Cover for BeBook Mini

As regular readers are aware, I became owner of BeBook mini. While older device (BeBook one) came with leather cover, this comes without one. This being quite a new device there was hardly any choice. One of rare cases was ($24,99) STYLZ’s Milano cover.

It took a while for it to arrive but it was definitely worth it. Attaching BeBook was as-simple-as-it-gets and no button or lever was blocked by it. Only two things that you cannot do with this enclosure were performing reset and exchanging battery. Since I do not need those on regular basis it is compromise I am willing to take.

Cover itself is of three fold design with BeBook laying on one side and another side serving as padded screen protection. Once that side gets opened you get three slots for credit cards and/or business cards. Above them are two places for SD memory and that is all.

For keeping cover closed one piece of leather is used instead of magnetic latch found on most of covers. It feels weird at first but I found it quite good system after a while. After two months of regular usage leather is still soft to touch. Scratches that it gained do not look too offensive and give nice charm to it. It looks to better and better with each passing day.

Only thing that I found missing is lack of placing for pen and paper. If they added a place for few pieces of paper and hinge for a pen, I would be happiest man alive.

Visual Studio 2010 Launch

Launch date for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 is currently set to 2010-04-12. Hopefully release of full Visual Studio 2010 and Express edition will follow shortly after.

VHD Attach 1.50 (Beta 1)

It has been a while since I released VHD Attach. It worked perfectly for me and, judging from comments on Internet, for quite a few other people.

One thing that gave me most grief is necessity of going through UAC prompts. This beta sorts that limitation by having service do dirty work. To make long story short, it works without acknowledging every action.

Beta can be downloaded here. Final version follows in a month or two.

Mobile BackgroundWorker

One of things that annoy me on .NET Compact Framework is lack of BackgroundWorker component that is available in full .NET Framework.

While some could argue that processors are weak and memory is sparse and thus all threading should be avoided as much as possible, I tend to disagree. If nothing else, you should use background thread every time you make a long query to database or any other action that will keep user in dark for more that a second or two.

Without further ado, here is my BackgroundWorker class. It shares syntax with Microsoft’s component so you should feel like at home. It is available for download here.

It should work on Windows Mobile 5, 6 and 6.5 (and probably above).

How to Replace Broken Screen on HTC S740

Due to “careful” behavior toward my HTC S740, screen was broken and I needed to replace it. First step was ordering new screen from eBay.

There is quite a few replacement screens available so that should not be a problem. If you do not have tools be sure to get one with free tools included (case opener, T4 and small Phillips-head screwdriver). Although there are quite a few sets with triangle shaped case opener, I personally went for thin and flat opening tool. It makes job much easier.

Take off battery cover, battery, unscrew four T4 screws behind keyboard and then use case opener tool. Jam it on top ridge of keyboard and circle around it gently. This is probably most difficult part since keyboard will keep sliding back inside.

Disconnect two ZIF cables (top-left and bottom-right) and one antenna cable (bottom-left) from board and gently pull up board. It is held by four pieces of plastic and there is another flat cable behind so be very gentle. Pull backside flat cable out of it’s socket and put whole module on side.

There are four Phillips screws holding keyboard and screen part together. Unscrew them and you will be able to put them apart. This will give you access to screen’s part of assembly.

It is held together by five little T4 screws and one Phillips screw (behind keyboard slider mechanism). Once you unscrew them and open case with case opener, you should arrive to same situation as depicted on picture above.

What you see is metal shield behind yet another four Phillips screws. Once you unscrew it, just pull out metal shield (take care of flat cable and button connector above). Camera and volume buttons will fall out itself - just do not lose them. Little bit of stronger tap on the back of screen should be enough to kick it on phone’s front side (notice yet another flat cable). Throughly clean points where screen was held by tape (all of it should be gone).

I could have used double-side adhesive tape to glue new screen in same place, but I opted for cyanoacrylate instead. Put a drop of it at four red-dotted locations and quickly put screen on it. Hold it together for minute or so in order to allow enough time for glue to activate.

After you are sure that everything is as it should be (watch keyboard alignment and tryout all keys), just put everything back in same order.

[2010-03-04: General clean-up of text.]

[2010-03-14: You can now download all pictures I took. Unfortunately they are not step-by-step instructions but they might prove to be useful.]