For those of you who are into the ‘homebrew’ hacking community for Windows Phone, you’ll want to take note that Jaxbot, the man behind the site Windows Phone Hacker (www.windowsphonehacker.com) will sadly be retiring.
Jaxbot just graduated from high school—yes, he was a young lad---and he will be moving on to college in the fall, where he hopes to take on other projects and adventures. We can’t blame him as he’s at that age where being pigeonholed into one area is not something you want to have happen. It’s a time to explore and experiment, though we hope he continues to dabble in Windows Phone.
From his site:
"As for WPH, I don't know what will happen. I'll still be here, fixing things here and there, maybe releasing something in the future. But for the most part, it's time to say goodbye, goodbye to Windows Phone, goodbye to Microsoft. I wish you two the best.I'm starting college in the fall. I'll probably start my next four year experiment there, a dream I've always longed to explore. This is very hard for me, and extremely bittersweet, but it's something I feel must be done. I could have just left, but I thought everyone deserved a proper goodbye. An ironic goodbye, actually; I'm not going anywhere, nor is WPH. But my focus is shifting to a new niche, one incompatible with the old."
Jaxbot was responsible for many early homebrew apps on Windows Phone 7, back when the OS was a wee bit more accessible to developers who had unlocked devices for sideloading. Some of those included Keep Alive, which allowed you to keep your Wi-Fi connections persistent in Windows Phone 7 devices. Later, that app became publicly available and even became a part of Windows Phone 8 proper.
Other homebrew creations going back to 2011 were Multitask 7, which enhanced multitasking on Windows Phone and a custom Start screen app.
Jaxbot later released some commercial software, including our favorite Lock Widgets, which places weather and battery information on your Windows Phone 8 lockscreen and Blur, which allows you to create excellent fuzzy pics for higher visibility as background images.
Another big tool was ‘Seven eighter’, which helped folks update their Windows Phone 7 .x devices to 7.8, even when carriers would not support their phones. It was an extremely helpful tool that made updating your phone much easier and gave respite to many of our readers who wanted the latest OS updates.
Needless to say, we’ll miss his contributions to Windows Phone and we’re grateful for what he did do—there’s no doubt that he left an indelible mark on the platform’s development and future.
Jaxbot, we wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors! Thanks for everything (and if you ever need a writing gig, give us a call).
Follow Jaxbot on Twitter (@jaxbot) to keep up with him or check our his personal site: https://jaxbot.me/.
Source: Windows Phone Hacker
Daniel Rubino is the Executive Editor of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft here since 2007, back when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, Microsoft Surface, laptops, next-gen computing, and arguing with people on the internet.
