Table of Contents
- Get it onto your phone
- Ringers
- Images
- Programs
- Misc.
- Technical FAQs
From this web site, find the file that you want. Visit the "vault" by
pointing your PHONE's browser to this page:
http://www.CraigGiven.com/pcs.htm
When you find the file you want, click the GET hyperlink.
You will get a warning about it being a non-Sprint file. Click the
CONTINUE button on your phone to begin the download.
After the download is finished, you can play/view/run the file.
Images and ringers also have ASSIGN options.
The web site now identifies if your are visiting via a PC browser, or
via a Sprint PCS Vision phone when you are viewing the file download
pages for browsing, listing new additions, and searching. It will
display only the options that apply. Computers will only see
PREVIEW, PC PREVIEW, and/or PC DOWNLOAD links. Phones will only
ever see PREVIEW and/or GET links.
What if you want to download the MIDI, QCP, etc. files to your
computer and transfer them to your phone later? Are you sure
you really want to? You'll need special software (such as
FutureDial's SnapMedia [aka Sprint's PCS Multimedia Master Software])
and a special data cable. For many this is an inefficient and
expensive approach. Use a free download service such as PCSpix.com,
MyPhoneFiles.com, MatrixM, etc. instead. BUT, should it be necessary,
you can download my files to your computer for later use.
Right-click the "PC DOWNLOAD" link and select
"Save As..." Midlets are much
more complicated to retrieve, and since SnapMedia won't work with
these (or QCP) files, they shouldn't be attempted by the technical novice.
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The easiest way is to use a free service to transfer the files to your phone.
You begin by uploading your file to the service. Then the service allows you
to download the file to your phone. Many of these use your phone's telephone
number to send a short email, with a link, that takes you directly to the
download. But you'll need to read the instructions at those sites, since the
method can vary. Here are some websites that offer file transfer services:
A more expensive method is to use FutureDial's
SnapMedia software (AKA Sprint's PCS Multimedia Master Software) and a data cable to transfer the files
to your phone. The cables can run from $30.00 to $70.00 and can be difficult to find. The software
also does not support QCP ringers, PMD animations, games, or utility programs. Also, files uploaded
via cable may go into a different memory area. So you may be limited in the number of items you can
upload, even though your phone has plenty of free memory. This is the case for the Sanyo 4900, which
limits you to only 6 ringers via cable. Going the internet route, I've been able to upload a couple
of dozen ringers! However, the software does offer a few nicities such as image resizing and cropping
of long MIDI ringers. While these tasks can be accomplished with free software packges, it can be
a benefit for users looking for the convenience.
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When your phone (or PC) browser is pointed to www.CraigGiven.com/pcs.htm
you will see the MAIN MENU for Sprint PCS Vision downloads and links, and it should look like the image below.
This arrangement allows the entire menu to fit onto the screen and reduces scrolling. I also use the phone's keypad
so you can navigate each link with a single key press. The menu is arranged in three columns, with the center column
listing the actions. The links in the left column, under the FILES heading, apply to downloads. The links in the
right-hand column, under the LINKS heading, apply to links to other websites. For example, to SEARCH for a file to
download, press the 4 key on your phone. But, to SEARCH for a web site link, press the 8 key on your phone.
As you navigate through the different categories and subcategories, you will notice that categories are numbered,
while a list of files is bulleted. You can select a category by pressing that number on your phone key pad. For
example to list the contents of the wild animal sounds, you'd press the 1 key on your phone.
If there are more than 9 categories displayed, category #10 or higher will not use shortcut keys. You will
also notice that the zero key will take you back to the main menu. A "crumbtrail" shows the category and
subcategories, so you can quickly backtrack to any level in the hierarchy.
Finally, you get to a page listing files. The image below shows approximately what you'll see — except
you'll have to scroll down to see the page in it's entirety. To help prevent "Thumb Cramp" there are
short cut keys to help you more quickly navigate the list. Press the 5 key to jump to the bottom of the page,
or press the phone's 2 key to jump to the top of the page. If there are more items than will fit on a page
you will also see a MORE link (press the phone's 3 key for the next page full), and/or a PREV link
(press the phone's 1 key for the previous pageful). And, as before, the zero key takes you to the Main Menu.
You will notice that categories, files, and links are listed in descending order of popularity. This is
an effort to minimize the amount of scrolling needed to find a file, by increasing the chances that what
you want is at the top of any list. "Popularity" is a number counting the number of times an item has
been downloaded (or a web site link has been clicked). Therefore, to give them their fair share of exposure,
the items are listed first by date (recent to oldest), and then by "popularity."
