Database Users

Anti theft apps available?

I'm looking for an anti-theft app. I don't know if it exists yet.
Is there an equivalent to the symbian phone apps "Anti-thief" or "EzProtect"? It has some nice features to let your pda "phone home" when someone is tinkering with it, or you can remotely disable your pda by sending a password though sms.
I've been searching over the net and found "Kill-pda" but that can only erase the device completely by sms. Thats a bit overkill :lol:
I hope someone knows, because i learned the hard way that you really need an app like this. My phone got stolen once and I got a Huge A$$$ bill for calling to egypt en italy
edit: I found this description for EzProtect:
The application sends an SMS to your specified number as soon as the SIM card has been changed. By this way, you receive SMS on your friend's (or whoever's number u defined) cell with the thief's cellnumber and SIM number (IMSI) so it becomes very easy to track the thief.
I definately want an app that can do this. And I can imagine a lot of people wanting it too.

There was a discussion about this on HoFo in Oct ober when people first started receiving their Wizards. I think BTT (BeyondtheTech) mentioned something about it. I'll see if I can track it down this evening.
It certainly would be cool.

Check this out! http://www.ppcsg.com/index.php?s=0c0cedfa906ae1b85f844fb7b497def6&showtopic=65021
Hope this works. I have not tried this myself.

Thanks a lot for your help, but that was the program i mentioned in the threadstart "PDAKill".
The only thing it can do is erase the device completely when you send a sms to your pda containing a predifined password.
But when the thief takes out the simcard and puts in his own, then this program would be useless.

Guys, if I've seemed distracted for the last few days, this is why:
I've been working on a program called VJAccioPhone.
It is used to detect if your phone has been stolen and to permit remote use of the stolen phone. Your phone doesn't have to be stolen, eg if for some reason your wife is likely to discover your "niece's" affectionate messages to you, you can send a password protected remote keyword to format your phone and hardreset it. I'm sure you can think of better examples!
It's an expansion of some code I wrote for my unreleased plugin, VJEphemeris, which you can read about here. The release version allows you to do pretty much anything you can do with the phone when it's in your hand, all remotely. Destructive and constructive control.
This is a pre-announcement. I don't like preannouncing, but unfortunately this week I've been on a very limited programming quota due to the ministrations of my better half. So although the code is finally finished, it's being beta tested while I'm away on holiday. If all is well when I get back next week, hopefully I'll try to get it released!
Don't tell anyone else, but you can read about VJAccioPhone and see screenshots here. Please note, and don't ask, there is no download available at the moment.
V

Aside from that a program like this would be very handy, and I'm quite curious and will keep an eye on it myself, I advise everyone to activate the pin code on their simcard, and always call their mobile operator as soon as the phone is stolen so they can block your number to avoid getting high bills as the topicstarter said... You should also be able to get your number back easily by requesting a new sim card and having your mobile number set to that simcard again.
This may seem obvious to some people, but I just wanted to post it anyway since a lot of people are still not aware of these simple ways to protect yourself.

Absolutely true; in England, the police aren't interested in persuing phone theft, but for you own benefit, you must always have your IMEI blocked and the phone reported stolen immediately to prevent you being charged for calls.
VJAccioPhone will be able to report back to you even if the IMEI has been changed or it's being used abroad etc. It's more for protecting your data on the stolen phone then getting the phone back. Frankly, any thief would do better to throw the phone away then persue cracking strong protections. Stolen phones are easy enough to come by! However, at least a nice passer by might be able to get in touch with you!
V

Sounds great! Would it be possible to enable the phone ID (Where you can enter your name and contact details) thought this might be good if it was ever found (or part of the hard reset).

