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There is little doubt about my love for StuffBak’s lost & found service and I have written about it on a couple of occassions.

Back in February, I wrote a guide about how to extend your StuffBak protection with a custom designed boot screen for Windows Vista. This time around, I’ll be discussing how you can protect your Windows Mobile (5) powered Pocket PC.

As with most customization guides available here, the standard disclaimer applies: I write about something that works for me. It may or may not work for you. If it works for you, feel free to post a comment with your device information, if it doesn’t work for you, retrace your steps and try to find a solution. If you manage to brick your device, don’t come screaming. I know it sucks but I can’t help you.

That said, let’s get down to the real stuff:

Pocket PCs tend to get smaller with every new revision and with more Pocket PCs being sold than ever before, its a fair assumption that a lot of important data is stored on these devices. To lose one of these devices is bad enough, but knowing that you didn’t do everything you could to help an honest finder to get it back is probably just as bad.

This guide will most probably consist of two parts, in this part, I’ll be discussing how to create a boot screen for your device, the next guide will focus on a way to create a theme that displays your StuffBak tag.

The first thing you need is a StuffBak tag, which, I assume that you already have. In case you do not have one, head on over to stuffbak.com and grab yourself a set.

Take a note of the code of your tag and grab yourself this PSD file from my gallery. You can edit it in Adobe Photoshop and many other image manipulation applications.

Pick the text tool and edit the text field. You will want to input your own StuffBak tag there.

The next step is to save the image. The name you will want to use is “welcomehead.96.png”.

The next to last step involves connecting your device to your PC, make sure that Windows Mobile Device Center (or ActiveSync) starts and copying the “welcomehead.96.png” to your device.

Finally, use Pocket Explorer, Total Commander CE or any other mobile file explorer of your choice to copy the file to your /Windows directory.

Now, whenever you soft-reset your device, you will see your boot screen with your very own StuffBak tag.

Note that this solution does not guarantee that your device will be returned to you, but at least you made it a lot easier for honest finders to get in touch with the rightful owner of the device.

Pocket PC are becoming more and more of a replacement for small time computing. They may not yet be able to replace your office PC for a 100% but typing a long email, doing some mobile blogging or other input sensitive tasks is no uncommon thing anymore.

In recent years, a number of devices have been released with integrated keyboards and you can of course always attach an external keyboard to your device, but there is still a huge amount of Pocket PCs that have to rely on Software Input Panels (SIP) to get the job done. With such a big (potential) customer base, it is only natural that companies will try to come up with solutions that make your life easier.

One of these solutions is TenGo Thumb, a SIP that is big enough to be used with your thumbs (yet, it still works very well with a stylus). The application is aimed at people that want to input data quickly and easily on the go, without going through the additional hassle of pulling a stylus out of its silo.

Rules of thumb

After installing TenGO Thumb and starting any application that requires text input, you will be presented with a choice to either skip or follow the TenGO Thumb tutorial. While you could use the SIP without any training, I would recommend you to go through the included tutorial, for the simple reason that more advanced things like spelling words that are not yet in your dictionary, are hard to do if you have no clue as to how you can activate such a feature.

TenGO Thumb’s biggest advantage over many other large-button SIPs is that it includes a predictive text input feature called the TenGO core engine. With it, you can easily type words and just as easily go back and correct the word(s) you typed. Another useful feature of TenGO is that it stores your most used words at the most left part of the list, which can help if you type the same words a lot. You can see, in part, how the engine works, by looking at the characters that are displayed in the small box on the right hand side.

Thumbing a ride

Now, all of this is certainly very interesting, but we all know that a picture speaks a thousand words, so I decided to create a short video clip of someone typing an email, because, if a picture is able to speak a thousand words, this clip will speak volumes.

The clip is available in a variety of flavors, you can watch it right now in your browser, by going to the Flash version (4.7 mb), or you can download a smaller WMV version here (2.4 mb).

It should be noted that the typing is a lot faster than the screen recorder is capable of recording and as such, you only see one third of the keys actually being hit.

Another thing that you are not seeing is that I am actually using my thumbs to type the email. Based on the visual setup of TenGO Thumb, which basically comes down to six large keys for the various characters, typing long texts becomes a lot easier.

