Civilization: War of Two Cities

Kalau Anda pernah muda (hiperbola dikit).. pasti pernah tau gamenya Sid Meier yang berjudul Civilization. Menurut saya sih itu salah satu game legendaris karena saya gameplaynya yang kompleks namun masih fun untuk dimainkan.

Nah War of Two Cities (WoTC) ini bener-bener beda sama Civilization yang klasik. Anggap saja ada sebuah mobile game baru yang "menumpang" judul dan nama beken Sid Meier. Gameplaynya sendiri simple. Kita memilih salah satu dari empat peradaban yang disediakan antara lain : Jepang, Amerika Serikat, Romawi dan Rusia. Masing-masing kebudayaan memiliki kelebihan yang berbeda-beda ketika game baru akan dimulai.

Gameplaynya sendiri, seperti yang sudah saya katakan sebelumnya, sangat berbeda dengan Civilization klasik yang dikenal dengan genre "turn-based-strategy". Perang di WoTC ini berlangsung realtime dan kita tidak menggerakkan langsung masing-masing unit. Kita hanya tinggal mengklik / tap button untuk create unit yang diinginkan, lalu unit tsb akan perlahan-lahan maju ke wilayah musuh. Unit-unit ini hanya akan bergerak maju dan sama sekali tidak akan berjalan mundur.

Terdapat ketiga unit yang bisa kita ciptakan antara lain infantry, range-unit dan mobile-unit. Ketiga unit ini masing-masing memiliki kelemahan dan kekuatan seperti sistem gunting-batu-kertas yang sangat terkenal itu. Kurang lebih infantry akan menang melawan range-unit, range-unit akan menang melawan mobile-unit dan mobile-unit sendiri akan dengan mudah "melindas" infantry.

Selain itu kita juga bisa menembakkan artileri dari kota kita untuk membantu frontliners kita mencapai kota musuh. Begitu unit kita menyentuh kota musuh, maka round selesai dan kita akan menang. Kita dapat melakukan upgrade teknologi yang dapat meningkatkan level daya serang maupun pertahanan kita setiap level.

Game ini ditest di handset Treo 750v. Selain untuk Windows Mobile, WoTC juga dibuat untuk Blackberry dan Java Games.

Upgrade Your Treo 750 to Windows Mobile 6.1

I finally succeed in upgrading my Treo into WM 6.1 (using standard edition, fyi there is also a lite version and maybe the others).

The notable upgrades are :

1. The boot screen after Palm Logo, it shows Windows Mobile Version 6.1 splash screen.
2. The my info page which i don't know why when I was using WM6 the "MY" letter will always be cut so it will show "MV" by default and now in WM6.1 is looking good with a new font also.
3. The themes look similar to Windows Mobile Green themes, but this one is cooler.
4. The task manager is much much better than the WM5.
5. The thread SMS is much the same I guess (glad it's still there :D)
6. We can also play sounds / music / voice note in Note application (can WM5/WM6 do this? i'm not sure coz I've been using PhatNotes since a long time)
7. There is a new PIE feature embedded. We can do a zoom out view of a web page for a wider look.
8. The Windows Live and Windows Live Messenger is not included in this ROM.

Anyway, I feel satisfied with the performance was and now it's even better.

Here is how I did my upgrade step-by-step (got this from mailing list and also the forum too) :

