No blogging last week on account of the MVP Summit, but we're back at it this week...

• Jon Box lists reasons for running WM 6 and WM 6.1
• Carlo Longino's well-written piece about the mobile web, in response to the Mowser situation.
• Dan blogs about an issue with CF 3.5
• Erik EJ gives us a sample of importing SQL Compact data into Excel
• Raffael gives us four gems: A three part series on GPS Programming Tips for WM, and a post on debugging Connection Manager code.
• Pavel gives us one way to simulate a Windows service on Windows Mobile using managed code

• Free ‘control your device from your desktop’ software MyMobileR has released v1.23 with several new goodies and fixes. PocketController is getting some competition!  (although you can’t [yet] skin the MyMobileR window)

   

• Dash has opened the API to their GPS receivers.  (via BGR) Now you can send a tweet with your actual location..and the GPS seems pretty decent, too (check out earlier reviews).

   

• BlackJack III ?  (BGR seems to think so – touch screen, too!)

   

• Om has a great post about GPS commoditization

   

• Speaking of GPS, Microsoft has recently announced Windows Embedded NavReady.  Here’s the PressPass post.

   

• AuthenTec has announced fingerprint reader for waterproof phones.

   

• The folks at EQATEC have released version 1.2.41 of their excellent profiler for .NET CF.  

   

• Fellow Device AppDev MVP Chris Craft has started a 30 days of .NET [Windows Mobile Applications] series (ok, he’s now 3 weeks in..).  Check it out - a lot of great samples here. Way to go, Chris!

Happy Pi Day!

Software / Hardware

• Outlook Mobile team blog. Subscribed.
• Loke notes that Newsbreak 2.0 is out. He talks about his experiences after two days. Hanselman digs it, too. Stay tuned for my forthcoming mobile RSS reader review.
• Check out the AT&T WS SMT5700 over at Engadget Mobile.  Looks like someone cross-bred a Treo, a BlackJack, and a N62.

Development

• SQL CE 2005 BOL has been updated; get the March 2007 .chm.
• The February 2007 monthly updates are now available for Windows Embedded CE 6.0, Windows CE 5.0, 090-015008ccc1dc%26DisplayLang%3den">Windows CE 5.0 Network Media Device Feature Pack, and Windows CE.NET 4.2
• Neil C. shows us RPM running under Vista and how to interact with interactive phone services in 3 lines of code.
• I got an e-mail last week that the Red FIVE Labs team has released a CTP of their .NET CF 1.0 port to Symbian.   Write once, run everywhere? Um, no. Read their FAQ.
• Mike Lipp from the CF team talks about app compat with NETCF v2 SP2.  As you know already, .NET CF 2.0 SP2 has been released; keep an eye on this post from the .NET CF team. They will be updating it as the releases (QFEs, etc) become available.
• Anand talks more about networking support on Vista for Device Emulator v2.   And Richard shows how to send your GPS location.

Community

• Cincinnati/Dayton Code Camp: March 24, 2007 Are you registered? Check out the sessions.
• Next CINNUG meeting: March 20, 2007 on Guidance Automation Toolkit

In Other News

• Check out Julie's LapDawg Laptop stand review.
• Omar links to a YouTube video of a demonstration of Vista speech recognition. I, too, laughed heartily.

Software / Hardware 

• NewsGator Mobile is now in public beta. Check it out.  Thanks to Neil Cowburn for the link.
• Jason Fuller of the Windows Mobile team gives us some guidelines for setting up GPS on WM5

 Development

• SQL Server 2005 Everywhere Edition is now in CTP (via Steve Lasker)  and from the SQL Server Everywhere blog.  Download here. BOL is here.  Here’s one piece of the functionality that I love: “Full support for all of the Sql Mobile features, including the SqlCeResultSet and RDA”. Sweet.
• P&P’s Mobile Client Software Factory (MCSF) is has reached CTP stage.
• Alex Yahknin shares how to make a .NET CF label control transparent.  …and how to use MSXML2 in .NET CF 2.0
• John Kennedy tells us about Adapt Your App – a collection of items to help you make sure that your app adapts to the latest screen resolutions and orientations.  Here’s a list (nicely organized by OS and resolution) of emulator images for Device Emulator 1.0  Speaking of.. here is a Standalone Device Emulator 1.0 that contains WM5.0 images with MSFP
• Also from John Kennedy is a link to the MobileDeveloper wiki that gives us some guidelines for writing Ajax apps targeted to Windows Mobile devices.   
• Check out the Windows Mobile Starter Kits   And don’t forget to check out the eHow-Tos – see John Kennedy and Jenny Kays (they’re swell!) and other folks and learn a thing or two!
• Neil Cowburn welcomes us to the new OpenNETCF
• Peter Foot tells us how to disable the touch screen

In Other News . . .

