Review: W1060 7-inch MID by WireLession

[pphilipp]

Has anyone downloaded the marketplace app and attempted to connect with the Windows CE marketplace??

[FriendOfEntropy]

There may not be many developers here, but I figure this is worth a shot...if nothing else, Kathy from Wistech may see it and offer up a solution or a new SDK.

As a potential buyer of this device and a C# developer, I was excited to see that Witstech offered up the R3 SDK with emulator for download.

Even before buying the actual device, I thought, great...I can download the SDK and write some Hello World apps in .NET Compact Framework using Visual Studio 2008 and deploy them to the emulator to see how it runs...explore the APIs they included in their OS build, etc. 800 x 480 in raw CE is exciting after being constrained to small windows in PocketPC OSes.

Has anyone else tried this? The VS device emulator manager connects to the emulator image just fine. I can start up the emulator after a build just fine.

What I can't do is have studio successfully deploy the app to the emulator.

I thought they might have some uber security config set on their emulator, but the Device Security manager tool in VS also throws an exception.

I'm not sure if it's my problem, or if Witstech has a problem with their R3 SDK they built and offered for download.

One other tidbit, I found on both 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows 7, you need to choose "custom install" instead of "complete" when installing the SDK. You have to uncheck the Documentation section of the SDK or the install fails every time it seems. Once you leave out documentation, shared components and the emulator install with no problem then.

[pphilipp]

Are you ready for Christmas in June?

I finally received my W1060/A81 and I'm already loading it to the brim with apps.

Over at the HPCfactor forum (the best Wince forum around), someone has uploaded a file filled with multitudes of apps which run on Windows CE 6.
Almost everything I've tried works on our Wits tablet!!
(((You won't believe how incredible the Iris Web Browser works... and I had never even heard of it before!)))

Are you dieing for the link?
Here it is...
http://filefactory.com/file/b40cdc6/...E6freeware.zip

Let me know what you think.

[zapikoe]

@pphilipp
Thank your for the link! Looking forward to download and play along with the apps.
On my Windows Mobile phone I used Iris Browser as a primary browser, and it's based on same Webkit engine as used in Safari/Dolphin. It's blazingly fast!
With many sites will showing an iphone/android version, for the nature of it's same engine inheritance.

It is also THE browser that RIM has bought, to augment a speedier browser.
IMHO, afterward development of Iris have stalled, and seems to be in the near future RIM is going to utilize Webkit based browser by default for their Blackberry handsets.

[ColdSun]

That is a fantastic collection of WinCE apps! Thank you so much. I thought my collection was good until this one.

FriendofEntropy - are you creating a CAB file of your project and then attempting to install? It sounds like you are trying to deploy it to the device like you would a custom Zune application. I'm all upgraded to Visual Studio 2010. I should try to make another custom UI for WinCE. I am very interested in the new Windows 7 Embedded coming out!

[FriendOfEntropy]

Not sure about Zune, but likely the same build/deploy/debug deal with studio. My previous device experience had been VS 2003 and Pocket PC against the original compact framework (Toshiba e310... so very ancient first gen pocket pc emulator).

So I figured you could build/debug and have studio auto deploy to a CE emulator image for you. Sure enough VS 2008 attempts to deploy the app and gives an error message.

Okay, I figure, maybe this Wits SDK has an issue with auto deploy from studio, and I tried to copy a CAB to the "storage card" shared folder...only to find??????

The Wits SDK Emulator image does not have WCELOAD.EXE on it. Uncheck all the "hide" options, still cannot find it.

That explains deployment failing and sure explains why even manually clicking on a CAB file has the emulator give you a "nothing associated with CAB file types" message.

So maybe something they forgot in the image when they built their SDK? I can't imagine the Platform Builder would ever give you the option to create an emulator that did NOT have the wceload exe on it. That's be like windows desktop not having msiexec, LOL.

(well okay, I guess I can see how you might want to build something embedded that will never need the installer, but you'd think it would be selected by default on building an SDK and you'd have to deliberately choose not to include wceload)

Originally Posted by ColdSun

FriendofEntropy - are you creating a CAB file of your project and then attempting to install? It sounds like you are trying to deploy it to the device like you would a custom Zune application.

[pphilipp]

Okay, I'm loving my new A81 and have customized the dickens out of it already!

Confession: even though I really like having the Silverlight interface, I found it too restricting and removed it after the first day. Now I'm back to the old ugly traditional desktop which I'm so familiar with (it hasn't changed in over a decade). Doesn't bother me one bit.

Now, for my infamously ignorant questions...
The keyboard/transcriber.
Does anyone else have a problem where it occasionally stays on screen and there is no way of hiding it, unless rebooting? And when the screen is rotated, the keyboard is too wide for the screen? Solutions?

