Yes it’s that time of year when we eat too much, drink too much and have unnecessary arguments with relatives over the pitiful TV that they laughingly call entertainment.

As one of my readers, you’re probably going to be in receipt of a number of gadgets, gizmo’s and techno-treats this year (despite the death of the British Pound according to my friend HERE)

The question is… what do you do with all your old tech? Well here are some ideas of how you could repurpose that equipment:-

Laptop’s

Despite your apparent need for 4Gb’s of RAM and Quad-core processing, that old laptop of yours seemed blisteringly fast a couple of Christmas’s ago… so what happened? Well ‘you did’ apparently… Most PCs and Laptops just get slower due to lots of unnecessary software, media and temporary files. Of course at this point you already have a nice new shiny one, so why don’t you format the hard-drive on the old one (or use the recovery disks) and give it to your Nan or Grandad so they can Skype you? One useful idea is to put Ubuntu on it as there is then little danger of Trojans, Viruses or Malware infecting your poor unsuspecting (and unknowledgeable) Grandparents.

Ubuntu Installation Guide: [link]

Old Net-tops, Notebooks and Underpowered PC’s

There is an excellent article on LifeHacker.com that details how to create your own Media Center PC from an old computer [link] or you could even turn it into a NAS (Network Attached Storage device) for your home network for the purposes of Backup (Pictures etc), Media (Music, Films) or for downloading .torrent files etc. Again this is detailed in a nice article from LifeHacker [link]

Mobile/Cell Phones

Yes… we all need the latest iPhone or Android (obviously the latter if you are a proper tech-head!), but that Nokia or Samsung you use to use for making calls and sending texts is still a perfectly functional bit of kit. Here are some ideas for that too:-

• Stick a Pre-pay SIM in it (on a different network to your usual one), and put it in the boot of your car with a cigarette lighter charger for emergencies – e.g. Your phone is dead/lost/no signal and you have broken down.
• Stick a Pre-pay SIM in it, enable ‘fixed dialing only’ (A mechanism that only allows the phone to dial pre-configured numbers), and give it to your young children to put in their School bag. They can’t call anyone or play games on it, but again, in the case of an emergency or missing a School bus…
• Give it to Phone for Heroes – they use the sale of these old handsets to support the Help for Heroes charity

Televisions

Its patently ridiculous how many TV sets we are throwing away because they are Analog… You can purchase a Freeview box for about £20 and turn it into a Digital TV, so why not put it in the spare room for when the kids are home for Christmas or make sure that Granny can watch TV in the Kitchen and Bedroom?

If you still have no use for it, then take it to a charity shop as they can then use the proceeds to fund a good cause.

My Guide to Reusing old TV and HiFi equipment: [link]

Games Consoles

Its frightening how many games consoles end up at the local tip… Those old XBOX consoles are probably one of the most hackable devices out there. By making a minor internal modification with an xecuter chip, you can use XBMC (XBOX Media Center) software and turn your XBOX into a full-blown Music and Video media box. Marry this up with one of the old TV’s above, and you’ve created a Media box for your games room/summer house.

Installing XBMC on an XBOX: [link]

Surround-sound / All-in-one players

Well these are fantastic for enhanced the kids games-room – add one of these to their games console and they have a more immersive experience, and the volume levels tend to go down. Another good use for these is to add to the Media system detailed above and place in your Summerhouse/Shed for those garden parties. Its just a case of unwinding the speaker wires and you have a sound system in the Garden. Add an old Radio Receiver and you can pipe your favourite music station into the garden whilst sunbathing.

My Guide to Reusing old HiFi equipment: [link]

Going a bit off-track today, but thought I would share with you my recent purchase.

Nope, not the latest in Wireless technology, or a shiny new mobile phone (although I have had this one for nearly a month now!), but an old, slightly worn, ex-military Series III Land Rover.

It’s purchase came about after the missus decided that she wanted rid of the Chrysler Grand Voyager in order to get an Audi Convertible. This of course left a slight issue; How would we get the three Irish Setters that we own down to the river (my car is a Jaguar XK8, so no chance there!)

We decided that a ‘cheap and cheerful’ 4×4 would be the answer, and after asking around, managed to acquire ‘The Sarge’

No to be honest, the test drive was erm, how can I put it, scary! This 1983 ex-military Landy has no power steering, all round drum-brakes, steering that has to be used to be believed, and a gearbox that has about 2 feet of play in it.

Needless to say, I fell in love with it instantly!

The Sarge - 1983 Series III Land Rover (ex-Military)

After a bit of negotiation, the seller (a nice chap also called Paul) threw in an extra spare wheel so I could utilise both mounts (there is one on the rear door as well as the bonnet)

Fuel Tank Selector

Its a 1983 Series III (registered at DVLA in 1986), and still has the Infra-red / Convoy light selectors inside, and has dual fuel-tanks that can only be filled by removing the seats (not so much fun on these snowy days, I can tell you!). There is a manual selector on the front of the seat panel between the drivers legs that lets you select which fuel tank you are using. As you change the selector, you see the fuel gauge change to match the tank you have selected.

Of course, when I bought it, it was ‘Farmer Green’, you know, that lacklustre powdery green that they used to come in… In any case, I decided that it had to be changed. So armed with a laptop, I visited that old faithful ‘eBay’

On eBay I found “Military Vehicle Paint – 2.5 lt Satin Finish”, perfect I thought. So with this and a litre of Black Satin, I attacked the project with vim!

After ‘googling’ a bit, I came to the general consensus that a paint roller would work fine. Well, I have to say, that even with my lack of preparation (which was basically giving it to the local hand car wash for a hour), it came out really well. So well in fact, I still haven’t put a 2nd coat on!

The seats were terrible inside, but in exchange for a quick website revamp, Collards Upholstery recovered the seats in Andrew Muirhead leather. As you can see the picture, Russ done a fantastic job of them.

Andrew Muirhead Leather on original seats

You can see from these other pictures that it still has the Convoy / Stealth light selectors and switch on the dashboard, although the infra-red switch is hard-wired to the normal headlamps now (shame!)

Headlamp Selector (with 'Convoy' and 'Stealth') - Not sure what 'Rear Guard' is....

Infra-red selector switch

You can also see from the rear view, that it has the waterproof ‘screw on’ lenses, and the overrider bumpers too.

Rear View with Overrider and Screw On Lenses

The interior of the rear cabin is in the standard military style, with two bench seats and storage areas for munitions. You’ll note the jerry-can sneaking into the bottom left of the photo. I acquired this from the Army Surplus in Chelmsford (for a bargain £20 including spout + spare seal!)

