Hackszine.com: PDAs Archives

Archive: PDAs

July 4, 2007

Pocket PC iPhone conversion

Call it superficial, but you can really help your Pocket PC's self esteem by giving it a face lift.

It's still Windows Mobile on the inside, so most of your apps will look and function as before, but a few free downloads will get you home screen and dialpad themes, an iPhone-like contacts list, and the cool slide-to-unlock gizmo.

Resources:
Turn your Windows Mobile phone into an iPhone @ Lifehacker - Link
iPhone-like home screen for PPC - Link
Slide 2 Unlock - Link
iContact (flick to scroll contacts) - Link
Dialpad and Calculator skins - Link

June 11, 2007

HOWTO download and watch YouTube videos on Windows Mobile

youtube_windows_mobile_500

The web browser on Windows Mobile devices won't play YouTube videos, but you can still enjoy them on the go with the instructions on Pocket PC Thoughts:

Anyone into watching YouTube videos knows it has always been pretty problematic to play YouTube videos on Windows Mobile. This has also been explained in my related article Playing Flash Video (FLV) files on the Pocket PC - is it possible? .

The built-in PIE / IEM, because of the very bad JavaScript support, has always been unable to play them back and it was only lately that Opera Mobile (as of the first beta of 8.65) and NetFront (as of TP 3.4 007 released early June, 2007 ) received YouTube support.

...

TCPMP Plugin for Flash Video on PPC for the rescue!

This solution is a little tricky on my Windows Mobile 6 smartphone because the downloader doesn't work well without a touch screen. On the other hand, once you've downloaded the file, TCPMP is fairly easy to control using the softkeys. Read the complete article for suggestions, tips, and of course, the complete HOWTO [via] Link

February 13, 2007

Play Flash Lite 2.1 Content On Your Device

If you have an older Symbian or Windows Mobile device, it probably either came with support for Flash Lite 1, or no Flash support at all, whereas the newer devices are starting to be available with support for Flash Lite 2 content, which will allow developers to make use of more advanced programming features, not the least of which are functions. I suspect that this is going to motivate a lot more cross-platform application development for mobile devices, especially in the hobby and open source world where code signing costs and fragmented SDKs are a pretty significant barrier to entry.

Thankfully, last December Adobe released free end-user Flash Lite 2.1 installers for both Symbian series 60 and Windows Mobile platforms. So if you don't have the most recent hardware, you can perform a quick upgrade and extend the usable life of your device. For thos of you who are interested in developing Flash apps for devices, Adobe's dev center also has some decent starter howtos on the subject.

I'd love to get your opinions on mobile development. So if you have any thoughts on the subject or know of any good open source tools, guides or resources, please share them in the comments!

References: