Pocket PC Thoughts.com

Touch Pro2 Delayed?

Ed Hansberry — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:30:00 GMT

http://www.tmonews.com/2009/07/rele...fans-take-note/

T-Mobile was expected to release the Touch Pro2 on July 22 in the US, but now there are rumors that it could be delayed until early August. Of course, and this is the device I am waiting on. My old phone died and I've resurrected my HTC Universal for daily duty. I seriously need a new device. My three week wait may have just become five or six weeks. Ugh.

Microsoft Branded WM Phone?

Nurhisham Hussein — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:00:00 GMT

http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2009/...rosoft-branded/

"ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley says her best understanding of "Pink" is now that it's a Microsoft-branded phone running a custom UI on top of Windows Mobile 7, developed by what's left of the Danger team and targeted at the Sidekick market. Yep, Microsoft-branded -- as in, the exact thing Microsoft has been denying for ages now."

The current Windows Mobile ecosystem is similar to the way Microsoft has treated the PC world - an MS based operating system riding on hardware made by others. First Xbox, then Zune, demonstrated Microsoft's willingness to break away from that hugely successful paradigm, because it didn't translate well to other markets. Are we going to see the same thing in the Windows Mobile world? Apple showed one way to build a market based on a closed eco-system - but then Microsoft didn't exactly have a blazing success emulating this model with the Zune. Windows Mobile has in its own understated way been a success because it met the needs of the enterprise market. Now that smartphones for consumers are all the rage, this (along with WM7) looks like the MS response. Good idea? Bad idea? Thoughts wanted!

NVidia's Tegra Coming From a Top 5

Jon Westfall — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:30:00 GMT

http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2009/...facturer-befor/

"If you want to get HD in your handheld, NVIDIA's Tegra processor is the hot way to do it at the moment, and we've got reasonably concrete sounding rumors from disparate sources that a handset containing one of the chips is currently under development by a "top five" smartphone builder (we're guessing it's not Apple)"

What really is a "top 5" manufacturer? Is this sorted alphabetically? If so then I really need to get my "AAAdvantage Manufacturing" subsidary up and running... All kidding aside, NVidia's Tegra may be an interesting addition with Windows Mobile rumors swimming around it.

I Love It When We're Cruisin' Together - the HTC Touch Cruise Reviewed

Doug Raeburn — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 07:00:00 GMT

Product Category: PDA Phone

Manufacturer: HTC

Where to Buy: Expansys [Affiliate]

Price: $469.99 USD

Specifications: From the HTC site

Pros:

Offers lots of features for a "budget conscious" phone;
TouchFlo interface is one of the best efforts yet to make WM phones "touch friendly";
Bundled CoPilot Navigation software adds functionality and value.

Cons:

Battery life is merely adequate;
Button layout on front differs from the "standard";
Back cover feels a bit cheap.

Summary:

Everywhere you look these days, it's "iPhone this" and "iPhone that". For better or worse, the iPhone is a genuine phenomenon and has set the direction for touch enabled phones to come. Windows Mobile 6.5 and 7 will bring a variety of finger friendly touch features, but what do WM phone manufacturers do until then? If you're HTC, you put a flashy touch enabled shell on a variety of phones at a range of price levels. The Touch Cruise is one of the more affordable versions. Does HTC's strategy make it an iPhone contender? Let's take a look...

Since the iPhone has become so successful, touch enabled devices are all the rage. While WM devices have been touch enabled for years, a stylus is now so "early 2000's". These days, "touch enabled" implies using your fingers. HTC was not about to be left in the dust by the iPhone, so they've offered a line of touch enabled WM phones called, appropriately enough, the Touch series, including phones like the Touch Pro, the Touch Diamond and the Touch Cruise. They've met with a good deal of success with this line, with the Touch Diamond becoming the largest selling WM phone of all time, per recent industry reports.

While they've targeted the "premium" phone market with the Touch Pro and Touch Diamond, with VGA screens, autofocus cameras and the like, they haven't forgotten the popularly priced market. Thus we now have the second iteration of the Touch Cruise, a phone intended to provide the Touch experience as a lower price point. To keep the price down, the Cruise uses some less sophisticated components (QVGA screen, fixed focus camera) as compared to its more expensive siblings. But does the more affordable Touch Cruise really provide the Touch experience? And how does it match up against the Touch Diamond, its higher priced sibling with the most similar feature set? Let's find out.

