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Published Letters: 45
Editor's Choice: 4
If you are waiting for the breakthrough of something like Skype on an iPhone, you're about 1-2 years behind the times (Skype for WM5/WM6 has been around for a while). This is because MS has had a WinCE or Windows Mobile SDK out for years. The SDK is free, but you need to have a non-free version of Visual Studio to use it.
More importantly, you don't have to use a MS server to download the apps, so the developers don't have to pay MS squat. Apple's 30% cut can't be considered anything close to reasonable.
Here's some 3rd-party apps I have or have had installed on my Windows Mobile pocketpc:
Skype
Kevtris - tetris-like game
Pocket sudoku
Dope Wars
Adobe Flash/FlashLite (compatible with Flash 7)
Adobe acrobat reader
acbPower meter - for monitoring power useage
GPS viewer (for viewing data from bluetooth GPS receiver)
ibisBrowser - proxy-based web browser
Opera Mini - another proxy-based web browser
Java midlet manager - run any java-based midlet app
TCPMP - alternate to WMP and used for Flash video workaround
Pocket Player - alt to WMP includes equalizer, UPnP, DRM, etc.
Streaming Media - allows streaming video not supported by WMP
ThaiWinCE - addin to allow Thai keyboard and handwriting
Total Commander - powerful file manager/registry editor
Task Manager - task manager/reg editor/service mgr/network mgr
Screen Capture - good for posting in forums
putty - ssh client for *nix terminal
1CalcLite - calculator w/unit conversions
Yahoo to go
A2DP tweaker - adjust settings for optimal BT stereo quality
WM5 Storage - USB mass storage access to miniSD card
HTC home - includes time/weather/contact
Live Search - maps(w/GPS),directions,traffic,local searches
VoiceCommand - voice activated searches, calls, etc.
SDHC driver update - can use >2GB cards (have 4GB of music now)
WiFiFoFum -WiFi sniffer(I never use WiFi since EVDO is as fast)
Google maps - not as good as Live Search
Some program (I forget the name) to use the camera's flash/light as a flashlight
These are in addition to the WM6 standard apps
Word
Excel
Powerpoint
Internet Sharing - PAN over BT or USB (phone as nework card)
Remote Desktop - control work computer from phone
VPN client - supports PPTP or IPSec/L2TP (single horizon)
Windows Media Player - streaming video (e.g. w/Orb - watch TV)
Plus, I've run linux on it, too (though many features aren't implemented yet).
Almost all of the things people dream of doing with the iPhone that you can't do right now (notably use Flash!) I do with my WM phone. For instance, I use Rhapsody to download full tracks for free (with the subscription) to the 4GB miniSD card. Then I use by Bluetooth stereo headset adapter to play the music with Pocket Player through my car stero without plugging anything in. Then I can use my Bluetooth GPS receiver and Live Search (or google maps, but the hybrid satellite-map view is missing) to track myself and view traffic conditions. All while using my Bluetooth earpiece for phone calls (the only Bluetooth device that works w/the iPhone AFAIK). During baseball and football seasons I stream the games from a desktop with a video capture card and Orb software installed to watch the games over EVDO (even Rev0 is usually faster than 802.11b) without being tied to a WiFi hotspot.
My only real complaints are with Adobe not supporting Flash beyond 7 (FLV support starts with Flash 8) for Windows Mobile (though they are doing so for Nokia's OS) and Rhapsody not providing either a standalone Windows Mobile Rhapsody client or a Pocket IE activex control for their web interface.
The competition Apple faces is from Windows Mobile devices which actually exist and do more than the iPhone, not Google's vaporware phone.
The problem is that Hodges, at least in this interview, is careful to make a distinction between fundamentalist Christians and what would be called mainstrem Christians, but he makes no such distiction with athiests. He talks about "New Athiests" but doesn't talk about mainstream (or less radical) athiests. Also, "fundmentalist" really can't be used to decribe any type of athiests as a fundamentalist whishes to mold society and government based upon his/her religious beliefs. If you try to apply that to athiests, you would have to call all of them anarchists.
This happens because he is trying to link political views with religious views. For fundamentalist Christians, Jews, or Muslims this might make sense - almost by definition all fundamentalist Christians are opposed to abortion and gay marriage because they are basing their political views on their religious beliefs. Athiests do not do so and even athiests who agree that they think religion should be banned can and do disagree on many political issues (like Iraq for instance).
From the interview it sounds as if Hodges is trying to fit atheism into his own comparitive-religion context. Sounds like the kind of self-worship he accuses others of.