Sprint 27% Discount National Volume Pricing

Who is interesting in getting 27% off your Sprint Cell phone bill.

If you were to google information on this you will find many people talking about it but not a lot of information widely available.

I’ll post more on this tomorrow.

Sprint + Palm Pre + Novacom on Windows 7

I purchased the Dell Mini 9 months back and have fallen in love with its portability and use. It plays movies and music perfect and those small speakers are really loud! I travel frequent and its my companion everywhere I go. While away I would use my Moto Q to tether and surf the web with the mini 9. Nothing but good things to say about the moto but it was time for a change. I have been wanting a palm pre because its something different from an iphone and it works on the sprint network. I know some people love the iphone and ATT but why would anyone pay ATT for internet and texting is beyond me. Sprint has a great plan for around $65.00 for 900 mins with unlimited text and internet. * This would be 79.00 with the sprint referal but my 27% discount rocks. If you keep reading I’ill post a follow up to how to get a deep discount with sprint.

So Windows 7 has been released and I was a beta tester with my mini 9 notebook. I just say I love Windows 7, it Runs smooth,installation was from the usb stick. For my first hack I want the feature of tethering. There is pleanty of hacking the pre or rooting documented on the internet so I will assume you have done some research. The hardest part of getting this hack to work was Novacom. It was a pure hassle to install on Windows 7 .

Let me save you some time and give you what you need below.

http://www.crowza.com/Palm%20SDK.msi

Download and install the above .msi and you will have no problems installing mytether like me.

 Source: http://forums.precentral.net/web-os-development/195043-setting-up-novacom-windows-7-easier-method-2.html

The actual install and documentation of getting tethering to work is as follows:

• Put the PRE into developer mode (This is not rooting.) upupdowndownleftrightleftrightbastart
• Download and install Novacom and USBnet drivers to your computer.
• Hook up a USB cable to the Pre and computer in “Charge-Only” mode.
• Download and run the MyTether install program.

Lets start:

1) Put the Pre into Developer Mode:
      a. Close all applications running on the Pre
      b. Type: upupdowndownleftrightleftrightbastart
• As soon as you type the last letter, a developer icon will appear. Click it
• Turn on Developer mode.
• Re-start the Pre (as prompted) and set the phone aside.

* I was worried this would wipe all my data from my pre but it does not.

2) Download and install Novacom Drivers:
a. Download from here http://www.crowza.com/Palm%20SDK.msi. This is ONLY for Windows 7 users . XP users need a different set of drivers.
• Turn off Widows 7 firewalls and leave it off.
• Reboot computer and verify after reboot Novocom is running as a task.
• To verify install: Do Ctrl-Alt-Delete to get to Task Manager. Click Processes tab and verify that “novacomd.exe’ is listed.

3) With your Pre On connect the Pre to your computer with USB micro cable.
a. Select “Just Charge”

4) Run the MyTether install program
a. Program is located @ www.mythether.net please donate to the guy who has worked on on this. I donated to mytether because the guy who is working on this app has really provided me with a very useful tool.

b. Once downloaded double click on the exe. You should see a dialog box appear and quickly install the program and complete.
c. Install is complete. Now go to your phone and reboot.

After rebooting you can go to the quick launch button and a “My Tether” icon should be at the bottom of the 1st page!

For safety you can not turn Developer Mode off. Type: upupdowndownleftrightleftrightbastart to get to the Developer Icon
f. Click the Icon and turn off Developer Mode
g. Reboot the Pre.

Running MyTether:

Before starting, make sure you are in a place with a good 3G connection.
When you click the icon, it takes a few seconds, but you will probably get a screen that asks if you want to disable WiFi. Click “Turn Off” if you want to use WiFi. You will then want to enable DHCP and then move the slider at the top to ‘On’ to enable WiFi tethering.

