mail2web Account Control Panel's Activesync Settings sub-panel. Now her phone and my phone are magically sharing 1 calendar. And this calendar updates the Exchange Server every 10 minutes when her phone syncs up. This information is grabbed by my phone every ten minutes when that syncs up, and this information is transferred to my home PC's instance of Outlook when I hook up to USB to charge every night. This works perfectly vice-versa as well, when I enter a calendar item into my 8525.

It is now a seamless and invisible background task that her and my phone perform, and we are totally in sync. Now, when she makes an appointment with a florist for Wednesday of next week at 8:30 PM, My phone knows about it no more than 10 minutes later. And when I look at my calendar to make my own appointments with a Videographer, I'll see instantly not to mess with Wednesday evening of next week, unless I want to be watching other peoples wedding videos at 10:30 PM on a weeknight, after spending 2 mind-numbing hours in a flower shop.

This is truly the closest I've ever felt to my girl, and we really are connecting in a way that not many other couples have connected in. My only gripe with this process is that I keep thinking I have a manicure appointment on Tuesday. She better hope I don't show up and try to claim it.

I hope this helps some new couples get their schedules together, or some business partners sync their collective work schedules up. I'm positive this free service mail2web provides will help lots of people discover the benefits of collaboration, Windows Mobile style.

Peace
Commodore 64 (the one you used to paly Bruce Lee on)

Can I have my cell phone voice mails sent to my email?

Hello Boys and Girls,

Can you imagine a world where your voicemails are automagically transcribed by a robot and sent to your email inbox?

How would you like being able to read your voicemails instead of calling in for them?

Commodore 64 back again after a short hiatus for the holidays and a whole lot of winter fun in the snow. I've also spent the last month or so trying this new service called Simulscribe. If you look closely at some Yellow Cabs in Manhattan, you'll notice some of the cabs say Simulscribe on top. They are one and the same as the company which streamlined my voicemails for the past month.

Simulscribe, from my experiences, is an awesome service for a guy like me.

I, like many other schmos, am hopelessly stuck to my PDA. I've been stuck to my PDA ever since it was just a PDA. I remember being so happy when I got my first used Palm Vx in the mail, and oh how I giggled like school child the first time I beamed something thru an infra-red port. Now the PDA in many cases is a mobile office, with Wi-fi, Bluetooth 2.0, Edge and G3 with simultaneous phone calls, E-mail, SMS, MMS, Spreadsheet, Word Processor, Slide Viewer and unfortunately Voicemail.

See the irony here kids? Voicemail is the dinosaur of communications. It is by far the slowest way I know to absorb information. And on top of that, it's just one more thing you have to "check" 5 times a day, and twice a day on weekends. And who can forget the sloooooow menu systems for checking and deleting. It seems the natural order of things that a convergence is needed. In the true spirit of useful capitalism, Simulscribe came along and saved us some aggravation.

The service works like this:

You go through a one-time setup which essentially switches your phone account from using your current voicemail system, to Simulscribe's voicemail systems. Except that Simulscribe's voicemail systems are so much better. You basically have to enter a code in the phone that you are provided when you sign-up and Simulscribe begins to intercept any of your phone calls which would normally go to voicemail. At that point their system goes to work trying to transcribe as much of the message as it can, replacing whatever it can't with question marks. It sends you this in a text message with the relevant caller-id included. It then sends an email to the account(s) of your choosing with the message as an ultra-small audio attachment.

The end result is that you never have unread voicemails hanging around your phone like before, which was an annoyance in and of itself. Another interesting observation I've made is that the Simulscribe transcription system isn't perfect - and rightfully so. With so many possible variances in voices, background noise, heavy ethnic accents it's no wonder the system often times sends it's share of question marks my way, but interestingly enough, it's good enough. The fact of the matter is, most of the time I get 2 types of phone calls: the random "hey, how's your mum call" which usually transcribes near if not perfect, and the "context call" where, even if the system doesn't transcribe certain more complex words, you can usually, purely from context, understand the gist of the call from the words the system was able to transcribe. In the end the point gets across, which was the main need I had. The annoying touch-tone voicemail system was eliminated, and was now replaced with a text message that is 90% or better more often than not. If that doesn't get the point across there's an email right behind it with the message as an ultra-compressed audio attachment. Still, no annoying touch-tone voicemail system you have to go through. Now it plays in Windows Media Player Mobile on my terms when I feel like listening, if it's even necessary in the less than 10% of cases where transcription was less than successful.