Wauw, this is great stuff Vijay!
If you need a beta-tester on the wizard platform, i would highly recommend myself
This would be excactly what everyone needs 8)
Would it be possible to save the configuration settings? Because my idea would be to include the cab file in my extended_rom, and thus make it install itself even after a hard reset. This would mean that the configurations settings also have to be loaded after the hard reset.
Keep up the great work Vijay

frigit: if you mean enable password screen, yes, should be no problem. however i'm thinking of writing a better custom password screen using some strong encryption, with optional destruction on failure.
leploep: of course, it's designed for extended rom etc. right now protection works as a ta k, for the demo, but i'll be writing protection into an invisible app. Remote control is already complete and works transparently when triggered, so the thief won't even realise what you're doing ie there's no sign of the control smss being received to the thief.
eg you can background call the police from the stolen phone
more when i'm back from holiday next week!
v

This is starting to sound like a killer app - pun intended 8)

I'm in for sure when you get this finished, Vijay!

Already finished for the demo version!
kept me quite busy, developing three intersecting programs, like playing chess! but they all seem to work ok. a friend is testing it hopefully this week then i'll see what i can do for wider release when i get back...
v

Well vijay555 , you can put me on the list of very interested persons on buying this soft.
Cheers mate.

vijay will this work on all the wm5.0 devices??
i.e. I have the pda2k with wm5.0 and have been looking for a prog like this since i got my device, also is it possible to keep this program after hard reset ?? as you know if a hard reset is done the data is gone, but the user now has an expensive device to start playing with

it's not been tested on wm5 at this time, actually because the guy testing has a wm2003 motorola - gulp! but everything i write is normally wm5 & wm2003 now. there is no reason why it's not wm5 compatible but i'll ensure it is before release. i can certainly say, to my pain, the hardReset keyword is very wm5, i activated it by accident in testing.
retaining it after hard reset is only possible, as far as i am aware, by using a custom ext rom or rom.i've not tried it on my magician or universal, but hopefully your device in particular ext rom customisation is possible. at this time it uses registry & normal exe/dll files to run, so no reason it can't be ext rom'med. hopefully this will be confirmed in testing shortly.
if anyone can think of any particularly useful remote keywords to incorporate drop me a line. as it is, the full version will permit remote .exe launching so it can do pretty much anything
v

a lot of us have paid an arm and leg for our devices so having that extra peace of mind,knowing that if your device is nicked your going to make it as hard as poss for the theif to try and profit from your loss.
vijay all the best mate so far your app looks very promising iv got the exec running WM05 so if you need a beta tester let me know LOL
and guys if you report your phone as lost make sure your service provider is also going to blacklist the device!
I work for Vodafones in a call centre in the birmingham, UK,but the amount of customer services that is outsoursed to other non vodafone call centres based here in the UK its unbelievable! the amount of complaints I deal with and customers accounts that I come across where the outsourced twats
will admin bar your sim card but not blacklist the handset!
anyway I'll keep my eyes open for any more theftbashing apps and will post on here.

N2h said:
I work for Vodafones i
Click to expand...
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But have an O2 phone.....

Whow V.
Looks very very promising.. !
Great Job man :!:
i'd be happy to check it on my devices :wink:
Cheerz

lol mcwarre
even with our staff accounts we can't get the pdas as they are only available for busniess customers to be honest with you don't know why vodafone is stupid enough not to sell to normal consumers its the biggest network in the uk,
the staff phones we do get we gets 12 months line rental free lol
annnnd from all the universals I think the exec with its black shell looks the most stunning-the white shell devices just look a tad bulkier! lol

Pocket Mechanic (AntonTomov) - Installation problems

Hi,
I purchased the latest version of AntonTomov's PocketMechanic via Handango and received the registration key immediately after finished purchase procedure.
Installation on my TyTN seemed to work out first (the program accepted the key with a message box and a sound).
But only moments later a message box popped up, telling me I use a pirated version and should turn to the manufacturer, which I did (also mailed Handango).
Meanwhile tried to install PM several times (always removing all traces from both PC and TyTn incl. Registry and rebooted) - to no avail.
Meanwhile received a new serial, but same story again: first accepted and immediately afterwards aborted with Piracy message.
A new complaint mail is on ist way.
Meanwhile I'm asking here if anybody had similar problems in getting the Pocket Mechanics to work on a TyTN.
Appreciating feedback and will let te community know how it worked out for me.

