HOWTO: Samsung Gleam (SCH-u700) Ringtone Unlock

Since the current version of BitPim (1.0.5) does not yet support Samsung Gleam SCH-u700, the easiest way of uploading ringtones is via QPST version 2.7 build 215, an USB cable & corresponding software driver.

After USB driver has been successfully installed, the PC's Device Manager will display Samsung related additions under Modems, Ports, & Universal Bus Controllers.

In this case, COM4 is used for connecting SCH-u700 with PC.




First step is to open QPST's Configuration:




Under Ports tab, use Add New Port button to select the communication port assigned to the mobile phone. Otherwise, it should automatically show the port enabled & associated with phone (SURF6550-ZRF6500 NAND16) via USB.




Under Active Phones tab, it will also display similar information as in Ports tab. However, the Phone Number displayed here is not the mobile's number to receive phone calls (aka. Mobile Device Number), rather its Mobile Identification Number. ESN is the phone's Electronic Serial Number, similar to the Media Access Control address (aka. MAC) of a PC's Network Interface Card.




After selecting EFS Explorer, which is QPST's Graphic User Interface (GUI) used to transfer files between PC & mobile phone,




it will once again confirm Phone Selection:




To add ringtones to Samsung Gleam SCH-u700, simply drag & drop the desired audio files into

/brew/mod/19920/ringtones/

In this case, theme songs from Stargate SG1 (SG1.mp3) & Atlantis (SGA.mp3) were used.




Restart the phone when prompted.

My Busted Tee from Bustedtees.com

The following is my personal experience with Bustedtees.com as a first time customer.

On Nov. 29th, 2007, I placed an order with Bustedtees.com. It was a "You have died of dysentery" tee, in reference to an old computer game called Oregon Trail. I wanted to give this tee as a Christmas present to someone, who is addicted to this game when she was a child.

A week later, the shirt arrived with an unnecessary vent hole under the shirt's left arm.



I promptly contacted the company via email to inform them of my damaged shirt and request for exchange. An email from JenW states that someone will contact me within one business day.

The following Tuesday, Dec. 11th, I received an email from Valerie Palmer showing my replacement shirt had been ordered and would be shipped to me via U.S. Postal Service.

Another week went by, after which I called Bustedtees via the number posted on their website (877-287-8333) asking about the shirt's status. The young lady I spoke to told me it should be here on Friday Dec. 21st. I thought to myself, "great, it will still be here before Christmas."

But, it did not arrive.

Christmas came and went.

I called again yesterday and was told "we don't know what happened to the order. I see the original order from Nov. 29th, but as for the replacement one, it seems no one has done anything with it. When the customer service department people are back from their holidays, someone will contact you either via email or phone."

In the meantime, the young man I was speaking with, "Jason", offered to place another order & over-night the shirt to me via UPS.

Once again, the shirt did not show up as promised.

Using their live chat option, I was surprised to receive confirmation by "Jorge M" that none of my orders were found even though the order had supposedly been placed just the previous day.

After I sent them an email complaining about the terrible experience I had, I got a reply that is nothing more than some customer service lip service.

I understand perhaps my order was neglected among other holiday shopping orders. However, waiting two weeks for a replacement order while being misled with false promises is unacceptable.

As a first time customer of Bustedtees, my recent purchasing experience is giving me doubts regarding my personal as well as my friends' future business with their service.

Perhaps for next year, I should switch my holiday celebration to Kwanzaa. At least I will know my local grocery store will not have a problem of replacing ears of corn for me.


Update: Dec. 28, 2007 - Bustedtees has a store front in Amazon.com and selling the exact same shirt for $1 less. Although the shipping charge is $1 more, so there is no saving. What is good about purchasing via Amazon.com is its customer reviews, which Bustedtees' website is lacking. Instead of getting pointless response like "I do apologize for the inconvenience. I have forwarded your concerns to our corporate office and you should be contacted back as soon as possible", customers can leave comments about their experience on the same page in Amazon.com and forewarn others of any potential problem.

I wish I have read Sarah in Tampa's post "Busted Tees Stole My Money" on Nov. 29 before I placed my order.

I called Chase Bank this morning to retract my original credit card payment for that damaged shirt. In the meantime, I have found Zach Klein & Jakob Lodwick in Flickr. Klein & Lodwick are two of several partners in Connected Ventures, which owns Bustedtees. In a short email, I pointed them to this entry regarding my recent experience with Bustedtees. Hopefully their underlings would get the hint of stop ignoring customers with legitimate issues.

