Its time to say goodbye to an old friend…The Windows Mobile Marketplace is apparently no longer accepting new app submissions as of July 15th. There hasn’t been an official statement by Microsoft yet, but Edgeway Software has made an MSDN forum post stating that Microsoft is sending out letters to developers. The Marketplace will still be open for users and there will still be paid apps, just don’t expect anything new.

I remember back when I used Windows Mobile and when we were trying to get the Market to work on different devices. It had issues with some custom ROMs. Those were the days! I never really really used the Market very much, but it was nice that you could update your apps right there.

For those of you still on Windows Mobile, is this a shock to you? Is it something you will miss, or did you ever use it?

Source: WMPowerUser

There are many GEEKsters out there looking for some numbers from MS to help them make a decision on their next smartphone. Judging by some of the numbers released by MS, things are moving in the right direction. The number of developers downloading the needed tools to develop apps are great considering this is a new platform.

What’s very interesting is the number of apps MS has released does not include the lite versions, ebooks, wallpaper and the apps that have multiple languages count as 1. We all know that the Android and Apple market counts each one of these apps as a seperate app.

Last year many were calling WP7 the new Kin. The numbers are proving many of the nay sayers very wrong.

What do you GEEKmeisters think about this development?
What will the other platform fans say?
Inquiring GEEKS want to know..

Read more here: Intomobile

This is great news for Sprint customers! Verizon Wireless recently started doing this on most of their smartphones and looks like Sprint caught wind and decided to do it also.

I myself do everything to avoid paying the extra $100 everytime I need to upgrade to another smartphone. It seems Sprint is starting to realize they’re are losing some money on hardware sales by pushing their customers towards other vendors such as Best Buy, Radio Shack, Amazon and a few other to avoid those Rebates.

Is their next step to be more competitive in their hardware pricing?

Geeks, what do you think?  Let us know by responding in that cool white box below.

Source: Phonescoop

Welcome to another edition of the PPCGeek Spotlight where we get enlightening perspectives and great insight from well known community members, developers and leaders. In this edition we highlight a highly respected and talented Touch Pro 2 Windows Mobile ROM developer here at PPCGeeks.com, Sharkie405. Take a look at the biography followed by a Q&A with Sharkie405 below.

Biography with Sharkie405

I was born and raised in Miami, Fl. I moved to Durham, NC about 6 years ago where I still reside with my girlfriend of 3 years. I’m 35 years old. One of the things I miss most about Miami is being so close to the ocean. I love to scuba dive, snorkel and just be in the ocean. One of my favorite things about the ocean is of course, sharks! Ever since I was a little boy, I’ve loved sharks. I love everything about sharks. I have a great white tattoo on my right shoulder that’s my pride and joy!

I never had any training on anything computer related and none of the jobs I’ve had were computer related at all. The only class I took in highschool was a typing class that used typewriters! My girl likes to make fun of me for that. I guess these days that is pretty old. So, needless to say, when I first started to tinker with all of this stuff, I may have well have been reading a foreign language. People would say “look in your Windows directory” and I’d be like, directory? What is that? Come to find out that’s what folders are called!! Who knew!! LOL, I didn’t. That’s just one tiny example of how far I’ve come.

I also try to remember that it wasn’t too long ago that I was a TOTAL noob. I try to answer everyone’s questions and not get caught up in that ‘holier than thou’ attitude that seems to pervade some threads.

I didn’t used to be a ‘phone’ person. I was perfectly happy to have my crappy flip whatever phone. Then a friend sold me an HTC Mogul that he had laying around the house and it was on! I was introduced to the wonderful world of WM! I never got ballsy enought to flash a custom ROM on the mogul but I cabbed the heck of it. You know, Manila 2D the whole nine yards. Then, I stepped on my Mogul one day and, thanks to Asurion, became the proud owner of an HTC Touch Pro! That’s when it really started going!

Q&A with Sharkie405

1 ) How did you find PPCGeeks?
I came across PPCGeeks while using Google Search to search for mods for my mogul. Any google search with anything WM or Manila related will definitely bring up a PPC Geeks thread or two.

2) What projects are you currently working on, if any other than ROM’s?
I’m not currently working on any projects other than my ROM.

3) Have you worked with designing your own themes for ROM’s or do you have help?
I have not worked with anyone else to create my ROM theme. My theme is a mix of a several different themes and my own work combined for a sophisticated yet colorful, “I mean business”, but “I can play too!” overall look and feel of the ROM.

4) When you became interested in ROM development were there any users specifically that you would like to say contributed to your knowledge and success?
Oh man! There are sooooo many! You could probably safely say like all of XDA and PPCGeeks! But if I had to pick out of a few special ones, they’d have to be:

Raidzero: His kitchen was the first one I used and he was always there to answer all of my stupid questions!

