teknidermy

After years of being happy with my Nokia 0001 I finally -tried as well last year, but returned the bloody thing after it kept crashing time and time again- got a smarthphone; A Palm Treo 500 running Windows Mobile 6 (not my first choice, but the best my provider offered).

Now I want to skin it and stuff, make it all pretty and different.. Any tips / cool applications / websites to help me?

(Doreen?)

Oh, and I "found" this already. It's awesome: [link] ;)

/me goes hide before Doreen opens the flood gates of skinnable Pocket PC apps

/me buys an extra 64k memory

I think Doreen's been missing in action for a bit. Haven't seen here around for over a week. Then again, not much is happening.

PKtje smartphones are nothing like a Pocket PC you have WM6 Standard but what you need is WM6 Pro (touch screen) then I could get you excited. =)

Trade that in for a better OS then you will be able to run just about anything under the sun.

PK who is your provider? If you have AT & T/Cingular get an iphone in July cuz I'm not sure yet but I have a feeling that the iphone will be blowing all the other providers out of the water! They recently released the SDK for development on the iphone (which initially they said they were never going to do) and now that it's open there should be extremely cool and powerful apps coming around July since the iphone has the most powerful processor and memory avail in regards to any phone today this should be pretty exciting to see what we'll be able to run right from our hands.

Okay PK some old links for skinnable smartphone apps:

(Hopefully you know alittle XML then I think you will be able to enjoy them better, I never got that far cept simple editing)

(Facade)

[link]

(Facade Skins and Resources)

[link]

(More Skinnable Plug-ins)

[link]

(This one is skinnable too)

[link]

What happened to PK did he get shipwrecked on some deserted island?

Pirates raided his ship?

@Doreen: Close, went to France to visit my girlfriends dad.

@Crae: I didn't encounter any pirates on the TGV.

I picked up my new phone this morning -as the one Vodafone first provided me had a big scratch on it- and toyed around with it. And I must say that it beats the iPhone, but certainly not the Nokia N95, I played with. Not in coolness of design, or os smoothness or anything else, but simply in it's capability to be useful for my purposes and because it's fun :) I've been busy with mini-excel, mini-powerpoint (it loads a 150slide presentation faster than the full powerpoint on my laptop does) and mini-word(-pad). It certainly seems to be a capable little device (taking in account the price point). As I'm absolutely not planning on using the internet (surfing, chatting etc) on a phone I don't miss the absence of a touchscreen.

For customisation sake (didn't really get to that apart from some minor things that annoyed me right away): One thing I really like is the underlying OS -somewhat- resembling desktop Windows: reghacking is very doable and makes for powerful changes up to the hardware level -button mapping, control of the funky little LEDs- and the typical Microsoft manner of abusing a supposedly simply format (XML) to pieces is awkwardly familiar as well :D

(and yes, compared to the iphone or nokia n95 it lacks in the media department, and that's no fun)

Went to France to visit the girlfriends Dad? Hmmm me hears wedding bells soon...

Anyways yes to each his/her own, you need a phone that suits "your" needs so if that one is good for you then it's good. There is a ton of Registry Hacks around for WM so you'll find your way around fast w/ that OS.

I get bored easily so I need something I can do "everything" under the sun with. And the iPhone fits that bill for me right now or so I should say it will when all the apps get developed and release in a few months. I'm excited to see what all the devs come up w/ (I helped design one small app for a Dev that lives in Japan already!)

Let me toss up a quick ss for you...

[link]

[link]

And here's a weather forcast for you over here. =)

[link]

If you need any help w/ your phone just let me know PK.

Look! I can see the weather over here on Doreen's phone.

oh be quiet you wise guy! I mean you phone hater!

Wedding bells? I don't think so. My girlfriend absolutely doesn't want to marry me (or anyone else for that matter). And I'm rather happy about that. I guess with her she's seen too many examples of LTA (living together apart) relationships extending for decades because the persons could not "afford" to break up. For us it's a LAT relationship right now, with her in France and me in the Netherlands. But in a year or so it will most likely be a LTT one, in one way or another, but no marriage :)

Your phone looks nice Doreen, even though it's a bit busy with lotsa stuff. My homescreen is rather plain, mainly greytones and with only two non-default plugins; one to show the alarm setting and one for the recent programs bar. Thing that bugs me most right now is that I cannot find the registry key controlling one of the hardware buttons on the side of the machine. It's bound to internet explorer right now but I want it to open settings screen.

