Here’s a summary of Freeware/FOSS (Free & Open Source Software) for Windows I mentioned in my personal blog last week…

KeePass: Password Safe
Here’s an Open Source application this is even more multi-platform than usual.

KeePass:: The Open Source Password Safe

The original version was written for for use with Microsoft Windows. However, its author lists unofficial ports for Linux/Mac OS X (X11 required for the Mac), Palm OS, Pocket PC (Windows Mobile), and even the USB flash memory U3 portable smart technology format.

The application’s official description reads: KeePass is a free/open-source password manager or safe which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way.

VLC Media Player
When I bought my Mac mini I had a couple of video files I had created under Microsoft Windows that did not play on the Mac. More recently, when I wiped Windows XP Home Edition off of my PC and installed Windows XP Media Center Edition in its place, I found that I couldn’t play commercial DVDs on the system because Media Center did not include the necessary CODECs.

In both cases, I turned to the Open Source…

VLC Media Player

…to quickly get running (I have yet to bother to look for CODECs for Windows Media Center Edition) to play my videos.

Microsoft Visual Studio Express
I mentioned…

Microsoft Visual Studio Express

…in a blog item last week about the recently released Microsoft Robotics Studio. The Visual Express series includes six (6) free development tools from Microsoft.

• Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition
  
• SQL Server 2005 Express Edition
  
• Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition
  
• Visual C# 2005 Express Edition
  
• Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
  
• Visual J# 2005 Express Edition
  

You can get more details about this developer tools series from the…

Yahoo! Bookmarks Beta
Until recently Yahoo!’s MyWeb and Bookmarks were separate web features. Yahoo merged MyWeb into Bookmarks recently (I’m guessing within the last two months or so). All my MyWeb site links and descriptions were moved over to…

Yahoo! Bookmarks Beta

This merged beta looks better than MyWeb did IMHO. I like the thumbnail image of each bookmarked page. And, the new color scheme is a lot easier on my eyes. The one thing I miss though is an RSS feed of my bookmarks.

It looks like Yahoo! is trying to move its Bookmarks (formerly MyWeb) away from a social networking tool to simply a personal bookmarking tool and keeping del.icio.us as its social network bookmarking site.

Gigavox Levelator Upgraded to Version 1.1.0
Gigavox has an upgrade for their popular audio leveling freeware tool…

Levelator 1.1.0

Versions are available for Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. There’s a note on the site that says Linux coming soon.

The java-based tool is aimed about podcasters/netcasters who have two or more people on a podcast. The two helps to adjust the audio levels for multiple speakers.

PDFCreator 0.9.3 for Windows
PDFCreator 0.9.3 is an Open Source application for Microsoft Windows that creates a pseudo-printer driver to create PDF files. It works great with Microsoft Office 2003.

BTW: Microsoft had to remove the integrated PDF creation ability from Office 2007. However, they are providing a free add-on utility to restore that functionality there.

Last week’s theme for my personal blog was Freeware and Open Source software for Windows Mobile Pocket PCs and Smartphones. Here are the summaries of the software I mentioned.

Ilium Software Dots: Pocket PC Freeware
Since the holiday season is in full swing, I’ll try to dig up and mention freeware for Windows Mobile devices a few times this week. Here’s one from Ilium Software (I mentioned their terrific eWallet utility in an earlier blog item).

Ilium Software Dots

Dots is a connect-the-dots game for Pocket PCs. It’s one of those simple to learn but addictive casual games. Try it out. The price is right (free). Ilium asks you for your name and, optionally, for your email address (but they let you leave it blank if you want).

MyWaves: Free Mobile Video Service
Today’s mobile freebie is a video service (in beta) for mobile devices…

MyWaves

The service’s sign-up indicates it works on all four of the largest mobile carriers in the US (AT&T Wireless/Cingular, Sprint PCS, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless).

Here comes my caveat: Part of the sign-up process requires providing your mobile phone number. That makes sense. But, I’m wary of handing over a mobile phone number to a company I don’t know much about. However, according to their press release, 20,000 people per week have been signing up since October. So, perhaps, my reservation is a minority opinion.

If you’ve been using it, let me know how it is working for you.

