If you haven’t been hiding under a rock for the last couple of weeks you’ve likely heard of the iPhone application: I Am Rich.

Basically, it is an iPhone application that costs $999.99. That’s right, it costs more than the iPhone itself. Heck, that’ll pay for many months of the data plan as well.

Well, for better or worse, when it comes to Windows Mobile, everyone is a developer and the app has been “ported” to both Windows Mobile (and Palm OS which just cracks me up).

Windows Mobile: I Am Rich

Palm OS: I Am Rich

iPhone: I Am Rich

Here’s a video of the original application running on someone’s iPhone:

Here’s some of the coverage this application has gotten:

IPhone Apps: $999.99 iPhone App "I Am Rich" Probably Only Applies to Developer

Slashdot | 8 People Buy "I Am Rich" iPhone App For $1000

Digg - Worthless, $1000 "I Am Rich" iPhone App Disappears

Here are a bunch of applications to allow you to control your desktop from your Windows Mobile device:

Remote Desktop Mobile - [Download]

[Image Source: Remote Desktop: A Mobile Killer App - RussellBeattie.com]

[Image Source: Windows Mobile: Remote Desktop Client « Inspect My Gadget]

[Image Source: MobileViews Blog :: Windows Mobile Remote Desktop Connection]

zaDesktop - [Download]

[Image Source: zaDesktop freeware for Windows Mobile]

LogMeIn - [Link]

[Image Source: LogMeIn available for Pocket PC users]

PocketPC VNCViewer Client - [Download]

[Image Source: VNCViewer for PocketPC]

I wanted to add an application I was working on to my Windows Vista’s System Tray. This is one of those things that is completely trivial once you already know how to do it. It’s actually easy enough that most people find their way thorough it on their own, eventually.

Here’s a quick cheat sheet, if you will, that will show you everything you need to know so you can “knock em out da box”, Luke.

First, you’ll need to add a NotifyIcon to the form.

Here are the key parts of the NotifyIcon we will be concerned with:

NotifyIcon.Text: Gets or sets the ToolTip text displayed when the mouse pointer rests on a notification area icon.

NotifyIcon.Icon: Gets or sets the current icon.

NotifyIcon.DoubleClick: Occurs when the user double-clicks the icon in the notification area of the taskbar.

NotifyIcon.ContextMenu: Gets or sets the shortcut menu for the icon.

The DoubleClick event is a good place to add logic to open a main form, and the ContextMenu allows the NotifyIcon to almost be an application on its own.

Note:

You can change the NotifyIcon’s Icon at runtime as a way to alert users to various things happening.

It’s good to set any forms in the application to ShowInTaskbar = false. This helps keep clutter out of the user’s taskbar.

“The climate is made up of “weather”; whether it is nice out depends on whether it is raining or not. A wether is just a castrated sheep.” – Source

Windows Mobile Weather Application Reviews:

• Weather App Smackdown! - Week o' Weather Apps
• XDADeveloperWiki Software Recommendations
• Weather Freeware for Pocket PC

Windows Mobile Weather Applications

Spb Weather PAID

Spb Weather is a very powerful weather forecast Today plug-in. You can customize weather views, skins and even the weather forecast data source. Spb Pocket Plus users can save space on their Today screen running Spb Weather as a tab.

WeatherPanel 2.0 PAID / FREE

Version 2.3.0 has been released! New features include a more powerful layout engine, allowing for a totally customizable display, and new detail screens (summary, stats, radar, and compare).

Weather Watcher Mobile FREE

Weather Watcher is your personal Windows mobile weather station. Automatically retrieve the current conditions, hourly forecast, daily forecast, detailed forecast, severe weather alerts (US only) for over 77,000 cities world-wide.

WeatherBug Mobile Weather PAID

Plan your day with confidence – always be informed and prepared.

Tweaks2K2.NET PAID

Tweaks2K2, home of Tweaks2K2 & Pocket PC devices. PC Counselor, Everything about Pocket PCs. PC Counselor, news, Pocket PCs, tips & tricks.

PocketTweak FREE

PocketTweak is a small program for Pocket PC to configure device settings without using any registry editors.

KaiserTweak FREE

KaiserTweak is a little tool that tweaks some of your HTC Kaiser (P4450, TyTN II, Vario III) registry settings.

