The MSDN Live tour is open for registration with a great program this year! The tour will be going to Stavanger on April 16th, Trondheim on April 20th, Bergen April 23rd and Oslo April 26th.

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At work we are in the process of evaluating enterprise mobility platforms.  An unified platform that help make enterprise data available to mobile devices or computers.  When i evaluate candidates begin to have a look at the integration engine. How will the integration engine help me get hold of the data i require. At a minimum the engine must have connectors to the most common back-end systems like SAP, Dynamics, Agresso, Siebel and/or Oracle and also provide ways of more generic  connectors through web services, XML etc. If you don´t have this; you´ve failed!

If you got step one – integration, you´ve come a very long way! You now need to make sure that the system is capable og keeping the flow of data to and from the devices. Handle distribution of software and updates, Manage the devices within the enterprise and keep it secure in an integrated manner.  Oh, software..That is important! The software  must be possible to develop without too much of a hassle. Don´t constrain the possibilities within an already constrained mobile platform (ie javaME or .NET Compact Framework). Don´t force the look and feel.

A few days ago i picked up a tweet by Rob Tiffany at Microsoft, he blogged about Microsoft MEAP – Mobile Enerprise Application Platform. MEAP is a platform where you design toghether a set of well known Microsoft technologies, and together they make up a unified mobile application platform. Continue Reading

Last week we hosted our first 3 hour session on Microsoft Windows Mobile development at NITH in Oslo. The session was split into two topics - usability best practises and developing custom GUI controls. Me and Per Ola split the session where i did the first part and he did the custom control development.

Since this is an introductory class to Windows Mobile development we cannot go too deep into the how’s and why’s but rather give a brief overview with pointers to more information for those wanting to learn more.

The UX session started as i always like to do by introducing “Death to the stylus” as i am a firm believer of that it has no future in the world of mobility. It is an obstacle for efficient use of applications. Following this i talked about that it is not a goal for mobile developers to minimize an existing application or process, but to mobilize. Continue Reading

One of many new features that came with the iPhone OS 3.0, was that the IPhone should now be ready for the business market. With improved PIM functionality, true push and better integration with Exchange all of the needs for the professional user should be taken care of – that just #fail!

Iphone is business #fail

Basic PIM functionality is something that exists in every device there is that is used by the semi-professional mobile user. Continue Reading

If you are working with rugged devices or are interested in knowing more about these types of devices there is a site called ruggedpcreview.com that is a good source of information.

As the name say, ruggedpcreview.com reviews rugged devices of all types and they have a huge database of tested devices

Their about page say;  ”The purpose and goal of RuggedPCReview.com is to be a information provider and clearinghouse for anything related to rugged computing: hardware, software, peripherals, definitions, terminology, case studies, white papers, and, most of all, unbiased product reviews and roundups.”

If you are considering using ruggedized devices they are worth a visit at http://www.ruggedpcreview.com Continue Reading

Loke Uei Tan and John Bruno had a session at Mix09 on Windows Mobile 6.5 if your are interested in having a look at how it works and the services launched with it. They are talking about features, the new UI and also about the Windows Mobile application marketplace.

I am not quite sure, but i think Luke Uei about 30 seconds into the presentation mentioned august 09 as planned release month. I am really looking forward to this release and hope i heard it right.

“Death to the stylus” – It’s also good to see that Microsoft finally has understood that the stylus is a really, really bad usability thing. And that lists and screens are now navigable from your fingertip (the most natural stylus of all). Continue Reading

Me, as my colleague - stumbled upon the blog of Lars Wilhelmsen, a  Microsoft MVP who was writing about Microsoft Tag -  which is a new, or rather improved technology by Microsoft for enabling linked content on static objects (i.e movie posters, news ads (yes, printed) etc).

Tag has been out as a beta service since January 7th  free for anyone to try, both for commercial and personal use.  A Tag client is available if you point your mobile web browser to http://gettag.mobi. The page try to detect your device and gives you a download link. Some of the devices supported are; Android, Blackberry, PalmOS, Windows Mobile and Symbian S60. Apple iPhone is also supported, giving you a link to iTunes AppStore for download, and finally a Java 2 ME client making the client available on almost any device available. Continue Reading