Cover the Squeak up

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Ever since I got Touch HD, I have a few griefs.

Modified Squeak-less Battery Cover

Modified "Squeak-less" Battery Cover

One of them is performance. After flashing my HD with Dutty’s V3.9 XT Turbo ROM, I felt as if I have gotten a new toy. But the moment I hold up the phone, the squeak on the battery cover put a big dent on the otherwise wonderful HD experience. As I depress on either side of the battery cover, the squeaks just remind me on the squeak and rattles I experienced in my old Volkswagen Bora.

I decided that I have  to do something about it (and give me one less excuse to change my phone!)

Upon inspecting the area where the squeak happens, I identified spots where the plastic on the battery cover is pressing against the phone housing.

All it took for me is a pair of scissor, masking tape, and a small screw driver (or any tool such as tweezers that can be used to position and press the tape on the squeaking area, or just your fingers if you do not have fat thumbs like I do). Stick the tape at the offending area, and you are done literally within a minute!

DIY Tools to mask the squeak

The left hand side of the battery cover

The left hand side of the battery cover

Right hand side of the battery cover; NB: The area above the tape needs to be masked as well

Right hand side of the battery cover; NB: The area above the tape needs to be masked as well

Finally, my HD feels like a gadget with a solid built quality. Maybe it was, but the squeay cover certainly suggests otherwise.

So it looks like I have to wait longer (for an excuse) to ditch my HD. Maybe a HTC Hero might be the one.

Custom ROM Upgrade for Dummies

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DummiesIn my previous blog entry, I talked about why HTC Touch HD needs to have custom ROM flashed to maximise its full potential.

Unfortunately, the procedure to flash a custom ROM can be a nervy experience, even for an IT-trained individual. While  the actual flashing process will take no more than 10 minutes, one might get lost just by reading through the documentation of the procedure.

So here’s an attempt to do a video blog of the flashing process, to compliment  the detailed documentation created by the developers in xda-developers forum. In this video blog, I’ll be flashing custom ROM using USPL, instead of Hard-SPL method. Read here to know more about USPL versus Hard-SPL. For me, USPL is the least intrusive method, and I can flash stock ROM to my device anytime straight away without any additional procedure.

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Turbo charged iPhone?

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3gs_newset_eng01
It always amazed me whenever Apple releases its new products, the technologies it delivered is deemed refreshing, nevermind the industry is already on it for months, if not years.

I recalled reading Steve Job’s argument on why 3G is not bundled in its 2G iPhone product; He said that 3G consumes more battery juice than its predecessor. Yes it does and so does WIFI which can be found in its first generation of iPhone.

Fast forwarding to now, the new iPhone 3G S is touted as a turbo charged iphone 3G with its HSDPA technology. Again it’s a technology found in my Dopod c730 two years ago. Anybody who wants to argue that Apple always does thing better than its competitors should really question how better is it for this context? That we are able to have 3.5G broadband at fraction of power consumption? I don’t think so.

Then BGR has reported undesirable high pitch noise when iPhone 3G S plays some sound files. One site blamed it on the bluetooth headset, and claimed that he had no problem with another. Surely we can infer a more objective conclusion from all these can we?

Posted from my Touch-HD

A touch of Holy Device

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I got to admit, the lure of new toy is always so tempting. My Sony Ericsson X1 served me well for the last 8 months, and in fact is the longest holding mobile device I ever have for the last few years. In the current economy climate, it just does not make sense for me to switch to a new toy. Plus, if my verdict on X1 ever suggests, if there’s nothing better than, eh-hm, what else could have turned my head?

touch-hd on the box

Touch HD is a device perfect for watching TV online

So  4 weeks ago when I sent in my X1 to the service center to have the keyboard and some parts repaired,  never would I had expected that would be my last Xperia experience.  It has to do with the infamous crack plastic housing that I requested to be replaced, but I shall not digress further. Fast forward to now,  I ended up selling my X1 back to the service center, and gotten a black stone, a code name for HTC Touch HD.