• This sets up an AdHoc network named AoNet.
• Web encryption is turned on by default, and you can see the password. Click options at bottom of screen
• You can change the password, or if you want wipe it out to run with no encryption.
• Your computer’s WiFi utility should be able to easily find and connect
• Yes, more than one computer can connect at the same time!
• Bottom of screen – click LCD and you will be able to turn off LCD and sleep timer! Brilliant – center light stays on. Click on button a couple of times to exit this mode.

Phone Calls:
• If your phone rings, and you can answer, but this will stop MyTether.
• When the phone call is over, you will need to re-start MyTether . It is simple, and you need do nothing to the connected computers. They will just resume.

Bugs:
• When I disconnected and closed MyTether, I found I could not go on the Internet with the phone. When I click on the Web button, all of my bookmarks were gone!
• When I tried through Universal search, I got a message I had to enable the network.
• I got rid of the problem by re-booting the phone. Everything worked fine again, but the problem re-occurred when I started MyTether again. The last time I did it, the Pre re-booted itself.

Wifi Feature – Working
The wifi feature was the first that I tried and it works amazingly. Setup your WEP key and connect via wifi from your pc to your pre. Its just like connecting to a router.

USB Cord – Working
I next tried the usb cord connected to the Pre. For this to work I needed to install the USBnet drivers.
You need to make sure you install usbnet driver first http://gitorious.org/webos-internals/usbnet-pre/blobs/raw/master/windows/usbnet-pre.inf follow instructions here http://www.webos-internals.org/wiki/USBnet_networking_setup

Bluetooth – Working
After thinking that this would not work I found a post that said

“The report is that after you enable USB Tethering in My Tether, you can pair your machine to the Pre using Bluetooth PAN and tethering will work over Bluetooth.”

So I fired up my Dell mini 9, enabled BT on the pre and launched My Tether app from the pre apps and changed the USB tethering from OFF to ON. I proceeded to do tell my Mini 9 to do a Join a Personal Area Network. It then asked if i wanted to join the access point which i said yes and after about 10 secs i was successful on the internet. I think maybe the app will be more clear that BT will work with that button ON.

Please post any questions you might have!

PS3 Can play Xvid movies

So Im a little behind the times, I must admit I have been using my xbox 360 for all xvid playback but since i moved the ps3 to another room i wanted to play a movie.

The catch is that the file has to be on a usb drive. If you do not put the file in a folder called VIDEO you will not see the files. If you are like me you clicked on the video tab from the dashboard and then went to usb device (usb flash drive) and hit your X button. unfortunately this will yeld results of ZERO! it says there are no titles!. Do not worry I nearly gave up until i hit the Triangle button and hit Display all. Like magic all my files appeared.

I have also heard to  renamed my XVID .avi files to .divx files and they worked. but i havent bothered with that.

 

Enjoy the tip if you are needing it.

Sprint Palm Pre Everything Plus Referral Program / SERO Now available

Up until today the Everything Plus Referral Program formally known as SERO was not eligible for the Palm Pre.

That has now all changed.

I have some questions of my own that I hope to have answered soon.

My questions are:
Are Everything Plus Referral Program plans eligible for a corp discount on top of the savings?
* I think the answer is No they will not stack so if my discount is better than the discount offered I should go with a regular plan and add the corp discount. Please confirm.

If for whatever reason I open up my new account NOT under the EPRP program and my account discount stops working can I later switch my phone to the EPRP plan?
* I would rather start on the EPRP plan if there was any chance that my employee rate will not work down the road.

To capitalize on this good fortune you may use Russ’s information who is Sprint’s VP of Strategy that he provided on http://mcguireslaw.com/2008/07/16/psst-have-you-heard-about-everything-plus/#comments

THANKS RUSS!

By now, I’m sure everyone has heard about Sprint’s groundbreaking Simply Everything plans, but here’s an even better twist!

Everything Plus is Sprint’s new employee referal plan which takes the Simply Everything plans and makes them even better!

