Just a quick pic gallery of the HD2 running Windows Phone 6.5.3 (28205).

All seems to be running just fine (day 3 of this Rom), remember that you need to either use SSPL or (recommended) HSPL for the Leo.

As you can see, it’s all rather pretty, and after being an avid Titanium user for some time on the HTC HD, the extra grunt the HD2 has seems to breeze through the overhead of the SenseUI that HTC ship.

Obviously there is stuff I haven’t covered here, the twitter client that HTC ship still (even in this latest build of SenseUI) seems to chew a lot of CPU when it’s updateing for some reason, not a problem as I use MoTweet, and the Keyboard sometimes has issues capitalising things, and that’s been an issue in all the latest SenseUI builds.

All in all, I think it’s the ‘best of breed’ device experience of the moment, I cant stand the closed of nature of the iPhone, Android (as nexus shows) is still not there at the moment, yes this is what MS SHOULD have delivered right from the start, but at least they got there.

Bring On Windows Phone 7 (hopefully using CE6.x core)

OK, with all the who-har about Apple launching a tablet, and with Microsoft/HP showing off theirs, I thought I’d ask the question no-one seems to be asking. Why?

Let’s think about this for a second.

1. Tablets have no keyboard, and as far as I know, the computer world, even with Windows 7 and MacOSX have not got the point where we can live without one. Yes software keyboards do work (I have a HD2, and works well on that), but they will all have the same issues as the iPhone/Windows Phone devices have, Screen Real Estate. Half the screen will be gone while the keyboard is visible. Surely a netbook would not only be cheaper, but more useful here if all you want to do is browse the net and read email?
2. Portable Media, The tablets are all based around the same technologies as netbooks, so we know that 1080p is out (even if screen res supported it) and probably 720p for that matter (screen res again). And if you want a PMP, then there are plenty of good ones around (like the Arcos) that even do a bit of internet and email, that’s forgetting the HTC HD2’s and iPhones of the world.
3. Notepad/Scribble concept, these too are shot nowadays with capacitive screens as your finger, no matter how small/thin it is is never going to be as good at this sort of thing as a stylus is. However multitouch is a ‘must have’ now, and that’s only available (easily) on capacitive displays. So another bust.
4. Portability, come on, it’s more portable than an NC10? my wife put’s her NC10 in her handbag, and if you want portable get a HD2/iPhone.
5. Power, these are thin little ‘cosmetic’ devices, there not going to have massive battery time, simple as that. Most of the NC10’s weight comes from it’s battery.
6. OS’s, until the Apple announcement comes out we have no idea what OS their device will run, however it’s been rumoured to be a supersized version of the iPhone OS, and that means all that platform’s problems. The Windows 7 devices run the baby version of the OS, so at least it’s ‘fullish’ featured.

So, why is everyone getting so het up over these things? I really am at a loss to work out what they will be used for besides bragging rights. The Windows based ones (as long as ram is upgradable) could conceivably be upgraded to Premium versions of the OS, and then get used for Micro Media Centers, but that’s an expensive way to have telly in the bath.

Am I missing something? but as far as I can see, a Laptop/Netbook is not only going to be cheaper, but a damn site more useful as a device.

I’ve had my HD2 over the weekend now, and I must say, it has to be the best WinMo device I have ever used. It’s quick, and very (and I do mean very) rarely has lag issues.

There are some things to note though.

Device needs Compact FrameWork 3.5 installing on it – .NET Compact Framework 3.5 Redistributable

There is a new ‘test’ ROM out for the WWE (unlocked) devices, which is what I am running Download Here

Lower the screen sensitivity, obviously this is personal choice, but I found the screen far too sensitive. (Download desense / Reset to factory)

Other things that you should probably do :

• Enable the Magnifying Box for text selection
  HKLM/Software/HTC/TextSelection/EnableMagnifier and change from 0 to 1
• Turn on 802.11n support
  HKLM/Comm/BCMSDDHD1/Parms/11nModeDisable = Change from 1 to 0
• Add shorcut’s for apps that are for some reason installed and left unlinked (all in Windows Folder)
  eT9MyWords.exe / bubblebreaker.exe / solitaire.exe
• Install Dutty’s task Manager (the Original HTC task manager) –

Download

That’s about it for now, full review when I have a chance to go through the whole thing

I’ve just flashed my TouchHD upto Windows Mobile 6.5 RTM, and very nice it is too. But that’s not what this post is about.