Filtering the HOT and NEW lists
The HOT and the NEW additions lists have filter controls at the top
of their pages, showing the current filter. You can change the settings and click the APPLY FILTER
button to limit the view to listing only certain file families (e.g., only Ringers) or to specific
file types (e.g., only MIDI Ringers). The HOT page can also control the definition of "popularity."
The "Hall of Fame" mode lists files by number of total downloads (a file's age is ignored, and it
may not have been downloaded in months). The "Hot Trends" mode shows files that are currently
experiencing the most downloads (a file's age is factored in when considering its popularity, and
it will rank higher than a file with more downloads due to recent heavy activity).
The "Last Downloaded" lists the last files in descending order of when they were last downloaded.
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I'm sorry that you're getting an error. I download every file to my Sanyo 4900 to verify that it works. Here are some
ideas to help you retrieve the files.
If the ringer type is QCP and you have a Samsung, Hitachi, or Sanyo 8100, this is a known issue and appears to be due to an
incompatibility with IIS web servers for this MIME type. Samsung and Sanyo 8100 users have reported success using the VisionTool at
http://www.t1mmy.net/visionTool.html to
get QCP files onto their phones. Although it's a bit awkward, you can take QCP files from this web site and
use his web site to get them onto your phone. Here's how (using MS Internet Explorer as an example):
- Using a PC go to the page with the download you want.
- RIGHT-click the "PC DOWNLOAD" link
- Select "Save As..."
- A file download will begin, so save the file, making sure it has the .qcp extension
- Go to the website http://www.t1mmy.net/visionTool.html and
upload the file from your PC to that site. It will send a download link message to the phone number you specify.
- Your phone should get a message and when you view the message, click the GO link. Some phones (Samsungs, of course) won't work
with the GO link in the message. If that happens then visit (via the PHONE's browser)
http://www.t1mmy.net/scripts/visionLinks.cgi?recipient=9999999999 (where the last number is the phone number you gave in
step #5). You then have a list of your recent uploads. Click the link to download to your phone.
If your have an LG 5350, there are reports of download problems with this model. From what I've
heard in the forums (see links in "Links to 3G & PCS Phone Related Sites"),
Sometimes the phone will even lock up when attempting a download. The fix is go to Menu, Settings, Messaging and make
sure Browser is checked, and save the setting (or you can use the more drastic technique of restoring the phone to
factory defaults). If you get a box with an X in it, and the phone freezes during a download attempt, then check
and make sure the setting "Allow popups in browser" is turned on.
If you receive a Mismatch or Decoding error such as "Attribute Mismatch", "Content Size Mismatch",
"Jar Size Mismatch", or "Invalid Descriptor"
the file may be too large for your phone. When it comes to images, the LG 5350 is the most sensitive to screen size.
But you're more likely to see that on another website. That's because the images on this site were designed for
a Sanyo 4900, which uses images that are a maximum size of 120x96 and 4K color depth. This is smaller than the
LG 5350's capabilities, so I don't think it should ever be a problem. The only reason I can think of (other than
the "hiccup" situation detailed below) is due a phone incompatibility. If you've retried (using the techniques
listed in the next paragraph) unsuccessfully, then check your phone's specifications.
A generic work-around you can try is the one listed in the second paragraph of this section (i.e., the one
that begins with "If the ringer type is QCP..."). Use those steps, via a computer, to do the download.
Some errors are caused by network "hiccups." If the network "hiccups" during a download, it can confuse the phone.
Trying the download again won't always work, because the phone caches internet pages to speed things up. This can be
a negative if a download fails, since the phone keeps looking at the bad data instead of getting the up-to-date good
data. To get past this problem try the following. First, try resetting your browser in order to clear the cache.
On the Sanyo 4900, this is option #9 in the "More Options" menu of Web items. If that doesn't work, try turning
your phone off and back on again. If that doesn't work, turn off the phone and remove the battery for a few
minutes (nothing like brute force, eh?). If that doesn't work, the Sprint proxy server may be caching the bad data.
The only thing you can do about that, is to try again a few hours later, or the next day.
Below is a table showing the results of download attempts by various phones, of various file types.
A "?" means the download type hasn't been tested with that phone, or that the phones have so far been unable to
download that file type from this web site. If the above fixes and work-arounds don't help, contact
your nearest Sprint store and check to see if your phone has an up-to-date browser/software version.