Interior of the rear Cabin

Things I had to do straight away:-

Lucas 6JF Fusebox

Land Rover Series III Mirror

The indicator Stalk was seriously stiff, and never returned (and with the road noise, you can’t hear the relay clicking!), so that had to be changed (eBay – £14). Next was the fusebox. I would randomly loose indicators, interior light, brake lights. Unfortunately the old Lucas 6JF fuse boxes have aluminium contacts with a steel rivet running through them. The net result is that corrosion makes everything a bit flaky. That said, £8 later (again eBay), I had a brand new one, and it took 5 minutes to fit. Lastly was the passenger side mirror (you need wing mirrors in a LWB Landy!), another visit to eBay and £14 later I had a brand new one!

The rope on the front has hand-woven eyelets (with a stainless steel shackle) and is made from natural fibre rope. I got the chap down at the Chandlers at the bottom of Market Hill in Maldon to make this for me, and to his credit, only charged me a total of £30 which I thought was a bargain as it took him an hour to do!

'The Sarge' Door Decal on my 1983 Series III Land Rover (Ex-Military)

My next item on the list was some decals. I have the usual ‘It may be slow, but it’s 100% British’ on the back, but then added a ‘Sarge’ decal to the doors. In addition, I added a ‘K9 Unit’ to the back quarter, and ‘Escape Hatch’ to the inside of the rear door.

Current issues that I need to address:-

• Clutch is awful. Sometimes it works, sometimes I have to use all my strength to get it into 1st gear.
• 4×4 Selector is gummed up inside the gearbox, so I can’t use 4×4 at the moment (although this should be fixed tomorrow)
• Passenger door is a bit rotten (anyone have one spare?)
• Roof leaks a little around a (badly fitted) sunroof.
• Needs a drivers-side step (wife is only 5′ tall LOL!)

Also open to any suggestions on how to improve it

I’ve just upgraded my iPhone to 3.0 and was alarmed to see that to utilise Internet Tethering (which frankly, would be a ‘last resort’), I would need to pay O2 an additioanl £14.68 a month on top of my existing data connection!

Fear not humble iPhone users, there is a solution out there. Browse to this URL from Safari on the iPhone:-

http://www.iphone-notes.de/mobileconfig/

Select your country and carrier,  and download the Tethering profile (ignore the warning message)

Note: This doesn’t mean you get data for ‘free’, but if you already have a ‘data package’ it should be included within that, rather than paying a separate ‘Tethering’ charge (like O2 are trying to get you to do!)

When you go back into Settings, General, Network you will now see that the Internet Tethering is ‘Off‘ (as opposed to ‘set up’)

If you now tap on the “Internet Tethering“, you get a new screen that allows you to enable it

Just as a footnote – if you are wondering how I captured the screens on an iPhone, simply press the top power button and the home button at the same time, and the current screen is saved to the camera roll.

Yes… It’s true… I have succumbed to the coolest gadget of them all; The Apple iPhone.

I resisted for a while (mainly due to it only being available on O2 in the UK), but in the end managed to get O2 to take over our 12 phone contract from Orange, give us 3 iPhone’s and 5 Nokia E71′s (plus a couple of spare phones), and even pay our termination clause on the Orange contract. It just shows how desperate the carriers are to get you tied into a 2 year contract nowadays!

Anyway….

First impressions; As with all Apple packaging, you feel a little disappointed as it is always very minimalist, but once you start playing with the iPhone, you realise why it is so much better than the other touch enabled devices out there. I’ve had the LG Prada, HTC Touch, HTC Touch Pro, and even the Samsungs with touch sensative buttons. I can honestly say that they are not even in the same ball-park as the iPhone.

Ok, onto the top free Apps (and as always, please feel free to comment with your fav’s as well!)

1. Free RSS Reader – forget the others, this does exactly what it say’s on the tin. Add all your favourite feeds, or browse to a site and it automatically detects any feeds that are available.  Supports Landscape
2. Google Earth – Just because it is sooooo cool to zoom in on your own house. Supports ’tilt’ view.
3. eBay – Yes… I do need to know what I am bidding on or selling 24/7 !!!!
4. iTranslate – this does need a data connection, but allows you to save phrases so that you can prepare for your encounter at the patisserie in advance! – Also has the ability to play the phrase (a little scratchy,  but still useful!) out of the speaker/headphones.
5. last.fm – Ideal for all those Audioscrobblers out there… plays your fave’s and lets you listen to the usual last.fm radio selections.
6. MMS – because the iPhone can’t do this yet!
7. VNC Lite – Allows me to manage a server remotely. It’s a bit fiddly, but it does let you do everything you need to in an emergency (e.g. Reboot the server or reload your software)
8. midomi – Remember “Shazam!”… well that cost’s £1.00 per go!… Midomi is *free* (and surprisingly recognised me humming the Godfather theme!)
9. Stanza – good intuitive eBook reader
10. GuitarChords – handy pocket aide-memoir for all your Guitar Chord needs
11. Ok, this one is a ‘Paid for’ (£2.99) application called TV Plus, but what a fantastic applet… this program allows you to view the TV listings for your region, and then instruct your Sky+ or SkyHD box to record it no matter where you are! It uses a pre-registered “My Sky” account name / password to log into Sky and then remotely instruct your Sky box to record!

Silly Stuff!

1. Pac Man Lite – Namco’s original, now ported to the iPhone
2. Jellycar – I can’t even begin to explain this… just download it and laugh!
3. Labyrinth LE – great use of the inertia sensors for marble madness fun.
4. Darts -yep… it’s Darts!
5. FS5 Hockey – Remember those happy days at the seaside playing Air Hockey with your sister!

Tips;

1. Removing an App or rearranging the ‘Desktops’

If you hold down your finger on any icon for more than a few seconds and all the icons wobble. Once they are wobbling, you can drag them from one ‘desktop’ screen to another. You can also delete them by clicking on the (X) icon in the top-left of the icon.

2. Drag an App to the far right-screen to create a new ‘desktop’ area.

Thunderbird Syncing

Ok, this is a problem at the moment, only solved by using 3rd party app’s.

Here is a solution for contacts only (calendar to follow shortly apparantly)

1. Install Funambol Mozilla Plugin into your copy of Thunderbird [link]

2. Install the Funambol iPhone app (just search for it in the Apple App store)

3. Create a free account at Funambol [link]

4. Enter the account details into the options page of Funambol on both the iPhone and Thunderbird

5. Click on Tools, Funambol Plugin on Thunderbird and click on ‘Click to Syncronize’ and wait to finish

6. Click on the Funambol icon on your iPhone and do the same

You can set Thunderbird to sync both the contacts and calendar, but only the contacts arrive on the iPhone at present. The Thunderbird client can also be set to sync automatically (but not the iPhone end)

Hi All,

Well once again I have a new phone!

It seems that Orange UK wanted to upgrade my business account (saving me £2000+ per year) and give me 6 new phones in the process!

