David’s Musings

Over the weekend, I took the plunge and updated the firmware on my Blackberry 8310 to the new Blackberry OS 4.5. This is obviously not recommended as there could have been all sorts of issues, but, for now, things are looking pretty good and pretty stable.

I wanted to upgrade as, (a) I’m impatient, and (b) the upgrade brings massively improved functionality - the main ones being, better media player, video recorder, HTML email, better user interface, availability search for calendar invites.

So how did I do it? Here’s how. And please, do not contact me if you have problems. I don’t recommend this unless you think you know what you’re doing!

These instructions are only for owners with a Blackberry 8310. I am on the AT&T network in the USA. This method has not been tested by me on any other network or anywhere else in the world. Also, to get the full functionality of things such as HTML email, your BIS service must be running BIS 2.5 - but I believe they all are now.

This process may remove any applications you have installed and may remove your corporate policy if you have one. Be warned.

Also, start to finish, this process can take an hour or more. Once you start, you can’t stop, so make the time.

1. Ensure you have the latest Blackberry Desktop software installed. You can get it here: http://na.blackberry.com/eng/services/desktop/

2. Install the Blackberry Desktop software.

3. Download the latest OS firmware from here, the only place to offer it right now - the Germany Vodafone site. (By the way, the official release by US operators is looking to be released around September if you can wait that long)

4. Install the OS firmware download.

5. Plug in your Blackberry, your device will be identified and the upgrade process should begin. The process, as I’ve said already, can take a long, long time. Lots of rebooting and white screens are normal. Be patient.

If you end up with a white screen with small icons and the number 507/543, simply connect to Desktop Manager again and run the application loader once again.

Good luck and enjoy! I’m certainly loving the new look.

Yesterday, I got my first iMac. I’ve been waiting to make the switch for a long time now (around 15 years I guess), but I finally have. I’m absolutely thrilled with the purchase. It’s going to take a while to make the conversion as I’m so used to a PC, but already I’m finding the iMac relatively easy to use.

I made an appointment with a personal shopper in the Stanford Apple store. Fantastic service, the guy really knew his stuff. I even got really into the deep technical questions and threw some curve balls around PC and Mac wireless networking, filesharing and DNLA, but nothing seemed to phase him.

I walked out with a shiny new 24″ iMac with the following:

• 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 4GB memory
• 1TB hard drive
• 8x double-layer SuperDrive
• NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS with 512MB memory
• Microsoft Mac:Office 2008

Took it home, the setup was straight forward and even though the Apple Store offered to do it for me, I now begin the long road of transferring all my files from PC to Mac. I thought I might as well throw myself in at the deep end. Watch this space.

There are some iPhone video clips working their way around the internet right now more quickly than Rick’s Astley’s, “Never Gonna Give You Up” Rick Roll video. The new look iPhone mark two is soon to be on the shelves of your nearest AT&T and Apple store. The iPhone 2, which most people believe will be announced at Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in June (a year after his older brother) is looking very, very good indeed.

This video shows some of the new look interface, which hasn’t changed a great deal apart for a few new options and the version 2 firmware. The new 3G, GPS iPhone is a little slimmer with a matt-black finish instead of the polished silver we all know and love.

Take a look at the clip here:

Today I gave up on my Linksys WRT300N router. Over the past few days I’ve decided that my poor connectivity in the house, coupled with dropped online games with my Playstation 3, must be down to the router.

This is my second WRT300N, the first one went back last year as it died. Before that, I had a Linksys WRT54GS router - and swapping back to that for a few days actually gave more stability but slower connection speeds and less range (as you’d expect)

The D-Link DIR-655 router I bought today seems to be a stellar improvement on the Linksys. It has more configuration items, but the way in which it has automatic Quality of Service (QoS) seems to be a winner - especially when I’m playing online. No more disconnects or game stalling, even when Sara, my wife, is also online surfing da web. The range seems to be more wide and long too.

I also have to say, from a support perspective, D-Link have it ’sussed’.

Easy install CD, a great online help site and a good user interface within the router menu options itself.

So far, the D-Link seems many times better than the Linksys. However, to be fair the Linksys router is nearly two years older than my current one even though they still both support draft-N.

I guess that’s the price you can pay when you’re an early adopter of technology…

I just hope this is true and not the usual fluffy marketing speak. According to Fortune magazine, it seems that an Enterprise, corporate iPhone is upon us. If this is true, it will be great news for the consumer, business and, of course, Apple.

It seems that this week Apple may be about to announce their new Apple iPhone SDK, just up the road from me at their headquarters in Cupertino. Is this event going to lead into a subsequent announcement with Apple unveiling their customised Enterprise email solution?

There have been rumours that Apple have licensed Microsoft ActiveSync, or they’ve got into bed with Blackberry, with their Blackberry Connect offering - but I still think Apple will go their own way.

Analysts are saying there are four likely scenarios at the moment:

• from internal development (most likely),
• third-parties including MSFT (next likely) with its ActiveSync technology,
• or RIMM Blackberry Connect (possible but less likely)
• or a combination of two or more.

