Pinphone customization - Newbie question

[ragomes]

Hi there,

I'm kind of new on Pinphone matters, so please forgive me for the questions below, but I think they are the most relevant questions new Pinphone owners have at the beginning. Also because information for the Pinphone are so fragmented on the Internet and I find them so hard to find sometimes.

We know that iPhone has the iTunes where you can customize your mobile in several different ways, from changing a ringtone to adding/removing applications from the desktop.

So, why is the Pinphone software so hard to customize (like adding to icons for example)? I'm asking this because we live in a world where all sorts of software are cracked, hacked, etc, and there are tools and cheats for all kinds of softwares all over. So what's so difficult or special about the software on this phone that nobody has yet developed a tool to do customization changes to it. Is the Operational System closed? Is the programming language proprietary or open source?
Isn't there any group, community or team that is working on figuring out its source code?

I have heard about OxaTool to change strings on the phone and rumors about flashing the firmware with a cable (which seems very rare to find) to do some modding to it.

So can someone please explain what's really possible to do today on Pinphone by answering some of these questions:

1. What's the latest firmware version?
2. What are the changes from the previous firmware version (what was improved, changed, softwares added, etc)
3. What are the real changes possibilities today? (what really can be changed on Pinphone in fact: icons modding, renaming, apps addition to desktop, etc).
4. How to do those changes? Which tools can be used? Where are those tools for download? (I have an example where it took me a long time to fiind a PCSync Tool and COM driver that would work with my mobile)
5. Is there a step-by-step guide on how to do those changes/flashing/modding?
6. Is there an userguide manual from the user's perspective that we can download? (I've spent so many nights loking for a simple information on the internet such as how to add a cover to a music album)
7. If answer to question above is "no", can we start to write our own userguide? (I have written several cheats and small guides myself in order to learn things - which I have collected from hours and hours of googling). I think this would help a lot of people new on Pinphone.
8. What softwares work with it (in comparison with iPhone for example). There are details on softwares functioning that I don't know myself like (some promisse to do things they don't actually do yet):
- There is no skype with Voice Over Ip as far as I know;
- Messenger really works online? (not text messaging);
- There are not many games for this mobile as far as I know (320x480). How to convert other games to this resolution and make them touchscreen also?

So these are some questions I've had along the way, which I think most new users also have.

If you could kindly answer them I would appreciate that.

Please also share your thoughts and questions too. I think a forum is a great place to gather information and help other people.

Thanks!

 

[Nebelraser]

Adding icons is not possible.
The operating system is a closed one.
Latest firmware is 1.1.9.
You can only add certain Java apps, for this you will need compatible .jar files and you can install these via the Java icon. Try getjar.com or some other site offering free .jar downloads.
You can replace some of the programs that are launched via the existing icons, by replacing the .jar file of the program with the new one, but you must rename the .jar file exactly like the old name was. So for instance, you can replace the installed Opera Mini 4.1 with 4.2 by using the new .jar, renamed like the original .jar file. Or you can launch a different program via the Facebook icon if you don't need Facebook and so on. That's pretty much it.
No downloadable user guide document as far as I know.
There is a lot of information available on this forum, but 99.9% of it is in German, so if you don't speak German, it will be a bit hard to find what you're looking for.