I have sold my Wizard ;(

All good things must come to an end. When I first received the Wizard, I was awestruck by its capabilities in such a small form factor. My previous device was the E-TEN M500, which I felt had a very poor reception issues for a quadband device. If it wasn't for that issue alone, I would have probably kept the device much longer than I did. But before my M500 was the JAM, a wonderful little gem of a Pocket PC and Phone put together. Powerful and compact, this device was as fun as its name. It was the fact that its OS and possibly its official software upgrade path was already at its end that made me switch (E-TEN supposedly offers Windows Mobile 5.0 upgradability on the M500 at the end of this month). Had I known about the reception issues for the long-term, the M500 would have never been my replacement. So, the Wizard was supposed to be the end-all device for me. What happened? Well, imagine if you will, that you've got a girlfriend (or boyfriend, depending on your situation) and you're happily in love. Then she (or he) announces that their cousin from overseas will be visiting for the summer and stay at their house. The cousin arrives and she (or he) is unbelievable hot and sexy, and you, being the trusted friend of the family, is asked to make sure that their stay here is a welcome one. Now, you movie buffs can figure out what would inevitably happen next, as the old story is told time and time again in even the latest flicks. I wanted to perform a real-world test of the Universal device on Cingular's network. After all, the Universal didn't have EDGE nor 850MHz band support, so I figured I'd simply learn from the experience and report back. Everyone's trusted vendor, MadMonkeyBoy, provided me with a brand new Qtek 9000 from his latest batch for me to try out. Little did I know that when the device finally arrived after my lengthy Thanksgiving weekend, (no thanks to UPS who screwed up the whole delivery), the device performed better than I would ever have anticipated. In a nutshell, the lack of 850MHz band seemed invisible to me, since I kept a solid signal in all the places I needed it to (and consequently all the places my Wizard had, too). The GPRS speed while surfing was surprisingly fast, which can only be attributed to the Universal's XScale CPU. While I received the "script warning" prompt every time I surfed to a heavily coded page in Internet Explorer Mobile on the Wizard, I never got that once on the Universal. Pages simply loaded and rendered faster on the Universal on GPRS than the Wizard did on EDGE. Lastly, the 802.11b Wi-Fi on the Universal outperformed FTP data transfers nearly three to four times over than the 802.11g Wi-Fi on the Wizard. Again, it can likely be contributed to the different CPUs on each of the HTC devices. I quickly got over how big the Universal was since the pros quickly started to outweigh the cons. The keyboard on the Universal allowed for instant access to symbols and numbers, something that the Wizard required at least two keystrokes for. While the battery life is back to standard XScale consumption much like the mileage on a Hummer H2, it performed video clips and all the tasks without hiccuping and freezing as much as the Wizard did, which still maintains battery life like a moped on a tank of gas. So, this journey with the Wizard came to an end where it found a very happy owner to live with. My Qtek 9000 is Angelina Jolie - tall, sleek, sexy, and you can twist her in all different angles. My K-JAM is Jennifer Aniston - cute, petite, and easy to slide on and snuggle up with. So, I guess that makes me Brad Pitt, just without the good, 'bad boy' looks and all that cash. It's been a pleasure to serve the Wizard owners community, and I hope I can continue to offer my support as much as I can. I don't want to think of myself as a traitor or defector, but everyone does have to get with what works best with them. Some of my readers are still holding out for the Prophet, which just got released on Expansys today, and even the Muse, which will definitely be one to look out for. In the meantime, you might want to look out for my next blog related to the Universal...

Wizard's loose stylus issue revealed!

I posted this at HowardForums, but I felt it warranted enough publicity to be placed on my blog. In case you wanted to see what's down that stylus hole that's troubling many of you in just after a month's time... Someone has managed to open up their Wizard to find out the culprit of the loose stylus issue and was nice enough to send me these photos. You're not going to like it. Coincidentally, if you are going to add tape to your stylus to get it more snug, you may be making the problem worse. It's a piss-poor design, IMHO. The only recourse is to fortify the wall with a piece of folded paper as a wedge, or hot glue, along the outside of stylus sheath AFTER you have straightened out the sheath's wall and nub that holds the stylus in place. Of course, opening the Wizard in this manner will void your warranty. From the individual (Omar S.) who mailed me these pictures, this is what he did to get it open:

"I used a torx 5 to remove the two bottom screws. Then you have to remove the plastic cover. It takes a bit of force, and I was worried I was going to break it. Anyway, the cover came off, which revealed two more screws at the top. One was below a "void" sticker which I removed (I guess I voided my warranty). Then I was able to remove the plastic to get access to the pen holder. I didn't damage anything except the void sticker. But the plastic pen holder is of course broken. I emailed i-mate about this, but have not heard back."

Swamped! Time to move!

This past week must have been something fierce for the world of the Wizards since I've been absolutely inundated with email from users all over the globe asking for assistance, sharing their ideas, and seeking advice. I never thought in my wildest dreams that it would have gotten this popular. Hundreds of emails, 110 blog posts, 51,000 views, and dozens of donations in software, hardware, and money later, and I will admit publicly that I am nothing short of overwhelmed. I apologize if I haven't been able to respond to everyone's email yet, but I still plan on it if it hasn't already gotten lost in the shuffle. If you haven't noticed, I have finally completed the forums section of the PHP-Nuke portal. While I made a dedicated section for the HTC Wizard, I have added sections for my products, game development talk, music, social lounge, jokes and free speech, movies, and more. I really think that everyone can benefit from this switch over and really have some fun in there. Also, with these forums, it will give me the opportunity to respond to everyone much easier than Blogger's setup, as well as others who are willing to share their insight and experience. I am looking for forum moderators and any other assistance to get this new site further off the ground. I will also say that I have shifted my focus somewhat to spend more time trying to complete a game that I know everyone is already clamoring for and unfortunately has slipped the timetable a bit because of all this excitement and activity in my blog. Battlestar: Fate of the Galactic Commonwealth is undergoing a well-deserved rewrite and redesign, with updated graphics that will knock your socks off. I am still seeking people who can translate the text and speech I will have in the game in various languages so that it will be a true international hit. This will be my last post on this blog. All future discussions will happen in the forums. I want to take the time to thank everyone for making this blog what it is and what is had to evolve into. It was originally "my" blog on the K-JAM, and now it's everyone's forum for their Wizards and so much more. I will be moving all 109 previous posts over, one at a time, from the blog to the forum. So, the first week or so may look like a bit of a rehash of everything I've ever discussed previously, but it also gives everyone a chance to catch up and others to post their new thoughts on each subject. Please head over to this link now, register freely and quickly, and post away! http://www.beyondthetech.com/portal/modules.php?name=Forums Update: We're having some technical difficulty with the activation of the accounts. Until I change it, you can simply add the path "/portal" right after "beyondthetech.com" in the link that is e-mailed to you.

Do you have 802.11g?

msmobiles.com posted an interesting article regarding variations of the Wizard that may not have 802.11g Wi-Fi present or enabled. While my K-JAM does connect to the "g" standard, it is said that the MDA Vario from T-Mobile and the XDA Mini S from O2 only provide 802.11b compatibility. Whether or not it is a true hardware difference, registry entries or support files, additional or different radio stacks remains to be seen. In this thread, people who have unlocked their Wizards using the service provided by IMEI-Check have been able to put the K-JAM ROMs on their non-K-JAM devices. I have yet to hear if applying the K-JAM ROM actually "enables" 802.11g functionality. Could it be that branded versions of the Wizard will not have "g" functionality, either out of the box, or ever, and that the K-JAM and 9100, both unbranded devices, will have it? Your comments and experience with your Wizard's Wi-Fi, please.

