Sunday, January 7, 2007

Some helpful hints

In response to some feedback:







This is the cable kit I received with the phone. On the left is the power adapter and above is the typical USB to miniUSB cable. Both the power cable and miniUSB cable plug into the white cradle from behind, and the phone drops in. Neither cable directly connects to the phone.

Cradle PN 42SOPUA
power supply PN 0202PQA

The USB cable they show here looks like it connects to the side of the phone, and would only charge (likely the same cable you have PN 0201HVA). The cable for the cradle is just a standard USB to miniUSB like with most digital cams and mp3 players.

You might not be able to connect the phone directly to a laptop via a cheap store cable to download. I do not have one to test, but I will try to go get one. In fact, my charger cable has no where to directly connect to the phone, nore does the MiniUSB.

Are you connecting your cable to the left side port that has a slide cover? This is also the port where the headphone adaptor connects. It has a lot of pins, so it is possible that it is chargable via that connector, and yet not have download support.

My best advice without having the cable you have, would be to try to get the full cradle kit.

One more thing you MUST do:
On the phone, go to Functions/Settings
Press 5 (user support)
Press 6 (Data Comm)
Press 3 (USB mode select)
select 3 (User Select)

Now everytime the phone is hooked to the computer, the phone will ask you to choose Data Trasfer or Mass Storage mode.

The default is Data Transfer which is only for au Audio Music Port. It will keep attempting to run that program, and will not let you do anything on the phone without it.
Mass Storage mode will make it act like a normal USB storage device, and allow Sonic Stage to find it. Remember, you only have access to the MMC card, and not the phones primary memory.

As for Sonic Stage, I am using Version 4.2 as well.

Im glad someone is finding the information usefull. Feel free to keep asking questions.

Thursday, January 4, 2007

Using American version of SonicStage

Many people have questions about the Sony Ericsson W42S Walkman phone currently in use by AU/KDDI.

I will attempt to dispel some myths, confirm a few others, and then walk you through the process of getting it working with American versions of XP in (some) English.

The phone:
The phone is one of the few entry level AU phones with English menu options. It has a ‘music’ player (I say that because it is not true MP3, it has to be converted first), a radio tuner, a 3 mega pixel photo and short video camera (with sound and lowlight mode), GPS map location (via web), as well as typical schedule, note, and voice recording capabilities. Note that the GPS likely won’t work anywhere but Japan. The maps are downloaded from the web each time you use it.

It comes with 1 gig of internal memory and has a slot for a Duo MMC. These are the same cards used in PSPs.

Finally, a SIM card rounds out the phone giving it account transfer and global access possibilities. Although, I doubt very many places have compatible service providers.

Memory options:
First I few things about ‘internal’ verses MMC memory:
Yes, the phone comes with a gig of memory built in. Without an MMC card installed, this memory is multi-purpose. It stores applications, music, photos, and video. It is the ‘catch-all’ memory when the user has nothing else installed.

This is NOT the way to get the best use from the phone.

It is advisable that you install a Duo card in the phone. In fact, the process I am about to outline for you won’t work without one, so don’t bother if you don’t have a card installed.

Now, considering the fact that the phone is free with new accounts, or a cheap price upgrade to existing AU customers, the cost of a gig memory card (about $70) makes it all worth it.

What goes where?
With your newfangled Duo card installed, you might be asking: What’s the point?
The point is the phone changes its storage priorities once the card is installed. From now on, photos will get stored to the card. They can however be moved to the phone if you so choose, but there is no point to that, other than saving space for music. Video/audio captures will remain in the phone’s memory due to access speeds required to save and play back that content smoothly. Additionally, any music downloaded from AU music source will also be stored in the phone. To review:
Stored on the phone (1 Gig):
Video
Voice recordings
Downloaded songs
Applications

Stored on the MMC (up to 1 Gig [will likely hold more]):
Photos
User loaded music
General purpose file folder system (USB disk drive)

Ok, so you have your phone, and you have your MMC. You should also have a docking/charging station and the installation CD from AU. How do you get this thing working in English, or at least Engrish?

Steps to Get SonicStage to work with W42S:
1: Explore the AU cd
2: look in the data_communcation_tools\exe folder
3: Run and install:
a: W42S-setup1000
b: aupsetinst

NOTE: an alternate way to get W42S-setup1000 is to Explore the CD to SonicStage CP, and EXTRACT the setup file there. Then Explore to:(Extract root)\SetupSonicStage\Device\Driver\W42S

I have checked hash difference and they appear to match. However I am not guaranteeing that they are the exact same file (hard to mod a file without mod-ing the hash though).

4: open your favorite browser and point it to:
http://musicstore.connect.com/custom/promos/download.html
Now.. Assuming you live in Japan, downloading won’t work for you. Notice about halfway down there is a link that says “Having trouble downloading SonicStage CP? Please click here.”

You are on your own there now.. ;)

5: Install SonicStage English version and reboot.
6: At this point, plug in your phone, and make sure it comes up as a USB drive (choose MassStorage mode on the phone)

In my case, I have Music Port installed as well, so you have to tell it to quite that application.

7: Run SonicStage. It should start up with two panels, the one on the right called “au W42S (drive#)”
EDIT: it may start with only on panel untill you get everything set up for the phone!

8: In SS, go to Tools/Options/Transfer and you should see:
Memory Stick/Network Walkman/Portable IC Audio Player

Choose it and hit Transfer Settings

9: Select ATRAC3 transfer and OK out of both dialogs.


You are now ready to put some tunes in your phone. Remember that SS must convert the files to a format the phone can read. Conversion doesn’t take that long.

I do not know if downloaded music from AU is also in this ATRAC format or not.

Getting your photos:
Simply explore to the DCIM folder on the phone, copy and paste. Easy.

Playing your tunes:
On the phone, go to the Memory Stick folder, then Music folder.

Caveats:
Playing this way does not use the ‘player’ functionality of the phone. So, the Jog wheel and screen modes don’t work. Its sort of a let down that those features only work via downloaded music from AU or perhaps loaded with auMusicPort.

AU Music Port:
I also have this working on my American XP. It was a bitch to set up, and took a few days. I did It like, two months ago so I don’t exactly remember how. I also don’t read Japanese, so need my roommate to translate for me. I have not bothered asking him to help me put music on the phone with it. I would imagine that it will convert and load them to the main folder, and thus use the player controls?

Anyway, if enough people request a tutorial on this, I could get with him and we could write a walk through (it might be good for me to have anyway).