JeffKirvin.net

Now that I’ve switched over to a Windows Mobile 5 device, is it possible to duplicate the Treo’s famed ease of use? Sure, with a little help.

We’ve all heard it. Windows Mobile devices are more powerful than Palm OS, but they’re harder to use. I’m actually not sure how true either half of that statement is. My switch to Sprint’s PPC-6700 had more to do with screen size and syncing with Vista 64 and Office 2007 than any disenchantment with Palm OS. PC Magazine’s review of the Treo 700w said, “No perfect smartphone solution is available right now, in our eyes. For power, we’d recommend the Sprint PPC-6700 or its Verizon cousin. Both are smaller and lighter than the Treo and have Wi-Fi, a faster processor, and a bigger display than the Treo’s, but they aren’t quite as usable one-handed.”

Now that I’ve had a few weeks to tweak my new phone, I can tell you that with the modifications, a Pocket PC Phone can be just as usable one-handed as the Treo 650. Let me show you how.

The first thing you’ve got to do with a Pocket PC to make it more usable one-handed is install Dynamo. This freeware gem is essentially Mac OS’s Expos� for Windows Mobile. When run, it shows you thumbnails of each of your running applications, which you can then select via the d-pad or close by pressing and holding the d-pad over the selected thumbnail. This gives you a quick, easy and visual way to manage your running applications and close stuff you’re no longer using. The secret to one-handed use? Assign Dynamo to a button on your device. On my PPC-6700, I have Dynamo set to the “Internet Explorer” button on the side of the unit just below the volume slider and I can not only manage my applications one-handed, but switch between them far faster than I ever could with my Treo 650.

Oh, and while I’m on the subject of button assignments, if your device doesn’t have dedicated buttons for Start and OK, assign them. Even if you have to give up whatever those buttons were originally mapped to (Calendar, Messaging, etc.), you’ll get far more use out of having physical buttons for Start and OK.

The second thing to install, also freeware, is the ETEN dialer. Obviously, this only applies if you’re talking about a Pocket PC Phone, but like all stand-alone PDAs, non-cellular Pocket PCs are a vanishing breed anyway. The most prolific Pocket PC maker these days isn’t HP or Dell, it’s HTC.

The ETEN dialer is a program that skins and remaps your dialer program. Not only does this make your phone look a whole lot cooler (check out www.paulya.com for some awesome skins) but it– and this is the important part– makes your phone buttons a lot bigger and easier to press with your thumb while holding the phone in one hand. By moving the speed dial and other buttons from the side to the top and having the three number columns span the width of the phone, dialing becomes dramatically easer, and I find I no longer miss the dedicated if very tiny dialpad on the Treo.

You’re also going to need a good file manager. Resco is great, but so far I’ve been very happy with Total Commander. Not only is it priced better than Resco (it’s free), but it’s also smaller and lighter, without sacrificing power. It’s controllable via the d-pad also includes a great little registry editor.

And you’re going to want to do some registry hacks. Not too many, don’t go crazy, but most Windows Mobile devices could do with a little fine tuning. Here’s a list of some good starting points. If nothing else, here’s one that really improves one-handed use: remapping the two soft keys on the Today screen. With Total Commander, open up “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Today\Keys\112″. This is the left soft key on the Today screen. Change the Default key to change the label, and change the Open key to point to the program or URL to open. Instead of Messaging, I have my left hand soft key called “Gmail” and it opens the basic HTML version of Gmail in Internet Explorer Mobile. You can change the right hand key the same way, but you have to create the registry keys yourself, HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Today\Keys\113\Default and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Today\Keys\113\Open.

If you’re too squeamish to edit the registry on your Pocket PC yourself, you could always get a program to do it for you. I prefer SKTools for this, as it’s a great little Swiss Army knife of a program. Not only does it make suggested optimizations for you, but it also uninstalls programs that give the standard Remove Programs screen trouble, it cleans up both memory and storage space and in the latest beta, backs up your device to your storage card. Not free, but certainly worth $9.

Now let’s really dig into your Today screen. Like the Home screen of a Treo, this is your central control point for your Windows Mobile device, and the more you can do with it via just the d-pad, but more effective you’ll be on the go.

The first plug-in I have on my Today screen is TodayTime (just download it, you don’t have to speak Portuguese, but do scan that page for configuration syntax). This gives you the same info as the stock Date module, but in one line instead of two and with an optionally smaller font. Freeware, still links to the alarms screen and clears up more precious Today screen real estate for other stuff.

