Database Info

REVIEW: Bluetooth chatter / Bluejacking app Sniper

Ever wanted to use the Bluetooth capabilities of your Pocket PC for local (text) messaging and file transfer, including local broadcasting? Take a look at Sniper, which is a comparatively new, constantly updated native Bluetooth messenger utility.
Unfortunately, there are very few local Bluetooth-based applications on the Pocket PC platform. As has pointed out in my article on Microsoft (MS) Portrait, the only really usable, Bluetooth-capable, internet-less text messaging / file transfer application, Portrait isn’t able to work over the Microsoft Bluetooth stack, only over real TCP/IP networks (including BT PAN and Wi-Fi P2P), which the Microsoft Bluetooth stack doesn't support because it lacks support for the Bluetooth Personal Area Network (PAN).
The same stands for the very similar but already abandoned Gphone . Finally, the other two, similar applications, ProximityMail and Bluetooth Chat, are no longer supported and have never really worked. (Note that I elaborate on the latter two apps and, particularly, the current, similar project of the developer of the former in the Appendix at the end of this article.)
At last: native Microsoft Bluetooth stack messaging solution; on the other hand, some compatibility problems
The new application is definitely good in that it supports the Microsoft Bluetooth stack, as opposed to Microsoft Portrait. If you have a device with the Microsoft Bluetooth stack, you’ll certainly welcome the new application – at last, a local native Bluetooth messaging solution that doesn’t require Wi-Fi peer-to-peer networks or an active Internet connection.
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Unfortunately, it has some severe problems. First, while the homepage of the application advertises the app as PPC2k2+-compliant, it doesn’t seem to work with pre-WM5 Windows Mobile operating systems. I’ve tested all the available versions with both Pocket PC 2002, WM2003 and WM2003SE. I've made some example screenshots (see this and this) to show you it doesn't work: as can be seen, the installer can’t even install the WM5-only CAB files.
Furthermore, it’s incompatible with Widcomm/Broadcom Bluetooth stack-based devices like all HP iPAQ Pocket PC's (an example screenshot of it refusing running on the hx4700 is here), the Fujitsu-Siemens T800 series, the Acer n series and, of course, the Widcomm-hacked, WM5-based Dell Axim x50(v)/x51(v)'s. This is a very bad problem: developers of Bluetooth applications should at last notice that, as has already been pointed out in my articles (example here), Broadcom has in the meantime made its WinCE SDK freely available.
Available versions and differences between them; Bluejacking support in the trial version
There are two versions worth mentioning; first, of course, the latest one, 1.2.368, available here.
Bluejacking (see this article for a complete description), one of the most important and innovative (no other Pocket PC application is capable of this) feature of the application, is completely disabled in the latest, above-linked version. Older versions (for example, version 1.1.237 available here at ClickApps), however, still support this functionality in the demo, except mass-sending more than one file at a time. That is, if you want to give this functionality a try in the demo version (I certainly recommend it), get the older version.
Some examples of it in action
A Pocket PC device discovering two other Pocket PC’s.
Compared to MS Portrait or any other TCP/IP-based chatter application (including IRC clients), its chat feature is a bit more complicated to use. This is how it happens in practice: Sending a message: step 1, step 2. On the receiving end, you get it (note that if you see it this way, it means you’ve forgotten to disable the auto-receive of incoming beam) and save it. If you answer Yes, you’ll be taken to the messages; it's only then that you'll be able to read it. There, you can, for example, reply to the sender.
Examples of file transfer (sending files) 1, 2 3 (sending multiple files like this doesn’t work in the demo). At the receiving end, they’re saved in the pre-set save directory.
An example of bluejacking.
Verdict
If you want local chatting with other Microsoft BT stack-based Pocket PC's or non-Windows Mobile Bluetooth phones, give it a try. If you can’t use a Wi-Fi peer-to-peer connection (or full Internet connectivity) between your WM5 Microsoft BT stack-based devices, give it a try. If you want to do some bluejacking, give it a try. Otherwise, particularly if you have a pre-WM5 or Widcomm/Broadcom-based device, stick with the free MS Portrait.
Appendix: What about ProximityMail and Bluetooth Chat?
Unfortunately, the other two native (non TCP/IP-based, unlike MS Portrait and Gphone) Bluetooth messaging applications, ProximityMail and Bluetooth Chat (latest, tested, still available versions 1.44 and 0.5b, respectively) are both useless and no longer developed.
The former, ProximityMail, will never be updated; the developer, Inventop Corp, has removed all references to the product, including even the old download link (also see this). Its successor, BUZZeeBee (see the homepage for more info), still only has a desktop PC version. (They have been promising the Pocket PC version for months; there is still no sign of it).
The latter, Bluetooth Chat by Andrey Demidov, hasn’t been updated for three years and also seems to be completely abandoned. Needless to say, it has never really worked either.