In Simulscribe's defense, most of the unsuccessful ones were from my father, whose heavy European accent would fool even a military grade transcription system. There is also a nifty online interface for managing your service options, as well as your transcribed messages. And if you are caught in an area where your PDA just isn't swingin any net, their dial-in system works from any grimy payphone you can get your hands on.

Who knows? You might actually come to miss interacting with an automated system and want to call in from time to time. Simulscribe has accomodated that as well.

All in all the service is great. I've enjoyed using it and will definitely be subscribing. The best part is that the good peeps at Simulscribe were nice enough to extend an

EXCLUSIVE OFFER ONLY TO aTa READERS!

Normally you get a week to try the service, but if you use any of our links to sign up today - YOU GET TO TRY THE SERVICE FOR A WHOLE MONTH TOTALLY FREE!

Free is the place for me, and aTa is the place for all kinds of cool, new free stuff.
Stay tuned kiddies, C64 is making a comeback!

Commodore64 (the one you used to play Bruce Lee on)

Special Ask The Admin Offer - Free 30 Day Simulscribe Trial for aTa readers ONLY!

Emoze - Free Push Email without a Blackberry - The true path to democratized, real-time mobile email.

Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen,

This is your friendly Commodore 64 here to report on yet another useful, tech-improving, free service that is bound to improve any nerd's life fo sho.

This new service, which has solved a long standing problem, in my view, with send/receive, hates attachments, crappy, slow, sluggish, snap-crackle, pop3 email technology. The software is called emoze, which is a spin-off of a company called Emblaze.
We covered this service in one of our previous posts here, but now we've really gotten up close and personal.

Now we are not instant fanboys of anything or anyone here, but we are a bunch of wise(ass) admins, and we do know what's good for us, and any of our end users who are on the go, and email dependent. That person will attest to the fact that it sucks to have to send/receive on a schedule. Most people have their email send/receiving on an average of every 5 minutes, which makes for a very cumbersome convo, at best. If those convos are short and sweet, like most, they become exponentially cumbersome. So we know whats good, and after trying emoze with my corporate outlook mail, and using it's proprietary 'desktop to mobile push' clients for about a week now, we can truly say this a great service, and good for you too! Best of all, for a single end-user, the service is totally free, just the way we love it here at AskTheAdmin.

We had the pleasure of personally meeting with Neftali Shani, Chairman of Emblaze and Active Chairman of emoze, in a one on one pow-wow where we were really able to get a sense of his vision and mission for the company and the free service:

We are committed to enhancing the user experience, making emoze the world's most flexible and user-friendly push email and synchronization system...

All in all, emoze is the most efficient and effective way to keep up to date with emails, calendars, contacts and other data when on the move, no matter what mobile device or information management system you use.
We support Lotus Notes and Domino Servers, Microsoft Outlook and Exchange, POP3 and Web-Access, among others - democratizing push email and data for consumers and businesses alike.

The emoze program installs a client on your desktop that 'listens' to any new emails coming into your Outlook running on your pc. On the mobile side, a program running on your pda/smartphone listens to what the desktop client has to say, and integrates that with an email account that looks pretty much like your other mobile email accounts - with one caveat - NO SEND/RECEIVE!

The service, while connection dependent, works pretty invisibly, though it uses it's own notification to let you know an email has come in. I'm pretty sure thats the same notification that MMS uses, but I dont get enough MMS messages to tell the difference.

Messages come through to your phone almost as instantly as they do to your outlook, so I'd have to say this service is pretty tight.

The only gripes I have involve issues that, in all fairness, might not be the fault of emoze. These issues might actually be the responsibility of the hardware or OS manufacturer. For example, when starting up the phone, the emoze client takes a little long to load, sometimes taking more than a minute to go through it's syncing process. However this is most likely due to my connection speed. Also, while tethered to my laptop via bluetooth and internet connection sharing, it seems to want precedence over my shared connection so connection speed was pretty hampered. All in all, these are problems that would likely solve themselves in time, as connection speeds make their way up. Also as more hardware manufacturers adopt the HSDPA standard, this will do away with whatever lag time the emoze client unearths.

