One Line Wisdom: Windows Mobile Edition

[Jon Westfall]

<p>In the past we've asked you to share your <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/news/show/86641/share-your-mvt-most-valuable-tip.html" target="_blank">best tips with the community</a>, and in the same vein comes my newest talking point, the elusive yet useful joys of a small nugget of wisdom. Your mission, dear community, is to share one short line of wisdom that you might give to new users of Windows Mobile devices, old vets, and recent converts from "dumbphones". Feel free to expound on your one-liner, but the one-liner should be able to stand on it's own. Here's mine:</p><p><em>When it comes to software, less is more</em></p><p>My line refers to the temptation some users get to trick out their phones with every conceivable application under the sun. And trust me - I was no exception to this when I started out with Windows Mobile. I had (still have actually) registration codes for easily the top 30 applications for Windows Mobile. I tried everything, bought most of it, and today use almost none of it. Aside from 3-5 applications I install, my device remains stock. Why? Well it isn't that the software isn't well written, it's simply that I know what I use and try to avoid the clutter of unused doodads. When you find the software that really works for you, you don't need to spend hours tinkering with everything else. Your smartphone just works, smartly, for you.</p><p>Now it's your turn - share your line of wisdom and explanation (Perhaps it's <em>When it comes to software, use everything!"</em>)!</p>

[hotdram]

KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid

Much like Jon, I was constantly putting software on my phone that looked cool and did stuff that I thought I needed. I would only try things that had trial versions. Turns out that I didn't need those apps at all, they just cluttered the phone and the slowed it down.
I eventually bought just the following:
Agenda One (the Windows PIM sucks) - use it daily
Fizz Weather - don't use it much now, there are better/cheaper options
SPB Wallet - couldn't live without it :)
Pocket Quicken - sync daily with my desktop account
Garmin Mobile XT - need another GPS like a hole in the head, but it is really cool

~Rob

[crimsonsky]

Yeah - I'm with you on this one. I probably have as many registered apps as you do, and find that I really only use 5 or 6.

One of the reasons I've become more selective is because my Wing is so memory constrained, so I have to be pretty selective about what I put on it. But in the process, I've discovered that I only use a handful of apps on a regular basis, so I've trimmed down what's on my device to those apps and find that I really don't miss the others.

My top apps are PocketInformant, Pocket Bible, Resco Explorer, EReader, MemMaid and TextMaker 2006.

[burtcom]

First thing to do when you get a new device: install a screen protector.

[swtrainer]

Don't get frustrated! Windows Mobile is not Windows! So, there is a learning curve. Learn to customize Windows Mobile to meet your needs. There are sites out there that will walk you through it and just getting all the apps available that you really use from the "Start" list rather than having to tunnel through multiple layers makes a huge difference. Having easy access to your key apps available from "Start" or from shortcuts (fn+f for files, fn+i for Internet, fn+c for calendar, etc. is great but requires some customization because AT&T wants you to have easy access to all their garbage that you don't want anyway. Some of this requires remapping shortcuts but its worth the effort.

[levimarshall]

Backup, backup, backup!

[psyjohn]

Get a good backup application and use it regularly.

I agree with Jon and the others about software in general. I own way more than I currently use, but one thing I will never be without is backup software. Since SK Tools added backup to the long list of things it will do I use that (better one app that does many things than lots of single apps), but there are several good options. ActiveSync has become unreliable at best so I never count on that to save my contacts, tasks, and appointments. If you've ever had your device crash without a recent backup, as I did a few years ago, you'll never make that mistake again.

[levimarshall]

Don't be a fool. A 2 year contract is not cool.

Don't allow yourself to be locked up into a 2 year contract however enticing it may seem. Once you get your hands on a new handheld a newer one may well be on its way. It is better if you buy in cash than to be stuck in a gadget that you would want to replace but couldn't.

[crimsonsky]

Get a good backup application and use it regularly.

I agree with Jon and the others about software in general. I own way more than I currently use, but one thing I will never be without is backup software. Since SK Tools added backup to the long list of things it will do I use that (better one app that does many things than lots of single apps), but there are several good options. ActiveSync has become unreliable at best so I never count on that to save my contacts, tasks, and appointments. If you've ever had your device crash without a recent backup, as I did a few years ago, you'll never make that mistake again.

I've been using backup software on my WM devices since day one (about 5 or 6 years). I didn't even include it in my list of software because I consider it so essential that I wouldn't dream of having a device without it. My current backup solution is Sprite Backup 6.x and it works fantastically on my Wing.