Or to see when such an update will be released. Sprint has acknowledged that some phone brands and
models have bugs.
| Brand | Model | File Type Compatibility |
|---|
| MIDI | QCP | Images | PMD |
| Sanyo | 4900 | ok | ok | ok | ok |
| Sanyo | 5300 | ok | ok | ok | ok |
| LG | 5350 | ok | ? | ? | NO |
| Samsung | N400 | ok | NO | ? | ok |
| Samsung | A500 | ok | NO | ok | ok |
| Hitachi | P300 | ok | NO | ok | n/a |
If this error is from your own web site, check the GCD file very carefully. First, the MIME type must be set
accurately. Punctuation or long names/titles can also throw things off. As mentioned above, if you fix a typo
in the GCD file, the cache won't have the corrections. You'll need to clear your phone's cache so that you
force it to use the fixed GCD file.
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MIDI files are like sheet music. They tell the device what notes to play, and what instrument to mimic.
Consequently, your phone's imitation of a trumpet won't be as realistic as a high-end sound card in a
computer. MIDI files are an industry standard, so you can find thousands upon thousands on the web for
free. Sprint PCS Vision ® phones can handle polyphonic MIDI files (i.e., multiple instruments
simultaneously, like a drum laying down the rhythm, while a piano carries the melody, while a violin
harmonizes). So many MIDI songs will sound good on your phone. Also, since it is a standard and
popular format, it is the default file format used by nearly all music creation software. You can
compose or edit MIDI files with programs such as the free
Anvil Music Studio package.
QCP files are a wave form file and are used to record sound effects, words, and phrases. It is a
highly compressed format designed by Qualcomm specifically for phones. Some people refer to these
as "voice" ringers or sometimes "dead ringers."
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- Prepare the WAV file.
- Open the WAV file with SoundRecorder that comes with Windows.
This may not be on your menus if you're using Windows XP Pro,
but it IS there. Search for SNDREC32.EXE and open the wave
file with that program.
- Select FILE/ PROPERTIES and see if it is in the format:
PCM 8.000 kHz, 16 Bit, Mono
- If not in the correct format, click the CONVERT NOW button
(You can also convert when doing FILE/ SAVE AS...)
- The format needs to be set to PCM
- The Attributes need to be set to
8.000 kHz, 16 Bit, Mono (15kb/sec)
- In the NAME field type "QCP Quality" or "QCP Compatible"
or some name of your choosing, and then click the SAVE AS
button. Then the next time you convert a file, just select
this preset from the drop down list.
- Click the OK buttons until you're back at the main application.
Then select FILE/ SAVE AS and give the file a NEW name! Don't
overwrite your original. This is also a good time to crop off
leading or trailing portions of the sound effect to minimize
its size. No sense having a 45 minute sound effect for
a ringer!
- Convert the WAV file to a QCP.
- You may want to place the reformatted wave files in the same
directory as the PureVoice converter to simplify things —
Purely optional. For our example, let us assume you installed
the Qualcomm PureVoice converter in C:\PureVoice
- Open the DOS prompt (often "Command Prompt" on menus). The
"prompt" will begin with a drive letter (e.g., C:)
If you're not on the C: drive for some strange reason,
just enter C:
Once on the C: drive, use the CD command to change to the
correct directory. In our example, it would be these
commands:
- Run the command: PVconv myfile
where "myfile" is the name of your wave file. For example, if
the 8 kHz wave file was C:\mywaves\m.wav then the command would be:
- There will now be a QCP version of the file in the directory
where the WAV file was located. In my example, the file
C:\mywave\m.qcp was created. It won't put it in the same
directory as PVconv.exe unless the source wave file was in that
directory already.
- Use a free service to upload your QCP to a web site (t1mmy.net,
PCSpix.com, myPhoneFiles.com, etc.). Then point your phone to that location
and download the ringer.
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Turn up the phone's volume. No, just kidding! Use a free MIDI composer such as
Anvil Music Studio. It allows
you to adjust volume settings of a MIDI song. Be sure to pick and adjust the correct
track (e.g., the melody). Also considering assigning a different instrument to a track.
For example, I find that the Electric Piano is louder than the Acoustic Piano.
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Visit the MIDI sites listed in the Related Links section. Also,
use Google or other search engine to search for songs. E.g.,
"Johnny Quest" MIDI
Was what I used to find the theme song to Johnny Quest. Then use a free service to upload
that song to a web site (t1mmy.net, PCSpix.com, myPhoneFiles.com, etc.). Then point your
phone to that location and download the ringer.
