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Went to the MLB09-TLC presentation on the top 10 features of Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 yesterday.  I don’t think it was as much a ‘Top 10′ as much as it was a good overview of the new product, lots of new devices and highlighting some of the new features and capabilities.  Don’t get me wrong, it was cool.  I’m most likely going to be picking up or ordering a new device this week for one reason or another.  The things I ended up focusing on are:

•  SEARCH – holy cow, this rocks.  I’m comparing the search capabilities that you had in XP and going to Vista with the search capability of Mobile 6 as it compared to version 5.  There is so much more value here.
• The two versions have changed names.  Where there used to be SmartPhone and Pocket PC versions, now there are Standard (for SmartPhones – no touch screen) and Professional (for the Pocket PC devices with touch screens)
• Professional has spell checking
• There are increased security features and policies available
• You can encrypt the SD Card (but not the on-board memory)
• You have the ability to set up a device wipe if logon password is repeatedly entered wrong
• You may have the ability to wipe the device remotely if the device is lost (this won’t wipe the SD card)
• Amongst other features, you have the ability to set and manage Out of Office settings. 

And much more, but those are the highlights. 

Make sure your Windows Mobile device is updated to deal with the upcoming DST changes going into effect this weekend!  From the T-Mobile site, though I’m guessing it applies to any Windows Mobile device:

From your PC:
Go to www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/daylightsaving/default.mspx using a computer that is connected to your device with a USB cable. Follow the on-screen instructions to download and install the update.

From your phone:
Select Windows Mobile (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile) from your list of favorites. Follow the on-screen instructions to download and install the update.

T-Mobile was nice enough to text message me regarding this.   

Where did the e-books on Amazon.com go?  When did they stop offering them?  What the heck?!?! 

I loved the ability to find all the books I was looking for and then having my choice of formats – no longer. 

The only thing I can find in reference to any change is this page: 
http://www.amazon.com/e-Docs-Books/b?ie=UTF8&node=551440

It looks like they’ve outsourced to Mobipocket.   

Some of the other larger vendors out there are:
www.fictionwise.com
www.ebooks.com
www.ereader.com

But I’d still like to know what Amazon’s reasons were for bailing on the format.   

Earlier this year, I picked up a T-Mobile MDA with Windows Mobile 5.0 - finally allowing me to consolidate phone and PDA hardware after using Palm OS devices since 1998 or so.  I originally wanted to write about it then, but life got away from me. 

One of the only problems I had been having with the device prior to the OS upgrade is that every so often it would lose network connection and take forever to reconnect – usually making me do a soft-reboot after which everything was fine, but irritating.  Supposedly, the new OS takes care of this issue. 

So, this past weekend I updated my ROM – from v1.8.10.104 to v2.26.10.2 (I think – I also see 2.26.10.105 in some places).  This effectively wiped everything out and allowed me to start over.  So, I’ll catalogue a few things at this point. 

I had a number of apps installed and wanted to move things around a bit, mostly getting as much as I could off of the main memory space and on to the storage card.  So far I’ll be loading the essentials:

eWallet - Password storage (encrypted)
Voice Command - Hands-free functionality
Sudoku Master – yea, yea… 

Other general notes:  With the ‘full’ keyboard, messaging is SO much easier.  I’ve never been a huge text message user, but the first day of Tech Ed this year I realized how much I was going to be using this option and called T-Mobile to upgrade to a messaging plan.  They were very helpful in allowing me to upgrade and absorb all the messages I had already used (aka – gone over my limit). 

more later…