Well as you may know A_C is a very busy man, he is constantly supplying us with free updates of him amazing free media player (Slide2Play), and every update he releases it gets better and better. For example the new release he has popped out his magic hat, has album flow - which is just like the Apple iPod touch's cover flow, and iPhone's etc. It also has better memory management etc.

However the album flow is cpu intensive so it may not run all that smooth if your cpu is under 200mhz.

Enjoy




>> Download Slide2Play
>> A_C's profile

Well I took it upon myself to make a few skins here and there for certain applications, and well, first on my list is SMS smiley - I spoke to the owner, and if I make a sexy skin that he likes he will include it in his skin! So I thought I'd show you all what my skin looks like "so far", it's not complete yet but it's coming along at a nice pace. I based it on the same colour scheme as this website, because I like this colour scheme yellow and black = hot! Hope you like it:


>> Post your opinions here

Hey again - been busy few days, mainly been sorting out the admin panel so it's easy for dev's and helpers to control the site.
So I've had no time to setup the forum properly... Anyway I've had a few people pester me to get it online - and that's what I've done.

I hope you use it :)

P.s don't forget if no one registers because there's not much going on, it will never grow!


>> Touch-innovations forum

The website is undergoing some code updated myself, as I'm coding straight into the website, and not via local - expect alot of errors, don't worry they will be fixed

In the mean time check my forum

The Windows Mobile interface has never been anything spectacular. Right out of the box the interface is usually boring, with a heavy reliance on the less than finger friendly start menu. Well, since this IS a site meant for finger friendly apps, we want something that doesn't have a large amount of overhead, we want it customizable, and we want to keep the stylus out of it!



Here is UL doing its best to impersonate an iPhone interface

Ultimate Launch fits this discription perfectly, although not without some work. After installing UL and activating the plugin, the first thing that pops up on the today screen are a few tabs, each with a few standard icons in them. In just this standard form, the plugin is not worth it's $15 price tag. Spend some time with it though, and it can be one of the best $15 you have spent on your mobile. My impressions of this plugin are viewed through a Verizon branded XV6700, overclocked to 624mhz.



User Synned's UL setup. You can see this tab has both the HTC-home plugin as well as icons.

UL at its simplest is just a set of tabs with content in each tab. The icons that represent each tab can be changed with any .ico file, and text labels can be added as well as the number of tabs. The content of each tab boils down to either shortcuts, or today plugins. It's also possible to have a combination of the two. Explained this way, UL doesn't sound like anything special, but the number of options and settings in this plugin is incredible. Any icon you see can be changed with a .ico file, options like the number of tabs, size of icons, margins, transitions between tabs, and even gestures can be used. The gestures was the thing that got me hooked. A swipe left or right transitions to the left or right tab, but can be changed to launch applications. A swipe down or up can be programmed to launch programs as well. The transitions between tabs use animations which can be selected from a menu of 6 options like slide, turn, cube and blend. For anyone familiar with Linux, the cube is strangely similar to a compiz cube. Also from the Authors site, programs can be downloaded that turn on and off various functions on the phone, as well as make a call. So an icon can be linked to make a call like to 'makecall.exe -phonenumber'. These can be downloaded from UL's site, which is http://www.ultimatelaunch.de/ Just look for SmartUtilities, which is a free download and a quick .Cab install.



A screenshop of the configuration screen of UL. There are a total of 8 tabs just to configure the basic of UL, plus separate screens for each tab you create.

So grab a cup of coffee and get to customizing, because that's really what Ultimate Launch is made for. Do you want an information crammed tab? Then take your favorite Battery Status plugin and HTC-Home and stick it in a tab, right next to your tab used for contacts, which is right next to all your system shortcuts. Move all the icons down to 24X24 to fit more in per tab, and you have yourself a jam packed setup. You can take as long as you want with the shareware version as well. The only downside to the shareware version is that every now and then 'NOT REGISTERED' will appear in the corners, but will not affect the functionality of the plugin.



