Tuesday April 15
 
18:43
 
Vista and Popcorn Hour

On my recommendation, one of my friends bought a Popcorn Hour media server. Being a non-technical girl, I was given the task of setting it up for her. Sometimes I think the girls in my life use me only for my technical knowledge.

The Popcorn Hour can supposedly run without a hard drive, so to keep things simple, I hadn’t told her to buy a HDD. It had been hard enough working out how I could make buying a WIFI router easy for her - since she needed one of those also to set up a LAN.

I know the Popcorn Hour can’t run the built in Bitorrent client and file server if there’s no hard drive installed, but I thought it would still be able to see network shares. It turns out, however, that it can’t see samba shares either without the hard drive installed - well either that or the Popcorn Hour doesn’t play well with Vista shares. I wouldn’t put it past Vista to be the problem; I used it for the first time last night and it was, as expected, pants.

In the end, I had to run the media streaming server which Popcorn Hour make available for free. It kind of works, but sometimes the Popcorn Hour wont see that the server is running, and the only way to get it to recognise the server is to - unintuitively - toggle the “Support iTunes” option on and off. Weird.

I felt a bit uneasy leaving her with this slightly flakey setup. I hope I don’t start getting calls at 1am asking me to “make things work” because she can’t watch the latest episode of “Grand Designs”.

Aside: My friend’s Popcorn Hour remote is slightly different from mine - it’s a different colour, has slightly different shaped buttons, and has a strange “rb” logo with a hand. Strange.

Thursday April 10
 
09:59
 
Still Two Left

I solved one of my last two frustrations with Windows Mobile 6 EMonster this morning - I found out how to turn off the “beep” sound of systems alerts. The answer was staring me right in the face all along - unfortunately it was staring me in the face in Japanese, and my face doesn’t respond to Japanese.

Anyway, to turn off the “beep” of system alerts and the “beep” when you tap on the wrong place on the screen, go to the sound options and uncheck the first box. The reason I didn’t spot this before is that I took イベント (e-be-n-to) to be related to calendar events rather than system events. Should have looked up the kanji, I guess - but I can’t look up the kanji for everything, there is just too much.

I should be down to one frustration now - how to scroll a line/half page at a time rather than a page at a time - but I discovered a new one this morning: after downloading an MP3 to my phone, I can’t find out how to make it into an alarm or ringtone. It should be easy, right? I probably need to do some conversion to WAV or cut the MP3 short or find come obscure option, however.

As an aside, I really wish Microsoft would provide language packs for WM6. It can’t be that difficult - can it? They have experience making Windows multi-language, and Vista has language packs. Even the iPhone and iPod support multiple languages. 

Even if Microsoft dont want to bloat ROMS with English and multiple other languages, at least make them downloadable. Being forced to use Japanese rather than being allowed to switch to English is as annoying as doing a PC Windows Update and then having a pop-up remind you every 2 minutes that you need to reboot your computer… grrrr….

Tuesday April 8
 
11:32
 
Netfront For Windows Mobile 6

I’ve just downloaded and installed the Windows Mobile “Concept Version” 3.5 of Netfront.

Netfront is a web browser used in many Japanese mobile phones - there’s a version of it in my Sharp phone, and in my Samsung phone. I don’t know how prevalent it is elsewhere in the world.

Initial impressions:

• Netfront renders webpages on a “virtual desktop”, eg. 800×1024. Scrolling around the page is smooth and fast - a big improvement on the jumpy and “screen at a time” implementation of Pocket IE.
• In addition to arrow-key scrolling and finger scrolling, double tapping on the page shows a small thumbnail representation, you can use the stylus to move around.
• Default sizes (Text Size of Medium, Zoom of 100%) renders images and text too large, needing too much scrolling around the page. Setting Text Size to Largest and Zoom to 50%, graphics are nicely downsized, and text remains just large enough to read. Text smoothing is used, so even small text is readable - unlike Pocket IE.
• Lick The Lard doesn’t render properly - the entire right hand side is missing. Pocket IE doesn’t have these problems. This blog (Lemon Soju) seems to render correctly.
• When it doesn’t find fonts, eg the Verdana font used here, it renders in Courier. Not pretty. Update: I fixed this by going to Tools -> Browser Settings, then playing about with the settings and then restarting the browser. I can’t say specifically what I did because Courier isn’t even listed in the font list - potentially an uninitialised variable caused Courier to become the default?
• There’s a built in “Infoseek Japanese to English” page translation option - not yet tested.
• Websites recognise the browser as an English language desktop browser, which means I no longer get Japanese “optimised for mobile” webpages. I like that a lot - Google, for example, always presents Japanese pages with no option to change to English. I should try downloading Google Maps again and see if I get one with English.
• It’s nice to have English menus again :)

The trial expires at the end of May. Looking at the Symbian page, Netfront seems to require payment for keeping its browsers long term - not good. Still, they seem to be releasing new “concept” versions every few months at the moment, so maybe it will continue to be useable until Mobile Firefox becomes available.

