More Lumia 900 testing, phone.. but first, a microSIM

The Lumia 900 requires a microSIM and the only microSIM I have is in my main phone, the N9. Not that I get why it couldn't use a good-old miniSIM, the phone is Huge :)

When I had the Nokia 603 for testing it never occoured to me that I could have gotten a pre-paid service so I could have tested the phone features properly. You might wonder why, but I've never used pre-paid service, I've been using the same service provider since 1996 (my first mobile was a Nokia 2110) and usage of pre-paid is not that common here in Finland, afaik.

So, today I got a pre-paid service from Saunalahti, only 6,60€, a good choice if you ever need pre-paid service here in Finland and it even includes data service with a special price of only 0.66€/day on microSIM phones.

Try Something New thingy moved to Sunday

The weather for Saturday is so bad the it had to be moved to Sunday. Can't stand the waiting :)
Just thinking about it makes my feet go wobbly. Can you guess what I'm going to try?

The Lumia 900 arrived

DHL came with a Nokia Lumia 900 for me test and play with for the next two weeks, thanks to Nokia Connects. I will also use it to document the thingy on Saturday.

Bubblewrapped

A blue box

That contains another blue box

This box with some nice pictures and the Lumia 900 label

Inside the box we find the Nokia Lumia 900, USB cables and headphones, plus some quick guide papers. Oh, and a tool for opening the SIM cover. Must say that is a strange, design. I would definitely loose it quite fast with all the other junk I have at home.

Inside we find a good looking white Lumia 900

Protected inside plastic

Under the phone there is a SIM cover tool

The contents of the box

USB cable

A funny looking charger (I know it's the UK power plug style, still it looks funny to me :)

Basic in-ear headphones

A Quick guide and some more papers, who reads these anyway :)

Setting aside the fact that it's a WP phone, I have to admit that it does looks gorgeous! The N9 polycarbonate shell design is just perfect. You most likely know all the specs and stuff already but I'll repeat the basics just in case anyway.

• 1.4 Ghz single-core Snapdragon ARM CPU
• 512 MB RAM
• 16 GB internal flash
• 4.3" AMOLED ClearBlack display
• Carl Zeiss optics, 8 megapixel main camera, 1 megapixel front camera
• Single block polycarbonate body
• Windows Phone 7.5
• All the connection you could possibly need, 3G, 4G, Bluetooth, WiFI, USB
• 720p 30 fps video recording
• Read the full specs here

Nokia Lumia 900

Side by side comparison with the N9 and N950. The Lumia 900 is much larger than the N9. Even a bit too big for my taste, but I haven't really tried handling it that much yet. I usually have N950 and N9 in my pant pocket and they are just small enough to not feel uncomfortable. But lets see how it goes.

N9 looks tiny beside the Lumia 900

Lumia 900 much larger

It is also a tiny bit larger than the N950

Lumia 900 and Nokia N950.

Lumia 900 is a tiny bit wider than the N950, about the same height.

I'm at work right now, but I'll post some more when I get home and can play with the phone properly.

NokiaTSN prize and Lumia 900 for testing

Nokia Try Something New competition

I took part in the NokiaTSN competition, trying out a Nokia 603 and Luna headset. I won!

NokiaTSN winner, Panorama from Klein Matterhorn

The prize was up to me to figure out, in the theme of Try Something New. It took a while to find something. but I finally found something very exciting to do (and I can bring a friend!). It's going to happen this Saturday (9th Jun 2012) at around 11:00.
I won't tell you yet what it is yet, as it's going to be a surprise for friends and family :)

All I can say that I and my friend are both scared shitless :)

Lumia 900 for two week testing

As an extra bonus Nokia Connects has sent a Nokia Lumia 900 for a two week test. It's on its way already, DHL tracking says to courier here in Turku already has it, so I'm waiting for it to be brought to me as we speak.

Gstreamer echoprint module

I've been planning on doing this for a long time already but got finally inspired to do it. An echoprint gstreamer module. It is not tested that much as I have a hard time getting anything recognized trough the API, using both my own code and the echoprint-codegen binary.
I've tried with many of the songs that they should have information about but no luck. The only song I got identified properly was "ABBA - Dancing queen" and only if I skip the first 20 seconds.

Any ideas ?

Oh, code is in git here.

Build, install and run a pipeline like:

gst-launch-0.10 -m filesrc location=some_song.mp3 ! \
 decodebin ! audioresample ! audioconvert ! \
 echoprint seconds=20 ! fakesink sync=0

echoprint will post a message with a code element, like this:

Got message #83 from element "echoprint0" (element): echoprint, code=(string)"eJzNl2uuHLkNhbekJ0UtR6LI.....

