HTC
Some guy named Gregory put together a port of the HTC home screen that run on any Windows Mobile 6 Smartphone. This is a very slick interface and even boasts a integrated Weather forecast (think fizzweather, but FREE!) and a “My People” section that gives you easy access to 8 contacts (unfortunately you can’t access the 8 contacts directly from the home screen).
I believe your smartphone must be application unlocked to install this theme.
To configure your Weather location: After installing go to Start > Weather and select your City/Country.
To configure your My People contact list: After installing go to Start > MyPeople and select your favorite 8 contacts.
UPDATE:
- The alarm icon is not tied to the default Windows Mobile Alarms (Start > Organizer > Alarms) application, but to some other application called “Clock & Alarms”.
- Go to: Start > Settings > Display > Home Screen and play around with different Color Schemes and Background images for a different look!
July 25th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
The theme is really slick but I can’t seem to select any of the 8 icons that are on my blackjack ii desktop. I move the cursor to the “person” icon and the 8 icons show up in place of the huge clock. Once the icons show up I can get my cursor to go to any of the eight icons. Is there a bug in the theme? is there a setting that’s screwed up on my phone? Thanks for the help!
July 25th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
wachati,
Nope, your phone and the theme are fine - thats just a “bug” in the program.. i think its an artifact of the port from a touchscreen device to the non-touchscreen device. If you click on on the “people” icon it will open a new screen that lists the contacts vertically at which point you can click on their names to call them.
July 25th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
That I already figured out. Hmm…I wonder if this bug can be fixed. I really like this theme. Do you know of any other out there like this one?
July 26th, 2008 at 2:03 am
this theme is awesome, but same as what wachati said, the 8 people thing is a bummer
July 26th, 2008 at 7:53 am
This theme is pretty awesome…..
July 26th, 2008 at 11:17 am
You said the weather report was free is that correct?
July 26th, 2008 at 11:42 am
moneydart,
Correct - the Weather report is free (as long as you have unlimited data .. it uses your data connection to download the weather information).
July 26th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
This theme is very nice. Thank you for posting it, David.
But there’s one small problem: I can’t see the Voicemail notification. I use LED Alerts, so I’ve got that blinking, but I can’t seem to see if I have a voicemail waiting for me with this theme.
Is it just me?
July 26th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Sorry for the double post, but I’ll also note that the theme has a built-in alarm and does not use the Blackjack II’s default alarm.
Is there a way to submit feature requests to Gregory? He’s done a fantastic job and he should know it.
July 26th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
yeah - unfortunately since this is a port from HTC, there are some definite limitations for this theme/home screen.. I have no idea how to get in touch of the fellow that ported it .. im guessing he wont be able to do much in terms of modifying how the theme works.
July 26th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
any idea on how to incorporate the weather feature to other themes? or themes I design?
July 26th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
pixelblur - i dont think its possible :T .. The HTC theme uses 2 special Home screen plugins. The first (HTCHome) renders the flip-book style control that contains the Time, Weather and Contacts. I do not think there is a way to select only pieces of this control to display (but i dont know for sure). The second plugin (HtCHomeNotification) displays the Missed E-mail, Missed SMS and Missed Calls control. Unless there is are some attributes you can use in the plugin XML tags, i think youre stuck with what you see.
July 26th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
This Theme is excellent.
One thing, i think that this theme would appear much better with the application list at the bottom like the one on the “brianberry bold theme” instead of the appointments.I think this because i do not use the appointment app very much so it seems pointless for me to have it.
July 26th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
ohh we’ll figure it out, lol probably not me but somebody out there, some coder dude
July 27th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
when i clk the people icon the list just flashes on and off.
same thing w/ ‘my people’ from start menu.
no app shortcuts? guess not! looks good tho
July 27th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
how do i edit my posts?
July 27th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
I honestly think the “makers” of all this stuff should start popping out with more themes. I mean some of the stuff put on here, really isnt exciting, BUT its pretty obvious that the majority of people like THEMES. So many someone should take a hint and start making a crap load, cuz thats where the good stuffs at.
July 28th, 2008 at 9:16 am
Has anyone been able to change the weather from celsius to fahrenheit, I scroll down and it just goes back up to the top without being able to select it…. Touchscreen issue maybe?
July 28th, 2008 at 10:28 am
cof999,
Start > Weather > Menu > Weather Options > Temperature Scale > Click left/right on the D-Pad to change from Celsius/Fahrenheit .. Click “Done” when finished.
July 28th, 2008 at 10:43 am
Thanks David
July 28th, 2008 at 10:44 am
jererermyg,
.. i kid, but if you want to make some quality themes i’d be intersted in sharing them.
Thanks for volunteering yourself as a Theme-maker
Themes do garner a lot of interest on the site, but the applications/games and hacks are also very popular.
For the most part the themes on this site are themes that i’ve made or derivations of themes i’ve made (the HTC theme is an exception, I added it because I couldn’t find the author’s site and it seemed the theme was only available in forums which are a pain to use IMHO).
Theme creation actually takes me 3-4 hours, from concept to design, to implementation, to testing/tweaking. Seeing as this site is just a hobby and I make just enough money to cover hosting costs, its hard to convince myself to dedicate that much of my free time to a theme. Looking at past theme deployments (with the exception of the OS X Leopard theme) it doesn’t appear that new themes directly impact visitors or revenue either.
