Welcome to Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com!
To celebrate Independence Day, all software is 20% off at the ClintonFitch.com
software store. This 20% is for every platform - Windows Phone, Blackberry
and Nokia - and is for every title not currently on sale already. The sale
is through July 3rd - 5th. To save, enter the coupon code
CFJULY4TH when you check out! There is no limit on how many times
it can be used!
Visit http://store.clintonfitch.com
Each quarter, after countless reviews that are both published and not
published, I put together a list of the top applications for Windows Standard
(non-touchscreen) and Professional (touchscreen) Phones. The list is made
up of applications that I feel are the top of their respective class, providing
the most "bang for the buck" as well as working as they were intended.
As always, every application on the list is eligible for a 20% discount at
our Software Store. The coupon code to receive the discount is
CFTOPAPPS. You must enter the coupon code when you check out
and it is unlimited in use.
Latest Windows Mobile Reviews
NEW!
Review of Teksoft
SpeedBooster 2.0
Getting more speed out of your Windows Phone is something that most of us all
want. We live, after all, in a world in which speed is everything:
Faster PCs, faster DSL connections, faster cars.. the list goes on. In the
Windows Phone world this has usually meant doing some registry tweaking which
can be pretty risky if you are not familar with how the registry works.
Now thanks to the team at Teksoft you can make these speed enhancing adjustments
from an application, aptly named SpeedBooster.
Review of the HP Pavilion dv 2 Notebook
PC - Part 1
ClintonFitch.com is know for Windows Mobile reviews but there are times in
life where other areas of technology need to be explored and discussed. As a
parent who has two college students, I am always on the lookout for technology
that can make the life of my son or daughter a bit easier. Part of that search
as been for a good notebook PC for them to use that will provide the power they
need while also being robust enough in features and capabilities to meet their
needs. It's a tall order given that for many college students today, their
notebook PC is their primary entertainment center as well as an educational
tool.
This week Hewlett Packard and Microsoft sent me the Pavilion dv2 Notebook PC and
I think this may prove to be the device for parents to consider when looking for
a notebook for their college bound student. Packed with plenty of processor
punch, memory and impressive graphics, the dv2 can provide the power and
responsiveness that a student needs while in class but also provide a rich
multimedia experience when outside of class. And with a price of around $699.99,
it's also budget friendly as well.
NEW! Initial
Thoughts on the HTC Touch Pro 2
Clinton Fitch from ClintonFitch.com, Judie Lipsett and Drew Guttadore from
Gear Diary team up to give their initial thoughts on the all new HTC Touch Pro
2. This super slim, ultra powerful device replaces the popular Touch Pro
and sports an impressive WVGA display, QWERTY keyboard and the next generation
of HTC's TouchFLO 3D technology.
Review of Microsoft Live Mesh for
Windows PC and Windows Phone
Cloud computing is really a back-to-the-future experience for me. When
I first began computing it was in the "dumb terminal" period of the mid-80s when
your "PC" was really nothing more than a remote display of a centralized system.
Everything I was doing was really happening on that central PC, in the network.
Fast forward 20 years - man I'm getting old - and the next generation of this
"computing in the network" is far more advanced that most could imagine.
No longer is your data necessarily tied to your computer or even your mobile
device. Now it can reside "in the cloud", allowing you access to those
files from virtually any device at any time.
One of these services is Mesh from Microsoft. Mesh, which is still in
beta, has been around now for about a year and allows you to store up to 5.12GB
in "the cloud" (or the Mesh) with the ability to access that data from virtually
any PC, Mac or mobile device. For Windows Mobile Phone users, you can even
install a client that allows you to synchronize your Mesh folders directly to
your device, allowing you access to them while offline - perfect for working on
something when you are on an airplane. When you connect back up to your
network provider or WiFi, the edited files are uploaded to the Mesh, assuring
that the latest version of the file is available at every location. The
best part of Mesh is that it is free. All that is required is a Windows
Live account and some storage space on your Windows Mobile Phone, PC or Mac if
you want to install the application and offline data.
NEW!
