Ah, the great stylus debate. Even with the advent of the more finger-friendly TouchFlo 3D, some people just can't put down the stylus. And that's OK. Different strokes and all that. And with the Touch Diamond family of devices (including the Touch Pro and Touch HD), there came the added bonus of the phone recognizing when you remove the stylus and then waking or launching a program.

And if you're they type that's constantly losing your stylus, here's a little app that can help remind you to put it back after you've used it. Brought to you by the fine folks at XDA Developers, it monitors whether your stylus is in or out. If it's out and your phone starts moving, it can alert you. Pretty simple stuff, but it could save you a little stylus headache.

Find the app and more information on it here.

Via PocketNow

<

p>

Managing space on your WM device is becoming less and less a concern as newer devices are coming with memory aplenty. But still, after a few months of installing and un-installing, storing pictures and documents, that device space can disappear. More importantly, sometimes an app will store cache on your device, depleting memory without your knowledge.

So how to know what is taking up the most space on your device? One way is to use Resco Explorer, which allows you to sort by directory size. Another is MemMaid which can show you memory space.

But both of those are pay apps (though highly recommend). Enter Mobile Monger a new freeware app that has a very unique method to inform you of your space allocation: it shows you.

Basically you launch the program and it shows you how much space something is taking up. Clicking on a directory will "zoom in" to show you details.

The program does require .NET 3.5 (download the .cab here!) and does zap resources, so don't use any other apps during the "scan" process. Redrawing the screen is also a bit slow, but hey...it's free and does it what it's suppose to, so give it a shot!

Download HERE

Via PocketNow

In the forums some users have found a neat little exploit to see other devices on the Sprint network. But is it something to worry about?

Probably not.

The trick is to use Resco Explorer --> Menu --> File --> Network --> Map Drive

After waiting a few moments if you hit the [+] sign to expand the list, you may see a bunch of device IDs. Interestingly, these appear to be all Sprint devices as WiFi is not enabled at the time and my Treo 800w is on Sprint.

So what is going on here?

Click to read an explanation plus some more screenies...

Read the rest of this entry »

Understatement: Windows Mobile's default media player, Windows Media Player (WMP), isn't exactly iPod-class. One solution for this issue is to just give up on WMP completely and go with something like Pocket Tunes, currently our top pick for alternate music players (though we have more reviews of media players coming soon -- stay tuned). For some, however, having another media player isn't a great option due to either memory constraints or just plain personal preference. For you crazy folks, we offer two hints to make things a little better.

Hint the first: force WMP to actually remember your place in a track after you've exited WMP. This solution comes via a simple .cab plugin from XDA Wizard Wolfman-XP [via]. It's pretty much a necessity if you're using WMP to listen to audio books or, ahem, podcasts.

Hint the second: you've probably seen that there's a setting in WMP to allow for different skins, but on most devices there's just the default available and finding more is a hassle. Well buck up little camper: Chris Craft (aka Mr. 30 apps in 30 days) has collected his top 5 WMP skins here. We're fond of the $1.99 'Tweak' interface pictured above.

Bonus hint: make it known to Microsoft that the media situation is untenable and if they're planning on bringing that rumored Zune-like functionality they'd better get on it and right quick.

We're back a little later than we'd like, but we'll nail this puppy down eventually. This week I'm talking a bit about the Sprint Touch - specifically how Sprint managed to ruin TouchFLO by adding their own applications that feel like they're little more than attempts to pull more money out of you. Fortunately, there are ways to customize the TouchFLO cube on the Sprint Touch. They come to us courtesy of PPCGeeks. Links after the break!

• Download it directly with this link
• Subscribe via iTunes
• Subscribe directly to the Podcast feed with your favorite Podcatcher here
• Check out Microsoft's Getting Started with Podcasts article
• Just listen to it here with this flash player:

Read the rest of this entry »

If you saw our Video First Look at the Tilt, you know our major complaint is that it doesn't have an especially good out of box user experience. The Tilt is ok on its own, but it certainly has a lot of annoying tweaks and twacks that keep it from being the stupendous device the hardware promises.

So what do you do? You hack the mutha. After the break, what we did to bring our Tilt up to speed. Note to hardcore Windows Mobile fanatics and newbs alike: this is the "lite" version - it's a guide your grandmother could love. In other words: Registry Editor not required!

