Smartphone

Windows Mobile is an operating system that can bring a lot of the power of your personal computer to a mobile device, such as a pocket pc or smartphone. A Windows Mobile smartphone, for example, is more than just a regular phone. It’s also a personal digital assistant (PDA) that keeps track of your important contacts, appointments, and tasks. It’s a very useful tool that gives you access to all your e-mail messages, whether for work or pleasure. It also frees you from your desk by providing Internet access and, in many cases, the ability to view, create, and modify Microsoft Office documents. In addition, depending on the model you choose, it can play a number of other roles ranging from digital camera to media player to global positioning system. Windows Mobile also allows your mobile device to work hand-in-hand with your personal computer. Work you do on the road is automatically reflected on your PC, and vice versa. It synchronizes your devices so your Microsoft Outlook data and important documents are up to date in both places. This allows you to use your mobile device for even critical business tasks such as managing your expense account or tracking inventory.

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There has been a lot of requests from forum members asking “How do I view YouTube content on my Tilt, Mogul, Touch, etc”. There are several options to viewing YouTube on your device, and below there are three options. If anyone has any additional sites that have proven useful for viewing YouTube content, please feel free to add it here. If you do add any information, please follow the format shown below, provide a description of the service and cost if any, include step by step down/installation/configuration instructions and verify that any hyperlink you reference is functioning.

HTC Streaming Media Player

Recently, YouTube had updated their site so that additional mobile devices could view their mobile website, so long as you had the appropriate media player. More recent HTC devices like the TyTN II and the Touch came with an application called HTC Streaming Media Player, which allowed users to view sites like YouTube. Unfortunately, a lot of the carrier branded devices (such as AT&T Tilt as to HTC TyTN II) did not include this application. Fortunately for us, the great folks at www.xda-developers.com have extracted this application and created a .cab file out of it. You can find that file here.

Installation:
After you’ve downloaded the above file, you’ll find that the file contained in this .zip file is a .cab file, to install this file, extract it out of the .zip file first, thencopy the .cab fileto your phone (any directorywould be fine, but preferbly in My Document folder, just remember where you put it). This file is intended to work on AT&T 8525 and the AT&T Tilt, other device users should use at your own risk. Still, it’s worth a shot. Now go to your windows mobile phone, open “File Explorer”in your programs folder, navagate to the folder where the .cab file is resting, click on it, the program should install, and when it’s finished, it’ll ask you to restart(accept any warrning messages, if any). Once installed, when you go to http://m.youtube.com and click on any of the video, the HTC Streaming Media Player should automatically pop open, and start buffering and playing the videos.

Troubleshoot:

• If, while browsing m.youtube.com’s contents, RealPlayer poped up, that means you didn’t properly install the HTC Streaming Media Palyer or you haven’t restart your phone after install. Double check on above instruction on how to install the player, and soft-reset your phone.
• If, HTC Streaming Media Player poped up, but it’s not buffering and shows “Connecting” forever, your network setting might be wrong. Click on Menu->Options-> and double check “Connect via:” option, see if it is correctly targeted to your interent connection(AT&T GPRS ISP, The Internet, T Mobile DATA etc, etc.). Switch different connections and try them one by one, till you get one that would allow the player to buffer the content

YouTube Pocket

YouTube Pocket is a free PocketPC portal of YouTube that was created by a gentlemen named Anthony Capobianco. He runs the site free of charge to all users and is basically just a port of the full YouTube to PocketPC/Windows Mobile Devices. To use this site, you just need to go to www.ytpocket.com and start browsing.

Required applications for this method:
Install any .cab file follow the installation method described in HTC Streaming Media Player installation instructions above.
Two applications are needed for this site to work. The first is TCPMP Core Player. Choose download Touchscreen Pocket PC version orNon-Touchscreen smartphone version. You will also need to download a Flash Plugin for TCPMP Core Player. All of the instructions to set this up as well as the TCPMP Core Player are on the site. This application works pretty well and is been used for quite some time. Just remember that you have to visit www.ytpocket.com if you want to view the YouTube content.

vTap

vTap is a solution created by Veveo. It aggregates several different video sites into one application. So instead of just viewing YouTube, you can also view ESPN, ABC News, CNN etc. on your device. This also a free service and the client can be downloaded from their website. The client offers incremental search and does a good job of buffering to offer smooth playback. It is also possible to type search terms in ‘number mode’.

vTap also has a site http://m.vtap.com which provides MMS based streaming for Windows Mobile devices. The Windows Media player on your HTC phone is capable of playing this stream. This website does not require any additional software to be installed.

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To change the splash screen follow the instruction:

When WM5 starts up, there is a first screen that lasts about 18 seconds. We will change that second one.

Here is how.

Take a picture you would like there, and resize it into a 320 X 240, 24bit .png file. This can be done with MS Paint, Photoshop etc. Open the picture in Paint, resize it and Save As a .png with the 24bit color quality. Rename  the filename to welcomehead.96.png and just drop it in the /Windows directory. Use Activesync.