The one I decided to play with is the HTC Touch, and obviously I had to get under the bonnet and have a little ‘tweak’ )

Unlocking

Ok, this is pretty straighforward. All you need to do is run two apps on the HTC, and one on your PC to recover the 8-digit lock code.

Here are the exact steps:-

• Download HTC Unlocker (Google to find it!)
• Connect your Phone and establish the usual Activesync Connection.
• Browse the the ‘My Documents’ folder on the phone and place the Cert_SPCS.cab and the EnableRapi.cab in there
• Run Cert_SPCS.cab and EnableRapi.cab by using “File Explorer” -Click through any warnings
• ON YOUR PC: Run Touch_Unlock.exe
• A few moments later you will seea file appear in the folder called Unlock_Result.exe
• Open HxD.exe and drag Unlock_Result.exe onto it.
• Look for your IMEI Number (its under your battery) and find it in the Hex File. The 8 Digits that appear after it are the unlock code.
• Place a Sim card from a different provider in your phone, and enter the 8 digit number when prompted (I had to do this twice on my phone)

As you can see, my unlock code was 55644428, but obviously that is tied to my IMEI number (before you try it!) – you will also note that I wiped out the last 4 digits of my IMEI (didn’t want the world to know that info!)

Bluetooth DUN (Dial Up Networking)

As you will know from my previous experiences with trying to get my TomTom working on the Samsung i600, it is almost impossible due to the BT DUN being removed from WM6. Well all is not lost my friends – it seems that on the HTC Touch (and maybe other HTC phones as well), you can install a .cab file that restores this functionality.

Instructions again:-

• Download the WM6 BT DUN Cabinet File [WM6 BT DUN]
• Unzip to Desktop on your PC
• Browse your HTC through ActiveSync and place in “My Documents” on the phone
• ON THE PHONE:Using File Explorer, run the WM6_BT_DUN.cab file and click through any warnings
• Reset your phone
• Run TomTom’s “New Phone” process.

I would recommend updating your TomTom using the TomTom Home application first. These updates seem to really help when it comes to setting up phones, and mine even downloaded the (600 contact!) telephone directory off my HTC without a hitch.

Since getting my Eee PC, I’ve been reading about the ability to overclock the FSB (Front Side Bus). This bus has the capability of running at 100mhz (as opposed to the default 70mhz). The net effect of this is that the CPU speed increases to 900 Mhz from the normal 630 Mhz (which is 70% of 900 Mhz of course!). You must if course be running Ubuntu to do this!

Once you have downloaded the scripts from [here], run the following commands from within the unpacked archive:

sudo ./tweak-gnome.sh
sudo ./install.sh all

Then reboot your EeePC

After doing this, Pressing Fn-F6 will automatically enable the FSB increase, and various other fixes for the EeePC will start working, namely;

• Asus Eee kernel modules
• ACPI support (suspend, hotkeys)
• overclocking code
• Wifi support
• Sound
• Boot speed
• Additional software sources
• Skype two way video

All this can be found on the Ubuntu Eee Wiki located here: http://ubuntu-eee.tuxfamily.org/

Now I know that I have already told you how to do a lot of this in my article about installing Ubuntu on an EeePC, but this does take a lot of the hassle out of it, and it definately gets the overclocking working!

Bluetooth [photopress:trust_usb_bt.jpg,full,alignright]

There has been lots of mods popping up lately that allows you to install a Bluetooth dongle inside your EeePC utilising the additional USB connections that are hidden on the motherboard… well you could of course use a tiny USB dongle like this. You can pick these up for £10, and its a lot less hassle than getting the soldering iron out! One supplier is Novatech [link]

But I have been totally blow away by the hacks that someone else has made to this diminutive laptop.

How about adding; GPS, Bluetooth, Modem, Flash Card Reader, FM Transmitter, 802.11N Wifi and more!

Well someone has done this, and documented it well. You can find all the internal upgrade details here [Link]

I may well be trying some of this myself, and will post an article with step-by-steps if I do.

Again: The instructions here are for a European i600 **NOT** a USA i607. If you try this on an AT&T i607, you *will* brick your phone.

As you know; I am a great fan of my Samsung SGH-i600, but I have a little bad news for you… The *Free* WM6 Upgrade that is supplied on the Samsung Website [link] will not work on the ‘Orange’ branded units, or even those that have been ‘debranded’ ( – I have tested this using the various methods (and wiping my phone on each occasion!) in order to prove that it can’t be done.

Curse you Orange, and curse your nasty branded interfaces….

However…. A look at the MoDaCo Wiki [Link] shows a WM6 Flash (not official) !!! – So… I downloaded the 60Mb File, and lo and behold, WM6 on my Samsung – Wooo Hoooooo.

Here are the instructions in Full:-

Please Note: This is entirely at your own risk, and any damage caused directly or indirectly by this information is entirely your responsibility. If you brick your phone, don’t come crying to me – you have been warned!

• Make sure you have ActiveSync 4.5 or higher installed.
• BACKUP YOUR PHONE -Use ActiveSync to backup the contacts, and browse to the phone for images / mp3′s etc.
  
• Download the Modem Driver (required for ‘Flashing’) [ZIP] and install it.
• Download the i600UXXGG2 WM6 RAR file and unpack [Link to MoDoCo page] [Alternative Link to RapidShare Download of the same file]
• Ensure that you ‘disable‘ the USB Connection in the ActiveSync Connection Settings whilst you attempt this.
• Place phone into ‘Flasher Mode’ (click on image for larger view)
• Run the WM6 upgrader – Ensure that you have a fully charged battery, and that you don’t interrupt the (rather long) upgrade process – it will say complete several times… wait until the ‘Flasher’ screen disappears off the phone. (NOTE: Can take up to 5 mins)
  
• Wait for phone to reboot – it takes about 5 mins to complete the process - be patient whilst its on the Windows Mobile Screen!!!
• Wait for the phone to reboot again… (normal startup speed this time!)
• Restore the USB connection in ActiveSync
• Restore all your images / mp3s and re-sync your contacts.

Once completed, if you should see version CE OS 5.2.1437 – i600UXXGG2

You’ll notice it says 5.2 – well that is the official internal version number for WM6!

Impressions;

Well… you’ll notice that some of the icons have been improved. There is a new ‘Windows Live’ screen (Search and Live login), a Live Messenger icon and it seems a bit faster. I’ll update this as I use it over the next few days….

Some more Blackjack / SGH-i600 goodies for you;

1. Samsung i600 User Guide [PDF]
2. Modem Driver (required for ‘Flashing’) [ZIP]
3. Alternative WM6 Upgrade Instructions (if you haven’t got a UK ‘Orange’ version… Grrr) [Link]
4. Top 10 Applications for Windows Mobile [Link]

Dear Avid Reader,

Here we are once again with one of my ‘real world’ hack’s… This one gets used almost every day!

