It's been rather hard to get a replacement housing for my Sony Ericsson P1 after I got a huge dent from dropping the phone on the pavement by mistake. I went around the local computer and gadget mall in Hong Kong and there was only one place to that had the housing in stock - the bill ended up being something along the likes of HK$600 for a 'brand new' casing and a hefty installation fee (Yes, I probably got ripped off, but I was desperate).

So after some scouring of several websites, here are some sites that sell the Sony Ericsson P1 housing to you at a reasonable cost - not including the postage (although I would recommend getting it from your local mobile phone importers store; they should sell it for much cheaper and help your install it too):

Mobile Brando
eBay
eBay Malaysia
eBay Hong Kong

Good news! Now you can turn those barcodes containing swaths of (previously) unreadable dots and dashes in to readable data on your Sony Ericsson P1 smartphone. Simply go to http://www.i-nigma.mobi on your smartphone to download the free software; afterwards, why not decipher the following barcode below?

If you're in to hacking or modding files for smart phones, then here's a worthwhile task - try and mod/hack these SE G900 files to work on other UIQ smartphones.

I think the 4 apps below are what most P1 users wish to see on their UIQ smart phone:

1. 
   
   Touch Focus is excellent for those snapshots where you can show off the powers of your smart phone. Apart from being a gimmick-y function it's also quite useful, as occasionally the camera does get the focus slightly off (for small subjects I wish to focus on).
   
   
2. 
   
   Standby Panels could have made life so much easier if it was released much earlier. It's a brilliant idea and I have no idea why SE didn't release a patch or application for previous UIQ users.
   
   
3. 
   
   Notes is another useful utility app which only those lucky devils with their SE G900 or G700 get. And I have no idea why SE decided not to release it as a standalone app - it's just got so much potential for business and casual users, be it really taking notes in a meeting or just random doodling.
   
   
4. 
   
   Last but not least, I think more or less everyone wants to get a port of the Media player. It looks quite impressive and is definitely a step up from the default UIQ media player. To top it off a lot of K-series phones and other non-Walkman phones are now getting this newly improved, slick version of the media player so hopefully there will be a port available for the P1.

Any thoughts on my choices?

Maybe it's old news for some, but this is clearly a picture of Google's Android OS running on the SE P990. According to the article, this debuted at the 3GSM conference in Barcelona last February, so I do apologise to all readers for providing 'old' news.

Back to the article though - if Android can be installed on the P990, then it must be possible to get it running on the P1. I know I'll be first in line to get Android on my P1; no offense to the Symbian UIQ platform, but I think a change would be nice. Dual booting UIQ and the Android on the P1 would be even better. Who else wants to see Android running on their P1?

swmail, a massive contributer to the UIQ community, has created a new hack to increase the headphone volume for the Sony Ericsson P1i. Establishing his reputation after his Walkman Player 3.0 hack for the P1i, this mod is another welcome enhancement to the P1i community, particularly as many others have claimed that the P1i headphones volume are way too quiet (or too safe for your ears).

Here are the instructions as from the Esato forum post he made:

1. Unlock access to system folders (look CapsSwitch)
   
2. Download the archive from http://www.agathosyne.de/files_ext/se_uiq3_sound_mod_lite.zip
   
3. Copy the file 'C:\Private\10202be9\persists\1020867a.cre' from the your phone to computer.
   
4. Run se_sound_patcher, select the file '1020867a.cre' copied from phone, press "Install".
   
5. Copy the patched file '1020867a.cre' back to your phone (in dir 'C:\Private\10202be9\persists').
   
6. Immediately restart your smartphone.

The standard disclaimers again: I am not responsible for any damage caused to your phone, and you're trying this at your own risk. If you've got any problems, I suggest taking it up with the developer swmail himself. He can be reached from his website - http://101swmail010.googlepages.com/uiq3mods - and it's definitely worth taking a look.

Oh and please don't forget to donate to his cause. I may sound like his employee or something for saying this, but seriously - he's been such a massive contributer to the UIQ community, so if you've got some spare change, do show some appreciation for his work :)

The UIQBlog has an news regarding a Walkman app hack that allows the Walkman app to be installed on to the UIQ 3.0 platform.

