Bruce Atkinson

Archive for the ‘Pocket PC’ Category

I recently switched from an HP 111 to a Tilt.  I prefer holsters and I purchased one for the Tilt.  One problem though, the holster doesn’t have card holder like a leather case does.  With the holster I no longer have a place to carry my On Course Navigator microSD card and an additional SIM card that I have. I searched around for a solution and I finally found the Proporta Aluminum Memory/SIM Holder.

It is the size of a credit card, and has the thickness of 4 credit cards.  It holds 3 SD cards or SIM cards. It is quite sturdy and fits perfectly in one of the pockets in my wallet.  I use an inexpensive tri-fold wallet that I purchased at Walmart.

The length of a SIM card is the same as the width of an SD card, so a SIM card sits in one of the holder’s slots sideways.  To hold a microSD card I use an SD adapter.  I can now easily carry On Course Navigator, my SIM, and an extra SD card for my camera safely in my wallet.

The cards are easy to insert, easy to remove and are securely held in place.  Proporta is a company in the UK that sells accessories for gadgets.  I ended up purchasing it through Amazon for $8.32 with free shipping.

http://www.proporta.com/

I just recently got a new phone. I had intended to upgrade my Samsung i730 to a Samsung Saga, but I discovered I couldn’t do it without getting a data plan. So I switched back to using a regular Pocket PC (I bought an HP 111 off eBay) and I upgraded for free to a Motorola Q9c). The Q9c is a Windows Mobile Smartphone without a touch screen and with a full qwerty keyboard.  One of the first things that I had a problem with was dialing phone numbers that are a name like (1-800-COMCAST or 1-800-PROGRESSIVE). There isn’t a phone keypad to look at when you dial, so I wrote this program to let you enter the number by name and it will convert it for you.

You can get it here: Keypad Letter Dialer v1.2

It requires the .NET Compact Framework 3.5 or you can download just the .NET CF 3.5 CAB file.

I set a speed dial to launch it, so whenever I need to dial a number by name I just hit the speed dial and then I am able to type the name of the number and press dial.

Updated:

It has been updated to Version 1.2. The following modifications were made:

• Detects if a phone is available and if it isn’t it disables the dial menu. Added for Pocket PC devices that do not have a phone.
• Added ability to add converted number to contacts. The text name is used as the name and the converted number is added as the phone number. If the contact already exists a message box is displayed letting the user know that the contact exists.
• Added “copy to clipboard” menu item.
• Pressing the enter key (or OK button) will dial the number.