Pocket PC connectivity and integration

[dmacburry2003]

I just felt like discussing this...

Does anyone think that Pocket PC's are not really integrated well? Not hardware-wise but with the software included on them.

For example, when I use Microsoft Office, all of the programs are integrated and connected with each other and the internet (MSN connectivity and ability to import/export) but Pocket Word and Excel offer none of that (I know they stink).
Also, Windows Media should be more integrated with the internet, as of right now it seems to me that the Windows Media Mobile site has remained untouched for months.
Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, and Inbox should be very well integrated with each other, the web, and Office, though they are not.
Also, I think that Microsoft should have it set up so that you can do more with your Pocket PC. For example, be able to listen to radio, watch movies, share videos and pictures (as simple as with Media Center PC's), and download music directly to the Pocket PC (I heard that Real Networks and Palm are working on this). They should also offer more programs for Pocket PC. Right now it is what you get right out of the box, and almost nothing else (from Microsoft).

I know this can all be done with 3rd-party software, but does anyone have anything to say on this?

[Stuart Munson]

I'm the Market Research Manager for the Mobile Devices Product Group at Microsoft and found your post very interesting. The research I've done with PDA users suggests that most users primarily want to use Pocket Word and Pocket Excel to view attachments and possibly do a bit of very light editing. People consistantly tell me that if they want to create or edit a text document or spreadsheet they will use a laptop becuase text/data entry is much easier. Consequently we have just included the integration that will support that use (cut, paste, format, etc).

You have to keep in mind that we don't have unlimited resources here. Our dev team won't work more than 12 hours a day so we can't build and include all the features we would like all at once. Also, we don't have the internal expertise to develop lots of specialized software. We are best at building a platform on which our software partners who know their customers better can build programs that better meet your needs.

That being said, we are always looking for looking for ways to improve our products. If you have some suggestions about how you would like Windows Media Player to better integrate with the Web or how we can better integrat calendar, contacts and tasks, let me know by replying to this post and I'll take your suggestions to our product design team.

Just to respond to a couple of your specific suggestions, adding TV capabilities requires a substantial amount of additional hardware that significantly increases the cost and size of the devices. The research I've done suggests that there are several reasons for this: 1) not a lot of people who want to watch TV when mobile as most don't have the 30 minutes of free time to do and 2) few people are willing to pay the extra cost or put up with a bigger device that adding the necessary hardware would require.

As I'm sure you know, you can watch short videos on a Pocket PC using
Windows Media Player. However our hardware partners would have to add significantly more storage space to the device to allow you to download movies. Again, this adds significant expense to the device which not many people are willing to pay at this point. That being said we are seriously considering improving the movie viewing capabilities in the future on the assumption that storage hardware costs will come down.

Hope this answers your question to some extent. I'm looking forward to hearing your integration suggestions.

Stuart Munson
Marketing Research Manager
Mobile Devices Product Group
Microsoft Corp

This posting is provided AS IS with no warranties and confers no rights

[Dave Potter]

...For example ...Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, and Inbox should be very well integrated with each other, the web, and Office, though they are not.


I have to agree with this point specifically. It's annoying that you cannot link a calander item to a contact in any meaningful way. I know you can add attendee names to an appointment (big deal) - you should be able to click the attendes name(s) and have the appropriate contact file open up too. The same should be the case with tasks linking to contacts as well.

That's my 2 cents.

[dmacburry2003]

Here is a detailed list of my suggestions:

Perhaps Calendar, Contacts, Tasks and Inbox should be linked (able to open one from the other) or maybe put in one universal application. I would like to be able to add documents to a contact, calendar, or task, and also to be able to link an contact to calendar and vice-versa and hyperlink it so that you can click on the name and contact data would pop up. The idea of intergrating Pocket Outlook with MSN Calendar is an awsome one. MSN should offer more of this (Mapblast also allows you to send a map to Pocket PC [very useful] but maybe something more like Pocket Office-accessable documents on MSN). Also, the idea of being able to click on a name in Calendar as an attendee and it automatically sends a message to that attendee was right on track.