Also worth noting is that I can't be considered the average user. My HTC Hermes/8525 has ALOT of stuff loaded on it, besides the 4gb memory card i have blazing inside. I'm pretty sure that for the average business end-user, this service would be almost completely transparent and would invisibly provide someone with exactly what emoze promises - Free Push Email For ALL!
In summary, emoze is a wonderful service. Free push email for the masses is a big undertaking but the good people over at emoze have taken it upon themselves to try to improve the democracy associated with email.

Very noble.

_ThePushyCommodore_ (yup still the one you used to play Bruce Lee on)
1

Open Source Phones? What does Android mean for the mobile market?

Good afternoon! My name is Scott Webster and I am one of the administrators over at AndroidGuys.com. I’d like to thank Karl for letting me fill in today as a guest blogger.

I’m here to talk briefly about the current state of Smartphones as well as what we might come to expect from Android and the capability of open source phones.

As of right now, there are only three major options being used in the US for smartphones and PDA phones. You have RIM’s Blackberry, Microsoft Windows Mobile, and Apple’s iPhone/OSX. Sure, you also have niche devices like Helio’s Ocean and the T-Mobile Sidekick, but predominantly, these three are what makes up the high end phone market today. Overseas however is a different story. Nokia and Symbian have pretty much dominated the industry and is slowly seeing market share build over here. While each of these platforms is unique, they share very similar features from one to the next. Higher end camera’s, internal memory, and the ability to install software are just three things that separate them from your mom’s flip phone. It sounds great to be able to install software on the phone, but it’s not as easy as it would initially seem. This is where the drawbacks start.

For years, Blackberry devices were almost locked airtight when it came to 3rd party applications. It is only recently that you can point your browser to a site and get games, tools, and enhancements for your device. Microsoft has been steadily improving their Windows OS and offering two lines options depending on your style of handset; Smartphone and Pocket PC software. Apple came along and shook the industry up a little bit this summer by introducing us to phones using the same user-friendly, sexy OSX that graces many of their computers.

With an entirely touch based phone, it opened up a lot of doors and enticed your tech enthusiasts and prosumers. This was the way of the future, right?

The iPhone was not without its detractors though. There were two major gripes coming from the community. First was that there was no way to add applications to the phone. A user was confined to the pre-installed package of programs, no matter how nice or easy to use. Secondly, people were turned off by the fact that they had to sign up to AT&T for service. With a phone already selling at $400-$600, people were not ready to plunk down another $150-$200 to get out of a contract with their current provider. So what happened next? To address these problems, people began dissecting the phone literally from day one. They were looking for ways to ‘open’ the phone up and unlock it. ‘If it takes a SIM card, it has to work on T-Mobile or another carrier’ was the general consensus. It didn’t take long for people to figure out how to jailbreak their handsets. Now, it’s a game of cat and mouse with Apple releasing their updates and hackers releasing patches. In the meanwhile, Apple comes out and says that they will be releasing a developers kit next year so that users can enjoy new ways of taking advantage of all that the iPhone offers.

Enter Google and the Open Handset Alliance.

For the last two years, people have speculated as to what Google’s role might be in the cell phone industry. Months ago, when the news started to really pour in that a ‘gPhone’ was in the works, the blogs and tech sites began to wonder as to what this phone would look like and how it would work. Mock-ups and ‘leaks’ were hitting the internet on a regular basis. As time went, the industry conversations gravitated towards not just one handset called a gPhone, but rather a few models using a Google based operating system. Was Google creating a brand new operating system for phones? Well, yes and no.

Google was in fact working with a couple dozen other companies on an operating system. An open source one to be certain. This list of companies behind this project reads like a “Who’s Who” in the technology industry. In the handset corner, you have Samsung, HTC, LG and Motorola. In the carrier corner, you’ll notice Sprint and T-Mobile. Looking further down the list, you’ll see other major names like eBay, Intel, nVidia, Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments. This group of companies is known as the Open Handset Alliance.

So what happens when all these guys come to the same party? Magic. What else would you expect from today’s movers and shakers? I can almost guarantee that these companies have their hands in at least one thing you touch or use every day. We have total confidence that Android will not just become a major player in the phone industry. We believe that just by merely existing, they will revolutionize the market and force some of today’s names to either adapt their own model or risk extinction. Google and their friends have been doing their homework and listening to people for a lot longer than you think.