Nope it’s about Twitter clients on WinMo. I’ used to use PocketTwit, it was perhaps a little ‘heavy’, but hey whats a couple of K between friends. It’s got a great interface, and is certainly high on the wow factor, and looks sublime on the HD’s screen.

I tried installing it on 6.5RTM and it’s a no go, not quite sure why, but crashes out every time.

So I went hunting for another client to get me through till PocketTwit  starts working again (and yes tried the dev build).

I bumped into Twikini, I remember trying it before, and then not using it because I bumped into PocketTwit. So downloaded it, Installed and must say it’s actualy quite nice, from another point of view though. Yes it’s not got all the flash and bells of PocketTwit, but what it does do it does well. It’s quick, lightweight, and in it’s way it looks pretty (well it’s clean anyhow).

So if you have a device that’s not upto PocketTwit for any reason (screen size, processor, memory or whatever) then I sudgest giving Twikini a go, you wont be sorry.

You would expect me to post about a new McLaren over on www.f1-blog.co.uk, however this is a newly announced road McLaren.

And it’s quite pretty, reminiscent some would say of the Audi R8, but more organic than the Audi 2 seater.

Price is expected to be about the R8’s £80.000 so not a million miles away from the Porsche and Audi competition.

Frank Stephenson is looking after styling, he comes with a good pedigree (Fiat and Ferrari), and you can certainly see P11 influences in the car.

Slightly shorter than the R8, and similar power levels (450bhp) should make for some fun.

A few people have asked for the drivers that I’m using on Windows 7 for the Samsung NC10.

So here they are, they include the Audio (RealTek) and Lan (Marvel).

So download away.

Was having a play with the Windows 7 Open Search Provider. I’ve knocked one together for twitter, it’s only a ‘general term’ search, might have a look at hooking other search types into it, but that’s for later.

If you want it, just download it and either open from the download or double click it and Windows 7 will ask permission to add the search provider.

Any issues let me know. (oh you might have to right click and save as the file and make sure the file extension is osdx)

Thought moving from a 20gb to the 60gb drive I got for chrimbo would be easy, unfortunatly not. Microsoft in their wisdom dont ship the MS transfer cable with the drive, so I picked up one of the 3rd party SATA ones up.

Cable works fine, unfortunatly the software leaves a bit to be desired, yes I know it’s freeware and I could not do better, and MS don’t make it easy by using FAT-X instead of a real disk format.

In the end what I did was this, pull the latest Datel XPort 1.12 down and do a backup of the 20gb (just in case), now copy the partition3\Contents folder to somewhere.

Add the new hdd to the machine via USB or SATA and copy the Contents folder back over to partition3. If it all copies over just fine then lucky you, a coplete backup, if like me you have strange dropouts and crashes of the XPort software then your best bet is to just copy over the Profiles (save games etc), to do that copy all the contents from the Contents folder over except the 0000000000 folder (that’s the downloaded content), then re-download all the stuff you want, re-downloading has one benefit, you only download the stuff you want and unclutter the disk.

Point of note though, if the software does crash on you mid copy, make sure you DELETE the folder one above before re-copying data, else the space that was allocated just vanishes.

Just a quick post to say Merry Christmas.

The wife loves her NetBook (A Samsung NC10) and it runs Windows 7 great, only one driver that’s an issue and that’s the wired Lan, but she never uses it anyway so no problems.

I got all the games and BluRays I wanted, so all good, oh and a 60Gb XBox drive, so makes life easier. Just need a copier cable now.

Puppies had the left-over turkey and beef from dinner round the in-laws (was good!), and the kittens had some pheasant.

I wish you all a good rest of the Yule time.