Lat and jbradthomas: They were users of RZ’s kitchen and continued to teach me after RZ moved on to Android.

All the guys and gals from the Collaboration Kitchen Thread: These guys just killed it! It was/is a great collection of WM best people and all their work and knowledge is scattered throughout that thread.

Rootlinux: He was always there with great cooking advice!

5) You currently only cook for Windows Mobile right? Do you plan on moving towards the Android or Windows Phone 7 operating system?
I’m not sure yet. Once upon a time I would have said WP7, but in hind sight, I’m not all that impressed which leaves me with Android, one day…maybe. For the moment WM 6.5.X is still going via the name WEH (Windows Embedded Handheld). So there’s still more fun to be had with WM and that’s what I intend to do!

6) Have you ever considered tweaking the iPhone OS?
No, I have no interest in apple.

7) You have built several WM Rom’s. Which one would you say is the most successful and used ROM?
The most downloaded ROMs are always the 6.5.X Sprint ROMs. Most people these days prefer the finger friendliness of 6.5.X and I guess there are just a lot of Sprint users that frequent these threads.

8 ) Have you ever created ROM’s for GSM devices or do you strictly work with CDMA only?
I’ve never owned a GSM phone and so I’ve never built a GSM ROM.

9) Do you work with kitchens when building ROM’s or do you use certain tools? Can you explain?
Yes, my ROM is built using a kitchen. The kitchen I use was originally an Evirus Visual Kitchen. Then it was turned into a Calkulin Kitchen and then it was modified further by the Collaboration Kitchen folks, and then of course it has been turned into my kitchen. The kitchen I use (and most kitchens, I believe) came with a lot of the tools needed to build a ROM. Basically you can build a simple ROM with any kitchen probably, but the more you want to do and the more you learn you can do, the more tools you will need to accomplish these new things and ideas.

10) What are some examples of tools you need to be familiar with when building a WM ROM?
Tools (other than the kitchen) that I would say are needed to make a WM ROM are: Notepad, some sort of cab editor (I use WinCE Cab Editor), a registry editor, EXT_Packages_rebuilder, Packages Creator, rgu-2-xml, XmltoReg, Recmod, M9Editor and cfc-gui, LuaScript, a *.dll editor, a *.dsm editor and I’m sure there are more that I can’t think of right now.

Aside from those necessary tools, I also use Photoshop and/or Gimp2 on regular basis. These are really only necessary for skinning.

11) Do you name your ROM’s individually or by device type? How do you categorize them?
I name my ROMs with simple names based on what they are. They are all “SharkieROMs”. I just add the necessary info. to them such as” “6.5.X Generic SharkieROM v4.5”. I’d thought about naming them different names of sharks that I like, but I figured it’d just be easier all around if I kept it simple.

They are categorized by Build style, whether they are 6.5 or 6.5.X and by Carrier. One is generic for any carrier and one is Sprint specific with a couple of Sprint specific Sense tabs.

12) What is your main goal/focus when building a ROM for any device? Do you shoot for faster speeds, smoother functionality, better battery life, etc.?
I would have to say my no. 1 one goal is stability. I think if one works towards that goal a lot of the other things will fall in line like speed and battery life and what not. I also put a lot of energy and focus into the look and feel of my ROM. It’s definitely evolved into quite a unique look and one that I think is easily recognizable as a SharkieROM.

13) Do you spend a lot of time building a single ROM? How much time does it take to get one going from the ground up?
It’s hard to guage how long it takes to build a ROM since all the work is in the kitchen. That work is an ongoing process and has been built of over long periods of time.

14) 14 ) Do you get great support from the users who use your ROM’s? Do they give you great tips and suggestions?
I get fantastic support from the users of my ROM! They have helped my ROM become the great piece of work that it is today. They are always bringing new ideas to the table and letting me know of any issues that may arise. I also have great group of people beta testing that also provide invaluable feedback.

15) PPCGeeks appreciates any ROM developers who enjoy helping others and benefiting others needs and wants. Do you feel like PPCGeeks is a great place of support and interaction for the hobby you’ve chosen?
Yes, I do feel that PPC Geeks is a great place for support with this hobby of ours! When it comes to CDMA phones, there’s no place I’d rather be!

Geeks, that’s the end of the spotlight with Sharkie405 and we hope you gained some insight or found answers to questions you may have had before reading this. Have you used his Touch Pro 2 ROM’s before or are you still using them? If so, leave some comments and share your appreciation with him below. If you haven’t tried one yet, what are you waiting for? If you still own a WM For now, leave your comments in the boxes below.

PPCGeeks.com has been around for about 5 years and has gone through many changes over those years. We’ve had several staff members come and go and have gone through quite a few style changes on the forums. We also have several ROM chefs, theme makers, kitchen developers and even application developers who are very active on the site.

