TamsPPC - the Windows Phone Blog » Workshops

XPERIA X2 TileWave panel on XPERIA X1

Tam Hanna — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:54:53 +0000

Recently, a ROM dump of the XPERIA X2 was leaked to xda-developers. As the hardware of the box is essentially unchanged from the X1, hackers were quick to try backporting stuff…and were largely successful. Sony Ericsson’s TileWave panel is hailed as one of the key features of the new device – but can it be ran on an X1?

An insider source recently provided me with a cab file called “SE Tilwave Panel.cab”, which installed onto my device without any issues. No further CABs were provided. However, getting it up and running is not as easy.

The first step involves opening the panel list, and going into “panel management mode”:

Then, click an empty space and assign the TileWave panel to it:

When this is done, activate the panel. It will take a few seconds to load:

Unfortunately, the panel is not particularly useful. Here are a few shots of its limited offerings:

Getting rid of it is difficult, as the XPERIA panel manager of the R3A ROM is blocked while the panel is running. The only way to switch to a different panel is switching the device on and off again. This must also be done prior to uninstallation.

In the end, I struggle to see much value in the panel. Yes, it works – but I have since booted it off my handset and have returned to the default today screen.

YouTube Mobile: your device is not supported

Tam Hanna — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 14:08:21 +0000

This one is for all those of you who live outside of the USA and get errors when trying to download the recently-released YouTube Mobile application to your device.

The secret behind getting your hands onto the app is setting the YouTube Mobile portal to English (NOT English UK): once this is done, both my iPaq rx4240 and my Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 had no issues downloading a 650KB CAB file containing the program.

Look at the image on the left side for the link – in case you still have eekers, use this link to download the file off tamoggemon.com’s!

Highly annoying (and expensive) XPERIA “feature”

Tam Hanna — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 14:20:51 +0000

As quite a few XPERIAs have been updated recently, I want to make you all aware of the following Settings item which is hidden deep inside the prefs:

It is enabled by default, and silently sends an SMS with a custom text to every person whose call you reject. As you get to pay for each one of these critters, turning it off is a very smart idea IMHO…

Give your HTC Touch HD a reset hole

Tam Hanna — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 16:31:20 +0000

Palm’s Tungsten T was one of the first handhelds which could be reset with the stylus tip (without needing a needle or having to remove the battery cover). Unfortunately, this highly useful technology seems to have been forgotten by most manufacturers nowadays…HTC’s Touch HD is said to be particularly annoying in this aspect.

Fortunately, the folks at xda-developers figured out a smarter way – it involves drilling a hole into the battery cover as shown in the picture below:

As a battery cover can be replaced easily, I think that there should be no warranty issues with this mod (as long as you have a spare back panel). However, we recommend to remove the panel from the device before drilling…explaining drill holes in the back to a HTC rep could be somewhat difficult…

ExtUSB pinout and fun with Apple stuff

Tam Hanna — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 21:17:52 +0000

Even though I personally consider Windows Mobile devices superior to iPhones in almost every aspect except design, the huge reach of the latter has led to a huge plethora of peripherals being developed for the iPhone connector.

The folks at WebNetta’s have figured out a way to connect a T-Mobile G1 device to iPhone chargers and audio peripherals – while I am not sure if the ExtUSB pinout of the G1 is 100% similar to the one found on our Windows Mobile boxen, I am pretty sure that there should be no differences.

If anyone of you has spare iPhone/iPod stuff laying around and isn’t afraid of a bit of soldering, hit the link above for the full scoop!

Windows XP firewall vs ActiveSync

Tam Hanna — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 20:49:21 +0000

As I recently was on the verge of hardresetting my rx4240 as it refused to connect to my PC, I think that sharing the following bit of info could save a lot of grief!

Cutting a long story short: Microsoft’s firewall is the one to blame. If all exceptions are blocked via the “no exceptions” checkbox, ActiveSync will recognize devices but will not be able to connect/sync.

The workaround is simple but dangerous – allow exceptions in the firewall settings.

Enabling 802.11g mode on Windows Mobile

Tam Hanna — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 14:17:35 +0000

Most Windows Mobile devices have a g-capable WiFi transmitter inside, which theoretically allows for data rates of up to 54Mbps. Unfortunately, some manufacturers disable it via software (e.g. HTC Touch HD). Fortunately, reenabling it is easy:

change the value of dot11SupportedRateMaskG from the default 4 (1 in some cases) to 8 inside HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\COMM\TNETWLN1\PARMS.
Note: Some devices don’t have that structure in the registry. If it’s your case, our cab will create it automatically.

The folks at PocketNow.com have created a cab file which does this automatically – if you feel like giving it a pop, hit the link below:
http://pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=news&id=6440

Speeding up your memory card

Tam Hanna — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 14:04:47 +0000

Slow memory card access has always been an issue plaguing mobile devices – for example, Palm OS 5 devices have been infamous for their extremely slow write speeds. PocketPC devices always were faster…but it looks like their performance can be increased even further.

The trick involves changing the registry in order to enable a new WM 6.1 feature and change a few caching settings: Direct Memory Access has been around for quite some time, but has not been enabled out of the box for a variety of reasons.

Further information (and a CAB file) can be found at PocketNow – give them a click at the URL below:
http://www.pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=news&id=6415

HTC Touch Pro mod – make your HTC Touch Pro accept regular SD cards

Tam Hanna — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:11:58 +0000

I never had particularly warm feelings towards Mini and MicroSD cards – for me, regular SD cards are the best choice for larger devices. Unfortunately, all recent HTC devices come with MicroSD slots. Luckily, a single user at xda-developers shared my feelings and set out to fix the problem:

Their mod consists of a special MicroSD-to-SD adapter and a modified battery cover which allows you to change the card from the outside. There is no actual hardware mod involved, making this a “warrany-safe” mod as long as you manage to get your hands onto a second battery cover.

Unfortunately, 510jungleboy is rather silent when it comes to the specific tools and parts needed – let’s see how this ends up…

via wmpoweruser

Windows Mobile Registry tweaks

Tam Hanna — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 10:41:18 +0000

Desktop Windows users have played the Registry Tweaking game ever since Windows 95 tried to replace the plethora of .ini files with a single, central settings database called Registry. As Windows Mobile is based on Windows 95/NT4 to some extent, it has a registry too.

Chris De Herrera’s famous PocketPCFAQ has now gathered information on interesting registry keys that can be changed on a Windows Mobile device – if you feel like some Registry tweaking, hit the link below for further info:
http://www.pocketpcfaq.com/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=Specific+Registry+Settings&bl

P.S. If you haven’t tried Resco Explorer so far, do so now. It contains an extremely useful registry editor plug-in…