Update: When Netfront is running, it seems that some applications, such as Mobile Outlook, are no longer are able to access the internet. Other applications, such as the Gmail Java application, work fine. Opera Mini seems unable to access the internet at all after Netfront is installed. I need to test this more to verify.

Update 2: After rebooting the S11HT, I could access internet with Opera Mini again. I then closed Opera Mini, run Netfront, and tried starting Opera Mini again - no connection. It definitely seems that Netfront is making a change somewhere that prevents other applications from using the internet connection, even when it is not running. As a side note, I uninstalled and reinstalled Netfront - after reinstallation, the previous settings from the first installation were restored, so Netfront isn’t particularly good at cleaning up after itself.

Tuesday April 8
 
11:01
 
Final WM6 Frustrations - Help Please!

There are two things which are currently annoying me about Windows Mobile 6:

1. I cant seem to find a way to remove the sound associated with alert popups unless I turn off all sounds. There must be a way to do it - right?

2. When I use the arrows or scroll wheel to scroll a page up/down or left/right, it always moves a page at a time. I can’t see an option to change this - but I may have missed it in Japanese.

If anyone can help with these, please contact me!

Friday April 4
 
17:23
 
Time To Hack

Six things have been driving me crazy about the S11HT, so today I decided to hunt around and try to find solutions.

The Things Driving Me Crazy

1. Mail sent by accident in Mobile Outlook.

At the bottom left and right of the screen, there are labels such as “reply”, “delete”, etc., which change dynamically. You can press the screen to do the function, or press the left and right bar (”–”) keys on the keyboard.

The problem is that the bar keys are too close to the normal keys, so I’ll be half way through typing a mail and accidentally hit the left bar key - and wham! the mail is sent. Very annoying. There may be a way to get a confirmation message, but I can’t find any documentation on Mobile Outlook regarding settings, and I can’t find the right tweak in Japanese. Why don’t Microsoft have documentation easily available?

The problem is not just in Mobile Outlook.  in the Gmail Java application, accidentally pressing the right bar key when typing a mail causes everything typed to disappear.

I need to disable the bar keys.

2. There is no CTRL key.

Previously I said that the only way I found to do copy/paste was to bring up the onscreen keyboard, tap CTRL and then tap c/v. I since found another way: to select text with the stylus and then tap and hold to bring up a copy/paste menu. However both of these are inconvenient why you’re typing since you need to get out the stylus.

3. Closing applications.

When you “close” an application in Windows Mobile 6, it doesn’t actually close - it just minimises. To close it, you have to go to the Today screen, and bring up the fiddly HTC task manager (top right corner of the screen), and click “x” on the application. It can only be operated using the stylus, and it’s fiddly because half the time I end up switching back to the application rather than closing it.

“Really” closing applications is important, because leaving lots of applications open eats battery and slows down the machine.

4. Switching to Java applications.

Some Java apps - such as Gmail and Opera Mini - are not real applications, they are downloaded on demand. As such, they don’t appear as applications in the start menu, so the only way to switch to them is, again, to go to the fiddly task manager. I’ll be using the Gmail app, jump out to use IE, then when I want to go back to Gmail, I have to get out the stylus and fiddle around - not good when you’re walking around.

5. Flashing LEDs

The S11HT has two sets of LEDs which flash different colours to indicate different functions. For someone colour-blind like myself, I have no idea whether an LED is flashing amber or green or whatnot, so whatever status they are trying to convey is lost on me. Further, the “connected to the network” flash never stops, which means at night I have a constant flash flash flash in the room.

6. Beep on Error

Can it really be the case that there’s no way to switch of the “beep” when there’s an alert message, except by turning off all volume (including alarms)? It’s very annoying when the thing suddenly goes “beep” in a meeting.

Solution 1: PQzII

The first 4 problems were solved by an application called PQzII. There’s an HTC Kaiser (same as HTC TyTN II and S11HT) cab on this page.

I was quite wary about installing this, because people said it was complex. Indeed, the online documentation is a little sparse and confusing - but now that I have it working, it solves many many frustrations, and I’m sure I’ll find more that I can do with it.

Here’s step by step how I solved 1-4 above:

• Install the CAB and a little white box will appear at the top of the screen. Tap and hold, then select Setup.
• In the CTRL/ALT tab, choose “Romanji” for both Port(rait) and Land(scape) - Romanji is the Japanese layout for typing A, B, C…
• Under CTRL choose BAR1.
• In the System tab, select “Use this function,” then edit “Close” to be Key: CTRL, Code: BAR2, and “Task” to be Key: none, Code: BAR2.
• I also want an ESC key - because I’m just so used to having one on windows as a get out, especially when typing Japanese and wanting to get out of the completion options: In the Code tab, select “Use this function,” then add In: Ctrl, SPACE; Out: none, ESC.

What does this give me?

