SPB Mobile Shell for Windows Mobile

The one thing that prevents the Omnia i910 from completely obliterating the iPhone is the user interface. I'm not sure why you'd make such a fantastic phone that's so difficult to use (read: navigation is atrocious). You can spend all kinds of time editing the registry, installing cab files, and basically hacking the hell out of the phone, or...

You can simply install SPB Mobile Shell. As mentioned before, I've always balked at the price of this download, but after having used it for a couple of weeks, I'm sold.

My initial download was version 3.0 just a couple weeks ago, but yesterday as I was getting ready to purchase a registration number, I saw they had upgraded to 3.5, so I went ahead and upgraded to the latest and greatest.

There are some great updates in 3.5 (3D e-mail and text views, the 3D carousel, additional widget pages, integrated Facebook and Twitter functionality, etc.), but with these updates come a few bugs.

3D Text and E-mail views don't work with the icon that brings in all three communication options (phone log, texts, e-mails). In order to get 3D text and e-mail to open when you tap the icon, you'll need to use the individual widgets (you can't use the combined 3 icon widget). You will also need to set the default view by holding down each icon, selecting "default action," and selecting "open 3D viewer."

Another significant bug (SPB is promising to fix soon) is that the "reply" and "reply to all" buttons don't populate the "to" field in your texting program unless "threaded/conversation" view is switched off. Again, "reply" and "reply to all" WILL WORK from the 3D view, but you must disable threaded SMS for now ("conversation view" on the Omnia).

The super cool (but otherwise useless) 3D Carousel (see photo above) doesn't work on the Omnia, because Omnia doesn't have a Graphics Accelerator --Omnia II has a processor fast enough to use software acceleration that will work well. You can see it working here.

Rather than completely reinvent the wheel, here is a great review on ZDnet (with video presentation) of SPB Mobile Shell. The review shows what's new in 3.5, and then takes a little time to go over the features of the whole program. It's a great way to familiarize yourself with what SPB Mobile Shell is all about.

Just FYI, a couple of my favorite things about SPB Mobile Shell are being able to install shortcuts to any app on pretty much any screen (it's so much easier to access your phone's programs), the superior contacts management, the superior calendar functionality, and being able to add photos for contacts from Facebook (seems trite, but I love this feature).

SPB Mobile Shell is a vast improvement over any interface I've seen for Windows Mobile touch phones, and is the last piece of the puzzle to make the Omnia i910 the ultimate iPhone killer.

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Find Your MAC Address On Your Windows Mobile Device

Evidently your MAC address is a big, giant secret, because it's nearly impossible to find on your WinMo phone (it's not under any of the device settings).

However, here's the trick:

On Windows Mobile 6.1 and higher, dial #43574357* (I know a lot of these "dial codes" don't work on the Omnia i910, but I can verify that this one does). This code will launch a screen that shows all your device information, including PDA Version, Phone Version, Browser Info, Language, Battery, Bluetooth Version, Bluetooth MAC, Wi-Fi Version, Wi-Fi MAC, Phone Number, MEID, System ID, Channel, ESN, PRL/ERI, Technology, Network, and Capabilities.

On Windows Mobile 6.0, it's just #4357* (I don't know why they decided to duplicate the number with higher versions).

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Sync iTunes to Windows Mobile Device (Omnia i910)

Let's face it, Windows Media sucks. Really bad. It's an awful program to use.

And while iTunes has it's fair share of problems, it's still infinitely better than Windows Media.

The biggest problems iTunes faces are the same problems all Mac devices face: Mac keeps an iron grip on EVERYTHING. But as usually, people have figured out ways to pry open Apple's greedy little fingers.

I had been manually moving tunes back and forth from my computer to my Omnia. Playlists are simply XML files, and all the songs are just MP3's. It seemed like it would be easy enough to write a program to automate generating/converting/moving files... and sure enough, somebody's done it (sort of)!

