You’re probably very familiar with the plethora of widget or gadget technologies on the web or your desktop by now – Vista Sidebar, Windows Sideshow, Google, Yahoo and Microsofts web and desktop offerings as well as a collection of Web 2.0 offerings that it’s pointless to try and enumerate because it would already be out of date.

Well, they continue to spread and Access (the folks behind the NetFront browser which has been doing a great job on Palm and Windows Mobile for several years) have brought a gadget runtime framework to Windows Mobile Professional (aka Touch or PocketPC) devices that they call Netfront Browser Widgets.

Installation and setup on my HTC Diamond was quick and simple. You need to register at the Netfront Browser Widgets site and from there download the installer to your phone (though you can do it over the air I found it easier via the desktop browser)

The installer comes with a couple of widgets (World Clock and Weather) pre-installed, but there are several others (such as the Twitter one above) that you can download and install.

The widgets themselves seem to have a very similar philosophy to their desktop and web counterparts – development will be using standard HTML and Javascript (a subset of the W3C Widgets 1.0 specification) with some javascript extensions to access hardware specific things such as location, power and wireless status.

Unlike many development environments / tools, widgets are fairly straightforward to develop for (thanks to the HTML and Javascript basis) and are also safe – because they operate in your default browsers sandbox they’re not going to get uncontrolled access to your device or data so they’re safe to experiment with.

At the moment although there are some widgets created by Access themselves to get you started the developer information isn’t available, but I imagine it won’t be too long before we see that released and folks start to get creative…

Lifecasting is a big thing at the moment. One step beyond blogging and tweeting is the ability to record and broadcast live video from a cellphone to share what you’re doing – and engage with your audience.

Qik is probably the best known of these, and is slowly rolling out an early beta service for Windows Mobile users. But Qik are not the only game in town – there are a couple of existing solutions that have great support for Windows Mobile users.

LiveCast provide a live video streaming platform for Windows Mobile and laptop or UMPC users. The video is synchronized with GPS position data so your viewers can see where you are when you’re broadcasting (or when they review archived footage where you were).

While the video quality on LiveCast is pretty good for high end phones the client is not the most intuitive (so expect to spend some time figuring it it), and the web site is a bit clunky.

LiveMedia from IncaX provides very similar capabilities – private or public broadcasting from either PC or Mobile device, though as well as streaming video it allows you to insert other media from your device to enhance the presentation.

The LiveMedia GPS mobile client (currently in beta) adds GPS location data to the broadcast from your phone, and also allows you to record a broadcast to local storage for later upload. This feature is particularly useful as it allows you to keep a record of a trip without having to worry about connectivity.

Although feature-for-feature these two solutions are fairly similar my preference is for LiveMedia. The video quality is slightly less fluid and there is no audio in the current beta version but the interface is significantly easier to work with and there are more options to share your broadcasts.

The great thing is that both of these products are at fairly early stages and are evolving quite quickly, as are the capabilities of the phones they run on. Missing features and complicated user interfaces will quickly give way to slick controls and, especially as bandwith increases, high quality video and audio.

Apparently there are some people using Gmail and the Google Calendar service rather than Live Mail or an Exchange solution and they’re not sure if they can still get their email, calendar and contacts synced to their Windows Mobile phone or PDA.

Well luckily for them (and me, yes I use Gmail as well) there are solutions – and they are simple (and free or cheap).

Although connectivity is pretty good I like to make sure I have a local instantly available backup (and you can’t check your web calendar on a plane yet). Being able to store contacts, schedule and email in Pocket Outlook and work with them anywhere is one of the biggest reasons I’ve used a Windows Mobile device for quite some time.

Email

To get the most of out Gmail you’ll want to use IMAP to sync your mail – leaving the technical stuff aside (click here if you want that) it’s a two way sync so if you read a mail on the phone then Gmail knows about it when you go back to the website.

To use IMAP in Gmail you’ll need to enable it first. Once that is done you can access Gmail over IMAP in any mail client – Outlook, Thunderbird and, of course, Windows Mobile Outlook Mobile. To set it up for your device follow the steps for Windows Mobile5 or Windows Mobile6 (the instructions are slightly different because the default mail setup wizard for WM6 tries to use POP3 and you’ll want to work around that!)

