Windows Mobile

I have described some common tasks that you would perform to get up and running with your windows mobile phone. I have an i-mate jama running windows mobile 5 with 64MB RAM, 64MB ROM and 1GB microSD card. I purchased this phone on rediff.com with the intention of testing some custom apps that I had built. I picked up a windows mobile 5 phone while windows mobile 6 is the norm and hence could get it for a bargain. See here for a list of Windows Mobile phones.

Getting Started
What to do when your mobile is running programs slowly?
How to turn off the menu click sounds?
How to receive MMS on your Airtel connection?
How to activate Airtel Live? What can you do with Airtel Live?
What is Net-on-phone (NOP)? How to activate NOP with Airtel?
What is Mobile Office (MO)? How to activate MO with Airtel?
How to receive email notifications on mobile without Mobile Office (MO)?
How to view and interact with the mobile display from the PC?
Some useful applications and utilities
Using GPS features on your mobile phone
Some factors to consider while buying a smartphone

Getting Started

• Install ActiveSync on your PC (CD provided with mobile) and connect your mobile to your PC through the USB cable provided.

• With ActiveSync you can synchronize tasks, appointments, contacts, e-mail messages (all from Outlook), and Internet Explorer favorites. In addition to this you can also synchronize files.

What to do when your mobile is running programs slowly?

• Programs stay resident in memory and do not close automatically on pressing the windows x button (BTW, this is not a bug and instead a windows mobile feature). Due to this the more programs you use the slower the mobile runs. Ultimately, the phone hangs and you would have no choice but to reboot. Very rarely, the 'Insufficient memory - close programs to release memory' dialog functions as expected.

• While increasing your mobile memory is certainly one of the solutions (extending through additional microSD cards is of no use) the problem does not disappear, instead hanging of the mobile is only delayed and hence less frequent.

• A frequent task that you would find yourself performing would be to bring up the 'Running Programs' dialog from settings (Start->Settings->System->Memory->Running Programs) and killing programs that you intended to close. Performing this 6 step task when the mobile is low on memory would be a Herculean task and hence would be easier if you could access the 'Running Programs' dialog much more easily say through an item in the Start Menu.

• You can achieve that by creating a ReleaseMemory.lnk file on your PC with the following entry in it, 22#ctlpnl cplmain.cpl,4,2. Copy this file under Windows\Start Menu folder on your windows mobile. Now you have a shortcut to the 'Running Programs' dialog under the Start Menu. Use it as many times as you want with 2 clicks instead of 5.

How to turn off the menu click sounds?
There are several sounds that the mobile makes when interacting with it. Some of these are very annoying after the first few days of use and it is also disturbing to your neighbors. While you can turn off some of the notification and system event related sounds through the settings, they are not the ones that are most annoying. The ones that I wanted turned off were the menu popup and menu click sounds. There are not settings in Windows Mobile through which you can achieve this. These sounds are actually stored in the form of wav files namely, Menupop.wav and hwandsw.wav. Deleting these files will cause problems because Windows is dependent on them. What you however can do is to replace these with empty wav files with same name. Following are the steps to achieve the same.

• Create two empty wav files in Sound Recorder on your PC. Opening Sound Recorder and clicking on save would create an empty wav file. Name them as Menupop.wav and hwandsw.wav.

• Next, you would want to copy these files over the existing files in the \Windows folder of your mobile.

• Windows Explorer does not allow you to replace files on the ROM.

• The solution is to use a tool like GSFinder. This tool allows overwriting files on the ROM. Install GSFinder on your mobile and then overwrite the two wav files.

• Restart your mobile, it shouldn't make those annoying sounds anymore.

How to receive MMS on your Airtel connection?
Send 'MMS ACTIVE' text message to 121

• Wait for 24 hrs and the service will be activated for your mobile

• Next, you need to configure your mobile to receive MMS.

• For most non-Windows mobiles settings are sent automatically by the server as another message. However, for a Windows Mobile you need to configure the settings yourself.

• There is no fixed monthly charges for mms service. Each MMS that you send will cost you Rs.5.