personal i find it odd whne somebody who have that many posts
deside to make something i can only describe as a commercial

Rudegar said:
personal i find it odd whne somebody who have that many posts
deside to make something i can only describe as a commercial
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If there were a REAL alternative to this app, it wouldn't sound a commercial (check out my other, comparative reviews - I "trash" many apps I test). Unfortunately, when there is only one program for a given purpose, it's hard to write an article that doesn't sound like "musch as it has its share of problems, go get it".
As soon as there will be another, directly comparable alternate to this app, I promise to write a decent comparison

not working on omnia T_T

is there anything similar for android?

Interested in using National Weather Service Enhanced Radar Loop on your WM device?

You may have heard of (and even seen!) the National Weather Service Enhanced Radar Loop on your Windows Mobile device, particularly if you’ve visited Beverly Howard’s related link collection. This Radar loop gives a nation-wise (U.S. only) radar image of notable weather conditions and is highly useful and popular.
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(WM6 Internet Explorer Mobile screenshots on VGA devices using the CrEme Java plug-in with Use High Resolution enabled.)
In this article, unlike with Beverly Howard’s links (see the “Recommended links” section), I elaborate on making the enhanced (dynamic) version work on Windows Mobile devices. While requiring substantially more resources, it offers a lot of goodies not available in the standard (basic) version, which is a plain animated GIF without any configuration / zoom-in capabilities. For example, with the enhanced version, you can freely en/disable counties / rivers / highways; you can freely zoom in/out etc. I really recommend giving both the standard and the enhanced version a try on your desktop browser to see the differences – you’ll love the enhanced capabilities of the latter. (Let it download and install the Java plug-in if it isn’t already installed.)
I’ve already elaborated on the Windows Mobile (WM for short) compliance of the enhanced Radar applet almost two years ago in my previous, pretty thorough article "Making the National Weather Service Enhanced Radar Loop Java applet work on your Pocket PC" (also cross-posted to MobilitySite, AximSite, BrightHand). In the meantime, however, the applet has been substantially updated (the previous version, for example, didn’t allow for dis/enabling terrain, rivers etc) and its resource needs increased, which, unfortunately, also means it has become incompatible with the majority of the Java-capable Web browsers on WM.
Two years ago, all major Java-capable browsers (Thunderhawk, Access NetFront 3.2 (the, then, current version of the browser)) and the two available WM Pocket Internet Explorer Java plug-ins, Jeode (then, tested with 1.7.1) and CrEme (then 4.0) ran the applet pretty well.
Unfortunately, this is no longer the case. I’ve given the applet a very thorough try in the following configurations:
WM2003 / WM5 / WM6 + NetFront 3.3 (the last NetFront version commercially available; that is, having a Java plug-in)
WM2003 + NetFront 3.2 (version 3.2 is not compatible with newer WM versions)
WM2003 / WM5 / WM6 + Jeode 1.7.1
WM2003 iPAQ 2210 + Jeode 1.9.1 (couldn’t test it on other, newer devices because it’s locked to the iPAQ brand)
WM5 / WM6 Internet Explorer Mobile + CrEme 4.10 plug-in
The latest Thunderhawk
Of these, it’s only the latter two that still supports the Radar applet; the former three not any more. This is particularly sad with the two NetFront versions, which no longer are able to run the applet.
All in all, if you are a Thunderhawk subscriber or happen to have the CrEme JVM on your WM device, you can still enjoy the vastly enhanced capabilities of the Radar applet.
An important Thunderhawk tip
Thunderhawk, by default, uses a 640*480 zoom, converted to 320*240 on the client (even on VGA devices, unfortunately). This means fine text on images become totally unreadable as can be seen in here and here. Fortunately, with explicitly switching to low-resolution mode inside Thunderhawk, the results become pretty usable, as can be seen in the following screenshot:
Additional remarks & screenshots for geeks & WM gurus
NetFront 3.3: stops at 30-33% on all supported OS’es (WM2003, WM5, WM6) (device.exe and cvm.exe crashes when the dynamic memory is either fully filled in – with devices having less than 31-32M of RAM before starting to load the page or after allocating some 35Mbyte of RAM on devices with more memory). Under the old 3.2 with a WM2003 device having initially less free memory than 35 Mbytes, at least it stated it’s because of the shortage of RAM that it can’t go further. Of course, decreasing the initially 1 Mbyte warning threshold to 0 Mbytes (as is recommended by NetFront) doesn’t help – it just further results in the entire device’s locking up (particularly under WM5, where the free RAM threshold of the system becoming unstable and messed-up is around 1.5 Mbytes).
On the two tested Jeode versions (used with PIE / IEM), it won’t ever stop loading. On a freshly hard reset and, therefore, absolutely clean iPAQ 2210: after allocating some 35M of memory, it didn’t go on; the same stands for NF 3.2 and 3.3 running on WM2003.
Recommended links
Beverly Howard’s link collection, linking to GIF animations.
Windows Mobile Web Browsing Bible - the source of ALL Web Browsing-related information. A MUST read!

