My Phonex

What things have gone wrong with the mobile phone?

I have recently acquired the phone (June ‘07)

And can say that this is even worse than my previous model (w800i), mine being the ‘upgraded’ k810i model.

This phone was fine to begin with, but recently it has developed scratches to the screen under very light use, and has also developed what can only be described as a ’smudge’ mark on the screen, which changes with colour.

T-mobile want to repair, but I want to change phones; Sony Ericssons whilst nice phones, are badly built!

General comments?

Overall the phone is quite good, the camera is top quality at 3.2 megapixel, so photos are sharp and clear; this is the best bit about the phone really.

The styling is an acquired taste; I didn’t like it at first, looked too bland and boring, however this grew on me, so I think it looks OK now.

One big word of advice if thinking of this phone is, BUY A PROTECTIVE COVER! And possibly some shrink wrap, the slightest hint of a knock or scrape will damage this phone easily, don’t believe me? Have this phone just in your pocket for a few weeks day to day, and in about 4-5 weeks there will be little scratches all over the screen! This is something that happened to my last phone as well (W800i), but the phone before that (Samsung D500) was far superior in terms of build quality and materials used.

The screen on the Samsung only got about 2 small scratches in 2 years! Not 5 weeks!

Also another point worth mentioning is the texting; whilst on the w800i it was fast, on this it is painfully slow! Which proves very frustrating when you’re in a rush and think you haven’t pressed a button, so you press it again and then the phone catches up with you, and it’s pressed twice! Arrgghhh! This makes using the phone hard; I would say use at a leisurely pace! This goes for flicking fast between menus as well; the phone can’t keep up with fast user input. This is sad really as it’s supposed to be a new model (even 6 year old Nokias don’t suffer this!)

The rest of the phone boasts good features like the top quality camera, fast WAP and so on, but the above problems really are bad downfalls for this phone, and a good camera cannot make up for them.

My next phone will definitely not be Sony Ericsson.

Screen

262k TFT Colour Screen (240 x 320 Pixels)

Imaging
3.2 Megapixel Camera
Cyber-shot™ Camera
Digital Zoom
Auto Focus
Xenon Flash
Image Stabiliser
Photo Fix
BestPic™
Picture Blogging
Red Eye Reduction
Video Call
Video Clip
Video Record
Video Stabiliser
Video Streaming
VideoDJ™
SVG Tiny 1.1
Screensaver
Themes Display
Wallpaper Animation

Messaging
SMS (Text Messaging)
MMS (Multimedia Messaging)
Push Email
Predictive Text
Long SMS Messaging
Sound Recorder

Sound
Media Player
FM Radio RDS
Music Tones
Polyphonic Ringtones
TrackID™
PlayNow™
MusicDJ™
Bluetooth® Stereo (A2DP)
Vibrating Alert

Entertainment
3D Games
Java™ Games

Organiser
Phone Book
Alarm Clock
Stopwatch
Timer
Business Card Exchange
Calculator
Calendar
Notes
Tasks
Flight Mode
Conference Calls
Speakerphone
Vibrating Alert

Connectivity
3G
Bluetooth®
Fast Port
GPRS
Infra Red Port
Synchronisation PC
USB

Network
Tri Band Technology (GSM 900, 1800 & 1900)
UMTS 2100

Internet
Web Browser
RSS Feeds
Modem

Memory & Talk Time
64 Mbytes Memory Plus Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™)
10 Hours Talk Time
400 Hours Standby

Weight & Size
115 g
106 x 48 x 17 mm

The rain makes all things beautiful, The grass & flowers 2, If rain makes all things beautiful, Why doesn?t it rain on you?

I’ve teamed up with Zibri and i’m proud to present my latest Windows user interface for ZiPhone! This application will jailbreak, unlock and activate any version of iPhone extremely fast and easy!

To download, click the image below and then click “Download ZiPhone” (Mac version also available)

This tutorial assumes that your iPhone has firmware version 1.1.1. If you are unsure, here is how to check: On the emergency dial screen dial *3001#12345#* and tap Versions. Firware version should be 04.01.13_G. If it’s 03.14.08_G you have v1.0.2 and need to update it to 1.1.1 first.

Attention : Always back-up the files that you’re going to change and do this at your own risk

Expand SMS Memory

1. Browse to the folder /ifs/settings/messaging/ with FAR Manager
2. select pref_store.txt an hit F4
3. Just change "/smsdata" in "/tpa"
4. Save the changes
5. go back to "root" like mb-new description and shutdown the loader
6. Now restart your Phone and be happy

Set ring volume as player volume

Copy file farfield_play.apf to any folder of PC, rename it to farfield_ring.apf and copy back. So file farfield_ring.apf in phone is replaced by file with settings of farfield_play.apf. Now we have 2 same files but different names.