A Closer Look

Figure 1: Not as stunning as the Touch Diamond, perhaps, but still a good looking device...

At 4.02 X 2.11 X 0.57 inches (102 X 53.5 X 14.5 mm) and 3.63 ounces (103 grams) with battery, the Cruise fits into your hand nicely. Its 2.8 in. screen is crisp and bright, but the QVGA resolution (320 x 240) marks it as a "budget" phone. Both the iPhone (480 x 320) and the Diamond (640 x 480 VGA) offer higher resolution with sharper displays.

The Cruise provides a PDA-style 5-button layout with directional control below the screen. The 4 function buttons are standard push buttons and the center of the Cruise control panel includes an action button surrounded by a scroll wheel that also serves as a directional pad. The scroll wheel is smooth and very easy to use.

The top 2 application buttons are dedicated to 2 of the Cruise's bundled applications, CoPilot Live and Footprints (both described later in the review). Since the upper left button, typically assigned the Home key, is occupied by CoPilot, the Home key is combined with the End key on the lower right. The top application buttons can't be reassigned through Settings, so you're pretty much stuck with them, although I imagine there's a registry tweak that might work around that. Above the screen are the earpiece and a notification LED that uses green and amber lights that either flash or glow steadily to indicate such things as a reminder, low battery level, etc.

Figure 2: No faceting on the back (like the Diamond) to make it rock back and forth on a flat surface... that's a good thing!

The back of the Cruise includes the lens for the 3.2 Megapixel camera, the speaker (to the left of the lens), and a small hole that allows a strap holder to be used.

Figure 3: The view from the top is simple...

The only thing on the top of the Cruise is the power button.

Figure 4: The right side is pretty simple as well...

The right side is pretty bare, featuring only the silo for the stylus. The Cruise lacks the Diamond's unique magnetic stylus that you push in part way and the Diamond pulls it in the rest of the way automatically. The Cruise's stylus is short and rather difficult to use for a long period of time; the top presses into your fingers uncomfortably. The same can be said for the Diamond's stylus. If you're a stylus fan, I'd recommend a stylus pen for any long sessions using the stylus for either phone.

Figure 5: There's a bit more action on the bottom.

On the bottom of the Cruise, you'll find a USB jack. Don't let the odd shape concern you… it uses standard mini-USB cables. This jack is used for charging, synching and to accommodate a USB stereo headset. The microphone is also located here.

Figure 6: But the left side goes back to the simple motif.

The left side sports the volume control. This is used for system volume (for music and phone voice volume) as well as for ringer volume.

Figure 7: Take the back cover off and you'll find things nicely organized. The only real downside is that the SD card slot is under the cover, so you have to take it off to change cards.

Take the back cover off of the Cruise and this is what you'll see. There's the battery compartment, a slot for the SIM card and another slot for an SD card (it also support SDHC cards). The back cover shows signs of cost cutting; it's very light and feels quite flimsy. However, it feels fine when it's actually on the phone.

visCrypt Encryption Software Updated

Jon Westfall — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:30:00 GMT

http://www.sfr-software.de/cms/EN/p...rypt/index.html

"visCrypt is a program for your Pocket PC to encrypt and decrypt any files and documents. You can secure any documents in the internal memory and on memory cards comfortably with visCrypt. Even saving of whole folders and subfolders is done quickly."

visCrypt, an encryption program that lets you select individual files on a device to protect, has been updated, adding in some new features and tweaking a few of the old. If you're paranoid about the files on your device and the built-in protections just won't do, check it out.

Skype 3.0 Goes Gold

Darius Wey — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:25:00 GMT

http://www.skype.com/download/skype/windowsmobile/

"It's better than ever before - the Gold version of Skype 3.0 for Windows Phones is now available for download. It includes two cool new features: SMS and file transfer. Sending SMSs using Skype is a great way to reach friends and family instantly anywhere in the world - Skype's low rates mean that you won't have to break the bank to do it. And file transfer lets you send files quickly when you're on the move. We've ironed out the remaining wrinkles since the Beta release, and it's ready to go."

Skype 3.0 for Windows Mobile has gone gold. Aside from the usual bug fixes, it packs support for SMS and file transfers. Go get it.