Of course if you don’t want to do this there is always the Mobile optimized web version of the Gmail site but once you‘ve tried using the Outlook Mobile client you won’t want to go back

Contacts and Calendar

What use is email if you don’t have all your contact details available (and after all it probably makes sense to keep your contacts details in sync across web and the phone).

If you get an email inviting you to a meeting or a party you want to be able to put it in your calendar… but unless your phone and the online calendar are in sync how will you ever keep your schedule straight?

Well, for Live Mail users there’s always the Windows Live client which takes care of keeping that in sync for you, but for Google users there is OggSync.

OggSync supports both Outlook and Windows Mobile clients so you can choose one or both depending on what you need. Personally I usually use the web interface from a PC so just have the mobile client.

The free version supports basic calendar syncing and the (very reasonably priced) pro version adds a lot more flexibility/control to the calendar sync (including support for multiple calendars) and contact sync.

With the pro version you can synchronize multiple calendars (with mapping) to a time schedule so you never have to lift a finger.

All of the sync functionality (in either version) is bidirectional so you can update on the phone or via the web and, like using IMAP for email, know that everything will be only one sync away from being up-to-date.

Check out OggSync and … welcome to the world of Outlook Mobile

Do you care about Windows Mobile? Do you use a Windows Mobile powered Smartphone or PocketPC? Do you have any feedback or comments on how Microsoft could make it better?

By all means leave a comment here, but the best place to get your voice heard (and let others contribute refinements to your ideas) is over at the Windows Mobile Connect site.

You don’t need to sign up in order to view existing feedback but if you want to comment or submit a new item you will need a LiveID to log in.

If you’re a developer you should also check out the Windows Mobile Developer Forums for more in-depth nut-and-bolts type discussions.

One of the problems with using most smartphones or UMPCs is that while the form factor is ideally suited to portability they are not exactly the best form factor for composing an essay on.

A while ago I ordered a USB roll up keyboard for the Q1U but it was too big and the keypad layout was weird (and the action was terrible). The backlight was the coolest thing about it (but it made a buzzing noise). Needless to say it wasn’t a hit (and as the Q1U only has 2 USB sockets it was a bit of a nuisance).

I’d asked around a bit and folks said great things about the iGo Stowaway keyboard but sadly while it is still available it’s been discontinued – mainly because developing new drivers wasn’t cost effective for iGo. While that meant I could get one today and it would probably work with any of my phones and my Vista / WinXP machines there was no guarantee it would stay current as new devices and operating systems appeared on the horizon.

So I went hunting again and found a great little bluetooth keyboard from Freedom (the same folks who make my current GPS dongle). It supports both HID and SPP profiles which means it can be paired with Windows PCs, Windows Mobile smartphones and professional (touch) devices as well as Blackberry, Nokia and Palm phones.

Installation on the PC was easy – like pairing with any other device (though typing in the pass key “blind” was funny!). Pairing on the phone was a little harder as it requires downloading a driver and then generating an unlock key (I understand that they do that to ensure people only use their drivers with keyboards from Freedom but the process wasn’t fool-proof for me… I’d like the driver to include the smarts to negotiate the connection and guide me through verification) – but it works perfectly.

The keyboard, although folding, has a great layout (apart from the /? key being to the right of the shift, and the spacebar being in two parts), great action on the keys but having 5 rows (including a full number row), Windows key, function key (Fn+number) and a physical on/off switch (toggles on, HID or SPP profiles) makes this a great option for both UMPC or smartphone users fed up with cramped (or missing) keyboards.

It’s not tiny. Folded it’s about the size of two SGH-i780s side by side (see here for comparisons) but it’s lightweight, and takes standard AA batteries. Unfolded and locked it’s stable and feels solid. It even includes an integrated stand for your phone – can double as a notes holder.

The only thing I’d like to see is a pointing-stick style mouse to avoid reaching for the stylus or having to tap the screen on the Q1U but even that omission doesn’t distract from using this (as any bluetooth mouse could also be paired to complement the setup)

And yes. I wrote this review on my UMPC using the Freedom keyboard. I would have used my i780 but I don’t have a blogging app on there that I really like.

One thing that makes a smartphone really smart is knowing where it is and being able to tell you about it. Most people are comfortable with using the mapping capabilities of the satellite navigation systems in their car, but there’s no reason not to take that functionality everywhere with you.