In my modest home in Latchingdon, Essex – England, I have a ‘Bar in the Garden’. This ‘Bar’ is approx 25′ x 18′ and has an indoor BBQ, Gas Heating and a Bar Counter with cupboards, fridges and glass shelves.

Clearly I needed to think carefully about the entertainment system!

My key requirements were:-

• Music, TV & Internet

Now the Music would obviously come from my huge MP3 collection (and even bigger CD collection), TV would come from Satellite TV via a dish on the side of the bar.

After messing about with Windows Media Edition, I decided on using Media Portal (www.team-mediaportal.com)  which is a fantastic open-source Media Center application. Not only does it provide the usual DVD/MP3/Pictures interface, but also supports TV Cards, EPG and even a TiVO-style recording facility.

All the sound hardware was derived from old HiFi amplifiers and surround-sound systems, and the TV was a £150 HD Ready no-name from Comets.

The app plays nice with Hauppauge TV / Remote combination cards, and has a very configurable interface (with skinning capabilities).

At the other end of my bar, I have the Guitar stuff – As you can see below, I’ve set up a 2nd LCD panel (using a TV Interface board I purchased off eBay), add a £20 DVD player from Tesco and you have a play-along-with-the-music system!

Click on the Pic to see a bigger version

Hi All,

Well I went and got myself an Asus Eee PC the other day. What a fantastic piece of kit… but I have to say I didn’t like the OS much. You either have a ‘fisher price’ Xandros Linux desktop, or a Xandros KDE based one… Personally (and I am new to linux) I prefer Ubuntu’s Gnome-based layout.

Now in theory, this shouldn’t be too hard, but in order to make sure that this all works properly, I spent a great deal of time researching the process at EeeUser.com and various other sites.

This is my ‘How to’

1. Reboot your Eee PC and ensure that the boot sequence is set to ATAPI CD Rom as the first choice.
2. Plug in a USB CD Caddy and insert your Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon Live CD (Download Here)
3. Once booted, click on Applications, Terminal and type gconf-editor
4. Browse to apps/compiz/plugins/move/allscreens/options and uncheck constrain_y (Full details Here) – This allows you to move any window up beyond the height of the screen, which is very much needed during this install.
5. Double Click on the “Install” Icon on the Desktop. Any time a window doesn’t fit, hold down the Alt key and drag the window off the top of the screen so you can see the buttons.
6. Go through all the normal bits until you get to the Partitioning. Select manual and delete all the existing partitions. Create one partition of 4001Mb that is EXT2 and has a mount point of “/” – Ignore any “swap partition” warnings.
7. Complete Install (answering any obvious questions accordingly)
8. Reboot (after removing the CD)
9. Redo Step 4 again (it gets lost in the install)
10. Acknowledge the Athos “Restricted Driver” message
11. Minimise Disk Writes (All obtained from Eeeuser.com) by doing the following:-
    1. Adding the following to /etc/fstab tmpfs /var/log tmpfs defaults,noatime 0 0
    2. Repeat for /tmp, /var/lock, /var/run and /var/tmp
    3. Set defaults,noatime 0 2 on the main ext2 partition (See HERE for more details) to prevent excessive wear and tear on your SSD
    4. If you ignored me and added a swap partition as well, then edit the /etc/sysctl.conf and add a line at the end that says vm.swappiness=0 this will tell the OS to use RAM in preference to Swap files.
    5. Go into Add/Remove, and remove the pointless applications that are taking up room on your little 4Gb SSD… I removed the following:-
12. 1. Most of the games (Really…How often are you actually going to play these?)
    2. F-spot Photo Manager (I user Flikr, so not needed)
    3. OnBoard (on-screen keyboard… not needed as we have one!)
    4. Orca (I can see just fine thank you…)
    5. Xsane (Nope… no scanners or faxes plugged into my Eee)
13. Get your GMAIL all set up (Samsung tips here apply equally well… http://www.internet-tools.co.uk/blog/index.php?s=gmail)

Ok. So we have a working Eee PC running Ubuntu, but there are a few things ‘Broken’…. Battery Indicator, Wireless Lan, Webcam, Power Buttons, Lid sensor, Skype…..

Go the the Eeeuser.com site HERE to fix these issues (far to long to cut’n'paste here) and pn Samiux’s Blog HERE

But things I did fix from the Eeeuser site were:-

• Wireless network (via ndiswrapper method)
• Suspend/Resume/Power Down issues
• Webcam support (you have to enable it in the BIOS for Ubuntu to see it – it will reboot twice once enabled)

Click on the Pic to see a bigger version

The next thing was to make sure that everything took up as little space as possible. These were the steps I took:-

• Installed the ‘Littlefox’ theme into FireFox (takes up much less screen real-estate)
• Went into Appearance Preferences and set:-
  • All the fonts to 8pt
  • Icons to “Icon Only” (no text)
• Adjusted mouse sensitivity (wasn’t detecting my touchpad-taps very well)
• Set both status bars to 19 pixels in height
• Added my networked HP printer (I use a wireless gateway adapter connected to the Ethernet port on the OfficeJet)

Then I added some goodies…

• Enabled all the repositories in System, Administration, Software Sources
• Updated everything by going into System, Administration, Update Manager
• Installed all the BlueTooth stuff (so I can beam from my Samsung to the Eee PC)
• Installed Camorama (Web Cam Capture and Test App)
• Installed v2 of Skype (it has webcam support under linux)

And thats it…. all working, and I am in fact completing this blog entry on my Eee PC with Ubuntu!

Click on the Pic to see a bigger version

27th November – NOTE: When installing the ndiswrapper, make sure you place the ndis folder that you downloaded from the cd/website somewhere sensible! I deleted the folder (thinking that ndiswrapper would copy the relevant files somewhere) and spent 2 hours trying to get my wireless lan working again

29th November – Added some screenshots of it in action.

30th November – Firstly… sorry if you haven’t been able to view this blog… Fasthosts cobbled my MySQL server Secondly… I have had a minor problem (irritating, more than an issue) where the Eee PC will randomly reboot during the initial boot sequence. Essentially it gets ‘stuck’ about 20% through the first Ubuntu progress bar, and then reboots just fine. Haven’t sussed what it is yet, but it only happened after I enabled the Webcam in the BIOS…

Sorry if you have experienced ‘spam’ or URL redirections from this page. This has been caused by someone hacking my Blog (again!) – Let me know if you spot any more dodgy pop-ups going on. Cheers, Paul

Hi All,

We can you believe it? Finally we get WM6 (for Free!) from Samsung for our sexy little Euro-Blackjacks!

The link is: http://www.samsungmobile.com/promotion/i600/index.jsp

Countries now supported; Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and Ukraine – Austria still greyed-out….

