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Programming for Windows Mobile

admin — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 22:53:13 +0000

This semester I had the choice between different computer science electives up to 3 subjects. I decided, inter alia, for mobile computing. In mobile computing students are involved to develop applications for mobile devices. Here you should choose the operating system for which you would like to develop: the Symbian OS, Google Android, Linux (OpenMoko), OS X, Windows Mobile and Java2ME. It was a really hard decision. I thought a lot about it and finally came to the conclusion that although Google Android and OS X is currently at the height of the hype, it would be smarter to deal with Windows Mobile, because this system is widely spread in the business sector-wide and I think that the iPhone or G1 in the nearby future hadly scale in this industry. I do not exclude the fact that among the users Windows Mobile due to rising competition is not so popular, but the professional introduction may be, in my opinion, only BlackBerry with MS .

I will make a project together with 2 other students. I do´t know exactly what it will be. Presumably, an application that provides the shortest path between nodes (Traveling Salesman Problem or something in the way). That would be very interesting for me because my father as a package supplier has to deal with that problem every day, and so I can make his life a bit easier. If anyone has a more interesting idea, I would be happy;)

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The cell phone instead of a hearing aid

admin — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:44:50 +0000

A group of MIT scientists has developed a software that can be installed on all modern mobile phones and help the people with hearing loss in communication by converting of noise to special vibration, which an ear could understand.
The technology is not new. Modern medicine allows even implants with the same functionality. However, since these implants are very expensive and a normal people can’t buy it. Precisely for this reason, the scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed an inexpensive technology with same functionality.
Nowadays almost everyone is able to buy a mobile phone, so the accessibility of the MIT-developed technology is very good.
With this technique, the deaf also is able to understand if someone start a talk to him. With lip-reading technology he was not able to do this. I hope that this software will be distributed for free for deaf people, or at least it should cost not very much. If I were able to develop such a thing, I would not ask for money from people who must live with such problems.

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G1 review found on YouTube

admin — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:33:13 +0000

The tests, published by jon4lakers on YouTube are always very interesting and informative. The test of G1 is not an elimination Unfortunately you can see from the test that although the mobile phone and operating system have great potential, the possibilities were not optimally used. The design and handling of G1 is a pure disaster. On the video you can see clearly how poorly is the concept thought out. The position sensors works not always so, how you could wish it, the keyboard lies not good in the hands and the impression of robustness is not really provided by this mobile phone.
Fortunately, the new operating system Android is not a exclusive prerogative of T-Mobile or HTC, but a completely free and open operating system, so I have the hope that other manufacturers will soon release own phones with Android. I hope that their concepts and design would be more intellectual and useful.

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A smartphone with touch screen and Windows Mobile 6 Professional starting at 140 euros

admin — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:13:18 +0000

Pearl is known for interesting offers and good prices. Today I visited the site and discovered a very interesting offer. It is a mobile phone. Strictly speaking, it is a fully-featured smartphone with touch screen, Windows Mobile 6 Professional, triband, Bluetooth and 300MHz processor from Intel. The cell phone cost 139.90 without a contract. Perl offers this phone under the name Mobile Simvalley. Because it is quite normal that electronics devices from leading manufacturers are offered as no-name products by Pearl, I made a quick search and found out that Pearl sells under the name Simvalley XP-25 a Smartphone by the Russian company RoverPC (RoverPC C6 ).
I don’t know much about this company. What I know is that this company is not a newcomer at the market and provides PDAs and smartphones based on Windows Mobile since several years. In Russia, this company is naturally more popular than here, because they are selling their devices more cheap, than big and known electronic manufacturers.
The features of this cell phone are actually, quite OK. You can find everything you need in it. The only thing I would like to have in that device, is certainly WLAN. But because I use the WLAN only at home, I don’t need actually in the mobile phone. An important point is also the possibility to update the operating system to Windows Mobile 6.1. The option, to update the operating system, will be offered not by all mobile phone manufacturers. So I was not able, for example, to update my Asus A636N, because Asus, apparently for marketing reasons, no offered the update for Germany, but for many other countries he does it.
Of course I described here not all details about the phone, because I do not think they are very important, but I would say, this offer ist very interesting for people, who are not able to invest a lot of money in a cell phone. From my own experience I would say that Pearl is not so quick as Amazon, but if you decide to purchase the phone, you should be aware that you will wait a bit until the goods arrive. But perhaps it was an exception case with me and you would receive the product very quickly.

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iPhone 3G

admin — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:31:26 +0000

The time seems to come. Today, the new Apple iPhone 3G was officially introduced. As expected, the main highlight of the new version of the phone is, as the abbreviation 3G (3 generation) says, UMTS. The next feature is GPS receiver.
TomTom also not waited long and advertised immediately that iPhone now supported by TomTom Navigator. Unfortunately the other technical data is same as its predecessor. Even the 2-megapixel camera is one of them. Because what could be Apple. I saw the photos, made by iPhone. These photos are not very heady. I don’t know any cell phone, that makes really good images, but if I purchase such expensive device, I expect that it has at least autofocus. The last important thing is the price. In the U.S. at least, the new cell phone will cost from 199 to 299 U.S. Dollars, depending on the model. This is a good news, but also the confirmation that Apple business modell with its strategy of revenue sharing and distribution by selected partner in each country does not achieve great success. The stock market reacted with slight decline.
But we should not forget that the new iPhone has already the new version of firmware. This means that we will be able to install software from other developers on the device. This includes, for example Core player. Core player makes possible to play DivX without converting. I think that the other major software vendors will soon also on board. The features of iPhone will rapidly increase. It is possible that Apple will soon one of such great players in mobile market like RIM.

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Syberia is now available for Windows Mobile powered Smartphones

admin — Thu, 22 May 2008 23:30:32 +0000

Syberia is an adventure game, originally developed for PC. The success was so great that the developers decided to port Syberia on the other platforms.
The game is very interesting to play because of the sophisticated game scenario, tricky puzzles and lovingly designed graphics.
A short story:
Kate Walker works for a large law firm in New York. She receives from her employer the task to close a contract for the sale of a small, in the Swiss-situated toy factory. Kate could not imagine how this deal will change her live. What should actually be easier than to fly to Europe, close a deal and return the next day in NY? But the destiny of the young woman is not so simple as she thought. Upon arrival, Kate learns that the owner of the factory recently died and all rights to the factory on inherited by her brother. As the boss of Kate learns about it, he calls the young woman to stay in Europe until the contract is not fulfilled. The only problem is, nobody knows where the only heritor resides.
Before Kate complete the mission, she will lern a lot of interesting people and creatures about, each of them has the individual look and unique history. She will solve many “intelligent” puzzles and visit many interesting places.
I tried the game today on my Asus A636N successfully. I really liked it. I always wanted to know how it goes further and although the puzzles in the game are not always simple, I could find for the time I spent with the game, many interesting things out. I would like to continue playing the game as soon as I have a bit more time.
My conclusion: Syberia is a very successful game, it could be compared with such games as Monkey Island, The Dig, or Day of the Tentacle, which is also playable on the PPC with the help of ScummVM.

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Bluetooth 2.1 EDR

admin — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 10:50:40 +0000

It seems that Bluetooth will not die in the next time. The developers of Bluetooth are working intensively on developing of this standard. The proof is a new specification called Bluetooth 2.1 EDR.
This specification don’t have those revolutionary changes like Bluetooth 2.0, but it has important security fixes, lower energy consumption and more simply procedure to coupling devices (Near Field Communication).

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