Make Tech Easier » Mobile

How to Easily Mount Your iPhone As An External Drive in Ubuntu

Damien — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:27:35 +0000

For those who own an iPhone/iPod Touch and at the same time is an Ubuntu (or Linux) users, here’s is a good news. You can now easily mount your iPhone in your Ubuntu without having to jailbreak your phone.

In the past, the dirty but effective way to access the iPhone from your Linux system is via SSH. This requires you to jailbreak your phone and it voids the warranty. With iFuse, you can now mount your iPhone/iPod Touch under Linux with just a USB cable. You can also view/edit/cut/copy/paste the file just like any USB disk drive.

Installation

Open up your terminal, type the following to open up your APT sources file

gksu gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Insert the following lines to the end of the file

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/jonabeck/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/jonabeck/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

The above is assuming that you are using Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty). For any other version, simply replace the jaunty by the respective version name (hardy, intrepid, karmic etc)

Save and close the file.

Back in the terminal:

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com F0876AC9
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ifuse

Once the installation is done, connect your iPhone to your computer via the USB cable.

Open up your Nautilus. You should see the iPhone/iPod entry at the side pane. This show that it is already mounted in your system.

Click on the entry to view the filesystem.

Things that you can do

1. View/copy/download photos.

You can now manage the photos that you have taken with your iPhone without iTunes.

2. Create folders, upload/download files

You can now use your iPhone as a USB drive and use it for file storage. To allow confusion/conflict with the other system files, it is best to create a custom folder (and name it My Folder) and store all your files there.

3. Managing address book/calendar (upcoming)

Work is underway to sync the contact data with Conduit.

What you cannot do now

Manage your music database

Apple uses a cryptographic signing algorithm to encrypt all the music files. While you can access the music folder, there is no way that you can transfer your music over and get it to work in your iPhone.

Note:
1. iFuse is not Ubuntu-specific app. It works for most Linux distro as well.

2. Mac users can also use iPhoneDisk to achieve similar functionality.

How to Easily Mount Your iPhone As An External Drive in Ubuntu originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

How to Set Up Push Notification For Gmail in iPhone

Damien — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:41:37 +0000

Few days ago, Google announced that they have released the push notification support for Gmail for mobile devices such as iPhone and Windows Mobile. Today, let us show you how you can set up a push Gmail account on your iPhone.

By following this tutorial, you can also configure it to sync your contact and calendar.

Before you start, please note that Google sync only work with iPhone firmware 3.0 and above.

Getting Started

1. Tap on the Settings.app icon on the home page

2. Scroll down and open Mail, Contacts, Calendars.

3. Tap Add Account

4. Select Microsoft Exchange.

5. In the Email field, enter your Gmail address.

Leave the Domain field blank.

Enter your Google’s Username and Password.

Once done, tap Save. You might see the “Unable to verify certificate” error message. Select Accept.

6. A new Server input field will now appear. Enter “m.google.com“. Tap Next to continue.

7. Select the Google services that you want to sync. For me, I activated all the available synchronization services. Tap Done.

Your Google sync Push notification services is now set up.

To activate the push notification, you need to turn the Push feature on in the iPhone Settings section.

At the Mail, Contacts, Calendar section, tap Fetch New Data

Make sure that the Push is turned to ON.

Done.

Few things to note:

1. Google sync requires you to be constantly connected to the Web. You have to keep your 3G or WIFI connection ‘Always ON’ for the best result.

2. The push notification can be very draining on your battery life. If you value your battery life much more than the push technology, turn the Push feature OFF for optimal performance.

How to Set Up Push Notification For Gmail in iPhone originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

How to Access StumbleUpon and Stumble Through Websites in an iPhone

Damien — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:10:27 +0000

In the past, if you want to access StumbleUpon on your iPhone/iPod Touch, you will know that it is not an easy task. Back then, SU only exists as a Firefox extension and does not plays well with any of the mobile devices. However, with the launch of the SU web toolbar, anyone can now access StumbleUpon on any browsers without having to install any applications/extensions. The best thing, it works fine in iPhone/iPod Touch too.

In your iPhone, open the safari app.

On the address bar, enter www.stumbleupon.com/toolbar

That’s it. The StumbleUpon toolbar will appear and it immediately stumbles you to one of its pages.

To stumble through websites, simply tap on the Stumble button, like how you always did on your computer browser.

Adding to bookmarks

To save the effort of having to retype the URL everytime, you can save the SU toolbar in your bookmark.

Everytime when you access the StumbleUpon toolbar, it will start stumbling and append the destination URL to its own, resulting in an URL like http://www.stumbleupon.com/toolbar/#2LpQMi/maketecheasier.com/8-useful-and-interesting-bash-prompts/2009/09/04/topic:Linux%2FUnix.

I am sure you won’t want to save this long URL in your bookmark, unless you want to save this particular page for future reference.

Here’s how you can change it.

On any StumbleUpon page, click the + at the bottom screen to save the current URL to Bookmark.

Change the title to StumbleUpon (or any name you like). Note that you won’t be able to change the URL here.

Save to Bookmark.

Back in the Bookmark screen, tap on the Edit (at the bottom left corner) button.

Press the StumbleUpon bookmark entry to go into Edit mode.

Change the URL to www.stumbleupon.com/toolbar. Save.

That’s it. Everytime you launch this bookmark, it will start stumbling.

Personally, I found that using StumbleUpon on my iPhone drained my battery much faster than normal browsing. I am not sure if it is only me, or this is a SU issue. If you have such issues too, feel free to voice it out in the comments.

How to Access StumbleUpon and Stumble Through Websites in an iPhone originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

How to Configure Spb Mobile Shell 3 For Windows Mobile

ChristianCawley — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:18:34 +0000

The default Windows Mobile user interface isn’t ideal for the majority of daily mobile working tasks – it depends heavily on the stylus (or is you’re using a Smartphone, the D-pad), a hardware keyboard and in some cases very good eyesight.

As such, several developers have taken advantage of this to introduce alternative user interfaces for Windows Mobile devices. Given that the platform (while under supported in recent years) is the most versatile of all the flavours of mobile available, this shouldn’t be too much of a surprise.

Key among these developers is Spb Software, who over the last few years have released a succession of mobile shells for Windows Mobile. The latest of these is Spb Mobile Shell 3 which is available as a free 14 day trial from Spb Software, full price $29.95.

Configuring Spb Mobile Shell 3

Spb Mobile Shell 3 is the most popular of the Windows Mobile user interface enhancements, mostly due to it being so user friendly, easily configurable and requiring minimal resources. Once installed, there are several things that you may wish to do – such as manage your contacts or organise your mobile desktop.

Finger friendly and capable of being used almost exclusively without having to resort to any Windows Mobile index menus or settings (other than Pocket Outlook screens), Spb Mobile Shell 3 offers a smooth and well presented layout of all of your vital mobile information. A three-screen-wide desktop allows for the effective arrangement of favourite applications, tools and contacts, while a variety of different functions (address book, calendar, settings and others) can be accessed via a carousel system.

The Desktop

The first thing to do once you have installed Spb Mobile Shell 3 is to setup your desktop. There are two choices of desktop:

The standard “Professional” look that displays time, calendar, upcoming appointments, weather and any email/SMS/missed call alerts,
The “Lifestyle” layout which can be configured entirely to your requirements.

Spb Mobile Shell’s Lifestyle desktop offers the three-screen-wide option, allowing email notifications, widgets for launching favourite applications and much more to be displayed at the required position and size.