I'm not one to comment on marriage (but I will I guess) For a "marriage to work" you need to have God bring your soul mate to you, you can't try to go find your soul mate yourself cuz that never works trust me...

Anyways that ss I posted was a theme I grabbed somewhere cuz I liked the "Concept" of it I had to fine tune it for "me" so my phone looks different right now I had to make the bottom task bar thinner and make invisible launchers on the left top so the wall would be clear and redid the icons on the ride sidebar to my taste.

As far as that reg key what is the app launcher you're talking about maybe I have one for it? I have alot of devs toss me free keys and serial numbers for beta testing or designing their ppc apps. or maybe there is a way to hack the registry to reassign the buttons?

have = "let" God bring

dutchy we really need an edit button they you would'nt have so many multiple post from me!

they = then Argh!!!!! What in the world!!!

> I'm not one to comment on marriage (but I will I guess)

> For a "marriage to work" you need to have God bring your

> soul mate to you, you can't try to go find your soul mate

> yourself cuz that never works trust me...

In that case God helped me as I surely met my soul mate :)

The launcher plugin I use is named palmbar, tiny lill plugin. All it does is show a horizontal row of icons on the home screen. The hardware key must be a registry thing, or maybe even controlled by the software (some replacement for the default windows mobile start menu, I kinda like it) vodafone put on the phone. One day I'll just have a good stroll around the registry.

Wellll than you should get married if you are that sure? don't be like the rest of the world afraid to "commit"

Mistakes are learning lessonss and I'm soooo smart from all my mistakes! hehe

All I do is make mistakes and mess up. *sigh*

Alright let me see what I can come up w/ for you cuz you have wm standard and I have a ton of stuff that I could have turned you on to that is only for wm pro (which is a touch screen) but I had a few keys for smartphones too so I'll check things out and get back to you.

Here's a quick ss of that theme I showed you but I had to tweak it more for my taste I still need to skin the top service icon again. (subtle changes but I had to clean that guys theme up alittle bit) I like having my iphone look cleaner the default theme is a ton of icons on the springboard w/ no custom layout or form I have my tweaked so that even the lower left start button on the task bar opens up a start menu w/ all my hidden icons (probably the only nut in the world that figured out how to customize that like that)

[link]

You have a A Palm Treo 500 running Windows Mobile 6 right? Strange combo since it's not running a palm OS but I'm about 99.9% certain that thing is not running Mobile 6 pro only Mobile 6 "standard" correct me if I'm wrong. Or it would a touch screen and the standard is only hard key driven so let me know...

Ah, but for me marriage is not needed to commit. We trust each other and make plans for the future, and that feels good enough for me. It's of course a personal thing as well; two friends of mine got married last month and their main reason for it was to show their love & commitment :)

You really ought to buy milk, eggs and bread btw. It has been on your list for two weeks! (screenshot looks good) This hidden icons / hidden menu thing is what I usually go for as well.

Anyway.

The Palm Treo 500 is the second Palm running Windows Mobile 6 for smartphones. It's a nice deal: you get solid Palm design and build quality, and the range of software of Windows Mobile. And if you find some good stuff: shoooow me! ;)

hehe silly that's just the image I made so when you tap on it it takes you into the iphone's notepad app...

Okay I did a quick skim and see the specs on your phone it really looks like a decent phone for a smartphone that issss. =)

Really unusual shape/design. To begin w/ do you have this? "CeNotepad" is a must for getting down into the windows directory and editing the files so you can hack some of the shortcut keys on your keyboard for launching diff apps.

[link]

If not get this to make things easier and I will research some things I have and get back to you tonight cuz it's gonna be really hot today and I need to get things done around here early before the heat takes off and then tonight when it cools down I'll find you a few things and post them here for you.

