The Shadow’s battery life could be a bit better, which makes us glad that T-Mobile is using a bigger battery for the Shadow II. What if there way that you could get better battery life in 5 minutes just by installing a CAB file?

Well, this may be the case. dom2686 from the forums has posted a registry-tweaking CAB (that came from XDA-Devs) which he claims has increased his battery life by 3 hours. Not bad. The CAB contains several registry tweaks that changes the power management of the phone. As with any registry tweak, be sure to backup your phone before installing.

Those in the thread are reporting no ill-effects from installing the CAB, and most are indeed finding their battery life to be better, some even finding there to be a “significant increase.” There are some, though, citing that they see no improvement, or even worse battery life, in which case they were able to uninstall it with the registry changes reverted. Whether this works is probably determined by what other tweaks you have made to your Shadow (overclocks, programs installed, other registry tweaks made, etc).

To download the battery-saving CAB, click here. As with any CAB file, download the file to your computer and transfer it to your phone. Then, run the CAB from the phone. Let us know if you see a difference!

The fact is that not everyone can have the biggest storage card. That’s why it’s important to manage what you have. Here are a few tips for some commonly used programs you can use to reclaim some of the space on your device. If are badly in need of some real estate on your Smartphone then keep reading… Read Full Entry

Viewing PDFs on the Shadow smarpthone is simple with Adobe Reader LE already included. To get started go to Start > Applications > Adobe Reader LE or just open a PDF from File Explorer.

Here are some handy shortcuts. While viewing a PDF press the number on your keypad to achieve the corresponding result:

1. Zoom In
2. Fit Screen (Entire Page on Screen)
3. Zoom Out
4. Previous Page
5. (unused)
6. Next Page
7. Find
8. Rotate Counter-Clockwise
9. Rotate Clockwise

Viewing preferences change depending on the file. For example; I like to view the Survival, Evasion, And Recovery Field Manual in landscape and zoomed in just enough to view the full width of the page. I found the text to be readable and if there was more detailed text I can zoom in and out quickly. Very handy in case I get lost on my way to the store…

I have started a thread in the forums as a place for AllShadow Community members to add free public domain eBooks they have. If you want to add to the collection please upload in Zip format. Please no Pirated Works.

We talk a lot about CAB files here, and there are dozens of them floating on the forums. Basically, a CAB file is for your Shadow like an EXE installation file is for your computer. When you are done with the CAB file, you can delete it without deleting the program. This is a good practice because CAB files often take up a lot of space - and if the CAB is on your device and not the storage card, they can add up fast and take away storage memory.

A good practice is to keep a folder on your computer with all of the CAB files that you’ve ran on your Shadow. That way, if you ever need to hard reset, you can get going again with all of the CABs you’ve installed.

Hard resetting your device is like formatting the hard drive of your computer and then reinstalling the operating system. It causes all of the data to be wiped out, which may be a good thing if you want a fresh start, or if your phone is inoperable for some reason.

Of course you can hard reset your phone by going to Start > Accessories > Clear Storage, but what if you’re not even even to get that far? Well you can hard reset using the hardware buttons, and a thanks to jasonweaver for posting this in the Support forum. Here are the steps:

Note: The device must be turned on.
1. If the device is on, remove the battery to turn it off, and re-insert the battery.
2. Press and hold the Left soft key and Right soft key together.
3. Press and hold the Power button for two seconds.
4. When you see a message that starts with ‘This operation will delete…’. release the soft keys.
5. A start-up screen appears, and then the screen shows a black message shown below.
6. Press the Send key, the device prompts you to restart it.

Here are a few tips that may save you time while using your Shadow. I’m sure some of them you know already, but you may find one or two to be new:

1. Holding down the 1 key will dial your voicemail.
2. You can quickly toggle through multiple numbers of your contacts (like home, work, mobile) instead of having to open their full contact information and scroll around. To do this for “James,” for example, type James from your Home screen, highlight James’ name, and use the right/left buttons to flip through m-h-w-txt, etc.
3. You can speed dial a program. This lets you tap and hold a number on your keypad to launch a program, rather than digging through the start menu. Go into the Start menu, highlight the program you want, then click the Menu soft key, and click Add Speed Dial.
4. Search through Outlook mobile mail just by typing in your Inbox. The Shadow will filter matches by both subject and sender.
5. Change your profile quickly by holding down the Home button.

Thanks to the AllShadow Community! If it wasn’t for the Contributors in the Forum this post wouldn’t be possible!

For new Shadow owners, or those that don’t want to mess with the registry, this file will provide some basic performance enhancements. After installation you will notice that your Shadow is running more to your liking. Be sure to check back now and then as updates will happen.