Extend your phone’s battery life II: (auto-)terminate unnecessary data connections

In Part I of this series, I’ve elaborated on how quickly switching the 3G and GSM modes to prolong battery life. In this article, I discuss an equally important question: forcing the connection to be closed after a predefined time.
Note that the two situations (and solutions_ are radically different:
Switching between 3G and GSM bands is highly recommended even if you don’t use data connections, “only” phone calls. This is because the radio module of the phone needs a lot more power to maintain a connection with the higher-frequency 3G towers. Again, this has nothing to do with data connections being used or not.
Switching back to GSM, of course, can’t be utilized on non-3G-capable handsets like all TI OMAP-based Windows Mobile phones. The reason for this is that phones of the latter type don’t have access to 3G networks at all and are all operating in GSM networks.
Terminating data connections, on the other hand, are absolutely independent of the band you use and can (should), therefore, be used in both 3G and GSM (pre-3G) modes. This also means terminating a data connection is usable on non-3G-capable handsets too. Remember that switching back to the GSM band don’t work on these handsets as they can’t even use 3G bands.
1.1 Why no auto-disconnect when I exit the program using the connection?
First, some theory, which will be of extreme importance to people coming from other operating systems. Windows Mobile uses the following approach: “when you establish a data connection, it’ll stay on unless you manually disconnect it”. (Fortunately, it also offers a built-in and, by default, inactive timer that does allow for disconnecting and, therefore, preserving battery life. More on this later.)
This approach is diametrically opposed to that of Symbian - the operating system of, for example, Nokia and Sony-Ericsson handsets. Symbian, as opposed to Windows Mobile, doesn’t (generally) use system-level connections. That is, you can’t just start a “global” connection and make all your programs requiring an Internet connection use it. Instead, a program wanting to pass to the Net displays you a list of “hotspots”, which includes your data accounts (and already-used Wi-Fi access points if the handset is Wi-Fi capable). When you exit the application that has opened the connection, it will also be closed, unlike in Windows Mobile (WM). That is, if you, say, connect to the Net by starting Internet Explorer Mobile (IEM) on your WM phone, after you shut down IEM, it’ll still stay on. (Note that Symbian, per se, doesn't offer auto-timeout at all.)
As active data connections consume a lot of additional battery, you will want to make sure you close them. This is particularly true when operating in 3G mode.
2. Manual disconnection
On Pocket PC’s, there’re three ways of doing this manually; one of them (the second) is also usable on MS Smartphones.
First, you can long-press the Red phone button. It’ll result in terminating the connection on most models and ROM versions.
Second, if you go to the pre-installed Connection Manager, you can just click the (active) “Data connection” icon as can be seen in THIS screenshot (the same on another Pocket PC model – the Wizard running mfrazzz’s XDA Mobile 6 Release 3 – is HERE, showing it being active (blue)).