Microsoft ActiveSync 4.1 is officially released

It's about time, right? Microsoft has finally released ActiveSync 4.1 to the rest of the world. If you noticed previously on the Windows Mobile website, you'll see that version 3.8 was sitting there for weeks after we all received our Wizards with CDs that contained version 4.0! I wondered what was the hold up for at least posting 4.0 onto the web, though I don't know if there was any benefit to pre-Windows Mobile 5.0 users. If you look at the embedded picture, you'll see that it's a newer release than the 4.1 build 4807 that was leaked onto the web a little while back. This build is 4841. Also, I don't know what was fixed from 4807 to 4841, but you can bet it's about 34 things. ;) Head over to the official Microsoft page for ActiveSync 4.1, click this link for their direct link to the executable for download, or click here for a local mirror of it. Don't worry if the initial installer screen says "4.0." That will soon change as the install continues. If you want to see the official release notes, it's here in WordPad format.

I received my PDAir aluminum case.

I received my PDAir aluminum case late last night (got home late). It has a clear plastic screen, in case anyone thought it would be an opening. You can't touch the touchscreen when the case is closed, which is good for phone conversations. The metal is thick enough to be very strong, but thin enough that you COULD bend it with effort. That's both a good thing and a bad thing. Good, meaning that you can always make the case a little more snug by applying pressure to the sides of the case, and bad meaning you can squeeze it without the Wizard inside, and you'll make some bends and dents. The case does make the Wizard a bit (tolerable, not obnoxious) bigger, and I've made a few tiny scratches on the case already. The fact that it's on the case and not on the Wizard makes the small thickness acceptable, and the price of the case already worth it. The fastener that's screwed into the back of the case for attachment to the clip is strong, but is also the tallest i've seen of any fastener. The clip is strong and holds the device very securely.The case covers all the sides well, leaving all the lower buttons, stylus sheath, camera, and speakers, USB, headphone jack, and IR port exposed. The only exceptions are the eyelet for the lanyard or wrist-strap, the reset hole, and the mail/IE hardware buttons on the top. Now, as you all know, I reset the device quite a lot, so that's a minus on their part. But generally, the Wizard is stable enough that you can resort to a small utility on your device to reset for you (that is, unless it JAMs up [pun intended] and requires a hardware button to do it). The opening of the top-half and its hinge do not interfere with keyboard, and is actually cool that you can slip your fingers in the opening for the buttons to hold the case in that fashion while you're reading. Of course, the most important question... how is it being secured in the case? Well, there's no plastic overlay, velcro, fastener, or whatever. The protective cushion has pillowed bumps on the sides and the fact the it's just a fight fit allow the Wizard to be held in the case. While I'm able to remove and insert the Wizard with moderate effort, that's the only thing holding it in its case. Now, if you recall from a couple paragraphs up, the metal is somewhat bendable, so I am able to give it a tiny squeeze and the case is alot more snug to hold the Wizard in place without my worry. Is it worth the price? My answer is a resounding yes. It's a lot better than the leather case that PDair also provides, and it may be similar, if not a better alternative to the Piel Frama case who also utilizes a snug fit to hold the Wizard in place. With the ability to make it a bit more conforming and tighter because of the metal, this one is going to be a keeper. If you wait to get your own PDAir case and not wait for an eBay auction, head over to PDAir.com. It will ship from overseas, so be patient in the delivery. But they are good and reliable, as with the eBay dealer I won it from. Thanks to kpence73 from XDA-Developers, "...there is a UK dealer for the PDair metal case for the wizard: http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/product/8458.htm." I didn't realize my fellow Europeans were getting the shaft with a horrendous sales tax when items go through customs. Great find, kpence73, and greetings to all my UK readers!

Custom SIP for the Wizard?

I apologize that I haven't posted anything yesterday. It was hopefully going to be a surprise, but I ended up wracking my brain trying to figure these articles out like ancient manuscripts. Ok... here's the deal. If there's something that many of us have complained about when it came to the sliding keyboard, it was the lack of a backslash key, cut and paste keys (or simply a Control key), and the fact that the Input Panel would still pop up even though you have a real keyboard handy! So, I set off on a little(?) quest to build a custom Input Panel (SIP). With a quick Google, I found a blog entry on MSDN and what seemed to be a straightforward guide on PCDN. The PCDN site seemed most promising, since it even had sample code and a step-by-step instruction on how to build one. I figured that I could change the panel's keys to whatever we deemed necessary and the code looked borderline understandable (I know Visual BASIC and a little bit of C, plus my C-like scripting experience in Game Editor). Mind you, this article is dated almost four years ago. While I have little doubt it will run on the Wizard, the premise is basically there for the taking! It requires embedded Visual C++ 3.0, which is still available to download freely, as well as the sample code. However, since I had no hands-on experience in eVC, the steps they described were a little hard to follow (not knowing what menu to open, what feature or settings to use, etc.). Bottom line is that I neither could get the sample code to compile properly, nor the code that I build from scratch in the directions. Maybe I'm doing something wrong or stupid, but I just couldn't figure it out for the life of me. After I gave up a little, I looked around in vain for any other developer who might have made some custom SIP that didn't take the same amount of screen real estate. No go. So, I'm asking anyone here in the community to take a crack at it. If we could come up with a SIP that's no taller than Soft Keys bar on the Wizard, with as little as three keys on it, that would solve a lot of people's issues. Only PHM is the closest to create a non-SIP SIP, meaning that it would pop up no keyboard when activated. However, it's bundled with all his other PowerToys, and has issues when the other SIP is installed from your Extended ROM, the IntelliPad. Any takers?

A quick way of enabling audio over Bluetooth

ed311 let his fellow HoFo members know of a little utility posted on PDAPhoneHome.com that allows you to easily toggle the audio output to your Bluetooth headset. Many of us were previously activating the headset for audio over Bluetooth by calling Microsoft Voice Command that I so happily forced onto the Wizard long ago. After Voice Command ended its voice recognition, it happened to have left the audio channel open over Bluetooth for anything else you desired. Well, this program makes it a lot easier by simply running the enclosed executables. BTAudioOn.exe will enable it, BTAudioOff.exe will disable it, and BTAudioToggle.exe will simply toggle the last state. What a great utility! Thanks to ed311 for spreading the word, and sarcasmsra at PDAPhoneHome for creating it in the first place. If you have a few bucks to throw his way, he'd really appreciate it. As soon as some of my PayPal money clears, he's getting some from me. Tres cool!

Response from Piel Frama

Some smart individual gave a great suggestion... instead of theorizing the possible methods on how Piel Frama came up with their Wizard case and how it prevents the Wizard from falling out, why not ask them? Doh! So, I did. And, I got a quick response, too, but I'm not sure you'll approve...

Dear Raphael, First of all I would like to thank you for your interest in our products. Regarding your question, we have to inform you that it has been really difficult to design a case for this model due to the sliding keyboard, because we wanted to offer a case able to use the device while in the case.

So, the buttoned strap prevents that the device does not come out of the case and besides, the leather on the sides of the K-Jam is tight enough to keep the device while you are using it. It is our best design, after making a lot of designs. We are sure that you and all your users will like a lot its quality. Thanks again. Please email us if you have further questions. Best regards. Rubén Montero Export Manager Http://www.pielframa.com

So... in my previous post on the Piel Frama case, I had my theories on how it stayed in place, from a stylus holder to velcro to some locking lip or clip. The truth? A tight fit?! I'd like to believe them, but for $70, I would have expected something a little more... confident. I mean, it IS leather, and leather does stretch, no? If someone has ordered the device, please post your thoughts and feelings on it. Unless I hear some extremely positive feedback, I'm inclined to pass on it. Imagine you have your Wizard in its case, keyboard extended, and buttoned strap open. One good tilt of the device that is already halfway out (meaning the keyboard) and it's on its way to kiss the pavement... Ouch!

