Jose Gallardo Salazar, a senior mobile developer and architect who works at Clarius Consulting, developed a nice application for Windows Phone to stay up to date with the 2010 FIFA Worldcup in South Africa.

You can read in the article “World Cup 2010 Application for Windows Mobile: The panoramic UX proof of concept is here!” on the Mobile Practices website:

“I’m glad to introduce you this small World Cup 2010 application for Windows Mobile, which has been entirely developed using the Compact Framework applying some UX concepts from Windows Phone 7 panoramic UI and spikes on fluent UI I recently worked on.”

In his article I will provide a short step by step overview of the WorldCup 2010 application on the HTC HD2.

World Cup 2010 – A short application overview

In this section I will guide you through an overview of the World Cup application in a systematic step-by-step way.

In the left screenshot above you can see that I open the Worldcup 2010 application from the renewed Windows Mobile 6.5 start menu, that with the first launch of Worldcup 2010 results in a “recovery process”. This sounds heavier than it is, since it is simply the first download of the available data. You can see the status of the download process in the right screenshot above.

What’s new

The “what’s new” screen is the default screen of the Worldcup 2010 application for Windows Phone. The toppart of the screen consists of a red navigation bar, with the text 2010 FIFA Worldcup South Africa, as you can see in the left screenshot above. You can navigate to the next screen via a gesture from right to left that brings you to the next screen.

The What’s new secction consists of news items that are downloaded directly from the official 2010 FIFA Worldcup South Africa website. It is simply the rss-feed of the FIFA news items, however by clicking on an item you can read the excerpts of the news items. As you can see in the right screenshot above it is a great combination of text and a picture.

Groups

The second section of the Worldcup 2010 application is called groups. You can see an overview of each group, with the four countries that each group exitsts of.

If you tap on a group, for example group E with the Netherlands, you will get a detailed overview of the statistics of the group and details about each match. This is shown in the right screenshot above.

Calendar

The third section of the Worldcup 2010 application for Windows Phone is called Calendar, which provides a calendar overview of the 2010 FIFA Worldcup. It gives you the ability to view the three matches of each day, and remark that the passed days are crossed out.

If you select on of the days, for example Tue, 15 June 2010, you will get an overview of the three different matches, with the competing countries of each match, the time of the match, the location of the match, the group info, and after the match the score is included here as well. In the right screenshot above you can see this overview.

Play-Offs

The fourth section of the Worldcup 2010 application is a graphical representation of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Tournament. It covers the part beyond the group-phase of the tournament.

In other words it provides information about the round of last 16 competing countries, the quarter finals, the semi finals and the match for the 3rd place and the final. Again you can tap on a specific match to get more information about the specific match, however currently is this information still unknown early in the tournament.

Concluding thoughts and wrap-up

Jose Gallardo Salazar mainly developed the Worldcup 2010 application for Windows Phone as a proof of concept for “applying some UX concepts from Windows Phone 7 panoramic UI and spikes on fluent UI I recently worked on.”

The GUI design of the Wordcup 2010 application for Windows Phone is awesome, and clearly shows Windows Phone 7 panoramic UI influences. Please compare with the GUI of the Windows Phone 7 hubs in the Windows Phone 7 overview article on this website.

Overall it is a really nice application to keep track off the latest daily developments of the 2010 FIFA Worldcup in South Africa.

Download the Worldcup 2010 application via freewarepocketpc.net or use OpnMarket, the freewarepocketc.net Marketplace !

I want to dedicate this article to an application for Windows Phone that has provided an excellent solution for avoiding roaming costs abroad as the result of “unwanted” cellular data connections that are automatically started by an application.

I’m talking about MoDaCo Nodata, which is developed back in 2006 by one of my international friends Paul O’Brien, Founder and Editor in Chief of MoDaCo. In the original release post on the MoDaCo forums Paul O’Brien wrote:

“Here’s a quick, handy little application i’ve rustled up as i’m off abroad for a few days soon, and don’t want to run up a huge GPRS bill. It lists your GPRS connections, and allows you to disable them so that they won’t be used. Disable your connections before you leave, re-enable them when you return – piece of cake with MoDaCo NoData.”

MoDaCo NoData – A Quick Overview

In this section I will provide a quick overview of how MoDaCo NoData works in practice. It is very easy and simple to use on your Windows Phone, but it really can make a difference for the bill from your mobile operator.

At first you download the cab-installer of MoDaCo NoData from the MoDaCo website, copy it to your Windows Phone and install it on your device with help of for example Resco File Explorer 2010 (double clicking on the cab-installer).

Start menu and main application window

In the left screenshot above you can see the MoDaCo NoData application icon, with the familiar green g, in the start menu of the HTC HD2. When you open MoDaCo NoData you will get an overview of your cellular data connections (in the central part of the screen) and a short description of the MoDaCo NoData application (in the top of the screen), as shown in the right screenshot above. Furthermore you can see that the Toggle and Exit commands are mapped to the softkeys.

Back in January 2008 support for Windows Mobile Standard was added to MoDaCo NoData, as I reported on the Mobilyz forums (former Pocketinfo) back then. Or as you can read in the edits of the original release posts on the MoDaCo forums:

“[Edit 15/01/08: Now added Smartphone support (finally)!]
[Edit 29/03/08: Minor update]“

Both the screenshots above show similar screenshots of the MoDaCo NoData start menu entry and the main application window, however now taken on a Windows Mobile Standard device, the HTC Snap.

Toggle data connection and exit

In order to disable a data connection you simply select the connection, in this example the Vodafone live! connection, and press the left softkey (= toggle) to switch off the Vodafone live! data connection.

You may have noticed the pop-up message in the left screenshot above: “Connection disabled – You will need to manually disconnect if a GPRS connection is currently active“. Unfortunately MoDaCo NoData doesn’t directly kill you active cellular data connection, but requires a manual disconnection via the ComManager on your Windows Phone after you exit MoDaCo NoData by pressing the right softkey. Finally you need to confirm that you want to exit MoDaCo NoData.

In the screenshots above you can see the MoDaCo NoData user experience on a Windows Mobile Standard device. The main difference is that you don’t see pop-up messages, but the information is shown in a new screen (without the overview of data connections).

Concluding thoughts and final question(s)

“Disable your connections before you leave, re-enable them when you return – piece of cake with MoDaCo NoData.”

MoDaCo NoData has been -and still is- one of those exceptionally helpful applications that makes it very simple to disable cellular data connections on your Windows Phone, no matter if you use a touch- or a non-touch device. I would like to make the statement that MoDaCo NoData is part of a personal hall of fame of Windows Mobile applications !

With MoDaCo NoData you don’t need to worry about an automatic data re-connection to a mobile network, caused for example by a Twitter client or RSS reader that perform automatic refreshes in the background.

Some of you might know that I live very close to both the German and Belgian border, and I drive on a regular basis through these countries (by car as well as during sports activities on my road bike). MoDaCo NoData is helping me for about 4 years to minimize roaming costs across the border, and a true must have application that I always install on every Windows Phone.

I really do hope that Paul O’Brien will continue the future development of such a helpful application and bring MoDaCo NoData to Windows Phone 7 or  other data-intensive mobile platforms like Google Android. I would like to wrap-up this article with a question:

• Would you donate  in order to support Paul O’Brien to continue the development of the MoDaCo NoData application and might even bring it to the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace or other mobile platforms ?

About a week ago one of my international friends, Leigh Geary, Windows Mobile MVP and Editor in Chief of Coolsmartphone.com, wrote a news item about the availability of a new YouTube application for the Windows Mobile- and Symbian S60 platform. 

In this article I will provide a short overview of this new version of the YouTube application for Windows Phone. In addition I will share some of my practical experiences, although I must admit I’m not a heavy YouTube user on my HTC HD2 Windows Phone. 

Some pre-installation information

On the Official Google Mobile Blog you can read the following background information about the YouTube application design strategy: 

“We strongly believe that faster is better. The YouTube Mobile app is designed to be the fastest way to find and play a video on your smartphone. In the initial release we minimized the number of features and focused on speed for things that matter – app startup, finding a video, and starting playback.” 

With YouTube being one of the largest search engines, focused on seach of video’s, the YouTube application for Windows Phone probably is the fastest way to find an play video’s on your smartphone while on the go. A short application overview will be provided in the second section of this article. 

When you start the YouTube application for Windows Phone from the Windows Mobile 6.5 start menu, you first need to select your country from a list, which is shown in the right screenshot above. This selection is necessary to view, read and agree with the terms and conditions, presented in the language of your selected county. 

You need to confirm that you agree with the terms and conditions by hitting the right softkey with the accept command, that is shown in the left screenshot above. 