Killing camera sound

Go to FS/tpa/preset/system/sound and delete file camerashutter.3gp and for killing autofocus sound delete file camerafocus.3gp.

Killing MobilePrint

Go to FS/tpa/preset/system/ams and delete MOBILEPRINT.jad and MOBILEPRINT.jar and have additional 361kb free memory. Unnecessary standard games & midlets are in FS/tpa/preset/default/java and to be deleted if you wish. In FS/tpa/preset/wizard you can delete 5 biggest by size GIF files.

Change sms sounds

FS/tpa/preset/system/sound delete message alert and put new one but with same name (messagealert1, messagealert2….)

Get rid of discharge battery sound

Go to FStpapresetsystemsoundlowbattery.mid and replace it the same name file with zero size.

Shutdown Sound

Navigate to /fs/tpa/preset/system/settings
Place any mp3 in there and rename to SHUTDOWN_SOUND_SEMC.mp3 and it will play it when you shut down the phone.

Change video recording quality

Go here using FAR. FS/ifs/settings/camera
Edit the driver.
Change the video recording to:

VR_NORMAL_MODE_FR=44;
VR_NIGHT_MODE_FR=28;

Get Rid of Hissing in Music Playback (Thanks to aksd)

With the FAR plugin replace these files located at: ifs/settings/acoustic
with: Nohissing
( SEE ATTACHED FILE NO HISSING.zip ) :

Backup your jar files

Go to tpa/perset/system/ams/And copy the files in there to your computer.

Removing the SE Links in folders

Go here tpapresetsystemcustmenu, and tpapresetcustom
Removing all the files from the custmenu folder, and all the .itm files from the second custom folder success****y removed the content hooks, as well as resetting my Play Now icon to the default SE one.
itm’s are tar files with images and xml files inside. The itm sits in presetcustom and get’s unpacked to presetsystemcustmenu on master reset. So DESKTOP_HOOK_1.itm contents get unpacked to presetsystemcustmenuDESKTOP_HOOK_1 when the phone is reset.

Increasing the size of the mms that you can send

FS/system/settings/messaging/mms
edit this.
<>100
change to.
<>300

To backup & restore contact voice comands

tpa/system/voicecontrol/stby
(Voice comands still need to be manually enabled after master reset, but this is no great problem – just a reminder!)

To backup & restore contact image associations

tpa/system/pbook/image
(Theseare not the actual images, just links to the files, so make sure you don’t change the location of the files between resets!)

Change the delivery report sound

Create a midi file named notification.mid and copy it into FS/tpa/preset/system/sound

1 = Opens menu with “picture size” ready to select
4 = Toggles Macro mode (for close up photos)
7 = Toggels Night mode
* = Toggles Light (I also find this is the fastest way to use the light as a torch in the dark)
0 = While in video mode toggles length of recording.

Mute camera sounds; Before opening the lense cover hold # to toggle between silent mode easially.

Change brightness = <>

To view IMEI number
*#06#

To view Software Version enter
-> * <- <- * <- * CLR (Use with Care)
The Latest Software Version is under Phone Info.

To fine tune sound and clean up any echos, place the 388 into the car kit HF 2600.
Then close all windows, engine off and type * # * # 3. The E 388 will fine-tune itself in about a few seconds.

To activate operator lock <- * * <- (This locks the phone to one carriers SIM card – Use with lots of care)

Press Yes to lock and No to notlock. You can also use the codes below to undo this function. USE AT OWN RISK
I have tested the function Lock to SP… At least on the 337 there’s a submenu: Enter SPCK-code. There are 5 attempts, which is showed (05 attempts). At final attempt the phone beeps as a warning, ’this is the final try’, when entering the menu… Wrong code exits the menu, so you are not stuck in something… When you have tried to enter the code (wrong) all five times, the menu is deactivated, and you’ll get: ’Not allowed’ when entering <-**<-

Accessing the Service Program that is not provided with the 388.
1. Connect the 388 to Cable with RS232/TTL converter.
2. Set Comport to 9600bps, 8 data, 1 stop, no parity.
3. Power ON, wait for "2" and send "0B" to the phone. DO NOT Press ENTER.
4. R should be on screen.
5. Send TEST.BIN. (Send as a binary file)
6. 388 should answer "SP,OK".
7. R should be on screen.

DO NOT write or read from the IMEI or SPCK area! If you try that you can send the phone to service at once, because you will automatically write FE or EF to EVERY cell in the EEPROM. In other words, all the calibration values for the radio is overwritten… (NOT good)
Some commands in the ServiceProg:
eere read from eeprom
eewe write eeprom
lime xxxx xxxx xxxx xxx Learn imei no. Returns Error.
imei – Displays IMEI number

To FlashProgram a 388:
1. Connect the 388 to Cable with RS232/TTL converter.
2. Set Comport to 9600bps, 8 data, 1 stop, no parity.
3. Power ON, wait for "2" and send "OB" to the phone. DO NOT Press ENTER.
4. R should be on screen.
5. send pre_xxx.bin to the MS.
6. You should recieve a ">".
7. send "0B" again.
8. R should be on screen
9. send prodload.bin to the MS.
10. recieve ">".

