Of coup de grâce

Feeling happy because I managed to stop the coup de grâce of my End of Semester Exam (EOS) 2 from happening.

Hopefully, I will be able to escape the coup de grâce in Semester 3, or else, cut the grass my fate will be. T_T

Smartphone Tracker 1.35.0.0 beta

Good news for smartphone owners. This programme does what its name suggests, which is to track down smartphones.

Now, don’t try to be creative here (though you can be =P ). It’s used to track down your own smartphone in the instance of theft. And here’s the catch, it’s free of charge.

Smartphone Tracker 1.35.0.0 beta is developed by Yaniv Nahum. It allows you to locate your phone via GPS coordinates, useful if your phone gets lost or stolen, and for locating missing family members.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Basically, SmartPhone Tracker is configured to listen for a certain text message (set by you). When it receives that text message, the program will wake up, activate the phone’s GPS and obtain a lock. Once it has GPS satellites locked, it will send an email or/and text message with a link to Google Maps with the mobile phone’s location and exact GPS coordinates. If there is no GPS reception for 5 minute, SmartPhoneTracker will send the approximate Cell Tower location.

KEY FEATURES OF THIS TRACKING PROGRAMME

• Remote operation by SMS code.
• Send location by SMS/Email.
• Background Mode.
• Google, Yahoo and WindowsLive Maps format support.
• SIM replacement detection and notification.
• Remote image capture.
• Cell tower location.
• Map view.

REQUIREMENTS

• Windows Mobile 5/6 (Important! Only for smartphones which run on Windows Mobile OS.)
• .NET Compact framework 2.0 (I also don’t know what the hell is this. Just ignore it anyway.)
• GPS receiver (If you watch those James Bond’s movies or Prison Break series, you will know this. If you don’t know anything about this, heed my advice, watch more TV for God’s sake!!!)
• Internet connection for email notifications, cell tower location and map view

Hit here to download Smartphone Tracker 1.35.0.0 beta

This is a .cab file (577kb in size), so you should know what to do with it, right? In case you are blur, check out my previous post on Manila 2D. I had a lengthy explanation there.

From Me : As usual, please report if any link is broken.

Disclaimer : This post is written for the convenience of the public and not for business purposes. Smartphone Tracker 1.35.0.0 beta may not work on all devices since the operating systems are different. It is set up for Windows Mobile 5/6 devices only. Before installing, please find out if you have a Windows Mobile 5/6 device first. Try it at your own risk. The author is not in any way held responsible for your dissatisfaction, loss of time or damage to property due to the installation and usage of Smartphone Tracker 1.35.0.0 beta. The author stands to be corrected if there are errors in this post. The author apologises, beforehand, to any party/parties on Earth who feels/feel offended by this post.

Manila 2D, anyone?

For the folks out there who are using Windows Mobile 6.1 based smartphone, here’s something nice for you people to try.

Recently, I have installed a new interface in my phone. It has many names. Some call it Manila 2D; some call it TouchFlo 2D. Whatever it is, here’s the promise. It certainly looks, feels and functions better than the typical HTC Home (for those who use HTC phones). In fact, it covers all ranges of smartphones like Samsung Omnia or Dopod as long as they are WM-based. If you have just bought a new HTC PDA phone, rest assured that it will not void your warranty because this Manila 2D (M2D) which I am referring to is just a shell interface.

Of course, there are various M2D ROM’s available for download, but please be reminded that all those require changing of the phone’s original ROM which practically means you can kiss bye bye to the warranty. As cowardly as I am (and for God’s sake don’t deny, I am sure you are too ), I will not do that if my phone is just a few months old.

Here’s a display comparison to cement my argument.

Before :

HTC Home

After :

M2D/TouchFlo 2D

Am I tempting you now?

WHY AM I WRITING THIS POST?