[Brad Adrian]

Of course, my guiding motto has always been:

W?BIC!

"Why? Because I Can!"

I realize that's a little bit antithetical to others posted here about simplicity, but the inner geek in me still has to TRY to do things with my Windows Mobile device just because I can.

[Don Tolson]

When on the forums: Patience...remember, you were once a newbie, too.

Far too often, I see 'senior members' of a forum flame the poor newbs for asking the same question that has been answered many times before. Clearly, the newbs haven't bothered to read first, but we still need to help guide them, rather than chide them.

[Zagleft1]

I see a lot of new users on boards that seem to really fear this, as if they will lose their entire configuration. Very useful in solving some problems and freeing up space as we know.

[dazz]

My Motto: "Do as Jon done" ;)

I have actually stripped all the junk out of my PPC and only have Netfront, Pockettwit and HanDBase on it. No real need for much more for me.

My actual motto is "Protect the investment!"

I can't afford to be replacing broken gear, so I always add screen protectors and carry cases right away.

[drowe]

my moto: "Try Everything"
Bucking the crowd again, but you'll never know what your killer app is going to be.

[Jon Westfall]

Keep them coming guys (and gals)! Today for the first time in awhile I actually installed some third-party tools I don't always use but found them to be really snappy on my Touch Pro (Fuze). Right now the Fuze is rocking Spb Shell, Pocket Plus, & Diary, eWallet, and PhoneAlarm.

W?BIC is a great motto - if you have time to deal with the strange things that can result from it. Brad's advice does provide a lot of fun on the proverbial "rainy day".

And reading about soft-resets made me think about how amazing it is that I can now go 2-3 weeks without a soft reset, whereas they were a daily ritual not 3 years ago. I used to schedule a task to soft reset my phone at 6 AM each morning so it would be 'clean'. Amazing how we complain about something that is broken, but when it is fixed (e.g., stability), we don't talk about it at all.

I suppose MS's dream would be that one day we have nothing to talk about, other than recalling the 'bad old days" of soft-resets and the like.

[doogald]

Yep, mine is "Run as vanilla as possible." I am much happier since I've done so.

[TopDog]

Third party apps are the reason I use Windows Mobile. If I just wanted a phone with simple PDA functionality and a browser, I'd buy a Nokia... they do it much better.

I would say I have about 10 third party apps I use on a regular basis, and 4-5 I use occasionally (games and obscure utilities).

EDIT: And after I bought MemMaid and scheduled nightly cleaning jobs, I almost never need to soft-reset the device anymore... highly recommended!

[Gerard]

Have to agree with TopDog on this question; I've used a simple cellular phone for about 2 years, and found it next to useless for most everything except that it did a decent job with actually talking with people. Reception and voice quality stink, badly, with my O2 Atom, but the ability to do so much else with the thing makes up for it, so I stick with the WM device. I keep hoping for something with more memory, and it's now looking like the new Toshiba or something big from Asus will be the Atom's replacement for that and other reasons (a big screen like on my old Toshiba e830 is just too much missed with this puny Atom thing).

I run a lot of added applications. Word processing stuff (TextMaker, pNotepad), an alternate browser which can actually navigate closer to the WHOLE internet (NetFront), a faster, more efficient email client (nPOPuk), a couple of good file managers for different reasons (TotalCommander because it's fast, Resco Explorer because it's versatile and has a great FTP client), and a whole bunch of other programs which replace various bits of paper, books, whatever else can be replicated in software so as not to have to carry around other objects. It's a computer for cryin' out loud - isn't that what computers are for? If I wanted a buggy phone with a built-in alarm that actually worked, and nothing else, I'd jump on any number of Nokia models for their quality and just ignore the dozens of bells and whistles included in the package. Like I said, the Motorola V220 I used for a couple of years worked very well as a phone. But data entry? PuLeeze!

So since I most heartily do not subscribe to the K.I.S.S. school where Windows Mobile/Pocket PC devices are concerned, what other juicy bit of one-line advice would I offer? A lot of things come to mind. But since I have suffered losses which really, really bothered me, I'd say the old backup, backup, then backup some more line is probably the most central. But beyond that, since I've also seen a couple of program's backups fail miserably on their own, resulting in data loss (yes Sprite, I'm talking to you... and Sunnysoft too), I'd say backup in ways which do not depend upon proprietary software to restore the data. So I use plaintext Contacts backups with PIMBackup, and Resco Backup for wholesale backups which uses simple ZIP archives for the data so at least you can dig around manually for the data if needed. I also mirror my storage card regularly to my PC and to an external hard drive, and to another storage card with the same folder structure. I'm never too far behind in having duplicates of all my business and personal files.

