Windows Mobile

Hey,

Some Windows Mobile Touchscreen phones are called "Portable PCs" or PPCs. Turns out I will be getting one this Sunday (AT&T 8525), so I thought, Windows is so easy to hack, why not hack up Windows Mobile?

We all know I am a big Apple fan. Some of you know I really like the iPhone. All of you know I am a hacker at heart. See where I am going? :P Yep, I want to hack my Windows Mobile PPC to look like an iPhone.

So why? Well, after reading many reviews of Windows Mobile for Touchscreens, it seems that the interface is a bit small to use with the fingers that God gives us. Instead, Bill Gates wants you to use a finger that HE designed–the stylus (not really but it gets my point across). I want my phone to be easy to use, so I did a lot of research and came up with two probably solutions:

In short, solution 1 is a program that emulates the iPhone interface, and solution 2 is more advanced–it involves installing several programs and skins and probably about 30 minutes worth of work to get it set up right. Seeing as I don't have the phone yet, I will try the first method first and see how it goes.

Now I'll explain how the second method is done. (note: this is not my work, the full tutorial may be viewed here: http://hackaddict.blogspot.com/2007/06/tutorial-iphone-windows-mobile-skin.html

First you must download the file here: http://www.divshare.com/download/1233462-03a

All the files I will talk about after this point will be included in the download above unless otherwise specified, although I may provide download links:

.net Compact Framework 3.5

Contact Manager (touchscreen) not included

Installing the Skin:

1. Today: 1. Start by removing everything from your home screen:

1. Settings>Today

2. Remove everything from your Today Screen 2. Next copy the skin from: iPhone\Skin\black.tsk to your My Documents folder on your phone. 3. Go to Settings>Personal>Today and apply the theme.

2. RL Today 1. The cab is located in: iPhone\Skin\rlToday\rlToday.cab 2. Drag the Cab into the "My Documents" folder on your phone using sync software 3. Navigate to the cab on your phone and install it onto your phone by clicking on it 4. Now take the iPhone file and put it in the rlToday file

under Programs. 5. rlToday should now be on the home screen. Click and hold on the home screen until an "Option" button appears. Click on it. 6. Select iPhone as your skin and then set up all your programs under the Applications tab, using the pictures in the iPhone folder for the

icons. Make sure you skip the calendar, and phone applications. Those are built into the .xml skin file (they are animated or updated via registry references). So, from top to bottom your programs and icons should be:

SMS: blank.png, Photos: rl_photo.png, \Windows\pimg.exe Camera: rl_cam.png, \Windows\Camera.exe Youtube: rl_youtube.png, \Windows\iexplore.exe Command Line: http://m.youtube.com Finder: rl_finder.png, \Windows\fexplore.exe Maps: rl_maps.png, \Program Files\GoogleMaps\GoogleMaps.exe

Weather: blank.png, \Program Files\Weather Watcher\WeatherWatcher.exe Calculator: rl_cal.png, \Program Files\gCalc|gCalc.exe Notes: rl_notes.png, \Windows\notes.ese Settings: rl_settings.png, \Windows\CommManger.exe (that's a personal preference) Phone: blank.png, \Program Files\Contact Manager-.10\ContactManager.exe

Mail: rl_mail.png, \My Documents\My Midlets\Gmail.ink Web: rl_navi.png, \My Documents\My Midlets\Opera.ink Media: rl_ipod.png, \Program Files\TCPMP\player.exe

3. Get rid of the UGLY scroll bar: 1. Windows>Startup

2. Delete/move the battery and connections tray programs. 4. Wisbar Advance

1. The cab is located in: iPhone\Skin\Wisbar Advance 2\WisbarAdvance2.cab 2. Drag the Cab into the "My Documents" folder on your phone using sync software 3. Navigate to the cab on your phone and install it onto your phone by clicking on it 4. Copy the the included theme from: iPhone\Skin\Wisbar Advance 2\iPhone to: the Wisbar themes folder in Programs>Lakeridge>Wisbar

Advance 5. Go to Start>Programs>Wisbar Advance and open up the settings. Apply the theme and exit out of the settings manager.

5. VJ Toggle - make the softkeys vanish! 1. The cab is located in: iPhone\Skin\VJToggleToday\VJToggleToday.cab 2. Drag the Cab into the "My Documents" folder on your phone using sync software 3. Navigate to the cab on your phone and install it onto your phone by clicking on it 4. Probably need to do a soft reset to see results

6. Installing the Dialer: 1. The cab is located in: iPhone\Skin\Dialpad\iphone.cab 2. Drag the Cab into the "My Documents" folder on your phone using sync software 3. Navigate to the cab on your phone and install it onto your phone by clicking on it 4. You must restart your device to complete the installation. Hit ok

7. Installing the Keyboard and skin: 1. The cab is located in: iPhone\Skin\Keyboard\HappyTappingKeyboard.arm.cab 2. Drag the Cab into the "My Documents" folder on your phone using sync software 3. Navigate to the cab on your phone and install it onto your phone by clicking on it 4. Copy the Skin folder from: iPhone\Skin\Keyboard\Skin to My Documents on your phone. 5. Go to Settings>Personal>Input and select Happy Tapping Keyboard. 6. Click Options and locate the QVGA files in KeyboardSkin. P is for Portrait and L is for Landscape.

Finally, we're almost done!

Do a soft reset. You will notice that the bottom of the screen has what I like to call a "dead space." To eliminate this eye sore do a search in your windows directory for ".gif" Search through the results until you find a file named something like: "tdywater.gif" (mine was called "tdywater_240_320.gif"). If necessary rename the included "tdywater.gif" file to whatever your search yielded. Drag the included file onto your pocket pc to replace the existing one. Do a soft reset.

Note: Thanks to "jenny" for writing this article.

I will let everyone know how this hack goes by the end of the month.

Enjoy!

Isaac :)