New Experts on-line blog site

Welcome to our new, Experts On-line blog site! Please tell us how you like it and if there are problems -- either by commenting or by E-mail: hal@thaddeus.com.

How SmartphoneMag.com evolved

We started the site in 1999 as hpcmag.com. Each year we would add one or two new features. We did so in layers using different programmers, different programming languages, and different off-the-shelf web applications. Consequently, as you visit this site, you’ll see different looks throughout. 

Features at this site include: These daily experts-on-line blog post, Support forums, 11 years of magazine archives, Hundreds of tips and how-to’s, VIP drawings, plus software and hardware discounts from Handango and Expansys for subscribers, Winners from last year’s Best Software Awards, 5000 product Encyclopedia of Software and Accessories, Specifications of current and past Windows Mobile PDAs and smartphones, Directories of best web sites for Windows Mobile users, Weekly software downloads, Four free weekly newsletters (Jim Karpen’s Web Happenings, Windows Mobile Update, New Products, Games), Mobile Site

As you might imagine, maintaining and expanding the site has become a major challenge. For over two years and several false starts, we have been working to clean things up, inside and out.

Creating the new SmartphoneMag.com

We finally realized we needed a single underlying platform, a Content Management System (CMS) comprehensive enough to subsume the various parts of the site. Such a site would be easier to maintain and enhance. All the content of the site would be in data base tables, so the same information could be viewed from different perspectives. Using the CMS, we would maintain a common look and interface throughout.

The best software for our purposes was Drupal (www.drupal.org), an open source CMS with a robust, active programming community to support it.

Drupal lets you view all the content of the site from either a desktop browser or mobile browser. That means that, for example, you can interact with the forums from your smartphone.

Where we’re at

Besides these pages, you can find the content of all back issues starting with the first (May/June 2000) issue of Pocket PC magazine in the new format. We hope to go back and get the 1998-2000 issues of Handheld PC Magazine up soon.

Where we are going

By the end of June we hope to have the new look for Archives, Experts On-line, Forums, Tips and How-to’s, VIP, Best Sites, and the Home Page. RSS users will be able to choose from a variety of options.

Then we will put our efforts on creating pages around each Windows Mobile product in our database. Products in our database include all Windows Mobile devices and over 5000 accessories and software products. On each such product page our goal is that you will be able to locate descriptions, specifications,  magazine reviews, experts on-line posts, awards, and even external links. Users will be able to comment on each product, and we want to include a questionnaire or some kind of rating system for end-user feedback. As the site goes up, I’d appreciate your suggestions and positive or negative feedback at hal@thaddeus.com.

Please register and comment!

If you are a VIP, you already have a User Name and password. Otherwise, you will need to create a new user name and password in order to comment. You will soon be able to use your log-in site-wide for the new forum and to comment throughout the site. Click registor link below.