Hi Guys,
How have ya been ? Sorry for my inordinate slumber yet again :), but in my defence, with the advent of facebook and tweeting.com, Blogger has been made absolutely obsolate. Bemusingly, while Google continues to "pioneer" one hum-drum copycatter after another (The Wave and the Buzz, anyone :) ?), it could have done a lot better by strengthening the already in-play blogger interface, but then is anybody listening ?
But, then, my usual excuse-thyself-from-your-laziness done, let me come back to the eponymous Corby itself ! Actually, the genesis lies in my gadget-fascination and more specifically how "Touch screens" just blow me away (can't stop looking at Adam these days, esp. as I believe that Rajat Sahni, one of my former BCG colleagues and now some Director hot-shot at NotionInk did take my inputs into consideration for the development of the device - hey, that might be a totally personal perspective btw :)) - I was quite simply bored of my Red Blackberry 8310 Curve and pined for a touch-screen phone. But, following were the constraints:
1. I had to look within the Blackberry family as I would lose the ossum "BB messenger" and "auto-push" company mail service if I did otherwise (btw, apparently the BCG US office can access their email over IPhone but we 3rd world Indians are not allowed to do that as a part of Global IT Policy, Global I tell you :)), but the new Blackberry Storm is real shady and fraudy and is a non-starter no-hoper, yeawww !
2. Outside of the BB family, IPhone was totally out of budget for moi, the quintessential low-end gadget skimmer.
And thus the wait continued - me lusting after multiple devices and letting them be, they without me and me without them.
And, suddenly Samsung unleashed the Corby Pro GT - B5310 (also known as Genio Pro in UK) - a touchscreen phone with a 
physical qwerty-keyboard with GPS (My ossumly dyslexic directional senses need Google Maps inside-out), Wi-fi, FM Radio and everything else for like 11.5k and I was like Wow ! this needs research. I did my research and though a newbie phone, it was distinctly upmarket and looked kind of kool (and the closest touch-screen-cum-qwerty with its features is Nokia N97 Mini at 22k - really, right !). But, as per my Value-for-money Biharidom (btw did you know the Friedman theory of money-spending as per the 2-by-2 below:
physical qwerty-keyboard with GPS (My ossumly dyslexic directional senses need Google Maps inside-out), Wi-fi, FM Radio and everything else for like 11.5k and I was like Wow ! this needs research. I did my research and though a newbie phone, it was distinctly upmarket and looked kind of kool (and the closest touch-screen-cum-qwerty with its features is Nokia N97 Mini at 22k - really, right !). But, as per my Value-for-money Biharidom (btw did you know the Friedman theory of money-spending as per the 2-by-2 below:
Okay, enough digression yet again), I was really not sure about replacing my very-well working BB curve - but thanks to biwi dearest, I went to Alfa Mumbai and purchased it for 11.5k (Btw the Corby is really cracking the scene - they get sold out in 2 days !!). And then, as with all other good things proposed by men and dispersed by gods :), the fairytale went phut. Samsung has used its proprietary Touchwiz / Bada Java interface OS (also found on Samsung Jet S8000) and the OS clearly was rushed to pose as the next i-killer. But, leave the iPhone alone, even such belowmentioned basics were not adhered to:
1) Delivery report is non-integrated into the original SMS - you get a new SMS saying the SMS has been delivered - really, in this age and time ?? (think about me coming down from BB !)
2) You can't cut and paste text from anywhere in the phone - again, really !! ?
1) Delivery report is non-integrated into the original SMS - you get a new SMS saying the SMS has been delivered - really, in this age and time ?? (think about me coming down from BB !)
2) You can't cut and paste text from anywhere in the phone - again, really !! ?
3) You can't hide icons / move them out of folders !
4) Transfer outlook contacts / calendar to Corby Pro - the provided sync software seriously is like early Linux (unhelpful and unapologetic) - I found a workaround by downloading the old Samsung PC Suite, seriously - modern and more money down the drain doesn't mean improvement really.
