Category: Mobility
About a week ago I read on Channel 10 that Live Mesh was available to everyone on the U.S. Sarah Perez even gave me a tip: I could try it too! I just had to change my Windows Regional Settings, to tell Live Mesh servers that I was from the U.S. Shame on me, lying in order to access Live Mesh. 
I wrote about Live Mesh some time ago. Now that I am using it I can say that is just as I was expecting. You can register your devices (just Windows-based computers, for now) in Live Mesh in order to sync files between devices and remotely control devices. The screenshot bellow shows the devices list page. It includes your registered devices, a special device called “Live Desktop” and an Add Device button.
That “special device” Live Desktop to which you can connect is a simple interface where you can access your shared folders, download stored files, create folders, upload files, etc. AJAX allows a kind of user experience that resembles to a real Windows desktop, so the name “Live Desktop” is appropriate. Since you can share files/folders with other people, in order to keep track on your Mesh you have access to a “News” panel where you can stay up to date with changes that have been made.
The client software that you download from Live Mesh and install in your computers has an interface that is identical to the panel that is available on Live Desktop. This application notifies you when any change happens, and takes charge of all the syncing-related tasks. Bellow you can see a “Programs” folder on my desktop. Folders that you have in Live Mesh are fully integrated with Windows Explorer, so you can browse them as any regular folder. You can even share a regular folder in Live Mesh just by right-clicking it and choose the context-menu option “Add folder to your Live Mesh…”.
I must confess that I haven’t used the folder sync functionalities. I just tried one time after I installed Live Mesh, but one great functionality that I have been using is Remote Desktop. Using Internet Explorer you can remotely control any of your Windows devices from anywhere in the world where you have an internet connections, without any particular software, just an ActiveX control that acts as an Internet Explorer plugin.
Remote Desktop works pretty well. I can even browse in the web, check e-mail, install software, etc, in the remote device using this functionality. You can only connect to a device that isn’t currently in use and has the Live Mesh application installed, so if you are like me, and what to control your home computer from work, don’t forget to leave if locked or logged off. I have been having some issues with connectivity. When I loose my connection to the web, I get a retry connection button from Live Mesh, but it almost never works… Another issue is related with copy/paste files between your local machine and your remote device. It is way too slow… And copying text from the local clipboard to the device doesn’t always work. Well… It is just a Tech Preview, not a final version.
The mobile version of Live Mesh has became available this week, it allows you to check the news on your Mesh and download files. It is available at the address https://m.mesh.com. A Mac version of Live Mesh is on development.
So far Live Mesh is a mashup and rebranding of several “old” Microsoft products like Folder Share for file sync, the Remote Desktop connections via web browser of Windows Server 2003, and since we have 5Gb of storage that can be used not only for sync but also for sharing with other people, has a little bit of Windows Live SkyDrive. But the kind of integration that Live Mesh brings is pretty great as an user experience improvement.
I’ll be expecting news from Live Mesh team.
Weave is an experimental prototype from Mozilla Labs that integrates online services with Firefox.
“As the Web continues to evolve and more of our lives move online, we believe that Web browsers like Firefox can and should do more to broker rich experiences while increasing user control over their data and personal information.”
in Mozilla Labs » Weave
Seems nice. But I’m pretty sure that I would not store all my passwords on the cloud in a service like this. But to store bookmarks, history, cookies (excluding the authentication ones) and tabs is pretty useful. I tried this service today, and it was toooo slow. I’ll way for a more efficient version of this experimental software.
I would prefer a browser independent solution, but that is too much to ask. Nevertheless it may be nice in the future. Meanwhile I’ll keep using Windows Live Favorites. If I used Internet Explorer as my main browser, it would be perfect, but it will have to do.
Everyone that attended to the 4th Mobile Technologies Seminar by PocketPT.net won a free license of NDrive 3.1 for Pocket PC. So I left TomTom behind for a few days to try this Portuguese software. First of all I just love the user interface. The dark colors are great. In the menus you are able to scroll using your fingers, which is always nice.
The interface is pretty simple, which is normal since it has fewer functionality that TomTom. It doesn’t allow your to plan a trip and see it in images or to add pit stops to your navigation plan. But since I don’t plan pit stops very often, this isn’t a problem for me. And it has a demo version of the navigation when your GPS is off, and I am able to use to do some planning after all.