1. The upgrade process took not more than 30 minutes for me because my Treo 750v is already unlocked since I get it at first time. It may take another minutes to unlock if yours is still locked.
2. Please download these 3 files first :
   CheetahUnlocker.rar (for unlocking). You can get it from here.
   Treo750Radio1.54.07.00.rar (Radio). You can get it from here.
   Treo750_OS5_2_19199WWE_STD.rar (the OS). You can get it from here.
3. Extract the three files first to ensure there are none corrupted files.
4. Format a miniSD with FAT32 filesystem. (I'm using VGEN 2GB - cheap one, and I still made it, so no worries mate! :D)
5. Please sync your Treo first. Wait until it finishes before we could start.
6. If the sync succeed without any error, run the CheetahUnlocker. Since my Treo already unlocked, just run the step 1. (note: the cheetah unlocker need a dotnet2 frameworks).
7. Wait until it finishes and the device restarted without any error before proceeding other step. Close the cheetah unlocker program so it won't distract us anymore. Ignore the second and third step for already unlocked device. If yours is still locked, you need to run the rest.
8. Make sure you have your backup before we wipe all the data in device :D. I'm using PPCPimBackup application to backup my PIMs (which -sadly to say- didn't backup my SMS!)
9. Copy the CHEEIMG.nbh (Radio) to MiniSD (please don't change the filename). Insert it into the Treo.
10. While pressing the PTT button (-the button under the Volume button-) reset the device using the stylus. It will enter a bootloader menu and all we have to do is wait. (I was praying at this moment)..
11. If it shows Update Success then we could stop pray rite now and remove the miniSD card.
12. Remove the current file (Radio's) and copy the CHEEIMG.nbh (OS's) to MiniSD after that.
13. While pressing the PTT button (-the button under the Volume button-) reset the device using the stylus. It will enter a bootloader menu and all we have to do is wait. (I was sleeping at this moment). This step should be finish faster than the Radio.
14. Wait until it shows "Update Success" and congrats you now have a WM6.1 Treo.
15. Do a soft reset. The first boot while take quite a time because it needs to setup a few things first.

Cheers..

RT

Nokia 5800 Xpress Music

Last week, I've had a chance to test the new Xpress Music line series Nokia 5800. The first impression I got was that Nokia 5800 wanting to compete againts iPhone in music phone market. It got the same look. A large-bright display and only 3 button in the front (iPhone only has one button if i'm not mistaken), and camera button in the bottom-right side of the body. But I'll definitely vote for iPhone immediately for the winner since iPhone's metal-material makes the apple's products looks beautiful while Nokia 5800 using only plastic-kind-material. They should use the same material as E71 or E66.

The phone came up with the new Symbian 5th Edition (again, Nokia skip the '4th' number) and I don't see much difference between the 5th and the 3rd except this one is using touch screen input. It has a light stylus which reminds me to Nokia 7700's. This music phone also equipped with 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera with Carl Zeiss lens. I also notice that Nokia 5800 supports HSDPA and has an embedded wi-fi adapter. Almost very complete phone for me except one thing. It doesn't have keypad which really frustrates sometimes to input some texts.

There is also a new featured that was first implemented by iPhone. The feature known as accelerometer will automatically rotate the screen to the landscape mode. I don't really know whether this feature is helping or not because sometimes it just rotate by itself even I don't want to.

Because I use the phone only for a few minutes, I can't say too much more. I don't like this phone too much. Yes it's true that it is an another breakthrough by Nokia by inventing a complete phone but the plastic design and no keypad (even worse this big phone don't have a qwerty board) is enough reason for me to stay with my Treo. Compare to iPhone, i'll still choose iPhone because it's more good looking than Nokia 5800. But if you need a good 3.2 AF Camera and HSDPA connectivity and also a robust music player, forget about the iPhone and this one may be a good alternative.

Nokia E61 Review

Nokia E61 is one of the best Nokia phones I've ever used. Let's see.. I have used Nokia 3650, Nokia 6230 and Nokia N-Gage previously. I know exactly what Symbian OS good at and what do it lacked out and E61 is good one.

While E61 is using Symbian 60 3rd edition (which is first announced at Nokia N91 if i'm not mistaken), it is said by the users that E61 was one of the fastest Symbian smartphones available back then. For me, been using Treo 650 and Motorola Q, made me don't feel the E61 is not that fast. It's dual ARM9-220MHz CPU were nothing compared to Treo's Intel XScale 312MHz. But yes, it's still acceptable in some ways. E61 is bulky. Although it was slimmer than most of smartphones it is also wider all the way. The dimension itself is 118 x 70 x 14 mm. This UMTS phone also support up to 2GB max. Mini SD slot.

(Once) My Nokia E61 with Silicon Case

Come as a messaging based device, the keypad itself is very comfortable to use. There is enough space between every letter and has 'ctrl' button that could make things like copying and pasting text much easier. This phone is differ from its comrades N Series that specialized as Multimedia phone, but it doesn't mean E61 is lack of fun features. E61 is also one of the device that support BlackBerry Connect feature. I myself haven't used this feature coz' pull-mail feature is enough for me instead the 'exaggerate' PushMail. The screen is good. It has wide screen (320x240 px) and great 24 bit colour-depth (16 million) which made images displayed almost flawlessly. E61 also comes with built-in-wifi adapter. It could become very handy if you are mostly mobile like me plus if you installed 3rd party apps such as Mobitubia, you can stream youtube and download it files very easily. Adding Opera Mini as the browser, than you could browse anywhere in internet.