I would not use or buy Tomov's products out of principal.
Found a lot of threads about earlier version doing a hard reset without asking, when inputted a "pirated" serial. So be glad it only shows a box nowdays.
While software piracy is not a good thing, at least for people developing propietary software. Tomov has used a bit too drastic measures to fight
back.

jeezus said:
I would not use or buy Tomov's products out of principal.
Found a lot of threads about earlier version doing a hard reset without asking, when inputted a "pirated" serial. So be glad it only shows a box nowdays.
While software piracy is not a good thing, at least for people developing propietary software. Tomov has used a bit too drastic measures to fight
back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This does not make me too comfortable :-(
I also read a few note about that on the net and a reply by Tomov, complaining that this is not true and only a campaign to cut him off his revenues.
Well, I do not know what to believe, however this uncertainty is also not too comfortable...
Well the Pocket Mechanic way of uses some hardware dependent functions and - if you dare to take use of such - you have to either be very careful and also prepared that they might not work on untested and after all very new (such as the TyTN) devices.
I was prepared for all of that but not that I receive a piracy mail (which somewhat alsmost accuses you of being a software pirate and telling you to mail to [email protected]) when I purchased the software (which I can also prove).
Maybe he uses some hardware related mechanism to check eligibility of the serial and as he hasn't tested yet the TyTN (which he admits) this software won't allow being registered at all. I do not know.
But isn't such a meachanism pure over-kill ?
Actually something like that must be going on as I receive this pop up also after a new install and having purged all remnants from the PC, the PDA and the registry.
If I'd be trying out serials just at random, would anyone think that I'll millions of times do that complete procedure just to find any working key at the end of my life maybe ???
(And if I'd be a professional hacker I'd disassemble the code and be able to work around even these barriers.)
So, applying over-kill measures like that only brings problems to decent users, risking to run into problems when using special configurations or ne devices.
+++
Apart from that I must say that Tomov's applications seem well coded and also graphically very nice (one wonders how graphically nice application you can program for PDAs; shame upon Microsoft for their pre-installed poor applications !!!).
Also I see no real alternatives for some functionality he provided within one software, that's why I purchased the PM.
Finally again my question:
Has anyone encountered the same problems with the PM on a HTC TyTN ?
(btw: Thanks "jeezus" for your feedback.)

Might I inquire which funktionality you need?
Maybe we can find an alternative solution.

