Comments on: m505 Contrast Hack a Hoax

What I want to know is if Steve was also 'taken in' by this hoax and is just too embarassed to
admit it, or if he was 'in on' the joke in the first place, and just wanted to disseminate misinformation

I read the original thread about the newsgroup method of increasing contrast. I don't blame you for falling for it. When a new electronic device is just released tons of rumours circulate about its features, included or excluded.

In the case of the m505 and the fact that the majority of those who've has seen it, and especially those who've bought it, have been surprised by the screen, the prospect of a secret brightness hack would be appealing any day (especially in a badly lit room :o) )* So I was not disappointed by the fact that you, amidst hundreds of others, 'fell' for it. Had I come across that post, I too would have given it ago as well.

Indeed, I purchased the m505 on a weekend break to Miami (I live in the UK) and harbour a wish that the brightness hack was in fact true! Although, as the more knowledgeable of folk have already pointed out, the screen dimness is a hardware issue because of a calculated Palm engineering decision, and not a editable software issue.

As someone has already pointed out in this thread, the fact that this hoax gained so much prominence with all the early hard core buyers (such as myself) says as much about what we think of the m505, than it does about the impact of a hoax itself.

For instance, having just picked upon on all the threads about Hungary vs USA made models on this site and others, I found myself looking at the back of my Palm to look for the Made in USA sticker - I even left a voicemail for my friend who still has the original box in Miami.

I like to think that I'm a rational guy and know that there is no difference between whether a device is made in Hungary or USA, and that manufacturing discrepencies exist everywhere, in all industries, regardless of the nationality of workers or the geographical presence of a factory. However, because like most of the people reading this site, I'm a big fan of gadgets and especially the Palm, I'll still fall for every hoax and ridiculous argument that pops up - in a way, that's why I read this site.

If I we were all normal users, would we really check out this site so regularly? The average user, Palm's target segment, just wants a datebook and a phonebook app and doesn't care about 90% of the debates and points of information that are raised on community sites. To the average user, what does it really matter that model X has 10% more battery life than model Y, or that model X clocks 5% slower than model Y, and so on.

The fact that we fall for hoaxes and get passionate in these arguments is because we aren't normal users. We care about how much we spend on a product, we care about the speed of apps, screen contrasts, form factors, software performance and the tiniest of details that the average guy/gal on the street wouldn't even notice.

So even though we should take rumours with a pinch of salt, the fact that we'll try new tricks to improve our devices and get involved in discussions is, ultimately, inevitable.

Fingers crossed, I'll find a contrast hack for my m505 on Palmgear one day ... ;)

Regards

Andrew McCartney

If anyone puts an IIIC and a M505 you will come to the realization that the M505 is not as dim as you think it is in fact it is brighter/clearer than th IIIC.

The screen functionality is the way it is for a reason, not to washout on well lighted places amongst others I have not yet discovered....

MT

100 years ago people bought snake oil. I guess notheng ever changes...

Another ignored part of this story is that PalmGear and Handango were fooled, too. I always assumed they had a process for testing out applications before they posted them. Guess not. But I can't give them too hard a time. That would be like the pot calling the kettle black.

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News Editor
Palm Infocenter

Oh that is too funny. I guess you don't believe the corrected info also.

The fact these guys slave away providing us info each day to hear this kind of criticism is too much.

Thanks for the correction Steve.

I didn't automatically dismiss this because it was posted by someone calling themselves Satan because I get legitimate info from people with weird pseudonyms all the time. In fact, the very next day, Satan posted the article "Using MSMount with the m500 series", and it was factual, confirmable, and quite well written.

That fact and Steve Bush's endorsement kept me waffling about whether this was a hoax probably longer than I should.

I never tested the original hack myself and warned everyone to do so at their own risk because I thought there was a very small possibility that this hoax might not have been harmless and would actually do something to mess up the device. Also, I'm happy with my m505 and wouldn't change it.

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News Editor
Palm Infocenter

We all Know that without Ed this site would not be what it is. I am sure he puts in a lot of hours of research just to keep us well informed.

I did not try the famous hack (glow hack), it did not give me a good bive and I wanted to wait to other people responded, usually hacks are installed not written in the notepad....

Needless to say, I was tempted, but decided screen was not that bad and I did not want to sacrifice my battery power. So... don't blame Ed for not researching, in fact, we should all be thanking him for all the good information and articles he posts for us. Besides that anybody would of fallen for it!!!

MT

Remember, a small amount of skepticism is often a good thing, otherwise you're reduced to saying, "Well, they wouldn't put it on the internet/in an e-mail if it weren't true."

Let's stop bashing Steve over a simple mistake that anyone could have made.

As always, the files can be downloaded from the Files section of the CLIE users group on Yahoo Groups.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CLIE_Users_Group
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I've been playing around with some other Sony Clie programs since last night and have put together a bunch of tips/instructions for making your SD/MMC cards work much much better.

Using this method...

1) Your applications will now show in ANY launcher including LauncherIII, LaunchEm, SilverScreen Chromacast etc.... No need to wait for an update to your favorite launcher.

2) Ever notice how every time you switch to the Expansion Card you have a long wait time while it reads the card. Using this method and a third party launcher...problem eliminated...switch launcher screens as fast as you can tap :)

3) You can now keep your SD/MMC applications in Categories just like your programs in main Ram. AND...they remember their categories, I tried this with many launchers last night. No more big long messy list of apps.

4) Notice how the PhotoSuite app takes forever to launch because it's scanning the card for your Pics & Videos. Setup PhotoSuite like I'll explain below and you can launch and flip through your Pics much faster!

