Before performing this upgrade, be sure to backup any personal information you might have on the device.  The upgrade will wipe the device and restore it to factory default settings.  If you don’t have a backup procedure in place, I highly recommend you install Microsoft’s My Phone service and backup all your data to the cloud for free.  You can sign up here, or read more about it in my review – here.

I’m off to upgrade my Jack.  If you have any problems or questions about the upgrade process, just post them in the comments here and I’ll do what I can to help.  I’ll post my thoughts on the new ROM once my device is flashed and I’ve had a chance to play around with it.

Update: It looks like the update will not run on Windows 7, even if it’s run under compatibility mode as an administrator. You’ll need a machine running Vista or XP in order to do this upgrade.  When I launched the installer on Vista, it failed the first time. I had to run the installer as an administrator in order for it to work.

For many, the issue with emulators is how to get your data or application on to it. So I thought I would run through installing emulators as well as how to copy your applications to the emulator. Before we begin, you’ll need to download the following things:

• Microsoft Device Emulator 3.0 – Standalone Release (Download here)
• Windows Mobile Emulator Images – Pick any 1 or all of the following:
  • 6.5 Standard and Professional (Download here)
  • 6.1 Standard and Professional (Download here)
  • 6.0 Standard / Professional (Download here)
  • 5.0 Smartphone (Download here) / Pocket PC (Download here)

Once you have the emulator and all the images downloaded we can begin the installation. The first thing you need to do, is install the device emulator.  Once that’s installed, you can move along to installing the emulator images that you want to use.  I have found that installing 6.5 over 6.1 tends to break the emulator image. This can be fixed by running repair on the 6.1 image. If you’re only installing 6.5 images then you don’t have to worry about that.

Once you have things installed, you will notice your have a couple new items in your Start Menu. In my case, you can see the Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional and Standard images listed. Each emulator image has the screen size and type of OS in the name.  So you can be sure about what image you need to run before you actually launch it.

Upon running one of emulators, you will see an image of a device appear on your desktop.  The screen will be blank, but if you wait a minute or so, it should automatically start booting up the device. I’ve found that initial boot on the emulators can take a good 4 or 5 minutes.  Once you’ve started the image, you can always choose to save the state when you close it so that it doesn’t have to restart every time you want to use it.

Tip: If you’re running a tablet, feel free to grab your stylus and get busy with the emulator image.  It works just like using a regular stylus on the device would.

Now that we have the emulators up and running, let’s get WMDC / ActiveSync setup so that we can easily get files to and from these emulators. To do this, launch Windows Mobile Device Center or ActiveSync (depending on your version of Windows). Edit the Connection Settings page and place a checkmark beside “Allow connections to one of the following:” and then select DMA from the drop down list.

Now we just need to tell the emulator to connect and we’re golden.  For whatever reason, after installing the standalone device emulator, there is nothing added to the start menu.  Which isn’t really a big deal as you can run the emulators just fine. However, in doing this, they missed providing an easy way for people to access the Device Emulator Manager.  To run this, browse to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Device Emulator\1.0 and look for the file called dvcemumanager – this is the Device Emulator Manager. Launch it, and while you’re at it, copy a shortcut to the desktop or someplace handy. When the window opens you should see a list of all running emulators.  If you don’t have one running, head back up a couple paragraphs and get one started.

Remember that you can only have 1 ActiveSync’ed device at a time.  That continues to be true with the emulators. While you can run multiple emulators at the same time, only 1 can be connected over ActiveSync or WMDC at a time. To get this connected, right click on the emulator and select Cradle. That’s all there is to it. WMDC / ActiveSync will start the connection process and the emulator will appear in your file manager like any real device would. You can copy files to it, install applications, and tweak away without worry or causing harm to your everyday device.

WinMoDevCamp will be hitting Toronto on November 11th. Representatives from Bell, Telus, Rogers, and the all new WIND Mobile will be on site. You can register here for the Toronto event.

During some recent research, it came to my attention that Microsoft has taken this application lock and implemented it on Windows Mobile 6.5 touch screen devices. This means that 3rd party applications won’t have free access to the entire device as they have in the past.

So while I found some documentation that referenced this new feature on touch devices, there were no production devices available to test this on – until now. Mobile Jaw reader, Keith Ramsey posted about his brand new HTC Imagio in this thread, about the problems he is having when trying to install applications on the device.  As more carriers release Windows Mobile 6.5 based devices the number of application locked devices will continue to grow.

Previously, I had created a CAB file that would remove security from Windows Mobile Standard devices (non-touch screen devices). So I have now created a similar CAB file that works for touch screen devices. You can read all about application lock – what it is, and how to remove it,  along with the download steps over here.