Understanding the memory

Someone recently asked me why we only have 47MB of Storage Memory free on our Wizards, and about the same in Program Memory free, when it's advertised to have 128MB of ROM and 64MB of RAM. This is what I was told or figured out. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Windows Mobile 5.0 has a new architecture on how to handle memory, and it's much more similar to a traditional desktop PC instead of how everything was like the PalmPilot when they first came out... Think of your 128MB ROM, currently called Storage Memory, as a hard drive. Think of your 64MB RAM, currently called Program Memory, as, well RAM. Let's look at the ROM. The Windows Mobile 5.0 Operating System, bootloader, radio stack, etc. take up 64MB of ROM space. This area is normally untouchable by the user, since it would leave your entire device dead if that area ever got messed up. This is also the portion of the ROM that gets flashed during a firmware upgrade. So, knowing that, that already leaves only 64MB of ROM free. Now, when you boot up your Windows Mobile 5 device, it'll create some usable files, such as the Registry, PIM databases for Contacts, Tasks, Notifications, Email, etc., and place a bunch of deletable/modifiable files in My Documents, Windows, and the root folders. That finally leaves your device free with about 47MB of ROM. It's still funny to call it ROM, since ROM technically stands for READ-only Memory. But, it is, in fact, rewritable but "non-volatile" and permanent (meaning, it'll retain the data when power is fully cut from it). This remaining memory is good for programs to install in "Main Memory," and for additional data to be stored on the device, such as in the My Documents folder, Internet Explorer Temporary Internet files, Cookies, etc. Now, let's take a look at the RAM. This area is just like your desktop PC. When Windows and other applications load, it'll have resident applications and reserved area in RAM. The registry is also cached in RAM, so that the device won't be bogged down performing slow read/write operations to the slower ROM area. That'll take away from the full 64MB of RAM and leave also about 45MB free for multiple programs to run. When more programs run, they will load into the RAM area, just as it would on a desktop PC. If the power gets cut, the only data lost will be whatever was in RAM. So, your contacts, email, and other databases stay intact. Another good benefit is that your battery life will be utilized MUCH better. If you turn off your Wizard completely (hold down Power button for 5 seconds), all the data in ROM will be retained and you won't drain any additional battery power. Such is not the case on previous iterations of Windows Mobile OS. You couldn't use your battery below 10% on some devices, as it would use that remaining power to retain the RAM that held both your programs and data. People will argue that this method of memory management for both ROM and RAM is slower, since read/write operations to ROM are much slower than RAM. This will be the reason why many Windows Mobile 5.0 devices will show "horrendous" benchmark results versus Windows Mobile 2003 and previous devices that only use RAM for everything. However, like I said previously, pull the battery on a Windows Mobile 2003 device and a 5.0 device, and put it back in, and you'll be thankful that a Windows Mobile 5.0 device won't have to perform a restore or re-ActiveSync just to get the data back (if you even saved it!). So, your memory is used much more differently and the tradeoff is acceptable, wouldn't you think? I hope this explanation is accurate and answers those who had a similar question.

Unlock your SIM-locked Wizard!

The folks over at IMEI-Check have done it again, and apparently faster than expected! You can now remove the SIM-Lock protection imposed on your wireless carrier-branded Wizard device. Even though they specify the SPV M3000 and T-Mobile MDA Vario, I don't think they'll have any issues unlocking other branded Wizard devices. It'll set you back $38.00 USD (that's 28 Euros) but if you purchased the device at a much greater savings than the unbranded version, this is a steal of a price! Head over to their Wizard Unlock page and get your Wizard unlocked immediately upon your PayPal payment!

Qtek 9100 ROM available for download

Thanks to MadMonkeyBoy who received a Qtek 9100 ROM Update Utility from diis, I have now posted it on my site. The file name is Qtek_9100_RUU_Prodigy_10107105_Qtek_WWE_ship.exe, and I don't know if it's newer than the firmware that's already shipped with the current Qtek 9100's. At least the WWE part shows that the language will still be "Worldwide English," so you won't need to fear if you upgrade your device and it prompts you everything in Arabic or Chinese or something. Download the ROM Upgrade Utility here and use at your own risk, if you need to. It's 45MB, so it could take a while over a slow connection.

Waiting for backup

It appears that a representative from Sprite Software made a response post on this thread on XDA-Developers.com regarding their upcoming versions of Sprite Backup and Sprite Clone that will work under Windows Mobile 5.0. Unfortunately, they have a time frame from about a month to three months from now. Ouch! So, it appears that Sunnysoft Backup Manager is still the interim, partial solution to our very desperate need of a backup/restore utility. Contacts and e-mails are not backed up with even the latest version, 3.6, but efjay posted a workaround for the Contacts database at least. Just copy the pim.vol file from your Wizard to the mini-SD card. Will anyone be able to step up to the plate sooner than later and give us a full backup/restore solution?

Piel Frama's Wizard cases have arrived

Well, well, well. We all knew this device wasn't easy to make a case for, and Piel Frama was the first to publicly admit that. But, it appears they came up with a viable solution, and a good one at that! For $70 USD, you can pick up one of these fine quality leather cases in cowskin, cowskin-crocodile, or cowskin-ostrich right from this link on their website. What I especially like is the fact that 1. it nearly covers the sides of the device, 2. the mini-SD card holders are in the middle of the flap where there is room to fold flat over the gap in the screen area, 3. an extra holder for a stlylus, and 4. it's still a flip-top and not a book-type. If you recall, PDAir's leather case suffered one major flaw: the mini-SD card holders were located at the bottom of the flap and press up against the hardware buttons, especially if they are holding mini-SD cards in them (which is what they are designed for!). So, it's been proven by yours truly that the moment a phone call comes in and you happen to reach for your Wizard in the PDAir case, it will either answer it or ignore the call. Not a good design and apparently not thought all the way through. Also, it's been, what, five weeks of ownership of my awesome Wizard? What's the condition of my device with normal wear and tear? Well, aside from the small scratches from that drop incident at BJ's Wholesale Club, the keyboard has loosened a bit except for the two ends that cause friction and locking. Right now, if I grab my Wizard, the top-half with the screen is ever so slightly shifted, exposing the keyboard, but won't easily slide to open the keyboard unless I will it to. So, that's okay. BUT! The stylus that I have taken out a number of times a day has finally gotten so loose in its corner slot that I fear it will eventually fall out if I continue to use it. So, I've invested in a pen/stylus combo I bought at CompUSA and vow to never use the inserted stylus again. I heard someone shone a light inside and was able to pull the piece back out to strengthen the hold on the stylus, but I've yet to try. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is my first gripe with the Wizard. But, it's a small gripe, is it not? So, is the Piel Frama case worth $70? That's approximately 10% of your Wizard, if you've paid like everyone else. God forbid, just drop your unsheathed Wizard once, or keep using the integrated stylus until it falls apart on you, and you'd likely kick yourself for not considering this case. People such as myself are wondering if the buttoned strap is the only thing holding the Wizard in the Piel Frama case. There are a ton of angled pictures on their product page, but nothing to show how it's inserted into the case from the beginning. The PDAir case utilizes a shaped plastic/vinyl overlay over the keyboard to hold it down, but the Piel Frama does not appear to have one. Judging from those pictures, the only things I can think of are:

1. a velcro patch is placed on the case,
2. a hinged shaft that goes in place of the stylus to hold the Wizard down (if you notice, the stylus sheath is not accessible when the Wizard is in the case),
3. a lip near where the miniSD slot is to "clip" the Wizard into place, or
4. a combination of the above.

In the meantime, my PDAir aluminum case is coming in and will do for $30 until I can apply for financial aid or wait for more donations for the Piel Frama case. ;)

Regrouping...

Sorry, I took the day off yesterday to care for my wife who had a bad cold, and watch the kids while she rested. In the meantime, I am still putting together the replacement for this blog system in order for this site to better serve you all. At the same time, I spent quite some time reorganizing my projects on my hard drive, such as Bubble Buster Advanced, Battlestar: Fate of the Galactic Commonwealth, and a few other titles under wraps! As you recall, I did a complete wipe of my desktop PC. I have to say - after a fresh install of Windows XP and ActiveSync 4.1, my machine isn't having anymore connection issues with my Wizard. As for the site, I'm going to have to switch gears a little bit, and for good reason. While I'm tinkering away at the Wizard still, trying to find more hacks and such, I've been getting an influx of users giving me some tips and links to news. I think it's coincidentally in best interest that when I switch over to PHP-Nuke for the news portal, you can submit your own news and I'll be able to simply approve it for public viewing! Also, people have been asking me, "Where the heck is Battlestar?!" If you haven't seen the preview or teaser link on the sidebar, that's probably why you didn't ask me about it yet. It's a hotly anticipated title, and, to be honest, I did get a little sidetracked for a number of reasons. When I sold off my previous Pocket PC device, I waited nearly a month before I got my Wizard, so I couldn't test any developments to see how well it would play, if at all. Of course, now with the Wizard and me tinkering around with it, putting up a dedicated website and answering the tons of questions on e-mail (literally!), I put everything else on hold. But now, is the time to give people what they want. I know I can't please all the people all of the time, but I know if I can complete this first project while switching over to a user-contributed news site and forum (don't worry, I'll be posting too!), it will be a good and fair balance of my time. I hope to get the switchover done by Monday, but no promises. Stay tuned for more. In the meantime, check out vbguru613's latest hack here on how to map one of the Soft Keys to a Start Menu... finally! Thanks vbguru613!

