Zebra Z5-A Arrow Tip Pen

I always like tinkering with my Hermes/JasJam. The only problem is I always had a hard time using the diminutive stylus. It was like holding a toothpick. I also can't lay it down anywhere because I might misplace it. That will be a bother because it will leave the silo open, doing a soft reset will be a problem, and the unit will feel incomplete.

So I researched a little on what I could use as a stylus. I wanted something like a regular pen, still useful, light, and inexpensive (just in case I misplaced it, it won't be a pain) With the help of people at http://www.airfagev.com/ forums, they suggested a Zebra stylus pen.

I found one at National Bookstore for, are you ready for it? A measly P65.00!! It's a 0.05mm black ink sign pen. On it's tip is what it calls an arrow tip which could be used on a PDA/PDA phone. Now it's easier to fiddle with my phone with this pen.

Big Apple Pizza

A few weeks back, my wife, son, and my wife's friend had a craving for pizza. Since none of us have tried Big Apple, we trotted to President's Ave at BF Parañaque where the nearest branch to us is located.

They have a big sign outside their shop that they serve 20" pizzas. So as soon as we got to there we obviously got a 20-incher. Half of it was all-meat and half of it, but of course my fave ny classic style. We oredered a couple of red iced teas' and went to seat ourselves.

The food arrived and it sure was a 20" pizza cos' it was huge! It was cut by eight. So the two flavors were divided by four.

I took the first slice and it was kind of hard to hold with one hand. One, because it was huge, and two because it had a really thin crust/base. The taste was quite good. Didin't quite like it because I think they rolled the base to be thin to get the 20" but I felt it fell short of what I expected. I sort of thought it would be like Yellow Cab or even Brooklyn Pizza.

Overall, I thought it was quite good. I'd go back if I was craving for a piece, but I won't order a whole pizza anymore. It'll be just a good snack.

Dremel MultiPro

True Value at ATC had a sale so I had a look see if by any chance I get to take home something for my car. What I found instead is the dremel i've always been wanting to have. The best thing about it is, it's on sale and 70% off for that matter. The regular price was around P5k plus and I got it for P16++.++. Now I can polish or cut small metal parts just for fun. Only wish it was autovolt so that I didn't have to drag a converter around.

Jollibee/Chowking Madrigal

There's a new hangout spot for the barkada in the wee hours in the morning in the Alabang area. It's found in the corner of Alabang-Zapote Rd and Madrigal Ave. in Alabang Muntinlupa. It's open 24 hours so if your either craving for siopao or even a burger steak, this hits the spot.

What I like about the Jollibee here is that it has a cozy feel to it. You won't feel that you're in a Jollibee fastfood. They have comfortable sofa seats with small round lounge tables to place your breakfast meal, coffee or burger. On the second floor, you will find a play area for the kids, more chairs and tables or booths, plus I saw an activity area for birthday or some sort of gathering.

Chowking on the other hand is almost like any other Chowking store. The difference is they have nice furnitures (chairs are slim and light but covered in leather and has stitchings on the side and sofa seats) plus the shared lanai with Jollibee on the side. On the second floor, there is a separate area for meetings or gatherings and it has a wall mounted LCD tv that could be used for video presentations(?).

Jollibee also has a drive thru if you're on the go and running late or just had a sudden craving for Rocky Road sundae (like me.... haha!!).

Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream: Phish Food

Finally had the chance to taste one of the many flavors of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. I accidentally found one of these in the local Shopwise Supermart in our area. Had a really hard time choosing what flavor I wanted to get. Then I found a pint saying Phish food. I was thinking that it was kind of weird for an ice cram to have something like this. I read the label and it said chocolate shaped fish chunks, fudge, caramel swirls, milk chocolate. The fudge got me. hahaha!!

As soon as I got home placed it in the freezer to let it freeze because it became a bit gooey on the way home. After an hour or so I popped it out of the freezer and tried it. It was great. It's different from local ice creams in the sense that it has more flavor to it. The chunks were really there and I forgot to mention, it had gooey marshmallow bits that made it more uhmm... gooey? All in all I liked the flavor downside of this is if you eat this in one sitting you'll get fat really fast!!

Schaps WM6 Pro 4.30 ROM for hermes

I finally had the courage to update the ROM of my jasjam with Schap's WM6 Pro 4.30 ROM. It had all the bells and whistles I needed. I'm not really a heavy ppc user but it pays to have a good one.

