Which is worse (or which is most feared?)

Regretting that a decision that you make today? Or not making a decision at all? If you create a goal for yourself, and somewhere down the line, you realize you regret it, would it be worse than never aspiring for a goal to begin with? Could it be worse than not knowing how it feels to have hopes and dreams? Worse than feeling a sense of purpose to your actions, if only for a time?

Verizon makes good on their promise!

This week I received a text from Verizon inviting me to upgrade my Omnia to the latest software upgrade:

I went and checked it out (link from message).

So, what I’ve heard about forever, rumors of Verizon unlocking the GPS on their phones for third-party apps so it can be used with apps other than the expensive monthly subscription of VZ Navigator, has come to materialize, at least for the Omnia. For someone like me who has owned several Verizon smartphones (formerly known as Pocket PC’s), and suffered through several awesome third-party apps that were crippled by Verizon disabling the GPS for third-party apps, this was amazing. Yes, I’m well aware of the cooked roms that existed that would do the job, but with my track record with needing phones replaced from general burn-out from heavy usage, I wasn’t doing anything to void this phone’s warranty. Thus, I suffered in silence, continuing to read about “rumors” that I doubted, trying not to get my hopes up.

Preparing for the upgrade…

So I’ve mentioned My Phone before, and that was an important part of backing up my phone. It saved my contacts, calendar, tasks, texts, photos, videos, music, documents, and stuff on My Storage (the built-in 8-gig storage card and my 4-gig micro SD). My Phone is the free service from Microsoft for backing up smartphones. It is important to check before relying on it that it has backed up everything that you need: example – It backed up my contacts, but only the ones that changed since I installed it… Didn’t notice until after I recovered the MyPhone backup to the phone post-upgrade… Probably a setting somewhere. Anyway, I also use Mobile Device Center (ActiveSync) on both of my Vista laptops, so between the MyPhone backup and the last time I sync’d the phone with one of my laptops, everything was recovered. By loading MyPhone on to the phone before syncing through the Mobile Device Center, MyPhone recognized all of the contacts as ‘changed’, and moving forward all of my contacts are backed up on my PC’s and instantly through MyPhone. The biggest benefit I realized from MyPhone was that since it is over-the-air syncing to a cloud, if I added a new contact that day and then lost everything, I don’t lose stuff that I didn’t get a chance to sync with my PC’s yet.

I also use and love Spb Mobile Shell 3. I forgot to backup my settings… I know, tisk, tisk. Spb Mobile Shell 3 will backup your layout of your Lifestyle screens (pictured – my new design of one of my Lifestyle screens), your menu layouts, and anything that you customize within the program. Additionally, it will offer to backup all of your contact pictures (which it seems like MyPhone didn’t, but I can’t really confirm that since it didn’t backup all of my contacts). Since Spb Mobile Shell has the awesome feature of accessing your Facebook account to get pictures for contacts, it would be great not to lose them after recovering. Under normal circumstances, I think ActiveSync/Mobile Device Center backs up your contact pictures, since it seems to have backed up some of mine, but others mysteriously went missing… Part of my lessons learned…

Summary/Lessons Learned About Backing Up Your Smartphone:

• Use My Phone
• Check to make sure it has everything and not just items that have changed since it was installed
• Make sure to set up the schedule feature (In My Phone, Menu –> Schedule –> I set my Frequency to “Daily” and Time to “12:15 AM” just to be safe)
• Use ActiveSync/Mobile Device Center regularly
• Check the sync settings from your computer to make sure it is set up to sync everything you need it to
• Make sure you sync regularly
• If you use Spb Mobile Shell 3
• Make sure you backup your settings
• From your Lifestyle or Professional home screen, click the Launcher.
• At the launcher screen, click the SPB Menu button.
• At the SPB Menu screen, click the Settings button.
• At the Settings screen, click the SPB Mobile Shell button.
• From the SPB Mobile Shell settings screen, click the menu button in the bottom right corner.
• Choose Backup Settings.
• Save the backup file.
• Name: I typically save it as “MobileShellSettings082209” where 082209 would indicate the current date so that I can tell later how recent this copy of the backup file is.
• Location: The best place to save it would be an external storage card (not the 8-gig My Storage that is built-in to the Omnia). If something happens, you may lose the 8-gig storage. The one time I had my Omnia replaced, it was because the phone had stopped recognizing the My Storage. I lost everything that was saved there and whatever was on the phone when I went to ask Verizon why it renamed My Storage to My Storage2 and I couldn’t rename it back – none of my programs could find it! They took my 4-gig storage card out, took my phone and handed me a new one. I thought that would’ve been an easy fix… Don’t take any chances!
• Folder: I’ve set up a folder on my ‘Storage Card’ (the 4-gig removable one that I bought) called “Install”. I save all backup files, cab files for programs that I install, and anything that I may need if I ever have to redo my phone in this folder. Once I did the upgrade, I put my storage card back in the phone and then went to the file explorer to go to the ‘Storage Card’ and reinstall all of my cab files in the “Install” folder.
• Click “Save”
• The program will then ask “Do you want to save used pictures for contacts to the backup file?”
• Click “Yes”
• The program will provide confirmation: “Settings Saved”
• Create a new backup any time you make big changes to your layout or contact picture