• When I press BAR1 (left bar) or BAR2 (right bar), it no longer selects “Send” or whatever is on the label. No more accidentally sent mails or lost typing.
• BAR1 activates CTRL, so I can then press c or v to copy and paste.
• BAR2 brings up an ALT/TAB type task switcher, so I can switch between applications.
• If I want to “really close” an application, I simply press BAR1 and then BAR2. Fabulous.
• If I want to hit ESC, I type BAR1 then SPACE.

Now, in the worst case when I hit BAR1 or BAR2, I’ll activate CTRL or the Task switcher - I’ll no longer send a mail by accident or lose what I’m typing. If I want to execute whatever is on the labels at the bottom left or right of the screen, I can simply press the screen.

Optional: The white box doesn’t give feedback on when CTRL is activated. Here’s how to get that feedback:

• Open the file manager (fn + right arrow)
• Navigate to My Device\Program Files\PQzII\Res
• Tap “PQz_Default_QVGA” and press BAR1 then c (copy)
• Navigate to My Documents and press BAR1 then v (paste)
• In PQzII_Setup, choose the Icon tab and choose the “PQz_Default_QVGA” file as the item

Notes:

• The task manager shows icons such as the phone dialer, which are a little bit irrelevant, since I can’t close down that application. It’s possible to hide applications from the task manager by pressing H to mark as hidden, and then M to switch between showing All or Non-hidden items. (P can be used to “Really close” a program.)
• If you accidentally deselect “Use this function” in the Icon tab and find that the white box disappears so you can no longer access the setup program, go to the file manager (fn + right arrow), and find PQzII_Setup in the My Device\Program Files\PQzII folder.
• You need to run this manually every time the S11HT boots from cold - not a big deal.

Solution 2: Kaiser Notifications

The LED problem was solved by an application called Kaiser Notifications, written by a Brit nonetheless. This allows the flashing functionality of the LEDs to be configured. Now, my LEDs never flash, except blue to indicate a new mail. Very clear to me.

There’s also the additional benefit that when I receive a new mail and click “close” on the notification, the “new mail” indicator disappears. It didn’t do so before. Previously, the indicator would stay on until I actually read the mail. I prefer the indication of “new mail since last acknowledgement” to “new mail since last read”, so this is a great bonus.

Solution 3: None

I’ve not found a solution to the beep. There must be one - right??

More: Kaiser Tweaks

Not an annoyance as such, but I personally found the scrollbars on WM6 to be a bit too chunky. Kaiser Tweaks is a program which, among other things,  allows the scrollbars to be made slimmer.

The problem is, it plays about with the registry, so I was very wary about installing it - but I figured that I’d best do it now while I’m under the 14 day return period.

Kaiser Tweaks allows some other things to be changed also. For example, the Japanese Windows Mobile 6 on the S11HT doesn’t allow ClearType to be enabled. Kaiser Tweaks allows it to be enabled in Pocket IE, so I could see what it looks like. I quickly disabled it again, though. The problem with ClearType is the it relies on the RGB pattern of the LCD - when you change screen orientation, you lose the mapping, and it doesn’t work very well.

There is some talk about HSDPA being disabled on certain HTC TyTN II’s. On the S11HT, the network icon shows 3G when you are not using a data signal, and switches to H when data is in use - so I know HSDPA is being used. When I first tried Kaiser Tweaks, it reported HSDPA as off, however. Despite that, I was still getting HSPDA when surfing - so perhaps that report in Kaiser Tweaks is wrong for Japan. I did toggle it on, but seems to make no difference.

As I said, I was very wary about using a registry tweaker, which perhaps made me more “sensitive” to behaviour that Kaiser Tweaks might have affected. After installing it, I suddenly saw two things that I didn’t notice before:

Firstly, when the S11HT boots up, it now briefly displays “G” with no signal, before switching to 3G. I’m 99% sure that G didn’t display before. Maybe Emobile suppressed it, and Kaiser tweaks enabled it?

Secondly, I suddenly noticed the backlight would switch off quicker than before installing Kaiser Tweaks. I don’t know for sure that it’s as a result of installing Kaiser Tweaks, but I never noticed the backlight switching off so quickly before.

There’s no way for me to know now whether these changes were caused by Kaiser Tweaks or not, since any changes made don’t get backed out when the application is uninstalled.

More: Buttons

One final change I made was in the Buttons application, which comes with the S11HT itself. I remapped the Voice Dialing button to: Short Press - Bring up Today screen; Long Press - Bring up Comms Manager. This allows me to get back to the main screen easily, and to be able to quickly access the Comms Manager to turn on internet connection sharing when I connect USB (it needs to be turned on explicitly every time).

The End?

Apart from the “beep”, most of the annoyances I had have now gone, thanks to the hard work of the HTC TyTN II community.

I’ve gone into quite a lot of detail here, mainly because there’s so little about the S11HT available in English - especially about whether these kind of tools will work on the Japanese S11HT or not. Hope this helps people.