Some say there isn’t much development for Windows Mobile anymore. That’s not the case here. If you’re looking to have some fun with your WM phone and don’t already know about us, you have a lot to learn. If you still have WM and are already a member of our site, we appreciate it and hope you enjoy every bit of what you learn while you’re here.

We will give you a few names of WM developers here at PPCGeeks in case you don’t already know. Be sure to check out their work here on the site in the Windows Mobile section or just click on their names listed below. Keep in mind some of them may have moved on to other platforms, but most are still supporting their WM ROM’s.

Here at PPCGeeks, we have O.a.T, Ptfdmedic, Cmonex, 2Bunny, vin255764 , chris1683, zone23, gguruusa, ImCoKeMan, sharkie405, olipro and also tinkerbell. You will see a Q&A with Tinkerbell and the others very soon! Those are just a small amount of the ROM developers I am very familiar with. There are a hand full of others, it’s just hard to keep up. Forgive me for leaving anyone out!

Thanks for taking the time to read this and understanding that PPCGeeks has always been the home to Windows Mobile fans and ROM developers. We appreciate all the wonderful comments and support we get from our users and staff. Windows Mobile users, get to flashing!

Hello Geeks and welcome to another edition of the PPCGeeks Spotlight where we get enlightening perspectives and great insight from well known community members, developers and leaders. In this edition we highlight a highly respected, well known and talented windows mobile ROM & Kitchen developer here at PPCGeeks.com, O.a.T.

Take a moment and review the following biography and q&a with O.a.T to get a taste of how PPCGeek members, developers and staff make this one awesome, information filled forum.

Bio with O.a.T

I’m 58 years old, live in Albuquerque, NM, and am retired after working 29 years in the computational mechanics/physics area. I’ve coded in many languages incouding Assembler, Fortran, C, C++, Perl, Java, etc., but now I mostly code for fun. I am an avid fly fisherman. I’ve “modded” almost every piece of smart electronic equipment I’ve purchased over the last 5 years. Maybe more interestingly, I’ve always had an interest in medicine, but absolutely no background, so for the last few years I’ve really enjoyed working with the local medical school and their entering med students.

Q&A with O.a.T

How did you find PPCGeeks.com?
When I first got an HTC touch several years ago, I googled that term along with modding and out came the typical long list of websites, including, of course, PPCGeeks.  PPCGeeks quickly became one of my go to sites for information and has continued to remain so through the ownership of my newer HTC Diamond and now my LG Optimus S.

Where did you get started in developing? Was it with ROM’s or kitchen’s first?
I started out first by developing some simple apps.  But that quickly evolved in a short time to what I would call ROM mods, and then finally full ROM customization via the use of Kitchens.  That is where I continue most of my efforts today.

What type of simple applications have you developed or experimented with?
At one point, I spent a lot of time developing and refining a card counting strategy simulator that would allow you to change the number of decks, the number of players, the house rules, and the card counting and bidding strategies for blackjack. I could then use that to simulate an experience at a given live table or a machine. The results were interesting. I also developed a very basic version of “Whack a Mole” for my grandson to play, as well as what I would call a finger physics simulator involving rolling balls on inclined planes made of different materials (friction) with the goal of getting the ball into a hoop. In regards to the latter two, there are some much better games out there now than I ever achieved, both graphically and in terms of sophistication.

Were there any members who guided you along the way when building your kitchen?
For both the HTC Touch and the HTC Diamond I was able to find working kitchens, which was a huge head start.  Most notably and most recently, OMJ’s kitchen served as the basis for what became O.a.T’s Diamond Kitchen.  Then, over time, with a lot of searching and reading, I learned to add and customize individual packages within the kitchen.

Can you tell us about O.a.T’s Diamond kitchen? Is it still being used today?
That in itself is an interesting story. I originally never intended to release my Kitchen for various reasons as stated in my Diamond threads.  But as I transitioned to Android and my new Optimus S, it became apparent that there really was one last thing I could do for the wonderful Diamond community here at PPCGeeks.  So I spent some time cleaning and organizing it and finally posted it.  Whether or not it is actually being used today I can not honestly say, but I can say that even given the ever decreasing size of the Diamond community there have been almost 100 downloads of the kitchen.  So, hopefully, someone out there with a Diamond is still using it productively.

Have you had help from any specific members or been given insight on how to develop ROM’s?
Its hard for me to point to any, primarily because my emphasis on ROM development has always been on the lean and mean side allowing users lots of opportunity (memory) for apps as well as their own and other’s themes.  That appears not to be the emphasis of many ROM chefs.  So from that perspective, my ROMs may be easier to construct since I am always looking at taking things out while having the bare minimum needed to make a ROM functional, fast, and easily upgradeable without the need to flash anything.

