Windows Mobile (part 2)

Ok so here is part two of my Windows Mobile hacking :)

First, I tried out the 1st method called iFonz. It looked lame, was slow and overall, well, lame. :)

Turns out the OS i got is a cooked ROM (hybrid OS basically) that has mixes of Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro, HTC OS and a few other hacks. I added a few more features of my own such as:

-iPhone dialing pad

-iPhone-like on-screen keyboard

-iPhone slide-to-unlock screen lock

Basically I like iPhones. :P but this OS isn't all that bad. It runs mainly on the Windows OS which I don't hate near as much as the Windows PC OS (yes, I know about Windows 7 but Leopard and Snow Leopard still lick it!) and it is actually fairly easy to navigate the UI with your fingers instead of the stylus.

Here are a few screenshots:

Apple RAWKS

Sorry I couldn't resist…after putting Windows stuffs on my blog I just GOTTA talk about Macs and their awesomeness gorgeousness and coolness.

1. So Apple updated the MacBooks: glass trackpads, LED screens, 250 GB hard drive standard and 7 hour battery life. And it looks insanely hot.

2. Apple has 21.5" and 27" screen iMac with up to 16GB RAM and i think they ship with 500GB or 1TB hard drive standard.

3. Magic Mouse. Finally, a multitouch mouse. Man, guys, Apple is really on top of it! I ♡ Apple!!

Links:

www.apple.com/macbook

www.apple.com/imac

www.apple.com/magicmouse

Windows 7

Hey,

So I bet you're wondering, "Why does Isaac have pics of Windows on his blog?!?!"

Well guess what? I finally got Windows 7 RC 1 (aka Windows OS 6.1 as the internal file name). I installed it on my 2009 MacBook Pro and it is so far running very nicely. A few things I don't like:

1. ROFL!! I actually find it almost TOO simple to use. I am used to XP which requires a fair amount of geekish-ness to operate efficiently, and when I got Win7, I was like, "Where is all the geeky stuff?" So, altho I don't like all of the simplicity, congrats to Microsoft for FINALLY making Windows easier to use for non-geeks.

2. When an error message pops up in a window, or some type of notification, it is really annoying how the error message will pop up, and then shake VERY VIOLENTLY around until you click on it.

3. I have found the network to be somewhat difficult to figure out. I finally just made shortcuts to turn on Bluetooth and WLAN and put 'em on my desktop.

What I like:

1. I love the way you can pin and re-order items on the Superbar (not taskbar anymore, people!). Although I must admit...it bears a striking resemblance to an OS I am very familiar with...lol, the Mac OS X Dock.

2. Color customization of themes! FINALLY! Windows now lets you customize the colors of your themes (ie: red theme: make it really dark or really light, etc).

3. AeroSnap: drag windows to the sides of the screen until your cursor hits the edge of the screen and you will be subtly prompted to "snap" the window to that side of the screen.

4. Snipping Tool: like the Mac OS X app, you can take screenshots with this tool on the Start Menu.

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 :)

Snow Leopard Thoughts/Mac Hacks

Hey,

Sorry I haven't had time to write in while (been really busy w/ school and work).

First I'm going to be talking a little about the new features of Snow Leopard (the useful ones), some bugs and then I'll talk a little on how you can make your Mac even more awesome than it already is!

So what is Snow Leopard? If you haven't already noticed, Snow Leopard simply adds the word 'Snow' to Apple's previous OS, Leopard, signifying the refinement-type OS, rather than a new-feature OS. Despite this, Mac OS X designers couldn't help tossing in a few new features such as:QuickTime X: basically QuickTime Pro with a new UI, this new App allows users to edit movies, watch in full screen (easier and default), movie, audio and screen recordings, and native compatibility with other file types like .wmv and RealPlayer (.flv).Resize icons: you can now make icon sizes up to 512x512 pixels (pretty big, yeah).
Like i said, save QTX, there aren't many new features. Mail, iChat, Address Book, iCal, and a few other programs have been updated 1 version, all now written in 64-bit mode.

Now because of this 64-bit-ness, some programs aren't compatible with Snow Leopard. It is gonna happen when a new OS comes out, so don't worry if your programs don't all work. Just something App developers will have to fix. With the Alu MacBooks and the MacBook Pros with the Synaptics ClickPads, there is a little bug or change that Apple added. When you four finger swipe up or down, and don't remove your fingers from the pad, then pull your fingers in the opposite direction and release, the command will be replayed. For example: I swipe up to show desktop, don't release my fingers, and swipe back down to show the active window. After i remove my fingers from the pad, the windows bounce back up again. Not a current fix for this as far as I know.

Now lets go over some terminal hacks to customize your Mac.

defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool YES
Makes hidden applications' dock icons translucent. type NO where the word YES is to reverse.

defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES
This allows you to drag widgets out of Dashboard onto the desktop. Requires the dock to be relaunched to take effect, so type "killall Dock" and press enter. Now, if you click and hold onto a widget in the dashboard and press F12 to return to the desktop, the widget won't disappear with the rest. Put NO at the end to reverse.