Thumb Problem

When I first came across TenGO Thumb, I installed it on a Windows Mobile 2003 device where it worked without a hitch. Then came my new Pocket PC and I installed the SIP there too but I had trouble activating it. In two out of five cases, the keyboard would not open and the only way to get it working again was a soft-reset.

Soft-resetting your device all the time, while harmless, gets annoying really quick and so I contacted the TenGO support team. I have to admit that I have not met support guys that walk the extra marathon (yes, marathon, not just mile) for a future customer like TenGO did. A dozen possible ways to solve the problem later, I ended up removing some of the (preinstalled) O2 applications from my Pocket PC and voilà the keyboard opens whenever I need it and I have not had a problem with it since.

Thumbs up or down?

All in all, TenGO Thumb is a great piece of software and makes typing on Pocket PCs without a keyboard a lot easier and a lot more efficient. Even with big thumbs, you will not face any problems and with predictive text input, you will be typing away at your first mobile novel in no time. At a mere $12.95, this application is a steal and will pay for itself in no time.

As far as I am concerned, TenGO Thumb gets a definite thumbs up from me. The only downside I can see with this application is that you might be able to damage your screen if you are using your device without a good screen protector.

Approximately two years ago, I wrote an in-depth review about a service called StuffBak. This service helps you retrieve lost items by means of a tag attached to your device, keycord or whatever you deem worthy of protection.

The StuffBak tags are the first thing I attach to devices that are irreplaceable and sometimes, I even create sets, so for example if you’d find my laptop bag, you’d be eligible for $100 worth in tags as well as another $600 in finder’s fee. It it works, ultimately, I can’t tell you, but at least I’ve taken steps to give people a chance to do the right thing.

When I first installed Windows XP, I created a boot screen that would contain my personal information, so if you’d find my laptop, you could use the information provided on screen to get in touch with me.

With Windows Vista, I wanted to do the same thing and as luck would have it, I came across a tutorial that explains how to create a boot screen.

Many people will go for something like a female with little clothing or an image depicting the superiority of one operating system above another, I went for something that made a lot more sense to me:

I tried to recreate the tag that is attached to the back of my laptop as closely as possible (and no, I don’t have eight zeros as my number) and I think it will do the job.

In my gallery, you’ll find both a preview image as well as the actual PSD file (works in Photoshop CS, CS2) that I used to create the image.

Follow the tutorial and you should be good to go. It’s very straightforward and you shouldn’t encounter any problems, if you do, head on over to my gallery and download a backup of winload.exe.mui (Windows Vista RTM, Home Premium, not sure if that matters though)

As always, all stuff provided here is free of charge and comes with no support at all. If you screw up, too bad for you.

FYI: If you’re living in the Netherlands, this post might be of some interest to you, if not, the following information has little value to you:

This is just a short post about some “tools” I’ve been using for quite some time now: MSN Chatbots that don’t care about mining social data from their users but rather provide them with a service.

Bot #1 is buddy@mrmovie.nl - a chatbot that provides Dutchies with information about movies that are currently running in theaters around the country.

The first step is to tell the bot where you are, then you select the number of the movie you’re planning to watch and you’ll get all the information you need:

Bot #2 is msn@nl.abnamro.com - this chatbot is powered by ABN AMRO and provides users with an update on their bank account’s balance.

This one is really simple, there’s only one step actually: say “Saldo 1234″, whereby you exchange 1234 for the last four digits of the account you’d like to check and you’ll get an update.

Hint: If you’re using a custom IM Client, like Trillian, you can turn off logging for this account to ensure your privacy.

Bot #3 is encarta@botmetro.net - this chatbot is actually available to everyone. Like the name says, this is the Encarta bot. Encarta is a digital encyclopedia, that rose to fame before Wikipedia was conceived but has lost quite some users in recent years. Nonetheless, this bot is very useful, even more so if you have Encarta installed locally:

This bot is the smartest one of all, it is able to do maths and answer simple questions and follow up with stuff. It also remembers if it spoke to you before and tries to emulate feelings, so be kind:

I’m quite certain that other countries have similar services available, good luck with finding them!

