Expert: Clinton Fitch

Having been writing Windows Mobile software reviews for over 8 years now, I’ve had the opportunity to use a lot of different applications from a host of developers. Some of these have been good, some not-so-good and others have been brilliant. One of these in the brilliant column is Spb Pocket Plus.

I started using Pocket Plus about 3 years ago and have watched mature and grow with each release. While the majority of the benefit of the application is on the Today screen, there are a lot of other features of the application that has made it one of my “must have” applications for the last few years.

I use Pocket Plus daily simply to move around my Windows Mobile device. With it, I can create tabs on my Today screen and within those tabs have short cuts to virtually any application or setting on my device. Now Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, Pocket Bible and any other application are only one tap away – not a Start menu search requiring multiple taps. For me, this is vitally important. I travel – a lot. If I’m not in my office here at home then chances are I’m on an American Airlines flight going somewhere. That means that I am often doing things on my device on-the-go (i.e. as I’m walking through the airport terminal). Pocket Plus allows me to use my D-Pad and Action button to navigate and active an application right from my Today screen or, if I can use it, one tap of my stylus.

There are other aspects to Pocket Plus other than the Today screen plug-in that make the application useful to me. The most important of these, to me at least, is the true closure of an application when I tap the X button. This has the obvious advantage of helping me keep my memory use under control – a challenge for most of us these days. Pocket Plus also has a Safe Mode where you can boot your device into a minimal configuration – just like your PCs Safe Mode – if you are having stability issues after installing an application or making a change.

So there you have it. Give Spb Pocket Plus a try and see what you think. I’m confident it won’t take you long to see why it is one of my favorite applications and one that I use every day.

The next topic of joint conversation for the Experts here at Smartphone & PocketPC Magazine is an interesting one: How do I save space on my Windows Mobile device? This is one of my favorite questions and one that I have received dozens of emails on over the last few years.

To answer the question I almost have to ask a question in return: Which memory are you asking me about?

I tend to look at my device like I do my PCs. I have storage memory (ROM) and I have application memory to run what I have installed (RAM). How I go about saving these really are fundamentally different. To be sure though you can save those precious megabytes on your device and here is how I do just that.

Read more!

As we here at Ask The Experts post our thoughts on the question of why Windows Mobile, it is probably a good opportunity to do a little introduction.

As most readers know, I am the owner and “Chief Geek” of Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com!, a site that has been dedicated to Windows Mobile Standard (Smartphone) and Professional (Pocket PC) reviews and opinions since August of 2004. Before that I wrote for a variety of sites (I still do in fact: Gear Diary, Pocket PC Thoughts, Pocketnow.com) and focused mainly on the Handheld PC platform. You will still find me writing on the venerable H/PC over at HPC:Factor, a site I co-own with Chris Tilley who is the real brains behind that operation.

So for me, the answer to “Why I have chosen Windows Mobile?” is one that has a long, somewhat drawn out answer. While a student at Dallas Baptist University (go Patriots!), I began finding myself needing more control over my calendar and what seemed to be an ever increasing number of contacts. After asking several friends about devices, I had essentially decided that I was going to buy a Palm. It seemed to do what I would need and with a little bit of piddling with HotSync, I could get my contacts to and from my PC – a 286MHz running Windows 95 if I remember correctly.

Read more!

With the unofficial-official announcement this week of Windows Mobile 6, Microsoft also introduced a new naming convention for their mobile platform as well. Werner in his post earlier this week here in the Blog goes over the details of the new naming scheme so I won't bore you with details yet again. But I will ask this question: Will you miss the terms "PocketPC" and "Smartphone" and will the new namings - Classic, Standard and Professional - clear what is already a somewhat confusing landscape in the device arena?

Read more!

As Windows Mobile devices have become an ever increasing part of the enterprise and education landscape, the need to limit the functionality or access to applications or parts of the device have increased as well. After all, the last thing you need is an employee surfing the Internet while they are suppose to be taking a customer's drink order at a baseball game! Or even better, having Junior playing Quake on a PocketPC while he is suppose to be reading Shakespeare.

The challenge of course is the very nature of Windows Mobile itself. As the Operating System is in your device's Non-volitile ROM (Read Only Memory), it is not erasable like your computer's hard disk. This means that if an application is included in the ROM of your device when you purchase it - such as Solitare or Mobile Word - you can't simply uninstall it. This is in contrast to your device's volitile ROM (or in older PocketPCs the RAM) where you install applications. This can be erase meaning that any data or applications you install can be removed.

For those interested in reading all the difference of the ROM/RAM and all things memory related, check out the Windows Mobile Team blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/default.aspx There are several entries related to RAM, ROM and Presistent Storage

So how do you get around this challenge? Simple, you hide them!

Unlike almost all of my blog entries here at Smartphone & PocketPC magazine, this entry is really geared for the enterprise or academic readers out there. Everyone however can benefit from seeing yet another example of how flexible Windows Mobile devices can be.

Read more!