For instance to add a widget of your favourite Windows Mobile game to your Spb Mobile Shell 3 desktop view, press the Menu button on the lower right of the display, go to Add Widget and browse Applications -> Games. Once placed on the desktop you can also resize and reposition the widget before confirming the addition.

Desktop Background

A range of standard widgets are available to begin with, such as analogue and digital clock types, calendar, messaging notifications and it’s also possible to change your desktop background.

To do this, press the Menu button on the lower right of the display and select Change Background. From here you can browse through images in the Spb Mobile Shell folder on your Windows Mobile device and select an image that suits. If you have images elsewhere on your phone to use, they will need to be copied to the Spb Mobile Shell folder which can be found in the Program Files folder on your phone.

Alternative Spb Mobile Shell 3 backgrounds can be downloaded from the website – 40 alternatives from the included 6 are available offering a range of scenery.

Add a Contact and Manage Widgets

Adding a shortcut to one of your contacts is simple too – press the Menu button on the lower right of the display and select Add Widget -> Shortcuts -> Contact.

The required contact will then appear on your Spb Mobile Shell 3 desktop – but if they haven’t got a photo assigned you’ll just see an outline and the contact name.

As with all desktop widgets in Spb Mobile Shell 3, you can move the contact to a different screen of your finger friendly scrolling desktop display, and resize it.

To do this, open the Menu again and select Edit Layout. From here, select the widget you want to change – you’ll see that it is now highlighted with a heavy white outline and a down-pointing white triangle. Touch the widget you want to adjust – a new menu will offer options to move it to a left or right page of the desktop, to display a text label for the widget or to resize it.

Spb Mobile Shell 3 is a superbly configurable interface for Windows Mobile devices that completely re-states what it means to use a Windows Phone device.

How to Configure Spb Mobile Shell 3 For Windows Mobile originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Get Free Exchange Email For Windows Mobile

ChristianCawley — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:00:30 +0000

Using Microsoft Exchange is the nearest thing to true push email on Windows Mobile devices, and thanks to a new free open source service, you are no longer restricted to paying an for an unreliable service or depending on your corporate email.

Funambol is a free service that uses the open source model. It replicates the workings of Microsoft Exchange and offers free exchange style email to many mobile phone types, particularly Windows Mobile.

It’s a powerful tool that goes beyond over the air email synchronization – Funambol also offers calendar and contacts synchronization.

Sign-Up And Install Funambol

First of all, you need to visit my.funambol.com to setup an account and tell the system what type of phone you’re using.

Once complete, it is then time to tell Funambol your email details. It’s a good idea to give the email address and password of a rarely used account or one you’ve set up for testing this service. I haven’t come across any security concerns as yet however – Funambol requires the information in order to login to your email account and push the emails to your phone. It’s all completely carried out by automated software, with no human interaction with the systems except for technical support.

Next you’ll need to download the right version for your Windows Mobile device – go to the Funambol download page. Separate downloads for Smartphone and PocketPC models are available (if your phone has a hardware keyboard and is not touchscreen, you’ll need the Smartphone version).

Finally some general information needs to be confirmed, such as timezone and secondary email address.

How To Sync

Once downloaded and installed on your phone (Funambol sends a CAB file to your Windows Mobile device for over the air installation) it’s time to begin synching data.

The most obvious thing to try to sync is your email – however any contacts and calendar items currently held on your Windows Mobile device will be synchronized as ActiveSync sends your Pocket Outlook data to the Funambol open source exchange server.

What is and isn’t synced can be managed from your mobile Funambol client, while the myfunambol page allows you to alter calendar entries and add and delete duplicates.

The following Pocket Outlook data types can be synced or disabled:

Email
Contacts
Calendar
Tasks
Notes
Briefcase

Manage what items are synced by launching the Funambol client on your Windows Phone and saving your Sync Settings.

Email can be set to push, scheduled or manual synchronization with Funambol – to set this click on the Email Options link on the Sync Settings screen. There are no considerable differences between Push service and Scheduled synchronization, so to take advantage of this great service I would recommend setting your device to Push service.

Sending and Receiving Email

When you receive email with Funambol, the software will replicate the actions of an ActiveSync managed connection to a Microsoft Exchange server. The email received in your account will be collected by Funambol’s automated systems and pushed to your phone almost instantly. No other email address is used.

To reply to the email – carry on as normal! Funambol doesn’t utilise any new email addresses for relaying your message, so your intended recipient will have no idea you’re sending via a secure third party. There will be no unusual email addresses aliasing your own usual address, making the experience with Funambol a seamless and impressive one.

Get Free Exchange Email For Windows Mobile originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Fix Files And Remove Duplicate Contacts In Pocket Outlook With TrineFix

ChristianCawley — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:05:05 +0000

With calendars, contacts and task data becoming more and more mobile, pocket PCs are a key home for the storage of mobile organizer information.

Windows Mobile can be synchronised via ActiveSync with your PC or Exchange server to keep synchonrised your contacts list, calendars and flagged emails and tasks – but tourble can arise in the shape of duplicates.

If Microsoft truly intend on aligning the Windows Mobile/Windows Phone platform to the same market spread as Apple, BlackBerry and Palm Pre, resolving the laughable situation with the contacts, calendar and tasks duplicate should be high on their list of priorities.

Until Windows Mobile 7 is released however, Trinefix is by far and away the best solution to this frustrating problem.

Available from www.trineseries.com, the download file is 518 KB and this can quickly be downloaded either directly to your PC or over the air to your phone via this link.

Once installed, it’s time to setup Trinefix to scan your Pocket Outlook items and fix your duplicates!

Using Trinefix

Before continuing, the first thing to do is configure Trinefix for use with your setup. The Preferences screen is pretty simple and straightforward and has little to do with what the software does, more how it looks.

Configuring Trinefix for use with your setup means considering how you use your Windows Mobile phone. If you store contacts, keep calendar appointments and manage your current tasks using Pocket Outlook and these are all updated by synching to your PC or Exchange server, then a full clean-up is definitely required.

On the other hand you might just need to tidy up an individual element, such as your contacts – in this case you would only need to use the Contacts clean up. We’ll begin looking at how to use Trinefix by focussing on the Contacts tool.

Fix Duplicate Contacts

Start off by switching to or launching Trinefix and scroll down to the Contacts menu item. Each of the duplicate management tools can be accessed from the main Trinefix menu.

Four options are given:

Fix duplicates – this cleans all duplicates in your contacts list. You can designate which fields to be compared and Trinefix will display all duplicate contacts based on this field, allowing you to choose to delete.

Fix FileAs – with this option you can set the “File As” option to display all of your contacts the same way, such as surname first, forename first, etc.

Fix Country Code – allows you to add a default country code to all numbers with none defined. Trinefix can collect all numbers without a country code to allow you to set one of your choice.

Bulk Delete – this obviously facilitates a bulk removal of contacts, either based on a search term or just the whole lot. A confirmation screen allows you to double check your decision.

Fix Duplicate Calendar Items

This intelligent tool compares the start time and date, end time and date and the subject/appointment name and checks for duplicates which are then displayed and an option to delete offered. The bulk delete option works in the same way as above.

Bulk Delete Tasks

There is no easy way to manage your tasks – Trinefix offers only a bulk delete tool that works in the same way as the contacts and calendar items bulk delete.

With all of these tools at your disposal, time spent resolving Pocket Outlook duplicate issues can be considerably reduced with this very cool freeware app!

Fix Files And Remove Duplicate Contacts In Pocket Outlook With TrineFix originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

How to Emulate And Play MS-DOS Games On Windows Mobile

ChristianCawley — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 12:28:14 +0000

Good games on the Windows Mobile platform are largely limited to a few recent titles – but there is a wealth of games available for the platform thanks to the library of titles written in MS-DOS, and a suitable emulator.

