t e c h i e - t a l k s ::: technology at its best

As you guys have already known, Google loves “dressing up” on particular occasions. For example, they had a Christmas Theme, Halloween themed search page and many more. This upcoming week will be Gay Pride Week. Hence, Google has already dressed up some of their pages to commemorate the occasion.

Try Google-ing “gay” and you’ll be greeted with the gay pride, rainbow flag at the corner of it’s search pages. The 6-coloured rainbow flag is a globally recognized gay symbol and all the more appropriate to commemorate the occasion with.

This is the basic of all “hacks”. Schaps AdvanceConfig and PHM Registry editor are the two basic tools you’ll need to tweak that sluggish smartphone of yours. Here’s a guide to install the two tools and use them to tweak your HTC Touch Diamond.

First, you’d need to download the files from the links I’d created.
Schaps AdvanceConfig
PHM Registry Editor (desktop installer)

The Schaps AdvanceConfig looks like an archive file with a “.cab” extension. DO NOT extract the file. You’ll need to transfer the whole file into your HTC Diamond later. Before that, you will need to connect your HTC Diamond to your PC and activate ActiveSync (ActiveSync should be installed prior to connection). After your phone has successfully sync-ed with your PC, you’ll need to “explore” the handphone.

Go to this folder - /mobilephone/Windows/Start Menu/Programs and create your own folder (I named it Installers). Copy your Schaps AdvanceConfig file into the folder. Then, on your phone, go to Programs and click the folder that you’ve created. Select the Schaps AdvanceConfig.cab file and the Smartphone will install everything for you. The program launcher will be in your Programs page.

To install the PHM Registry Editor, you’ll need to ActiveSync your phone with your PC. Run the application program “PHMRegEdit.msi” from your desktop. The installer will do everything for you and the installed application can be found on your Programs folder.

When the installations of both programs are successful, it’s time to tweak the HTC Touch Diamond of yours. Taken from xda developers forum, these are the available tweaks (at the time of this post) that are more-or-less proven. Please do back-up your data before you do any registry tweaks.

1. Boost TFL3D Performance –> Using Advanced Config, change File system cache to 8mb and file system filter cache to 131072

2. Boost TFL3D Performance –> HKLM\System\Storagemanager\Fatfs and change key Cachesize from 16384 to 32768

3. Wake Up on New SMS –> HKLM\Drivers\BuiltIn\RIL : DisableSMSWakeUpEvent <– set to “1″ by default. Change value to “0″

4. Switch Mute Call on phone flipped face down: HKLM\Software\HTC\PHONE : FaceDownMuteRing: change value to “0″

5. Change CallWaiting Tone –> HKLM\Software\HTC\PHONE : by default set to \windows\waitingtone.wav by default. change to anything else

6. Boost TFL3D Scrolling Speed –> - HKLM\SYSTEM\GDI\GLYPHCACHE\limit = 16384 or 32768 (DWORD decimal)
- To change it back to the default: - HKLM\SYSTEM\GDI\GLYPHCACHE\limit = 8192 (DWORD decimal)

7. In case of emergency, to do a Hard Reset, with the phone ON, hold down the Volume Down and Enter (round navigation) keys and press soft reset while they are pressed

8. Prevent screen switching off during phone call –> HKEY_Local_Machine\Drivers\BuiltIn\RIL\EnableFastD ormantDisplayDuringCall to 0 (Note: does not work on all ROMs)

9. Downlod original CONTENT folder (Wallpaper, VIDEO, MUSIC) here http://rapidshare.com/files/12127104…orage.rar.html

10. Set HTC Album X button to close not minimize: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\HTC\HTCAlbum : ok_minimize change value to 0

11. Disable Enlarged Title bar (when you click on a notification) to the default WM behavior: HKLM->Software->HTC->EnlargeTitleBar - and change “Enable” from 1 to 0.

12. Turn off startup aninmation and sound: HKEY_Local_Machine\Software\HTC\HTCAnimation\ -> rename both “StartupGif” and “StartupWav” to other names

13. Enable GPS photo: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\HTC\Camera\P10 -> change the value “enabled” from 0 to 1

15. Another supposed TFL3D tweak for better performance: HKLM\Software\OEM\TFLOSettings:
SpeedHigh: default value (25) <– Change to (5) / SpeedLow : default value (70) <– Chnge to (14) save and soft reset

16. Adjust screen sensitivity: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\TouchPanel
Value = PressureThreshold
Change from the default dword:00000027 or 34 to dword:000000f0 or 240 in decimal

For the benefit of first time users, the ones with “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\TouchPanel
Value = PressureThreshold” are registry tweaks (i.e use PHM registry editor). The registry keys work similar to folders. Thus, you navigate through the registry entries as though they are folders on your PC. Those without the registry directories are done on the AdvanceConfig program.