If you look through AskTheAdmin’s posts on open source, it’s almost universally in favor of it. Take a look at some of the software you’re probably using right now. Mozilla Firefox, Thunderbird, Flock, home-brewed DVR's, XBOX Media Center, etc. Let’s also consider what happens when you work on projects socially like Wikipedia. The power and potential is limitless. I don’t know about you, but I can’t even imagine the kind of phone I will be holding a year from now.

Please stop by AndroidGuys.com if you’d like to stay up on developments. Also, please be sure to leave us feedback.

Thanks again to everyone at AskTheAdmin for their support!

Scott Webster | androidguys@gmail.com

(Edit From TheAdmiN: Do you guys like what you see? Do you want us to make this a weekly spot for The AndroidGuys?)

HSDPA has arrived In Brooklyn! Do you 3G?

Just A quick note.... Wait for it.... Wait for it....

I now have HSDPA and 3G in My house on my Dopod!

I wrote all about my HSDPA addiction over here. And it would make me sad to not have high speed mobile access like I did in Manhattan. I started wondering why Church Avenue and Downtown Brooklyn were getting all the love. Then in a flash over night my magic H has appeared. Now I have a evil grin - Staring at my dual monitor setup. 896Kbps to my phone is super fast so no more switching to Wi-Fi in the house for me!

Do you guys get 3G or HSDPA yet in your home cities? Get at me man let me know where the speeds at!

AskTheAdmin has been syndicated on a new blog check it out here. Its official I am a paid writer now and have the check to prove it :) Check out my views on mobile RSS and my favorite RSS reader.

_TheUpWayToEarlyAdmiN_

Have you wished your Windows Mobile 6 Device Had A Reboot Option Natively?

I had been using Celetask to do quick one button reboots but my trial expired and I really could not justify $7.95 just to reboot easier. User Maevro over at Howard Forums created a .cab file that adds a Reboot option to your Windows Mobile Device Quick List. Thats the one you get by hitting the power button once. This was tested on the Q, Dash, Wing and my Dopod 730 aka the Cavalier. It should work with all Windows Mobile 5 or 6 devices. Enjoy!




The Cab file can be downloaded here:
http://www.mistercomputerhead.com/reboot.cab

_TheRebootingAdmiN_

The Dopod C730 aka HTC Cavalier reviewed.

My wife got me the new HTC Device Dubbed the Cavalier with a Dopod Branding and imported it from China for my birthday... Migrated my information over night and replaced my dash on the charger with this Dopod - NOW THATS LOVE!

I have had this bad boy for almost 3 weeks now and it's just about time for my in depth review. First of all I love this phone in all its 3.5g Glory. Everything I didn't like about my Dash has been improved upon (almost). I am going to run down a list of what I really like and then follow it up with its weaknesses. Check back later in the week for applications, hacks and configuration settings...

The Good:

• HSDPA is Super fast and I have seen up to 965kbps in Manhattan.
• 3g Is still faster than Edge or Gprs - I have seen up to 93kbps.
• Tethering a laptop to my Dopod is super fast.
• The processor is double that of the Dash @ 400mhz. This might not seem like a big deal to you mister 3ghz desktop... but trust me this is like the jump from 56k to Broadband.
• This smart phone is really smart - it does cut and paste out the box.
• 2mp Camera.
• Windows Mobile Standard 6.
  
• Battery life is much better as long as the device isn't constantly switch between bands.
• Video streaming on this guy is awesome and so is mp3 streaming.
• My security cameras display on the dopod as well.
• Auto Dimming of the screen with an ambient sensor.
• The combination of the faster processor and faster bands puts my Dash to shame!
  

Now the bad...

• No touch screen.
• Built in speaker for playing music without headphones is just so-so.
• No flash on the camera.
• No GPS - Is this so hard to integrate now? Chips are so small!
  
• No upgrade on internal memory - Can we get a mandatory bump please?

So when my buddies push their iphone at me and grunt... Ug why you no have iPhone Admin?

I just say one word... HSDPA!

What phone do you guys use? Do you love it or hate it? What do you want your phone/pda to do that it can't? Do you need help setting up your dopod on a local network? We can help! Hit us up in the comments! There is also a great thread over @ HoFo.

