Look what we just spotted on the App Store -
Will wait for a review or 2 before taking the plunge. TomTom are going to miss the boat if they don’t get a move on. Looks like Navigon have the first true GPS SatNav out for the iPhone.
So the iPhone has been around for a while and has kinda taken the world by storm. It wasn’t just a different mobile phone but it’s was a unique bit of hardware with a great finger based OS that actualy worked. Microsoft have been making Windows Mobile / Pocket PC devices since the days of only grey scale screens. And not once did they wake up and think that the stylus was daft !
Having said that I’ve bought and used probably near on 20 different Windows Mobile devices over the years each one getting more complex and more feature filled.
Back in August 2008 I took the plunge and started using an iPhone. Loved the hardware and the OS was nice. The fact that proper GPS software wasn’t included, you couldn’t cut and paste, no Office doc syncing and a few other niggles really ‘ground my gears’. So I recently jumpped back to a Windows Mobile device (HTC Touch Diamond 2) and loved getting all the features back that I missed. Also the look of Windows Mobile 6.5 sounded nice. I was looking forward to Microsoft at last catching up … so what’s this post about ? ?
Well Windows Mobile 6.5 is out now and starting to appear in cooked ROMs for your devices. I know it’s not official yet but these cooked ROMs are bug free and feature rich so they’re pretty much as good as the real things. I now have it on my Diamond 2 and I’m affraid it’s an utter let down. I can’t believe it’s just a new Home screen and a basicly a load of skins ! Settings are still a mess, you still need a stylus for decent navigation and the entire OS still feels a few years old. Now the iPhone has proper GPS there’s no need for Windows Mobile.
Also ..
Where’s a decent online App Store ?
Lets have the same type of hard touch screen like the iPhone on WM devices.
Or is it too late for Windows Mobile now, have they missed the boat ?
Today is the official release of the new iPhone OS 3.0 update. We’ve not got our hands on the new OS yet (the release seems to be based on US times) but have been keeping on top of all the news about the new features available and would like to give a run through some of the most useful.
Of course several other improvements have been made, in fact the only app that appears to have had no updates is Weather! We at Glo are excited about the continued improvement of what is already a great product and once we’ve got the update downloaded we’ll be sure to post about any new features/apps which we find that are interesting or may be useful.
With Windows 7 in the RC stage and Windows Server 2008 R2 recently gone RTM we felt now would be a good time to discuss a couple of the features of this next generation of operating systems which may provide potential benefits both for businesses and end-users.
‘Direct Access’
With both OS’s being built from the same code tree it is unsurprising that some useful features are only available for business’s using both OS’s together. One such feature is ‘Direct Access’, a new networking feature which provides an improved remote access experience for users, eliminating the need for a VPN to be connected and logged in to access remote resources. This also makes managing remote clients easier and more efficient for administrators.
‘BranchCache’
Another feature which is only available when using both Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 is ‘BranchCache’. This is a feature which allows Windows 7 client PC’s in a remote location to cache copies of files from a server running Server 2008 R2 and send them directly to other Windows 7 PC’s using a peer-to-peer architecture. This could be very useful for businesses who’s servers aren’t in their main office location, or who have several users working in the same remote location which does not have a local server, as a file which has been downloaded from the server by one client PC can then be downloaded by other Windows 7 PC’s from the ‘BranchCache’ on that PC rather than from the server again.
Of course as well as features that require both Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 there have been new features and improvements included in the OS’s separately. Administrators will likely enjoy the new Active Directory Recycle Bin and a new version of Hyper-V included with Server 2008 R2 whereas users will find the visual improvements included in the Windows Vista OS have been taken and improved on once again with Windows 7, as well as a generally faster, more responsive user experience.
As a follow up to our previous post on Exchange 2010 Beta, if you’ve not been using Exchange 2007 (which many haven’t), you might be surprised to know that 2010 is 64 bit only.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and if you’re still using Exchange 2003 or earlier, were you really planning on using the same hardware? We hope not!