• Settings - view mms slideshow

How to activate Airtel Live? What can you do with Airtel Live?
You can access content on the Airtel Live portal with this type of connection. WAP URLs sent through WAP SMS messages cannot still be browsed. Access to some of the content on the Airtel Live site may be charged. You cannot directly browse any site that you want. However, from the Airtel Live portal you can browse sites of your choice by specifying the URL in the 'Access Internet' screen of the portal. Charges for browsing as on 17th May 2008 are 30 paisa per 20 KB.

• To activate send 'MASALA ACTIVE' text message to 121

• Wait for 4 hours and the service will be activated for your mobile

• Next, you need to configure your mobile to browse

• For most non-Windows mobiles settings are sent automatically by the server as another message. However, for a Windows Mobile you need to configure the settings yourself.

• Settings - view airtellive slideshow

What is Net-on-phone (NOP)? How to activate NOP with Airtel?
If you want to browse the internet with your mobile phone then you need NOP. Again, there are several sites that are blocked by Airtel. Push mail through outlook is not allowed. Instead browsing is allowed through the internet browser on your mobile (most probably Microsoft Internet Explorer). This service costs Rs.99/month. Browsing on the mobile brings back memories of old dial-up days and seems awfully slow.

• To activate send 'WAP1 ACTIVE' text message to 121

• Wait for 4 hours and the service will be activated for your mobile

• Next, you need to configure your mobile to browse

• For most non-Windows mobiles settings are sent automatically by the server as another message. However, for a Windows Mobile you need to configure the settings yourself.

• Settings - view NOP slideshow

• Make this your default connection by having it selected in the 'My Work Network' screen like this.

* Please note that Airtel NOP has been discontinued from July 2009. You have no choice but to subscribe to Mobile Office for Rs.150 per week :(.

What is Mobile Office (MO)? How to activate MO with Airtel?
If you want push email on your mobile phone then you need Mobile Office. This service has the least amount of restrictions and costs Rs.399/month for basic plan. Plan details. As a matter of fact, I haven't tried this service and at this point in time will not be able to provide you with more details on activating this service. You could however contact Airtel's customer support and hopefully it shouldn't be difficult to activate since Airtel claims these services to be specially provided for Windows Mobile phones.

How to receive email notifications on mobile without Mobile Office (MO)?
This is a technique for receiving SMS email notifications (similar to push mail) on your mobile without subscribing to the not so cheap Mobile Office. I have checked this with gmail, I am not sure if it will work with other free web based email services. Similarly, I have an Airtel connection and not sure if this will work with other mobile service providers.

• Login to gmail account on your computer

• Go to settings->Forwarding and POP/IMAP

• In the forwarding section select 'Forward a copy of incoming mail to' option

• Type in your mobilenumber@airtelkk.com (ex:- 99xxxxxxxx@airtelkk.com ) in the subsequent edit box. (For reliance mobile phones, try 93xxxxxxxx@mms.ricmail.com )

• Save Changes

Now you are all set to receive free sms email notifications. The length of the messages are restricted to 160 characters. This is however a good option if you need to receive messages while on the move but don't want to spend on expensive services. BTW, this service will work with any sms capable phone and not just a Windows Mobile phone. That to me is the greatest advantage.
* P.S. With time I have found this service to be unreliable. I have faced instances of, "messages forwarded by others to you not sent as sms", "messages bouncing, resulting in plenty of failure notifications in gmail inbox" etc etc. Its a combination of problems from gmail and your TSP. Conclusion - This service is a pain in the long run.

How to view and interact with the mobile display from the PC?
Very often you would find yourself copying files from the PC and trying out things on your mobile. This frequent switching becomes a bit of an issue and also the constant change in size of the PC and mobile display and input devices creates lot of discomfort. You would desire to interact with the mobile display from the PC. Is such a thing possible? Yes it is. The Windows Mobile Developer PowerToys utilities (download it here) contain an 'ActiveSync Remote Display' tool that helps you do exactly this.

• However, when you run this tool it gives a message 'The OS or CPU of this device is unknown to this application' on a Windows Mobile 5 device.

• To overcome this you need to copy the 2 files (cerdisp2.exe and KillProc.exe) from the Program Files\Windows Mobile Developer Power Toys\ActiveSync_Remote_Display\devices\wce400\armv4t folder on PC to the \WINDOWS directory on your WM5.0 device.