SecurIt 1.1: Sim/IMSI checking opensource security for us all

I'm been working on this for a little bit now since I found all the existing apps don't work well in WM6 or don't work well in a custom rom. This is a open source program (as all of mine are) and I welcome help/donations/and comments. Bug reports will be helpful in this first release as I certainly consider this a alpha release at the moment.
What it does:
once setup at every boot it compares your IMSI number with the one stored, if it's a match it plays a little sound and that's it. If it's not a match, it locks the device and displays your email and a request to please get it back to you. It also send you the "new sim's" imsi and phone number via a SMS.
------------------------------
SecurIt 1.1 (BETA) by Shadowmite
------------------------------
TODO: Build in SMS rule filtering thus adding remote control
Lock out activesync connections?
Protect the datafile from being deleted, or keep a backup in registry.
NOTE: THIS DOES NOT WORK WITH CDMA PHONES!
Version 1 (BETA) Instructions:
This security applicatioon can run loaded normally via a cab file to your device, or via being cooked into a rom. It will require your phone able to run unsigned code (most roms at this site are fine in this regard). Furthermore it does require the .NET Framework so it's really for WM6 devices, WM5 will be more tricky and is left up to the user to figure out how to make it all work.
When first run the program resides in \windows and must run from there. If you ran the cab installer it will have created a shortcut for you into the Programs folder.
The application comes up with a form showing you the current device imei, imsi, and phone number. You need to enter a password (needed to disable security programmatically or change SIM info), a email you can be reached at my a "finder" of your phone, and a SMS phone number you'd like alert messages sent to. Once done click set. Finally, click Enable security.
The application then sets itself up to autorun upon boot and if the SIM matches, it plays a little sound file to let you know everything is fine. If the sim is found to have changed, it will lock down the device until a password is entered. Meanwhile it shows your contact email and has sent the alert sms to you with the new imsi and phone number.
If you enter the proper password the program will take you to the settings screen where you can reenter the password and make changes to the settings and resave them. Simply clicking enable security without making changes will keep the settings as they are.
Clicking disable security will remove the autorun entries and remove the data file the programs keeps at \windows\SecurIt.dat.
The data file keeps 5 lines, MD5 hashes of your imei, imsi, password, and also your email and sms phone number as plain text. Thus stealing this file does not enable retrieving the password or easy changing of the imsi. Deleting this file however would remove security. Furthermore activesync will still link to a locked device. Knowledgable people about these devices could therefore defeat this security, however it's goal is to keep the casual theif / finder out of the phone.
This program is a work in progress and I welcome help with modifications to it as well as bug fixes. Source can be found at:
svn://www.shadowmite.com/shadowmite/SecurIt
To cook this into a rom, you need 3 files. 2 of them need to be generated when you first install it like normal and set it up. Copy the SecurIt.dat from \windows and the SecurIt.lnk from \windows\start up to your rom as well as the SecurIt.exe file. It's that simple. Enjoy!
History:
1.1: Fixed all kinds of bugs causing security to crash with various sims
1.0: Initial release
If you like my work and would like to help insure I continue to have time for this, please consider a donation to: foglemATshadowmiteDOTcom

Shadowmite, thnx for starting an "opensource" project for this. I havent tried it yet, will try once I reach home.. But I had a cpl of suggestions\questions:
1. Why do u keep email and sms phone no in plain text instead of encrypting them as well?
2. Instead of storing config in a file, store the config in registry which lessens the chances of someone finding out about the prog and deleting the file to disable security.

nice work as usual...

shantzg001 said:
Shadowmite, thnx for starting an "opensource" project for this. I havent tried it yet, will try once I reach home.. But I had a cpl of suggestions\questions:
1. Why do u keep email and sms phone no in plain text instead of encrypting them as well?
2. Instead of storing config in a file, store the config in registry which lessens the chances of someone finding out about the prog and deleting the file to disable security.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
number 2 is in the TODO list...

#1) we could encrypt them as long as it's not a one-way hash like the first 3 lines, however those are the bits of data we don't mind the theif/finder seeing afterall as they are the means to get the phone back to its rightful owner. I suppose we could hide them but the phone number will be on his next bill for sending it a SMS and the email is displayed on the locked screen.
And as walshy said, #2 is certainly on the todo, but locking our activesync connections is a bigger concern and I believe completely doable.

#1) we could encrypt them as long as it's not a one-way hash like the first 3 lines, however those are the bits of data we don't mind the theif/finder seeing afterall as they are the means to get the phone back to its rightful owner. I suppose we could hide them but the phone number will be on his next bill for sending it a SMS and the email is displayed on the locked screen.
And as walshy said, #2 is certainly on the todo, but locking our activesync connections is a bigger concern and I believe completely doable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok, and sorry abt the #2, I missed the TODO part..
Keep up the good work..I myself was thinking abt making smthing similar but now I think I'll drop my idea to make a different one, as this seems to be a better idea (opensource is always better )..
I hope I can make some contribution to the code if possible..

shantzg001 said:
ok, and sorry abt the #2, I missed the TODO part..
Keep up the good work..I myself was thinking abt making smthing similar but now I think I'll drop my idea to make a different one, as this seems to be a better idea (opensource is always better )..
I hope I can make some contribution to the code if possible..
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Click to collapse
What advantages does this give over "Mobile Justice"..another similar util...my rom has Mobile Justice cooked with it which makes it hard to remove.

famewolf said:
What advantages does this give over "Mobile Justice"..another similar util...my rom has Mobile Justice cooked with it which makes it hard to remove.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you like that software and have it working properly use it. Maybe you'd like to post in every rom thread asking why not use some other rom while you're at it?