Do you currently develop ROM’s for more than one operating system? If not, why?
No, I am currently only developing ROMs for Android, because that is what my family and friends are using.  I am developing for both the EVO and the Optimus S, but I have not released either of those ROMs publicly. That was the case for my HTC Touch ROMs, and was the case for about a year with the HTC Diamond.  Only when there were very few developers left for the Diamond and when there were some significant improvements available did I start publicly posting and supporting my work.  If and when that situation arises for the EVO or the Optimus S, I will consider again making my ROMs publicly available.

Have you made a series of ROM’s for the HTC Diamond? If so, how do you name them or categorize your ROM’s?
The only ROMs that I publicly released and supported were my O.a.T. Lite Diamond Series. The series tried to keep up, more or less, with the then latest versions of WinMo and HTC Sense, and were named accordingly. I also supported Maxycy’s proprietary MaxSense UI. The only cleverness I attempted was a play on my nickname (O.a.T.) and Lite in the thread title, i.e., “because O.a.T.s and Lite are Good for You”.

Are you still supportive to the users of your Diamond ROM’s here on PPCGeeks?
I try to by checking back at least once a week and responding to the new posts on either my threads or on other’s threads where maybe I can be of help. But there just isn’t as much action as there were in the old days when the Diamond was one of the hot new PPC’s. Also, I am feeling like I’m loosing my knowledge/expertise of WinMo, Sense, and the Kitchen after being focused on Android for the last several months. Of course, all of that is to be expected.

Do you get a lot of feedback from the users here as well as appreciation from the ones who support your work?
I did, for the most part. And I really want to encourage the user’s of the forums to remember to “hit the thanks” button be it for a developer, or a chef, or someone answering a question that interested you, when you feel you’ve been assisted, as part of the feedback process. It’s amazing how simple an act like that can contribute to the mood of someone, and thus encourage a lot more output. At least, that was the case for me. Along those lines I’d like to offer a huge, public “THANK YOU” to GeoHot for his efforts in resiting what I would simply characterize as Sony’s bullying attempt. As a consumer I can vote with my dollars, and this action by Sony will forever cause me to resist buying another of their products. I’ll get off that soapbox now.

Geeks, that’s the end of the spotlight with O.a.T and we hope you gained some insight or found answers to questions you may have had before reading this. Have you used his ROM’s or kitchen before or are you still using them? If so, leave some comments and share your appreciation with him below. If you haven’t tried one yet, what are you waiting for? If you are wanting to try his Android ROM out, just be patient, when he’s ready he will have a nice surprise for you I’m sure. For now, leave your comments in the boxes below.

Welcome to another edition of the PPCGeek Spotlight where we get enlightening perspectives and great insight from well known and successful community members and leaders. In this edition we highlight a very widely known, well respected and talented taskbar creator, retired staff member and the one who made taskbars so popular, starting all right here at PPCGeeks.com, Tsowen.

Tsowen has been a member of our site for a long time. He has gone from a regular forum lurker, to VIP, to news writer and then to Administrator, he is now retired. He is very popular here at PPCGeeks and most of you may already know of his impressive skills working with taskbars beginning with Windows Mobile and now he’s worked his way to Android. Take a few minutes to learn more about Tsowen and taskbar development.

Here’s a short bio with Tsowen followed by a Q&A:

1 ) What brought you to the site?

I bought my first Sprint PPC-6700 aka HTC Apache and the Sprint Rep told me about PPCGeeks, never looked back since then.

2 ) What background experience did you have that got you to where you are today?

I have a BA in Graphic Design and also several Industry Certifications in various Information Technology/Programming.

3 ) What is your background in graphic arts?

I have a BA in Graphic Design and am currently working towards my Masters.

4 ) Is there anyone here that has helped you along the way? We know Gadgetfreak and yourself have worked together when it comes to taskbars. He’s now actually started doing taskbars himself. Has Gadgetfreak contributed to your knowledge or are you both helping each other along the way at times? Has anyone else contributed to your work?

So many people have helped along the way from the original crew at XDA such as FInixNOver and Darklord69, to some of our users such as Chef Ben, Brock1909, opuscroakus, Trey Beno, HTCLeener, darren.wlsn1, Mr. X and MightyMike and of course my right hand man Gadgetfreak and mainly all the users who followed my threads and left feedback. (Sorry if I left anyone out, so many people have helped out so much.)

5 ) Do you have to know about ROM development to create a taskbar or is it all graphic work?

When it comes to taskbars its a little different than making a ROM. You are mainly editing .dll (dynamic link library) files, swapping out the old icons and uploading them back to your phone or putting them into a cab file that will install. There is a little bit more than that involved but basically that’s it in a nutshell.

6 ) Do you have to know a lot about Photoshop or are there other programs you can use to make taskbars?

