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!

Can You Explain the 700MHz Auction?

Could you carry on a conversation about the impending spectrum auction if someone were to strike one up with you? Do you know what the spectrum auction is?

Don't worry about it, most of us can't and don't. Not to worry though. Scott from AndroidGuys is here, guest-blogging for AtA to explain a little bit more about it. You’ve probably seen quite a bit written up recently about who may or may not be bidding in the auction come January, especially last week once Google made the announcement signaling their intent to participate.

Today, we want to tell you a little bit more about what the 700MHz is used for, what it could potentially be used for, and why it has been making headlines. This way you gain an understanding as to why companies are ready to plunk down over $4.6B next spring.

Currently, the spectrum is being used for analog television broadcasts. As we all know, in February 2009 we will no longer be seeing that as we are transitioning to digital television. This spectrum would work well as an alternative to DSL or cable internet providers as it travels easily and penetrates walls. It would be very enticing to businesses already in the wireless game, as it could be how they’d end up providing high speed internet to their consumers. It could also be a great way for companies to get their feet wet offering their own services.

So now we come to Google’s involvement and why it was a big deal that they announced their intention to bid. Back in the summer, Google petitioned the FCC to enforce rules on the companies who intended to bid on the spectrum should they end up winning. The biggest provision made was that it would require the winner to support any wireless device or any software application. Verizon fought these requirements for a while and at one point tried to sue the FCC. Ultimately decided to drop their argument and make nice. In a change of heart, they even announced their “Any App, Any Phone’ initiative last week.

With Google recently making headlines with their ‘intention to bid’, many are asking how serious this bid really is and whether or not Google plans on seeing the auction through to the end.

A lot of people have speculated that Google will make the introductory offer of $4.6B and bow out. It’s been said that they only intend to bid because they were the company that had the FCC make provisions to the rules.

The auction does not begin until January 24th but that doesn’t mean we don’t know who is going to participate. So far, we do know that besides Google, we’ll also get bids from Verizon, AT&T, Cox Cable, Echostar, Leap Wireless and Frontline Wireless. The actual list might be slightly larger because companies only had to notify the FCC of their intent secretly and not publicly. Names that are noticeably absent from the list are Time Warner, AOL, Comcast, Sprint, and Clearwire. These are names that have been essentially confirmed as not partaking in the event. The auction is likely to last several weeks or months, but one thing is certain; Come February 2009, someone else will be broadcasting on 700MHz.

Smart money says Google have their search engine, applications, and ads in place regardless of who wins.

Thanks again to Karl and the other Admins for letting me stop by! If you want to keep up on Google, Android, or the 700MHz auction, stop by AndroidGuys or subscribe to our feed!

Gelaskins for all different devices, reviewed on a Powerbook...

Hey Boys and Girls,

We've had the honor of meeting up with the guys over at Gelaskins. Their products were one of the more popular products at the CES pre-show and Digital-Life Show, mainly because of the sexy designs they use for their Gelaskins. Really wicked stuff. But there's more to Gelaskins than meets the eye. Beyond the sick designs they've used for their products, they've also seemingly took great pains to make sure the products are easy to apply, and guess what... IT WORKS.

I wish screen protectors were this easy, because I've never had a device with a screen, that didn't also have an air bubble or two. But this was a pleasure to stick on. It seems the Gelaskin is somehow porous, and air bubbles can be dissipated just by pressing on them. It literally took me 10 seconds to stick this thing. When I noticed it wasn't perfectly centered, I peeled it off and gave it another go. Once again the product stuck on with no issues, snags, snafus, or the such.

The guys at Gelaskins were nice enough to provide us with a bunch of different sizes and designs, so pretty soon we will be running a Gelaskins Giveaway contest. Sponsored by Gelaskins and Ask The Admin, of course. So stay tuned kiddies, these things are gonna be the hottest new accessory for pretty much every piece of high-end electronics you own, phones, laptops, and everything in between.

I like Gelaskins.

