A Speeed Reader update to v0.95. This update is specifically for those using it on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional. WM6.1 Pro users cannot use v1.15 because the browser doesn’t not respond to touch. Only Windows Mobile 6.5 users are able to interact with the Speeed Reader browser in v1.15. Please download v0.95 if you are a Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional user. If you are a Windows Mobile 6.5 user and you download v0.95, you will break browser functionality.
New Speeed Reader version fixes the login issue. Thanks for everyone who reported the issue. This was a quick fix thanks to the open source community giving me a tip. You can download the new copy here.
Also, I am transitioning to a new twitter account (twitter.com/eeennoMobile) as I venture into new free and paid software titles for multiple platforms. Thanks for the support!
I have also posted all the source code for Speeed Reader v1.15 as a Google Open Source Project. The only thing I am not able to post is the license key for the user interface controls (the DLL is posted, but is in trial mode since the license key is missing). The controls are proprietary technology.
In my perfect world, all software would be open-source and freely available. With that said in the coming weeks the following is going to occur:
All versions of Speeed Reader will become free again
I will open source 95% of the Speeed Reader codebase. The other 5% is proprietary technology (user interface controls) and I don’t have the rights to that.
I will build and release a beta Speeed Reader v1.20. This was the version I’ve been working on up until lately, but alas, I underestimated the time that would be needed to complete v1.2. Instead of just holding on to it, I will be releasing it to the public. It contains some substantial UI and caching changes. With that said, it’s probably buggy…so use at your own discretion. Iwill release the codebase to this as well.
The reason I am doing this is I am transitioning to other types of personal mobile software projects on the Android software platform and don’t have the time needed to continue active feature development for Speeed Reader. Also, I interface with the Google Reader API (which is technically private). Developers who want some code samples on how to interact with the Google Reader API will get a chance once they download and browse my source code.
I have to get my open source licenses sorted out, but its coming soon.
I was recently able to acquire a Zune HD media player. I have been using it for about 5 days. I am going to share my thoughts in a way you can hopefully understand.
Hardware
When I first opened the Zune HD, the first thing I thought about it was how light and small it is. It’s all metal case feels great. There are only three physical buttons on the device: power, home, and a quick menu button that brings up controls to go to the next/prev track and control the volume. One minor annoyance is, no physical volume button.
The OLED screen is gorgeous. Pictures look vivid, movies are fluid, and the minimalist UI looks great on it….and its very very sensitive. This is the first device I have owned that has a capacitive touch screen.
If I could change the hardware, I would definitely make the screen bigger and add an external speaker.
Software
The Zune HD software is outstanding. It’s not just focused on playing the tracks you select, its makes it a point to engulf you in the type of music you listen to. When the Zune recognizes an artist it automatically downloads album art, artist pictures, artist biography, discography, and related artists. For example, my favorite Hip Hop group, Little Brother was instantly recognized. It downloaded about 6 LB pictures, biography, discography, and related artist. The presentation of the information was very very fluid and natural.
If you get a Zune HD, I wholeheartedly recommend looking into getting the Zune Pass for $14.99/month. It allows you to download and listen to as much music as you want. I’ve already downloaded entire discographies of well known and not so well known artist. It also allows me to explore new music without having to download it illegally (lol) or forking out money for a potentially terrible album. It has really great value.
Audio quality is excellent although I wish the ability to tweak the EQ manually instead of having to use the presets.
Some other notes, the internet browser is okay. There were a couple times where the browser didn’t do anything, even though I was clicking on links. The available apps are okay (I can’t get the Facebook app to work). I wish there were more as the hardware of the Zune HD (nVidia Tegra chipset) is capable of running some nice 3D games. The radio works, when I was able to get a signal. This has always been the case with any radio that was built into a portable device…terrible reception…or maybe its just me. I played a few movies just to see what that was about. I haven’t really been in a situation where I’d rather watch movies on the Zune HD (been at work, we don’t watch movies at work…lol or at home where I’d rather watch movies/video on my HDTV).