_TheDopodAdmiN_

Best of the best 10 must have windows mobile apps

Are you running on the windows mobile platform? Then this list is for you! Some of these might not apply to all versions like Vito Copy Paste and Note Pad are only useful for non-touch screen WM5 and 6 phones like the Dash. Let us know if we missed any of your favorites! Check here to see if we have the Application Unlock your Mobile Phone.

Metro - Metro finds your way in public transport systems in more than 350 cities around the world (Paris, New York, London, Tokyo, any city with a subway & many more!). FREE, FAST & ACCURATE. Many more features to discover: - Directions and information! FREE!

Egress - Egress is an advanced yet easy to use application which displays your favorite RSS/ATOM feeds directly on your PocketPC. Now supports Podcasting! Free 30 days $12 to own

Celetask - The best Task/Process Manager on Windows Mobile Smartphone and Pocket PC! Allows for reboots and full access to kill tasks. I only installed this after I could not kill certain process via Task Manager. Free to try for 30 uses and $12.95 after

Total Commander- is a file manager, a program like Windows Explorer to copy, move or delete files. However, Total Commander can do much more than Explorer, e.g. pack and unpack files, access ftp servers, compare files by content, etc! Features: - Copy, Move whole subdirs - Inplace rename, create. This is a beta version and free! Works great have not had an issue with it.

Voice commander - This is an amazing offering by Microsoft. If your on WM5 and don't have this built in to your OS this is a must have! It reads your caller ID, appointments and other information to you out loud. It emebeds the persons name or phone number that is calling in between rings - a great resource! $40 a lot of money but if you are often in the car - this is for you!

Vito copy paste - Sometimes every Smartphone user has to face the difficulty of transfering text from one edit box (any default editable field) to another on your Smartphone. Say, you need to copy a phone number from e-mail and send an sms to this number. In this case, thou funny it may sound, you still have to use a banal pen to write down the number and use it later for writing an sms. This is a big drawback of Windows Mobile platform for Smartphones. VITO CopyPaste has been developed to solve this problem with edit boxes and make Windows Mobile for Smartphones more functional. FREE!

Ztelnet - A professional Telnet / SSH client, designed for network system administrators, end users and web designers, working with Unix/Linux/BSD systems. This new, operating system independent version comes with extended functionalities, including smart phone support, ability to save, restore and edit sessions, virtual scrolling screen with adjustable size, floating keyboard, different font sizes, support of all possible display sizes and orientation, and many more. They also have ZAFtp secure ftp program and ZAtunnel utilities all for FREE!


Pocket Ping - Porting PING.EXE to your PocketPC. FREE!

TCPMP Media Player - Best freeware media player plays everything!

Orneta notepad - The Award Winning Notepad Mobile, by Orneta is a simple and easy to use text editor and viewer for Windows Mobile based devices. The simple and elegant design, is very powerful and feature rich. You can create, view and edit simple or complex documents with ease. Notepad Mobile supports any type of text file, from simple notes and memos, to complex HTML and XML documents. Notepad Mobile is so powerful you can even edit and create Start Menu shortcut links as well as Home Screen layout files. The possibilities are endless with Notepad Mobile, winner of the Pocket PC Magazine Best Software Awards 2003. Free to try - 10$ to buy.

What do you use?? What did we leave off?? Hit us up in the comments!

_TheAdmiN_

We got Themes here... Get your Dash and Blackjack Themes here...

Check out these amazing Smartphone Themes... You can use em' on the Blackjack, Dash, Q and the such... Available from here. It looks like they have lots of theme goodness for all sorts of sized screens as well! Thanks for sending this in Mark!




Oh and don't worry they will be in the language that you use on your device! Don't get scared off by the funny talk :) _TheAdmiN_

Admin Unplugged (literally) The Internet Outage and HTC to the rescue. Internet connection sharing ATT Vs. Tmobile

Optimum online and their high speed internet tubes have shut me down today at 10:11am in mid page refresh and it drove me crazy. I reset my modem, router, laptop and everything in between. I grabbed my bill to make sure I didnt miss a payment and then I called them on it.

I got the whole sorry sir it just happened so we won't know if their is a service outage for some time... blah... blah...blah. Someone will call you back to come to your site at some point today.

Arrrrrg.

So what better time to do a Internet connection sharing comparison between 2 networks via the Dash WM6 Smartphone on ATT vs the Wing WM6 on Tmobile.

I saw faster speeds more consistantly on ATT but they also dipped below 30kbps several times where Tmobile stayed over 29kbps at all times. (ATT seems to handle my requests better though!)