If you want to install some old games or apps or simply want to push the limits on your Windows Mobile device, MS-DOS emulation is a good way to go. Modern Windows Mobile devices are more than capable of running old MS-DOS games and applications, but emulation is a tricky business. Surprisingly there are just two emulators available.

The Emulators

While emulation of games consoles and 8 bit platforms are commonplace on Windows Mobile, there is a huge vacuum in the DOS emulation field, with barely filling the gap. Given that fans of so many classic and retro games want to be able to play their favourites on a mobile platform, it’s astonishing there aren’t more PDA MS-DOS emulators generally, let alone on Windows Mobile.

First of all, there’s pDOSBox – probably the most well known of the MS-DOS emulators for Windows Mobile, pDOSBox is 100% free. PDOSBox (the “p” is for “pocket”) is available as freeware and is currently a beta release for version 2.0 – however it is tricky to setup and not compatible with all Windows Mobile screen resolutions. pDOSBox isn’t suitable for use with all Pocket PC devices and fails to run satisfactorily on Windows Mobile 6.5.

Secondly, there’s Pocket Dos. This MS-DOS emulator is also available for free but requires registration to get rid of an annoying reminder every 15 minutes. The registration is in the $30 area and as there really isn’t very much between the two emulators in terms of performance and compatibility, it’s down to the user’s preference which they opt for.

We’ll carry on now and look how to successfully achieve emulation on each of these applications.

Emulation with pDOSBox

Installation of pDOSBox veers away from the standard CAB file or ActiveSync-managed desktop installation. First download the pDOSBox zip file. Extracted it and copy the folder to the Storage Card on your Windows Mobile device.

While viewing your Windows Mobile device in Explorer (usually opened via ActiveSync) right-click on the file pdbfend.exe in the pDOSBox2.0 folder and select Create Shortcut. Rename this shortcut to pDOSBox 2 and then right-click on this shortcut and select Cut.

Navigate to the Windows folder on your WinMo device, right-click on the “Start Menu” and select Paste

You’re now ready to run pDOSBox!

Configuration of your pDOSBox requires the mounting of your Storage Card as a drive. To do this, browse to the pDOSBox2.0 folder and open the dosbox.conf file in Notepad.

The following line should be altered as appropriate, depending on how your additional storage is named in the Windows Mobile device and whereabouts you’ve saved your DOS programs.

By default, the line reads:

mount c "/Storage Card/pDOSBox0.63-p1/DosPrograms"

You might change this to:

mount c "/Internal Storage/Games/"

Once this has been done, the C:\ drive should automatically mount when pDOSBox 2.0 is launched and you’ll then be able to carry on and install and launch the games or application using standard MS-DOS syntax:

cd path-to-app-folder
install.bat

Entering the two lines above would – in turn – change directory to the game/app directory and then run the installation procedure.

Once the installation is completed the game could be run by entering:

name-of-game.exe

Although tricky to setup, pDOSBox 2.0 can be an effective MS-DOS emulator and is 100% free.

Emulation with Pocket Dos

Pocket Dos meanwhile is “nagware” (meaning that every so often a notice is displayed asking you to purchase the software) but is easier to setup.

Once downloaded and installed, Pocket Dos can be quickly launched from the Program menu on your Windows Mobile device.

Using the emulator is more straightforward than pDOSBox – Pocket Dos doesn’t require the mounting of new drives, and detects your Storage Card and mounts this as C:\ when the app is launched.

A freeware MS-DOS title – such as Sid Meier’s RailRoad Tycoon as shown here – can be saved to your Storage Card and via Pocket Dos installed and run on your Windows Mobile device.

To do this, load up Pocket Dos and type

DIR
CD Rails
rails.bat (or game.exe)

to play!

Obviously there is a good deal of MS-DOS in this tutorial. It should be noted that the emulation offered by each of these apps goes beyond running old games. Each offers full emulation of the old Microsoft disk operating software, so there are plenty of opportunities to explore the system in full.

How to Emulate And Play MS-DOS Games On Windows Mobile originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Guide to Using a Software Keyboard in Windows Mobile

ChristianCawley — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:26:45 +0000

There are considerable benefits in using a software keyboard on your Windows Mobile phone – but it can be troublesome to find the right keyboard and difficult to set it up without the right tools.

Windows Mobile comes with a number of onscreen input options. Various stylus methods are provided such as Block Recogniser and Letter Recogniser which both involve scrawling the stylus within a specified area of the screen, as well as Symbol Pad and Transcriber. Each of these methods has its own peculiarities for attaining a reasonable success rate of conversion from the input squiggle into a legible sentence

Finally there’s the poorly designed micro keyboard designed for Windows CE and the larger display handheld devices from companies such as HP that when resized for a typical Windows Mobile smartphone screen are almost as difficult to use with the stylus as without!

Thankfully there are alternatives to this input method. If you’re looking for direct onscreen software keyboard access to services such as Twitter or text messaging – situations when it would be quicker to use a more accessible input device than the slide-out hardware keyboard, then there are plenty of alternatives. These can either be downloaded free or purchased and then setup on your Windows Mobile device as the default software keyboard.

List of software keyboards

A wide selection of soft keyboards are available for Windows Mobile devices, offering is a good range of features such as haptic feedback, an iPhone-like pop-up for each key pressed and various shortcuts such as copy and paste, access to all standard keyboard characters and compatibility with multiple screen rotations and resolutions.

SPB Keyboard from www.spbsoftwarehouse.com (this is a premium keyboard but a 30 day trial can be downloaded)
FingerKeyboard2 available via xda-developers.com -possibly the most popular soft keyboard
Touchpal 2.0
Smart Keyboard
PocketCM
TapTap Keyboard
HTC Touch Diamond Keyboard

(Note the last 5 keyboards are all available via www.freewarepocketpc.net)

Each of these keyboards comes as a CAB file which can be downloaded directly to your Windows Mobile device or to your PC for transfer later.

Once installed, a software keyboard can be selected and used as simply as the other software input methods – however this might not be 100% to your liking.

Thankfully, this can be changed thanks to a very useful tool called SIPChange.

Using SIPChange

Windows Mobile comes with a standard SIP (Soft Input Panel) that allows selection between the supplied soft keyboard and the various stylus unput methods. However it isn’t keen on allowing the permanent selection of additional soft keyboards, which is where SIPChange comes in.

Available from xda-developers.com, SIPChange can easily be installed onto your Windows Mobile device and takes control of the management of your software input method. With it you can install and select from multiple soft keyboards, and the one selected as the default choice remains the default.

It doesn’t sound much but it saves a lot of messing about when tapping out text messages or Twitter updates to have the right keyboard there ready and waiting without having to reselect it every time.

Guide to Using a Software Keyboard in Windows Mobile originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

How to Retain Your Email Settings Following a Factory Reset In Your Window Mobile Handset

ChristianCawley — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 00:16:40 +0000

When resorting to a factory reset to reinvigorate your Windows Mobile phone – for instance to get rid of a severe bug or remove some badly made software you’ve downloaded – it can be a galling procedure to pour over your handset re-entering your email settings if you’re using POP or IMAP.

Happily there is a simple way to create an XML file to store your settings and turn this into a CAB file which will apply your IMAP and/or POP3 settings for single or multiple email accounts.

This process will work on Windows Mobile 6, 6.1 and 6.5 devices.

