One of the most popular posts on this blog is the one about I-nigma and it really goes to show that people think that 2D barcodes are the next big thing. Apparently Microsoft thinks the same thing because they just released their own 2D barcodes and reader — Microsoft Tag.

Instead of the usual black blocks to make up the barcodes, Microsoft used multicolored triangles, making the barcode smaller in comparison to other 2D codes.This allows Tags to be used in a wider variety of places, unlike it’s brother the QR code. These Tags can be used to quickly link a user to a web address, send a vCard, send text, or even place a call, all with your phone’s camera. The applications are endless!

Microsoft wasn’t stingy with their product, either, once you download and install Tag (you can only install by visiting http://gettag.mobi on your phone at the moment) by visiting gettag.mobi on your phone or by sending the link in an SMS, you can create your own Tags for your print or online projects.

Microsoft Tag is freeware from Microsoft, creating Tags is also free. Here’s one I made, just open TagReader on your phone and point your camera at it, and then let the Tag do all the work!

So you want to impress your friends with your Windows Mobile phone and the Android phone just keeps showing you up every time you are out. Well not today, friend, today you have something up your sleeve that rivals even the best of Android’s apps. Today you can show off your mad skills and show your buddy an x-ray of his hand. And Portable X-Ray makes it possible.

It’s not a real X-Ray app, that should be the first thing I say in this review, actually. It’s just a video that plays of an x-ray of a hand and you tell your phone when to pause the video and continue playing it. Here’s the video of it from Youtube.com

As you can see, the x-rayer moves the phone over the x-rayee’s hand and presses the camera button to start and stop the movement on the screen. Play the video again now and watch his fingers. See him press the button? That’s the key. Well, that and knowing the direction the video will scroll next. Download the app and  make sure to install eVB included in the RAR file (a plugin from Microsoft that you will need to actually run the app). Then practice, practice, practice!

I showed this to my wife last night and she was floored, she actually thought it was x-raying my arm! It is really that life-like and people will think you are really doing it when you trick them. Just remember, a good illusionist never tells the secret to his trick.

Protable X-Ray is freeware and made for educational purposes only.

Apparently I need to start off my contests a little slower, after a thin turn-out for the SyncMate contest I have decided to make it a little easier. So, in the spirit of the New Year I am going to give out the 3 SyncMate licenses just for posting a comment. I will randomly choose the winners.

Last day to comment and win is January 14, 2009.

So I was looking around for a new app to feature here and a friend bought a G1, which has built-in Google Talk, so that got me looking around for a good app to connect to Google Talk on my HTC Touch. The first link when you google “google talk windows mobile” is a post on the Official Google Mobile Blog about Google Talk being ported onto the iPhone. Now, this review isn’t about the official Google Talk app, it’s about an app that someone mentioned in a comment on that post — Beejive (pronounced bē-hīv).

Beejive is a cross-platform, multi-IM network enabled Instant Message application, it supports AIM/iChat/MobileMe, MSN/Windows Live, Yahoo!, MySpace, Google Talk, ICQ, & Jabber, and it works on Blackberry, iPhone, and Windows Mobile. Unfortunately, according to the site, the Windows Mobile version is not going to be updated and will stay in a beta version, but it is free.

The people at Eltima Software have graciously supplied me with three (3) licenses to give away to my readers. But I’m not one for just giving things out, I like a little fun involved. So I’m going to have a contest to determine who gets the licenses.

It’s a simple contest, one that involves a bit of work, but it won’t be too hard. All you have to do is send in a picture that has “ThisMobileLife.com” somewhere in it. It can be a picture you took, a photo you made with Photoshop, or even a drawing; anything, as long as it has “ThisMobileLife.com” in it. Entries will be accepted until December 24th at midnight, you have three weeks. That should be enough, right?

Send all contest entries to contest@thismobilelife.com.

When I got my first satellite radio from my wife a few years ago I loved the thought that I could listen to ad-free radio any time I was driving. Well, I quickly found out that not only can you listen in your car but you can log onto the provider’s site and listen for free as well. This gave me hours of enjoyment but I found that I’m not always in the car or at my computer. I needed a mobile solution. Apparently I wasn’t the only one, R-Capi on the PPCGeeks.com forums has created a great app, C-ApiSRO, to do this very thing for you!

You will need to sign up for PPCGeeks.com to download this file, but if you have Sirius/XM you know the importance of having access to your tunes at all times!

I use a Mac to do all my work at home, including this site. So I need a syncing program that works well with my Mac to test apps and move files around on my phone. I tried MissingSync, like I’m sure most Mac/WM users have, but it just couldn’t do all I needed. So I brought the topic up in an IRC channel and a fellow WM user sent me to SyncMate, and so far it’s better than ActiveSync!