I like my iPhone, but I love my Blackberry. If I can get over the air syncing, some of the functionality of the Blackberry, and of course, Exchange corporate email on my iPhone - that’ll be it for me. Converted.

Sony have brought out an excellent Playstation 3 firmware update for a Christmas present for gamers. Version 2.10 gives many more features, but the best by far is the ability to now play DivX movies over your home network.

I am now going to encode all my DVDs into DivX and store them on my home PC’s external hard-drive. Now I have my own media center DVD library that can stream from my PC to my PS3. I’ve never used my PS3 so much since I bought it. The ability to just select any DVD or film I have from a menu and play it is superb.

Other functions the firmware update offers are voice changer and a new pattern for the visual player.

Find out more from the Sony PS3 site here

My Linksys WRT300N wireless router has finally given up the ghost and died this evening. It’s been getting slower and slower over the past few days, I’ve been on the phone and web to Linksys support (they’ve been great), but it’s officially over. I have a 8Mb connection at home and I’ve been getting speeds of about 100Kb. I updated the firmware to the latest version and changed a few settings that I was told to by Linksys support - but it was no good.

I’ve had to go back to my old Linksys G router which hasn’t been too bad. At least it’s stable. Makes me wonder if I made the switch too early to the N standard.

Linksys have been great in swapping it back and hopefully the new router holds on a bit longer.

I’ve just seen the new UK ads for the Mac. They’ve been around in the US for a long while now, but the UK ones, just don’t seem right! However, I do like the UK Trust Mac and Pie Chart videos.

Compare and contrast if you will, UK versus the US:

http://www.apple.com/uk/getamac/ads/

http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/

I have two spare Blackberries that I want to sell on craigslist.org - however, I’ve found this evening that despite wiping the handhelds completely, the old IT company policy remains on them both blocking downloads, enforcing passwords etc. Impressed I was not. I’ve read on the internet that your Blackberry administrators in your office should not only send you a new IT Policy and Service Book when you get a new Blackberry, but should equally enforce the removal of old devices from the corporate network by sending you a ‘reseting’ service book and policy OTA (over the air)

This is too much hassle for me, and not a priority for our IT department I’m sure, so I did a bit of searching on the web. I found a great solution at http://blackberry.ig3.net/, but will repeat it here.

First of all, this is not a guide on how to remove carrier information from a Blackberry. If you’re unable to use a different SIM card than the one that was originally supplied with your device, look elsewhere. However if, like many others you have a Blackberry that is locked by a BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server), meaning you are unable to change certain settings, or install third party applications then read on. Essentially, the problem is that your Blackberry has at some point been connected to a BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server), and this BES has placed a restrictive Security Policy (or IT Policy) on your device. A quick check to see if this is the case can be done by going to Options > Security on your Device. If you see any references to IT Policy whatsoever, then you have a potentially restrictive IT Policy that can be removed.

This disclaimer is important

This guide is intended for use by people that own their own Blackberry, and for whatever reason, have inherited a company IT Policy on their device. Really, there are two scenarios where this guide is useful:

• You bought a Blackberry on eBay (or equivalent) and are unable to make changes to the settings or install third party applications
• You have a Blackberry that was previously connected to a company BES and, for whatever reason, you no longer intend to make connections to that BES

If you’re still connected to a corporate BES, and simply want to install the latest and greatest third party application, I would not recommend this approach. Go and talk to your BES administrators and ask them to grant you the appropriate rights. There are two problems in using this guide to bypass your company security policy. Firstly, whenever you reconnect to the company server, your security settings will revert back to how they were. Secondly, and more importantly, you run the risk of getting fired.

Step 1

Ensure the Blackberry Desktop Manager is installed using Blackberry Internet Service, and not Blackberry Enterprise Server. If you are unsure, it would probably be a good idea to uninstall the Desktop Manager and start again

If you do not have the CD that came with your Blackberry, the software can be downloaded here.

Step 2
Download the file policy.bin and save it in your Blackberry installation directory (C:\Program Files\Research In Motion\BlackBerry)

Step 3

Wipe your Blackberry, creating a backup if necessary. Select Options > Security > Wipe Device

If this option is unavailable, you may have to install the latest software on your Blackberry. You need to Download and install the latest Desktop Manger Software, then the latest Handheld Software. Connect your device, open the Desktop Manager, select Application Loader, and follow the prompts.

Step 4
Close the Desktop Manager if it is open

Step 5
From the Windows Start Menu select Run…, and at the prompt type regedit. In the tree on the left hand side, navigate to:
HKEY_Current_Users\Software\Research In Motion\BlackBerry\PolicyManager

Right-Click the Policy Manager Folder and select New > String Value. Name the value Path. Now, double-click the Path Subkey and set Value Data to:
C:\Program Files\Research In Motion\BlackBerry\policy.bin

Step 6
Open the Desktop Manager

Step 7
Connect the device

Verification

Once complete, the Options > Security screen on your Blackberry should not contain references to an IT Policy, you should now be able to change all settings (including password prompts), and install third party applications

(reproduced from http://blackberry.ig3.net/)