Comments

Sk4rlath wrote:

Does that "Blue Angel" Pocket PC have a VGA screen as well?  That seems to be the only thing keeping it from being the most perfect Pocket PC in existance... =D

No, it doesn't, but it's still a sweet device Too bad Ori won't let me use his!

Neil

val3 wrote:

I think this is not enough (for example you could send an SMS from the airplane)...

True, but that assumes that my wife has her phone on, and that we get cellphone coverage at our house (we don't!). It's much easier for her, as well, to chat with a full keyboard on the PC than to send from her handset.

I do realise, however, that this is a very U.S. way of approaching it

Neil

cwoodruff wrote:

Neil --  What are the web resources you mentioned in the interview?  A blog for smart phones?  anything else you would have a person check out to get 100% up to speed on the small devices?  Thanks

Our developer site is at www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/developer/. You can get all the SDKs and emulators and whatnot from there.

You can also try the MSDN Mobility center at http://msdn.microsoft.com/mobility/. There are a ton of whitepapers and samples and such there.

Our team blog is at http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/

Happy developing!

Neil

Peter reiter wrote:

Can also tell me which features the smartphone version of WinCE 5 will bring us?

I can't really comment on features in future releases. The PR guys would have my fingers We've shown a couple of developer features at events like MDC, but have not yet announced any dates or releases for them.

Neil

AlanReiter wrote:

Perhaps it would useful for the SmartPhone team to create a camera phone/wireless imaging section on an MS Web site with information for developers and partners/potential partners.

Alan,

Try visiting MSDN's Mobility section, as well as the Windows Mobile Developer pages.

Neil

Peter reiter wrote:

I didn't buy my phone from any mobile operator
i bought it completely free without any contract. i even also see during starting a screen that says 'Mobile Operator Logo', where my operator's logo should be if i'd purchased the phone over one.

Will the phones with Windows CE 5.0 have support for the european UMTS?

And which windows mobile version does the Whidbey CF target? Windows03 SE?

In your case you'd have to get the update from Motorola. As with Pocket PCs, all updates have to come from either the operator or the manufacturer.

Reagarding our next release I don't believe we've made any specific announcements around UMTS functionality yet.

Good question on the Whidbey release, I'm not sure. Ori's at TechEd, but I'll ask some of the other VSD guys and see if I can find out.

Neil

Peter reiter wrote:

Neil, can you tell me how to get .Net CF/Windows 2003 for my Moto Mpx200?
I've still got the standard OS, Smartphone 02

There's no update available at the moment. AT&T did flash some phones for MDC attendees, but that's not something we have access to. The updates have to come from the mobile operator.

Neil

Frankie Fresh wrote:

is that demo (presentation & code) available online?

Unfortunately not that I'm aware of. Ori and I did an MSDN TV spot though where we showed how to do webservices from a Smartphone. You can watch it at http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdntv/episode.aspx?xml=episodes/en/20030808NETCompactFxOA/manifest.xml.

Frankie Fresh wrote:

How is it in the rest of the world?  I can't imagine European & Japanese consumers putting up with that kind of nonsense. 

In general with mobile operators, you can use your SIM card in any cellphone. The SIM card itself does not have a lock, and your mobile operator really doesn't care what phone you use. All they care about is that you use their minutes.

What does happen frequently, including in Europe, is that the phone itself will be locked to a particular network. This is because the mobile operator has actually paid a portion of the cost of the phone for you, and they would prefer that you use their minutes with that phone.

You can buy 'unlocked' phones on the web, even Smartphones, but they always cost more than the locked versions. That's because there's no mobile operator involved to help offset the cost.

Also, there are some countries in Europe where the subsidy of a handset purchase is prohibited by law. I believe in those countries locked phones are rare.

Neil

Stewart_Whaley wrote:

So what is the name [Isbn] of the book that Neil is referring to?

It's called .NET Framework Standard Library Annotated Reference, Volume 1: Base Class Library and Extended Numerics Library. The ISBN is 0321154894.

You can check out a sample chapter at http://www.awprofessional.com/title/0321154894. It's a great read! Brad and a bunch of the other members of the CLR crew talk about the different design decisions made for each of the classes. The best part is reading all the places where they don't think they did a good job.

Neil

lars wrote:

Holy cow! Paying for incoming calls. *LOL* !!

For what it's worth, Americans think the notion of paying per minute for land-line local calls is wacky

Neil