Recent Articles

Here's a real cool trick from our friends at XDA.

As you may have noticed, in the WM version of Google Maps we do not yet have the patented Google "Street View" feature whereby you can see real 360° pan shots of the street you are mapping. The soon-to-drop Android G1 and BlackBerry devices have it, but no love for Google's WM stepchild.

But, until that update you can do this:

• download Esmertec Jbed (java manager) here (if needed)
• download "KDKobes Google Maps Street View" .jar file here; place in \My Documents

Install the Esmertec Java client (you'll need to link it to your Start Menu from from the root \Esmertec Java folder). Then Menu --> Install --> Local files and it should find KDKobe's .jar file. Install and you're done!

Now, just launch Google Maps (BB edition, natch) from the Esmertec Java client and away you go. Find a street address, hit options on the bubble and click "Street View". You can even make it full screen, albeit a bit grainy.

Down sides? No "My Location" or GPS. But hey, it's a start! My own thoughts? Overall it works surprisingly well. Give it a go.

via Tilt Mobility & props to KDKobes for discovering this!

ps Eat our shorts CrackBerry! ;-) WM is unstoppable.

We've mentioned that SPB Software was working on Mobile Shell 3.0.1 Beta and it appears that the Beta is now the current version. The update is free to those who have already purchased Mobile Shell 3.0 and all you need to do is go here, download the .cab file (trial version) and install it over Mobile Shell 3.0.

Version 3.0.1 makes minor additions and fixes issues discovered in version 3.0. Such modifications include:

• Saving unknown phone numbers from the call log has been added
• Showing/hiding SIM contacts has been added
• “Show Today” widget has been added
• “Remove All” option in call log added Performance of portrait/landscape switching has improved
• Some issues with “Edit Profile” dialog box on Treo devices has been fixed
• Contact matching in call log has improved
• Performance of hardware accelerated carousel has improved

In using Mobile Shell 3.0.1, the screen rotation from vertical to horizontal is almost instantaneous and the overall performance appears to have improved. Some users reported a power drain with version 3.0 but it doesn't seem to be present with 3.0.1.  Overall, the modifications included in 3.0.1 have made a very good application a little better.

Thinking about getting the all powerful and popular Sprint Touch Pro for the holidays (see review here)? Want it for a ultra-low price?

BestBuy is selling it for $199 (reg. $299) now through Saturday (12/20). In store only.

Of course you'll have to sign a 2 year contract, but that's a heck of an instant savings if you are due to re-new or a new customer!

(Tip: if you bought it from Sprint recently, it can't hurt to email them and ask for the difference to price match Best Buy)

So as we know, most 3g-enabled WM hardly have a surfeit of battery power, but we cope.

[rant] What is annoying though is when your Treo 800w hits 25% battery life and literally every freaking 10 minutes, turns on, vibrates and plays a noise to let you know you are getting low on battery.

First off, 25% isn't low...maybe 10% sure. Second, by turning on my device every 10 minutes, vibrating and playing a noise you are not only further killing my battery but you make me want to hurl my phone against the wall. [/rant]

So I found this little registry entry which does three things really...

Read on for this simple hack to make your Treo 800w less annoying! (I'll try to have a non-Treo related tip tomorrow)

Basically this system tweak will allow you to alter three things in regards to the "Low Battery" notification:

• allows you to alter the "Low Battery Message" to something a bit more funny
• set the threshold to whatever you want (maybe you think 2% is a bit low?)
• set the repeat interval, as 10 minutes is quite annoying...100 minutes is better

To do this, fire up your registry editor and go here:

HKLM\Software\Palm\BatteryIndicator\WarningLevel0

Change "Message" to anything you want i.e. my NSFW message above ;-). This is what is displayed in the popup bubble.

Change "Percent Range" to something more realistic. I went with "10,05" which means at 10% I get a notification and at 5% the device really becomes a pest with the red warning.

Alter "RepeatIntervalSeconds" to anything higher than "600" (10 minutes). I went with "6000" (100 minutes) as I don't really forget that much.