Windows Mobile Design Concepts

Nurhisham Hussein — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:00:00 GMT

http://www.istartedsomething.com/20...uve-never-seen/

"Chinese Microsoft enthusiast blog LiveSino.net today posted a bunch of links to some interesting portfolios by a handful of Chinese designers who works at the Microsoft Advanced Technology Center (ATC) Studios in Beijing. What many people don't know is that the ATC has been largely responsible for the user experience design of Windows Mobile. This however is no longer the case as WM 6.5 was their last project, but up and until now, they've been busy conceptualizing the future of Windows Mobile. Most of those concepts have never surface in public before, until now."

Cool stuff. Shame most of them won't ever hit store shelves (phones or UI), but maybe somebody else might pick up on these design ideas (pace IP rights), and incorporate them into future Windows mobile devices.

Acer Aspire One for $199 from Expansys

Jason Dunn — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:04:00 GMT

http://www.expansys-usa.com/d.aspx?...rtner=pthoughts

This is a bit off topic for some sites in our network, but a good deal is a good deal: our hardware affiliate partner Expansys is selling the Linux-based version of the Acer Aspire One for $199, which is an excellent deal. This version of the Aspire One has an 8.9 inch screen, 1 GB of RAM, a 120 GB hard drive, and uses the 1.6 Ghz Intel Atom CPU. Combine that netbook with a $49 copy of Windows 7, and you've got yourself a nice little piece of mobile computing technology (just be sure to also have an external USB-based optical drive). I haven't installed Windows 7 on an Acer Aspire One, but I suspect it would work just fine - Windows 7 identified all the important hardware on my MSI Wind and HP Mini 1000 netbooks without a problem. At the time of this writing, Expansys only has 58 left in stock, so don't delay.

PhoneArea Reports Samsung Omnia II Due Out In July

Jon Westfall — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:30:00 GMT

http://www.phonearena.com/htmls/Ver...cle-a_5667.html

"Shortly after Samsung announced its four new Omnia phones, a word quickly spread that Verizon had plans to carry the Omnia II. However, information about the release date was missing so it wasn't certain when to expect the successor. Now, thanks to a tipster of ours who claims to have contacted Verizon Wireless"

A bit of rumor here that the next version of the Omnia (CDMA variety) will be released by Verizon in July. Now let's just see if this comes true with July only days away!

AT&T and Rogers Communications Ticking Off Customers Again

Ed Hansberry — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

http://www.canada.com/MythBuster+us...1348/story.html

Just in case you missed it, AT&T tried to charge MythBusters star Adam Savage $11,000 for a recent trip to Canada for roaming. It had to do with the wording in their contract that says roaming data will be charged at ".015 cents, or a penny and a half, per kb" AT&T seems to have gone to the same school of math that Verizon did a few years ago where in their strange carrier world, .015 cents = a penny and a half.

In other related user ticking-off news, Rogers Communications in Canada is going to start charging users 15 cents for incoming text messages, though if you have a text plan, you probably won't be hit by that charge.

New Alpha Build For Fennec Available

Nurhisham Hussein — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 22:00:00 GMT

http://blog.mozilla.com/blog/2009/0...ases-available/

"Today the Mozilla mobile team announced the release of two milestones for the Fennec project - Fennec 1.0 Beta 2 for Maemo and Fennec 1.0 Alpha 2 for Windows Mobile. Additionally, you can also download desktop builds for Windows, Mac, and Linux."

Anyone brave enough to try this? The improvements from the first alpha include a revamped UI, fixing usability issues and improving performance (more details in this blog post). What with the tremendous strides other mobile browsers have made in the past year or two, Fennec better be something really special, or it's going to be a non-starter when it finally releases.

Exchange 2010 and Windows Mobile 6.5 Features Demoed

Pete Paxton — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:30:00 GMT

http://wmpoweruser.com/?p=5267

"In these two videos Adam Glick from Microsoft demonstrates the newest Exchange 2010 features for Windows Mobile 6.1/6.5. Features like conversation view, ignore/move conversation, voice mail preview, voice to text, get free/busy, the new allow/block/quarantine phone list and reporting built in to Exchange 2010 are shown."

Exchange 2010 is looking cooler by the minute. WM Poweruser has a couple of videos showing off the features for our 6.1/6.5 devices. Many of the tools seem much more comprehensive than what we're using now. The voice to text feature is especially cool. If you're an IT pro, there's a video for you too. So if you've wanted to see how the two interact and what the future holds, just follow the link.