Pocket GNU Go (Open Source Game for Windows Mobile)
One of the oldest and most difficult to master board games is Go (AKA Weiqi). Vieka ported the Open Source GNU Go to the Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Smartphone.

Pocket GNU Go

I’m not sure how much of a challenge it is for Go expert. But, for the rest of us it is a nice to have mobile port of a classic game.

Invaders Game Free from Microsoft
Microsoft is offering OmegaOne’s Invaders games (based on the classic Space Invaders from the 1970s) for free (with registration). You can find it at:

Entertainment Applications: Invaders

It is available for both the Pocket and Smartphone Windows Mobile platforms.

Ilium Software Screen Capture for Pocket PC & Smartphone
Here’s another freeware offering from Ilium Software…

Ilium Software Screen Capture

This free utility works on both Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Smartphone devices. It lets you take a snapshot of your screen either in real time or using a timer (for those apps that take control of the buttons). This is very useful for creating screenshots for documentation or bug reporting.

Calc98: Free Pocket PC Calculator
The calculator software that Microsoft puts in every Pocket PCs’ firmware is amazing. It is amazing that after generations of Palm-size PC and Pocket PC releases it is has not been enhanced one single bit since its release years ago. Thank goodness for the freeware calculator…
Calc98 for Pocket PC

This powerful calculator is a great app for anyone who needs more than Microsoft’s 4 function calculator delivers. Although Calc98’s list of supported devices doesn’t mention Windows Mobile 5 based Pocket PCs, I’m running it without any problems on my K-JAM Pocket PC Phone Edition.

David Pogue is the weekly personal-technology columnist for the New York Times and an Emmy award-winning tech correspondent for CBS News. With 3 million books in print, he is also one of the world’s bestselling how-to consumer-technology authors. In 1999, he launched his own series of comprehensive, witty computer books called the Missing Manuals, published by O’Reilly Media. While Pogue writes many of these books himself, he also has a core of hand-picked authors for the series. Missing Manuals now number 30 titles, including Pogue’s upcoming Windows Vista: The Missing Manual. Here’s a recent conversation with David, where he explains why he wrote the book, and what’s new in Windows Vista.

Here’s a summary of Freeware/FOSS (Free & Open Source Software) for Windows I mentioned in my personal blog last week…

Freeciv (Clone of Sid Meier’s Civilization for multiple OSes)
I mentioned in an earlier post that I was once addicted to games like Sid Meier’s Civilization.

Open Source supporters may find it interesting to know that there is a clone of it that runs on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows.

Freeciv 2.0.8 (released March 6, 2006)

GIMP and Gimpshop
The GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is a powerful bitmap image manipulation application that is available for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows through the magic of the Open Source community.

GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program

But, despite its power, what if its multiple disconnected windows interface throws you for GUI loop? It does take a while to get comfortable with that interface and you might now want to have the time. No problem. Head over to take a look at…

Plastic Bugs Gimpshop

Java SE 6 Released
I mentioned in an earlier blog item that the easiest way to install Java in Windows Vista was to use the beta release of Java SE6. Well, the wait is over, SE6 was released today. You can find it at…

Java Platform, Standard Edition 6 Release

I’ve categorized as freeware here because I think that SE7 will be the first Open Source-d version. Correct me if I am wrong on this point.

Eraser
If you are giving away an old PC (or just its hard drive) or replacing a small hard drive with a larger one, it might be a good idea to consider erasing the bits on the old hard drive first. The…

Eraser: Secure Data Eraser

…is a free and Open Source utility for Microsoft Windows that may meet your needs. Read its FAQ first before using it.

Microsoft Robotics Studio 1.0
Microsoft released…

Microsoft Robotics Studio 1.0

…as freeware for personal or research use. The commercial license for the software is US$399. This release is a software development kit (SDK) for developing robotics software for a variety of hardware. The one most of us are probably most familiar with is the LEGO Mindstorms NXT kit which itself was just released this past summer.

The press release notes that this SDK can be used with the free Visual Studio Express languages (C# and Visual Basic) as well as the Open Source IronPython scripting language for .Net. This means that assuming you have a PC with Windows XP on it, the software needed to start tinkering with your robot is all free.

