Brad Marsh’s Weblog

1. Compatibility

The slow uptake or even non existent uptake of the VISTA operating system was due to incompatibility of drivers and applications, now that VISTA has been around for a while, and all major vendors now fully support Vista / 2008 server, being that windows 7 shares quite a bit of VISTA codebase in terms of drivers support.

Windows 7 also seems to have a very prominent place in the WWW, with major vendors jumping on board the beta band wagon, releasing pre driver support, Microsoft also already  offering upgrade paths, in association with all major PC vendors, such as Dell, HP, Asus the list goes on.

With that said its seems with the release of VISTA and the long public beta releases of windows 7, may of payed off with, thus compatibility between devices is a thing of the past.

2.  Legacy support

While this comes under compatibility I think this needs a specific mention, as I think this is one of the most compelling selling points from a SMB perspective. Its the ‘windows 7 XP mode’

what this is, is essentially a Virtual PC (VPC), but wait before you stop reading its a whole lot more than just a VPC… While they now support USB within the VPC, which is a vey nice addition. The VPC fully integrates with the guest OS, what this means is if you install an application within XP VPC,  it will appear within the windows 7 start menu, meaning you can launch the application from your primary machine without having to interact with the VPC at all.

Why is this such a big deal, and why should this help the SMB market take to windows 7 as there next OS?

Simple windows Vista no longer supports 16 bit applications, as it does not have a 16bit sub system like XP does. With the XP mode 16 bit is supported, therefore for all those SMB’s that have so many of those legacy systems that are 16bit based that couldn’t go to VISTA because of this reason, but yet IT managers, CTO’s and CEO’s  didn’t want to spend the money to re-develop a 32bit version, when they have a perfectly good working application.

With XP mode 16 bit is very plausible that you can run your 16bit apps directly from windows 7!

        3.  Efficiency

With the overhaul of the task bar (referred to as the superbar), jump lists, ‘Aero shake’ to quickly minimize all apps apart from the shaken app, and the massive additions of shortcut keys that interact with windows 7  (many can be found in my previous blog post) All of these significantly increase the speed of which a user can work, while some seem very gimmicky like the Aero shake, it actually serves a  unique and quick outcome.

The other side to efficiency of windows 7 is not just in the shortcuts and the new features but yet the OS it self has significantly improved on boot and shutdown times, It’s processing of newer applications on modern hardware is superior over XP, where windows 7 uses the processor and memory more efficiently.  Also for mobile users battery life is increased, it is said they they have reduced the power draw by up to 15%, and other tweaks for notebook users.

Last one is not for everyone but the fact that windows 7 allows Muti-touch, this can significantly speed up the processes of how quickly you can access your apps and files.

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So the question on many peoples lips is it worth the upgrade???

For me the answer is YES absolutely!

While I know its still beta for many phones, I like many other WM enthusiasts have been able to get our 6.5 ROMs from http://xda-developers.com, So we have first hand experience with WM 6.5.

I have now been using WM6.5 full time now for a few months, while I see Microsoft have made some necessary changes in order to keep up with the ever so popular Iphone, some of these changes include:

• Most menus are now finger friendly for those with fatter fingers (like myself)
• Scrolling throughout the whole WM platform is now fluid like the Iphone.
• They have removed the start menu where it would drop down like the current windows platform (W7, VISTA, XP etc), where it appears in a honeycomb effect, again this if finger friendly.
• Windows Locking, they have taken a leave out of apples book here, and they now also have the slide to unlock function
• They have now incorporated widgets with this release (further blogs to come on this)
• It also appears that customisations to the phone skin / theme are easier than ever, and now your able to incorporate images within the taskbars with transparency. this give the phone a 21st century look about it!!!
• And last but not least the biggest change is the home screen, now referred to as titanium, this is one screen that allows you to manage almost everything from the one screen, The Idea is similar to HTC’s Touchflo, in a round about way.
• Battery life has been increased

they say pictures are worth a thousand words so less talk and more pics:

The honeycomb, this is modified, normally it is large only 3 Icons across	The  Slide to unlock
Titanium weather	Titanium Home
Email / SMS / MMS screen you can see a new scroll bar, and the items are MUCH larger to click on, as you can see the highlight is customisable to a degree. The scroll in here is SO much more fluid like the IPhone.	New IE, better but far from perfect, Opera is still miles ahead
	IE without all the bars, works like opera, but not nearly as smooth, also doesn’t render website correct

While I have given it praise there is still a major down side I think…

It looks and works the same way, its RAM and ROM hungry, Microsoft have only bandaid the old interface.