Tools You Will Need

In order to build the CAB file, you’ll need to know the following:

CHARACTERISTIC TYPE – give your email settings a name
CHARACTERISTIC TYPE – this time visit www.guidgenerator.com to generate a GUID to enter in this field.
SERVICENAME – The name you give to your email account in Pocket Outlook
SERVICETYPE – This will be POP3 or IMAP4, depending on your email setup
INSERVER – Your incoming mailserver name
OUTSERVER – The name of your outgoing mailserver
NAME – Your sender name
AUTHNAME – Email account username
AUTHSECRET – Email account password
DOMAIN – The email domain – not usually required for webmail accounts
REPLYADDR – The address you require emails to be replied to.

This information can be acquired from your existing email account setup or your email provider details.

To carry out this task, you’ll need the following free software:

A good text or XML editor – I would recommend Notepad++, the superb open source alternative to the aging Windows notepad text editor, which is available free from Sourceforge.net.

Microsoft Cabinet Software Development Kit – this tool, free from Microsoft, will create the CAB file that holds your email settings and can be run whenever you need to restore your details.

The Code

In order to begin, first of all download and install Notepad++.

Next it’s time to create your email setup. The code required should be copied from below, and pasted into a new text file in Notepad++.

>
 type="EMAIL2">
 type="">
 name="SERVICENAME" value="Example IMAP"/>
 name="SERVICETYPE" value="IMAP4"/>
 name="INSERVER" value="imapmail.example.com"/>
 name="OUTSERVER" value="mailto.example.com"/>
 name="NAME" value="Your name" />
 name="AUTHNAME" value="yourmailloginname"/>
 name="AUTHSECRET" value="password"/>
 name="DOMAIN" value=""/>
 name="REPLYADDR" value="yourmailname@example.com"/>
 name="LINGER" value="15" />
 name="RETRIEVE" value="2048" />
 name="KEEPMAX" value="25" />
 name="DWNDAY" value="3" />
>
>
>

You might also want to configure SMTP Authorization settings if your email host required it – insert these lines above the first .

 name="SMTPALTENABLED" value="1"/>
 name="SMTPALTAUTHNAME" value="yourmailnameauth"/>
 name="SMTPALTPASSWORD" value="smtpauthpassword"/>
 name="SMTPALTDOMAIN" value="smtpauthdomain"/>

Once you’ve copied this across, save it as “_setup.xml”.

Next, you’ll need to complete the blank fields, as explained above.

Once you’ve done this, take a look at the final 5 lines. Some of these can be altered, depending on your preference:

The setting “DWNDAY” value=”3″ sets Pocket Outlook to retrieve only messages that arrived in your inbox within the last 3 days.

“KEEPMAX” value=”25″ – this will retrieve up to 25 emails.

Finally, “RETRIEVE” value=”2048″ will retrieve only 2kb of each email message, with the rest of the message being downloaded when required. This allows headers, sender and subject details to be downloaded, although it is possible to set this value to “header only”.

As long as the fields are all complete as required, save the document and exit.

(Note that multiple email account details can be stored – simply remove the lines:

>
>

…then copy the previous code again, filling in the secondary account details. As long as the file ends with the 2 lines you moved, all should work fine.

Creating the CAB File

Next, unzip the Microsoft Cabinet Software Development Kit. Cabsdk.exe is a self-extracting executable that needs to be unpacked somewhere memorable, such as C:\CABmaker.

Once completed, go to Start > Run and type CMD to open the Command Line.

Switch your prompt to the location of your _setup.xml file, and enter:

makecab /D COMPRESS=OFF _setup.xml mail.cab

This will create a file – mail.cab – in the same folder as _setup.xml – and that’s it!

Copy this to your Windows Mobile device memory card, or keep in a safe place on your PC.

Next time your Windows Mobile device has been reinstalled or had factory settings restored, simply run the mail.cab file on your handset to populate your email settings!

How to Retain Your Email Settings Following a Factory Reset In Your Window Mobile Handset originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

How to Tether Your Windows Mobile

ChristianCawley — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:19:00 +0000

Windows Mobile devices have long had the ability to share their internet connection with a laptop or desktop PC, with just the right software and a USB cable.

Overview

If your phone line, WiFi or cable connection is down, or you’re on the move with your laptop and Windows Mobile device in tow, as long as you have a data connection with your mobile contract and such a service is available (dependent on location) you should be able to use your handset as a modem.

This process is commonly called tethering – Windows Mobile users are able to take advantage of the platform’s version of Internet Connection Sharing in order to get online.

For users of Windows Mobile 6.0 and later, this is a relatively simple task – if you’re on Windows Mobile 5.0 however it’s a bit trickier.

Windows Mobile 6.0 and later

The most recent Windows Mobile devices come pre-installed with a useful enhancement to the operating system. Internet Sharing can be found on the Programs menu, and is a quick and straightforward method of routing your mobile device internet connection through to your PC or laptop.

A once fraught exercise (see below) can now be done with the minimum of fuss- however the quality of the web pages might be somewhat reduced, while your connection speed is at the mercy of the strength and type of signal you receive from location to location. Certainly using this method of connection while in transit can be problematic as your Windows Mobile device connects and disconnects to and from a vast number of transmitters and relays.

Page and image quality can also be affected by your mobile network compressing images before they’re passed on to you. This is a matter of the carrier managing their bandwidth, but it can restrict the sort of work or tasks you’re able to complete.

Many carriers also block the FTP protocol, so if you have any plans to upload any files to a web server while utilizing the tethered Internet Sharing this is something to bear in mind if things don’t go as expected.

Windows Mobile 5.0

Windows Mobile 5.0 devices equipped with AKU 3.0 (Adaption Kit Upgrade – software sent out to Windows Mobile phone providers) or greater also come equipped to allow sharing of the internet connection – however with devices without the AKU 3.0, it’s a little more complicated to get the connection setup.

To begin, visit www.PDAGold.com and pickup the USB Modem & Driver zip file. Download and unzip the two files to your PC hard drive.

Your phone should be connected to your Windows machine via USB cable when you begin the process – on your Windows Mobile device go to Settings -> Connections -> GPRS -> Add New.

You’ll need to know the name of your mobile network’s Access Point at this stage and enter it in the appropriate field. This can either be acquired via a telephone conversation with your provider, or a search on Google.

OK this, and check you can connect to the internet via your mobile browser.

Next it’s time to activate the modem – go to Accessories -> Modem Link and choose the USB connection, again entering the Access Point name as before.

When you click on Activate, the Windows Mobile device – now acting as a modem – will prompt Windows XP to install a driver. Follow the wizard through, choosing the .INF driver file in the USB Modem & Driver zip file you downloaded earlier.

Finally, browse to the folder you unzipped the USB Modem & Driver files to and run the USBModem_Dialer.exe file. This will prompt you to select a modem and enter the Access Point in the APN field – once this is done you’re ready to click Connect and enjoy mobile internet via your Windows Mobile device!

How to Tether Your Windows Mobile originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Clean Up Your Windows Mobile Easily With CleanRAM

ChristianCawley — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:25:37 +0000

Constant day to day use of a Windows Mobile device can lead to a slowdown in performance even on the highest spec devices with memory and by extension processor time continually allocated to applications that are to all intents and purposes closed.

Poor application programming is usually the cause of these apps retaining system resources and the usual fix is to perform a soft reset of the device – although a Task Manager is included on Windows Mobile 5 and later, it usually only assists in closing difficult to exit programs.

CleanRAM therefore is a vital tool in managing memory resources on Windows Mobile devices, and is available free from FreewarePocketPC.net. We’re going to look now at how to use CleanRAM in different ways to control allocated memory.