C64
Happy Holidays

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

Google's Android Not Just for Phones

Hey everyone, it's Scott from AndroidGuys here. Thanks to Karl and the other Admins here, I’m back with another article!

Yesterday, we put an article up on AndroidGuys where we talked about Google’s foray into the television world. I’d like to expound upon that piece and explain how open source could radically change the television and advertising industry.

Google’s $10 Million Android Developers Challenge is not only the open source platform that will help change the way mobile devices are designed and used. It is my opinion that it is more specifically the basis for the way people will stay in touch and get information. Google was never really going to come out with the iPhone killer. I think they have their sites on much bigger things. They’d rather change the way you receive your content, be it television, web, email, photos, etc. Instead of focusing on entirely on the mobile industry, Google is also evaluating the television industry. That's right, we're already talking about AndroidTV. Is the day that far off where you will be able to sync your favorite shows, emails, and notes between your TV and your mobile device? I don’t think it is. There are already plenty of ways hardware devices can sync up; Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, and of course using the trusty data cable.

By asking developers to write programs around their open source backbone, Google will be able to seamlessly integrate the best features between your phone and television. Today’s cable boxes are more or less computers. They come preloaded with a few limited API’s like a menu setup, a program guide, the DVR software, and a few customer service feature, like account information. Now imagine what you could do with that box if it were open source. There are already scores of "roll your own" DVR interfaces that you can make using your PC or Mac.

Let’s imagine a scenario here. You’re in a fantasy football league and are following your players as closely as possible. Why shouldn’t you be able to watch a pre-recorded program on your TiVo and, at the same time, have a widget display your players’ performances at the bottom of the screen? Stock tickers, real-time weather conditions and traffic are the tip of the iceberg. In the age of micro-blogging, wouldn’t make sense to be able to see what your friends are doing right now without having to log online? Your Twitter widget tells you that Craig is on his way home from work. Maybe a notification when Ted is logged into Facebook. Maybe a popup that alerts you to the fact that someone just left you feedback on eBay. Folks, it’s all going to happen. And very soon.

Need more convincing? The guy behind Android? Andy Rubin. Take a look at his past endeavors. You might recall a little project he was involved in a few years back called WebTV. Oh yeah, for those of you who are currently unemployed, Google's hiring for a television technology software engineer position in Mountain View, CA.

My grin is bigger than yours.

Scott | AndroidGuys.com | chewie77@gmail.com

Google to give away free Cell Phone Service?

Hey Boys and Girls,

Shhh, this one is a little secret for all you hardcore aTa fans...

We here at www.asktheadmin.com have an inside scoop that is sure to be the talk of the (virtual) town about Google and their new Gphone.

We all know it's reality that Google is, in fact, working on their own phone. It's been buzzing for months. Can you say G-Phone?

We also know, for fact, that The Big Goog have been trying to get their hands on their own cell-radio frequency from the FCC. This has been old news for months. Can you say 700 Mhz?
We also know that GOOG have been working heavily on an operating system for phone hardware. Can you say Android?

But what we have also cleverly found out, from a source who REALLY prefers we leave her name and whereabouts undisclosed, is that Google really is looking to move in on, and compete with, all the other big cellphone companies.

Our source works for a sub-contractor for one of the PR companies working for Google, and while details are shaky at best, I did catch something about new branding, FREE cell service, and one of the biggest, single-handed emergences of a ridiculously strong competitor, and more importantly a huge threat, to EVERY cellphone service provider in the NATION.

What was more important than the facts themselves are the details. How about the fact that it was requested that these new branding schemes be done with great haste, and that a considerable amount of money was spent into developing these new brand schemes quite richly and deeply. Almost like they paid extra, like a rush fee, to be sure the whole idea gets pushed to it's end, and double time!

I don't know about you Boys and Girls, but this sounds like Google is about to make some serious moves towards becoming their own, end to end, cellphone company, from the phone right down to the airwaves. Whats craziest is that they want it to be free (and ad-based, of course). Not only will it be their own cellphone service, and harware manufacturer, but they are essentially BUILDING their own ad-market from scratch. POOF!