However combined with HTC’s great new TouchFlo 3d (TF3d)version 2 (not officially release either) it seems they have fixed pretty much every menu that is commonly used to be very finger friendly, while they did this with the basics on TF3D v1, in V2 they have gone way beyond, fixing most menus. So with TF3D2 combined with 6.5 its not at all a bad package. I will be looking forward to both TF3Dv2 and 6.5 come out of beta.

(All new devices with 6.1 shipped will be eligible for a 6.5 upgrade, older phones while you might find a copy of 6.5 on http://xda-developers.com, don’t expect it to fly, also your vendor will not support it!)

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So it seems as though Windows Mobile 6.5 has been leaked already, there are some skeptical’s out there, saying its just a modified 6.1 release, but I am defiantly a believer that this is 6.5, the way the scrolling effect is shown, looks beyond anything else that other vendors such as Sony, HTC and Samsung have been able to do with the programs . The home screen seems to match the previous screen shots seen of 6.5.

some of the updates to 6.5 so far

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The people with HTC touch series, more specifically the HD, Pro and Diamond will most likely have installed some form of application that allow them to make real use of the G-Sensor, where when you turn your phone horizontally it will flip the screen accordingly, in most cases this is very useful.

However I am a user of Gyrator 2 (I cant use GSEN as this is only useful for diamond users, possibly HD also), Gyrator is an awesome little app, but it seems to flip manila AKA Touch Flo 3d on the occasion. This only happens when you click the application list in the top right, and then turn the screen you will see that manila will flip. Also when the volume control is pressed and turned then it will once again flip. This is rather annoying when you are receiving a phone call or just getting it out of your pocket, and its all messed up.

Through Gyrator you are able to add your own events, to prevent this from happening, so I thought I would share this with everyone.

Here  is my events.ini file this is what gyrator reads to perform its magic

Stylus In (Lock),*,2,1087,8,,0
Stylus In,*,2,1087,2,/Windows/Default.wav,0
Stylus Out,*,2,2111,2,/Windows/Default.wav,0
Power (Manila),Manila,1,16,96,,0
Disable (Manila),Manila,1,1,1,,0
Disable (Opera),Opera,1,1,1,,0
Disable (Teeter),TEETER,1,1,1,,0
Disable (YouTube),HTCYOUTUBE,1,1,1,,0
Disable (Camera),IACSP20_Main,1,1,1,,0
Disable (DIALER),Dialer,1,1,1,,0
Disable (volume) ,VOLUMECONTROL,1,1,0,,0
Disable(task manager)  ,ATL:1330510,1,1,0,,0
Hang Up (Phone),Phone ,1,16,128,,115
Pickup Call (Phone),Phone – Incoming,1,1,128,,114
power save,*,1,16,96,,0
Rotate,*,1,63,1,,0

All you have to do to use this is copy and paste over your current events.ini file, it can be found in

‘\Program Files\Gyrator2′

If you installed the applicaction on your device it will be device\Program Files\Gyrator2

storage card will be storage card\Program Files\Gyrator2

For this events.ini to function correctly you must be running Version 2008.12.10

Remember keep a backup of your old events.ini

 EDIT: its worth noting that everytime you reboot your phone a new random number for task manager is created, see the below config item

Disable(task manager)  ,ATL:1330510,1,1,0,,0

To correct this simple go into the gyrator config screen, edit the taskmanager event and then choose ‘application’ tab followed by the ‘learn window class’ pull out your styls go to start choose today click on the task manager top right side then put the styles back in with the task manager still open. And then you have the new numbers. Apply it and your done

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Well finally got my touch PRO, and while everything works as to be expected the GPS, is less than impressive.