Now do a soft-reset (using software or wait 10 minutes to pull the battery) and you should be good to go!

Oh Sprint, how I love thee. Especially with simple programming errors.

As noted below, Sprint has finally rolled out Picture Mail (MMS) for their Windows Mobile devices.

I chimed in how it didn't work on the 800w, but alas I was wrong (see comments). I had to choose my device from their selection picker and download the special 800w version.

But what is listed on the device selector? How about the Treo Pro. LMAO

Noyce.

Not to sound the alarm bells here, but a few users in our forums have been documenting what seems to be a production flaw with some Palm Treo Pros.

Specifically they note that even while "babying" their precious WM6.1 devices, hair-line fractures are occurring around various pressure points on the device. More accurately, around the flush buttons, ringer switch and near the volume controls on the sides.

For now we'll hedge that these are isolated production issues and not some wide-spread defect in either production or design. Even the iPhone 3G suffers from such issues as well. A bigger concern is whether or not customers are able to exchange their device if this occurs and it is after their 30 day trial period.

But how say you Treo Pro users? You notice anything of the sort? Sound off in our comments!

Thanks treopq and others.

We teased you a bit the other day with video of the latest version of Kinoma Play (albeit in Japanese), but now it's ready for the rest of us, in English.

This is a major upgrade for Kinoma Play that they're dubbing a "Social Media Browser," and new features include customizable Kinoma home pages, Facebook integration, direct access to the Mobihand app store, Twitter integration, Last.fm, a built-in RSS reader, a free gigabyte of space from Box.net, the already outstanding Yoututbe player and support for Flickr and Picasa.

Another new feature (to Kinoma at least) is support for the AVRCP Bluetooth protocol, aka the ability control playback from a Bluetooth device. Huzzah!

For those of you already rocking the full version of Kinoma Play (watch our original review here), the update should be available the next time you launch the app. (Or you can get it manually with the "Check for update" function.) If you're looking to buy, it'll run you $29.99. That's definitely not cheap for a Windows Mobile app, but, in our opinion, you get what you pay for here. (And for those of you wondering, Kinoma FreePlay will get an update, too.)

Learn more over at Kinoma.com, and the full presser's after the break.

Update: After applying the upgrade, you'll have to re-save all of your "favorites" within Kinoma Play. I could find most of mine in the Kinoma Guide, but you may want to track down some of your lesser-known links in advance. But this also gives you the opportunity to add the to the home screen and try that out. But be forewarned.

No two ways about it, that's the HTC Dash 3G, aka the Snap and Maple, with T-Mobile's My Circle feature front and center. [via TmoNews]

The last we heard we were looking at a possible July 1 launch date for the Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard phone. Still no word on pricing.

Here's a possibly scenario for you to ponder:

• Sprint's Touch Diamond did not sell as well as the Touch Pro (3,000 units vs 15,000 per month)
• Sprint's Touch Diamond is EOL'd (gone by July)
• No Touch Diamond 2 is on Sprint's roadmap
• ROM file is leaked called "RUU_Quartz_Clearwire_US_1.09.1000.5_Radio_Quartz_1.13.25"
• Quartz = Touch HD / Clearwire = Sprint's Wimax partner

So we're just throwing it out there that somewhere out there on the internets is a "signed ship" ROM floating around (we've seen it ourselves) labeled for Clearwire using the Touch HD's moniker.  And that Sprint shows no signs of getting a Touch Diamond 2 even though it is EOL and running on its final shipment.

We could also throw out this gem from criticalaudioinc, who works with HTC and said 7 months ago:

HTC is currently in discussion again on bringing the HTC Touch HD to the US, I currently have a GSM model that we were asked to convert to CDMA, All that was needed was to pull a board from the diamond and re-solder and flash the the rom. From what we can see it is working pretty well the solder isn't pretty but again its a test. But its looking good so far.

So there you go. What say you? We be crazy or is Sprint getting ready to launch a Touch HD with Wimax?