Disabling Camera Sounds

Now that my phone’s happily “hacked” by HelloOX2, I’m finally able to try turn off the camera focus and shutter sounds! I Googled around and found an ingenious way of doing it! It’s so simple! Oh, and before I begin. Your phone will HAVE to be “hacked” for this to work. Here goes:

1. I use ROMPatcher, so firstly, you’ll have to “disable caps” using ROMPatcher (if you have the “CapsOff” app installed, use that)
2. Using X-Plore, navigate to “Z:\Private\10202be9“, and find the file “101F8809.txt“
3. Now copy “101F8809.txt” to “C:\Private\10202be9“
4. This next step is important. If you try to edit the file now, it won’t let you (because the file’s set to read-only). You’ll need to highlight the file, select Menu –> File –> Attributes, and untick “read-only”. Now you may edit the file
5. Once you’ve opened the file, scroll down to the very bottom, and you’ll find the following:
0×7 int 1 0 cap_rd=alwayspass
cap_wr=alwaysfail
6. Edit the file and change the above to:
0×7 int 0 0 cap_rd=alwayspass
cap_wr=alwaysfail
7. Save the file, change the file back to “read-only”, close X-plore, and using ROMPatcher again, “enable caps” (or “CapsOn” if you have that instead)
8. Restart your phone, and voila! NO CAMERA FOCUS AND SHUTTER SOUNDS!
Note: there will still be sound if your active profile has warning sounds on, so a good way of getting around this is to activate your “Silent” profile if you don’t want camera sounds.

Hope that was helpful! I’ll be sure to share more useful tips when I stumble upon them!

Photo Update

I just realised I ranted on about my new N95 8GB a few months back but never posted any photos of the phone itself! Apologies!

First week of my mid-semester break just breezed by. Been at uni for 2 of the days for dissertation, and managed to wash Emmy again this past Friday afternoon (weather’s been BEAUTIFUL, but still somewhat chilly). I really hate bird crap.

The 40D’s been hibernating all winter as well, so I thought what better time to wake it up! Was initially thinking of snapping a few photos of Emmy after the wash, but ended up taking 129 photos of her LOL. I’ve included a small handful of them below

Looks like the Yankees are cruising through the remainder of the season. I smell #27! If not them, then I hope the Phillies take it all once again! Now if only Brad Lidge can wake the hell up and start closing out games! 10th blown save today! FAIL.

The King of Kings in all its boxed glory. Simple box, but very nice nonetheless!

Very nice presentation once you pop open the lid. Love it!

The NSeries flagship. 5-megapixel Carl Zeiss autofocus camera.

Dual slider. It slides this way to reveal the keypad...

... And it slides this way! Revealing the dedicated media keys!

Frontal view, on an angle. Very nice and sunny day. Perfect for photos.

Emmy's Avantgarde grille. Up close and personal!

Frontal view from the other side.

My beloved pseudo-AMG W202

Dinner plates! My current laptop wallpaper; I quite like this shot. Love the depth of field.

"Dinner plates" from another angle. AMG Monoblock II replicas. Made in Taiwan.

The “Pencil” Key

Quite possibly the most useful key I’ve ever encountered on a cellphone! And to think I thought it was kind of a waste of valuable keypad space…

When I first got my N95 8GB, I thought the key’s only use was to change the text input language and insert symbols. Meh, pretty useful, but forgetful.

About a week or so ago, I randomly held onto it for longer than usual while typing an SMS, and where the word “Options” usually was suddenly switched to “Copy”. From the on, I realised I could COPY TEXT by holding down the pencil key and highlight text by using the directional keys! I was beginning to like this key!

However today, I learn yet another function for this increasingly useful key. It can be used to select items quickly and effortlessly! I’ve tried it in the Gallery, in my SMS Inbox, and also in the File Manager, and it works perfectly! Makes my life a whole lot easier, instead of having to go into “Options” –> “Mark/Unmark”, all the while wasting time furiously clicking on the directional keys just to get to “Mark/Unmark” for each file, SMS, etc.

So yes, at first I thought it was useless, but now I know better. I realise it is a Godsend.

I pity the folks who’ve bought a newer Nokia smartphone only to realise that Nokia’s decided to remove the all-important PENCIL KEY! *cough* N96! *cough* (just another of the many reasons how overrated and useless the N96 is )

N95 8GB: How To Move System Folders

I’ve been seeing a lot of S60 theme preview pictures where system folders such as the “Office” and “Media” folders are all in the main menu (the root folder), and have been wondering how they managed to do that (there’s no “move to folder” option when you highlight a system-created folder.

After a bit of searching, I managed to find the solution!

1. Make sure you place the system folder you want to move TO THE RIGHT of an easily removable application (I’ve been installing/uninstalling the Lightsaber program, as it’s relatively small and fast to uninstall).

