Omnia Tip: Trade Your Samsung Widgets for Something Better

If you’re lucky enough to be a proud new owner of Samsung’s iPhone-hunting Omnia i910 on Verizon Wireless… first, congratulations.

And second, we have a solution for your widget woes. For those of you that don’t own an Omnia, Samsung replaced the typical Windows Mobile home screen with their own Samsung Widgets. While it is nice that Samsung is trying to innovate… the widgets are full of friction (for those of you who aren’t UI experts, that means they lag a lot… they’re slow).

Fortunately, Samsung gives you more than one alternative home screen. Of course, you can go back to the traditional Windows Mobile Today screen, but, unless you’re a fan of MSN Direct or Windows SideShow, there’s not a lot of fun there. So, Samsung made the (somewhat confusingly titled) Samsung Today screen.

The advantage? The Samsung Today screen is a hybrid rip-off of both iPhone’s home screen, and its locked screen panel. You get the latest time at the top, and program buttons below it. To enable it, go to Start > Settings > Today > Items and uncheck Samsung Widgets. Then, check the box next to Samsung Today. Finally, click OK and go back to the home screen. Enjoy.

This and much more is available on the user-editable Phone Encyclopedia. You can find and even contribute tips, tricks, and hacks… on any phone in America (and we have them all).

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Christopher Price is the Founding Editor of PhoneNews.com. Today, he leads the team building Console, Inc. - a new kind of Androidâ„¢ device. He still likes to pontificate... a lot. You can visit his personal blog at ChristopherPrice.net.

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4 responses to “Omnia Tip: Trade Your Samsung Widgets for Something Better”

  1. Daniel H.

    I still want one of these. If only Verizon didn’t require that ridiculous $30/month data plan for consumers …

  2. Mazi

    At least you have the choice, you can buy it! I want this on Sprint, what a combo that would have made!

  3. Dan

    Well i have one of these. I would wait till they get some of their bugs worked out( supposed to be soon) although they have done a great job with the phone verizon has managed to mess it up. We have to wait for windows mobile 6.5 so they can unlock the GPS and make some improvements on the sound output and hopefully it will run a little smoother also

  4. Mike

    The recently leaked 6.1 ROM unlocks the GPS and fixes quite a bit. No need to wait for 6.5…. which I’m sure will take forever.