The next screen shows you a warning that using the YouTube application for Windows Phone, could result in additional data charges, and roaming costs abroad. I personally use a “flat-free” cellular data subscription from Vodafone, however it is good to inform people who don’t have a flat free cellular data subscription, so that costs can be minimized. 

YouTube application – A quick overview

In the left screenshot above you can see the “main screen” of the YouTube application for Windows Phone. 

In the upperpart you can see a large search box and large search button, that are optimized for touch control. In the bottompart of the screen you can see five buttons (1) browse videos, (2) favorites, (3) subscriptions, (4) playlists, and (5) my video’s. In the middelpart you can see a preview of a YouTube video, with the according information on the right side. On the Official Google Mobile Blog it is summarized as: 

“In today’s release we have added search query suggestions, ‘My Account’ support, and a new homescreen user interface that is optimized for larger screens. Now when you log into your YouTube account on our phone, you can view your favorites, subscriptions and playlists from wherever you are.” 

In the right screenshot above you see the pop-up window of the sign-in process, where you need to enter your YouTube username (= Gmail account) and the according password. You can sign-in via de right softkey “menu” on the main screen. 

Browse video’s

A pop-up window is shown if you the the touch-optimized button labelled “browse video’s”. In this pop-up window, shown in the left screenshot above, you can choose three types of filters to browse video’s:  (1) top rated, (2) most viewed, or (3) most recent video’s. 

As an example I selected the most viewed filter. In the right screenshot above you can see the resulting most viewed screen. In the upper part of the screen you can see a “pivot module” with a preview of the YouTube video. The left and right arrows on the sides suggest to the end user that you can pivot to the left and to the right, and on the HTC HD2 this is fully accomplished via touch control. In the bottom part of the screen you can see the video details and description of the specific selected video in the middle of the pivot module. 

No matter which of the three filters you select, the resulting experience with the “pivot module” is always the same. 

Favorites

I already mentioned in the introduction that I’m not a heavy YouTube user, so unfortunately I haven’t favorited a video yet. However the idea from this button is clear, you can easily find and view your favorite YouTube videos in this part of the application, without the need to search for it.  

Subscriptions

Another new feature in the YouTube application for Windows Phone is to easily view your subscriptions within two clicks. In the left screenshot above you can see the pop-up window which provides an overview of my subscriptions:  xboxprojectnatal and windowsphone. 

When I select for example the windowsphone subscription from the pop-up menu, a new screen with just the videos of the selected subscription are shown. The lateste video of the windowsphone subscription is the Demo from MIX Marketplace keynote, which you can see in the right screenshot. In fact this is a kind of similar experience, with the “filters” of the browse videos button. Again you see the ”pivot module” in the upper part of the screenshot, and details plus description of the specific video in the bottom part of the screenshot. 

Playlists

In this part of the YouTube application for Windows Phone you can view, download an play the stored YouTube playlists on your Windows Phone. For example you have compiled a playlist with video clips of your favorite songs of the moment. Now you can easily access the playlist and listen to your preferred songs, without the need of addional search actions. In my personal case however I get a “zero results” message in the pop-up window, since I haven’t stored a playlist in my YouTube account.  

My Video’s

The last touch optimized button on the main screen of the YouTube application for Windows Phone is labelled My Videos. Just like many of the other features, you need to be signed in with your YouTube / Gmail account to access your videos. However remark, that you don’t have to sign-in again for every feature, in that respect it is a single sign-on principle. 

About two months ago I wrote an article on my personal blog “Project Natal for Xbox 360 – A Controller Free Gaming Experience” in which I embedded a video of the Project Natal CES 2010 announcement with Robbie Bach, President, Entertainment & Devices Division. So I uploaded the video to my YouTube account and included it in the article. As you can see in the right screenshot above, this is the last video I have uploaded to my YouTube account. 

Google suggestions in YouTube app

On the Official Google Mobile Blog you can read the folowwing description of a new key feature, that is widely known from the pc-search-experience: 

“Another feature that we have added is query suggestions. When you type into the YouTube search box, you get relevant suggestions. This saves on typing which is especially useful for mobile phones where text input may be difficult.” 

As you can see in the screenshots above I started to type the word windows, and while I was typing suggestions for the search query are presented to me similar as on my Windows PC. I wanted to search for videos about the Windows Phone 7 series, which is suggested in the list. So I simply select that suggestion and hit he search button. The result is shown in the right screenshot, with 2151 YouTube video’s regarding the Windows Phone 7 series. 

Final thoughts and overall conclusion

The YouTube application for Windows Phone brings almost the same set of features and functions, that I have a in a browser on my Windows PC, to the mobile usage scenario. Despite we are talking about a Google product, I see a similar kind of reasoning as the Microsoft strategy of three-screens-and-a-cloud !! 

The application design is clean, and optimized for touch control. A small personal comment in the design might be the implementation that the description of a specific video takes up more screenspace than the pivot mechanism. In other words I would like to see larger previews, and less description. Furthermore the design feels very consistant, with similar experiences across the different buttons. 

If you are a heavy YouTube user this is a great application to enrich your Windows Phone. Especially when you are talking about the HTC HD2 with its great 4.3″ capacitive screen and awesome multimedia capabilities.  

“To download the app on your Windows Mobile or Nokia S60 phone, simply visit http://m.youtube.com/app in your phone’s browser.” 

If you are a Symbian S60 user, you might want to check out the review of Steve Litchfield, Editor of All About Symbian.com, “YouTube Mobile hits v2.4, gets account support“.

In the showcase section of Windows Marketplace for Mobile I noticed a “new” Twitter client for Windows Phones called TouchTwit. I was looking for a new fast Twitter client for use on the HTC HD2, that would take more advantage of the Qualcomm 1GHz Snapdragon and the massive 4.1″ capacitive screen.

Based on the positive feedback from users in the Windows Marketplace for Mobile, I decided to buy TouchTwit from the Windows Marketplace for Mobile for the reasonable price of € 1,89 !

First launch of TouchTwit on HTC HD2

If you don’t mind I will skipp the purchasing process part from Windows Marketplace for Mobile, since this is very simple and intuitive to do. Even the setup and configuration of your payment credentials is easy to do from your Windows Phone or Windows PC.

TouchtTwit is based on the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework 3.5, which is additionally installed on your Windows Phone. On the TouchTwit website you can read back the additional system requirements. In the left screenshot above you see the very cool and well designed TouchTwit program icon in the start menu of the Windows Mobile 6.5 powered HTC HD2.

At the first launch of TouchTwit you will see an information screen with a disclaimer and the reminder of possible data charges, which is shown in the left screenshot above. Perhaps it is the German accuracy, but I think it is good to inform your end-users about this (although it won’t be much of a surprise). Click the left softkey, OK, to continue witch the TouchTwit configuration.

The next step in order to use TouchTwit is adding your account credentials or the creation of a new account. In the right screenshot above you can see both these options. In addition you can see that I have added both my personal remoknops account, and the mobilityminded account. Yes, one of the unique features is that TouchTwit manages multiple Twitter accounts easily from your Windows Phone.

In order to continue with the step-by-step application overview Iselect my personal remoknops twitter account and will be redirected to the home-tab of the TouchTwit application.

TouchTwit – A step-by-step application overview

In this section of the article I will provide a step-by-step overview of the TouchTwit application. As you can see in the screenshots above there is a static navigation toolbar with five tabs/buttons on the bottom of the screen: (1) Home, (2) Mentions, (3) Messages, (4) More, and (5) Update.

Home

In the left screenshot above you see an example screenshot of how the “homelist” looks like. At first you see a wide dark titlebar that marks the top of the list and provides information about: (1)  the selected account with help of the title “remoknop’s timeline” and the sync status.  In the bottom line of the bar you can see the timestamp of the next automatic refresh and more important you see a big round synchronization button (with blue arrows) right next to it for manual synchronization.

Furthermore you see the line: “Friends, Mentions & Messages” which gives you information about which types of tweets are showing up in the homelist feed. Via the more tab, which I will discuss later in this section, you can change the home(list) settings, that are shown in the right screenshot above. You can choose to uncheck the mentions or direct messages to show up in the home(list) feed. If you uncheck on of these options, the line in the wide dark titlebar is changed as well. Finally you see the option to search through your homelist feed as well.

If you switch back to the left screenshot above you see that the complete Twitter messages are shown in a clean well designed look. The lack of showing the complete tweet in Twikini, has been one of my main drivers for the search to an alternative Twitter client. Clicking on a link in TouchTwit directly opens this link in the default Opera Mobile browser from the HTC HD2.  A Twitpic link that is included in a tweet will be opened internally in the TouchTwit application !