Enhancements/Changes this file makes to the Shadow are:

• Application Unlock – enables certain programs to fully operate (i.e. Google Maps ‘My Location’ feature)
• SMS Sent Notification turned off – gets rid of that annoying Message Sent notification you get when sending texts
• Disabled Neo Interface Windows Media Player (WMP) – this does not remove WMP from your phone or make it unusable, it only turns off the ‘pane’ in the Neo interface. This specific pane uses a lot of memory and slows your phone down. You can still use Windows Media Player from the Start menu
• Slimmer Scrollbars – slimmer scroll bars means more screen Real Estate
• Larger Glyph Cache – speeds up graphics
• Enable Clear type – smoother fonts

To Install:

AllShadow Community Veterans: If you feel there is something I should add to this that most people will enjoy please post in the comments (a link to the forum post describing the addition would suffice as well).

Here’s the file in case you didn’t see it up above:

AllShadow.com Performance Enhancements v1.0.cab

This is the same file as above except in a zip file: AllShadow.com Performance Enhancements v1.0.cab.zip

If you want to suggestion an addition to this read the forum thread . Please read everything and use the Search feature before requesting support.

Outlook Mobile has several shortcuts that you can use in the Inbox of email, text messages, MMS, etc. To use these simply press and hold the corresponding number on your keypad. You can reference these at any time by pressing and holding 0 (zero) on your keypad.

The Shortcuts are:

0 – List Shortcuts

1 – Reply All

2 – Reply

3 – Mark/Read Unread

4 – Flag

5 – Move

6 – Forward

7 – Delete

8 – Download Message

9 – Send/Receive

Adam Z Lein at pocketnow.com has an informative article about how public libraries offer all kinds of DOWNLOADABLE digital content including movies, music, audio books, and eBooks. I didn’t know about this until I saw the article so I decided to do some checking on my own. Your library might do the same. For the most part you will need your Library card number and PIN. I checked mine, and it turns out that the Greater Phoenix Library system does offer downloads. I conducted a quick grab and check out so I could tell you how well these work. Read Full Entry

If you get tired of the Neo Home screen, you’re in luck - there are a plethora of other Home screens you can load onto your Shadow, and heck, we even have a Themes Forum that puts them all under one place.

I recently found a Home screen that I thought to be particularly good-looking: the HTC tabbed Home screen.  If you’ve seen HTC devices like the TyTN II or Touch, you know that they come with HTC Home out of the box.  Good thing we have a version that works on the Shadow - download the CAB here.

To get it going, transfer the CAB to your device and run it.  Then, go into Settings, Home Screen, and choose “HTC” … be sure to set Color scheme and Background image to “default.” Also, in order to get weather updates, you’ll need to be on a data plan or on a WiFi network.

Thanks to ShadowMike for posting this in the forums.

Many times a program will need you to Application Unlock your phone (App Unlock). Most of the time the software won’t tell you this needs to happen but someone eventually figures it out. So to alleviate this problem it is best to app unlock your phone early on. Download the App Unlock cab, place it on your Shadow and run it from there. The appropriate registry entries will be made.

The Shadow comes with Microsoft Voice Command 1.6. This little gem can be very handy in a variety of different ways. If you want some in depth information about it go to Start > Voice Command > Menu > Help. Included here is a list of the commands it recognizes. Voice command works with Bluetooth headsets as well and can announce incoming calls, upcoming appointments over the headset if you want it to. The best times to use Voice Command are when you are in a slight rush and don’t have the luxury of looking at your phone’s screen and pressing buttons. If you find you like Voice Command set your Shadow’s shortcut key to launch it quickly. I find the Short Press to be a better option than the long press, there are a few people that like to set the Short Press and the Press and Hold to launch Voice Command.

Keep reading for a list of commands to use with Voice Command Read Full Entry

If you send and receive a great deal of text messages throughout the day then you might get tired of going back to the inbox all the time. SMS Bubbles to the rescue! From the Today screen you can view the contents of your incoming text message and decide to Save as read, reply, delete and more options from the bubble. There are more settings available in the Programs list under the Start menu once you have it installed. Adding this to Extreme Text and you are practically in text message heaven. Of course it’s free and available for download right here. Enjoy!

If you don’t like wasting time scrolling through hundreds of messages to find just one, or want to remember what someone said earlier than you are in luck. In case you haven’t noticed, the Inbox has a Smart Filter. When viewing any inbox screen on the Shadow just start typing a word and it will immediately begin searching through Recipients, Subjects and Text Bodies for your result. It’s quick and easy and will make your day easier.

There is no software to download, this is a tip about a feature that already exists in Windows Mobile

If you sit at a desk with a computer for a good portion of your day then you might like to know about Dashwire. Dashwire is a device to Web 2.0 application that enables you to manage your Windows Mobile phone from a web browser. Your photos, videos, contacts and more are uploaded to your Dashwire account where you can mess with them further. It even allows you to send SMS via your phone from the browser. Got Contacts? Got Skype? You can place Skype calls to your phone’s contacts from your PC. There are tons of options available as well as being able to create a Shared page on Dashwire where others can look at your photos or videos or both. When you first install Dashwire on your device you will want to be on a WiFi connection so when it synchronizes data it won’t take as long. Dashwire.com

Being a Web App that makes life a bit easier I give it 4.5 Shadows