QCP files are a wave form file and are used to record sound effects, words, and phrases. It is a
highly compressed format designed by Qualcomm specifically for phones. Some people refer to these
as "voice" ringers or sometimes "dead ringers."
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I will NOT answer questions about KTPIC, CMX Mixer, or CMX Studio!
Everything that I know about, or learn about KTPIC will be placed in the
KTPIC help file.
If the information isn't here, I don't know the answer. I don't recommend KTPIC for
the technical novice or anyone without a sense of adventure, self-motivating curiousity,
a willingness to experiment and test, or the persistence to read all the documentation.
03.17.2003 auAM 101e is another PMD creation tool. I don't know a thing about it yet.
But people were looking for it, and if you want it, here it is:
There is one publicly available program, in Japanese, that can create PMD animations: KTPIC.
Needless to say, it's been extremely difficult figuring out how to use this program. I am putting
together a rough translation of the help file.
Everything that I know about, or learn about this program will be placed on the KTPIC
page. See that document for information.
Some web sites have animated screen savers for download, but check to make sure that it's not an animated GIF
file that they're offering. The Hitachi P300 is currently the only Sprint PCS Vision phone that can display
animated GIF files, which can be used as screen savers. The other phones do not natively recognize the GIF format.
While they recognize the PNG format, they do not display multi-frame PNG files as animation — they simply show the first frame.
If you download a GIF file it may tease you with a hint that all you need is a plug-in. When your browser (PC or phone)
encounters a binary file of which it is ignorant, it's common for the browser to state "you need a plug-in."
This statement really means "I'm incompatible with that file type." While you could download a Java program
to view a GIF file, it still wouldn't work as a screen saver, caller picture, or in the phone's web browser.
To accomplish all these tasks, it would have to be in a OS/browser upgrade. This means taking your phone into
Sprint, and having it updated -- if and when such an upgrade even happens. Adding GIF support would create
such a logistic demand, Sprint may purposely avoid GIF support to avoid the ensuing upgrade nightmare.
The other Vision phones only work with animated screen savers in the Qualcomm CMX (Compact Media Extensions)
format (see http://www.cdmatech.com/solutions/products/cmx.html
for details), which they license from Faith, Inc. (http://www.faith-inc.com).
Faith has refused to sell their toolkit to individuals, and the corporate price, I'm told, is extremely high (about $500.00?).
Do not be confused by the extension CMX. There are several kinds of CMX files, each one completely
different and incompatible with the other. The most commonly confused CMX file format is the one
from the Corel corporation. The Corel CMX files are "Corel Binary Meta Files for Graphic Exchange" which are not
compatible with CDMA phone technology (even though they are image related). The Qualcomm CMX files support images,
animation, and synchronized sound, and actually have the extension PMD.
Techie note. The Qualcomm CMX files are of the MIME type "application/x-pmd"
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Not at this time. Sprint is E911 Phase II ready, which means that Emergency 911 call
centers could identify your location. Unfortunately, at this writing, few 911 call
centers are equipped or able to access, or process the information. This can be done
whether your "location" option is turned off OR on. Some users have observed longer
battery life when it is turned off.
Although the technology exists, Sprint has not announced an API to allow programmers to create
GPS aware applications, despite many requests by developers. Sprint does not use a pure GPS
implementation to determine locations. Sprint augments cell tower triangulation with
Qualcomm's gpsOne/SnapTrack to augment GPS satellite data to calculate your position.
This methodology can produce faster and more reliable location information than
GPS alone, although it requires a Sprint PCS signal. The phones could also provide GPS only
data without a Sprint PCS signal if Sprint elects to use that SnapTrack feature.
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The SprintPCS Vision ® phones accept graphics in the PNG (Portable Network Graphics),
JPEG (also JPG and JPE extensions), and WBMP (Wireless Bitmap) formats. Many graphics
programs can create or convert images to the first two formats. The need for WBMP is
low so I'll be brief on that topic.
The WBMP format is a black and white image designed for the older web-enabled phones.
Macromedia's Fireworks ® can create these files. You can also find free converters
and creators online. Teraflops
even has a free online tool that creates WBMP from GIF, JPEG and BMP files.
The PNG format is like a Super-GIF (e.g., more colors), and is normally used when an image
is mostly large sections of solid color (e.g., a logo or cartoon). The JPEG format is
a lossy compression format (i.e., reducing file size also reduces an image's quality). It is
generally used for an image of many colors and gradient tones such as photos.
