If you’re a Halo fan, pretty neat Halo 3 wallpapers posted. 

Once you get the Silverlight download, make sure you visit silverlight.net to get the full effect. WOW!

http://silverlight.net/fox/ for some great trailers.

The Windows Live Dev site has undergone a facelift, and includes several new enhancements, including Silverlight, Spaces Photo Control and updated Windows Live Contacts control.  Lots of news posted as well, thanks to MIX07.

http://dev.live.com

 

Announced today at MIX07…

Microsoft® Silverlight^TM is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web.

Check the downloads here.

Pretty amazing wallpapers and dreamscenes if you’re running Vista Ultimate.

No, it’s not WM6, but it is a ROM upgrade for the 8525 (AKU 3) that adds Push-To-Talk, among other things. This will upgrade your 8525 to:

ROM Version 2.15.502.3
ROM Date 04/09/07
Radio Version 1.40.30.00
Protocol Version 32.73.7020.16H

http://www.htcamerica.net/support/8525/software-downloads.html

Took a quick break from Pre Con to wander around.  This place has really grown since I was here last.  The “people statues” are still going strong in the Grand Canal Shoppes, the gondola singers are really going at it, the Blue Man Group is now in the Blue Man Theater within the Venetian (I think they were at Luxor the last time I was here) and I found the Coffee Bean for my caffeine fix. 

Important safety tip for me.  Don’t look up at the fake clouds in the Grand Canal Shoppes and try to walk at the same time. Quite a dizzying effect.

I think someone is on to me in the “Do you see me now?” game…better head back in to session.  Another hour and a half of Day 0, and then off to Aquaknox.

By the way, for those that use Diarist to blog from your Pocket PC, Kevin Daly released Diarist 2.1.

Diarist 2 will only work with version 2 of the Compact Framework. If your device supports it (provided it's not Pocket PC 2002 or earlier you should be OK) but it is not currently installed, you can download the latest version from Microsoft here. For owners of Windows Mobile 6 devices, .NET Compact Framework 2 is already installed by default.  This version includes the ability to upload images from the device, provided the blog hosting site supports the newMediaObject option of the MetaWeblogAPI.

List of new/enhanced features:

• Improved context menus - Cut, Copy and Paste, and on the main form also formatting options
• The ability to add Technorati tags
• A dialog for notifying ping servers
• Menus redesigned for soft keys on Windows Mobile 5 and 6
• Blog entries (posted or unposted) can be saved on the device and retrieved later for posting or editing
• You can now label your blog with an easy to remember name that appears in the list - this is useful if you have multiple blogs and they're all identified by just your name, for instance.
• If you have provided the address of your blog with your configuration information, you can view your posts from within Diarist
• Fairly comprehensive help, fully integrated with the device's Help system (with Diarist running and in the foreground, you just open the Start menu and select Help) 
• There is basic support for square displays. It's not great, but it's not utterly hopeless either.
• There is now an easy to find "Exit" menu option, which um, does what it says.

Get it here.

I made it to the Venetian. Nothing like Vegas is there? 45 minutes to get just a few blocks...man is it crowded.  I checked in a little early and they put me up in the Venizia tower overlooking the garden/pool area.  For those that have been here before, I think it is the furthest you can be from the conference center area and still be considered part of this hotel.  Will have to leave a good 20 minutes before sessions to make it over there.  It’s two different elevators and a long walk. Which means, it’s also a long walk to the gondolas, restaurant row, the casinos, the theaters, and everything else in this place.

When I finally made it over to registration area, I realized Microsoft’s MIX07 is here as well, at the same time, so lots of the Microsoft crowd is here, including Ray Ozzie.  I’ve also run in to several of the folks running the show already, including Mike Hall and Loke (those that follow the mobile blogs know who they are).  The guide for the next three days is about 150 pages, the SWAG bag is a great looking backpack, and the bag was stuffed with several goodies, including Orcas, the Windows Mobile 6 Developer Resource Kit, and Windows Embedded Project Acceleration Kit.

Also looks like the attendee party will be at TAO Nightclub Wednesday night.

I’ve already run in to several other Microsofties…should be a great time.  More later…back to sessions.

When I first got this SWAG bag at MMS 2007, I absolutely hated it.  Now that I’m home and had a chance to go through the bag, it is quite roomy, lots of storage space, the handle is a nice length (unless you’re really tall) when you pull it, and it’s light.  One of the biggest challenges for me with a bag with wheels is the weight.  It’s great when you can pull it, but when you have to pick it up and carry it, or use the shoulder strap, the bags are just too heavy.  Not with this bag. It’s not heavy at all, and is easy to carry.  There is one thing I don’t like, and that is it’s prone to tip over when it’s loaded.