Simply put: make copies of anything important and keep them safe. Windows Mobile is a versatile platform for serious work, but stability is not its strong suit.

[doogald]

If I can have a second line, I like keeping CAB files for the apps I have installed stored on my storage card, so if I my device resets when I am away from home, and my backup is bad, I can be up and running within a half hour after a reset.

[Gerard]

Yup, that's a good one. My CAB collection has gone through a lot of growth and some edits too over the years, trying to maintain something manageable in size but with enough programs there so that anything I might need is handy. Websites vanish. Online software archives are not very reliable, though getting more so.

[Oleander]

I'm with Brad on this one.

So please internet: "Pimp my smartphone!" :-)

I've just changed the firmware on my Athena yesterday to a new and improved one, and since then I've done little else than shoehorning old and new apps back onto it.

I wont stop until its filled to the brim!

As others have said, there really is no point in using a smartphone over just a normal phone if it isnt for the nice stuff it can run. I really like the versatility that a smartphone gives and would hate to get into a situation where I would have to tote around the laptop if I can just bring the smartphone.

Oh btw... gotta run - Handango has 20% off right now and and I've got an itch... :-D

[Pony99CA]

Explore Your Phone

If you want to find fun stuff, look around in your phone. Check the \Windows folder (I found a screen capture program on my original Motorola Q doing that), explore the registry (but don't change anything unless you're sure you can recover), look in the \Program Files folder, etc.

You might learn a lot.

Another one-liner -- visit my site's links page (http://links.svpocketpc.com) for lots of interesting Windows Mobile stuff. (Shameless plug :D)

Steve

[Joel Crane]

Of course, my guiding motto has always been:

W?BIC!

"Why? Because I Can!"


Right on bro!

[bkpearson_1]

Home Key then Space Key

This is the advice I have for anyone that I see with a Moto Q. In all version of the Q this is the short cut to lock the keyboard. And most people are like me and hate pocket dialing.

*Note: Long time reader, first time posting.:)

[bnycastro]

Share what you've learned.
--
One way we can help others appreciate WM as well :)

[Perry Reed]

Usability is everything.

Especially on a phone, where you're already making usability compromises to deal with a small screen and a tiny keyboard, or no keyboard at all, applications need to be easy to use and fast. Otherwise, no matter how many slick features they may have, you won't use them.

[breckmorrison]

1. when it comes to software, try before you buy. handango is a great place to look.
2. don't be afraid to hard reset your device ever year or so to keep humming.

[Brad Adrian]

W?BIC is a great motto - if you have time to deal with the strange things that can result from it. Brad's advice does provide a lot of fun on the proverbial "rainy day".

That "W?BIC!" became the battle cry of geeks throughout the world, back in 2000. It came about as my wife and I were sitting in bed one evening; she was content to read her book, but I had just gotten my Compact Flash WiFi card to work in my 'lil' Journda for the first time. I went online, surfed this Thoughts site and checked my e-mail. When my wife tired of my giggling, she simply turned to me and asked "Brad [She calls me Brad], why are you surfing the Web with a screen the size of a postage stamp and reading e-mails when your notebook PC is right over there?"

And of course, the answer for anybody who loves to find out just what these little Windows Mobile devices can do is...

W?BIC!

How far have you pushed your device, just to see what it could do? I've done a few things:

GPS-enabled a PPC, even though I don't travel much
GPS-enabled a bicycle with a PPC, so I could see how fast I wasn't going
Used my PPC to control a toy robot made out of lego blocks
Used untested software even though we all knew it had serious bugs
Used Velcro to attach my PPC to an arm cast, since I couldn't hold it otherwise
Spent 30 minutes using a dial-up connection at an airport in order to change a flight, while standing five feet from the customer service desk

[Gerard]

In 2001 I used a Casio EG-800 with Casio CF camera, running Marauderz' (http://www.marauderzstuff.com/) picture application M2SimpleCam (http://www.marauderzstuff.com/programs/m2simplecam/default.aspx) to run it and take wee little still images every 3 seconds, carried in a shirt pocket... while riding my Xootr from my house to my niece's school where I picked her up once a week. Edited those suckers together with Pocket Artist's animated GIF application, into a 'movie' about 20 times longer than the Casio camera was capable of shooting, though with a much jerkier framerate. Showed it to anyone who would look, though that amounted to 2 people, and then deleted it to make room for other nonsense. W?BIC!

