TYScrSaver by the3sky
Now that I have my E61i I can finally start using alternative screen savers as opposed to the annoying little blue bar that I’ve been forced to squint at in the past. Well despite the fact that I haven’t been able to use various screen savers, I’ve still played with my fair share and my favorite by far is TYScrSaver by the infamous “the3sky”.
Recently updated and compatible with all S60 3rd devices, TYScrSaver is a customizable and fully editable screen saver for those of you with some technical prowess. For the rest of us, it’s a very cool alternative to the boring illegible option included with our devices. If you’re already familiar with this app you should note that the most recent variant, version 1.20, adds a much needed preview functionality and the ability to browse to and select a new screen saver file without having to rename and overwrite the TY1.mbm file on your phone memory. Woo Hoo!
If the last few sentences meant nothing to you, then allow me to explain. TYScrSaver reads an MBM file (located in the C:\Data\TYScrSaver directory by default) to pull the graphics that make up the screen saver that is displayed. Just like the standard screen saver on S60 3rd devices, TYScrSaver notifies you of various events and other things while running (keylock status, missed calls, bluetooth status, new messages, etc). The beauty of this app is that by changing the aforementioned MBM file (with a utility like MBMWizard) you can change the graphics that are displayed by the app. Visual examples to follow…
Version 1.20 of this cool app provides a much needed interface with editable features. The older versions had no interface - you could enable it from within your theme settings and that was it! Now you’ll find a TYScrSaver entry and icon within your “My Own” or “Installations” folder (depending on your device). Here you will be able to enable or disable bluetooth display indications on the chosen screen saver and also change the selected MBM file that the app will pull graphics from. So now, you can store a variety of different MBM files on your phone or MMC (I recommend storing them all in the directory mentioned above for best organization) and change the active file as you desire.
To do so, simply select Options -> Select Skin from within the app. You can then browse to any directory on your phone/MMC and choose an MBM file.
Once an MBM file is selected, TYScrSaver allows you to preview it.
Remember that each time you change the MBM file you must restart the screensaver in order for the changes to take effect. This is done by going into Themes and highlighting your current theme. Then choose Options -> Edit (this is also where you would enable TYScrSaver for the first time). Scroll to the Power saver field and choose any screen saver option other than TYScrSaver and press Back. Then go back in, reselect TYScrSaver, and your new graphics will be displayed.
A few notes before you download and install this app. Firstly, it is unsigned. Please don’t post here asking me to sign it for you. I love to help but you can understand that I don’t have time to sign everyone’s files for them. There are plenty of good resources and guides such as this one on mobile9.com.
Next, if you are interested in trying to create your own MBM files there is a guide in the ZIP file linked below. It is translated from Chinese though so good luck! I can provide very little help in this area as I’ve never tried to do it myself.
Lastly, there is a folder with many MBM files for you to play with included with the download. I found it on a Chinese site so all credit goes to the creators. The rest of the MBM files in the folder (the ones with dimensions in the names) are included with TYScrSaver. If you make your own or know of any other good ones, please do share! You can copy all of these files to C:\Data\TYScrSaver and change them as you wish using the directions above. If you choose to store them in a different directory, it should be on your phone memory to minimize battery consumption.
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Jeb
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The method described by the linked guide gives the app a 6-month development certificate that is designed to be used by the developer so that he/she can install the app and test it on an S60 3rd device. As you will see, each dev cert can be valid only for one IMEI.
We use it differently though, as a way to bypass the Symbian Singed process so that we can install apps created by developers who do not want to pay for this service, or wait for (up to) months and months to have their app approved and signed as freeware.
This also means that you should be careful of what you sign and install though! Make sure that any unsigned apps that you are signing have come from a reputable source to avoid any malware (although nothing has been OFFICIALLY reported as S60 3rd malware yet, I have my suspicions about one app that I came across a while ago).
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Thaks so much for the input. I would love to try this app but I honestly don't have any spare time to start messing with this. Maybe S60 will sign it and I will then be able to use it.