The wide dark title bar marks the top of the home(list) twitter feed, where the top means the most recent tweets. This titlebar isn’t static, and will move away when you scroll down to older tweets. The bottom of the home(list) feed is marked with wide dark more button, similar to the implementation of the Twitter experience in a webbrowser on your Windows PC. By clicking on the more button you can extend the home(list) feed with the next set of older tweets. A screenshot with the more button is shown in the left screenshot below.

Mentions

The second tab/button in the navigation bar on the bottom of the screen is called mentions. Again you can see the wide dark titlebar in the mentions screen as well. The main difference with the home(list) twitter feed, the mentions feed has a light blue background ! The right screenshot above gives an impression of the mentions overview.

(Direct) Messages

The next tab/button in the navigation bar covers another main ingredient of most Twitter clients, (direct) messages. In the left screenshot above you see an overview of the direct messages tab with the remarkable light orange background. Furthermore is the wide dark titlebar here implemented as well.

The home(list) feed, mentions, and direct messages, are the main ingredienst which we can see in most Twitter clients for Windows PC and Windows Mobile.

More

The more tab/button in the navigation bar of the TouchTwit application for Windows Phone includes a few unique features in comparison with other Twitter clients for Windows Mobile. The three screenshots above give you an idea of the different options which are part of the more tab.

At first you have the possibility to check a few additional account details on your Windows Phone:  (1) Favorites, (2) Followers, (3) Following. In the TweetDeck twitter client on my Windows 7 notebook I have a separate column for the favorite tweets, as a kind of reminder/note to check them later, because they link to interesting content.

Second, under the tweets-heading within the more tab of the navigation bar, you can create or select a picture or video you want to share on Twitter. While these aren’t unique features it is helpful to be able to share multimedia both from the more and the update-tabs in the navigation bar.

Remarkable however is that these features are integrated with two services, Twitpic and Twitvid. I hope that in future versions of the TouchTwit application the integration with other services will be added, or the end-user will get the possibility to choose his preferred service to share multimedia. For example you like MobiPicture more than Twitpic and want to use this service as default.

Third you can see a search heading within the more tab of the navigation bar. You can not only search for tweets and users from this screen, but it is also possible to search for current-, daily-, and weekly trending topics. This Twitter Trends implementation on a Windows Phone is unique as far as I know.

The fourth and final heading within the more tab of the TouchTwit application is called advanced. Here you can change the settings of the home(list) feed which is discussed in a previous section, or you can switch accounts -in the scenario where you use multiple accounts-, read the about details of the TouchTwit application for Windows Phones or finally exit the application.

Update

“Update” is the final tab/button in the navigation bar of the TouchTwit application, and not surprisingly this tab is used to compose messages. In the top of this screen you can see six buttons: (1) @reply, (2) short URL, (3) Location, (4) Media, (5) Cancel, and (6) Update. The screenshots above give you an impression of composing a tweet within TouchTwit on the HTC HD2.

By tapping on the @reply button you can select friends you follow and want to address from an alphabetiacal ordered list. The function of the short URL button is obvious, however with the small remark that the included full link needs to start with http:// so it doesn’t shorten when the URL is started with www. Furthermore the used shortening service is TinyURL and just like the integration with multimedia services Twitpic and Twitvid, choice for other default services would be a great improvement.

Adding pictures and location is also possible with the fingerfriendly buttons in the update screen. With the update button you can publish the tweet to your twitterfeed. Remarkable is that you can’t select or creat video’s from the update tab (just from the more tab).

The screenshots above show you the exceptional clean looks of the interface. However the right screenshot above shows you the unfolded full qwerty softkeyboard on the HTC HD2. You can see the light grey “cutouts” on the usual position of the softkeys, and I personal think that this would be a visual point of improvement (it doesn’t affect function) !!

Settings, new favourite, retweet & other functions

In this additional section I woul like to address a few main functions of the TouchTwit application for Windows Phone.

The left screenshot above shows you an overview of the settings, which can be changed via the advanced heading in the more tab of the navigation bar. For example you can change synchonisation interval, and honestly 2 minutes is a really short interval that hasn’t my personal preference (from a batterylife perspective).

However you can also change settings like the fontsize, notifications and sounds, or the scroll speed. This is something I wanted to highlight, the navigation and scroll experience in TouchTwit is blazing fast !! I would like you all to put this on top of your list with pro’s to justify a purchasing decision.

In the application overview I didn’t address how to reply, retweet or favorite tweet directly from the home(list) twitter feed. The developers of TouchTwit have come up with a really nice, easy to use implementation. You simply make a swipe gesture from right to left on a specific tweet, that results in a new tweet screen lik is shown in the right screenshot above.

As you can see I can easily favorite the tweet, retweet the particular message or simply reply to the user @gervercom via @reply. If you are engaged in a conversation you can also view this conversation in a sort of chat-mode ! Overall the implementation with swipes and gestures works really well, and foremost fast. Finally you can also copy a tweet and past it into an e-mail for example.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBidqUG2R2g

Final thoughts and overall conclusion

In order to summarize you could have a look at the video above with a demonstration of the TouchTwit application.

Some time a go I have looked at Twikini, a nice Twitter application for Windows Phone, and its features. While I still like Twikini for use on the HTC Snap, I was looking for a different and slightly more stable Twiter client for the HTC HD2. I can assure you that TouchTwit works very solid and lightning fast on the HTC HD2.

“It’s easy to view your timeline, messages, replies and favorites. TouchTwit has a Powerful Tweet-update screen that lets you write Tweets, upload photos and videos, short url’s and include your GPS coordinates. And TouchTwit is always finger-friendly!“

Like you can read in the product description on the TouchTwit website, this application is 100% optimized for touch control. I woudl furthermore like to compliment the designer who did a great job of implementing a clean, professional look for the TouchTwit application.

Also some advance features like the trending topics, chat view of the conversation and the possibility to manage multiple account justify the purchasing decision for TouchTwit. The reasonable price of € 1,89 can’t be a real deal breaker, certainly if you look what amount of functional value you get for this price.  You can’t go wrong with TouchTwit …

A few days ago Microsoft released an interesting and very welcome upgrade for Windows Marketplace for Mobile.

In the past Windows Marketplace for Mobile has been covered in a sequence of articles (for example Windows Markeplace for Mobile coming to Windows Mobile 6.1 and 6.0 and Windows Marketplace for Mobile – Payments and Operators) that help you to understand the basic concepts and underlying mechanisms of the application store for Windows Phones.

However in this article the focus will be on the new features in the recent upgrade, which supports installation of applications on your storage card and the so called world view, which is a region switcher for all the localized versions of Windows Marketplace for Mobile.

When you open Windows Marketplace for Mobile from the Start Menu on your Windows Phone it automatically checks if there are upgrades for Windows Marketplace for Mobile available for download. Like a few days ago the upgrade is automatically downloaded and installed on your Windows Phone.

If the automatic upgrade mechnism is broken, like it seemed the case past weekend, you simply uninstall Windows Marketplace forMobile and reinstall it from the start menu !

Installing applications from Windows Marketplace for Mobile on your Storage Card

Before this upgrade it was nly possible to install applications from Windows Marketplace for Mobile in the main memory of your Windows Phone. And while the HTC HD2 has an incredible amount of 181 MB of Storage Memory and 337 MB of Program Memory, it are still limited numbers compared to the 8, 16 and even 32 GB storage cards available today.

Furthermore I noticed in the review of OpnMarket 1.0 - A FreewarePocketPC.net Marketplace for Mobile:

“That major difference between OpnMarket and Windows Marketplace for Mobile is that you can choose the location of installation in case of OpnMarket. In other words I can choose, which is very familiar when you run a cab-installer, to install the application in the main memory or on the storage card. Unfortunately Windows Marketplace for Mobile doesn’t support installation on the Storage Card, which could result in a clogged main memory.”

In the left screenshot above you can see that the menu item “settings” is added to the menu (which wasn’t there previously). In the settings menu you can easily select the default install location for Windows Marketplace for Mobile from a pull down menu. This option really turned a smile on my face, and with the location set to storage card your device main memory can’t get clogged anymore !!

World View in Windows Marketplace for Mobile

You might remember the article: “Windows Marketplace for Mobile now accessible on the PC“, which emphasized the great power of the three-screens-and-a-cloud-strategy of Microsoft.

“On the bottom of the screen there is another remarkable detail “select catalog“. This is nothing more than a quick menu in which you can easily browse through the Windows Marketplace for Mobile in its localized version. In my case I could visit Windows Marketplace for Mobile Netherlands – Dutch.”

Unfortunately this select catalog option wasn’t available yet on your Windows Phone, until the last upgrade. In the left screenshot above you can see the heading World View in the settings menu. From a pull down menu, similar as setting the default install location, you can select the default catalog to open on the launch of Windows Marketplace for Mobile. In the right screenshot you can see that I select “United States – English (home)” as the default catalog.