Actually, there are instructions and fixes for the M2D installation if you look at here and here. However, I need to sieve through dozens of forum pages to fix some minor bugs in M2D. Trust me, it is a perfect recipe for migraine, especially when you are searching for the fixes you want around 3 o’clock in the morning. So, the objective of the post here is simply to guide you through the installation process and bugs fixing in the clearest way possible based on my personal experience and information from the forum threads. As I am using HTC TyTn II/Kaiser, I will provide the guidelines for installation of M2D on HTC phones only. For non HTC phones, please see here.

WHAT IS MANILA 2D?

It is actually a new user interface which is developed by HTC for their new generation of phones. On the more powerful (also expensive) phones equipped with 3D drivers, such as the Diamond or Touch Pro, it is called TouchFlo 3D (TouchFlo 3D users please click here). On the other hand, for phones that lacked such drivers, such as the Jade or the Opal, it is called TouchFlo 2D or Manila 2D (M2D). Thanks to some very smart guys over at XDA who found a way to extract or reverse engineer this interface from the Opal and the Jade, the rest of us can have cool looking phones as well. There is one drawback, however. This interface does not work in landscape mode because it was ripped from phones that do not have slide out keyboards. You have to navigate to where you want to go and then switch to landscape mode. Like HTC Home and other interfaces, this is just a shell interface and can be removed at any time, just like any other programme.

THINGS TO PREPARE/BE TAKEN NOTE OF BEFORE INSTALLATION

• A Windows Mobile 6.1 based smartphone (Kindly click here for non HTC phones. But still, read on.)
• At least 30-40 megabytes of free space in the device (not the storage card). Transfer your multimedia files such as songs, pictures and videos to your storage card if it is necessary. I did that to create more space in my device.
• Learn how to install and uninstall .cab and .zip files into and out of your device. Here’s how to do it. Simply synchronise your device with your PC. Then, copy and pass the .cab or .zip file into the phone. It does not matter whether you copy it into the device memory or storage card as the phone will prompt you the destination for installation later. However, you must ALWAYS REMEMBER to install all the files (except for M2D Customiser which I will explain to you later) into the device, NOT THE STORAGE CARD. Or else, the M2D might not be able to work. Am I making sense here? Well, leave me a message if you need further clarification . Now, different from .cab files, .zip files are not immediately installable. What do I mean by that? For .zip files, you must first unzip/extract it to a particular location. After that, run the installer (usually in .cab format) from the unzipped/extracted content. For this job, you will need an unzip or extractor programme (click here or here to download if your device does not already have one). If there arise the need to uninstall a particular programme (hopefully not), go to Start>Settings>System(tab)>Remove Programs and remove it. Oh yeah, and after finished using the installers, you can just delete them as they are just, well, installers. It’s totally up to you. Wow… this is one lengthy explanation. So, it’s got to be crucial, isn’t it? (For more information about .cab files installation procedures, click here.)
• HTC Home V.2.1 (download link) – It helps for overall function , to have the latest version of HTC Home installed. To be sure, just install and run this anyhow.
• Manila 2d build 1.20.19131530.00 (download link) – Obviously, this is the main ingredient. Here’s a patch for older or non HTC devices (click here).
• Update for version 20 (download link) – This file has all tried and trued fixes for M2D. There’s an update to version 21 now, it seems. But, I say we should learn how to cook instant noodles before baking a cake. Never mind me… I was just crapping. Just let me have my fun in my own way, will ya? Typing all these is a strenous and tedious thing to do. @@ I am sure reading this is also one. =)
• Manila 2D Customiser (download link) – This is of great assistance should you want to change the M2D theme.
• .tsk files to make the top and bottom bars of the screen (click here for blue bars and click here for black bars) – This is basically to match the M2D theme which you apply because M2D will not change the look of the top and bottom bars.
• For any phone (Niki, Polaris, Touch) which has Cube by default, please read this before installing.

HOW TO INSTALL?

