Developing Pocket PC Applications using Visual Studio.NET 2003 - What are Pocket PC, Pocket PC Phone and Smart Phone?
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The Pocket PC runs Windows CE as its core operating system. Pocket PCs come with mobile versions of Office applications in addition to Microsoft Outlook Mobile. Though there are different Pocket PCs, many come with Wi-Fi to enable you to connect to the Internet when you are in a wireless hotspot. You can compose email messages and send them by synchronizing with your desktop computer or wirelessly when you’re in a hotspot.
Pocket PC Phone is a bit different from ordinary Pocket PC. You can do everything with a Pocket PC Phone that you can do with a Pocket PC, but with the addition of wireless access to the Internet and cellular phone capabilities. If you have a Pocket PC Phone, you can access the Internet through your wireless connection.
A smart phone has phone capabilities and comes with a smaller set of applications. Though you can add third-party software titles to your smart phone, the smaller keypad and screen are designed to give you quick one-handed access to important data. A smart phone is a good choice for business users who need to check email, keep track of their calendars, and take voice notes, but who don’t need the added functionality of Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, and PowerPoint Mobile.
The most important issue to remember before buying any Pocket PC, Pocket PC Phone or Smart Phone is to find out whether it is supported by the Windows platform or not. There exist several flavors of Smart Phones and Pocket PCs on the market. Some support the Windows platform, and some do not. To really execute and test the samples in this article in a practical environment, it is suggested that you have a “Pocket PC 2003 Second Edition powered by Windows Mobile Operating system” (but not mandatory).
Is a Pocket PC compulsory for working on and testing our Pocket PC applications?
Before explaining what we need, let us discuss what the Pocket PC really contains internally. A Pocket PC is primarily built upon Windows CE. The latest Windows CE OS already has its own version of the .NET Framework called “.NET Compact Framework.”
Any of the latest devices powered by “Windows Mobile” work with the .NET compact framework. The latest (at the time of this writing) “Pocket PC 2003 Second Edition” has its own version of the .NET Compact Framework directly installed in ROM. This gives you much less of a headache for any deployment scenarios.
Now, let us come to our concept. Do we really need to have a physical Pocket PC to execute and test our applications? No, you can still execute and test the solutions in this article without having any physical Pocket PC. This can be done using “Pocket PC emulators” installed along with your Visual Studio.NET 2003.
We have several types of emulators for developing Smart Device applications. Several of them include the emulators for Pocket PC, Smart Phone and even Windows CE. Both emulators and the .NET Compact Framework get installed automatically, if you select “Smart Device Client Extensions” during your Visual Studio.NET installation. If they are not installed, you will not be able to run execute the samples in this article.
I also suggest that you download and install Pocket PC 2003 SDK and the latest Pocket PC emulators from the Microsoft website. The download is free, and I use them in this article.
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