As for the features, here's the list:

Main features:

WM6 version 5.2.1948 build 18548.0.7.0
HSDPA enabled
Video call enabled
Smart dialing enabled
VOIP enabled
Windows Update enabled
Office Mobile 6.1
Office Zip and Fax viewers
OneNote Mobile 12.0.4518.1055
Windows Live 10.6.33.600
Remote Desktop Mobile
.NET Compact Framework 3.5
Updated OEM
Bugs from previous version should be fixed OEM applications:
Comm Manager 1.8.3.0 [UPDATED]
Camera app 4.02.27035
ArcSoft MMS 4.2.8.1
FTouchFLO + Configuration tool
Enlarge Start Menu 1.1.31247.2
Bluetooth FTP 1.2.31241.9 [UPDATED]
Bluetooth BPP 1.6.1.0 [UPDATED]
Bluetooth SAP 2.02.0925.5
Task Manager 2.0.31249.1 [UPDATED]
Audio Manager 1.2.1017717 [UPDATED]
HTC Camera Album 1.0.1030720.0 [UPDATED]
Voice Recorder 1.10.712711.2 [UPDATED]
Streaming Player 2.20.1007717.0 [UPDATED]
HTC Bluetooth QuickLink 0.4
HTC Home 2.1.1005722 + Home Settings [UPDATED]
Quick Launcher 1.0.824711 [UPDATED]
HTC Random Access 4.0.1009721 [UPDATED]
Connection Setup 1.0.31247.2 [UPDATED]
Network Plugin 1.0.29714.1
Adobe Acrobat Reader LE 2.00.288531
Adobe Flash Lite 2.1
Pocket RAR 3.71
Jeyo SMS Backup 1.1
Headphone Equalizer 1.0.2.0
WM5torage 1.80 [UPDATED]
FieldTest 2.15 [UPDATED]
SIM Manager 6.34 [UPDATED]
SIM Tool Kit 4.50 [UPDATED]
SMS Service
HSDPA Switch
Advanced Configuration Tool 1.1
Advanced Task Manager 0.7
VoIP Settings 0.9
Registry Editor 0.9
TaskSwitch 1.0
Minimize 1.0
RotateScreen 1.0

Some tweaks:
OS only ROM
Free extended ROM
4MB pagepool
Big storage
Optimized cache
Best Bluetooth A2DP settings
Bluetooth DUN support
Direct3D Mobile support
Avoid MicroSD issues
SDHC support
Improved power management
Automatic network time/zone synchronization
Supports new GSM/UMTS bands
Error Report disabled
Customer Feedback removed
Integration with Vista WMDC
Date on single line
3G icon & prefix
Nicer 3G icon
Nicer font
New shortcuts keys (New SMS, battery, Task Manager, soft-reset,...)
Subfolders in Start menu
Schap's theme
Black skins
Vista look icons

All I could say is it's great! There are a lot of updates and I haven't found any bugs at the moment. It runs faster and my battery runs longer compared when I was still using the original WM5 ROM that came with my device.

If you want to see what it looks like and get yourself a copy. Here's a link from xda-developers.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=355774

If you like the new ROM, you could always donate to Schaps.

New Year, New Toys!

As we welcome in the year of the rat, I welcome in my new toys. Last year, I had to sell my phone to fund my engine overhaul as it was badly needed (it was burning a liter of oil almost every week). So I was stuck with my back-up phone, my very old nokia 8210. But alas, it is now being bugged with problems due to it's old age. So I had to scrunch up my remaining money plus my christmas bonus and get a new phone. Off I go to the shops, marketplace threads of the forums I visit, and friends that sell mobiles.



As my wife and I were scouting the phone shops we frequent, I found the phone that I always wanted to have the HTC Hermes (aka dopod 838 pro, i-mate jasjam, spv m3100). I asked for the price just to check it's current value. Luckily, it narrowly fit my budget!! So I was haggling a bit when my wife somewhat liked the phone next to it, a dopod 818 pro. Since my wife was also in the market for a new phone, we asked for its price. It too somewhat fit our budget. So the following day we bought the two phones. Yey! Two gadgets in one outing.

What I really liked about the jasjam is its slide out keyboard. It made texting and making documents with a Windows Mobile device a lot easier. It's also a 3.5G capable so surfing on the net with the cellular line would be faster. It has wifi so whenever there's a free hotspot I could check my e-mail or visit online forums. Bluetooth, Irda, and a mini-usb port are also included for file transfer or syncing with a computer. The only thing that I didn't like about it (just like my old v3x) is that it has no regular headphone jack. You have to have a usb headset or buy a usb to 3.5mm jack converter. It's currently running on the stock WM5 but it won't be for long (the itch to modify. hahaha!) I'm still learning the in's and out's of the device so i'll just try to update you guys on the things i'll be doing to the device.

As for the dopod, for connectivity, it has Bluetooth, Irda, a mini-usb port, head phone jack, EDGE capable, and has WLAN. Sadly it has no slide out keyboard. The upside to this is it's lighter than the jasjam. I also noticed that the battery life of the 818 pro lasts longer than the jasjam. I think it's because the processor eats less battery. For expanded memory it has as MMC/SDIO slot rather than a micro sd slot of the jasjam. Good thing is MMC's are cheaper than the micro sd ones. This is also currently running on WM5 (I will also mod this phone slowly. hehehe).

In the meantime, i'll keep both phones as stock as possible until I settle on a particular WM6 upgrade.