Password needed to make a dump of the ROM

I decided to tinker in the Wizard's bootloader mode. I found that the "d2s" command that people have used on other devices' bootloader mode does not work on the Wizard. However, the "r2sd" command does allow you to write a specific portion of the ROM to a memory card... provided you can provide the right password to enable the feature. Right now, I'm getting this error message:

Cmd>r2sd all ***** user area size = 0x1E980000 Bytes R2SDBackup() - Download type = 6 usTotalBlock = 1 sizeof(SDCARD_SIGNATRUE_TABLE)=512 You didn't get the proper security level to download a specific image Cmd>

According to other people performing ROM dumps and accessing bootloader commands, you need to type "password [password]" and you'll be able to get the "proper security level." The only problem is, what do I put in for [password]? I've tried WIZARD and PRODIGY and TYPHOON, since those were the passwords of the previous devices, but none work so far. Apparently, if I get the right password, I'll be greeted with a different prompt. By the way, if we get the right password, this is what the "r2sd" command can supposedly grab.

Cmd>r2sd Usage: r2sd (ipl/spl/splash/os/gsm/ffs/all/gsmdata/diag/extrom/htclogo) Backup DOC image to SD card . Cmd>

Hey, I see the words "splash" and "htclogo" in there! So, anyone got any bright ideas?

Cingular 8100 series getting ready to order?

dchaney297 at HowardForums posted that someone gave SKU numbers and a release date for the upcoming Cingular-branded Wizard on Cingular's Forum. You can take it with a grain of salt, or you can see if your friendly Cingular customer service rep can order for you either the 8100 (no camera) version with SKU number #70026, or the 8125 (with camera) version with SKU number #70025. Both have dates of November 16, 2005. If this is true, and the price is on the mark, we're going to see quite an infusion of soon-to-be happy Wizard users. Thanks for the find, dchaney297.

K-JAM firmware update not warranted

There are reports buzzing on HowardForums and BengalBoy.com regarding a firmware update available for download on Clubimate.com for the i-mate K-JAM. Upon further inspection by many users, it appears that the update only applies to the Extended ROM and adds Remove Programs functionality for Skype and the Antivirus software. Considering the current version on our devices is 1.04, I figured that i-mate made this change to accomodate some users having problems with either third-party program, and added 0.01 for each change to get to 1.06. ;) Again, if you've modified your own Extended ROM or don't care for these two small changes, it's probably not worth it to even download, let alone try it out on your device. However, if you must, then go here: http://www.clubimate.com/t-DEVICE_KJAM_UPD.aspx. I'll be mirroring it when I get a chance, but again, it's not functionally any different than the initial release of the upgrade utility. Sources:

• http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=768530
• http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=767779
• http://www.bengalboy.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=280&forum=8&post_id=2091#forumpost2091 (warning some forum users' avatars or images may be unsuitable at work or public)

Off-topic: Paper Clips on HBO

I know... totally way off-topic, but since he's a good friend of mine, it's good reason, and hey, it's MY blog... ;) My good friend, personal attorney, and film producer Daniel Epstein has co-produced an award-winning documentary released by Miramax Entertainment called "Paper Clips" that is going to premiere tonight on HBO.

I encourage everyone to watch it, record it, and/or spread the word about it, as it is a strong film about a small middle school in Tennessee who mounted an ambitious tribute to the victims of Nazi genocide.

"Paper Clips" premieres tonight, Wednesday, November 9, 2005 at 8:00 PM Eastern on HBO.

• Official website: http://www.paperclipsmovie.com/
• Ergo Entertainment's "Paper Clips" synopsis: http://www.ergoentertainment.com/paperclips.html
• IMDb Information on "Paper Clips:" http://imdb.com/title/tt0380615/fullcredits
• Whitwell Middle School's Holocaust Memorial and Paper Clip Project: http://www.marionschools.org/holocaust/
• Find the next showings of "Paper Clips" on HBO: http://www.hbo.com/apps/schedule/ScheduleServlet (type "Paper Clips" in Search Schedule box)

Ok, now back to our regularly scheduled program.

Qtek 9100 reviewed

http://mobile-review.com/pda/review/htc-wizard-en.shtml The very astute individuals over at Mobile-Review.com have posted, you guessed it, a review of the Qtek 9100. This is a Russian-based site, but the review is in full English and laced with plenty closeup pictures of the device. Just a little word of warning: you may be initially shocked by the benchmarks, specifically the ones where the Wizard is at the bottom (sorry to spoil it for you!), but just remember that the file storage and I/O is very differrent on the Windows Mobile 5.0 as compared to Windows Mobile 2003 and previous OS'es. You'll see that another Asus Windows Mobile 5.0 device at 416MHz shares the bottom of the scale with the Wizard because of that. Remember, file I/O speed of ROM is much slower than RAM, but the tradeoff is that you can pull the battery or lose power to the device and still retain all the information, whereas the RAM based storage system of older OS'es would lose everything if the power is not constantly fed to its RAM chips.

Off-topic: I'm selling off my MPx220

Sorry, it's not Wizard-related, but I just had to post it somewhere. My wife is not techno-savvy by any means, and having a full-featured device like the Motorola MPx220 Smartphone was too much for her taste. So, I decided to pick her up a super-slim Motorola RAZR V3 instead. As such, I have received a warranty replacement of an MPx220 from Cingular, as well as a SIM unlock code for it, so now it's NEW and UNLOCKED, and up for auction on eBay. I've included her car charger and leather case with belt clip, so you'll be all ready to go if you get it. If you're interested, please head over to my auction page and check it out. Thanks!

SIM unlocker for Wizard coming

This is definitely some positive news if you have purchased a SIM-locked Wizard such as a the T-Mobile MDA Vario (...is that the only one right now?) Someone had sent an email over to the brilliant folks over at IMEI-Check.com requesting a timeframe to have a SIM-unlock service for the Wizard. Their response: 1-2 weeks. I have no reason to doubt the validity of IMEI-Check's response, since they have unlocked some of my previous devices in the past without any problems. I can only assume that person who posted on the thread actually sent such a message over to them and they actually responded. So, if you plan on getting a SIM-locked Wizard to save some cash in the process by starting up a contract (which is likely the only reason why I see anyone buying a carrier-branded Wizard), you can likely rest assured that there will be a method to making your Wizard free to use any carrier's SIM card very soon!

Wizards on SDD: Typo or revelation?

