In case anyone of you ever stumbles upon the image below, claiming to show a Windows Mobile Smartphone getting controlled by a pen - you are looking at a hoax:
The story originated at PocketNow.com, and was intended as an April Fools joke. Copying over touch.dll is completely useless; manufacturers will never deploy expensive digitizers without the software to support them(the digitizer is usually not a fixed part of the screen assembly).
P.S. The story is not entirely fictional, though - falling prices for VGA screens have begun to force various manufacturers to reevaluate the deployment of these displays…
I hope you enjoyed my little April Fool’s joke. I wouldn’t really call it a “hoax”, though; it was a prank revealed at the end of the day, not something meant to linger on and on.
As for OEMs releasing expensive digitizers without the supporting software, that’s what the back story was for. A shortage of normal LCDs coupled with overstocked touchscreens caused the OEMs to use what they had.
Of course, as the Smartphone OS doesn’t contain touch support, the touchscreen worked just like any LCD — until the “hacker” found you could make use of it by copying touch.dll to the Smartphone.
I’m biased, of course, but I thought it was a pretty good cover story.
Hi,
while I personally do not like April’s fools stories, what made this one especially unfunny was that something similar to this actually happens at Symbol’s..
Anyways, just wanted to warn my users…
Best regards
Tam Hanna
Other than a small waste of time, I’m not sure what you’re warning people about.
Nobody would be hurt by doing this. At worst, they’d copy the DLL to their Smartphone, it wouldn’t have any effect, and they’d figure they didn’t have one of the “special” phones.
I also don’t get the Symbols comment. Did something like that change a Symbol device from non-touchscreen to touchscreen?
Steve
Hi Steve,
no - the thing with Symbol was similar but different. A symbol rep told me that a switch to VGA screens is imminent due to falling prices..
Best regards
Tam Hanna