As has already been mentioned, this is the only way to disconnect a Smartphone (a WM6 QVGA screenshot HERE). The Smartphone has no clickable Connectivity bubble and long-pressing the Red phone button results in the locking of the phone, not hanging up the connection.
Third, if you do apply the registry hacks below (see Chapter 3), you can also click the “Disconnect” button in the Connectivity bubble. This, however, requires a registry hack.
In addition, if you prefer an icon / link-based connection termination, you may also want to check out Vijay555's excellent VJVolubilis utility – more precisely, the –gprsoff command-line parameter.
3. Automatic disconnection
In a past article, I’ve already elaborated on GB-SOFT Tweak, a Pocket PC-only (incompatble with MS Smartphones) tool that lets for configuring the system to disconnect the data connection after a freely settable idling period. Check out the linked article for a mini-tutorial.
phoneAlarm, of which the band switching capabilities I’ve thoroughly explained in the previous part of this series, also has some other, data connection-related goodies in the (FULL version only!) Data Connection Settings dialog on the Addon tab. It’s also in there that the system-level auto disconnection can be configured:
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Note that you MUST reset / recycle your device for it to start working (but not in the opposite direction). It works in exactly the same way as GB-SOFT Tweak: it sets the value of HKLM\Comm\ ConnMgr\ Planner\Settings \ CacheTime in the Registry and lets the operating system disconnect when there’s no Internet activity in the pre-set time.
(Also see THIS post (in THIS XDA-Devs thread) for more info on this Registry entry.)
Also note that both these apps (phoneAlarm and GB-SOFT Tweak) can also be configured to enable the “Disconnect” button and the timer in the Connectivity bubble (as was the case in WM2003(SE)) as can be seen in THIS screenshot. This, as with the above-shown auto-timeout setting, is just a widely-known Registry hack. (If you’re interested, it’s HKLM\ControlPanel\ Phone\ Flags2 with values 8 (Disconnect button), 16 (both the Disconnect button and the timer) and 0 (neither of them); also see THIS MoDaCo Wiki page).
3.1 Registry hacks
As all these hacks are “plain” Registry hacks, you don’t necessarily need (the commercial) phoneAlarm Pro / GB-SOFT Tweak for enabling / changing them. If you aren’t afraid of directly editing the Registry, you can do it yourself, without relying on these third-party apps.
3.2 The MS Smartphone platform
So far, there have been no tutorials for MS Smartphone users on this subject (see the comments for example HERE). Therefore, I hope this section turns out to be highly useful for everyone.
The same Registry hack (HKLM\Comm\ ConnMgr\ Planner\Settings \ CacheTime) works as with Pocket PC’s. However, GB-SOFT Tweak doesn’t as it's not MS Smartphone-compliant.
Configuring the MS Smartphone version of phoneAlarm to set a pre-defined timeout is pretty easy (as of version v1.11.1): inside Config, go to Advanced Settings and look for “GPRS Auto-disconnect”:
and set it to your favorite value; for example, 1 (minutes). The result:
Note that an XDA-Devs forum member has written a .NET CF-based front-end to set these values in THIS XDA-Devs thread. He, so far, hasn’t made it available for download. I’ve just e-mailed him about this – hope he’ll do this.