Tmobile Max 76kbps Minimum 29kbps
Att Max 119kbps Minimum 17kbps

They both let me get on and post but it is still sub standard pre 1995 modem speed. I tried using them to do bit torrent - no problem other than speed. It seems neither network is blocking ports - yet. I noticed the Wing timed out after 10 minutes or so and i had to hit a key on the screen to restore it.

But all this does is make we want 3G that much more or how about 3.5G?? Someone want to send me some high speed mobile goodness to review? What is the best available connection for WWAN in the US? Other regions?

Anyone... Anyone... Mcfly?

_TheAdmiNviaEdge_


Update: The Wing on Tmobile timed out or something after 20 minutes and came up on the sim lock screen - Network Locked Enter Unclock Code

Strange and then I had to restart it. Now its working again. ATT seems to be my favorite at the moment.

Update: 1:26PM They had a dude come out and resplice some wires in a box in front of my building. Everything magically came back on. I also noticed a huge box inside the box marked XM. Lots of blinking lights.

And I'm back @ full speed around 20 Mbits - That 20kbps was killer!

Question: How can i restore functionality to my joggr strip on my Tmobile Dash?

Yeah The HTC Excaliber has a cool touch strip that tmobile has decided you Dash users should not get. To restore its HTC functionality Fire up your registry editor that you grabbed a few days back and here are the registry keys to change:

* HKCUControlPanelJogBarSettingsBottomKeyApplicationName = Windowsiexplore.exe
… to convince bottom key of the JOGGR to invoke Pocket Internet Explorer

* HKCUControlPanelJobBarSettingsTopKeyApplicationName = BACK
… to convince top key of the JOGGR to perform "back" function while browsing.

* HKCUControlPanelJogBarSettingsSwitchToAudioFunc = 0
… to make it possible to scroll through web pages by using the JOGGR strip as a

As always, you should keep in mind that any registry changes are unsupported and run the risk of forcing a hard reset. Back up your data before attempting. It also takes some getting used to if you have never used it before.

Tmobile Dash Tip: Hard Reset Information

Here is some information not readily available for the Dash...

To perform a hard reset (Erase ALL your data) on the t-mobile dash hold the two soft buttons down then while holding those buttons hold the power button for 2 seconds you will get a prompt to press 0 to reset. Time is of the essence if you miss it try again.

Edit: Here is a second easier method:

If you cant get this to work you can navigate through these steps as well:

Dash Hard Reset


1. Select Start
2. Accessories
3. Clear Storage
4. Type 1234 in the box
5. Select YES.

Wing issue: After removing PocketDivx MP3's are quirky at best and i can not assign MP3's to ringtones. Can you help me?

This just in our reader Philly2VSU seems to be having problems with his Wing. After removing PocketDivx he can not use MP3s as ringtones and some other glitches. He writes to us...

okay im having a problem with my t-mobile wing i recently purchased, the problem
im having is ive been using active sync to download mp3 files to my phone an i
never had a problem i actually used a audio cutting program to create short
ringtones to add on my phone now yesterday i downloaded a program directly from
my phone over wifi the program was called PocketDivx now i didn't get the
performance from the program in which i was seeking so i uninstalled the program
now when i add ringtones or music an i tap on it to open it a error message that
say"the file cannot be opened.either it is not signed with a trusted
certificate, or one of its components cannot be found. if the problem
persist,try reinstalling or restoring the file. this has ruined all my previous
ringtones i had on the device an ones i put on now so i cant assign any mp3
ringtones to my phone i can only open songs in windows media player can you
please help me with this problem

We have not had this issue before but assume it happened upon removal of the PocketDivx client. We do not know how to have the os re-associate the application to play mp3's instead of Pocket Divx and recomended a Hard Reset. After backing up your information you can :

tap start>settings>system tab>clear storage. then enter 1234 and tap yes

everything saved on the device ecept the memory card will be deleted

Anyone have a better solution? Let us know how it goes Philly!

Philly 6:30PM Says:

problem solved as you suggested i had to reset default factory settings an rather than holding down the two soft keys an hitting power i had to tap start>settings>system tab>clear storage. then enter 1234 an tap yes in the process i had to delete everything saved on the device but it didn't matter because i had my t-mobile wing documents backed up on several folders on my computer thanks for all the help it was very helpful in the solution.

