This is part 6 in a multipart series on setting up Windows 7 on YOUR PC. You can see parts here at Just Another Mobile Monday and at iTechGear.org.

Wow…

We’ve accomplished a lot in the last few weeks.  We have figured out

• (that) Windows 7 was a good OS choice for us
• Determined which version of the OS to install
• Examined our hardware, figured out what to upgrade, and then upgraded our hardware
• Prepped the computer and our data for the OS upgrade, and finally
• Ripped the band aid off and installed Windows 7

Great!  We’ve got the new OS installed..!  Now what??

Great question. Let’s take a quick look at some very important follow up items that need to be done right away. These things don’t have to be done in this EXACT order, but need to be done before you give your PC a good workout.

Now that the install is done, let’s get busy!

Read More …

If you were thinking that the Maemo 5, i.e. the new Nokia OS found on the Nokia N900, was going to dethrone Symbian, you were wrong.

Image courtesy of Engadget 

Today at its Capital Market Day event, Nokia unveiled their plan to improve the good ol’ Symbian OS next year.

During the announcement Nokia CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, showed also some of the elements that will make the new interface and that you can find here as well. We suggest you to visit Engadget for more screenshots and a video of the presentation.

Video player (courtesy of Engadget)

Media app (courtesy of Engadget)

Nokia CEO really blames the UI, rather than the OS itself, and promised a whole new interaction with the devices that will sport next Symbian release, thanks to:

• capacitive multitouch screens;
• new hardwares;
• reduced number of taps to activate functions (e.g. 2 taps to go to the favorite media instead of 8);
• improved browser experience;
• up to 3 times faster UI.

These are really good news, even if the release date is later next year.

I owned myself a Nokia and while I was depressed by the overall slowness of the system, I was impressed by the quality and sturdiness of the device. I hope Nokia will succeed in offering us Symbian and Maemo based smartphones so that we will take advantage of both great devices and fast OSs.

Via: Engadget

RNS Software has just announced that their iconic Hi-Launcher for Palm OS, which provides support for a highly customizable start menu, is now available for Windows Mobile.  Hi-Launcher provides a replacement for the standard Start Menu that allows users to organize shortcuts into cascading menus, add shortcuts to monitor aspects of the OS such as battery and memory, dial phone numbers and launch webpages, just to get started.

You can download a fully functional trial version of Hi-Launcher here.  The full version can be registered for $14.95.

Please watch for a full review of Hi-Launcher as I take it for a spin on my HTC Touch Pro.

Resco has just introduced version 7 of their image viewing program for Windows Mobile, Resco Photo Viewer.  The updated program provides enhanced support for the ever more finger friendly user interface, as can be seen in the screenshot above.  The buttons are larger and spaced to allow for large fingers!  The finger friendly UI has also been enhanced with gestures.

Additionally, Resco Photo Viewer 7 adds support for using GPS to tag images, a redesigned image browser that focuses on sorting images into albums and the ability to upload images to popular social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

A 7 day trial can be downloaded here, while the full version is available for $24.95.

Please watch for the upcoming full review of Resco Photo Viewer 7 as I try it out on my HTC Touch Pro, while in the meantime you can see the full press release below:

Resco Photo Manager 7.00 Released — Far Beyond Standards

Bratislava, Slovakia (December 2, 2009), Resco, a supplier of Windows Phone applications and one of the a leading mobile software developers officially announced the release of Resco Photo Manager 7.00, follower of a popular image viewing application with brand new graphic solutions, overall concept and handling options.

Resco Photo Manager is a favorite photo viewing program with features far beyond standards of the classic built-in viewer. Users gain functions of complete image management in a modern looking and easy to handle application. Intuitive way of work, outrageous effects and many slideshow and edit features move other image viewing programs to the second line.

“With Photo Manager 7, Resco made a fantastic and completely new user experience for showing and managing photos on a Windows Phone. The developers focus on easy finger-friendly controls and iPhone-like interface will fit all needs on the go to provide best user experience.” said David Kaiser from Pocketland.de. “If you want to have photos on the Windows Phone you will need to install Resco Photo viewer.”

Since the last version, the application has undergone lots of graphical and functional changes. The old fashioned appearance has been replaced by modern looking graphics and the overall concept has been modified to make work with the program even more intuitive and effective. Support for the most popular social networks was added.

Some of new features in version 7.00

• Touch optimized user interfaces with handy gestures
  Users operate in 3 main interfaces; Browser, Viewer and Slideshow. Zoom, rotation and move gestures make image handling very comfortable.

• Quick image access
  Browser’s home screen offers 4 main image databases; My Documents, Camera Roll, Favorites and My Albums.

• Footprint support for devices with GPS Module
  Enables adding GPS position to any of the images and make diary of a trip. Such geo-tagged image can be, afterwards, located on a map (using Google Maps).

• Upload to the social networks: Flickr, Facebook, Picassa and Twitter
  Along with Flickr, the biggest internet image database, users can choose among other three popular social networks (Facebook, Picassa or Twitter) to upload their photos to.

Screenshots

With all the Droid news coming out of Verizon lately, it’s nice to see that they haven’t forgotten about Windows Mobile, though without the glitzy marketing campaign, of course. Pocketnow has just released a video review of the Samsung Omnia II and it actually looks like a pretty sharp device. Niceties that jumped out at me include the 3.7 inch AMOLED screen (though it is resistive and not capacitive), the 5-megapixel camera WITH flash and autofocus as well as the Samsung TouchWiz skinning of Windows Mobile 6.5. The Omnia II is now available from Verizon for $200 after a $100 rebate with the standard 2-year agreement.