Crosswords (Scrabble clone)

Direct Download (Download Page)

Crosswords (or somtimes called Xwords) is a great Scrabble clone for the Samsung Epix. The interface isn’t as polished as it could be, but it works, its fun and its free so I’m not complaining! You can load it up with a number of different dictionaries available here – but the default dictionary is fine for my limited vocabulary

Anyhow – its a great game for the Samsung Epix that’s good for the ole brain.

Crosswords lets you play against your Samsung Epix or in multi-player mode. It also has a number of features including hints, undo, etc. Despite looking rough around the edges it’s actually a very good Scrabble clone.

Big thanks to Eric House for making Crosswords for the Samsung Epix!

Dungeon Master

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A couple weeks ago I had a wave of nostalgia and wanted to play Dungeon Master, one of my favorite games for the Apple IIGS. I figured there had to be an emulator or a port for Windows, so I hunted around. Low and behold I found an awesome site over at www.dungeon-master.com that linked out to not only a superb Windows port, but also a Windows Mobile port. Needless to say I immediately wet myself realizing I could play Dungeon Master on my Samsung Epix. Anyhow, it took some tweaking of the interface to make everything fit, but I think I got it to a place where its usable on the Samsung Epix’s 320 x 320 screen.

If you haven’t played Dungeon Master its a very cool/old-school RPG where you choose 4 heros to run around a dungeon killing monsters, collecting cool gear and figuring out puzzles — it’s  incredibly fun.

When tweaking the interface I had to remove the direction buttons and the status message box. To move you can use the following keys:

• Move forward – K 
• Turn left – J
• Turn right – L
• Slide left – N
• Slide right – .
• Move backwards – M

The key mapping make it pretty easy to hold onto the Epix with your left hand, moving your heros using your thumb, and keeping the stylus in your right hand tapping away at the screen.

Unfortunately there isn’t room for the status messages so you’ll have to live without them until  new version of the port is released that handles better resizing of the controls.

Note, you can download and play different dungeons. To play the new dungeons, download the .dat file and save it to /Program Files/DUNGEON.DAT  … of course, back up the existing DUNGEON.DAT before overwriting it with your new dungeon file. I recommend storing a copy of your DUNGEON.DAT files in /Program Files/Dungeon Master/Other Dungeons.

Huge thanks to Paul for creating this awesome port!

Google Maps

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Google maps is the premier mapping service online and continues to outshine the competition in the mobile arena. Google Maps brings much of the functionality found on maps.google.com to your Samsung Epix. You can get directions, search for businesses, and even use the Epix’s built-in GPS to help you get where you’re going.

TCPMP

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I’m going to do something out of character and say some nicities about a Microsoft product that isn’t an OS: Windows Media Player 10 Mobile isn’t half bad. The version 10, which is installed by default on the Samsung Epix, has a fairly clean, simple interface and plays my mp3s pretty well (very rate that they skip/stutter). As a music player it performs well enough.

And that’s where the nicities end. As you’d expect, Microsoft has crippled Windows Media Player 10 so it only supports a handful of  Video and Audio file formats. If your video files aren’t WMV you probably have better luck playing the lottery than getting them to play properly in Windows Media Player 10.

Which leads me to TCPMP, the best media player fo the Samsung Epix out there. It supports a ton of video and audio formats, is highly customizable/tweakable and best of all its FREE! The only downside would be its rather spartan look (which some people may actually prefer I suppose).

Google Sync

Setup Instructions

In a brilliant/foolish move Microsoft has licensed its ActiveSync technology to Google. 

What does this mean for you? Now you can get Gmail and Google Calendar on you Samsung Epix, and even sync your Google contacts!

Note: I believe you can only have a single ActiveSync connection set up on your Samsung Epix. If you already have a source setup for ActiveSync, you won’t be able to add Google as an ActiveSync source (unless you remove your existing ActiveSync source).

PHM RegEdit

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PHM Regedit is a nice on-phone registry editor for the Samsung Epix. I don’t normally like modifying registry keys on the phone, but PHM RegEdit has very nice interface.

SmartSKey (aka VolFix)

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SmartSKey is a free utility that lets you remap the functionality of some of the Samsung Epix’s keys. By default it adds mapping to the Left and Right soft keys and the the Volume slider (found on the left side of the Epix).

