AT&T Tilt 2 is now shipping

October 9, 2009February 12, 2010 Wayne Zimmerman Leave a comment

I got my confirmation last night that my new phone the AT&T Tilt 2 is shipped and Fedex is working on delivering it. It looks like it should be here on Monday sometime before 4:30pm. I will be very happy to retire my current phone the Samsung Blackjack and I just hope this new phone lasts as long as the Blackjack has.

If you haven’t ordered yours yet and you have an AT&T Preimer account go check out: https://www.wireless.att.com/business/phones/phone_details_main.jsp?skuId=sku7311300030 and you will first need to login to AT&T to view this page. It currently shows $538.99 as the no-commitment price, however I got mine for $349.99 earlier in the week before the page was public, still unsure if I am signed up for 2 more years of AT&T but in any case my new phone is on the way. I will try to do a short review over it once it gets here. For more information about the phone check out the Prelaunch information I found over at http://www.waynezim.com/2009/10/att-tilt-2-prelaunch-info/.

AT&T Tilt 2 Prelaunch Info

October 5, 2009October 8, 2009 Wayne Zimmerman 1 Comment

After playing with a few HTC Pure SKU urls I came up with AT&Ts prelaunch information page. Check out the information below.

Check out the real screenshot here!

Go here to order your own real AT&T Tilt 2, you will need to login to AT&T website with your account information.

Pricing on this page shows $349.99, although AT&T said it would be $299.99 in a press release today!

UPDATE 2: I ordered one, it currently shows my order as “Shipped”, I’ll try to do a review once I get it. This should be sometime Monday

Overview

The HTC Tilt(TM) 2 is the latest Windows Phone from AT&T running Microsoft’s Windows Mobile® 6.5 Professional software. The HTC Tilt 2 features a large 3.6″ high resolution tilting color touchscreen so that you can easily explore the Web, review your email, or watch videos. In addition, this Windows phone has a full slide out / slide away QWERTY keyboard that features finger friendly keys for fast and easy text entry. The Tilt 2 offers a unique people focused method of communication with all of your contacts – no longer do you need to start different applications to view or communicate with your friends. You can now easily sort and view any type of communication with that particular contact without having the non-relevant info in the way. View all relevant calls, text messages, email, and even the latest Facebook updates by simply pivoting around a contact and filtering out the information not related to that contact. Download and install the latest applications from AT&T’s new AppCenter or discover a new application in Microsoft’s new application MarketPlace, or use any one of the applications already installed on this app friendly Windows phone. This powerful and feature rich Windows phone delivers the following features plus many more: aGPS for turn-by-turn navigation using AT&T Navigator or other location-based services, Video Share Calling for live streaming video communications, the HTC TouchFLO 3D user interface for fast and easy access to email, calendar, messaging, pictures, music, weather, stock market and more. The HTC Tilt 2 supports 3G tri-band HSDPA 7.2 and 3.6 for global voice and data connectivity, including Japan and Korea.
Included Accessories
Lithium Ion battery, AC charger, Mini-USB sync cable, Spare stylus, 3.5mm audio adaptor, Screen protector, QuickStart, Companion CD

Features
Voice & Calling

* Advanced Speakerphone with mute button (dual speakers and dual noise / echo cancelation microphone)
* Vibrate
* Silent Mode
* TTY/TDD Support
* Push To Talk
* Voice Dial
* Voice Record
* Voice multimedia messaging

Messaging

* Mobile Email — supports Microsoft Direct Push, Active Sync – scheduled sync and POP3/IMAP4*
* Conversational Text Messaging — send/receive short messages*
* Multimedia Messaging — send/receive messages comprised of text and images*
* Mobile Instant Messaging — download the application then send/receive messages in real time using AOL® Instant Messenger, Windows Live(TM) Messenger, or Yahoo!®*
* MEdia(TM) Net Internet Browsing — gives you access to email, Web sites, games and more on your wireless phone*
* *AT&T service required.

Software & Connectivity

* Stereo Bluetooth® 2.1 with EDR
* Wi-Fi IEEE (802.11b/g/e/i) — access and transfer data
* aGPS supports AT&T Navigator — for turn by turn navigation*
* MicroSD(TM) Memory Card support — store songs and other media files up to 32 GB (microSD card sold separately)
* HTC ExtUSB(TM ) — 11 pin mini USB 2.0, audio jack, and TV Out in one (HTC TV Out cable sold separately)
* *AT&T service required.

Camera & Video

* 3.2 megapixel color camera with auto focus (take panoramic pics and Geo-tag pics)
* Mobile Video (MV) — watch streaming video on your device*
* Video Share — share a live or recorded video during a call*
* *AT&T service required.

Highlights

* Talk, Tilt, Touch, and Type
* Connect seamlessly
* Innovative design

Personalization & Entertainment

* AT&T Mobile Music — includes integrated MP3 music player, MusicID and more*
* AT&T AppCenter & Windows MarketPlace – Downloadable ringtones, Answertones®, games, graphics, and applications*AT&T AppCenter & Windows MarketPlace – Downloadable ringtones, Answertones®, games, graphics, and applications*
* AT&T Wi-Fi
* AT&T Navigator
* PTT
* FaceBook, YouTube, Mobi4Biz, Mobile Banking, MSN Money, MSN Weather,
* My Cast, NewsBreak, Online Locker, WikiMobile,
* WorldCard Mobile, FM radio, JetCet Print 5, Getting Started
* Games: Astraware Sudoko, Astraware boardgames, Bubble Breaker, Diner Dash 2,
* Ferrari GT Evolution, Guitar Hero IV, Ms Pac Man, Scrabble, Solitaire, Teeter
* *AT&T service required.