Photoshop is one of the preferred by many graphic artist. There are some freeware versions such as GIMP that work well too.

7 ) How hard is it to transition from WM to Android taskbar making?

One is a Windows version where Android is based upon a modified version of the Linux kernel, so you have to have an understanding of both operating systems.

8 ) Have you considered continuing to make Windows Mobile taskbars as well as maybe even Windows Phone 7?

Yes I plan to continue to make both Windows and Android taskbars and will hopefully make a Windows Phone 7 one as well.

9 ) How long does it take to make a good taskbar set?

It depends if your’re using all custom icons or converting an existing taskbar from GSM to CDMA. To make a taskbar from scratch can take a month or longer to make depending on the quality of the icons being created.

10 ) Do different resolution devices have any effect on taskbars?

Yes we found this out when we first started making taskbars, there was quite a bit difference from VGA and QVGA such as the size of the icons.

11 ) Have you ever considered making ROMs or just taskbars?

I thought about it but stuck to taskbars since there are already tons of talented Chefs out there already.

12 ) What are your plans currently for the next Android taskbar?

I am currently designing a brand new taskbar for the Android phone that will have all new custom icons.

13 ) How many Android taskbars have you currently come up with? Are there more than one?

Some of my taskbars have been converted by others for Andoid. I am currently working my on my first release.

14 ) Last but not least, do you get great feedback from the work you have done? Here on the site the users sure seem to appreciate you and the help and support you give back to them.

I always get great feedback from our users on the site. The users and the site are what made my taskbars so famous. Users here test my taskbars and provide excellent feedback on bugs or things not working right.

So there you have it geeks. This is the end of the Q&A with PPCGeeks member Tsowen! We hope you enjoyed getting to know him as well as learning more about how he does his work.  Please leave your comments and feedback in the comment box below. For now, keep your eyes open for our next PPCG spotlight where we will gain more insight from other well respected community members.

If you hang around our forums enough, you’ve probably seen me around. I’m part of our administrative staff here at PPCGeeks and manage our software and servers. I’ve been a ‘Geeker for almost 3 years now. To give you guys a little background, my first smartphone was the Sprint Treo 700wx. From there, I went on to the Vogue aka Sprint Touch. Then I moved over to At&t and got the Fuze aka Touch Pro, then the Google Nexus One, the Samsung Captivate, and now the HTC Surround. I’ve also used the Sprint Touch Pro 2, HTC Diamond, HTC Evo 4G and Blackberry Tour. You could say I have a pretty well-balanced experience of Windows Mobile and Android. I’ve also used an iPod Touch, but not extensively, and I’ve never used an iPhone. I have flashed ROMs on every phone I’ve had (except the Surround of course), but I’ve never cooked any.

When it comes to Windows Phone 7, there’s some highly mixed opinions here on PPCGeeks. Some people have thoughts about it without even using it. About a month ago, we posted Noir’s thoughts on WP7. Now its time to share my thoughts.

Live Tiles

You either love them or hate them. The idea behind them is that they’re supposed to be similar to Widgets in Android. You can “pin” shorts to apps on your home screen, and you can even pin contacts. I’m sure the usage for these will grow as the OS matures, but right now, there’s not many apps that take advantage of it. If you have a contact linked with a Facebook contact, the tile will show their picture, then show their name, then their latest status update. I use Weatherbug on my phone, which gives you a Live Tile with push notifications for severe weather and it displays the temperature and current weather conditions. The Calendar tile will show a short agenda view for the day. The People tile shows random pictures of your contacts/Facebook friends. The Messaging and Email/Outlook one will show you an unread count. The phone tile will show you a missed call count. Other than those, I haven’t found much use for them.

Similar to Android though, you can pin any app, giving you quick access to it, so in my opinion, the functionality is like Android. The biggest difference is screen real estate though. With Android, you could easily have 16 shortcuts on one home screen and can have a number of different screens. The shortcuts in WP7 are fairly large, with only 2 per row, which can make for a lot of scrolling if you have a lot of them.

Overall, I still like the tiles and I think there’s potential if app developers start making use of it.

App List

Everyone has to launch apps on their smartphone, so I might as well mention the app list or launcher. My biggest complaint about this is that there’s no customization to it. Every app has an icon and the name next to it. There’s only one app per row. Since there’s not many “must have” apps in the Market yet (we’ll get into that later), its not a big deal yet either. As you install more apps though, there’s going to be more scrolling to get down to your favorite app. You can see about 10 apps on the screen without scrolling. They’re in alphabetical order, and I haven’t seen a way to change that. I would consider sorting my by most used. With Android and iOS, you can get quite a few apps to show on each screen, making it faster to scroll through.

