10 helpful tips for the Omnia

Gil Bouhnick from MobileSpoon has published a list of helpful tips to enhance your Samsung Omnia. See how to increase the screen sensivity, install HTC's Task Manager etc. Some of the tweaks require registry edits, so be careful and backup your device, just in case. Read the article at http://mobilespoon.blogspot.com/2009/05/10-tips-for-true-happiness-with-samsung.html.
 
Credit: Gil Bouhnick.

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Tips: How to compose new email from the Calendar

Last year I blogged about dialing a phone number right from the Notes section in the Calendar. Read the article in the link to learn more: http://pocketpcmauritius.blogspot.com/2007/11/tips-how-to-dial-phone-number-from.html. Today, a user asked me how to compose an email by tapping or clicking an email address from the same location. This requires that the email address be entered using the following format: Mailto:email@myemail.com. Tap the email address to start composing your new email.

Microsoft launches Total Access website for Windows Mobile device owners

Microsoft recently launched a new Windows Mobile site to replace Windows Mobile Owners Circle. Renamed Total Access, the site is the result of the feedback provided by users. More tips and free stuff are available.

Benefits are as follows:

More ringtones, extras, and add-ons

When you want to personalize your phone, there are simple things you can do for maximum impact. Total Access helps you make your phone uniquely your own..

How: Free, exclusive and limited ring tones, themes wallpapers and detailed but instructions on how to find, set and use these assets

Tips, premium help & how-to (for FREE!)

Total Access helps familiarize you with all the things your Windows Mobile phone can do, plus gives you access to premium help and support from user forums and other experts when you have questions.

How: Customized and premium help and how to content from Microsoft and 3^rd parties; help forums seeded and moderated by Microsoft MVPs

Software, service & more

Your Windows Mobile phone does a lot—and can be even further enhanced. Total Access offers free games and is your guide to the software and services that help you get even more from your phone.

How: Free, exclusive and limited interactive games, Media Applications (Viigo, Zumboi), Software (e.g.Photo contacts) and access to Microsoft mobile services and offers

Check it out: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/en-us/totalaccess/default.mspx

Site Announcement: New Q&A, Tips & Tricks link

Hello Readers,

This is to inform you that two new links have been added to the site which will let you easily find all Q&A and Tips & Tricks posted here. Hope you will find this small addition useful.

Happy Easter All,

Linley Meslier

13 Tips for Improving Camera Phone Photos

Our PDAs are great for managing data on the go and providing wireless internet at any time but when it comes to photos, the builtin camera is not as responsive as the other features. Here are 13 tips that will improve the photos you take. They really work.

"We are living in a time where ‘convergence’ is everywhere. Gone are the days when a camera was a camera, a MP3 player was an MP3 player, a phone was a phone…." Read more...

Tips: How to change language on your Windows Phone 7.

I speak three languages, English, French and Creole. The latter is our mother tongue. Since I'm active on the Windows Phone forums, both English and French, i find it very useful to be able to switch between the two languages. However, it would be great to be able to do so without having to reboot the phone like it's the case on another mobile operating system. Most Windows Phone 7 supports at least two languages and they vary depending on your location. So, how do you go about doing the switch? Follow the steps below:

From the main screen, flick to the left to access the application list.

Scroll down to Settings. Tap to open.

Tap Region & Language.

Tap the "Display language" field to select your preferred language. When done, you are taken back to the Region & Language screen.

Notice just above the "Display language", there is a message saying "Tap here to accept changes and restart your phone." Tap that message to restart your phone into the new language.

To revert back to your initial language, follow the same steps.

Now if you have been through all these steps and finally decided not to proceed with the switch, do not tap to restart the phone, instead press the Back button.

Tips: Move to the next message

Yesterday, a former Blackberry user newly converted to Windows Mobiles asked if it was possible to move to the next message without having to close a message and go back and open a new one. Such a feature is available on the Blackberry, of course.
Here is how it works in Windows Mobile. Simply use the D-pad to navigate from one message to another. Pressing the right side of the D-pad opens the next message. The left side takes you back to the previous message. When you reach the end of your Inbox, it automatically takes you to the next account on your device.
Use your D-pad to move up or down; or to navigate through your messages quickly and easily.

Customizing the Sliding Panel Homescreen

This is a nice article from Jorge Peraza, developer on the Windows Mobile Team, explaining how to further customize the sliding Panel homescreen found in Windows Mobile 6.1. As many of you are probably aware, the homescreen on a Standard Windows Mobile device are stored in the \Application Data\Home folder. The fact that the file uses the XML format makes it quite easy to customize the homescreen and add or remove features to it.
In this article, Jorge Peraza explains how to modify the file to move the photo plugin to the first position. There are a couple of other tips as well. Definitely worth reading.

http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2008/06/03/customizing-the-sliding-panel-homescreen.aspx

Posted using my Windows Mobile phone.