But wait...that's not all, Act right now and....Ok I got a bit carried away BUT this works great and I've had ZERO crashes after hours of testing all while running 7 hacks too. ;)

Links to the programs you need are at the end of this post BTW.

First you have 2 options. You can use PowerRun .30 or PowerRun .46. Version .30 allows you to put your applications on the SD card. Version .46 puts your applications & databases on the card. It's your choice as to which version you want to use. PowerRun .30 is a bit quicker when exiting your applications but PowerRun .46 automatically moves around and updates your databases too. If you're wondering, I'm using version .46.

Step 1

-If you're using PowerRun .30 you need to use McFile and make a directory on your SD/MMC card with the path "/Palm/Programs/Msfiles"

-If you're using PowerRun .46 you don't need to make a directory...version .46 will make it's own.

Step 2
- for PowerRun .30 users - Use McFile and move your programs to the "/Palm/Programs/Msfiles" directory you created in Step 1. When you finish moving your programs, exit McFile and run PowerRun .30. Refresh the list and it will scan that directory. When you now exit PowerRun .30 you'll see all the programs you moved in your "UnFiled" category. Notice the little label on the corner of the icon? You'll also see an asterisk at the end of the name. You can now file these in the Categories you want them in. If you're using a 3rd party launcher even better; you'll never have to flip through that "Expansion Card" category again. Any time you add applications to the "/Palm/Programs/Msfiles" directory you need to run PowerRun .30 and REFRESH the list. Don't worry, the categories you already set will still be there.

- for PowerRun .46 users - With this version if you already have the application on the SD/MMC card then you MUST move it into the Palm RAM first. When you are ready you can run PowerRun .46 and it will Automatically create the needed directory on your SD card. You then switch to the Palm RAM listing using the drop down box in the upper-right corner. Highlight what you want to put on the SD card and press "Move". PowerRun .46 will automatically move the application and ALL of it's Databases to the SD card. For example I highlighted the game "Solaski" and pressed "Move", PowerRun .46 then moved the main Solaski application AND it's database into the SD card.
Once you are done moving your applications you can exit out of PowerRun .46 and use your favorite launcher.
You'll see all the programs you moved in your "UnFiled" category. Notice the little label on the corner of the icon? You'll also see an asterisk at the end of the name. You can now file these in the Categories you want them in and they'll stay there. Anytime you want to add a new application just open up PowerRun .46 and Move it; go back to your launcher and your new app will be there.

Where PowerRun .46 differs from version .30 is that it also moves the databases associated with the application/game in and out of the Palm's RAM automatically. For example... I launch a game by tapping on the icon in my favorite launcher, The game and all of it's databases are automatically moved into the Palm's RAM. When I exit the game PowerRun .46 automatically writes back any databases that have been modified and deletes the program and unmodified databases from RAM. No need to write stuff back that hasn't changed right :)

This all happens very quickly and after having used this on many programs since yesterday I can tell you that apps launch faster than with the built in OS4 method.

**Just like with the default OS4 method you need to have open RAM to run the programs..you can use an excellent program called PopUp Time to check your RAM levels. As long as you have a meg or so free you should be fine.
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Speed up trick for PhotoSuite
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- Read my other thread on using MsMount which I linked to below

- Use McFile to move all your Pictures/Videos to the mounted directory THEN disable and re-enable MsMount from the Prefs screen. This will refresh the mounted directory. This needs to be done anytime you add or delete something from your mounted directory.

-Put PhotoSuite on the SD card using whichever version of PowerRun you decided to use.

-Go to your launcher and start PhotoSuite. All your pictures and videos will appear much faster, you can flip through them faster and big Picture/videos will be cached into RAM as needed automatically by MSmount. This method has made Photosuite very usable. Up until using this method I was ready to delete the thing off my m505 because it was so painfully slow ;)

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This is very easy to setup. Above all, if you use the PowerRun 46 method you can put your games and apps on the card like you expected to when Palm announced the m50x series. It all works seamlessly once you set it up. You'll still want to use MsMount for the really big databases like dictionaries and med books though. The best part is you can use all of this together or just enable MsMount when you need to run something in the mounted directory.

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McFile is used for file housekeeping if needed. PowerRun is something you only run when you install new software to your expansion card. I usually leave MsMount disabled unless I want to use something in the mounted directory I setup which in my case is PhotoSuite pictures and Isilo documents. When I'm done with those apps I just flip over to the Palms Prefs and disable msMount. You can leave it enabled but it's so simple to start it back up I just leave in disabled until needed because it's still in beta stage. I haven't had any crashes though.

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PowerRun has been in beta since last year and the author puts out a new version before the last expires. I believe it expires to keep people using the newer version until it's final.

If you are using PowerRun .30 then you use McFile to move the apps. If you're using PowerRun .46 you MUST use PowerRun to move the apps.

With version .30 you could open McFile and just move all your *.prc files into /PALM/Programs/Msfiles and then launch PowerRun .30 and everything would be fine. That's becuase version .30 doesn't handle all the associated databases with the app...those just stay in your main RAM. To take advantage of version .46's ability to get those big databases out of your main RAM you MUST use PowerRun .46 itself to move the apps.

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If you don't have any large databases then you don't need to run MsMount.

Yes, the default launcher performs about the same BUT..
1) Launcher III is much faster at switching pages even on a stock Palm and Silverscreen in blindingly fast.
2) You don't get the benefits of all the gadgets on third party launchers.

scouter075@mindspring.com