The quickie details are to copy this CAB file to the device, install the CAB and then browse to Start / System / Settings / Remove Programs and uninstall the MobiControl Device Agent from your device. If you want more details about what you’re doing, what the CAB file does, or why you need to uninstall it after it’s installed, then you should read the above linked article about removing application lock. It will answer all those questions.

If anyone else has a new Windows Mobile 6.5 device, please reply and let me know if you’re seeing the same behavior and if so, did this CAB fix things?

The steps below will walk you through removing this animation and there’s even details about what you need to do to display your own graphic. One special note – If you have a Samsung Jack or Propel Pro, you can not remove the startup animation. If you do this, the screen driver fails to load and you can no longer see anything on the device.  You can, however, connect to the device using Pocket Controller Pro and reinstate the startup animation and all will be fine again. Again, this is only a problem on the Propel Pro and the Jack. All other devices have not displayed this behaviour.

1) The first thing you need to do is remove the application lock from your device (Windows Mobile Standard or non-touch devices only).  To do this, check out my other post about Removing Application Lock.

2) Install some sort of registry editing tool. For on device editing, which is all that would be required in this case, I would recommend PHM’s free registry editor.

3) Run the registry editor and browse to HKLM / System / Startup / 1

4) Here you should find a value by the name of DLL.  Highlight the value DLL and press the Menu / Delete to completely remove it. (Samsung Jack and Propel Pro users – do not delete this value!)

5) Browse to HKLM / System /Shutdown / 1 and you should find another value with the name DLL. Highlight and remove this one as well.

At this point, you should no longer have the startup or shutdown animations. You can reboot your phone and test it out. But I’m not done with this hack.  Instead of the carriers animation, why not add your own image? Here’s the steps to add your own graphic on startup and shutdown. 

6) In the registry editor under HKLM / System / Shutdown or HKLM / System / Startup create a new Value and set the type to be String.

7) Name this new value “Splash” without the quote,s and set the value to be the complete path to your picture. I recommend against putting this picture on the storage card. It should be on the main memory of the device.

Save your new value and back out of the registry editor. Reboot your phone and enjoy the new graphics!

In case your looking for something to replace that image with, here’s a very fancy Mobile Jaw logo in 320×320, 320×240, and 240×320. I just placed the size I need in the My Documents folder and then set the Splash value to “\My Documents\MobileJawSplash320240.png” – without the quotes.  Enjoy!

If you have any problems, let me know. Or if you just feel like sharing your success, I would love to hear about it.

The new version of Facade adds support for skin packs (the ability to bundle up the layout along with skin files into one easy to install package), Thumbnail previews of the background image and Facade layout before you apply it, changing the Softkey  and category colors, PIM Integration with all major PIM applications, advanced configuration of each tab, Windows Mobile 6.5 support, and so much more.

After you install Facade, you’ll notice the home screen on your device has changed just a little. The following screen shot is taken from a Samsung Propel Pro Smartphone and it’s what you can expect to see as the default home screen after you install Facade.

There’s a lot of information on that screen, but don’t worry, it all makes sense once you work your way through it.  I’ve taken the image and added highlights to the different sections.  Here’s the updated image:

Starting at the top box, you’ll find “Programs / Home / Schedule”.  This box has focus by default. When it’s highlighted, you can push left and right to rotate to the next tab. The tabs as connected in a circle, and by default are: Home / Schedule / Tasks / Calendar / Programs. You can turn on or off any tabs if you don’t need them.

The next box down provides a shortcut to your profiles, allowing you to quickly change the profile on the device. Pressing action on the next section, the clock, will take you to the Date and Time settings on the device. Moving down from the clock is a very thin line that goes from the left side of the screen to the right side.  This bar is a battery indicator and reflects the current amount of battery left in the device. Below the battery indicator, we have the amount of time until your next alarm goes off, and when that will be.

After the alarms section is counters for email, missed calls, SMS, and Voice Mail. When you’ve scrolled down to this section, you can move left and right to highlight different items. Selecting any one of these will take you into the respective application.

The final section is a list of all the appointments that are pending on your device. Selecting any of the appointments will open up that appointment for you to review or edit as needed.

Overall, Facade is an amazing plugin that greatly extends the functionality of the basic home screen on Windows Mobile Standard devices.  I’m still working my way through all the settings and seeing what each one can do.  The only downside that I’ve noticed so far is that it can be a little slow in switching between the tabs.  It’s hard to tell if this is just the way SBSH planned the animation for switching between tabs, or if its just plain slow to process the tab switch.  If there’s one thing I would like to see changed, is speedier movement between tabs.

If you’re running a Windows Mobile Standard device (without touch screen), then latest update from SBSH is well worth checking out. You can check out all the new features over in SBSH forums and the press release with details about upgrading for existing customers can be found here.

Below is a screen capture for each of the other tabs in the default home screen.