Most of the high-end Windows Mobile smartphone (non touch) and Professional (touch-screen) devices come with GPS capabilities (and some with Assisted GPS which allows cell tower triangulation to get an initial lock while the phone locks on to enough satellites to get an accurate location).

Useful as it is, some older devices (like my trusty old Wizard, or the T-Mobile Dash) and even newer handsets like the Shadow don’t include GPS – often it’s driven by battery capacity (as running GPS all day can take its toll).

That doesn’t mean you have to go without though. If your phone has bluetooth support then there are a number of options available. I’d tried a couple of reasonable solutions but not found one that was convenient enough for everyday use. When my last device died I almost didn’t bother replacing it as most of the phones I was using had GPS. But my trusty Shadow was feeling left out and I was still using it as my day-top-day phone.

So I had a look around and found what has turned out to be a great little GPS unit. The Freedom Keychain GPS 2000.

This receiver is tiny. It hangs on my keychain and it’s hardly noticeable. It charges via a standard miniUSB connector so it’s easy to keep powered and gives about 8 hours use before needing juice. Pairing with the Shadow was incredibly easy and I’ve not had a connection problem (first for a Bluetooth device!). It takes about 15-30 seconds to get a lock from turning on when outside (longer indoors) and it’s accurate – most mini GPS units are 20 channel, this is a 51 channel device. One final thing I love about this is the fact the status lights are very discrete.

So, what can you use GPS with on your smartphone?

If you’ve got a built-in or bluetooth device then the most obvious application is Windows Live Search for Mobile (see review of latest version) but I also use Navizon to keep an eye on where my buddies are. For turn-by-turn navigation similar to your in-car navigation solution there are application from CoPilot, Garmin and Mobium. There is a list being maintained at Mapping4Mobiles that details a number of other options for various devices.

At the moment there are a huge number of opportunities that are missing out of the box for location aware services – geotagging photos probably being the most obvious, but one-touch sharing of location via BrightKite or FireEagle (though Navizon works just fine for that). In an ideal world services like Yelp or similar would be able to adjust their offering if they know where I am…

One added bonus of using a bluetooth device is you can pair it with more than one device. My Keychain works fine with my Shadow, but also pairs perfectly with my Samsung UMPC which opens up a whole new set of options for navigation – including Microsoft Streets and Trips or IntelliNav (and because the Keychain uses a standard USB charger cable I can power it from the UMPC even when it’s paired via Bluetooth to drive the software!)

As a Windows Mobile user I’ve sometimes felt left out of the whole “livecasting from the phone” revolution by those cool kids using Qik so I was really happy to discover PocketCaster from ComVu.

It’s a really simple app that you download and install to your Windows Mobile device, give it the username and password you set up on the website and then you’re good to go – livecasting or recording pieces to review later.

If you have a GPS equipped device (built-in or a bluetooth connected one like the Freedom GPS I use) then the livecast or clip can be automatically geotagged.

Just like Qik you can advertise to the world when you’re broadcasting via services like Twitter and automatically post videos to your blog.

PocketCaster works on both mobile phones and PDAs, but what’s cool is the same capabilities and functions are available in the PodcasterPro app for UMPCs, PCs and OSX.

Everything changes and the service now has a new name and a new logo – check them out at LiveCast. The new name defines what they do just as well as the old…

… but I’m still not very photogenic ;) Maybe it’s a good thing I don’t want a career as an internet livecasting superstar… but if you want a way to broadcast sights and sounds from your life then give it a go.

From a mobile device check out their Mobile optimized site – you can download the client and get started straight away.

One of the coolest things about my new job seems to be the number of toys that have gone rushing over my desk in the last few weeks.

Most folks assume that they just get “given” to us, and for some devices (such as the TyTN II and the Mirage) they are – but only for a very short time then they have to go back to the Mobile Demo team or their real owners because my excuse to play with them is over.

Most however have been paid for out of my very own pocket. Not expensed and not donated. I really must do something about that.

So… what is in the picture this month?

At the top is my UMPC. It’s a Samsung Q1U and I like it very much. It’s recently had some surgery to give it more RAM and it’s now very much more usable. I’m not a fan of the split keyboard though and to be a really useful machine it needs a better battery and a faster CPU (and a faster hard drive!)