Tips: Internet Pass through not working on Palm Treo 750

Earlier today, a member of the Windows Mobile Owners Circle forums reported that he could not access internet on his Treo while the latter is connected to his PC. To avoid confusion here, let me just explain what Pass through is.
Pass Through is a technology built in to our devices and Activesync that when connected to an internet PC via USB, your device will use the connection on the PC to access the web. If GPRS or any other connections are running on your PC, your device will automatically suspend those connections to use the connection on the PC instead.
The member was not able to use pass through. I first recommend that he changed his connections settings in Activesync to Automatic or Internet, but that did not work. Whichever solution I proposed did not work. Until I found this fix in the registry.
Open the Registry editor and go to Hkey_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings. Locate EnableAutoDetect. Change the value to 1. The default is 0. If you cannot find EnableAutoDetect, create it as a Dword value. This fix might apply to other devices as well.

Note: Do this at your own risk.

Tips: How to delete Windows Live?

Once Windows Live is configured on the device, it appears that it's not possible to delete it. One way I've found so far is to delete a registry entry. While this solves the problem, however, it makes it impossible to re-use Windows Live without a hard reset.
Today I found a much easier way to do that and one that does not require manipulating the registry. Windows Live can be reconfigured later without a hard reset.
To achieve that, open Windows Live in Start - Programs on the device. In the Menu, select Account Options and select Switch Accounts. This will remove all emails from your device. When done, the EULA page will appear. On that screen, make sure you select REJECT. Windows Live setup will stop and you will be taken back to WL main page - The page with Live Search and the Sign-in to Windows Live link. Check in Messaging and Windows Live mailbox is gone.

Tips: Disable Start Menu sound

I've just figured that one out. To disable the Start Menu sound, go to Start - Settings - Sounds & Notifications and remove or uncheck Events. Click OK.

Posted on the GO.

Tips: How to switch from AM to PM and vice versa in the Calendar.

Yesterday, I had someone asking me this question to switch between AM and PM on Windows Mobile Standard edition device, aka as non touchscreen device, with a QWERTY keyboard.
This applies specifically when setting up a reminder. Once you've setup the time, use the d-pad to move to AM or PM depending on the time you're creating your appointment. To avoid confusion, let's say it's 10:00AM and you want to set the time to 10:00PM. Select AM and and press "P" on the keyboard to switch to PM. Pressing A will revert to AM.

Sent from my Windows Mobile phone.

Calendar entry off by 1 hour

If you are experiencing this issue because of the change of dates for Daylight Saving Time, make sure you follow the steps to update your device as instruction by Microsoft. An important tip to remember is in the Installation tips which says that "after installing the update, change your default time zone to any different value". Click Done to save your settings and change to your default time zone. This will avoid having issues with your appoinments. Go to www.microsoft.com:80/windowsmobile/daylightsaving/default.mspx, to learn more.

Posted on the GO!

Tips: How to select multiple Contacts for deletion?

This tip applies to Pocket PCs only. Multiple selection of Contacts is not built into Windows Mobile. Therefore, multiple deletion is not possible. With PPCContactsMgr v1.6, it is now possible to do that and beam several contacts or add them at once to the SIM card. This application is, you will agree, a must have. One missing feature though is the ability to send emails or SMS to multiple contacts. Download PPCContactsMgr v1.6 at http://www.freewarepocketpc.net/ppc-download-ppccontactsmgr-v1-6.html.

Posted on the go using my superb HTC S620 smartphone.

Tips: How to remove software on my Pocket PC/Smartphone?

Removing software on your device depends how they were installed and most important if removal is to apply to both the device and the computer. In any case, I recommend using Activesync to remove software.

Open Activesync on the computer; click Tools - Add/Remove Programs. A window appears with a list of installed programs on your device. No matter which installation method was used, they will all be listed there.

The installed program should all be checked. Clear the check box if you want to remove the program from the device. It is possible to remove the program from both the device and the computer by clicking the Remove button in the "Remove from both locations" section of the Add/Remove Programs window. One might want to just remove the software from the
device only. If there is a need for that same program later all that is required is just select the check box and connect the device for the installation to begin.