Quietly, last month Microsoft released one of the best troubleshooting tools you’ll ever come across — Process Monitor. It combines the features of Regmon and Filemon in one package, and lets you monitor the Registry, processes, and your file system. It’s this simple: You should get this software now.

First, download it for free. Extract, install, and run it. You’ll see every process, file, thread, and more currently live on your PC, with an extraordinary amount of information about each.

For example, it shows every query, read, and write to registry values, as well as read, write, query, close, and other kinds of activities related to files. In addition, it displays all process and thread activity.

Armed with this information you can track down any files that an application is creating or writing to…or looking for unsuccessfully. You can see relationships among programs and processes — which is executing which, for example.

There’s a lot more here as well; far more than I can cover in this blog. But given that it’s free, download it and give it a try.

Here’s the weekly summary of a mix of Windows Mobile and general mobile tech related items from my personal blog.

Why Does Microsoft Confuse its Windows Mobile Customers?
In response to a blog item about Microsoft Money being unavailable for Windows Mobile devices, reader Marcos asks: Good information but SPB Finance is only compatible with Windows Mobile 5 not smartphone. I had purchased Money 2007 and also SPB Finance and now that I upgraded my cell phone for a smartphone (Dash)I am in trouble with no sync. Any idea how can I have Money 2007 in my Dash?

Before discussing it in detail, let’s see what I wrote in my earlier blog that he is responding to:

If you plan to upgrade to Microsoft Money 2006 or 2007 and use it with your Pocket PC, don’t. According to the Microsoft web page Money for handheld devices and Palm Pilots, Money 2007 will not sync with any Pocket PC version and Money 2006 only synchronizes with Pocket PCs that run versions preceding Windows Mobile 5.

If you want something to help manage your finances on your Pocket PC and can sync with both Microsoft Money and Quicken, take a look at Spb Finance.

It would be easy to play the role of an uppity self-proclaimed expert and diss Marcos for not reading blog or to send him to Microsoft’s web site to explain that the Windows Mobile branding applies to both Pocket PCs and Smartphones. But, I’m aiming the dissing where it belongs: At Microsoft’s marketing of the Windows Mobile brand and its effort to unify the Pocket PC and Smartphone platforms.

Microsoft Windows Mobile consists of two main branches: Pocket PCs with touch screens that may or may not have a cell phone radio (CDMA or GSM) and Smartphones without touch screens and always with some kind of keyboard for dialing and other input. Back when the first generation Smartphone 2002 launched, it was pretty easy to tell the difference between a Pocket PC Phone Edition and a Smartphone. In 2006, we have an entirely different story. Go take a look at a Treo 700w, Motorola Q, T-Mobile Dash, and Samsung BlackJack. Which ones are Pocket PC Phone Edition devices and which ones are Smartphones? Ding! Yep, only the Treo 700w is a Phone Edition among this very similar looking bunch of devices. No wonder Marcos is confused. Even Cingular appears to be confused. Take a look at their product page for the BlackJack. Their ad copy for the phone Mobile Word, Excel, and PowerPoint support. And, yet, Microsoft doesn’t provide those applications for their Smartphones. It may have a reader/displayer for those files, but you can’t edit Word or Excel documents on a Smartphone using Microsoft applications.With Windows Mobile 5, Microsoft even changed the bottom of the screen to require two giant softkeys at the bottom tied to two hardware buttons for both the Pocket PC and Smartphone. This took away an enourmous amount of screen real estate from developers who had used that bar of pixels to display menus, status, and other useful information. Now, we just have two giant softkeys wasting space most of the time on a Pocket PC device.

The Pocket PC/Phone Edition and Smartphone should be clearly differentiated so that people like Marcos and the vast majority of customers don’t need to become Windows Mobile experts to figure out which device they should buy and use. This lack of product differentiation is biting a lot of disappointed consumers. Look at my response to Meg’s question just a few blog items ago: Office Mobile for a Smartphone?

