Australian tech site, techAU.tv, recently posted two video simulations of WP7. The first video (about 10 minutes) shows different apps in action, while the second video goes through many of the settings screens.

One item that stood out to me was a Speech setting. I was worried if VoiceCommand may not make in WP7 (at least at launch) and was pleasantly surprised when I saw a Speech Settings option under General Settings (near beginning of second video).

While Microsoft hasn’t officially announced that voice control will be available in WP7 (they may obviously still be working on it), I now have hope that this feature will make it at launch.

Hit the Read link for the videos and let us know your thoughts. What stands out to you?

That’s the good news, since said Zune connector is a little large and more than a little proprietary.

The bad news is that the WP7s chassis specifications don’t require any specific sync/charge format, meaning OEMs who make our next-gen phones are free to use Mini-USB, Micro-USB or even their own proprietary format.

Now we hope OEMs have learned their lesson in regards to that last one, so we don’t think we’ll see many of those. Still, for those wanting a definitive decision with regards to Micro or Mini USB … looks like Microsoft is going to let the old free market decide.

With all the new changes WP7S is bringing, many of them unwanted, we may need to do something to rectify the situation. On the iPhone this is called Jailbreaking, and it is quickly becoming the future for our OS.

There are not just one reason for Jailbreaking the next line of WP7S phones, but many. The problem arises: how easy will it be Jailbreaking our device, because unlike the iPhone, we have some security.

Reason #1 for Jailbreak: Non-Microsoft Approved apps

In the next version of WP, we will not be allowed to install applications that Microsoft did not approve. That means if XDA members make something that is outrageously awesome, we will not be able to install it to our device without it going through Microsoft for their approval.

That new features is the worst, and makes no sense for MS to include… and you know what that means. JAILBREAK!

Reason #2 for Jailbreak: No Multi-Task

Many people (including me) have made fun of the iPhone for this feature, and it seems the table has turned. MS has announced to us that they will not be including Multi Tasking in their next mobile OS. That means you will not have the ability to monitor the accelerometer in the background while reading your e-mail for example.

That means we will need Jailbreaking to bring this back. Microsoft says it will lower performance, but I think it’s for the better.

Reason #3 for Jailbreak: Customizable UI

Customizing UI is one reason I LOVE Windows Mobile, but Microsoft is taking this feature out, and say we do not need it anymore. That statement “We do not need it” is still to be determined, but people like me get bored easily with things that are too simple or do not change, and with this new customizability removed from the OS Windows Phone 7 will be the same throughout, and nothing will separate HTC from Toshiba or any other maker other than hardware that will also be similar. This will also make Windows Mobile less than Android, which has this feature, and it does it very well and slightly easier than Windows Mobile currently does.

This can also be changed with our devices being Jailbroken.

Reason #4 for Jailbreak: File Access

Being able to access our SD card folder is the key to doing many things in Windows Mobile currently, but that will change with WP7. MS is taking this out for… well I do not really know why, but without this features, we will have that much less control of our phones.

This is not really a big reason, but I think it is very important to some.

Reason #5 for Jailbreak: Change System apps

Being able to change something you do not like is a great feature of Windows Mobile, but MS does not want that for Windows Phone either. Many might not understand “changing system hooks”, but most understand changing the default keyboard, dialler, skin, media player,and so on. That means if you do not like the keyboard… tough break, you have no choice in this matter. You do not like the dialler, haha, use your house phone, MS does not care, and they are not a phone carrier.

That feature to me is the most serious, but it is just one of many.

I think when WP7 is released, and these features are not implemented iPhone owners get the right to tease us and make fun of us for a whole day, because these are all things that apple iPhone users can do now and it is sad we will be losing the features. The worst part is, WP7 will have a great security system, so that means we will not easily be able to have a Jailbreak created, which will make life harder for us “Power Users”.

It is clear however that if our readers will be using Windows Phone 7, jailbreaking will certainly be in their future.

Hd2 Supports wp7s here the test video ;

Video 1
Video 2

Part I   Getting Started

Chapter 1   Phone Hardware + Your Software

Chapter 2   Hello, Windows Phone

Part II   Silverlight

Chapter 3   Code and XAML

Chapter 4   Presentation and Layout

Part III   XNA

Chapter 5   Principles of Movement

Chapter 6   Textures and Sprites

Here’s a quick excerpt from the ebook:

Chapter 1
Phone Hardware + Your Software

Sometimes it becomes apparent that previous approaches to a problem haven’t quite worked the way you anticipated. Perhaps you just need to clear away the smoky residue of the past, take a deep breath, and try again with a new attitude and fresh ideas. In golf, it’s known as a “mulligan”; in schoolyard sports, it’s called a “do-over”; and in the computer industry, we say it’s a “reboot.”

