Archive for December, 2007
Oops, Sorry About That…
In an attempt to bring you a better AllShadow.com we accidentally took it away for a second. Everything is back to normal now and we apologize for any inconvenience.
How to Create New Office Documents on the Shadow
The Shadow has Windows Mobile Standard and does not include a ‘New document’ feature. This should also apply to other Smartphones as well. This method is fairly simple, doesn’t cost you a cent and you don’t have to install any programs, just download two empty documents. The first part of this post is the Basic method and the second part is the Advanced method which builds on the first.
Basic Method:
Download the following two files and just save them to your My Documents folder. They are appropriately named. To use them just go to your My Documents folder and click on either the Excel file (New xlsx.xlsx) or the Word file (New Docx.com). They are write protected so you will have to save your new document using ‘Save As’.
Here are the files:
It’s really that simple. For the Advanced method…
A Comprehensive Review of the Shadow
Over at our sister site, pocketnow.com, Adam Z Lein has put together his take on the T-Mobile Shadow. He didn’t seem as impressed by the Neo Home screen as we are:
Most people are saying that the new “Neo” home screen interface makes the Windows Mobile operating system easier to use. I’m not sure I buy it. The Neo interface requires a lot of scrolling and spinning to access the things that are much easier to access on a traditional home screen. I will say however, that the “Neo” interface certainly is fun, good looking, and an impressive design.
But he really liked the keyboard:
…the keyboard is awesome for one handed usage. Seriously, there’s a much shorter learning curve for using this keyboard compared to the T9 Numeric keypads, Qwerty-bar type phones, and even full qwerty slider phones. Not only that, but this is the best one-thumb no-looking keyboard I’ve ever used.
If you’ve used other Smartphone devices, do you like the Shadow’s Home screen, or are you taken back by the required scrolling to access the various functions?
Forum Coming Soon…
We’ve got a forum coming where you’ll be able to exchange your thoughts and ideas about the Shadow, and ask questions. Look for that in the coming days.
The Origin of the Shadow Home Screen
The excellent Shadow Home Screen, as many of you may know, is the result of a collaboration between T-Mobile and Microsoft. Over at the official Windows Mobile Team Blog, we get some insight into the background of the development of this new interface:
Normally when Windows Mobile creates a release, we release it out to OEMs who then do their own customizations. With this release, however, Microsoft worked with the OEM to create an experience that catered to what T-Mobile wanted. The OEM, HTC, had their talented industrial design team working on the hardware form-factor and wheel. Microsoft wrote the homescreen and worked out an interface for the myFaves information to bubble up for the user to see.
We worked with T-Mobile to finalize the user interaction as per their requirements. For example, in the animation you can see the myFaves flying in and out - that was a T-Mobile feature request in order to enable user privacy (so you avoid the awkward “Why is my boyfriend on your Fave 5?!” moment).
Included in this post about the origin of the Shadow Home Screen, there are a lot of other interesting details about the “Neo” interface (as it’s called internally at Microsoft), including comparisons with the default Home Screen and a dissection of each part of the interface. To read more, check out the Windows Mobile Team Blog.