2. Go into Application Manager and uninstall the application that you’ve placed TO THE LEFT of the system folder you want to move.

The next step needs to be done fairly quickly, so if you know you have slow fingers/reflexes, I suggest installing a bigger application, therefore it will take longer for it to uninstall, hence buying you more time.

3. When you select “remove”, your phone will prompt you and ask you to confirm the removal. Click “yes”/”confirm” (I forget which one the phone says, but something along those lines), then QUICKLY USE YOUR MENU BUTTON AND NAVIGATE TO THE APPLICATION YOU HAVE JUST REMOVED, AND SELECT “OPTIONS” (the “move to folder” option should be available, as it is an application), DO NOT leave the “options” menu.

4. Now just sit back and wait for the application to be removed (shouldn’t take too long if you used a relatively small app like me).

5.Once the removal is complete, the app icon will disappear, and the system folder you want to move will magically move into slot where the app was, BUT IF YOU FOLLOWED THE INSTRUCTIONS, YOU WOULD HAVE KEPT THE “OPTIONS” MENU OPEN, hence you are now able to move the system folder to another place of your choosing (I only did this because I wanted the “Office” and “Media” folders in my root menu.

Tried, tested and confirmed on my N95 8GB (v31.0.015). Hope that was relatively easy to follow. Feel free to comment if you have any problems!

Enjoy!

N95 8GB Themes

I randomly stumble upon tehkseven’s S60 theme site earlier tonight, and BOY am I glad I did! This guy makes spectacular themes!! From the colour schemes to the custom icons, his themes are all WINNERS!!

So if you have an S60 Nokia cellphone, run along to tehkseven’s site, http://tehk7.wordpress.com, and YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED!!

Keep up the good work, buddy!! I will be checking in regularly from now on!! XD

PS: Nearly 3 weeks with my N95 8GB now, and I’m STILL loving it!!

First Week Impressions

Just got home from a long day at work(s). Had my final day at Life Pharmacy Pakuranga for my externship, and then my usual shift at Newmarket. It’s been a week since I bought my new Nokia N95 8GB cellphone/smartphone from Expert Infotech from all the way over the ‘Shore, and I thought it was a nice time to express my first week impressions!

What can I say? I’m still speechless from how satisfied I am with this cellphone! Features-wise, it is by far the most jam-packed cellphone I’ve ever owned (Wi-Fi, 5-megapixel Carl Zeiss autofocus camera, built-in GPS, 8GB of memory, just to name a few of the countless functions!), not to mention how sexy the phone looks! It looks so manly. The epitome of what a man’s phone should look/feel like! What’s more, 95% of the time, it performs extraordinarily well. Why only 95%, you ask? Well, being a perfectionist, there are a couple of very minor niggles/bugs that I’m not too fond of:

- First off, it appears that all Symbian-based Nokia phones have this bug, where text messages in the inbox are shown surname first. So for example, if I receive a text from “Mariano Rivera”, the inbox shows I have a text from “Rivera Mariano”. This one doesn’t bug me as much as the next bug;
- After I flashed the phone to Taiwan firmware (the phone was originally for the Bulgarian region), I discovered that the firmware has trouble showing the names of texts I receive from 9-digit numbers (EG: 021-123456), and showing the names of calls (caller ID) I receive from 10-digit numbers (EG: +6421-123456). This bothered me the most, as a lot of my friends were on plan, and hence had phone numbers that length.

So after a few days of trying to live with these problems and trying to find solutions online, I decided to try my luck with the N95-2′s Hong Kong firmware (as Raymond updated his N82 to the newest firmware just a few days ago, and doesn’t have the dodgy 9/10-digit caller ID problem). Turns out luck was on my side. I now don’t have this problem, but at the same time, I desperately hope Nokia fix this bug in the Taiwan firmware for future updates (I much prefer having Taiwan firmware than Hong Kong).

N95 8GB (N95-2) Review:
Looks/Design: 9.5/10 (the slider’s a little wobbly, but still extremely solid. I just hope it doesn’t get any looser. But you can’t argue how sexy yet manly the phone looks!)
Functions/Features: 9/10 (if only the camera had the N82′s xenon flash, then this would’ve easily been a 10/10)
Ease of Use: 8.5/10 (here’s where my K800i might have the upper hand [it was soooo easy to use], but then again, maybe it’s because I’m a total noob to Symbian)
Overall (not an average): 9/10 (easily the best phone I’ve ever owned)

I also just finished my 5-day community pharmacy externship placement at Life Pharmacy Pakuranga. What a drag… The staff there were great, and it was a pretty good experience overall. However, I didn’t particularly like the efficiency of the dispensary. Their so-called “double-checking” system didn’t work well at all (even with 5 pharmacists on duty simultaneously!), and I found that patients had to wait much longer than they needed to for their scripts. But all in all, a nice experience!

Ok, I think it’s off to bed for me! 8am start at Superclinic! XD