Bookmark Organizer 0.2 with SkyDrive Integration

I am pleased to announce the latest iteration of Bookmark Organizer. It now comes with the ability to synchronize your bookmarks with SkyDrive. Please read the original post for application pre-requisites and installation.

improvements

• Ability to synchronize with SkyDrive
• Various bug fixes and performance improvements
• Update to WP7 Root Tools SDK 0.2.1.0 alpha
• New splash screen :)
  

known Limitations

• Synchronization is limited to the root folder of SkyDrive. I might include the ability to choose the location if there’s demand for it.
• The app is limited to one way synching, its either Device to SkyDrive or vice versa. Source bookmarks are mirrored to the destination.
• The available sync file extensions are restricted. This is a limitation imposed by SkyDrive. Please read more about it here.
  

disclaimer

The usual disclaimer applies; I am not responsible for anything you might break by using this application. Please use at your own risk.

download

Please feel free to suggest any improvements and I will try to accommodate you as best as I can.

Bookmark Organizer 0.1 for Windows Phone 7.5

UPDATE: Version 0.2 is released!

I saw a tweet a few days back where someone wanted to sync favorites within windows phone. Unfortunately, the current iteration of the OS does not allow developers that level of access to their favorites. I was curious if it was still achievable, at least via un-supported means and this app was the result.

A little research revealed that the phone stores the favorites as url files within the \Windows\Favorites folder and that Internet Explorer treats every file with a “.url” extension as a favorite entry. It was only a matter of reading and manipulating these files.

This initial version allows to do basic CRUD operations on the available bookmarks and also import from a hosted CSV file. The CSV file itself should be a valid 2 columned file containing the Title and Url of the bookmark.
The app is built around the WP7 Root Tools SDK 0.1.6.0 alpha which does most of the heavy lifting.

Pre-requisites:

• An Interop-Unlocked Windows Phone running Mango (7.5)
• WP7 Root Tools by Heathcliff74

Installation:

1. Download and deploy the XAP file using your favorite deployment tool.
2. Make Bookmarks Organizer a trusted app using WP7 Root Tools

Future version:

• The ability to do 2 way sync with a cloud service.
• Improved UI maybe?

Disclaimer:

This app interacts with system files that were not meant to be accessed. I hold no responsibility if your phone gets ‘bricked’, blows up or any other unfortunate mishap by using this application. Please use at your own risk.
Please feel free to email me your comments, feature requests or bugs.

Download:

Flashing OEM ROM on Samsung Focus

I flashed my Samsung Focus using the Rogers OEM ROM the other day and then followed the update method described here to get back to 7.10.8107.79 within 30 mins.

Why? Because my Samsung Focus is finicky on the best of days. More so when it comes to pushing updates via Zune. It was a nightmare getting Mango on it when it was first release, I kept hitting the dreaded 80180048 error. And my slow as molasses internet connection was not helping; constantly re-downloading 160+ Megs of updates for each failure was painful to say the least. My best guess was something somewhere was timing out. And I was not too keen on going through that whole process again.

Followed everything described on the thread. Although I didn’t install the OEM drivers that were provided, I let Zune pick them out for me and this is what it got me:

This one brings the firmware up to 2124.11.8.1: http://download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update/software/dflt/2011/08/404680_i917rrwckh1_prod.pks_c73375d693c8eae569b062eefedea268bbe907d1.cab

And this to 2124.11.9.4: http://download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update/software/dflt/2011/10/417964_i917rrwcki4_prod.pks_1636e51c72b74f38ddfdf77ee9bbf5b2efb1d732.cab

The above links were not present on the original thread at the time of writing, I hope it helps someone else out there.