Axia A108 - New Windows CE.Net-based Mobile Phone

[Mike Temporale]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.phonemag.com/index.php/weblog/read_more/11252004_axia_a108/' target='_blank'>http://www.phonemag.com/index.php/weblog/read_more/11252004_axia_a108/</a><br /><br /></div><i>"The Axia A108 is a new Windows-powered device that will not be running Pocket PC Smartphone Edition or Smartphone software. Instead, the Axia A108 will run on Windows CE .NET. The A108 will be a 900/1800/1900 GSM phone with Class 10 GPRS. The phone will have a 2.2” 262k color touch screen and a standard phone keypad. There will be no bluetooth on this phone, but it does have a 1.3 megapixel camera and includes software for viewing and editing Word and Excel documents. The Axia A108 also has a miniSD slot and speakerphone."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/Temporale-20041126-Axiaa.png" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/> <br /><br />I'm not a fan of these devices. Why not go the extra distance and put the Smartphone OS on there? The difference in price would be negligible, and it would allow you to be compatible with thousands of preexisting applications. :evil: It's a pretty cool looking device, too bad I'll never buy it.

[apeguero]

Are Smartphone software compatible with Windows CE .NET? If so then :drool:

[aristoBrat]

I was wondering that myself.

Windows Mobile runs on top of Windows CE, but I'd guess that Windows Mobile has a bunch of APIs and stuff that are required to run most of the third-party applications.

Guess we'll have to wait and see. :)

[shaskin]

Most of the software is not compatable. Different IO methods means different APIs.

It's funny, I recently reviewed the h6315 (http://www.mobilepipeline.com/52500072), and one of my big gripes with the the whole Pocket PC Phone Edition platform was the lack of a numeric keypad on the devices. It'll be interesting to see how this one turns out.

[gambit]

skaskin: different IOs?

heres the website:
http://www.myaxia.com/

It's odd as they have an old version of CE (4.2 aka .NET) but the brand spanking new Motorola MX21 chip (I work with motorola chips at work: www.embeddedfusion.com). I've very suspecious of why. they should be using 5.0, which is much better. I'm going to have to check the power requirements of the 21, i thought motorola was going to be hitting the smartphone market with it's next gen chip.

I have the feeling that all they have is a case and hardware layout, and the phone doesn't actually exist! Their apps list is quite extensive, but there is no screenshots, again makes me wonder why.

Also of note: it says it comes with transcriber, which is a touch screen app, but they don't mention it has a touch screen. typo perhaps?

It says it comes with AXIA MPEG4 player AND windows media player - why?

As pointed out, they go to all the trouble of getting that platform up and going, writing apps, but they choose CE not Smartphone, that seems a very odd choise, and a very hard route to travel.

the more i read the specs the more i think that it's still somewhere between the drawing board and the embedded engineers.

well my 0.02Euro.

riki

[Kris Kumar]

I do remember reading that it has a Touch Screen. And 2.2" inch screen if I am not mistaken. 2.2" touch screen, isn't it too small?

Anyway can't reconfirm, the site is down because their bandwidth was exceeded. :?

[Mike Temporale]

I do remember reading that it has a Touch Screen. And 2.2" inch screen if I am not mistaken. 2.2" touch screen, isn't it too small?

No it didn't mention touch screen, but it did mention transcriber, which is a touch screen app. So....

Anyway can't reconfirm, the site is down because their bandwidth was exceeded. :?

8O Oh my.... That doesn't look very professional.

[Kirkaiya]

In case anybody is interested, I recently bought an Axia A108 - and some Pocket PC apps install and run fine (I've installed the new AvantGo client for PPCs, my trusty FlexWallet from Twin Peaks, and DB Explorer, as well as the Resco file explorer).

I tried to install Agenda Fusion 7, but while a few of the utility apps for it ran fine, when I try to run the main app, I get a "some components could not be found, blah blah" error. I think it's because Agenda Fusion wants to use some of the Pocket Outlook dlls, which are not there.

The hardware on the phone is great - because the touchscreen is so small (2.2"), images look incredibly crisp. WMP 9 plays mp3, wma (audio &amp; video) fine, and I use it to listen to my "commute" playlist while going home from work (with headphones, duh - although the speakerphone is pretty loud as well).

But, alas - this phone would be SOO MUCH BETTER if it ran either WM 2003 SE (either for PPC or SmartPhone) or the new WM2005. The PIM and sync software it came with (written by Oswin Tech) sux big time.

A couple of saving graces are that I can use ActiveSync to sync files (so my FlexWallet stays in sync) and also to sync AvantGo (although lately I've been doing that via the GPRS connection when I'm riding the BTS - Bangkok's overhead skytrain).

If I could just figure out how to copy poutlook.exe, calendar.exe, and their associated dlls from my old iPaq (PPC2K2) to my Axia, it would actually be great. The Oswin/Axia mail client is actually okay - it pulls down my POP3 mail and attachments, and includes both Pocket Word and TextMaker Pro with which to edit them, but the contacts &amp; calendar apps just plain suck.

Soo... i've downloaded both Odyssey's "On-Schedule" and TecAce's CE-PIMs, and when I get home tonight, I'll see if I can get either or both of them to run (Odyssey's download was specifically for CE 4.x non-PPC devices, so I have high hopes). i also left a note for the Developer One guys about whether it's possible to run Agenda Fusion.... if so, I'll be a customer pronto.

All in all, though, for using it as it was meant - a phone with a touch-screen PDA built in, with Windows Messenger (which works - i've chatted with it already) and IE 6.0, WMP 9, and a mini-SD slot, and the whole thing is actually phone-sized, since I really dont want to hold a full-size PPC up to my head, well.. it's pretty cool.

Now if somebody knows how I can shoe-horn WM5.0 into this thing, my soul is yours !!! ;-)

[Kris Kumar]

Thanks for posting the hands-on experience report. :)

How does the touch screen feel on a non-clamshell phone? Does it cause trouble, when putting into the pocket etc?

[Sven Johannsen]

I wouldn't think you will have any more luck with AF or PI or any other program that depends on the standard Outlook PIM being available. I don't think it is dll's it's looking for but the PIM databsases. While they add significant enhancements, those extensions and the many Today screen enhancements get their info from the standar Outlook DB files.