Not only for the first time and various times after does it take 5 + minutes to lock on to a location, but the lag is terrible. I must admit I am very surprised HTC haven’t patched this up earlier.

Any way for those people that just cant get a lock onto their location. I would recommend a GPS viewer to get an idea of what is going on.

Once installed and running make sure you follow the steps below and  then be  patient, it will get a lock but it will also take some time in my experience, also try walking around, you will see your signal decrees or increase by doing this.

Download it here

or

here

Guide to lessen the lag effect on the GPS.

NOTE: I am do not take any responsibility for anything that may go wrong.

Requirements:

.Net Compact edition 3.5 – http://www.microsoft.com/downloadS/details.aspx?familyid=E3821449-3C6B-42F1-9FD9-0041345B3385&displaylang=en

Advanced Config 3.2 or better – http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=37539 (link to 3.3)

Registry Editor – Blogged on this recently, or you can find some here:

http://freewareppc.com/utilities/utilities_registry.shtml

Guide

Open Advanced Config and choose GPS and follow below:

1. disable A-GPS
2. disable GPS logging – delete any text or directory listings
3. logfile name must be empty – delete any text or directory listings
4. old logfile name must be empty – delete any text or directory listings
5. maximum size of logfile must be 0
6 delete the files : \windows\GPSLogFile.txt and \windows\GPSLogFileBack.txt

Open your registry editor navigate to:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\GPS Intermediate Driver\

- Drivers\GpsOneDevice\ Change PollInterval to 100 (default is 1000)
- Drivers\ change InputBufferSize to 512 (default is 4096)
- Drivers\ change OutputBufferSize to 512 (default is 4096)
- Drivers\ change SleepOnNoData to 100 (default is 1000)
- Multiplexer\ change MaxBufferSize to 512 (by default not present, you have to create it).

Now soft reset the phone and you should  be good to go. I still have lag but defiantly much better than the factory settings.

UPDATE:

I have now had much quicker locks and better response times with flashing my ROM with a new radio, version: 1.02.25.28 Raphael note my orginal radio rom was: 1.02.25.19

find more information here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=439566

If you do flash your radio, do this at your own risk and make sure you read the above thread carefully. I suggest also installing HardSPL for the touch pro. Find this here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=410150

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There has been alot of talk about the release of Windows mobile 6.5 to be officially release in the first quarter of 09, there has been many rumours saying the release of Sony’s XPERIA, however this is nothing but roomers, after in depth viewing’s of the X1, just good UI changes. Steve Ballmer offically let the cat out of the hat in November confirming that 6.5 is coming.

Motorola recently leaked some images of its 6.5 interface. Here is what it may look like, however this could be Motorola’s UI on top of the std windows mobile

Personally I am not a fan of the way it looks, I am quite the fan of HTC’s touch pro series, specifically the touch flow 3D seems to be a far better looking interface.

It is said that most modern windows mobile devices will be capable of upgrading from 6.1 to 6.5.

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Craig Bailey recently blogged about Microsoft’s place in the mobile world, seems the IPhone has battered MS’s position in the mobile market, despite Steve Ballmers words:   See Craig’s Blog post for all the facts and figures, of who has the market share. However I don’t see this as a bad thing for us consumers, only good can come from this, for example windows mobile 7 may be a little quicker to be pushed out the door, despite the huge delays that have been announced, maybe a beta early 09…. Here is hoping anyway.

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Recently I applied another ROM (yes another one seem as though I am changing ROM’s as often as my undies) because I am sick of waiting for windows mobile 7.

