Last weekend, I managed to reverse engineer this feature and included it in my latest Show Traffic application. Check out the video, and you know what I’m talking about!

You can download the latest version from this link. Version 1.1 is now “skinable” (yay! my first skinable appy) and is compatible to both Q(W)VGA and (W)VGA Windows Mobile devices.

To skin the application, you have to modify the following image files

1. BG_selector background image of the item
2. BG_highlight background image of the selected item
3. BG_spacer background image of the spacer between items
4. BG_title background image of the title bar (at the top of the application)

Additionally, if your skin is a white/light-color based theme, then you need to change the foreground and background colour so that the text can be readable on your light-color based theme. This setting can be found in the registry path (HKCU\Software\Zenyee\ShowTraffic) You can download this zip file for a sample light-based skin with the appropiate registry.

Modified "Squeak-less" Battery Cover

One of them is performance. After flashing my HD with Dutty’s V3.9 XT Turbo ROM, I felt as if I have gotten a new toy. But the moment I hold up the phone, the squeak on the battery cover put a big dent on the otherwise wonderful HD experience. As I depress on either side of the battery cover, the squeaks just remind me on the squeak and rattles I experienced in my old Volkswagen Bora.

I decided that I have  to do something about it (and give me one less excuse to change my phone!)

Upon inspecting the area where the squeak happens, I identified spots where the plastic on the battery cover is pressing against the phone housing.

All it took for me is a pair of scissor, masking tape, and a small screw driver (or any tool such as tweezers that can be used to position and press the tape on the squeaking area, or just your fingers if you do not have fat thumbs like I do). Stick the tape at the offending area, and you are done literally within a minute!

DIY Tools to mask the squeak

The left hand side of the battery cover

Right hand side of the battery cover; NB: The area above the tape needs to be masked as well

Finally, my HD feels like a gadget with a solid built quality. Maybe it was, but the squeay cover certainly suggests otherwise.

So it looks like I have to wait longer (for an excuse) to ditch my HD. Maybe a HTC Hero might be the one.

Unfortunately, the procedure to flash a custom ROM can be a nervy experience, even for an IT-trained individual. While  the actual flashing process will take no more than 10 minutes, one might get lost just by reading through the documentation of the procedure.

So here’s an attempt to do a video blog of the flashing process, to compliment  the detailed documentation created by the developers in xda-developers forum. In this video blog, I’ll be flashing custom ROM using USPL, instead of Hard-SPL method. Read here to know more about USPL versus Hard-SPL. For me, USPL is the least intrusive method, and I can flash stock ROM to my device anytime straight away without any additional procedure.

Files you need to download

First thing first, you need to ensure you have the following files downloaded;

1. Stock SPL for Blackstone (version 1.54)
2. HSPL Wrapper for Blackstone (version 1.56)
3. USPL (version 2.5)
4. A 1.56+ based ROM (I use Dutty’s XT 3.9 ROM)
5. RUU Wrapper for Blackstone (if you download Dutty’s XT ROM, this RUU wrapper is provided in the zip file)

Unzip each of the downloaded files, and organised them under a central folder, e.g. “Touch-HD-Rom-Stuff”, for easy access.

Key Steps required to flash the custom ROM

1. Back up your phone. I strongly recommend that you just back up your data instead of backing up your programs and their settings. Going with the latter might introduce system conflicts when you restore everything back to the new ROM. If you just need to back up your PIM data (i.e. your appointments, text message, contacts, etc), my personal preference would be PIM Backup.

2. Put your phone into bootloader mode. With your phone in power off mode, depressed the volume-down button and power button simultaneously, and you should see the device boot up with a tri-colour screen like the one shown below.  (note: if for some reason you want to exit this step without any further flashing, just take out the battery and put it back to restart)

Touch HD at Bootloader mode

3. Update your phone’s SPL to stock SPL version 1.54. You can skip this step if your bootloader screen shows that you are already on version 1.54 (or above). The video below shows how you can upgrade your phone’s stock SPL to version 1.54. In the video, you would see that I will put my phone in USPL mode first. According to xda-developers, there is not need to put your phone in USPL mode first and you can upgrade the SPL directly (i.e. skip step 3a).  In some circumstances (e.g. if you have accidentally carried out step 4 before step 3) you may need to perform step 3a first prior to flashing stock spl. If you are not sure, just carry out step 3a since it is a very straight forward step;

(a) With your phone connected to your PC via USB cable, open up a command window and run the command “blac_uspl.exe“. This will put your phone in USPL mode. If you are not successful in getting your phone into USPL mode, please refer to this link to update your USB driver.

