T-Mobile USA has announced a free upgrade program for users of their popular Pocket PC Phone Edition device, which updates the OS and built-in applications to the newer Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Phone Edition software. (That name is a mouthful, so in this article I'll refer to the new software as "Ozone," the code name Microsoft used for it while it was in development.) I've had the new version of the software installed for a few weeks now and I highly recommend the upgrade.
We've discussed Pocket PC Phone Edition devices in previous issues of Pocket PC magazine. We discussed the basic software features in the September 2002 issue (http://www.SmartphoneMag.com/Sep02/future.asp) and reviewed the first version of the T-Mobile in the January 2003 issue (http://www.SmartphoneMag.com/Jan03/tmobile.asp). And the major enhancements to the Windows Mobile 2003 software were discussed in the November 2003 issue (http://www.SmartphoneMag.com/nov03/windowsmobile2003.asp). This article will focus on changes that specifically relate to Pocket PCs with integrated phones.
Silence is golden
A seemingly minor addition is the "mute button" icon, which is found on the menu bar of the Phone application. It was a surprising oversight in the original Pocket PC Phone Edition software and probably the change most requested by users. In addition, the volume control for the phone ring tones is now separated from the control for the system volume. You are also able to silence all sounds on the device by tapping on the speaker icon (or activating the volume control button) and then tapping on the "Off" radio button. I'm pleased to see this added versatility, but would have preferred to have a mute control that didn't require looking at the screen.
The Phone Edition version of Windows Mobile 2003 displays separate volume controls for phone ring tones and system alerts/volume.
I did find that pressing the side volume button three times quickly will cycle to the "Off" mode, but in the process it passes through the maximum volume setting – with an accompanying beep tone.
"Always on" data connection
The most talked-about feature in Ozone is the "always on" data connection. Once you connect to the GPRS data network, the connection doesn't drop—even when you turn off the phone. This means that the device is never really off, but simply in an ultra-low-power state, when you press the off button or the device times out. On the one hand, it requires some additional battery power to remain always on. But the fact that you can receive e-mail and download Web content in this ultra-low-power state—the display and other power hungry circuits are off—actually helps conserve power. The data connection also automatically resumes after being interrupted by a voice call. A very interesting application of this always-connected feature is Microsoft's Instant Messenger. When you connect to your MSM account (you can use a free Hotmail address), the Pocket PC Phone will notify you whenever someone on your friends list sends you an instant message. While you may want to limit the number of people you give your online name to, this feature can offer serious competition to the popular RIM Blackberry, which lacks most of the Pocket PC's other capabilities.
A better Outlook
The always-on feature is used extensively by the improved Pocket Outlook applications. The most impressive use requires that you also use Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 as your e-mail server. With this combination, when an e-mail is received by your Exchange server, a special "silent" SMS message is sent to the phone to notify it to pull the messages down. This all can happen with the phone off and in your pocket. This "always up-to-date" feature also works for changes to Calendar and Contacts. Of course, any changes you make to these applications on the Pocket PC Phone itself are also automatically synchronized with Exchange Server.
Printer-friendly version
