TheWindowsPhone

Herg, a developer at XDA, has ported Sony’s X1 Panels over to the HTC Touch Pro2. There is also a link for additional Panels you can download, but it doesn’t look like many work just yet (no Facebook, no Skype, but yes to Windows Live). Check out the download links here at mobilitydigest if you want to give it a whirl, and please report back with your thoughts!

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While poking around the Extreme-Apps.com website after writing up Shake-and-Save, I found this other app that – as a driver at heart – I found pretty cool. gPC uses the accelerometer in your Windows Phone to give you all kinds of data on your driving, or as they put it, turn your phone into a “powerful vehicle performance calculator”.

This little app has some neat features that those with heavy feet might enjoy:

• Forward and lateral g forces measurements
• Horsepower vehicle’s calculation using device’s internal GPS receiver.
• Advanced processing methods of all calculated values, including g-forces (m/s^2), angles, GPS data and calculated horsepower (HP), while being saved to a proper log file by the user.
• 0 – 100 Km/h or 0 – 60 miles/h acceleration times calculations.
• Calculation of time and horsepower for 0 – 402 meter or 1/4 of mile acceleration times, while in dragster mode.
• Log opportunity of any of the max horsepower, g-forces or angles values.
• Drawing ‘circuit’ capability according to the longitude and latitude values measured by the internal GPS receiver.
• Speed and horsepower graphs utility using the appropriate user’s log files.

Give gPC a try for free by downloading it at the extreme-apps.com website. They ask that you donate for the full, registered version, but it doesn’t specify if the trial version is handicapped in some way. My Xperia doesn’t have an accelerometer, so if someone else can give it a try and let me know how it works…

Extreme? I don’t know. Novel, definitely. Extreme-apps.com has just put up Shake-and-Save on their website. Shake-and-Save lets you simply shake your Windows Phone and it will automatically do a screen capture and save it to in the format of your choice. This can be pretty handy for folks like me who do a lot of on-device screencaps.

And I love the warning on their site: Hold you phone tight. We are NOT responsible in case you drop it.

Extreme Apps says it specifically supports these devices:

• HTC Touch Diamond/Pro
• HTC Touch Diamond2/Pro2
• HTC Touch HD/HD2 (LEO)
• Samsung OMNIA (i900)

I’d be curious to know if it works on any accelerometer-enabled Windows Mobile device – feedback anyone? My Xperia doesn’t have one. Download it from the Extreme-Apps.com website and give it a try!

Here is another app from XDA called PPC Configurator that allows you to tweak your Windows Phone without having to hack through the registry. Man, these guys are helpful!

PPC Configurator features:

• SIP Configurator which allows you to select which of the on screen keyboards are active and shown in the list to choose the SIP from.
• SMS Configurator allows you to easily switch between threaded and classic text message display, as well as enable or disable the SMS Sent Notification.
• SIM Contact Configurator for enabling or disabling the ability to show Contacts from SIM card.
• Calendar Configurator for enabling Lunar Calendar.
• Lock Configurator for enabling Auto Lock on the device.

Very useful, especially the SIP Configurator – somehow my Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 always switches over to the symbol pad when I’m not looking…

Users who cherish their Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 will probably bristle when I say that I was never really blown away by the Panel experience on the X1. That said, if you’re using them you probably find the Spb Mobile Shell panel among the most useful.

Well, time to add some variety to your panels with this new Spb Mobile Shell panel for the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1. Simply download the files, unzip them into \Program Files\Spb Mobile Shell directory of your device. Next, tap the Settings icon, click Customize Menu, and enable “My Menu.”  You’ll need to restart for the changes to take effect.

Sony XPERIA X1

A recent job posting over at Microsoft.com hints at how Microsoft plans to integrate social networking into Windows Mobile 7. It is a bit disconcerting that this job is just being filled now, but at least they’re on the right track. Simple and intuitive access to social media is essential to any successful mobile OS these days, and for Microsoft to make up lost ground on they really need to hit the ground running… next October.

“Social Networks” and “Mobile Phones” are two rapidly evolving socio-cultural phenomena that deeply impact the way in which people interact with each other. How would you like to be at the confluence of these phenomena – not as an observer but as someone who is defining the course?

I’d love it, thanks. Now this is an excerpt from the posting (the job has been filled, so I can’t link to it anymore).  It goes on:

The Windows Mobile 7 Communications group is building experiences on the phone that present your content – friends, pictures, messages, events – to you in immersive and engaging ways. Our vision is to bring social networks to life by integrating them into the core experience of the phone. For example imagine seeing all the newsfeeds from all the networks you care about in a single hub on the phone. Or imagine the phone instantly telling you what your friend is doing and where he is when you get a call from him.
To realize this vision and build these experiences it’s important to have a solid, well-thought out foundation. This is where the “Models” team comes in. This team owns the storage platform and the developer story for all the social content on the phone – friends, photos, newsfeeds, messages, events, etc. Our aim is to build a “Mobile Social Platform” that provides rich APIs to both internal and external applications and to not only enable but also inspire them to build compelling social experiences.

Sounds like a challenge, yes? Well, they’ve found someone to fill these shoes (though we don’t know who yet).

Resco’s Photo Viewer v.6 is a must-have on all of my Windows Mobile devices, right back to my PPC 6700, so it was with an ear-to-ear grin that I saw Resco had released a beta version of their soon-to-be-released version 7. I had spotted a few spy shots of the alpha version and it looked good, but I am just tickled pink with the beta copy I just installed on my Xperia X1.

A beautiful, easy-to-use new UI makes the app totally finger-friendly, which was the only drawback to version 6 and earlier. Add simple integration with Facebook, Twitter and other online networks and it looks like the perfect image viewer for Windows Mobile. It surely beats anything else for WinMo, and is arguably the best image viewer I’ve seen on any platform!

Download the beta version of Resco Photo Viewer 7 straight from Resco and be sure to leave your thoughts below!

Expansis, the big UK online retailer, has posted a drop date of January 11th, 2010 for the Sony Ericsson Xperia X2. Any truth to this? We’ll see…

Rumours abound that Sony Ericsson might make the SE Xperia X2 their last Windows Mobile device.

A tweet by Eldar Murtazin, who runs mobile-review.com, low sales forecasts (on the X1 and X2?) are causing them to re-think their commitment to the Windows Mobile platform. The SE Xperia X3 “Rachael” has already been confirmed to be an Android device, but the upcoming X2 is launching with Windows Mobile 6.5.

Most people doubt Windows Mobile 6.5 will stop the steady market share slide Microsoft is experiencing, so let’s hope Windows Mobile 7 does the trick.

Engadget has a hands-on video and opinion piece on the upcoming Sony Ericsson Xperia X2. SE officially announced a Q4 launch of this revamp of the successful X1 (which I’m currently sporting, courtesy of Rogers), and based on what I’ve seen around the web it looks like a solid, Windows Mobile 6.5-equipped replacement, with a very high-end 8-megapixel camera.

The Phone Arena has a great breakdown of the new phone and a lot of nice pics, if you’re looking for more info.