So anyway’s I found myself an AWSOME windows mobile 6.1 rip off of the HTC touch series (diamond, PRO and HD)

called HTC_HERMES_S64_WM_6.1_TouchFlo2D_UC_ WWE v5 / GER v1 BIG THANKS to:

_Alex_, A_C, abusalza, anichillus, anryl, bennec83, Bepe, bluemetalaxe, CRCinAu,
dotfred, Dr Puttingham, dutty, duttythroy, efrost, gullum, herg62123, kin0kin,
Koterpillar, l3v5y, lagoskon, lepsyfou, levenum, Lordsmiff, MaRaHoX, Martie, mattk_r
Mort, mrvanx, N2A, no2chem, patr!k, PaY87, poorlyduck, Rhapsody, s.l.i, sakajati,
schaps, schen, Shamanix, shogunmark, Slither2006, tadzio, zocster
with friendly greet
Starbase64

Awesome ROM

Anyway’s, if you are like me and have the good old Dopod 838 Pro, and loaded a new ROM on that is a different country; you might have some keyboard problems.

First problem you might find is that it might not be the QWERTY keyboard but a QWERTZ (German).

Second is that you will find characters more accurately punctuation all over the place , which is just annoying when your in a rush to type something up.

So in order to fix these problems you are going to need a registry editor for your device, there are many around that are free. But I recently stumbled across one that runs as an .exe from a desktop machine, and when your device is in sync it will read from it and allow you to modify the registry, this works perfectly you can find it here

Once you see the registry up and running you need to change the following registry keys:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Oem\Qwerty

“layout” = “132105″

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\keyboard layout\Preload\

“Default”=”e0010409″

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\keyboard layout\Preload\1

“Default”=”e0010409″

restart your PDA.

DONE, you now have your keyboard back to normal

If you have another phone the below could possibly help you

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=428597

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As we all know we can set the today screen to have any picture we like on it set as a background image, like a windows wall paper, but if you apply the image through

Start > Settings > Today then you will find that there is a high transparency applied to it, and your picture just looks very ordinary.

There is a way that you can adjust or completely remove the transparency, on windows mobile 5 or better.

Simply open your Image viewer, in windows mobile 6.x it is refer to as ‘Pictures & Videos’ once the app is open you will be able to select the location of your image, one found open the image up, down on the bottom right you will have ‘menu’ select this, you will then be able to select ‘Set as Today Background’ choose this, here if you images is large it will show you how it will scale it down as a preview, and you can also set the % level of the transparency.

Once your happy hit OK at the top, then your done.

Here is what my screen now looks like

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I was able to play with the only released and for me long awaited HTC Diamond the other day, I was extremely excited about this phone, seeing many videos and reviews. And while we all know the IPhone was released not to long ago either as the also long awaited 3G platform, and while I praise what apple has done with the Iphone, they have opened a whole new world of functionality and features, but in doing this I seem to read nothing but flaws with the IPhone, apple were clearly under pressure to get the 3g phone out in the wild by setting official dates, however this has come at a BIG cost to apple.

here is the latest of apples issues with the IPHONE

Anyway back to the HTC vs the IPHONE.

After playing with the HTC, I walked away less then impressed, why well mostly I am sure because of the hype stirred around the phone, but also because I found the touch functionality still not to be on par with the IPhones ease of touch and movement.

I found zooming into pictures needed a full 360 of your finger rather then say a 180 twirl, the flick of the finger across the side bar of the HTC seem to be random in terms of what it would select there was no nice graphical movement like the IPhone.

On the upside the on screen keyboard is surprisingly easy to use and resisters the touch much, much better then previous models, of course the on screen display is made bigger, but even with my fat fingers it seems very easy to use, for those with even fatter fingers then me well you can use the condensed qwerty keyboard, or other alternatives.

another upside is its cool looking display and layout is easy to use, the menus have been made larger or finger friendly rather then using the stylist all the time. 

And in terms of the form factor well they are both on par with each other.

All in all my thoughts are the Iphone ease is still a winner HTC do have some work to do to match the Iphone, but then the HTC is working of the mature and proven windows mobile, which lets face it the amount of things that you can do with windows mobile is phenomenal.

If I had to choose I would still go the HTC, but for me I am going play the waiting game a little more for the HTC touch Pro, this to me is more of a power / Business users phone.

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