[Tutorial - updated 11/22/09] Customize your Diamond -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5 Mods
 

Things you should know before reading...

• How to unlock your phone and properly flash to a new rom...
• How to flash back to the stock rom for your carrier incase you screw things up...
• Be sure to keep track of which cabs you install and in which order and be prepared to have to hard reset if you make any mistakes (usually not necessary, with the cabs I'll recommend they can usually be un-installed and leave no traces behind if it messes with anything.)

Before I tell you what to install and which Roms I recommend, here is a quick tidbit on why I feel if you have a Diamond, you do not have to upgrade to a Touch Pro 2 to get the same functionality.

Let it be said that if the slide out qwerty and bigger screen are selling points for you then obviously you'll probably upgrade or already have, but I just don't feel like it's worth the $350, and here's why, and then I will show you how to squeeze every bit of functionality and usability out of your Diamond by recommending roms and programs to install.

Okay so I contemplated over and over again about why I should upgrade from my Diamond to a Touch Pro 2...and I just can not justify doing it, especially now that we have so much available software for our Diamonds.

Sprint Touch Diamond Specs

Sprint Touch Pro 2 Specs

Now, there are several hardware benefits the Touch Pro 2 has over the Diamond and they are as follows....

1.) Though the processor speeds are identical at 528 Mhz, the Touch Pro 2 uses a more advanced processor.

2.) The TP2 has 256 more mb of ROM Memory (read only memory). This basically means the TP2 will boot up quicker.

3.) Slide out Qwerty Keyboard

4.) Larger screen size.

......

Now to me, taking my Diamond and adding those four options...that's not worth $350 plus extending my contract for two years.

One thing I HAVE to add is that Manila 2.5 DOES NOT SUPPORT LANDSCAPE. So if you bought a TP2 for the slide out Qwerty keyboard with a sweet tilting screen...you can't even use it if you upgrade Manila, once you slide your keyboard out your screen goes black and you can't even use it. This isn't because the TP2 is flawed...this is because Manila 2.5 RIGHT NOW is meant for the Touch HD2, which doesn't have a keyboard, so it was NEVER designed to be used with a Qwerty keyboard phone. Needless to say, I like my Diamond.

SO...I recommend that everyone considering upgrading try these steps first to get your Diamond up to date on the latest software before spending more money.

Screen shot (slider retracted):
http://www.creativehinge.com/JQdesig...ome_screen.png

Screen shot (slider expanded):
http://www.creativehinge.com/JQdesig...e_screen_e.png

When it comes to application design, it's all about maximizing screen real estate. Luckily we have a lot of smart and intuitive people working here at PPCGeeks and for HTC to look up to. Below will be instructions on how to get your phone to look EXACTLY like the screen shots. In the last step is where you choose your wallpaper, and can choose the featured hero style taskbar.

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1.)

• First and foremost, you need a good and stable WM 6.5 rom. Some people prefer the look of WM 6.5.1 (which is pictured in the above screen shot...large taskbar at the bottom as opposed to top like 6.5) and I am going to recomend a rom that has it pre-installed, plus has the newest, and nearly 100% working HTC Sense 2.5.
  
  It is OMJ's Newest HTC Sense rom (WM 6.5.1 Version 1.4 as of 11/21/09). Install the version with Windows Mobile 6.5.1 which has the newest HTC Sense 2.5.
  
  ALWAYS flash your phone back to stock rom, do a hard reset after the initial flash. THEN flash to the rom you want to use, in this case, OMJ's rom.

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2.)

• Now Though Manila 2.5 is running pretty good out of the box on OMJ's rom (not a knock to OMJ by just saying pretty good, because his work is OUTSTANDING), but it leaves a FEW things to be desired, like a less cluttered home screen, and the ability to have a retractable slider etc...that is where Max Manila Ultimate by maxycy comes in.
  
  Download this cab and install it (must be a member at XDA)
  
  Here is the thread for max manila ultimate...From what I understand, this cab is not literally MEANT for VGA version of Manila 2.5 but does in fact work like a charm. DO NOT INSTALL ANY OTHER CABS EXCEPT FOR THE ONE I HAVE LINKED YOU TO. It is the ONLY version that will work with the manila 2.5 that is on the rom I recommended.
  