So basically it means that instead of doing some risky flashing to get a Sony Ericsson Walkman Player on to your P1i, all you need to do is install this Walkman application, and you're all set!

All this was available thanks to a hack earlier on which allowed the extraction of private data and applications from the older SE W950i Walkman UIQ phone. Please be aware that this Walkman application is the one from the SE W950 - which means it is Walkman v2.0 (without Senseme or the animated main menu).

Here's the instructions on how to install the Walkman app from the great man Moherowy who managed to hack the Walkman Player to other UIQ phones...(Yes, it's more than a couple of steps, but if you really want it, it's worth it):

-Unlock (hack) access to system folders (look for AppTRK or Capsswitch)

-Copy the contents of this archive to C drive on your mobile

-Restart your mobile

-Enjoy your walkman

You can obtain the Walkman app from the IPMart forum, where moherowy posted it. As for unlocking access to system folders, please take a look at this guide by ares from UIQBlog.

Today I spent quite a while at the computer mall trying to find a compatible Bluetooth keyboard for my Sony Ericsson P1. I've looked online and the only keyboard that seemed to be tested and available for the P1i was this one by iGo - which coincidentally, none of the vendors stocked at the computer center.

Luckily, I came across this set of instructions on My-Symbian which allowed me to set up the keyboard with the P1i:

1. Make the keyboard discoverable, by pressing Ctrl - Left Fn - Right Fn keys all at the same time, until the green LED above the "T" key flashes once per second.

2. From the P1i, go to Control Panel > Bluetooth > Connections, tap on the phone icon, which takes you to My Devices, and click on New Device. After a few seconds searching, "Think Outside Keyboard" should be shown. Select this device. After a few seconds, you will be prompted to enter a pairing code. Enter a code (numbers only: I used four digits). Then type the same numerical code on the Bluetooth keyboard (making sure that you keep the Left Fn key held down while pressing the number keys), followed by Enter. You should then receive a message on the P1i saying that bonding is successful.

3. The keyboard is now paired, and you can enter text into applications, such as Notes and Quickword. The shortcuts on the keyboard for various applications do not work, but the keyboard works perfectly well for general typing (although I cannot enter the pound sign yet).

My thanks to My-Symbian user acregan who discovered this method of pairing a Bluetooth keyboard with the P1i.

And no, I didn't buy it. The keyboard was from some obscure company from China who obviously didn't take any lessons in designing hardware.

UIQ 4.0 running on a prototype unit above

In a shocking statement released today, Sony Ericsson has announced that all SE P1i users will be offered a free upgrade to the next generation, UIQ 4.0, when the operating system will be released.

The announcement comes after many users of the P1i (including some from this blog as well as major forums) have complained that the P1 is essentially "a P990i with a new shell and an extra 64MB of RAM".

UIQ 4.0 is widely expected to be a major rival against Apple's iPhone after the iPhone's debut to the smart phone market last summer. It's touted to be far more stable than the current generation of UIQ phones, and includes a host of features to mirror the user's desktop experience. Screenshots were released at the press conference as well.

The Sony Ericsson spokesman declined to comment on the additional features that will be coming up in the new platform, but laid down an expected 2008 Q3 release of the new platform for the P1i. Additionally, the spokesperson also added that WiMax upgrades will be offered to users who will still be under the 1-year warranty when the new platform is released.

The new OS and WiMax upgrade will only be available via the service centers.

With this in store, I honestly cannot wait for 2008 Q3 when all these cool stuff finally descends on my P1i.




(I hope I didn't dash anyone's hopes. Have a happy April Fools everyone!)

These instructions have been translated from Chinese from users of the FontRouter software. It should apply to all the P1i's with Asian firmware as I believe the input system for Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc should be similar in nature. (Can anyone confirm this?)

Source: SE-TW.com

Note: Please follow these instructions carefully or you may risk re-flashing your P1i in order to get it working again.

Download this attachment first to get the files. It contains the instructions in original Chinese, the FontRouter.ini file, and the FontRouter application.