When creating an image be sure to include a "trivial zone" at the bottom if it will be used
as a caller identifier. My Sanyo 4900 overlays the caller's phone number over their identifying
image (the bottom 15 pixels). So if I use their photo as their caller image, I include the top half of their chest
so that the number won't overlay their chin. Another tip when using portraits it to delete the
background (i.e., make it white) so that the face are easier to recognize. You're using
photos to quickly distinguish callers, so this makes identification easier. Here's an example
of my in-laws:
BEFORE
 |
AFTER
|
|
|
| The original BMP was a huge 82K! This is a 26K JPEG of that file at 96% quality. I scanned it at
193x143 since that was the smallest my scanner could manage. |
This PNG is only 5K! Less than 1% of the original, but great looking. It is 8 bit
versus 24 bit color, then reduced again from 256 colors to 64 colors. Finally it was sized to
120x96 to fit my phone.
|
Using a photo often means using a scanner. When scanning a photo it is important to scan it
at the target size in order to get the best results. Enlarging or reducing an image after
scanning will impact its quality. Set the image size based on the largest dimension. So if
it is "portrait" (taller than wide), I scale it to 96 high and take whatever results for the
proportional width. For "landscape" I scale it 120 wide and take whatever results for the
proportional height.
Also, scan at the correct color depth since most scanners support many more colors than the phone.
For my Sanyo 4900 I scan images to fit within the 120x96 area, at 72dpi, and 8 bit color.
Below are the image sizes ("useable" size where known) for the current Sprint PCS Vision ® phones
(or you can see the official phone specifications here, and
an update [as of 06/27/2004] here):
| Brand | Model | Width | Height | Colors |
| Sanyo | 4900 | 120 | 96 | 12 bit |
| Sanyo | 5300 | 132 | 60 | 16 bit |
| Sanyo | 8100 | 120 | 128 | 16 bit |
| Sanyo | 8200 | 176 | 132 | |
| Sanyo | 6400 | 120 | 96 | 2 bit |
| LG | 5350 | 120 | 98 | 16 bit |
| Samsung | A500 | 128 | 133 | 12 bit |
| Samsung | N400 | 128 | 96 | 16 bit |
| Hitachi | P300 | 120 | 130 | 12 bit |
Every device will render colors slightly different. What looks "blood red"
on our monitor may take on a brownish tinge on your phone. One way around
this is to use grayscale images. This can also be a means to reduce a files
size, since reducing the number of colors means a smaller file.
Making a photo look good usually requires some tweaking. A phone doesn't
have the contrast and brightness of a monitor, so if your graphic program
supports gamma adjustments, experiment with that setting. When previewing
the image I set the magnification so that it takes up the same amount of
screen as it will on the phone (about 200% on my laptop). It may take
several uploads to the phone to get the image just right, since what
looks good on a phone may be "exaggerated" on a monitor.
What tools do I use? They're not cheap, but since I am a wanna-be artist
I already had them on hand. To remove background, smudge away wrinkles
and age spots, soften stark edges, etc. I use Photopaint from the
CorelDraw ® 10 suite. I use Macromedia's Fireworks ® to export
the tweaked file to PNG, JPEG, and WBMP formats. It's awesome for
real-time previews of image compression and color reduction, so I can
create the smallest file with the best looks. Shareware and freeware
tools can still produce very similar results, but it takes a bit more
elbow grease.
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Newer phones actually contain a computer chip that can run programs.
Sun ® has created a programming language specifically for devices
such as these smart phones. It is based on their Java ® language,
and it is called the "Java version 2 Mobile Edition" or J2ME. The programs
created in J2ME are called midlets. When you download a midlet from a web
page, there are two files involved: a JAR file and a JAD file. The JAR file
is the "Java Archive," which is the actual program. The JAD files is a
plain text "descriptor" file (i.e., a "(J)ava (A)rchive (D)escriptor")
that tells the phone about the JAR file. When you
download a midlet, the phone downloads the JAD file to determine the
program's name, size, version, components, source location, and sometimes
the storage destination (into which folder it should be placed). If the JAD
doesn't specify a storage location, the Sanyo 4900 defaults to the "Applications"
folder even though it might be a game program.
If you'd like to learn how to write J2ME programs, a great jump start exists on
Colin Fahey's website.
And of course, all the software can be freely downloaded from the Sun website (which also offers a ton
of free tutorials, references, newsletters, etc. for J2ME programmers). For Sprint specific development, you can join the
Sprint Application Developers Program.
