Nokia allowed people to receive 72x14, 1bpp pictures over a series of binary- or hex-encoded SMS messages, and have them show up instead of their carrier name on the home screen. In the 2000s, magazine ads and webpages would distribute them using premium-SMS.
This service, also featuring ringtones, games etc. has been revived, free of charge, by MtF hacker @Manawyrm@chaos.social of the Chaos Computer Club. You can go to Blåmba.de and download all kinds of content into your retro phone.
The service has been discussed in detail at her 38C3 talk: media.ccc.de /
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Nokia allowed people to receive 72x14, 1bpp pictures over a series of binary- or hex-encoded SMS messages, and have them show up instead of their carrier name on the home screen. In the 2000s, magazine ads and webpages would distribute them using premium-SMS.
This service, also featuring ringtones, games etc. has been revived, free of charge, by MtF hacker @Manawyrm@chaos.social of the Chaos Computer Club. You can go to Blåmba.de and download all kinds of content into your retro phone.
These were made soon after I learnt about Blåmba, a Blåhaj-themed provider of content for retro phones running on GSM networks at Chaos Computer Club's events since 2023. There was a dire lack of Blåhaj among these 72x14 1bpp pictures ("operator logos") you can use on the home screen instead of the name of your phone carrier.
This is a follow-up to the previous post (follow link for more details) although I drew these about a month earlier.
I couldn't fit the weirdly underlined 𝚂 in a circle so I combined the initial and logotype. Yes, probably should have omitted the 𝚜 like I did with ⓔlementary.
Flood-filling with a pattern is very easy on a technical level, even Nokia 3410's picture message editor can do that automatically. You lose half the resolution by area (pixels are basically √2 bigger on each side and in a 45° grid) to get a shade of grey. The hard part is knowing when such a sacrifice is worth it and when not (not often for a height of 14) and to guess or A/B test which phase of the pattern preserves most detail. Sometimes you want more complex dithering or even combined with an outline like the glossy FreeBSD logo.
The 3310 and other 84x48 LCD models are special in that they use a non-square pixel aspect ratio, approx. 7:8. Logos in green were designed for such phones and will look vertically squished on color screens, and vice-versa.
I love these and immediately went to dig out an old Nokia to try them but I can't really seem to figure out how. Sending an SMS to register immediately responds with "die Kurzwahl ist nicht vergeben" (number not assigned).
It's not very clear on the website or in the talk but Blåmba normally only runs on CCC event networks. However, if you privately chat with Manawyrm she can fire up her modem on a commercial network and send you the SMS manually. Make sure to know which operator (by MCC/MNC) the logo should be assigned to, you can't store ones for other networks.
Without bothering Manawyrm, you can also try Ringtonetools (source-available program which Blåmba uses) to convert the pic into SCKL (hex-encoded) messages that can be sent from any phone, as opposed to the binary ones that are 2x more efficient but you need to directly interface with a GSM modem for.
Yup. This will not work on Android, iOS or "post-J2ME" feature phones. However, we still have 2G in most of Europe so the old phones can be and often are still used.
These are more like wallpapers (although most phones that support them also support actual wallpapers and often also "screensavers"). The boot logo can be customized on some models by flashing a modified ROM using weird cables and programs that don't work on modern Windows. youtube.com/watch?v=d_LTJYh7bi…
Exploring lesser known aspects of the Nokia 3310. One of the most iconic phones of all time. Help support the future of this channel using SuperThanks here o...
wakest
in reply to ChaoticNeutralCzech • • •WeirdCCjr
in reply to ChaoticNeutralCzech • • •ChaoticNeutralCzech
in reply to WeirdCCjr • • •NONE
in reply to ChaoticNeutralCzech • • •ChaoticNeutralCzech
in reply to NONE • • •Blåmba! - Ringtones, Logos, J2ME games
blamba.dekora
in reply to ChaoticNeutralCzech • • •What a nostalgia trip. I love it. I owned and used 3310 for several years back in early 2000s.
~~How did you end up drawing all of these? Do they serve a purpose or was it just an artistic pursuit?~~
OP has already provided details in the post description.
ChaoticNeutralCzech
in reply to kora • • •miss phant
in reply to ChaoticNeutralCzech • • •ChaoticNeutralCzech
in reply to miss phant • • •It's not very clear on the website or in the talk but Blåmba normally only runs on CCC event networks. However, if you privately chat with Manawyrm she can fire up her modem on a commercial network and send you the SMS manually. Make sure to know which operator (by MCC/MNC) the logo should be assigned to, you can't store ones for other networks.
Without bothering Manawyrm, you can also try Ringtonetools (source-available program which Blåmba uses) to convert the pic into SCKL (hex-encoded) messages that can be sent from any phone, as opposed to the binary ones that are 2x more efficient but you need to directly interface with a GSM modem for.
Mike Kohn!
www.mikekohn.netJumuta
in reply to ChaoticNeutralCzech • • •ChaoticNeutralCzech
in reply to Jumuta • • •majo
in reply to ChaoticNeutralCzech • • •3DMVR
in reply to ChaoticNeutralCzech • • •ChaoticNeutralCzech
in reply to 3DMVR • • •Secrets Of The Nokia 3310
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