Read the rest of this entry »

Here's another sweet hack from the forums. Palm inexplicably hasn't put threaded messaging on the CDMA versions Windows Mobile Treo (i.e the 700w and 700wx), but it's available on the GSM only Treo 750. So - hackers to the rescue! I've done this successfully on both an HTC Touch and a Mogul - as promised by the thread's title, the instructions really are dead-simple.

A couple of caveats:

1. You'll want to use Resco Explorer or some other file browser that can get to hidden files.
2. You'll lose MMS. Yeah - there are ways around it, but basically you're making a decision between threaded SMS and MMS. The only time I use MMS is when I'm testing it on a new phone, so no big loss for me.
3. Windows Mobile 6 Pro or Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC edition only (i.e. touchscreen), sorry kids.

So head on into the forums and get your thread on. Big ups to codyppc for writing up the instructions and to hannip for figuring it all out.

Ok, due to the large number of people still having trouble installing the sms app, I have decided to write another tutorial for nOObs. With pictures. Many said the old threads were outdated.

Read: WM6 Threaded SMS Install Instructions for nOObs. w/pictures - WM Experts

I've complained about Microsoft's boneheaded decision to keep WM6 Standard Edition from being able to create office docs natively before. Why on earth would they allow that to happen? Well, Jason Landridge offers this little tip:

Just create a blank document on your PC for Word and Excel and copy them into your My Documents folder.  You can then open these documents and Save them As something else...

Ok, that works. But still, will somebody tell me why it's so difficult to just add "new document"? Is it just a decision that's based on a desire to keep the "Pro" edition more "pro"? In any case, it's a nice tip. Here's a better one, just use Documents to Go instead of the built-in doc editor.

Read: Jason Langridge's WebLog - MR Mobile! : Windows Mobile 6 Standard - can't create new documents?

The earlier post about adding A2DP to a Treo 700wx has got me thinking: I start applying hacks to pretty much every Windows Mobile device I try out. WM is surprisingly hackable (and surprising stable after hacks are applied), and most of the little usability quirks that bug me turn out to be fixable via a hack. Just one example is changing the way that the 5-way nav works in Pocket Internet Explorer, as detailed here.

Today's Prize: a set of Jabra BT620 Stereo Bluetooth Headphones. Fitting, since most WM phones support them, and for those that don't there's often a hack to enable it!

How to win

Head on over to the discussions and post your favorite hack in the device-appropriate forum (device-appropriate because often these hacks work on one device but not another). If it works on any device, go ahead and post it in General WM Chat. Don't know any hacks? Then think for a brief bit about something that bugs you about WM and post a question - dollars to donuts there's somebody else annoyed by the same thing that has found a hack to change it.

I'll keep an eye on all the "hacks" posts between now and Noon EST Feb 23rd and choose the winner at random from those posts.

Don't forget - Every entry in a daily contest doubles as an entry for the Grand Prize and the two Second Prizes! Namely: A Smartphone of your choice plus $300 to spend in the WMExperts store and a couple of Slingbox Pros.

(Full contest rules are here)

If your 6700 is getting a little long in the tooth (Face it, you know that it is), then here's good news for you. AKU3 is now available via a hack (completely unsupported and highly frowned-upon by Sprint and Verizon). So worth it, though, given the sheer number of bugfixes, tweaks, speed you'll garner from the upgrade.

Seriously, you deserve it after lugging that plastic beast around for so long. Give it try. Again, though, takes a touch of the technical skill, so not for the faint of heart.

Well-known Windows Mobile hacker Helmi (known for similar Windows Mobile hacking endeavors on the GSM platform) has managed to release Windows Mobile 5 AKU 3.3 for both the PPC-6700 and XV6700. In addition, both AKU 3.5 and Crossbow are expected to be leaked shortly for the device.

With the PPC-6700 still the most powerful device on Sprint and Verizon, owners can finally have a software installation that compliments their hardware's performance, even if Sprint, Verizon, and UTStarcom want to force users to upgrade via new hardware (that hasn't been released yet).

Read: Phone News - Hackers Deliver AKU 3.3 for PPC-6700 and XV6700 (Updated Again)