• Afterwards, run 'ActiveSync Remote Display' on the PC.

• If you still get the 'The OS or CPU of this device is unknown to this application' message, just click on OK.

• Next you will see 'This program is from an unknown publisher' message on the mobile, just say Yes.

• You are now all set to control your mobile from your PC.

Some useful applications and utilities
I have listed down some useful utilities for my Windows Mobile that I came across.

Mobile Registry Editor

Programs that runs on your desktop and lets you edit your Windows mobile registry.

GSFinder+

Allows replacing files on the ROM and also ZIP management, network management, file searching, powerful context menus (copy to, move to...).

GoogleMaps

Google maps mobile version with satellite images option. Can communicate with a GPS receiver to display current location. Driving directions for Indian cities are not available.

PointUI

Alternative to Home/Today screen of your mobile. Controls sized for easy interactions with your fingers instead of the stylus.

TouchPal

A software based keyboard for easy text input using fingers.

Using GPS features on your mobile phone
My phone (i-mate jama) is not equipped with an in-built GPS receiver. I purchased a separate bluetooth GPS receiver from SatGuide through an offer in the Times of India newspaper. I paid INR 4, 000/- for the receiver, SatGuide navigation system software and maps of 30+ cities & National Highway. The software works quite well though my mobile hangs on extended usage of this software (due to insufficient memory - the onboard RAM isn't sufficient even for the simplest of applications). The maps are detailed and reasonably good with regard to most main roads (I have only tried in Bangalore). However, they are not 100% accurate due to the frequent change in one-way rules on Bangalore roads. It would be a daunting task for the maps to be up-to-date. Because the maps are loaded on the mobile phone you need to reload updated maps as and when they are released. This problem could have been solved by the use of web-based maps (you would always have access to the latest maps from a single source). But then there would be the problem of internet speed (which would render the application useless). Inspite of all these constraints the navigation application is quite useful.
With regard to installation and configuration of the GPS receiver, the associated software and maps, I followed the instructions given in the user manual of SatGuide and the following two links TierraVision and SatGuide (go to the FAQ page for receiver passcode). The instructions are detailed and easy to follow. The application was functional without any hassles. Communication testing between mobile phone and GPS receiver is best done outdoor as the signal reception from GPS satellites is very bad indoor (almost impossible).

Some factors to consider while buying a smartphone

• Operating System - While big brands and latest models could entice you into buying them, it makes sense to buy based on long term ( around 3 years ) needs, convenience and ease of use. While MS Windows is the dominant OS on the desktop, similar position is held by Symbian in the mobile world. Some of the other choices are Windows Mobile, Palm OS, Linux, Blackberry, iPhone and Android. However, I decided to go with a Windows Mobile because of the comfort level after years of desktop use (resistance to change).

• Screen Size - Bigger screens are better for your eyes and fingers. Smaller screens are a strain on your eyes especially since you get addicted to some of the games. Otherwise, most other apps you would not use for extended periods of time unless you are a compulsive messaging addict (which i am not). Bigger screens are difficult to carry and lose their convenience advantage.

• Software apps - Advantage of choosing an OS like Windows Mobile is that you will get lots of useful applications and utilities, large part of them are freeware. You can find some useful utilities at http://pocketpcfreewares.com/en/index.php

• Data Connectivity - There are several technologies and all of them claim to be standards. Some of them are GPRS, HSCSD, EDGE, HSDPA, 3G, WLAN, Bluetooth, Infrared port, USB. GPRS is basic and the speed is slow while 3G is not yet available in India. 3G will provide faster net connectivity.

• Text input - You can choose between touch-screen, QWERTY keypad, handwriting recognition or good old alpha-numeric keypad. QWERTY keypads are bulky. Touch screens are better. Handwriting recognition is not usable.

• Cost - Mobile phone market is unregulated and hence there is no control over the prices. Manufacturers print high MRP on the boxes while mobile shops give you huge discounts. As a customer you don't know what's the right price. Most new models are priced high and if you can wait for a season or two the same phones will be available at 20 to 25% of the initial price. The downside to deferred buying ofcourse is that some of the technologies would be on the verge of becoming outdated and the advantage is that you can choose the most widely used technology.