NDrive has a lot of Points of Interest (POIs) at least in the map of Portugal that I have. I really like the dynamic POIs that allow your to download information about the weather, traffic, events, pharmacies and speed cameras. I like that I don’t need to be online while driving to have access to this data. I can synchronize it before I leave home and head to my destination free of GPSR charge.
Another feature that amazed me was the amount of information about the POIs that is available. Below you can see information about Convento de Mafra (in Portuguese, thought). Address, description and even pictures. This software can be very useful if you are in some place which is not familiar to you and you want to choose a place to visit.
If you search for a restaurant, NDrive has not only the description and address but also phone numbers, e-mails and website. While reading these details you have a menu that allows you to browse to the website, call the restaurant or send the location information to a friend (ohh, and navigate to the restaurant, of course 
).
Some POIs have 3D models that are shown in the map. It is nice, I don’t think that it is that useful, but it is a nice geeky feature.
The software is very responsive and easy to configure. The driving directions are great, just as TomTom. One thing that I noticed as a problem was the information about speed limits accuracy. The information available in my map almost always tells me that I can travel in a higher speed that I actually can. As a consequence the time that is shown to me as the estimated travel time is pretty wrong. Nevertheless I must say that I paid much more attention to this speed issue in NDrive than in TomTom, so this can be a common issue, who knows.
From now on I will use NDrive instead of TomTom. It fits my needs. Thanks for this software license, PocketPT.net and NDrive.
Have you heard about Windows SideShow? It’s kind of a geeky feature of Windows Vista.
It allows you to connect an external device to your PC, displaying gadgets like incoming e-mails, photo galleries among other stuff. There are already some devices that support this feature. You may be familiar with an ASUS laptop which comes with a display on top of it.
There are other devices detached from your laptop like digital picture frames.
More details available in the Windows Vista official website - Window SideShow details.
A beta version of a piece of software is now available which transforms your Windows Mobile 5 or 6 devices into a Windows SideShow compliant device (using bluetooth). 
The developer preview can be found at Microsoft Download Center. Follow the instructions that come with the software. After a successful install you can download and install new gadgets from Window Live Gallery. (Suggestions: Microsoft Office Power Point Remote and Picture Viewer)
You can configure your gadgets for each plugged Windows SideShow device in the Windows Control Panel (Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Windows SideShow).
Take a look at some screenshots at Chris Craft’s Blog.
(Based on another great post from Channel 10)
“É com orgulho que vos anuncio que estou a preparar com a minha equipa mais uma edição do nosso evento principal de consumo: a quarta edição do Seminário de Tecnologias Móveis Windows Mobile do PocketPT, sob o tema “Como escolher o equipamento certo para mim…”.
O evento terá lugar no dia 21 de Junho, sendo que decorrerá nos moldes dos nossos eventos anteriores que têm provado ser um enorme sucesso entre os participantes.
Contamos como tem vindo a ser hábito com o apoio da Microsoft Portugal, sendo que iremos ter uma agenda muito rica e cheia de informação para o utilizador final deste tipo de tecnologia.”
Nuno Luz
Estive presente no 1º Seminário de Tecnologias Móveis TI PRO e valeu imenso a pena. Estarei presente em mais este evento com as espectativas em alta.
Inscrevam-se antes que esgote.
Two or three days ago I read in some blog about Live Mesh. What is it?
“Live Mesh puts you at the center of your digital world, seamlessly connecting you to the people, devices, programs, and information you care about — available wherever you happen to be.”
Live Mesh website
You get a place on the web where you can store your data, and access and synchronize from within any computer you use. In this Tech Preview only Windows XP/Vista are supported, but the big picture includes Mac and mobile devices. You can share data with other people, and keep track of the news about your data (changes, additions, deletions, comments added, etc).
Take a look at this video that shows the main features of this new project.
Here is another video tour, this one’s target audience is the developers community. It seems that as usual in Windows Live Services, this new project will be very “developer friendly”.
I look forward to have a chance to try it. Meanwhile I’ll keep tuned in the website.