This is basically the same issue Marcos faces: People who are interested in or already bought a Windows Mobile Smartphone when they really need a Windows Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition. Why? Because most Windows Mobile Smartphones that were sold prior to the Motorola Q didn’t have QWERTY keyboards. That made them less than useful for applications that are data-entry intensive like Word, Excel, and Money from Microsoft as well as many third party applications. This means you don’t see as many data-entry intensive applications for the Smartphone since their numbers are probably still small compared to the Smartphones with more traditional dialpads.

So, Marcos. Please read my text again. There is NO Microsoft Money 2006 or 2007 compatible with ANY Windows Mobile 5 platform. And, if you want to perform that kind of task with a 3rd party application like Spb Finance, you should look at a Pocket PC Phone Edition or Pocket PC (no phone), not a Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone device like the T-Mobile Dash.

typepad mobile
I don’t use TypePad for blogging. However, if you do and you would like
to use a mobile device to blog from, take a look at…

typepad mobile

There are versions for Palm OS 5, Windows Mobile 5, and Symbian Series
60 (free download). The online manual provides step-by-step instructions
for posting text and photos from a mobile device.

Pocket & Phone SharpMT: Mobile Blogging
I guess this is my mobile blogging topic week. Here’s another mobile blogging client…

Pocket SharpMT and Phone SharpMT

…are freeware mobile blogging applications for Windows Mobile Pocket PCs and Smartphones (with .Net CompactFramework 2.0). As you might guess from the MT part of the app name, this client works with the MoveableType API.

Blogger Mobile
Unlike the previous mobile blogging client-side products discussed, Blogger Mobile uses the more familiar mail-the-blog-in model. Actually, there is a twist. It actually uses a gateway instead of mailing directly to a specific blog address. If you use Blogger as your blogging service, head over to read the following two items.

On the Go with Blogger Mobile

Blogger Mobile FAQ

According to the FAQ, the service works with AT&T/Cingular, Sprint PCS, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless in the US. An email or MMS message is sent to the address go@blogger.com to make the magic work. The message can include a photo as well as text.

Moblogging on Yahoo! 360
I discussed moblogging using Google’s Blogger yesterday. So, it only seems fair to mention Yahoo! 360 today.

If you login to your Yahoo! account and head over to http://mobile.yahoo.com/mblog, you will see simple specific instructions on how to email text and photos directly from your cameraphone to your Yahoo! 360 blog.

Moblogging to Microsoft Live Spaces (aka MSN Spaces)
Continuing on with Moblogging week… MSN Spaces got a web facelift and renamed Windows Live Spaces earlier this year. Like Blogger and Yahoo! 360, you can email text and photos from your cameraphone to your blog. Unlike the other services, it doesn’t have an external write-up you can read without logging in. So, here’s some information in case you are considering using Live Spaces.

• Login to Live Spaces with your Passport account
  
• Click on Options on the upper far right side of the window
  
• Click on Email Publishing in the left sidebar
  
• Fill out the web form and read the instructions about moblogging to your Live Spaces blog
  

If you are a MSN Soapbox video beta-tester, you can post videos from it to your Live Spaces blog (though you cannot post video directly from your cameraphone).

So when Seo released IPCE r4 I was fairly deep under water working on various projects that I didn’t realize it until a week later when I came up for air. My apologies for missing an entire release cycle!

That said, according to Seo,

There’s not much updates, but I figured that releasing early & often would be better…

Not much? I beg to differ! ;)

[IronPython] [ANN] IronPython Community Edition r5

This is the fifth release of IronPython Community Edition (IPCE).

You can download it from SourceForge. http://sourceforge.net/projects/fepy

FePy project aims to provide enhancements and add-ons for IronPython. Visit the project homepage for more informations. http://fepy.sourceforge.net/

Binary is built with Mono 1.2.2.1. It is strongly recommended to use Mono versions above 1.2.2, as it fixes GC.CollectionCount issue properly. You may meet unexplained NotImplementedError in the long-running process otherwise. (Thanks Paolo Molaro.)

There’s not much updates, but I figured that releasing early & often would be better…

Changes in this release follow.

New IronPython Updated to IronPython 1.1a1.

FePy options

The way site.py is (ab)used by FePy has changed.

Documentation here: http://fepy.sourceforge.net/doc/fepy-options.html

Libraries Improved array module.

