Well, that's it for my coverage of CTIA 2007 - I hope you enjoyed the videos, photos, and write-ups about the Windows Mobile hardware, software, and accessories that I found at CTIA. Hopefully you discovered new applications and devices that you didn't know about before - I know I sure did! Special thanks to other Web sites that linked to these stories and helped spread the word about this project - your help was invaluable since this blog is so new not many people knew about it. I just might be back again next year - who knows?



That's not it for Windows Mobile events this year however: if you're a developer interested in Windows Mobile, MEDC 2007 is coming up quick: April 30th to May 3rd in Las Vegas at The Venetian Hotel. With events like "ISV Speed Dating" and a "Sumo Robot Competition", this event looks like it will be a great opportunity for Windows Mobile developers to network, learn, and pitch their ideas to other professionals (and even have a little fun). Register today.

While at CTIA 2007 I had a chance to get some hands-on time with the HP iPAQ 500 Series Voice Messenger (whew, quite the mouthful!). This is a Windows Mobile Standard smartphone with some decent specs: quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, WiFi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 1.2, a Texas Instruments OMAP 850 200mhz processor, a two inch colour display running at 176 x 220, 64 MB of RAM, 128 MB of Flash ROM, a microSD slot, and an 1100 mAH battery that provides up to 6.5 hours of talk time and 188 hours of standby time. It weighs in at 3.6 ounces (102 grams) and is 16.3 mm thick. This is an enterprise-focused device, so it's not meant to be sleek and sexy like many of the new Windows Mobile devices - although I have to ask myself, can't an enterprise user take advantage of a T-Mobile Dash or Samsung Blackjack just as well as this device? I'm not the only one asking that question. The battery life is impressive, and the device felt sturdy - but the lack of a QWERTY keyboard may turn off some users. It will be interesting to see how this device does in the market when it's released this spring (meaning, soon).

This is one of the applications that I didn't get a full demo of (I shot this photo over the shoulder of someone else getting the demo), but MY-IPTV Anywhere Mobile seems like a very interesting Windows Mobile application. Their Web site says coming soon, but I have brochure with some details about the application. On the whole, it seems similar to Orb in that it allows you to use your Windows Mobile device to access videos or recorded TV shows on your home computer (presumably running some form of the MY-IPTV software). The MY-IPTV Anywhere Mobile software client that runs on the Windows Mobile device is a custom software application that uses MPEG-4/h.264 video, which is a format highly optimized for mobile video scenarios. The software also seems to have full control over the TV watching on the remote PC - unlike Orb, which uses a Web browser and takes time to switch channels - MY-IPTV Anywhere Mobile supports changing channels directly inside the device. This is definitely an application I'll want to keep my eye on.

Picsel Proviewer is an application for Windows Mobile that I'd heard of before, but never witnessed in person until I was at CTIA 2007. After seeing the application demonstrated, I have to admit I was impressed: it was fast and fluid, two characteristics not normally associated with applications that are designed to open up full-sized desktop file formats. The application can open Word files, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, Adobe PDF’s, and an assortment of image formats including JPEG, GIF (including animated GIFs), BMP, and PNG. Other than perhaps a TIFF or PSD file, those image formats cover the gamut of what you'd likely encounter on a day to day basis. Windows Mobile 6 can already open most of those formats, but they do so by converting the files (in the case of Word and Excel) which can have a negative impact on the document viewing experience. Picsel Proviewer isn't an editor at all - it simply allows you to view the files. When you factor in the ability to view PDF files, this application is made even more valuable. It can be purchased from Handango for $14.99 USD. The application demo is below.