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
Shows hidden files in the finder. Replace TRUE with FALSE to hide hidden files again
/System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/ ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -backgroundDisplays the currently chosen screen saver to be shown as the desktop background. Press Control-C or Command-. to stop. Make sure that there is NO SPACE between /Resources/ and ScreenSaverEngine.app/ That should be like this: /Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.appNot like this: /Resources/ ScreenSaverEngine.app

Ctrl + Option + Cmd + 8Cool tip...inverts screen color. No terminal hack, but a cool trick. :D

First, go here in Finder: /usr/share/emacs/22.1/lisp/play
In Terminal, type "emacs"and hit enter/return. Then press Esc and X. Now type one of the things that you found in the directory I just gave you. Games like Tetris and other cool things.

Those are just a few of some Terminal hacks for all you Mac fans. I'll try to add some more in the future. Enjoy!

Isaac :)

Snow Leopard--OH YEAH!!

Hey,

Not sure if any of y'all are Mac fans, but I sure am! You may be aware of Apple's new OS, Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.6. You can get it at: http://apple.com/macosxuptodate/ or http://store.apple.com/us/product/MAC_OS_X_SNGL

In the past, Mac OS updates have been more like $130ish. S

o why the big price change?

Snow Leopard is more of a "Leopard refinement" OS rather than a "new feature" OS. So now the question is, is it worth it?

Some key Snow Leopard features are:

--If you have Boot Camp, supposedly you can now open Mac files from Windows. Yay! :D (I would assume Mac OS X has a way of keeping Windows viruses from spreading into the Mac system, however?)

--signal strength for Wi-Fi. Now we will know which network to choose, rather than just choose one and hope for the best!

--put-back command in Trash. Like Windows (yes, Windows had it first...sort of... :P), SL will now feature a put-back option to restore deleted files.

--select correct text bodies in PDFs. When we are selecting text in a PDF, Leopard doesn't select just the body we want. But SL does, by means of "advanced algorithms" so yay Apple for doing that. :D

--windows minimize into dock icon (system prefs>dock>change those settings) so now instead of making your Mac dock go WAY OFF THE SCREEN!!!!! (yes, you know who you are and you know what I mean!!! :P), now the windows just minimize into the app icon. Windows 7 copies this feature.

--smart eject (tells you why you can eject drive). So when you can't eject your flash drive, it will tell you why so you know what you have to do to eject it.

--screen recording w/ QuickTime X. QuickTime X looks awesome and is awesome and you can record screenshots, edit videos and....yeah. I would like to see the QuickTime X theme used throughout SL, just as an alternative option to the white color. :D I really like the black QuickTime X look.

--new backgrounds/screensavers. Apple techs added some awesome looking backgrounds/screensavers. Check out the new backgrounds Macs are shipping with on Apple.com.

Besides those cool features, there are a few more, like black menus for easier viewing.

Basically, SL does an improvement of performance and productivity. For 10 bucks (if you bought a Mac after June 8th) it is a great deal.

Isaac :)

Windows 7--To upgrade, or not to upgrade?

Hey,

For all you Windows users out there, you may have heard of Microsoft's new Operating System (OS), Windows 7, which I will hereby refer to as Win7. Win7 is the succesor to Vista, the object of much complaining and critisizm--and not without reason. Windows Vista requires a lot more memory to operate smoothly and quickly on, and a lot of programs are still not compatible with it. For this reason, many users have downgraded or stayed with XP.

Win7, however, actually looks pretty good (that is a big compliment coming from a Mac user and fan!). So the question is: upgrade for $120+, or don't?

Here is the deal: Many Windows PCs that have Vista on them are eligable for a free upgrade to Win7, so yay for all you Vista users! Just look up your PCs manufactuer and see if they are offering a free upgrade.

Now...for all you XP users.... (duh-duh-duh!!!) here is your deal: wanna upgrade? Not without wiping your hard drive clean and starting over! AND the Win7 Premium edition costs a staggering $200!! That's not even the best version (Professional) which is $300! :O no way I am gonna buy that!! And you would also have to back up all your files so they wouldn't get erased when you upgrade.

So....Win7 Features (and comparing them with Mac OS X features):

-Win7 = refined version of Vista: Vista is slow and bloated, we all know. Win7 attempts to fix this by improving performance. Check 1. (Mac is still faster)

-New taskbar: the taskbar now has new features like: being more blocky than Vista; items are now a cube on the taskbar, not a long bar; AeroPeek allows you to view the desktop without having to minimize everything; you can now rearange your open programs on the taskbar. (Mac OS X Leopard uses Expose to do this.) Check 2.

-Multi-core performance: have an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, or anything with more than 1 core? Win7 utilizes those cores better, helping out with improved performance. Check 3. (Snow Leopard also has this feature.)

-Multi-tocuh: do you have a PC with multitouch trackpad? Not many are out there, because Windows doesn't support them--until now. Rotate pictures with a twist of two fingers, scroll up and down with 2 fingers, ect. (Mac users will be aware that this feature has been on MacBooks for a while.)

For more, go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7

So..if you have Vista, by all means, upgrade! If you have XP, there are a number of things you can do to make your PC look like Win7, and in some ways, act like it (hint at future article!).

In the long run, Win7 looks like a good upgrade, besides the cool features i listed, it focuses on trying to make things easier to understand and better performance. You will need at least:

1 GHz processor

1 GB RAM (32-bit)

16 GB hard drive space

128 MB graphics memory to use Windows Aero

So if you have the money, upgrade--but back up first, XP users! Vista people, check out that free upgrade, and if you can't do that, save up some muula and go get Win7!

Isaac :)