Routinely updated the firmware of my wireless router via NetFront and a Wi-Fi card with various Pocket PCs, despite full awareness of the unreliability of PPC wireless connectivity and the manufacturer's specific and BOLD FACE WARNING! stating that one should NEVER update the firmware via a wireless connection. Why? Because I'm Crazy! And it always worked out just fine, even if I did get a few more grey hairs a few times when NetFront seemed to hang.

Okay, pretty tame stuff I know. I'm probably blocking out the really nutty stuff owing to post traumatic geek disorder.

[doogald]

"Why because I can" posts remind of the people who used to change DOS 2.x from the default text mode to blinking cyan on a magenta background when CGA monitors and adaptors first arrived.

"Just because you can - doesn't mean that you should."

[Brad Adrian]

"Why because I can" posts remind of the people who used to change DOS 2.x from the default text mode to blinking cyan on a magenta background when CGA monitors and adaptors first arrived.

Boy, do I remember those days. That's right about the time we were also popping SIMM chips onto memory boards in order to increase our internal memory from a whopping 640K to 1MB or 2MB.

[Reid Kistler]

Read the MANUAL! :D

Becoming harder to do now that most products have - at best - an Electronic Manual, and in many cases simply loosely connected Help Screens.

But you can learn a lot by taking the time to slog through a GOOD product manual (hardware or software).

Alas, am among the many who have fallen away from this habit - although the high res screens on many newer devices + Pocket PDF readers have certainly helped.

[Pony99CA]

Usability is everything.

Especially on a phone, where you're already making usability compromises to deal with a small screen and a tiny keyboard, or no keyboard at all, applications need to be easy to use and fast. Otherwise, no matter how many slick features they may have, you won't use them.
Actually, I disagree that usability is everything. It's certainly important, but, like most things, it's a trade off. If an application is a pain to use, but saves you more pain from doing it some other way, you'll probably use it. You'll complain about it every time, but you'll use it.

In fact, if usability were everything, you sort of contradicted yourself by saying we were making compromises with the small screen and tiny keyboard. We're willing to put up with those because we believe we get some benefit doing so, and the same is true of user interfaces in general.

Steve

[maxnix]

Same for me on winnowing down to only those programs which make it perform better as a phone and oraganizer. No sling box, no MP3 player, no GPS navigator, no viewing of movies.

Heck, I even discarded the data plan for an air card for my notebook where I can really edit Office documents and view drawings and pdf files. Such activities are just a novelty on a PDA type device and not conducive to an effective use of one's time.

[Perry Reed]

Actually, I disagree that usability is everything. It's certainly important, but, like most things, it's a trade off. If an application is a pain to use, but saves you more pain from doing it some other way, you'll probably use it. You'll complain about it every time, but you'll use it.

In fact, if usability were everything, you sort of contradicted yourself by saying we were making compromises with the small screen and tiny keyboard. We're willing to put up with those because we believe we get some benefit doing so, and the same is true of user interfaces in general.

Steve

Sorry, but I disagree. Precisely because you've already made compromises with the small screen and keyboard (or lack thereof), the usability of the applications given the limitations of the device is paramount.

And I think you proved my point by saying that if it's less painful than another way, you'll take the less pain. That's usability winning out. It doesn't matter if an application has some whiz-bang feature that another one lacks; if that less-featured app is easier to use, that's the one you'll use.

[Brad Adrian]

Such activities are just a novelty on a PDA type device and not conducive to an effective use of one's time.
Well, if you're going to insist that we only use these things to be effective with our time, I don't have a leg to stand on! ;)

I get your point, though. Some people want a device that's totally utilitarian and others want one that's a tool for experimentation and exploration. I'm a mix of both; there are certain apps I'd be lost without and others that are definitely fluff.

[bnileuk]

Of course, my guiding motto has always been:

W?BIC!

"Why? Because I Can!"

I realize that's a little bit antithetical to others posted here about simplicity, but the inner geek in me still has to TRY to do things with my Windows Mobile device just because I can.

Totally agree! That's why us PC's will always prefer the freedom of Microsoft to the prison of a mac.