I’ve been playing around for a while with a beta version of Skyfire on my Samsung Blackjack.
Skyfire’s a new gecko-based browser for Windows Mobile and Symbian phones, and if you’ve got a Windows Mobile based phone, you’ll want to request access to the beta ASAP (the beta program requires a US phone number, unfortunately). It’s not quite ready for prime time, but it is definitely something to track as it moves toward 1.0.
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So in addition to the often recurring, never fully explained phenomenon whereby my Windows Mobile phone (a Samsung Blackjack) suddenly finds itself in the future (no, the phone has never been on the Lost island), the geniuses of the Windows Mobile platform have once again issued updates to “fix” Daylight Savings Time.
Thanks for the notice from the MobileViews Blog:
I thought this Daylight Savings issue was fixed in last year’s patch. Guess not. Here are the links for the CAB file download as well as the desktop (setup.msi) installer version.
Update for Windows Mobile for PC (KB949168) (SETUP.MSI)
Update for Windows Mobile for PC (KB949168) (WMDST2008-1.CAB)
FYI: I just installed the CAB file installer version on my Dash. It restarted my smartphone without even giving a warning that it was about to do so.
So now I have to go figure out which update I’m supposed to use, and apply it, or else my phone will be off by an hour for much of SXSW next week.
How soon will either an Adroid phone be released or the Nokia N810 line include cell connectivity, so I can use it as a phone – I’d buy one of those easily.
I’m often puzzled by aspects of my Windows Mobile device (a Cingular Blackjack / Samsung i607).
One is its occasional glimpses into the future (see here and here). Another is its refusal to expose my location to Google Maps.
One I haven’t ever figured out is the fact that whenever I travel in Europe (usually Switzerland and Germany) I get tons of SMS messages. They seem to be “Cell Broadcast” messages, meaning they aren’t sent directly to me but to everyone – but my phone seems to pick those CB messages out of the stream only while in Europe.
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My Cingular Blackjack (Samsung i607) seems determined to keep me in the dark.
First, it never works with the Google Maps “My Location” feature. Here’s all I get:
On top of that, I’m still getting the occasional moment where my cellphone decides it is the future.
This morning my phone briefly thought it was 2009:
Seems to be related to a cell tower somewhere in the vicinity of Chelsea / Everett – just North of the Tobin bridge.
Am I the only one seeing this?
My Cingular BlackJack, which runs Windows Mobile, occasionally resets itself to dates in the future. Here’s a screenshot from this morning, which should be October of 2007, but thinks it is November of 2008:
Anyone else see this happening on their Windows Mobile device?
One theory is that I’m hitting a rogue cell tower somewhere in my commute which tells the device it is a later date. But I’ve got “auto update” of date/time disabled, and I’m pretty sure I’ve had this happen even while travelling in other cities and states, so it isn’t specific to one cell tower.
It causes all the event notifications to fire, since they are now overdue, and causes all kinds of other general weirdness, like emails coming from the future.
If only Windows Mobile were open source . . . Guess my next phone will be an OpenMoko.
Open Parenthesis is a blog about free and open source software, next generation internet strategy, and the assembled web, written by John Eckman (me).
I'm a Sr. Director at Optaros, a professional services firm offering strategy, design, development, and consulting services to enterprises interested in leveraging free and open source software.