1. Soft reset your phone, it is always a good idea to soft reset your phone before installing any new apps. Some programmes do not fully install if other programmes are running in the background. A soft reset kills all other running programmes.
2. Install HTC Home v.2.1.
3. Install the Manila 2d build 1.20.19131530.00 .cab onto your device, not your storage card (REMEMBER).
4. Soft reset your phone. When it re-boots your phone should look like the one I showed above. (Without the top and bottom bar though. We will come to that later.)
5. Go to Start>Settings>Today>Items>untick TouchFLO (that’s how you disable TouchFLO).
6. Unzip/extract the content of Update Version 20 files into your pc.
7. Install the 9 files according to the number assigned. Leave “m2d test 0.12.5.1″ file as the last file to be installed. PLEASE TAKE NOTE that : (1) Before installing “02 AudioManager_2_0_18193326_0″, uninstall the previous Audio Manager. Soft reset the device and then only install “02 AudioManager_2_0_18193326_0″. (2) Soft reset the device before and after installing “02 AudioManager_2_0_18193326_0″ and “04 Album_2_5_18202622_0″.
8. Install M2D Customiser into the storage card (advisable) as the themes might take quite a hefty space in the device memory.
9. Copy and paste the .tsk files into the \Windows directory of your device. You might need to enable the viewing of hidden files to reveal the \Windows folder. Again, for noobs, in your PC, go to Tools>Folder Options>View (tab)>Show hidden files and folders>Apply>Ok.
10. To access and switch between blue and black bars, go to Start>Settings>Personal>Today>Appearance (tab). You will now see in the left-hand box on that page the names of all the .tsk files which you have just loaded into the \Windows directory of your phone. Now you select the one you want to try, click “OK” at the top-right of the screen, and in a second or two, the top-bar and bottom-bar will change. If you like, keep it. If not, try another. I would recommend you to choose the “Wm 6.1 Blue” as the default M2D theme is blue in colour (see above).
11. Now, enable the TouchFLO. (In case you are amnesic or don’t know what the hell am I talking about, go to Start>Setting>Today>Items>tick TouchFLO.)
12. Try out every tab in the interface. Check whether all of them are working fine or not.

SOME TABS MIGHT NOT BE FUNCTIONING WELL, BUT HEY, HERE ARE THE FIXES FOR IT!

• Weather Fix : (Download and Instructions link)
• Album Searcher Fix : (Download link) – In case of an error stating that “albumsearcher.exe” is missing or not signed, extract this zip file and copy the albumsearcher.exe file into \windows directory of your device.
• Music Tab/Audio Manager Fix – (1) This is truly annoying. When you navigate to the music tab widget, a non-clickable audio manager is launched and everything freezes. There’s no particular fix for this. But, if this happens to you, try this : In your device, go to Application Data>HTC>Audio Manager>delete all files in the Audio Manager. Yeah, ALL of them!!! This should reset the Audio Manager which would most probably correct the problem. It works for me. Hope the same goes to you. (2) And for those who have problems with album art, move all your music files into \Storage Card\My Documents\My Music
• Battery Meter Fix : (Download link) – If your battery meter goes funny or slow to bring up the “Power” option, this is the fix for you.

WHAT ABOUT THE THEMES?

Themes come in two forms, .cab and .zip files. If your chosen theme is a .cab file, just install the .cab like you would do with any other .cab file. If it is a .zip file that contains a m2dct file, you need to install a theme manager. Again, we are fortunate that the smart guys over at XDA have developed a great theme and customization manager for M2D, called “M2DC”, which stands for Manilla 2D Customiser. (If you really follow the installation steps given by me, you would already have this programme in your device.) It consolidates about 100 controllable factors for modifying themes such as background images, tab systems, icon systems and font colours (You name it, M2DC has it ).

WHERE TO FIND MY DESIRED THEME?

Easy, pansy… Here, here, here and here.

AND HOW TO SWITCH THE THEME?

