yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] drb123:
CommZ, is this Skin workable with 2.1? If so, can you please post a link to it! As a newbie to Mobile Shell, some of the skins are amazing. I want to try several to pick my own favorites.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] medicjoe:
mikentucson,

great theme!! im lovin It!
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] winmobilelawyer:
could someone do me a favor and put this .png as the background file in this .dat file?

I tried and could not figure out how to save the PNG as the proper bitmap.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] kwickone:
I tend to agree CommZ. Everyone is on the Diamond bandwagon. It is cool...but already played out in my mind. But that is just one man's opinion. However, I am sure it is much easier for folks to copy than to create from scratch. It would be for me. The main issue that I see is that Mobile Shell is just too much of a pain for the "average" user to skin. I really wish they added a Theme/Skin manager to this program! That would bring out much more skinners and more different styles (simply by way of more skinners). I have recently started checking out the new beta of Wisbar Advance Desktop. It is not quite as "polished" as MS, but it is much easier to customize (for me).
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] jeffrey2000:
copy

I'm sorry but the HTC Touchflo user interface is just still my personal favour yet... it's all about personal taste and relative but GSmart, PointUI, Iphone just isn't my cup of coffee :p

Greatball (and other designers following him) keep up the great work!!! It doesn't matter if it's not original... what matters that it's original for the SPB Mobile Shell cause just the default 1 sucks... If you think there are too many (diamond) flavours?!? so what? everyone takes it's own personal flavour if you don't like the theme and don't have anything nice to say just don't say it cz it's not really appricated or just come up with something new urself.

Anywayz here we say it's better to 'steal' something good then creating something very bad (no offence) what is original now anway... everyone copy/pastes coding and/or graphics from each other that's how you learn in the first place and the software itself is 'quite' limited in it's possibilities.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] kwickone:
I trust this was not aimed at my comment one up. I said nothing negative towards skinners. They are doing a fantastic job. I just expressed my opinion, which we are all allowed to do here.

I found my post quite good :p

- gave my opinion.

- berated myself for not being a good skinner :(

- gave an alternative to those who might want one.

kwickone out!
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] brianlau:
Please stop with the diamond themes! They have been real weak lately. Just MHO.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] brianlau:
Very nice, I like your work. Thank god its not another Diamond theme.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] bluemetalaxe:
mmh, the Problem is HTC seems to have a big team of really brilliant and i think well payed graphic designers ands programers, and with every new phone they kick ass.

Its the same with the iphone/mac stile or the comming mobile 7 or windows vista.

And so it doesnt really wonder that all this looks so great and everyone (me too) whants that.

So its no Problem for me to be inspired by this artists because its sometimes the only way to get that fat Look on a old phone. Creating something completly new needs a brilliant idea and a lot of work. More work than one man here can do.

I have seen here many looks, vista, iphone, pointui, manilla, mobile 7 and the next good skins and looks will come surely.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] jomo25:
To create a new theme/skin you need both creativity and technical skill. Obviously we have a few people who are highly skilled. And they are doing their best to put that skill to use. And obviously, they are filling a need since these threads are consistently the most viewed, replied, and downloaded.

If you think you have some creativity to come up with something new or better, then do something about it. Propose, even in rough form, your ideas. Then some of these skilled folks can try to put it together in a polished form.

But, if you are proposing the sample you showed as such a theme, I personally would disagree. And I think lots of others would demonstrate their agreement by passing your theme over without downloading. IMO, I think your "golden age" sample is a dime a dozen.

And personally, I think the work these guys have done thus far is brilliant. Sure they are tweaking existing ideas, but they still required a lot of skill and time, and have opened up themes that were previously only available on a new $700+ product to owners of devices that are plenty years old. So, I say a big "THANK YOU" to them.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] Milenco:
I did some skinning as well. As I was satisfied with the normal SPB layout I decided to only change the icons, background and remove the exit button. I added my result so far, I'm very pleased with Mobile Shell now.

However, I can't seem to get tasks items visible on the Now screen. As you can see the calendar items shows up fine, but I would like to add Tasks-functionality as well. I understand Mobile Shell hasn't made this available in there current release, but they do support plugins (at least that's what they claim, I can't find any on there site or the internet). Is it possible to write a tasks plugin for Mobile Shell? I've tried installing SPB Dairy (which support tasks) but that doesn't come with any .dll or other file I could use to implement tasks-functionality into Mobile Shell. Does anyone has an idea how to make this work?
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] mtkates:
Guilty As Charged

Hello everyone.