SyncMate does a whole lot more than sync, but that’s where it is strongest. You can synchronize with your Mac’s Bookmarks, Contacts, iCal, iPhoto, iTunes, Mail, and many more! They also have extra plugins that allow you to do things like, view your phone’s info, view apps installed and darg-and-drop apps to install immediately, view calls and read and manage SMS. There are two versions of SyncMate available, a free version and an Expert version. There is a list on the SyncMate site with a comparison of the features in each, but I’ll tell you — it’s worth it to get the Expert version just for the Applications list plugin.

SyncMate Video

Of course, the best feature, and the one I use SyncMate the most for, is the ability to mount your phone as a disk in OSX. Just plug your phone in, let it connect, and then click on the Mount Disk button. You can drag-and-drop files straight to your phone just like it was an external drive, which makes it super easy to move files around. The mount sometimes fails but I found if I just disconnect the phone, unplug and then plug it in again it usually works just fine.

SyncMate can be downloaded for free or you can purchase a license for $39.95.

Sometimes you just don’t want to talk to the person you need to call and a text message would just be too much. So what do you do, call and hope that other party just doesn’t pick up? Well that’s what most people would do but you have another option: slydial.

According to the slydial website, slydial is “a voice messaging service which connects you directly to someone’s mobile voicemail.” The service was previously only available by calling a toll-free number and then typing the other party’s number in, but for most of us we don’t remember the other party’s number, that’s the reason we have contacts saved on our phones. Slydial has recently released a Windows Mobile client that allows you to choose your contact and then “slydial” them.

It’s easy, first, create an account at slydial.com, then install the client on your phone and you are ready to start dialing straight to your friends’ voicemail. Either use the slydial client and choose a contact, or choose your contact, go to the menu, and then choose slydial. slydial will automatically call the contact but you won’t hear a ringing, it will go straight to their voicemail.

slydial is free to use, but there are short ads before it connects your call. If you don’t want to listen to the ads, slydial also offers Premium Memberships starting at $0.15 per message or monthly ($4.95) and yearly ($29.95) tiers.

Here are a few videos to give you some ideas on slydial’s uses.

So you have your Windows Mobile phone in one pocket, ready to take calls, and in the other pocket is… what, your MP3 player of choice, perhaps one that even streams YouTube videos and plays synced podcasts or records audio? Why do you carry a phone capable of playing music already and an MP3 player? Because your phone doesn’t specialize in music or video playback. Well now it can, and BETTER and FASTER than the iPhone, all because of Kinoma Play!

Kinoma Play is the product of 3 years of hard work and that hard work shows, it’s a clean app and the first time I used it I knew that it was made by professionals. I had the privilege of speaking with Charles Wiltgen, Kinoma’s Director of Social Marketing, and he gave me insight into the wonderful application that is Kinoma Play.

At its most basic function Kinoma Play is a media player. The first time you run Play it scans your device and puts all your media into order in the app itself so you can easily find what you are looking for and open it directly from Play, be it music, pictures, movies, playlists, or documents. The interface is very “Apple-esque” and reminds me a lot of my iPod Touch; it’s very simple and easy to find things. You can also search through your media directly from the “My Media Files” menu, a great touch to the interface. But there are hundreds of media players for Windows Mobile, and they all play movies, music, and some even show your pictures. So what makes Kinoma Play different? The Guide.

The Kinoma Guide is a powerful aggregator that goes out to all kinds of sites and feeds and pulls them all together for you to listen and watch. Want to hear an audiobook? Well just go to the Audiobooks and Literature channel in the guide where you can sign into Audible.com and listen to books you’ve already bought, streamed directly to your device, or listen to one of the hundreds of free books on LibriVox. Perhaps live radio is more of your thing, then check out the Radio channel. You can listen to one of the thousands of channels on the Clear Channel network, Fox News, Radio Disney, NPR Stations, and many more. What’s that, you like Sports? Got it. Technophile? Yup, plenty of podcasts to take care of your techno-lust. Weather? Uh huh. Religion? There’s even a Religious channel on here. There is half a terabyte of content on the Guide at any one time and it’s ALWAYS changing!

You want more? Okay, here’s what Kinoma did — they threw in syncing with services. Yes, you can send the pictures you take on your device to Flickr, the videos you record to YouTube, or if you have a MobileMe account with Apple you can even sync with that. As soon as you send that picture or movie it’s on the web. Yes, as soon as the progress bar fills up you can email your buddy and show him that picture you took last night.

If you are interested in trying Kinoma Play before parting with $20 for a license, there is a free version on the site as well, which has everything that the normal one but is more focused on YouTube, podcasts and photos. Charles assured me that Kinoma works with most Windows Mobile phones, but if you do have problems you can reach him on their forums or on Twitter.

Here’s a few videos on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/kinomaplay