Glad we could help... Keep emailing us those questions!

Karl L. Gechlik
-TheAdmiN_

Some New Dash Tips & Tricks for WM6 - Tip 3 Links for free installable software.

These are great apps and from a great site called mobile.surrealnetworks.com . Great resource link for your dash wm5 , wm6 or even the HTC.


Some of these applications require that your Smartphone be app unlocked to install properly. Please App Unlock first!

If you can't modify system files - you need to APP UNLOCK! I can say it again and again. If you are having issues doing almost anything APP UNLOCK. After you upgrade to WM6 you need to APP UNLOCK AGAIN. You will find instructions here @ asktheadmin.com. Here is the list:


.NET CF 2.0 SP1 2.19MB

.NET Compact Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1. Required for some applications as noted.


Alpha-Numeric Display 180KB (cab)Blue or Gray

A graphic dial pad legend to show which letters correspond to which keys on a standard telephone keypad. Maintains T-Mobile logo. Original keypad graphics courtesy of "blue rocket" from Q Users forum. Reboot after install. Uninstall any previous "color" if installing a new "color". Works while dialing and during a call. v .4


Audio Gain Patch 2KB (cab)

Some Dash users complain of the microphone gain causing poor audio and instances of the audio cutting out. The issue seems to limited to some of the first Dash's to be released. This will correct the gain settings in the registry.



AutoLock 92.3KB (cab)

Allows Automatic Keypad or Security Lock - User Configurable Delay, Application Exceptions and Event Notification. v. 3.87


BTaudio 3KB (cab) Details

Directs All Audio to Your BT Headset, Click Icon To Toggle BT Audio On/Off


Celetask - Great explorer & file manipulator

Dash Weather 548KB (cab)

Application to check weather and forecasts. v 1.03 Requires .NET CF Framework 2.0


Disable Call Reject 2KB (cab)

Disables Touch Strip (JOGGR) Call Reject. The "End" key will still reject calls.


Flash Player Lite 2.1 770KB (cab)

Adobe Flash player for Smart Phones. Based on Flash 7.


GlyphCache 65535 1KB (cab)

Improves Menu speed by increasing certain memory cache.


Google Maps 600KB (cab)

Mapping software from Google. Supports map or satellite imagery. GPS support and route planning (directions).


IE & Mail SD Storage 2KB

Sets IE Cache and Mail Storage to SD Card. Reboot for Settings to Take Effect.



Map4PDA 351KB (cab)

Mapping software that supports Virtual Earth, Yahoo and Google Maps. GPS navigation and route planning. v. 1.4.7 (requires .NET CF 2.0)


OMAP Clock v.2 38KB (cab) Details

Overclock your OMAP850 processor.


Pocket IE Download Plugin 5KB (cab)

Enables Downloading of Additional File Types. Details


Pocket Nester Plus 508KB (cab) Details

Now Plays Full Screen. After Pressing "Menu" During Game Play, You Must Press the Left or Right Softkey to Access Menus.NES ROM Files (directory)


PowerControl 395KB (cab) Details

Execute a Program When the Screen is Activated or Deactivated. v. 1.4


PowerControl+OMAP 415KB (cab)

PowerControl Bundled with OMAP Clock. 240/228MHz When Bright, 180MHz When Dim. Auto Runs on StartUp. Do Not Press Exit Upon Loading. App Unlock Req. Details


Regedit STG 25KB (cab) Details

Signed Smartphone Registry Editor.


RJV Clock 351KB (cab)

Digital Clock, Stop Watch, Lap Timer and Count Down Timer


SetJogBar 29KB (cab)

Motoblast, LLC has created this app that allows you to enable the JOGGR Jog Bar (touch sensitive slider), no registry editing required.


Silent Boot/Shutdown 6KB (cab)

Sets your T-Mobile Dash to Boot and Shutdown with No Sound

Reverse Silent Boot 463KB (cab)


SiriusWM5 289KB (cab)

Stream Sirius Satellite Radio to Your SDA; Subscription Required. Updated 10/07/2006


Smart SS 6KB (cab)

ScreenShot utility. Run the app then use the * key to capture. Images are saved to My Documents



T-Mobile My E-Mail 84KB (cab)

My E-Mail application makes it easy to download your My E-Mail settings from T-Mobile's server. Great if it's missing from your ROM.


