Getting the Most Out of Your BlackJack II

First let me give you my opinion of the BlackJack II. I will start by saying that I originally started as a Blackberry user - all the way from when they put out the first 'blue' Blackberry several years ago. I upgraded my Blackberries with each new model until Samsung came out with the BlackJack, which was basically a Blackberry with the entertainment features (MP3 player and Camera) that Blackberries were missing at the time (this was before the Blackberry Pearl came out.) I had to say that some of the features that Windows Mobile missed out on almost made me go back to Blackberry, such as the lack of ability to sync MS Outlook Notes and the inability to copy and paste phone numbers from emails and notes. However, the MAIN feature that convinced me to stick with the BJack is the Internet Connection Sharing - which allows you to use your BlackJack as a wireless modem (with pretty decent connection speed.)

When I started looking for an upgrade a little over a year later, I took another look at the new Blackberries that had added the entertainment features the original Blackjack capitalized on. RIM finally caught on that mobile entertainment was crucial to the success of their phones, so it made the decision a little more difficult than the first time I purchased my original Blackjack. However, Samsung also stepped up their level by adding features missing the original BlackJack such as a bigger battery, an improved keyboard, a bigger screen, and adding GPS capability. Again, the deciding feature was the fact that RIM hadn't found a way to add 3G and match the speeds of the Internet Connection Sharing options Samsung was able to provide by running Windows Mobile. Therefore, I decided on purchasing the BlackJack II instead of the Blackberry Curve 8310.

Although the BlackJack II is a beautiful phone with great features, it does have its flaws. They still haven't fixed a lot of the issues such as the lack of copy and paste, but the phone does come with software to add to ActiveSync to synchronize you notes. After spending hours going through uncountable amounts of tips sites and message boards, I decided to put all the BlackJack II tips, tricks, software, and helpful information that I use in one place for my fellow BlackJack II owners. So here you go!

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Saving Battery Life
The full list of things you can do is available at http://wmexperts.com/articles/howto/how_to_increase_battery_life_o.html, but the following are the things that I actually implemented and saw a big increase on battery life:

Limit Your Telenav GPS Usage Without a Power Source and Turn it OFF When Your are Finished Using It
I was so exciting about the GPS functionality when I first got the BlackJack II that I used it for everything. But I quickly noticed that GPS usage DRAINS your battery life so quickly that you are lucky to get a trip too and from your destination without running out of power. My advice - if you are in a car, use your cigarette lighter charger when using your GPS. Another thing that got me was forgetting to end your trip and exit Telenav after your reach your destination. Even though you are finished using it - GPS will continue to drain your battery if you don't exit Telenav.

Screen Brightness: The brighter the screen, the more power it takes. Reduce the screen brightness to as low as feasible in your light situation. If you are outside in direct sunlight, then you will probably need close to 100%, but the moment you go inside change it back to the 20% - 40% range.

Lowering the time the phone turns off the screen backlight will also give you extra battery life. I have my phone set to turn off the backlight after 1 minute.

IR Beam: The Infrared beam is usually on by default, always searching for something to connect with. Sometimes, depending on your phone, taking this one step of disabling this will add an extra hour or more of battery life to your day. This is simple to do. Click on Menu / Setting / Connections / Beam. Then uncheck the box "Receive all incoming beams".

Internet Browsing: All the while you are browsing the internet, you are putting heavy use through your data connection. You must be aware of the time spent browsing the net, vs how much longer you need to stretch out your battery life that day before plugging in. Browsing PDA optimized websites instead of the full graphical versions of the websites will help reduce the amount of data needed to transfer, which will get you the information you are looking for faster, which will, in turn, hopefully save some battery life for you. Most importantly, make sure you close your browser as soon you are done.

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PHM Registry Editor - http://www.phm.lu/Products/Smartphone/RegEdit/
You will need this utility to be able to use some of tricks I mentioned below. It allows you to view you mobile phone's registry. WARNING - editing the registry incorrectly can cause damage to your phone's OS. Use at your own risk - AskPresario.com is not liable for you messing up your phone.

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Enabling Internet Connection Sharing for the BlackJack II
You guessed it, it is not enabled by default. I almost took the phone back until I found this hack. The instructions, and files can be found on this post at Howard Forums.

Basically:

1. Download the BJ.WM6.ICS.Enable.cab file
2. Download the secpolicies.cab file
3. Transfer both cab files to your My Documents folder
4. Install secpolicies.cab and reboot
5. Install BJ.WM6.ICS.Enable.cab and reboot
6. navigate to \My Documents and click on Certs.cab and reboot

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Easy Mod to help dial Vanity Numbers from you QWERTY Device i.e. 1-800-FLOWERS

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You will need the registry editor program for this one. I got it off of Howard Forums - and it worked on my BlackJack II. The goal is to replaces the AT&T Logo on the Dial screen with a picture of a standard phone dial pad when you are dialing and on a call.

First you need to copy these one of the following two files to your /windows directory
dialpad.jpg
carrierlogo.gif

Then use the registry editor to navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Shell/Rai/:MSCdial/BannerImage

Modify the bannerimage settings and change the file name to dialpad.jpg or carrierlogo.gif (depending on which one you chose.) Save your changes and reboot your phone. You phone might give you a warning when you hit save, but it worked fine for me.

Dial a number, and you should see the dial pad where the carrier's logo was. When you actually connect there should also be a different dial pad displayed.

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SRS WOW XT Audio for your Windows Mobile Handset - Allows you to adjust the volume on your headset. Although this makes your music sound too "tinny" for my taste, it helps boost the volume for the ringtones and GPS voice. You can just turn it off when you are listening to music. Make sure you reboot after installation to get it to work.
http://www.coolsmartphone.com/news3756.html

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