Getting Started

Once installed, cleanRAM displays two icons in your Windows Mobile programs view – the basic launch/clean app and the cleanRAM Config app.

cleanRAM Config determines the type of clean up that will be performed when the cleanRAM app is launched, with three cleaning “depths”:

Level 1 is a “Basic Purge”, best for closing non-responding tasks without resorting to Task Manager. Some versions of Task Manager – particularly that found in Windows Mobile 5 and 6 – are slow to respond when instructed to close the application in question, and fail to fully end all related processes. Basic Purge is quick and is the default setting on cleanRAM.

Level 2 is known as the “Quality Purge”. This option is recommended for best performance – in reality it cleans deeper than the basic option, but in around the same sort of time frame. Quality Purge is a good option to choose to save you performing a soft-reset. It will exit virtually all Windows Mobile apps and non-required processes, leaving your device to run as if it had just been switched on.

Level 3 is the maximum clean up option, “Fundamental Purge”. This option is vital for cutting ties with bad applications, perhaps online services that are hanging due to a poor data connection or those that the Quality Purge option failed to end. Fundamental Purge can take a bit of time to complete and as such should only be used in the most extreme cases.

These three options provide the best memory cleaning available to a Windows Mobile user free of charge, and using cleanRAM is a simple case of selecting the purge option, setting it as default and launching the clean up via the cleanRAM app button.

Advanced Customization and Scheduling Options

Along with these three options, cleanRAM offers a variety of options for customizing and scheduling your Windows Mobile system clean up.

The Customized Processes List allows you to select the running processes you wish to clean up (or end) whenever the cleanRAM tool is used. These processes can be added to the Customized Processes List, which means they will be the only ones cleaned when cleanRAM is run. The Customized Processes List is disabled by default, and must be enabled via the check box.

Conversely, the Exceptions List allows you to select processes that are never cleaned. The Exceptions List is activated via the check box.

Scheduling is accessed via the cleanRAM config menu and must also be enabled via the check box. Using scheduling you can choose your purge level, set a time (hourly, every 4 hours, etc) and choose which days of the week of the cleanRAM runs.

Finally, it’s a simple task to backup your cleanRAM settings. This means rather than resorting to careful reselection of exceptions and scheduling following an uninstall of the tool or a hard device reset (restoring the factory settings of your Windows Mobile device) you simply restore your cleanRAM configuration settings from a backup stored on your Windows Mobile device memory card.

cleanRAM is one of the best utilities available for the Windows Mobile platform. If you do use it and gain benefit from it, remember to consider contributing a donation to the developers at www.htcaddicts.com.

Clean Up Your Windows Mobile Easily With CleanRAM originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

ShoZu – Social Network Updating Made Easy

Trevor Dobrygoski — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 12:22:25 +0000

There are plenty of sites and programs out there that will let you upload your pictures or videos to one or two of your social media sites, but people like choice. Would 50 supported sites plus email and FTP uploading be enough? That should let you share enough stuff to make even your Kindergarten teacher proud.The whole point of the the social sites is to be social and show people whats going on in your life; ShoZu will help you do this on almost every popular sharing site out there.

When a picture or video and the accompanying text is uploaded, ShoZu will CC your email and/or other destinations you choose. If you upload the same thing to all of your sites, that feature alone will save you immense amounts of time. Below are a couple ways media can be uploaded a couple different ways:

The Desktop Application

The ShoZu desktop app runs with Adobe Air, so you need to have that installed along with the most recent version of Adobe Flash installed before the app will work. Once the desktop application is installed, if you have previously set up an account, you will need to log in. If not it takes a minute or two to set up a new account.

When logged in, you will see the list of destinations you have previously chosen on the web page. This can be a couple, or it be a lot; I have a few here that I use.

The process for uploading pics, video or text is super easy. Simply drag and drop the media you want to share into the window. The picture or video will show up in the window. Type a short caption in the small box and any additional text into the big box. Some sites won’t show the extra text.

*For those wondering, the picture is of a 12 pound bowling ball painted pink with lots of metal flake. It was chained to the soon to be groom’s leg for a bachelor party.

If you would like to send the same thing to multiple sites from time to time, click the next destination; the picture and text stay in the windows making it super simple. The program remembers what you upload to where. After you upload a picture, a check will be by the destination so you don’t post the same thing on the same site multiple times.

From a Mobile Device

These day more people than ever have data enabled phones. One of the main reasons people like yourself purchase this kind of phone is so they don’t need to be tied to their computers for work. This also applies for uploading pics to their social media accounts. The device I use is a Blackberry Curve; it is a little limited compared to other devices I checked into. Some of the features like the feeds from Twitter, Facebook and Podcasts do not come to to the Blackberry app. I was a little sad about this, but I have other apps that I have grown accustomed to using for that stuff. From other devices, having the ability to see what your friends are doing, makes ShoZu a one shop application for mobile social networking needs.

The upload of the pictures, video and text is very similar to the desktop application. Select the picture, add text and the destination. Quick and simple, exactly what you want from the your mobile device.

Mobile Blogging

If you fancy yourself a blogger, being able to add posts on the fly is great. Sites like Blogger, Wordpress, Livejournal, Windows Live Spaces and more let you post on the go. Here is a post to a Wordpress blog to give you an idea of how it will look.

Other Features

Citizen Journalism Sites sites like CNN, BBC News, and Reuters let you upload newsworthy pictures Some other places you can upload your photographic wonders to via ShoZu are Email and FTP sites.

With the laundry list of features ShoZu has, I am sure it will fit it well with anyone who has the need to share media online.

How do you update your social networks?

ShoZu – Social Network Updating Made Easy originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Speed Up Your Web Search With Inquisitor

Damien — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:10:52 +0000

Most, if not, all browsers come with a search bar at the top right hand corner of the window. To perform a search, you simply type in your search term and press Enter. The browser will automatically load the search engine result page with your search term. As easy as that.

Now, the question is: can this search process get any easier?

The answer is Yes, if you are using Inquisitor. You’ll be surprised how much faster, quicker and easier you can now search with the search bar.

Inquisitor is a browser plugin that extends the functionality of the search bar. It makes the search bar more intuitive, responsive and much easier to use. As you type in the search bar, Inquisitor starts to search the web and brings back the result on the fly, and enabling you to access to your search result faster.

Inquisitor is owned by Yahoo and is compatible with Safari, Firefox and Internet Explorer 7, 8. It also works in Mac, PC and iPhone.

Once you have installed the respective extension for your browser, it will automatically replace your search bar. To perform an intuitive search, simply type in the search bar. A list of suggestions will appear as soon as you type. The initial result is based on your browser history, but as you type, the list get refined and brings in more relevant result for your search term. In most cases, I am able to find what I want without having to complete the search terms.

Inquisitor also comes with several configuration options that you can set to suit your preferences.

Options that you can configure include:

Auto-complete settings

Inquisitor will attempt to auto-complete your search term as you type. You can either make it auto-complete the entire phrase, current word or do nothing. Personally, I have found that choosing the “auto-complete current word only” option gives you better control of your search results.

Instant result setting

In the dropdown list of suggestion, you can You can choose how the result is displayed, whether website result first or keyword suggestions first.

Display count

Number of website results and keyword suggestions to display in the dropdown list.

Search Engine

The default search engine is Yahoo. You can also set it to Google.

A thing to note here: If you set the search engine to Google, the website result search will cease to work. You will only see keyword suggestions in the dropdown list.

Display links to additional search engines

If you are frequently using Wikipedia, Flickr or any other search engines to perform your search, this is where you add in the additional search engine to the dropdown list.