If you want to download a J2ME program from your own web server there are several steps you'll need to take.
First you'll need to configure the web server so that it will serve up the correct MIME type for a JAD file.
The MIME type for a JAD file is "text/vnd.sun.j2me.app-descriptor" For IIS set MIME types under the web site
properties, HTTP Headers tab, MIME Map section. For Apache this is in the HTACCESS configuration file and would
look like this:
AddType text/vnd.sun.j2me.app-descriptor jad
(Technical note: Less important, but for completeness, the MIME type for a JAR file is "application/java-archive")
The MIME setting tells the web server (who tells the phone) to give the JAD file special handling
rather than treating it like an ordinary text file. It's like a special version of a GCD file
(see How do I create GCD files (Web Downloads)? below). The JAD replaces
the GCD file's function, and no GCD is needed to download JAR files. The JAD file's MIME setting tells
the phone that it's being sent a "Java Archive Descriptor" file. Here is an example JAD file for the
SOLYTARE program
that's found on my web site:
MIDlet-1: Solytare, /images/Solytare.png, com.michaelgpearce.solytare.Solytare
MIDlet-Jar-Size: 26733
MIDlet-Jar-URL: http://www.CraigGiven.com/pcs/solytare.jar
MIDlet-Name: Solytare
MIDlet-Vendor: MichaelGPearce
MIDlet-Version: 1.0
Content-Folder: Games
Content-Storefront-URL: http://www.craiggiven.com/scripts/phonedl.asp?cat=8
If you're building your own J2ME programs (the JAR files), you'll also build your own JAD files. But if
you're hosting JAD/JAR files created by someone else, you'll need to tweak the JAD files. NEVER change
any settings in a JAD file except the ones I list here. Several are inviolate and changing the
wrong one will cause the downloads to fail:
-
You MUST change is MIDLET-JAR-URL which points to your web server and where on your web
server the file is stored.
-
The CONTENT-FOLDER setting is optional. It tells the phone where to put the download. If
you use "MY JUNK" then the Sprint PCS Vision phones will create that folder and put the download into
that "MY JUNK" folder. If you omit this setting, then files are downloaded by
Sprint PCS Vision phones to the APPLICATIONS folder.
-
The CONENT-STOREFRONT-URL setting is optional and not terribly useful. It tells Sprint PCS Vision phones "Where did this come from"
when you go to do "more shopping." That's so people get returned to the same location. It's rarely used,
so most people don't add this setting.
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In many Sprint markets, you can dial your three-digit prefix and use the suffix 6245 (M-A-I-L). For example, if your
phone number is 111-222-3333 you'd dial 222-6245 to access the voice mail system. Since checking your voice
mail system can deduct from your minutes, this is a great way to conserve them.
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Begin in T9 mode and attempt to enter the desired word. Delete the erroneous letters and then
switch out of T9 mode and into alpha mode. Type in the correct word, and make sure the
last letter of the word is highlighted! Then switch back to T9 mode and hit the space button.
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How do you create your own web page so you can download phone stuff?
First, the Sprint PCS Vision phones can read simple HTML pages, so you won't have
to learn how to code a WML page. Just keep your HTML file plain and short.
Search Google for online tutorials on HTML, WAP, WML or other unfamiliar topics
mentioned herein.
Second, you'll need the file to download. This can be an audio file
(MIDI, MID, or QCP file) or an image file (PNG, JPG, or WBMP). For our
example let's say you're posting a MIDI song named 1812.MID
(and let's pretend it's on my site)
Third, you must create a General Content Descriptor file (GCD) that
will point the phone to the download file. This is a plain text file
that has the following format:
Content-Type: audio/midi
Content-Name: 1812 Overture
Content-Version: 1.0
Content-Vendor: www.CraigGiven.com
Content-URL: http://www.CraigGiven.com/1812.mid
Content-Size: 11258
The Content-Type would change for PNG (image/png), JPEG/JPG (image/jpeg), WBMP (image/vnd.wap.wbmp), or QCP (audio/vnd.qcelp) files.
Whenever CMX animations become available (i.e., animated .PMD files), the MIME type will be application/x-pmd.
The Content-URL tells the phone where the actual file needs to be downloaded from while that file's size is listed (in bytes) in Content-Size
Your web server must be told how to handle GCD files. The MIME type for .GCD extensions needs to be text/x-pcs-gcd
For IIS this is under the web site properties, HTTP Headers tab, MIME Map section.
