New firmware available

Sony Ericsson have released a firmware update for the P1i. Currently it is only available for Generic World 1 phones it seems (although you can change the CDA of your phone to this using XS++ ()).

The new fw is R9J005 - R6F38

When I restored my backup, it didn't restore 3rd party apps though, so the likes of TomTom, ScummVM and WorldMate all needed re-installing. Not sure if that's normal or not!

First P1i theme online!

I've just uploaded my first P1 theme to the website. Titled "Black Glass" it's a nice dark theme that I think suits the phone well. Visit the Free Sony Ericsson Themes page at puffle (http://www.puffle.co.uk/k750.php) and check it out. I'd love to hear any comments!

Google Maps

If you visit the usual link for google maps mobile version (www.google.com/gmm) you'll get a java version that runs on "normal" handsets. This is fine, but there is a nicer version for Symbian that runs full-screen on the P1i. To get it, simply open the P1's web browser and point to www.google.fr/gmm (the French site) and it will ask to install it.
Have fun!

Theme designing for Symbian

Some readers may have seen my previously created themes for the K750, W800 and W810 Sony Ericsson handsets (and if not, check them out - Free Sony Ericsson themes) so of course I am now looking at designing some themes for my new P1i.

The first thing I have discovered is that there is quite a lot more to it- you can now design the individual checkboxes, radio buttons and so on, but these images aren't simple static ones; rather they are multi-bitmaps, so for instance to define a checkbox, your bitmap will actually have to be a 3x4 grid with 12 checkbox images for various states (ticked, unavailable and so on). I think I'm getting there, but SE's theme creator doesn't really give much of a hint other than the image size - NOTHING on the layout! Thansk guys...

Doing some hunting, I found a couple of sites that give a pretty good definition and some examples: UIQ.Com PDF document and UIQ Wiki theme page.

Unfortunately, both the above still seem to lack some of the elements the P1 seems to ask for, but my first theme is almost done and will be available here and on the Puffle website soon!

Vodafone Internet access sorted.

Generally for my internet access I have always used the Internet APN for GPRS on previous phones. When I first set up the P1i for access though, it seemed to be using the Vodafone wap access point - pages were being reformatted into shorter ones with 'next'/'previous' type buttons, the email service wouldn't connect and quite a few websites refused to load.
I've since discovered that the "Address" field in the Internet Connection properties also acts as an APN field, so by simply entering the address "internet", I'm now using the correct APN and everything works! Hurrah!

Welcome to my Sony Ericsson P1i Blog!

I've just gotten a new phone, a Sony Ericsson P1i. As this is my first "smartphone" I figured a blog might be good so I can put all my discoveries and thoughts in one place where I can easily find them, and it might be helpful for other people too!