Part 1:

1. Sign and install FontRouter0613.sis. Make sure you do not restart your phone during the installation process.
2. Open up Swiss Manager
3. Check C:\FontRouter.ini. Make sure it's set to "Read-Only" and "Hidden".
4. Now reboot your phone. If the phone turns on normally you may continue to the next step. If it keeps rebooting I'm afraid you'll need to re-flash the phone and reinstall the current firmware version.
5. Go to Swiss Manager and save a copy of C:\FontRouter.ini in your memory stick. This will be the backup copy.

Part 2 (Installing the font of your choice)
Keep your phone on for the duration of this part until instructed otherwise.

1. Take the font you want (i.e. FZZY_HG.TTF) and copy it to this memory stick location: Z:\resource\Fonts
2. Change the document type from TTF to CCC (i.e. FZZY_HG.TTF to FZZY_HG.CCC)
   
3. Access the backup copy of FontRouter.ini from your computer. Change it to "Read-Only" and untick the "Hidden" Option. Make a backup copy of this on the desktop.
4. Now take the FontRouter.ini file from the downloaded attachment and replace it in your memory stick. Note that it should be 888 bytes. Copy and overwrite the system one using Swiss Manager.
   
5. Change the new FontRouter.ini to "Read-Only" using Swiss Manager.
6. Reboot the phone
7. The fonts should be anti-aliased now.

Lastly, please do a check using Swiss Manager after the reboot to see if the system FontRouter.ini is set to "Read-Only". If not, set it back to "Read-Only"

I hope this guide does help. It's really just a translation from the Chinese version, so kudos to the author who made that post. A lot of readers have also asked me about changing fonts for various P1i firmwares, so I hope this does manage to answer their question about it.

I do find it extremely tedious, and I have screwed up a few times - but nothing that bad. I had to connect it to SE Update Service and just completely reformat the phone as a result. I don't really recommend doing this unless you really need and want the anti-aliased fonts.

Previously I had a post on getting funky fonts on the P1i and other UIQ 3 devices, which involved putting 4 files on your memory card. This doesn't work on my P1i as well as other UIQ 3 devices supporting the Asian languages (i.e. those with Chinese language input, Japanese language input, etc) as the default font on the phone is not named the same.

The other major problem is that even if you are able to change the font, since they support other languages, it will look extremely bad (imagine fonts with no anti-aliasing. Very rough and sh*@ty looking).

Thankfully, some smart Chinese guy has got it right with this software called FontRouter. Originally meant just for Nokia phones, it has been extended for the UIQ platform as well, so we can also enjoy the benefits of having nice looking fonts.


Before:


After:

Just to show what FontRouter is capable of. I'll be translating the instructions in my next post, so stay tuned :) (Sorry to keep people waiting)

Click here to read Part 2

It seems as if Sony Ericsson has finally taken action regarding the green tint, branding it as a "known hardware fault", so if you still have a P1i with green tint, you can feel free to take it in to any Sony Ericsson service store for repairs.

Source is from maisie from Esato, who took their P1i to O2 in the UK to complain of the green tint issue.

So it seems SE has been installing defective camera modules (or maybe bad quality ones) in the initial batches of the P1i. Can anyone confirm whether their new P1i (newly produced batches) still have the green tint problem?

The R6F firmware has already been released for a whole month - and finally Sony Ericsson decided to take note of its business users to release a Blackberry client for the new updated firmware.

I'll be updating as soon as I get home to review the new firmware myself, now that my Blackberry woes are over.

Be careful when updating your firmware though - remember to back everything up, as a firmware update is equivalent to reseting your phone. I've heard many positive things from this new firmware, so it should be worth the update.

You can get the new Blackberry client here.

My apologies for not making this post earlier. GSMBlog.net offers a great offers a great tutorial to signing Symbian applications.

You haven't gotten it wrong, my friends. Thank you to UIQMania, who developed this amazing piece of software to use the dual LED flashlights in the P1i Camera to act as a torch.

