hack

Windows Phone Device Migration Hackathon has failed

February 1, 2012 | By Surur

Yesterday Rafael Rivera gave himself the ambitious goal of creating an app which would make it easy to move from one Windows Phone to another by allowing app data, e.g. game high scores, to be moved from one device to another easily.

Unfortunately it seems the task was not as easy as he anticipated, meaning 12 hours later we do not have a solution to a very real problem.

In two months time many 18 month contracts will come to an end, and unless Microsoft has sorted out device back-up in Tango (unlikely) it means many users will be loathe to move to a new device and lose their accumulated SMS messages, budgets, exercise records and of course game high scores gathered in numerous applications over the previous 18 months, which may mean Windows Phone misses out on an easy boost in sales around that period.

Microsoft – we need an solution for this issue ASAP.

Read more about the challenge at withinwindows.com.

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Kinect and Windows Phone used to create "holographic" game engine

January 24, 2012 | By Surur

Here is a pretty cool Kinect hack using the Kinect beta SDK and a Windows Phone.

The demo uses a simple game engine utilizing the pseudo-holographic effect. A Kinect "sees" the position of the viewer and the 3D engine adjusts the image accordingly to give the illusion of a real 3D object. The 3D engine supports anaglyph 3D (red/cyan glasses) for a better effect in real life.

A simple WP7 app controls the application and the helicopter using the accelerometers of the phone.

See more great demos at Programming4Fun’s channel here.

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Homebrew hack lets you install other OEM app stores

December 25, 2011 | By Surur

htcappstore If you are the homebrew hacker type with an unlocked device (be it developer or chevron unlocked) you can now install a XAP that will give you access to the application stores from other OEMS e.g. the HTC store on a LG device.

The hack is by GoodDayToDie and can be found on XDA-Developers here.

He notes a restore point is advised, but that the store will revert to your native OEM one automatically in a few days in any case.

Read more about the hack and find the relevant XAP on XDA-Developers here.

Via 1800pocketpc.com

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Wow! WM Opera Mini ported to fully unlocked Windows Phones

December 10, 2011 | By Surur

operamini

There was a time when the mere survival of Windows Mobile was dependent on Opera’s software, so bad was IE Mobile.

Thankfully we are no longer in those days, and alternate rendering engines are not only not needed, but in fact not available on Windows Phone 7.

However if you yearn for those nostalgic days, or merely looking for al alternative, Ultrashot on XDA-Developers appears to have achieved the impossible. He has created a XAP wrapper for the Windows Mobile version of Opera Mini that will run on Windows Phone 7.

The handset does however need to be fully unlocked, like the DFT ROMs, not just Developer unlocked or even InterOp unlocked.

The only limitation is that it does not support rotation, but Ultrashot says this is coming.

He reports that it may be possible to port the full Opera Mobile, but that this has more dependencies.

Read more in this XDA-Developers thread.

Via WPSauce.com

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New hack available to customize built-in tiles–Do you want?

December 6, 2011 | By Surur

customthemesq

Jaxbot has been hacking at Windows Phone, and has found a way to change both the background and graphics on the built-in Live Tiles.

Windows Phone Hacker is asking gauging interest in a public release of the hack, which only requires a Chevron Labs or similar unlocked device, not a more difficult Interop unlocked.

Are our readers interested? Let us know below.

Thanks Necro for tip.

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Possible Interop unlock found for the Nokia Lumia 800

November 25, 2011 | By Surur

It seems OEM apps with their high level of access and poor security is a gift that keeps on giving, at least to the hacker community.

The latest is the Nokia Network Setup App, which has a vulnerability which could allow an Interop Unlock, which gives full access to the device at a root level, to be achieved by deploying a specially crafted provisioning file.

The vulnerability and associated exploit was discovered by Heathcliff74 on XDA-Developers is is still in testing.

Update: Nanapho.jp reports that after the exploit has been made public Nokia has unpublished Nokia Network Setup from Marketplace. The XAP can still be downloaded, but can now no longer be installed.