Back up your Spb Mobile Shell 3 settings

• My backup plan:
• Backup if you know you may need to backup your phone
• ex. having a problem with your phone and headed to Verizon – or whichever provider – just assume they might replace it and not return it
• ex. about to do anything that involves a hard reset!!! Back up your phone!
• Upgrading software
• Suggestion from provider to fix an issue
• ex. deleting Outlook profile or Mobile Device Center partnerships
• Set up recurring calendar reminder to backup everything at least once a month
• Check MyPhone to make sure it has sync’d everything it should
• Connect phone to each laptop and sync through Mobile Device Center
• Create a new Spb Mobile Shell 3 backup file
• Create a new SPB Diary backup file (another Spb program I use, also has a setting to create a backup file)
• Research Spb Backup
• haven’t tried it and I am not sure what benefits it provides opposed to doing what I do, but it’s something I wanted to look in to.

What’s different since the upgrade?

Not a lot changed, but a few things:

• Unlocked GPS for third-party apps (Settings –> Phone –> Services –> GPS –> Location On – this will turn on LBS for third party apps. Heed all warnings.)
• Ability to change the in-call keypad lock (Settings –> Phone –> Services –> Dialer Touch Lock) to Off, 2 seconds, 5 seconds, or 10 seconds. Big thumbs up on that one – it was so annoying how quickly the keypad would lock when you were in a phone call with an automated system and you’d have to unlock it before every other entry with no way to adjust it or turn it off! Thanks for the new setting VZ!
• New Omnia widgets for the Omnia’s Widget Today Screen – Windows Live Search Bar, WeatherBug, might be others, sorry I can’t report much here… I’m not a fan of the widgets and I don’t use the Omnia Widget Today Screen.
• Windows Live integration – Windows Live app and search bar plug-in for Today Screen (normal today screen), MyPhone Sync status plug-in
• Smart Memo program – sorry, haven’t played with it to figure out what it is yet or why it’s different from Notes… I’ll get back to you.
• Dice – listed under Games, a pair of dice, an orange and a green one, that roll by shaking the phone. I think it’s cute.
• OneNote Mobile – it looks like the upgrade installed this – I use it a lot since I use OneNote 2007 on my PC’s, but I was hoping for the new OneNote Mobile that is due out soon as a companion to OneNote 2010… I should have known better considering that it’s not out yet, but I can hope… Anyway, if you haven’t used OneNote Mobile (or OneNote 2007, for that matter), it’s pretty cool. It syncs with your OneNote Mobile notebook in OneNote, and you can sync things from OneNote by putting them in your OneNote Mobile notebook and it will sync them with your phone’s OneNote Mobile. OneNote Mobile allows you to take notes, format them with bold, italic, underline or strikethrough, allows lists as bulleted or numbered (no indenting, I’ll have to wait for OneNote 2010 for that…), and you can insert pictures from the phone’s memory & storage card(s) or take a new picture to insert as well as inserting a recording. Good, solid note-taking.
• Easy Settings – I have successfully hidden every trace of Samsung menus, but one new thing they added I actually like. Thankfully, the phone sees it as a program, so I’ve just added shortcuts to my Lifestyle home screens. The Easy Settings ‘app’ consists of two screens:
• The “Settings” page is the first which comes up, and gives access to:
• Sound – Ring settings – sound, vibrate, silent; Sound volume; Ring type; Ring tone; Vibration intensity; Rhythmic vibration – choices of 5 different vibration patterns
• Display – Theme selection; Ability to set a picture as the background; If chosen, ability to select a picture
• Power – Setting to turn device off on battery power; On battery power turn off LCD when unused for 1-5 minutes; setting to turn device off on External power; On External power turn off LCD when unused for 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, or 30 minutes
• Memory – Ability to perform hard reset (Format); reset Main Memory; reset My Storage; format Storage Card
• All Settings – Opens the phone’s main Settings folder (the same as if it were accessed from the Start Menu)
• By clicking on the arrow at the right of the page, it brings up the One-Click Settings:
• Flightmode – turns flightmode on or off (i.e. the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and the phone’s radio, which prevents any phone calls or data connections)
• BT – turns bluetooth on or off
• Wi-Fi – turns Wi-Fi on or off
• Vibrate – turns vibrate on or off
• Motion – turns the motion sensor on or off
• Speaker – turns the speakerphone on or off
• Mouse – turns the mouse cursor on or off (thanks for making this one more accessible!)
• Flashlight – turns the camera’s flash on or off to be used as a flashlight (beware of damaging your camera’s flash!)
• USB – turns the phone’s USB mode (a computer will recognize the phone as a USB drive and use the 8-gig My Storage or a removable micro SD installed in the phone as a USB drive when the phone is connected) on or pff – note: when the USB mode is on, whichever storage card (My Storage or Storage Card – removable) is selected cannot be accessed by the phone until the USB mode is turned off. Also, USB mode prevents the computer from syncing with the phone – the computer will either see a USB drive or an ActiveSync phone, but not both at the same time.