Since this is my blog, I do feel a little more free in saying what I feel about certain things. When we all first started scrambling to order our Wizards, there were a few vendors available... MadMonkeyBoy in the USA, Superior Gadgets in Canada, SmartDevicesDirect from the UK, Kemplar also from the USA, and of course, the biggest or most obvious source, Expansys UK. In case you didn't know, SmartDevicesDirect (SDD) was the first company to break news back in the late summer of 2005 of an incoming shipment of Wizards (specifically the Qtek 9100) for the first week of September, and they were accepting pre-orders for a first-come, first-serve basis. Many prospective customers, jumped at the chance and plunked down their credit card numbers on SDD's website. I ultimately hesitated, since I purchased my previous devices from MadMonkeyBoy (MMB), each time with an unquestionably excellent experience. When time came, there were no Wizards to be found. In fact, the HTC Universal as the i-mate JASJAR made its debut around that time instead. So, what happened? Many of the questions aimed at SDD initially went unanswered or unfulfilled, leaving many preordered customers in a virtual limbo. Mind you, their credit cards were all charged the full purchase price, and were likely accumulating interest on their accounts. In addition, MMB himself also had a large (as much as $35,000 USD) stake towards the supposed initial batch, and he along with everyone else was seeking a refund or an answer. Many didn't want to lose their supposed place in the ordering queue, so they stuck it out, many times with frustration. Fast forward to now, and you can see that we have eventually gotten our Wizards, albeit in batches of a few hundred at a time. Many SDD customers eventually got their credit deposits refunded, along with a very generic "oops, my bad" message from SDD. In retrospect, the entire scenario played out by SDD could have been construed as a very sneaky tactic to grab the very anxious customer base by its "balls," to put it delicately, and even away from other vendors and resellers who can now be considered more comparatively reputable, honest, and forthcoming with its supplier information and shipment updates. While I hold no ill-will directly towards SDD, I felt it very necessary to make sure that everyone (read: prospective customers) was aware of the situations that many of their customers had or were facing. And, at the same time, I recommended vendors such as MMB who never gave such negative experience toward his customers. I always try to be as fair as possible, which is why I'm making this post now. In a seldom return to vendors' sites, I noticed that SDD is currently listing their Qtek 9100 for £319 (excluding VAT), or $554 USD, and their i-mate K-JAM for £399 (excluding VAT), or $693 USD. While the K-JAM may not have that much of a sale compared to the rest of the vendors, the Qtek 9100's price is shockingly low. In comparison, the average price on other vendors' websites for a Qtek 9100 is approximately $720 USD. Keep in mind, very closely, that SDD has been proven by its prospective customers to have outdated information on their website (i.e. ship dates that were past and invalid, stock status where there was none, etc.). Not only have they been accused of that, but the lack of response via email or telephone have been nothing short of frustrating. If you want to see a running log of people's experiences with SDD, take this thread on XDA-Developers.com for example. So, I offer you the phrase caveat d'emptor to all those who are considering to purchase a Wizard from SmartDevicesDirect. Don't take my word for it, though I've done the most fair and thorough research on this subject as I can. I've learned over the years that: 1. you do get what you pay for, 2. not everything is about the lowest price, and 3. you're never just buying the product, but everything that goes along with it, from the vendor to the manufacturer. There, I've said it.

Five get FlexWallet for free!

I have worked out a deal with the incredible software developer Two Peaks Software, to give away five (5) copies of their new flagship program, FlexWallet 2006! It includes both the Pocket PC and desktop versions, making data entry of your personal information very easy to use on either platform. What do you need to do? Simple... just post a comment on this blog post of any site that you see my blog and/or its URL mentioned. Don't know of a site? Then make a comment somewhere and post my blog and its URL somewhere (make a nice plug or describe it while you're at it), then post the URL where you said it! That's all there is to it! I'm turning on the anonymous comments, but of course, you will have to provide your email address in your blog post. Winners will be contacted in 24 hours of this post. This program has a retail value of $29.99, and remember, you get both the Pocket PC and desktop versions. Did I mention it works incredibly well on the Wizard? If you can't wait a full 24 hours and you want to spring for the software now (and why not? it's worth it!), Two Peaks is currently giving a whopping 50% discount on their product for a very limited time. Just visit this link at Pocket PC Thoughts for the coupon code and to purchase it in their affiliate store. Good luck to all!

I'm taking a dump

Ok, the title wasn't as appropriate as it could be, but then again, you could have a dirty mind. ;) At the many requests of many individuals who managed to FUBAR their device's registry, here's an export of my K-JAM's registry right after a hard reset and no Extended ROM customizations performed. Only Resco Explorer was installed to perform the dump. My IMEI was removed for obvious reasons, and in case you are/have done the same for others, make sure you remove yours as well! http://www.beyondthetech.com/downloads/phone/KJAM_Virgin_Registry.zip Hope that helps some people.

Info2Go promotion and update

I just can't say enough how good Info2Go is. If you recall a couple of weeks back, I gave quick URLs that you can use to get to Fandango and Loews Theatres movie showtimes. I also had a resource-consuming Today plug-in for the weather. All that, along with a few more programs and Internet favorites, is now replaced with Info2Go. I really liked the software from the moment I installed it, and now, thanks to Acodic Mobile, they have agreed to extend a promotional price through my website, in case you missed it last week. For $24.99, you can get this awesome program as well. Click here to get the promotional price and/or to pick up a 7-day trial to try it out for yourself. As for the Cell Zoning and landscape compatibility feature, they are hard at work to getting that resolved specifically for us Wizard users!

Test message.

Republishing the entire blog to the new server... hope this works! Even if it does though, I've got PHP-Nuke and I'll be working on both sides until it's fully functional. Stay tuned for more. UPDATE: Archive section and downloads are now available! PayPal Donate button now fixed! Woohoo!

Info2Go is the bomb!

I received an email yesterday from Acodic Mobile regarding their Info2Go program and a $10 off sale for current trial subscribers, making the program only $19.99 as a one-time fee. Normally, programs like this deserve a subscription since it's constantly talking to their servers for information, but this is a great deal right now! If you've never heard of Info2Go, you'll wish you had. For starters, it has access to Yellow Pages (commercial) and White Pages (residential), weather, stocks, points-of-interest (including hotels and restaurants), movie times, driving directions, flight times, and more. The interface is so easy to use, but I'll mention that it's mostly portrait-friendly right now, and flicking the Wizard into landscape mode for the keyboard isn't yet optimized as of version 2.5. It can store a bunch of locations and perform searches based on them. You can call right from the application, or add it to your contacts, or even get driving directions to it. It has a Cell Zoning feature that can detect your location based on the cell phone tower, but Acodic has confirmed that it's not yet working for our Wizards. If it did, it would be worth twice the amount I paid for it... seriously! With your wireless connections on your Wizard, this program is a must-have. A 7-day trial is available, but after the first hour, I was sold.

My blogger is broken

Ok, didn't take long to realize that the site transfer wasn't a total success. There are a lot of broken links right now, and what's even funnier is that my own DNS at my job is still pointing to the old site, little did I know that! Give me this weekend to fix everything up. PHP-Nuke is already installed and I just might have to move all the downloads and everything into its library.

Test message.

This is a test message. The blog is now on both servers, so this blog post is to see which one it's going to right now...

I'm moving out

I have decided that it's in the best interest of my site and my visitors to switch out of the Blogger system and use a more advanced interface to accomodate downloads, product pages, FAQs, reviews, etc. I have used PHP-Nuke in the past with very favorable results (only one hack in at the time, but that may have been from my failure to properly secure the database), and since I'm getting a ton of support from vendors and developers looking to advertise and have me review their products, it would be a mutual advantage to have links and unobtrusive rotating banners on my site. PHP-Nuke is such a great portal and really has a lot of potential... unless you know something else that's free or cheap and can do the trick well? I do want a file library feature... that'll be important for you guys. At the same time, I am moving back to my previous webhosting provider, NoMonthlyFees.com, since I've been with them for years and have had a great relationship with them. Did I mention that their servers are fast? You may have had some slowness in viewing my blog pages on this server, but that won't be a problem when I migrate back. So, if the site looks a little funky over the next couple of days, please bear with me. I'm going to make this transition as quick as possible, and sometimes quick is messy. We'll just have to see how it goes...

