So here is the much expected HTC Diamond. Very nice, but lacking a keyboard. Its a real shame too because there’s space to have a front facing keyboard which running smartphone OS would have made a stunning device.
I’m very interested in the fact that it has accelerated graphics with a GPU which is normally a no-no for battery performance (only 900mAh!) but they are quoting 100 hours usage with push email working which is very good.
Other stand out features I noticed are 4GB storage and a 3.2MP camera which support video calling (HSDPA 7.3mbps and HSUPA). It also has an accelerometer like the iPhone so it can detect changes in position to change display to landscape and back (or maybe as an ad-hoc Wii controller). The big change is the UI which HTC seem to want to make their own, in the form of TouchFlow 3D. Its a nice phone, but evolutionary rather than revolutionary.
… and please make devices with front facing keyboards!
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Well it had to happen. the excellent T-Mobile Mail (HTC S620) is discontinued. No stock left, all traces erased from the T-Mobile website. I am really sad as this was a fantastic device, the best I ever owned. Now its unlikely to ever get an official 6.1 upgrade from T-Mobile, which will mean unlocking the phone and applying an HTC image… when it arrives.
So what next? Well the Samsung i780, thats what. Almost identical dimensions plus assisted GPS and WiFI. I almost bought one on Orange, but their stingy data allowance means I’ll wait for an unbranded device and continue with T-Mobile. There is no unlock for this yet either. I don’t like the number keys being two in, they should either be on the left edge or one in. The only other thing I’m not sure about is that this is a WM6 Pro device (PPC) not a smartphone, and I’ve not yet seen the need for a touch screen on a phone, and theres a stylus to lose, but we will see.
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Any hints on where I can get an HTC S640 apart from getting a Telus contract, in Canada?
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I just noticed that HTC have published an update for my Dopod C730 ‘Cavalier’ on their support site. No idea what it does, and its not the latest WM6 build. The update is ROM 1.16.708.7 with CE OS 5.2.1238.17445 and Radio 1.43.50.
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This is a great deal, vicki just broke her original black 8500 so I bought her a replacement in hot pink for the amazingly low price of £99! This is great value for money especially if you need test devices. Unfortunately hot pink is not my colour so I won’t be using one. However, the 8500 is a great device and the only flaw is that it has no WM6 upgrade available, but if you can live with WM5 which shouldnt be a problem then its stellar value. You can also register it at the HTC support site so if WM6 is made available (highly unlikely) then you will be able to get it.
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The pink T-Zone button on the T-Mobile Dash/Mail has its function defined in the \Windows\Sort_IE.lnk file which by default contains the line:
36#”\windows\winwap.exe”
I can think of a far more useful way of re-assigning the key to CommManager so I can switch bluetooth on and off for use in my car. So, a simple edit to the file deleting the old line and replacing it with this;
36#”\windows\CommManager.exe”
Now I can launch CommManager with the T-Zoes key.
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If you find holding the FN key on the Excalibur fiddly there is a simple solution … just press and hold the appropriate key down until the key legend symbol appears. So, on my UK T-Mobile Mail the H key also shows the ? symbol, so holding the H key down produces a ? symbol automatically after about a second. Keeping the key depressed causes the symbol to repeat like ????
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Resetting the Excalibur turns it back into XT9 predictive text mode and you will find that a and z keys no longer display characters. Holding the FN key just temporarily switches between XT9 and 123# mode, so not much help. To change to abc mode so that a and z work as designed you need to hold FN and SPACE which will pull up the text entry selection menu where you can select the abc mode
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This is my edited simple home screen for the WM6 based T-Mobile Mail (Excalibur). One of the big changes to my taste is to change the font form 16 point bold to 18 point normal as I think this looks more elegant.