There are a couple of pay programs, but me, being the cheap bastard that I am, found a great free one called iTunes Sync (creative, no?) from Binary Fortress (these guys also make a really great multi-monitor display program called Display Fusion).

I installed and set up iTuneSync according to the very simple instructions on the BinaryFortress website. I created a folder in iTunes called "Omnia Storage Card" and filled it with other play lists. I changed my USB connection for my Omnia from ActiveSync to Mass Storage Device. I clicked "Synchronize MP3 Player" in iTunes Sync, and voila! Everything in the "Omnia Storage Card" folder was synced to my Omnia.

Oh, glorious day!

One caveat I've realized after actually spending some time with this... the program only syncs the files... no playlists are transferred to your device, so you still have to manually sync (see problems below) or create playlists from within Windows Media Player Mobile. The developer of iTunes Sync is promising multiple playlist syncing in the next version, but he is not promising any specific release date for the new version.

So for now, this solution is only good for syncing the songs that you have in playlists. You will still have to manually create the play lists themselves. A workaround would be a program that could convert iTunes XML play lists to .ASX, which is the format Media Player Mobile uses.

Eric Daugherty created a program that will convert iTunes XML playlists to m3u, ext, wpl, or zpl (it will also transfer the actual MP3 files used by the playlist, which is GREAT), but apparently Windows Media Mobile will not play any of these formats (go figure). So what I need is a program that will convert the iTunes XML files to .ASX (which is used by the Windows Media Mobile player).

There are plenty of players for Windows Mobile that will play M3u, so I guess I'll just be using a different media player for now (pay attention Microsoft).

[Oct. 4, 2009 - UPDATE] While Windows Media Player mobile can't use .WPL files, Window Media Player 11 does... so the solution is to use Eric Daugherty's export program to create a playlist from iTunes for Windows Media, and then simply use Windows Media (via Active Sync) to place the iTunes playlist (and files) on your Windows Mobile device. If you have Eric's program set to generate the WPL file and place it in your Windows Media Music directory, it will simply appear under playlists in Windows Media, and you can sync with your device from there.

Woo-hoo! Not as elegant as I'd like (you have to use three programs), but it works perfectly!

[ANOTHER SOLUTION] Music Bridge will sync iTunes and Windows Media libraries. It's a pretty robust program with many options as to what you can sync (see the download page for a description). After running music bridge, you can then sync your device using Windows Media/ActiveSync as above. When I tried this method, it didn't seem like the sync was working (the iTunes lists didn't show up under playlists in WinMedia). However, under the sync settings in Windows Media, all the iTunes playlists were available for syncing with my device. Weird, but it works!

So hopefully one of the above solutions will work for you!

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The New Omnia Build (with CF03 ROM and GPS)

So I installed the newest official ROM from Verizon today (CF03), and am happily using GPS with third party applications. I used UMDL_OMNIA to do this, and the process was extremely straight forward and easy. That said, don't get careless and brick your phone, which is something that quite a few careless people have managed to do during their upgrade.

A new ROM means a clean slate, so here's what I did after my shiny new install.

• Downloaded Google Maps
  I still like Google Maps over Microsoft's Live Search. The traffic seems truer to what is actually on the road, and it's just easier to use over all.
  
  
• Downloaded Windows Live and synced contacts
  I sync my contacts from Live. I use this service to organize and store all my e-mail and phone contacts. It's easy to update and always available on line. One click on your phone syncs to the online server and it acts as a second exchange server (so you still have your main Exchange Server free to set up with whomever you want). If you use live.com or hotmail.com, it will also sync that e-mail, and leave the phone's "regular" exchange server to be used elsewhere. Again, this means you can use multiple exchange servers.
  
  
• Set up Exchange Server with NuevaSync
  After spending a lot of wasted time giving Google Sync a shot... I set my Exchange Server back to NuevaSync. Google is ridiculously NOT supporting multiple calendar sync, so NuevaSync is the obvious choice to keep my four calendars synced with my phone. I set NuevaSync to sync my calendar, I keep my contacts synced with Windows Live, and I set up a separate POP3 account for my Gmail. I prefer POP3 over IMAP, because I want to be able to just "delete all" e-mail, but not have to worry about accidentally erasing something I'll need later.
  