This functionality makes it much easier to explore local applications, or international application which aren’t available in you localized Windows Marketplace for Mobile.

Concluding thoughts and wrap-up

With the recent upgrade of Windows Marketplace for Mobile to version 1.2.1417.0001 Microsoft has raised the bar, and addressed some critical “limitations” in the mobile scenario.

While there are still other options to install an application on your Windows Phone (downloading a cab-file, copying it to your Windows Phone and running the cab-file on your device), installation via Windows Marketplace for Mobile is by far the most user-friendly method.

This upgrade of Windows Marketplace for Mobile cleary shows that even a very large company like Microsoft carefully listenes to the end-users of their mobile products. My compliments for that great mindset, and I hope we can see a lot more end-user driven innovations in the upcoming future !!

What are your thoughts do you like the upgrade or not ? Is there still room for improvement ?

Resco, founded in 1999 and based in Bratislava (Slovakia), is one of the “oldest” developers for the Windows Mobile platform. A few days ago Resco announced a new version of a multiple award winning application:  Resco Explorer 2010.

I have been using Resco Explorer 2010 for a few days now, and in this article I would like to write down my findings in a mini-review format. I will mainly focus on the new features, but will also address a few other aspects that really make Resco Explorer the default  file manager for your Windows Phone.

Let’s start quickly and download the Resco Explorer 2010 cab-files from the Resco Explorer Downloads page. Compared to the previous versions, there is no separate cab-installer for the FTP plugin. I install all cab-files of Resco Explorer 2010, and as you can see in the left screenshot above there are about five Resco shortcuts added to the start menu: (1) Resco File Explorer, (2) Resco Registry, (3) Resco System Info, (4) Resco Update, and (5) Resco Task Manager.

I you have used previous version of Resco Explorer you will certainly know the Resco Registry and Resco System Info plugins. The first gives you the ability to manage and edit the registry on your Windows Phone, so you don’t need to install an additional program just for this ability. The latter gives you an overview of the “realtime” storage- and battery statuses.

In the right screenshot above you see the “main” screen of Resco Explorer, and as you can see the userinterface is completely optimized for touch control. This approach results in big buttons in the bottom toolbar and also each entry in the folder list is large and easy to select. Since I installed Resco Explorer 2010 on the HTC HD2, which is designed for complete touch control, the interface works exceptionally well in practice.

Resco Explorer 2010 features a touch optimized Task Manager

One of the five Resco shortcuts in the Windows Mobile 6.5 start and settings menu that I didn’t discuss in the previous section is the Resco Task Manager.  When Windows Mobile 6.1 was released back in 2008, one of the improvements was a default Microsoft Task Manager for Windows Mobile. This is a kind of similar solution which we can see on Windows Desktop, with the limitation that this Task Manager isn’t optimized for finger friendly use.

A new feature in Resco Explorer 2010 is a touch optimized task manager, which can be launched from the start menu or the re-designed today plugin. When you start the Resco task manager, a kind of overlay is openened with a list of running programs. The large buttons, and list entries make is very easy to close a slingle program, or you might use the option close all to kill all running programs.

Remarkable is furthermore the used memory per application, for example Active Sync – Memory: 489k, and a total memory overview in the header – Memory 207M (of 337 M). You can close the Resco Task Manager with the red button in the Taks Manager header, or simply by tapping on the screen outside of the Resco Task Manager area.

A completely redesigned Resco Explorer 2010 today plugin

In the previous version of Resco Explorer, there already has been a today plugin implemented. You can see the (old) today plugin of Resco Explorer 2008 in a very extensive review of  Terry Davis, Editor of PocketNow.

“The last improvement affects Explorer’s Today plug-in. The old one has been replaced by a new totally customizable plug-in with Task Manager and other handy tools.”

As you can see in the screenshots above, the Resco Today plugin consits of a few bars. On the top there is the so called timebar, which shows date, time, alarm clock and mobile operator. Below the timebar there are by default three itemsbars, which can be customized and extended.

Via tap and hold you can customize the Resco today plugin. As you can see in the right screenshot above you can remove current shortcuts / widgets, and add new items to the today plugin. You can add: (1) Phone Contact, (2) Keyboard Lock, (3) Battery / Memory, (4) Application, and (5) Documents.

As an example I choose to select the option “application”, which brings me to a new screen with a list of current installed applications. I selected WordlCard Mobile from the list, as you can see in the left screenshot above. Furthermore I have added the Wi-Fi Router application, the ComManager and a Phone Contact, which you can see in the right screenshot.

Via a tap-and-hold on a today plugin item you open a pop-up menu. In case of the bluetooth switch you can set the bluetooth mode to invisible or visible, while in the case of a phone contact you can choose a communication method directly from the homescreen. Remarkable is furthermore that the number of itembars can be extended, which could give youa complete grid of shortcuts on your today screen.

Upload pictures to your social networks directly from Resco Explorer 2010

Resco released Resco Photo Manager 7 back in end December 2009, after a few beta releases. Resco Photo Manager is extensively reviewed by my colleague Paul Willen, who also tested this application in the beta-phases. In the Resco Explorer press release you can read:

“Resco team enriched Explorer with the popular feature of uploading images to Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Picasa, MySpace and Photobucket.”

When you have a look at Resco Photo Manager there is clear synergy, and probably code sharing with this similar implementation of sharing pictures on social networks directly from Resco Explorer 2010 or Resco Photo Manager.

In the left screenshot above you can see the “Upload To” menu item when you tap and hold on a picture. When you select this item a new list with social networks is presented to which you can upload the specific picture. In the right screenshot above you can see this list.

Picasa and Flickr are large photo and picture storage websites / networks. Personally I was looking for a dedicated Flickr application for Windows Mobile, with a similar functionality as the Flickr Uploader for Windows. I have found my solution here, within Resco Explorer 2010.

You can also upload pictures to the social networking sites Twitter and Facebook. The advantage is that you can upload pictures, without having a dedicated Facebook or Twitter application installed on you Windows Phone. If you want to compare, please have a look at the step-by-step review of the Microsoft Facebook application for Windows Mobile.

I decided to share the Specialized Tarmac SL3 frameset picture on Twitter, so I selected the Twitter service from the list and logged in with my credentials. When you are logged in you will need to choose an album for the picture, like presented in the left screenshot above. You can either share the picture public or not public, which is something you will recognize from Flickr for example. After you have chose the album the picture is uploaded to the specific service, while the progress is shown in a typical Resco Explorer progress bar.

Thumbnail view mode in Resco Explorer 2010

Another new feature in Resco Explorer 2010, which is also aimed at the management of pictures is the thumbnail view mode. When you tap and hold on the Specialized Tarmac SL3 frameset picture, you can see the view menu item. Selecting this menu item results in a presentation of the picture, like you can see in the right screenshot above.

“Next main improvement is the introduction of thumbnails view mode. This new mode simplifies work with the image folders. It improves navigation and helps to find the right image. Another big issue; users will be able to recognize interaction with the Photo Manager. The thumbnail loading will become faster and Explorer will support more image file types if users install both programs.”

Here you can again see the synergy with Resco Photo Manager, which results in a clever integration and faster loading times when both applications are installed. The screenshots above however show the situation when Resco Explorer 2010 is installed “stand alone” !

Other great features and functionality in Resco Explorer 2010

While the previous sections describe the main new improvements in Resco Explorer 2010, I would like to address some of its great older features as well. These features are mainlyproductivity related, and help you to get things done on your Windows Phone !

Virtual Folders

The first feature I would like to discuss is the virtual folders, which you can access via the favourites button (yellow star) in the upper right corner of the Resco Explorer 2010 screen. Virtual folders provide you the ability to have easy access to certain types of files, no matter where these files are physically stored (main memory or storage card).

In other words you can access documents, encrypted files, images, music and videos directly from the virtual folders, without for example the need to browse to a three level sub-folder on your storage card. The idea or concept is quite similar as the Libraries under Windows 7 (for your desktop), which is very well explained by Jim Henderson -editor of makeuseof.com- in the article: “Windows 7 Libraries Explained – And Why You Want Them“

Resco Registry Editor

With the Resco Registry cab-file you turn Resco Explorer 2010 into a full feature registry editor for your Windows Phone. The great advantage is that you don’t need to install another separate registry editor, like SmartReg 3.5 for Pocket PC (payware) or PHM Registry Editor 0.70 (freeware). Furthermore you can edit the registry of your Windows Phone, directly from within Resco File Explorer 2010, like you can see in the right screenshot above.