Good luck and enjoy your Diamond! =)

Google is apparently interested in buying Digg for around $200 million. Rumours of Digg’s imminent acquisition are nothing new, with everyone from Microsoft to Yahoo rumoured to have been interested in the company at some point. However, in a recent interview with The Guardian, Digg founder Kevin Rose admitted that he wasn’t necessarily against selling the company, should the right deal come along.

“If there ever becomes a partner that can help us achieve our goals, and where two plus two equals 10, then that is something I would consider,” he said.

Google does seem a natural fit for Digg, which could potentially find itself integrated into the Google News service, which while massively popular has never been a money spinner. Bolstering the service with Digg, would undoubtedly help it create a far more attractive platform on which to sell ads.

However, it still represents a risk for the company which is still working on a way to make money from YouTube, another massively popular internet destination.

This particular path has already been trodden by Wired-owner Condé Nast, which bought Reddit in 2006, incorporating its news aggregation technology into its range of sites.

Source: PCPro.co.uk

Last heard from the PC Show that all the “Diamonds” offered from Starhub are snapped up this afternoon. I’m not sure whether will there be any replenishment of stocks later or even tomorrow.

Elsewhere, UK has already sold out all their HTC Touch Diamonds. It seems to me that Diamonds aren’t just “a girl’s best friend. “

San Francisco (CA) – Google’s CEO says the company still hasn’t figured out how to make money from YouTube. In an interview with The New Yorker, Eric Schmidt said Google hasn’t yet monetized the millions of video views daily from YouTube, but added that the company isn’t in that big of a hurry. “We have the luxury of time,” Schmidt said.

Two years ago, Google paid $1.65 billion for the world’s most popular online video site. According to Schmidt, it was “obvious” that Google could make “significant” amounts of money from YouTube, but so far that hasn’t happened just yet. Google recently added in-video ads that appear briefly along the bottom (like a news broadcast lower-third). Viewers can click on these ads and be taken to another site.

In the same interview, Schmidt denied Google was monopolizing the ad space and gave credit to Yahoo which excels in display-based ads.

Source: tgdaily.com

After one whole day of messing around with the HTC Touch Diamond, it’s probably time to give my opinion on the performance of the HTC Touch Diamond retail set. Since this is the first time I’m using a smartphone with a Windows Mobile 6.1 OS, I’ll try to give an opinion to the best of my knowledge on smartphones.

Aesthetics

Looks wise, the HTC Diamond is really very sleek. It weighs like an average “candy-bar” handphone and is as thin as most of the candy-bar phones you’d find in the market. The HTC Touch Diamond makes the Nokia N-series look tremendously overweight and makes the iPhone feel too fat to hold. It’s thin & sleek design makes it perfect for users to slip it in their pocket like any other small candy-bar phone; minus the unflattering bulge you’d get from the Nokia N-series.

With the Touchflow-3D, the HTC Touch Diamond takes the Windows mobile interface to the next level. This sleek looking dock makes navigation a breeze and takes the bore of scrolling through messages, videos and photos (I’m sure all of you have seen the videos). The interface is watered down version of iPhone’s stylish interface but it does the job of impressing me.

However, the HTC Touch Diamond’s beauty is also it’s flaw. The sleek black-glossy look attracts hideous fingerprints which is difficult to clean.

On top of that, the stylish interface is the major cause of the Touch Diamond’s software issues. One of the most irritating problem, in my opinion, is the erratic screen freeze after one start up his/her phone. The phone will “hang” at the “Tap here to launch Tuchflow-3D” screen and you’ve got to restart your phone and try again (there was once I nearly took 10+ minutes to switch on the phone successfully). The other nitty thing is the “lag-time” of the interface that I had discussed earlier. It is a split second lag but at times, it does get to my nerves whenever it freezes. Thus, it was not an entirely positive experience with the HTC Touch Diamond’s aesthetics - unlike publicized by many websites prior to the launch.

