Review: NEC Mobile Terminal S1596-01

I combined all that you did into a single CAB file to make installation easier...

The issue seems to be with pimstore.dll. On all of the devices other than the Nova, some PIM apps don't seem to recognize it. For example, if I try to execute PIM Today on those devices, I get an error: "Can't find the required pimstore.dll" - even though an improved version of pimstore.dll is right there in the same folder. If that version is copied into \Windows, then the message changes to "Unable to load Pocket Outlook Object Model." The file POOM_Register.exe that comes with PocketOrganizer 2000 doesn't work - it also throws an error saying it can't locate pimstore.dll. (The version of pimstore.dll that comes with PO2000, BTW, appears to be the same one that comes with PIM Today.) So unless we find a better version of pimstore.dll, we may only get partial success with this on most devices.

Well, after doing what you said...I installed Gemini PIMS, and everything works really great! Contacts, Tasks, and Calendar....nice. Wonder how long the evaluation copy will keep running...

Perhaps there is a hard version dependency at work. Can you get the compiler build version / date out of the dlls that you have?

I have 19/04/1999, no internal version in the strings table.

I also note from the resource headers that it calls itself via a hard coded path of \windows
Did you get CLSID {05058F23-20BE-11d2-8f18-0000f87a4335} registered?

PIMs.cab is StrongArm I assume?

There are two versions of pimstore.dll for ARM that I'm aware of. One is the one I got from the Mio pack, which is 177k in size, while the other one comes with PIM Today and PocketOrganizer 2000 and is 201k in size. The former seems to work with more devices. The Via/WonderMedia-based (8430/8500/8505/8650/8850) devices come with most of the POOM DLLs, and those versions appear to work with this method. The results vary among the other ARM CPUs. If anyone is aware of any other versions, they may be worth a try where the above two don't do the job.

I have 206,181 (201k) SA1100 for multiple platforms. These are actually from POOM SDK for C++. If you search the DLC for POOM, you can pull them.

I downloaded the POOM SDK some time ago. I just checked it against the one that comes with both PIM Today and PO2000, and confirmed my suspicions that it's the same file.

I figured as much
So we are quite a few files short for doing this for any other processor. :/

Yup, but it's not much of an issue since nearly all devices with CE 4 or higher are ARM-based. (There are of course a few exceptions like some x86-based thin clients, and a couple of MIPS PMPs like my Viliv X5 and Cowon P5.) The only non-ARM devices I know of with CE 3 or earlier that didn't come with a version of the Microsoft PIM suite were non-platform devices: the Casio BE-300 and a few CE 2.12 devices (the Casio MessageCam, the NTT DoCoMo Pocket PostPet, the Salton ePods One Internet tablet, and the Hitachi HPW-630 tablet). All those are MIPS except the HPW-630, which is SH4. Maybe these files could be made to work with some non-platform CE 2.12 ARM devices, though, like an early version of the Siemens SIMpad or some ARM-based CE 2.12 thin clients.

I should clarify, BTW, that a lot of the devices I've tested this on aren't synchronizable, like the Via/WM-based devices. But the nice thing is that the databases from a synched device can be backed up and restored onto another device with bUSEFUL Backup Plus or EzBackup, or a PIM backup/restore program like dotFred's PIM Backup ( http://www.dotfred.net/default.htm ) without the need for ActiveSync. And some of these non-synchronizable devices retain databases after reboot, so they don't have to be re-restored after each boot. And, unlike the cePIMS databases, the Microsoft POOM databases are uncorrupted by the restore process. (After backup and restore of all cePIMS databases, recurring cePIMS calendar events will not come into view in the ceCALENDAR app even though database viewer apps show that they're still there. )

CEGeek ---> The PIMKing!

I solved the problem I had with the TinyBook T700 by resynching it (after deleting and recreating the partnership to avoid removing the Contacts data on the PC end). Dunno why it didn't properly sync Contacts the first time. I also solved the problem with the CUOL Book: the GEMini PIMs folder I copied onto that device didn't have the POOM DLLs in it, though I had copied those into \Windows. Dunno why it wouldn't read the ones in \Windows, but when I added them to the GEMini PIMs folder also, then everything showed up properly. It appears, though, that PIM Today and PocketOrganizer 2000 will read the ones in \Windows, since both those apps showed appointments and tasks while the POOM DLLs were only present in \Windows.

I'm not sure all these files are needed by all PIM apps. (I'm not even sure whether citydb.dll is needed by any of them, since it's supposed to be for the World Clock app that's native to H/PC platforms.) But I haven't sorted all that out yet, so I'm using all of them as described in these posts just to be sure.

How long will the Gemini PIMS last before the program expires...30 days? Any way around that other than reinstalling?

BTW, I've been using the Softmaker 2010 CEMail programon this thing and love it. Espeicially the configuration options such as setting the port numbers for the smtp and pop servers. Makes it easy to be fully configurable...though I assume I could have done the same thing with nPOPUK...

GEMini PIMs has no time limit as far as I know. (Neither does cePIMS despite being a fully-functioning demo.) Both have always worked fully on every device I've installed them on. (As you may recall, it was originally written for the Sigmarion III.) Check this old thread:

http://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=8526&sta...

CESD will be submitted shortly.

That's very cool, I can see it being useful for a lot of people.

Article posted to:
http://www.hpcfactor.com/support/cesd/s/0130.asp

File are up in the DLC, including Rich's CAB.

Rich, does the CAB auto execute the CeCreateDatabase, RegSvrCe and write the registry?

It copies all the dll files CEGeek had posted to the Windows folder, and it adds all the registry entries to the registry...but it does not run the "CeCreateDatabase_POOM.exe" program which it copies to the program files folder...

I guess if we turned that .exe program into a .dll file then we could make it a setup dll that would autorun when the cab file was installed....otherwise it needs to be done manually...but only one time as I see it...correct CEGeek?

Hopefuly, that cab file I created will do everything in one easy step...except run the exe unless there is a way to do that as well.