Standby on battery.
Upon reviving the device, the screen often is either solid black or solid white. No amount of clicking or prodding seems to help. Once again, only a 'force off' seems to bring it back to normal.

Certain websites.
Something on specific webpages suck all the available memory and for all practical purposes the device becomes unfunctional... until that force quit!!

Coreplayer.
I keep hearing how good this app is but so far I haven't been able to get it to do anything at all. Am I wrong in assuming it has access to youtube? It sure isn't finding anything for me. I have no instructions and all the logical places to input text have no effect except to display "cannot be found". Aw come on... even the little free apps I've put on the A81 have no trouble going to youtube. Is there a hidden setting or dialog somewhere?

Internet Explorer.
No problem displaying most web pages but any time I attempt to download a file, it does nothing at all. Lucky that I've put several other browsers on which actually do allow me to download. (((Iris Browser gets an A+ for this)))

thanks for help.

[dmitry]

I don't know how it's now but before IE did not allow to download files from internet and to do it it was needed to install additional app (plugin). Unfortunately I don't remember which one I used.

[Icewyng]

Hello everyone,

I have read Coldsun's review and I think he did a great job on it.

Now... how far did the device evolve since then? I could see they released Android but how well does it work with the device? And is the web surfing a better experience now??

I am sure it might have been covered in the 25 pages but I only have a small amount of time to check the net everyday with the laptop

Thanks!

[Dalkor]

Icewyng

Originally Posted by izx

Kathy emailed me that a new version was on the way, by the end of May, with the following features:

1) OS: WinCE 6.0 --> WinCE 6.0/Android 1.6
2) Updated GPS hardware with better sensitivity
3) Adds one USB port and 3 buttons (for Android, I'm guessing)
4) Supports capacitive touch screen

JTShop also informed me that they will have a new model available on May 20th, which might be this one.

This. Though release was delayed and new release date is something like "as soon as we will make it work".

[pphilipp]

Originally Posted by Icewyng

Hello everyone,

Now... how far did the device evolve since then? I could see they released Android but how well does it work with the device? And is the web surfing a better experience now??

Thanks!

I have a hot-from-the-factory W1060 (owned about a week now) and I can tell you what I've noticed, as compared to the older postings.

First, on my unit, the wifi is exceptional! I've never owned any laptop or desktop which picks-up the wifi quicker than this. It takes the device about 15 to 20 seconds to boot up and it seems within a couple of seconds it's already connected to the wifi. It puts all my laptops to shame.

Second, for simple web-browsing, it seems to be fairly quick and relatively trouble-free... for a device like this (don't compare it to a regular laptop). The new IE is pretty good, it must be better than the original, based on all the early complaints I've read. I have found a couple other browsers work well too. The one I use the most is Iris, which also allows good quick downloads (which IE doesn't). But you must be aware that some websites throw everything off, such as the Comcast website which eats every bit of memory the W1060 has to offer. Flash 10 is a no-go as well.

One issue which is driving me crazy is the 'standby' feature. 3/4 of the time when I hit standby, the W1060 will not come out of it... it brings up either a solid white screen or a solid black one. I then force quit and start all over again. I'm hoping someone else might be able to explain this or have a work-around for it. Perhaps this problem stems from something which I've put onto the device... I've added well over a hundred apps onto an 8gb card now, maybe one of them is causing a problem.

Otherwise, there are still some issues, but nothing to make me despise the unit (which I did with a recent Chinese Android device).

[tank4141]

I just got a 1060 and I'm having aproblem maybe someone can help me with. I can't add mobireader to the device. when I hook it up to my pc mobireader recognizes it and tries to install but then I get amessage on the device that says "this application cannot run on this device type. Please install the application specific to this device type." I'm stuck and don't know how to get mobireader on the device. Thanks anyone who can help me. The unit works great other than that and I'm liking everything else about it.

[Dalkor]

Does anybody know which one of these http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_I...nts_OMAP#OMAP3 is inside A81/W1060?

[Icewyng]

@pphilipp

Thank you for your reply. I was a bit hesitant to get the device due to the web browsing problems. I understand it is not a PC but to have a decent web browsing experience would be useful.

Since I mostly surf on forums and would use the W1060 for this (other than comic/book reading), flash 10 would not be such a big issue. Have you tried other browsers beside IE and Iris?

Also, no mention about Android... There seems to be some conflicting reports about this. Was it released?

Thanks for your time. It is appreciated.

[Icewyng]

Originally Posted by Dalkor

Does anybody know which one of these http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_I...nts_OMAP#OMAP3 is inside A81/W1060?

This is what they have on the official website:

Processor: ARM CORTEX A8 OMAP3530 600M, and dedicated DSP graphic core

Hope it helps.