• … Since I last blogged, Scoble has left Microsoft. Good Grief!  

TGIF!

Software / Hardware

• Sling Media has released SlingPlayer for Windows Mobile (via msmobiles.com)  Check out this review (1/2) of SlingPlayer Mobile Beta at pocketnow.com  And another review by MVP Clinton Fitch (via SmartphoneThoughts.com)
• Keni Barwick has a good post about configuring the GPS control panel in Windows Mobile 5.0

 Development

• Marcus Perryman has a post about doing a timed camera capture on WM 5.0
• Sarah Blow posts part 1 of N about Mobile Web 2.0
• Check out these posts from Thom Robbins on Mobile Web Development – Customization and Mobile Web Development – Extensibility
• The Windows Mobile team answers the question “What’s a compaction thread?”
• The Windows CE Base Team has written an excellent post on how to programmatically improve file system throughput

In Other News . . .

• PayPal Mobile is now open (US, UK or Canada only) (via PocketPCThoughts.com)
• Mini Cooper pimped – Windows Mobile style
• ROTOR 2.0 (Shared Source CLI) is out (via Neil Cowburn)

let’s see.. what’s been going on since TMM 98…  I went to O’Bannon Creek in Loveland on Wednesday and played the back 9 with some friends and former co-workers. Let’s just say I didn’t do too well <g>.   My wife and I had an excellent meal at Kona Bistro in Oakley this week (first time there).  Check it out when you’re in the Queen City.  Oh yeah, and I’m working on a reliable messaging solution leveraging MSMQ (unfortunately not using WS-ReliableMessaging in WSE3.  I looked at that option..but no dice for CF).

Software / Hardware 

• The Exchange team talks about AUTD and synchronization
• KC links to some videos of Exchange 2003 SP2 / WM5 MSFP functionality
• Two reviews of the HP iPAQ hw6515:  InfoSyncWorld (via ChipChick)  and Mobinaute (via msmobiles.com)
• msmobiles.com discusses a Gartner report that says WM5 is not secure enough (because the device wipe doesn’t get the removable media)
• ChipChick also brings us this NSFW review of the Samsung i720 by BengalBoy (why can’t the guy lose the women and just give us pics of the device?).   Dale Coffig reviews this device as well and msmobiles.com gets in their views Looks like a cool device…
• Brighthand reports that Dell Axim X50 upgrades will be available in October
• Mike Hall brings us a podcast interview with Chris Hill on the MSFP (EFP)
• The BenQ P50 has garnered FCC approval (one step closer to US availability..)

 Development

• The Windows CE Base Team now has a blog.  Subscribed.
• Receiving error 0x80040154 during an upgrade of a SQL CE 2.0 db?  Check this out.
• David Kline talks about how easy it is to switch the target device in VS2005 .NET CF projects.  He also talks about checking for screen rotation support in .NET CF v2
• The WinCE networking team blogs about the GPS Intermediate Driver (GPSID) in Windows Mobile 5.0
• Kent Tegels blogs about Laguna (which we all now know as SQL Mobile 2005)
• Amit Chopra discusses network disconnect issues during VS setup
• The VSD team announces the availability of the eVC Upgrade Wizard for VS 2005 Beta 2.  The download is here.
• Marcus Perryman gets out the soapbox to talk about Windows Mobile in kiosk mode
• Peter Foot shows us how we can retrieve the IMEI of the device via TAPI.

In Other News . . .

• Russ blogs about what’s on his Nkia 6680  (yeah, I know it’s not Windows Mobile, but I found it enlightening).
• Oakley shades + Moto BT headset == Oakley Motorola RAZRWire
• HOWTO: Rebuild your laptop battery

-Nino