Notif Blinker has an update in August but I  realised I didn’t blog about it until now!

Improvements/Changes made to the latest release (version 0.0809a);

1. Functionalities and Bug fix found in version 0.0802 which includes

• Reminder notification support (New)
  
• Configuration UI tool (New)
• Fix a bug that causes notification dismissal not detected (Bug fix)

2. Enhanced code to eliminate any remote chance of erratic LED blinking (hopefully). Newer code is now more robust (99.99% ) and efficient now in managing LED blinking according to the status of the notification bubble messages.

3. Added user prompt to quit or continue the run of Notif Blinker when it’s run second time

4. Small enhancement on user interface for the configuration tool. 

You can download Notif Blinker v0.3 (build 0809a) from here

Discussion of this utility can be found in this thread or you can simply drop your comment in this blog!

Few points to note;

1. Currently the patch will keep the LED blinking for SMS notification only. Both Palm threading message application and default Pocket Outlook, are supported. Although the program is designed to support other 3 notifications, namely missed call, voice mail and email, they are currently disabled due to lack of testing.
2. Default duration that determines how long will the LED light keep blinking before it times out, is 60 minutes. If you want to extend or shorten the duration, you have to manage this in registry (sorry, no GUI at this moment!)  Go to HKCUSoftwareZenyeeNotif Blinker and change the key value Duration to the desirable length, in minutes. Of course, if you happen to read or dismiss the new message notification before the time limit, the LED will stop blinking. Becareful of setting a long duration(e.g. 240 minutes), because it may drain the battery unnecessary (see below for further explanation).
3. You can personalise the colour of the LED to your liking, but this is device dependent. For Samsung i780, the colour index for the LED is as follow;  Green (1), Blue (2), Red (3), Yellow (5). The index should be updated in the registry HKCUSoftwareZenyeeNotif BlinkerLED Color. Take note that if you choose yellow as the blinking LED colour, it will not show up if your device is connected to a power source.

Lastly, it is important to understand how this patch is being delivered. Essentially, it is created to keep the device in unattended mode, rather than sleep mode, during the notification process. The latter effectively suspends all running programs (including system programs) except for selected hardware-specific/relevant programs. That explains why LED light stops blinking after a while without the patch software. The patch utility is designed to keep the LED blinking, while due diligence is taken to ensure it consumes minimal power during the process of blinking. However, it doesn’t stop other program from running havoc in the background, which would otherwise be blocked when the device is in suspend mode. In anycase, when there’s no notification occuring, the patch software will not stop the device from getting into suspend mode.

Anyway, enough of geek speak. If you own a Samsung SGH-i780, and you are baffled by the non-blinking notification, you may want to try this Notif Blinker v0.1.

Update

12th July Notif Blinker v0.1a fix some bug where new message either couldn’t be detected, and/or LED light stops abruptly.

13th July Notif Blinker v0.2 (build 0713) fix a bug that cause new message notification not to trigger any LED blinking. Also added multi-notification support.

14th July Notif Blinker v0.2 (build 0714) fix a bug that affects Palm Messaging App users.

18th July Notif Blinker v0.2 (build 0718) bug fix and code improvement

Sometimes, you wonder if Microsoft really knows what they are doing when they build their version of mobile phone platform.  Case in point; They created the LED notification ability so that users can still be alerted on missed events such as unread SMS or missed call after a period of time (from 5 minutes to indefinitely), and yet the LED stops blinking 1 minute after the event happens.

Thinking that I could overcome this “shortcoming” easily with a little utility, I realized it is not as easy as it appears to be.

The answer is very simple, although the rationale behind can be quite mind boggling. You see the reason why the default LED stop flashing after 1 minute, is due to the ‘sophisticated’ power management found in Windows Mobile 6 devices, specifically the Professional edition (or what we used to call PocketPC Phone edition).  MikeCal from MSDN blog explained it very well, and I do not want to take any credit away from him by explaining the power intricacy here. You can read this blog entry and here to seek that enlightenment. If you are lazy, then this quote summarises, from lay man perspective, the key reason behind my “LED” problem;

“Sleep is the main way that PocketPCs conserve power.  So the PocketPC is always trying to fall asleep.  He’s like a bored security guard on the graveyard shift staring at a TV screen with his eyes drooping, only to jolt himself back awake every few minutes.  In Settings you get to tell your PocketPC how long to stay awake.  Three minutes is typical.  And then you’ve got to actively work to keep him up.  If three minutes go by without you pressing any buttons or touching the screen, he’ll fall back to sleep.  (You can put him right to sleep by pressing the power button.)  Apps that want to keep him awake longer need to be proactive about it.  There’s a function apps call (SystemIdleTimerReset) every 30 seconds when they want the system to stay awake.  This is how Media Player keeps the music playing for longer than three minutes.  This is also how Active Sync can make sure it syncs everything.  And this is how PIE can download huge files without the system falling asleep in the middle of them.  Etc.“

In nutshell,  in order for the L.E.D to continue blinking as I desire, I need to ensure the device does not get into sleep mode (or suspend mode). And essentially this is why we have no problem with SmartPhone (or WM6 Standard Edition) because the power management is based on ‘Always On’ concept.

Nevertheless, the utility program is finally in its alpha release, and with some luck, I should be able to publish it out for beta testing by end of this week