My Apps, tweaks & Hacks (for an improved XPERIAnce)

[hamyokechung]

Hi,


I decided to post the following feedback on my hacks, apps & tweaks as a means of overcoming some of the "shortfalls" of Xperia / WiMo that I am facing when using this device; as well as to improve the overall user experience & functionality.

The following list is not exhaustive but focusses on the main annoyances. These are just my recommendations and may not be for everyone. In any case, I hope some of you will find it useful to you.

Message Sent Notification not Dismissed
In my case, the popup will only go away after the Messaging application is closed and there seems to be a lag of 5-8 seconds when the popup remains onscreen after "Dismiss" has been clicked (essentially nothing happens when you click it). To overcome this, I installed XperiaTweak v 1.6 (XperiaTweak v 1.6 - tweaks and hacks for Xperia | Download Pocket PC Freeware and Windows Mobile 6 Software) that disables the message sent notification completely. Bliss...

GPRS Connection remains idle after application usage
This is probably a WiMo 6.1 shortcoming whereby upon completion of an Internet related activity by an application (eg. Panel requesting Internet access to update Weather or RSS feeds), the GPRS connection remains idle until you manually kill it. For those of us on high data plan & billed on per KB used, the implication of this is not airtime but obviously the drain on precious battery resources. To overcome this, I installed GB-Soft GPRS & Audio Tweak (GB-SOFT GPRS & Audio Tweak for Microsoft Windows Mobile 2005 Phone Edition (QTEK 9000/9100/..)) that turns off GPRS if device is not used for hh:mm amount of time. Long Live my Batt!

"Sent from my Sony Ericsson Xperia (TM) X1" Signature bug
On my device, I noticed that my custom signature in Outlook Mobile would get overwritten with the standard canned message (above) each time I rebooted. This not only contravened my corporate email policy on signature guidelines but is somewhat heavy-handed on SE's part. Well, it's not hard-coded and can be easily fixed. Goto \My Device\Windows\Startup\ and delete (or transfer to another location) this file: <SignatureReplace>. Annoyance gone!

Protecting your Data & Investment
Whilst there are freewares available for this, I turned to a more reliable & trusted source for the ability to remotely wipe or control my device. In the event of theft or loss, this application (and there are numerous other alternatives on the Net, but I chose this based on Price X Value comparison) allows you to use another "nominated" phone to send an SMS to your Xperia to: Lock / Unlock / Callback and Listen in / Send you its GPS coordinates / Soft & Hard Reset. GuardMobile from MASPware - (MASPware) Now that's peace of mind.




Backing up Contacts & Data
I chose to maintain a separate set of Contacts from my Exchange server, as my Phone contacts are essentially just that, they are more phone-centric and are a more "focussed" group, as opposed to the large, global database of contacts that I have amassed over the years and stored in Outlook. So for that, I needed a Standalone PPC Backup application that would restore my Phone Contacts after hard resets. I turned to PPCPimBackup (PocketPCFreeware : PIM Backup 2.8) and now resurrection exists on my SD card

Currency Converter
Worldmate is great but the price is too hefty and now that panels come with Weather updates, all I needed was the Currency Converter tool for my travels. I turned to CurrencyConv from Vicsoft (Mobile-SG.com :: Memoirs of a gadget enthusiast) Easily the best and simplest to use.

Password Keeper
Have been using this for years, since Sony Clie (Palm) days. Modest shareware price and while it competes with the abundant freewares out there, I still choose this app because of Desktop Application & Sync capabilities. SplashID (SplashID - Password Manager for Palm, Treo, Pocket PC, BlackBerry, Smartphone, UIQ, Windows, Mac OS)

There are a couple of other apps I am running to further personalize my phone in terms of multi-IM protocol (IM+), VoIP (Skype), Facebook app (Snap2Face) but these are probably the non-critical ones and you'll have your own set of preferred apps

Hope this helps.

[bloob]

Pretty good list there!! Excellent.

XperiaTweaks is already in version 2.0 and the website is www.cliffords.nu

[Reggie]

Do add great apps at the app section.

XperiaTweaks 2.0 is already in the Apps section -- Link.

Thank you for the great tips!

[roygbeat]

nice list! i might try gb soft. i really thought that my battery had problems cos i had to charge my phone everyday whilst on reviews and forums theirs last for 2-3 days.. so this might be my phones problem.. thanks reggie..