Smartphone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

Weather has become one of the most popular 3rd party applications to be added on a Smartphone. At least, in my opinion anyway. It's the first thing I add whenever I get a new phone or flash my existing device. And why not? Who doesn't want to know what the weather is like before you leave the house for the day.

Elecont has released an animated home screen plugin that will show you the current and future weather conditions on your Smartphone. I sure hope the application is smart enough to know when the screen is off, or the home screen is not visible and stops the animation. Otherwise this would eat through your battery pretty quick. If anyone gives it a try, please let the rest of us know how it works out.

"It took a little bit longer for Samsung to release the long awaited SGH-i600 Windows Mobile Smartphone but Samsung used the delay to add something really useful to the EMEA/APAC version of the "BlackJack" - a pretty unique Home Screen plug-in called "Carousel" or "Card Wheel". Since Samsung's first introduction of a Windows Mobile Smartphone (the SGH-i300), the Korean mobile phone specialist always added its own flavored Home Screen plug-ins but this one is really a great and unique one since it adds fast and easy navigation to the i600 in a way, not seen before. Basically, the Carousel/Card Wheel plug-in provides several decks which are accessed by using the D-Pad. Each deck contains grouped information which can be accessed straight from the Home Screen."



Our buddy Arne Hess over at the::unwired has published an excellent article on the unique home screen created by Samsung for its European and Asian version of the i600. I personally love the way Samsung has added this unique differentiation to its Windows Mobile device. Instead of just launching with some vanilla home screen and colour customizations, they have definitely done a good job of separating themselves from other Windows Mobile vendors. It also seems like this home screen approach would reduce the use of the Start menu, since most of the smartphone features are accessible from the home screen itself. It will definitely help newcomers to the Windows Mobile world find and launch things easily. :) The sad part is that this cool home screen is not available to the American customers. Hopefully Samsung will make it available as a download in the near future.

"We're not at liberty to say how, but we acquired some exclusive footage of Samsung's new Ultra Messaging device, which is going to be hitting Asian shelves in short order. What's so special about this particular brand of i600? Check out the interface. We've seen some future builds of Windows Mobile beyond the now-current 6.0, and this is starting to look very familiar. If this is where WinMo's headed, sign us up"



Engadget has as in-depth look at that new home screen that we first saw on PDAGolds article about the new Samsung i600. They�ve got some pictures and even a video showing this home screen in action. I highly recommend that you go and check it out � cool stuff! :mrgreen:

"Do you want nicer look and feel on your mobile smartphone? More useful and easier for all your daily needs? See on this program. It displays all information in one conveniently screen. It simulates rich Windows VistaTM interface in a small screen of mobile device, includes Sidebar. This program was designed for Microsoft Smartphone devices with landscape screens, basically. There is no reason at all, to not use it in other mobile devices with Windows Mobile system. Specially, because it doesn't use touch-sensitivity screen for daily operating, but hardware keys only."



Here's a pretty interesting new home screen interface for your Smartphone. It's loaded with features including things like call display - on the home screen, RSS, Time, Weather, Calendar, SMS and so much more. Best of all, it's free with the option to buy if you want some of the extra features. I'll be downloading this as soon as they have a stable BlackJack version. 8)

Darius over at Pocket PC Thoughts found this site with some pretty cool home screens for the i320.



I got these two working on my BlackJack and they look great. The site has some other home screen skins and one for Media Player as well. The two shown here are animated. Check them out.

"With V2R Home Screen Editor you can add or remove all standard or 3rd party plug-ins, you can rearrange them in the desired order. Additionally you can add new themes or modify existing themes towards yor needs."



Mike reminded me I was just complaining (actually he used another word) about this very thing. Here is another one of those "rearrange the plug ins on your home screen" applications. This one will also let you insert ones that aren't yet there on the screen which is a cool feature. Those of us who use Facade know it will do most of this already. You can get a trial version or pick it up for $9.95 here at our affiliate store.

"A couple of months ago I was offered a chance to beta test the upcoming T-Mobile UMA service and was given a full kit to try for 6 weeks. The kit consisted of a T-Mobile branded Linksys router and Samsung UMA WiFi-enabled phone. T-Mobile is now rolling out their HotSpot @ Home service to customers in the Puget Sound area of Washington State for more public testing purposes. You need to buy the WiFi enabled phone for US$49.99 and existing smartphones you may have with WiFi radios will not work."