<?xml version=”1.0″?>
<home>
<author>Tim Carmichael</author>
<contacturl>http:/blog.timcarmichael.com</contacturl>
<title>Tims Simple Home Screen</title>
<version>1.0</version>
<!– filename tim.home.xml - copy this to application data\Home directory on your device –>
<!–The HTC Excalibur has a Square 320 x 320 screen so target height and width are both 320 –>
<!– I use normal weight Segoe font (instead of bold) but increased in size from 16 to 18 point –>
<default target-width=”320″ target-height=”320″ font-face=”Segoe Condensed” font-size=”18″ font-weight=”normal” padding-left=”5″ padding-right=”5″ bgcolor=”transparent” fgcolor=”COLOR_HOMETEXT” padding-top=”3″ b-border-color=”COLOR_HOMERULE” b-border-width=”1″>
<format state=”unselected” fgcolor=”#FFFFFF” bgcolor=”transparent” font-weight=”normal”/>
<format state=”selected” fgcolor=”#FFFFFF” bgcolor=”COLOR_HOMEHIGHLIGHT” font-weight=”normal”/>
</default>
<!– This was designed for a T-Mobile Dash version of the Excalibur so I use the T-Mobile background, change to your own choice –>
<background bgimage-rotated=”TMobile.jpg” valign=”top” />
<!– Standard colour scheme settings which I haven’t changed –>
<scheme>
<color name=”COLOR_WINDOW” value=”#FFFFFF” />
<color name=”COLOR_WINDOWTEXT” value=”#000000″ />
<color name=”COLOR_STATIC” value=”#FFFFFF” />
<color name=”COLOR_STATICTEXT” value=”#000000″ />
<color name=”COLOR_HIGHLIGHT” value=”#3485ce” />
<color name=”COLOR_HIGHLIGHTTEXT” value=”#FFFFFF” />
<color name=”COLOR_TEXTSELECT” value=”#FFFFFF” />
<color name=”COLOR_MENU” value=”#FFFFFF” />
<color name=”COLOR_MENUTEXT” value=”#000000″ />
<color name=”COLOR_GRAYTEXT” value=”#CCCCCC” />
<color name=”COLOR_GRADLEFT” value=”#FFFFFF” />
<color name=”COLOR_GRADRIGHT” value=”#FFFFFF” />
<color name=”COLOR_INTGRADLEFT” value=”#FFFFFF” />
<color name=”COLOR_INTGRADRIGHT” value=”#FFFFFF” />
<color name=”COLOR_TRAYGRADLEFT” value=”#0a4476″ />
<color name=”COLOR_TRAYGRADRIGHT” value=”#155D9C” />
<color name=”COLOR_HIGHGRADLEFT” value=”#3485ce” />
<color name=”COLOR_HIGHGRADRIGHT” value=”#3485ce” />
<color name=”COLOR_TRAYTEXT” value=”#FFFFFF” />
<color name=”COLOR_WINDOWFRAME” value=”#000000″ />
<color name=”COLOR_BTNFACE” value=”#FFFFFF” />
<color name=”COLOR_BTNTEXT” value=”#000000″ />
<color name=”COLOR_SCROLLBAR” value=”#3485ce” />
<color name=”COLOR_HOMETEXT” value=”#FFFFFF” />
<color name=”COLOR_HOMEHIGHLIGHT” value=”#3485ce” />
<color name=”COLOR_HOMEHIGHLIGHTTEXT” value=”#FFFFFF” />
<color name=”COLOR_HOMERULE” value=”#3485ce” />
<color name=”COLOR_ALERTWINDOW” value=”#FFFFFF” />
<color name=”COLOR_ALERTTITLE” value=”#444444″ />
<color name=”COLOR_ALERTRULE” value=”#000000″ />
<color name=”COLOR_TITLEFLATCENTER” value=”#3485ce” />
<color name=”COLOR_SOFTKEYFLATCENTER” value=”#3485ce” />
</scheme>
<!– This is the icon bar at the top with signal strength and battery status, remove if you add another custom battery/signal strength plugins –>
<plugin clsid=”{837FC251-FE69-43ad-84E0-EBCEDEBA0884}” name=”iconbar” height=”25″>
<iconbar y=”5″ fgcolor=”#ffffff”/>
<background gradient=”title” bgcolor=”#114676″ b-border-color=”COLOR_HOMERULE” />
</plugin>
<!– This is the most recently used (MRU) list of applications displayed as icons under the iconbar–>
<plugin clsid=”{79EFB752-CB70-446d-B317-499723482B3D}” name=”startmru” height=”35″>
<background>
</background>
<mru icon-size=”16″ max-buttons=”6″ x=”2″ y=”6″ valign=”center” button-transparent-color=”COLOR_HOMERULE” highlight=”COLOR_TRAYGRADLEFT”/>
<appname halign=”right” x=”0″ y=”8″ w=”320″ font-size=”18″ />
</plugin>
<!– This is the plugin carrier which says which operator I’m connected to –>
<plugin clsid=”{E09043DF-510E-4841-B652-388316977A7A}” name=”carrier” height=”24″>
<allowselection/>
<background>
<format state=”selected” bgimage=”" />
</background>
<!– I set x=0 below so that the ‘carrier’ name is displayed left justified –>
<label bgcolor=”transparent” halign=”left” h=”20″ font-weight=”normal” y=”0″ x=”0″ w=”81″ font-size=”18″>
<text><carrier/></text>
</label>
<label bgcolor=”transparent” halign=”left” font-weight=”normal” y=”0″ x=”0″ textwidth=”115″ font-size=”18″>
<text><wifi/></text>
</label>