Next is a bit of cheating. I have the picture speed dial module from the Treo 700w. I downloaded the .cab file for this from a discussion board from someone who had extracted it from the Verizon ROM. I’m not linking to this one but if you were to do a quick search on the forums at PDAphonehome.com you’d be pretty likely to find something interesting. Credit where’s credit is due, this does give you a fast and easy way to dial your most common contacts.

Next is something else you’re gonna have to pay for, I’m afraid, but don’t worry, it’s under $10. iLauncher from SBSH Software (the same folks that make the acclaimed PocketBreeze plugin) is worth it for three reasons. First, it puts nice little battery bar across the very top of the screen, giving you at-a-glance power status from any application. You can get this functionality for free from a program called PowerStatus, which also gives you storage memory status, but iLauncher provides two other key functions. It provides a nice little collection of application and document shortcuts on your Today screen (even tabbed if you want, although for I find the Start Menu is the better place for a lot of shortcuts, I just but the quick access stuff on my Today screen) and allows you to put some of those shortcuts in your system tray at the bottom of the screen just above the soft buttons, space that would otherwise be unused except for a couple of things put there by the manufacturer of your device. I put commonly used apps in a thin row just under my speed dial buttons, and put system meters (RAM, storage space, card space) and system applications (SKTools, IR Keyboard driver) down in the tray.

Speaking of the Start menu, web-based “applications” aren’t just for the Palm folks. You can use Total Commander (or the built in File Manager, sheesh) to copy .url files from \windows\favorites\ to \windows\start menu\programs\. The reason I don’t have a dedicated weather plugin on my Today screen is that I have a shortcut to the mobile Accuweather page for my zip code on my Start menu, just between Today and Audible. Gets me my weather forecast just as fast, and doesn’t take up any extra RAM.

Now, let’s talk about the big dogs. The biggest purpose of the Today screen, the reason it’s called the Today screen, is to display your calendar and task items. The two heavy hitters in making your Today screen the only planner you need are SBSH’s PocketBreeze and SPB Software House’s Diary. Which one do I use?

Actually, neither. Oh, I’ve registered them both, as well as Pocket Weather, SPB’s Pocket Plus and other associated plugins, but I ultimately found them to be more trouble than they were worth. They worked fine, and PocketBreeze works exceptionally well one-handed, but they’re big. Keep in mind that Windows Mobile is a multitasking operating system and because the Today screen itself is always running in the background while you use other apps, any Today screen modules are also always running in the background while you use other apps. The sheer size of these plugins, and thus the related slow-down of my system as a whole, just turned out to not be worth it.

For the calendar stuff, I use the stock Calendar plugin and it works just fine. It only tells me my next appointment but that’s fine, that’s all I really need to know in most cases.

For tasks, I go a little further. While the task handling in PocketBreeze is overkill for me, the simple count provided by the stock plugin isn’t enough. I split the difference by running TasksPlus, a freeware plugin that greatly resembles the stock plugin but optionally lists up to 20 tasks under the count. This is enough to remind me of what I need to do and I can move down to a task and click on it with the d-pad to open that task in the Tasks application, where I can reschedule it or mark it as complete without ever touching my stylus.

Almost done. In addition to what’s listed above, here are a few other plugins I’ve found useful enough to keep on my Today screen. Remember, you don’t want too many because each one not only runs constantly but also is at least one more down click on your d-pad to get to or get past.

• Phone Profiles. Freeware, allows you to create and set profiles from the Today screen with the d-pad. I have three: General, Meeting and BT Headset, from which I can quickly set volume and turn Bluetooth on and off.
• Bluetooth Audio Today. Freeware. Redirects audio output from the speaker to my Bluetooth headset, something that even the great Tyler Faux found impossible to do on Palm OS.
• Pocket Player. Once I’ve redirected audio to the headset, it’s time to listen to podcasts, Audible or streaming radio. Not only is Pocket Player the best MP3 player I’ve found for Windows Mobile when it comes to remembering your place in podcasts, but Pocket Player’s Today plugin lets me see what I’m listening to, how much time is either elapsed or remaining and you guessed it, I can control playback with just the d-pad. I only display the track, not the position slider or buttons, in order to save space.

And that’s it. Everything you need to make your stylus obsolete, even on a Windows Mobile device.