1. Find and download the theme which you want into your phone.
2. Launch M2DC.
3. If you think that you might want to go back to the default theme at some point, you will need to backup these files because every new theme overwrites the files of the previous theme. At the bottom of the M2DC screen, navigate to the ” Restore ” tab. Press back up M2D theme, this will backup the default theme.
4. Next, go back to the ” Themes ” tab to get your new theme. Press add.
5. Then, navigate to where you downloaded your theme, highlight it and press OK.
6. Your theme will then appear in the settings box. Press ” Apply theme ” and the theme will start to load.
7. It brings you to a theme option screen. Just press ok and your theme will install itself. It automatically restarts TouchFlo.
8. Your desired new theme will now appear on your screen. Simple, isn’t it?

Credits go to : denco7 for introducing me to M2D, herg62123 for packaging this Manila 2d build 1.20.19131530.00 (Bravo! Great job indeed!!!), twolf, KidnamedAlbert, The ChampJT, jdume for the wonderful themes compilation and other geniuses involved in packaging and fixing M2D so that it’s available to everybody.

Message from me : Please report if there is any broken link. I will post up a new link or upload the file needed.

Disclaimer : This post is written to summarise and clarify the installation procedures of Manila 2d build 1.20.19131530.00 for the convenience of the public and not for business purposes. Manila 2d build 1.20.19131530.00 may not work on all devices since the screen sizes are different. It is set up for qvga devices only. Before installing, please find out if you have a qvga device first. Try it at your own risk. The author is not in any way held responsible for your dissatisfaction, loss of time or damage to property due to the installation and usage of Manila 2d build 1.20.19131530.00. The author stands to be corrected if there are errors in this post. The author apologises, beforehand, to any party/parties on Earth who feels/feel offended by this post.

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Finally, Semester 2 is officially over.

I promised this poor fellow —>  =.= that I am going to blog about something interesting if I manage to pass my EOS (End of Semester) 2. And yeah, I managed to pull through this time! =) All hands in the air alright… going to dance till we drop dead! So, what to do for the remaining holidays? Redang island, Genting highlands or just day-dreaming all day long? (Zhi Wei, it’s your turn to throw the dice.) All seem to be good options to me as these are what medical students cannot afford (or simply have no time) to do or go to during normal days. If you ask me, Semester 2 felt relatively short if compared to Semester 1, except for, of course, the study leave week which had tormented every ME208 student. *covers head… refuse to recall the pre-EOS madness*

For a brief intro, here it is… the tonnes of notes which one MUST finish reading, but MIGHT still fail the examination even after reading these. *sigh* Medical students’ major dilemma… at least it is for me.

The Mountain I Climbed

For a better view,

Nightmare

Medicine is an overpriced course… even the resit for EOS costs RM1,000. Hell of a 4-digits bomb you say. If you save the 5 med years of tuition fees, you should be able to own a couple of this…

Brmmm....

Oh… And my Sem 2 was also greeted by the return of Chai Ei from Japan. We (Chai Ei, Peng Seng, Han Loong, Gim Hui and I) had a fun day out despite my Summative 2 examination drawing near at that time. You can check out the photos in my Facebook.

Here comes the interesting part. *All Smiles * I had spent the last two nights downloading, installing and tweaking the shell interface of my hp. Thanks to denco7, now my HTC TyTn II looks cool and classy, yet smooth. Here’s a snapshot of the sample appearance of my current TouchFlo interface.

Looks delicious, isn't it?

If you guys out there who own a smart phone and wish to change the default less-appealing interface to something like this, do let me know. =) I will be happy to explain the long and tedious procedures and processes, if and only if I still do remember how. The first night, it took me till 4am to search and figure out the system files and fixes. Now, this is interesting right, Miss =.=?

I would like to squeeze out more words for this post, but dinner (Bah Kut Teh) is frantically pleading me to savour it. So, perhaps some other time?

p/s : I feel so peaceful right now.

The Charm of Dusk

Laziness

“Laziness is always looking for a friend. It found me once and has been around since then. Why… Why was I chosen?”

-posted by zmlee on May 16, 2009-