I also don’t want to pump out a bunch of crap themes really quickly because there are plenty of sites that already do that (which is why I started making my own themes in the first place)
Also - I am a little leary about making more Windows Mobile 6 Themes when Windows Mobile 6.1 is *allegedly* just around the corner .. if not days, then a couple months.
Just a little explanation of why i haven’t been making many themes lately.
July 28th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
That is a great point David….. I was wondering how much time it took to make them…… I love this theme but I would love it even more if it had a recently used apps bar like your themes have…… that thing is golden…..
July 28th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
I don’t know exactly how to make them but if given some information I think that I would try to make one……
July 28th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
i cant get this on my phone to save my life! i need to have a step by step. its killing me!!!!!!
July 28th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
burton,
Did you follow the step by step directions in the “How to Install the HTC Theme” link?
Where are you getting stuck? Are you able to copy the CAB file to your Smartphone? Are you able to run/install the CAB file? After installing the CAB file are you able to go to the Display > Home Screen setting and select “HTC” ?
July 28th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
okay i download the htc to my computer. sync it to my phone. and then i cant do anything with it.
July 29th, 2008 at 12:19 am
burton,
What happens when you try to run the CAB file? Does it allow you to install it? Does it bring up an error message?
How are you trying to run the CAB file?
July 29th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
I don’t have unlimited data…is the weather feature on this theme constantly connecting to the internet for information or only when it is selected/opened? Can I disable it completely if do not want to use it?
July 31st, 2008 at 10:43 am
i don’t know if anyone’s commented on this yet but once you install this theme, the plug in including the time, weather, and favorite people becomes available as a facade homescreen plug in. it looks pretty ba and you still get the launcher bar at the top. i have a screenshot should anyone want one, but since i am typing this via the bj2, i’m not sure how to upload it at the moment.
July 31st, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Wignot if you can bust out that screenshot if you can…… I would like to see it…….
August 3rd, 2008 at 8:32 am
hey, sorry, here’s the screen shot (i think, its been a bit since i’ve used photobucket)
August 3rd, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Wignot,
Thanks for posting your Sshot. But how did you manage to add the Apps, along with schedule and task in the theme… I can’t seem to figure it out.
Brad,
There’s an option under weather where you can “uncheck” Automatic Download for weather if you’re concern about data.
August 3rd, 2008 at 2:31 pm
What software do you use in order to create these themes?
August 3rd, 2008 at 5:17 pm
its not the htc theme with the other stuff. its actually facade. once the htc theme is installed, an htc item becomes available as a facade homescreen plug in. the best of both worlds, really
August 3rd, 2008 at 10:15 pm
I found the facade plug-in in the forum and it costs $14.95. Sure looks nice though!
August 4th, 2008 at 8:04 am
gznuttz, yup - Facade is a commercial app (about $15) which is why i dont post any facade themes on the site. I don’t have it and i get really annoyed when i see a sweet theme only to find out i have to pay for facade to use it. Ah well..
August 4th, 2008 at 8:15 am
Lethal, I didnt create this theme - I believe its actually a port of the software found on HTC Smartphones (though im not 100% sure) .. The other themes on the site are created using Photoshop (to create the background) and Notepad to create the XML which defines where all the text/icons appear on theme.
August 5th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Oh ok I see. So how did you learn all of the xml tags and whatnot to use? Is there some kind of guide I can get online?
August 25th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
i uninstalled this theme to make more room, just cause i wasn’t planning on using it anytime soon, but the my people and weather stayed there, they don’t work but i would really like to get them off… help!
August 27th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
aewilson, Interesting ill have to check it out - in the meantime you can Delete the shortcuts using the method described in this post
August 28th, 2008 at 11:33 am
thanks, i did figure it out before using your post, i deleted the download not the actual program, man, these phones can get confusing lol. thanks for the help though!
September 12th, 2008 at 9:03 am
After the 6.1 install I reinstalled this theme and it mostly works except for the Alarm Clock. I got rid of my alarm clock when I first started using this theme.
Does anyone have any thoughts on how to get this to work?
September 29th, 2008 at 12:22 am
I used the latest version (1.4.8) of Facade along with the HTC theme to create this…
October 8th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
So if I install this theme to my BJ2 using WM6.1 I will no longer have an alarm clock?
November 10th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Instead of being able to select messages is there a way to change it to profiles as far as selecting vibrate and loud ringers?
Other than that this theme is wonderful
November 10th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
I dont know of a way to change the functionality of this theme unfortunately
December 12th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
David, What is the best software for designing and creating themes? Is there a good program for modifying current themes?
December 12th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
sandersoncw,
I use Photoshop to design the background of the theme and then use Notepad to create the XML. Ruttensoft Homescreen Designer’s Trial is a great for generating the first stab at the XML, but youll probably need to tweak the XML in notepad.
December 30th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
This theme is incredible. But I think that the only thing that could make it better was being able to change the appoint box at the bottom into something else, maybe some media player controls? If any one has any info on how this can be done, lemme know.
Again, this theme is really nice!
January 6th, 2009 at 1:31 am
DAVID,
I wanted to know how to create themes. i know you create it using notepad and photoshop, but where do i find informations regarding XML scripts. Is there any online help. Or do you know any theme creating tool, which is easy to use, which needs no knowledge of XML scripts, that is free of cost, but not any trial version.
Please reply for my comment.
January 6th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
fareedis, I dont know of any good free non-trial theme development tools. I think the best way to learn the XML is to look at the XML. Check MSDN.com for documentation (I dont know if MSDN has any, but thats where it should be if it exists)