Extend your phone’s battery life II: (auto-)terminate unnecessary data connections

In Part I of this series, I’ve elaborated on how quickly switching the 3G and GSM modes to prolong battery life. In this article, I discuss an equally important question: forcing the connection to be closed after a predefined time.
Note that the two situations (and solutions_ are radically different:
Switching between 3G and GSM bands is highly recommended even if you don’t use data connections, “only” phone calls. This is because the radio module of the phone needs a lot more power to maintain a connection with the higher-frequency 3G towers. Again, this has nothing to do with data connections being used or not.
Switching back to GSM, of course, can’t be utilized on non-3G-capable handsets like all TI OMAP-based Windows Mobile phones. The reason for this is that phones of the latter type don’t have access to 3G networks at all and are all operating in GSM networks.
Terminating data connections, on the other hand, are absolutely independent of the band you use and can (should), therefore, be used in both 3G and GSM (pre-3G) modes. This also means terminating a data connection is usable on non-3G-capable handsets too. Remember that switching back to the GSM band don’t work on these handsets as they can’t even use 3G bands.
1.1 Why no auto-disconnect when I exit the program using the connection?
First, some theory, which will be of extreme importance to people coming from other operating systems. Windows Mobile uses the following approach: “when you establish a data connection, it’ll stay on unless you manually disconnect it”. (Fortunately, it also offers a built-in and, by default, inactive timer that does allow for disconnecting and, therefore, preserving battery life. More on this later.)
This approach is diametrically opposed to that of Symbian - the operating system of, for example, Nokia and Sony-Ericsson handsets. Symbian, as opposed to Windows Mobile, doesn’t (generally) use system-level connections. That is, you can’t just start a “global” connection and make all your programs requiring an Internet connection use it. Instead, a program wanting to pass to the Net displays you a list of “hotspots”, which includes your data accounts (and already-used Wi-Fi access points if the handset is Wi-Fi capable). When you exit the application that has opened the connection, it will also be closed, unlike in Windows Mobile (WM). That is, if you, say, connect to the Net by starting Internet Explorer Mobile (IEM) on your WM phone, after you shut down IEM, it’ll still stay on. (Note that Symbian, per se, doesn't offer auto-timeout at all.)
As active data connections consume a lot of additional battery, you will want to make sure you close them. This is particularly true when operating in 3G mode.
2. Manual disconnection
On Pocket PC’s, there’re three ways of doing this manually; one of them (the second) is also usable on MS Smartphones.
First, you can long-press the Red phone button. It’ll result in terminating the connection on most models and ROM versions.
Second, if you go to the pre-installed Connection Manager, you can just click the (active) “Data connection” icon as can be seen in THIS screenshot (the same on another Pocket PC model – the Wizard running mfrazzz’s XDA Mobile 6 Release 3 – is HERE, showing it being active (blue)).
