I’ve been hoping to put together some new themes for a while now. As soon as a proper 1.6 beta comes out I’ll start working on it, and I promise to keep everyone updated.

Following these instructions and these instructions (more or less) on HowardForums I was able to get custom ringtones on a Telus m540.

My Suggestions

1. Don’t use UniCDMA. Get ahold of the CDMA Workshop software instead.
2. Don’t waste your money on a legit ringtone, download and edit the ones below. (I wasted hours trying to make them from scratch)
3. If you’re having lots of trouble try the sample files I’ve included in this post without any edits first. They should work. Leave me a comment or go post in one of the forum topics on HoFo if you need some help.

Included for you here are a sample 11.txt, 11.dd and 11.gc file (its Speechless by Lady GaGa in case you’re wondering). To make your own ringtone follow all the linked instructions (CDMA Workshop method is best) then edit my .txt and .dd files, replace the .gc with your own .mp3 and upload to the folders described in the HoFo instructions. Best luck.

My latest issue with them resulted in more than a week of technical issues and wasted time. It was only resolved when I moved my domain to a different company. I was further irritated when they billed me for the domain, that had been transferred to another company a month earlier, and forced me to fill in a form and fax it across the continent to be reimbursed.

A word of advice for 1&1 customers trying to setup or change GLUE (nameserver IPs) for their domain. After making changes to your subdomains ns1 and ns2.yourdomain.com, you must go into the settings for yourdomain.com and click “update” to start the update process. Otherwise nothing will happen and your GLUE will not be updated, and sometimes even this doesn’t work. Best of luck.

1. Cellular Data switch: This is great news for people outside of the US and UK who have limited data plans. Now if you have no data plan, are reaching your limit, or just don’t want to use any data at a given time you can turn it off independently of 3G/edge voice and SMS.
2. Missing music controls: Double tapping on the home button to bring up Multitasking has come at the cost of the iPod controls (the little blue menu that would appear over whatever app you were working in). I suppose this doesn’t matter when you’re using Apple earphones, but I already miss that feature quite a bit and I hope they can re-implement it.
3. Threaded email doesn’t work (yet): The universal inbox works perfectly, but the actual threading makes strange mistakes. Completely unrelated messages from different people are grouped together, not all conversations are threaded…its a mess. Hopefully Apple can get this figured out by the Summer release date, and I’ve just disabled the threading for now.

• A Coast Capital chequing or savings account (its best to use one with no transaction fees like “The Free Chequing, Free Debit and More Account” or “The High‑interest, No‑fee Savings Account“)
• A PayPal account. Its important that your name is entered exactly the same on both your PayPal and Coast Capital accounts.

To link a new bank account you’ll want to start by opening PayPal and logging in there. Under My Account click Profile, then under Financial Information open Bank Accounts, and from this page click “add”. Depending on your situation, there are a number of ways you can get the rest of the info you’ll need.

1) If you have cheques for the account you want to add, then all you have to is follow the instructions on the PayPal site. Copy the information from your cheque using the diagram supplied.

2) If  you only have online banking there’s a little more leg work to do. Start by logging in at Coast Capital, then open the summary for the account you want to link with PayPal (by clicking on its name). On this page you need to copy the account number (the number circled in red). This number is unique to the actual account, is not the same as your membership number, and is usually 12 characters long. Enter this number in the “Account Number” field on PayPal, and re-enter in the confirmation field.

Then you’ll need to find the transit number for your branch (usually the Coast Capital branch where you opened your account). Look for your branch on this page and copy its number into the “Bank Transit Number” field back on PayPal. Enter 809 in the “Institution Number” field.

And submit! That’s all. In a few days you’ll receive two small deposits, and then you can go back to PayPal and confirm your account. You’ll be able to fund purchases from your bank account, as well as withdraw funds from PayPal into your Bank Account.

Coast Capital will not charge you for PayPal transactions if you have a bank account with no transaction fees, although PayPal will ding you $0.50 for transfers less than $150CAD. This is cheaper than using hyperWALLET ($0.85), and its a lot more versatile. Using PayPal is also a great way to accept credit card payments without having setup a merchant account.

1. Click the Account tab on the right.
2. Click Edit Friends (the first link under your name)
3. Type the person’s name under the Facebook logo
4. Click the X to the right of the their name
5. Wonder why they made it so difficult??

At least its less complicated than removing a friend from real life..

This is an update for people trying to use MMS / picture messages on their Telus iPhone. If it still isn’t working you’re not alone. After nearly three months we are without a solution, and worse Big T isn’t even sure of the problem yet.

I posted this information on Howard Forums a week ago:

-The issue has a KIT (known issue ticket) with hundreds of customers attached, this is likely only a very small fraction of those affected.
-Only [some] CDMA –> HSPA accounts are affected, and only iPhones. New accounts appear to be fine.
-Telus has known about the problem since November 20, and Operations has been working with it since.
-Up and ups at Telus have been alerted about the issue and its a ‘priority’.
-They couldn’t figure out what’s wrong, so they had to contact a third-party. Sounds like its Openwave since they control MMS gateway.

And the biggest news is that the KIT promised more information this week. So hopefully tomorrow or early next week we should at least know what the problem is, and hopefully see a fix.

But more than a week has passed and no update is available. I am extremely irritated by how closed Telus has been on this issue. I’ve spoken to more than a dozen reps that, while friendly, have been given absolutely no concrete information about the problem. I want to know what the problem is yesterday and I want a solution now.

Look. I’m not one to complain about paying for things. I understand that nothing is free, and someone is paying for services I use even if they don’t cost me anything. But this is 2010 and TV listings are everywhere. I can go to canada.com and get listings for free, or stop at the gas station and grab a TV Guide for free (this is same company that’s making us pay for EPG). Forcing us to fork over $19.95 USD just so we can use the listings in EyeTV is absolutely ridiculous. Its not a huge expense, but the irritation of the whole process just puts me off.

Making the situation worse is that most Canadian cable providers encrypt their digital channels. So even with the listings I can still only watch and record in standard definition. The experience is just dismal in comparison to what’s available in the US (for almost nothing or nothing at all). I won’t be purchasing a subscription. Best wishes for those of you who decide to get one.

If anyone is considering creating Canadian EPG alternative, please contact me and I will provide help and server resources.

It looks pretty expansive although I can already see some potential problems. I can’t wait to see what coverage will actually be later this quarter in Q1-Q3. Feel free to comment and share.

UPDATE: There’s an awesome, updated map available now. You can even overlay different carriers and zoom in on your area.

Wind Mobile base stations in Vancouver (licensed). Click to enlarge.