Gestures launching programs? Eh, sure why not.

I did find some downsides to the plugin since I have had it. If you install the plugin into the storage card, when you reboot your device UL won't show up except for an odd icon. You need to either switch the plugin on and off from the settings menu, or long click on one of the visible tabs and select 'reload .ini'. Also, if you have a page full of icons, the transition animation from tab to tab can slow down. This is more your device though, and on my XV6700 I just had to change it from cube to something like slide even when I was overclocked to 624mhz. It also takes a second to load today plugins if they are in a tab and more complex than the messages or wireless plugins. Something like the HTC home plugin can sometimes slow down UL when switching to that tab. Having more plugins as tab content also increased the memory footprint. The configuration menus are also less than thumb friendly, but can be navigated without a stylus depending on how accurate you are. I personally broke out the stylus when I needed to configure the plugin.

There aren't many apps that I would recommend someone go and pay for, especially when there are so many apps on XDA that prove similar functionality. But the customization and the fact this plugin feels polished and does exactly when it needs to makes it a winner for me. If you are willing to spend some time before you plunk down $15 for it you might find you like it as well.

Today on xda, willmatic08 informed the forum that there is a new skyfire code which works!
Just go to Skyfire's website sign up and use this code:

SymGuru

If you have already used all your phone numbers, then you can simply follow mbarvian's instructions here

EDIT: It seems it's dead now - so anyone who isn't on my RSS feed lost out! Sorry guys, was good while it lasted!


>> Skyfire's website
>> View mbarvian's instructions
>> Credit too willmatic08

I stumbled across this sleek app by accident, totally irrelevant Google search - but it caught my eye, and the screenshot it provided made me want to download the same instant. So me, being me - I read their review they provided and decided it was worth a shot, so I downloaded it and installed onto my HTC Touch.

It's a really cool app, maybe a bit of a novelty but the interface is like vista and mac wangled togeather, it has the smooth interface of the mac and the glossy look of vista (best of both worlds!). Anyway I've provided a video - it's recorded at a crappy 3fps so the video does it NO justice, but it gives you an idea.
I plan on making a skin for this, so keep an eye on this page.

>> Click here for the video
>> Gsmart Touch download page

Hello there! This is my first review for the site, and I hope you enjoy it!

I'm going to be talking about PointUI. PointUI is an amazing shell for Windows Mobile, and it provides a complete shell for the touch screen and Smartphone phones.

We all know how much Windows Mobile lacks design and personal touch, and that's where PointUI comes in – changing the way you look at your mobile.

It is a unique design, and very unlike the iPhones interface (which is black and white - oh and black oh and a bit of blue here and there…). It weaves colour with style.


There's several different 'home' styles:

above, are the clock, the calendar, the weather panel (which automatically updates when you dock, amd you can set times during the day for it to update), the tasks and appointments panel


All the different home screens can be accessed by a swipe of a finger (left or right) and tapped on, to get more information. The 'dock' at the bottom of the screen is extremely useful as it displays 4 rather large icons to send you to recent calls, SMS, email and favourites.

The shell is incorporated everywhere apart from the SMS, and email interface. This is a shame, because I would personally love to see PointU'Is approach at an SMS interface, as I'm sure it would look absolutely amazing. I actually think they are secretly doing just that, because on their homepage they have announced different products (which I can’t wait to have a go at). Unfortunately, I’m almost certain that they will charge for these – and to be quite frank, I don’t blame them, since creating and maintaining a program like PointUI is very time consuming and costly! Another pointer is the fact that on their downloads page PointUI is hinting the fact that there might be a paid version coming soon due to the 'home, free' column.

Anyway you’ve just had some information which isn't totally relevant, but maybe it will interest you!

PointUI replaces every Windows interface, it eliminates the use for a start menu, incorporates its own today screen and organises your Windows Mobile. Everything is so much easier to get at:
flick your finger up to go up the list, and flick down, to go… wait for it… down!

