I hate it when software upgrades stuff things up. A new 2008 release of Pocket Informant, the diary software I’ve got on my PocketPC to replace the frankly woeful Pocket Outlook has just been produced, and whilst the upgrade went smoothly, and the application itself works fine, all the category colours on the Today screen plug-in have vanished. Oddly enough the plug-in thinks it’s getting the colour details – just seems they are all coming out in white…
Tag Archives: PocketPC
It’s Not Rocket Science Is It?
So this morning I forgot my laptop – my excuse is that it’s normally at the office anyway on a Tuesday – but anyway, since I usually run my e-mail on the laptop, the PDA usually syncs with that. No problem I thought, I have ActiveSync and Outlook on my main desktop machine too, so I just plugged the cradle into that. Bad move all round. Although the PDA is the same, the Exchange server on the back is the same, and there weren’t any appointment changes to make, ActiveSync managed to duplicate a random selection of about 400 appointments. It is it unreasonable to expect a calendar application that can cope with syncing?
Opera Comes To PocketPC
I’ve mentioned before the great Opera Mini, a free web browser for mobile phones. I said in my initial comments that I thought it was better than PocketIE on my PDA, and that I’d download it in an instant if they made it available for PocketPC.
Well now they have. It is currently only available as a beta for users of Windows Mobile 5, and Windows Mobile 2003, plus it is only available as a CAB package, which makes installation a bit more of a manual process – although the site has instructions on how to do this. The beta will also expire in June, which I suspect is an indication that they are going to charge for the full version.
As a totally unscientific comparison, I thought I’d view the same site in both PocketIE, and the new beta version of Opera. For the purposes of the comparison I ran both browsers in portrait mode, (although both will quite happily run in landscape) as like many, I have a PDA that is very much designed to work as a portrait device, and is a bit annoying in landscape. I also chose to use the full graphics version of the BBC News site, as it is a well known site, with a pretty complex layout.
This first shot is what PocketIE produces in single column mode. It does a slightly better job if you allow the browser to lay the page out using a wider space, but then of course you have to have a horizontal scroll bar.
Particular highlights are the mess it’s made of the menu bar across the top of the page, that links to the other parts of the BBC web site, and provides a search facility. Indeed, this takes up most of the visible page, where it even overlaps the BBC logo. Scrolling on down things don’t get much better. All in all it’s a bit of a pain, badly laid out, and a lot of scrolling to use.
By way of comparison, before I show you what the page looks like on the PocketPC version, I’ve loaded up the same page in Opera Mini. Again, you can’t actually see the news, as all you’re getting are the headers. However it has made a better job than PocketIE, fitting in more than the PDA – equipped with a VGA screen don’t forget.
Of course for any serious use on a screen this size, I’d recommend using the mobile version of the site that the BBC provides at http://news.bbc.co.uk/text_only.stm. This is a lot quicker to load, as it transfers a lot less data – also a factor to bear in mind if you’re using any sort of connection that is charged by data volume.
Finally, here is exactly the same page in the PocketPC Opera.
Even in portrait, the menu bar fits neatly into one line at the top of the screen, with the logo and the rest of the header in about the top quarter of the screen.
You can see the top story, plus the first part of the next few stories below – you’ve even got the navigation links on the left hand and right hand side of the screen. In addition, it also includes the headline ticker above the top story. Indeed, aside the from the big gap underneath the picture in the main story, it looks pretty much like the site would look on a desktop.
As you can see, it’s managing to do this by using significantly smaller fonts than PocketIE, but if you can read those, then it is a pretty impressive feat, and actually promises to give a pretty good approximation of the desktop experience.
As I said, it is a beta, so it does produce some layout glitches from time to time, for example on this site it sometimes leaves a massive gap under the desktop ticker, but I expect that those will be sorted out before the actual release. Certainly even in it’s beta state, it is still a pretty usable tool, and I’ll look forward to the full release in a few months.
Getting Hooked on Sudoku
Since the sad death of Richard Whiteley back in June, Mum and Dad have been without their daily dose of brain exercising, as a result, Mum has been doing the daily Sudoku puzzles in the Times.
Anyway, when we went up to visit Mum and Dad at the weekend, Beth got interested, and bought a book of puzzles, and challenged me to try one too. Suffice to say that we are all hooked!
Anyway, in true geek fashion, I had a look for an electronic version, so that rather than trying to decode my handwriting, and spending loads on puzzle books, I had a clean electronic version to work with. My little Dell Axim seemed the perfect host.
Looking at the options, there seemed to be two distinct leaders, Spiral Mile’s Sudoku Rules! and Mastersoft Sudoku. I’ve seen rave reviews for both. One direct comparison came down on the side of Sudoku Rules!, and one of the comments against a download of Mastersoft Sudoku highlighted a number of issues in comparison with Sudoku Rules!, so I’ve downloaded trials of both and given them a try.
The first big difference between the two is implementation. Mastersoft Sudoku has gone a .Net compact framework route, whereas Sudoku Rules! is C++. Mastersoft has a pretty regular Windows Mobile style interface, whereas Sudoku Rules! have a rather more unique interface. Mastersoft plays nice with the system, whereas Sudoku Rules! uses as much power as it can get to drive the game engine.
Looking beyond the basic differences, although Mastersoft devotes more screen to the Sudoku board, and has some pretty graphical gimmicks to play the game with colours or icons, in use, I find the smaller board offered by Sudoku Rules! is actually easier to use. The pop-up method offered by Mastersoft is decidedly clunky, especially when making pencil notes of possible numbers, which involves clicking a toggle rather than the quick twin panel method offered by Sudoku Rules!. Looking at the various hints, Sudoku Rules! scores again in my opinion, offering a variety right from a nudge towards the next cell to work out, to a full blown solution, complete with graphical indication of the relationship between this cell and the others.
In terms of features that Mastersoft have that Sudoku Rules! lacks, the main item is the timer and scoring, neither of which really appeals, in fact I tend to find the continuously changing numbers across the bottom of the screen just plain annoying. Even more annoyingly if you run out of points, so do the help and hints – a real pain when learning the game!
The final difference is the price, Sudoku Rules! comes in at $12, Mastersoft at $14.95, so with a cheaper price, and being the one I prefer, it looks like Spiral Mile get my cash!