homebrew

It's been awhile since we've heard much from the homebrew crowd, in fact once everyone went to 'NoDo' and the door was shut on home-unlocked devices, the amount of side-loading software declined dramatically. That wasn't a terrible thing either, as Mango's "500 features" goes along way in "fixing" any complaints users may have with the OS.

Still, for those developers who either cannot afford the $99 or for those just starting out, there's an odd solution coming forth from the ChevronWP7 team. Evidently they are set to release a new unlocker, but this time with the blessings of Microsoft. It's called ChevronWP7 Labs.  The catch? It won't be free this time:

"The service will require a small fee — currently via PayPal — to offset costs but we assure you it will be more affordable than the App Hub. Those who wish to write and immediately publish apps are recommended to sign up to the App Hub instead.

We’re excited to be making this service available to users with the support of the Windows Phone team."

Now, before we can pass judgement on this, we'd have to know how much we're talking here. That range can be from $1 to $98, we suppose and that's a large range. If we're talking $5-15 we can kind of look past it and almost think of it as a tip to the Team for their work; more than that and it starts looking like opportunism (and we'd be surprised Microsoft would be okay in losing that money).

For now though, we can at least be happy that an unofficial/official solution is coming to the platform, which may still allow a homebrew community to grow on the sides and allow devs of all ranges to play with the platform. Stay tuned...

Source: ChevronWP7 Blog; ChevronWP7 Labs

XDA Developers forum user fiinix has brought on-screen captures to Windows Phone 7, something everyone (especially us bloggers) desire more than above all else, as a homebrew solution. While requiring the dehydration hack, this app contains the setting to toggle whether it's active or not (preserving battery life).

Here are the provided instructions:

1. Open up the app
2. Navigate to the app/screen you want to capture (no more than 2 apps in between (this app will be killed by "Watchdog"))
3. Hold "focus" (not click, >focus), for at least 500ms
4. Wait for messagebox to verify capture
5. (SUCCESS) > Located under "Pictures > All > Saved Pictures"

You can download the screen capture app and find out more information over at the thread on the XDA dev forum.

Source: XDA Developer Forum, via: WPSauce

We've been following the Homebrew Device Manager by Schapman for some time now and it has now been released as a Beta. The Device Manager features include:

• Applications management: view, install/uninstall homebrew applications
• File management: explore device, exchange files with your phone
• Sync files, folders and favorites with phone
• Send to Windows Phone (to send files, apps, ringtones, web links in one click)
• Detailed device information (CPU, ROM, RAM, storage, network, battery, OS,...)
• Add and manage custom ringtones

Additionally, TouchXperience for Windows Phone 7 has been released as a Beta. The navigation app was well received back in the Windows Mobile days and it doesn't miss a beat on Windows Phone 7. Key features of TouchXperience include:

• Create custom menus
• Add folders, apps, contacts, websites, maps, documents, and many other widgets
• Organize applications & games
• File explorer
• Multitasking support
• Panorama background customization
• Contact manager
• Communication manager
• Profile manager
• and more

Keep in mind you'll need a registered or unlocked Windows Phone 7 device to use either. You can find all the details on Windows Phone 7 Device Manager and TouchXperience here at the TouchXperience website and after the break, you can catch a video demo of TouchXperience.

Thanks, @KingpinEX, for the  heads up

While we await Microsoft's solution to the Hombrew community, something that will take a bit of a hit with NoDo (since ChevronWP7 won't work with it), developers are still going forward, regardless.

