[GUIDE] LT18i - Arc S - General Tips, Guides, and Mods

Sony Ericsson LT18i – Arc S

I’ve decided to line up a few important tips about this phone, which may or may not help the new users. I’ve migrated here from a Samsung i9000-GT Galaxy S, so my reviews are based in comparison with the Galaxy S. Overall one thing I like about Sony Ericsson is that Sony Ericsson is looking after their mobiles, The Firmware That the phone was shipped with (4.0.2.A.42 – 2.3.4) is bug less and Quite smooth. Sony Ericsson has even provided a convenient page with guidelines to unlock your bootloader and, They even released an Official Alpha Ice Cream sandwich Rom.
Despite what’s on the news about Sony Ericsson’s current status, I’d say It’s better than many other Mobile Manufacturers I know. This is My second Sony Ericsson Phone, First one being the S700i.

Mods and APK's I posted are for the 4.0.2.A.42 – 2.3.4 Firmware. Please Check that in Settings -> About Phone before replacing mine over yours.


Pros
Sleek design
Active Noise Cancelling Mic
Leather Pouch in the Retail Pack
HDMI Port
Sony Ericsson Goodies such as Timescape, FB Inside and Track ID
Being on the Ice cream Sandwich announced List
Sony Ericsson Retail Headset. You can actually enjoy music on these
Automatically connects over Mass Storage Mode even when debugging is enabled


Cons
USB On the Go needs a SE Live Dock
Camera Produces washed out Low Quality Images
Heats up when Playing a game for more than 15 Minutes (Fishing Kings HD)
Google Maps scrolling, dragging around is Not smooth
When you’re on a Call over the wired Headset, You can hear yourself through the headset
MicroSD cannot be hot swapped



Tips


Root Access
I believe rooting is quite important, and Rooting has never been easier. All you gotta do is visit this Guide by DooMLord and download the Easy Rooting Toolkit. The Rest is Just Click and wait.



Clockwork Mod Recovery
Yeah, this is Important. Mainly because of the Backup Function, At least to me. Other Than that, CWM is a necessary if you’re planning to flash custom ROMs that come in ZIP packages. To get this, There’s a Tool. No Flashing, or Flash Tools are required. Just Root Access is enough. This is the Link and Thread for the Tool. Read the Thread for Guidelines.


Modding System APKs.
Some APK files need facelifts and a mods here and there. The Most Important thing to remember when you’re dealing with Sony Ericsson is that File Permissions matter. Unless you set the Permissions correctly to the Modified APK’s, Your APK is worthless and might even result in a system crash or a Bootloop. Also, The required permission cannot be set when the File is in the SD card. You need to Move it to System\ and then set the permission and Move it to the Apps folder. If you paste it right away at the System\App\ folder, the System Force Closes before you set the permissions. So make Sure to Move it to the Root of the System\ folder first, Set the Permission and then move it to wherever you want it. The correct permission for System Apk’s are displayed below. Many People write it as rw-r-rx and in numbers. I didn’t Understand that, But I can perfectly understand this.





Changing the Font
This is easy, You don’t need third party tools to do this. Browse to the System/fonts/ folder and locate the DroidSans.ttf file. This is the main font that displays everything. Now there are two things you can do, Grab a new font and change its name to this and Paste it over the original file, or Grab the Original file and open it in a Font editor (I prefer Highlogic) and Paste the Glyphs from your Favorite Font. I recommend the latter because these fonts contain extended characters and dialects that might be handy in sending romantic text messages. If you’re going for the first option, Make sure to grab font that has everything. My favorite is the Ubuntu font I used in the Galaxy S. grab it if you want it.



Homescreen and Docks
No, Five Homescreens are not enough for me. Also I don’t like the Thick Dock with those four Shortcuts, I’d prefer it to be Transparent, so that It wouldn’t outstand over the wallpaper. So Going over the Android Development Pages, Thanks to various modders I’ve found the Mods. I’ve made myself a Homescreen with 7 Pages and a Transparent Dock. Grab it if you want. Sorry, To post credits Honestly I don’t remember who I leeched these tips from. This is where I started Reading.







Notification Bar
Seriously? There are no Quick Toggles in the Pull down Notification Bar? That was so disappointing and Heart Breaking. I need those toggles and I use them to switch the Status of Wifi, Bluetooth, and GPS. Who wants scroll several Homescreens to find the widgets that does it or go all the way to the settings page? After some searching I’ve found that someone has ported it. But the icons were a bit pixilated. So I corrected it with new icons. Once again, Sorry, I don’t know who I leeched this from. Its not from a single page. This is where I Started reading.