For example, the lowest priced Simply Everything plan is $69.99 for 450 Anytime minutes (and of course, unlimited text, web, TV, music, navigation, Direct Connect, etc.).

The equivalent Everything Plus plan is $59.99 for 500 Anytime minutes (and all that unlimited stuff).

There’s also a discounted 1000 minute plan at $79.99 and the unlimited plan at $99.99.

Interested?  Check it out here.  My e-mail address (you’ll need it) is russ.s.mcguire@sprint.com and the 3 digits you’ll need are 383.

Dell Mini 9 How to install Windows 7 from a USB Key without a DVD

OK so I thought Windows Vista is great for my quad and this new beta of windows 7  sounds better because of the good reviews.

I  have no external dvd rom on my mini 9 so i opted for the usb thumb drive method. Space is limited on the SSD hard drive so i revised my process from netbookguys instructions.

A great how to is here http://www.netbookguy.com/blogs/netbook/archive/2009/01/20/how-to-install-windows-7-from-a-usb-key-without-a-dvd.aspx

I did not use all of his instructions. Instead of extracting the whole iso I only extracted the `boot` folder on the iso. This folder has the bootsect.exe

Boot Sector Manipulation Tool
basically this saved me space and acheived the same results. Instead of using xcopy I extracted the files directly with winrar to the usb drive after the bootsect was used.

took about 7 mins to extract on the mini 9.

works great

Moto Q + Windows mobil 6.1 + bluetooth

I never thought bluetooth would be useful on the moto q up until now.

i never had anything bluetooth to pair my phone up with that it would be worth it. that is until now. my mini 9 came in about a week ago and i purchased the bluetooth adapter thinking it would come in handy. it occured to me that i might be able to tether my internet to my laptop via bluetooth. I was right

So I have used pdanet before in the past with my desktop just to see if it would work. It worked wonderfully. Sprint may not be everyones favorite but i was able to get unlimited text and data added to my plan for free.

I have a work laptop and it would not let me install pdanet drivers on it so i could not use my Sprint Moto Q phone to get on the internet. Ive always surfed the internet from the phone when i am bored and thought maybe i could use my skills to get online with my newly installed bluetooth adapter on my refurb mini 9.

My moto q is running windows mobile 6.1 from sprint. Basically after pairing the phone to my mini 9 I went to my phones programs. There is a program called internet sharing. Enabling this and selecting the bluetooth option allowed the device to create a network connections icon connecting via bluetooth to my phone. Ive been surfing for the past few hrs and it works wonderfully.

I may post more if people need info just comment i get emails and do respond.

OSX Leopard 10.5 Mini 9 USB install

http://dltv.wordpress.com/2009/01/07/osx-leopard-installed-on-mini-9-w-no-dvdrom/

OSX Leopard installed on Mini 9 w/ No DVDrom

For those that google and find my post please use this at y0ur own risk.

Background: I purchased a Dell mini because it was cheap :

+310 16 gig SSD with 1 gig memory

+30 for J613H 1 Card,Wireless,Internal Bluetooth,QH/YM ordered seperate

+20 2 gig memory stick

+18 Zagg Invisibleshield

I later found out that OSX leopard 10.5 could be run on it. I was intrigued and wanted my mini to have the same OS as a macbook! How cool would that be?

So if you have (2) usb thumb drives and a windows pc you too can load OSX without the need of a CD/DVD rom. I didn’t want to spend any more than I had to enjoy my unit.