Conclusion

Depending on how often you use your browser’s search bar, this plugin can be useful/useless to you. For me, it has definitely improved my productivity and enabled me to get my search result much faster and easier. Being cross-platform/cross-browser compatible also make it a highly versatile tool, not to mention that it works great in iPhone and iPod Touch too.

What do you think?

Speed Up Your Web Search With Inquisitor originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

How to Use Windows Mobile for Wordpress Blogging

ChristianCawley — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 22:07:57 +0000

Successful blogging from the Windows Mobile platform can be difficult. There are several applications that can be installed and utilised but most of these alternatives are limited in some way.

However if you’re blogging to a Movable Type or Wordpress platform blog, the best solution is Pocket Sharp MT for touchscreen “Professional” Windows Mobile devices (or Phone Sharp MT for non-touchscreen WinMo handsets). Pocket Sharp MT is available from www.randyrants.com.

Once the installation is complete, you can configure Pocket Sharp MT to connect to and publish to your Wordpress or Movable Type blog, and comfortably blog from the comfort of your Windows Mobile device, employing basic formatting, assigning categories and even uploading images.

Setup Your Blog Connection

To begin, you need to make a connection to your blog. This first of all requires that your Windows Mobile deice is connected to the Internet, either directly via your network operator or via a WiFi connection. Note that prolonged use of Pocket Sharp MT can result in a high data usage charge.

When you first launch the blog software, you will need to setup the connection to your Movable Type or Wordpress blog. This can be done by going to Tools -> Options.

The options screen requires:

Web Server
CGI-BIN Path
Username
Password

You should already know your blog username and password; you should also know the URL of your blog, which is entered as the Web Server. (Enter the full path, including the ‘http://’)

The CGI-BIN part can prove to be more difficult. The default is set in Pocket Sharp MT for Movable Type blogs – /cgipath/mt-xmlrpc.cgi – so if you’re using Movable Type as your blogging platform you’re laughing at this point.

Wordpress platform users need to change this entry to refer to the Wordpress version of this linking gateway script. Thankfully it’s a lot easier to type in: /xmlrpc.php

With a correct username and password entered and a connection to the Internet established, click on refresh. The Blog List drop down will now display your blog, so you can click OK to continue or if necessary update the Proxy tab with any relevant information you need to connect to the web and try again.

Note that this guide is written using a Wordpress blog connection. The Pocket Sharp MT software functions remain the same for either platform, however.

Writing a Blog Post

Once the connection to your blog is setup, you can go straight into entering the text for your blog post.

Enter a title, select a category and enter the body text – it’s all straightforward and can be entered either by a hardware device-mounted keyboard or a software keyboard.

Longer entries can continue over onto the Extended tab, while Tags (Keywords) and Excerpts can be entered on the Advanced tab, along with a list of URLs to Ping. The status of the post (Draft or Publish) can also be set here, as well as allowing or disallowing comments.

The Authored on tab lets you set the date and time of writing – alternatively you can sync Pocket Sharp MT with your server time.

Save Drafts

It’s always good practice to save as you go, particularly when blogging from a device that doubles as a phone. This can be done via the File menu, simply select Save Draft or hit the Save button on the menu bar. The saved post will be stored as a text file with the .MT file extension.

The Format menu will apply any of the preset formatting (bold, underline, italics, URL link) to the selected text, while copy and pasting can be achieved via File -> Edit.

Finally, use the Tools > Upload Media category to upload images to the specified uploads location on your server. Using the standard you can enter the image into the blog post, or simply use let Pocket Sharp MT insert it into the post on your behalf.

Submitting Your Post

Submitting your blog post is a matter of deciding whether to change the status from Draft to Publish, and then hitting Post to Server.

You can check the resulting post on either your mobile or your desktop browser to check the outcome, and I think you’ll agree the results – while limited – are very good indeed.

Pocket Sharp MT is one of the most functional Windows Mobile blogging clients available, but there are other solutions that operate on similar principles.

image credit: ittsai

How to Use Windows Mobile for Wordpress Blogging originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

How to Sync your Nokia Internet Tablet with Google Calendar

Tavis J. Hampton — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:07:01 +0000

When Nokia first released the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet, many Linux geeks could not resist a hackable handheld computer, even if they had no use for it. With the subsequent releases of the N800 and N810 versions, the devices gained even wider appeal. One of the problems I have always had with it, however, is that it has no default PIM (personal information management) software, and the free options available for it were always rather slim.

Nokia advertises it as an “Internet Tablet” rather than a PDA, so perhaps they expect you to rely on cloud services, such as Google Calendar. Very well, we will, but we will do it with style. mCalendar is a small application for the Maemo operating system that allows you to have an appointment calendar on your tablet and also sync it with your Google Calendar. It is finger-friendly and easy to use. It is available for Maemo/Tablet OS2007 and OS2008 and should work on Nokia 770, N800, N810, and N810 WiMax models.

Installation

The easiest way to install mCalendar is to go to maemo.org and click the big green “Install” button next to mCalendar. This will add the extras software repository and also install the application. If you prefer to add the software repository yourself, simply open your Application Manager, open the menu, click on Tools and click “Application catalog…”. Click the “New” button and add this repository:

Catalog name = maemo Extras
Web address = http://repository.maemo.org/extras/
Components = free non-free

Setup

1. Start mCalendar.

2. Open the menu and click “Preferences”.

3. Click on the “Google Syncronization” tab.

4. Enter your Google login (usually your email address) and password.

5. Click on the “General” tab.

6. Optional: You can select “google popup reminder” to receive notices of appointments and “auto sync” if you want to keep mCalendar automatically in sync with your Google calendar.

Start Syncing

You should test synchronization to make sure it works.

1. Add an appointment to your calendar and save it.

2. Open the menu and click “Synchro”.

3. Open a browser and login to Google Calendar.

4. Check the appointment to make sure that it is the right day and time.

5. Edit the appointment and re-sync to make sure two-way communication is working.

Alternatives

While mCalendar is quick and easy, it is hardly robust. If you prefer a calendar with a few more options, such as GPE Calendar, you can use a third party application called Erminig to sync it with your Google calendar.

Erminig is in the maemo extras repository and is configured in roughly the same way as mCalendar’s sync function. One advantage is that you can sync with a specific calender from your Google account and a specific GPE calendar, if you have more than one. You can then setup multiple entries and sync all of them at once. Furthermore, it has a “read-only” feature, if you prefer not to make changes on the tablet side.

Beyond the tablet

Once you have your tablet synced with your Google calendar, you might also want to sync with your desktop calendar. I have not found an easy way to sync directly from the Nokia internet tablet to the desktop. Instead, you can sync it with your Google calendar and then sync Google with your desktop, using GCALDaemon.

KDE4’s data backend, Akonadi, currently only supports read-only functionality with Google Calendar. If that is all you need, you will not need GCALDaemon. There are plans to add read-write functionality in KDE 4.3

Now you have the ability to wirelessly sync your calendars on the move. This certainly does not come close to full PIM synchronization, but you will at least have your important appointments in order.

How to Sync your Nokia Internet Tablet with Google Calendar originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Manage Remote Storage with Microsoft My Phone

ChristianCawley — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 12:49:25 +0000

Maintaining a remote backup of your Windows Mobile contacts, calendar, schedule, tasks and other documents, pictures and MP3s has traditionally been a problematic task, leaving Windows users looking on in envy at the owners of Apple Macs and iPhones and their iDisks and other solutions.

Thankfully as part of an overdue concerted move to develop the Windows Mobile and Hotmail/Live platforms, Microsoft have developed the My Phone, a secure online repository for contacts, SMS messages and other vital information stored on your Windows Mobile device that can be added to or cut down as the user sees fit.

