This is a bit of a long, narrative and serious talk. If you don’t like those, better stop here. If you don’t but still find it interesting because of the title, go on.

—————————–

If you read some of my previous and recent posts, you’ll notice that I’m flooding this blog with steps and tutorials on how to modify the appearance of your phone, according to what suits your taste. Majority of the steps are based on my own experience. The steps are what I followed, all the while reading the other scattered tutorials I found online. It was a means for me to share, and at the same time to keep records (a copy of the published post is emailed to me by Blogger).

Before my recent sojourn into the flashing world, I was, what I call.. a ‘phone hopper’. I invented that, don’t bother searching for it. A phone hopper, in my terms, is a person who changes mobiles every 3 or 4 months, usually replacing the previous with a much better version. Sometimes, these phone hoppers downgrade (in exchange for cash), and after yet another 3 months, sports a new one. They usually don’t just purchase out of thin air -they trade in their current phone plus cash for another. They also do research before buying. Don’t expect them to complain about a feature lacking, coz chances are, they already about that before they got it.

Yes, I’m that. Exactly. I’m not rich, by the way.. I ought to make this one fact clear. I’m just.. not as easily content with what I have as most people are. I always want the best.. and the best phones are out there.. lots of them..

I’ll cut the crap short (I’ve said this soo many times in previous posts), ever since I learned about the marvel of online shopping, merchandising and trading sites, I’ve never had a phone that lasted more than six months. Whenever I get a hold of one, I’ll start scouring the sites again, and then again see another phone more suitable to my tastes. The first note worthy phone that passed my hands was a Sony Ericsson K618i. During this time, I also discovered some really useful sites and softwares to make my life even easier. After a few months, like a chronic phone hopper, I realized I wanted a Walkman branded phone (duh, only Sony Ericsson offers Walkman phones). So, I swapped my K618i with a W810i. I liked it alot.. but then again, since I want the best.. I went looking around for a replacement since I found out that W810i does not have A2DP. Sucks right? Considering the fact that it’s a Walkman phone.. But.. there’s a logical reason to that**. So.. I needed a cheap music phone that has A2Dp. I ended up harassing my significant other for a Nokia 5300 ExpressMusic. I persuaded him to give it to me, in exchange for the A2DP-less W810i. You would’ve thought I should have found solace already? No. You’re wrong. You see.. although Nokia ExpressMusic can pass off when it comes to music, I’d still want to have a certain feature that is not available on them. That feature is.. Megabass.. Proprietary, yes? So who has that??

You guessed right.. Walkman. Aside from this, their PC Suite software is a bit slow. Although they managed to make their Messaging (PC Suite) work, it’s still slow, compared to the freeware myPhoneExplorer that I use with Sony Ericsson. Also, SE’s PC Suite had a major overhaul: they changed the interface, so that it transformed to a very easily understandable application, that supports fast file transfers and.. Messaging (just like myPhoneExplorer).

In the end though, I was able to acquire the perfect phone. I was able to again persuade my richer partner (his job is higher paying than mine) to buy me another unit, promising that I will sell all the other units that we have at home. At this time, aside from the w810i and the 5300, we also have a 7360, and a former Vodafone Japan-locked 6630. We decided to strip down and sell all of them. Back to the topic, I went for.. yes.. you’re right.. a Sony Ericsson w850i.

It’s.. there’ s no other word for it: perfect. It has Megabass (Walkman eh?), 2MP camera, flash, radio, slide form factor***, and.. yey! 3G! W810i doesn’t have this too, by the way.

And so that’s it.. during the past few days, my phone, which I fondly call Sirius* changed from being a normal, typical w850i, to a fully modded one, featuring flash themes (installed but rarely used), customized menu icons (not the generic ones), different font and recently, a different camdriver. All of this made possible by XS++, in a span of four or five days.

I might have to say that my outlook has changed, ever since I basically stripped Sirius naked and dressed him up with better clothes****. If before, I will drool and start thinking about how to approach my husband with a new proposal for trading this one:now I don’t. I look at it, comment on his item, post ‘UP for you sir’ and then move on. I’ll look around, but never did the thought about changing and swapping ever hit me again.

Take, for example, an instant this morning when I saw a post about a Nokia 5610 ( one of the ones I’m considering) up for sale on an online trading site. I’d marvel at it.. but then I never felt the urge to offer him my phone (unlike what mostly happened before). Now, what happened was, two sides of my conscience start talking:

“If I get this one, will I be able to modify it like I did with Sirius? Will I ever get to change the menu icons*****, or perhaps the fonts? Will I be able to find something to install on it that can enable it to have Megabass like Walkman?? Can I connect it to my laptop and enjoy texting on full qwerty keypad?? Will it look and feel like Sirius??”

The answer is..

No. Definitely not. For one.. it doesn’t even have the Walkman logo on it.. that’s a total turn off..

Geez.. it’s obvious isn’t it? Do I have to explain it? Or state it clearly? Fine.. I’m a Sony Ericsson enthusiast (Or SONY, in general, I love Japanese technology). That’s it.

Bottom line:

It does help you to be content. Or rather, it helps you to not have anything more to ask. Modding your phone enables you to personalize it, custom-tailor it to what YOU really want it to look like. Yeah sure, you can get themes, and wallpapers and ringtones. But still, in my opinion, not complete. It’s all about individuality. There aren’t many people in this country who has a W850i that looks like yours. Yes? And even if the whole world knew how to mod a phone, yours will still be different. It’s different because YOU made it like that yourself. You chose the phone, you chose the font, you chose the theme.

*Sigh* Isn’t this a complete nonsense?? Bear with me..

————–
Appendix
————–

* Sirius is a character from J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter. For more details, read this.
** Bluetooth A2DP support wasn’t as popular or as rampant as it is now back then. Phones made earlier doesn’t have it, not even Nokia’s N70 Music Edition (forerunner of ExpressMusic)
*** I suddenly loved sliders, when I had the 5300. It’s soo cool.
**** better themes, better font, better menu
***** you can change the menu icons for nokia s40 3rd ed phones thru theme studio.. but.. that’s another few hours more of hard work!