Support for CherryPy 3.

Experimental AST support.

Bundles code and ihooks are included from Python Standard Library.

paramiko 1.6.4.

Patches

You can read the summary of applied patches here. http://fepy.sourceforge.net/patches.html

Removed in this release, fixed in 1.1a1:

patch-ironpython-file-canseek

patch-ironpython-open-unknown-mode

patch-ironpython-re-lastgroup

New in this release, for IronPython:

patch-ironpython-compile-co-filename

patch-ironpython-set-func-name

New in this release, for Mono:

patch-ironpython-mono-socket-buffersize

patch-ironpython-tabcomplete-by-default

New in this release, for Python Standard Library:

patch-stdlib-codeop (Anthony Baxter)

–
Seo Sanghyeon

And just in case you missed it,

Support for CherryPy 3.

SWEET! Thanks, Seo!!! :D

Here’s a summary of Freeware & Free and Open Source Software I mentioned in my personal blog last week…

Alice 3D Authoring System (for Kids) from Carnegie Mellon University
Here’s something that the techie-kid in your household with a new computer might find interesting.

Alice v2.0: Learn to Program Interactive 3D Graphics

This 3D authoring system created by the Stage3 Research Group at Carnegie Mellon University is a multi-platform (Linux, Mac OS X, Windows) Java-based Open Source application aimed at students in the middle school to college age range.

Earlier this year Electronic Arts agreed to help fund the development of Alice v3.0 and provide artwork (characters) for use in Alice.

Internet Explorer 6 Application Compatibility Virtual PC Image
OK, caveat first. This is not freeware in the classic sense. It is more like trialware. The…

Internet Explorer 6 Application Compatibility VPC Image

…is a virtual appliance available free from Microsoft. In this case, this virtual appliance consists of a pre-packaged fully patched Windows XP operating system that expires on March 30, 2007 and Internet Explorer 6. The appliance requires either the free Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 (released) or Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 (Beta and also free).

PC Inspector File Recovery
The holiday season is here. And, to those of you who provide technical support for your friends and family, you know what this means: Someone you know will accidentally erase files on their brand new digital camera’s memory card or computer hard drive in the next few weeks and frantically call you for help :-)

Fortunately, there is a freeware solution to help you with some of those frantic calls…

PC Inspector File Recovery

It might be able to help you recover some of those lost holiday photos, video clips, and document files with those late holiday newsletters.

FreeMind: Open Source Mind Mapping
I used to use mind mapping techniques quite a bit. Like most people, I started by simply doodling mind maps on paper to try to organize ideas. Then, I tried MindJet’s Mind Manager at a former job. $200 seemed kind of pricey for software to doodle with once I left that former job though. Then, I found the multiplatform (Linux, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows) Open Source app…

FreeMind - free mind mapping software

…and was able to satify my idea doodling needs. I don’t mind-doodle anymore. But, now that I’ve reminded my…

Sid Meier’s Railroad Tycoon (original version) Released as Freeware (Registerware)
I never tried Sid Meier’s Railroad Tycoon (though I was addicted Civilization I, II, and III). Fileshack is making the original Railroad Tycoon version available for free (15MB download).

Railroad Tycoon Released For Free

I haven’t downloaded and tried this (I am somewhat cautious about registering at free download sites). However, for what it’s worth, McAfee’s SiteAdvisor gives the FileShack site a green checkmark.

Widgets and Gadgets
A few weeks ago my Dell notebook’s hard drive died. Since I had to rebuild the system anyway, I decided to install Microsoft Windows Vista instead of XP Professional. I also decided to put the trusty Apple iBook I’ve been carrying to meetings away so that I could immerse myself in Vista to learn in a real world setting (vs. a the test PC I used for beta-testing).

The first thing Windows users ask about while looking at my Vista desktop are the Vista Gadgets in both the Vista Sidebar and scattered undocked on the desktop. Deja vu! It is just like what happened when Apple released Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4) and revealed its Dashboard Widgets.

Windows fans may think Jim Allchin has gone over to the dark side — an email from 2004 just surfaced in which the Windows chief wrote “I would buy a Mac today if I was not working at Microsoft.”

