The Samsung Blackjack is the best Windows Mobile phone I’ve ever owned.

It crashes daily, drops calls and is as sluggish as Pizza the Hut is delicious.

I upgraded my particular phone from Windows Mobile 5 to 6 mostly to enable fuzzy positioning in Google Maps.

Overall, each OS had a similar issues so you can choose either faster performance in version 5 or prettier interfaces in 6.

Living with my aging phone was becoming a hassle but I wanted to keep using it for maximum monetary efficiency. I thought the best way to do this would be to customize the phone and make it more pleasurable to use. Adding various sound effects and backgrounds was easy but I needed something a bit more custom. I needed something that I could be amused by while restarting for the umpteenth time. I needed a startup animation… with sound!

The device already had an AT&T animation with a swooshy sound effect so it seemed I would just need to track down the file format and replace. Easy yes?

Actually… no. It turns out that the animation is obfuscated within a file called “OemAnimationDll.dll”. The sound effects are at least in the open as “start.wav” and “stop.wav”. They are each 4 seconds long and easy to replace if you are using Windows XP with Active Sync 4.5. Vista is a bit more complicated.

Using Vista means you will have to deal with the  Windows Mobile Device Center. A shiny product which mostly complicates accessing dialogs which are much easier to find in Active Sync. It also means you won’t be able to overwrite protected files in your smartphone\windows directory. To get around this issue we can edit the registry to change the pointers to both the animation and sound effects to files with new unique names.

Moding the Startup

Make a copy of  smartphone\windows\OemAnimationDll.dll and then open the cloned file with Resource Hacker. Each folder is a frame of animation, 40 total, stored in PNG format. The first 20 images are for starting up and the last 20 are for shutting down.

Select the first of the PNG items (titled 1033 within any folder) and then choose Action > Save Resource as Binary File. Name it 1.png then open up the image to see the first frame of animation that your phone uses. The dimensions of these files are 320 by 240.

To replace an animation frame simply right click the image in question, choose “Replace Resource…” select the new PNG you want then enter anything in the Resource Type and Name fields. Press “Replace”.

If you try to copy the updated OemAnimationDll.dll to your phone now you may get an error like this.

Unfortunately many system files on your Windows Mobile device are protected in this manner. To get around this issue we’ll have to edit the registry on your phone.

To make sure registry changes persist, download and run SDA Application Unlock. This will also grant also your device the ability to run unsigned code and supposedly overwrite system files although that part didn’t work for me.

Next, install and run MobileRegistryEditor 1.2.

Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Startup\1 and then change the value of Dll to “CustomAnimationDll.dll” or whatever you named your file to.

I’ve trashed your DRM store and rightly so. I’ve scorned your mass acceptance and appeal. I’ve hated you because you were popular all whilst secretly wanting you.

Yes, I admit it… *cries* …I am the proud owner of an iPod Video.

Won conveniently at this years 2007 Employee Recognition event hosted by Mercy Hospital. Quite the nice reward even considering all the hours I put into creating two DVD presentations for the show. Both of which seemed to work very well on the crowd if I do say so myself.

So yes, I am now a dirty unwashed apple loving hippie. Please feel free to mock me in the coming.

Oh and its black too!

My recent trip to Texas was almost perfect except for the surprise dead battery in my car that I left at the airport. As soon as I turned the key this horrible sad lack of juice sounds cried and immediately faded out. I knew immediately it was a dead battery but I just had to try again hoping that sheer determination would start the car. Click, whiiiiiiir…. *sigh*. I think my determination was 5V AC and the car wanted 12V DC so it didn’t work. Maybe next time I can get a determination converter for little emergencies like this.

Determined to get home I started exploring the parking lot looking for assistance. I kept passing “emergency assistance” buttons near the elevators but those seemed to dire to push. Eventually I passed another sign that said, “Need help finding your car? Use the emergency assistance button. Oh really? Well then I think I’ll use it too.

One quick reply and about three minutes later a very helpful airport guy showed up with a portable jumping unit. The car started on the first try and I profusely thanked the gentleman. I kinda hinted at a tip not knowing what to do in the situation but he said it was a free service.

In the RPG of life I award Miami International Airport bonus reputation points for this good deed.

I arrived home shortly thereafter and tried to restart the car again. Click, whir, VROOM. Alright. Maybe the battery just couldn’t go a whole week without charging. I should probably replace it soon anyway.

That very next day Parr and I got dressed up to go out shopping. Click, whiiiiir…. *sigh*. The battery didn’t even make it through that rainy night. Sniff sniff. Time for action… but I’ve never changed a car battery…. GULP!

As previously mentioned in an early musing I tend to get nervous about problems with my car. Mostly due to my inexperience in maintaining them. In fact I find that like other things, electronics, computers I actually enjoy it once I have a basic comfort level with them. So with a streak of fresh purpose I decided to… *dramatic timpani solo* … read the car manual!

Pretty good manual too. It explained everything in detailed with good diagrams and procedures to re-enable the power windows, radio and alarm system once a battery was disconnected.

Next up was some internet research on battery specifications and technology, a car loan from Parr’s sister and a quick trip to the local Advance Auto Parts store. They were really helpful there and pointed out the battery that would work in my car. I doubled checked the specs of course and everything looked good. The new battery was a bit smaller than the old one but nothing too weird. So with a *cha ching* of the ever present credit card and a after a small detour to pickup the EyeToy I brought home our new lead laced, friendly square energy box o’ love.

Next I popped in the new battery and she started up perfectly! Woohoo!

Odn gains +1 mechanical repair skill.

Only one thing remained for the mission to be a complete success. The new battery was a bit shorter than the old one and could slide around during hard cornering. Hmm, maybe I could…

*A-Team music plays*

…shove this altoids tin on top of this plastic bit and…

*Macgyver music plays*

…hold it all together with six hair ties!

I love it when a plan comes together.