Performance

I’m generally quite happy with the HTC Touch Diamond’s performance. Most of the applications and hardware work “out-of-the-box”, which is rare when it comes to complicated embedded devices like the smartphones. I’ve tested the WiFi and it worked seamlessly with Wireless@SG and the pre-installed Opera browser was churning websites out with ease. It was easy to sync bluetooth devices with the HTC Touch Diamond. In fact, it was too easy that I almost became too lazy to sync the HTC Touch Diamond with a USB-cable connection. I haven’t tried the 3.5G connection yet (I’m waiting for my new SIM-card to be activated) and neither have I tried the GPS (but I’ve heard that the GPS does not work properly without some tweaks).

What I love about this phone is it’s applications. It came with the complete Office Mobile (Words, Powerpoint and Excel), Adobe reader, Mail client, an easy to use appointment manager, flash player, media player and lots more! And it all work out-of-the-box! It must be HTC’s first ever model to have most of the hardware & software work at time of launch.

However, there are a few things that made me a little uncomfortable using the phone. Firstly, the volume of the voice-calls is inconsistent. I get a soft & choppy voice-calls whenever I’m in the midst of completing an SMS message. At other times, the voice-calls are clear & crisp. As of now, the FM player does not work. Reception is non-existent, even with popular local channels like Class 95 and Perfect 10. It could be some settings that I may have overlooked. For now, IT IS NOT WORKING!

Verdict

The reason why I say that the phone is not for the faint hearted is because of the effort needed to make the phone work for you. Some of the aforementioned problems can be solved by tweaking the HTC Touch Diamond. This involves installing third party programs and messing with the OS’ registries. It’s not that difficult (well at first it did look quite daunting) but it could pose problems to those who aren’t familiar with tweaking phones for better performance. After tweaking, I found that the Touchflow-3D is more responsive with minimal lag-time. However, the screen-freeze at the start of launching the phone still persists (although less occasionally now).

Overall, I’d say that the phone is near great but not spectacular. I’m quite disappointed because from the advert videos and reviews, the phone seemed to have no problems at all. The number of complain threads in mobile forums are growing as more people succumb to the beauty of the HTC Touch Diamond. I guess it’s normal when it comes to phones that are “fresh from the factory”. Give it a little more time and slowly, the issues will be ironed out with upcoming updates.

But the more I use the HTC Touch Diamond, the more I’m loving it. The HTC Touch Diamond may take sometime to get used to (the different available keyboards for SMS-ing for example) but it’s worth the trouble. To those who think that the HTC Touch Diamond is an iPhone killa’ - I’m sure you’d take back your words! I’m not saying that the iPhone is better but there are some perks found in the HTC Touch Diamond that can’t be found in the iPhone (and vice-versa). If you want to get this phone, I’ll suggest you to wait a lil longer. Maybe by that time, the HTC Touch PRO (Diamond’s “upgraded model”) will be out!

For now, I’ll just enjoy my spoils! Maybe I’ll post some HOW-TOs when I’m free! Cheers!

I was thinking of re-contracting my plan with Starhub since it was expiring. Furthermore, Starhub gave me a voucher for any handset purchase if I sign-up with them again. I was intending to get a smartphone, for many reasons, but just couldn’t find a relatively inexpensive and a stable one. However, I had my eyes on Samsung i780 and was prepared to get it when I re-contract.

At that point of time, it didn’t occur to me to get the HTC Touch Diamond because it was retailing at S$1098 without plan (thus, I estimated it to be around $700+ with a 2-year plan). However, I was in a shock when I saw that the HTC Touch Diamond was selling at a much cheaper price with a Singnet plan. Thus, I hurried down to the PC Show yesterday eveining, hoping that Starhub would give me a similar good deal! I didn’t see any HTC Touch Diamond in their brochures but I managed to somehow spot its display behind the throngs of visitors at the PC Show.

It was a tough decision. I wanted to get the Samsung i780 because it was the most decent looking QWERTY smartphone and one of the most stable ones too. It had many good reviews and its “real-world” performance was almost flawless. In other words, the Samsung i780 is a stable phone worth buying!

The HTC Touch Diamond on the other hand is sleek! Its applications, interface and functions matches the Samsung i780 but its GUI is several notches higher. However, there aren’t many “real-world” performance reviews on it. I was worried of the issues it would bring. Thus, I hesitated (especially with the added cost of getting the Touch Diamond) for the longest time ever.