(I honestly thought it was a widget-style application; e.g. a real list you can edit... call me stupid if you want)

CeNotepad is great! I did not have it and up to know constantly moved files between the pc and the phone. This surely speeds up everything.

Nope the iphone is rediculous there are only web based widgets but not native apps so there really isn't any decent apps for it atm which means you have to hack and tweak "everything" if you want things your way but like I said in July things hopefully will change and there will be professional apps for it just like there is available for ppcs and smartphone.

Good glad you have CeNotepad now! then you have one good thing that will make things alotttt easier.

If I remember correctly for the smartphone if you use CeNotepad and dig for files such as:

"\Windows\Short_IE.lnk" all the .lnk's are your shortcuts and you can edit things so you can have a hardware button used to launch the app?

If you are not around your Desktop and want to do some quick editing you can use these from your smartphone.

Edit from Phone. [link]

I cannot find what I wanted right now I need to go google surfing and come back...

Argh! sooo frustrating I can't find solid things on this but it's called "Smart Toolkit" for smartphone it basically is a swiss handy knife that does everything and it stays hidden on your phone taskbar so you don't have a cluttered screen. This is all I can find I tried the Alpha and though it was alpha it was amazing I think they have a version now that is not alpha but I can't seem to find it...

[link]

It's totally configurable so you can setup categories of apps and it had pop up weather and pop up clocks and you could do editing from it and all sorts of good stuff. check that out for sures!

Facade and Madbeetle you need to look at those w/ different eyes cuz most ppl only see the surface of them but they are both the best cuz if you know XML you can rearrange your entire phone any which way you want and not have to rely on the tacky themes that are around for it.

Here is a Homescreen builder that you can drag and drop your items around and place your launcher where you want and resize things etc. but you still need to do atleast some simple XML editing to make it decent since it's pretty buggy.

[link]

you're a guy so you probably like things simple so that's enough to keep you busy I doubt you'd want skinnable alarms and crazy weather apps and all the other things I could point you to.

Big mistake going to peek at things on YouTube then I get trapped but check this out when you get a chance:

One of the cool features on Vista is playing vids as your wall but it looks like on the iPhone we'll be able to do it too!

[link]

PKtje when you get a chance you have to go check this out (sign up for the beta) a must, I was playing around w/ this last night and it was unreal!

[link]

Hey :)

I've been waaaaay too busy lately. So I've didn't spend that much time on it. Did try out Smart Toolkit and found that it screwed up my phone so much that it needed a hard reset... No problem though, I've been toying around a bit and made a nice theme featuring the moon and quick access to important stuff like windows explorer (on every OS I use I always seem to return to the file explorer as my main navigation tool).

Skyfire only works with US telephone numbers so I'm out of the loop there.

This morning I had a look at the inside of my phone as I needed to remove lots of cat hair... (my cat, Periko, decided to sleep on top of it) Pretty cool to see how they cram everything in such a tiny case :)

Periko? PK and Periko? hehe cute...

So skyfie does not work over there how strange (those stingy ppl!) Smart Toolkit has a beta and non beta version I'll assume you found the beta. hehe

Cat in it's default state: [link]

I did not really have a say in the name. My girlfriend decided on it as the cat apparently looks somewhat like me. Periko is what comes up in older Nokia telephones if you try to type Pepijn... :D

Looks like your cat ran into a wall or something.

My idea.

The cat is second-hand, came on a budget and already potty-trained. Basically I wasn't that picky. (the previous owner was allergic for him)

That said.

He won a price! A goblet (honestly..). Best in show on some German event. Again; not my thing, but it does show that weird flat faces are appreciated by some.

Almost looks like a persion or himalayan but I believe that is a red tabby?

That is the cutest cat I have ever seen!

/me goes peek and see what that is I think it's called a red tabby.

nope himalayan...

but this one in the pic looks crossed w/ persion I think?

[link]

I'm gonna die over here look at this one!!!!!

[link]

The only way these types of cats came into being is because of people breeding them for these types of characteristics. Same goes for bulldogs. So if you think about it that way, it's not much of a surprise that he won a prize.