Shadowmite said:
If you like that software and have it working properly use it. Maybe you'd like to post in every rom thread asking why not use some other rom while you're at it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not using Mobile Justice which is WHY I asked what advantages YOURS had over theres for COMPARISON. If it had additional features I was going to recommend it for addition into XM6R3 (the next release of the current rom), but with an attitude like yours I won't bother with further review.

famewolf said:
I'm not using Mobile Justice which is WHY I asked what advantages YOURS had over theres for COMPARISON. If it had additional features I was going to recommend it for addition into XM6R3 (the next release of the current rom), but with an attitude like yours I won't bother with further review.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you dont bother with a review but bother with a slagging ... take your "fame" somewhere else...

Ok, for starters mine isn't based on assuming every device has a GPS built in (while technically being a Trinity owner I should go that route). I instead base mine on nicely locking down the interface so far with a polite message to get the device back to the owner. Furthermore mine is trivial to build into a cooked rom which was my main reason to write it. I tried every security app out there over the last weekend without any of them working "properly" and figured the best way to get one is to write one. In addition mine is open source, mobilejustice is not.
Now then, you said you're not using it... But the last post said you had it cooked in? WTF? Need some help deciding what you use and don't use?
my rom has Mobile Justice cooked with it which makes it hard to remove.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not using Mobile Justice which is WHY I asked what advantages YOURS had over theres for COMPARISON.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Shadowmite said:
Now then, you said you're not using it... But the last post said you had it cooked in? WTF? Need some help deciding what you use and don't use?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) The rom I currently have installed comes with Mobile Justice preinstalled.
2) I have not configured and am not currently using Mobile Justice
3) The author is currently taking suggestions for software to include in the next revision of their rom.
What part of any of those statements are you having difficulty comprehending?
Perhaps you and the gentleman from Melbourne should both grow up and quit reading an insult where one was not intended.

Well than back on track... Give it a try and see what you think. I really want feedback from folks outside the USA as I believe it will not properly catch your phone number of the "thief's sim" however if the sms works it should still get the phone number to you obviously.
The GPS coord. request feature is a nice one and will have to go on the todo list.

well, well, fights apart, what drew me to this app over the other apps was the opensource nature as mentioned by Shadowmite because I, like shadowmite, was not happy with the other apps doing things properly or just because I wanted somethings to be done differently..
@shadowmite:
1. I have a few ideas of getting "coordinates" and sending to the original owner even on non-GPS devices ..Maybe we can discuss some things later on once the basic structure of the app is ok.
2. Couldn't find the source code of the app on ur site..(May be am just one dim-witted dim-sighted git ) Please point me to it..

You'll need svn to get it, windows users: http://superb-west.dl.sourceforge.n...vn/TortoiseSVN-1.4.4.9706-win32-svn-1.4.4.msi
svn://www.shadowmite.com/shadowmite is my master repository for all projects.

cool, I do have TortoiseSVN installed at home..Will check it when I go back..

Will it sustain a hard re-set ? Dont think so.

@shailesh, for sustaining hard resets, it has to be cooked into the rom, pointed out by shadow on post 1..
I don't know if something else can be done for this (writing into ext rom is one option but that is not possible for most devices now)

Sounds like a great piece of software. And open source is a great idea too.
I did tried several others like this one (Eye on the thef, Ultimately Theft Alert ...) some features were still missing :
First an autoconfig method :
As already said, whatever your storage methode is (file or registry), you 'll everytime lose the configuration when a hard-reset is done on the device. The only one possibility i can imagine is to store your "installer" program on extended rom with the ability to add an external config (encrypted) file as a parameter.
Installation will be handled by the autoconfig process, using this external file. Config will probably needs to be stored on extended rom too. It's not peace of cake to create an extended rom, but easier that cook a rom.
This feature won't be very helpfull if there is no way to generate a config file automaticaly base on settings done by user : kind of export process.
On standart start/soft-reset, your program will run as it does actually, but when a hard-reset, is proceed, programm will reinstall unattented and will still be running after boot... No way to easily remove it. Bad effect is that it will also be difficult to update programm/config.
Secondly, i'd like to have the a way to "format"(or encrypt) a memory card remotely.
Do you thinks those could be part of your TODO list ?
Will try it on few next days and i'm ready to help you translating it in french

hi shantzg001,
thanks for replying,
My mistake, did not read the whole text.