Now here is a practical use for WiFi in Smartphones. I wonder if this will spread to Starbucks. Have any of you in the Puget Sound area heard of this or seen it in action? Is there anyone here in the Puget Sound area? :?

"Photo Dialer shows you a "list" of your Photo Dialer people with their photo's in your Home screen. In order to use this feature just assign photos or any other images to your contacts. You can scroll through the Photo Dialer by using the left/right function with the joystick. In the sleep mode the application shows small thumb nails of your favourite people photos."



Okay, I admit; I have been out of the Smartphone world for quite some time now. :oops: I know that Treo introduced the home screen photo dialer and then I remember this how-to article, but I do not remember ever seeing a photo dialer application for the home screen. The Photo Dialer BETA from V2R looks like a promising application. I like the way the application allows us to enable and disable the home screen plugin, no need to mess around with the XML file.

It looks like the internet's best home screen creator has turned his efforts to the new landscape devices like the Motorola Q and the Samsung i320. His new MyDigitalAssistant home screen offers a cool mouse over effect, uses the all day event plugin, and oddly enough, a WiFi status indicator. Neither the Q nor the i320 have WiFi, at least not in their current versions, but that HTC QWERTY device we talked about yesterday is rumored to have WiFi. Anyway, regardless of which landscape device you might have, there's now a cool home screen for you. :D

It's amazing what can happen when you lock a bunch of crazed Smartphone enthusiasts in a room. Ok, nobody was locked in a room. But we did come together to help solve and create a new way to dial your favourite contacts by photo, directly from the home screen of your device. :) The real story is something like this: encece IM'ed me last night about an idea he had for placing calls from the home screen using callers photos. Add Nedge2K (from MoDaCo) into the mix and together we were able to come up with this cool solution. It's easy to do and it requires nothing more than Facade plugin from SBSH. In 3 simple steps, you can have this setup too.



1) Create a picture - 40px by 40px works really well
2) Copy the picture to \Storage\Application Data\Home\Photo Contacts\{picturename.jpg}
3) Edit the Launcher shortcuts in the Facade plugin for your home screen with the following text:
[code]<!-- Facade Plugin Control: This is the launcher bar -->
<plugin clsid="{C49CEC80-D445-407C-AA72-C263EDBBAC96}" name="FacadeLauncher" type="Launcher">
<Buttons>
<Button image="\Storage\Application Data\Home\Photo Contacts\{picturename.jpg}" action="Run" command="tel:5551212"/>
</Buttons>
</plugin>[/code]

A couple things to note; You'll need to change the phone number accordingly, and change {picturename.jpg} to the name of the picture you created. Also, add 1 "Button Image" line for each of the photo shortcuts you want to create.

Check out the discussion on the SBSH forums, or the post on MoDaCo for more information on this cool new twist to an already great tool. :) And, special thanks goes to encece - Great idea! :mrgreen:

"I'm very sorry, but "Micro S." marketing staff informed me today (Tuesday Mai 11, 2006) that I'm not allowed to make homescreens or show pictures which use any of their trade names, photos or logo. Unfortunately every screenshot shows their logo at the lower left corner which makes it impossible for me to continue my site."

This message is greeting anyone that heads on over to Kleinweder's site to download some of the best home screens available on the internet. Surely, this is not just about the Start button flag, or is it? Because that flag shows on every screen capture and preventing it would cause havoc on sites like Smartphone.net or Handango. Whatever the cause, I hope this is just a simple misunderstanding on Microsoft's part because if it isn't, the implications are huge. 8O :cry:

Update: Kleinweder's site is now back up. It looks like it was all a big misunderstanding. For all the details check out the post I made on page 4 - found here 8)

"Today SBSH Mobile Software announced the release of SBSH Facade, a powerful Home screen plug-in for Smartphone devices allowing you to view your upcoming appointments and tasks directly on your Smartphone Home screen and create shortcuts to your favorite applications. Helping you track your busy agenda everywhere, all the time!"



SBSH has just launched the final version of Facade. This is easily one of the best home screen plugin's available for the Smartphone. If you took the time to help in the public beta test, you will be happy to know that you qualify for a discounted price of $9.95 on this final version. The regular price is $14.95, which is still a deal, if you ask me.

In case you're not familiar with the name, Juni has been creating skins and themes for the Pocket PC for as long as I can remember, and his work has always been top notch. If you have/had a Pocket PC, chances are good that you've seen his work at one time or another. Juni must have been really good last year because Santa brought him a shiny new Qtek 8310. Now, with his new device in hand, Juni is creating some cool new home screens for us to enjoy.