Yes, I have copied others work and ideas. I have shared stuff that is not original in all respects and that some may not like.

Two months ago I had never opened a .dat file and couldn't have if I wanted to. I had never seen xml code. I had tried SPB Mobile Shell in the past, but uninstalled because I didn't find it all that attractive and didn't know any themes existed.

I came across this thread about the time greatbal was teasing with some images, just prior to the release of his Diamond ver1. When that came out, it was just for portrait, but I downloaded it anyway and reinstalled Mobile Shell. It felt to me like I had a new phone. Was it perfect? No, nothing really is. But I thought it was really good and like how it worked on my phone.

Then I started reading about how to change backgrounds, icons, etc., and I started experimenting. Right away I was hooked. I could take this great theme (my opinion) and customize it a little to my liking. After many, many hours of trial and error, and about 200 soft resets later, I had what I later refered to as the Windows Field theme. I was surprized how well it turned out (again, my opinion), so I decided to share it in this thread. I figured maybe someone else out there might also like it.

It doesn't really bother me if someone doesn't like my work, I know everyone has different likes and needs. I am far from an "expert" skinner, I am learning more and more every day while working on my new project and on other Diamond "rip-offs", like figuring out how to convert the code to VGA, changing contacts layouts, etc. I still have a long way to go. I am also not an "expert" with graphics. I guess I'm pretty handy at manipulating others work, but not so good at making graphics from scratch.

I guess my point of this whole post is that while I don't mind if some people don't care for my work, it's kind of discouraging when people talk about there being no originality, or they are tired of this or that, but they don't offer much in the way of what might make up a new, original theme. I can only speak for myself, but why should I keep learning and trying for that ultimate theme that is new and fresh and everyone loves. This is not my job, I have one of those. This is a hobby. I do it for the challenge and to try to make MY phone look the way I want it to. Don't expect so much and maybe you won't be so disappointed.

Anyway, I'm glad some of you like and appreciate my "rip-offs" and maybe I'll think about releasing my new theme when it is finished.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] Heefy:
Great

I for one love your work. I am only recently starting to understand what goes into making one of these themes and I can say its a hell of a lot of time and inspiration. You should be proud as should all the others that have contributed to this thread and SPB Mobile Shell.

Everyone has different ideas of what is great and what is useful etc. I can live with that.

I have every intention of offering my services as an average graphics guy to the themes yet to be produced here as part of this thread. With people like you me and the others that can be bothered to both do and learn we will go far.

Heefy
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] kangmas:
Bashing ???

Usually, those that create and lead have more grace than those that follow. Not once did I read the creator/skinner fuming about some negative feedbacks. Mark of true greatness are the ability to accept the bad with the good, and learn to accept criticism rather than bask in praise and adulation.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] particleman:
just MHO...

I find that the original MS layout, while not the most visually appealing, has everything I want/need. I'm just waiting for a kind someone with the new Toshiba Portege G810 to post the theme that comes with the phone:
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] bluemetalaxe:
This is nearly the default MS theme for the Protege. It is so ugly that uninstalled Mobile shell twice before my brothers here did their great job.

SO thank God for HTC and their Graphic designers and Ideas and thank the skinners and xml programers here for making Mobile shell looking great and workin much better :cool:
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] Khrushy:
Just popping in as a long time lurker to add another voice to those who appreciate the work of everyone tweaking, reskinning, and reworking themes.

As well as, of course, the few giants who create new shiny things from scratch.

I singled out your post because I'm in love with your Windows Field theme. I saw Greatbals diamond theme and thought it was beautifully shiny, but lacked appointments on the "Now" page which, as a professional with a busy schedule, is basically a necessity to me.

And lo and behold, a few pages later, you've tweaked and reworked that theme, adding in appointments to the Now page, so that someone like myself can enjoy the beautiful work.

Without the people who tweak and modify so many others of us without the time or skills to create our own skins would be missing out on the wonderful things these themes are, and the hard work of the original creators would not reach nearly as wide an audience.

That's it from me. Nothing real to add, just <3.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] willybilly:
Yes. It's very nice, has it's own identity and 'un-diamond'.

Mtkates, you didn't show the Today (Now) screen. It is suppose to be a surprise?

Hopefully, appointment is also included in the Today screen.

Else, it'll be very sad for me as I highly depend on it and it's a MUST and it's my personal preference.

Looking forward to installing your new release soon.......8)))))
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] paravis:
Theme without weather?

Anyone know how I might remove weather completely from a theme? Or perhaps, being that I haven't the faintest clue how to do any theme creation at all, if someone could suggest a custom theme that's been posted that has no weather included? Search fails me.