BIGtext for a small device

Well, I decided to sit down for a couple of hours and design a neat program that will work great on the Wizard, as well as the Universal and Apache. I call it BIGtext. All you have to do is type a message and click Show Text and it will scroll your phrase across the screen in large, bold, legible letters. What's the purpose of this? Well, consider this. Suppose you're in a crowded room and you want to send a message to someone across the room. You could shout it out, or you can simply type a message and face your Wizard towards that person so they can read it. How about if you're stuck behind a thick glass and they can't hear you? You can quickly type up what you need to say, and show it to them. Works great if you're on a bus or train and it's about to take off. Not everyone is as lucky as you to have a Wizard, let alone a wireless device or even a cell phone. What better way to get the message across than to have them read it? Now, the initial version requires an integrated keyboard, but if you're a Wizard, Apache, or Universal owner, this won't be a problem. It also uses the Windows Mobile 5.0 soft keys to toggle showing and entering text, and exiting the application. It's my first attempt at capturing the soft keys' keycodes as well as seeing how we can make extra use of our devices. I put it up on PocketGear.com for a measly $2.50. You can download the registerable trial version from there, or you can download a local copy here: Desktop installer or CAB file. Let me know what you think of it. UPDATE: PocketGear.com has to "approve" the submission to their database, so clicking the link may send you to Bubble Buster Advanced or something. Just give it time or use the local link for now. The only issue with the program is that it can't hit some of the symbols, such as ! (shows up as 1), and you must flip to landscape mode (keyboard open) before launching the application, otherwise the buttons and orientation get confused. I designed this program with Game Editor Pro, and I feel I'm getting over my writer's block finally, so that I can complete Battlestar.

California, here we come

This one goes out to my wife. She is such a big fan of the hit show "The O.C." on Fox and we both like that song California by Phantom Planet. I found a dance mix of it online and decided to turn it into a ringtone. With a little cut and paste, it's a nice 42-second instrumental sample that has a nice dance beat behind it. Here is the "Theme from OC" ringtone in WMA format. Ok, I admit... Rachel Bilson ("Summer") is a hottie, but she's damn near anorexic. Do they not feed her on the set? Judge for yourself here.

How aMUSEing

I know it's not Wizard related (like my last post), but I thought it would be interesting for Wizard owners (and possible future Wizard owners) to know about. While we've seen that the Hermes may be the successor to the Wizard, HTC is also developing another model called the Muse, as reported by msmobiles.com. It sports a 240x240 screen much like the new iPAQ 6500/6700 series and the upcoming "Windows Mobile for Treo" by Palm, so it may give more justification for developers to adjust to the new resolution. But, it has a slew of multimedia features including the hardware media playback buttons, front VGA camera for videoconferencing and rear camera for video and photo capturing, TV-Out (why?), FM radio, stereo speakers, and 4GB of Flash Memory on top of the 64MB RAM/64MB ROM for the system. And there's more! Wireless 3.5G support means GPRS, EDGE, UMTA, and possibly HSPDA! If you think miniSD was small, the Muse's microSD slot may require tweezers and a magnifying glass to insert the microSD cards for some people! Of course, it's Windows Mobile 5.0. No, there's no hardware keyboard anywhere, and a 240x240 screen will likely be an issue if you have to display a soft keyboard panel that will take up half of it when needed. I pray it'll be quad-band, but it's likely. Okay, so when will it be out? Tentatively around July 2006. Would you switch?

30,000 hits in 3 weeks!

I know it's off-topic, but I just happened to look at my site stats this morning and I can't believe I hit the 30,000 mark in just three weeks. That's just incredible. All because of a little device that HTC decided to put out that solved many of our issues of past devices while granting many of our wishes. So, thank-you-thank-you-thank-you to HTC, i-mate, Qtek (they finally speak English!), MadMonkeyBoy, all of you for visiting my site as often as you do, and the new visitors that are starting to pop in and join the fun now, and most especially those who have contributed to my cause so far. It's not easy juggling a family, programming games and applications, having a full-time job, doing part-time jobs (still a computer tech at heart), hacking the bejeezes out of this device (not to mention the amount of time hard-resetting and restoring the data), and posting on my blog. In case you're wondering, I sleep an average of 3-4 hours a day, and the rest is jam-packed (or should I say, K-JAM-packed?) with all my activities. So, even if you took the time out to toss a dollar or two in my direction really means a lot to me. Please hit my PayPal button on the sidebar profile and continue to hook a brother up! Thanks! MMB's most recent customers are finally receiving their Wizards as early as today and reporting their excitement and joy all over the place! This is really an awesome time for us, and I can only imagine and hope it's going to get even better. Stay tuned!

Official poll and Wizard comparison thread

The virtual knight known as Sir Topas from the shire of HowardForums has started a poll and official comparison thread between the two current Wizards, showing what's in each device's Extended ROM, how the device is being supported (i.e. company's websites), etc. Thanks for sending a link back to my blog, Sir Topas!

The next wave of Wizards

Our very trusted MadMonkeyBoy has given another set of happy soon-to-be owners with tracking numbers of their Wizards in transit, according to this blog post by him. Hope to see more of you here, now that you have more reason to do so! Now, remember that I have a K-JAM and many of you are also K-JAM owners, as well as 9100 owners. I'd like to get some insight on how the other half lives as well as those who have had the opportunity to play with both. People are saying that there are some performance differences, but I scratch my head to the theory that if the Extended ROMs are made equal (erasing both, or loading them up with the same stuff), is there something different in the kernel? Version numbers and dates, please!

Windows Mobile 5.0-friendly road rage

...Remember, people, it's just a game, okay? Don't shoot the messenger, but do you recall an old game on the PC called Carmageddon? It's not your family-fun-entertainment-type of program. Your mission was to run down as many people and crash your car into other vehicles to disable them. Well, this might not be Carmageddon for the Pocket PC, but it's a taste of it. And now, they bring you Windows Mobile 5.0 compatibility. How sweet of them! Take a look at Psycho Path from Handy Entertainment. Use your stylus to swing the car around the road and knock over as many pedestrians as possible within the given timeframe. I feel sick in the head for enjoying it.

More hints and tricks

In case you haven't visited the almighty HowardForums site, there are some other hints and tricks for the Wizard you may not have been aware of: Mixmaven puts together a good tutorial on how to get Garmin Que working on the K-JAM. Wesbar discovers that hitting both soft keys in Internet Explorer Mobile will get you to your home page. MilanoRex discovers that the Dell Axim x50 is also made by HTC and that its battery is extremely similar to that of the Wizard. There may be further attempts to slightly alter the shape to accomodate the Wizard's battery compartment. vbguru613 shows us how to change the text of the "Message Sent" notification bubble. juiceppc details the steps on how to disable the "Message Sent" notification bubble altogether. After initially giving up on the Orb, I'm considering an alternative... Snapstream Beyond TV3. My home PC is an Athlon 64 3000+ with 1GB of RAM and 300GB of hard drive space, along with a decent ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon 9600 Pro (TV and FM). Orb totally killed the configuration by keeping the CPU at 100% capacity, rendering the rest of the system inoperable. But, I'm thinking that may be due to all the other crap I've loaded in there before I installed Orb. So, what am I doing now? I've wiped out my desktop PC. This will be interesting to see how I carefully put it back together to connect consistently with my Wizard via USB, and sometimes, starting from scratch is the best way to make sure you have a clean slate and tackle any issues before the system gets loaded up with the rest of the goods. Getting back to BeyondTV3, it has proven itself to be a great substitute for TiVo devices and Windows XP Media Center Edition (another option I'm considering). When I owned their predecessor, Personal Video Station, it came with a Pocket PC client, so to speak, that made it friendly to launch links from within the browser and play back stored video. The only downside is that you either have to import it manually or have it record a show through your card's TV tuner. Orb, on the other hand, does a full sweep of your PC and makes those files available for streaming. You can still hit your web-based TV server from the even more powerful Internet Explorer Mobile, and continue to stream, without the Pocket PC client. I want to be able to access files beyond just remote control via LogMeIn, but LogMeIn Pro is pricey at $70 a year. i-mate's 1-View is even more expensive. WWW File Share Pro is another alternative, and is very easy to set up and use. Or, of course, you can simply install an FTP client, such as GetIt FTP or other clients. There are many ways of making your mobile experience more powerful. You just have to find your comfort zone, in terms of prices of applications, the availability of features, and the ease of use.

Menneisyys' multiplayer game list

If you wanted a comprehensive overview of multiplayer games for the Pocket PC, check out Menneisyys' latest blog post. Not all of these programs are compatible with the Wizard, but it's a good, detailed list of just about everything that's available so far. With the Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and EDGE features in the Wizard, aren't you just craving for someone to play with?