Anyway, it’s Day 0 for me, I’m at the airport waiting for my flight out.  If all goes well, I should be in Vegas in a few hours, and at the Venetian shortly thereafter.  I have a Pre Con on “Deployment and Management of Windows Mobile Devices”, and some evening events with Microsoft and the new Enterprise Mobile team (more on that later if I’m able).  It’s at the Aquaknox for those of you who have been at the Venetian before. 

I really wish I could play a quick round of “Do You See Me Now” but alas, no takers this time around.

I’ve been switching back and forth between my Windows XP and Windows Vista drives, and will on occasion switch laptops.  I just upgraded to an HP nc6400 from my older nc6220.  One of the things that always frustrated me when I did this is the partnership issues in getting my device to sync correctly, ultimately requiring me to hard reset my Pocket PC and start from scratch.  Well, it’s been three weeks since I had to hard reset due to finding the registry setting:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\ActiveSync\Partners

If you look through the subkeys (contained in {}), if you scroll through you should see a key called Name.  Find the old subkey you no longer need (again, contained in {}), and just delete the whole subkey.  Then, go to the new subkey, find the Name key, rename it to Windows PC, soft reset the device, and you should be syncing fine without having to hard reset the device each time.

For example, on my device, there were three subkeys under Partners.  One for my Exchange sync, and two for each of the computers I was syncing with.  The first subkey was my Direct Push settings (scrolling through you should see keys for domain, EmaiAddress, etc.). The second subkey had a Name of Windows PC, the third subkey had a Name of Windows PC 2.  I deleted the entire subkey for Windows PC (several subkeys within the primary), then renamed the third, reset my device, and have been syncing fine.  Now I don’t waste time hard resetting just because I swap PC’s.

Acer America Corp. announced a voluntary program to replace batteries in about 27,000 of its notebook computers.

The recall applies to certain lithium-ion batteries containing cells made by Sony Corp., the company said. The notebooks should be run only on AC power until a replacement battery pack is received, Acer said.

Read more for make, model, and battery codes impacted.

Saaaay What?

Sony Video Game Launch for 'God of War II' Features Gory Stunt With Freshly Killed Goat?

According to the Daily Mail…

Electronics giant Sony has sparked a major row over animal cruelty and the ethics of the computer industry by using a freshly slaughtered goat to promote a violent video game. The corpse of the decapitated animal was the centrepiece of a party to celebrate the launch of the God Of War II game for the company’s PlayStation 2 console.

Guests at the event were even invited to reach inside the goat’s still-warm carcass to eat offal from its stomach. Sickening images of the party have appeared in the company’s official PlayStation magazine – but after being contacted by The Mail on Sunday, Sony issued an apology for the gruesome stunt and promised to recall the entire print run.

Did they really do this?  If so, WHY?

Attention Starbucks fans.  Starbucks has a mobile site available to find the nearest stop.

http://mobile.starbucks.com

 

O2 Germany has started selling the O2 XDA Terra. This makes the 02 XDA Terra the first Windows Mobile 6 device to ship.The XDA Terra is based on HTC's Herald. Complete with a slide out keyboard, it is a quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE phone and includes W LAN and Bluetooth 2.0. The XDA Terra also includes a 2 megapixel camera. Best of all, the Terra runs Windows Mobile 6.

Via PocketPCBlast.

Rory Blythe sat down with Mel Sampat to demo WM6. In the video, you'll get to see some of what's new with Pocket Outlook, an experimental managed implementation of voice recognition APIs, and more.

Video takes about 28 minutes. Watch it here.

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) announced today expanded messaging plans to include unlimited messaging packages for the first time. AT&T's 62.2 million wireless customers can now choose from new options to supercharge their messaging lifestyle.

A new plan from AT&T called Messaging Unlimited will give customers the ability to send unlimited messages of any type, including text, picture, video and instant messages (IM), to any wireless phone in the U.S. for $19.99 a month.

Additionally, AT&T customers who send most of their messages to other AT&T subscribers can add unlimited mobile-to-mobile messaging to a messaging plan for just $5 more a month. For as low as $9.99, customers can get unlimited mobile-to-mobile messaging in addition to the 200 text, picture, video and IM messages included in AT&T's Messaging Starter package.

"Our customers are sending messages more than ever before, and we are committed to creating plans that accommodate all of their needs," said Cristy Swink, executive director of Messaging, AT&T wireless unit.

AT&T leads the industry in messaging through its sponsorship of "American Idol," which generated 64.5 million messages in 2006, and a program called TXT2CONNECT which aims to bring parents and kids closer together by educating parents about messaging. In the fourth quarter of 2006, 180 million multimedia messages and more than 12 billion text messages crossed AT&T's wireless network.

XML Notepad 2007 provides a simple intuitive user interface for browsing and editing XML documents.

