How to Hard Reset the Motorola Charm

Like most devices, there are two different methods for hard resetting the Motorola Charm. If your Charm boots and you can use the device, then the easiest way to clear the device and return it to factory settings is to open the programs menu, tap on Settings / Privacy / Factory Data Reset. You will then be prompted with a confirmation window explaining what you’re about to do and giving you one last chance to back out.

What happens if your device won’t start up? Or perhaps it continually crashes on start up? While the problem may be the result of a badly written application, you need to get the device started to uninstall it using the above method. Since that’s not always possible, you’ll be happy to know that you can still perform a hard reset without actually booting into Android. To do this, with the phone off press and hold the camera key. Then press the power key and when you see a blue screen you need to press Alternate + L and ALternate + W. This will force a hard reset and the device will return to factory settings.

I don’t have a Charm to test these steps on, so please post your feedback below and let me know how it works.

Rogers Offers First Bada Phone: Samsung Wave

Earlier this year Samsung introduced it’s new operating system, Bada.  Their first phone is called the “Wave” for it really does look quite nice.  It is available from Rogers for $99 on contract.  Full Press Release below:

Samsung Makes a Splash with the Launch of Wave

First smartphone to feature Super AMOLED display and bada, Samsung’s open platform

MISSISSAUGA, ON, July 8 /CNW/ – Samsung Mobile, the leading mobile phone brand in Canada, today announced the availability of the Samsung Wave (model: S8500), the first smartphone to leverage bada, Samsung’s new, open smartphone platform. The Samsung Wave is the first Canadian smartphone to feature Samsung’s Super AMOLED screen technology – providing users with improved outdoor visibility, reduced power consumption and unrivalled picture clarity.

With the launch of the Wave, Samsung is actively constructing a total eco-system around the bada platform including Samsung Apps, an integrated application store. Samsung Apps will increase the premium content and applications pool through collaboration with partner companies and developers.

The availability of the Samsung bada SDK (Software Development Kit) will ensure that consumers can experience a steady stream of new applications that support bada platform.

“The Samsung Wave represents our strategy to deliver rich, exciting smartphone experiences to everyone via one of the highest quality display screens in the industry,” saidPaul Brannen, vice president, Samsung Mobile. “We also anticipate that Samsung bada will significantly expand the smartphone consumer market in Canada, which will create an ocean of opportunity for developers.”

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Android; From a Windows Mobile User

Recently I reviewed the Acer Liquid E, an Android device. Being a long time Windows Mobile guy, this gave me an opportunity to compare Android and Windows Mobile. This is not a highly technical or in-depth look. It is from the perspective of an end-user.  Did I find a clear winner? Read on and see.

HOME SCREEN

Both Windows Mobile and Android have very flexible home screens.

Android has lots of widgets to choose from and you can link to pretty much anything on your phone from one of multiple home pages. I find the Android home screen to be highly functional. However it seems to be missing a professional, well put together, look. It actually looks a bit amateur.  If we look to third party and carrier overlays then things start to look up. HTC have their ever popular Sense UI, which brings it up a notch or two. The Android version of Sense isn’t nearly as full featured or as cool as the Windows Mobile version.  Sony Ericsson has their latest UI on the X10 which looks very polished, slick, and functional.

Windows Mobile probably has the most choices. First there is the old classic Windows Mobile home screen with tons of plugins , allowing for endless different looks. Its biggest problem is that it is not finger friendly at all. Next is the latest WM6.5 UI. At first glance it doesn’t seem too bad, but when you start to use it, it seems that you are forever scrolling back and forth, and up and down. Officially there are few possibilities for tweaking it. However, thanks to the enthusiast community there are a couple of apps , and tutorials enabling some tweaking. Next we have third party apps like SPB Shell which give a very high degree of flexibility combined with smooth operation and looks. Then we have OEM overlays such as HTC Sense. In my opinion Sense 2.5 on Windows Mobile is an excellent interface.

Overall I think Windows Mobile get the nod here, because of the wide choices and slick looks of most of the UI possibilities.

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How To Change the Skin on the HTC Tattoo

Everyone likes to make their phone unique by adding custom ringtones or wallpapers. The HTC Tattoo takes this to the next level by letting you change the external skin of the device. There are lots of different skins to pick from, or you can even make your own using sites like garskin.com.  Of course, this isn’t really a new concept. Nokia did this almost a decade ago and it was a big success back then. Although, Nokia only allowed for the changing the front face of the phone, while HTC Tattoo allows for changing the complete skin of the device, front and back.