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iPhone versus Windows Mobile

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No, I am not going to go into the over-debated argument of which is better, iPhone or Windows Mobile.

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I always think each has its own forte, and shortcomings. There is no perfect phone in this world, you have to look at your own requirements in terms of what do you really use the phone for. Hey, even a $50 phone would be a perfect phone for some, that should say something, isn’t it?

What I would like to blog about, is the software model of iPhone versus Windows Mobile, specifically on the development and distribution of the software, that would enrich the features of the phone.

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is there miracle in this world?

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Last Monday, just as I checked into the hotel at Geneva, I was saddened by the news reports broadcasted by the likes of CNN and BBC channels.

An Air France Airbus jet, En route  to Paris, disappeared 4 hours after it took off from Rio de Janerio. It appeared that the jet had sent some automated electrical fault messages to the control tower before vanishing in the air. The storm had appeared to cause some electrical failure, and consequently endangered the flight operation.

As I first heard this shocking news, I was hoping that it’s just a case of plane losing radio contact with the control tower temporarily, was circling around the stormy weather, etc. Anything but a crash. There was hope for some miracles, and I am sure every human being on this earth would have prayed for that.

When the rescue team found out that the debris and oil slick  discovered earlier are not related to the Airbus jet, suddenly there’s hope again. But yesterday, with the rescue team finally confirmed that the recovered seat’s serial number belongs to the lost jet, and two bodies were found, all hopes were dashed completely.

Is there really miracle in this world? I don’t know.

old flower eyes

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yeez gave me a small printed card showing the Hong Kong’s MTR network. I was squinting my eyes, trying to identify the MTR station that yeez was pointing to. My mind was wondering what the hell would a company print such illegible card. Then I realised something might be amiss, and the moment I took off my specatcle, lo and behold! Those tiny nano-centimeter-sized words were suddenly magnified by 10 times!

Must be the sign of aging eyes, I can’t imagine the days I have to constantly flip up my spectacles now, just to read the small prints. Certainly not prescribing to a set of “old flower spectacles”!

Week 22 snippets

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I usually don’t track week by their number. But as I was building and releasing the new version of Calendar applet for PointUI, I was made aware that it was week 22 last week, as I blog about events over the weekend.

 

Firstly, of course it’s the new calendar applet I have released over the weekend. Not exactly an “official” release, but more of a release candidate, so that I can validate the applet’s device compatibility especially with non wide vga devices.

screenshot-v20-2  screenshot-v20-3  screenshot-v20-1

There’s a breakthrough in this major version release, as I have built an external program to query the PIM database in Windows Mobile, so that I can display the busy status for each day in the calendar’s month view. While this is possible in PointUI scripting engine, but it’ll result in a big performance hit. Since this is the first time I have ventured into POOM (pocket outlook object model) , I thought it was a personal breakthrough for me as well 😉

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Power of internet

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Sometimes you wonder what happens if there’s no internet.

Over the weekend, my Saab 93’s pinch protection system went out of calibration. The driver’s window would not wind up fully as a result. I went through the driver’s manual, and all it says was how could one temporarily override the pinch protection.

So I thought maybe I should just google for an answer, but as usual, there’s alot of irrelevant search results, plus some of the solutions posted were not effective.

In the end, it took a combination of google search plus some intelligence (erh-hm)  to get the issue fixed.

1. First remove the fuse to the door control model (for the door where the window is problematic). The fuse can be accessible either from the side of the dashboard (for driver and front passenger doors) or  rear boot (for the rear passenger doors). In my case, it’s the driver door, and it’s the fuse #15 I need to take out.

2. Wait for a minute or so before plugging the fuse back. This is to ensure that the memory of the control module is totally erased. Otherwise, you will find that the pinch protection remains out of calibrated.

3. Once the fuse is put back, the memory of the door control module should be erased by now. So now it’s time to re-calibrate the door window again.

4. To calibrate the door window, press the window button to roll down the window completely, before rolling up the window again. Repeat again, and you should be able to hear a faint chime, indicating that the recalibration is successful.