A reboot is what Microsoft has initiated with its new approach to the mobile phone market. On February 15, 2010, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Series and promised a product introduction in time for year-end holiday shopping. With its clean look, striking fonts, and new organizational paradigms, Windows Phone 7 Series not only represents a break with the Windows Mobile past but also differentiates itself from other smartphones currently in the market.

For programmers, the news from Barcelona was certainly intriguing but hardly illuminating. Exactly how do we write programs for this new Windows Phone 7 Series? Developers detected a few hints but no real facts. The really important stuff wouldn’t be disclosed until mid-March at MIX 2010 in Las Vegas.

Silverlight or XNA?

Intelligent speculation about the application platform for the Windows Phone 7 Series has gravitated around two possibilities: Silverlight and XNA.

Since about 2008, programmers have been impatiently awaiting the arrival of a mobile version of Silverlight. Silverlight, a spinoff of the client-based Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), has already given Web programmers unprecedented power to develop sophisticated user interfaces with a mix of traditional controls, high-quality text, vector graphics, media, animation, and data binding that run on multiple platforms and browsers. Many programmers thought Silverlight would be an excellent platform for writing applications and utilities for smartphones.

XNA—the three letters stand for something like “XNA is Not an Acronym”—is Microsoft’s game platform supporting both 2D sprite-based and 3D graphics with a traditional game-loop architecture. Although XNA is mostly associated with writing games for the Xbox 360 console, developers can also target the PC itself, as well as Microsoft’s classy audio player, the Zune. The 2009 release of the Zune HD particularly seemed to suggest a mobile future built around the device’s revamped graphics and multitouch navigation. For many Zune HD users, the most disappointing feature of the device was its inability to make phone calls!
Either Silverlight or XNA would make good sense as the application platform for the Windows Phone 7 Series, but the decision from Microsoft is:

Both!

The Windows Phone 7 Series supports programs written for either Silverlight or XNA. And this we call “an embarrassment of riches.”

You can download the ebook in XPS format here. Here it is in PDF format. And the zipped code samples for this draft preview are here.

Charles is at MIX; say hello and ask him about programming for the Windows Phone. And enjoy, everybody!

Windows Phone 7 Series ile alakalı haberler çıkmaya devam ederken Microsof Press denProgramming  Windows Phone 7 Series kitabını yayınladı.

İncelemek isteyenler kitabı ve örnek kodları indirebilirler…

İçeriği ile alakalı ayrıntılı bilgiye buradan ulaşabilirsiniz.

Some of the tweaks presented below will need you to edit the Registry. For information about what Registry is and how to edit it, please read our Tutorial on How to Edit Your Registry in Windows Mobile. (Personal note: I use CeRegEditor).

Important notice: As always before applying mods and tweaks, make sure you have a full device backup handy just in case anything goes wrong and you need a Hard Reset to recover. This will protect your data from being lost.

Aspect:
1. One of TouchFLO 3D’s main flaw, which is present on the HTC Sense too, was the lack of ability to apply a custom wallpaper to all of the tabs, not just the Home tab. Another one was downscaling of the custom wallpaper so it appeared somewhat blurry. On your T-Mobile HD2, you can use the High Resolution Wallpaper & Slider Editor which allows you to create high quality custom wallpapers to either all of your tabs or just the Home tab. A nice addition to this is High Quality Wallpaper for Home Tab & Manila Start Menu which enables the top taskbar and bottom soft button bar to be part of the wallpaper, by having a background that blends in with your current background. You can use this program to apply custom slider icons too.

2. Co0kie’s Home Tab – Extended QuickLinks, Appointments and More is a Sense Home Tab modification which features Home Tab with 4 views and lots of options, extended Quick Links (quick Links layouts include 3×3, 4×4, 4×5 and 5×5 with up to 3 pages for up to 27, 48, 60 or 75 shortcuts), extended Appointments (up to 5 appointments on the home tab for more than two upcoming days), optional Call History button and much more. You can read more about it by checking out our post.

3. As an addition to the previous point, Co0kie’s Home Tab Editor can be used to edit the settings of the modified Home tab above. You can change the settings without a registry editor, export and import settings and quicklinks, remove dead quicklinks and restarts Sense for immediate changes. To see how it’s done, read our post and look for the embedded video.

Performance:
1. Increase the File System cache size in order to improve file operations. Raise the value to a safe level without braking the functionality of HTC Album’s Facebook picture viewer which has been reported of malfunctioning in case of extreme cache levels.
Using you registry editor, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\StorageManager\FATFS and change the value of CacheSize to 4096. (Do write down the initial values in case you want to revert!)

2. Font rendering is crucial with regards to your devices’s performance so in order to achieve better overall performance, you need to raise the cache related to this; it will have as result a smoother font rendering. Point your registry editor to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\GDI\GLYPHCACHE and change the value of both strings to 524288. (Do write down the initial values in case you want to revert!)