Useful Information for people new to XDA and Windows Mobiles

My first post.
First of all to all the seniors, gr8 forum u guys got here.
Second, it's got so much information I cant make head or tail of anything
I am going to be purchasing a HTC P3400i WM 6.0 version soon, most probably in the next week or so.
This is the first time am going to be using a WM device so I was trying to get a feel of things by reading through the posts here.
I have few questions,
1. What exactly is a ROM, why is it called so and will it void my warranty?
2. I understand it is possible to give the p3400i a "touchflow" look can i do it w/o using a "ROM".
3. When using a WM device what are the basic things that one should learn/understand/take care of??
4. Which posts should I go through and what order to understand the whole concept of WM devices, without actually experimenting with my own device.
5 Finally thanks in advance looking forward to your replies and guidance.
P.S: I sincerely hope my post is in the correct section, coz a lot of my questions are of the "General" category.

1. ROM is actually "Read Only files in your pda" ... Its actually the OS and its files running on your gadget........The default OS in p3400i or gene100 comes with lot of junk files and drivers and the RAM will not be sufficient to run all the new Programs....SO dvlpers are cooking faster ROMS than the default one by modifying these files and drivers..... also they make use of files from other faster devices.....YEs it will void your warranty... But normally all the software issues can be rectified.......
2.YEs u can give ur pda touch flo without using by softwares like.......M2D , SPB Mobile shell, Pointui......etc...etc.... But it will faster it will be better if its in a ROM....
3. There are many things.....one advice.....do a research before doing anything stupid on your device,...... Ask lot of questions and doubts...... dont get ur device bricked......
4.Read the Sticky Thread by Sumit before flashing........