A great storage facility for MP3s, videos and photos, Microsoft currently offers 200 MB of space to My Phone users – enough to keep a back up of vital documents, ringtones and videos.

To use My Phone, you need a Live or Hotmail account (sign up at accountservices.passport.net), and a Windows Mobile device with an internet connection. When using any web service on a mobile device it is vital to have a generous data plan setup. There’s a potential of up to 200 MB of data being transferred to your My Phone storage from your Windows Mobile device – as such a flat-rate monthly data transfer tariff is vital unless you have reliable, regular WiFi access.

Download My Phone from myphone.microsoft.com and install on your Windows Mobile device; meanwhile visit the sn1-p3.myphone.microsoft.com domain in order to login to your My Phone account on the web.

Once installed on your Windows Mobile device, run Microsoft My Phone. You’ll be prompted to login – use your standard Microsoft Live or Hotmail details here, the same credentials you use to login to the web service.

Once logged in, My Phone will determine which type of synchronization to run. The vital contents of your Windows Mobile device can be backed up to the My Phone storage either automatically on a schedule determined by you, or manually, whenever you command the app to sync.

Depending on the volume of data to be stored, Microsoft My Phone can take a while to complete synchronization on the first attempt. Subsequent syncs are appends however, meaning that only information that has changed is synchronized.

To decide what to synchronize, in Microsoft My Phone go to Menu > Options and choose from:

Contacts – all contacts from your phones address book. This is a good way to backup the contacts from your SIM card.
Calendar and Tasks – if you sync your phone with Outlook or an Exchange server, your calendar and tasks will also be synced with Microsoft My Phone, so these might be options to ignore.
Text Messages – a great way to keep a backup of vital text messages.
Photos – the chances of losing vital photographs are long gone with My Phone providing remote online storage
Videos and Music – depending on the type of device you use, videos and music might be no-goes, or you might find that with the limited 200 MB of space you choose one of the other. Modern Windows Mobile devices come with 3 MP cameras or better, resulting in higher file sizes, which means your My Phone server space could get eaten up.
Documents – Photos, videos, music and documents can all be uploaded from your PC or from your phone. Vital documents in particular can benefit from this functionality, with My Phone giving you a remote backup option that means documents can be restored to your Windows Mobile device or your PC. Sadly at present however there is no synchronization client for Windows XP or Vista, meaning that uploading to the My Phone storage area must be done manually, one item at a time.
Sync storage cards – if there is any space left on your My Phone storage space it can be used to backup any storage cards installed on your Windows Mobile device.

From the same Menu, you can also access the Schedule screen to set a daily, weekly, monthly time for the synchronization. Microsoft My Phone will synchronize in the background without causing any serious interruption to your general phone use – however it is a good idea to schedule syncing to take place during the night.

Microsoft My Phone is a free service, one that brings the matter of remote storage for the Windows Mobile platform into line with other smartphone providers such as Apple and various mobile networks.

The 200 MB capacity is modest; however it is expect that Microsoft will increase this considerably over time, so now in this post-beta phase it is the best time to get to grips with Microsoft My Phone.

Manage Remote Storage with Microsoft My Phone originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

How to Make Scannable Bar Codes for Android Phones

AlexByrnes — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 12:17:07 +0000

Ever seen those black and white checkered boxes on Android web sites? They’re QR or “Quick Response” codes, and they can be read from your phone using the Barcode Scanner application from the Android Market. You can scan the codes that are published on web sites and use the results for all kinds of things. QR codes can be encoded with any short piece of text. This application will allow you to browse to a URL, save a contact, or copy the text to use in another application.

First, you use the app by opening it and holding the phone as if you’re taking a picture of the QR code. Here’s one that goes to the front page of Make Tech Easier:

There’s a box with a red line that gives you an idea of how to center the code.

Hold steady and… BEEP! The code has been interpreted. The app will give you options according to its best guess as to what the code is. If it’s a URL, it will give you the option of opening it in the browser. If it’s ordinary text, it will let you use it as a Google search or send it as an SMS message.

URLs are by far the most common use for QR codes on Android. If a web site wants to publish a link that should be viewed on the phone, or the link is to the Android Market, the QR code is an easy way to transfer this data to viewers’ phones. There’s no laborious typing it in on a tiny keyboard. Just scan and click.

If you’d like to create your own for a web site, business card, poster, flier, or tattoo, you can create one very easily by going to one of the many online QR code generators. Qrcode.kaywa.com is one of these and it couldn’t be easier. Just type in the text that you’d like to appear in the code, choose small, medium, large, or extra large and hit enter. Then save the image to your hard drive by right clicking and going to “Save Link as…” (Firefox). There’s also a permalink to the image that will appear the box right below it.

The Barcode Scanner app will also let you transfer data from one phone to another similar to the old infrared contact swap on Palm Pilots. Go to menu, then “Share” and choose a contact, bookmark, or the the contents of your clipboard. A QR code representing the data will appear on your screen. The person you’re transferring to then scans the screen of your phone.

Android Market Links

If you’d like to share a link to an app on the Android Market, there’s a special protocol that you use that looks like this:

market://search?q=pname:com.NamcoNetworks.PacMan

“com.NamcoNetworks.PacMan” is the package name. There’s also:

market://search?q=solitaire

Put this into the QR code generator and you’ll get a QR code that links to a search for solitaire games on the Android Market.

If there’s a specific app you want to link to, you can get the link and a small QR code from Cyrket.

How to Make Scannable Bar Codes for Android Phones originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

How To Open Your Web Links In New Tab In iPhone’s Safari Browser

Damien — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 12:15:55 +0000

When you are surfing the Web, opening URL links in a new tab is often the best and efficient way to navigate between sites and not to lose focus on the current one. When I am doing research for my writing, I depended heavily on the tab functions of the browser. However, when I am on my iPhone, I am often frustrated by the fact that mobile Safari does not allow me to open a URL link in a new tab. It is quite ironical to me that it supports tabs function, but does not allow you to open a link in new tab. What’s the point of having a tab function if you have to manually type in the URL all the time?

Not anymore. With Tabulate, you can now easily add ‘load in new tab‘ function to your iPhone’s Safari browser, without any hacking. (it works in iPod Touch as well)

Things you need:

Mac/Windows
Safari browser (The desktop version of Safari, not the one in your iPhone)
iTunes

Go to Tabulate website. Drag the bookmarklet to the Safari bookmark bar.

Connect your iPhone/iPod Touch to the computer and fire up your iTunes.

In your iPhone device options, click on the Info tab. Scroll down and mark “Sync Safari Bookmarks”.

Click on Apply to sync your iPhone.

Once it is done, in your iPhone, connect to the Internet and load your mobile Safari.

On the page that you want to open the link in new tab, tap on the bookmark icon at the bottom of the screen. Scroll to Bookmark Bar ->Tabulate.

You will now see a orange icon at the top left of your Safari browser. This indicate that the tabulate is active on the current page.

Now, click on a link. A toolbar of 3 icons will appear. The first one represents “open the link in current tab“. The second one (the one with a plus sign) represents “open the link in a new tab” while the last one means to flag the link to open later.

That’s it. You just have to click on the second icon to open the link in a new tab.

How To Open Your Web Links In New Tab In iPhone’s Safari Browser originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Things You Need to Check Before Installing Software on the Windows Mobile

ChristianCawley — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:52:30 +0000

Installing applications and tools on to a Windows Mobile device can be a little bit daunting at first, particularly for newcomers to the platform.