The other 3rd party applications that I used the most is PicoDrive, Handy Expense and Mobile DivX Player. This is where we will discuss the fun part. Pico Drive is a Sega Genesis Emulator. Yes you could play almost all Sega old-timer-games in with this phone. I play Streets of Rage, Shinobi Series, Sonic Series, and many more with this phone. Note that I use the qwerty wide layout as the button, not the joystick due to its durability. Handy Expense will be your expenses log book. It is simple to use this app plus it could also export our expenses to the CSV file. I use Mobile DivX Player to watch DivX movies of course. Besides the three apps above, I installed a few more apps to maximized the use of E61. There are plenty Java games, Bible Reader and also putty in my phone.

Palm Treo 750v Review

I've already use this phone for months and I find that Palm is really having their concentration when inventing one of the 'smartest' smartphone out there. I've been using many QWERTY phones such as Treo 650, Motorola Q and Nokia E61 and each of them have their own good and cons since they also running different operating system. (I already have them reviewed last year and the files are kept in my locker. I may post it again someday).

Treo 750's form factor is one of the reason why I bought it. It is very comfortable to hold it in your hand since the back side of it is made from semi-rubbered material. Although Q and Nokia E61 is far thinner and wider, Treo 750 is still slimer than its predecessor (Treo 650) and the internal antenna gives a plus for the beauty contest. The qwerty thumb-keyboard is also nice to use not to mention that it also touch-screen-device. :)

My Treo =D

This Treo 750v is shipped with Windows Mobile 5 Professional but as soon its arrived in my hand, i immediately upgrade the OS to WM 6 Pro which is downloadable only once for each Treo 750v user from palm.com. The upgrade process is as easy as usual and now my Treo is HSDPA enabled.

The HSDPA is the only significant improvement from my previous gadgets. Oh this is my first Windows Mobile Based phone anyway, and yes I should get used to Windows Mobile Pro eventhough I've used Motorola Q Windows Mobile 6 Smartphone Edition previously. For the ease of use, i still raise two-thumbs-up for Palm OS. But WM Pro is alright. I've found nothing bad in it so far.

Messaging is always fun with Palm. The threaded SMS is an automatic featured in Windows Mobile 6 Pro but you could also use 3rd party applications to enable threaded sms. The PDA function itself is good. It has 1.3 mpx camera and could take a decent photos if the lighting was good. The camera also support for video recording with CIF resolution for unlimited duration.

The minuses are :

• 240x240 pixel, 65k TFT Square Display which is unusual and kinda a downgrade from my previous phones. (Treo 650 is 320x320 while Q and E61 is 320x240). Since the resolution is smaller, sometimes I could see a grainy images in the LCD. Well it's not that bad but there are many phones with better display out there. This squared resolution will bring problems when installing applications and games because the standard resolution for Windows Mobile device is 240x320.
• Shorter battery life. I could use Treo 650 to online and chat via Mundu for almost a day but Treo 750 (in GSM network) will only last for a few hours.
  

Basically i use almost all the feature it has. I do documents editing, post articles in blog, maintain server using putty, play games, listen mp3 music, watch DVD movies (yes, of course i convert it!), send and receive emails, instant messaging, browsing and take notes in it. Cool huh.

Windows Mobile Games for Treo 750

After the apps listed before, Here are some of the game that I've tried and could run without any problems.

1). 3DHouseofDeath
An 3rd person shooter game with shooting the zombies all around as the story. It's not that good for me.

2). Arvale II 'Ocean of Time'
RPG game but since the resolution is squared up, the gameplay will make your eyes tired because of the small objects in game and also tiny font for the story / dialogue. I haven't played this one anyway.

3). Atomic Cannon
Worms-like game. Addictive. It's kinda hard to shoot the target accurately. But if you already know the-how-to-shoot-trick, you'll sure love this game.

4). Bejeweled
One of the PPC's legend. Still need an explanation?