Quick video of the Easy Settings below…

Software I like so far…

• Vito SMS-Chat – great touch-friendly text message interface for Windows Mobile phones – giving the trial a go right now (refer to the first screenclip where I included my text from Verizon for a screen from SMS-Chat)
• ThumbCal – touch-friendly calendar and task app – the replacement for pocket outlook that I’ve been hoping for! Another trial I’ve downloaded
• Spb News – the much-anticipated (by me) replacement to Spb Insight – the RSS feed reader from SPB. Touch-friendly and can now schedule it to download new articles from RSS feeds. I never used RSS much on a computer, but I find that it is a great way to read all of the new stuff from all of my favorite sites on my phone in the most readable format possible. I love the improvements! I’ve started collecting feeds through Google Reader and then exporting my OPML file to my phone where I import it with Spb News. This is in its trial period, but I’m not sure I can live without it… Wonder if I can get a discount for being a customer of the former Spb Insight…

These are just two programs that are needed…

• MemMaid – an Omnia must-have. This upgrade from Verizon was supposed to correct memory issues, but the issue is that the phone itself has next to no storage memory. That means that when it starts collecting things, it will crash fast. I have been running MemMaid with scheduled QuickCleans for a long time, and it does the job… Do not, I repeat, DO NOT ignore your Omnia’s memory problem. If you wait until it is a problem, you will have waited until it requires a hard reset and are past being able to get this on your phone. Do it now.
• PockeTwit – the best Twitter app for Windows Mobile out there… And it’s free! Such a slick interface, posts to my Twitter account or ping.fm (Twitter, Facebook, AIM, MySpace, and any other network that I’m inclined to let people know I’m alive), can update my GPS location, send pics, organize users in groups, perform searches (and search near your current location), save a search as a group and set it to update automatically, see TwitPics right in the app without opening a browser, retweet, e-mail a tweet, add to favorites, see other users timelines, see the public timeline… this app is more useful than most full-blown Twitter clients for computers! It has notifications to notify you of tweets for messages, specific groups, or your main timeline, all customizable… Thanks PockeTwit!!! I’ve been using it for quite a while but I still am so impressed by it.
• The screenclips on the right are shots from PockeTwit…
• The one on the left is a clip of my News group
• The one on the right is the menu from sliding right, which gives you more general options. Sliding left will bring a menu on the opposite side of the feed which gives you options specific to the selected tweet and the user.
• CooTek TouchPal 4 – my favorite keyboard for the Omnia… Even more enamored with it since I found it a new skin and discovered that by tapping on the “123” or “<!>” buttons twice, each one brings up a set of 4 programmable buttons that can retain a string of text. I used mine for e-mail addresses and other things I type over and over that aren’t easy when you need to add symbols or they aren’t recognized as a word… Anyway, below are some shots of the new theme for my TouchPal:

• The last shot shows an example of how it raises and highlights the letter above where your finger is so that you can easily see what you are typing. To switch between full QWERTY, phone pad and CooTek T+ (blackberry pearl-style), all it requires is a swipe across the keyboard left or right. I usually use phone pad since that makes it easiest to type single-handed, and when I want a full QWERTY, I just make one swipe from left to right. This is great for me because it was so hard to change the keyboard (typically involves hitting that tiny arrow at the bottom of the screen next to the TP button between Submit and Cancel) and I’m always switching from phone pad-style to a QWERTY!
• About skins: if the skin that you choose is a cab file, it can be installed the same way you would any other file. The skin I chose came in a zip file and was designed to manually replace the existing skin. There isn’t an easy skin chooser, but changing skins isn’t hard either.
• To change skins using a zip file:
1. Back up the default skin. Go to your File Explorer –> Program Files –> TouchPal –> Copy the “Resouces” folder. Then go to a location where you save things you want to keep (like your backup files) and paste it there. I use the following: Storage Card (my removable one) –> Install (folder where I keep cabs that I install, backup files, etc.) –> TouchPalBackup (folder I created to store skin cab and zip files and the original Resources folder with the default skin). I pasted “Resources” into my TouchPalBackup folder and renamed it “Resources – backup”. If I needed (or wanted to use it, I would have to change the name back to “Resources”.
2. Download your skin and save it to your backup folder. Navigate to the folder, click on the zip file and click Menu –> Extract All… –> Select the backup folder or the closest level to your folder and select “Save”. Ex. My folder: My Storage –> Install –> TouchPalBackup; TouchPalBackup is not an option but Install is, so I extracted it there. It will extract to a folder named as the file and save it within the folder you choose. Once it saved the extracted folder to my Install folder, I cut the it folder from Install and pasted it in TouchPalBackup.
3. Navigate into the newly extracted folder to find a folder named “Resources” and copy it.
4. Navigate from the device –> Program Files –> TouchPal –> Paste the new “Resources” folder. It will ask if you want to overwrite the existing file, click “Yes”.
5. Restart your device, and the new theme should be all set!
• Where I got my theme: QVGA version (works on the Omnia); VGA version; Site it came from
• Where to get other themes
• MyMobiler – the program that I used to take screenshots of my phone’s screen (and it’s FREE)! Well, it does that, but it does so much more! It is for your PC, and allows you to have your phone displayed on your computer. Below is a shot of MyMobiler running on my desktop, displaying my phone’s Today Screen with the IP Connection box for MyMobiler (and my phone’s IP address covered, thank you very much!). Once MyMobiler is running on your computer, you would connect your phone (via ActiveSync/Mobile Device Center using a USB or Bluetooth connection) and right-click on the MyMobiler icon in your system tray –> Configure Mobile –> Install. The program will need authorization (I think it shows up as Remote) and then it will allow you to access your phone’s screen any time the phone is connected with MyMobiler running on the PC and phone. I love that I can send text messages from my phone with my laptop!
• Features:
• Access your phone from your PC
• Take screenshots of your phone’s screen
• Record video of your phone’s screen
• Drag-n-drop files on the MyMobiler window to transfer files to your phone’s My Documents folder
• Copy text from your phone and paste to your PC or vice-versa
• Rotate your screen from the MyMobiler console
• Skin to hide the window-look and give it a black-polished frame – unfortunately the skin is a set size and doesn’t work with my Omnia since it has a longer screen than most, but it worked great with my old XV6800 – unless you rotated the screen, it was only designed for portrait and does not support landscape mode.
• Ability to keep screen always on top of other windows
• Change the size of the MyMobiler display – lets you zoom in or out and has pre-defined zoom settings of 50%, 100%, 200%, and 300%.
• Access the phone’s files via Mobile Explorer, built-in file explorer (MyMobiler window on desktop –> Help menu –> Mobile Explorer)

