GThing is software for your computer that communicates with certain LG mobiles to upload and download files, install Java games, and customize your mobile.
GThing is developed by Ryan Krumins and was first released for free in 2004 and only supported the LG u8110. GThing was then moved to a pay-per-phone license basis to ensure new phones would be supported. Since moving to its new licensing system, more than ten mobiles have been added to the supported list with many more on the way.
GThing is developed along side libgthing, an open source communication library for LG 3G phones.
GThing requires a computer running Windows 2000 or newer, a supported LG mobile phone, and a USB cable to connect the phone to the computer. You will also need to have the drivers for your phone installed. These can be found on the software CD that came with your phone.
Please note that not all GThing features are supported on all phones. However, all supported phones will be able, as a bare minimum, to install java applications.
Currently Supported Phones
To Purchase GThing you will need to enter your phone's IMEI as part of your licence. Your IMEI is used to ensure only your phone can be used with your licensed copy of GThing. If you wish to use GThing on more than one phone, you will need to buy a license for each phone.
The purchase page gives the opportunity to download a small application called Portfind. Portfind can automatically locate your phone connected to your computer via USB and determine the correct IMEI for use when purchasing GThing. There are other methods to locate a phone's IMEI, however, some of them result in a different number. Only the IMEI returned by Portfind can be considered correct. If you locate you IMEI some other way, bare in mind that it may be incorrect and your licensed copy of GThing will not work with your phone.
Once you have located your correct IMEI you can enter it into the purchase page. You are then required to accept the software license and proceed to the payment screen. Payment for GThing is currently only offered by PayPal. PayPal payments can be made using either an existing PayPal account, a credit card, bank deposit in some countries, and some other methods depending on your country.
Once you have completed your payment, you will return from PayPal to game- thing.com and you will be shown a payment summary. Information on how to download your copy of GThing is in the Installation section.
Further information on purchasing should be directed to the Contact section of the game-thing.com website.
You can download your copy of GThing if you have purchased a License. See the Purchasing section for further information.
The download page asks for your IMEI. The IMEI you enter should be the same as the one you entered when purchasing. Entering in your IMEI and accepting the software license agreement will start your download. Choose to save the download to your computer. You can download your licensed copy of GThing as often as you wish including when new versions are released. Download activity is monitored for abuse.
Once your download has completed, choose to run the application. You will be presented with a standard install screen which during the process will allow you to select a folder to install to and a start menu location to install to. The default values will most often be suitable. If you wish to install multiple copies of GThing on your computer, you can use the folder screens to install each copy into a different location. For example, with three people using one computer and each with their own phone you may choose "GThing Sally", "GThing Peter", and "GThing Ray" as installation locations and start menu locations.
Once the installation has completed, you are ready to start using GThing.
GThing can be located in the start menu. When you run GThing, it will automatically try to connect to your phone if it is plugged into the USB cable and the USB cable is plugged into your computer. If your phone is not connected to your computer then GThing will wait until you plug your phone in and then automatically try to connect to it. There will be a slight delay when connecting from either situation. Advanced users may find the automatic connection feature a nuisance. To turn off automatic connection you need to place a file named "no_autoconnect" in your GThing folder.
Using GThing for the first time can be troublesome when trying to connect to your mobile. If you receive and error message or GThing did not automatically connect you should check the following:
If you have checked all these and your phone still does not auto connect, try turning your phone off and on again, or try resetting your computer if when you ran GThing, the GThing window did not appear.
If your phone still will not connect then you can try these steps:
If you phone still refuses to connect, please check that LG Phone Manager can connect to your phone. If LG Phone Manager cannot connect to your phone then use the Contact page to ask for assistance regarding your connection issue. Detail the steps you have already tried and what the result was at each step. A detailed report will provide you with a prompt answer.
If you with to connect to your phone over IrDA, firstly check that your phone supports IrDA and that your computer also supports IrDA. You will need to either install the drivers for your phone, located on the software CD that came with your phone, or install ircomm2k . Using IrDA will not work with automatic connection so you will need to locate the correct com port yourself and press the connect button.