OK, here are the steps required:-

1. Visit the link above and click on UK
2. Enter your version number, this should look something like i600???? to get this information, simply dial *#1546792*# on your phone, select 1 (Version), 2 (Software Version) and then make a note of what is detailed next to PDA Version
3. Complete the contact details, along with the serial number on the back of your phone (under the battery). The Serial should be under the bar code and look something like R7WP44????? (*last 5 digits hidden for obvious reasons!)
4. You should now see a screen that looks like this
   • 
5. Install ActiveSync 4.5
6. Right-Click save the Samsung Driver and then unzip into a folder somewhere and install using the “Setup.exe”
7. Connect your i600 (It will re-detect the drivers for the phone at this point)
8. You may be asked to ‘delete’ a profile (e.g. Windows PC 1) as it the Samsung only holds 2 profiles… just delete both as it makes no difference…
9. BACKUP EVERYTHING!!!!! using ActiveSync… Well… Sync everything anyway. The Samsung FAQ’s state “During the update, all of your data, including your applications, contacts and games, will be erased Please note that it is possible to re-sync your outlook data once your new Firmware is installed, but this depends on your Active Sync settings and saved PC data before you upgrade.” – Browse to the phone and backup all your pictures, sounds etc.
10. Download the Firmware Updater (I suggest using something like “GetRight” as its 90Mb!!!)
11. Run the Updater…. wait a looooonnnnnggggg time
12. Let the phone reboot as required, and there you have it…. Windows Mobile 6

Of course… all you need to do now is restore all your files and applications back again

NOTE: i600XXGD1 firmware (i.e. “De branded” WM5 as detailed in my other listings) seems to come up with “Invalid Version Number” when you run the Updater…. I will post more as and when I solve this….

If you visit the Samsung upgrade site (http://www.samsungmobile.com/promotion/i600/index.jsp) you can download Windows Mobile 6 (WM6) for your Samsung SGH-i600, so long as you don’t live in the UK.

The only provider for the Euro version of the Blackjack in the UK is Orange, and they seem to have an agreement with all the manufacturers that ensures that the software on the phones is branded, and sometimes crippled!

If you visit the site, you will see that many countries are now supported… but alas no UK

[photopress:samsung_upgrade.jpg,full,centered]

Countries now supported; Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands (Holland), Norway, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine – in addition, it appears that Austria and Italy will be available soon as well.

Windows Mobile 5 and 6 Comparison 

I also found a great comparison document that shows the differences between Windows Mobile 5 and 6

Click on the Thumbnail to open the full PDF document in a new window.

I have a new list of goodies for your Samsung i600 – the only thing I can’t seem to solve yet is the WM5 Bluetooth DUN issue. For those of you who are unaware, Microsoft (in their infinite wisdom) have removed DUN [dial-up networking] from the Bluetooth Stack. The net effect of this is that things like TomTom can no longer access the phone as a data modem for traffic downloads etc… Really bloody annoying….

Anyway, some more top tips and software for you:-

More Codes

*#1546792*# – this code provide access to the Network & Call Settings – This allows you to switch off 3G functionality, which will considerably increase battery life if you don’t use your phone for data. Once in the menu, select 3, then 5 and then change to GSM

Ringtones from Storage Card

If you want to store all your ringtones on your memory card in order to save space, you can make it show them automatically by placing them in the \Storage Card\My Documents folder.

Software

Registry Editing – Something we have to do from time-to-time in order to hack our little phones… well here is a nice free one for you; Total Commander [link]

Screen Capture – This freeware application from Iliumsoft lets you capture your screens so that you can show them in your blog [link]

Customising the Main Screen (Cardwheel Theme)

First, copy the following files from the Samsung and save them (make a backup copy as well!!!!!) – All are located in the \Windows folder on the Phone; background_320x240.bmp, center_tile.png, top1.png, top2.png, low1.png, low2.png, low3.png

[photopress:sshot001.jpg,full,centered]

Edit all the images, based on these rules;

Transparencies figure a lot in this template – use a decent editor like Photoshop or PaintShopPro 9/10

background_320x240.bmp – This is the main background when the screen is first drawn.

top2.png – First menu bar (Where it says ‘Now Playing’)
top1.png – Second menu bar (Where it says ‘Favourite Contacts’)
Both of these have different degrees of transparency set in the Alpha channels… Don’t mess with this! (Keep it the same on any new image)

center_tile.png – Main Card Area (Where is shows ‘Gmail’ and icons)
Ensure that this is a solid image (no Transparency) with hi-contrast to make the text show.

low1.png – 1st lower menu Bar (‘appointments’)
low2.png - 2nd lower menu Bar (‘profiles’)
low3.png – 3rd lower Bar – visible when card wheel scrolls
Again, both these images have transparency set in the alpha channels, which should stay the same on any edited image.

Once you have edited your images, change the theme, copy the files over the top of the originals (back them up first!) and then change the theme back to Card Wheel.

Hi All,

I’ve compiled list of UK Sky Satellite Guides here, and NO, before you ask there is no “Get Sky for Free” – It’s impossible…

What I have done, is list some of the common issues that arise, how to extend your system, and where to get FTA (Free-to-Air) or ‘FreeSat’ cards.

My Sky Box keeps Freezing / Forcing a Software Update

This is a common issue, usually caused by a dodgy software update. All Sky Digiboxes download updates “over the air”, and sometimes you get a bad one. To Force a new update, follow these steps:-

1. Switch off the receiver’s power at the wall
2. Wait 10 secs…. Then press and hold the Backup button on the front of the receiver whilst switching the power back on
3. Keep holding the backup button until all the LEDs on the front switch on.
4. Wait 10-20 mins (A message on the screen will say something like ‘Don’t switch off….’)
5. Resist temptation to start playing with the box when it reboots… give it a few more minutes
6. Voila! Latest software loaded.

Upgrading to Sky+ or Adding another receiver to the same dish

This is actually very simple… Buy yourself a QUAD (4 outputs) or OCTO LNB (8 outputs). Unscrew the ‘F’-connectors that are currently attached to your existing LNB. Swap the LNB for the new one. Reconnect the cables. Simple!

Once you have done this, you can then run additional cables for Sky+ (required 2 x LNB feeds) or for additional receivers.

I want to control my Sky Box from upstairs

You need a ‘Link’ (sometimes called a Magic Eye) – These are cheap enough to get hold of (check eBay), but you have to enable the ‘Link’ on your Sky Box. Here are the steps:-

To install your TV Link you will need to run a length of coaxial cable from the socket marked RF2 on the back of you’re the Digibox directly to the TV you wish to watch Sky on. Plug the cable into one side of the Link and then plug the Link directly into the TV aerial socket.