Yours to grab it If you like it.


Settings Page
Ok, this looks so gloomy in Sony Ericsson. The Settings Page on Samsung Galaxy S was a lot nicer and Colorful. While browsing around, I found the Perfect Solution, The Galaxy SII Theme for Sony Ericsson by thomassafca. I wouldn’t recommend everything in the Theme Package, But the Settings Page is a Must. Head over to the Thread and Get the Theme. You can grab mine from here, If you are also on 2 - 42 firmware





Correct Size for the Wallpaper



Picking up Wallpapers is a wee bit too hard, But then again If you know the Correct Resolution You can make one for yourself like below. The Correct Resolution for the LT18i is
960 x 854
You may Use a Editor of your choice (Mine is Photoshop) to make one. Yeah, In case you need the Megan Fox one I made, You can get it from here.


World Clock
Oops, There is no World Clock support in the default clock. So to get that, You can visit this thread download the widgets.






Full Screen Call Image
One thing more I love about Sony Ericsson. This is coming from their earliest phones. Back then All the other phones only displayed only a Tiny Image. When someone calls, If you have their Picture saved in the Contact, It is displayed Full screen (well Almost).



The Best Part about this is, The Image is actually saved in the VCF file (Contact Card), So you dont have to keep it in the Phone memory. Earlier days, You had to keep the Photo in Phone memory, and It shows up in the gallery as well. Those days are gone it seems.

Even when browsing through the contacts, The image is displayed vividly across the header.



So, What is the Correct Image Size for a Contact Picture ?
Its -> 3264 x 1990 (pixels). Resize Any Image of your choice, and Transfer it to the SD card. Open the Contacts Application and Browse for the Image using the Gallery or a File Explorer. Once You add the Image, You can delete it from the memory.



Will Update - Thank you. !

DeepUnknown said:

Thanks for the post bro, but I have a little question, why does SystemUI.apk needs permission to make phone calls ?! I just couldn't understand why :thinker:

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

iridaki said:

This is the SystemUI manifest:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest android:sharedUserId="android.uid.system" android:process="system" android:versionCode="10" android:versionName="2.3.3" package="com.android.systemui"
  xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="10" android:targetSdkVersion="10" />
    <[B][COLOR="Red"]uses-permission android:name="android.permission.STATUS_BAR_SERVICE"[/COLOR][/B] />
    <application android:label="@string/app_label" android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher_settings" android:allowClearUserData="false" android:persistent="true">
        <service android:name=".statusbar.StatusBarService" android:exported="false" />
        <activity android:name=".usb.UsbStorageActivity" android:excludeFromRecents="true" />
        <activity android:theme="@android:style/Theme.Dialog.Alert" android:name="com.android.internal.app.ExternalMediaFormatActivity" android:excludeFromRecents="true" />
    </application>
</manifest>

Statusbar Service is the only permission it requires.
Where did you get that it requires permission for phone calls?

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Now that's a Good Question, I still dont know how to check the Permissions required by Apps, or to understand what is needed by what. I found the original file over the thread where it had scrolling widgets with another APK that can move them around. They were already in a better order, So didn't go moving em or disabling them. Hmmm...

DeepUnknown said:

that's what I see when I attempt to install the apk file, so what do you think guys?
another quick question, I updated my phone yesterday to: 4.0.2A.0.62, will I be still able to use what's posted in this thread?

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

I never Installed them to notice this, I just Paste them over the file in System/App/
Afaik, System Apps are never installed.

rkanwar said:

Otg doesnt need a dock...you just need a otg adaptor or cable

Sent from my Xperia Arc using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Yeah, That's for us.

For beginners who have no idea about Module loading, Terminal / ADB commands, There is no OTG without the Dock. To enable OTG (for Flash Drives) there's so much work to be done.

rkanwar said:

Oh right my bad. To be honest the only difficulty im having is choosing between arc and arc s

Sent from my Xperia Arc using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Arc S (LT18i) is a actually an Arc (LT15) with a Faster Processor. The Rest is Almost the same.

DerEineDa said:

What?? The Arc has one of the best cameras around. Do you consider these as low quality images? Just look at this thread and you will see how good the camera really is. The camera kicks ass if you know how to use it.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

I can show you the same or better with a Galaxy S or a Galaxy SII. Just check on the GSMarena Camera comparison chart, you will notice what gets washed out.



on the other hand,

The camera kicks ass if you know how to use it.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Can you guide me to the basics then ?