And you thought the Android kids were the favorite child of HTC now with that whole Sense thing. We couldn't tell you at the time, but HTC has been hard at work updating TouchFLO 3D. And quite an update it is. Our sources had told us that Manila 2.5 (Manila's the not-so-super-secret nerd name for TouchFLO, btw), basically takes the Windows Mobile out of Windows Mobile, and boy howdy does it ever.

You get a pretty good feel for it in the above video from German site handy-faq. [via pocketnow] Even the deepest settings don't appear to take you out of the TouchFLO 3D environment and kick you back into Windows Mobile. That's been one of our biggest gripes about TouchFLO in the past – it looks great at first, but you lose the experience of it pretty quickly. Well, no more. And although we don't see it in this video, we're also told that there may be some pretty massive Facebook integration to look forward to.

In the beginning of the video you hear mention of the Firestone, which we believe is the first device we'll see with Manila 2.5. (We've also heard the name Leo being thrown around, which may well be the Firestone's more official moniker from HTC, just as the Maple evolved into the Snap, Rhodium to Touch Pro 2, etc. Or it could be the other way around.)

Now that you're salivating ... Will we see Manila 2.5 on upcoming phones such as the Diamond 2 and Touch Pro 2? Let's hope so. And if not, we'll remind you of three little letters.

X. D. A.

More screen shots of Manila 2.5 after the break, courtesy of Italian site UDK-lab.

Read the rest of this entry »

Kickin' it like it's 1991, Windows Mobile has teamed up with Naughty By Nature to release a NBN-themed HTC Touch Pro 2. In addition to giving away the phone, they're also offering up airfare and tix to a show in Los Angeles. More info on that here (pdf link), and find more at Facebook.com/windowsmobile.

And for more rap from the Windows Mobile crew ...

Here's a grilling an interview with a couple of HTC Europe execs from Polish smartphone site PDA.pl. [via] It can be a little painful to watch, for both sides, but the questions asked are reasonable:

• Where's the 3.5mm headphone jack?
• There's hardware for an FM radio, but why no software?
• Why aren't "older" phones getting the latest version of TouchFLO 3D?

We can live without an FM radio. This is 2009, after all. And getting custom ROMS with different software is no sweat on HTC phones. But we'll jump on board the 3.5mm headphone jack beat-down. Like it or not, that needs to be standard.

Update: Yep, looks like there are issues with the video. So, here are the answers -- highly paraphrased, of course. And, really, any answer works for any of the questions. Here goes:

1. Want a headphone jack? Use the crazy little adapter HTC provides. Or get a Touch HD.
2. Um, we'll look into it.
3. HTC has many great new phones.

A bit ago we reported on a "slide to unlock" application for your Windows Mobile phones, S2U2. One of the more common remarks  heard when people see S2U2's unlock screen is "Wow, just like the iPhone." which, for some, is synonymous to fingernails scratching a chalkboard.

XDA Developer member demonizator, has developed TPro v1.0.0, a skin for S2U2 that gives the application a Touchflo 3D appearance for those prefer less of a iPhonish appearance.  The application is still in the Beta stage but works nicely.  In using TPro on the AT&T Fuze, I only experienced one brief delay when unlocking the phone.  Otherwise, the Today Screen popped up instantly.  I have to admit, I like the appearance a little better than the stock S2U2 appearance.

You do need to turn off S2U2 before installing TPro and there is a separate .cab file to uninstall the skin.  So if you like the concept of a slide to unlock application but don't want to loose the Touchflo feel, TPro might be worth a look.

[Read: FuzeMobility]

Here's a bonus tip of the week for you folks with TouchFlo 3D, courtesy of FuzeMobility [via].

There's no denying that TF3D is a sexy little UI, but it'd be nice if the e-mail preview envelope showed a little more text. And, as with all things HTC, the wizards at XDA Developers have found a hack. Here's what you'll need to do.

1. In the Windows directory on your phone, back up the following files. 77fb7fad_manila and 21449ae5_manila. We're going to overwrite these. While you're at it, go ahead and back up your phone. (But you already knew to do that, right?)
2. Head over to the XDA thread. You can either download the replacement files themselves, or a couple of handy on/off cabs.
3. Go to your today screen settings, and turn TouchFlo 3D off. Repeat: Off. Not on.
4. Either run the proper cab file, or copy over the new individual files into the Windows directory.
5. Turn TouchFlo 3D back on. You may need to soft-reset.