The Link requires power from the Digibox, and you will need to enter a hidden engineers menu to achieve this. Part of the process involves entering a menu without any on-screen prompts. Simply follow these instructions, and do not worry if you do not see any change on the screen as you press the ‘0’ and ‘1’

• Press SERVICES
• Press 4 for SYSTEM SETUP
• Press 0 then 1 then SELECT - Do this sequence VERY QUICKLY
• Press 4 for RF OUTLETS
• Press down to RF OUTLET POWER SUPPLY and turn it to ON.
• Press down to SAVE NEW SETTINGS and Press SELECT to store the changes
• Press BACKUP to go Back to your Sky channel

Update: If you are using a SkyHD receiver with the new EPG, replace 4,0,1 with 0,0,1

Once you have done this, you will find that the little light on the TV Link will now be lit confirming that there is now power being sent from the Digibox to the remote link. Once you have tuned your TV to the Sky channel you will find you can control your digibox functions from here using a Sky remote control (or Sky+ remote control if you have a Sky+ machine)

Should you wish to use the Sky remote control to work your TV in this room (volume, mute, standby etc) you will have to program the remote to perform these functions – see “Programming your remote to control your TV functions” in your Sky digibox manual.

FITTING MULTIPLE TV LINKS – Should you wish to fit more than one TV Link and be able to watch Sky in many rooms around your house, a powered distribution amplifier is required. These are available in 2, 4, and 8 way versions and can be found from many vendors

FAULT FINDING – Most faults are caused by badly fitted connectors and short circuits. This causes the problems as power does not reach the link along the Coaxial cable. If there is no LED on the link, then there is either a short on the cable or the link is faulty. Try plugging the link directly in the RF2 socket of your digibox. If it lights up there but not on the end of the cable you have run then the fault must lie in the connectors or cable. If the link LED is on, but you cannot control the Digibox, use a short length of cable from the RF2 socket on your digibox and try the TV Link functions from there, if it doesn’t work by doing this then the TV Link could be at fault.

FreeSat / Freeview

Call Sky on 08442 410 595 and tell them that you want a ‘Card Only’ – It should cost £20 and work on any Sky Digibox – Ideal for the [cough..] Villa in Spain [cough..]

The BBC and ITV also provide ‘Freesat’, but although it can use a standard Sky dish without realignment, it does need a different receiver (Sky Digiboxes won’t work)

Turning a SkyHD Remote into a Sky+ Remote

The SkyHD Remote will work just fine with a Sky+ receiver. Just follow these steps:-

1. Press TV
2. Press and Hold i (Info) and Select until the LED flashes twice
3. Press 1, Select, Sky

Replace the 1 with a 2 to change back to a SkyHD remote.

Getting the Sky+ Remote to control your Surround Sound / Amplifier

The Sky+ Remote (NOT the standard Sky remote unfortunately….) has a hidden ability to control your surround-sound or audio AMP. Once programmed, the Navigation UP/DOWN buttons become the volume control for the Amp, and the LEFT button becomes ‘standby’. Various other functions may be mapped, but it is dependant on your Amp.

The steps are as follows:-

1. Turn on the AV amplifier you wish to operate
2. Press the TV button on the Sky+ Remote
3. Press and hold down the Select and the 0 (zero) buttons on the Sky+ Remote until the LED blinks twice (if it doesn’t, then your remote doesn’t support this function)
4. Input the 4 digit number from the Sky+ code list below. The LED should flash twice to confirm that the code was entered successfully (again, if it doesn’t, your remote is probably too old to support this function)
5. Use the Left navigation button on the remote to try and switch the AV Amplifier into standby. If this works then the other AV Amplifier functions should also work and the correct code has been selected. If all functions do not work correctly then repeat steps 1 – 3 and work through all the alternative 4 digit numbers from the code list until you find the code which supports all or as many of the AV Amplifier functions as possible.
6. If your Sky+ remote is pretty new, or you have the Sky Navigator Remote, you may be able to set the normal Volume controls to become the amplifier ones. To try this; Press TV, Select and 1 together until LED flashes twice (if it doesn’t, then its not supported on your remote), then press Sky.

AV Amplifier Codes:

More Useful Remote Contol Codes

Turn a Sky+ remote into a standard Sky remote:-

TV, Hold Yellow+Select until LED flashes twice, 0, Select, Sky (replace 2 with 0 to reset back)

Turn a [ rev 8 ] Sky remote into a Sky+ remote (without the record buttons of course!):-

TV, Hold Blue+Select until LED flashes twice, 2, Select, Sky (replace 2 with 0 to reset back)

Setting your secondary remotes to auto-switch the aspect ratios between 9:16 and 4:3:-

If you have both widescreen and normal TVs connected to the RF2 output, then they normally have to all use the same picture format set in the ‘second location’ format setting.

Solution:

Set the ‘default picture’ format to widescreen.
Set the second location picture format to 4:3

Then on each sky remote to be used for widescreen use the following sequence:

TV, Blue + Select until Led flashes twice, 1, Select, Sky (replace 1 with 0 to reset back)

Each TV using this code automatically sets the format to widescreen. Unmodified remotes would stay in the normal 4:3 format.

Getting the code that the Sky engineer entered into your remote (Blink-back):-

Press the TV button on the Sky remote

Hold down Select and the Red buttons together for approximately two seconds until the LED blinks twice

Key in 9, 9, 0

Key in 1 on the numeric keypad and count the number of times the Red LED blinks. This is the 1st digit.

Repeat for 2 and 3

Note: no Blink = 0 (zero)

Useful Installation Tool

I found this tool recently… it uses Google Maps to show you your own house, and where you can place your dish. http://www.uksatellitehelp.co.uk/ or http://www.dishpointer.com/

My Satellite Guides

• Installation Guide (Alignment / Angles) – http://www.internet-tools.co.uk/ebay/sat/1.pdf
• European Alignment Angles – http://www.internet-tools.co.uk/ebay/sat/2.pdf
• Installing a Link / Magic Eye – http://www.internet-tools.co.uk/ebay/sat/3.pdf
• Remote Control Codes – http://www.internet-tools.co.uk/ebay/sat/4.pdf
• Advanced Channel Tuning Guide – http://www.internet-tools.co.uk/ebay/sat/5.pdf
• Sky Minidish Assembly Instructions – http://www.internet-tools.co.uk/ebay/sat/6.pdf
• Sky Zone 2 (60cm) Assembly Instructions – http://www.internet-tools.co.uk/ebay/sat/7.pdf
• LNB (Quad/Octo) Adapter Kit Instructions – http://www.internet-tools.co.uk/ebay/sat/8.pdf
• How to fit the new ‘type 4′ LNB’s – http://www.internet-tools.co.uk/ebay/sat/9.pdf
  

Specification: Samsung SGH-i600 is a HSDPA/Tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE Class 10/WiFi Windows Mobile 5 smartphone and with a  QWERTY keyboard, 1.3 Megapixel camera/camcorder, Music player, Bluetooth, Micro SD slot, 218MB ROM and 64MB RAM – Samsung Spec Sheet: [Link]

Official Samsung SGH-i600 User Manual – [Link] – PDF 2.2MB

The Samsung site allows you to upgrade from WM5 to Windows Mobile 6 via this link: http://www.samsungmobile.com/promotion/i600/index.jspUnfortunately… the UK is not listed (to to Orange… Grrrr…), but if you are from one of the following countries, you can slide on over there and grab some WM6 (well… WM5.2 in new clothes!); Belgium, Bulgaria, Demark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Ukraine.

