This series is an attempt to discuss the advantages and disadvantages to the 3 major mobile device input methods. Apple is purporting that the one-finger interface is better than the traditional stylus interface and the more popular hardware thumboard interface. So let’s see how it goes… Finger-oriented interface… Pros: – You don’t have to pull out a stylus – The device can be smaller and have a larger screen since it doesn’t need room for …
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WM6 Bugs: A Calendar Reply Command?
Back in the days of Pocket PC 2000, it was very easy and intuitive to work with Calendar appointments in Pocket Outlook. You would tap an appointment to open it, and then tap the appointment on the screen in order to edit it. This was perfectly usable. Then with Pocket PC 2002, Microsoft removed that capability and added an “Edit” button in the lower left. Tapping the open calendar item no longer let you edit …
Continue readingWM6 Bugs: Today Screen Dialing
One excellent new feature in Windows Mobile 6 Professional is the ability to begin dialing contacts from the Today Screen. If you just start typing someone’s name, the Today Screen will switch to the phone dialer and offer contact suggestions that begin with the letters you just started typing. So what’s the problem? Well, this only works if your device has a keyboard since the software based keyboards are not accessible from the Today Screen. …
Continue readingWM6 Bugs: The Delete Command
Why moving the delete command was a bad idea In the new Windows Mobile 6 Professional, the menus for the Messaging application have been changed a bit. The most obvious is that the left softkey has been changed from “New” to “Delete”. The reasoning behind this is that most people have to delete a lot of spam on their phones and they wanted to make deleting messages easier. I don’t know who was surveyed for …
Continue readingAn Easier Text Message with Windows Mobile Smartphone
With Pocket PC phones, normally you would go to the Messaging application when you want to send a text message or email since typing some one’s name in the “To” field quickly brings up the possible matches. On Windows Mobile Smartphones, that’s not so easy especially if you have to type those names with a numeric keypad. Instead, use the phone dialer from the home screen to find the contact you want to send a …
Continue readingWindows Mobile Smartphone Copy and Pasting
You can’t do it! I’ve been using the new Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone Edition with my Qtek 8500 for a couple weeks now. I’m used to the Pocket PC Phone Edition flavor, so naturally I’m noticing plenty of limitations and shortcomings with both platforms now. One, significantly annoying difference on the Smartphone flavor is that I can’t transfer information from one program to another! Normally this would be done with Copy and Pasting… but you …
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