As has already been mentioned, this is the only way to disconnect a Smartphone (a WM6 QVGA screenshot HERE). The Smartphone has no clickable Connectivity bubble and long-pressing the Red phone button results in the locking of the phone, not hanging up the connection.
Third, if you do apply the registry hacks below (see Chapter 3), you can also click the “Disconnect” button in the Connectivity bubble. This, however, requires a registry hack.
In addition, if you prefer an icon / link-based connection termination, you may also want to check out Vijay555's excellent VJVolubilis utility – more precisely, the –gprsoff command-line parameter.
3. Automatic disconnection
In a past article, I’ve already elaborated on GB-SOFT Tweak, a Pocket PC-only (incompatble with MS Smartphones) tool that lets for configuring the system to disconnect the data connection after a freely settable idling period. Check out the linked article for a mini-tutorial.
phoneAlarm, of which the band switching capabilities I’ve thoroughly explained in the previous part of this series, also has some other, data connection-related goodies in the (FULL version only!) Data Connection Settings dialog on the Addon tab. It’s also in there that the system-level auto disconnection can be configured:
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Note that you MUST reset / recycle your device for it to start working (but not in the opposite direction). It works in exactly the same way as GB-SOFT Tweak: it sets the value of HKLM\Comm\ ConnMgr\ Planner\Settings \ CacheTime in the Registry and lets the operating system disconnect when there’s no Internet activity in the pre-set time.
(Also see THIS post (in THIS XDA-Devs thread) for more info on this Registry entry.)
Also note that both these apps (phoneAlarm and GB-SOFT Tweak) can also be configured to enable the “Disconnect” button and the timer in the Connectivity bubble (as was the case in WM2003(SE)) as can be seen in THIS screenshot. This, as with the above-shown auto-timeout setting, is just a widely-known Registry hack. (If you’re interested, it’s HKLM\ControlPanel\ Phone\ Flags2 with values 8 (Disconnect button), 16 (both the Disconnect button and the timer) and 0 (neither of them); also see THIS MoDaCo Wiki page).
3.1 Registry hacks
As all these hacks are “plain” Registry hacks, you don’t necessarily need (the commercial) phoneAlarm Pro / GB-SOFT Tweak for enabling / changing them. If you aren’t afraid of directly editing the Registry, you can do it yourself, without relying on these third-party apps.
3.2 The MS Smartphone platform
So far, there have been no tutorials for MS Smartphone users on this subject (see the comments for example HERE). Therefore, I hope this section turns out to be highly useful for everyone.
The same Registry hack (HKLM\Comm\ ConnMgr\ Planner\Settings \ CacheTime) works as with Pocket PC’s. However, GB-SOFT Tweak doesn’t as it's not MS Smartphone-compliant.
Configuring the MS Smartphone version of phoneAlarm to set a pre-defined timeout is pretty easy (as of version v1.11.1): inside Config, go to Advanced Settings and look for “GPRS Auto-disconnect”:
and set it to your favorite value; for example, 1 (minutes). The result:
Note that an XDA-Devs forum member has written a .NET CF-based front-end to set these values in THIS XDA-Devs thread. He, so far, hasn’t made it available for download. I’ve just e-mailed him about this – hope he’ll do this.

