April 2007 - Posts
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® SilverlightTM 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.
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