Modern Nomads Wiki updates

Open Source groupware solutions compatible with Windows Mobile

Jaap van Ekris — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 11:43:08 +0100

Table of Contents

Why (open source) groupware solutions?
Combining groupware solutions and Windows Mobile
Overview of Free/Open Source groupware solutions
Conclusions
References

Why (open source) groupware solutions?

Many people want to use groupware solutions to help them organize the activities in their family, or manage their organization. These solutions allow users to share calendars, plan meetings, manage contacts and synchronize them with their Windows Mobile device. In most cases this makes planning and tracking of people a lot easier.

Combining groupware solutions and Windows Mobile

There are several ways to synchronize a groupware solution with your Windows Mobile device:

Directly connecting the server and PDA using a server connector. Benefit for PDA's is that this can be done without the need for a laptop with outlook in between. There are two protocols that are quite common:

ActiveSync, the native client for Windows mobile devices, designed and owned by Microsoft. This connection is supported by Windows Mobile Devices, some Symbian devices and the iPhone.
SyncML. SyncML is an open industry standard, allowing many devices to synchronize to groupware servers. . Benefit of this connection is that it allows you to synchronize your Outlook client, Windows Mobile device (open source implementation as well as a low cost industry standard client) as well as in fact most Symbian and Palm devices directly to the server.

Directly connecting the server and PDA using a proprietary connector for the server on the client.
Using Microsoft Outlook as an intermediate, using some protocol between the server and Outlook and using ActiveSync/WMDC as a regular way of synchronizing between Outlook and PDA. ...

Securing your data

Jaap van Ekris — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 16:09:14 +0100

Table of Contents

Data loss and data corruption
Theft
- Protecting the device and phone against theft
- Protecting the data against theft
Protecting data communication
External Resources

As a business user, one of the concerns is how safe your data are: you want to continue working without being hampered by technical difficulties, without risking losing data to the wrong people. This might not only protect you against industrial espionage, but also unlawful searches by the police. A mobile device isn't just your phone, it contains your appointments, contacts e-mail and perhaps a lot of credentials to mailboxes and creditcards as well. Research by Pointsec security has shown that generally, the following things are kept on mobile devices by mobile professionals:

Business calendar (85%)
Business name/address storage (80%)
Personal name/address storage (79%)
Personal calendar (75%)
Entertainment: games/music etc. (48%)
Documents/spreadsheet creation (35%)
Password/PIN storage (33%)
Receive/view email (32%)
Bank account information storage (25%)
Corporate information storage (25%)

Loss of this kind of data could lead to less productivity, losing vital data or even direct financial damage. But also theft of data is a concern, not only by stealing the device completely, but by stealing datacards or just the data. Since many devices are connected to the internet as well, virusses could be a concern as well. Some percieved dangers are more relevant than others but all of them can be counteracted easily.

On a company level, on would expect some kind of security policy for mobile devices, in order to make the security level less dependent on the individual initiatives of employees. Unfortunatly, many companies lack a security policy afor mobile devices and employees take the devices to the workplace anyway, introducing a big security risk. Guidelines for writing a security policy for mobile devices can freely be obtained through the Geekzone. We have an article about securing ALL devices in your infrastructure, using Exchange as a leverage.

Data loss and data corruption

Losing data is an accident that happends to a lot of users. One general rule of thumb is that vital data should always have a backup and data collected on mobile devices should be no exception. ...

Airport information

Jaap van Ekris — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 23:00:12 +0100

Table of Contents

Africa
- Egypt
America
- United States Of America
Asia
- Israel
- Taiwan
Europe
Pacific
Other Resources

Africa

Egypt

Cairo International Airport

Main airport for Egypt. Still small and old-fashioned airport. Not so much seating areas, one business lounge.

Near the food court (starbucks etc) good seating arrangements with sockets near the floor (european plug).

Free wifi on several places in the airport.

America

United States Of America

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA)

Large airport with many seating area's. Not many shops, mostly bookshops and souvenirs. No electronics shops of significance, although some shops near the main dining area sell power adaptors and the like. There is a small DVD shop behind the big central dining area. Shopping area is not reachable from incomming flights. There is free WiFi throughout the airport.

Power sockets:

Central Terminal: the area behind the security has power sockets
All concourses: next to the gate counters there are spare power sockets.
A concourse: gates A1 and A3 have plugs on every column with benches next to them.
B concourse: several white pillars have a dual outlet
C concourse: Gate C 24 has a relax and recharge area with seats, a table and power sockets.
N concourse: there are outlets on most of the brown pillars and next to the banks of phones by N8
S concourse: there are outlets at the bottom of most of the brown pillars. In the separated area's behind the glass (for example the S11 gate) each pilar has a power supply and a couple of chairs in the neighbourhood.

Asia

Israel

Ben Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv (TLV)

Large airport that really is a 24 hour economy: many of its tax-free shops are open 24 hours a day. The new major terminal (terminal 3) consists of a central round seating area, connecting the 3 concourses. The central area has some comfortable leather chairs, the waiting areas on the gates are not comfortable at all.

Please note that security is very stringent at this airport, especially for non-israeli citiziens. Checks start on the road to the airport, followed by a check at check-in (physical and credentials) and concluded with a very thorough check when enering the main hall. This can cost you much delay so arriving on time is critical. ...

Registry Tweaks

Jaap van Ekris — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 08:34:17 +0100

Although many settings can be accessed through the user-interface, some settings are hidden for us simple users. Some are hidden because they are used by developers, some are because developers did not know in advance what the user wanted, others are there because hardware designers or extremely large customers want a choice in how the Operating System behaves on their devices.