Pre-Order Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade for $49.99, Limited Time Offer

Jason Dunn — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:37:00 GMT

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...ASIN=B002DHLUWK

You'll have to excuse the network-wide broadcast (well, except Apple Thoughts of course), but I thought this was something that everyone would want to know about: Microsoft is offering the forthcoming Windows 7 at a steep discount, but only for a limited time. Until July 11th, you can purchase Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade for $49.99 USD (that's an Amazon affiliate link, so your purchase helps support Thoughts Media). The normal price of Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade is $119.99 USD, so that's a very significant level of savings ($70 to be precise). You can also pick up Windows 7 Business Upgrade for $99 if you want that version. When Windows 7 is released on October 22nd, Amazon will ship you the software.

The Windows 7 upgrade will work on a computer with Windows Vista or Windows XP installed. If you have an older computer, you may want to run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to make sure your computer is ready for Windows 7, but in general any computer built in the past four years should be able to run it just fine. Windows 7 is lighter on resources and works well across a broad spectrum of hardware.

Got a netbook? Then you'll want to take advantage of this offer as well - I'm running the Windows 7 Release Candidate on an MSI Wind, and an HP Mini 1000, and it works really well on both of them. I think Windows Vista is a fine operating system, but Windows 7 is even better - it addresses many of the concerns that people had with Windows Vista and adds a degree of polish that means everything is easier to use.

Unfortunately, this offer is only valid in the USA and Canada (Canadians can order from Amazon.ca, Future Shop, and Best Buy). as far as I can tell. Europe is getting a different version of Windows 7 due to the lawsuits Microsoft is undergoing there.

WinMo Creative Software And Design Contest

Ed Hansberry — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 12:00:00 GMT

http://www.windowsmobilecontest.com/en/?pid=1

"Windows Mobile handsets are becoming more and more popular. The industry is known to be the fastest growing segment in the smart phone market. The growing popularity of Windows Mobile triggers an increasing demand for more creative and entertaining applications. To foster greater creativity among different sectors of the community and encourage development of a greater variety of Windows Mobile applications, Microsoft recently joined hands with The Pocket PC Channel, a popular online media in Hong Kong, and also the Cyberport IncuTrain Centre, to launch the "Windows Mobile Software & Game Design Contest". Winning applications will be made available for users to download on Windows Mobile Marketplace, the latest service to be rolled-out along with the launch of Windows Mobile 6.5 later this year, bringing in new business opportunities for the creative industry at large."

If you are capable of writing apps and want a chance to win HKD150,000 (that is about $19,300 US at today's conversion rate) and are at least 16, you can enter the contest. More information is at their site.

Terrestrica Location Triggered Mobile Services

Ed Hansberry — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:00:00 GMT

http://www.terrestrica.com/

"Croatives Inc. today announced it is launching beta release of Terrestrica - Location Triggered service for Mobiles with GPS with a possibility of creating multimedia geolocation points and guides and interesting business model based on "On location Mobile Advertising" which allow users to make Revenue from their geo-content. Terrestrica is completely Free for use."

Well, I guess mobile location advertising is coming, and this seems to be the right way to do it - meaning it is voluntary, not thrust upon you by your carrier. (That is coming to I bet). This is totally free, and looks like it might be interesting to play around with.

Time To Learn Geography With SPB Geo

Nurhisham Hussein — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:00:00 GMT

http://software.pocketpcthoughts.co...&n=Spb-Geo-Game

It's something of a truism that the rest of the world regards Americans relatively uninformed about geography - here's a way to prove that you aren't (and get up to speed if you are)! SPB Geo quizzes you on the capitals and flags of the countries of the world, and displays answers on a 3D globe. Fairly simple but effective stuff, and a nice time-wast...I mean educational program. You can download the trial or purchase it for $4.95 through our affiliate link.

Is Windows Mobile in Danger of Becoming Software Plumbing?