  
• Downloaded the SPB Mobile Shell 3.0 3.5 Trial
  I'm a cheap bastard, so I always look longingly at the web page for this app, but then balk at the price. After spending a good deal of time sifting through cooked ROMS on various boards, I realized that the majority of what I'm looking for has to do with the interface, so I'm giving it a try. So far, I really like what I see and how easy it is to navigate. We'll see if in 30 days I like it enough to pony up $30.
  
  
• Installed Vito Audio Notes Touch
  This is a fantastic and simple program that allows you to record your voice easily. I use it mostly to capture ideas for songs when they strike. It's also a great way to record your phone calls. This has become an invaluable tool for me, as it allows me to review phone conversations I've had.
  
  
• Found and loaded up some Podcast and RSS URL's
  A while back I was driving somewhere and my car stereo went out. I didn't have any music loaded up on my Omnia, so I thought maybe I'd check out a podcast or two. Trying to find a podcast address, load it up, play it, etc... is extremely dangerous at 70mph, so I thought next time I'll be prepared.
  
  Some of my RSS choices: Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Engadget.
  
  Some of my Podcast choices: NPR Fresh Air, Contrast Podcast, NPR Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me!, NPR All Songs Considered
  
  (I'm very open to more suggestions for either category.)
  
  
• Installed Total Commander
  This is my favorite explorer/registry editor.
  
  
• Turned off motion rotate (moved rotate to camera button)
  
• Switched dpad to optical mouse (I wish there was an easier, quicker way to switch back and forth)
  
• Assigned buttons: camera hold is camera, camera short is screen rotate, main menu hold is voice commands, main menu short is Google Maps for now, but that will likely change.
• Edited registry to make scroll bar thick enough to use with a finger (why WinMo is sooo un-finger-friendly I'll never know)
  
  
• Installed TorchButton
  The Omnia has a fantastic little flashlight (it's an LED that functions as the flash for the camera, so it makes a superb tiny flashlight --waaaaay better than the iPhone's "white screen" sorry excuse for a flashlight). The problem is, it's really hard to get to the switch once you've installed SPB (the flashlight button is either a softkey on a Today 2 screen, or the bottom volume rocker button... but the catch is you can only make that work from the Today screen. So some kind soul came up with a button that will make the flashlight work even from SPB Mobile Shell. You actually have to install an older version (1.1) that somebody else has paired up with a basic emulation of HTCCamera1.dll. Without this emulator, the button doesn't work correctly. But with it... works like a charm!
  
  
• Downloaded and installed Adrenylyne's "remove call lock" CAB
  [UPDATE] It seems this CAB is obsolete with the new ROM. Go to Settings>Phone>Services>Dialer Touch Lock and click "Change Setting." You have choices of off, 2 seconds, 5 seconds, and 10 seconds. (Thanks, Anonymous!)
  
  Previously I had been using the registry hack to switch to the original Samsung dialer (HKLM/Security/Phone/Skin Enabled: 1 : change 1 to 0 --not only does this remove the pop-up lock, but the older skin saves about 10MB of memory), but this time I decided to try out Adrenylyne's CAB to simply remove the pop-up lock instead. Anybody that has tried to spend time in a call que or navigating an online phone system knows that the pop-up lock is simply unacceptable.
  
  
• Installed HTC Accelerometer emulator
  

That's it for now. SPB Mobile Shell has eliminated the need for a lot of my "usuals" (iDialer, Green Button, PocketCM, remapping soft keys, messing with themes, rerouting shortcuts and icons, etc.) so that's nice. I'll update the post if I make more changes. I'll likely delete Shozu (to free up device memory) as usual, and I need to update Opera's cache and download locations. I may reinstall Skyfire, but to be honest, I wasn't that impressed with it. Sure, the Flash functionality is nice, but it would hang and crash a lot, so what's the use?