Tweaking your HTC Touch
Diamond or Touch Pro - Part 3
For the first two parts of this series I have covered applications that help
you tweak your HTC Touch Diamond or Touch Pro without you having to actually
dive into the Registry of your device. For this last part I will be
covering edits that can be made either directly in TouchFLO 3D files or in the
Registry itself by using file editors and Registry editors. It goes
without saying that this is for advanced users and if you are uncomfortable with
doing these types of edits then I suggest you continue to work with Diamond TF3D
Config and DiamondTweak that I outlined in parts 1 and 2. Consider Part 3
the "flying without a net" part of the series!
If you haven't read
Part 1 or
Part 2 take a
few minutes to do so.
NEW!
Weather Help and Information
Here in Texas the beginning of Spring also marks the beginning of our rainy
seasons. That means that for time to time we get vicious storms with
lightening, hail and the occasional tornado. Having lived in Texas all of
my life I've found that the only thing that scares me more than a Texas
thunderstorm is an Oklahoma thunderstorm! My point is that no matter where
you live, storms and severe weather happens... okay, for those in San Diego
probably not....
Thankfully with the ever increasing amount of mobile devices that are web
enabled, software developers, local television stations, NOAA and the National
Weather Service have all worked hard to develop applications and sites that
provide you up-to-the-minute weather information. Consider this: In
a severe storm, you could loose power and Internet access but the chances of you
completely loosing cellular connectivity is slim. Having resources to
provide you information as you ride out the storm when your phone is your only
connection to the outside world can be priceless.
NEW!
Tweaking your HTC Touch
Diamond or Touch Pro - Part 2
In the first part of my three-part series on tweaking your HTC Fuze, Touch
Diamond or Touch Pro, I covered the TouchFLO3D configuration tool, Diamond TF3D
Config. This little application allows you to change the look and feel of
TouchFLO 3D on your phone quickly and easily along with a few other tweaks to
improve performance. If you haven't read Part 1,
you can do so here.
For the second installment I will be covering another tweaking application,
DiamondTweak. As the name suggests, DiamondTweak was originally written
for the HTC Touch Diamond but given the similarities between the Diamond and the
Touch Pro, virtually every tweak in DiamondTweak will work on either device.
In all, DiamondTweak allows you to tweak up to 20 different facets of your
device without having to actually go into your device's registry. It's a
bit safer and more controlled then hunting through the registry itself.
DiamondTweak is a freeware application that can be downloaded from
HDTweak & DiamondTweak website.
NEW!
PPCTechs WriteSHIELD Deluxe
Screen Protector
Screen protection for today's touchscreen devices is as important as ever
given more and more of them are coming equipped with completely flat, all-glass
faces on them. Putting your phone in your pocket or in your handbag, not
to mention repeated stylus usage, can over time create small scratches in the
glass which can lead to frustration (having to multi-tap to get something done)
or worse, failure of the touchscreen itself.
PPCTechs has been producing accessories for Windows Mobile phones for many
years now and offer one of the best screen protectors available in their
WriteSHIELD product. They offer WriteSHIELD in two versions - anti-glare
and crystal clear - and both are designed to protect the touchscreen of your
device from fingerprints, dust and scratches as well as blocking 99% of the UV
rays that hit it meaning they don't reflect right back into your eyes when you
are using your device outdoors. For this review, Sue at PPCTechs sent me
the WriteSHIELD crystal-CLEAR Deluxe 2-Pack for my newly acquired HTC Fuze
(Touch Pro). The Deluxe kit includes everything you need to prepare your
phone for the application of the WriteSHIELD protector including screen cleaner,
micro-fiber cloths, wet and dry screen cleaners, a dust brush and three screen
protector removal tools (so you can clean the WriteSHIELD if you need to do so).
All of this for $36.95 with each WriteShield lasting about 6 months to a year
depending on use. After that you can buy the replacement WriteSHIELDs for
$12.99 each.
NEW!
Tweaking your HTC Touch
Diamond or Touch Pro - Part 1
A few weeks ago I purchased a HTC Fuze from my local AT&T store. For
those of you who are not familiar with the Fuze, this is the HTC Touch Pro that
is sold in Europe and Asia but includes support for the 850/1900Mhz bands that
AT&T uses for 3G here in the United States. Given that there are a lot of
reviews out there on the Fuze, I won't be doing one here on ClintonFitch.com but
I am going to show you how to do a bit of tweaking to make the Fuze more
responsive and add some features to it. This will be the first of a series
of articles outlining applications and registry tweaks you can do to enhance the
user experience on your HTC Fuze, HTC Touch Pro or HTC Touch Diamond.