All of your games are grouped into the Games XBox Live link. You can have this as a tile on your home screen or access it through the app list. Once you’re in the hub, you’ll see all of the XBox Live games you have installed listed first, then a section for Other Games. This keeps them separated out of your regular apps list.

It would be nice to be able to set categories to your list, where you could list all apps, then scroll right/left to get to different categories (like Games, Tools, Web, etc). Just a thought.

Keyboard

Since we all type on our smartphones, I thought it would be good to mention the keyboard. As of now, there’s now 3rd party keyboard options out there, so you’re stuck with the default one, but that’s not really a bad thing. The keyboard and word prediction has been good for me. I can type just as fast as I could in Android and better than I could in WM. Sometimes I’ll push in an area that closes the keyboard, so I’ll have to click in my text box to open it back up, but overall I’ve been pleased with the keyboard. It works good in both landscape and portrait, even for someone who’s 6’5″ with big hands.

Zune Integration

This is one feature I wasn’t sure about. I’ve never used a Zune MP3 player and one of my biggest complaints about the iPod/iPhone is that you had to use iTunes to sync, and I never cared much for the iTunes software. For syncing, I still don’t like the fact that you have to use the Zune desktop software. I would much rather connect my phone as a mass storage device and just drag-and-drop my files onto it. The Zune software isn’t that bad though, and I guess neither is iTunes. They both get the job done. Zune has some fancier graphics than iTunes. Since I never really used any music organizer app before, I had to go through and clean up A LOT of my ID3 tags in my MP3 files.

When it comes to the Zune software on the phone, its BLOWS AWAY the old Windows Media Player on WM. I actually like it a lot. Its a toss up between that and the music player app in Android. They both function in similar fashions and offer some of the same features for music already on your phone. You can play music and videos that you have synced all through the same app. You can also sync podcasts from Zune to your phone. If you have a Zune Pass, you can also stream any song from the Zune Market and purchase it right from your phone. I like this streaming feature and have used it a couple times. You can sign up for a free trial Zune Pass too.

Office

This is one thing I’m disappointed in. I understand they’re marketing this phone to regular consumers more than business users, but they still need to add some more basic functionality to this for me to use it. Right now, there’s no way to sync documents through Zune to get them on your phone (I believe you can sync One Note documents though). So the only way to get them on the phone is to email them to yourself. With all their focus on the “cloud”, they also could have integrated it with SkyDrive too. I would have loved the ability to edit a document I have on SkyDrive on the fly and just save it. The software itself isn’t that bad and can get the job done, its just a pain to get documents to and from your phone.

Pictures Hub

The Pictures Hub is pretty good, its fast loading and gives you some sorting options. There’s no way to hide pictures that you sync with your device though, so that could be a problem for a few people out there. If you have it synced with Facebook, the What’s New tab will pull over recent pictures uploaded by your Facebook friends.

People Hub

You might spend a lot of time in this area, especially if you use your phone as a phone. Unfortunately, this area could use some more features too. There’s no way of creating a favorite contact list, so everyone is thrown in together. You can search or scroll, that’s about it. There’s a Recent tab, which will show the pictures of your recent contacts (whether it was a phone call, text, etc). If you have it synced with Facebook, it’ll pull over their profile pictures and some other information. Under What’s New, it’ll pull down your Recent News feed from Facebook, showing status updates. You can also update your status from here. They did a good job with Facebook integration for those that use it, and there’s almost no need for a separate Facebook app.

Market & Games

The Market hub could also use some improvements. Its nicely organized into categories and giving you the option to sort by Featured, Top, Free, etc. Unfortunately there’s no way to search. How could you have a Market and not be able to search?!? The other day I was looking for a specific app, and I couldn’t remember where I saw it. I could have found it in seconds if I could have searched for it, but instead it took me over 5 minutes to find it again.

EDIT: Thanks to the comments below, you CAN search the Market. While in the Market, click on the Search button (magnifying glass). It also searches music and artists, but it will list applications too.

A lot of apps seem to be rated pretty low, but there are a few good ones out there. I think the last number I saw was about 3,000 apps. It has a long way to go to catch up to Android and iOS, but its only been out for a few months. There are quite a few apps I miss from Android, but I’m sure they’ll show up in WP7 eventually.

Games are top notch though. I’m sure there’s some low quality ones out there too, but so far I would have to say that the gaming experience is better than Android and possibly better than iOS. I don’t have a XBox, but they did a great job integrated all of its services.

The Netflix app offers both queue management and streaming of movies over WiFi and works pretty well. There’s also a SlingPlayer app, which I haven’t tried yet. For streaming music, there’s a Last.FM app and a Slacker one (although no station caching yet), but not a Pandora app.