• Volume slider at the left = Page Up/Page Down
• Tap soft key = Original soft key functions
• Tap and hold left soft key = Start Menu
• Tap and hold right soft key = Close/OK Button

The remapping of the Volume slider is golden! It makes scrolling through Messages and E-mail, or anything that spans multiple screens, so much easier. I highly recommend this little utility.

To check if SmartSKey is running, run Start > Programs > Applications > SmartSkey. If you receive a pop-up asking if you’d like to Close SmartSKey, that means its running. If you don’t then you just started it.

For the more adventurous you can follow the instructions in the SmartSKey Readme PDF to configure even more buttons on the Samsung Epix. The SmartSKey.ini file is located in /Program Files/SmartSKey/ on your Epix.

Big thanks to LOU Chi Wai over at www.waterworld.com.hk for the awesome application.

CeRegEditor (Mobile Registry Editor)

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CeRegEditor is  a Windows registry editor allows you to modify your Samsung Epix’s registry. Be forewarned, making uninformed changes to your registry can cause your phone to not work properly, though you can always revert back to the default factory settings if something does go wrong (you will lose all the data on your phone, but the phone won’t be permanently broken).

Q. While I trying to edit keys or values in registry, the application shows “Access denied”.

A. The operating system of PDA, bloks any writes to registry. To disable blocade, please use the tool embedded into CeRegEditor, Tools-> Unlock registry.

To use the CeRegEditor you must have your Windows PC connected to your Samsung Epix via ActiveSync/WMDC. When this connection has been established, run CeRegEditor from your Windows PC.

chgFingerMouse

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As you’ve probably already figured out, the Samsung Epix has two navigation modes: Optical Mouse and 4-way Navigation. Optical Mouse allows you to move a mouse cursor around the screen by moving your finger over the optical mouse pad (between the “Start” and “Ok” buttons). 4-Way Navigation allows you to move Up, Down, Left and Right by finger your thumb over in the corresponding direction.

My default there are two ways to change the navigation mode:

1. Start > Settings > System Tab > Finger Mouse > Toggle “Activation Method”
2. Go to the Today Screen, and press “Fn-N”. This will toggle the navigation method; but only works from the Today screen.

For the most part I like using 4-way navigation but sometimes when I’m in an application want to switch over to “mouse” mode – but theres not good way to do this without going all the way back to the Today screen.

Which brings me to chgFingerMouse! chgFingerMouse is a simple little program that toggles the navigation mode (much like Fn-N) except you can bind it to a hard-key and toggle the navigation method from within any program.

Here’s what you do:

1. Download (using the above link) and install chgFingerMouse on your Samsung Epix.
   • When you install chgFingerMouse, it will create a Shortcut to chgFingerMouse in Start > Programs > Applications.
2. Go to Start > Settings > Buttons
3. Select a button from the list to assign chgFingerMouse too. I set:
   • Camera button > chgFingerMouse
   • Camera Hold button > Camera
4. Click “Ok”

Now you can switch between Mouse and 4-way navigation mode quickly and easily by just pressing a hard-key on your Samsung Epix!

Zenyee Notif Blinker

Direct Download (Download Page)

Zenyee Notif Blinker fixes a rather annoying bug that the Samsung Epix ships with: The Epix’s missed call/SMS/E-mail LED light notification stops “blinking” when the Epix enters “sleep mode”. Notif Blinker keeps the LED blinking for a preset amount of time (15, 30, 60, or 120 mins).

To configure Notif Blinker’s settings you must launch the File Explorer and navigate to: /Program Files/Zenyee/Notif Blinker and run Notif Blinker Config.exe (I’m not sure why Zenyee didn’t make a shortcut in the Start menu to this config utility but he didn’t.)

Also, for Zenyee to operate correctly, you must tell Windows Mobile not to manage the LED for the notifications you want Zenyee to manage.

• Start > Settings > Personal tab > Sounds & Notifications
• Uncheck “Flash light for” for the notifications you want Zenyee to control

Sam noted in the comments “for those that disable Windows Notification (the above step) and still can’t get the program to work, you will also have to select NotifBlinker on the drop down menu in Notification and check “Flash Light”.

Below are the Notif Blinker LED Index slider values:

1. Off
2. Red
3. Green
4. Blue
5. Yellow
6. Purple
7. Aqua
8. White
9. Off
10. Off
11. Off

To restart Notif Blinker just click on Start > Programs > Notif Blinker and follow the on-screen instructions.