Update: Dec. 29, 2007 - This is the latest reply I have received from Bustedtees. "Brandy G" has once again assured me that my issue will be forwarded to the appropriate department & they will contact me back as soon as possible.

Valerie P. has left some comments yesterday. According to her, the particular shirt I wanted is on backorder. However, no one from Bustedtees or SureShip, its fulfillment company, has ever contacted me directly, especially when I have been calling & emailing them every week.

Update: Jan. 2, 2008 - Josh Mohrer (josh@bustedtees.com) has emailed me as well as leaving a comment here to inform those who had the similar experience as I did to contact him directly. Plus, he is going to send me a replacement shirt free of charge once it is available.

Update: Jan. 4, 2008 - Some parts of Josh’s email have raised more concerns & needed clarification.

1. "I unfortunately am only learning of this situation today [Jan. 2, 2008]." In the email sent out by Valerie Palmer on Dec. 11th, it clearly showed Josh was copied on the matter.

2. "I see that a new order was put through for you with Next Day Air. When you purchased the shirt, the site should have said the item was back ordered." Actually I was on the phone with Jason in person when the order was placed. If it was back ordered, shouldn't Jason see that on his computer & inform me then?

3. "We served about 25,000 customers this holiday season, and I imagine several hundred has a similar experience as you." Several hundred could be three or nine hundred. Out of 25,000 customers, that is a dissatisfaction rate of 1.2 to 3.6%. Does that seem a bit high comparing to other apparel retailers?

Recently I told my experience to my friend Steve Hall, who manages a website called Adrants.com that focuses on business management & advertisement. We don’t know if Bustedtees has genuinely learned a lesson about customer service & supply chain management. Or, giving away a free t-shirt is just PR damage control.

Update: Jan. 15, 2008 - I received a replacement shirt from Bustedtees yesterday. Based on my experience with Bustedtees as a first time customer, I have decided not to purchase from them ever again.

Kevin Rudd, Can You Really Speak Mandarin?

Kevin Rudd, the leader of federal Australian Labor Party, was recently caught by Julian Morrow at a press conference for faking his Chinese ability.


video

I personally was impressed by Julian Morrow's accurate mandarin pronunciation as well as the usage of slang term "smart ass".

Wired magazine, you have so much to learn!

Simon Pegg & David Schwimmer as Call Center Monkeys

The Big Nothing is a dark comedy about three people tried to blackmail a local Catholic Reverend about his secret sexual fetish.

One of the humorous scenes is the following where Simon Pegg & David Schwimmer are working as customer service representatives.


video

HOWTO: Samsung SCH-u740 Ringtone Unlock

I personally think selling & buying ringtones is a rip-off, especially when the mobile phone is equipped with a memory card slot for loading additional media files. However it is a common practice among mobile phone providers. The phone companies would often lock the phones t0 prevent them from getting ringtones freely.

Recently I got a Samsung SCH-u740 from Verizon Wireless. It is preloaded with ten ringtones which none of them I liked. At least I should be thankful they were not those moronic classical music ringtones. Like many other mobile phones, additional ringtones can only be purchased via its online store.

Using an USB cable (Samsung PCB200BBEB) with software drivers (Samsung Mobile USB 4.40.7.0), BitPim (http://www.bitpim.org/), and a PC, I was able to unlock the phone and load my own ringtones.



As of right now, there is no dedicated setting for u740 within BitPim version 1.0.1 or test release 1.0.2.2007082. Therefore the phone is connected as “Other CDMA phone”.



The phone’s file system is similar to any operating system. Ringtones are stored in a directory located at

/brew/mod/mr

In my case, I loaded a remix version of the theme song from The IT Crowd (UK version, not the upcoming American shite!). MrInfo.db is a database file to let the phone know there are additional ringtones available for use and locations of the ringtone files. To generate the database file, just reboot the phone either via BitPim or manually.



One thing I found interesting was the dates of these files. Notice they are marked as “11/20/80”? Certainly it does not mean we are living in the 1980’s (or do we?).

The default line in MrInfo.db ends with “|0|0”. For example, in my case it originally shows

/ff/brew/mod/mr/the_it_crowd_remix.mp3|0|0

It needs to be changed to “|0|3” like this



Use Notepad to change it and save back into the phone.