Overall
So, after all this, what are my final thoughts? I would say that its a good OS for version 1.0. I enjoy using it, but I’m big on Facebook and social networking and more of a general consumer than a business user. You do have to give it 1-2 weeks to grow on you though. If you just use it in the store or for a day, you’ll probably have negative opinions of it. Like their commercials show, its designed to get you in and out, and it does that pretty well.

I’m hoping the update in Q1 2011 will be a big one. We’ve already heard it’ll feature copy/paste, but everything else has just been rumors to this point. Hopefully they’ll add smart dialing too. App development seems to be going pretty good so far, but there are some apps that I’m waiting on. I would love to have an offline GPS solution like TomTom, iGo, Navigon, etc. It would be great if they offered real turn-by-turn directions in Bing Maps like Google Navigation too. Since I manage a few Linux servers, I could also use a SSH client like ConnectBot on Android.

For their target market, I think Microsoft is off to a great start. For business and production use, it has quite a ways to go. WM and even Android offer more productivity than WP7 at this point int he game.

The OS is very fast and fluid with great graphics and effects. Some games can take a little while to load, but the video quality of them is good.

If there’s anything else you would like me to write about, just post it in the comments and I’ll add it to this article. I’m sure there’s some things I missed that you guys might be interested in.

For those of you that have used WP7, do you agree or disagree with me on any of the points I mentioned?

Windows Mobile developers are continuing to find ways to save money on global phone calls and text messaging rates. They haven’t forgotten about Windows devices and their users’ needs, especially the ones with friends and family all over the world. That’s why developers have created this new application, very similar to Skype, to give you peace of mind while you don’t want to end that long conversation with your friend in Puerto Rico or Iceland.

MO-Call is a VoIP application for your mobile phone that currently supports over 2,025 phone models. What makes it different from many of the other VoIP applications is that it allows calls anywhere you have GSM or CDMA coverage for as low as 1¢ a minute.. This application does support Wi-Fi, which gives you a way to connect for FREE. MO-Calls made over Wi-Fi to other connected MO-Callers are completely free. While Mo-Call runs in the background, users can save up to 90% on international calls. Download the application free and get instant savings on local and international calls.

Download (link here.)

Calling Rates (link here)

Check your current provider for possible additional charges while using this application.

Updated to 4.1, the only other noticeable change is a redesigned settings page that includes the option of selecting the preferred language for Search by voice. To install the latest version of Google Maps for mobile 4.1 for Windows Mobile, go to m.google.com/maps in your phone’s web browser and download and install the .CAB.

Apps, apps, apps! With Google’s recent announcement that the Android Market has reached 38,000 applications, I decided to find out how many applications are in each of the major smartphone app stores. Remember that these figures are only for the number of applications in the official application store and do not include the total number of applications for a platform.

With no surprise, Apple leads the count with just shy of 160,000 applications at last count, while the aforementioned Android Market has 38,000. Claming a distant third in this size-only contest is Blackberry’s App World, which has 6531. Symbian is fourth with just over 3400 apps while following behind in fifth is the Palm App Catalog with 2169 applications. Falling dead last is Windows Marketplace For Mobile, with only 840 approved applications. For posterity sakes, the morbid Palm OS App Store has 2393 applications.

If the non-approved applications were to be included, my best estimate is that Apple would still be leading, with Android, Windows Mobile and Symbian vying for second place, and the rest of the field falling well back. It will be interesting to see if Apple can maintain this gargantuan lead as Android’s growth has been absolutely torrid. Also, will the paltry number of 840 increase to several thousand with the looming Windows Phone 7 launch later this year? Only time will tell!

Please note that for the Microsoft, Blackberry and Palm OS figures, I used a calculator to add up the total as they each give a break down of how many applications are in each genre, but not the total amount of approved applications. Also, as these stats are not officially given by the various companies, they are what I have found to be the most reliable count.

Special thanks to Mr. X, Mikee4fun, and psycho_maniac for helping with this post. Image from thewebsquad.com.

Via the official Bing Twitter account, Microsoft has announced that the Bing mobile application for Windows Mobile has been updated to version 5.1.2010. No major changes are apparent in this update. To download the update, go via your mobile browser to m.bing.com/download or going into the application and selecting “Update Available”. Interestingly. this update is only for Window Phones that operate on the Sprint, T-Mobile, and AT&T networks. If you are a Verizon Wireless user, this update appears to not be for you.

In my experience, loading the app is faster than Opera Mobile and the interface is very similar to Opera Mobile 10. It seems to load the pages zoomed in, as opposed to the zoomed out view in Opera Mobile, and there’s no apparent setting to change this behavior. What are your opinions? You can discuss it in our forums here.

From their FAQ:

Why can’t I download Skype Lite or Skype for Windows Mobile?

Unfortunately, Skype Lite – a version of Skype for your mobile phone – and Skype for Windows Mobile are no longer available for download from our site.