Also... can anyone tells me what adds to SPB MS's mem usage when using custom themes, versus the default? I already know that using a diff background for each page, certainly does, but I never do that, and I go from around 2MB being used by MS, to 3.5-4.2MB used when using a custom theme, off a fresh soft reset.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] mtkates:
Glad you like the look so far. I have heard that maybe it looks WM7-ish, not sure as I haven't seen WM7 and I did not create the Concept graphics for this theme. That was the work of Heefy, who put out a challenge, and who as it turns out is also trying his hand at this theme. Since the graphics are mostly his work, I am waiting for his ok to start some beta testing (besides my own testing). Seems to work really smooth on my Sprint Touch, at least so far.

I did not post any Now screen shots because, yes, the suspence, and also because when I posted the other screenshots, I didn't have the Now screen done yet. I am making several versions and have just finished the portrait for the first version and almost done with portrait for the other three.

I had some problems with clocks so I am making separate versions, one analog, one digital. I am making what I call a standard and a professional version of each clock type. Standard will have 1 contact page and no MRU, and professional will have 3 contact pages and mru. Standard will scroll through with getsures and professional will scroll Launcher to MRU, Now Screen to Calendar, and of cousre scroll contacts pages. Both the standard and the professional have appointments on the now screen.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] budney:
mikentucson theme doesn't have weather, but the theme isn't for me. I would like to see a few more themes without weather. I am having problems with unzipping the dat files, so I am unable to attempt any mods right now.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] mtkates:
Coming Soon?

I hope so...
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] kevystyles:
^ That is looking really good. Cannot wait till that is released. Good job!
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] patko226:
it look very nice....
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] amarguli:
SPB PS wireless manager

Is it possible to replace weather button in now screen of the original MS theme by SPB phone suite wireless manager and put the weather in a separate tab?
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] azzambm:
wOw it looks nice...

great job...

keep it up...
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] gagaza:
Check out this new layout for the second page of weather that BeyondInvisible created. http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=2385270#post2385270 They match with the big weather icons that he created.

A nice thing about them is that you can use them for any theme, whether you have a main weather page or not. You don’t have to use the big weather icons if you don’t want to. All that would be required is a little bit of editing to your current qa_layous.dat.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] Synergie:
OMG I sooooo want! I knew Heefy's graphics would look great! I have been waiting for someone to take on his challenge since he originally posted it! :P The graphics look soooo nice! And you are doing an excellent job... keep up the good work!
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] willybilly:
Finally, you have shown us a snip preview of how the Now screen looks like. Beautifully and professionally done.

My view is it looks WM7-ish simply because of the blueish background. Other than blueish, it will looks otherwise. My personal preference is darker color like the attached background as it's easy to the eyes especially for elder people like me. I have not problem changing the background. That's the only think I learned about SPB Mobile Shell customisation. The rest are alien to me.

Looking forward for this release. As always you are very accommodative and very committed. Great masterpiece and keep it up. Thanks and many thanks.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] Palava:
Lokking for a skin

Hi there,

does anyone know the name of this skin?

or maybe a download location?

nevermind, I found it alreay, 1 utfs for me....

somebody who knows if 2.0 skins work on 2.1 spb?
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] DeZeeKo:
Hi it was made by KULET 78 the name of the skin is GLOSSY if i remember.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] theodoor:
Hi guys,does anyone know withc file i need to change the buttons at the bottom of my screen?

I mean the buttons for(Home,calendar,programs,weather and contacts)

thanks
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] jeffrey2000:
Sure... a 2.0 skin will work on 2.1 SPB but you will not have the specific operator/network (wifi/g/e/3g/h/1x/ev) indicators so they will not appear at all or not correctly but the rest will work fine.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] farukb:
you have the point...diamond and touch themes were fine at the beginning...when the devices haven't even been released...a leak out was interesting to deal with...but now touch looses the point...everyone wants it...that is rediculous:mad:

i must admit that there are some nice looking themes,but there is too much of them with same idea:(

now when i said this i must sit and make my own...:)
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] formula84:
WOW this is FANTASTIC, Awsome job, you sure are a great contributor please bless us with a release soon...
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] Maldoro:
Simpel and Wonderful

The Best Theme Ever For Me
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] maxniper:
;)

personaly i prefered this great job of mikentucson@ with weather tab
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] abumhmmd1:
Blue Ray (Dark Dock & Gloss versions)