Registry edit to enable A2DP audio while playing video on Windows Phone 7

November 19, 2011 | By Surur

2-26-07-dr-bt21g A repeated annoyance of some Windows Phone 7 owners is that when using A2DP sound over Bluetooth, this will be disabled when playing video.

Of course the reason for this is somewhat understandable – when decoding video, transcoding sound to the A2DP audio codec takes processor cycles which then lead to sound dropping out or low frame rate for video.

If however you want to take your chances and have an Interop unlocked device or a device with a built-in registry editor like some LG ones, Fabcal has a simple registry edit which will fix the issue.

With your unlocked handset and WP7 root tools or other registry editor, edit:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Zune\Playback\Video\A2DP\CapsSet1

Change dword value DisableA2DPPLayback from 1 to 0

Reboot immediately afterward and enjoy Bluetooth Stereo Audio playback while watching video.

Note that as the Bluetooth antenna is often the same as the WIFI antenna they can interfere, making the solution better for playing local content than streaming content from the internet.

Read more in this XDA-Dev thread for methods of editing your registry on Windows Phone 7.

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Bootloader hack may bring Android dual-boot to Windows Phones

November 19, 2011 | By Surur

focusdb

It remains to be seen how desired this is, but work by the Dark Forces Team to port the the MAGLDR bootloader to the Samsung Focus may mean Android dual-boot could be coming to certain Windows Phone 7 handsets.

This would result in a similar situation to the HTC HD2, which it seems has been hacked to run every mobile OS under the sun.

The work is being initially done on the Samsung Focus v1.3, but Cotulla writes that the next version will support the Samsung Focus 1.4 and Samsung Omnia 7 also.

Have any of our readers been waiting for this development? Let us know below.

Via Slashgear and WPCentral.com

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Game Review: Kinectimals

November 2, 2011 | By andrewbares

Kinectimals for Windows Phone is a stand-alone game that has optional integration with the Xbox 360 version.

Overall Score: 3/5

Unfortuantely, Kinectimals on WP7 is nothing impressive. Pass it up unless you have young kids or have $2.99 you don’t care about.

Gameplay: 3/5

When you think of Kinectimals, you imagine a fully immersive and intuitive game. When you play Kinectimals on Windows Phone, you don’t experience a single immersive element, even though they could have used the accelerometer and microphone to make it a better game. It’s disappointing. Once you get past that point, the game isn’t that bad, but it also isn’t that great. The game has some entertaining challenges where you either play fetch with your lion, make him jump the rope, or make him do tricks. These are the heart of the game. Fetch is basically a dumbed down version of Paper Toss, and isn’t as fun. The tricks mode is alright but some of the gestures like the Sit gesture doesn’t work well. However, the jump rope is pretty cool and becomes challenging when the speed of the rope rapidly changes. You can also feed your pet lion, clean him, buy him collars and clothes, and buy him new toys. And there’s also the camera mode where you can take a picture and virtually place your lion in it. Overall, the gameplay is interesting, but nothing super fun. Continue reading →

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Tip: Smart work-around allows screen capture from XNA Games also

November 2, 2011 | By Surur

We recently saw the release of a screen capture tool for Windows Phone 7 which allowed screens from silverlight applications to be saved.

The tool did not however work for XNA games, merely producing black pictures.

Nanapho.jp however thought of a creative work-around. By holding down the back button, the screen shots can be taken from the multi-tasking screen, where the OS itself does not seem to have an problem capturing screen shots of games, videos and even the camera viewfinder.

Screen shots are at a reduced size of 432 × 259, but that of course is still perfectly fine for illustrating something on the web, and miles better than taking a photo of the screen.

Read more about this simple ‘hack’ at Nanapho.jp here.

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Homebrew Folders for WP7 Mango released

October 27, 2011 | By Surur

WindowsPhoneHacker have released their promised homebrew hack for Windows Phone 7 which brings Folders to the home screen to unlocked Windows Phone 7 handsets.

The app needs:

Developer/Chevron/etc unlocked phone. This should be less of an issue once ChevronWP7 Labs is released
Windows Phone 7.5 Mango (for the secondary tiles)

Setting up and adjusting the folders need to be done on the desktop, as demonstrated in the video above.