The email was in part an extended rant by Allchin about all that was wrong with Microsoft. The email was made public this week as part of a lawsuit against Microsoft. In the email, Allchin says, “I think our teams lost sight of what bug-free means, what resilience means, what full scenarios mean, what security means, what performance means, how important current applications are, and really understanding what the most important problems our customers face are. I see lots of random features and some great vision, but that does not translate into great products.”

Ouch!

When he wrote that email, Allchin certainly didn’t expect it to see the light of day, and certainly not at a time when the next version of Windows was about to launch, especially when Vista is the most Mac-like interface Microsoft has yet created.

As you might imagine, Allchin has backed away from the memo. He writes on the Vista Team Blog that in his email, “I was being purposefully dramatic in order to drive home a point. The point being that we needed to change and change quickly.”

He says that the email served the intended effect, that Microsoft changed, and that the result is Vista, “a phenomenal product, better than any other OS we’ve ever built.”

I believe that Allchin was being purposely dramatic in his memo. But, in fact, the most damning thing in the memo wasn’t saying he wanted a Mac. It was, instead, his criticism of how Microsoft had in essence lost its way.

Like Allchin, I’m a big fan of Vista. But I’m not quite as sure that Microsoft has solved its problems. The company has gotten so large, with so many layers of middle management, and is headed in so many different directions, that it’s not clear yet whether it can regain the vision it once had. Vista is a step forward, as is Office 2007. But key will be whether the company can get a new version of Windows out the door in a shorter time than five years, and still make it a great operating system.

If it doesn’t, Allchin might not be the only one saying he wants a Mac.

Thanks for listening…

Sun goes multilingual with Java SE 6 | InfoWorld | News | 2006-12-11 | By China Martens, IDG News Service

Sun’s approach used to be that Java was the solution for all developers’ problems, he said. But it has since become clear to Sun that developers want to use other languages in conjunction with Java to create hybrid applications. Sun has created a collection of scripting engines on its Web site, and Java SE 6 includes a preconfigured version of Mozilla’s open-source Rhino JavaScript engine.

… and then responding accordingly.

Dear rest of WW:* : Want a definition of what it means to be a Web 2.0 company?

Here’s the weekly summary of a mix of Windows Mobile and general mobile tech related items from my personal blog.

Tips for using Windows Mobile QWERTY Keyboards
A year ago (2005), the category of Windows Mobile devices with QWERTY keyboards was restricted to Pocket PC Phone Edition devices like the ones pictured below.

Now, however, we have Windows Mobile Smartphones like the Motorola Q and T-Mobile Dash that have QWERTY thumb keyboards too. If you’d like to get more use from your Windows Mobile QWERTY thumb keyboard, take a look at the article I wrote for Microsoft.com earlier this year:
Mobile Typing: Two Thumbs Up!

Spb Mobile DVD
Spb Mobile DVD (US$24.95) doesn’t actually run on a Windows Mobile Pocket PC or Smartphone. It is a Windows desktop application that creates video files (WMV or XVID) optimized for the small Windows Mobile devices’ screens.

Spb Mobile DVD

Although there are a lot of commercial and freeware/Open Source applications that can migrate DVD video to a computer, Spb’s entry into this crowded market focuses on simplicity. And, it definitely wins in that category. The only gotcha is that its wizard waits until the DVD menu appears before turning over control to the end-user. This means a long wait if the DVD has a series of previews (commercials) before the DVD menu appears. The wait (which might be 10 minutes in some cases) is worth it though. Because, once there, a few clicks completes the migration process instructions. And, the actual process seems much faster than other video converters I’ve seen.

The resulting video looked clear and smooth on my relatively slow i-Mate K-JAM Pocket PC Phone Edition (195MHz CPU). A definite thumbs up for this product from me.

Citizen Photojournalism: Yahoo You Witness News (Beta)
Yahoo! finally found another use for the great Flickr site they purchased a while back. Their recently launched…

You Witness News

…site allows anyone to submit newsworthy digital photos and video clips for possible use by Yahoo! News. Photos are submitted through a Flickr account. Video is submitted through an unnamed mechanism (Yahoo! Video one would assume).