Great answer go4thomman Here are my views :
1. A ROM actually is an image, much like images of CDs you create with burning software. It contains the Windows Mobile Operating system, Drivers to run your device as well as Manufacturer made programs to make the best use of device. All these things are packed into a single file, much like you do with zip files. Your phones contains 128 MB of memory for putting things on it. So to provide base functionality to the device, this ROM is written to that memory and that portion is made read only so that things like viruses (and humans ) don't mess around with the important files. The concept of ROM is there only to make this process simpler, as you don't have a CDROM drive in your mobile to pop a cd and install OS into it. Also a phone is expected to come in ready to use condition, not like a computer. So a ROM provides all the software related functionality to your phone. After that, rest of the remaining memory becomes your phone memory.
Device Manufacturers don't allow making custom roms and flashing them to phones as it makes it difficult for them to provide support. So they lock the device using their digital certificates as protection. This locking is done in the special part of the phone called the SPL (Second Program Loader) and the lock is called CID (Carrier IDentifier). SO to unlock the phone, you need to install a SPL that is CID unlocked but this is against the warranty policy of HTC or any other manufacturer for that matter. Plus the process is dangerous and if not done properly can make your device non functional, non booting also called a "Brick" coz the only thing you can then do with it is using it like the one
Fortunately, we have some really good people here who have developed safe unlocking methods as well as unbricking solutions for certain situations (but not all). Two such people that have worked for GENE SPL are Olipro (old gene) and Orefkov (new gene).
For more info regarding this and to know how to do it, ready the sticky post by me.
2. Touchflo refers to two things, Finger scrolling in applications and the Manilla 2D interface. Finger scrolling is something that you will find in recent versions of Windows Mobile OS. So if you upgrade to newer ROMs you will get it. There is also a 3rd party driver available called FTouchFLO but the older versions have problems and newer are not free.
The Manilla 2D interface, which HTC calls TouchFLO in its specs but manilla inside the ROM, is a Today plug in that allows accessing most of the phone functions without going through the usual Windows Mobile OS menus. This plugin is great, looks cool and works nicely. But its disk and ram footprints are quiet large. so HTC only uses it with devices which have 256 MB flash memory and 128 MB of RAM. It is possible to use this plugin on GENE but using it from phone memory is not recommended as it is way too slow that way. When it is cooked into the ROM, it takes half the space as ROM files are compressed and runs smoother. Cons of this plugin are that it acquires all of the screen space so you cant use any other plugin with it, it doesn't even allows to enable any other plugin, It hogs considerable amount of RAM, Decreases the battery backup by 5%, and is not easily customizable.
3. There is not much special you have to do to take care of this baby, its quiet sturdy. But do keep these things in mind:
a. Discharge the battery fully atleast once a week.
b. Use a good quality screen protector with the screen, never ever do cold lamination on the screen, it damages it. Also replace the protector every 6-8 months or so.
c. Avoid hard tapping on the screen, its quiet sensitive and if its not responding, its probably because software is hanging. Dont hit your hardware for that
d. Keep it away from liquids, get cold lamination on the rest of the body to avoid scratches.
e. Keep the volume at a point less than full, speaker sounds good that way.
f. Keep brightness and power settings to the minimum that you prefer, to save battery.
4. This is a forum not a book so i cannot recommend you any particular order, but do read things related to flashing and cooking as well as the threads related to ROMs in the gene section. Wiki is also a good place to learn things, as well as do keep an eye on General Discussions and Development and Hacking section for getting important information and software upgrades.
Always Search before you start a thread or be ready for flaming, respect other members, never demand things as you are not paying for anything and nobody owes you anything, And read thoroughly and between the lines before attempting anything with your phone.
Good luck!

One more thing, rename this thread to "Useful Information for people new to XDA and Windows Mobiles". That way, i guess i wont have to type it all again. You can rename you threads by double cliking besides the title of the thread in the list of threads.

Thanks a lot guys.

[Q] Homebrew and the Dell Venue Pro

I searched and got nothing in the forum about homebrew, so i figured i'd ask about it. Is it possible for us with this phone to do any of the homebrew stuff out there? I have been without my laptop so cannot really try anything yet, but I see articles about little apps and aesthetic changes people are doing to their Samsung and HTC wp7 phones and i want in on it too.
I loved that homebrew community when i had my Palm Pre back in the day and had it hacked to my liking. I really hope we can do this with our phones too. I have looked into it a little but, but i don't think the guys who have done the unlocking and developing for wp7 have used, tried or have access to our phone. I really hope I'm wrong and just haven't had any luck searching for answers, but so far i haven't really found anything specifically stating whether anything works on the DVP yet.
If they have, could someone point me in the right direction and i'll continue learning on my own? If not, then i hope we can some day.
Thanks for any help y'all can provide.

I'm looking to attack this problem from the other end. I'm the developer of one of those "little apps" you mentioned; specifically the one that lets you change the Search function in IE (when you hit the Search button or mis-type a URL).
I'm working with a homebrew library that more-or-less handles HTC, Samsung, and LG, but completely doesn't support Dell. I'd like to get it working with Dell so that
A) You all can use my app
B) More homebrew apps can be written for the DVP
Some questions that I have (answers to any are appreciated):
How can I programmatically identify a Dell phone? (On an HTC, you can check for HKLM\Software\HTC in the registry.)
Does anybody have ProvisionXML working on the Venue Pro yet? (This is a really handy way to make changes to the OS.)
Does anybody have a way to get access to the file system, even read-only, on the Venue Pro?
Thanks a bunch. In the meantime (and possibly helpful to this cause) there's a homebrew project called "Functional Webserver" in the WP7 Hacking forum. It should work on Dell phones (I think) and means you should have at least Socket (networking) APIs. It also gives (read-only) access to the \Windows directory, which may be very useful for getting other stuff...