Close up of the Wizard 100 series

Ok, I'll admit it doesn't look as bad as I remember seeing it months ago. But, it's not as curved and refined-looking as the 200 series. If looks are secondary and price is first, and if my insider contact at Cingular is right about the $350 pricetag with contract, it's a winner in my book. lgreenberg at HowardForums posted some high-res pictures of the device. Why they decided to name it the "8125" is beyond me. Personally, it could have used a cool name instead. It's a very safe assumption that it will be SIM-locked and heavily branded with the Cingular logo, Xpress Mail, and all the other nooks and crannies the previous Pocket PC models at Cingular also had.

Raffle winner turns Wizard developer

Chris B. from Washington, DC, our winner from the Qtek 9100 raffle I had last week, is still so excited about his new device that he cranked out his first application, which is a very promising start! It's called pWeather, a freeware application that gives you a weather forecast based on the zip code you specify. Not only that, but he has restarted his blog which can be found here. People always said, "What comes around, goes around." It seems to me that in this instance, it works for good things as well. Way to go, Chris - keep up the excellent work!

Cingular and T-Mobile's versions of the Wizard

I received word from my inside source at Cingular that their branded version of the Wizard, currently called the "Cingular 8125 Pocket PC," has been given the 'green light' and that stores will carry it as early as mid-November with the starting price at $350, but I'm sure that's likely with a 2-year contract. Based on other sources, I am led to believe that this will likely be the Wizard 100 series, which again, is likely different only cosmetically to our Wizard (called the 200 series). Initial reports of this model was said that the chassis may be very plasticky, almost toy-like. But, since the internal hardware specifications are identical, saving more than half off the going price of an unbranded model from i-mate or Qtek may be worth it to some. On another note, msmobiles.com has posted that T-Mobile is ready with their MDA Vario, which is based on the 200 series. Initial reports have added that the device is unsurprisingly SIM-locked to T-Mobile SIM cards only, and that where they have bought it, the OS' language is in Dutch - so, unless you can speak the language, wait for an English version to show up. I'm so glad these devices are making their way to the mainstream, and honestly wish they would hurry up with it, too. The more Wizard owners we have, the more fun this is all going to be!

Overriding the soft keys

vbguru613 at HowardForums has posted a clever hack on how to change the two soft keys' functions on the Today screen. In a nutshell, there is an key called 112 under HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Today\Keys that contains two entries: the (default) value, which contains the label that is displayed on the Today screen (currently set to Calendar), and an Open value, which is currently set to the Calendar applet's full executable path, "\Windows\Calendar.exe" (yes, include the quotes). Simply change both values as you see fit and it will customize the left soft key. To customize the right soft key, you have to create another key at the same level as 112, appropriately named 113. The (default) value is automatically created, to where you would simply name it as you need to, but you must add the Open value and give it the full path of the executable you wish to set it to, with quotes, i.e. "\Windows\fexplore.exe" Don't you just love customizations?

Want the PDAir.com case?

After giving a good run with the PDAir.com case that I received on eBay, I've decided to give it away to someone who could really use it. It's still in excellent condition even though it saved my Wizard from a nastier situation earlier this evening. The only thing I didn't like about the case was the placement of the miniSD card slots. Some manufacturers place it in the center area where the touchscreen is, since it's usually more inset than the buttons and the chassis. If you place miniSD cards in the slots, the chances of inadvertently hitting the Send/End or soft keys increase greatly. The first person to respond with comment here will receive it via FedEx (you must be US resident). If you would care to donate a little for it, too (after all, shipping ain't free), I would appreciate that as well. On a side note, Piel Frama is hard at work trying to come up with a leather case solution for the Wizard, but has admitted it's a difficult task. PDAir.com did come up with a novel solution, even if that velcro thing was the last resort. I'd like to see what Piel Frama cooks up for this one!

Photo Contacts gets ready for Windows Mobile 5.0

I received an email from Lisa at PocketX Software who seems to be "burning the midnight oil" to just to take the time out to respond to me regarding upcoming versions of Photo Contacts and Photo Contacts Pro that will have full Windows Mobile 5.0 compatibility. Lisa added that the current version already works, but with limited compatibility. I actually own both versions of the program and used it proudly on my previous Windows Mobile devices. I didn't bother to install it on my Wizard initially, thinking that 'since Windows Mobile 5.0 has basic support of photos in Contacts, why should I use this?' But, if you see how nice and big the full-screen feature is, you'll quickly see how much better and useful the Photo Contacts software series are. (Note: the Pro version adds individualized ringtone capability!) A beta version should be available as early as next week and I hope to report back on it as soon as I receive it from her. And, yes, I'm going to see if we can do some giveaways from these awesome people as well. Don't you love developers? ;)

Play with a virtual Wizard

This link is from Qtek Netherlands that will give you a full 3D model of the Qtek 9100 that you can spin around and open/close. It's really cool to look at and play with. Probably most appealing (or torturous) to those who are waiting for their device to arrive.

Thud!

Today marks the first day that my K-JAM took a fall. It got dislodged from my belt and hit the concrete floor at my local BJ's Warehouse. Needless to say, the PDAir.com leather case protected the front and back, but a small side of the black plastic took some small scratches. *Sigh* It was bound to happen, but since I knew that this device is "a keeper," I wasn't as concerned about the "resale factor" as much as I was concerned about maintaining its functionality for myself.

Developing applications and games

One of the reasons why I never strayed towards picking up any other type of mobile device, whether it be a Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) or a Gizmondo (hahaha) was that the idea of developing my own applications and games was never too far off. There are tens of thousands of applications available for the Pocket PC (now called Windows Mobile-based Pocket PC devices - longwinded, eh?) but if even that ever-growing library doesn't satisfy your needs, you are easily given the opportunity to resolve that by creating your own, provided you have the means to do so. One of the first development packages I picked up for the Pocket PC is called NSBasic/CE. Version 6.0 has just been recently released, and it includes a number of bug fixes as well as enhancements including support for Windows Mobile 5.0. Affordable at $149, you can develop applications from the desktop and/or on the device itself! With the K-JAM's integrated keyboard, the idea of programming on the device makes it very appealing. It supports conversion of embedded Visual Basic (eVB) programs (and runs it a heck of a lot faster), ActiveX controls, royalty-free creation, and a ton of other features, too many to mention. There's also an active Yahoo! Groups forum of NSBasic developers and users, with members of the Canadian-based NS Corporation involved in the discussions. With the power and potential that NSBasic/CE has to offer, I'm quite sure it will dispel any notion that the BASIC language is anywhere near dead. The only downside other than beginner programming skills being required is the fact that runtime modules are required on any device you run NSBasic/CE apps on. If you plan on making a commercial product, you'll have to impose that NSBasic's additional files be integrated into the installation of your software, or installed separately. If you're a game developer at heart, then Game Editor Pro may be a very viable choice for you. Deep within the heart of Brazil is the extremely talented developer of Game Editor Pro, Makslane Araujo Rodrigues. He is someone who I've come to truly appreciate professional over the last year. Starting at the same price as many games on the market, $14.99 (!) will give you the latest, full version of his development software. A $99.99 purchase will give you a full years' worth of updates. What's very interesting and appealing about his software is the very little requirement of programming or technical knowledge. The engine is totally event-driven, and you can start right away with graphics and the look of the game as you go along. Also, the software can export the same code (as a single, encrypted executable file) to Windows desktop, Pocket PC, and Linux! The developer is incredibly receptive on his own forum, and takes feature requests and bug fixes with passion. I am currently working with him to test true VGA support on Pocket PCs (can someone lend me a JASJAR?) For the more sophisticated, Clickgamer's own Edge Mobile Game Engine already has many popular, commercial titles out that have been created from it. While it sports quite an amazing number of features and can export to multiple platforms, including Smartphone and Symbian, it's no slouch on the price tag either: $950 for the first year, $650 each additional year. That license includes the ability to "create and release as many commercial games and applications desired for all supported platforms during the licensing period." Note that you will still need "Embedded Visual C++ and an SDK for each target platform." ($$) It's an unbelievably powerful API, providing Bluetooth and TCP/IP support, full image manipulation, and so much more. Just be ready to do something incredibly commercial if you want that investment to pay off. Lastly, I must mention a development platform that is very worthy of attention. Pocket Programming Language (PPL) is freely available to download and try. With its current version, 0.8, you can actually build, test, compile and run standalone EXE files, right on your Pocket PC! It's incredibly fast, too, and even has support to call functions from third-party .DLLs and APIs. That alone makes it very interesting to use. It already comes fully loaded with a game/graphic API as well as a sound API. It's a must see if you want to start tinkering with a new programming language that is easy to understand and master. If you've ever tried my popular (6500+ downloads in one month!) Pocket PC game Bubble Buster Advanced (which by the way, does work well on the Wizard), I'll have you know it was created totally with Game Editor Pro. My previous application was Pocket Tricorder, which was developed with an older version of NSBasic/CE. That version of the program is currently retired until I determine if should redesign a totally new one using Game Editor Pro, or if I should pick up the newest version of NSBasic/CE and try it again. In either package I go with, you know I'm going to have to make it look really, really good.