We’ve already seen news services use cameraphone photos and videos. With the image quality improving in gradual steps (just adding megapixels doesn’t mean much), we should see some interesting citizen photojournalism used by legacy corporate news sources more in the future.

Ilium Software eWallet 5.0 Public Beta
Ilium Software’s eWallet is a secure information storage application for Windows Mobile, Palm OS, and Windows XP. It is much more than a simple password storage application. It is basically a small secure nearly freeform database application.

I’ve been using a Windows Mobile device since the 1.0 days in 1997 when it was still referred to by the kernel name: Windows CE. From those Handheld PC days to the current Pocket PC/Smartphone days, there has only been one 3rd party (non-Microsoft) application that has been resident on my daily working device: Ilium Software’s eWallet. So, I was very pleased to learn that after all these years, Ilium continues to develop, refine, and enhance this truly must-have Windows Mobile product. You can find information about the open beta of this new version linked below.

eWallet 5.0 Public Beta

Office Mobile for a Smartphone?
Reader Meg asks: I am thinking of buying a HTC Dash but would like to be able to edit word & excel docs on the road. Is there a free software you would recommend? Even one I have to pay for?

Although there are Word and Excel viewers for Windows Mobile Smartphones and one third party spreadsheet for Smartphones…
Westtek ClearVue Office

Repligo for Microsoft Smartphone

Z4Soft PTab

…I don’t know of any actual Office Mobile alternative for the Smartphone that provides editing features. The real question here is whether or not a Smartphone is the appropriate tool for your requirements.

If editing Word and Excel documents on the road is a key requirement, you should really looking at a Pocket PC Phone Edition instead of a Smartphone. T-Mobile has a single PPCPE available: The T-Mobile MDA.

There is one other alternative. However, it requires buying two or three separate devices. You could purchase a T-Mobile Dash Smartphone and a Pocket PC with integrated thumb keyboard or a Pocket PC and a Bluetooth keyboard. This combination would allow you the convenience of a Smartphone with the application richness of a Pocket PC.

Finally, be aware that Office Mobile components are subsets of the full Microsoft Office components. You will not be able to do everything you can do on the desktop. And, formatting can be lost in a roundtrip from your desktop to the Windows Mobile device and then back to the desktop.

Is Your Child a Blackberry Orphan?
If your child texts you to get your attention, you probably have a Blackberry Orphan according to the Wall Street Journal article…

Blackberry Orphans

Blackberry-ies, PDAs, and Smartphones’ ability to keep you connected 24×7 can produce addictive behavior that keeps you staring and typing at it all day (and night) long. Like most maladaptive addictive behavior, this can lead to personal relationship problems (though the people at the other end of your mobile device is probably equally addicted and feeds on your stream of email, IMs, and SMS messages). The WSJ article focuses on the impact Blackberry addiction has on the children of addicted adults.

I don’t think I’m that kind of parent myself, but, umm, ’scuse me, incoming message, gotta attend to that :-( Seriously though. It is a good idea for gadget-prone parents to take a step back once in a while for a little self-assessment. And, yes, I include myself in that group.

If it’s Thursday, it must be Freeware and Open Source for Windows day. Here’s a summary of Freeware/FOSS I mentioned in my personal blog last week…

jEdit Programmer’s Editor
Unlike many programmers who use a single text editor for nearly all tasks, I tend to use a couple of different ones: vi (vim) or nedit for quick edits on UNIX/Linux systems, notepad++ for quick edits on Windows systems, and TextEdit for quick edits on Mac boxes. However, if I know I will be working on something for an extended period, I often choose to use…

jEdit Programmer’s Text Editor

jEdit is a Java-based application with a rich feature set and a larger body of communinty contributed add-on plugin modules. This multi-platform Open Source editor runs on everything I use: Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. This means that I don’t have to adjust much in the way of muscle-memory-typing to get things done regardless of what platform I’m using at the time.