Wrong link... Dutchy save me and put an edit button for me "please"

Here it is this one melts my heart:

[link]

PK you should have named your cat "Garfield" he looks just like that cartoon cat!

He's pretty cute, for a cat that is :)

It's an Exotic, a cross-breed between Persians and American Shorthairs. A low maintenance brachycephalic (e.g. run in the wall) cat. (the internet makes everyone an expert)

He's huge btw. Larger than my neighbours dog.

[link]

Ohh nooooo! I'm gonna die! hehe

PK what are you feeding that guy Cheeseburgers!?

He looks just like Garfield!

Please Craeonics, give the lady an edit button!

Aha: "They are also known as the Lazy Man's Persian." [link] - That I can agree with :D

I've only had him for a week. The past couple of days I noticed he actually doesn't eat that much at all. I'm afraid he's slowly starving (will go to the vet on monday).

Tonight I tried to feed him some fish and milk: he refused! Garfield would never do that.

Your cat is sooooo cute PK look at his lil pink nose! I can't stand it and I can't touch it!!! argh! sooooo cute!

He's not eating cuz he's probably scared PK cuz you have only had him a week so he needs time to settle. Give him time open up his appetite w/ tuna I guess or something that cats really like (my mom has two cats) I see when she feeds them tuna they go crazy over that...

You should see how he walks around the house; constantly buzzing with cute sounds and funny moves. He really is a whole bunch of furry entertainment :D

If he eats he only eats dry food... everything else he flat out refuses. Even the bloody expensive five euro a can food I got for him. He just sniffs it, kicks it over with his paw, and walks away showing utter disregard :)

Aaand it's time for bed, bye :)

hehe soooo cute I swear I'm going crazy I wish I could hold him! But I doubt he needs a vet he don't look like he's starving to me yet. I think he is missing his old owners and going through an adjustment period or something.

Anyways veryyyy cute PK g'night...

Gooooodmorning!

His old owner was a bit peculiar in that she wiped his ass after pooping etc.. I'm going to the vet just in case it isn't good. He's a former class mate of mine so it will also be a social visit ;)

Anyway. I'm sure we can make a deal here. You ship your iPhone to the Netherlands and I will Fed-ex Mr. Periko to the USA (properly bubble wrapped of course). :D

I'm not too sure if Mr. Perkele would appreciate that. No wonder he doesn't eat.

hehe! You know what? If my boys were not allergic to cats you would have a deal! "They" are the only reason I don't have a cat. (but I have a crazy flirty talking parrot)

I just found out my cat is allergic to tourists :) I live directly near a "marina" where tourists come with their floating white castles. The cat's sitting at the balcony, meowing constantly at some German tourists. They're getting really uncomfortable... Yesterday it was a bunch of Belgium people :)

What does the parrot talk about?

I was wondering what happen to Garfield at the vet. So he's okay now? He's probably trying to adjust and alil confused what can you expect you kidnapped that cat from his other family!

My parrot is flirty he whistles and says his name and calls the kids and tells me when he wants Apple "Gimme apple!" I told my sister "her bird" was a male too and she didn't believe me so she went and paid 29 dollars to have it sexed (which they do by taking a blood sample when they clip the nail too short and make it bleed) she went and tortured the poor bird! only to find out what I already told her it was a male.

I already know my bird is a male cuz he's flirty! When I walk past his cage he flys to me and kisses me. Plus he's just demanding and messy so I knowwww he's a male. My other bird the one I killed by leaving the ceiling fan on I know was a female cuz she just acted like a female you can just tell. She was softer and quiet not messy and demanding she gave affection but not pushy about it.

I can't find the actual pic I took of him but he looks like this:

[link]

He's missing a toe so when I got him he used to fall off his perch constantly and I had named him Stubby cuz of his missing toe but my boys keep calling him Sunny cuz of his colors so now that's what we call him Sunny. (And that is what "he" calls himself too)

Ok... all I read here is: Doreen freeze-dried a bird to dead... I thought parrot sexing could be done visually. Ah well :)

I didn't go to the vet. You actually convinced me not to go. And the cat is still alive so it was a good choice.

Males are demanding and messy huh? I'm not. Females are just overly tidy.