Samsung has released their newest Windows Mobile phone the C6620 which is now currently available only in Italy and will be available in three flavors. The Samsung C6620 Windows Mobile phone is a Tri-Band phone exclusive to TIM with full Qwerty Keyboard and a non-touchscreen QVGA interface. The phone is quite slim so it will easily slide into your pocket without fuss and most notably it is easy on the eyes. Here are the specs of of the Samsung C6620 Tri band GSM connectivity 900

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Source : gearlog.com

Recently I bought a new camera (Canon Rebel Xsi–Very happy. Thanks for asking) and found myself with a dilemma. Though I’d spent the last few years shoving CompactFlash cards in my old camera, this new one only uses SD cards. Considering one click of the shutter produces both a RAW and JPEG file which combined take up nearly 20 Mb, I needed sizable cards.

I went online, shopped by price and found myself with 2-8Gb SDHC cards. Right now SDHC memory cards are reasonably cheap. Each card ran under $30. If you shop by a manufacturer’s reputation, you’re going to pay more–and I suppose important photos or video are worth the extra bucks. I’m just generally cheap.

New camera in hand I took some test shots, popped the SDHC card out, threw it in my reader and… and… and… nothing. “Oh crap,” I said to myself. But there was nothing wrong. Everything was working as designed. And of course, that’s the problem. SD and SDHC memory cards are not totally compatible! Stick with me. I promise you’ll understand.

SD cards come in three physical sizes, tiny, tinier and tiniest. The standard cards, about half the size of a CompactFlash card, are 24 x 32 x 2.1mm. Mini SD cards are 21.5 x 20 x 1.4 mm. Micro SD cards are 15 x11 x 1 mm. Originally these cards were designed to hold a maximum of 2 Gb. Oh designers, what were you thinking? I can burn 2 Gb of photos on my way to the plane to go on vacation!

Enter the newer SDHC standard from the SD Card Association. To increase capacity above 2 Gb the file system was changed from FAT16 to FAT32. Unfortunately, older card readers are stuck on the original system. Put an SDHC card in an old-style standard reader and it might as well be speaking Yiddish.

Here’s where we stand:

SD cards can be read in any SD or SDHC reader.
SDHC cards can only be read in SDHC compatible readers.

This means you’ve got to be careful if you want to upgrade your camera’s memory. Is the camera, which doubles as a card reader/writer, capable of addressing that extra space? Is it SDHC compatible?

By the way, you not only get additional capacity with the SDHC cards you also get faster speeds. SDHC cards are marked with what looks like the letter “C” with a number inside. Class 2, 4 and 6 equate to 2, 4 and 6 Mb/second minimum sustained write speed. That’s why these cards are good-to-go for most current video applications.

The original internal reader in my PC is now useless. For less than $10 I picked up a pocket size USB 2.0 reader to get back in business. My guess is, I’ll be changing PCs before they change the standard again.

Well, in less than a week, a user over at XDA Devs has already hacked the Diamond’s rom and extracted the new soft keyboard. This one is somewhat iPhone-ish and there are others out there that are available as well, but if you want the hacked one strait from the HTC Diamond, you’ll have to head over to XDA Devs.

I have not tried this, nor do I think I will, but apparently Malatesta at WM Experts has and he offers a couple tips…

• install is a bit slow, but normal
• default language is Italian (change to English in settings)

Here is a cab I created and AllTheWay just tested. It should work fine. It will ask you to reset your device and then it will give you 3 new KB layouts. Touch Diamond Keyborad, Touch Diamond Keypad and Touch Diamond Qwerty. Hope you guys like it.

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If you can`t sync your windows mobile device with Linux , watch this video and learn. Only here and now.

Getting your laptop online via 3G is no big deal these days, thanks to the wide range of mobile broadband deals that are available. If you just want to get one laptop online somewhere that isn’t served by an ISP, they work great, but what if you have more than computer, or want to try a little online play with a games console? One solution is to use a Windows Mobile smartphone as a mini Wi-Fi router – all you need is a suitable smartphone and a handy program called WMWifiRouter. Full details after the cut.

WMWifiRouter is a Windows Mobile application that turns a Windows Mobile smartphone with Wi-Fi into a mini hotspot. Like any hotspot, you can then use it to get online with any Wi-Fi enabled device, like a laptop, games console or other handheld.

You’ll also need a data-enabled SIM card and while 3G/HSDPA is obviously recommended, you can connect using EDGE or even GPRS. For 3G access, a SIM card course, but one from a modem supplied with one of the many mobile broadband deals will work – as long as your smartphone is with the same provider, or is unlocked.

You could also use a 3G PAYG SIM, but mobile operators usually prohibit these for use with a laptop as a modem, even if it is via a smartphone – check the 3G provider’s terms and conditions for the full skinny on this.