Apparently, you can override your i600 to another country + language (make sure it’s one you can read!) and then download the appropriate update, get WM6 and then change the country settings back. This is all controlled by the service menu by dialling *#1546792*# and then using the preconfig password *#81230*# – THIS WILL WIPE YOUR PHONE so don’t do this without making a full backup first! Full instructions over at vowe.net; http://vowe.net/archives/008792.html

Keyboard Shortcuts (For the European Model)

I have found lots of information and hacks here: http://i607.org/ the SGH-i607 is the USA version, but many of the ‘hacks’ work on the European version of this phone

Hidden Applications

Whilst rooting around in the \Windows folder on my phone, I found a series of applications that don’t normally show on the menu. Here is a list of the more interesting ones I found. If you want to use them on a frequent basis, use the ActiveSync explorer to right-click-drag and create a shortcut in the \Start Menu folder for any of these apps.

I found most of this information on i607.org’s NES Page [Link], but here is the simple guide for the UK Version of the Samsung SGH-i600

1. Download Pocket Nester Plus – http://mobile.surrealnetworks.com/Dash%20Applications/SN%20PocketNesterPlus%20D.cab
2. Download either All the ROM’s as a 40Mb CAB File (http://surrealnetworks.net/NES%20ROMs/393NESROMS.cab), or the ’50 Classics’ as a 10Mb CAB File (http://surrealnetworks.net/NES%20ROMs/50%20NES%20Classics.cab) or individual games [HERE]
3. Install Pocket Nester
4. Install the ROMS (to your Memory card!)
5. Install the Pocket Nester Update [Pocket Nester Update] by copying the .exe over the top of the one in the \Program Files\PocketNester (You only need this if you already have an older version)
6. Open the game, go into Preferences and tick “Associate .NES Files”, also set up all the keys (Try to make them memorable!)
7. The Open ROM option does not work unless you install tgetfile.dll… this is time-limited, so I suggest just browsing to the ROM Folder and select the Game you want. Nester will automatically load. The ROM’s should be located in \Storage Card\My Documents\ROMs

When playing a game, if you can’t seem to get it to exit, hold down the HOME key, this will bring up the menu.

Well as you may (or may not!) know, I am a gadget-freak! I *love* new toys, and my latest in a long line of mobile phones is the Samsung SGH-i600

First of all, here are a few things to note about this phone:-

• It runs Windows Mobile Edition 5 or 6 (but comes with WM5 in the UK under Orange PCS)
• It is similar but not exactly the same as the USA “Blackjack” version.
• It features GSM, EDGE, WiFi and 3G (Well… the European version anyway….)
• It is quite ‘hackable’ if you have the time (and like me, *hate* the ‘Orange’ branding!)

The phone itself was the usual “Free” upgrade from Orange, but (like almost all phones I have got from them) was crippled with the horrible, slow, nasty (are you getting the picture yet?) ‘Orange’ branding.

In order to get all the sexy features like “Card Wheel” home screen, you have to flash your phone with a better version of software. This will also work for ‘Bricked’ phones (dead because the wrong firmware applied etc…)

[photopress:Home_screen.jpg,thumb,pp_image][photopress:home_screen_setup.jpg,thumb,pp_image]

Now this procedure isn’t for the faint-of-heart. You will lose *all* settings, address book….. basically like doing a ‘factory reset’ on the phone. But in turn you will have a fully-featured phone *without* carrier placed menu restrictions or branding. It will also lose all your SMS/WAP/MMS settings, so make a note of them first, or refer to this excellent site that shows them all for each carrier: http://www.filesaveas.com

At this point, I will just say:-

This information is provided as-is and without warranty. Anyone using this information does so at their own risk, and I will not be held responsible for any damage caused directly or indirectly by this information. It is produced as a ‘guide’ for information purposes only. If you ‘Brick’ your phone, it’s your fault! – NOTE: I have only tested this on a UK Orange Branded SGH-i600

Now…. due to copyrights etc, I will not post any links or files in this blog, but I will tell you what to look for. This guide is an abridged version of something I found by Volker Weber on vowe.net - The instructions there were for upgrade to Version 6 of Windows Mobile, but I never went that far. Once I removed the branding, WM5 was fine and dandy for me. I will also say (and this should be taken as anecedotal) that my phone has been a lot more stable (no lock-ups) since I loaded this firmware.

You will need:-

• Samsung Data Link Cable (should have come with the phone)
• “Blackjack” modem driver (different from the one on the CD that came with the phone) – This is also known as the “Samsung Composite USB Driver 4.34″
• A suitable “Flash” file

Now the driver and “Flash” file can be found together in a RAR file called “Firmware_i600_XXGD1.rar” the XX indicates that it is not tied to a particular country. You can get this from various places, but the one I have also has a .txt file in the RAR called NO Brand.txt – if you find that one, it worked perfectly for me.

1. Install the Samsung Drivers
2. Disable ActiveSync (you can un-check the “Allow USB connections” in Connection Settings)
3. Put the Phone into ‘special mode’
   1. Turn phone off.
   2. Turn phone on whilst holding the Right Soft-key and the Back/Cancel key on the side#
   3. If you have done this correctly, the phone will show something like “* USB Downloader Open 1.1″
4. Install the update – Warning: Takes a very long time. Be patient.
5. If doesn’t appear to work. Retry from Step 2.
6. Re-enable ActiveSync (after the phone has rebooted)

Hurrah – you should have a de-branded Windows Mobile 5 working on your Samsung i600 now, and should see some nice home-screen themes etc.

 Of course, the next thing you need to do is make it a bit more useful.

Mobile Office

This version of office is available for Windows Mobile 6 only. However… A few clever souls de-packaged it, and re-packaged it for WM5. Search the usual torrent locations for Office.WM6.WCE.BY – nuff said?

Instant Messaging

Ok – tried lots of them, the best of the best are:-

• Fring – Free application
• Agile Messenger – Commercial

Gmail

Gmail is so easy to set up on your Samsung.