Organization

* Alarm Clock
* Calendar
* Weather & Stock Updates
* Calculator
* Tasks
* Search
* File Explorer
* Notepad
* Voice Recorder
* MS OFFICE Mobile (Word, Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint)

Specifications

* Dimensions: 4.54 x 2.33 x 0.65 inches
* Weight: 6.30 ounces
* Battery: 1500 mAh Li-Ion
* Talk Time: Up to 8.5 hours
* Standby Time: Up to 20 days
* Technology: GSM/GPRS/EDGE/HSDPA/UMTS*
* Frequency: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz (GSM/GPRS/EDGE); 850/1900/2100 MHz (HSDPA/UMTS)*
* Data Transmission: 3G
* Operating System: Windows Mobile® 6.5 Professional
* Memory: 512 MB ROM, 288 MB RAM
* Display: 3.6 inches Color TFT LCD, flat touch sensitive screen with WVGA (480 x 800) resolution
* TTY Compatible
* Hearing Aid Compatible
* *AT&T service required.

Quickly Cleanup Your Windows Server Update Service (WSUS) with Just a Few Clicks

September 9, 2009 Wayne Zimmerman Leave a comment

If your like me you have that special date that Microsoft releases updates marked on your Outlook calendar. Once a month you go to the update server and approve updates and move along with your IT day. Well there is a little bit of maintenance that needs to be done to WSUS. First off you need to go and check to see what product categories you are subscribed to. This will ensure that you are receiving updates only for the products that you support in your environment. To do this open up your WSUS administrative console and click on Options in the tree menu on the left. If you do not see these options you may need to update your WSUS to 3.0. From the menu then select Products and Classifications.

Now Scroll though this list of products and makes sure that any of the products you support has a check by it. If you have moved everyone off of the older version of the product you can uncheck it as well. I probably wouldn’t adjust anything in Classifications as the defaults here are relatively acceptable. Once finished press OK at the bottom.

Next we need to cleanup the server and remove any old updates. To do this from Options select Server Cleanup Wizard. Ensure that the options are correct and just click Next.

This should remove old updates from the database as well as updates that have been updated and clean up any computers that haven’t contacted the WSUS server in 30 days. It may take a few minutes to process depending on how large your WSUS database and update archive has grown to. It saved me about 20% when I adjust off Office 200 and a few other products we didn’t support and got rid of all of those updates that had been updated or not approved.

Enjoy a nice clean WSUS server!

Allow User To Run Applicaton as Administrator Without a Password

September 8, 2009May 28, 2014 Wayne Zimmerman Leave a comment

A few days ago I came across a software application that just wouldn’t execute correctly without the user being an administrator on the computer. Since all of my users run as basic / limited users they were unable to use program. After contacting the vendor and looking for all type of rights that we could grant the user so the could execute the program properly we were unable to fix it without making the user an administrator. So rather than making them an administrator or giving them the administrator password I made a little application that calls the other application as a run as but has the administrator credentials complied in. I realize that you can probably decompile the application and get the password, but for many users that is too much work, or they lack the expertise, so I view this as a small security issue. To further protect the account I made one that only exists on that computer. Below is the code that you can use to build a similar application it is only a few lines but it can solve a headache and keep a password relatively secure.

This is a VB.NET application
This application will produce an error if it is unable to login as that account or if the target program cannot be found.

Public Class Form1
    Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        Dim DomainName As String
        Dim UserName As String
        Dim Password As String
        Dim SysPassword As System.Security.SecureString = New System.Security.SecureString()
        DomainName = System.Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("ComputerName")
        UserName = "administrator"
        Password = "supersecretpassword"

        For Each c As Char In Password
            SysPassword.AppendChar(c)
        Next
        SysPassword.MakeReadOnly()

        Try
            System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("notepad.exe", UserName, SysPassword, DomainName)
        Catch ex As Exception
            MsgBox(ex.Message)
        End Try
        Me.Close()
    End Sub
End Class

Digsby Come Back From The Dark Side

August 14, 2009August 21, 2009 Wayne Zimmerman 3 Comments

For many months now I have used an Instant Messaging client called Digsby. It allows you to connect to multiple different IM networks like AIM, Yahoo, Facebook, MSN, ICQ, Google Talk and a few others as well as your social networks like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Recently they have changed over to the Dark Side. By this I mean they have added two revenue generating programs to their application.

Installer Spyware – This allows you to optionally install different programs so those companies will pay Digsby for getting them installed. The optional software usually doesn’t play nice and typically adds nothing more than a loss of screen real estate to another annoying system hogging toolbar in your browser. There are several other ones that are offered. This model I can tolerate because if the user is smart enough they will figure out how to not install them in the first place or how to uninstall them if they were installed.
Research Module – This allows digsby to user your computer and bandwidth to do pretty much whatever they want with it. Most likely be another pawn in some search engines indexing program. This one I find much more troubling because it uses your electricity and your bandwidth (remember bandwidth caps are coming kids) to make them money. I agree everyone needs money but this isn’t the right way to go about it. This needs to be added to the installer as an opt out program or better yet you could add a non evil model and have it process something cool like cancer research or mapping the human genome.

Digsby please fix these items and in a hurry. I have already opted out of your research program as I like my bandwidth and computer to myself, your probably the best IM client out there but if you continue to the dark side I will have to find an alternative.

For more information about Digsby IM Clients Dark Side:
http://lifehacker.com/5336382/digsby-joins-the-dark-side-uses-your-pc-to-make-money

Also checkout Digsby’s Explanation: http://blog.digsby.com/archives/693