GoodDayToDie said:
I'm looking to attack this problem from the other end. I'm the developer of one of those "little apps" you mentioned; specifically the one that lets you change the Search function in IE (when you hit the Search button or mis-type a URL).
I'm working with a homebrew library that more-or-less handles HTC, Samsung, and LG, but completely doesn't support Dell. I'd like to get it working with Dell so that
A) You all can use my app
B) More homebrew apps can be written for the DVP
Some questions that I have (answers to any are appreciated):
How can I programmatically identify a Dell phone? (On an HTC, you can check for HKLM\Software\HTC in the registry.)
Does anybody have ProvisionXML working on the Venue Pro yet? (This is a really handy way to make changes to the OS.)
Does anybody have a way to get access to the file system, even read-only, on the Venue Pro?
Thanks a bunch. In the meantime (and possibly helpful to this cause) there's a homebrew project called "Functional Webserver" in the WP7 Hacking forum. It should work on Dell phones (I think) and means you should have at least Socket (networking) APIs. It also gives (read-only) access to the \Windows directory, which may be very useful for getting other stuff...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would like to submit my services to help you get that information... However, I'm not really sure how to get that to you. If you'd be happy to lay out directions so I can get you that information, I'll happily do it on my Dell Venue Pro.
Thanks for the help!

@nabiscuit Thanks for the offer. The first step is making sure your phone is developer-unlocked, so you can side-load (install directly, not from Marketplace) XAP application packages. All homebrew apps are distributed in this way. The official way to do this is to have a Microsoft developer account (http://create.msdn.com/) although for the next few weeks ChevronWP7 should also work.
For the first question, try installing a Registry Viewer or Registry Editor app - there are a number of them available, both on this site and on TouchXperience (I like the TouchXperience one a lot). Go poke around for anything that looks like a distinctive registry key or value. The most likely place is under HKLM. You could also just do a registry search (the better apps have at least some capability for such searches) for "Dell" as *anything* with that string is probably distinctive.
For the second, it will take access to native code. Using the "Functional Webserver" app you can download some file from the phone's /Windows directory. Checking them for useful COM exports would be helpful, although I'm not the person to ask about doing that - I can do NT drivers and I can do managed code, but COM is not my thing. Try asking for help with this in the general Windows Phone 7 Development and Hacking forum (http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=606).
For the third question, I could actually whip up a small app that *might* work already. You could also try Advanced Explorer (XDA) or TouchXplorer (TouchXperience) although I don't think either is guaranteed to work outside of HTC phones. If you're willing to try running an app that will check for read and write in a number of harmless parts of the file system, I can code one up for you to run and report results back.
Thanks again!

I'd love to get some homebrew development going, is there anything I can do to help?

Try getting in touch with notebookgrail (http://forum.xda-developers.com/member.php?u=3174632) as he seems to be pulling apart the DVP native libraries and finding lots of cool stuff to do with their COM interfaces. I don't know if he has registry write yet - one of the core functions that a lot of homebrew apps want - but if so I can work on getting it integrated into a nice cross-device library for writing apps which (should... grrr Samsung) work on any phone.

GoodDayToDie said:
Try getting in touch with jessej (http://forum.xda-developers.com/member.php?u=3220709) as he seems to be pulling apart the DVP native libraries and finding lots of cool stuff to do with their COM interfaces. I don't know if he has registry write yet - one of the core functions that a lot of homebrew apps want - but if so I can work on getting it integrated into a nice cross-device library for writing apps which (should... grrr Samsung) work on any phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did u mean to point it to me as i was the one who did pull apart the native libs.?
If not, sorry for the intrusion.

Yes, send your request to notebookgrail. I am not on his level for development purposes. But I do appreciate the comment.

Whoops, sorry about that notebookgrail! I must have looked at a response instead of the OP by accident. I've fixed my post above. Thanks a bunch for the work you've done. Any word on registry writing?

any progress?