Hi All,
On Monday I finally went out and bought a new handset. The choice: a HTC Touch (not the one with the keyboard though). There is a link to the official site here.
Now, of course, this means Windows Mobile 6. The possibilities seem endless! </mad laughter>
Let me start out by saying, I don’t care much for the touch functionality. It’s nifty, and looks a lot like iPhone functionality (it is a far cry from the iPhone – yes, I said it). I can discard all that eye candy goodness.
What I want to do is really use this thing!
First things to do when priming a Windows Mobile device:
1. Obtain TCPMP. You can do a search for it, it’s been retired now in favour of (shock) commercial players.
2. Download the Google Maps cabinet file (.cab) located here. Just copy the .cab to your mobile device and execute it on the phone (use File Explorer to locate where you saved it, and tap the file). Note: you need to sync first to get access to the file system, or simply copy the file to a memory card and whack it into your device.
3. [Optional] Install ActiveSync 4.5 on pre-Vista Windows machines.
Note: There are more steps required to configure Windows Server 2008 for synching with WM devices. Email me for details.
Next, sync the handset.
This will give you instantly all your Outlook contacts (I keep the phone numbers in the business cards for easy synching of a new phone). I usually avoid synching email (if I need it, I have a small tablet and a 3G card to get at it). So I stick to calendar and contacts.
Hint: Exchange
If Microsoft Exchange has been configured for your local copy of Outlook, you aren’t going to be able to synch contacts outside of your Exchange contacts list. I’ve tried.
For some reason, it wants to default to Exchange for contacts, even when you have specifically chosen the local storage (.pst) as the source to synch with. I ended up having to copy my local .pst to another (non-Exchange configured) machine and do the initial synch there.
So, that’s the end of the initial setup. There’s more to do so check back shortly for more information.
What’s next?
Ever wanted SQL Server on your PDA/Phone? I’ll show you the pitfalls and surprises of setting up SQL Server Compact Edition (SQL Server CE) and hey, why not.. let’s build an application in .Net for it too! You’ll want to obtain the latest SQL Server 2008 CTP to follow along at home. Don’t forget a copy of Visual Studio 2008 – you can get Express Editions for nix if you look here.
/R