Can you say anti-trust? Can you say market upturn?
Can you dare to say free cellphone service and wireless internet?

Google dares!

In the immortal words of William Shakespeare, and later Aldous Huxley - "Oh Brave New World that has such people in it."

Chew on that.
Peace

Commodore 64 (the one you used to play Bruce Lee on)
1

Edit - As Reader Gavin pointed out Google is laying their own fiber under the ocean see here.

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?)

CES NYC Press Preview Unveiled!

The Admin and Commodore 64 attended the CES International 2008 Press Preview last night. We were on a mission to find new gizmos and gadgets for our upcoming post

"It's A Geeky Christmas! What to get the geek in your life for the holidays."

We searched high and low (mostly near the fancy finger foods and at the bar ) then we hit the exhibits. Somehow we wound up with an Exhibitor pass instead of the standard press pass... I started to wait in line to get it all fixed up but then the security guard told me i can go right into the show floor - which was not going to be open for another half hour. Sweet! No line at the bar... No line for food. And no lines at the booths! Super Sweet.

We found a few really cool stocking stuffers and some great low and high end gifts. Some brand new technology and some re-vamped old ones. Check out the highlights:

• A Gold and Fake Snake Skin Motorola Razr V8

• The Dragon is a premium class-1 Bluetooth headset with 100-meter range and dual-mic noise suppression, designed for all-day usage and top performance. It can be used as a two way radio as well. The octopus looking usb hub was cool as well from CallPod.

• AtA's first hands on with the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child). I was told we can buy them individually but no one could tell me how. If I was Fidel Castro they would have told me! AMD showed us this little guy along with some other very cool stuff.

• Parrot's Hands Free Car Kit from the Awesome hands of Philips

• A helmet cam

• A Blinged Out Hello Kitty Laptop? Kind of hurts a little eh? AMD had it on display next to some of their fabulous new itty bitty chips that bring ATI graphics to phones and other small platforms.

We also came across some amazing new takes on Wireless USB from WiQuest, RCA is helping old people that don't know that their old analog TV's will stop working in 2012 by offering a converter, Alpines Mobile Media Solution - these things keep getting smaller and smaller! I played with some Solid State Drives from SanDisk, Audio Vox has some awesome (Cheap) two way radios and Turbo Charge had really cheap portable chargers for almost every possible mobile device.

Review units will be coming in shortly and we are hard at work compiling our Geeky List for our readers (and their significant others). If you have something you want to submit or just share with us please drop a email to tips at askTheAdmin.com and we will check everything out!

So what do you want for the holidays? Let us know - or if you don't know what you want send that close someone over to AtA in December for a list of "AtA approved Geeky Goodness" Patent Pending :)

_TheIfeelLikeSantaAdmiN_

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_

Apple to allow Third Party Apps on the iPhone. Fanboys everywhere rejoice!

This just in - Breaking news - HOLY SHIT!

Apple would have been crazy to try and stop 3rd party applications forever but in a milestone announcement today, Apple says they will have a SDK out in February... And the crowd goes wild!!!! On top of that the same SDK will work with the iPod Touch - Double Score. Here you go right from the horse's mouth on the Apple Website... Thanks JOE!

Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February. We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users. With our revolutionary multi-touch interface, powerful hardware and advanced software architecture, we believe we have created the best mobile platform ever for developers.

It will take until February to release an SDK because we’re trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once—provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc. This is no easy task. Some claim that viruses and malware are not a problem on mobile phones—this is simply not true. There have been serious viruses on other mobile phones already, including some that silently spread from phone to phone over the cell network. As our phones become more powerful, these malicious programs will become more dangerous. And since the iPhone is the most advanced phone ever, it will be a highly visible target.

