wisefaq.com

For some strange reason, the call diversion features on the Apple iPhone are a bit lacking.

On Android, you’re able to easily set diversions based on “No answer”, “Busy” & “Not contactable”.

On the iPhone, the options aren’t there.  So you need to set the diversions the old fashioned way.  Using the GSM Feature Codes.

And for completeness, some other GSM Feature codes.

A gimmick just to try and extract more money out of uninformed consumers.

But I was wrong.

The picture on the left shows the assorted scratches (circled) my PDA has suffered over the last 6 months.

It was a good thing I did have a screen protector fitted.

(wrote this for a friend who has a HTC Desire HD)

1. First connect your phone to your PC with this cable.
   The small end plugs into your phone, where you’d normally plug the charger.
   
2. Your phone will now display an icon like the one circled in RED (top left of picture):
   
3. Swipe from the top-down to expand the notification box:
   
   Press on the "Charge Only" and change it to Disk Drive
4. Then click on “Done”.
   tH
5. Shortly afterward, you should see a new drive on your computer.
        (your photos will be in a folder called "DCIM")

Saw this on a co-workers desk the other day.  Guess it means we’re going to tighten up some of the security settings on our corporate iPhones and iPads.

Long overdue in my uninformed opinion.

(It was back in July 2009 that I first mentioned the Apple Enterprise Deployment Guide)

The iPhone 4 SIM card is the not the same as the others.  It’s missing the AUX1 & AUX2 pin-outs.  Which are the contacts for use with USB devices.  Such as connecting your mobile phone to your car, via USB.
(AUX1 is the USB D+ pin, and AUX2 is the USB D- pin).

The pictured SIMs are from Telstra.  And no, I don’t know why Telstra decided to use a different SIM for the iPhone 4.

Simple!  Select Settings, then “Mail, Contacts, Calendars”, then Signature.

Don’t ask me how I found this out, but if you’ve got crap on your iPhone screen that won’t come off with a tissue, giving your iPhone a good lick or two and then giving it another go with a tissue is a win every time.

Yes, it is gross.  I support iPhones, and if our users are going to do this, then I’m going to do a bulk order of isopropyl wipes.  I mean, where else have their tongues been?

Icky.

(Isopropyl is an alcohol, which is good at cleaning all sorts of computer devices.  I use it for cleaning devices before they go back to the customer).

The HTC HD2 Smartphone is a beautiful device, with two failings.

1. It’s not an iPhone.
2. And it’s covered in ads for the phone carrier (Telstra in this case).

Oh, it tries to be an iPhone with multi-touch, and automatic screen rotation, but it’s not.  It’s too slow.  You can fix that, the team over at XDA Developers have a number of bespoke firmware updates to help you out there.  But it would still be putting lipstick on a pig.  The lipstick covered piggy being Windows Mobile 6.5.

Advertisements placed on the phone by the carrier (Telstra).  Let’s count them, the ones circled in RED are carrier added programs.  The ones in GREEN are ones I’ve installed.

• 30 HTC/Microsoft added programs
• 12 carrier added programs
• 3 Wisefaq added programs.

I hate this sort of thing, because carriers are giving the Noddy User the impression that these programs are part of the phone.  In reality, they are web links, which cause you to consume bandwidth.  And provide more profits to the phone carriers.

I’ve never seen a phone with so much carrier-added crud before.  Makes me want to visit those XDA guys straight away.

Aside from those gripes, the screen is absolutely beautiful, with a size of 480×800.  Battery life seems reasonable at over 2 days, of email and web surfing.

I don’t know how “droppable” the phone would be.  My gut feeling is all you would need to happen is for the HD2 to bounce on the floor, and the glass screen would crack.  If I had a “budget for expensive smartphone drop testing”, I’d try and see.  But I have not.  So you only have my gut feelings, and my vast experience at breaking phones.

Would I be buying one? You know, yes I would.  But not from Telstra.  They put far too much rubbish on the phone.

I’m looking forward to sinking my teeth into Windows Phone 7 programming.  Especially since Microsoft has said the developer tools will be free.  These are the Microsoft links I’ve collected so far:

Oh yeah, it’s on: welcome to the party, Windows Phone 7 Series.

Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone CTP

Free ebook: Programming Windows Phone 7 Series (DRAFT Preview)

Windows Phone 7 Series Developer Training Kit

There are “free” backup programs, if you have a search around XDA Developers.  Sometimes “free” is a code word for pirated.  I much prefer to purchase my software.  So I  purchased Sprite Backup.  Which is want I’ve done.  Sprite Backup is one of the few programs I’ve found which  backs up phone call and SMS logs.

If you select an item which is being sync’d to another device, such as a PC with Outlook, Sprite Backup will warn you.

After you’ve selected the backup location, Sprite Backup will ask you to restart your Windows PDA.  This is so Sprite Backup can backup files in use by the operating system.

On the loan iMate 9502 I had, it backed up 30.51MB.

Now I handed over $29.95 for this program, so I am happy with it.  I like that fact that it creates self-extracting backups.  Handy for when you are moving to a new device.

What I didn’t like, was that I wasn’t able to take a Windows Mobile 6.5 backup, and restore it to a Windows Mobile 6.1 device.

I should have known better of course.