That's it. The envelope should now be behind the e-mail preview, allowing you to see more with a quick glance. Let us know in the comments how it worked for you.

One of the attractions to the new HTC line-up is TouchFlo 3D. There is no argument that graphically, Touchflo 3D is a eye catching application. While it may be pretty to look at, how functional is it? Before Touchflo 3D hit the market, one of the more popular Today Screen alternatives was SPB's Mobile Shell. There are some reservations over Touchflo 3D's usefulness and SPB Mobile Shell might be a viable alternative for those HTC owners who are looking for something different. Could Mobile Shell hold it's own against the animated graphics of Touchflo?

We decided to compare these two applications and as Michael Buffer so aptly put it, "Let's get ready to rumble!" (key techno dance music please). Read on after the break to see how they measure up against each other.

Read the rest of this entry »

One thing I like about Windows Mobile devices is the ability to customize the appearance to match your personality and tastes through themes. The one thing that I can live without is the gray color scheme of the AT&T Fuze. To call it drab is an understatement. Fortunately, with the introduction of the Touchflo 3D interface it was only a matter of time before someone figured out a way to easily customize Touchflo’s appearance and add a little spice to the Fuze’s appearance.

Enter MobileMatt.net where you can find Touchflo 2D, 3D, Touch Command and Windows Mobile themes. Touchflo 3D users take particular note of the Touchflo 3D skin. MobileMatt just posted the 3D Skin (Fuzeberry) v3.0.2 in our forums and adds a few extras to Touchflo including a Calendar, Call History, and Comm Manager Tab. The Skin will accept any wallpaper for the background to add more customization. The Skin does require .NET CF which is downloadable from the website. It's a theme that's similar to the BlackBerry wireframe themes, which we point out here in the spirit of the Smartphone Round Robin -- maybe it will make Kevin like TouchFlo a bit more.

Here’s a cool way to show off all of the slick weather animations in HTC’s TouchFlo 3D, brought to us by our friends at PocketNow.

How to do it (instructions for the visual learners at right):

1. Switch to the Weather tab.

2. Tap to the left of where it says “Weather” at the top.

3. Now tap to the right of where it says “Weather.”

It should now run through all of the weather animations in succession. Enjoy!

We’d been staying away from some of the “Hey, look, there’s the Xperia X1” news for the past couple of days because, frankly, we’re tired of typing “No, we still don’t know when it’s coming out.”

Crap. Did it again, didn’t we. Fine. (And, no, we don’t.) But this is just too good to pass up.

The folks at MoDaCo have ginned up a working custom panel for the X1 that is none other than HTC’s TouchFlo 3D interface. Isn’t that the bee’s knees? It's been stripped out of the Touch HD (another sore spot for those of us in the U.S.) and is mostly functional.

And the best part: It’s floating around the XDA Developers forum as a CAB file, so you can try it out just as soon as you get the phone. And you might want to go ahead and snag it now. There’s gotta be some HTC lawyer somewhere gritting his teeth over this one.

The other question is if anyone's gonna enter this in that panels developer's challenge that Sony Ericsson is supposed to start soon. Eh, probably not.

Via wmpoweruser

Most of us aren't quite able to play around with TouchFLO 3D yet as it's only available on the HTC Diamond and the Touch Pro (we're still crossing our fingers for September, by the way). However when we do get our hands on TouchFLO 3D goodness, it looks like we'll be able to hack away. The fine folks at Pocketnow have a couple of posts detailing some settings you can change up.

• The first is reordering the TouchFLO tabs to something that makes a little more sense for your workflow.
• The 2nd isn't TouchFLO per say, but instead details the settings you'll need to change in order to make the Diamond's 'zoom wheel' (that's right, it doesn't scroll, it zooms) work in applications not titled “Opera” or “Outlook.” It's registry-riffic, so save it for later.

Meanwhile, feel free to kick back and ogle our first look at the Diamond and dream about the CDMA version we're expecting. It's going to be a great fall, folks.