3. HTC Sense is a nice User Interface but it is also hungry for resources. Allocating more memory to this nice interface will make it more fluid, natural. You can do that by editing your registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\HTC\MemoryRequired_ByAP and change the value to 524288. (Do write down the initial values in case you want to revert!)

Usability:
1. You’ll find that some of the programs you want to install will not work because they need and updated version of .NET Compact Framework, usually version 3.5 being a prerequisite for these applications so installing it might be a good idea. Read out Tutorial on How to Upgrade to Microsoft .NET Compact Framework 3.5 where you can find step by step explanations on how to get it done.

2. Opera Mobile is a very nice and fast Internet Browser you’ll quickly get to love. By default, your Opera tabs are limited to three, which means that three is the maximum number of pages you can have open at the same time. What a shame! You can increase that number and unleash the browser by editing the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Opera\Prefs\User Prefs and change the value of Maximum Allowed Tabs from 3 to 6 for instance (or any number of your liking, representing the number of available tabs).

3. One of the greatest annoyances of Opera was the need to zoom out before actually being allowed to tap a link on an Internet page. There’s a fix for this behavior and to apply it, point your registry editor to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Opera\Info and change the value of az_overview_threshold to 32.

Bonus:
Should you ever run out of RAM, which I highly doubt given the huge amount of memory this device has, you can use a free memory cleaning application called cleanRAM to free up some of the memory without the need of a Soft Reset (not that it takes a long time for it to boot).

On the same note, you can install a modified HTC Task Manager that has been tampered with to work with the HD2. You can really close apps by the X button by using it and thus freeing up the memory it used. For the connaisseurs, it’s Dutty’s Task Manager for Leo.

You can use the 16GB Storage Card included to store lots of multimedia files like Music. In this article we show you how to get proper Album Art displayed in Sense’s Music tab.

If your icons don’t look that good because Sense is using a rather large icon size compared to WM6.5 and to WM6.1, here’s a post you can read and follow the instructions on Getting Nice and Sharp Icons on Sense Quick Links in WM6.5.

Last but not least, your T-Mobile HD2’s WiFi card supports Draft N. If you have a Wireless N Router and your HD2 can’t connect, it’s because the N mode is disabled by default. You can enable it and benefit from N technology by editing the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Comm\BCMSDDHD1\Parms and change the value of 11nModeDisable from 1 to 0.

(Sources combined from XDA Developers and pocketnow.com)

By default, you can do very little to the User Interface. You can change the Home Tab wallpaper to an image of your liking but that will only be for the Home Tab and not for the rest of Sense. You can add or remove Home screen tabs, add, remove or rearrange Quick Links and that’s pretty much it. We’ll further show you how to customize Sense to your liking so that it suits your needs and stands out from the rest.

Basic Customizations Methods (Beginner)
1. Sense-wide Wallpaper:
In order to apply a wallpaper to all of Sense’s tabs, you will need an application called HDWall, which is a high resolution wallpaper editor application for your PC. With HDWall, you can create custom installable CABs with wallpapers of your choice that once applied, will be available throughout Sense. One other advantage to this app is that it will create nice and sharp backgrounds, so you no longer need to worry about Sense’s automatic blurring for the wallapapers.

2. High Quality Wallpaper Patch
Once here, it is a good idea to install the High Quality Wallpaper Patch which basically makes the taskbar and bottom soft key bar part of the wallpaper by blending it in and skinning it with the top and bottom parts of the backround. Make sure you install the file matching your Sense version (Settings Tab, About phone, Software Information, Manila version).

Tip: For consistent looks, you can choose the same wallpaper as a background for the Lock screen and Start Menu.

3. Make Components Transparent
At this point, you might be annoyed by the fact that some Sense components are still unchanged and the gray has a bad influence on overall aspect (ie: slider, calendar background, curtain, etc.) so you might want to install a Transparent Slider and make your Calendar’s background go away.

The ultimate resources for further Sense customization are two XDA Developers threads for Sense 2.5 tweaks & mods Part 1 and Part 2 where you can find several CABs that will remove top curtain, make your clock opaque or transparent, make music tab controls transparent and many others.

Advanced Customization with Max Manila (Intermediate)
Max Manila is a completely customized layout for Sense, giving you the ability to customize it to your liking. Again, make sure you install the proper file according to your Sense version.

Max Manila has lots of features with which you can experiment, from full screen mode, eight custom clocks, multiple shortcuts (12, 16 and 20) to three wallpaper modes, transparent slider, landscape support and rotation animation.

All the customizations can be changed from within Max Manila itself and you can access the settings page by swiping your finger top to bottom. Here you can customize Wallpaper, Call History, Calendar, Slider, Alert, Weather, Shortcuts, Fullscreen, Clock, Rotation and many more settings.