Below that is the telephony suspects. My Shadow, then a BlackJack II, the TyTN II we used for the Silverlight demo at Advance08 and finally the Samsung Mirage (SGH-i780).

Because all of these phones apart from the Shadow have GPS I bought myself a tiny (keyring sized) Freedom GPS 200 bluetooth device (it’s going to have to share with the Q1U though!).

Last but not least is the answer to the keyboard woes of the Q1U. A Freedom Universal folding bluetooth keyboard. This device claims compatibility with both Windows/Vista devices and smartphones. Well, I had no problem what-so-ever pairing it with the Q1U and so I’m really happy with that.

The bad news is that at this point in time I am totally unable to get it working with any of the phones in the list above. First of all the driver install from the PC doesn’t work in Vista (you have to manually copy the files across and install it), the over-the-air installer doesn’t recognize any of the devices and for good measure even when I get the driver installed it wants to generate a unique unlock code for each device before it’ll let me pair… the website fell over when I tried to go it for the first device, and as you can see… I get through devices at a fair rate so locking me to one isn’t going to make me a fan.

I’ve logged a couple of support requests… when they get back to me I’ll have another look at the keyboard and report back.

Oh, and the neat little bag with “Windows Mobile” written on it… invaluable for lugging around chargers, USB cables, spare batteries, microSD cards and USB adapters and whatever else!

After my somewhat dismissive comments on the BlackJack II I’ve discovered that Samsung’s next leap is pretty significant.

Although the phone in the picture (an SGH-i780 aka “Mirage”) bears a strong resemblance to it’s cousin there’s a couple of clues that not everything is quite the same.

First up is the front facing camera. Okay, it’s a tiny little thing but you might notice it. Then there’s the screen – it’s bigger than the BlackJack II (and unusually it’s a square 320x320 format). Just below the screen is a weird touchpad thing in place or the more traditional D-Pad.

Oh, and I left the last big thing until last… that stylus you see next to the phone… your eyes are not playing tricks… this is a touch device.

Amazingly they packed all this, and 802.11b and g WiFi into a device that is pretty much the same size and weight as the BlackJack II without sacrificing anything – it’s still a 3G and GPS equipped device and even has a noticeably faster processor.

This phone fixes pretty much every complaint that I had with the BlackJack II, and even the keyboard is good enough that I’d consider this to be a better phone for every day than my Shadow (there, I said it!) but… the one thing that I’m not sure I like is the trackpad. In mouse mode (yes, you get an on-screen cursor) it’s just too small a surface to work with, and in 4-way pointer mode I miss the physical “action” of a D-Pad. I’d probably even say I prefer the pearl like rollerball (if you like it on the Blackberry wait until you see it on the VelocityMobile 111 – a Windows Mobile device).

Worse than the trackpad is the fact it still doesn’t come with a standard miniUSB connector/charger.

I’ve only got this for a few days while I work on getting a demo tweaked to fit the layout better but I think I’ll miss it when it’s gone! I won’t miss the connector though.

Did you know that 5 of the 10 top selling ‘Smart Phones’ in the US run on Windows Mobile (yes, even more than the iPhone)?

Have you always wondered what it takes to write something like ‘Bubble breaker’ and how you can get started on an applications that could get used by millions of people around the world

If so, then the Mobility Fire Starter Events are for you!

The Mobility Fire Starter events are either a 1-day seminar or a 3  day lab with in-depth coverage of building applications on the Windows Mobile platform.

You will be introduced to the nitty gritty of writing applications on the Windows Mobile platform. In a typical Fire Starter fashion, the day begins with something really simple and build to more complex applications by the end of the day.

The following seven areas will be discussed in detail:

· All About Windows Mobile
· Windows Mobile for Line of Business
· The Tools
· Managed Development
· Data Management Strategies
· Performance and Optimization
· A Whole New Level

All you need some basic level of understanding of the .NET platform. The event uses familiar tools such as Visual Studio, the .NET Compact Framework, SQL Server Compact Edition and more.

There are only a few events left in the US and they’re filling up fast (I’ve got my place in Redmond booked!)

Thanks to Jason for the heads up and Loke for an insight into the sort of things the event contains.

If you’re a developer looking to get a headstart on the most open smartphone development on the market you really need to be there…