Once you have connected to your phone, the operation of GThing is identical regardless of wether you are using USB or IrDA.
The main GThing windows consists of two main areas. A folder pane, and a file view pane. The folder pane, located on the left side of the window, shows icons for images, videos, audios, Java, and so on. Clicking on one of the icons access that part of your mobile phone. You can view your images by clicking on the Images icon in the folder pane. The file pane will then show a list of all the images on your phone. Depending on phone model, the file pane may also show a thumbnail of each image for easy location of specific images.
Once you have selected the folder you wish to upload or download a file from you can use the drag-and-drop functionality of GThing. Files are uploaded by dragging them from a windows explorer or "My Computer" window on to the GThing file pane. Multiple files can be dragged at once. The download operation operates in a similar fashion where files from the GThing file pane are dragged on to a "My Computer" window showing the folder you want to place them in.
Once you have dragged the files, the file transfer itself will take place. A small dialog will appear to inform you of the file transfer progress. Once the transfer is complete the dialog will disappear and you can continue to use GThing.
DRM protected files can be copied from certain phones with no extra steps.
Files may also be renamed in exactly the same way as you would with "My Computer", i.e. click on the file, pause for a second, then click on its name. The name will convert to an edit box and you will be able to type the new name pressing enter when you are done. If you wish to abort a rename simply press escape on your keyboard.
GThing applies no restrictions on what type of files can be uploaded to which sections. For example, it is possible to upload a video to the images section. Although this will complete without error, you phone will not be able to use the file and it may seem invisible to your phone. It is best to only upload expected files to their appropriate sections.
Installing Java games using GThing is similar to uploading files. To install a game you will need to drag the JAR file for the game you wish to install onto the file pane in GThing when the Java icon has been clicked on from the folder pane. When you drop the jar file on the pane it will begin the upload progress and install the game. You can only install one game at a time. Phone models that do not support sub directories, i.e. models before the u8360, require extra steps foe the installed application to have full functionality.
Java games have a section of your phone for saving information. This space can be used for save games, settings, anything that needs to be remembered each time you use the game. Each game has its own section. This section is called the RMS database but is often just referred to as RMS. Some games that use RMS will function without it present, yet most java games require RMS to be fully playable. On phones prior to the u8360, RMS entries need to be explicitly created. On the u8360 and newer phones, these entries are automatically created. GSM phones also automatically create RMS entries. To use RMS features on phones where the entries are not automatically created, extra steps need to be taken.
The first option for acquiring RMS entries is to use a hidden menu on your phone to create them. The hidden menu can be access by going to the "Applications" menu on your phone, then going to the "Settings" submenu, then keying in 3698#*#. In this menu there is a "Make another folder" item. Selecting this item creates a single RMS entry. You can select this a few times to create a few entries. If ever you find a game is not functioning due to RMS, simply create a few entries until the game starts functioning again.
The second option to get RMS working on phones prior to the u8360 is to simply overwrite an existing game that has an RMS entry. Any game downloaded using your phones web browser will have an RMS entry. Some mobile providers have java applications for download that incur no cost to install. Overwriting one of these is a feasible approach to getting RMS working.
It is important to note that deleting an installed game will remove its RMS entry. Thus if you delete a game and then try and install on using GThing on a phone that cannot create RMS entries, you will need to either overwrite an existing game, or use the hidden menu mentioned above to create another RMS entry.
It may be required that some games or applications need information from a JAD file. To install these games you should drag the JAR and JAD as one operation. For example, if I select mygame.jar and mygame.jad on my computer and then drag them onto GThing, mygame will be installed with the jad file I gave it.
If accessing the Java section in GThing turns your phone off then you may need to go to your java games menu in your phone to allow the phone to index you current games, and then connect with GThing and go back to the Java section.
Downloading games from your phone to your PC is the same as downloading any file except that the filename downloaded will not match the name of the game.