Let me do some forward thinking real quick. If the Zune software is remotely similar to what is expected in Windows Phone 7, then I think the user experience will blow the doors off of the current versions of Android, Blackberry, and iPhone OSes. The thing the Zune is great at is making you feel less like you are going from app to app or track to track and just enjoying music. The entire experience is really seamless and engaging.
Speeed Reader v1.14 & v0.94 are now available for download. The only change thats been made is implementing Google Reader’s new authentication technique. The old technique is being deprecated and will render older versions of Speeed Reader useless in the first half of April 2010, so be sure to upgrade your application.
I have submitted v1.14 to the Windows Marketplace for Mobile application store under Speeed Reader v1.2 because I can only increment version numbers by 0.1 and not 0.01. With that said, the actual Speeed Reader v1.2 is being reversioned to Speeed Reader v1.3. Sorry for the confusion.
If you already purchased Speeed Reader v1.XX, then the update is free whether you purchased the application directly, via Handango (Pocket Gear), or Windows Marketplace for Mobile.
If you are interested in purchasing Speeed Reader v1.14, please visit for more purchasing options. Thanks!
The days I have left to torture myself use my X1 are rapidly coming to a close thanks to a drop (and subsequent crack on my touchscreen). The touchscreen still works, just looks like an unshattered car window.
Over the course of my time with the X1 I have used every version of Windows Mobile 6.1/6.5 with and without HTC Sense/TouchFlo. I even used Android on it for a little while. Shouts go out to XDA-Developers. They made the X1 experience a less painful one. With that said, here is what I thought over the year and a half I used it.
Pros
800×480 touch screen was nice and expansive
full QWERTY keyboard
nice aluminum finish
Built by HTC, so through XDA-Developers, it was infinitely moddable
3G+GPS+Wifi+Bluetooth
Windows Mobile so plenty of third party software exists
Cons
Build quality sucked
Build quality sucked
Build quality sucked: the plastic portions cracked all over the place, wobbly slider, camera buttons, volume buttons lost their tactile feedback, QWERTY keyboard ‘space bar’ cracked and often encountered instances where I pressed keys but nothing was type or typed twice.
Slow/Buggy: For reasons I still can’t explain, the phone would just freeze and not respond to any sort of touch input, camera was slow to take pictures, software was slow to read memory card (noticeable when playing media).
Terrible software support
XPERIA Panels: good concept, bad execution, I never used them for the last 6 months
Debuted for $800: I paid much much much less for mine however ($1XX).
Overall, it was a decent phone for the time I had it. I hate that it is literally crumbling in my hands though. I am moving on to a Motorola Q9h phone until this summer/fall when a multitude of phones drop (Windows Phone 7 Series, Android, iPhone 4?) and my AT&T contract expires.
Also I came to learn that I hate the slideout landscape keyboard form factor. I prefer a protrait landscape or just a full touch screen device.
I hear the parts market is hot, so this will be on EBay soon….
I’ll have this dilemma. My current device (Xperia X1) is literally falling apart in my hands. This past week, half of my keyboard went dead for some time. Luckily it came back to life. I’m going to try and nurse it until the summer time, then I have to make a decision…Android vs. Windows Phone 7 Series devices.
Just a quick blurb. I have use Google for pretty much everything…
email
documents
calendar
voice
chat
rss feed aggregation aka Google Reader
Youtube
maps
search
news
So it seems as though an Android device, which I can get now if they would release a AT&T 3G compatible Nexus One! Or I can wait for the unique experience of the WPS7 device. We’ll see.
On another note, as soon as I can get my hands on some WP7S developer tools, some new applications will be developed and ready for launch in the fall.
Saw this video over at Pocketnow. I had trouble getting the update on my phone. Sometimes when starting the marketplace app, it would check for the latest version of the marketplace app. It was not doing this automatically yet, but if you uninstall the marketplace app then download it again (by clicking on the Marketplace icon that remains in the start menu) the updated application will be installed. Here is a video on how to change regions with the new app.