The software comes unsigned, so you'll have to sign it yourself. A bit of a hassle I say, but then again signing it for distribution does take a bit of funds, so I guess its best off for us to sign it ourselves.

A bit inconvenient is the fact that to get it running continuously you have to press down on the camera shutter button the entire time - it's not continuous.

Just a note of caution - I don't think the LEDs are meant to run continuously at full brightness, so you may run the risk of burning the LEDs out alot faster. But its pretty useful in pitch black situations, when you really need a torch and you haven't got one with you.

Edit:
The newest version of the software can be obtained here.

Yes I know, the built in Opera probably one of the worst browsers to come with UIQ 3.0. Why couldn't UIQ choose to use Opera Mini as its official browser instead? We may never know...

Most users complain of its lack of user friendliness in a host of features, such as customising the home page, smart zoom, new tabs, entering addresses, etc. I happened to come across a guide to changing the start page of your Opera browser, so I took the liberty of posting it on the blog.

It was realised that Opera's startpage happened to be the top address located in your bookmarks. So the question now is, how can we one change the order of his bookmarks, or to move one specific bookmark to the top of the list to replace their homepage?

henkee from Esato managed to achieve this feat by sending out customised OTA settings to his phone, here's how he did it:

1. I downloaded a trial version of NowSMS
2. I connected my P1i in telephone mode, and added the installed modem as SMSC in MySMS. (GSM Phone or Modem option)
   
3. I started both services under the Service-tab of MySMS
4. I pointed my browser to: http://127.0.0.1:8800/
5. I went to the Send OMA OTA Settings (OMA Provisioning Content) - alternative
6. I filled in the information I wanted in my customized internet-account and what number to send it to (my number, of course)
7. I had to fill in the "User PIN"-setting and set the PIN to "1111" in order for it to work.
8. I accepted the settings recieved by my phone.
9. I deleted the account from the phone, since it was only the bookmark setting I was after anyway.

So now hopefully you find the built in Opera slightly more useful...

Source: Esato forums

I won't lie to all of you guys: I am a somewhat lazy person. I enjoy lying on my bed, controlling my tunes and videos and stuff without getting up. My P1i can't do that (there isn't any InfraRed remote control software developed so far); but it can do the next best thing - display my computer's screen on the phone. Now I can move the mouse and manually change my songs and my videos, all without getting out of bed. Top that!

This is the beauty of VNC software, as it allows you to view and control your host's computer from the client end. Originally developed for computers, this concept has now spread to a host of mobile devices, including Symbian OS. I'm going to compare 2 popular VNC clients for the P1i.

First up is Mobile Desktop for Sony Ericsson. A fully fledged VNC client, it offers the same functions and features you would expect for a desktop VNC client. Yes, that means access files, browsing the web, running applications, anything you can do on your computer, you’ll be able to see on your mobile device. It’s also a beauty that it supports other types of operating systems apart from Windows – Mac OS, Linux, Solaris, Novell NetWare, etc. This app also uses the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to connect to computers running Microsoft Terminal Services or Remote Desktop. To cut the jargon there, it’s basically an IT administrator’s dream software.

I must say that it is one of the most impressive VNC client’s I’ve seen. It practically runs on all smartphones as it is programmed using Java MIDP 2.0 and just requires a phone with 32 MB of device memory and a colour screen. The only downside is the nominal price of US$45 – I guess all great apps come at a great cost.

Stay tuned for the 2nd post coming soon - a review on Terminal Service Client for Mobiles.

It was only a matter of time before someone would have been done the conversion successfully - however this conversion was done before the W960 was even released! This was done by Martin Vagner from uiqmania.cz, who made his name when he completed a successful conversion of a M950 (M600 to a W950).

So far the QWERTY keyboard and the M2 isn't recognised yet. However, bear in mind that it was Vagner who tweaked the M950 to recognise the QWERTY keyboard and the M2 slot, so I'm pretty confident it will be pretty soon when a stable, working "P960" firmware would be available.

You can check out more of Vagner's screenshots here.