The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Beta 1 is a preview release of the latest version of the .NET Framework. Many ISV’s, enterprises and Microsoft product teams are successfully building on the new features Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Windows CardSpace in the .NET Framework 3.0. Microsoft plans to continue to invest in the .NET Framework developer platform and in support of existing users the .NET Framework 3.5 has a minimal number of breaking changes. So that existing applications built for .NET Framework 2.0 or .NET Framework 3.0 should continue to run without requiring changes. The .NET Framework 3.5 adds new features in several major technology areas; including:

• Deep integration of Language Integrated Query (LINQ) and data awareness
  
• ASP.NET AJAX for quickly creating more efficient, more interactive and highly-personalized Web experiences that work across all the most popular browsers
  
• New web protocol support for building WCF services including AJAX, JSON, REST, POX, RSS, ATOM and several new WS-* standards
  
• Full tooling support for WF, WCF and WPF including the new workflow-enabled services technology
  
• New classes in the base class library (BCL) for the .NET Framework 3.5 address the most common customer requests.

.NET Framework 3.5 is planned to release at the end of 2007 and will ship with Visual Studio code name ”Orcas” and will also continue to be available for separate download from MSDN.

Well, I take off for MEDC Monday morning, getting in to Vegas around 10 AM.  As a gadget geek, this is a great time of the year for me. First MMS 2007, then MEDC 2007.  I’ll be blogging a lot while I’m there from my handy Cingular 8525.  Stay tuned for all the happenings.  Keynote is Tuesday morning, but lots going on before that based on my schedule.  I’ll be there through Thursday, leaving Friday morning.  I’ve heard from a couple of other gadget geeks who will also be there.  If there’s more, let me know. We’ll all try to get together. Unfortunately, we can’t have another MyITforum party or booth so that everyone can find each other.  Maybe next year.

From WindowsForDevices…

Palm is kicking off a developer contest at next week's Microsoft Mobile and Embedded Developer Conference (aka MEDC 2007). The company plans to reward developers who create the "hotest" new Windows Mobile applications that run on its Treo 700w, 700wx, and 750v smartphones.

Developers are challenged to "develop a hot new software solution or port an exciting software solution to the Windows Mobile platform," according to the contest's rules. "Submissions may include freeware, shareware, or commercial software applications."

According to Palm, entries will be judged on the basis of:

• Concept originality
  
• General usability of the application
  
• Specific utility to mobile phone users
  
• Reliability and compatibility
  
• The "Wow" factor of graphical look and feel
  

All of this from a company that according to Faultline is “abandoning Windows Mobile”.

From money.cnn.com…

RIM has said that review covered more than 3,200 grants between late 1996 and August 2006 to more than 2,000 employees and directors.  The review found that RIM failed to maintain adequate internal and accounting controls relating to options grants, in terms of how the options were awarded and documented as well as the measurement date used to account for some grants.  It also found the grant process "lacked safeguards to ensure compliance with applicable accounting, regulatory and disclosure rules," RIM said in March.

I wonder what the effect will be on earnings (restatement)…

U.S. prosecutors in New York are reviewing stock option grants at BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd., the company said Wednesday.  RIM said it has been in contact with the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York after learning it was reviewing the company's option grants.

It added it "intends to co-operate" with any requests for information the U.S. attorney's office may have.  The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission already has a formal investigation into how RIM granted options in the past, after upgrading its probe from an informal review.

Co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie also announced he would give up his other role as the company's chairman.

More here.

The next few months ought to be interesting…

Watch 100 channels from 10 countries live on your Pocket PC phone. With Pocket Live TV, your phone becomes a portable TV. Watch your favorite channels right in the palm of your hand.

Watch live TV from the U.S., U.K. Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, Netherlands and other countries. So whatever you would've watched on the sofa, you can watch elsewhere instead. In the room next door, down the pub, or on the beach a thousand miles away. Take your favorite tv-series, talkshow, sport events or news programs with you on your portable device.

The most affordable way to get your television content in your pocket. No subscription, no bundled data-plan, just a one-time purchase of software.

Includes top news channels * , such as CNN, BBC, Sky News, Deutsche Welle and NBC. Music channels, such as MTV, Ministry of Sound and 3for12. Sports channels such the Baseball Channel, Eurosport and Sportbox. Get the latest weather forecast from the Weather Channel. And tens of general news and entertainment channels.

