Just now I've received an e-mail from a reader in Toronto, Canada, who started Windows Vista Help, a website with resources and information for Windows Vista Users.

The information in the site is in a format that is easy for novices and non-technical users to understand.

If you want to get a bit more information or need some Windows Vista Help, check his site.

According to the BBC, China has launched a Nigerian satellite, to provide broadcasting and broadband services to African nations.

How many more 419 scam e-mails will be landing in your inbox from now on?

I first saw and used Aangel in May 2004. You can read my brief review with a couple of screenshots, published back then.

In short it's a service that allows you to call a number from your mobile phone, dictate a task, reminder, contact details or appointment and have the information sent to your mobile as a SMS - and the SMS can also come as a vcal or vcard attachment so it's automatically entered on your phone's database. You also receive an e-mail with a wave file and your recording, for the records.

Just now I read that Jott has received some funding. Jott seems to be very similar to aangel, except that it doesn't seem to send the SMS, but it allows jotted messages to be sent to yourself, or to a group.

Aangel is just another example of mobile services that are developed outside the U.S. but are not known outside their original market.

I first noticed Jott on Scobble's "Killer app for cell phones: Jott" post.

By the way, I hear Aangel is in negotiations with Telecom New Zealand. They currently offer the service only to Vodafone customers, but they may extend access to the service to Telecom users as well. Stay tuned.

I've been using Groove for a couple of years now, just after Microsoft bought the Groove Networks. It's a fantastic collaboration and sharing tool. Groove is now part of Microsoft Office (as an individual product and as part of Office 2007 Ultimate), but Microsoft changed it a bit.

You see, some of the "tools" were removed, and a robust 64 bit server was added.

A bit of history: Groove founder, Ray Ozzie, created Lotus Notes. After Microsoft's acquisition of Groove Networks Ray Ozzie replaced Bill Gates as Microsoft's Chief Architect. This is no easy task.

But this post is just to say that I'd really like to see a Groove Windows Mobile client. And after some searches I found this is not completely a crazy idea. An article on Infoworld says

HOW DO YOU PORT 5 million lines of Win32/COM code to the Pocket PC? That was the dilemma that Groove Networks faced when considering how to bring its ultrasecure peer collaboration technology to mobile devices.

The first release, due later this year, will wrap SOAP/WSDL interfaces around the core elements of the Groove architecture: accounts, identities, contacts, shared-space membership, and presence. It will also encapsulate the most common tools used in shared spaces: Discussion, Files, and Calendar. To export access to these Web services, a SOAP server runs alongside the Groove client.

In fact, another article on Infoworld tells us that

Indeed, Groove will use a PDC keynote to demonstrate alpha code of a Groove application running on a Pocket PC device.

Microsoft gets a sexy new pervasive application built with the just-shipping .NET Compact Framework, and Groove goes mobile with rapid development tools that leverage .NET's SOAP services-processing architecture and Pocket PC 2002 support for Windows Messenger, VPNs, and 802.11b wireless.

This was back in 2002. Since then a lot changed... I am not sure we will see a Groove client for mobile devices now.

The Xbox Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta is not starting for another couple of days, but I was invited for a sneak peek preview of this new game, and below are some photographs of Microsoft's Xbox 360 Lounge setup.

First some informaton on this beta. Players will have access to Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta from Wednesday 16 May 2007 5am PDT through 6 June 2007 11:59 PM PDT.

The Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta will only work on Xbox Live and only allows Matchmaking play. You will not be able to play any custom of offline games.

The following will be included in the Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta:

- Three new multiplayer maps: Snowbound, High Ground and Valhalla;

- New weapons sch as the Magnum M6G Pistol, Assault Rifle MA5C ICWS, Brute Spiker Type 25 Carbine, Spike Grenades, Spartan Laser WAV M6 GGNR, Machinegun Turret AIE 486H HMG and Missile Pods (you can see some of the guns in my previous post);

- The Mongoose M274 ULATV is a fast two-man ATM for transport across the battlefield and while it doesn't come with any weaponry the passenger is free to use any equipped weapons;

- Several new equipments such as the Bubble Shield, Portable Grav Lift, Trip Mine and Energy Drainer;

- Improved Matchmaking and Party System;

- After each multiplayer game players will be able to save a film of their last match and watch it locally or upload it. While this is limited to a first person real-time playback only during the beta, the final version will allow full control of the camera. The Save Film option can be played back on HD 1080p and Dolby Digital 5.1. A long game may use about 6 MB of space and Microsoft is making 25 MB available during the beta.

The download is about 900 MB and wll be available from the Marketplace if you have a beta code, or through the Downloads section when you insert the Crackdown game.

A new Party Up feature allows games to vote and party up at the end of each game, so they can continue to play as a single party in future games.

Below are some pictures I snapped during the session today:



















I also managed to take a couple of pictures of the upcoming Halo 2 for Windows Vista:






All very exciting, but I am really waiting for Shadowrun for Windows Vista, which will allow PC gamers to interact and play against and with people online on Xbox Live.

It appears Microsoft is finally coming out with its online storage service, called Windows Live Folders and rumoured for a long time to be part of the Windows Live services suite.

There are reports - and even a review! - on liveside.net.

Initially it will allow users to store 500MB online, but since this will be a beta I imagine this limit will be higher in the actual service, and probably you could even purchase additional storage.

The review doesn't say how this service interacts with FolderShare a folder synchronisation and sharing tool acquired by Microsoft a couple of years ago. FolderShare promised lots because of its delta sharing capabilities, though Microsoft removed that functionality because it was based on open-source in the original software.


Windows Live Folders allows you to create private, public and shared folders. Everything is done through the browser.

It looks interesting but it probably requires lots of management, otherwise you will end up filling it fast. My Canon D-SLR currently holds a 2GB SD card, and have two 1GB spare cards. If I take a full card of pictures Windows Live Folders wouldn't have enough space to store it. But for people with office documents this could be ideal.

The login page has been down for a while, but it should be open to beta testers soon.

As usual, we can only draw conclusions when the beta is completed and the final product emerges.

Just after I posted about my upcoming trip for the exclusive preview of Halo 3 beta, I found the Halo 3 beta press pack... Here are a few images from that archive:

Have you always wanted to know for sure why your Windows Mobile Smartphone requires signed applications, while a Windows Mobile Pocket PC doesn't need them?

Check this post in thw Windows Mobile Team blog about Windows Mobile Security White Papers. You will find out a lot in two booklets avaialble online, Security Considerations for Windows Mobile Messaging in the Enterprise and Security Model for Windows Mobile 5.0 and Windows Mobile 6.

A light humour post for today... One of the funniest sites on the Internet is engrish.com. Today I've sent this picture as my contribution to that site:



This is in the back of a MR2 and says:

Nature sporty professional
More innovation more adult
A man in dandism
Powered midship specialty

Uh?

This is an update on an early post of mine regarding Fairfax's The Independent Financial Review subscription problems.

I've received a phone call from The Independent and I was told that the person doing the subscription updates made a mistake. They genuinely believe (and so do I) it was an honest mistake because the person wasn't receiving any commision on subscribers' renewal.

Since I wrote a full post about the incident, it's only fair I write another full post about their process, contact and the (valid) apology.