FTP Explorer

In the previous versions of Resco Explorer you needed to install an additional CAB-installer for the FTP plugin, however in Resco Explorer 2010 this is not neccessary (it is build-in by default). I have a Synology Disk Station DS-207+, where I can access backups over FTP, so therefore an embedded FTP client is very welcome.

As you can see the FTP client of Resco Explorer 2010 supports also the Secure FTP protocol if available, so you can safely transfer your documents. The only other freeware file explorer that has a build-in FTP client is Total Commander for Windows Mobile, however the Secure FTP protocols aren’t supported.

Network Browser

Resco Explorer 2010 also includes a so called Network Browser to explore shared network drives and the documents on it.

ZIP compression

Resco Explorer 2010 furthermore includes a build-in “ZIP/unZIP-application”. For example when you need to e-mail a Microsoft Word-, Microsoft Excel document, a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation or simply a multimedia file, it is very helpful to compress a file first before you sent it (in order to save data).

Via the tap and hold action on a specific file, in the example the Specialized Tarmac SL frameset picture, you can open the menu and choose the item “compress” to pack the file. In the right screenshot above you can see that it is possible to set the name of the archive, the location, choose the compression level from the pull down menu and apply encryption if you like. Finally you can check the option move to archive, which “deletes” the original (non-packed) file.

Encryption

Via the same tap and hold action, you can open the menu and choose the Encrypt menu item, you might have noticed in the screenshot above. A new screen is opened where you need to set the encryption details, which is shown in the left screenshot above. At first you see the password- and confirm password fields, where you need to enter the password to decrypt later.

The option delete original file(s) is checked by default. However more important is the encryption algorithm, which is shown in the upper left corner. The default value is  “RC2″ 128 bit encryption, which can be changed via the settings button. I would personally change the encryption into the ”AES 256″ encryption, which is a stronger algorithm.

Finally when you install Resco Explorer 2010 via a Microsoft Installer on your desktop, an encryption component is also installed in your Windows Shell.

Favourites and search

Finally two features that make everyday life a lot easier. In the upper right corner of the left screenshot above you can see a yellow star, which is the favourites button. With this button you can quickly open your favourite folders / locations. If you wan’t you can easily add your own favourites, via the large yellow-starred button in the bottom toolbar.

Left next to the favourites button, you can see the magnifier glass representing the search function. When you tap on the magnifier glass a search box is opened, where you can enter a search string and search your current folder. A great function when you have a large set of files in a specific folder, since you don’t need a lot of scrolling anymore.

Concluding thoughts

Resco Explorer is the first application I install on my Windows Phone, and I hope that this extensive review provides a good overview of the features and functionality (new and old) in Resco Explorer 2010. The Resco Team would describe Resco Explorer 2010  in the press release as:

“Resco Explorer is the best selling file manager on Windows Mobile Market. Moreover, the fully touch-optimized application provides functions of a launcher, viewer, zipper, registry editor, ftp explorer & network browser. It is a true Swiss knife for daily use of each Windows Mobile user.”

If you are a current user of Resco Explorer, you are elligable to upgrade to Resco Explorer 2010 with a 50% discount !! This is a very reasonable quality for such a high quality application.

Furthermore I hope that some of the innovation outlined in this great new version of Resco Explorer 2010 for touch-devices will find its way to non-touch devices in a future release. It would be great if I could upload pictures to my social networks directly from within Resco Explorer on my HTC Snap.

While I can only conclude that Resco Explorer is absolutely the best File Explorer on the market. The term Swiss Army Knife is an understatement, since  you carry a fully packed MacGyver toolbox in your pocket !! Check out the Resco Explorer product page, to download a trial or buy your copy, you simply can’t go wrong with this application.

I’m always looking for (third party) applications that make everyday worklife on my Microsoft Windows 7 powered notebook easier. In this article I will put the SkyDrive Explorer application to the test.

“SkyDrive Explorer is a free, easy-to-use, but very powerful extension for Windows Explorer. With SkyDrive Explorer you can make any every-day operations with your documents from Windows Live SkyDrive service using Windows Explorer, as if they were on your computer.”

As you can see SkyDrive Explorer integrates Windows Live SkyDrive in a clever way with Windows Explorer on your notebook or PC. For those of you who are not familiar with the Windows Live SkyDrive service, that provides an incredible 25GB of storage for free, should get up to speed with the following Windows Live SkyDrive definition: 

“Windows Live SkyDrive is part of Microsoft’s Windows Live range of online services. SkyDrive is a file storage and sharing service that allows users to upload files to the computing cloud, then access them from a web browser. It uses Windows Live ID to control access to the user’s files, allowing them to keep the files private, share with contacts, or make the files public. Publicly-shared files do not require a Windows Live ID to access.”

Installation SkyDrive Explorer

Now that you have a broad overview of the functional goal of the SkyDrive Explorer application, this section will provide a step-by-step overview of the SkyDrive Explorer installation process. Let’s start with downloading the latest release from the SkyDrive Explorer Free Download Page.

If you double click on the SkyDrive Explorer 1.4 exe-file, the installation wizard is automatically started, which is shown in the screenshot above. In order to continue the installation of SkyDrive Explorer you simply hit the next-button.

In the second step of the setup-process the end-user license agreement (EULA) is shown, and I would advice you to read these agreements now and then in order to get a feeling of the contents. Probably most people don’t read the EULA, so they don’t know with what “rules and regulations” they agree. 

The screenshot below shows the EULA step of the installation process and before you can select the next-button you have to check the “I accept te agreement” option.

The screenshot above shows you the next step, which consists of selecting the installation destination folder. I have left the default value in its place, so SkyDrive Explorer will be installed in the “program files” folder.

With all the pre-installation information collected, SkyDrive Explorer is ready to install. In the screenshot above you can start the actual installation by clicking on the install-button. The screenshot below shows the installation progress.

One of the final steps of the SkyDrive Explorer installation is a check if a newer update of SkyDrive Explorer is available. This is a welcome and very clever feature that I really like. 

However I haven’t figured out if this is a one-time check before installation, or that this is mechanism like you can see in FileZilla FTP Client. FileZilla FTP checks at each program start is there are updates available, and if yes there is clever auto-upgrade mechanism in place.  

I installed the latest version of SkyDrive Explorer and in the review time-frame there isn’t a new version released.

The final step of the installation process consists of hitting the finish button, which is shown in the screenshot above. You might remark the checked default option “view read me txt”, that opens up the readme file upon finishing the installation. 

This readme provides a short product description and gives an overview of features and functionality.

Using SkyDrive Explorer in daily practice

The starting point is the SkyDrive Explorer icon, which you can find in the My Computer overview of Windows Explorer. In the screenshot above you can see that SkyDrive Explorer is placed under the heading “other” and for example not under “network locations” like I personally expected.

In order to connect with the Windows Live SkyDrive, I double click on the SkyDrive Explorer icon. A new windows pops-up, which almost looks idential as the Windows Live Messenger sign-in window.

On top of this window you can see the bold text: “Sign in to SkyDrive Explorer“, of course with your own Windows Live ID ! It is as simple as that.

Remarkable is furthermore the line “You are logging into (SkyDrive Explorer) which is not a Microsoft developed application.” I want to underline this because (1) the credits go to the developer and not to Microsoft, (2) feedback should go to the developer and not to Microsoft to get future itterations of this product even better.

A connection with Windows Live SkyDrive is established and you will get an overview of your own Windows Live SkyDrive. The sreenshot above shows you the kind of landing page after you have signed in, which is nothing more than the root of your Windows Live SkyDrive.

Now you can do all familiar operations with files and documents on your Windows Live SkyDrive, in a more native Microsoft Windows experience. I mean you don’t need to access the Windows Live SkyDrive from a webbrowser, since it is integrated with Windows Explorer.

In the screenshot above you can see that I saved a Microsoft Word 2010 document in the documents folder of Windows Live SkyDrive, while I’m copying the “SkyDriveExplorer1.4.exe” installation file from my local harddisk to the Windows Live SkyDrive. I must admit this all works very smooth and without any problems or delay !

Concluding thoughts

SkyDrive Explorer is a great extension for the default Windows Explorer and it can help to make more advantage of the 25GB of free storage of Windows Live SkyDrive. Like I mentioned before the installtion is very simple, and it provides a more efficient more native Microsoft Windows experience to communicate and work with Windows Live SkyDrive.

As a point for improvement in the next version I would highlight some functionality that I personally miss. The Windows Explorer always has a great navigation column on the left of the screen. As you can see in the screenshots of this review, SkyDrive Explorer is not included in the folder-tree under “my computer”, which means you can only access it from the “my computer”screen. In a specific copy-paste scenario the proposed functionality could save a few clicks.