  Look over the thread to get info on what regions of the screen react to swipes and touches...it is MUCH different than any other version of TouchFlo3d you have EVER used. Much more intuitive.

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4.)

• Go to the settings of Max Manila Ultimate by swiping your finger across the center of the top curtain of the home screen to reveal Max Manila settings, and then flip the clock up so you can see all the options.
• Change the number of displayed programs to 20, turn the slider icons to "off", and change the number of Calendar appointments to 2....these settings will give you the look of the screenshot I posted. (swiping your finger across the top curtain also reveals or hides the home screen buttons)
• Download the attatched zip file and copy the manila files to your windows directory on your phone to get the custom bottom icons instead of the plain default black ones.

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5.)

• -- Go here and download & install amarullz's greenblack theme for WM 6.5.1. buttons.
  
  -- Then use the 2nd attatched image as your wallpaper (it's a touched up version of the default Hero wallpaper that I made in Photoshop)

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That should be it...post em up with any questions / comments.


Not covered in this thread but coming soon...

Links to custom task bar icons
Start Menu Customizations made by me
Custom TF3D icons / sliders / curtains made by me
More wallpapers






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Re: How to turn your Diamond into a mini TP2 -- 6.5.1 Mods and Manila 2.5 VGA Mods
 

Thanks!
Very well work.
All is accessible and is simple!
Thanks!!! :)))

Re: [Tutorial] Customize your Diamond from start to finish -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5
 

Calendar doesn't show below the clock and I am missing one row of configuration squares..unfortunately the important ones. Any idea why this is happening

Re: [Tutorial] Customize your Diamond from start to finish -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5
 

If I understand you correctly Flip your home screen up to hide the clock when you're in the configuration squares to reveal the rest of the squares. This should let you turn on the retractable slider "Tab Icons - OFF" and thus enable you to click on the appointments square and set it to 2. Screen shots always help when asking about problems.

EDIT: FYI, you must actually have upcoming (shows appointments for the next 2 days) appointments in your calendar for anything to show below the clock. I'm assuming you do.

Re: [Tutorial] Customize your Diamond from start to finish -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5
 

I may have to try this.

Re: [Tutorial] Customize your Diamond from start to finish -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5
 

installed, works fantastic. on the main screen of the homescreen, i have 4 tabs that are showing up in the max manila, black and white squares that show up right underneath calendar appts. theyre missed calls, alarm/or calendar?? i dont know, sms and email.

how do you get rid of those four squares?

Re: [Tutorial] Customize your Diamond from start to finish -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5
 

You can put your finger on the calendar appointments and swipe from right to left and that will go from the calendar appointments to max manila settings, and will also switch from those botton squares you're talking about to your programs tabs.

Re: [Tutorial] Customize your Diamond from start to finish -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5
 

how do you fix the bg4all? My contacts are unreadable in the all contacts because the background is dark gray and the writing is black. I had to install max version 2.2 for manila 1919 for it to work correctly! Help please.

Re: [Tutorial] Customize your Diamond from start to finish -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5
 

Is it just me or does the slider retract really slow sometimes. I have to sit on a tab for a while before it will go down. Am I doing something wrong?

Re: [Tutorial] Customize your Diamond from start to finish -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5
 

great tutorial JQuill! Thanks for doing this. Will give this a go soon. Quick question, does this work with 218xx (com2) sys as well or just the 6.5.1 ones?

Re: [Tutorial] Customize your Diamond from start to finish -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5
 

i saw that. which part of this is supposed to be there by default when you flick the screen upwards, the quick links? or the settings? i would prefer not to see those squares at all.

i also had the problem with the contacts not being readable due to the background as mentioned by billyapd21.

Re: [Tutorial] Customize your Diamond from start to finish -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5
 

It should mostly except for the themes.

Re: [Tutorial] Customize your Diamond from start to finish -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5
 

Just to clarify some issues...these have been posted by a couple people...

Manila 2.5 does have some bugs...as far as the background for all pages goes, that's a feature built into Max Manila and I'll be making some backgrounds that will let you be able to read both black and white text to eliminate this issue with a simple wallpaper change...I'm going to do that so you all don't have to wait for an update to max manila or Manila 2.5. Look for a new set of wallpapers within the next few days (as soon as I have time).

