Database Info

Android vs Windows Mobile - Functionality

Just a quick question!
How do you think Android will stack up to Windows Mobile when it comes to functionality? Android will certainly look better and be much more finger friendly,etc, but will it be closer to the limits of the iPhone when it comes to copy paste (Android has copy paste, but dont know if it works everywhere), email, contacts, and such? Will Windows Mobile fans be dissapointed or feel crippled when using Android?
Ive played around with the Android SDK a bit, but i havent really gotten a definite feeling if the functionality suits my needs
Cheers!

Yes I am also looking for some forum information on this matter. I would like to know the opinion of anyone who has had a hands on experience with both OS's. Found a nice article in endgadget but I like user opinions better.

I definetly want to know too!
Here is what I want to know for the Droid...
Can you use it as wifi router?
Does it do push hotmail instantly?
Is there logmein support?
Does it work with orb?

i'm moving to Android when Acer A1 liquid is out, then Sony X10a.
Android got free gps navigation with realtime traffic! nice!

segadc said:
I definetly want to know too!
Here is what I want to know for the Droid...
Can you use it as wifi router?
Does it do push hotmail instantly?
Is there logmein support?
Does it work with orb?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Yes
2. No, not that I'm aware of anyway, but you can forward Hotmail email to your Google Account to receive it instantly.
3. Yes
4. Yes
Anything else anyone else wants to know then feel free to post here and I'll do my best to answer it in a reasonable time.
I swapped my Touch Diamond for my G1 and I can do everything that I could do on my windows mobile (although I didn't have WinMo for long)

I've had all of the mobile OS's and always come back to windows mobile. Android is approaching windows mobile when you think of the ability to flash other OS versions and wide range of applications on an open system. But windows mobile gives me true multitasking ability like a desktop computer, and windows mobile can be edited and programmed to be something else. Through haret windows mobile phones can run haret and even android.

dashauns said:
I've had all of the mobile OS's and always come back to windows mobile........
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I'm heading this way too. Android has been quite a disappointment to me. Initially I was very happy with my new Milestone that replaced an HTC Touch Pro running WM6.1. The performance difference was staggering, there really is no comparison between them. However I just find more and more things missing from Android/Milestone note this list is just a braindump, some of it's in Android, some of it's the packaging for the Milestone, I'm guessing you can tell the difference.
No Outlook Integration, I really think that should have been there out of the box, there are third party apps that i've used with varying degrees of success.
Restricted Video viewing. I used to use coreplayer to view just about anything on WM without any conversions. Now through restricted information on APIs needed to port CorePlayer to ANdroid I'm stuck with a lengthy conversion process when I want to put video on the phone.
No contact lookup while dialing from the keypad, I really miss that.
No note taking, or word editing apps built in.
Can't save attachments in email - wtf!! this is basic functionality, everytime I want to view a word file attached to an email I have to wait while it downloads form my mail server.
Can't foreward some attachment types - crazy crazy
Can't edit original text in replies or forwards - this is basic functionality missing
Cut and paste is awful - ranging from not implemented, to badly implemented depending on where you try to use it.
Can't switch an sd card without rebooting - I don't know if this is milestone specific but you actually can't remove the sd card without removing the battery.
Tethering, I'm using PDANet, I don't think there is a WMWifiRouter equivalent without rooting the phone? So I am using PDANets blueTooth Dun service, much inferior to WMWifiRouters Personal Area Network implementation.
Can't charge from my exisiting Solar charger (Power Monkey Explorer), thats a pain in the ass, not sure why it doesn't work.
Facebook Contact integration, it claims to have it but it just doesnt work
Logmein doesnt work for me, nor do citrix support it for gotomypc
I'll add more as and when.

dashauns said:
I've had all of the mobile OS's and always come back to windows mobile. Android is approaching windows mobile when you think of the ability to flash other OS versions and wide range of applications on an open system. But windows mobile gives me true multitasking ability like a desktop computer, and windows mobile can be edited and programmed to be something else. Through haret windows mobile phones can run haret and even android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
can you explain what you mean with real multitasking? what miss you on android?

Hi guys new to the forum and my first post
So I have both OS I just got a HTC HD2 Winmo 6.5 and a HTC g1 Android
To me the Android is a lot lot easyer to use then Winmo. And the Markit place is the best I have used. But the HD2 looks nice the layout is top notch but when I go behind the HTC front skine and in to the Winmo I get lost and it all so looks like my winmo PDA witch I dont like.
As you can tell im not realy in to phones that much so dont know the correct names for the stuff im talking about lol.
If I could have Android under the Htc HD2 skin I would be happy

[Q] Proximity Lock like WM6

I searched and didn't find anything related so I'm asking if anyone has thought of creating a small app that locks the device when you put it in your pocket like in WM6?

Simple and to the point:
- At the moment we cant control lock of the WP7 platform.
- Phone.Lock()
edit:
What is the app named?

