CECT KA08 menu button malfunction reset

I will be posting a full review of my phone soon, but I wanted to address  a specific glitch that seems to plague at least a few other owners of the CECT KA08.

If your menu button does not bring up the applications menu, this might help you return to normal functionality.  Does it beep when pressed, and take the phone out of sleep mode, but still not bring up apps?  It should also function properly when the “home” page is used, so you can see missed calls, read received SMS, look at Calendar entries already scheduled, etc.  This has happened to several people after enabling “fly mode” or “flight mode,” it seems.

****I have found this out on my own, and do not claim ANY inside information from CECT or any of its affiliates, and have received no technical assistance or information from the aforementioned company.  You try this at your own risk;  I have done this procedure on my phone and it worked perfectly.  It even kept my files that I had uploaded onto Images and Music directory.  Again, try it at your own risk.  If you were like me, you’re staring at a phone that doesn’t do much of anything anyway! ****

What you have to do is reset to factory defaults; the tricky bit is how to get to the screen where you can do that, without a functioning Menu button.

1.  Take off the rear battery cover (simply slide towards the top of the phone).
2. Take out battery and sim card(s).
3. Put battery back in (without sim card(s))
4. (*Read Step 4 and 5 before performing step 4) Turn phone on, making sure not to touch anything until the initialization is complete (when complete, the home screen will show).
5.  After the home screen has appeared, but BEFORE it can lock itself, press the Menu button once, and only once.
(If you press it a second time, take battery back out and repeat from step 3)
6. When you press the Menu button the first time, the Application menu should show up as it should.  If this does not happen, you can try pressing the button again, but be careful to press it only once at a time, because a second click will lock it up again. Obviously, if that doesn’t work, try taking the battery out and repeating from Step 3)
If all has gone well, at this point,
a. Go to Settings>[01]Dual SIM Setup>Click on your preferred SIM setting (doesn’t matter as long as it’s not Flight Mode)
b. Go to Settings> [08]Restore Factory Settings
It will ask you to enter a PIN;  the possible codes are:
“1122, 3344, 1234, 5678 or even 0000” –from here. It depends on the manufacture date/exact model.
7. When it comes back to the home screen, you can take out the battery, put your sim(s) back in, and restart.
You should have a normally functioning phone again.

Hope this works for you!  (Let me know!)

Good luck, and good day,
-r-

Google and "Blogocide" — Don't be evil?

A commentator on the Wikipedia article says “”Don’t be evil” is said to recognize that large corporations often maximize short-term profits with actions that destroy long-term brand image and competitive position.” I agree on that being at least the idea that Google has always put forth.  Somewhere between knowing the cute slogan, and having my own blog where I’ve put in many hours just to get it to look/ feel a certain way (hey now! I’m still working on it!), I’m really perturbed by this news from NPR:

Apparently Google has killed off a slew of music blogs-

Google’s Blogger Team sent out emails to sites including I Rock Cleveland, Marsala, Pop Tarts Suck Toasted, To Die By Your Side, It’s a Rap and Living Ears:

We’d like to inform you that we’ve received another complaint regarding your blog (http://irockcleveland.blogspot.com/).

Upon review of your account, we’ve noted that your blog has repeatedly violated Blogger’s Terms of Service (http://www.blogger.com/terms.g).

Given that we’ve provided you with several warnings of these violations and advised you of our policy towards repeat infringers, we’ve been forced to remove your blog.

Thank you for your understanding.
Sincerely,
The Blogger Team

The owner of I Rock Cleveland wrote back: “I assure you that everything I’ve posted for, let’s say, the past two years, has either been provided by a promotional company, came directly from the record label, or came directly from the artist.”
– NPR’s Marketplace (click for full article)

So it seems the artists–and by that I mean the owners of the blogs– never really had a chance to figured out either 1. exactly what the problem was or 2. if it could be corrected!  Very silly, and really much worse than that–I think it’s very disrespectful of other people’s intellectual property.  Ironic, given the grounds.

They do many things really well, Google.  But it’s things like this that make sure that I’m not going to switch from Facebook to Buzz quite just yet! Regardless of how neatly Google would like to “consolidate [my] online identity.”

Cheers,
-r-

Superbowl XLIV

I wonder how many kids bother to learn what those letters in the Superbowl logo mean!

So it’s 0600– that’s 6:00am, and I’ve just come back to my room.  Actually, it’s sometime just after 06, because that is when Reveille  ytaudio(SGnZxcS7VKA) is played over the loudspeakers around here, and it’s really quite fun to wake up to– or to pause and listen to, if you’ve already been awake the whole night!
I have watched a couple of superbowl matches in the last several years– all of them only for the party, and this one was no exception.  The fun thing is, this party started at 0100.  Because of the time difference, the game started at 0230 here, and we had a party at the office for all of us.  We went over to KFC and picked up some snacker burritos, and we’d already stocked the requisite chips/salsa and sodas at the office, so it was a culinary delight as Superbowl parties tend to be.  We had some non-alcoholic Loenbrau (sp?) but we forgot about it in the fridge!  I guess one just doesn’t look forward to that as much as the real stuff.

Being formerly from Baltimore, I always cheer for the opponents of the Indianapolis Colts.  If you don’t know, they used to be the Baltimore Colts, and they left “by  cover of night, during a storm.” Here’s the story reported in The Daily Reporter on Mar 29, 1984. And from Wikipedia, via two cited sources, “the Indianapolis Mayor called John B. Smith, his friend, neighbor and chief executive officer of Mayflower Transit, and 15 trucks were dispatched to the team’s Owings Mills, Maryland training complex at 2:00 AM on March 29 because it was feared the franchise would be seized early the following morning. Workers loaded all of the team’s belongings and the trucks left for Indianapolis. By 10:00 AM, the Colts were completely gone from Baltimore.  Each of the trucks took a slightly different route on the way to Indianapolis. This was done to confuse the Maryland police, who could’ve been called on to put a stop to the move. Once each van was at the Indiana state line, it was met by Indiana State Troopers, who escorted each van to the Colts new home in Indianapolis.”  Logically, the team owner really didn’t have much of a choice and the Maryland legislature were idiots, but that’s all besides the point!

All that being said, it was fun supporting one team and watching them be down and then come back and eventually win the game. It’s unusual that I care enough about any team to actually root for one over another.  It also was just a really great game to watch, with so much suspense and so much athleticism on display.  I miss the people that I’m used to watching games with– or more usually, not watching games with– but I’m thankful that I have a great bunch of people to enjoy my time with while I’m here.
Hope whatever you did in the evening was great.

Cheers,
-r-