UPDATE

The SkyDrive Explorer development and support team, pointed me to a possible solution in the SkyDrive Explorer FAQ section for outlined scenario above. If I apply the solution under question 1, which is slightly different under Windows 7, the structure and spacing of the folder tree gets messed up in my situation. However the SkyDrive Explorer “drive” is also shown in the navigation pane !!

Overall SkyDrive Explorer is an excellent add-on for the default Windows Explorer, which I can advise to everyone who work with Windows Live SkyDrive or has the intention to make more use of the provided free 25GB of SkyDrive cloud storage. If Windows Live SkyDrive is not your only cloud-storage you might want to check out Gladinet Cloud Desktop which I reviewed back in August 2009.

João Ribeiro, published a post on his TechNet Blog a few days ago about a new release of Windows Live for Windows Phone. In this article I will provide an overview of Windows Live for Windows Phones, and hopefully I can find the new improvements of this release and highlight them.

Most of you probably do know the concept of Windows Live and the Windows Live Essentials applications, which e.g. include Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Writer, Windows Live Photo Gallery and Windows Live Movie Maker, from the Windows Desktop.

Windows Live for Windows Phones components

However I would like to start with a kind of functional description from Windows Live for Windows Phones product page:

“Get the full Windows Live experience – including e-mail, instant messaging, contacts, what’s new feed, photos, people, profile and more – right on your Windows phone for free!”

In the screenshot left above you can see the new version number of Windows Live for Windows Phones, and the different installed components. These components perfectly reflect the functional product description above, while the right screenshot shows the new Windows Live Messenger icon (with the yellow swoosh) in the Windows Mobile 6.5 start menu.

Hotmail or Windows Live mail

One of the major components of Windows Live is Windows Live Mail, previously called Hotmail. Back in August 2009 I wrote an article about Windows Live Mail and the push mail functionality on Windows Phones. Therefore I won’t elaborate that much on the Windows Live Mail component, since my conclusions was:

“Combining this e-mail push on Windows Live Mail, with a set of additional free tools like Microsoft MyPhone, Evernote and the proposed Sianix Calendar Sync, users are able to gain an almost-complete Microsoft Exchange experience for free.”

Windows Live Messenger

The second major component of Windows Live for Windows Phones is the Messenger Instant Messaging client. Windows Live Messenger is a large player in the instant messaging field, and both the screenshots above show that the Windows PC experience is brought to the Windows Phone.

Even some more advanced feature like sending and receiving voice clips from and to a Windows Phone isn’t a problem. Personally this is the component of Windows Live for Windows Phone which I most often use. Simply to stay in touch with friends, while you are on the go. With a flat free cellular data subscription this is far more cost efficient that sending a text message.

Bing Search

The third component of Windows Live for Windows Phones is the search component. In the screenshots of the August 2009 article you can see that Windows Live Search was integrated into the Windows Live bundle for Windows Phones. In the meantime Windows Live Search is “replaced” with Microsoft Bing for Mobile. Bing embodies more or less all search activities of Microsoft, and can be found on a few places in Windows Live: 

1. Windows Live Home screen;
2. Windows Live Home People screen;
3. Windows Mobile Today screen;

I furthermore assume, but not 100% sure, that Windows Live for Windows Phones and Microsoft Bing for Mobile perfectly integrate. At least that would be a great scenario, so if anyone has tested this yet please drop a comment. Sean Ludwig, Editor of PCMag.com, has written a great review about Microsoft Bing for Mobile.

While the Bing Search component of Windows Live for Windows Phones integrates with the “old” Windows Mobile todayscreen, like shown in the right screenshot above, it doesn’t integrate with the renewed Windows Mobile 6.5 todayscreen !!

Contacts

Another major component in Windows Live for Windows Phones is contacts or people. This isn’t a big surprise since most of the major components are aimed at inter-human-communication via voice, instant message or simply via e-mail.

Please have a look at Microsoft Outlook Connector first which, enables you to integrate Windows Live Mail with Microsoft Outlook in an Microsoft Exchange like experience !! Contacts management is one of the best parts of the Microsoft Exchange – Microsoft Outlook combination, which also comes to Windows Live in a more advanced form.

The screenshot above lets you choose to store your Windows Live contacts on your Windows Phone and integrate for example with an existing Microsoft Exchange contact. In my situation I have kept these separated, so I unchecked the option, while I remember this integration part caused some problems in a previous release because of the option wether or not to integrate.

Windows Live Contacts furthermore form a significant ingredient to the Windows Live Social Network ”strategy” ! 

Windows Live Home

The last component that has undergone the most changes, in my perception is the Windows Live Home component. At first you can see the Bing search integration in the left screenshot above. 

You might remember that Microsoft has given Windows Live for PC a social network makeover, and now some of the features are coming to Windows Live for Windows Phone as well. When I hit the Windows Live Home button, from the Windows Live screen (left screenshot) I’m redirected to my Windows Live “Social Network” page, featuring the “What’s New” tab which is shown in the right screenshot above. It gives a kind of Facebook Live Feed experience, and shows the status updates in your Windows Live social network.

Furthermore you can upload photos and pictures taken with your Windows Phone or stored on your Windows Phone, and post them to your Windows Live ”Social Network” page. It would make sense if there is an underlying integration with Windows Live Photo Gallery, unfotunately I haven’t installed it on my Lenovo X60 tablet.

The final tab you can access through the Windows Live Home screen is the “People” tab. In the right screenshot above you see that your Windows Live (Messenger) Contacts are shown and you are also able to search accross these contacts.

Concluding thoughts and wrap-up 

Unfortunately the Windows Live release notes of this latest version aren’t updated yet, but my personal feeling is that the largest improvements can be found in the Windows Live Home and Bing Search integration part.

What I can experience is that the Microsoft three-screen-and-a-cloud-strategy is bringing a quasi-similar experience to the end-user no matter if you are working on a Windows PC or a Windows Phone. Look for example at the Windows Live Messenger, which is almost as feature rich on a Windows Phone as on a Windows PC.

If you combine this with the experiences from the article: “Windows Live Mail pushed to Windows Phone” you can only conclude that Windows Live for Windows Phones is a highly valuable suite for both the mobile professional as well as the average end-user !!

No matter if you have a Windows touch Phone or a Windows non-touch Phone, Windows Live is updated for both types of devices. So please head your browser over to http://wl.windowsmobile.com and download your copy of the latest version and let us know what you think of the improvements.

One of my international friends, Arne Hess, Windows Mobile MVP and Editor in Chief of the::unwired.net, wrote a nice article about a very clever application called Connectify, that enables a mobile professional toturn his Microsoft Windows 7 powered notebook into a Wi-Fi hotspot. The best part is that Connectify is freeware !!

In this article I would like to provide you an overview of the Connectify application, and focus on some of the application details as well as the  included features and functions. In the screenshot of the about screen below you can see the version number of the Connectify application I reviewed.

What kind of application is Connectify ?

The screenshot above already answers a great deal of the question, but on the Connectify website you can find the following product description:

“Connectify is a free Windows 7 application to turn your Wi-Fi enabled personal computer into a wireless hotspot to share your Internet connection, and create wireless networks on the fly with your friends, co-workers and other devices. Connectify can even share Wi-Fi networks which you are currently connected to with a single Wi-Fi card.”

On the Connectify website you can furthermore read the background story about the birth of connectify, which I personally found highly interesting:

“Our frustration with the state of wireless networking finally boiled over, and Connectify was born in a marathon of late night software development. We didn’t want more routers, we just wanted to connect to each other, share Internet connections, and get our devices online, without paying a fortune or carrying routers in our already overstuffed computer bags.”

Installation Connectify on HP Mini 1000

Installation of the Connectify software on the HP Mini 1000 still running on Microsoft Windows 7 RC  is really simple and involves three clicks. Actually it is a matter of downloading the latest version of Connectify and running the downloaded installer. Like with any other piece of software you install you need to agree with the license agreement, like is shown in the screenshot above.

After you hit the agree button, the Connectify software will automatically install on your Microsoft Windows 7 powered notebook, netbook or personal computer. When the installation is done, you see the “completed” message just above the progress bar, which is shown in the screenshot below.

However you can choose to have a look at the installation details, or you simply perform the second click in the installation process and hit the next button.

In the screenshot above you can see that the final part of the installation process is simply hitting the finish button. However you can check or uncheck the “Run Connectify” and “Show Readme” options. I left both options checked to give you an idea of the out-of-the-box experience.

The screenshot above shows the Connectify application running in the notification tray, and remark the bubble. Furthermore the “show readme” command opens the Frequently Asked Questions section on the Connectify website.

Transforming HP Mini 1000 into a Wi-Fi hotspot

With Connectify successfully installed on the HP Mini 1000 it is time to put it to the test !! You open the Connectify software by (1) double clicking on the Notification Tray icon, (2) right click on the notification tray icon, and select show connectify from the menu or (3) select the program from the Windows 7 start menu.