Advanced Configuration Tool FREE

Features:

• Extensible tweak list
• Multi-devices support
• Multi-languages support
• Customize key mapping
• Customize file associations
• Customize ClearType settings
• Customize connection settings
• Customize Comm Manager
• Import provisioning XML

SmartTweaker Paid

Smart Tweaker 2008 is the successor of Top-Selling SmartTweaker. It now supports new Platforms and versions of Windows Mobile for Smartphone and Pocket PC devices.

Many phones today have GPS functionality built-in. And if your phone is one of them there is tons of great GPS software available for you to take full advantage of.

If you know of any other Windows Mobile GPS software, let us know about it in the comments.

CoPilot Live (pay)

I’ve always been impressed with CoPilot. They even have an SDK.

Google Maps (free)

iGuidance (pay)

iGo 8 (pay)

Microsoft Live Search (free)

TomTom Navigator (pay)

TrackMe (free)

VisualGPSce (free)

I’ve added UserVoice to my Web site. This is to allow all my readers an opportunity to engage with each other, and to help determine “Where we will go tomorrow”.

What is UserVoice?

Here are some suggestions to get things started:

• Add 30 Days of .NET Mobile Applications to CodeProject
• Do some Windows Mobile Development Screencasts
• Do more advanced Windows Mobile developer articles
• Do more beginner Windows Mobile developer articles
• Use QR Codes for Mobile Devices

But what about you? What do you really want? Where to you want to go tomorrow?

Note: You don’t have to join or sign up for anything to add suggestions or vote on suggestions.

UserVoice also has great RSS feeds:

I also added the feedback tab widget, see below, to allow easy access to the feedback feature:

So you have the perfect phone, and now you need the perfect ringtone?

Maximum PC has an recent article, 20 Must-Have Geek Ringtones and Text Message Alerts (And 10 to Avoid!) that is prefect for find the ringtone of your dreams.

Top 10 ringtones for geeks

Top 10 text message alerts for geeks!

Ringtones You Absolutely Must Avoid!

Here are some more ideas:

IGN: Top 10 Tuesday: Videogame Cellphone Ring Tones

Geek to Live: Make a ringtone from any MP3

The top 7 geeky ringtones - Den of Geek

Some things just go together:

• Bat & Ball
• Peanut Butter & Jelly
• Bacon & Eggs
• Bread & Butter
• Table & Chair
• Bees & Honey
• Comb & Hair
• Lock & Keys

What about personal computers and printers? Well, as long as you are talking desktop computers sure, everybody has a printer. And I believe that everyone who has a Windows Mobile device probably also has a printer. But do they “go together”? Probably not.

How can we bring these two together?

http://cloudprint.hpl.hp.com/

• What is CloudPrint?

CloudPrint is a new service that allows you to share, store and print documents easily using your mobile telephone.

• Does it cost anything?

It is absolutely free to use the CloudPrint service. How you get charged for SMS messages is between you and your mobile phone carrier.

• How do I print Web pages from my phone with SMS?

To print a Web page from your mobile phone, you can SMS the URL to +44 77814 88791. The URL should be in the body of the message. Recipients will receive a document code, just like if the Web page was printed from the PC virtual print driver.

• CloudPrint by Email!

Now you can email items to CloudPrint in addition to using the virtual printer driver. Just send emails with attachments to telephone_number@cloudprint.net. CloudPrint currently supports JPEG and PDF's, with more file formats supported soon. [ details ]

• Remote Print Monitor

Print to your own printer with the Remote Print Monitor. [ details ]

Today many people have good data plans for their Windows Mobile 6 devices. And many of those people are in situations where they would like to either share this connection with either other devices or other people.

So our phones are almost always with us, and we have lots of unlimited data plans available to us. But we want more. We want to be able to share this opportunity.

The question is how?

Here’s a great write up from LifeHacker.com:

Turn your Windows Mobile phone into a Wi-Fi router, providing any Wi-Fi-capable device access to your cell plan's data network, with freeware application WMWifiRouter. Install WMWifiRouter to your phone, run the application, and it automatically sets up an ad-hoc Wi-Fi network named WMWifiRouter that you can connect your laptop—or any other wireless device—to without going through the regular pain involved in tethering an Internet connection to your mobile device. This application is for Windows Mobile 6 only.

Please note that WMWiFiRouter is now a commercial application available for 19.99. This is an updated and fully supported version.