(Multiplatform) REVIEW: TiVi - a multiplatform video (!) phone application

Because of the huge prices of traditional (non-Internet-based) video phoning services, several Symbian users have been praising TiVi, a VoIP app / service with video phoning and, at least on Symbian, front camera support capabilities. As it also has a Windows Mobile version, I gave it a very thorough, three-platform (desktop Windows, Symbian and Windows Mobile) ride to find out what it's really capable of.
1.1 Registration, Web page
Fortunately, using the service for TiVi - TiVi connections is absolutely free (as opposed to what some people state in some Symbian forums) and works over fully (on both sides) firewalled connections. To being able to reach your buddies, you'll need to register a nickname on the central server. This is pretty easy and can be done HERE.
You'll also need to download the client software; it's available for the desktop HERE and for mobile platforms HERE. Install it; after starting it, press the left softkeys on both mobile platforms and go to Config. There, fill in your login name / password. After this, you'll become available for the others; using your nick instead of a "traditional" number will work when calling you. Note that it also has a built-in Contacts list and also has access to the system-level contacts, offering (of course, non-free - as opposed to in-network calls) dial-out capabilities for them.
Note that the page and the service themselves are pretty far away from being professional. Latvian is used on some both the Web pages (even when using English) and, which is even worse, in the answering machine. This, of course, isn't that problematic, particularly if you speak some Slavonic language because, then, you'll understand at least the last two words of the answering machine message and can deduce what takes place. And, it's only in the first occasion that this can cause any kind of confusion.
1.2 Screenshots
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(a Symbian shot showing the output of the HTC Universal - that is, the Nokia itself, me trying very hard to make a screenshot on it. In the upper left corner, you can also see Nokia's own camera image (of the Universal, with 180 degrees rotated screen, in front of it). Note that the Symbian version, in addition to stopping / restarting video, also supports switching between the front/back cameras if you press 0. By default, the front camera is used, of course.)
(a Windows Mobile HTC Universal screenshot showing the image received from the Nokia N95 and its own picture in the upper left corner. As you can see, the client doesn't even display a button shortcut to switch between the front and the back cameras)
1.3 Operating system compliance; issues
Under desktop Windows operating systems, the client is not really polished but, at least, works. Its usage is pretty tricky and not really intuitive (requires a lot of getting used to): for example, you need to click a given button twice to initiate an audio-only / video call. Nevertheless, it has no problems using my Creative Live! Cam Vista IM webcamera.
Let me know if you just can't find out how the client needs to be operated and I publish a mini-tutorial on it. Again, it's not really intuitive; it took me at least an hour to find out how the three clients work, how they differ and how calls should be initiated.
On Symbian (thoroughly tested this on the Nokia N95 with both Wi-Fi and GPRS / 3G connections (the latter being firewalled and NAT'ed), it worked pretty well: it's able to use both cameras and any kind of connection type. The only problem is the lack of the speakerphone support (despite the title of the left softkey). This means you must use some kind of a headset when using the app.
On Windows Mobile, the situation is a bit worse (tested this with the latest version with CAB internal filedates of 03/2008): as I've guessed, it doesn't support front cameras at all - as is, unfortunately, the case with MS Portrait 3.1 (see review and report HERE). Second, very few models (currently, from HTC, only the HTC Tornado and s620 MS Smartphones and HTC Universal / Wizard Pocket PC's; from HP, the hw6515, and, from Asus, the A716) are supported. Note that at least the two Pocket PC versions (that of the Wizard and the Universal) are exactly the same. Also note that the names are pretty much messed up; for example, under HTC, the Qtek names are listed.
Incidentally, upon installing it on a pretty much crowded HTC Universal on a card, it only seemed to support cellular connections; it just coulnd't make use of Wi-Fi connections. Furthermore, after the first (or second?) restart, it wouldn't connect to the server any more (not even thorugh, of course, a cellular connection) - it just displayed the "Cannot register. Reason: Connection timed out" message. Needless to say that under exactly the same circumstances the Symbian and the desktop Windows versions worked just OK. After a hard reset and reinstalling the client on a clean machine, everything started to work just fine.
The lack of the front camera support can only be fixed in some special cases; for example, the rotatable Universal where you can use the back camera while still seeing the screen; in no other cases. But, then, it's somewhat better to go straight for the way better and reliable MS Portrait instead because it's just more thoroughly optimized and bugfixed. Unless, of course, you need to talk to other TiVi users.
1.4 Speed, data usage
Video phoning is astonishingly good even over slow-speed GPRS. In these cases, you'll want to avoid using uplink video so that uplink audio get all the uplink bandwidth (which, in most cases, will only be sufficient for a stream with moderate pauses) - as has already been explained in my past VoIP articles. Otherwise, should you have at least an EDGE connection, you won't encounter any problems.
As it doesn't really require 3G speeds (unlike the audio-only Skype), if you do have EDGE (and not just GPRS), you can safely switch to 2G mode to avoid excess data usage - and, of course, power consumption, particularly if you always let the client run in the background, waiting for incoming calls. I've explained how this needs to be done on both Windows Mobile and Symbian in THIS article.
2. Verdict
On Windows Mobile, the only usage area I recommend it (if you run it on a rotatable model like the Universal) is connecting to a Symbian phone. Symbian having no other video phoning-capable software (Palringo - see the multiplatform review HERE - is only capable of sending static shots), Symbian users will need to use this client. For talking to other Windows Mobile phones (preferably, HTC Universals with their 180% rotatable screens), you may want to prefer MS Portrait instead - and, again, for talking to desktop Windows clients too.
On Symbian, this is a highly recommended solution, should you want to talk to other Symbian folks with a front camera and/or desktop folks and/or Windows Mobile folks with HTC Universals.