Jason Langridge’s Mr Mobile Blog

One of my sessions at our Mobile and Embedded Developer Conference (MEDC) is entitled the Top 10 Security Objections to Deploying Windows Mobile (and how to overcome them).  I’m pulling together my content for this session and wondered if people had comments on:

a) The Top 10 that I’ve picked.

b) The priority in which you might place them…

c) Any I’ve missed?

The current list isn’t in any priority order at the moment.

1.We really don’t want to have incoming ports being opened….

2.How can we stop untrusted devices accessing Exchange?

3.We have to implement 2 Factor Authentication..

4.Do we really need to use ISA Server?

5.We don’t want to cache passwords on the device..

6.There is no way we’ll allow this solution as you can download attachments

7.We must have on-device encryption…

8.What is wiped when you remote wipe a Windows Mobile device?

9.What about Anti-Virus support?

10.Couldn’t someone perform a Denial of Service (DOS) Attack?

Love to hear your thoughts….. feel free to post a comment

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On10 has a great video blog posting where Mel Sampat is showing Vista Gadgets running on a Windows Mobile device!!

Mel may suck on Xbox Live but taking Gadgets from a Vista Desktop straight onto your device is very cool!!

Check it out HERE…

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The dates for MEDC 2007 across the world have now been announced on the MEDC 2007 site.

• Las Vegas – May 1-3
• India – May 10-12
• Australia – May 16
• Taiwan – May 29
• Korea – May 30
• Japan – June 6
• Singapore – June 8
• China – June 21
• Berlin – June 25-26

Check out more details on the MEDC 2007.

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i-mate have just released details of their Ultimate Range.

All the devices are incredibly well specified… 520MHz Intel processor, XGA direct video out, HSDPA connectivity, 262k screens!

You can check out more details HERE

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Windows Mobile 6 provides excellent compatibility with Windows Mobile 5.0 applications. Windows Mobile 5.0 compatibility was an explicit goal of Windows Mobile 6 and has been heavily tested throughout the Windows Mobile 6 development process. The overwhelming majority of Windows Mobile 5.0 applications will run on Windows Mobile 6 devices without modification. The only caveat is that compatibility is conditional on the applications use of supported APIs. As you might suspect, Windows Mobile 5.0 applications that use undocumented or unsupported APIs may experience application compatibility issues not experienced by those applications that use supported APIs.

We’ve just published an article to MSDN that outlines the new capabilities for Developers in Windows Mobile 6.

You can check it out HERE

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Just upgraded to Vista?  Want your Smartphone to have the same look as your new OS?

The folks over at JGUI have released a Free Vista Home Screen/Theme for Windows Mobile!

It’s pretty cool and you can download it from HERE

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CallWave.com have made available a really cool Vista Gadget which allows you to see your voicemail on your Vista PC!

To use it – you have setup an account with them (they support most of the US operators). 

After setting up an account you get an email with .wav attachment anytime someone leaves you a voice mail on your mobile phone.

You can then see those voicemails and listen to them via the Vista Gadget!

I’d love to see a Vista Gadget that allowed you to access your Windows Mobile Device! Anyone got one they are building?

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T-Mobile in Germany have now launched the MDA Mail which is the HTC Excalibur/S620 Windows Mobile device.

It’s the same device that’s been incredibly successful in the US as the T-Mobile Dash!

More details of the device (in german) can be found HERE

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Well the questions/comments are still coming in thick and fast!

I had bunch of new questions posted on the blog articles so let me try and answer them as well

Q. Does WM6 support 320×320 resolution?

A. Yes it does support 320×320

Q. Where can I download a copy of Windows Mobile 6 Standard for Smartphone?????

A. The most common question I get You have to talk with your OEM/Operator to get the upgrade unfortunately.

Q. Does WM6 comes with pre-installed Adobe Flash player for the bowser?

A. No

Q. Is the Windows Mobile 6 Phone edition now improved with long missed features, like SMS-Counter, Stop Watch or other functions, every normal Phone can do since many years?

A. Sorry – no Stop Watch is not in Pocket PC… there are some great 3rd party applications for that though

Q. Does PIE in any version of WM6 support ActiveX controls?  This will be very useful for certain applications, including access to and remote monitoring of IP video cameras.

A. No it does not.

Q. Any movement to supporting a standard API for barcode/RFID devices?

Symbol, DataLogic, Intermec, Psion etc…  all do it differently.

A. Not currently I’m afraid.

Q. Does it include text to speech engine as desktop Windows? Or do we still need to buy 3rd party? Its handy when it reads out incoming sms while driving +tons of other things.

A. Windows Mobile 6 can include Voice Command 1.6

Q. Will I be able to make a phone call on line 2 with WM6pro or does Bill Gates still think we should only have one number?

A. You should be able to if the operator has enabled that functionality

Q. *cry* still no console mode with the Terminal Server client

A. Sorry

Q. Can i upgrade my Imate K-JAM to Windows Mobile CrossBow

A. You will need to check with i-mate but I don’t think there is an upgrade planned for this device.

Q. i am a treo user exploring a switch to WM6… am I to understand in WM5 that you can not copy and paste between applications?

Can someone please conmfirm that you CAN copy and paste between applications freely in WM6?

A. You cannot copy/pase on Windows Mobile 6 Standard but you can on Windows Mobile 6 Professional.

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Two things happened when we announced Windows Mobile 6, firstly we changed the naming conventions of the various products and we also brought into line the a lot of the differences between Smartphone and Pocket PC.

Product name

Windows Mobile 6 has no suffix .0 – Whilst Windows Mobile 5.0 had a .0 after the 5 – Windows Mobile 6 is just 6!

Product SKU’s

The naming of the different versions changed in Windows Mobile 6.

• Pocket PC became Windows Mobile 6 Classic
• Pocket PC Phone Edition became Windows Mobile 6 Professional
• Smartphone became Windows Mobile 6 Standard

So why did we do this?  Well if you look today it’s really confusing which devices run which operating system.  For instance the Dash, Excalibur, S620 looks like a Pocket PC device but runs Smartphone.  The ASUS 525 device looks like a phone but runs Pocket PC Phone Edition…. The Treo 750 is referred to as a Smartphone yet runs Pocket PC Phone Edition.

Now we won’t be referring to the devices as the T-Mobile Dash Windows Mobile 6 Standard Edition – it’ll just be the Dash… but it will mean it’s more consistent across the devices. 

The final point is that the gaps between Pocket PC and Smartphone have been reduced dramatically.  Below are the major differences between the 3 different SKU’s of Windows Mobile. 

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