Spb TV 1.0
With 3G networks now available nearly everywhere in the world and super high
speed HSDPA and HSUPA become common place, the growth of streaming multimedia
applications to take advantage of this new found speed has been exponential over
the past 12 months. Applications such as streaming audio and video are now
becoming common place and some carriers, AT&T specifically, are including
streaming applications in their device ROM images. Seeing this growth, Spb
launched Spb Online in December 2008 which included streaming Television and
Radio functionality for Windows Phones. Now they have released the
Television portion of that fantastic application in a stand-alone version aptly
named Spb TV. The new Spb TV is identical in function to the TV function
in Spb Online, giving you the same robust functionality at a lower cost and
smaller memory footprint.
Spb Weather 2.0
Over the past six months Spb Software House has been in the process of
updating and improving the vast majority of their applications. The Saint
Petersburg, Russia company has been focusing on a common user interface between
all of their applications to simply the learning experience for their customers.
One of the latest applications to receive this new interface is Spb Weather.
Version 2.0 builds on what was already a strong weather application in version
1.0 but adds several key new features, improves integration with other Spb
programs and of course gets the finger friendly new user interface. It is
a worthy upgrade to an already great program and one that Windows Phone users,
especially those who travel, could find a real benefit in owning.
Making HTC Home Work on The AT&T
Network
There is a challenge however when it comes to HTC devices, HTC Home and the
AT&T network. Most HTC devices have an auto network configuration tool
built into them which runs a script to configure the data connection for you
automatically. This works fantastically well and saves you from having to
remember and enter information for the data access point, port information and
so forth. The issue comes in when you run the auto configuration tool on
HTC devices and then try to get HTC Home to download current weather
information. Simply put, it fails.
To be clear, HTC Home does indeed work. If you configure wireless
connectivity on the device or connect it to your PC via ActiveSync or Windows
Mobile Device Center, the weather will be updated. That means that it is a
configuration issue with the HTC auto configuration script when HTC Home tries
to update your weather data via your data connection. Fortunately the fix
is rather easy.
The Ultimate Business Windows
Mobile Phone - A Comparison
There is little question that Windows Mobile has been primarily geared for
the enterprise market. While many - including me - have faulted Microsoft
for forgetting the consumer market (or seeming so at time), few if any can
question their ability to take the Windows Mobile platform and develop it into a
world class mobile operating system for enterprise users. The platform
simply does everything: Email, Word editing, Excel editing, PowerPoint
viewing, OneNote synchronization, some have printing and PDF applications
included (mostly HTC devices)... the list goes on. Which which phone is
really the best when it comes to business needs? While it could be said
that the ultimate decision comes down to individual needs and usage, which would
be correct at a level, there are some key indicators as to which device would be
best suited for a business user. That is what I'll be covering today in
this overview. I'll be looking at five current Windows Phones and will be
looking at them from 6 key perspectives: Battery life, Screen (size,
clarity), Keyboard (size, ease-of-use), Size, Memory, and included applications.
While these are not exhaustive in nature, they should provide those of you who
need a phone for business purposes a good idea of which ones will do the job for
you. At the end of each category I'll provide a rating for each area then
a total score - the higher the better.
Spb Wireless Monitor 3.0
One of the very first Windows Mobile applications that Spb Software House
developed was GPRS Monitor. The application, which was introduced in 2002,
allows users to keep track of how much of their data plan they are using from
their cellular provider. Back then unlimited data plans hardly existed and
if they did, they were unbelievably expensive. Fast forward 7 years and
you have the latest iteration of GPRS Monitor in Spb Wireless Monitor 3.0.
This latest version still has all of the things that made the original GPRS
Monitor so great: Today screen plug-in, real-time monitoring of your data
connection and the ability to report on that usage. With this latest
version you can monitor any type data connection, get robust and exportable
reports and configure alarms to warn you when you meet user-defined download
thresholds. All of this plus the new Spb finger friendly user interface
make this a must-have application for everyone - unlimited data plan or not!