WMWifiRouter also requires Internet Connection Sharing to be installed on the smartphone. This is – by default – but if your smartphone came courtesy of a subsidised deal from a mobile operator, you may find that it’s been removed for the reason outlined above.

WMWifiRouter is available as a fully working trial, so you can install and use it freely until 29 April. After that you’ll need to pay €18, or €24 if you buy it after 20 April.

Step 1
Go to the WMWifiRouter Consumer site (either on your PC or smartphone) and click the get WMWifiRouter link at the bottom of the page. Once you’ve confirmed your acceptance of the license agreement, there are two download options, depending on whether you want to install the program via ActiveSync or directly onto the smartphone via a CAB file. There are also two alternative download links in case you can’t get either of the first two program versions to install.

Step 2
Once installed, start the program and enter the word Trial to activate the trial version. Tap Trial at the bottom of the screen to continue, and then accept the license agreement on the next screen.

Step 3
WMWifiRouter works by creating an ad-hoc network, but this lacks any kind of security by default (you can add it later). You’ll read a warning to this effect on the next screen – tap Yes to continue.

Step 4
If your smartphone has a physical switch for Wi-Fi, make sure it’s on before you continue. Tap Connect and WMWifiRouter should perform all the necessary steps to enable Internet Connection Sharing and your cellular data connection.

Step 5
The newly created wireless network will then appear with the SSID WMWifiRouter and you can connect to it with a wireless device just as you would any other network.

Step 6
There’s nothing else you need to do in order to use WMWifiRouter, but it is worth making some changes to its security settings to prevent just anyone piggy backing onto your connection. With the application disconnected (and this takes a second or two), tap Options > Configuration > Network Setup.

From here you can change the network name (the SSID), which is recommended. You can also enable WEP, which while hardly the most secure way of protecting a Wi-Fi network, is better than nothing.

One final note. After we’d used WMWifiRouter, we couldnt establish a USB ActiveSync connection to a PC — the application appears to change a setting that prevents it from working. A soft reset fixed the problem, though.

There’s also a procedure you need to follow to uninstall WMWifiRouter – don’t just uninstall it if you decide not to keep it.

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What is the Registry
The registry is the master repository (all contained in a single file) of configuration information for Windows. It contains information about the system, files, users, and applications . Most applications will store information about themselves, or the user, in the registry (an example would be the high score in a game). There are many “tweaks”, “changes”, “enhancements” and occasionally even “fixes” that can only be done by changing a value in the registry. Many of the things on this page apply to all versions of Windows (NT, 2000, XP, 2003), but this page is focused on the MS Smartphone Operating System, Windows Mobile, which is based on Windows CE. A tool known as a registry editor is needed to view and/or update the registry.

When you look at the registry, it has a directory tree structure, similar to looking at directories with File Manager. There are four root trees in the registry, occasionally refered to as hives. Here are the four root trees, along with their abbreviations.

Name _______________Abbreviation ______________Usage
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT______HKCR ________File association information (ex: how Windows knows what application to use for an MP3 file)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER______HKCU ________Configuration information about various things, supposedly related to the current user
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_____HKLM ________Configuration information applicable to the device (or to all users)
HKEY_USERS______________HKU_________Not used on the Smartphone (Info on other users who are not logged in)

Note: HKCU can be a bit confusing because it has information about applications, the OS, and everything else, just like HKLM. It’s just that this information is supposed to be applicable to the user currently logged in, whereas HKLM is for all users. Since a Smartphone doesn’t ask you to login, you could make a pretty good argument that whether something goes into HKCU vs HKLM is somewhat arbitrary. Applications are free to use either HKLM or HKCU to store information, and some even use both.

“HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Splash Screen\CarrierBitmap” is an example of a registry key. In fact, this is the place where one of the bootup pictures is defined. Technically speaking, “CarrierBitmap”, is the value, and the rest (first part) of the string is the key. However, most people will call the entire string, the key. However, the registry editors tend to use the precise terminology. Comparing it to File Manager, you could think of the “Key” as the directory, and the “Value” as a file that contains one value. In the example I used in this paragraph, the data would be the pathname (on the phone) for the picture (JPG or GIF file).

One final note, there are a few different types of values that can be stored in a registry key: a String, a Group of Strings (MultiString), or a Number (called Double Word, or DWORD).

Registry Editors
Unlike Windows XP or 2000, the Smartphone does not come with a registry editor, so you will have to locate and install one (or more, I’ll explain why later). Fortunately, there are several free registry editors available, so it’s not really a big problem (although sometimes you get what you pay for). There are two types of registry editors that can be used (and I use both types). The first type is installed and runs entirely on the Smartphone itself. The second type installs on your PC and is run from the PC, but it uses Activesync to update the registry on the phone. The second type is easier to use, as long as you have a PC to connect to. If you are away from a PC with Activesync, then ones that run on the phone are the only option.

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