Jason Dunn — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:33:00 GMT

Jump over to Engadget and watch the video they've posted of the newly-announced HTC Hero, an Android-based smartphone. Look at what HTC has done in terms of porting a version of TouchFlo from Windows Mobile over to Android - but also pay attention to the apps they've added and improved. Now picture those changes and improvements flowing back to future Windows Mobile devices. Between all of the customs apps that HTC has slowly but surely built up (photo viewer, music player, skinned browser, weather app, etc.) and the UI of TouchFlo, Windows Mobile is becoming nothing more than plumbing....which should terrify Microsoft. If the OS is just plumbing, then HTC could switch to whatever OS the wish on a given device. HTC is Microsoft's biggest smartphone partner - so what does it mean to Microsoft when their biggest partner is working to undermine the user interface of their operating system?

I can't say that I blame HTC for going down this road - Microsoft kept the user interface of Windows Mobile stuck in a Han Solo carbonite freeze for several years, completely missing the fact that no one ever liked using a stylus. Windows Mobile 6.5 brings a bunch of touch-based improvements to the table, but it doesn't seem like we'll see a real UI overhaul until Windows Mobile 7, which isn't arriving until 2010 if the rumours are to believed. Equally bad was the way that Microsoft left many of their applications out to rot in the sun. Windows Media Player Mobile, Pictures & Videos, Internet Explorer Mobile - none of these applications received noteworthy improvements in years. It's only recently that we're seeing an improvement in Internet Explorer Mobile, and becoming the much-maligned (from a Web developer's point of view) IE6. Microsoft's failure to put any real effort into their applications outside of PIM improvements - and I think Windows Mobile has the best PIM apps out there today - added to the overall atrophy of Windows Mobile. So for HTC to forge ahead and create finger-friendly applications isn't surprising.

So looking at what HTC is doing with creating a unified experience, what do you think this will mean for Windows Mobile? Will you even know you're using a Windows Mobile phone by the end of 2009 if HTC has their way? Better yet, will you care?

Jason Dunn owns and operates Thoughts Media Inc., a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys photography, mobile devices, blogging, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, and his sometimes obedient dog. He's still searching for the ultimate netbook.

Do you enjoy using new hardware, software and accessories, then sharing your experience with others? Then join us on the Thoughts Media Review Team! We're looking for individuals who find it fun to test new gear and give their honest opinions about the experience. It's a volunteer role with some great perks. Interested? Then click here for more information.

Toshiba TG01 Is Big In Japan

Nurhisham Hussein — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:00:00 GMT

http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/22/...ocomo-t-01a-in/

"One of the hottest pieces of gear this year just made its way to retail in Japan. Less than a centimeter thick, the NTT DoCoMo T-01A is the same TG01 device revealed by Toshiba back in February running Qualcomm's ultra-fast 1GHz Snapdragon chipset."

This is one humdinger of a phone. Along with the Snapdragon chipset, you get every radio under the sun (if not quite all the right freqs for global use), 256MB RAM, a massive 4.1" WVGA screen, a thin 9.9mm chasis, and available in white or black. Downsides are a low rez main camera at just 3.1MP and a piddling 1000mAH battery to power all that hardware. Chances are we'll see this in Asia and Europe in another month or two, but I wouldn't lay odds on if or when it'll appear in the US. Hit the link for the gallery, or the Microsoft product page for more details (warning: Japanese text).

The Moment I've Been Dreading Has Arrived: Office Teardown

Jason Dunn — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:00:00 GMT

This is off-topic for all the sites except Digital Home Thoughts, but I thought you all might enjoy this article. OK, yeah, I'm looking for some sympathy. ;-) Have a great weekend everyone!

I've been putting this off for at least two years now, but I finally had to bite the bullet and get it done: I had to tear-down my home office and move it in order to get my floor fixed. We moved into this house in 2001, and finished the basement later that year. We put down berber carpet, which at the time seemed like a good idea because basements tend to be cold. Then we got a little puppy named Keiko - and after a few months that berber carpet was covered in stains (house-training a puppy is a messy business). It was also problematic for me to not be able to roll my office chair from computer to computer - for a while I had a custom-cut piece of Plexiglas on the floor, but over time that cracked and broke.

Not wanting to pay another $500 to replace it, and realizing it was a bit demoralizing to be working surrounded by urine stains, it was time for a renovation to my home office. In 2006 I hired a carpenter, and he sub-contracted a flooring company (Underfoot Floors in Calgary), to re-do several key parts of my office. He built a custom set of shelves for me, and the flooring company ripped up the berber carpet and installed a hardwood laminate floor. For a while, everything was great - but then I started to notice that as I rolled my chair across the floor, it would seem to catch on the floor. Over the next year, I'd find little chips of broken hardwood laminate - bit by bit, I was destroying the floor. The entire point of going with the hardwood laminate was to get something tough enough to stand up to a rolling office chair. I brought in the carpenter and the flooring company, and there was a lot of shoulder shrugging and finger-pointing.