Read more about the setup and download the app, if that is your thing, at WindowsPhoneHacker here.

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Homebrew Start page Folders on Mango demoed

October 24, 2011 | By Surur

Windows Phone Hacker have uploaded this video demo of their folder hack on Windows Phone 7.5.

The hack only needs a developer-unlocked device, and WPH are promising a release soon.

What do our readers think? Let us know below.

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Neat hack to restore Forward and Find in Page to IE9 Mobile

October 22, 2011 | By Surur

Bookmarklets are very useful on the desktop, and it turns out they work equally well in IE9 Mobile.

Gooddaytodie on XDA-Dev has crafted these JavaScript bookmarklets to restore Forward and Find in Page functions removed with the upgrade to Mango.

To add the Forward function:

Forward

Go to Internet Explorer 9 Mobile, tap the “…” to bring up the menu, and tap “add to favorites” (it doesn’t matter which website you do it on)
Change the “Name” field to “Forward” (or to make it stay at the top of the list, use “! Forward”)
Change the “Web address” field to the following code:
javascript:history.forward()

The code for adding find in Page is a bit more complicated, but the procedure is the same.

Find On Page

Go to Internet Explorer 9 Mobile, tap the “…” to bring up the menu, and tap “add to favorites” (it doesn’t matter which website you do it on)
Change the “Name” field to “Find on page” (or to make it stay at the top of the list, use “! Find on page”)

Change the “Web address” field to the following code (use Copy and Paste on your phone!):

javascript:(function(){function G(){var pf=doc.getElementById('pf');var qt=doc.getElementById('qt');if(null==pf){pf=doc.createElement('div');pf.id='pf';var s=pf.style;s.position='absolute';s.zIndex='99';s.top=(scT||scBT)+'px';s.left=(scL||scBL)+'px';s.width='100%';s.backgroundColor='#FFFF00';pf.appendChild(doc.createTextNode('Search: '));qt=doc.createElement('input');qt.id='qt';qt.type='text';pf.appendChild(qt);var sb=doc.createElement('input');sb.type='button';sb.value='Find';sb.onclick=function(){P(qt.value)};pf.appendChild(sb);doc.body.appendChild(pf);}else{pf.style.display='inline';count=0;}}function P(s){document.getElementById('pf').style.display='none';if(s==='')return;var n=srchNode(document.body,s.toUpperCase(),s.length);alert("Found "+count+" occurrence"+(count==1?"":"s")+" of '"+s+"'.");pf.parentNode.removeChild(pf);return n;}function srchNode(node,te,len){var pos,skip,spannode,middlebit,endbit,middleclone;skip=0;if(node.nodeType==3){pos=node.data.toUpperCase().indexOf(te);if(pos>=0){spannode=document.createElement("SPAN");spannode.style.backgroundColor="red";middlebit=node.splitText(pos);endbit=middlebit.splitText(len);middleclone=middlebit.cloneNode(true);spannode.appendChild(middleclone);middlebit.parentNode.replaceChild(spannode,middlebit);++count;skip=1;}}else{if(node.nodeType==1&&node.childNodes&&node.tagName.toUpperCase()!="SCRIPT"&&node.tagName.toUpperCase!="STYLE"){for(var child=0;child<node.childNodes.length;++child){child=child+srchNode(node.childNodes[child],te,len);}}}return skip;}var count=0,scL=0,scT=0,scBL=0,scBT=0;var w=window,doc=document;if(typeof doc.body!='undefined'&&typeof doc.body.scrollLeft!='undefined'){scBL=doc.body.scrollLeft;scBT=doc.body.scrollTop;}if(typeof doc.documentElement!='undefined'&&typeof doc.documentElement.scrollLeft!='undefined'){scL=doc.documentElement.scrollLeft;scT=doc.documentElement.scrollTop;}G();})()

Thanks to LiveSide.net for creating the simple to use instructions. Video demo by 1800pocketpc.com

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