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To complement the C# version posted Here,  here is a working VB translation:-

<System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport(“coredll.dll”)> _
Private Shared Function GetDeviceUniqueID(ByVal appdata As Byte(), ByVal cbApplictionData As Integer, ByVal dwDeviceIDVersion As Integer, ByVal deviceIDOuput As Byte(), ByRef pcbDeviceIDOutput As Integer) As Integer
End Function

Private Function GetDeviceId(ByVal appData As String) As Byte()

Dim appDataBytes As Byte() = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(appData)
Dim outputSize As Integer = 20
Dim output(19) As Byte

Dim result As Integer = GetDeviceUniqueID(appDataBytes, appDataBytes.Length, 1, output, outputSize)

Return output

End Function

The full build and AKU version of a device is shown on the Start > Settings > System > About screen, however what if you want to determine the version from your code. Well starting with Windows Mobile 5.0 there is now a registry key which holds the AKU version e.g.

RegistryKey kAku = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(“SystemVersions”);

string akuVersion = kAku.GetValue(“Aku”, “”);

kAku.Close();

This version will include a leading period so for example if the string is “.0.1.1” as on the current JasJar ROM the device has AKU 0.1, if it reads “.1.1.0” as on the current K-Jam ROM you have AKU 1.1. As far as I’m aware all shipping devices will have at least 0.1 as some fixes were implemented between RTM in May 2005 and the first shipping devices released later in the year. If your version is “.2.x.x” then you are a very lucky bunny indeed!

Whilst Windows Mobile 2003 had a similar concept of periodic AKU updates throughout it’s lifetime this registry key is not available, nor is the AKU version displayed on the About dialog, only the Build number is displayed.

This bug affects both managed and native developers working with the Windows Mobile 5.0 SDK.

Native

Due to an error in snapi.h the location of the registry key used to indicate if a hardware keyboard is present is incorrect:-

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// KeyboardPresent
// Gets a value indicating whether a keyboard is attached and enabled.
#define SN_KEYBOARDPRESENT_ROOT HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
#define SN_KEYBOARDPRESENT_PATH TEXT(“SoftwareMicrosoftShell”)
#define SN_KEYBOARDPRESENT_VALUE TEXT(“HasKeyboard”)

The root key for this value should instead be HKEY_CURRENT_USER. Once you use this location you can correctly determine if there is a hardware keyboard (this is the same location as used on WM2003 Second Edition devices such as the HTC Blue Angel).

Managed

The SystemState class also uses the incorrect location to read this value so the property will always return false. The workaround here is to access the registry directly using either the Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey in .NETCF v2.0 e.g.

Luis Cabrera has posted the details of a bug identified in the Talk method to the Windows Mobile Team blog. The workaround (see the original post) is to append a null character to the end of your dial string.

Note: this bug doesn’t affect InTheHand.WindowsMobile.Telephony.Phone.Talk.

Windows Mobile 5.0 introduces a managed API which wraps both POOM and a subset of CEMAPI (enough to send an Email / Sms). The table below is designed to show how the managed objects map to the interfaces which will be familiar to seasoned POOM developers. It also shows those parts of POOM which are not available through the managed APIs:-