Now, Pocket Office. I believe that the Pocket Office applications (Word and Excel) could also be integrated into one universal app. For instance, having a program called Pocket Office in the start menu that contains one view housing Office documents. This way, all of the documents would be on the screen and I wouldn't have to open either Word or Excel to find them. The idea of one document browser is similar to Documents To Go for Palm handhelds, but I think it could work for Pocket Office without many issues (or maybe not). But either way, it would make it easier on users to locate their documents in this manner. This view could even be integrated into Pocket Outlook, but that might be going too far.

The idea of being able to view the document and only lightly edit is great, but if Pocket Excel was able to view it just like a Windows PC, that would be even greater; but I didn't write this to criticize Pocket Excel, though. What I meant is that Pocket Excel, Pocket Word, Pocket Outlook,and the Web should be integrated. Ex: Say I created an Excel sheet with Office, inserted web data into that, and then put it on my Pocket PC. If I could use Pocket Excel to go into that document, insert a new range of web data (as easy as with Office), then package that document into a contact to instantly send it with Pocket Inbox, then you know what I'm talking about (Pocket Excel can send things already, but is not able to import data). Another Ex: I am at home but away from my computer. I have Wi-Fi access on my Pocket PC, so I take it out of my pocket and create a work schedule for my co-workers on Pocket Calendar and save it as it's own "Work Shedule" category. But the problem is, I have no way to send that schedule as a whole. So, I go to Pocket Word or Excel. I create a new document and go to "import data". I select "from Outlook" and select all of the schedule in the "Work Shedule" category. I format the document to look fancy and then send it out to my Office Inbox (What is nice about the online Office is that it is totally remote). Being able to link Pocket Office with MSN Messenger (on the Pocket PC) would be a great idea too, because then people on Pocket PCs, or Desktops, would be able to instantly share Office info/templates and get work done faster, like IR beaming. It would also be nice to have a research-type pane in Pocket Office like the one in Office 2003. Or maybe even a research section of MSN mobile (it would also be nifty to have a search bar in MSN mobile because I have it set to homepage and always have to switch to Google to look something up). Back to what I had said in the previous paragraph, Pocket Office-accessable docs on MSN: This could work, almost like an Office Inbox, except it would have to be available on PPC. Then I could open up Pocket Excel, select "import file from Mobile Office Inbox", and have my data without the need to sync.
Another quick note, most people complain about Pocket Word's inability to handle graphics. I have the Pocket Paint app on my PPC and if I select an image in it and click copy, I can paste it into word and it shows fine (it be great if Pocket IE had the ability to copy images, then I could insert clip art into Pocket Word). And as for tables, I just draw them in drawing mode and type right inside.

With Windows Media Player PPC: MSN offers internet radio service (and now a video service), but the problem here is that I can not access it with Pocket PC (though there is a Pocket MSN). And I have tried listening to internet radio (with Shoutcast) on Pocket PC and it works great. A Windows Media Mobile website works for me, but I think it should be updated as often and include almost as much content as WindowsMedia.com does. To integrate this (I'm going out a little bit here) perhaps something should be offered like: Say I'm going to the movies this weekend. I want to invite a friend. I go to Pocket IE and go to the Windows Media Mobile website. I click a link to see recently updated trailers of the latest horror and comedy films. I look through and see if there is one I like. Then I click "send this page too..." and send it to my friend's Pocket PC. He gets back quick on MSN Messenger and says he likes [whatever he likes]. I go back to Windows Media Mobile and click a new link that says something like "buy tickets to see this film". MSN opens up then to a framed fandango.com page (or some other service as a partner) and offers me showtimes for the film. Since it is MSN mobile, I simply click on what time, enter my info., and then MSN adds it to my Pocket Calendar and sends the time and ticket data to my buddy through Pocket Inbox.
On movies available for Pocket PC: Movies are available for streaming on the Desktop (ex. CinemaNow) but a Pocket PC format of them would be nice (your right, it is not a necessity).
Also, about Palm and Real Networks offering a mobile music downloader, is Microsoft thinking about this? This would save hassle since Windows Media is already on the PPC and I wouldn't have to spend hours syncing my PPC with the desktop version of Windows Media and my bought music. Maybe a pane in Windows Media Mobile like the one in Windows Media desktop (the one that shows the internet) would work well for something like this... And a mobile Napster...