These settings are there and can be edited through a registry editor, allowing you more control over your device and change the behaviour to better suit your personal needs. The easiest registry editor can be found at Philippe Majerus' site.

Please be advised that modifying your registry by hand is not a thing that should be taken lightly.

Modifying your registry can result in corruption of your registry. This could make your device unusable until you perform a hard reset, basically destroying all your data on your device. It is therefor advisable to proceed with caution.

To reduce the risks of these modifications, we have CAB-files containing these registry tweaks. Although no guarantee for 100% flawless install, they all have been tested at least once, reducing the chances of typo's in keys etc.. If you have registry modifications not mentioned here, please submit them to our forum and we will make a self-installing CAB for you.

Copy files from your PC to your mobile device

Jaap van Ekris — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 11:30:26 +0100

Copying files to a mobile device can be done in two ways:

Using Activesync
Using a memory-card reader
Using a USB-stick application

Activesync

Smaller files and installation of applications generally is easier through the activesync interface.

One of the tricks of Activesync is that it will start in "my documents" folder of your mobile device.

A Memory card reader

OS Versions

Jaap van Ekris — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:28:03 +0100

Table of Contents

PocketPC
PocketPC 2002
Windows Mobile 2003
Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition
Windows Mobile 5
Windows Mobile 6
Windows Phone 7 Series

The Windows Mobile OS has different versions. Roughly speaking there is a major update once a year, where intermittently one focusses on adapting the OS to the new CE kernel and another focusses on improving the user interface. The updates of the functionality of the applications (Office and other applications) is more or less asynchronously released of the major updates to the OS in so-called AKU updates. It is technically possible to update and upgrade your Windows Mobile device, whether you should update is another question that can only be answered by you.

Determining the OS version is relatively easy: you can look in the "about" screen of your device (you can find it by going to the settings, select "System" and then "About") which will tell you the version of the OS. If you look carefully, it will tell you two things:

The name of the OS (in this picture: "Microsoft Windows Mobile Version 5.0")
The specific build version of the OS (in this picture: OS version 5.1.1700, build 14334). This is the version of the CE kernel used for the development of the Windows Mobile operating system. Generally the CE kernel will only change once per every two major versions of the Windows Mobile operating system.

When you combine these two types of information, you can identify the exact version of the operating system you are using. Once you have identified that, you can find out what important features are there (and which aren't).

OS Name		OS Version (CE Kernel)	Oldest Build No.	Youngest Build No.
PocketPC		3.0	9351	9616
PocketPC 2002		3.0	11171	11178
Windows Mobile 2003		4.2	13100	13100
Windows Mobile 2003 SE		4.2.1	14049	14049
Windows Mobile 2003 SE	AKU2	4.2.1	15045.2	15045.2
Windows Mobile 5		5.1	14334	14397
	AKU2	5.1	14334.2	14397.2
	AKU3	5.1	14334.3	14397.3
Windows Mobile 6		5.2
Windows Mobile 6. ... Glossary Jaap van Ekris — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:26:28 +0100 A Activesync B Bluetooth C CAB-files Cleartype Converged devices D D-Pad G GPRS GSM Roaming H Hard reset Hub P Placeshifting R Roaming Registry tweaks S Soft reset Softkeys Start Screen T Tap-and-hold your stylus Tile Timeshifting W Windows Mobile Device Center Hub Jaap van Ekris — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:25:37 +0100 A hub bring together related content from the Web, applications and services into a single view to simplify common tasks. Windows Phone 7 Series includes six hubs built on specific themes reflecting activities that matter most to people: People, everything to do with your contacts and their activities Pictures, everything to do with your pictures Games, all games on your device, including the integration with (free) games from XBox Live Music and Video, everything that has to do with playing multimedia files Applications, all your applications Office, all your productivity applications un one hub For example the people hub: Here you can see all your recent contacts, by scrolling to the right (or left) you can see all your contacts and the activities of your contacts in the various social media they are active. It is possible to pick up a contact and turn them into a tile on your start screen. Start screen Jaap van Ekris — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:25:10 +0100 The start screen aims to inform you of every aspect of the phone that is important to you. Each item is dynamically updated, so by using tiles, you can easily be informed about the status of a friend, meetings, e-mail and games just by glancing at the start screen. This allows you to be quickly be informed and go your own way again. Key element is that as a user you can move and add/remove tiles, allowing you to show the information you consider the most important at a glance. Tile Jaap van Ekris — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:24:47 +0100 A tile is a dynamically updated square (here shown in a blue theme) in the start screen that shows you real-time content directly. By doing so you reduce the need to open the application to get to your data. For example, you can create a tile of a friend, and you will get readable, up-to-date view of a friend’s latest pictures and posts, just by glancing at the start screen. A similar option is possible for missed phone calls, e-mail, text messages and games.

Modern Nomads Wiki updates

Open Source groupware solutions compatible with Windows Mobile

Why (open source) groupware solutions?

Combining groupware solutions and Windows Mobile

Securing your data

Data loss and data corruption

Airport information

Africa

Egypt

Cairo International Airport

America

United States Of America

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA)

Asia

Israel

Ben Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv (TLV)

Registry Tweaks

Copy files from your PC to your mobile device

Activesync

A Memory card reader

OS Versions

Glossary

A

B

C

D

G

H

P

R

S

T

W

Hub

Start screen

Tile