It seems that the World Generic 1 versions of the P1i are privileged enough to receive the 2nd firmware update so far for the P1i. Here's some information on the version numbers:

Phone: CXC 162037 R9J005
Bluetooth: CXC 162143 R1D
Organizer: CXC 162108 R6F41
CDA: 162022/1 R6F38

I'll give more information about the firmware as soon as I receive more information on it.

If you're adventurous and want to change your firmware to the World Generic 1 version, you can try Davinci. Please note that I'm not endorsing anything here, and if your P1i screws up when you flash it with Davinci, I'm not responsible for it.

I'm still stuck on the default firmware, as I'm on the Hong Kong version. So much for supposedly having the "newest" firmware out there :(

Edit:
You can check the firmware version you currently have on your phone by going to "main menu" followed by "More" and "System Information". This list displays the latest firmware for your P1i, so if you see that the one on your phone is different from the one on the list, chances are your phone is eligible for an update.

Here's a rundown of some of the new stuff in this new firmware (the good and the bad)

• New build of Opera v8.65 Build 701 - Hopefully its more stable than the previous build. But I'm still waiting for that Opera 9 for UIQ.
  
  
• New camera layout! Loads of people said it was nice; again, loads said 'twas ugly. Your pick.
  
  
• File Manager now loads faster, much much faster.
  
  
• Drastic increase in menu navigation speed and transitions - whoa, this is like a miracle come true! Either SE had s**tty programmers to start off with when they released it or some SE executive snapped when their phone lagged on them. Or maybe both.
  
  
• When using dark themes, handwriting now have white borders to differentiate your words from the background. This should have been there when the phone was released.

Note that the notorious Green Tint issue has NOT been fixed. Time for a petition, I'm afraid.

A lot of people have asked me what the theme I'm using is and where they can get the main menu / status bar icons.

I've bundled the resource folder together with the theme so everyone can download it. Both are free (I don't really want to pay for my themes).

The theme is Ash Vista and the icons are part of a iPhone pack.

You can get the stuff here

If you are an adventurous person, or simply just bored of the default font (like me), you might want to consider changing the font on your beloved P1i.

-- edit --
Screenshot is a P990 equipped with Kirby font
-- /edit --

Bear in mind that the instructions only work with phones with the European firmware - it didn't work properly on mine as I run the Hong Kong firmware.

Please remember to back up your files before attempting any of the hacks or mods or anything - I know you value all the information on your phone, and I don't want others to complain that its my fault their phone screwed up ;)

Firstly, use Swiss Manager to navigate to Z: RomDrive\Resource\Fonts. You should see 4 files:

1) Sans-Serif_Latin-Regular.ttf
2) Sans-Serif_Latin-Bold.ttf
3) Sans-Serif_Latin-Italic.ttf
4) Sans-Serif_Latin-BoldItalic.ttf

Now turn your phone off, then find a desired font that uses the TTF format. Rename the regular font "Sans-Serif_Latin-Regular.ttf", the bold font "Sans-Serif_Latin-Bold.ttf", etc. If your font does not have all 4 types in separate TTF files, don't worry. Simply make 4 copies of the same file, but corresponding with the above filenames.

Create a \resource\fonts\ folder on your M2 stick, and place those TTF files in the folder. Eject the memory stick, then put it on your phone and boot it up. Ta Da! You should see new fonts!

If your phone cycles between the Sony Ericsson Logo and turning off (never reaching the Flight Mode / Phone Mode menu) then it means your font is incompatible. At this stage, simply take your memory stick out to let the phone boot naturally. You can put the memory stick in a card reader and delete the fonts or you may opt to choose to let the phone boot first and then stick the M2 stick in to delete the fonts.

If the fonts aren't loading (i.e. default font even though you've added the font files), check again with Swiss Manager that in Z:\Resource\fonts\ the filenames of the default TTF files. Your new fonts must have the same filenames as the ones on your ROM Drive to overlap them.

For East Asian firmwares, I will be putting up a guide soon on changing the fonts. The reason for the slight difference with the European variants is that the P1i's with East Asian Firmwares have the ability to read Japanese/Chinese/Korean/English, and thus you will need to use an East Asian font.