Anybody using any version of Manila other than 2.519202525 should not be using this tutorial. I mean ofcourse you CAN, but you should know that this tutorial is meant for you to be using WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.519202525 OR HIGHER. That's why the FIRST step in this tutorial tells you to install OMJ's 6.5.1 rom (which is the best OVERALL Diamond Rom out right now) which has the newest version of Manila 2.5. This tutorial will not focus on backwards compatibility for older versions of Manila.

I am not saying this to alienate anybody believe me, I just feel like I need to say it because I probably won't be able to respond to your issues as quickly because I only have one phone lol, and I'm currently running exactly what's in this tutorial. So basically as soon as I update my own phone with stuff you'll all get the updates, advice, and any new graphics I make.

Thank you all for using this tutorial! I'm glad you find this interesting and I'm glad to see a lot of people of all skill levels and ranks finding this helpful. My goal for this thread is to create the ultimate user friendly experience that anybody of any skill level can execute and live with.

I think more people need to make tutorials like these. It's obvious that the goal of HTC is to push UI's like Manila and attach them as deeply as possible to WM system architecture. In my opinion companies like Microsoft and HTC need to work EVEN CLOSER together so that HTC's UI's can be just that, thorough user interfaces. Microsoft seems to be hell bent on cashing in on the mobile market, but the right move to me would be Microsoft buying HTC's software division.

Anyway, my goal is for this to become a sticky so that people will just come to this post for small Manila and WM6.5.1 visual customization issues instead of creating threads in all the wrong sections and posting all over the boards.

Re: [Tutorial] Customize your Diamond from start to finish -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5
 

Looks good

Re: [Tutorial] Customize your Diamond from start to finish -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5
 

It's supposed to take 3 seconds. For roms and Manila Mods like these I always recommend downloading "Advanced Config" and maxing out the performance settings. Still, it shouldn't take any longer than 3 seconds.

Re: [Tutorial] Customize your Diamond from start to finish -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5
 

Thanks. You're the third person who's first post on the forums were in this thread. This tutorial is apparently so simple and easy that I'm attracting new members to the site, which means somebody owes me some muh-fuggin money!

Re: [Tutorial] Customize your Diamond from start to finish -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5
 

I'll PayPal you one cent. :p

Re: [Tutorial] Customize your Diamond from start to finish -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5
 

my home screen still has the tabs on the bottom. not an arrow like yours has above phone and menu. i did the rom than the clear cab than the 2.5. also how do you keep just one clock?

Re: [Tutorial] Customize your Diamond from start to finish -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5
 

I'm going to try this out later when I get home. I've gotten so sick of my diamond and desperatly want to upgrade but waiting for something worth it, maaybe this will hold me off from getting something I might regret.

Re: [Tutorial] Customize your Diamond from start to finish -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5
 

The eye candy makes it worth it. But I like my Diamond even without it really. I get good reception and now battery life since I got my 3000mAH battery. lol

Re: [Tutorial] Customize your Diamond from start to finish -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5
 

The toggle on the top right will cycle through a half dozen clock configurations ...

Re: [Tutorial] Customize your Diamond from start to finish -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5
 

sweet. works great. a tade slow but will keep me interested for now.

Re: [Tutorial] Customize your Diamond from start to finish -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5
 

Are the 6.5.1 home screen softkeys / buttons customizable? I really like NRG's "action" + contacts configuration. But even without the "action" button i'd like to change the softkeys on most of the ROM's i've tried.

Re: [Tutorial] Customize your Diamond from start to finish -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5
 

This works well but I noticed a few things like I have no picture mail,actually I can't send or receive and I tried installing the arcsoft.Also on my last rom i had the option to upload pics right to facebook and vids to youtube, is there a cab for this feature?The last thing is with the browser not the rom but I can't access my favorites when I hit the star,not that big of a deal because I can set the pages on the rom but a little inconvenient.