(b) Run the HSPL Wrapper by double-clicking the program HSPLWrapper_Blackstone_1560OliNex.exe. Do not click on anything when the window pops up

(c) Copy the stock SPL image RUU_Signed.nbh to the folder where HSPL Wrapper resides. Choose to overwrite the file if you are prompted.

(d) Continue the steps as advised by HSPL Wrapper Window, to complete the flashing of stock SPL version 1.54 into your phone.

4. Upgrade your phone with a 1.56+ based custom ROM. In this example, I use Dutty’s XT version 3.9, which is also based on stock ROM 1.56. You need to put your phone back in bootloader mode again, as the SPL upgrade you have carried out in step 3 would reboot your phone into Windows Mobile operating environment. Repeat step 3a to put your phone into USPL mode. Once your phone is in USPL mode, then run the executable BlackstoneRUUWrapper.exe. Follow the steps as advised by the RUU (Rom Update Utility) window, and in less than 10 minutes you should see a successful flash of the custom ROM image into your phone! The video below illustrates the entire flashing procedure.

Note: If you are not successful in getting your phone into USPL mode, please refer to this link to update your USB driver.

So  4 weeks ago when I sent in my X1 to the service center to have the keyboard and some parts repaired,  never would I had expected that would be my last Xperia experience.  It has to do with the infamous crack plastic housing that I requested to be replaced, but I shall not digress further. Fast forward to now,  I ended up selling my X1 back to the service center, and gotten a black stone, a code name for HTC Touch HD.

First unboxing impression

HTC always does a great job in marketing their products, including their product packaging. Touch HD is not an exception. Upon opening up the box, the phone is sitting tightly on the velvet case, radiating a class of sparkles as if it is really a black gem stone. The phone itself is very well built, with a glass finishing on the front, and plastic with rubber texture finishing on its back. The 3.8″ screen size is a big welcome for me after enduring the small 2.8″ (or 3.0″ for X1) screen for the last few years. It was the same feeling I got when I upgraded my 29″ CRT with a 42″ plasma TV few years ago. No kidding! With a bigger screen, something has to give in, as it becomes wider to hold and may not be one-hand-friendly especially for ladies. Luckily the overall form factor is not at all compromised, as HTC designs the phone as a gemstone, not a brick. Perhaps I had my own taste of iPAQ 6300/6500/6900, I find it comfortable holding HD despite its wider screen.

Setup experience

The setup experience was somehow less desirable though. After going through the usual screen calibration and time setting, my first task was to set up Activesync Exchange connectivity, so that I can restore my contacts, email and appointments as I would always do when I get a new Windows Mobile phone. This is where my patience was seriously tested. For some reason, the sync download was slow (ok, blame it on the 3G connection I have), and at the half way mark, the device reported that service.exe has crashed and the sync got into a limbo stage. It took me a soft reset, to complete the sync, even then, the sync was painfully slow. It appears as if there is something running in the background, that slows down the whole sync process.

Stock Performance

Unlike what the HTC sales manager had claimed 6 months ago during a Touch HD product introduction, the phone does not feel like it has been optimized for its performance. In fact, if there’s any indication that HTC has partnered with StarHub (Singapore telco that has exclusivity in Touch HD launch) to customize the ROM, it’s probably the StarHub logo display on the home page of TouchFlo interface.

Comparing to my previous X1, the Touch HD performance is just decent, and that’s after some tweaking using Schap’s Advanced Config Tool. The battery performance is far from what was promised. Sure, battery performance is subjective and depends on individual’s usage pattern. HTC had however, quite bullishly, claimed that watching TV (via StarHub TV mobile) on Touch HD would be much better than doing the same on other devices, as Touch HD would “intelligently turn off some services” to save battery power when one watches the TV online. It sounded like a complete sales “waste of male cow” (i.e. BS) but I gave the sales manager a benefit of doubt since I was not able to play with the phone until now. And my skeptic is finally backed by my own finding; after 1 hour of watching live soccer match on HD, the battery depleted by 25%. Hey I think my X1 can do a better job than this.

Second Life with Turbo-charging

So at the verge of selling the phone, and get something else (with Touch Pro 2 looming around), I decided to give HD a second chance by flashing a custom ROM (thanks to a mate’s suggestion). The steps to flash a custom ROM can be quite taunting. The last time I touched a custom ROM was when I had my iPAQ 6515, where we manipulated the ROM image with hex editor just to “hack” the storage management. With Touch HD and xda developers, the flashing process has been simplified dramatically. Within 15 minutes, I had turbo-charged my Touch HD, and I was wowed by the speed and memory management performance this time round. Set up was a breeze, the interface was even more refreshing (leveraging from Rhodium’s platform) and the screen was sensitive as usual without any trace of lag. If anybody were to ask for my advice, I would say custom ROM is the way to go, at least for Touch HD, if you really want to maximise your experience with the black stone.