After considering the HTC Touch Diamond’s looks, looks and looks, I decided to get it (I’m shallow, wth). Well, it wasn’t just the looks. It had all the functions and softwares of the i780 pre-installed (minus the GPS Maps). Thus, I paid a hundred dollars more for the Touch Diamond!

The Touch Diamond is uber sweet. The only qualm I have now is that it’s GUI is kinda slow. It has this split-second lag which is quite noticeable. Well, I’m just hoping that after long hours of usage (installations of programs, SMSes, etc), the phone would not loose it’s speed (oh well, if you’d use Windows for the longest time, you’d understand why).

Test now and photos later! Wooot!

It’s “that time” again. Here’s the link to the compilation of pricelists, thanks to coldfreeze (HWZ).

Link.

I need to get a new handphone and broadband plan. Probably getting a mobile broadband plan too. YEAH!

Canon announced that they will be releasing a new camera in their DSLR range that would replace the current Rebel XT (350D) and XTi (400D) range. The new camera is said to be more affordable and is aimed at entry-level photography enthusiast.

The EOS Rebel XS will boast a 10.1 megapixel resolution, 2.5″ LCD and most importantly, Live View. Compared to the entry-level 400D, the Canon 1000D is just slightly better. However, Live View is the feature that separates the 1000D from the 350D or 400D. On top of that, the new Canon 1000D will ditch the bigger and more expensive compact flash card with the SD/SDHC cards.

Canon will release the camera with an upgraded “kit lens”. Instead of the older entry-level EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens, the kit lens that will be bundled with the 1000D will have an added image stabilizing feature. Thus, this helps first time users get less blurry shots and better control at low-level lighting.

However, the Canon 1000D still falls short of sheer performance as compared to Canon’s latest entry-level 450D. Thus, it is placed below the performance of the 450D but with less than applaudable reason to upgrade from a 400D. The pricing, at current posting time, is said to be at the USD$799 - $899 range.

Auburn (CA) – Most small businesses and consumers do not have elaborate disaster recovery plans in place, which means that their data may be at risk, especially if backups are stored nearby. Fire and water can wipe out at least portions of the contents stored on hard drives in a matter of seconds. ioSafe announced new hard drives that promise to withstand fire and water and offer a type of product for all those who don’t invest in off-site storage.

ioSafe claims that it is the first company to offer fire- and waterproof hard drives, which may be worth a look not just for businesses, but also families who are looking for ways to keep those digital family pictures safe, even when a house burns down. The company uses 2.5” drives within 3.5” enclosures are specially equipped with heat and water barriers.

Fire protection is provided by the firm’s “DataCast endothermic insulation technology”, which the manufacturer claims forms a chemical bond with water molecules that, at temperature above 160 degrees Fahrenheit, releases water vapor to limit the internal temperature of the unit. Combined with the insulation, ioSafe claims that the drive can sustain outside temperatures of up to 1400 degrees Fahrenheit for up to 15 minutes and short term peak temperatures of up to 1700 degrees Fahrenheit.

In the case of a fire, the plastic tabs on the inside of the 3.5” casing will melt at a temperature of 250 degrees Fahrenheit, closing the drive and blocking airflow. The manufacturer said that the inside of the 2.5” drive should not get hotter than 210 degrees Fahrenheit during a fire, as 98% of radiant heat can be deflected. Typical house fires reach a heat of about 1100 degrees Fahrenheit with 3 to 5 minutes.
There was no detailed information on the water protection technology, other than the claim that the drive will be protected from fresh or salt water damage, both in full submersion and spray/splash scenarios. Full submersion protection is guaranteed for up to 24 hours in up to 5 ft of water.

Just in case the drive is damaged, ioSafe offers an optional data recovery plan that is activated through the registration of a product. The service, which is offered free of charge, provides access to data recovery experts and includes up to $2500 payment by ioSafe to a third-party data extraction service plus replacement product, if required.

Not surprisingly, ioSafe’s hard drives come at a premium over regular hard drives. The price list ranges from $330 for a 5400 rpm 80 GB drive to $460 for a 7200 rpm 200 GB drive. The highest capacity is offered by a 320 GB 5400 rpm model for $450.

Source: tgdaily.com