Your Home tab can have two layouts: a Normal one and a Full screen version. The Normal layout is pretty much the same as your stock Sense, with the taskbar and soft button bars visible. Full screen mode needs no explanation, it will hide your taskbar and bottom soft button bar, maximizing the Home tab. Both of these layouts have corresponding predefined touch zones for quick access to let’s say Contacts or Settings tab in Normal mode and Start Menu and Lock screen in Full screen mode.

Using Max Manila will allow you to quickly change the type of clock displayed on your Home tab by a simple tap, cycling through the eight featured clock types.

For another look of Max Manila read our post and for a complete list and description of each setting and feature, please visit its XDA Developers thread. It’s huge!

Advanced Customization with Co0kie’s Home Tab and Co0kie’s Home Tab Editor (Advanced)
1. Co0kie’s Home Tab
Co0kie’s Home Tab is a Manila modification which basically adds the following goodies: Home tab with 4 views and lots of options, extended Quick Links, extended Appointments, an optional Call History button, configurable links (for Alarm, Calendar, Call History, Date, Weather, Clock) and four animation levels.

The Home tab can show three, four or five Quick Links, but this is a tricky one: your Home tab will actually get three subsequent pages, which can all hold up to 25 links each, with a combined total of 75 shortcuts. Do you have that many? On the top right part of your screen, right on the curtain, you will have a graphical display (two gray lines and a white one) of what sub-tab of the three you are currently in.

Tha Calendar can show Appointments for the upcoming whole month, with a total of five Appointment slots available for displaying at the same time. Depending on the size of your main Quick Links (three, four or five) you can uncover the rest of the Appointments by swiping the Quick Links down, which will hide them so you are only presented with the Calendar events. In the same manner, swiping the Calendar up will show less Appointments and another swipe up will bring you the quick links. Swipe left or right in your Quick Links (according to the sub-tab you’re in – check visuals on top right) and your other set of links will be displayed.

Adding or Removing Quick Links is easy and it’s almost the same as default but those running older Sense versions now have the ability of Tapping, Holding and Dragging to quickly rearrange icons.

2. Co0kie’s Home Tab Editor
Co0kie’s Home Tab Editor is a life saver! Initially, all of Co0kie’s Home Tab settings needed to be changed via Registry Edits. This was a killer! With Co0kie’s Home Tab Editor, you can customize all the settings in a centralized screen where you can apply several simultaneously, saving you lots of trouble and time.

Settings are displayed in groups: in Quick links layout you can choose between four display types for 3×3, 4×4, 5×4 and 5×5 icons. Then in the Animation level section you can choose between None, Simple, Optimized and Original. Call history and Calendar can be both set up Always hide, Always show or Auto hide (I use the last one, which will make them only appear when needed).

Your Program selector screen can be a List, a four column or a five column grid while one group below you can set the number of future days for which the Appointments are displayed on your Home tab. The total number of Quick Link sub-tabs which can be displayed is three but if you don’t need that many you can customize the number to two or one and you also set which page of Quick Links to be opened first by default, first, second or third.

Is the Miscellaneous settings group you can experiment with small changes for hiding texts on shortcuts, hiding the shortcut text background, hide empty shortcuts, etc., they’re pretty straightforward and self explanatory.

The last group, called Applications, is where you can customize what application runs when you tap on the Alarm, Calendar, Call History, Clock, Date and Weather.

Don’t forget to Apply changes before you Exit. Co0kie’s Home Tab Editor also allows you to Restore defaults or Export your settings for quick Import. This way you can have several layouts set up and quickly switch between them.

Above you have a short take on a few Sense UI customizations you can apply to your device, a good starting point in your journey and remember, we all use our devices differently, run different programs and have different tastes but with these tools you can really make the device your own!

Mobil World Congress etkinliğinde duyurulduktan sonra epey yol kateden ve tüm detayları bir bir duyurulan Windows Phone 7 Series’e dair bu kez ortaya çıkan gelişme ise Marketplace. Daha önce WP7S’in geriye dönükuyumluluğa sahip olmayacağı ve bu bağlamda Windows Mobile 6.5 ile uyumlu uygulamaların Windows Phone 7 Series ile çalışmayacağı belirtilmişti. Buradan hareketle Marketplace’in WP7S’de farklı bir işleyişiçersinde olacağı aşikâr.

Bugün paylaşılan detaylara göre, Zune’dan ilham alan arayüzMarketplace ile de devam edecek gibi görünüyor. Her içeriğe dair derecelendirme, inceleme, ekran görüntüleri, fiyat gibi bilgiler tek bir ekranda görülebiliyor. Ödeme seçenekleri de oldukça zengin. Operatöre ve ülkeye göre farklılık göstermek kaydıyla, kredi kartı ile ödeme, operatör üzerinden faturalandırma gibi alternatifler kullanıcılara sunulacak.