Device Manager and TouchXperience Betas released for WP7 [HomeBrew]

By George Ponder
last updated

We've been following the Homebrew Device Manager by Schapman for some time now and it has now been released as a Beta. The Device Manager features include:

  • Applications management: view, install/uninstall homebrew applications
  • File management: explore device, exchange files with your phone
  • Sync files, folders and favorites with phone
  • Send to Windows Phone (to send files, apps, ringtones, web links in one click)
  • Detailed device information (CPU, ROM, RAM, storage, network, battery, OS,...)
  • Add and manage custom ringtones

Additionally, TouchXperience for Windows Phone 7 has been released as a Beta. The navigation app was well received back in the Windows Mobile days and it doesn't miss a beat on Windows Phone 7. Key features of TouchXperience include:

  • Create custom menus
  • Add folders, apps, contacts, websites, maps, documents, and many other widgets
  • Organize applications & games
  • File explorer
  • Multitasking support
  • Panorama background customization
  • Contact manager
  • Communication manager
  • Profile manager
  • and more

Keep in mind you'll need a registered or unlocked Windows Phone 7 device to use either. You can find all the details on Windows Phone 7 Device Manager and TouchXperience here at the TouchXperience website and after the break, you can catch a video demo of TouchXperience.

Thanks, @KingpinEX, for the  heads up

George Ponder
George Ponder

George is the Reviews Editor at Windows Central, concentrating on Windows 10 PC and Mobile apps. He's been a supporter of the platform since the days of Windows CE and uses his current Windows 10 Mobile phone daily to keep up with life and enjoy a game during down time.

7 Comments
  • finally!...waited so long for this
  • This is one "jailbreak" developer doing the right thing
  • Its cool that they did this because it shows that custom uis are possible on wp7 but this is not a very good ui, it looks like they couldnt give up winmo and created this strange combo of the two... Maybe without the horrific icons it could have worked
  • I guess this doesnt have the facility to backup SMS's does it? Still moot anyway as I have a DVP and it cant be unlocked after nodo.
  • Currently I can't find many reasons to use this program, many of the functions just open apps on the phone. Once this application is able to run as a background task in mango, along with more functionality such as backup/real sms sending (not sure if that will ever be possible) then it would be worth using. All that aside this is some awesome work, and makes us ask the question that if a 3rd party developer can do this high quality work, why isn't it built into Zune?Keep up the good work :)
  • I appreciate what Julian Schapman is doing (just made a donation) but this is like WP7 meets WM. TouchXperience takes about 3-4 seconds to open, a bit longer than a typical app. If I tap on the WiFi link for example it opens right up, but if I tap the back key I have another 8-9 second lag before I get back to TouchXperience. Was really hoping to use this as a Favorites app hub, and the apps launch as fast as they do from the standard app list, but not sure if I can deal with the reopen and navigation speeds. There is a setting labeled "allow multitasking" but as I don't know what it does and whether it's reversible, I am not ready to try it yet. And not sure what the doublewide TouchXperience tile is for. Lots of real eatate for nothing being in there unless something is planned for the future.
  • Wasn't this supposed to have a feature where it could developer unlock Nodo devices way back? The reason it wasn't released was so that Microsoft couldn't patch the change before Nodo was released? Was this feature removed??