I'm a Windows Mobile user and have been longing for an easy way to add a new item to my toodledo lists from my phone without the lengthy process of launching the web browser.
Last week I stumbled across a handy way to do just that using Blade Lane's TwitToday plugin. This plugin allows you to update your twitter status from the today screen. But, you can also use it to send direct messages.
Using this ability and toodledo's twitter connection I can send a quick tweet like:
d toodledo Milk *Groceries
which will add Milk to my groceries list. Brilliant!
The TwitToday plugin is available here:
http://dalelane.co.uk/page.php?id=1047
Info on configuring toodledo to use twitter is here:
http://www.toodledo.com/connect_twitter.php
I've been using this on my HTC TyTN II running WM6.1
Recently in WindowsMobile Category
Here is my Windows Mobile 6.1 Today screen which contains an array of plugins which making living in the WM world a little easier.
A: SPB Software Time which is very configurable and allowed me to have the time visible but not taking up tons of realestate on the screen. Also includes the date and a quick link for setting up alarms and timers.
B: Next is Twit Today which is a small plugin that allows me to update my twitter message without having to launch a full application or browser. I have Evernote and Toodledo set to accept messages through twitter as well so quick posts both of those can be made through here as well.
C: This is the Today plugin from the SPB Software Mobile Shell application. I'm using version 2 because, sadly, they've changed things in version 3 that I find make it less useful. Applications can be 'pinned' to the menu and can be started by clicking on them. It also includes a backlight dimmer (extreme left on top row) which is very handy for late night reading.
D: The built in Live Search plugin which I've modified to search google.com. Google has their own Today screen search but I find it overly large and, sorry to say, ugly.
E: Pocket Innovation System Monitor freeware plugin which shows memory and battery status.
F: WebIS Pocket Informant 8.51 which reads the internal PIM databases and displays the info in much more usable formats than the built in applications.
Currently I'm experimenting with sync'ing the tasks through Outlook to toodledo.com using a small Outlook plugin. This test has been moderately successful but I would prefer having a native Windows Mobile application.
No doubt the items here will change from time to time but this grouping is a good combination of usefulness and info for now...
OK, I really don't love it but at least after six months I've made my peace with it. I have Windows Mobile 6.1 on a HTC TyTN II. It's often sluggish, sometimes crashes and has issues with corrupting the data on the storage card if the battery level drops too low. But, it does synchronize data with my desktop PC and there are tons of applications available so I've been able to get it set up fairly well. It's no iPhone and in some respects that's a good thing: I can run several applications simultaneously, I've always had cut and paste and I can buy my applications from a variety of competing software aggregation sites. Oh, and I have a spare battery and storage card in my knapsack.
The TyTN II has a slide out keyboard which I prefer to the virtual keyboard of the iPhone for typing longer documents (this review was typed entirely on the TyTN). The screen tilts to a perfect angle for reading the news sites when set on the table next to the cereal bowl in the morning.
Which leads me into one of the biggest deficiencies of the Windows Mobile OS. The built in web browser sucks. This is well known, but honestly it only sucks as much as the built in browser on my previous device: the Palm TX. At least with WM there are a few third party replacements (Opera, Iris, Skyfire) that I can install and use instead. My personal favorite is Opera 9.5, which while it's a decent browser, falls way behind when compared to Safari on the iPhone.
I've learned to install applications on the storage card rather than main memory because the device slows to a crawl if there's less than 20MB free; I've come to accept that I have to reset the device fairly often to keep it performing; I'm now used to double checking my data after a sync to make sure it was all updated both ways correctly. I've given up trying to get a decent picture using the main camera. The shutter lag is horrendous and I don't know if it's a hardware or software issue. Windows Mobile 6.5 is due out soon and even though my phone was released just over a year ago it's considered old and likely won't be updateable.
But, as I mentioned, I'm slowly learning the tricks to getting it to work for me and have downloaded some plugins to add search and twitter and useful info to my Home Page so me and my WinMo are settling in with each other just fine. If I could get the darn camera to be somewhat useable I'd even crack a smile when I talked about it!