Reboot the phone once more, you are done.

Repeat the same process if you want to load more ringtones & enjoy.


Update: Mar. 23, 2008 - BitPim 1.0.5 supports Samsung SCH-u740:



To view directories within Filesystem, be sure to check View Filesystem under View:

Samsung SCH-u740 from Verizon Wireless

It has been almost two years since I got my LG VX5200 from Verizon Wireless. Although it was a reliable phone, it did have some issues. For one, the speaker vents kept collecting dust particles and precisely pack them underneath the phone’s external display.

Earlier this week I celebrated my Labor Day off by visiting my local Verizon Wireless store and try to wheel-and-deal my way to a new phone. For long time, I have been eyeing the Samsung SCH-u740, which is retailing at $400 without contract.

At the store, it is sold as a package deal of $129.99 with 2-yrs contract. The package includes the phone, Bluetooth kit, car charger, & a carrying case. I asked Drew, the sales person, what each of these accessories cost and their mark up. He said the package price is 40% of items if they were sold separately.

I told Drew that I personally don’t care about Bluetooth kit, car charger, and the carrying case, especially when I could purchase them much cheaper at an online retailer like Amazon.com. Drew tried to compromise by throw in an additional 1GB MicroSD memory card, which is priced at $34.99 at Verizon’s store.

$34.99 for one 1GB MicroSD card?! I have got them for $5.25 each from Amazon.com.

Eventually Drew caved in deducted $80 from the $129.99 and since I am a returning customer, I got additional $50 mail-in rebate. I only had to pay the 8.2% sales tax and got my Samsung SCH-u740 for $4.10.



Comparing with my BlackBerry 8100 from T-Mobile, Samsung SCH-u740 has some good features:

1. Full QWERTY keyboard - At first I was little concerned about cramming all the buttons in such small area, but after using it, I was pleasantly surprised by how great the buttons worked. Also, some special characters can be accessed by press-hold the corresponding button.



2. Music Player - There are three dedicated touch-sensitive buttons on the exterior where it can be easily accessed. The memory card slot is on the exterior (BlackBerry’s is hidden under the battery compartment).

3. Web Access - Comparing with T-Mobile’s EDGE network, Verizon’s EV network is a little faster.

4. Camera - Both the BlackBerry and u740 have a 1.3MP camera with maximum resolution of 1280x960 pixels. However, u740 also has video recording capability.



To be fair, BlackBerry 8100 also some features that u740 lacked:

1. The Pearl - Using the little trackball instead of pushing through navigation buttons made scrolling screens & menus much faster and easier.

2. Charging & Earphone Ports - BlackBerry uses the standard mini-USB connection to charge the device, send & retrieve data files, and a dedicated 2.5mm jack for earphones. While the u740 relies on a 20-pin adaptor.

3. Email & Calendar - Since BlackBerry was designed as a mobile office device (or electronic leash, depending on how you use it) for people on the run, it is much accommodating with modern office needs.

4. Ringtones & Media - BlackBerry allows MP3 set as ringtones easily without the cumbersome process u740 needed (purchase ringtones from Verizon online store, or hack it with BitPim & USB cable). BlackBerry’s built-in media player supports more file formats.

Both phones have its’ own advantages & disadvantages and I am very happy with both of them. I am also happy that I did not chuck $600 on an iPhone and get boned like these Apple-whores.


Related: Samsung SCH-u740 Ringtone Unlock

Wired Magazine - Does anyone here speak English?

I was reading August 2007 issue of Wired magazine on my flight from Chicago to Montreal today.

In page 117, there is a small piece about "Say 3 essential sentences, phonetically, in French, Spanish, and Mandarin".



Although the Mandarin phonetics for the first two sentences are correct, the last one is not.

"Yo ren hway shooah jong gooah hwa mah?"
有人會說中國話嗎？

Actually means "does anyone here speaks Chinese?"

The correct sentence should be (in pinyin):

yǒu rén huì shuō yīng guó huà ma?

有人會說英國話嗎？


Update: Aug. 5, 2007 - Emailed Wired magazine (rants@wired.com) regarding the error, I don't know if they will do anything about it.

Update: Aug. 16, 2007 - Wired emailed me back stating they are considering to publish my letter either in print or on their website.

Update: Sep. 30, 2007 - Wired magazine has printed a correction in their Oct. 2007 issue.