No I had my ceiling fan on when I was cleaning the kitchen and when she came looking for me to fly to me she got startled by the fan and hit it and died. I cried for days!

Anyways yeah good choice the vet would have charged you probably 200 dollars to tell you he is simply homesick...

I suspect he'd charge half that price, but you're right about the diagnosis.

Half of 200 dollars, a 100 dollars.. These days that amounts to about 2,40 euro or so? That's comparable to a litre of petrol :D

That's a horrible accident Doreen. It's nasty to loose a pet like that. Your story does remind me of an infamous viral video though: [link]

hmm

Ok, we do. But it is doing something to the label with the time.

hehe! PK!!! I couldn't help but laugh at the cat on the fan but it really was sad when my bird hit the fan, now you got me all upset again! That guy intentionally set his cat up I was minding my own business cleaning when she flew around the apt looking for me and came into the kitchen and got scared by the fan and flew right into it, feathers everywhere. =(

/me goes peek at the cat on the fan again. hehe!

can't help it that was funny! I feel guilty but I have to go look again.

hehe!!! PK even the owner laughed. hehe!

Ok ok, I'm sorry for making you upset Doreen. Honestly. Not my intention at all.

If it makes you feel better (I guess not, because you already laugh at the cat ;-)) it was a stunt-cat in that video. Apparently the original shot was meant for some tv advert.

I'm now in the process of setting up my cat to become a LOLzCat. He doesn't really want to cooperate though. Being just not funny :(

That was a fake cat? alright now it's not funny anymore. hehe

silly I really thought that was a real cat!

What is a LOLzCat? So I take it Garfield is back to eating cheeseburgers and wanting to sleep all day (back to normal?)

LOLcats originated with people posting pictures of cats with comments in catspeak on forums. Some samples: [link]

/me will check that out better tonight always curious about what other craziness I've missed...

[link]

[link]

Doesn't work with Periko :/

OMG PK look at that fat face! so cute...

Have a look at this animation short for some more cuteness [link] (it's ontopic, if you play it on your mobile phone)

Short ani? T'was a movie! but extremely good animation great detail... Rambo the Rabbit. hehe

Cute? [link]

hehe soooo adorable! you make me want a cat! but I can't have one around my boys. *sigh*

Naa, you don't want a cat. They just eat all your plants, pee on your balcony and make LOTS of noise when you want to sleep.

They are cute though :)

Can't be any worse than this maniac parrot of mine, my neighbors are complaining about his screams he yells for me all day and if I don't let him ride on me all day long he screams "screams" I'm not sure what to do now. I love the bird but this is rediculous. I had a bunny before him but I felt bad for him and he was really alot of work, they literally pee like a horse and require alot of care, my bunny was jumping my arm trying to mate on me and I was told I'd need to fix him (which I couldn't do to him) so I found a ranch and a good home for him that he would not have to be in a cage alone.

I though a parrot would be low mantainence but this guy is something else!!! I think I need a "Pet Rock" cuz my kids are more then enough work but I want something fuzzy/fluffy cute still.

btw PK thanks for that last link you posted I sent it to my mom cuz she has two cats and of course she sent it to her sister cuz she has cats and wellll it went all around my family they thought it was so cute too.

And it's quite true too. I have the day off (as usual on Friday) and my cats still dragged me out of bed at eight thirty. Like in the animation, they do that by getting in your face and poking you with a paw (with sharp claws).

hehe so cute, I don't know what to do w/ my parrot he's nothing like my other bird was he's super loud and demanding when I called the pet store they told me to get a mirror and put a mirror in the cage to calm him down so tomorrow I'm going to the pet store and buy him a mirror but I think he's alittle too smart to actually think that his reflection is another bird? (but that is what they told me to do) cuz there is no way I'm buying another bird to clean up after)

If this don't work I'm sending him to you dutchy!

Did you try the radio-method? It involves turning on a radio and just leaving it on all day... Did miracles with my granddads parrot. Although eventually he did have to change the station as the bird started to "beep" along with the news-beeps (our national radio news is always announced by a series of short, but loud, beeeeeps.. tradition or so).