Tips: Edit the predictive text database on the HTC S620

This only works on the WM6 version of the HTC S620. A couple of weeks ago, I posted about Xt9 remembering my passwords. Since I consider this a serious security flaw, I went to look for the database that stored text data and I found them. et9Cdb.cdb and et9Rudb.Rdb are stored in the Windows folder and easily editable using any text editor software.
It is possible to simply delete these two files. They will re-create themselves when Xt9 is enabled again. In my previous post, I disabled Xt9. You might want to do this to keep your passwords safe.

Posted on the GO!

Tips: Activesync won't start - Error 0xC0000142

The error in the title has been discussed and resolved on the Windows Mobile Owners Circle Forums. If you ever come across this error code, chances are that your user profile is corrupt. Read the thread to learn more:

Http://forums.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/showpost.aspx?postid=3206324&siteid=65

Review: Manzer Lakaz (Home Food), first Mauritian app for Windows Phone.

Today I’m writing about a special and unique recipe app called Manzer Lakaz – Home food in English. Manzer Lakaz was developed by a Mauritian thus making it the first app made locally that is posted to the Windows Phone Store for free. So let’s take a look at Manzer Lakaz.

The app opens up on the featured recipe of the day screen. You see the picture of the featured recipe and its name. Tap and you’re taken to the full recipe with the cooking time next to the picture.  Below is the list of ingredients you will need for the dish and easy-to-understand directions that will make sure that the dish will impress. The picture of the featured recipe will also show up on the live tile if you choose to pin it to the Start screen.

From the Featured recipe screen, swipe to the left to access the Explore screen where you will easily see the entirely list of recipes that the app has to offer or you can use the built-in filters to get the list of Dish Type, by Main Ingredients, By Cooking Method and By Cooking Time. The latter lets you filter furthermore with a choice of cooking time: 15mins, 30mins, 45mins, 1 hour and 1 hour 15mins. For example, the dishes that take longer to cook are Baked Aubergine and Beef Rougaille. This is good to know when planning.

The “By Dish Type” screen is quite interesting. The developer did a good job at making the navigation easy and intuitive. The dish Type screen is devised in such a way that it doesn’t necessitate a manual filter. It’s all there for you to peruse the 5 types of dishes at your leisure: By Appetizer, By Main Dish; By Side Dish; By Salad and by Desserts.

Again, the same experience applies throughout Manzer Lakaz. The “By main Ingredients” screen sorts dishes by Chicken, Fish, Beef, Pasta and vegetables. Same goes for the cooking method filter where you can choose between Boiling, by Simmering, by Pressure, by Grilling, by Baking and by Frying. No matter how and what you cook, it can be added to a favorite list for future reference. To do that, open a recipe and tap “Add favourite” on the menu bar at the bottom of the screen. Repeat the same steps from the Favorite window to remove the recipe from the list. Manzer Lakaz does fit well with the Windows Phone UI.

However, there are some features missing. It would be nice to have a Comment area for each recipe so users can also share their own tips or submit their own recipes. There are a lot of local dish that are missing in the app. But I’m sure more recipes will be added through future updates to showcase the rich culinary diversity of Mauritius.

All-in-all Manzer Lakaz is a nice and helpful app for people around the globe to use and discover Mauritian gastronomy. 

Manzer Lakaz was developed by Wasiim Hosenbocus.

Download link: Windows Phone Store

WM6 post upgrade issues #2 - Xt9 is a major security flaw

I was quite happy with the xt9 feature at the beginning until I noticed a flagrant security flaw. Xt9 actually plainly displays the passwords to the various site I accessed recently, including my online banking password. HTC needs to provide a patch to fix that and quick. Now I have to locate that dictionary and delete all my passwords. My second option is to disable Xt9. Here is a tips: Disable Xt9 by pressing the FN button and the Space bar.
Hope HTC folks will come across this post and help fix that issue.

Posted on the GO!

Tips: Change the default location where camera saves pictures

Out of the box, a device is configured to save pictures to the \My Documents\ My Pictures folder on the phones memory. The issue with that is it fills up memory very quickly. The camera settings does let you change that to the Storage card. In this case the pictures are saved to \SD card\My Documents\My Pictures folder. You can further customize that. Say you want to save your pictures to a location of your choice; for example: SD Card\Photos. Follow the steps below. This change requires you modify the registry, so be extremely careful.
 
Open the registry editor on your device and go to:
 
Hkey_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Pictures\Camera\User\
 
Change the value for DefaultDir to Sd Card\Photos. Make sure you verify the name of your storage card in File Explorer.
 
This is it. From now on,every picture you'll take using the device camera will be saved to that location.
 
A free registry editor can be downloaded from Http://www.phm.lu/Products/PocketPC/Regedit/
 
Note: You do this at your own risk.