#phone prototype

[oldphonepreservation]

The "iPhone SwitchBoard" of the feature phone world: Qualcomm Reference Devices

This is a Qualcomm Reference Device, the example here is specifically known as the "6280 F-US" as noted by the sticker below the screen. It's a very interesting piece of tech, including both BREW and J2ME runtime support as well as having a plethora of debug and testing apps.

I've also included some direct screenshots of the phone's user interface, shown below the photos of the phone itself. An interesting tidbit is that remnants of the icons and background can usually be found unused in certain CDMA firmware dumps of various brands. I am sad to report that "3D UI" does not do anything on this sample :(

And yes, the firmware has been dumped! Thank you again to MC4f for lending this (and many other) phones over. https://mega.nz/folder/DbB3FCAC#2OnBYDiCTt7qQYl9vRJRTA

[glossoholicc]

okay buddy

[cyclorose]

sum regretevator doodles ^_^

[aliennachos]

The main reason I adore the prototype fanbase is as follows

You cannot make up anything that seems "too far from the source material" to a prototype fan

This is prototype mother fucker, there is no level of "out there" that is too far for a prototype fan

You can say whatever the fuck you want and stick some dark scifi terminology in there and literally nobody will complain about it

You wanna write a prototype fic but don't wanna stick to the lore? Well in this fandom the lore is the instructions on the back of a popcorn bag that tells you not to use the popcorn button, nobody has ever followed those fucking instructions

That unstable anemic emo twunk cheated his way out of a nuke. Law, reason, and believability went out the window a long time ago in this wild West of a fandom

[tj-crochets]

Mothmorse! You’re a moth and a horse, I said mothmorse! Mothman centaur of course! Because it’s fun! to! be! a mothmorse (to the tune of YMCA)

Should I give mothmorse some arms?

[awwfulsounds]

Nokia 3G mobile concept rendering 1998 (x)

[cupophrogs]

Please tell me Drew has given CatNap the finger, or some other sort of insult. (That might've almost ended in death.) Shame the last thing he sees won't be Drew's fabulous Minecraft Creeper (Aw man.) boxers. Ú-Ù

Absolutely.

“I think I took a few years off my life, I laughed so hard! Ah… stuff’s funny as hell, I’ll tell you what.”

[bidoofenergy]

to the point of invention

IEEE Spectrum | "The Clean House" - Sarah Ruhl | Phillippe Kahn | Petapixel

[disabled-battlekukku]

Fire kitties

[fabuloustrash05]

Honestly, Ollie’s betrayal and reveal of being the prototype at the end of chapter 4 of Poppy Playtime would’ve hit a lot harder if he was our guide since chapter 1.

[okaydays22]

[oldphonepreservation]

That Audiovox CDM-8930 Prototype Board

This might be a pretty lengthy read since this was originally written for Twitter/mastodon thread bursts but... here goes!

As promised, here's a post about the prototype Audiovox CDM-8930 that was recently uncovered.

The phone board was originally posted for sale without any indication of who made it, though there were a few clues that it was at least a Curitel-made ODM. For context, the vast majority of Audiovox phones made in the early-mid 2000s were ODMs from Curitel (later Pantech).

So what clues were there? The listing photos weren't clear enough to make out any board markings, though the phone came with a box with HYUNDAI and "TX-125C" on it. Hyundai had a mobile phone division at a point, which would then go on to be purchased by Curitel.

The "TX-125C" marking also helped narrow it down a lot - it was very close to other released Audiovox phone FCC IDs (e.g. CDM-8920 → PP4TX-120C → TX-120C). What was odd about this was that there is no TX-125C registered with the FCC…

Skipping ahead to acquiring the phone board, the oddities only increased. The board itself did not have the TX-125C markings, but instead had "TX130C_MAIN PROTO1_4_A 2003_09_17 T130M_03_335" silkscreened around the top right. The question then became "was there a TX-130C FCC ID?"

There sure was. It turns out this board strapped to a piece of cardboard with twisty ties was a prototype of the #Audiovox CDM-8930 - a phone that is not too frequently found for sale online. (photo courtesy of the user manual) https://fccid.io/PP4TX-130C

The silkscreened date on the board helped show how early of a prototype this was - almost half a year before its FCC approval! Unfortunately without a screen, it was hard to say what sort of software was on it (if there was anything on it at all).

The only indication that it wasn't completely blank at that point was the fact its power draw wasn't entirely consistent, though it did loop around the 120-130mA range. Next up was dumping the phone via JTAG, as per usual around here :)

Dumping the flash chip let us know it was not entirely blank! Checking for common resources using MultiExtractor showed the same sort of icons that could be found on the Qualcomm 6280 F-US reference device that was sent in not too long ago.

From there it didn't take long to realize this was still running bone-stock Qualcomm reference firmware! The latest date referenced was October 27th, 2003, which isn't as early as the board itself, but still predates its release let alone FCC approval by quite a bit. It identified itself as "T130CVE0R01.152"

While the Hyundai box nor the included JTAG adapter were used to dump the firmware, they will certainly be held onto. Oddly enough, the TTA-24 plug with the parallel port end does not have all 24 wires connected, despite having more than enough pins available on said port.

It would certainly be interesting to try and flash this to a retail CDM-8930 - but not before preserving a retail firmware release first!

[sillyandquest]

A while ago I posted about an obscure character from MegaMan named Piano, but recently I remembered another obscure character. He's from the Sonic games this time around and his name is Feel the Rabbit.

Here's some doodles, info, and some silly musings about him. See y'all at the end!

To start off, before Sega created Sonic to counter Mario, they held a mascot design contest. Feel was one of many options, another being Eggman in pajamas called Mr. Snooze. (I think)

This would make Feel the prototype of our favorite Blue Blur.

One of his abilities include using his ears to grab things, sort of like Tangle and her tail. I'm pretty sure it was a coincidence, but the ideas are similar enough that I wouldn't be surprised if Feel inspired Tangle's creation too. At least a little bit.

Silly idea, I figured he'd be almost completely mute, much like classic sonic was in the games. Since he doesn't talk a lot I tried to make his ears more expressive to make up for his lack of voice. This idea makes him seem more dramatic and I like it!

Speaking of, personality wise, we don't have much to go on. Sega was only looking for a new design at the time after all, so personality probably wasn't first on the list of priorities. That's just leaves us to guess and make up something new for our dashing little prototype rabbit. Here's what I have:

What if Feel was Sonic's older brother? The person (mobian?) that inspired Sonic to be the brave and kind freedom fighter we all know him as now. Granted, Feel was never as fast as Sonic, but he always seemed to get there before the little blue hedgehog. Probably using his ears to playfully yank Sonic and slow him down a little. Feel was a prankster and Sonic was all for it. Those two were such drama queens and always found someway to liven up the mundane Island they lived on. Running races, eating good food, busting baddies, even stopping to smell the flowers were good times well spent. They did everything together for a long while.

Though, that wouldn't last forever. Sonic and Feel had to say goodbye to each other one final time.

That's okay though. Even if his older brother isn't here anymore, Sonic had always remembered the first lesson Feel ever taught him.

"Even a small act of kindness goes a long way."

[prototypos]

mc01 - punkt (2022)

[adrift-in-thyme]

Being an adult means forcing yourself to get six impossible tasks done before breakfast five of those being making phone calls

[brbgensokyo]

PSVita my prefect mutant, you were best/worst to ever do it