Some more cute animals: [link]

There's usually always music in my place so he hears things it's not normally quiet for too long he's just wanting wayyyy too much attention 24/7 and I cannot handle it, so if the mirror trick does not work I may have to find him a new home and my boys are having fits about it but I cannot handle this he can almost make my eardrums bleed w/ the type of screaming he does and he don't shut up "until" I let him come to me. (he's screaming right now as I type)

/me goes check your link...

That cat of yours PK! he looks like a fat teddybear sooo cute I want him! I bet he's hard to lift up he looks heavy? (Fish and Cats what a combo) what exactly do you do PK?

Here you go PK meet Sunny...

[link]

[link]

Here's his typical behavior when I walk up to his cage. Now put your volumn up as high as it goes and loop the first link for hours and this is what he sounds like until I open his cage like you see in my second link.

Your Sunny-bird has a strong voice indeed.. Nice bird though. You don't see any other solution?

My job doesn't have anything to do with fish and cats. I'm a trainer / consultant (to a certain extent), mostly to do with workplace safety regulations in industry and construction. (e.g. risks working with machines, teaching about risk assessments, explaining responsibilities to middle managers etc etc etc) I get to visit many interesting companies and get an opportunity to practise with training and handling groups. That makes it fun to do for a couple of years. Despite this I won't be doing it for the next twelve decades as my education and "passion" is with something else :)

I guess Mr. Periko is about six kilos (~13pounds).

Mr. Perkele needs to go on a diet. And that parrot, just ignore him, like you do with obnoxious kids. He only makes noise because he gets attention that way.

Perkele? Like the Finnish God of thunder? Wish I'd think of that before, it's much better than Periko.

Anyway, he already is on a diet. As of now the only effect is that he constantly begs for food. It's ok, as I reckon that burns lots of calories.

I thought you were somekind of fisherman that dealt w/ ocean preservation or something like that? Anyways 13 lbs! yikes! hehe

dutchy I dooo ignore him but he screams non stop and my manager said my neighbors are now complaining and I need to resolve this issue but I don't know what to do and I cannot have him riding on me all day he kisses and bites my neck and nibbles on ears making it impossible for me to work cuz he gets aggressive if he were like my other bird "calm, quiet and affectionate" (not so aggressive) it would not be a problem but he's not acting normal the pet store said most calm down but he does not. =(

He's already screaming now cuz he heard me wake up and I'm afraid to even go downstairs this morning again. I have to deal w/ this today or I might get asked to move. My kids come first. (I feel bad about it though)

Judging by these articles: [link], noisy parrots are either bored beyond belief or are after your attention (or both). The proposed solution is to give him something to do and ignore him when he's loud (but do give him attention when he's quiet).

Good links there but I've already nailed what the problem is he wants "my" attention, I've bought him chew toys, give him fresh fruit, I tried the mirror trick all he did was clean his beak and jump on the side of the cage and start screaming for me, the only thing that shuts him up is me picking him up, I tried to train him to go to the boys but he keeps coming to me and I don't have the time or patience for this "constantly" it's okay for a while but he's looking for attention nonstop so I'm not sure what to do (but I'm trying to give it more time) I even spoke to my manager yesterday he said for me not to worry until ppl begin to move out. hehe!

I've moved his cage up in my room now so he can be next to me and see me but not on me all the time (cuz he "bites" on my neck and it hurts it's not funny) "thanks" for the links dutchy...

The "some sort of fisherman dealing w/ ocean preservation or something like that" career was put on a hold a bit when I was offered my current job last year. I had been ill for a fairly long time, and it would've been stupid not to take the job... It's just on hold though, in some years I'll see if can get back to doing what I really like. In the meantime I just see it as a nice hobby.

The cat seems to be a bit heavy indeed. It might take some time for the diet to become visible.

So the parrot is staying for now?

Well you have your boat PK so you'll always have access to the Ocean. My Grandfather was a lobster catcher and the Ocean was his thing too.

As for Garfield he probably wouldn't look good skinny so don't starve him to death! and yeah my bird is staying until my manager tells me ppl are beginning to move out over his screaming. hehe

I'm just going to have to wear him like a necklass until then.