5). Bejeweled 2
An enhanced version of the previous legend. Extra feature and better graphic display. Still addicting as ever.

6). Bookworm.
B-o-o-k-w-o-r-m. Arrange-the-letter game.

7). Bubble Babble
The gameplay is almost the same like bookworm, but this is more easier I guess..

8). Call of Duty 3
Commandos-like game but of course far more simpler than that one.

9). Chuzzle
A chuzzling puzzle. I guess that's why they named it Chuzzle. =) If you like the Astraware's puzzles, I bet you like this one also. Good animation and funny sounds will also be the plus.

10). My Little Tank
Shoot and destroy game. You will be given a various mission for every level to be completed using your little tank.

11). PocketSNES
SNES emulator. Works perfectly for me. At least I could play Harvest Moon in my phone. Ah, it's already the time to harvest the tomatoes...

12). Quartz X-Mas
Another puzzle game. The Christmas version.

13), Resco Brain Games
Great games inside. Too bad, the 240x240 resolution messed up many games inside. Some of them will be playable in Treo though.

14). Super Putt Xtreme
This is my favourite. The putt golf will never get this extreme except in this game. =) highly recommended!

15). Spb Brain Evolution
Almost the same like Resco's, but I prefer this one because of the compatibility with Treo 750. There are arithmetic, sudoku, minesweeper, and many games inside that really could make your brain evolve.

16). Sudoku
A number puzzle in which the numbers 1 through 9 must be placed into a grid of cells so that each row or column contains only one of each number. (from google)

17). Titanic
Treasure hunting with the sinking Titanic ship as the settings. The music is kinda eerie, but the game is great. You wil be given a list of items that you should find throughout every room at the ship.

18). Whack-A-Monty
Don't tell me that you don't know what this game is all about. *whack*

19). Xia
Another RPG game. Runs perfectly in Treo but i haven't played this one also.

18. Zuma
A frog as the main character. It is similar to its PC game. For me, it is a lot easier to play this game using your stylus than your mouse.

Someone who said that a PDA phone should only be used for work-related-things just definitely don't know what games to install in it. =p

Cheers

Windows Mobile Applications for Treo 750

The Treo 750 has 240x240 squared display which is incompatible with most of Windows Mobile applications out there. Here are some of the apps that I've tried and could running without any problems.

1). Mundu Messenger
One of the best IM Client for mobile phone (at least I've tried this on Treo 650, Moto Q, and Treo 750). Using Mundu, I can join into the chat conference and also send pictures or files directly to the buddies. You could also set a custom status for your account. Definitely a must have one.

2). Expense Plus for PocketPC
This is handy tools to log your expenses. It could generate reports per period and you also could see the expenses in graph.

3). Esmertec Jbed
Use this for running java application in PPC. I choose this because this is the first option I found and so far so good. I installed The SimCity Societies, Opera Mini and MidpSSH and none of them are troubled.

4). Kilmist Registry Editor
Yap, same like the parents, Windows Mobile operating system also have the registry keys that could annoy you who understand. =)

5). MASPware HandNotes
Just like the name said, it could take your handnote on the screen. I also use this to draw something in hurry or for play win, lose, or draw game.

6). MemMaid
One of the most famous problem in WM Based device is memory-leaking. The opened applications which not exited properly will consume your RAM and if the RAM is too small, normally a device will reboot automatically to free some space. You could use this app to do that and also to clear some 'trash' left by the IE browser such as cache or cookies.

7). MSDict
An Oxford-like dictionary. What else better than Oxford anyway.

8). Pocket e-Sword
Bible reader that could compare two different version bible.

9). PocketPutty
This is a must have applications for any system administrator. Too bad it has bug in it which if you could not use any special character except the alphabets. (yes, ANY).

10). PPCPimBackup
Useful PIM Backup tools. It could backup your contacts, calendar appointments, tasks, call logs, and messages.

11). Spb GPRS Monitor
Use this to monitor your traffic usage and it also could be integrated with Spb Today.

12). TCPMP
Powerful Media Player. Support many extensions.

13). DivX Player
Official DivX Player for WM from DivX, I installed this just as an alternative for the Windows Media Player and TCPMP.

14). pTravelAlarm
After trying so many alarm app, I found this is the most appropriate one for me.