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@David
It is odd. I've found that TY1_1 works best on my E61i as does the one in the last picture above (TY1_4 maybe). The file that is pictured above in the first picture also gets cut off on my phone.
Have you tried using a 320x 240 (or smaller) background and placing the images at the very bottom of the screen?
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For the time being, use an overall resolution of 320x87 for your MBMs and I think you'll be happy with the result.
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Well I started playing with MBMWizard and made my first creation - which actually isn't my creation at all. :)
My favorite screen saver so far is one that came with the app. It has two little red brackets that surround the am/pm but the one on the right was whited out for some reason. I tried to recreate it as seen below (it looks much better on the screen).
<img src="http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/6128/ty1ez1uf2.png"></img>
You can download it here. The image is 320x87 so it should work fine on the E61/E61i/E62 and anything with a 352x416 screen (N80/E70/etc).
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Regards,
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Thanks in advance
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While I have yet to do any sort of extensive testing on this I can't imagine this having much impact. I know the N95 is squeezed for power as it is, but I would think this would work just fine. Most screensavers that suck battery are using alot of power to draw something "pretty". That takes processing power to do, this shouldn't draw anymore than the default screensaver seeing as how it prety much uses the exact same resources (a bit more ram though, but the power draw created by memory is pretty small compared to processing).
HTH
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http://home.arcor.de/hack4life/1_2-modi.mbm
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??
hmmm... I think it must simply be a matter of the app not recognizing the actual rez of landscape devices...
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;)
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@Kibou : your mbm works both better and worse for me. There are times where it gets down a decent bit on the screen so I can see everything. But other times it is further off the screen than the original.
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Looking forward to the resized TY1_2 you're working on! That is one of my favs but it just won't play nice on my 320x240 screen.
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Thanks.
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The theme you're asking about is called Jet Black.
@John
I think some people are working on it but there seems to be a bug in the app that prevents some sizes from playing nice with 320x240 displays. If you want to play with it yourself, all you need is MBMWizard which is linked in the original post above.
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Not sure if you're still reading this but I've (finally!) figured out that you can subscribe to a comments feed here on my blog by adding "?feed=comments-rss2" to the end of the URL of the post page. So for this post, it would be:
http://news.mobile9.com/s60apps/2007/06/06/tyscrsaver-by-the3sky/?feed=commen
ts-rss2
Now I just have to figure out how to automatically provide that link when you click the feed icon in the address bar... :)
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Can anyone sent me the dev cert request tool or better the signed TY screensaver SIS file.
really really appreciated if somebody could reach out all
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I have an issue on my Nokia E50 ... if I aktivate the screensaver it firstly works fine, but all of a sudden it falls back to the default screensaver. Till now i have not figured out which event causes the TYScrSaver to disable itself. Its crazy - please help me!
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@all - does anyone know which MBM is used in the very first example and is there a 320x240(E65) version?
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I can use the mLock application or I can use the usual key lock option via the power button. After enabling the key lock the chance is quit high that not the TYScrSaver is displayed but the default date'n'time one. After changing the setting and resetting in the theme dialog it displays the TYScrSaver again.
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Very interesting information! Thanks!
G'night
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Finally got the certificate signed (after several tries) and was well worth the, uh, wait.
Anyways, as with most of the above comments, I'm wondering if anybobody's come up a readjusted TY1_2 for E61i?
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Whenever what you describe has happened to me it has always been due to a typo in the bat file...
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Thanks
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Thanks
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Hi back again ... I have tried to install and uninstall the screensaver (and mlock) several time but no success. The same happens even if no mlock is installed - using the keylock feature of my E50 breaks the screensaver.
Please help - I realy like the screensaver and don't wanna lose it ...
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@Wally I'm really sorry that you're still having troubles and that I haven't been able to help. The problem is that I just can't reproduce your error.
Why don't you try some alternative locking apps - Mr. Lock is a good freeware option for example. See if that helps at all.
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The program looks wicked and I tried installing it on my e61i but as expected the app had to be signed. Anyways the signing process seems complicated so I wasn't able to install this great app. Anyways, great site and good find!
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