Tag: Windows Mobile

RANT! No more faith in Microsoft

RANT! No more faith in Microsoft

After being on an iPhone for a year, I don’t think I could ever go back to a Windows Mobile phone.  I used the Windows Mobile platform for probably 11 years (including the original Windows CE non-phone devices) and it always seemed like the NEXT generation would solve all my problems. The next generation never did come and by the time I gave up, I was in the habit of restarting the phone every morning.

I recently tried to install the desktop search tool from Microsoft.  After several tries and lots of reading online, I couldn’t get the add-on installed that would allow this tool to search my Outlook 2003 files (let alone my Thunderbird personal email).  I gave up and installed Google desktop and was completely indexed on everything in one overnight session.

I have no faith in Microsoft anymore.  I have had to go back to Windows on my laptop rather than Ubuntu but that is just because my 2G RAM laptop was struggling with Ubuntu and a virtual machine with Windows so that I could use Outlook and Office.  If I didn’t have to be completely compatible with the rest of my company then I would likely not have a single Microsoft product on my computer or in my life.

I could survive without MS Office.  OpenOffice does everything that I ever need it to do.  I don’t need the extra functionality that overloads the MS Office product line.

The only product that Microsoft makes that I really like is Windows Live Writer (which I use for blog posts).  But when I was on Ubuntu, I found that Scribe on Firefox was perfectly adequate for my needs.

If I could get Evolution to really work well with our company Exchange server, I would be off of Windows.  I always struggle with the Calendar syncing, calendar invites, and the Global Address Book.  If someone could create a smooth interface to Exchange then it would be goodbye to Microsoft for me!

RANT! WHY CAN’T A DEVELOPER MAKE EVOLUTION WORK OFF OF EXCHANGE SO THAT I CAN DROP MICROSOFT!

I am done with this topic for now but I reserve the right to rant more on it someday.

Groups (categories) in your iPhone

Groups (categories) in your iPhone

This may be incredibly obvious to everyone else but I have wanted to do a better job of managing my contacts on my iPhone.  When I used Windows Mobile, I could put categories on my contacts in Outlook and those categories meant something on the phone as well.  The iPhone doesn’t support categories so all my contacts (approaching 1000 at this writing) were in one big list.

I did a little experiment and found out that the Groups function on your iPhone includes not only your Global Address Book from your company, but also any sub-folders of your Contacts on the Exchange server.  This way you can divide different types of contacts (work, customers, family, vendors, etc. into different Contact folders on your server and they appear correctly on your phone.

Here is a screen shot of my folders in Exchange:

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and here is a screen shot of the Groups on my iPhone.

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To make the sub-folders available to you when you are addressing email or looking for contact details, in Outlook go to Tools|Address Book and then do Tools|Options in the Address Book.  This will let you change your search preferences on the different Contact folders that you have available (including your Global Address Book from your Exchange server).

Hope this helps!  I solved one of my problems.

I am done with this topic for now but I reserve the right to rant more on it someday.

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iPhone uses motion well

iPhone uses motion well

I have used other phones with virtual keyboards. Most of these phones have been Windows Mobile based. One of the complaints that I have always had was when I had to press other keys after the phone call. You know what I mean, you need to press 1 or 0 to reach someone else of maybe press pound.

In most virtual keyboards, the screen is dimmed after the phone is connected to save power. This is true of the iPhone as well but since the iPhone senses motion it realizes that you have moved it from your ear, so the display lights up again so you can type.

This is one of the reason that the iPhone is easily the best phone I have ever owned.

This post was written on my iPhone.

RANT! Airports and electricity

RANT! Airports and electricity

I travel a fair amount in my job. I also need to be connected to the web regularly so I carry a Windows Mobile based phone so that I can get email quickly and occasionally go out to a site.

Even though I carry this phone, I still need to hook up my laptop on an occasional basis. This allows me to grab emails that are too big, have attachments that I can’t read on my phone or check a site that doesn’t format down to my phone (I am sure that I will rant about these things in the future).

But as I sit here on the floor of an airport leaning against the wall just so I can get some more power, I am fuming. Why can’t airports realize that their best customers are businesspeople that need access to power? As I write this post, I have had a dozen people look at me with envy because I found the outlet. Two people have even whispered to me to let them know when I am almost done so that they can get in line for my wonderful floor seat.

Maybe I will start a website that has electrical outlet in airport hints! I bet I could sell memberships in such a needed site. Of course, this would be totally unnecessary if the airports would just PUT IN MORE OUTLETS WHERE PEOPLE SIT!

I am done with this topic for now but I reserve the right to rant more on it someday.

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