Some companies are already taking action. Nokia, for example, is not allowing any applications to be loaded onto some of their newest phones unless they have a digital signature that can be traced back to a known developer. While this makes such a phone less than “totally open,” we believe it is a step in the right direction. We are working on an advanced system which will offer developers broad access to natively program the iPhone’s amazing software platform while at the same time protecting users from malicious programs.

We think a few months of patience now will be rewarded by many years of great third party applications running on safe and reliable iPhones.

Steve

P.S.: The SDK will also allow developers to create applications for iPod touch. [Oct 17, 2007]

[Apple Hot News]

_TheGrinningAdmiN_

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_

If you unlocked your iPhone it may get bricked with the new updates...

So Apple casually announces modified iPhones might get bricked in the next update. And for those of you who don't know Bricking = Bad! Bricking a device is in essence making that shiny uber device into a fancy paper weight or BRICK...

Apples says that any running of 3rd party applications voids your warranty. Sound familiar? Yup we called it over here @ AtA - There is going to be another Sony PSP style war heating up. Now lets remember what the Sony fanboys did when threatened with something similar?

They created custom firmware for their beloved device and I have been... I mean they have been running it since inception. All the good stuff from home brew and access to all the legit fanyboy goodness.

So have some questions Who's working on it? All that money spent to unlock the shiny iPhone how much is it worth to customize it? Where's that guy dark alex who has been keeping up with Sony?

Anyone got a iPhone dump? iPhone dev wiki dudes? Anyone? Buller?

I think the $20,000 dollar question is really...

If Apple knows about the potential issue did they do it on purpose? And even if it wasn't couldn't it have been avoided? I mean apple mentions the anySim app by name...

Who are you guys fooling? Certainly not us... Oh and it looks like there is a update coming out for downloading music directly to your phone.... Oh wait don't do it!

_ThePerplexedAdmiN_

AOL Instant Messenger for the Iphone - and it's native too!

Hey Boys and Girls,

Commodore here to bring you the latest in delicious chunks of sliced (hacked) Apple (iphone). It seems the guys at Twenty08 have released a native AIM client for the Iphone. Word is the client has the features you've come to love and expect from AIM. These features include:

• AIM Account Support
  
• IM Abilities
• Full Buddylist with Statuses
• Change status: Away & Online
• Suspend and stay online
• Sound notifications
• Popup Notifications.

I'm not sure the results are in yet, as to how well the proggy performs, but as we've seen in our Blurb Generator on the top of this page, if at first you don't succeed, call it version 1.0 :)
You can see the original Twenty08 mobile AIM site here.

For the meantime, this is Commodore 64, over and out...
(Still the one you used to play Bruce Lee on)

Is there any way to improve Edge speeds on my iPhone? Does my iPhone have an antenna?

We just learned from several readers who I guess actually read the user manual of their shinny new iPhones. We were pointed to a post on cr.eations.net. That post pointed out a fact that a lot of us missed when reading our manual. You didn't read the manual - hmmm neither did I. Seeming this popular uber gadget didn't ship with any flavor of 3G goodness lets help you guys to achieve - whopping 60+ kbps speeds... (Can you sense the sarcasm?)

So check out this (We can't call it a hack) method of intended use on your iPhone. Lets call it the iPhone anti-hack. Go get your better download speeds and stop absorbing all those evil radio waves. Hmmm Better speeds and less radiation! What a concept. Thanks Cr.Eations.Net, Linda and Jason for the nfo. (By the way what do you guys think of our random quotes??)

For me it's been quite obvious but I am surprised how many iPhone owners I see complaining about EDGE speeds when they're covering the antenna (that black plastic area on the back of the phone) with their hand. A very useful tip for those using EDGE: Take your hand off the antenna! Your meaty fingers are absorbing all the Internet packets. The advantage is especially obvious when you have low signal strength - but even when I have full bars, I see a 50% speed increase when my flesh isn't absorbing all of those radio waves.

Let's not forget that the warning manual that comes with the iPhone (you did read it, didn't you?) says your flesh must remain three-quarter inches away from that antenna otherwise you exceed FCC limits for radio exposure. [