Fourth, your web server must be told how to handle GCD files. The
MIME type for .GCD extensions needs to be text/x-pcs-gcd
For IIS this is under the web site properties, HTTP Headers tab,
MIME Map section. For Apache this is in the HTACCESS configuration file and would look like this:
AddType text/x-pcs-gcd gcd
When you are creating your GCD file, be aware that certain punctuation or long names/titles can also throw things off.
Try a simpler, shorter name or title and remove the punctuation. And don't forget to clear your phone's cache
before testing the corrections (see next paragraph).
When testing a new GCD you need to be aware that your phone caches the GCD file. So if you change a file's size,
or mistype the CONTENT-SIZE, putting the correct size won't always fix the problem. You'll need to clear your
phone's cache so that it looks at the corrected GCD instead of the bad version in its cache. To get past this problem try the following. First, try
resetting your browser in order to clear the cache. On the Sanyo 4900, this is option #9 in the "More Options"
menu of Web items. If that doesn't work, try turning your phone off and back on again. If that doesn't work,
turn off the phone and remove the battery for a few minutes (nothing like brute force, eh?). If that doesn't
work, the Sprint proxy server may be caching the bad data. The only thing you can do about that, is to try
again a few hours later, or the next day.
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Sprint PCS Vision phones do not use genuine SMS (Short Message System), but instead use their own flavor
of "notifications." For example, unlike SMS, you cannot automatically reply to the sender of a notification,
but must manually send them an email in order to reply.
You can send a short notification to Sprint PCS Vision phones via email. If the recepient's
phone number is (123) 456-7890 you'd send a short email to 1234567890@messaging.sprintpcs.com
(always use all 10 digits of the recipient's phone number). The message must be short: the message will be
chopped off after the 160th character, and that maximum includes the address, subject, and message
body in the total allowed length.
You can send a link to a phone, by making the body of the message a fully qualified URL. Then, when the message
is received, the recipient will have a soft-button with a GO acton to jump to that web location. You can do this
manually, but below is a snippet of ASP code that shows how an IIS web server could dynamically send a picture to
a phone:
set thisemail = server.createobject("CDONTS.NewMail")
thisemail.to="1234567890@messaging.sprintpcs.com"
thisemail.from="Me@MyServer.com"
thisemail.subject="Ringer Download"
thisemail.body="http://www.CraigGiven.com/pcs/png/alienpeace.png"
thisemail.send
set thisemail = nothing
To contact non-Sprint users on other networks, the address would also use the 10 digit phone number as the mailbox,
with the following domain names after the @ symbol:
| Verizon | vtext.com |
| T-Mobile | tmomail.net |
| Cingular | mobile.mycingular.com |
| AT&T | mobile.att.net |
| Voicestream | voicestream.net |
| Nextel | messaging.nextel.com |
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You can change it from Sprint's web site, but in case it didn't work, here's what I had to do.
Every phone as a unique MSL code (Master Subsidy Lock), which you must get from Sprint (you
can read about MSL codes at http://www.bridog.net/cellular/msl.txt).
Here is the process, which I documented as I went through the steps. Be sure to call
Sprint PCS Customer Service from a land-line phone and not your cell phone:
- From the settings menu select SETTINGS
- Select Internet and Sign Off (you must be sure you are signed out of the Internet)
- Press END to return to your main screen.
- Enter ##3282 (which spells "##DATA" by the way)
- Press your MenuOK button
- A menu displays and you select SAVE PHONE#
- You are prompted to enter your MSL number (which I had to get from Sprint)
- A menu displays and you select CUSTOM NAI
- Completely erase the old user name by holding down the BACK key
- Leaving the user name blank, press the MenuOK button (the new user name will be retrieved by the phone later)
- The NAI PASSWORD displays next, and you push the EDIT soft button.
- Once again, hold down the BACK key to complete delete the password (even if it's correct [as was my case], since it will be retrieved later)
- The HA PASSWORD displays, but don't do anything. Just press the END key to get back to the main screen.
Your phone will reboot, and you should then try to access the web. It
will take awhile as it tries to retrieve the new user name and password.
If you get an Error code 1012, exit and try again in about 20 minutes. My
rep said to call back if it didn't work after 20 minutes. It only took
about 5 minutes for me, but the web site states it could take as long as 2
hours. By the by, I called their toll-free number, since I didn't know if
any of this would be possible while simultaneously doing a voice call.