T9 Languages (directory)


TCPMP .71 656KB (cab)

Multimedia Player - Supports most Audio/Video codecs. Need AAC Support?


Total Commander 165KB (cab)

A Powerful Utility. File Explorer, FTP Client, Registry Editor and Text Editor.


Vieka WordPad 44KB (cab)

Text Editor, Supports Plain Text and HTML, Cut/Copy/Paste, Word Wrap etc.


Windows Live Search Mobile 411KB

Map, Driving Directions, Business Search and GPS Navigation all on one application. Requires .NET CF 2


Got More? Post em in the comments!

Tips & Tricks: Tmobile Dash Network Settings for use on Cingular/ATT after you unlock

Sorry Al for taking so long for this one here is how I got my Dash set up to use Cingulars networks for WAP Access and all that other Data Goodness!

CONFIGURE BROWSER AND GPRS SETTINGS

1. Press START
2. Select/Launch Internet Explorer
3. Press MENU
4. Select TOOLS then OPTIONS
5. Select CONNECTIONS
6. Verify that “Automatically detect settings” is UNCHECKED. If it is
checked (probably is) then uncheck it.

7. Set Select Network to WAP NETWORK
8. Press DONE twice
9. Press HOME key
10. Press START
11. Select SETTINGS
12. Select CONNECTIONS
13. Select GPRS
14. Select the existing profile displayed, press MENU, then select
EDIT
15. Change settings to: (these settings are case sensitive)

a. Change name to: Cingular GPRS
b. Connects to: THE INTERNET
c. Access Point: wap.cingular
d. User Name: WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COMe. Password:
CINGULAR1

f. Leave Primary DNS empty
g. Leave Secondary DNS empty
h. Leave IP Address empty
i. Press DONE twice

16. Select PROXY
a. Highlight the existing profile, press MENU, then select EDIT
b. Change name to Cingular WAP
c. Change Settings to:
i. Connects from: The Internet
ii. Connects to: WAP Network
iii. Proxy: wireless.cingular.com:80
iv. Type: HTTP
v. Leave User Name blank
vi. Leave Password blank

d. Press DONE twicee. Press the HOME keyIf you need to configure MMS, then here's the site link to the Cingular config details:

https://www.cingular.com/support/deviceConfig.do?content=KB69475.html

They say its for the 3125 but they work!

If you are still having issues try this... Reader Mike said this worked like a charm for him:

1- GO TO INTERNET EXPLORER, PRESS MENU, GO TO OPTIONS, CONNECTIONS, UNCHECK DETECT SETTINGS, SELECT NETWORK SHOULD BE THE INTERNET.PRESS DONE.

2- GO BACK TO MAIN SCREEN.

3- PRESS START,SETTINGS,CONNECTIONS,GO TO GPRS,PRESS MENU,PRESS ADD, NAME IT MEDIA NET, CONNECTS TO THE INTERNET,ACCESS POINT WAP.CINGULAR,USENAME (ALL CAPS) WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM,PASSWORD (ALL CAPS) CINGULAR1, PRIMARY DNS 66.209.11.61, THATS IT PRESS DONE.

4- GO BACK TO CONNECTIONS PAGE AND GO TO PROXY, AGAIN PRESS ADD, NAME IT CINGULAR WAP, CONNECTS FROM THE INTERNET, CONNECTS TO WORK, PROXY WIRELESS.CINGULAR.COM:80, TYPE HTTP. THATS IT. PRESS DONE, DONE.

5- GO BACK HOME AND TRY AND CONNECT. YOU SHOULD CONNECT NO PROBLEM.

Tips & Tricks: Tmobile Wing Remove the Tray Icons From Your Today Screen.

The tray icons at the bottom of the Today screen may be nice but for some they take up too much of the screens real estate. In the Windows Mobile 5.0 all you needed to do was remove the T-Mobile Hotspot utility and the Tray_init.lnk from the /Windows/startup directory.

This is not the case with Windows Mobile 6, Microsoft cleaned up the tray function and made it part of the init sequence during boot time. This means that it has to be removed from the registry. Here is the key that have to be deleted.

\HKLM\init\Launch92 string value Trayap.exe
Perform a soft reboot.
I used Total Commander found in Windows Mobile Application list here. As always be careful that you are deleting the right registry entry since it affects how the system boots.

Today screen with the tray at the bottom