I recently acquired a Qtek 9090 - this device is a so called Pocket PC Phone Edition and it’s pretty darn sweet. Apart from the usual stuff like WiFi, Bluetooth and an up to date OS, you also get GPRS connectivity, intelligent connection switching and a thumbkeyboard. All in all - a great package and certainly worth the money.

But there’s more to it… Since the Qtek 9090 is really just a rebranded HTC Blue Angel (just like iMate PDA2k, Orange M200, O2 XDA III, T-Mobile MDA III), you can flash the device to your liking…

Basically, what HTC does is create 3 different “setups”. Those “setups” make the device what it is, including brand-customization (T-Mobile, O2, Orange, VodaFone etc.) and custom tools.

Part 1 is the operating system. HTC is using state of the art Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition.
Part 2 is the radio stack - this is what actually makes a device a phone edition. Without this, it’s just a normal Pocket PC. This stack gets updated more or less frequently by your manufacturer and is best left alone unless you really know what you are doing.

Part 3 is the extended ROM. This let’s the manufacturer / OEM customize the device to their liking (not yours). These applications will be installed after each hard-reset. Most of the software included makes sense for someone, but most doesn’t make sense to me…

Since Qtek doesn’t really know about my specific needs, they include such great tools as a PPT Viewer, a PDF Viewer, FAXing utility, a Gallery application, a MIDlet utiliy and a Backup Utility. What I’d really need though is SPB Pocket Plus, a GPS application, a real backup utility and a few other applications. After deciding that it was more fun to have a customized device, rather than seeing all those unneeded applications, I set out to create a custom “extended ROM”.

Prior to starting, I did a good deal of reading in order to understand the whole concept of the phone, the website xda-developers.com does a great job in explaining what actually is possible and how it has to be done. Creating your own “extended ROM” is easy, that is, if you know how. Here’s a listing that includes all the steps I did in order to get my own ROM:

- Preparation: Backups
Since I already trashed my old iPAQ H3660 back in the day, I knew I had to create a few backups at first. PDAmobiz has a good tutorial on how to create a backup of just about everything for your device. They walk you through the whole process and explain how you can retrieve the files. Since I wasn’t able to retrieve them, I’ve got a 256mb SD Card sitting around, waiting for the moment I pop it into the Qtek to reflash the extended ROM. Hopefully it will never get to that and I’ll only have to use my other SD Card, I’m using to create my custom extended ROM.

- Preparation: getting to know the subject
Once again, xda-developers.com has a good deal of information in their Wiki. Those pages outline what you need to know. Most questions will either be answered in the Wiki or you’ll find answers in the very active forums.

- Preparation: Finding, testing the tools you need
Prior to putting something into the “extended ROM”, it’s necessary to test the install routine on the device and see what kind of routine it is.

Testing is done by locating the .cab File in your ActiveSync Folder and copying it onto the device, rather than using ActiveSync’s installation utility. It’s important to note here if an application needs user interaction (entering a key, accepting an EULA etc.) or not. This will influence how “config.txt” will be created later on.

My list of applications consists of the following right now:
SPB Pocket Plus by SPB Software House - application requires user interaction (question about ZIP support)
eWallet, by Iliumsoft - application requires user interaction (accepting EULA).
Microsoft Reader by Microsoft - application requires user interaction (notice about new fonts)
Route 66 and SP2 by Route 66 GIS b.v. - application requires user interaction (warning about functionality)
Apart from installing those applications, I also want my “extended ROM” to include my registration for Microsoft Reader, since I already know which files are important. In later steps it may be interesting to edit the dump of an registry file so that after installing all the software, the dump would import my registration keys and save me the hassle of entering them myself.

- Preparation: extracting the original ROM
Before you can actually extract the original ROM, you will have to unlock and unhide it. This is done by using the XDA Unlock Tool, however this version will only work on devices with an English interface. Since my device is based on the German version, I had to copy a few files to different places, but all in all it’s easy to start. After executing the application, you will have to do a soft-reset (the small hole, left bottom corner) and a directory called “Extended_ROM” will appear at the root level when you open Explorer on your device. In this folder you will find all the applications that are installed to customize your device.