<clock>
<time font-weight=”normal” font-size=”18″ valign=”top” halign=”right” y=”0″ x=”0″ w=”320″/>
<!– I set mode below to long so I see the date in long format eg 24 August 2007 –>
<date font-weight=”normal” font-size=”18″ valign=”top” halign=”center” mode=”long” y=”0″ x=”58″ w=”320″ />
</clock>
</plugin>
<!– Calls Plugin –>
<plugin clsid=”{0BA8ABB8-1F1D-417f-88C6-DA8530E2E7A6}” name=”missedcalls” height=”22″ width=”320″>
<background>
</background>
<!– visible=false means this text is only visible if there is an actual missed call –>
<format state=”nocall” visible=”false”/>
<label font-weight=”normal” fgcolor=”#FFFFFF” font-size=”18″ x=”0″ halign=”left” y=”0″ >
<text>Missed Calls : <calls/></text>
</label>
</plugin>
<!– Messaging plugin –>
<plugin clsid=”{2F930BF0-6FE9-4a53-9E17-88E9247BAB48}” name=”SMScount” height=”22″>
<background>
</background>
<label halign=”left” h=”23″ x=”0″ y=”0″ w=”290″ font-size=”18″ padding-right=”0″ >
<text>SMS : <unreadSMS /> Email : <unreadEmail /></text>
</label>
</plugin>
<!– Calendar plugin –>
<plugin clsid=”{865A354A-4A96-4687-B001-C155DC0DBE76}” name=”Calendar” height=”41″>
<background>
</background>
<label halign=”left” h=”22″ x=”0″ y=”17″ w=”285″ font-size=”18″ padding-right=”0″ >
<text><time/> <location/></text>
</label>
<label halign=”left” h=”22″ x=”0″ y=”0″ w=”285″ font-size=”18″ padding-right=”0″ >
<text><subject/></text>
</label>
</plugin>
<!– Show All Day events –>
<plugin clsid=”{2FFD93B3-0FF0-4228-A6D6-D2DF177D7D92}” name=”alldayevent” height=”24″>
<background>
</background>
<format state=”noevent” visible=”false”/>
<label halign=”left” h=”20″ x=”0″ y=”1″ w=”280″ font-size=”18″ padding-right=”0″ >
<text>All Day Event: <subject/></text>
</label>
</plugin>
</home>
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The devices I just bought on ebay were already flashed with the US version of WM6 for the T-Mobile Dash, however the UK T-Mobile Mail has butle differences with the euro symbol being the only really obvious one to me. But to make sure nothing in life is easy they moved around a couple of symbols on keys for no really obvious reason. This means that the Q key on my keyboard which has a ! symbol on produces a % instead. Nothing major, just a bit irritating.
There is a solution however. With the UK region set the device looks for a file called \Windows\eT9.Excalibur.0409.kmap.txt containg keyboard remappings. This is a standard file and you can replace the excalibur part of the filename with your devicetype name and the 0409 with your region code.
Anyway, you can edit this file using notepad to overide particular keyboard responses. You must save it as UNICODE however when you finished editing. Here is the correct uk version of the file, just copy it to \Windows directory on your device.
//
// eT9.Excalibur.0409.kmap.txt
// N O T E: This file must be saved as Unicode
//
// This file contains the virtual keys mapping table for the
// Excalibur device. The mapping table is define as follow
//
// VK_TPOUND = 0×78
// VK_TSTAR = 0×77
// VK_TAB = 0×09
//
// We do not support escape value yet. So the key/char values should be
// entered explicitly or by encoding start with 0x
//
// Format:
// {VK VK’ CH1 CH2}
// VK -> value from keyboard driver
// VK’ -> printed on keys
// CH1 -> symbols produced by Fn + key
// CH2 -> symbols in 123 mode
{Q Q ! !}
{1 W 1 1}
{2 E 2 2}
{3 R 3 3}
{T T + +}
{Y Y ( (}
{U U ) )}
{I I - -}
{O O _ _}
{P P ” “}
{0×78 A # #} // VK_TPOUND maps to Device Button A
{4 S 4 4}
{5 D 5 5}
{6 F 6 6}
{G G / /}
{H H ? ?}
{J J £ £}
{K K $ $}
{L L € €}
{0×77 Z * * } // VK_TSTAR maps to Z
{7 X 7 7}
{8 C 8 8}
{9 V 9 9}
{B B ‘ ‘}
{N N @ @}
{M M = =}
{0xBC , ; ;} // 0xBC = VK_COMMA
{0xBE . : :} // 0xBE = VK_PERIOD
{0 0×09 0 0} // 0×00 = VK_TAB
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Just in case I ever forget, the hard reset key combination for Excalibur is holding down both soft keys whilst powering on the device. I think they should make this a standard procedure for all smartphones rather than the range of weird and wacky combinations you have to do on each different model.
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