Re: [Tutorial] Customize your Diamond from start to finish -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5
 

Thank you all for helping eachother out. Makes maintaining this thread a lot easier. Attached is a picture mail cab, I've heard different things about different versions, this is the one I've always used. Will post wallpapers and other updates soon, it's been a rough week. I promised Juicy I'd make him some graphics like a month ago and still haven't gotten around to it so...truthfully I've been out of the design game for a while but am starting to get back into it, it's always been what I like doing and being creative always helps. Again, thanks to you guys for answering each others questions I appreciate that. Updates soon I promise!!!!!!!!

In the mean time I recommend that all of you update to OMJ's latest rom, this means you'll have to customize manila again...but you already know how to do that don't you.

EDIT: BTW...I haven't tried customizing the soft keys on manila 2.5 yet (the soft-key changes you are referring to are accomplished by a simple registry change to manila. It's got nothing to do with 6.5.1) , you can't do it with a simple reg edit like you used to be able to. Truthfully I wouldn't want to the menu button is key for me, but if I see anything I'll link to it here.

THIS PICTURE MAIL CAB IS FOR SPRINT ONLY!!

Re: [Tutorial] Customize your Diamond from start to finish -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5
 

Thanks for the pic mail. I'm having a storage memory problem whichis weird cause I only get it with 6.5.1 roms.

Re: [Tutorial] Customize your Diamond from start to finish -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5
 

Hopefully I'll have some time to work on this stuff this weekend. Updating to OMJ's latest rom will take care of 90% of any graphics issues people may have so definitely update to OMJ's latest rom and follow the tutorial from there and everything should be better and more usable.

Re: [Tutorial] Customize your Diamond -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5 Mods [updated 11/21/0
 

very small update with link to OMJ's new rom and new taskbar and my own custom home screen buttons.

Note: All custom icons properly "expand" to show new sms, new e-mail, missed calls, and agenda appointments. The bottom right corner of the icon pops off and shows the number of missed items when you have one, just like the agenda icon has in the screen shot.

On the phone calls and SMS icons the "sms" bubble and the telephone icon shrink to the proper size so that they don't get cut off when you have a missed item, only a corner of the green square pops off and the icon inside the green square shrinks to the proper size (and on the phone icon...as you can see when you have no missed calls it stays as just the telephone, then when you have a missed call it shows an exclamation point next to the telephone icon to show that you have missed calls, along with the number of missed calls)

Re: [Tutorial - updated 11/21/09] Customize your Diamond -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5 Mo
 

Is it possible to just have the Clock and Calendar changes without the 4 shortcuts on the bottom.
If they are not customizable that makes it really difficult to use. I would much rather have the contacts tab as one of them

Re: [Tutorial - updated 11/21/09] Customize your Diamond -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5 Mo
 

Yeah...the shortcuts at the bottom are there anyway, I just gave you custom icons so they look better. So when you install max manila ultimate, you can have just the calendar with 2 appointments and no icons (or just one appointment if that's what you prefer)... and many other different configurations. Having the icons at the bottom doesn't hinder your access to the slider that has ALL your icons / tabs. All you have to do is tap the white arrow and your normal slider pops up, and even though the white arrow might look a little small in the screen shot, trust me it's very easy to touch and not hit other buttons by accident.

I'm actually looking into SOMEHOW making a hardware button retract and expand the slider...but I have no idea how I would do that so I might look into it, I might not.

Edit: Now that you mention it I may just look into somehow getting a contacts button on the home screen but it would have to replace one of the 4 that are already there.

Re: [Tutorial] Customize your Diamond from start to finish -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5
 

The options in the home screen "menu" softkey are important, but they don't need to be accessed often enough to warrant being on the homescreen. Settings type things usually get set, and then left alone. If I did end up replacing "menu" with something else, how would I access options like "customize home screen tabs"? Is there an *.exe for that somewhere?

Re: [Tutorial] Customize your Diamond from start to finish -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5
 

All those options can be accessed from the normal "settings" tab. Either way, as of right now, there's no obvious way to change the soft keys.

Re: [Tutorial - updated 11/22/09] Customize your Diamond -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5 Mo
 

repped and great post!

Re: [Tutorial - updated 11/22/09] Customize your Diamond -- WM6.5.1 and Manila 2.5 Mo
 

Has anyone tried this with the new sense 2.5 1921, which I believe OMJ's latest contains?