Figure 1: This is what the floor looked like after a couple of years worth of my chair rolling over it.

The problem was two-fold: the underlay that Underfoot Flooring used was quite thick. I had asked for a thick underlay in an attempt to plug up some of the awful insulation problems that Bay West Homes inflicted upon us when they built the house - on a cold day, my basement would be a good 15 degrees Celsius colder than the main floor. You could hold your hand along the baseboards and feel freezing cold air blowing in. Knowing nothing about flooring, I didn't realize that by having the thicker underlay would cause the floor to move up and down more. You'd think that the flooring professionals would have pointed this out to me, right? No such luck. The particular flooring that I selected - completely based on colour and design, because hey, what do I know about flooring - turned out to have a bevelled edge, meaning that the pieces didn't lock as tightly together as the indestructible Pergo flooring I had back in my condo. Again, I had no clue - Underfoot Flooring knew this was going in a home office, so I trusted their advice about the flooring options I had.

In early 2008 someone from Underfoot Flooring came in (after much griping on my part), examined the problem, and said the best thing to do was to replace the broken boards - which they'd send someone out to do at their cost - and find a surface to put under the chair so it wouldn't happen again. I was dreading ripping apart my office, so I put it off for months and months. I tried to get in touch with Underfoot Flooring again in late 2008, but struck out - no one was answering their phone, and eventually it was disconnected. I drove past their store front, and sure enough, it was abandoned. And not in the "we're going out of business slowly" kind of way - their store sign was still up, and inside there were still parts of their displays set up. This is a "we don't want to pay our lease and we took anything of value out of the store in the middle of the night" kind of scenario. Their Web site is still up, but the phone numbers no longer work.

So, with much grumbling and groaning, I tore down my office last night in order to make room for someone to come in and replace the broken floorboards. Here are a few photos of the process...

Figure 2: Just getting started with the tear-down...

Figure 3: All my technology...gone! OK, well, one computer remains, secure on a shelf.

Figure 4: And here I thought I kept my office fairly clean. Yuck!

Figure 5: So...much...technology.

Figure 6: Putting it all back is where the real nightmare begins!

Figure 7: Most of the problem was the very thick underlay the flooring company used - it had far too much “give” and the floor-boards would move as I rolled over them in my chair, catching and breaking.

Figure 8: All done! Everything is fixed.

And now I'm faced with the daunting task of re-assembling my whole office...it's hard to know where to start, there's so much work to be done. I still need to find something to go underneath my office chair - I've been looking at interlocking gym floor-type materials but I'm not sure how well they'll work, and they're expensive. I'm going to use this opportunity to simplify my office a bit - the Logitech 5.1 surround sound system will probably be replaced by a simple 2+1 speaker setup. And if Windows 7 were out now, I'd probably use this opportunity to tear down and re-build all my computer systems...but the timing isn't right for that. I have quite a lot of work ahead of me this weekend...

"Blockberry" Gets Presidential Endorsement: Not!

Nurhisham Hussein — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:00:00 GMT

http://www.clonedinchina.com/2009/0...9500-clone.html

"We all know Obama uses Blackberry phone, and right now the China shanzhai phone maker haff-comm is using this information to promote their new shanzhai phone blockberry 9500 and has Obama's figure appeared in this phone's poster with a slogan 'Obama have Blackberry, I have blockberry'."

The phone itself is more than half decent, assuming we can trust the published specs - is that really a SiRFStar III? - but the advertising is, shall we say, using the time-honoured Asian tradition of free-riding on somebody else's brand (and in this case, someone's very well-known face) to sell your own products, right down to the model number and logo. I don't think anyone is really seriously taken in by that particular sleight of hand, but building your own brand can be an expensive and time-consuming business. The temptation to take shortcuts can be very appealing, ethics be damned, especially when there's little-to-no enforcement of IP law. If you weren't aware of it already, this ad neatly encapsulates some of the intellectual property problems in developing countries - I think protection of IP in China is at least another generation away from really being where it should be, and blatant transgressions like this won't be tolerated any more.