Nvu: WYSIWYG HTML Editor (Runs in Vista)
We used to hand code HTML for web pages in the old days. Tools like Frontpage, Dreamweaver, and even good old Windows’ Notepad were commonly used by web developers in those dark days. These days most of us use some kind of Content Mangement System (CMS) or outsource it to a blogging or web management site (often for free). But, every now and then a WYSIWIG HTML editor comes in handy. For me, that now and then event is usually creating some kind of product information table for a product review (such as the ones I sometimes write for the O’Reilly Network. The…

EverNote 1.5
I tend to use either a Wiki page (if I’m connected to a network) or Microsoft OneNote for free form notetaking. However, if neither of those options appeals to you, you might want to take a look at the freeware version of…

EverNote 1.5

…to capture your notetaking typing, freehand drawings, and web clippings.

There is also a $39.95 EverNote Plus that synching with USB drives, handwriting/shape recognition, and searching handwritten notes.

Remote Desktop Connection (Terminal Services Client 6.0) for use with Vista
Microsoft Windows Vista changed something about its Remote Desktop Connection requirements. I found that out the hard way when installed Vista as a Virtual Machine in Virtual Server 2005 R2 and tried to RDC to it. No luck back then. Today, however, Microsoft released a new RDC client for XP and Server 2003 that should work with Vista (I haven’t tried it yet).

Remote Desktop Connection (Terminal Services Client 6.0) for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 (English Only) released…

Despite Steve Ballmer’s anti-Linux bluster, the Microsoft peace pact with the Open Source world has begun to pay dividends. Novell just announced OpenOffice.org’s support of Office Office 2007’s Open XML format. Novell joins Corel, which has already said that the WordPerfect Office suite will support Office Open XML as well.

Here’s the weekly summary of a mix of Windows Mobile and general mobile tech related items from my personal blog.

Why Do Techie Sites Give Up on Mobile Formatting?
I read a lot of web-based news sites on either a Smartphone (240×320 resolution) or Pocket PC/Phone Edition (480×640 resolution). Over the past year or so general news sites seem to have really redesigned their websites for mobile devices to optimize readability and navigation. Three in particular come to mind.

MSNBC http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

Time Magazine mobile site

Time Magazine at http://mobile.time.com/

USA Today http://wap.usatoday.com/

A number of tech sites, on the other hand, seem to have erased their mobile formatted sites in the same time period. Computerworld, PC World, and Wired come quickly to mind. I’ll guess that the rise of RSS awareness and tools may be used as a reason. But, anyone who uses their phone or PDA to frequently view the web knows that RSS is a great adjunct. It is not a replacement for interactively viewing a web site well designed for viewing on a mobile device.

Google Mobile Transcoder & Google Pages
Two Google items I noticed while browing the Official Google Blog.

http://google.com/m takes you to Google’s web transcoder that transforms non-mobile friendly web pages into mobile device friendly ones according to the blog item Viewing the web through a mobile lens.

The blog item titled Simplicity and power talks about recent enhancements to the Google Page Creator (as in web page). One of the new features is called Pages for mobile and is described like this: This feature has an awesome power-to-complexity ratio: Now, every Google Page Creator site automatically has a mobile edition. So when people visit your site from their mobile browser, they will see it optimized for their particular phone.

Opera Mini 3.0
Opera Mini 3.0 is a free feature-rich web browser available for many different smartphones and PDAs (including Windows Mobile based ones).

The features new to 3.0 are: RSS feed reader, photo sharing to blogs, content folding, secure connections (https, I’m guessing), and a faster user experience created by maintaining an open connection to the web server.

I haven’t tried this myself. So, please let me know your experience with it.

Windows Live Search for mobile beta
Jason Landridge’s blog describes Windows Live Search for mobile beta as… [giving] you fast access to local search and maps, driving directions, and even local traffic information. When you get your search results, you can click to call the phone number of the place you found, or even look at a satellite photo (on some phones) to find the best parking nearby!

However, after looking at its FAQ and learning that this app started life as a J2ME (Java) client app, I’m not even going to try to install it a device. My experience with Java apps for Windows Mobile devices has been uniformly horrible so far. They either don’t install, don’t run, run slowly, or simply look bad on a Pocket PC or Smartphone. There is a cab file download for Windows Mobile devices on the site. But, I’m still going to pass on this one. Especially since its website doesn’t even indicate if the installer is for a Windows Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition or Smartphone.