The sharing of videos and pictures. I guess you can do this already but maybe the ability to view photo files with Windows Media PPC and a hookup with Pocket Inbox could get you going faster. Ex: Say I just got a new PPC camera (SDIO) and I take a picture of my dog doing a trick with it (or even a video). I go to Windows Media PPC and open what I just took. I watch it. Then I go to the menu of Windows Media PPC and select "send to someone". It opens Pocket Inbox (or MSN Messenger) and I send it to a friend.
Then, my friend sends pictures of her dog to me with her Windows Mobile Smartphone by using Windows Media & Pocket Inbox.

On what I was saying about Microsoft offering more apps, I am just a gimmie for free software. But it would be nice if offered a few more apps with the Microsoft logo and quality (I like using 3rd-party apps, but I dislike replacing MS apps with them).


PS: I went to the Office website and it looks like the Office Inbox I was talking about is like the Document Workspace task pane in Office 2003. But, putting this information on MSN (like, as I believe, the SharePoint website) would allow easier accessing from a Pocket PC. Ex. I only have one website that holds contacts/calendar/tasks data, houses my Inbox and financial data (MSN Money), and holds my Office data, since I store all of this on MSN. This would make it easier on everything to import from the web since it would all be one format and web site. I am sorry if any of my ideas are already offered since I do not have the new Office 2003 (I do know about a majority of it's features), but they should be available and fine-tuned for Pocket PC.
PSS: All of the situations I have talked about are hypothetical, of course.
PSSS: A few more ideas can come from the framework I have here, but I just need to work on them.

PSSSS: I went away from writing this a second ago to look at the SharePoint website. The major thing I think you could add on top of what I said before is a major integration with Outlook. I don't know if you can already, but it would be nice to have that option.

[dmacburry2003]

Just a few more details on my suggestions while I get the chance:
Why not integrate Pocket Office with the Office on the PC? Then you could automatically sync the Pocket PC with your documents. Just like what you do with Windows Media (syncing your music automatically).
And, could you create a holiday database for Pocket PC? The highlighted holiday feature in Pocket Calendar is really no use unless I go through and input all the holidays and adjust them to every year.
Again on the Pocket Outlook integration, it would probably be best if you just combined all the apps instead of linking them... As I am writing this post a Pocket Informant banner is flashing above me, which is a program that integrates all Outlook apps together.

I noticed that I said something about Media Center PC's in my first post. It seems like the new Portable Media Centers take care of this, and you are right, if functionality like movies was added into Pocket PC's it would certainly take up a lot of space (but back to streaming, that would make it much less space-consuming). As for me, I love to use my Pocket PC for entertainment. Integrating a radio tuner into Windows Media PPC and MSN Radio with Wi-Fi would be like having a personal FM radio. And I'm not saying make MSN Radio all Pocket PC-like and everything, I would just like it to be viewable on the Pocket PC.


I had a quick question too.
I don't know if you can answer this, but, I have noticed that Microsoft has been migrating its products and website to a special format like the one in Office XP; where the buttons are flat and turn a shade when you scroll the mouse over them and pop out a little. Is Microsoft thinking about porting this to Pocket PC? It sort of looks like it but if you compare the two designs they are quite different. It is a great design and is much more sleek than that of Windows 98 and Office 97.