15). Spb Mobile Shell
An alternate look for your Windows Mobile device. Looks cool. :)

I've tried dozens app out there but I forgot their names =P Mostly because the app is not that good or i do really simply forget.

"hey, what about the games??"

relax.. check this out.. :)

Treo 750 MMS Setting Using Matrix

After trying quite many settings so that I could send and receive MMS (Multimedia Messaging) using my Treo, I finally found the error. I wondering why that my SIM Card (Matrix) is detected as IM3 Card that causing the GPRS and MMS setting embedded is IM3's which is unusable. Well this is not the first time. At least in my last previous handhelds (MotoQ, Nokia E61, dan Treo 750) I should do the manual settings.

Well GPRS setting may become piece-of-cake lah.. the problem is when I search the Matrix MMS setting in the web, in people's blogs, in google searchs, and even in indosat's website. each one of them give various and different settings (*sigh*) that really made me confuse.

So let me share my MMS Setting yah. Hopefully will help you.

• 1st, go to setting - Connections - Connections
• tap Add a new modem connection di My Work Network section
• Enter indosatmms or whatever you like lah as the name, and cellular line (GPRS, 3G) as the modem
• Enter mms.satelindogprs.com as the access point name
• Use satmms as the username and the password
• press finish
• and tap the edit the My Work Network connection link.
• go to the Proxy Settings. check the boxes in there (only two and just check it all!). Enter 202.152.162.88 as the proxy and then tap Advanced.. tap the HTTP type proxy to edit the port setting. Enter 9201 and then OK.
• next go to messaging - menu - options - Advanced
• set the network configuration to Manual Mode and then tap Edit..
• Set the 202.152.162.88:9201 as the MMS gateway address and
• http://mmsc.satelindogprs.com as the MMS URL and last is
• My Work Network as the Network Profile
• done

Now you should be able to send and receive the MMS using Matrix :D

Cheers.

Motorola Q's Review

I've finally replaced my unbeatable Treo 650 with Motorola Q GSM Version. When I first saw this phone on the store's display, my eyes were trapped for its sleek design. It has a very slim form factor and although the Q lack of curves in its, Q is still one of the well-designed phone I've ever had.

Form Factor

The QWERTY keys is surprisingly comfortable to use because it has an enough space between one and another but when the key is been pressed, we could hear the plastic-made keys giving our ear some audibles "click-click" sound.. It is kinda annoying. Especially when you are using the device at the meeting.

(Once) My Motorola Q GSM

The body itself is made from some rubberized plastic materiak so it is scratch resistant enough. The display is a clear and bright 320x240 2.8" 65k colour TFT. What did I miss the Treo in this side is I couldn't adjust the display brightness. Maybe I missed it when I read the manual book, but surely I can't find it anywhere. This will give a special problem when we are using it at the dark place. There are also a 3-way scroll-wheel and back button in the right side of the Q while the 2.5 mm handsfree's jack, mini USB charger and mini-SD slot are located in the left. At the back side, We could see the 1.3 Mpx Camera lens at the top.

OPERATING SYSTEM AND APPLICATIONS

Q is using Windows Mobile 6 (Smartphone Edition). This is my first experience using the Smartphone Edition while the Pocket PC Version is already everywhere. The operational is fairly easy although Palm is simpler in many things. The main display or Home Section, could be customized using downloadable themes which could be find through the internet. The device have DocsToGo application as the standard application for office work; Solitaire and BubbleBreaker for the Games and Windows Media Player for the Multimedia; Notepad, Calculator and Voice Recorder are also included. The Windows Media Player plays great mp3 and video playback through Q's two stereo speakers at the left and right. The 1.3 megapixels camera takes a decent pictures. I guess the camera is the same standard as the other Motorola phones. It also records moving pictures (video) with the highest resolution is 176x144. It also has a built-in Flash-LED. I connect to Google Talk using Octro Talk which could be downloaded for free, besides that I also using the Shape IM+ applications to use Yahoo Messenger. The Windows Live Messenger itself works fine. The email is easy to setup and I don't know how many accounts that the Q support, but I use my 3 email accounts in the device and works perfectly for retrieving or sending emails.

OVERALL

This is a good phone. Although sometimes I miss the Palm quick-responses and the Treo's touchscreen navigation, holding Q in your hands is having its own fun and style.