"Get the new Microsoft Office Mobile and you’ll have Office 2007 file compatibility in hand."

Pretty cool free offer from Microsoft. If you have a Windows Mobile 6 smartphone or Windows Mobile 5.0 touch screen device that came with an earlier version of Office Mobile you can upgrade to Office Mobile 6.1 for free.

Get the new Office Mobile

Ars Technica has a good write up of Windows Live Messenger 9 Beta.

Windows Live Messenger 9 Features

• Multiple Points of Presence Support: Ever been annoyed by the fact that logging onto Messenger from another computer logs you out of the first one? If so, you'll be glad to be able to log on from multiple locations at once. And so will you.
• Signature sounds: Find new and creative ways to annoy your coworkers with personalized sound signatures.
• Per-contact sounds: That one friend who keeps annoying you with constant IM's? Give them a rude sound.
• Animated .GIF display pictures: Now your friends can be forced to look at your baby while he's making silly faces.
• Links in status messages: As if there wasn't enough to click on, now URLs in the status bar can be clicked.
• Anti-spam filter: You can now report users who spam you via IM, which should do absolutely nothing to stop them in future.

Get the new Windows Live Messenger 9 Beta

If you have an XBox 360 and you have Guitar Hero 3, you can now download the Halo Theme as a playable track!

Download the "Halo Theme Mjolnir Mix" mp3 here.

Source: Rock the Halo theme free for Guitar Hero III tomorrow - Joystiq

I can't believe it is already Thanksgiving. The year has just flown by.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the holidays!

Chris Williams has a post on his blog listing some of his best Halloween movie picks.

Here are mine:

IMDB: Army of Darkness	IMDB: Hannibal	IMDB: Shaun of the Dead

Yesterday, Saturday, October 20, 2007, I did a presentation at the Fall 2007 Charlotte Code Camp. I actually ended up doing an encore presentation due to the overwhelming number of people who showed up. My presentation was titled "Visual Studio 2005 Tips & Tricks".

Presentation Highlights:

• Tons and tons of Visual Studio 2005 keyboard shortcuts
• Windows keyboard shortcuts
• Internet Web browser shortcuts
• Many developer utilities and tools for Visual Studio 2005
• and more..

If you attended the event, or are just curious, and would like to have the slide deck I presented just use the link below:

Visual Studio 2005 Tips & Tricks Presentation PowerPoint

Last week I did a presentation at our South Carolina Code Camp 2.0. It was a great event, and I think the presentation went very well. My presentation was titled "A Lap around Windows Mobile", and I showed it during my Welcome to the World of Windows Mobile Development session.

Presentation Highlights:

• What's new in Windows Mobile 6
• Demonstration of AT&T Tilt 8925
• Overview of Compact Framework .NET
• Overview of SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition
• Overview of OpenNETCF's Smart Device Framework
• Demos
• Silverlight Mobile
• And more...

If you attended the event, or are just curious, and would like to have the slide deck I presented just use the link below:

Welcome to the World of Windows Mobile Development: A Lap around Windows Mobile Presentation PowerPoint

I really like Windows Mobile Live Search. It's a great example of how to make a truly standout application for Windows Mobile.

It looks great and it works great. And now it even has speech recognition.

The only Live Search for Windows Mobile needs now to really give TomTom a run for its money is text-to-speech support for reading out direction that need to be taken in order to reach given destination.

Maps and Navigation	Quick and Natural Interaction	Theater Show Times
Gas Prices	Traffic Conditions	Turn-by-Turn Directions

To PDANUG Members:

Wednesday, October 17th, 2007

Topic: Russ Fustino’s Tool Shed Tour

Wednesday, October 17th, 2007, is our next meeting of  Pee Dee Area .NET User Group.

Event Grand Prize: One copy of Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 will be given to one lucky attendee.

It's All About The Tools – (It's AATT)  Episode One!

Did you ever feel inundated with developer tools? Did you ever feel you are missing something that could make your life easier as a developer and as a power user? There are so many tools available to choose from and it keeps getting tougher to keep up with. Tool familiarity continues to be one of the top developer challenges. This series of seminars is all about tools for developers, by developers. Join Microsoft Florida Developer Evangelist Russ Fustino he brings you demos and discussion about favorite developer tools. Attend this session and see  tools including but not limited to: Fiddler, Web Stress tool, IE Developer Toolbar, Visual Studio IDE Tools, Live Services, and Community tool web sites. There's something here for everyone, from beginners to experts. Don’t miss this event. It’s where “It’s AATT”!

See you there!

Here is the tentative schedule:

6:00 PM - 6:20 PM Socializing / Dinner
6:20 PM - 6:30 PM Introduction, Sponsor Time, and News.
6:30 PM - 7:45 PM Presentation
7:45 PM - 8:00 PM Drawing and Wrap Up

Please subscribe to the PDANUG Upcoming Events and News Feed here.

Thanks,

http://www.pdanug.net/

I had to scour all the local AT&T stores but Saturday night, but I was finally able to pick my very own AT&T 8925.

So far this appears to be the perfect phone that has every feature you could want:

• Windows Mobile 6 Professional
• Stereo Bluetooth 2.0
• Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)
• Mini-USB connectivity
• MicroSD
• Push to Talk
• 3.0 megapixel camera with auto-focus and video
• 256 MB Flash ROM / 128 MB SDRAM
• Hands-free communication with speakerphone and headphone jack
• GPS
• Integrated trackwheel for ease of navigation
• Touch screen with stylus
• Easy text entry with sliding QWERTY keyboard
• Talk time: up to 4 hours
• Standby time: up to 8 days
• 2.8" 240x320 color QVGA screen
• TTY compatible
• QUALCOMM Dual Core 400MHz Processor
• The coolest tilting screen you ever seen

I put together a good collection of screens from the AT&T Tilt below. All thumbnails can be clicked to see larger images.