Windows Phone Thoughts: TodayXLive the Next WP7 Makeover for Windows Mobile

Still holding out on making the jump from WinMo 6.X, but want the look of WP7? If so, TodayXLive is the app for you. TodayXLive is a plugin for your Today screen that gives you a tile-based start page, complete with live updating. The plugin works for Windows Mobile Pocket PC 5 and 6 and requires .NET Compact Framework 3.5.

Before I purchased my Samsung Focus with its slippery Windows Phone 7 interface, I was chugging along with my Omnia II with its ageing Windows Mobile interface. It was atop this that I had finally installed the SPB Mobile Shell which kept me going, I guess. When skins for the SPB Mobile Shell became available sporting the then new WP7 look and (somewhat) feel, I had to give it a go. It was nice to be touting my Omnia II in its new WP7 dress, but it was at the detriment of overall performance and ultimately battery life. One annoying side effect of the SPB Mobile Shell for a sizable subset of us users was the Alarms bug, or lack of alarms going off, as the case was for me. I need alarms; nothing irks more than missing something important.Well now after using Filipe Oliveira's Today Plug-in for Windows Mobile 5/6+ devices, those problems are gone. Performance is up, battery life improved, and Alarms sound when their meant to! The scrolling is less fluid than WP7's 60Hz refresh, but otherwise is very good. The installation requires some planning and configuration to have it the way you like, so I would put it at the intermediate skill or higher level required. As always do a backup just to be safe!

Filipe has more in store shortly when he releases his next version.

You too can stay up to-date with developments here or at his website here (thou currently his site has run the bandwidth too hot!).