More Windows Mobile 6.5 screenshots from a newer build –tasty, very tasty

Some newer builds of Windows Mobile 6.5 has leaked out on PPCGeeks.  Build 21159 apparently brings quite a bit of new features, both cosmetic and useful.

New services apparently include Marketplace, MyPhone and Outlook Live. There also appear to be a new Widgeting system in place.

Cosmetic enhancements includes finally a new and improved Windows Media Player which is now finally finger-friendly, and a much improved look to the scroll bar.

With what we have seen so far, I am beginning to be quite satisfied that Microsoft has actually heard the issues raised by actual Windows Mobile users, and are providing a sufficient response, maybe not enough to convince the media, but to show long-time users that they are finally getting their act together.

In these screenshots the honeycomb programs menu has been disabled, as it seems to be running a bit slow.

Read more in the PPCGeeks thread here.

12 No-crap Tools to Make Your Blog Better

Got a blog ? If so this post is for you: 12 truly useful tools and widgets that can make your blog better. All listed services work on any blog, whether it’s a Wordpress, Typepad, or a hosted Blogger blog. Enjoy!

1. Amung.us - Amung.us is a tiny real-time traffic analytics widget for your blog. It tells you (and your readers) how many people are currently on the website, what pages they’re reading, where in the world they’re coming from, and more. See our demo Amung.us widget below:

2. Conduit - Got a niche focused blog? If so, why not to offer a custom toolbar? Enable your readers to follow-up on latest posts, search your blog, have one click access to related resources/tools and more directly from the toolbar. I am not going to dwell much into it but this is definitely a must-have. It’s really hard to convince someone to get your toolbar but if you can implement it properly it can be a major plus.

3. MoFuse - Take your blog mobile. This free service lets you create mobile version of your website in a matter of minutes. All you need is a working RSS feed. Once created MoFuse can automatically detect and redirect mobile readers to a mobile version.

4. SiteMeter - Comprehensive real-time website traffic counter and analytics. Follow-up on latest referrals, entry/exit pages, visitor details, visits/pageviews ratio, and a lot more.

5. Google Analytics - Google Analytics will fill-in the parts that you won’t get with Sitemeter. It’s by far the best analytics program out there, and what’s even better is it’s free. It has everything: detailed referral reports, click heat maps, email alerts, individual page performance stats, user bounce rates, campaign tracking, and lots more. See full feature list here.

6. BlogRush / AdGridWork - Both of these networks work as “ad exchange” programs where you can earn free promotion credits in exchange for displaying non-obtrusive relevant network ads on your own website (mostly as widgets). The more traffic your website gets the more credits and referrals you earn.

7. PubMatic - PubMatic allows bloggers to make maximum off their website’s advertising space by automatically placing highest performing ad units on each page. It scans multiple ad networks (Google Adsense, YPN, ValieClick, etc.), diggs into ad performance reports and shows ad units with highest payout and performance. It’s completely free, there are no charges or commissions.

8. MyBlogLog - High chance you already have this one, but in case you don’t, definitely get it. There are two ways you can learn about your loyal readers, one is comments, and the other is MyBlogLog.

9. FatFreeCart - Free shopping cart solution for your blog. It’s simple to implement (simply copy-paste) and works perfectly both with PayPal and Google Checkout.

10. Kontactr / Contactify - Both services let you create secure online ‘contact’ forms and embed it on your own blog. Or just link it from your blog using ‘contact’ link.

11. AddThis / ShareThis (Wordpress) / Madcast (Blogger, Typepad) - Let your visitors bookmark / save your posts to various social bookmarking sites, or forward as links via email.

12. Web2PDF - Free HTML to PDF conversion service for your website. Allows your readers to instantly print and save any article as PDF file. We publish lots of lists on MUO so it’s not really that useful for us, but in case you got plenty of lengthy posts than this is something your readers should appreciate. Read more about it here

Unclutter Your Desktop With Fences

Fences is a free for personal use application by Stardock that helps unclutter the desktop with minimal user interaction and some clever ideas. The basic idea behind Fences is to provide areas on the desktop that can be filled with all the program shortcuts and files on the computer desktop.

While that alone would not be really spectacular Fences comes with one of the easiest ways to hide all or specific fences. Hiding and unhiding the fences can be done by a simple double-click on the desktop. This means that you can work with a icon free desktop for most of the day. If you need any shortcuts you simply double-click the desktop, the fences containing the icons appear and you can launch them normally.