The customisation section of GThing allows you to replace SMS tones, Camera Tones, Flip Tones, and Success and Failure Tones. This function is only supported on a subset of phones. You should always create a backup of your original tones before attempting to replace any. A backup can be created by simply selecting all files in the file pane and dragging them on to a "My Computer" window shows a folder you have created to store the backup.
Tones are replaced by dragging and dropping a file of the same type on top of the tone you wish to replace. For example, to replace "SMS Tone 1.mid" with "mytone.mid" you simply drop mytone.mid on top of "SMS Tone 1.mid". You should only over replace a file with one of the same type, e.g. a mid with a mid, a wav with a wav. If a particular tone failed to backup, i.e. its backup file has a size of zero bytes, then you should not try and replace that specific tone.
Tools are mini applications that run inside of GThing to customize your mobile in an advanced way. Tools can be accessed by pressing the Tool button on the GThing main window. A window showing a list of tools will appear. Clicking on a tool will show a description of it in a side window.
A tool description should be read thoroughly before running the tool. The description will outline what the tool does, how to use the tool, any possible risk involved in using the tool, and any possible damage arising from the use of the tool.
Once you have found a tool you would like to run, you can click on it and then press the run button.
Tools may be available from many sources. However, extreme caution should always be taken when running a tool that is not distributed on the game-thing.com web site. A tool has full access to your phone and could potentially destroy it beyond repair. Steps have been taken to ensure a tool cannot cause any damage to your computer yet it is not possible to protect your phone from potential danger without rendering tools useless.
Several tools are packaged with GThing and several are also available for download on the tools page.
The Sysfile and Shell buttons on the main GThing window allow access to advanced and potentially damaging features of GThing. To enabled the buttons, the command line argument "-dev" must be passed to GThing.
Sysfile can be used to replace system images and sounds that are not normally accessible. These range from icons for soft keys, to backgrounds used during phone power up.
The first time the Sysfile feature is accessed, GThing will appear to freeze with a progress bar continuously going from empty to full. When the progress bar stops for a long time, you will close GThing, restart it, and go back to the Sysfile section. The same screen will appear and the process will repeat. You may need to do this a few times before the Sysfile section becomes usable. This process is Sysfile backing up important files on your phone so that they can be restored if needed and requires restarts because not all files are accessible and ultimately cause GThing to freeze. This process can take up to ten minutes.
Once you have a complete backup the Sysfile window will become usable and not need to backup next time you enter the Sysfile section.
The Sysfile window is operated by dragging and dropping files onto the window while the desired system file is selected. The window will show you the original file as well as the currently installed file. A button exists to revert to the original.
The Sysfile section should be treated with extreme caution since it has the potential to damage your phone beyond repair.
Pressing the Shell button opens the shell window which has an output screen and an entry line. Text typed into the entry line are interpreted as lines of Tool code. For further reference on tool code, please visit the game-thing.com website and go to the Shell API section. Output from functions can be viewed by using the print () function.
GThing can be operated from the command line with no further interaction. This feature is useful to developers where GThing can be included as part of their build system to automate the install of their game onto their phone.
To install a game using command line options, you will need to pass a "-I" switch followed by an index and the location of the game JAR file. Each game installed on a phone has a unique index starting from 00, going up to 63. These indexes need not be filled sequentially. A recommendation to developers is to use indexes in the upper range and assign each game in your portfolio a specific index. For example, a company has two games, JumpGame and SwimGame, they assign JumpGame index 63 and SwimGame index 62. This avoids accidentally overwriting a game.
The install switch should only be used the first time a game is installed into an index. If you wish to re-upload your game, use the "-u" switch without deleting the game from your phone. The update switch keeps RMS entries and also doesn't add any entries into the games list. Using the install switch twice may, under certain conditions, install duplicate game entries for only one game.
If you would like further information or clarification on any aspect of GThing and its purchase process, then do not hesitate to visit the contact section of the game-thing.com web site. We are happy to answer your queries.