Granted, it’s weird to begin with, but it’s different and straying away from the iPhone route. It takes some time to get used to but is very nice to navigate with. If you swipe your finger left or right on a folder, it will open the folder in a cube (or, if you have it enabled, slide) like fashion.

It even has its own (if not limited) task manager – which does draw you out of the PointUI interface, so you can close the program. Personally, I would have preferred this to have a hold down gesture, meaning you hold your thumb down on the application you want to close, and it gives you a list of options.

The memory footprint (how much memory it uses) is, (for me) 4.2mb. To be fair, this is a lot if you’re limited to 20mb of ram from start-up, or if you like to multi-task, but 4.2mb of ram is seriously worth it.

(Shh, don’t tell anyone – but my HTC Touch actually crashed when I tried to close PointUI. I doubt it had anything to do with the program though, as it's usually Active-Sync (which really lags my phone).)


Anyway after a quick reboot of my phone, I get back to work.

I haven’t mentioned that I’ve been using PointUI since they released their first version – and I have been on the ball watching their site with an eager eye ever since, anticipating a new version. Heck, I even contacted the admin and asked if I could design their site (they said no, though – they had a design already).

Oops, I keep going off-topic, at this rate we will be here all day… I’ve decided my phone needs a new ROM flashed to it, it’s really unstable at the moment…

PointUI comes with a volume changer, a locking device, battery status – which I would love to see them add a “remaining battery time”, instead of a percentage. And a settings panel:

I could go through every little detail of pointUI Home – But I think you can see now that it is indeed an amazing program and that you should download the latest version now

>> Download HERE
>> PointUI home page

Are you getting a bit bored of your today screen - is it the standard one with your HTC? If it is, there is nothing wrong with it as you know (the new diamond's today screen is very nice!) but either way, there's nothing wrong with putting a bit of spice or sexiness into it.

Anyway back onto topic, the BatteryStatus plugin for the today screen will supply you with everything you need. You can see everything from your CPU temperature, to the number of messages you've sent.
Another HUGE feature that is unique to this program is the overclocking part, you chose the MHZ and it will overclock, simple as that no faffing about with ram timings (like on a normal desktop computer) - just make sure you test it out for a bit to make sure it's ok. You're device is a touch away from being doubled in speed.
Note: I cannot be held responsible for any damages induced by overclocking!

The task manager feature is also very handy, for quickly closing applications that are eating your memory!


It also features a skinning engine (via xml) so it's relatively simple to design your own today screen.


All you need to do is either, make your own theme or use someone else's

>> BatteryStatus Theme's

>> Download Battery Status

I was recently browsing through my source's and someone informed me of the new release for Slide2play, a few bug fixes and what not.

Anyway, you may be thinking "what on earth is slide2play?", well it's the only media player that you need for your windows mobile. It has everything you need or could want in a media player for a hand held pc. Here's what I thought if it anyway:

So I installed it on my pc (a breeze, simply copying the cab over and running it), the windows installation interface took over... blah blah... anyway so i got it onto my phone really easily.

Anyway I went to my programs and looked for the little Slide2Play icon (it's called S2P on programs), tapped on that and watched it elegantly fade onto my screen:
Simple thumb gestures was all that it needed to change track or move up and down the list, or to change the volume you needed to slide your thumb left to right.

Listening and managing music couldn't be much easier.

The other part I liked was the built in music browser to search the whole phone for music.

I think what does it for me, is the fact it's so smooth and easy to use. And I'd definitely recommend this to anyone lucky enough to have a window mobile.

>> See Feature List
>> Download Slide2Play (S2U)

Hey there,

What is touch innovation? Simple, it's a website dedicated too supplying you with the best applications / programs for your windows mobile.

So chuck those stylus's in the bin and get ready to use your finger to control your phone!

Thanks - Oh and by the way, this website is working progress, tweaking it too how you want it!