Fences does come with the possibility to exclude areas from being hidden by the double-click which is great if you need some shortcuts visible all the time.

The program offers the ability to group all icons on the computer system automatically after installation. The alternative would be to create empty fences and move the shortcuts in those fences manually.

A new fence can be easily created by right-clicking on the computer desktop and drawing a rectangle on the screen. New icons places on the computer desktop will not automatically be moved into fences. It is up to the user to perform that operation.

Another interesting feature of the software program is that it will automatically scale if the screen resolution changes. Fences can be downloaded at the Stardock website. The software is compatible with the 32-bit editions of Windows XP as well as both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Customize S2U2 "Slide to Unlock" text Animation [Windows Mobile]

Here I will tell you guys how to customize the "slide to unlock" text animation.

1. The Animation file is in \Program Files\S2U2\gfx Folder named "slideanis.png"
2. It is made up of several slides of images of size 112x12 pixels(IMPORTANT), each placed right next to the other.
3. Its like the GIF animation but the images here are placed in a single image.
4. The resulatant file can be of any width but a multiple of 112, the Height should only be 12pixels.
4. You can also make customized animations like I did.

Creating animations using only Paint & Irfanview

Designing Frames:
==============
1. Open Paint.
2. Goto Image --> Attributes(Ctrl+E)
3. Set Width to 112 & Height to 12(If values are altered thing will go hazy). Choose the pixels combobox in 'Units' group.
4. You will get a 112x12 pixels white page.
5. Zoom in it to make designing easy.
6. Design a frame to be used in the animation.
7. Save it in BMP Format. I recommend using any naming convention. If Saved in other formats quality will be decreased.
8. Got the first frame, now create each & every frame to be used repeating the steps.
9. Save all of them in BMP format.

Of course: Instead of designing frames u can use any image just resize them.

Designing Animation:
===============
1. Open IrfanView.
2. Goto Image --> Create Panorama Image.
3. Choose Horizontal in the 'Directions' group.
4. Click 'Add images' & Choose all the frames u wish to use.
5. Adjust them 'Up', 'Down' as you want them in the animation. Top frame comes first & Bottom frame comes last.
6. Uncheck 'Insert file name into image'.
6. Click Ceate Image.
7. Save it in PNG format.

PS: Animations play really fast if only one unique frame is used once, In the Loading animation I got 12 frames, each frame was used 3 times repeatedly, to make it slow. i.e each frame was added 3 times.

Use Them:
========
1. I recommend to backup the \Program Files\S2U2\gfx folder.
2. Rename the saved PNG to 'slideanis.png'
3. Copy it to the \gfx folder.
4. Run iLock2 to stop S2U2.
5. Run iLock2 to rerun it.

That's it, Design your own animations & Share them here.

Have a look at a couple of mine:


Here's how my S2U2 looks like:

Customize S2U2 Slider Button [Windows Mobile]

Here is a tutorial to customze the S2U2 Slider Button.

1. S2U2 Slider button image is in Device\Program Files\S2U2\gfx folder as Arrows.png.
2. It consists of two images each of size 47x30 pixels, that makes the original image 94x30 pixels.
3. The first image is used when Slide to unlock & second image is used when Slide to Answer.

Designing Buttons:
===============
1. Open Paint.
2. Goto Image --> Attributes
3. Change width to 47pixels & height to 30pixels.
4. Design button u want to use for slide to unlock.
5. When Done, save it in BMP format.
6. Repeat the process for the next button i.e. Slide to answer.
7. Open IrfanView.
8. Goto Image --> Create Panorama Image.
9. Choose 'Horizontal' in Directions Group.
10. Click Add Images & add the images (Remember the first file is for Slide to unlock & the second is for Slide to answer)
11. Untick 'Insert file names in images'.
12. Click Create Image.
13. This file should be of 94x30 pixels.
14. Save it in PNG format.

Use Them:
=========
1. Rename the file to arrows.png
2. Copy it to Device\Program Files\S2U2\gfx folder.
3. Stop S2U2 by running iLock2.
4. Start again by running iLock2
5. U are done.

How to: Record your calls [Windows Mobile]

Calls recording is not something every WinMo device supports.

Apparently, there's a hack that opens this option for HTC devices (Diamond / Pro / Fuze / HD).