I'd love to cook up a ROM, but I'm not sure that I'm willing to devote the time to such an endeavor. We'll see.

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Omnia Firmware update (ROM version CF03)

Verizon released the new firmware update for the i910 back in July, but I haven't had time to upgrade until now. I had a little trouble actually finding the update, so I'm posting a link to the Samsung page here:

http://TinyURL.com/i910CF03

Officially, the executable works only on Vista 32-bit or WinXP, but there are some workarounds, the easiest one being simply using UMDL_OMNIA v2.3 to install an img file (you'll need to have a Modaco account (free) to download the file).

I actually had so much trouble finding the CF03 download, that I installed the CC20 "leaked" version from iDoctor first (you can also find the UMDL_OMNIA program at this location, and you don't need a Modaco account to download it). There are a few people saying that CC20 has better battery life, but the claims seem dubious. I'd go with the newest version, CF03 (which I did).

The biggest reason I was after a new ROM, is of course GPS functionality from 3rd party apps, so as soon as I upgraded the ROM, I immediately downloaded Google Maps for my Omnia, and guess what... WOO-HOO, my location was pinpointed within seconds! (well, sort of, maybe 1000 yards off-- but I was very happy with the speed at which I was located)

So now I'm rocking GPS, and my life has changed.

The ROM update means starting over with the phone setup (upgrading the ROM wipes the phone clean), so I'll try and document that adventure (what I do and don't install) in a later post.

Synergy: one mouse/keyboard to rule them all!

For some reason I have five computers (one's a laptop). I suppose I should consolidate, but right now, it's easier just to keep them all. However, this means I need to access all of them at any given moment.

This means FIVE keyboards and FIVE mice (do you say mice when you're talking input device?) laying about my desk, which leaves little room for anything else.

I had been looking at KVM switches for a while, but was really nervous about adding an extra hub to any DVI cables that might degrade video quality. I was also worried about the fact that most KVM's are only for two computers; they start getting really expensive when you're talking about three or four.

A long time ago I had heard about Synergy, but at the time, I just started using Remote Desktop. I thought that was going to work for me, but I've since found that Remote Desktop kind of sucks, because of it's video limitations (you can't use full 32bit color, and streaming video is a stuttery mess --in this day and age of Gigabit, I shouldn't have to deal with this).

So yesterday when I set up my newest machine, I revisited Synergy, and it's freaking great!

Five computers, and one mouse to rule them all!

Synergy is an open source program that you install on all your computers. One computer acts as the "server" and your other computers feed off that server. When you mouse to the edge of your screen, you just keep going over to the next computer, exactly like a multiple monitor set up. You can also set up areas above and below the monitor (thus, more computers can be accessed).

The down side is the developer stopped working on the project back in 2006.

The upside is that a community of geeks has taken over with a fork called Synergy+, though the only release marked "stable" so far is 32-bit. There are 64-bit versions, but they are marked unstable.

Still, regular old Synergy seems to be working well for me. I've got it running on Vista Business Ultimate, and plan on adding my XP machines to the mix soon.

Sweet.

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New Build: what do you download and install first?

I just set up the new machine (more on that later).

This is what I immediately downloaded and installed (in order):

1. Updates for OS (Windows Vista Business Ultimate)
2. AVG (I got burned pretty bad last year)
3. Malwarebytes (the virus I picked up wouldn't allow me to install this, and it was killing me)
4. Firefox (IE sucks)
   
5. Mozilla Weave (syncing your bookmarks across machines is glorious)
6. CPU-Z (gotta make sure everything's running alright)
   
7. Launchy (why doesn't Windows have this feature automatically?)
   
8. Synergy (using one mouse and one keyboard for all my machines is awesome)
   
9. Flash plug-in for browsers
   
10. Updates for Adobe CS4 (back to work!)
    

There will be more of course, but those were the things I found I couldn't live without, and had to download immediately upon firing up the new machine.

I'm curious as to what other users' immediate downloads are after building a new machine.

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