UPDATE: In regards to the speed issue I mentioned above, this is clearly an animation effect from SBSH. There’s a setting in the menus that allows us to turn off the animations and when this is done, scrolling to different tabs is much faster, even if it’s a little less pretty.

What I don’t like about these predictions is simple – no one can see the future.  In the tech industry, every time there’s a major challenge produced, the analysts come out with these wild predictions about how the world will change because of this new challenge. For the most part, it never happens. There are some times when it does come true, but that’s so rare. I can recall when IBM launched OS 2.1, the analysts predicted that it would capture some ridiculous share of the market in the next 2 years.  They had pages and pages of reasons why this was going to be the case.  I think we all know how that turned out. This is just one example.  Tech history is littered with failed predictions.

So will Google manage to move all the way to second place in 3 short years? If the competition doesn’t change and role with the tide, then sure.  But I really don’t see Palm, Apple, Microsoft, and RIM sitting still over the next few years.  Right now, in the mobile space, you need to be moving forward at a aggressive pace or risk being left behind.  Microsoft was caught taking a nap recently and are already reacting and pumping things up to the level where is should have been. A couple years ago, Palm was caught napping and came very close to losing everything.  They’ve finally started to turn things around and with any luck they could have some serious market share in a couple years.

Apple and Google are here to stay.  And for that matter, so is Microsoft, RIM, and Symbian. All of these guys will have a significant share of the market in 3 years time. I’m not so sure about Palm and Linux but that’s a rant for another day.  Unfortunately, these forward looking statements are not about to go away.  The public and the press need to remember that the future has not been decided yet and that anything can happen.

(source = PPCGeeks)

The article has this really graphc that shows iPhone at 40%, up 7% from last month. And Symbian drops 9% from 43% to just 34%. There’s lots of conclusions that someone could try to make from this chart. However, I think the most important thing to understand is where these numbers are coming from.

As I mentioned already, it’s important to know where the numbers are coming from. In this case, admob specializes in placing ads on mobile friendly sites. So their vision of market share is going to be different then the rest. 

In this chase, admob gets their numbers from websites, ad impressions, ad requests and of course, clicks. But wait a second, that’s not an accurate representation of devices sold in the market! All that means is that more iPhone users are using the web than Symbian and Windows Mobile.  That doesn’t mean that Apple has shot like a rocket to number one. When you think about it, these numbers aren’t even surprising. Windows Mobile devices have been available for years, but very rarely were they bundled with attractive data plans.  With the iPhone, it’s a requirement when you buy the phone.  Furthermore, this only looks at web traffic on sites monetized by admob.  They aren’t capturing the number of people getting email on their device, browsing RSS or Twitter, or whatever the hot new mobile application is. This is just web traffic and just on sites that have signed up for admob. 

Hey, I’m happy to see that more and more people are doing it the mobile way.  But that’s not the same thing as market dominance.

Now, in terms of the review, Clinton takes a close look at Exact Magic Weather Radar and Zyrtec AllergyCast for the iPhone. Both of which are available from Apple’s app store. Given the crazy and unpredictable weather we’ve been seeing this year, I think every gadget should come with some sort of weather radar system.  Exact looks to be a great option for that.  When it comes to allergies, I can’t really speak as I don’t have any allergies. So I’ll just leave it with a  – If you do, check it out – comment.

Clinton has assured us that he will still continue reviewing Windows Mobile devices and applications, but you can expect to see him spread his wings and include other platforms going forward.  Congratulations on the new addition to your site Clinton!

Devices powered by Windows Mobile 6.5 offer new and updated features, functionality, and services that significantly enhance and improve the user experience. The most notable of these improvements can be found on the new Lock Screen, Home Screen, Start Menu Screen, and Internet Explorer Mobile (based on the rendering engine from Internet Explorer 6).

Along with the improvements to the core features in Windows Mobile, Microsoft has added key services – My Phone and Windows Marketplace for Mobile. The My Phone service has been available for a couple months already, but has just gone through an update to correspond with the release of Windows Mobile 6.5. The original service lets users access, manage, and backup their personal information to the cloud. The updated release will add the ability to remotely wipe or display a message on the screen of the device to assist in recovering a lost or stolen device. The Marketplace for Mobile will allow customers to browse, buy, download, and manage mobile applications for their device. Marketplace for Mobile is currently available for new Windows Phones running Windows Mobile 6.5, but will be coming soon to devices powered by Windows Mobile 6.1 and 6.0.

Since the majority of the enhancements in 6.5 are directly related to touch enabled devices, you won’t be finding them on devices running Windows Mobile Standard. However, you will find services like Marketplace for Mobile and My Phone.

Key partners have already announced support for Windows Mobile 6.5 powered Windows Phones. Both HTC and Samsung have committed to releasing updated ROMs for some of their existing devices. More details on when these will be available should be coming in the days following today’s announcement.