Thanks for clearing that up, hopefully this feature will come in Mango. Why would Microsoft prevent us from having access?

blindpet said:
Thanks for clearing that up, hopefully this feature will come in Mango. Why would Microsoft prevent us from having access?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because WP7 can only code C#, but with bypass we can code c++, but the "procces" its running under is "LEAST_PRIVILEGED" aka you cant do a **** (file access etc with leaked/extracted dll's from e.g HTC xap files that run higher).
WP7 is kind of locked down (realy) compared with WM6.

fiinix said:
Because WP7 can only code C#, but with bypass we can code c++, but the "procces" its running under is "LEAST_PRIVILEGED" aka you cant do a **** (file access etc with leaked/extracted dll's from e.g HTC xap files that run higher).
WP7 is kind of locked down (realy) compared with WM6.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So as long as devs continue their hacking progress being able to create such an app would be possible in the future?
or will you guys never be able to code above 'least privileged' C#?
Sorry if this makes no sense I'm just trying to wrap my head around it

blindpet said:
So as long as devs continue their hacking progress being able to create such an app would be possible in the future?
or will you guys never be able to code above 'least privileged' C#?
Sorry if this makes no sense I'm just trying to wrap my head around it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It may (probably will) be possible to run higher and even run ARMv4 exe so it can be alive without being killed.
- One possibility would be that we hack the certificate rights system signing our dll with a hacked cert on the system thinking of that our dll is fully trusted
- Or that custom "policy free" (no security checks) ROMs are released making also the system more hackable by external hackers (unwanted backers that hack your phone).

How do I begin developing an app that controls my computer?

Hi guys,
I am new to app development and I have seen a lot of articles about apps that control the computer, but how would I actually go about making one? It doesn't need to be over Wifi either; it just has to be able to do basic keyboard actions over USB.
- Adam

Bump. Anyone know where I could start?

Start with c+ and toss in a little Java coding.

amarcott11 said:
Bump. Anyone know where I could start?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You haven't even described what platform you're writing said app for.
Android apps are mostly Java... The rest, I dunno. MS is probably dotNET, apple is... objective C I think?

Sorry for the lack of information. All I know so far is I have Eclipse and ADT (I am developing an Android app). I understand XML and how to develop the GUI, but when it comes to making the app communicate with a computer, I don't have a clue where to begin or how to do it.
Any tips or guidelines on tools to use or how to start are appreciated.

amarcott11 said:
Sorry for the lack of information. All I know so far is I have Eclipse and ADT (I am developing an Android app). I understand XML and how to develop the GUI, but when it comes to making the app communicate with a computer, I don't have a clue where to begin or how to do it.
Any tips or guidelines on tools to use or how to start are appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By having a server program running on your computer which accepts data you send from your android.
If you want it to be difficult, do it over usb, the easy way would be wifi.
Check up on "sockets".

Thanks for the reply. The only problem is, I need it to have very fast response time. I would like it to be as similar to a USB keyboard as possible, so I don't think WiFi would work. What makes doing it over USB difficult?

Do you have the server side app already? what exactly are you trying to control on your computer?

It doesn't matter what I'm controlling, I just want to be able to get my app to send information that a server side program can take and be able to keyboard map.
So I'll need to code with C++ for the server side and java for the app itself?
Plus, from what I've read, I've learned that the Android platform doesn't support USB hosting. Is this true? I've seen ways around it but it seems pretty cryptic.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

There already is one that is apart of the android market and you can even use it on another computer It's called Team viewer not sure if this would help you or not, but I liked it when I needed to use it.

You can do app development on a pc emeulator instead of your phone (if thats what your asking) and Google App Inventor is great, but servers are closing soon. So goodluck!

Yeah I would start looking up about c+, c++, and java coding.... goodluck

I appreciate the help. Ryan1918, I have used Teamviewer myself, but I am looking to develop more of a controller, as opposed to a remote desktop app.

amarcott11 said:
Thanks for the reply. The only problem is, I need it to have very fast response time. I would like it to be as similar to a USB keyboard as possible, so I don't think WiFi would work. What makes doing it over USB difficult?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Both can be done with java and if you program it right and the wifi signal is good you shouldnt have much of a delay.
It will be difficult to use the USB as a network interface for your application.
Using TCP/IP or UDP over Wifi will be much much easier.

I don't mean to ignore what you're saying about WiFi, but I strongly believe that for the market this app will be directed toward, USB will be necessary. I don't feel comfortable giving away my idea, but just know that my goal is to make the responsiveness virtually seamless if it is at all possible.
I will test it out with WiFi first, but in case I don't get the results I'm looking for, can you expand a little more on USB?
Will it only be hard for me on the developing side, or will the consumer have to also put in extra effort to get it to work over USB (installing other apps, rooting, etc.)? If I was to develop the app around USB, I would want it to be easy to set up if I did all the coding right.
From my continued research, I have found a few articles in the following links that might be leading me in the right direction:
http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/usb/accessory.html
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/hardware/usb/UsbManager.html
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5848876/java-sockets-transmission-in-real-time
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4762620/sending-simple-commands-from-android-through-usb

I don't have much expertise in the area, i just took a quick google shot at it and it showed from some forum posts and questions, that doing it through usb is not the easiest way.