We’ve chosen to withdraw Skype Lite and Skype for Windows Mobile because we want to offer our new customers an improved mobile experience – much like the version that has proved so popular on the iPhone, and which is now available on Symbian phones. Our focus is on providing a rich user experience that allows you to enjoy free Skype-to-Skype and low cost calls as easily on the move as you do at your desktop.

We felt that Skype Lite and Skype for Windows Mobile were not offering the best possible Skype experience.

Can I still use Skype Lite if I already have it?
Yes. People who have already installed Skype Lite can continue to use it throughout 2010.

Can I still use Skype for Windows Mobile if I already have it?
Yes. People who have already installed Skype for Windows Mobile can of course continue to use it.

For now, you can still download it from here, but there’s no telling how long that link will work.

Source: WMPowerUser

Source- MSMobile via WMPowerusers

HTC and T-Mobile are teaming up for their latest campaign to sell you phones, and this one is a dandy folks. Anybody who signs a new 2-year contract with T-Mobile between January 20th and March 23rd of this year and decides on getting either a HTC Touch Pro2, a T-Mobile Dash 3G, or a T-Mobile Shadow is eligible for up to $500 in rewards. But instead of the usual “blah-de-bleh”, these rewards are worthwhile (for some at least).

As seen below, one reward is awarded each month. It begins in April of this year and continues on until March 2011. Some of the rewards include-

• April (2010): Buy one night, get one night free at participating IHG properties (including InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza®, Holiday Inn®) in the US and Canada (up to $350 value)
• June (2010): 40% discount on phone accessories at HTC.com (up to $32 discount)—US customers only. Puerto Rico customers eligible to receive a $25 flight discount on any airline.
• January (2011): $10 off purchase of an EA SPORTS video game at www.eastore.com (up to $10 value)

Does this entice you enough to switch to T-Mobile? Or are you waiting for the HTC HD2 to come out before making the move? Either way, this is a creative way to get new customers.

If you are interested, go here for more details!

Full list of rewards after the jump!

Here are two possible “facts” that I have found about Windows Mobile 7. I found the first while looking at a slide entitled “Personalizing Mobile Technology To Enhance Learning And Organizational Skills” and it indicates that Windows Mobile 7 will support gesture control via it’s front-facing camera. The presenter of the slide, a Mr. Neil Milliken, is the Head of Mobile Development of a British company, so he may well have this high-level information handy.

If you remember a while back, the ‘required specs‘ that Windows Mobile 7 purportedly has includes an optional 2nd camera under the Peripherals. This could foretell hand gestures being able to control the device, as opposed to just hand and vocal interaction and would put Microsoft ahead of Google and Apple in user interaction, as the iPhone and Android OS only support voice and mult-touch input.

The second finding is of a resume I found. In it, it states that-

• Enablement and bring up of Windows Mobile 7 (for Smart phones) on chipsets with the scorpion processor, which have ARMv7 architecture.

Again, pointing back to the leaked spec sheet for Windows Mobile 7, it states that it will run on ARM v6+ chipsets and above, which would mean ARMv7 is a viable solution for WM 7. Looking at the information ARM provides about it’s ARMv7 processor, it is below the performance of the all-conquering ARMv8 processor, but does “includes the NEON technology extensions to increase DSP and media processing throughput by up to 400 percent, and offers improved floating point support to address the needs of next generation 3D graphics and games physics, as well as traditional embedded control applications.” This could be an indicator of a lower rung of WM 7 devices, such as a business-oriented device that does not require the HD-level graphics support ARMv8 includes.

As the MWC inches closer, expect to hear a lot more news, rumors, and analysis by your PPCGN news staff about Windows Mobile 7!

(Updated 2/7/10)

Another screenshot after the break.

Source: XDA via PocketNow

Definition of workaround–

• A workaround is a bypass of a recognized problem in a system. A workaround is typically a temporary fix that implies that a genuine solution to the problem is needed. Frequently workarounds are as creative as true solutions, involving outside the box thinking in their creation.

Google has definitely engaged in a workaround of Apple’s App Store as they have updated their mobile Google Voice web site to make Google Voice features accessible to iPhone, WebOS and Windows Mobile users (see below). Through a HTML5-based web app, anybody with a HTML5-capable web browser can access now Google Voice.

HTML5-capable mobile browsers include all Webkit-based mobile browsers, which includes Safari in iPhone 3.0+,the Palm WebOS browser, and the S60 web browser for Symbian as well as Chrome on Android. For Windows Mobile devices, Skyfire 1.5 (verified by myself) and presumably the Iris browser works. However, Opera Mobile 9.5 on Windows Mobile does NOT work  nor does Internet Explorer Mobile (also verified by myself).

After the break is a video by Google showcasing this new-found workaround.

Source- DailyMobile.se