Organizer is the first in, what I hope will become, a long history of fantastic home screens. Can you tell I'm excited? I've been a big fan of his work for a long time, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what he can do on the Smartphone. And so far, I like! :D Head on over to Juni's website to download your copy.

"Sling Media is expected to announce Thursday that consumers can use a wide range of mobile devices to watch their home television from anywhere in the world. The company is set to unveil new software that adds this capability to its Slingbox hardware product this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. ... The new mobile client, as the software is known, works with any device that uses Microsoft's Windows Mobile Platform versions 4.0 or 5.0. A visual version of a remote control pops up on the screen, making it a fairly straightforward process to choose whether to watch television live from their home cable set-top box or satellite receiver or something recorded on their digital video recorder."



Jason had reported in his Mobius trip report that Sling Media is working on the Windows Mobile version of the client for its SlingBox. According to this news article they will be releasing the Windows Mobile client this Thursday, January 5th 2005, at the CES. :D If you are not familiar with the SlingBox, you can check out the details over here.

"Cingular Wireless, in a bid to improve customer loyalty, is testing a service that allows unlimited calls between its cell phones and the home phones of AT&T Inc.'s local telephone customers, Cingular said on Wednesday."



The only carrier with rollover is Cingular I believe. What a great idea that is. Now they are trying something that sounds pretty interesting. It would really be something if you could designate one number as your home phone on any land line carrier but I'm dreaming here. Are any of you going to be in on this test?

"Here in the User Assistance team in the Mobile and Embedded Devision, we're looking for a programmer/writer to help create the reference documentation that developers depend on. If you love Pocket PCs and Smartphones, and have proven programming and writing skillz, you should definitely get in touch with Celeste De Guzman (celested at microsoft dot com) immediately. We have a vacancy for a full time position, based in Redmond, WA."

Think you have what it takes? You can read the full job description over on John Kennedy's website. Good luck!

"The basis of the MWS screen is an analog clock. If there's nothing else to report, that's all there is. A clock. When an event calls for your attention, appropriate information will be added to the screen. When the information is no longer needed, it is removed from the screen."



If you are looking for a different kind of home screen this might be worth a checking out. I'm not a big fan of analog clock displays but the concept of the screen is interesting. There is a trial version available too.

"...it is a Friday night in the middle of winter and you are driving to your holiday home in the mountains for the weekend. On your way there, you send your second residence a text message, which will activate the heating, so the place is nice and warm by the time you arrive. Your main residence, meanwhile, may be vacant, but you can send it an SMS to turn the lights on and off a few times, giving the impression to potential burglars someone is there. You can also monitor what is happening inside the house on your cell phone -- cameras inside the house will send real-time images direct to your phone. Then, disaster strikes, and the washing machine leaks while you are not there, but so clever is your house, it will automatically turn off the water at the mains, and alert you that a plumber may need calling."

Sounds a little too good to be true, right? Well, for most of us that's the way it will stay, for the next couple of years anyway. There is a family in Barcelona that is living out this smart home fantasy as guinea pigs for the manufacturers. I just want to know what happens when your house gets flooded with Spam messages? :lol:

"Could someone at Verizon keep CEO Ivan Seidenberg away from the press? We�ll let that fact that he ridiculed municipal WiFi slide, since he�s just protecting his turf (even if he did call it �one of the dumbest ideas� he�s ever heard), but whining about Verizon Wireless customers who complain about the quality of their cellphone service is pretty weak."

This guy is a real piece of work and a classic example of the Peter Principle. Imagine people spending money for the "worry free guarantee" and then complaining when they don't get it! The nerve!!! This supports my theory that most CEO's don't know much about their customers.

"The number of Americans using mobile phones has surpassed the number of home Internet users, according to a survey by New York-based global media company Enpocket. Although voice communication is the main reason for using mobile phones, the survey showed that data and multimedia services are becoming a key usage driver. For example, almost 40% of mobile owners are now regularly sending and receiving text messages. And camera phone use has also jumped, as 22% said they took a photo with their camera and 12% said they sent or received MMS in the first three months of 2005."

This really doesn't surprise me. Home Internet access is shared by multiple people in a household, but each individual has their own mobile phone. It's good to hear that mobile revolution is growing. Windows Mobile Smartphones are positioned nicely to grow along with the market. :D