In order to remove the existing case, you will need to start with taking off the battery cover. Then hold the phone with the screen down towards your fingers, and the bottom of the device up so your thumb can easily push up on the bottom part of the back. Push along one side of the phone and it should pop off. You will then be able to wiggle the bottom plate off of the phone.

Once the entire back is off, hold the device in both hands with your fingers on the screen and your thumbs on the back. Then start at the top of the device and carefully use your thumbs to press the edge of the front plate forward towards your fingers. Work your way down each side of the phone. The area around the bottom of the phone is the hardest to get off, but if you already have the top off, it should come pretty easily.

To apply your new skin, simply follow the same process in reverse. Again, around the bottom of the phone is the hardest part of putting the front back on. I’ve found that it always requires more pressure that expected to get that part to snap into place.

And that’s all there is to it. Enjoy!

Mobilicity Opens Their Doors for Business

Earlier in the week the CRTC gave the thumbs up for Mobilicity’s launch in Canada. Mobilicity would only say that they were hoping to launch in the spring.  It looks like they were much closer to launch than they let on because today marks the opening of Mobilicity in Toronto. Phones, coverage, and pricing appeared on their website yesterday.  Mobilicity is running the same network as Wind Mobile (Canada) and T-Mobile (US) for their 3G data – 1700/2100 AWS.

In terms of coverage, Mobilicity has a bigger network than Public Mobile, and smaller than Wind. All 3 of these newcomers have a considerably smaller network zone than Bell, Rogers, Telus, and Fido. Of course there are plans for expansion, and eventually Mobilicity plans to be in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, and Ottawa. For today’s launch, the coverage is just here in Toronto. Overall, the coverage looks to get all of the GTA with room for expansion to the East and West suburbs over the coming months and years.

Coverage is always important, but so is price. Mobilicity has listed some pretty nice unlimited plans. They have 6 different plans to pick from, with each plan offer a little more than the previous plan. For $65 you get everything Mobilicity has to offer – Unlimited: Text, Mobilicity to Mobilicity calls, Caller ID, Local Talk, Voice Mail, Canadian Long Distance, US Long Distance, Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, 3 Way Calling, Global Text, and Data.

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How to Disable 3G on the HTC HD2

If you have a 3G powered phone, but live or work in a location that doesn’t have 3G coverage, you may notice that the battery seems to drain a little quicker than it should. The reason is because the phone will try harder to connect to 3G when the signal is poor or non-existent. This is by design, as you want the phone to step up the radio’s power in an attempt to capture a connection to a weaker radio signal. Which is fine if it’s a short term thing.

I’m using the European HTC HD2 as my primary phone. As a result, the 3G radio used on the device is not the same as what North America uses. So why not disable the 3G radio and save the power? On some devices you need to access a hidden operator menu in order to make changes to the radio of the device. On the HTC HD2, that’s not the case. Just follow these simple steps and you can set the HD2 to be locked on 2G:

1. From the Home screen, tap on Settings / Phone (you can also access the same menu by tapping on Phone / Menu / Options)
2. Scroll down to the bottom of the Phone Settings page
3. Tap on the last item in the list – Band
4. You should now be looking at the screen below with Network Type set to Auto, and Band Frequency also set to Auto
5. Tap on GSM (1900+850) and then tap on the Done softkey to save your settings.

Once you have the band changed, return to the home screen and give the device a minute or so to re-establish a connection with the carrier and then be sure to test things out. Try calling your phone to make sure that it’s still on the operators network, and then try to open a data connection and make sure the device is working as expected.

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Netbook Gaming Top 5

Those of you who don’t have a netbook might think the concept of gaming on such a tiny little machine is fairly hilarious. And for the most part, you’re right: they’re almost too small to see anything properly, the keyboards are itty bitty (who can WASD on such a small keyboard?), and the processing speed is… well, it’s certainly not your lightning fast [insert gaming computer of choice here], I’ll give you that.

All that being said, there are plenty of reasons to game on your netbook. Primarily for me it’s the ‘I wonder…’ factor. I find myself saying “Hrmm. I wonder if Team Fortress 2 will run on my netbook?…” (answer, btw: Mostly!) or “I wonder how hilarious it would be to run Photoshop on my netbook?” (answer: Pretty hilarious.)