The channels are all broadcast over-the-internet, so if you have WiFi on you device, you can watch them for free, without data charges. Go to any Starbucks or free WiFi hotspot and watch free TV on your phone. It also works with UMTS, WCDMA, EVDO, EDGE and other wideband enabled Pocket PCs. Check out the free demo to see which channels from your country are available. Works on any Pocket PC (phone) with a WiFi or 3G connection. Including the following brands and models

Try the Free Demo or get the Introduction Offer for $ 19.95 / EUR 17.95 ex. local tax

http://www.makayama.com/pocketlivetv.html

AT&T Chief Executive Edward Whitacre stands to receive a $158.5 million pension package, one of the country's largest. When he retires, Mr. Whitacre also will have $24,000 in annual automobile benefits, $6,500 in "home security" each year and access to AT&T's corporate jet for 10 hours a month, according to the telecommunications company's proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Explorer 2007 continues in the footsteps of Resco Explorer 2005, improving its features and adding many new ones. File Types Highlighting, Status bar, and customizable startup folder makes managing files even easier as before.  Users will also appreciate improvements in the field of networking, ability to view encrypted files with built-in viewer, running application manager in Today Plugin and dozens more.

http://www.resco.net/pocketpc/explorer/default.asp

Verizon Wireless Announces the Next Evolution in Global Connectivity: the BlackBerry 8830 World Edition Smartphone and Global BlackBerry Service

 

First CDMA/GSM BlackBerry Smartphone, Coupled with Always-On Global E-Mail and 24/7 Help Desk, Keeps Travelers Connected In More Than 60 Countries

BASKING RIDGE, NEW JERSEY and WATERLOO, ONTARIO--(CCNMatthews - April 25, 2007) - Verizon Wireless, operator of the nation's most reliable wireless network, and Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ:RIMM)(TSX:RIM), a global leader in wireless innovation, today introduced the first Global CDMA/GSM BlackBerry(R). The BlackBerry 8830 World Edition smartphone will be available on May 14 through Verizon Wireless' business sales channels and in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores on May 28.

In addition, Verizon Wireless announced the May 14 availability of its new Global BlackBerry service, an "always-on, always connected" wireless e-mail solution that provides quick, easy access to e-mail, contacts, calendar, organizer and the Web while on-the-go. With the BlackBerry 8830 World Edition smartphone and Global BlackBerry service from Verizon Wireless, customers get wireless e-mail and the convenience of one local number for domestic and international use in Australia, Europe, parts of Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and North America.

Based on past history with Verizon, I can’t wait to see the pricing they throw on this.  They are already one of the most expensive carriers from a monthly recurring data standpoint.

April 24, 2007 — Spb Software House, the leading Windows Mobile software developer, releases Spb Phone Suite, a collection of all the main phone features you've been missing on your Windows Mobile device.

The number of Windows Mobile devices with phone functionality is growing every day. Almost every Windows Mobile 6 device recently announced include phone functionality. Windows Mobile Professional is still not a perfect platform for phone devices, however, lacking such cornerstone phone features as profiles, call filtering, and missed call notifications.

Spb Software House is known for the development of technology that extends the Windows Mobile platform. Spb Pocket Plus, for example, extends the classic Pocket PC functionality and was the best selling Pocket PC application in 2005 and 2006 (according to Handango's reports). Spb Mobile Shell improves Windows Mobile usability and is the current best selling Pocket PC program at Handango. Now comes Spb Phone Suite that pushes the envelope of the Windows Mobile platform by improving Pocket PC phone functionality.

Includues Profiles, Missed Call Nofications, Reject and Send SMS, Photo Speed Dial, Call Filtering, and other features.

More here.

Palm Developer Network is kicking off the Treo™ Windows Mobile® Challenge Contest at MEDC 2007 (Booth# 207) in Las Vegas, Nevada April 30th – May 3rd

Enter and win an exciting prize package as we search for the hottest new Windows Mobile applications that run on Treo™ 700w, 700wx, 750, and 750v smartphones! Utilize Palm’s ease of use with Windows Mobile’s feature-rich mobile experience to showcase your application at its best.

Former Apple finance chief and board member Fred Anderson blamed Apple CEO Steve Jobs for a backdated 2001 options grant, saying he warned Mr. Jobs it could result in an accounting charge and that Mr. Jobs had provided assurance that the company's board had previously approved the grant. Mr. Anderson said the grant date was selected by Mr. Jobs and former Apple General Counsel Nancy Heinen.

 

Nice…

There’s an article posted over at the Register, by Faultline (Faultline is published by Rethink Research, a London-based publishing and consulting firm).  You would think that a publishing and consulting Firm would do their research first.  The headline?  Palm distances itself from Windows.  The context of the story is that Palm is moving to Linux, and away from Windows Mobile.  This is quite comical.

“Palm will still use Microsoft Windows Mobile in some Treo models, particularly for the large enterprise market, but the defocusing on this OS - the licensing of which was seen as the likely survival route for Palm last year - is radical and risky.”

Why is this funny?  They obviously have NO IDEA what the Palm roadmap is and are playing a guessing game because Palm announced a Linux kernel Treo.  As I read more and more from these “analysts” and “consultants”, and knowing what some know of the roadmap is for Palm (under NDA), I find these articles quite funny reading.