5) The in-phone apps for browsing, Insta-messaging (a must after my serious-loss of and hyped widgets for facebook, twitter etc. SUCK, really suck - but since one was and continues to be a nerd at heart, one can't give up and needed to install 3rd party Java apps to overcome these obvious irritants. After a nerd-geek search, I shortlisted the following for the honor of installing on my Corby Pro:
1) Opera Mini 5: Seriously, use it and you will not believe that it is free !
2) ebuddy Messenger : Essential soul-balm for all IM users.
3) Safe : Password storage - who can remember all those passwords these days ?
4) Twibble : A kool twitter tool for Java phones.
5) Facebooking was best done directly at m.facebook.com
But, as I went to install them I realized the Touchwiz OS really stresses you because:
1) There is no direct way to install .jar / .jad (Java executables) - you have to neccessarily use internet.
2) The display has two modes: Portrait with the keyboard slided in, Landscape with the keyboard out, but Samsung in its infinite wisdom has decided to shield us poor users from customizing 3rd party apps to "auto-rotate" when you open the keyboard - they keep set in the portrait mode !!!
This pissed the programmer inside me no ends and out came my old Java codes which had slept in peace and as I was bound to discover, I was purely outdated. But, still I persisted and for the benefit of all Corby users (and Samsung Jet as well), if you decide to install a third-party app (and let me know what you choose to install :)), do the following:
1) Download the .jar and .jad files (.jad is optional unless otherwise specified)
2) Open the .jar file with Winzip (it is infact an archive :))
3) Extract all the files to a new folder
4) Open the file "Manifest.mf" in "Meta-Inf" folder with notepad
5) Add the following lines at the bottom of the file and save:
X-Pax-Keyboard: Qwerty
X-Pax-TextInput-Hidden: true
MIDlet-Touch-Support: TRUE
MIDlet-ScreenMode: ROTATE
6) Save all files and zip all the files you extracted in step 3 using the Windows "Send to" Zipped folder command (please don't use WinZip). Rename the file to .jar from .zip
7) If a .jad file accompanied the .jar, open it again with notepad (.jad is like a covering envelope for .jar), and make the following changes:
a) In the row titled "MIDlet-Jar-URL:" put the name of the .jar file with the extension.
b) In the row titled "MIDlet-Jar-Size:", put the exact size of the .jar file in KBs (look in Properties of the .jar file)
Save the .jad file and then create a .html file (name it anything). In that file insert one line:
<html><body><a href="_______">install _______</a></body></html>
Replace "_________" with name of the .jad file (or .jar if only .jar is there).
Copy the .jad, .jar and .html to the Pro. Run .html and press on the link to install the App. This will now auto-rotate and respond to touch control - Yo !
##Edit: Some folks have faced issues with the procedure for auto-rotate above, I don't know the real issue but some ossum dood has posted the following fix, please use it - hope it helps !
For anyone getting "invalid content message" when trying to install a rotated app, message #10 from TJJ from this discussion forum may be of help.
This post confirms that only the .jad needs to be modified. Hope this helps - Opera makes this phone much more pleasant to use than the default browser.
##End of Edit##
Now, I am too old to go after Issues 1-5 above but solving 6 alone has made me take total charge of my Corby and like all super gadget-freaks now I feel one with my phone :). Hope somebody solves the rest - I will keep searching :).
Hey, btw, saw "Up in the Air" today - totally showed the Consultant 200-days a year travel-story (well obviously Clooney seems much more glam, but what do you know afterall :) ?) - watch it, you can poke more fun at us consultants then. And yes, if you haven't had your fill, read "Dork" - Sidin has ensured party jokes on Consultants will last for the next decade for sure !
Cya, till the writing bug strikes again. And Hey Google guys, please do something about the Blogger interface, it has started to feel so dated. (#Edit: The Google guys listened and I am soo happy with the new interface, thanks Google, you continue to be ossum !)
Ta, Ranjan :)
View comments