Unlock Codes ?

The following company claims to provide unlock service for Sony phones, including the walkman series:

http://www.unlocks.co.uk/unlock_sony_ericsson.php?model=W42S

Has anyone tried this service with success?

AU moves on to Lismo Port

AU will no longer support AU Music Port. They have moved on to new software, named Lismo Port (presumably enhancing their tie-in with the Lismo online media service).

I have yet to play with it, other than to attempt an installation. Bad news, it absolutely refuses to install on a non Japanese OS (not even with the trickery involved to install AMP). So I will have to play around with this more. Honestly, I am very likely going to move on to a different phone set anyway. The 42/52 Walkman phones are getting old.

Anyway, since AMP is no longer available on the AU site (nor the USB drivers?) I have put up a page on my own site to hold old CD versions of the software. I don't take any responsibility for a broken system if you choose to upgrade from the old (ca 2006) CD versions.

You can find them at:
http://japandarknavi.com/drp/content/amp

use auMusicPort to load music

I have the preliminary write up for loading music.
Please ask any questions, and make corrections. I have not included pictures, but can add them in if anything is unclear. Music Library Primary Functions First, open auMusicPort.From the main screen, select Music Library. There are four icons on the far left. Their function is as follows: 1: Picture of a PC with a play arrow in the monitor - Shows the songs currently in your 'PC play list'. Play your tunes from the pc or phone here. 2: Phone and PC with two directional arrows - Sync function to load songs to and from the phone 3: papers with a pencil on them - I have no clue.. perhaps some sort of tag editor or viewer or rating thing.. whatever, dont need it! ;) 4: Musical Note, an arrow, and a PC - File importing. Step 1: Importing Music Click on File import (music note and PC). You will see a spreadsheet. Above this you see the import functions. Looking at the import features: First is a CD with a drop down bar. You can rip right from a CD drive. The drop down selects which drive to rip from. It only shows valid music CDs in the drop down. Below that is a file folder, and a LONG button. Click the button. You can now point to a specific file, or a folder. If you point to a folder, it will recurse all sub folders within that folder. Ok, so you have chosen either a CD or a music folder. CD: your cd will be ripped, and the file names will appear in the spreadsheet with a rip progress bar. Folder: you will be prompted with a popup box. You are given a few options. The default selection is ALL known file types. the other options or for such options as WAV, WMA or M4A. It's important (and sad) to note here that MP3 files are NOT on the list. Unfortunately AMP only reads those three file types. You will have to convert your mp3s to WMA, or use Sonic Stage to convert them and then load to a M2 card. :( booo hiss..The top section of the popup allows the file type selection (default to all) while the bottom section allows you to choose Scan Whole System, or In a folder only. It should be pretty obvious to you how to use this function. Left button is Ok, right is Cancel So, hitting ok will default to all. Now all files in the folder are shown in the spreadsheet. Its important to note that amp is a bit slow on this process.. watch progress bar. I strongly advise you point to a folder only, as the full scan initially will take FOREVER and grab all those silly sounds from the OS... Now that you have a list, you can choose what to convert to phone format. Throw check boxes in the songs you want, using shift to select groups at a time. Finally click the large square button with the CD icon and down arrow. You will now see progress percentage as the files are converted. When everything is 100%, move on to the next step. Step 2: Uploading Your tune is now in the PC library. You can even play it by clicking on the first large icon on the left (PC with a play button). Go ahead and check the quality. When you are ready to transfer, click the icon of the phone and PC.You now have two spreadsheets. The top is your PC library, the bottom is the phone library (likely empty at first). Highlight the songs from the top list you wish to transfer. You can use Shift and Ctrl click options to highlight groups. Between the two lists, are 4 buttons. One has a down arrow and Japanese, then two with Japanese, then one with an UP arrow and PC. The first and the last should be pretty obvious. The third is "Resetsuto" Im not sure what number two does, but I have had good luck with number on (down arrow) and number two for loading songs to the phone. You can now disconnect the phone and find the music either in the phone memory, or the memory card (be it microSD or M2). The Default location is the memory card when installed. Your music will play from either folder via the Music Menu. You can also move the songs to the other memory area from the normal file menu, and they will be found again when you re-open the Music Menue.

SWEET MOTHER OF JESUS!!

ok..
So, while playing with the W52S and writing reports for that blog, I got curious...

Turns out I was wrong about some things on the 42, AND uncovered something rather exciting!

1: Music - Using AMP, you can load music to the phone memory, without an external memory card installed. Thus, you dont NEED card for music. Loading via Sonic Stage (thus allowing mp3 files, since AMP will only convert .wma and .m4a files to attrak), you still need the mem card. Music shows up in the auMusic menu as seperate entries for the phone or mem stick.

2: VIDEO! - yes.. full movies. Convert them with Sony Image Converter 2 or 3. Copy them to the memory stick IO folder. Then, on the phone, go to "external memory, PC folder" select the movie file, hit option, then select copy/move to memory stick/phone. When the folder locator comes up, select "File corresponding" Then, watch the move by browsing the memstic or phone's Data folder.. You will see a new entry "EZmovie"

DAYM!!

Translation

Check out the links section... you KNOW you want too!!

(for newbies.. I even managed to translate some of the initial start up dialogs.. the important one anyway.. just click past that first one.. it just says "hey, you need to create a phone profile!")

Font Toggleing to Install AUmusicPort

Due to several questions in the posts:
I just confirmed the procedure to install AUmusicPort on an English Version Windows XP.

First, install Japanese font support from your windows CD.
The easiest way to do this is to:
1: go to start, control panel, Regional and Language options.
2: from there, choosing to enable Japanese will automaticly start the install process..
3: be ubergeek and do it any number of other ways you are more familiar with ;)

ok.. so..
From Regional and Language options,
1: assure nothing got jacked on the install.. so, check Languages tab, click on details, and make sure your input system is still US (or whatever your keyboard is)
2: Cancel out and go to Advanced.
3: here is where the fun is. Langage for Non-Unicode Programs... Set it to Japanese, and you will need to reboot.


Now, here is the rub (and thus the toggling bit..) you COULD leave it set to Japanese. This will have the effect of always making AU look right. The problem now is that EVERY PROGRAM YOU INSTALL WILL DEFAULT TO JAPANESE... yeah.. every thing you do after setting this will default.. even if English is an available option in a Unicoded application.

The problem with AuMP is that it is poorly Unicoded.. So, if you change the setting back to English, its jibberish again.. but if you leave it in Japanese, all your other programs (and most especially new installations) will be turning Japanese..

So, to avoid leaking Japanese onto every other program you use or install.. you need to set the setting BACK to English.

Thus, you need to toggle this when you are using Amp, and deal with a reboot.. SOMETIMES.. one you get to know where things are, you might be able to live with the partial jibberish..

Japanese CD on American Sonic Stage

A minor problem if you happen to own Japanese CDs (or music with UUencoded file names):

American Sonic Stage will not be able to read those file names. Thus, it can not load the onto the phone. I am thinking of a way around this...