But you can still download the earlier freeware version from the following location:

FreewarePocketPC.net: WMWifiRouter v0.89

You can’t have a pimped out ride with the factory sound system, and you can’t have a pimped out phone with the default themes.

Here are some of the best skins I know of. If you know of any others please share.

Name: Microsoft Voice Command Windows Mobile Media Player Skin

Description:

OrangeGlass VGA is a cool, new skin designed for VGA Pocket PCs. If you are tired of skins that mimic everything else under the sun, have a go of this. It is completely original, created from scratch with a close attention to detail and perfection.

Commercial $39.99

Note: You get this skin with Microsoft Voice Command. You can’t buy it separate.

Name: Vista Windows Mobile Media Player Skin

Description:

Glassy looking Vista windows media player skin with accessible interface and big buttons for finger control.

FREE

Name: Windows Medial Player 11 Window Mobile Media Player Skin

Description:

The Windows Media player skin free for Windows Mobile Standard.

FREE

Name: Tweak Windows Mobile Media Player Skin

Description:

Introducing Tweak, the new skin from Twisted Pixels Multimedia that includes buttons with real life-like motion.

Commercial $1.99

Name: OrangeGlass Windows Mobile Media Player Skin

Description:

OrangeGlass VGA is a cool, new skin designed for VGA Pocket PCs. If you are tired of skins that mimic everything else under the sun, have a go of this. It is completely original, created from scratch with a close attention to detail and perfection.

Commercial $1.99

I had a problem where I needed to get an Enum, but all I had to work from was a string value of that Enum.

I’m not sure this is the best way to convert a string to an Enum. And that is one reason why I wanted to post this on my blog, so others could provide feedback and ideas. The other reason is so others can learn from what we know (and I’ll have it somewhere for the next time I need it ).

There is two pieces of useful information below. One is the Enum.Parse() method exists. And the other is a neat trick to get around having to deal with Enum.Parse()’s Type parameter.

Note: the method and the extension method will work in later versions of .NET and .NET Compact Framework.

Show me the method:

   1: public static T StringToEnum<T>(this string name)

   2: {

   3:     return (T)Enum.Parse(typeof(T), name, true);

   4: }

Chublogga, one of our readers, asked could the StringToEnum method be made into an extension method. It can, see below.

Show me the extension method:

   1: using System;

   2: using System.Linq;

   3: using System.Collections.Generic;

   4: using System.Text;

   5: using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

   6:  

   7: namespace CraftExtensions

   8: {

   9:     public static class CraftExtensions

  10:     {

  11:         public static T StringToEnum<T>(this string name)

  12:         {

  13:             return (T)Enum.Parse(typeof(T), name, true);

  14:         }

  15:     } 

  16: }

Seamless video loops (that is, clips that play without a sharp cut when you loop them) are very useful in today’s media oriented world. And it seems like lately, I’ve been having to fight against this obstacle more and more.  It wasn’t too long ago that Page Brooks and I ran into this issue with a project at ACS Technologies. Recently, I had a friend of mine mention, he has some video he’d like to be able to play in a loop, but whenever the video repeats there is a flicker, which he doesn’t like. And I have an idea for doing some Windows Mobile development video, but I want to have a seamless looping video background.

I was taking some garbage to the dump the other day, and I had an epiphany:

How to Create Seamless Animation Loops from any Video:

Let’s say you have a video that is represented by the following three frames:

If you were to loop this video it wouldn’t look right because there would be a very noticeable flicker when the video moved from the last frame back to the first frame. I’ve made an animated gif to simulate this. It’s a little rough anyway since we are just using three frames, but I think you can get a feel for this issue I am discussing.

Non-seamless Animated Gif Example

Ok, now that you understand the issue fully, we can discuss the solution. It’s almost too simple. I’ll admit, you’ll always be able to create seamless animation video loops using this technique, but that doesn’t mean it’ll always be what you need, but for most video “FX” loops this is a great solution.

Seamless Animated Gif Example

Anytime you have video that is time agnostic, not sure what else to call it, then you can use this technique to make a seamless video loop:

Take your video loop, say “video loop 1”, and make a copy of it “video loop 2”. Now take “video loop 2” and reverse it. Combine “video loop 2” to the end of “video loop 1” and you’ll have made “seamless video 1”.