[Q] Looking for an "app protector" app

Hey mates.
Im looking for a wm 7 alternative to the quite nice app protector android app called Smart App Protector.
What i need is the functionality to restrict my wm7 devices so the users cant enter IE, Settings and other functions than those i want them to.
When a user tries to open the browser on a android device with the smart app protector installed, they get prompted for a password, which is exactly what im looking for.
If there isnt an app that does what im looking for, does anyone know a way to restrict at least internet trafic in IE, i still need data connections, but the users wont be allowed to use data except for 1 app.
My first impression of the wm7 - 7.5 is that its very restricted compared to Android devices :S
Thanks a lot for your help.

A quick for-the-record: No such thing as WM7. Windows Mobile is dead. Although some of the underlying code got re-used in WP7, the upper part of the Windows Phone stack is completely new, and the low-level stuff has changed considerably as well. What you're asking for would probably have been quite easy on WinMo.
On WP7, it's a lot harder. There are three ways I can think of. The first and simplest would be a well-modified custom ROM. Another is to modify the policy system to prevent launching iexplore, settings3, and similar programs, but have an app that (once the password is provided) allows changing those policies. Note that we don't yet have full control over the policy system (as a community; Heathcliff74 knows quite a bit but is busy with his Root Tools project). The third would be to try modifying the registry entries for certain operations. The effectiveness of this depends on whether apps are launched directly (by executable) or indirectly (by GUIDs in the registry). If it's the latter, the launch request could be routed through an authorization app first.
Bear in mind, the only one of these changes that is permanent is a custom ROM. Otherwise, the user could hard-reset the phone (losing all data on it but bringing it back to factory default configuration). It's possible to hard-reset just using the buttons; you don't even need to use the touchscreen.

Thanks for the correction, WP7 ofc
Im rather impressed by the performance of the OS so far, but it has many unforseen restrictions for my needs.
Since i only had the windows phone 7 for 1 day so far, i dont have much knowledge about changing what you are suggesting.
I know what you mean, but no idea how to do on WP7.
A custom ROM would be great indeed, but i dont have any experience in that field. Would be great to get a nice configuration tool with a gui to make the needed changes and then a tool to upload the new ROM to the phone...in that simple order
Im also looking for a solution to install software that was supported by windows mobile. Im checking out cheronwp7 at the moment to see if that can do the trick.
It seems a lot like WP7 is 99% consumer minded than business minded compared to old WM, a bit shame imo.

Junos Pulse VPN on Surface

Hi,
due the install limitations on Windows RT, I cannot install the Junos Pulse VPN client .... Any workarounds to maken it happen ?

xivius said:
Hi,
due the install limitations on Windows RT, I cannot install the Junos Pulse VPN client .... Any workarounds to maken it happen ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same problem here.

xivius said:
Hi,
due the install limitations on Windows RT, I cannot install the Junos Pulse VPN client .... Any workarounds to maken it happen ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Buy a Surface Pro?

I am the network administrator and we at work have not found a way. We will have to wait for Juniper to create a download for RT. I tried several ways to make it work no joy.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using xda premium

Many VPN clients require a third-party driver installation, so even the current jailbreak hack (which only allows untrusted user-mode software, not drivers) wouldn't allow porting the client even if it were open source. If it's closed source, there's nothing that can be done from this end without wayyyy more reverse engineering than anybody here is likely to bother with.

Juniper are currently developing a Windows Store app for Pulse. Microsoft were late in releasing the VPN APIs to developers, but we can expect to see things like Cisco and Checkpoint too.

Glad to hear it. I'm interested in these VPN APIs; one of the limitations of the current "jailbreak" hack for RT is that we still can't install drivers, which makes it impossible to install current VPNs (and many other pieces of software). If there's a way around that, it would be awesome.

AlanJC said:
Juniper are currently developing a Windows Store app for Pulse. Microsoft were late in releasing the VPN APIs to developers, but we can expect to see things like Cisco and Checkpoint too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great news!!! With respect, I'd like to ask how do you know this?

sixsevenco said:
Great news!!! With respect, I'd like to ask how do you know this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I assume because this is a duplicate thread.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1961346&highlight=junos

jasbur17 said:
I assume because this is a duplicate thread.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1961346&highlight=junos
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AlanJC put forth new information. I'd like to know the source of his info...

It was quite simple really, if you're registered with their support forums, you can ask, and we did.
It's going to be a Windows Store app, and will work on Windows 8 and RT rather than just a downloadable exe to install under the desktop from what we can make out.

AlanJC said:
It was quite simple really, if you're registered with their support forums, you can ask, and we did.
It's going to be a Windows Store app, and will work on Windows 8 and RT rather than just a downloadable exe to install under the desktop from what we can make out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Amy timeframe for the release ?

They didn't give a timeframe, just said they were currently working on it.

Any updates ?