I would like to emphasize that the Connectify userinterface is very simple. On the top the window you see the status and mode of the Connectify Wi-Fi hotspot.

In the Settings “box” you can enter the Wi-Fi hotspot SSID in the Wi-Fi Name field, by default this is set to Connectify-me. Furthermore you need to enter a password in the password field, while you finally select an internet connection you want to share from the pull down menu “Internet”.

In the middle part of the window there are a few blocks called “news”, “connected clients” and “client history”. The news block provides two clickable links which direct you to the Connectify website. The first one is about the press release of Connectify v1.0, while the second link redirects you to the list of supported Wi-Fi cards. The connected clients and client history blocks I will discuss below.

Finally you can see a large button at the bottom of the window to start the Wi-Fi Hotspot. The left screenshot shows you the Connectify window before you start the Wi-Fi Hotspot. After you hit the “Start Hotspot” button, Connectify is configuring the Wi-fi hotspot which is also reflected in the status change “Configuring”.  

The screenshots above show the Conectify Wi-Fi Hotspot running, in WPA2-PSK Acces Point Mode.  This means the developers have thought really well about the security features of the Connectify Wi-Fi Hotspot, that really don’t differ that much from the Linksys WRT54GS router I normally use at my student’s room.

The right screenshot shows the status when I have the Lenovo X60 tablet connected to the Connectify Wi-Fi Hotspot. You can see that the number in the connected clients block has changed into 1, while you furthermore see the device identifier and the ip-address that is assigned to the Lenovo X60 tablet.

All Wi-Fi enabled devices that have connect in the past to the Connectify Wi-Fi Hotspot are shown in the Client History block. When I disconnect the Lenovo X60 tablet, it “moves” to the Client History block.

In the screenshot above you can see that my Lenovo X60 tablet is connected via Wi-Fi to the Connectify Hotspot on the HP Mini 1000, that shares its wireless connection.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39nc0Iiy6-w

Concluding thoughts and wrap-up

Let me start by emphasizing that the Connectify application is a very clever application aimed at the mobile professional. You can also share your cellular data connection, for example when you are connected via the Option GlobeTrotter GTMAX HSUPA card.

In terms of user experience and concept the Connectify software is very similar as the Wi-Fi Router application on the HTC HD2, however only projected on the Windows platform (not the mobile platform).

The huge advantage is that you don’t need to pack an additional travel router, like the Asus WL 530 G router I used to take with me while travelling. For example during CES 2009 we used this router to share the hotel Wi-Fi connection, in order to limit the costs.

Despite I honestly do like the Connectify application there are just two limitations:

“Some older wireless cards do not yet have full Windows 7 support, and for those devices Connectify will act as an Ad Hoc connection manager, instead of a full blown Wi-Fi Access Point.”

Unfortunately most Intel Wi-Fi cards aren’t supported, and I’m not really 110% if it is because of the full Window 7 support. My Lenovo X60 tablet runs Windows 7 Ultimate without any problems and the device manager shows that the Intel Wi-Fi Network Adapter is perfectly recognized and -installed.

The second straightforward limitation is the fact that you need to have Windows 7 installed on your notebook, netbook or PC. So far Connectify isn’t backwards compatible with Windows XP or Windows Vista and there is no support for other platforms like for example Ubuntu.

Overall this is an excellent application that makes the mobile life a lot easier. If you run Windows 7 machine, head over to the Connectify website, get the latest download and turn your Windows 7 notebook into a Wi-Fi Hotspot !!

SPB Flash Cards is the latest application for Windows Phones, released  by SPB Software just before Christmas. In this article I would like to provide a step by step overview of this application, but what type of application is SPB Flash Cards ?

My personal first guess was that it was a kind of game, since SPB Software has included an educational twist in their games. Think for example about SPB Brain Evolution or SPB Geo Game. However SPB Flash Cards isn’t a game as you can read in the press release:

“SPB Flash Cards provides great assistance in learning a new language, although it has no claim to be the sole mean of doing that. When mastering a new language, it is crucial to skip the stage of translating a word into mother tongue first, memorizing a direct match of a subject and a foreign word instead. SPB Flash Cards software is aimed at just that – the process of learning begins with a new flash card appearing, showing an image of an item along with the matching word and the right pronunciation from a native speaker. But this is just the beginning - several other memorizing techniques are also included. Besides, SPB Flash Cards contains a smart algorythm to track the user’s progress and adapt further learning process accordingly.”

The basic “gameplay” of SPB Flash Cards

At first you select the language you want to study from the SPB Flash Cards download page. In this review I will choose for the Dutch cab-file and install SPB Flash Cards on the HTC HD2. If you are a native Dutch speaker you might want to check out a different language for example the SPB English Cards. At this moment there is an impressive number of 13 different languages to learn !!

In the left screenshot above you simply launch SPB Dutch (Flash) Cards via the start menu, while in the right screenshot the main screen with categories is shown. SPB Flash Cards includes more than 1000 words distributed over more than 65 categories.

In the bottom right corner of the category graphic you can see the number of items/words in the category. Above the category graphic you can see a bar that visualizes the progress for each category. Let me start by selecting the category “Accessories”.

When the category accessories is opened, the first step in the learning process is a graphic of the item with a description below in your own language. The left screenshot above shows you the graphic of a tie and the englisch description “tie”. Furthermore you can move the item to the recycle bin, with the button below the graphic, however I don’t see any reason why you should do this.

When you tap on the graphic the card is turned, as you can see in the right screenshot. The description in english stays at the same place, while instead of the item-graphic you can see the dutch translation for tie, which is “stropdas”. Furthermore you can see that in the bottom right corner of graphic-box there is a “sound” button. If you tap on this button the word “stropdas” is played, and this helps you to pronounce the word “stropdas” as the native speaker of the chosen language does. You can tap the button as often as you want, just to illustrate that the word is not just played once.

Below the graphic-box you furthermore see two large buttons. When you are sure and confident enough that you know the word you simply hit the green “I knew” button, while if you need some additional practicing you hit the red “I didn’t know” button.

A closer look at the levels and underlying learning mechanisms

“If you say you knew the word the program will consider this word as a word that was known before and will not ask it again. SPB Flash Cards will help you to learn the words you did not know before. There are five levels for each word.” 

In the screenshots above the second level of SPB Flash Cards, when you don’t know a word, is outlined. Again a graphic is shown of an item together with the description in your own language. When you tap on the graphic, the card is turned, just like in the first level. However you now need to choose the right translation from four options !!

Furthermore I should remark that you can’t “enter” the second level on the same day due to the spacing effect which is outlined on the SPB Flash Cards Learning Algorithms page !! SPB Software has done quite some research on learning, algorithms and psychology and I you might be interested in the following references:

Wikipedia (Spacing effect)

Ebbinghaus, Hermann (Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology)

Wired (Want to Remember Everything You’ll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm)

On the first level you see a picture and should answer for yourself how it is called;

On the second level the program shows you a picture and gives you four different word variants and you need to choose the right one;

On the third level SPB Flash Cards shows you a word and you should answer for yourself what it means;

On the fourth level you need to choose the right picture for the given word among four options;

On the fifth level the program plays you a sound and you should select the right picture among the four given.

In the screenshots above the third level of SPB Flash Cards is shown, in line with the description above. In short this is the inverse of the first level of SPB Flash Cards. The translation is shown, and when you tap on the box, the card is turned and the item graphic is shown.

The screenshots above show you the fourth level of the SPB Flash Cards algorithm. At first the translation is shown in the familiar box, while you can also listen again to the pronounciation. If you tap on the Flash Card, the card turns and you now need to collect the right graphic that visualizes the translation of the item. In this example “sjaal” means scarf so the bottom right graphic is the right one.

You will need to start using SPB Flash Cards yourself to find out how the mechanism behind the fifth level of the SPB Flash Cards algorithm works.

A closer look at options and settings

When you have a look at the SPB Flash Cards main screen there are two buttons in the toolbar at the bottom, which look similar in design as SPB Mobile Shell v3.5. The left button executes the “exit” or “back” command, while the right button opens the options menu like is shown in the left screenshot above.

The “About” and “Registration“ menu items don’t need much of an explenation. When you click on the “Options” menu item you get the possibility to change your own native language (this is not the language you want to study) as well as you can change the “sound mode” here. For example you can let the sound play automatically after the card turns.

Furthermore you can get an overview of your overall progress via the “statistics” menu item. Or you can “clear statistics”, by category or you can clear all categories at once. The screenshots above show the statistics commands. Finally the options menu consists of the undelete command, in case you have deleted one or more particular SPB Flash Cards.

