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When Bill Gates officially unveiled Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition last month, many Pocket PC users were excited by the new features, including its support for VGA displays and the ability to easily switch screen orientations. However, few new things come without drawbacks, and this new version of the operating system is no exception.
According to Tristan Savatier from The PocketTV Team, "Most legacy Pocket PC applications and games that run perfectly fine on Pocket PC 200, 2002, and 2003 will not run well (if at all) on WM2003-SE devices, and some may even cause your device to crash or hard reset."
The biggest reason developers will have to re-write their applications for the new version of the operating system is so they will support landscape orientation. Developers created current application windows and dialog boxes with the assumption that the screen would always be in portrait mode. Switching to landscape will cause problems, and some software will even be unusable until it has been modified.
Of course, developers of currently supported applications will update their software when devices with Windows Mobile SE start to appear. Some companies have already begun doing so. For example, Pocket Informant 5.03 and RepliGo 2.0 have already been updated. However, many older applications that are no longer supported will not be updated.
Many hard-core gamers must be salivating at the possibilities for VGA games on Pocket PCs. However, one prominent games developer has a word of caution.
"You have to remember that the main difference is a higher density screen, rather than a larger screen," said Howard Tomlinson, CEO, Astraware. "The screens are predominantly the same size as current PDAs, although adding some different orientations will be possible. This means that although we can make sharper graphics, it doesn't change the fact that a small screen isn't conducive to an immersive experience (compared to your 21" monitor, for instance)."
Astraware is looking into adding higher-resolution graphics to some of its games, but warns that this will mean the amount of memory these take up will increase. The company is looking into whether its customers are willing to put up with larger file sizes in exchange for better graphics.
The PocketTV Team has taken the lead in pointing out that Windows Mobile SE has basically broken GAPI (Game API), which many games and video applications like PocketTV need.
This has been replaced by GETRAWFRAMEBUFFER; however, Microsoft is telling licensees that this doesn't need to be implemented on upcoming devices with QVGA screens, only VGA models. According to the PocketTV Team, on any future Pocket PCs that don't use GETRAWFRAMEBUFFER, "video games and video players will either have awful performances, or just not work."
The group is urging Pocket PC licensees to implement GETRAWFRAMEBUFFER on all their handhelds, no matter what the screen resolution.
Categorized as: Software
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