• Connections:
• USB – through ActiveSync/Mobile Device Center
• From the phone: Open MyMobiler
• From the PC: Click the MyMobiler icon in the system tray –> click “Connect” –> double-click the MyMobiler icon in the system tray
• Bluetooth – through ActiveSync/Mobile Device Center
• IP Connection – The phone’s IP address is likely to be different everytime, so you are better off going to the IP Connection window on your phone each time you connect this way to get the IP address.
• Use the phone’s IP Address
• From the phone: Open MyMobiler —> go to the Today Screen of the phone —> tap on the MyMobiler icon (bottom right) –> select IP Connection (shown in screenclip above to the right)
• From the PC: Click the MyMobiler icon in the system tray –> click “Connect IP…” –> Enter your phone’s IP address in the Mobile IP field (obtained in the step above) –> Click “Connect” –> double-click the MyMobiler icon in the system tray; you can also hit “Close” on the IP Connection box on your phone.
• Use a network IP Address – if the computer and phone are both on the same wireless network (meaning your phone is using a WiFi connection at the time), then a second IP address will be displayed by the IP Connection box on the second line – this will be the IP address that was assigned to your phone by your wireless network
• From the phone: Open MyMobiler —> go to the Today Screen of the phone —> tap on the MyMobiler icon (bottom right) –> select IP Connection and you will see the following (except you will have an IP address where I put “My Mobile IP” and the IP address of your wifi connection which is listed on the second line should not have question marks!):

• From the PC: Click the MyMobiler icon in the system tray –> click “Connect IP…” –> Enter your phone’s IP address in the Mobile IP field (obtained in the step above) –> Click “Connect” –> double-click the MyMobiler icon in the system tray; you can also hit “Close” on the IP Connection box on your phone.

That’s all for now! Share any feedback, suggestions for other apps you love or tips you may have!

• PC’s

  • HP Pavilion DV2000T CTO

    – Running Vista Home Premium

  • HP Mini-Note 2133

    – Running Vista Business

• Wireless

  • VZ MiFi 2200

    - My tiny wireless router… and if I need to prevent wireless pollution for the benefit of my company’s network (yes, it was powerful enough to interfere with my company’s wireless networks, so be careful!), I can plug it into my laptop and use it as a wired modem for one computer.

    • Wireless router for up to 5 PC’s

    • Can be used as USB Modem

    • Sends & receives texts when wired to PC

  • VZ Samsung Omnia

    - I’ve mentioned my phone before so I’ll just list the top things its’ used for with work.

    • Calendar

    • E-mail

    • Tasks

    • AIM

    • OneNote Mobile 2007

    • Pocket FreeMind

    • Opera

    • Excel

    • Word

    • PowerPoint

    • Spb Time

    • Back-up internet access

• Software

  • Microsoft OneNote 2007

    - An electronic notebook which I use to "print" things directly to the notebook. I can click a button from Outlook and have e-mail sent to my notebooks. OneNote uses a binder-like structure: there can be several notebooks, each notebook can have sections or section groups, and within a section are pages. Pages can be grouped together by having sub-pages.

    • Screen clippings

    • Printing to notebooks

    • Audio recordings

    • Dockable note window

  • GoalEnforcer HyperFocus 2009

    - Awesome program that uses circles for each task, encouraging you to break tasks down as much as possible. I have found this a huge productivity booster since I easily get overwhelmed by large tasks. It has status reports that are great for seeing progress, and allows me to export to FreeMind to view my projects as mind maps. The least complicated task manager ever! This is a must see.

    • Break-down of tasks

    • Visual format

    • Status reports

    • Simple task manager

  • FreeMind

    - A free program for mind mapping, what else would you need to think this is a good idea to try? I use it to keep track of database structures, and even am using it to write this blog!

    • Mind mapping

    • Allows exports to other formats

    • Free

  • Klok

    - I’ve had trouble keeping track of the time I spend working, and now that I work on a number of different things that I need to know how much time I’ve spent on, I went looking for time-tracking help and found this awesome free program. It can provide time sheets, pie charts, and actually uses a timer to track the amount of time on each project. Also good to use if you want to see where your time goes… Totally free. I would recommend the new beta version 1.5. I was impressed by how awesome it looks for a free program!

    • Time-tracking by project

    • Beautiful graphical interface

    • Timesheets

    • Pie charts on how time was spent