Concluding thoughts and feedback

I would like to start the conclusion by concluding that SPB Software deservces a big compliment for the overall design of the application and the underlying research on learning algorithms and psychological effects of learning. To my knowledge this is a total new concept for an application that didn’t exist before, and which transforms your Windows Phone into a personal language learning assistant.

I haven’t taken any language courses recently but I can remember the problem at the secondary school, when you needed to make the switch from memorizing the word to pronouncing it and using the word in practice. These are two different aspects and cleverly combined into SPB Flash Cards.

In the introduction I already discussed the difficult positioning of SPB Flash Cards (at least from my perspective). Like I told before SPB Software tends to include an educational twist into their games as well, and perhaps it is because I got used to it, but unfortunately I miss some kind of competitive gaming element. Have a look at SPB Brain Evolution, SPB Geo Game or even the ability to upload scores and battle in the “online competition” of SPB Quads.

Furthermore I need to remark that the footprint of this application is large, +/- 10 MB. This might not be a big surprise, because the pronounciations and graphics of more than 1000 items somehow need to be included included in the SPB Flash Cards application. I highly recommend to install the SPB Flash Cards on the storage card of your Windows Phone.

You can purchase SPB Flash Cards for $9,95 per language from the SPB Software website, which is a reasonable pricepoint given the amount of embedded science, innovation and the complete new concept !

Yesterday Trinket Software released a beta version of a new application called Thought.

With “Thought” it is possible to quickly keep track of your thoughts while you’re on the go by sending yourself SMS or Email messages.
And basically thats it.

the 2 screens below are the most important screens of Thought.

1. The Main screen where you can type a message and click send
2. The options screen where you can change the account which sends your Thoughts (SMS or Email).

The Main Screen

The main screen basically is a complete text input field. When your account is set to E-mail you can write your thoughts in unlimited characters. However when your account is set to SMS – Thought won’t let you type more than 160 characters. When you click the “Send” button on the bottom of the screen the email or SMS is send and the application automatically quits.

The Options screen

The Options screen gives the possibility to change between SMS and Email easily.
If you enter your own mobile phone number, change the “Send Thoughts using” field to e-mail, and then change it back you’ll see that the entered mobile phone number is stored on the device. This is also with the stored e-mail address and Account to use. So you only have to set the “Send to” data once.

Thoughts & Wrap-up

Personally I think an application like Thought isn’t really necessary. There are enough (freeware) applications to track your thoughts and tasks and have more functionality.
BUT – If you’re looking for a no-nonsense application that sends your thoughts to your mobile phone or email-address Thought can be a good option for you.

Remind that Thought currently is in beta and that Functionality, interface etc. can be changed compared to the final version.

Many of you have been using Twikini as their primary Twitter client on their Windows Phones. A few months ago twikini version updates rapidly followed eachother untill version 1.1 was released. After a break of a few months Trinket Software comes with a new version of Twikini: Version 1.2

Twikini has become one of the best Twitter applications for Windows Phones users. I like Twikini very much because it is a stable, fast and has some great features:

Simple, uncluttered, and customizable user interface. Choose from a variety of themes for the best reading experience.

Post tweets using a full screen editor. Optionally, set your location (either manually, using GPS coordinates, or geocoding) along with your status updates.

Send and receive Direct Messages.

Twitpic integration to post photos with your status updates. Select existing photos or click new ones from your device’s camera.

Read status updates just like browsing a web page. Quickly reply, retweet, favorite, or email other people’s tweets.

Windows Media Player integration. Automatically tweet the song and artist you’re listening to.

URL shortening services including Bit.ly, TinyURL and Digg.

Single download that is compatible with all Windows® Mobile devices – both touch and non-touch.

Unlike other Twitter clients for Windows Mobile, Twikini is completely written in C++ code to assure maximum performance and the shortest loading times possible.

Some of the key features which are build in the new Version are:

• New: When you click on a Twitpic link, the large photo is conveniently shown inside Twikini. You no longer have to launch a web browser to view the picture.
• New: Option to launch all URLs in Skweezer (this optimizes websites for small screens). The option is OFF by default. Enable it under Tools > Options > Data/Download.
• New: Specify which view you want the app to launch in every time (@Replies, DMs, Favorites, Public timeline etc). That way you can quickly get to the Twitter feature you care about most. Find this setting under Tools > Options > Data/Download.
• New: Set auto refresh to only check DMs and @Replies. This reduces bandwidth usage and battery life, and avoids disturbing you with tweets you may not care about. Find this setting under Tools > Options > Auto Refresh.
• Improved: Rewrote some GPS code so it should now work on all devices (or most!). Lots of people had trouble with GPS in previous versions. Please let us know if it works OK now.
• Bug fix: some passwords were not being saved correctly.

These new features look very promissing for the future. Let’s hope that the guys over at trinket software will keep improving this already great piece of software.

Website developer: www.trinketsoftware.com
Website product: www.twikini.com
Price: $4.95

One of my friends Derrick Ngan, Microsoft MVP and one of the people behind the PocketPC Channel and PocketPc.com.hk, notified me about the Windows Mobile Creative Software & Game Design Contest. This news-item will provide a quick overview of the goal of the creative software & design contest, who should apply for the contest and of course what are the prizes to win?? Please read on …

What is the task to compete in the contest ?

“The core value of the new platform of Windows Mobile lies in the unique user experiences it offers. The task of the contestants is to design a program which can bring entertainment or lifestyle information to the users through the Windows Mobile platform.” [ref01]

Personally I can only agree with the fact that Windows Mobile is one of the richest platforms available regarding the personalization and finetuning with available applications, providing sometimes a familiar desktop like experience. However the task is not just about programming and designing a simple piece of software, the bar is put up high !!

“A successful program should achieve a balance among the following aspects: creativity, functionality, aesthetic design, interface operation, usability and entertainment factors.” [ref01]

Who should apply for the contest ?

“Anyone aged 16 or above, irrespective of nationalities is eligible to join. Each team of contestants may consist of a maximum of 5 individuals. Individual, team, organizations and corporate entries are also welcome.” [ref01]

Windows Mobile Creative Software & Game Design Contest is therefore not limited to geographic location, which is analogue to the real business world, providing a great experience to the participants.

What are the prizes of the contest ?

In order to trigger the creativity and best design some great prizes in cash, as well as special creative prizes can be won. However there is more to win, next to infinite honor and glory in the mobile world:

“All of the winning programs will be featured in PocketPC.com.hk and the future publication of The Pocket PC Channel. They will also have a chance to be highlighted in the upcoming Windows Mobile Marketplace website.” [ref01]

If you want to learn more about Windows Marketplace for Mobile, please read the article in reference 2, which covered the Windows Marketplace for Mobile announcement back at Mobile World Congress earlier this year.

Interested ?

Don’t waist you time, and form your team arround the competences described in the task of the contest.  Head over to the Windows Mobile Creative Software & Game Design Contest, do a little more reading, find additional contest information and make sure you and your team:

“The team will be required to submit all related contents to the FTP on or before 21 September, 2009 Hong Kong Time 6:00pm (GMT +8:00). Submission time will be recorded by the server; any late submission will not be accepted.” [ref01]

If there are still some unclearities go and visit the Windows Mobile Creative Software & Game Design Contest website, or contact Derrick Ngan directly.

(Young) developers please show the world that Windows Mobile is a great platform to develop on and amaze everyone with some great applications and awesome designs.

Reference List

1. HOME: Windows Mobile Creative Software & Game Design Contest
2. CTIA 2009: Microsoft announces partners in Windows Marketplace for Mobile and more

Yesterday I received a Twitter message that Trinket Software has a great software deal. All their software titles are priced just 99 cents until May 4th.
Trinket Software wasn’t very familiar to me until last monday. I was looking for a new Twitter client and found Twikini which is curently in Beta. It turns out they have a few applications in their portfolio which seem very interesting:

• PowerSMS - A text message enhancement. Send text note to yourself, Group SMS, Auto-reply, Schedule SMS and more. (Nornally $9.95)

• No Calls - Profile based application which makes it possible to reject (some) calls, based on the selected profile. (Normally $9.95)

• Fake Call – Scedule a faked call, or generate a fake call on demand. For when a first date doesn’t turn out well . (Normally $4.95)

• Scrub – An application which detect missing contact information. (Freeware)

Yesterday they tweeted:

Like Twikini?! You will love our other apps too. Get any app for just 99 cents. http://bit.ly/4LIyJ for a super exclusive deal!

If you’re using Twikini (And basically if you’re not using it too) you can go over to http://www.trinketsoftware.com/twitter.aspx and get each application for just $0.99 or the application package (which includes all software) for $2.95.