To do so, head over to the XDA-Developers, and download this file.

Install the CAB and restart your device.

This will add a new option to your left soft menu whenever you are running a phone call. Cewl!

There's also a way to remove the annoying "beep" when you start to record the call (so that no one will notice you are doing it... ohhhh...)

Windows Mobile: What’s coming when

Much was made of this week’s slip-up by Motorola’s CEO that Windows Mobile 7 is due in 2010 (something that’s actually been expected for a few months now).

I’ve been curious about how Microsoft plans to try to catch up with its mobile-phone competitors given the slow, plodding pace at which it has been rolling out new versions of its Windows Mobile platform. After asking around, it sounds like the Softies are definitely aiming to speed up development.

While Windows Mobile officials won’t talk about ship-date targets (hmmm… sounds like Windows client), some folks familiar with Microsoft’s plans are talking. Here’s the latest I’m hearing from my sources:

• Windows Mobile 6.5 RTM (release to manufacturing): April 2009
• First Windows Mobile 6.5 devices from cell phone makers: September 2009
• Windows Mobile 7.0 release to testers: November 2009
• First Windows Mobile 7.0 devices from cell phone makers: April 2010

When CNet first reported that Windows Mobile 7 had slipped, it sounded like the latter half of 2010 was the soonest the first Windows Mobile 7 devices would appear. My guess as to what’s compressing the cycle: Fewer WinMobile phone carriers means closer working relationships with Microsoft. Potentially, it also could mean smaller, shorter beta tests and quicker release cycles.

Windows Mobile increasingly seems to be going the way of Windows client: Multiple, small milestone test releases involving just a few external partners. There doesn’t seem to be an equivalent to the big public Windows client betas in the WinMobile world, but if you’re only going to release the product to a handful of carriers, as Microsoft brass indicated was the plan earlier this year, maybe you don’t need to….

I haven’t heard anything recently about the feature set that Microsoft is planning to deliver as part of Windows Mobile 6.5 or 7.0. There have been a few tidbits about some of the gesture recognition and multi-touch capabilities in the works for future WinMobile platforms, but that’s about all that’s leaked.

Back in late 2007, Microsoft told some enthusiasts a bit about its plans for Win Mobile 7 and 8. Even back then, there were hints of the Skybox/Skyline/Skymarket services, if you read between the lines. While Microsoft doesn’t seem to be tying those services to specific Windows Mobile releases, they do seem to be in lockstep with each other, from what my sources are saying. Skybox 2.0, for instance, seems to be timed to coincide with Windows Mobile 7, according to source reports.

What are you expecting — and hoping — to see Microsoft deliver as part of Windows Mobile 6.5 and 7.0?

Use wordpress as an online hard drive

Do you have an abandoned wordpress blog? Are you too ashamed to start it up again, after that huge, huge post gap?? Are you considering deleting that abandoned shameful wordpress blog??? Stay clear of that idea! Instead, recycle! And use it as a half-baked semi-functional online storage space! And if you call now, we’ll double the offer, half the price, and throw in a totally unrelated item for a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y FREE!!!

WordPress apparently has this ‘bug’ that lets you upload an alien filetype to space normally restricted to a few different kinds of image types. So here’s the mojo:

Rename ‘unethicalbugexploit.somerestrictedfiletype’ (aka ‘yourfile.file’ ) to ‘yourfile.file.jpg’ or ‘yourfile.file.png’ . It really doesn’t matter, unless it ends in ‘.jpg’ or some wordpress-enabled image file. The file icon might change to some generic image thumbnail. That is good.

Now just go onto wordpress and upload it as you would any normal image file. Embed that file in a page or a post if you wish to make it more public. ( Even if you don’t embed it, it will still be publicly accessible, just not publicly evident) If it gives you options to edit the thumbnail size, leave it alone. Just give it a title and captions if you want to.

Also, note the image URL by clicking on the ‘image url’ button. If you can change the url, go wild.

Ok. After the post is up, right click on the link, (there shouldn’t be a thumbnail) and ’save it as’

Just rename the downloaded file to it’s original file name and you’re gold!

NOTE: this bug offers features that people would normally have to pay for, (kind of) so only use it if you epocly hate basic ethics and/or wordpress, or if your life depends on it.

EXAMPLE LINK: Rename this to 42.zip

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