Prior to the actual act of installing the application, there are several things you need to check. These are:

operating system version
framework
spare memory
hardware functionality

Each of these elements of a Windows Mobile device can make or break an installation. A suitable comparison with a desktop device would be trying to install a game that requires a light gun but you don’t have one attached. On a PC, the game will simply be useless – you might be able to run the game, but won’t be able to interact with it. On a Windows Mobile device, the handset will be looking for the peripheral or hardware and if it can’t find it the application won’t run.

Operating System Version

Most Windows Mobile software of any lasting use will be compatible with at least Windows Mobile 5 and upwards. Windows Mobile Professional is the version usually found on touchscreen devices, whereas non-touchscreen devices run Windows Mobile Standard (also known as Windows Mobile Smartphone). Ideally your device should be running Windows Mobile 6 if it is to successfully run a modern WinMo application.

Check your Windows Mobile version by going to Settings > System > About

Framework

With the correct operating system, you;’ll find you also need the correct version of Microsoft’s .Net Compact Framework for Windows Mobile. Having this is vital to running any application written for the .Net framework.

Check your .Net CF version via Settings > Remove Programs and identifying the version there – careful you don’t uninstall it, forever!

Spare memory

Obviously you need enough memory on-board to run the intended application; however in many cases you’ll need enough memory to save the installer file beforehand. Windows Mobile phones with an expansion slot can of course have the available RAM expanded usually by the addition of Flash memory.

To check your device memory, go to Settings > System > Device Information > Hardware. To check the current memory usage, go to Settings > Memory

Hardware Functionality

Installing hardware-specific software is going to end in disappointment. A key example would be the recent proliferation of applications that require a g-sensor (also known as accelerometer) which detects the motion and movement of your Windows Mobile device. Devices with this enhancement will run motion-sensitive applications and novelties without problem – however devices without a g-sensor might accept the installation, but they won’t be able to run the software.

(A general rule of thumb – if your phone is a HTC Touch series phone, then you can be pretty certain it has a g-sensor. The Samsung Omnia is similarly equipped.)

It is important therefore to check your handset specifications and the software’s hardware requirements before proceeding to download.

Once you’re happy that the application is suitable for your phone and you’ve downloaded it, the type of file that is downloaded depends on the type of installation that will be carried out.

Installation via .EXE file and Microsoft ActiveSync

Any Windows Mobile application that is an executable file (one with a file name ending in .exe) will need to be installed via Microsoft ActiveSync and a USB or Bluetooth connection with your PC.

First of all, make sure you’ve got Microsoft ActiveSync installed on your PC. The latest version can be downloaded from Microsoft.

Next, ensure your Windows Mobile device is switched on and connected either by USB or Bluetooth to your PC, and that a relationship is established via ActiveSync.

Once this has been done, double click your downloaded Windows Mobile executable (.exe) file to begin installation. ActiveSync will prompt for you to confirm installation, while your handset will require you to OK the installation.

After installation is complete it should be safe for you to disconnect your Windows Mobile device from the PC and run the new application.

Installation via .CAB file

An increasingly common method of installation is via a .CAB file – this method is particularly useful for installing directly to a Windows Mobile device, cutting out the PC connection.

If a PC is being used to download Windows Mobile applications however, don’t be put off – .CAB files can be installed via the ActiveSync managed connection with your device.

To acquire a .CAB installer, either visit the website hosting software form your PC or from your Windows Mobile handset.

If you’re visiting from your PC, download the file before copying it to your Windows Mobile device via your ActiveSync-managed USB or Bluetooth connection. Ensure you have saved it to a memorable location and when the from PC to handset is complete select the .CAB file to initialise the installation procedure.

If you’re downloading from the website directly from your Windows Mobile browser of choice, save the file and when download is complete select the .CAB file to being the installation.

Final note

Although the majority of Windows Mobile applications no longer force the handset to reset following installation, it is good practice to manually implement this step to avoid errors running the software.

Things You Need to Check Before Installing Software on the Windows Mobile originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Windows Mobile: Installing Viigo And Managing Your RSS feeds

ChristianCawley — Thu, 28 May 2009 12:04:18 +0000

Viigo for Windows Mobile brings enhanced RSS feed management to your Windows Mobile device, resulting in regular updates from your favourite RSS feeds whether they be news, blogs or stocks and shares.

Available as a free download from www.viigo.com, this superb RSS feed reader can be downloaded and installed in a matter of minutes via a multitude of different options.

Download and installation

To download, visit www.viigo.com/download and choose the Windows Mobile Desktop Install option from the right-hand menu.

Depending on your Windows Mobile device, you will need to choose between the options:

Download to your PC
Download including .NET CF 2.0.

This can be quite a daunting choice – one which depends on your knowledge of your phone and operating system. As a rule of thumb, if you purchased your Windows Mobile device as new in 2008 or later then you can take the first option. For all other Windows Mobile handsets take the second option. This will be a larger download, but will equip your phone for a lot of other modern Windows Mobile applications.

Once the download has completed, you’ll need to check your Windows Mobile device is switched on and connected to your PC or laptop via USB cable. USB cable is more reliable for installing software than Bluetooth.

ActiveSync should be installed and running on the Windows desktop or laptop and a connection have been established with your mobile device. Once this has been achieved, find the file you downloaded from Viigo.com (for instance ViigoPublicBeta.exe) and double click to begin the installation. Follow the onscreen instructions on both your PC and Windows Mobile device for installation.

(Advanced Windows Mobile users may opt to download Viigo via the various over the air options, such as SMS, email or direct download from the mobile browser. These options are all available on the viigo.com/downloads page. Once downloaded to your phone, simply select the .CAB file to install.)

It’s always worth restarting your Windows Mobile device after installing new software, so switch your device off and back on again to fully complete installation.

Configuring RSS feeds

Once installed, Viigo can be run from the Programs menu of your Windows Mobile device. An account with the service is required, and this can be setup at www.myviigo.com. This account will retain all of your current RSS feed settings, useful in the event of loss or damage to your phone, or you need to reinstall the application.

With your account setup on the Viigo website, log in to the application on your Windows Mobile handset. There are a considerable number of feed categories – most of these include preset feeds that can be subscribed to or unsubscribed to, depending on your preference and how well they meet your needs.

To subscribe to a preset Sports feed, select the Sports menu item and select Add Channel. A list of sports from Golf to American Football and Soccer are available to choose from, with some categories depending on level, region, etc. For instance Motor Sports is split into F1, IndyCar and NASCAR.

Within these subcategories, select the feed you require to subscribe to it – the RSS feed icon will change from greyed out to orange when the feed has been synchronised.

To view the feed, return to the main menu by clicking Back and then return to the Sports category – the feed you added will be available under the appropriate sport heading.

You might prefer however to add your own choice of RSS feeds. This can be done easily via the News & RSS menu item. Using the Menu in the lower right of the screen, choose Add Channel to choose from a range of Viigo recommended feeds and blogs or choose the Add you own channel to add a feed URL of your own choice. It’s also possible to set up a variety of other feed options from this screen, such as a Google Reader aggregator feed.

Note that you can keep up with your position within the menus and screens on Viigo via the tree that runs across the top of each screen.

Finally, depending on the available memory on your Windows Mobile handset you might need to alter both the number of posts downloaded as well as the frequency of feed synchronisation. These settings can both be applied via the Options on the main Menu, where you can also change language preferences.

Frequency of synchonrisation and post download volume may also be a consideration for Windows Mobile users without generous dataplans, so bear this in mind when installing Viigo for Windows Mobile

Windows Mobile: Installing Viigo And Managing Your RSS feeds originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)