Resetting N9 Security code, part 2

Alright, now you should have a two big files, one is the firmware itself, the other one is the contents of the eMMC (basically the installed default apps). Like so (for northern Europe device model):
 

Size	Filename
1.6G	DFL61_HARMATTAN_30.2012.07-1.NORTHERNEUROPE_EMMC_NORTHERNEUROPE.bin
1.2G	DFL61_HARMATTAN_30.2012.07-1_PR_LEGACY_001-OEM1-958_ARM.bin

Next turn off the device and make sure it is not plugged into your computer. Then start the flasher:

$ sudo flasher -f \
 -F DFL61_HARMATTAN_30.2012.07-1_PR_LEGACY_001-OEM1-958_ARM.bin \
 -F DFL61_HARMATTAN_30.2012.07-1.NORTHERNEUROPE_EMMC_NORTHERNEUROPE.bin \
 --erase-user-data=secure

Note: For getting rid of the security code (that we don't know) the --erase-user-data=secure option is important, don't forget it.

Flasher should now output something like this:

flasher 3.12.1 (Oct  5 2011) Harmattan
WARNING: This tool is intended for professional use only. Using it may result
in permanently damaging your device or losing the warranty.

Suitable USB interface (bootloader/phonet) not found, waiting...

Flasher is now waiting for the device, so plug in the USB cable now. Flasher should now respond with:

USB device found at bus 001, device address 016.
Device identifier: xxx923xxx468xxx (SN: N/A)
Found device RM-696, hardware revision 1507
NOLO version 2.3.6
Version of 'sw-release': DFL61_HARMATTAN_30.2012.07-1_PR_001
Sending ape-algo image (7096 kB)...
100% (7096 of 7096 kB, avg. 11826 kB/s)
Suitable USB interface (phonet) not found, waiting...
USB device found at bus 001, device address 017.
Device identifier: xxx923xxx468xxx (SN: N/A)
Raw data transfer EP found at EP2.
Ping attempt 1 (250 ms)
Server application: 1.7.2
Found product RM-696 rev. 1507
Server implements softupd protocol version 1.8

Battery level 89 %, continuing.
Erasing, this may take a while.

It is now erasing the EMMC and as it says, can take a while. Took around 5-10 minutes for me. The white led should blink while it is doing it. After a successful erase operation, the flash should respond with this:

Erase done.
Image SW version DFL61_HARMATTAN_30.2012.07-1_PR_001
Image moslo not present
Image tar skipped
Image config skipped

Battery level 93 %, continuing.

And then continue to the real flashing part, something like this (sizes will vary with different image files):

    image        [state    progress         transfer     flash speed]
---------------------------------------------------------------------
[x] cert-sw      [finished   100 %       1 /       1 kB      NA     ]
[x] cmt-2nd      [finished   100 %      95 /      95 kB      NA     ]
[x] cmt-algo     [finished   100 %     789 /     789 kB      NA     ]
[x] cmt-mcusw    [finished   100 %    6050 /    6050 kB    3231 kB/s]
[x] xloader      [finished   100 %      23 /      23 kB      NA     ]
[x] secondary    [finished   100 %      94 /      94 kB      NA     ]
[x] kernel       [finished   100 %    2714 /    2714 kB       7 kB/s]
[x] rootfs       [finished   100 % 1163796 / 1163796 kB   10600 kB/s]
[x] mmc          [finished   100 % 1627169 / 1627169 kB   16524 kB/s]
Updating SW release
Success

Unplug the USB cable and your N9 should now reboot into a fresh install !

Fresh N9

Enjoy.

Resetting N9 Security code, part 1

My brother (used to) works at business sales, so obviously I asked him to get me a N9. In the meantime Gigantti had the nice 299€ discount on the N9 and I just had to get a pink N9 :) Anyway, my brother finally fixed a (used) black N9 for me, his wifes old phone. (she has switched to a Lumia,go figure)

Anyway, it had been unused for a while now, with a security code set. And guess if she remembers the security code.

After spending some time trying to guess at a code, I ditched that idea and started googling and finally found the instructions.

First: You do this at your own risk! Not my problem if your device is bricked.

What you need to do is flash the device with --erase-user-data=secure option, but unfortunately it requires a firmware image too and Nokia does not offer that in any easy download-here sort-of way. So you need to do it the complicated way instead.

So, what you need is:

1. Flasher from http://tablets-dev.nokia.com/maemo-dev-env-downloads.php
2. The firmware images, downloadable using NaviFirm or NaviFirmEx

I used NaviFirmEx as that works with wine under Linux.

Start the app and first select "Nokia care suite" server (With the default I didn't find the EMMC image). Then select the N9 from the device list and then the firmware version you would like to download. I recommend using the latest that contain the firmware for your device. After that you will be presented with a large list of devices with different specs and countries.

This was surprisingly easy, you can find the code on the tiny sticker on the SIM tray. My device has the code 059J1z8 just write your code in the search field above the list.
Select the correct firmware that match your code and click the "Add to download task" button and choose a location for the firmware files.

NaviFirmEx downloading firmware

So now you have to firmware, for flashing instructions go to Part 2.