1. Enable POP3 in your Gmail account settings.
2. Go into Messaging on the Samsung and add a new account.
3. Set up the screens as shown here

[photopress:gmail_1.jpg,thumb,pp_image][photopress:gmail_2.jpg,thumb,pp_image][photopress:gmail_3.jpg,thumb,pp_image]

[photopress:gmail_4.jpg,thumb,pp_image][photopress:gmail_5.jpg,thumb,pp_image][photopress:gmail_6.jpg,thumb,pp_image]

Note: If you retrieve your mail from another PC, it magically disappears off your phone next time you sync. It is also advisabled NOT to use the auto-download unless you are on an unlimited data plan, or connected via WiFi all the time.

Other useful tools

WiFiFoFum2 – This allows to to ‘Scan’ for local WiFi networks (a bit like NetStumbler, but works!)

zaTelnetSP5 – Allows you to ‘Telnet’ into a host (pretty good actually!)

BTCrawler – Lets you BlueJack (to a certain degree anyway….)

SKTools – Excellent app for ‘cleaning’ your Mobile Windows OS and Registry. Commercial App.

Tips and Tricks

T9 Dictionary – Press the “*” key in SMS mode, and you can select T9 in the list. More useful on this with a full QWERTY keyboard than any other phone I’ve used bizarrely…

Task Manager – Press and hold either the “Home” key.

Shortcut Menu – Press and hold the navi-wheel in, you can select an existing shortcut, or “edit” to add/delete them.

Hidden Codes

I take no responsibility for the use of these codes. They are provided for information only.

*#1546792*#  – Service Menu

From here you can check software / hardware / firmware versions, get the MAC address for your WiFi adapter etc.

*#81230*# – Passcode for “Pre-configuration” (apparently you can change country/carrier here – DOES A FACTORY RESET AND WIPES ALL INFO!)

*#06# – Show IMEI Number (works on almost any phone)

Whilst looking at various Blogs on Juicebox hacks (Like Joevennix’s one), I decided to have a go myself.

Armed with a Juicebox + MP3/Picture kit (bought on eBay for £2.99!!!) off I went with the idea of a nice wooden picture frame. However, as I was leaving the office, I noticed an old telephone sitting near my desk, and thought… “I wonder…”

Anyway, this is how I modded my Phone and Juicebox.

Please note: This is my 1st ‘Mod’, and I know it ain’t perfect, so hold back on the flaming, okay people?

Step 1.

Buy a Matel Juicebox – you can get these on eBay for a couple of quid, but make sure you get the MP3 kit (its a special adapter that lets you use a standard SD card in the Juicebox). Download Juicebox Image Converter for creating your Gallery, and locate an old Telephone (I suggest any old Dial-phone from the 70′s or 80′s for this project as they are cheap-as-chips to get hold of)

[photopress:Dsc01300.jpg,thumb,pp_image][photopress:Dsc01301.jpg,thumb,pp_image]

Step 2.

Open up both the Juicebox and Telephone.

Inside the Telephone, remove all the unnesserary stuff like the Dial, wiring (keep these, we will use them later), Bell’s, Bell Solenoid’s and ‘Recall’ Switch. Once you have done this, you can see that the Juicebox fits easily into the space left behind.

[photopress:Dsc01304.jpg,thumb,pp_image]

Step 3.

Disconnect the speaker from the Juicebox main board as we will be using the handset as a speaker! You can wire the handset direct to the board, or (as I did) use some of those spare wires to connect it to a couple of spare connectors at the back of the phone, and then connect the handset to those same screw-connectors. You can see the speaker prongs (at the snap-on connector I pulled off the board) just below the power switch.

[photopress:Dsc01303.jpg,thumb,pp_image]

Step 4.

Find a simple push on/off switch and connect in-line with the battery pack. Leave the switch on the side of the Juicebox board in the ‘On’ position. Hot-Glue this in place where the ‘Recall’ switch was (or should be). I pushed one of the old Juicebox ‘play’ buttons onto the top of the switch to give it more surface area for the ‘Recall’ button to touch.

[photopress:Dsc01305.jpg,thumb,pp_image]

Step 5.

Dismantle the SD Card converter and hot-glue it to the Juicebox board (so it doesn’t move around!) – Notice my nice and tidy gluing here ;o)

[photopress:Dsc01309.jpg,thumb,pp_image]

At this point, I would also cut all the superfluous black ‘earth’ wires off as they seem to serve no purpose at all (made no difference in operation to my Juicebox)

Step 6.

Check everything still works! You can just see the top of the power switch (with a Juicebox Play button on top) hiding behind the metal frame where the receiver hangup ‘hook’ is.

[photopress:Dsc01307.jpg,thumb,pp_image]

Step 7.

Work out where to cut a hole for the SD slot. To be honest, I just held it up inside the phone, and made a ‘guesstimate’ – it worked for me )

[photopress:Dsc01308.jpg,thumb,pp_image][photopress:Dsc01310.jpg,thumb,pp_image]

I marked the side of the phone, and then used a 5mm drill bit to make a series of holes in a line, and then joined them up and tidied it with a small file. At the same time, I drilled a 5mm hole just behind the ‘Recall’ switch so that I could mount a power LED there (I used a multi-color flashing LED that I got out of some keyring before!)

Step 8.

Tidying up; Basically, cut out a piece of black cardboard and make an appropriate sized hole in it. Use the original plastic cover off the from of the Juicebox as a ‘surround’ for the LCD display and hot-glue the whole assembly into the phone.

[photopress:Dsc01312.jpg,thumb,pp_image][photopress:Dsc01313.jpg,thumb,pp_image]

You will notice that there is a little hole on the dial-surround. In order to start playing the image slideshow you need to press the ‘Play’ button. I didn’t have anything handy at the time, so a hole is there at present, but I will add a spring-loaded button (something nice and red I think!) there to ‘start’ the slide-show.

Other things to note:

The images are all stored in the Root of the SD card in jbm (juicebox bitmap) format. This is a 240×160 12bit RGB headerless raw format. There is a link at the top of this page for a tool that lets you convert the images easily. You can also use this as an MP3 player, but at a maximum bitrate of 128kbs (and there may be some other limitations as well)

The other thing I will do at some point, is add an external 4.5vdc power supply. I simply didn’t add one at this stage as I couldn’t find one in my pile of junk with a high-enough milliamps output.

Well I hope you all enjoyed this mod, and please keep your comments fair (it was my first mod… honest!)

Here are a few interesting links for the Juicebox

• Joevennix’s Perspex Juicebox Picture Frame

• Linux Hacking Forum for Juicebox (it uses uCLinux)

• Karosium’s JTAG Hacking of a Juicebox

• Juicebox Mini-SD Circuitboard Designs

• Download the uCLinux Sourcecode for the Juicebox!

• Download Chris Retlich’s Juicebox ‘jbp’ file converter

• Another Juicebox SD Hack

Regards,

Paul.

Update: 14th June 2007: The nice people over at Engadget have featured my Mod in their Blog. You can read it [Here]. It is also featured on MakeZine.