But for those of you looking for a glimmer of hope, here it is — *twinkle* — there are games that run quite well on most netbooks! And, no, they’re not all from 1985, you’re not going to be confined to ghosts and blue dots, or aiding the love life of a guy named Larry in an ugly suit. You can play real games on a netbook, I promise!

I’d also like to take this opportunity to highly recommend that you go ahead and get a Steam client now — there are many reasons why Steam’s the cat’s meow, but top on your list as a netbook gamer is that Steam allows you to purchase and download all your favourite games (at great prices, too) — saves you from needing a cd rom, which most netbooks don’t have. Do it now! And once you have, go ahead and add me — BambiBlue — and we’ll shoot at each other, war with each other, build towers of goo together, maybe you heal me, maybe I water your virtual plants while you’re offline… and be merry!

Here’s a quick top five to whet your fits-in-your-purse/murse gaming appetite!

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Acer Liquid E Pricing Sounds Good!

Rogers is bringing the Acer Liquid E to Canada sometime soon and MobileSyrup is reporting it will be at a low off-contract price of just $379.99. That is a pretty good price for a phone with these specs:

Adroid 2.1
768MHz Snapdragon processor, 256 MB of RAM and 512MB of ROM
WVGA 3.5inch TFT capacitive display
5 megapixel camera
3.5 mm headset jack

We’ll have to see how well all these specs come together and are looking forward to reviewing the Liquid E sometime soon.

How to Hard Reset the LG eXpo / IQ

The LG eXpo and IQ are the same phone. The only difference is the carrier and some preloaded software. LG eXpo was released to AT&T in the US, but didn’t last very long. The LG IQ was released to on Telus in Canada to pretty good consumer acceptance. Regardless of the model you have, there may be a time when you need to reset the device back to factory defaults – perhaps you’ve picked up a used one, or your getting ready to sell yours, or maybe you’ve installed some application that has made the device unstable and it keeps freezing up on you. It doesn’t matter what the reason is, if you’re looking to reset it, you have two options to pick from. The first option is powered by the software of the device. Simply tap Start / Settings / System / Clear Storage. You will then be asked if you want to clear internal memory, external memory, or both. Internal memory refers to the memory hard wired into the device. External would be any storage card you may have inserted. Once you have made your select and tap the Yes button, the device will start the wipe and all of your data and configuration settings will be removed from the device.

The second option works if the device will no longer boot up. If that’s what you’re seeing then you will need to master the following process. First, make sure your phone is turned off. Press the power button for a couple seconds until it starts. As the phone begins to boot, press and hold down the Volume Down key, Multitasking key, and the End key. Release all 3 of the keys once the status lights change multiple colors. The phone will continue to boot and you will know if the process worked when it prompts you to align the screen on the device.

Unfortunately, I don’t have an eXpo or IQ to test this procedure on. If you have any problems or if something is not clear, please reply and let me know so we can try and clarify the steps.

How to Hard Reset the iPAQ Glisten

The iPAQ Glisten is HP’s latest Smartphone device. It’s powered by Windows Phone 6.5 and features a front facing keyboard and styling that resembles RIM’s BlackBerry devices.

If you’ve just picked up this device off ebay, or perhaps you’re getting ready to sell it on ebay, or worse – it just freezes and you can’t do anything, you’ll need to hard reset the device. The hard reset process returns the device to factory settings. That means the all your settings and configurations along with applications installed will be removed and the device will return to the state when you first pulled it out of the box.

There are 2 ways to perform a hard reset. The first, and easiest way is by using the menu’s on the device. Of course, for this to work, the device will need to be bootable. From the home screen, press Start / Settings / System / Factory Restore. You will then be prompted to select what should be cleared – the device, or the device and the storage card. Select the option you want to wipe and enter the confirmation code in the box at the bottom of the screen. After clicking Yes, the device will restart and once it’s up and running again, you will have a brand new device.

If your device won’t start up or hangs on the boot process, you can still hard reset the device. Just like using the software menu, this will wipe all your data off the device. Although, using the hardware method does not clear the storage card. To hard reset a device that won’t start up is pretty simple. With the device turned off, press both of the Call and End keys on the front of the device. While holding those buttons down, press the power button. Just after the HP logo displays on the screen, you will see text at the top of the screen that says “Clean Boot”. That means your device is in the process of starting fresh. Once it’s done, you’re device will be like new.

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