ComVu PocketCaster still coming

Just received word from ComVu's tech support regarding a working version of PocketCaster for the Wizard:

Hello, Thank you for your interest in ComVu PocketCaster for Windows Mobile 5. We have found some issues with the video implementation by the manufacturer of your compatible device that prevents us from fully optimizing the broadcast quality. We expect cooperation from the manufacturer will allow us to deliver a beta version to you shortly. Regards, ComVu Support

Hang tight, people. It's just around the corner!

Numa numa!

Consider me silly, but my kids and I are still nuts over Saddle Brook, New Jersey's own Gary Brolsma and his webcam antics to the Romanian pop song "Dragostea Din Tei" by the group known as O-Zone. We enjoy it so much so, that I have a specific ringtone that I made and a photo contact picture to match. Not like he knows me or that he'll ever call me, but it does get chuckles on the train when everyone hears it. Now, I'm sharing the Numa Numa madness by passing it onto you. Here is the 30-second WMA ringtone, and you can right-click on the image to save it. You can place the ringtone in the \Windows\Rings folder on your Wizard. Have fun!

Help out XDA-Developers

If you are or were a owner of any HTC-manufactured device, you would have likely heard of a site called XDA-Developers.com. It is here where I believe some of the most smart and daring individuals take their devices and literally hack the insides of them, understand them more than anyone I've ever known, and develop ways to just make things work. This site and its people gave me the inspiration to start this blog and to learn the most I can out of my HTC Wizard device. I know this device is perhaps just a few weeks old now (four, I believe), but I was hoping for more movement in their Wizard and Wizard Upgrading forums. I've also read reports from msmobiles.com and pocketnow.com that there seems to be a shortage of Wizards (or at least, i-mate's K-JAM in particular), which could be a factor in why there hasn't been enough development (read: hacking) into the device - there may not be enough to go around yet! In any case, I'm calling upon anyone and everyone who owns a Wizard to see if they can help kick-start the movement. Anything short of reflashing your device can be remedied by performing a hard reset on your device, and you have little to worry about if you have a backup program such as Sunnysoft Backup Manager (at least, for now). What do you need to get going? Here are some basics.

• A hex editor on your desktop PC. This includes programs such as UltraEdit-32 or WinHex. A hex editor will allow you to view binary (non-text) files, and make changes, if necessary.
• A powerful file explorer on your Wizard. From Resco Explorer 2005 to Ghisler's Total Commander, there many more programs that are more potent than Windows Mobile's own File Explorer in order to access files and folders. Total Commander is believed to be the only file explorer capable of accessing the Extended ROM on the Wizard.
• A registry editor on your Wizard. Resco Explorer 2005 has a built-in registry editor, but there are several other standalone programs around that can also do the trick. Being able to export the registry keys is also a major plus.
• A backup/restore utility on your Wizard. If you don't relish the idea of recustomizing your device after every hard reset, you can make a snapshot of your device by using Sunnysoft Backup Manager, the only known program to actually perform a backup and restoration of files and registry entries (but not all databases).
• Time and patience. Even if you have all the others above, you won't be a happy camper if you don't have time or patience to do this. Trust me, though, the results are rewarding - you're reading this site and seeing the fruits of my labor as well as others', no?

What am I to be looking for?

• When you're viewing the guts of a binary file, you're really looking for the text embedded inside of it. Most of the time, it's stored in Unicode format, meaning it takes two bytes for each character, since other languages such as Japanese and Hebrew may actually take the full two bytes to show just one character on the display. But, for us English speakers, you'll notice a set of zeroes (00) between each character, so that's why "Hello" will be stored in the file as 48 00 65 00 6C 00 6C 00 6F 00, or visually as "H.e.l.l.o." This is how I found the keyword "E.n.a.b.l.e.I.n.d.i.c.a.t.o.r." in the CapNotify.exe program, and noticing the other keywords around it gave me an idea on where to place it in the registry.
• The \Windows folder is the best place (if not the only place) to look for files of interest. Anything outside of this folder is pretty much for your use or third-party use. So, grab whatever files you can out of there and drag it onto your desktop for viewing. Not all files can be grabbed, since they're protected in the ROM.
• The registry is a free-for-all, for the most part. This is where developers will throw their settings into, though they'll likely be placed under HKEY_CURRENT_USER or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. Traversing through all the folders and keys of these two areas can prove interesting finds.

One individual on HowardForums was looking for a way to disable the return to portrait mode of the Camera applet, even if his device was in landscape mode before he started the program. While this is likely to be fixed, I was able to "zero out" the word "L.a.n.d.s.c.a.p.e.M.o.d.e." from the Camera.exe file. The program would not run, however, because it was modified and it has a digital signature attached to it. Even if the security feature is disabled, it still wouldn't run on my Wizard. Luckily, Microsoft provides a utility called SignCode.exe in Microsoft Visual Studio and some of the SDKs lying around that "resigns" a certificate onto an executable, making it able to run again. The utility even comes with "test" certificates to use.

After "re-signing" the application, it was able to run, and it remained in Landscape mode even after I exited the program, but the options screen failed to show. I bothered not to continue to pursue a solution for now, as I assumed again it would be fixed in the next firmware update. It's a good lesson though in understanding how we can look for what we need and try to make changes to see if they'll work or not.

In conclusion, I'm hoping I've given the resources and inspiration to make others a little more daring and curious as to see how our devices work. I will add that I don't condone this behavior nor should you do it if you're considering or attempting to circumvent a copy protection or to hack a program, or for malicious intent. I just want to be able to find out more about our devices and get the most of out them, such as the great fellas at XDA-developers.com have been doing since the release of the first HTC devices. I hope to see more of you there and find out more hidden and neat tricks, and undiscovered features of our Wizards.

Cleaning up to prevent slowing down

It's good to know that some utilities still work in Windows Mobile 5.0, even though we would love to see real Windows Mobile 5.0-looking interfaces (i.e. soft keys, less touch-screen usage, etc). But, it's also disconcerting to know that some lingering issues from the old Windows Mobile 2003 slipped through the cracks. And you thought a new version number meant a total rewrite... not quite! I was alerted to a program called Check Notifications by ScaryBear Software. This program will display all the entries in your Notifications Database and delete redundant information that can build up over time, especially if you are quick to tap that reset hole on your Wizard. I was shocked to find a number of unnecessary duplicates in my database, and cleaning it up actually made a difference in the performance of my device. I would highly recommend any Windows Mobile device owner to try it out to see if it'll help. Did I mention it's freeware, too?

PocketMind releases a Windows Mobile 5.0-compatible player

We Wizard owners have been waiting for a fully functional and compatible audio media player for Windows Mobile 5.0. When Windows Media Player 10 just doesn't cut it, we waited on the two biggest contenders: Conduits Pocket Player and PocketMind PocketMusic Bundle. While Conduits was nearly finished with version 2.7, PocketMind released 4.0 yesterday, providing full Windows Mobile 5.0 support. (Note that Conduits Pocket Player 2.6 reported Windows Mobile 5.0 compatibility, but it didn't run properly on the Wizard.) Check out the news on PocketMind's site, then take a stroll over to their product page on Handango. AAC is supported as a separate plug-in, too! Now, we just have to see when Conduits will come out with their player...