homebrew

Yesterday we broke the news of the first Pandora app for Windows Phone called MetroRadio. Built off of the public SDK for Pandora by Justin Angel, developer Mustafa Taleb (see his other apps) has been quickly working to get to this app to the Marketplace. We now have our hands on the XAP file for this sneak peek.

Keep in mind, the app is still in development so this isn't the final version. Overall though, it works as advertised bringing down your radio stations, allowing you to add and rename stations, like/dislike and skip-track. It's a bit vanilla in design, but clearly these are things that can be addressed in later versions. Being a full Mango app, it of course uses the Zune controls and plays in the background.

Not bad at all for an early attempt and assuming it gets past the Marketplace, it should fill the void many are feeling with no official Pandora application.

We've seen some homebrew solutions for adding a battery meter on the today screen before, but now with Mango, devs have a lot more options to choose from, including local updates.

Over at XDA, member singularity0821 has come up with a new battery meter called Mango Battery Status and it just hit version 3.3. What makes this app much nicer than the previous noble attempt is it has a double-sided Live Tile, showing that battery percentage remaining on one side and the status (charging, discharging) on the other. Tapping it of course launches the mini-app showing your current battery level, acting as a tile refresh.

You can also record your battery history over time to see how well the battery holds up--great for doing some testing of hardware. The app only requires your device be unlocked and not interop-unlocked, meaning just about everyone can do this now with the ChevronWP7 Labs available. We approve!

Source: XDA; Thanks, Ryan, for the heads up!

The team over at Windows Phone Hacker has reached a point in the development of Folders where the app is ready for its first release. We recently covered a quick demonstration on how the app works, as well as earlier announcements. The project was started with the single aim in cleaning up "ugly" homebrew applications in the start menu and placing them in configurable folders. Now, the public is demanding a try.

Before we begin with the steps to install and use the app, there are some requirements you need to be aware of:

• Developer/ChevronWP7 unlocked phone.
• Windows Phone 7.5 Mango

Limitations are present as the Folders Config desktop application is required to alter folders and insert apps. These are:

• You need a desktop every time you want to adjust your folders
• You need to either manually add the applications (homebrew, for example) or search for them in the Marketplace.

The app is pretty much "what you saw is what you'll get" should you have viewed the quick demo, but feedback in the homebrew community has been positive and the app is still in early stages. Ready to begin organising tiles, etc.? Good stuff, head on past the break for the steps and video.

This should be pretty exciting once it's finalized. The chaps at Windows Phone Hacker (site) have been working on a "Folders" solution to Windows Phone, analogous to the fan concept we ran back in July.

The image you see above is purportedly the real deal and not a mockup--those tiles are "dynamically generated". The only issue we're told is that it's a little "clunky" on the setup which is to be expected with this level of homebrew activity. The good news is the device only needs to be unlocked and not the deeper, more difficult interop-unlock, which is a bit tricky to instantiate.

Windows Phone Hacker is looking to release this and was gauging the desire/want for this type of hack. Basically they don't want to invest time in cleaning it up, making it more streamlined if there's no one to use it, which is understandable. We suspect demand will be quite high for this feature, so let them know in comments and via Twitter @wphonehacker.

Lots of little things have been happening if you have a developer unlocked device, preferably with the new interop level needed to side-load some more advance apps.

First off, over at Windows Phone Hacker they've detailed a more simple method for getting Internet Sharing onto your Samsung Mango phone (Omnia 7, Focus). Once you have your developer unlocked device also interop-unlocked, it only takes two files and a reboot to get the much-coveted feature on to your phone. As you can see from the pic below, we manged to do it for our AT&T Focus and it works like a charm (seriously, it's a nice tethering solution).

Next up are some HTC apps. Yes, so long as HTC tirelessly works on specialized apps, those mischievous fellas over at XDA will be trying to port them. This time, they've managed to grab the Omega/Radars's OEM files, which includes that new HTC Hub. We loaded it onto our Focus and it works quite well. In addition, you can even add the Dock Mode app, which we're big fans of, for a more complete device. Stay clear though of Attentive Phone, the sound enhancer and camera apps as they won't do anything for your non-HTC phone.

Finally, there's a unique app from GoodDayToDie at XDA called MultiTaskToggle:

"Threw together something fun for you: a one-click (don't sue me, Bezos) app for enabling or disabling multitasking on Mango. Fast app switching + full multitasking = awesome! Disabling multitasking when you need to save battery = convenient!"

"Features: Secondary tile with deep linking! Shows current multitask state and toggles it when tapped. Supports HTC, LG, Samsung phones [NEW]. Works on Mango! Uses no homebrew DLLs."

Basically the app allows you to set multitasking on/off with one tap on a Live Tile. Here's we're talking about the full-fledged, instant-resuming multi-tasking. It sucks up more battery life, but it also faster and allows things to run in the background. Being able to turn it on/of with a simple touch, therefore, is a much welcomed addition for the power users out there. You can find that thread right here.

Back in June when "Mango" was first making its rounds, one of the first things we noted with regret was the inability to sideload pretty much all homebrew apps created up to that point. What would happen is you would try to load the app and be greated with "Error 0×81030120". Reason? It's technical but "Mango won’t officially support the deployment of custom applications with the ID_CAP_INTEROPSERVICES capability flag".

Bummer.

Even more of a bummer for the proposed ChevronWP7 Labs, which would be limited to sideloading only apps that don't modify the registry--that is, apps that can't customize the OS at any level.

The good news though, as reported by ChevronWP7 member Rafael Rivera, is there is a way around this. XDA member“Heathcliff74” discovered that if your MaxUnsignedApp value is 300 or higher, you can remove the limitation and sideload the app. This gives devs an easy workaround for re-enabling Homebrew apps (it's been speculated that this "trick" was for MS employees and OEM partners).

Rivera goes on to state "The suitable pairing for this hack is, of course, ChevronWP7 Labs". That's of course, some great news for all of us.

Source: XDA; via Within Windows

With the announcement of ChevronWP7 Labs bringing a new unlocking tool/service to the Windows Phone developer table, we all began rejoicing at the prospect of a continued homebrew community with Microsoft's indirect support.

Our Daniel Rubino put forward the question to readers as to how much they thought would be reasonable for the service. He mentioned $5-15 could be considered suffice for a small pint fund that the team could use at weekends. We weren't far off with this estimate as Chris Walsh has mentioned over Twitter that ChevronWP7 Labs will set interested users back by only $9. A Small fee compared to the $99 with AppHub (which was recently re-launched).

Of course we wont be able to submit apps to the Marketplace, have registry access or native access to the OS, but the ability to create apps and side-load them to be a happy-as-Larry user is huge plus for a mere $9. Perfect for developers who are just starting out or who reside outside the supported countries for Marketplace submission - although we have covered a few services (App Exchange and Yalla Apps) that overcome this issue.

Finally though, a word of caution: Chris has since deleted his Tweets, so this may not be final yet...

We'll keep you up to date with more news, be sure to follow ChevronWP7 Labs on Twitter.

Via: MobilityDigest