- Preparation: creating a custom config.txt
The most important files in the “Extended_ROM” directory are “config.txt” and “AutoRun.exe”. The latter takes the text file as a guideline on what to do. The format of the text file is rather simple:

“EXEC:\Extended_ROM\application.exe” - executes a file. Most notably is that “TPDisable.exe” is executed at the beginning. This keeps the user from doing anything with the touch screen. “TPEnable.exe” will restore touch screen functionality after the customization.

“CAB:\Extended_ROM\application.cab” - executes a CAB installer. It’s probably logical, but I should still mention that the CAB file has to be written for your device (e.g.: StrongARM) or else the customization will most probably fail.
There’s also a built-in facility to copy files from the “extended ROM” to anywhere I please. This will later be discussed regarding the activation of MS Reader.

Since all my applications require some kind of interaction, I don’t really need to disable the touch screen, therefor I start out by editing the factory version of the config.txt to not execute “TPDisable.exe” anymore, naturally “TPEnable.exe” will then not be needed either.

Thanks to this thread on xda-developers.com, I know which files I can safely remove and which should better remain in the “extended ROM”. Like I noted earlier, I don’t see any reason why I should install a PPT or PDF viewer, since I never read such files anyways, so all I have to do is remove “ClearVue2.4.381_GER_withoutBP_OzUp.sa.CAB” from the “config.txt” and the application wont be installed next time I do a hard-reset. To save space (since the “extended ROM” is limited to 16mb), I also removed the file itself. It should be noted that the “GER” is the language code and could also be “ENG” or “ITA” or anything else.
I also have little need for the following applications:
“BA_Album_GER.CAB” (the Gallery application),

“Java_v10.1.2.49_DE_0901_unremovable.CAB” (the MIDlet manager) and
“Fax_v2.09_BA_GER_0720_unremovable.CAB” (the FAX application), so I also removed those.

- Testing: Will my config.txt work?
All I have to do now is upload my “config.txt” to the “Extended_ROM” folder and do a hard-reset. After a hard-reset, I should have a device with less useless tools installed, and while it actually appears that I’m writing this after doing the customization, it is in fact being written as I try out the different steps.

I just did a hard-reset (with some hesitation) and it worked. So far so good.

Experimenting: stripping more unneeded tools
Since I don’t really use MIDI ringtones, I also decided to remove the MIDI Tools “MIDI561.CAB” and the registration file for it, called “MIDI_GER_reg.CAB”. The updated config.txt goes into the “extended ROM” folder once again and another hard-reset shows the results. To conclude this part, I also ended up removing “MMS_v2.0.0.16_BA_DE_20041115.CAB” - the MMS Client, since I never send MMS and “Qtek_Button9_GER.sa.CAB” - an utility that maps a button to the Sprint PCS website. This saved me another 2.25mb.

Experimenting: adding much needed tools
Since the “extended ROM” is limited to 16mb, I had to find a solution for making some room. The factory default takes up 14mb, but I removed 7.71mb and thus have 9.71mb free. This might be a problem for others, since they might want to install more applications. In that case, I suggest storing the CAB files in “\Storage” since those 43mb located to this non-volatile storage might otherwise go unused.

When adding applications, it might be smart to create folders like I did, one called “ms_reader_activation” where all the files reside that make up the activation and another folder called “custom_apps” that holds the CAB files for the installer.
To copy the MS Reader files automatically, you’ll have to use the “CPY1″ and “CPY2″ commands as outlined above.
I also edited some of the CAB files to make them even smaller: I removed the GuideBook.lit from the MS Reader Setup and I deleted the standard images / icons / sounds that come with eWallet. I also edited the eWallet CAB in a way that it automatically registers itself with my credentials. Apart from that, I changed the location where eWallet looks for images to a folder in “\Storage”.

After the customization, the device will soft-reset itself and everything will be installed, copied and set up.
Conclusion: creating your own “customization tool” is really not that difficult, as long as you read about it first and follow all steps as outlined. For me, I ‘ve got my very own and higly customized Qtek 9090 now.