The reboot at the end would definitely have ended our discussion! My rep
was courteous and helpful.
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WAP stands for "Wireless Access Protocol" and is loosely (and inaccurately) used
to refer to devices (such a phones, PDA's, handhelds, etc.) that can access the
internet. The confusion comes from the fact that Sprint phones have browsers
that are compatible with multiple types of web pages, including WAP.
A site compatible with your phone may be HTML, XHMTL, or WAP (i.e., WML).
A "true" WAP site is a web site with pages written in WML rather than HTML.
WML is a special subset of HTML, using some of the same tags and adding a
handful of new tags (e.g., the "card" tag). WML pages can display graphics,
but should only use black and white images in the WBMP format. WML pages
support client-side scripting, but use WMLS instead of JavaScript.
If you're interested in developing WAP sites, free tutorials can be found
on the internet. They cover both WML and WMLS and you should begin your
research there. You'll also need a web server that supports WAP files,
which means that you'll probably have to add the MIME types for the
various WAP file types:
| MIME type | Extension | Description |
|---|
| text/vnd.wap.wml | wml | Wireless device page |
| text/vnd.wap.wmlscript | wmls | Wireless device script |
| image/vnd.wap.wbmp | wbmp | Wireless Bitmaps (B&W) |
| application/vnd.wap.wmlc | wmlc | Compiled WML documents |
| application/vnd.wap.wmlscriptc | wmlsc | Compiled WML Scripts |
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-
Press ##786
(aka ##RUN)
-
Press the OK button
-
Select "Save Phone #"
-
Your "Lifetime Data" usage will display
-
Press the END button
If you press the OK button instead of the END button, a menu will display.
The DETAILS selection can be useful, but avoid the other settings, since
some can have devastating results (e.g., RESET DEFAULT) or take you to
displays that can't be exited without a power-off (e.g., SERVICE SCREEN).
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Updated 01/10/2005: There is hope. See the end of this article.
The LG5350 and Sanyo 6400 are reported to have serial port circuitry. The other
Vision phones only support a USB connection, so they cannot connect to a PDA's
serial connection.
Despite the fact that USB stands for "Universal Serial Bus," the USB
standard is quite different from a serial connection. The critical
distinction for the cell phone situation is that USB requires both
a host (aka a "root hub") and one or more clients.
Normally, the host controller is your PC and the client is a USB device.
That's why you CAN connect, via a USB cable, a cell phone like the
Sanyo 4900 to a computer.
When a USB device is attached to a computer (the host) it asks "what are you?"
The client responds by giving its device type and tells the host what protocols
it can use to communicate. The host examines the response and selects
the correct device driver (assuming that the driver is available).
Windows supports PNP (plug-and-play), so if a device driver hasn't been
installed, it will try to install the needed driver. You have the choice
of loading a driver (delivered by the device manufacturer on floppy disk,
CD, or downloaded from a web site) or using a driver that came with Windows.
Windows has drivers (some even "pre-installed") for common devices like
USB mice and USB hard drives. It's very unlikely that the drivers for a
cell phone are included with Windows (my phone wasn't).
When you connect a cell phone to a PDA with a USB cable, you lacks a host
to negotiate the connection. Both the cell phone and the PDA are acting
as clients! I know of no manufacturer who has added the additional
circuitry and software required to make a PDA act as a USB host, since
most customers don't want a larger, heavier, and costlier PDA. There exists
a "USB On the Go" standard, which acts as a limited host (root hub)
and is compatible with the higher speed USB 2.0, so it may be possible in
the future. But that still leaves the problem of USB drivers, which
would have to be loaded on and run on the PDA.
Similar to the "no host" problem is the issue of electrical current. USB
consumes electricity, and many devices assume that the host will supply
the juice. In the PDA/phone connection, it's quite possible that both
devices are assuming that the other end is both a host, and supplying
the volts.
Adding an USB card to a PDA isn't a guaranteed solution. Many of these
add-on cards still are acting as a USB client, not a USB host. USB to serial
converters suffer the same problem: no host, no drivers, no juice.
01/10/2005 Some have created a special, albeit expensive, cable that contains a USB
controller. In addition, some PDA vendors, like Toshiba, have models
containing USB host circuitry, although this is rare. As to the cable
solution, I have seen one from
TheSupplyNet.com
demonstrated with a Pocket PC, although the speed was slower than I expected.
The word on the street is that both approaches violate Sprint's "Terms of Service"
and they will detect and terminate service of heavy abusers.
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auAM.zip