AND

frm hear >> http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=2146954&postcount=488

remember ,,, 4MS2.0
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] kytto:
request

is it possible to make a 2.1 like this one, but integrating calendar in home page and replacing "calendar" button with an "exit" one??
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] jeffrey2000:
;)

well then i suggest you to call Andy Poole in the UK, tel.nr is in the pic, apparantly he has the theme you want ;)
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] Jezwick:
My new favourite, very nice :)
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] Thor84:
Yeah!! That's great! Thisis what we are waiting for!!! Looking forward to get it!
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] jomo25:
Love your Windows Field. This looks awesome as well...Will the color of this be changable based on the BaseHue selection? If so, that would be tops in my book thus far...
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] mtkates:
No, the color will not be changable. I wish I had the talent to make that possible (I'll have to experment when I get some free time). However, I am considering making several different colored versions. I don't think that will be too hard.

I'm getting pretty excited about how this has turned out and hope that Heefy will give the ok soon so I can share this theme and get some feedback on how it works for others.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] ~J~:
Stop posting and get it finished!!! :D
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] mtkates:
Portrait is finished, just starting landscape and waiting to hear from Heefy since I relied heavily on his graphics as a template.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] paulsg63:
The anticipation is killing me....!!!!.....

CAN'T WAIT!!

THANKS for the hard work!!

Paul G
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] speedbird787:
does it work with 2.1 ? :confused:
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] willybilly:
Great.

Suggest you start a new thread for this theme once it has been released as it's getting too congested in this thread. Announce here then lead us to the new thread specially for this theme.

Can't wait to have it install in my PPC.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] tribalhere:
can i know where to get Mobile shell 2.1?am still using 2.0
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] Splitter:
If you paid for 2.0, you can d/l 2.1 from the SPB site. Use your key code to register 2.1 (it's the same as 2.0).

Re-read the first 4 words of my post please!!:D
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] Quadman:
This is a great theme but i was wondering if you could add two

more contact pages? Thx and great work...
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] mikentucson:
im in the process of that right now :) seems like all the diamond haters are coming out of the wood works now though.. dont know what im gonna do..

layout has been totally redone. no longer need "messaging" or "multimedia" in any kind of order. layout has been made so scrolling over past Contacts gives you more tabs :) more tweaking needs to be done
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] thestandardh:
i hayve windows field could i replace my calendar tab with your messaging tab above
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] mikentucson:
yes but your Email/MMS notifications will not show up anymore :( still trying to think of a work around for that.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] brodys2:
my bad

sorry this might be a silly question but on the envelops does it show a preview of the actual email or text messages? i use pocket cm is there some way that can be incorporated ? oh and where is the zip file for the latest with the weather tab. Great work and wanna try it out
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] jomo25:
Asked previously and answered: the message is for display purposes only. It does NOT show a preview of the actual email or SMS message.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] brodys2:
ok

Ok well that ok do you know when the zip will be added so i can try it out ?
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] mtkates:
Keep up the good work

Don't worry about haters, design a theme that you like, if others like it, great, if not, it doesn't really matter because you will have your phone the way you want it and the haters will still be unhappy with theirs and just complain and not try to do anything about it themselves.

Just like my new theme, I hope Heefy will want to make it public because I would like to share it, but in the end, it doesn't matter much to me because I have it on my phone right now and I love it! :D
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] Jezwick:
yep, seems to be fine so far :)
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] ~J~:
mtkates, just a quick question. Your new theme, it does have 3 contact pages doesn't it? I know this seems trivial for some, but for people like me who like to seperate 'family', 'friends', 'colleagues' it's a real boost, hence why I've used greatbals theme so much without switching.

But definately looking forward to yours.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] luismix:
Good morning everyone :)

Where can I get themes in VGA? I have bben searching, and only one ugly green theme found :(

Thank you vey much!! :D
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] jeffrey2000:
The theme is in 1 word just great!!! good work... Still hope a newer version of SPB MS will include direct reading of messages from inside MS and redirecting apps to tabs and it will be almost perfect! (forget bout the others that don't like the theme, there are more users that do like the diamond theme anywayz!! and listen to mtkates he's wise and great designer aswell ;)
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] patko226:
do you have any idea when it will be aviable for share?
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] farukb:
someone mentioned diamond haters...we aren't haters...we just feel sorry to see waste of potential that many people around here have...

diamond looks nice to me,so does touch,but we try to get pople make original stuff...somehow it's useless to have 100 same themes...

i really apreciate mtkates's,greatbal's,commZ's work,they do it propertly

and by the way i'm making some icons and stuff, just didn't try to skin mobileShell,so if anyone could tell me how to,i'd really be thankfull