Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition

Microsoft recently unveiled to developers the latest release of its Windows Mobile 2003 software, which offers enhanced display capabilities designed to foster the development of innovative handheld devices and software solutions.

The Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition software will be incorporated into the next generation of Pocket PCs, Phone Edition devices, and Smartphones, and will be made available from some existing Windows Mobile devices (see sidebar). It will add the following capabilities to those devices:

• Support for dynamic switching between landscape and portrait views on the Pocket PC—in all applications.

  The Screen Settings utility in the Second Edition software lets the user switch between portrait and landscape views.

• Support for square-screen resolution (240x240 or 480x480 pixels), added to facilitate the development of smaller devices and handhelds with built-in keyboards.
• Support for VGA displays in Pocket PCs (640x480 pixels).
• Support for QVGA displays in Windows Mobile Smartphones (320x240 pixel).
• Enhanced Pocket PC Start menu, which adds a separate vertical listing of recently launched applications. The original version of the Windows Mobile 2003 software displays a horizontal row of up to six icons indicating recently launched applications above the Programs listing. (Note: in the pre-release Second Edition software we tested, that icon bar was not displayed in the default portrait view, but was in the landscape view.)

  The Start menu in the Second Edition displays recently launched applications in the vertical listing of programs. In this screen, it is the section of the list below Windows Media player and above the Programs folder icon.

• Enhanced Pocket Internet Explorer now lets you display a Web page in “One Column” view, which eliminates vertical scrolling, and “Desktop” view, which more closely reproduces layout and proportions of a Web page as seen on a desktop PC display.

  Pocket Internet Explorer now lets you display Web pages in one-column mode (left), minimizing vertical scrolling. New also is the Desktop view (bottom), which requires scrolling, but more closely reproduces layout and proportions of a page as seen on a desktop PC display.

• Transcriber “Shorthand” feature, which lets Pocket PC users create shortcuts to enter longer text phrases. For example, you could create a shortcut such that, whenever you entered “Pmag” the phrase “Pocket PC magazine” would appear in the document.

  Transcriber’s new Shorthand feature lets you create shortcuts to enter longer text phrases.

• Enhanced Wi-Fi network security.