Step One: Check list
* One Vista (or possibly XP) computer…but I have only tested on Vista.
* One copy of OSX, in my case I used a retail DMG backup of 10.5.4
* USB Flash drive #1 2gig (For OSX Leopard 8+ gig flash drives are best)
* USB Flash drive #2 8gig (For Type11 – Makes PC think it’s a Mac)

Step Two: Create the Type11 Bootable flash drive
The type11 or boot123 is commonly known on the mydellmini, as the tool that allows your pc to boot OSX because it gives the OS the impression that you are in fact a real mac. Let the cloaking begin:

To make the Type11 USB Flash Drive you will need access to a Windows machine.
* Format the USB stick in the FAT32 format.
-right click and format flash drive
* Download Syslinux 3.63
* Expand that zipfile. In the win32 subdirectory there is an executable called syslinux.exe. At the command prompt line (Start—> Run—>CMD) type:
run syslinux -ma f: and press enter (assuming F: is the drive letter referring to your freshly formatted USB stick and your command line is in the right directory of syslinux; replace with the correct drive letter if necessary running this command will happen quickly. I didn’t even think it happened the first time but rest assure it works. )
* Copy the contents of the Type11 v7.7 ISO http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=8c116d784f7e1de2ab1eab3e9fa335cae14d84bdb06f32a8(not the image itself) to the USB flash stick, taking care not to overwrite anything that syslinux put on the USB stick (syslinux only placed one file on the stick that is hidden) ( I use Winrar to extract the ISO to my flash drive)
* You now have a bootable Type11/Boot132 USB flash drive
* You can test it right away by rebooting your Mini 9 and changing the boot sequence to USB boot.

Step Three:
Create an OSX Leopard Bootable flash drive
With your second USB flash drive plugged in to windows xp/vista

Download macdrive 7.0
once installed click on format or repair Mac disks
select modify Mac volumes(create, format and delete Mac volumes)
with the usb drive connected click next
you will see 2 volumes on the drive select the usb drive.
format your usb drive with HFS+

mount the dmg file and proceed to copy your downloaded .dmg contents using the below method

Open a command prompt (start —- run—cmd)
Type: diskpart and press Enter. ( it will Create the MBR for the device)
Type: list disk. A list of your connected hard drives will appear. Make sure you see your flash drive on the list. In the example below my 8GB flash drive is Disk 2. (images to come)

Type: select disk 2 (but change the disk number to whatever your drive is)
Type: clean. It should only take a few seconds to clean.
Type: create partition primary. This command should complete almost immediately.
Type: select partition 1
Type: active
Type format fs=fat32 to format the flash drive. This took about 10 minutes on my drive.
Type assign
Type exit

Now we need to copy the DMG contents to the USB drive Now that the MBR has been setup.

I assume d: DVDROM drive e: is the usb drive (d can also be a mounted DMG file of OSX leopard)

Now xcopy d:\*.* /s/e/f e:\

Step Four:
Insert the Leopard thumb drive into a USB slot on the right hand side of the Mini9
Insert the Type11/Boot132 thumb drive into a slot on the left.
Turn on the machine, make sure USB Legacy is Enabled in the BIOS.
Press 0 while booting to get the boot menu, choose USB Drive, you should see some SYSLINUX text zipping across the screen, when you get a prompt, hit enter. You’ll proceed to boot up into the Leopard installer.

Sleep is in the latest version- just make sure USB Legacy and USB Wake are disabled in BIOS.
Ill be testing these instructions soon but for those daring!

Dell Mini 9 Arrives tomorrow OSX 10.5.5 Leopard to Follow

So i recently got a Dell mini 9 because it was dirt cheap. 310 included shipping and tax.

It has 1 gig stock from Dell. My first hack would be to install Bios A03 and a 2 gig ram stick.  That will probably be about 25 bucks from Newegg.com.

Next I plan to install OSX where i will be documenting the whole process.

I am currently doing a lot of research to make this happen seeing as It does not have a DVD rom drive. USB Flash drives will have to do.

I will be attempting to install OSX Leopard from 2 USB drives.

I do not have a Macbook only a Vista Running Windows Machine to get the 2 usb flash drives formatted with the right files.

Cyberarmy – Sered Gamma

Lets talk about gamma.

http://www.cyberarmy.net/includes/sered/ripped.gif

grab this file and hack away little coders. when you find something out post it…i personally think that if you were to fill in the entire image with white and compare the difference you could be left with the code.