Over at XDA, developer kuerbis2 has laid the groundwork for a Homebrew Marketplace by releasing a new XAP installer and even more importantly, a protocol handler (like the “zune:”-URLs) called "wphome". That last bit sort of huge as it allows people to "register" their homebrew XAP files, thereby creating hyperlinks to allow easy distribution/installation of said files. The features so far are summarized as follows:

• In-place update on the phone: In-place update on the phone, e.g. if you already have Version 1.0.0.0 of an app installed on the phone and install 1.0.2.0 an in-place update will performed. No more full "uninstall-new install" cycle required. Your settings, custom files etc. won't be removed (same as marketplace update)
• Deploy from file or URL: You can either specify a file or an URL. If you enter an URL the installer will automatically download the xap.
• Own protocol "wphome": Zune's one-click download for homebrew apps. Automatically install homebrew XAPs with a click on a hyperlink. If you want, you can register the application for the wphome protocol. The application will then be allowed to handle urls like wphome:www.test.com/test.xap and will automatically start as soon as you click on such a link

Like we said, this is pretty big news as no one has gone this far in creating a framework for a homebrew marketplace. If enough devs adopt this protocol (and we see little reason why they should not), then we'll have a standard for distribution, as opposed to just attachments in a forum. Of course, people still need a way to side-load applications i.e. developer unlocked without paying $99 a year--for that we'll have to wait for Microsoft to provide a solution, otherwise the homebrew community will be forever niche. Stay tuned for more...

Source: XDA; Thanks, Tobias, for the tip!

While Skype is still mum on the whole official support thing, the homebrew scene is still alive and kicking on filling in any gaps. We reported awhile ago about a small project to bring Skype to Windows Phone and it is progressing rather nicely, considering it's being done by only one developer ('Jefis').

Version v0.8 is rather far from functional but what you see above is this: a side-loaded Windows Phone application called 'Skyper' that connects via proxy to your Skype client on your PC. It is then able to pull down your contact information to display. Right now you can't act on any of the information, or rather the messaging part is not complete. Still, it's an impressive first step in the right direction, but a little technical on setting it up.

The real question though is this: with rumored socket support and confirmed multi-tasking ('Mango"), we think there's a high chance Skype may come to market on Windows Phone this year, but will Skyper beat it to the punch? We'll keep track of both sides.

Feeling that "the Dell Venue Pro has been neglected by the WP7 homebrew community for a while," XDA user Notebookgrail decided to give it some love.  Using the native COM .dll (OurCOM.dll), he developed DVP Compass and DVP Flashlight.  The names say it all, Compass tells you where to go and Flashlight let's you see it. 

DVP Flashlight also sports the following features:

• Uses the LED Flash on the device back as a flash.
• Black out the screen after 10 secs to save power while in 'On' Mode.
• Uses touch gestures (tap) and Button toggle.

At the moment, you need a developer unlocked or Chevron unlocked Venue Pro to sideload these two gadgets, but Notebookgrail has full registry read/write access in his sights. Just follow the links for the downloads.

DVP Compass

DVP Flashlight

Source: XDA; Via: Notebookgrail (thanks for the tip!)

If you have an HTC developer unlocked ("jailbroken") phone, then this trick may be for you: evidently you can convert PDF books into .PRC files that can then be sideloaded on the device and viewed with Amazon's Kindle app. The reason? As DominikZ over at XDA notes, Charles Petzold's eBook "Programming Windows Phone 7" which is 100% free, costs $22.53 on Amazon (we actually see two versions, one XNA, one Silverlight, but both do cost ~$20 for the Kindle edition). Through this trick, you can convert the free PDF version of the book to a Kindle compatible one.

The task is not too difficult, but hardly elegant. As noted, only HTC devices can do this right now because the trick relies on TouchXplorer, which doesn't work to well on non-HTC devices.:

• Download MobiPocket Creator or any other Program, capable of converting pdf to prc.
• When the conversion is done, apply the registry hack, so that your phone will show up in Windows Explorer.
• Copy the newly created *.prc file to your phone. If not already done, install TouchXplorer and go to My Documents\Zune\Content\0400\03 and cut the newly created file (It will be renamed to*.z)
• Paste it to Applications\Data\48195FB4-EE0E-9264...\Data\IsolatedStore\kindle
• Now rename the file so you will remember the it (e.g. programming.prc).
• Start up Kindle and the newly added book should be available.

Like we said, not easy but once you do your first one, the rest are a breeze. Conversion usually takes less than five minutes from our experience and this seems a great way to load school PDFs, free eBooks, etc. onto your Windows Phone.

Source: XDA