Done, I don’t have the above files so please don’t ask for them.
Interesting Informating (well I thought so

The names on the files, sj…..X45 tells you a couple of things. "sj" stands for Sofia-Jane, thats the internal name for the model and x45 stands for "sub-model". The 388 is called model 4/5. The latest 337 phones is called "cr", like in Cost Reduction. They rebuilt the oscillator from a bought-in to one built up with discrete components and that was cheaper.
Programming Channel Indicator or RBS
To enable, send the following command:
EEWR 3EE 1
Wait for the OK prompt, power off* the phone and disconnect it from the interface cables. Powerup and browse through the menus.
To diasable, send the following command:
EEWR 3EE 0
Clearing Electronic Lock
To clear the electronic lock you have to clear the EEPROM address range 03CF to 03DA by sending the commands:
EEWR 3CF 00
EEWR 3D0 00
EEWR 3D1 00
EEWR 3D2 00
EEWR 3D3 00
EEWR 3D4 00
EEWR 3D5 00
EEWR 3D6 00
EEWR 3D7 00
EEWR 3D8 00
EEWR 3D9 00
EEWR 3DA 00
COOL STUFF TO DO
Set ComPort to 115200bps, 8 data, 1 stop, no parity and watch all the phone commands on the screen and so on. Make a call and see what happens as well as shutting down.
*POWER OFF
You should press the NO button a few times until Shut Down comes up on the screen, when it does press yes and this will shut down the phone properly.
Reading the Channel Info now that’s it’s enabled
|——-|——-|——-| D

| | | | I

| 1 | 2 | 3 | S

|——-|——-|——-| P

| | | | L

| 4 | 5 | 6 | A

|——-|——-|——-| Y
1. This is three different channels things depending on the phone state.
a. When the phone is idle, this shows "Bxxx". "B" stands for "Broadcast channel" (a logic GSM channel)b. When a phonecall is in progress, this shows "Sxxx". S stands for "Stand Alone Dedicated Control Channel" SDCCH for short.
c. When the phoncall in up, this shows "Txxx". "T" Stands for Traffic channel. The "xxx" thing is the channel number, 1-124.

2. This shows Rx Level. The values displayed is from 0 to 63. Rx Level is a indicator on how good your reception is for the moment. 0 is a signal strength of -110dBm. 63 is approx -45 to -50dBm.RXLEV is measured in dBm in such a way that incoming signal equals -110.5+RXLEV so that a RXLEV at 50 equals an incoming signal strenght at -50.5 dBm (plus or minus max deviation 0.5dBm)

3. This shows the output power in dBm.

4. This shows the timeslot used for the moment. You can see it when making a call.

5. This shows Rx Quality. Rx Quality is a measurement of how much error correction is required to the speech. 0 indicates none and as the figure rises you hear more pings and pongs on the speech as large parts of the frame are missing. If you have more RxQ then 5, you are on good way to loose your call. RxQuality reads 0-7.RXQUAL is measured by using a table wereas the biterrorrate or BER is interesting and measured in %
RXQUAL table
0 BER < 0,2 (%)

1 0,2 < BER < 0,4

2 0,4 < BER < 0,8

3 0,8 < BER < 1,6

4 1,6 < BER < 3,2

5 3,2 < BER < 6,4

6 6,4 < BER < 12,8 (here we have lost half a burst)

7 12,8 < BER
6. This shows the timing advance. The BS tells the MS to send before it should just make sure that the MS burst is comming to the BS on the right time. The TA is measured in halfbits so the distance to the BTS can be calculated as follows=1,11*TA/2. TimingAdvance reads 0-63. Co-incidentely this tells you how far you are from the base site in 550metre chunks, up to the theoretical max of 35.2km.
Pinouts
1 In Voice

2 In +5V=External Power, 0V=Battery

3 Out Ext Speak control

4 Analog GND

5 Out Voice

6 Out +5V=POWER ON, 0V=POWER OFF

7 Out Charger control

8 Digital/DC GND

9 In 0V=normal,+5V=test, +12V=test+flash

10 In Hook

11 In TTL serial in

12 Out TTL serial out

13 In 0V for aprox 1 sec = POWER ON/OFF

14 In DC Power supply

The folks at Mozilla are still fuming mad over Safari-gate. The developers behind the popular open source browser Firefox stated flatly that no efforts will be made to port Firefox to iPhone, blaming Apple’s Gestapo-like restrictive software license.

So this means I can’t look forward to a browser that consumes half my memory and grinds to a halt on AJAX-heavy websites? Tragic.

tags: apple iphone, iphone, safari