Wizard ready for prime-time? - 8125, K-JAM, P4300, MDA Vario General

I need a device that is ready for the road. Something with excellent bluetooth support and good battery life. I see complaints and praise for the Wizard and can't help but wonder if it is really ready for people to depend on it.
Impressions?

It's ready for prime-time.
It ain't ready for prime-shipping! :lol:

Not ready
IMO it's not reliable. I've had numerous issues, but two in particularly make it dodgy for travel:
- on two occasions in two weeks the battery has run from ~75% down to ~2% in about 15 minutes while the phone was in standby!
- on several occasions I've turned it on (out of standby) and it was in flight mode. I never put it in flight mode. So it somehow decided itself to turn off the radio - meaning I missed calls and didn't know I was missing them.
I've also found the GPRS to be flaky and very slow (this is with Cingular in the USA). My old PDA2K was much more reliable.

Guys, we're still on release ROM. Just wait for the first patch for the most obvious bugs.
This said, your problems seem rather strange, never heard anyone having issues with the battery or radio before. :?

to simply answer your question; No, it's not ready.
there are still things to be sorted out and things to fix. if realiability is one of your main concerns, avoid the device for now.

Related

XDA2i Problems GPRS, bluetooth, TT3, echo, crashes, etc owow

1. The PDA oftens crashes having previosuly used the phone
2. The TomTom 3 crashes haven driven a short distance
3. The GPRS connection won't connect for a second time without a reset
4. You cant have bluetooth on without flightmode turned off
5. Horizontal Black line across photos in bright light
6. The other caller gets a bad echo when I turn the speaker phone on, even at lowest volume.
7. The last email account added, doesnt download mail
The list goes on. This is truly a terrible device. If it wasnt for the times that things did work fully (rare) and the money I paid for it, it would truly be in the bin!!!
I have read the forums and even after all the hard work people have put in to try and isolate the problems, all of them seem to end up unconclusive regarding the issues I have. I am at my teathers end with this device (
How can the XDA people get away with this, surely they have been approacned about these things? And they say the 2i is better than the 2, blimey I dread to think.....
end rant, thanks for listening
a very disheartened XDA2i user
I recently got an XDAIIi and agree with your post, although 4 is understandable as you shouldn't really be using bluetooth on a plane
I think a lot of the problems are related to third-party software - it might be useful to compare lists of what we have installed, for example I tried out TomTom too and found it ruined the device's stability.
The multiple GPRS connection problem is probably caused by the GPRS monitor program that came on the CD. I had this problem, I uninstalled GPRS Monitor, and GPRS connects correctly every time now.
The camera software is completely flawed, each alternate horizontal line is interchanged before conversion to jpg hence the rubbish quality of the images. Not sure about the horisontal line, but in indoor evening light my XDAIIi was only able to take blurry silhouettes, probably a bug in the automatic brighness control. The camera driver seems to have been sloppily ported from a version for different hardware, and released untested.
The mic pick-up is terrible, and the AGC doesn't seem to make any difference, I get far more people unable to make out what I'm saying than with the plain XDAII. I presume this is another software bug in the AGC.
7 might actually be the bug with all pocketPCs - only the email account currently "open" will auto-download new items periodically.
Also the alarms seem even worse than on normal pocketPCs. As ever I installed WakeupTweak but this time I still missed alarms on a 60s wakup, and had to extend it to 90s.
I have installed Pocket Informant, TT3 (this didnt seem to make anything worse) and have a 1Gb Lexar SD. I did install the GPRS monitor but have since removed it. I think my SD card could be faster, but we keep making excuses for this device.
Re 4, well this was to experiment, as the TT3 crashing has been suggested to be caused by the phone changing cells, but being a Bluethooth GPS I needed flightmode on aswell as BT, which is just about possible but with no definded method other than to confuse it?!? Why the blue blazes they try to force these things I don't know!! I am hoping TT5 will improve this.
re 7. yes i undertand and accept that, but the last one I entered just wont do anything, but not too bothered.
So, as a phone, its rubbish (no speaker phone, crashes, bulky), as a camera it's especially rubbish, as a PDA its ok with wireless in the home, but so long as you dont ask it to do anything out of doors, or even indoors.
These appear on startup, they probably need updating, but not sure where to get the official UK ones
R 1.00.00
G 1337.39
D 1.10.00 WWE
Look forward to hearing about other peoples gripes, next stage with me is probably back to the shop and probably an arguement with some o2 dude.
Perhaps I'm being picky, perhaps I should be happy about giving money away for nothing.
Just scanning through your posts about the IIi. I have had one for about 6 weeks now and haven't experienced any of the problems you describe (not complaining, of course )
I agree that the camera and AGC are not great, but mine behaves itself -- almost typed 'perfectly' there, but that's tempting fate.
I have TT3.07 & Alturion (via a Navman 4410), PocketBreeze 4.3, SPB pocket Plus (+weather add-on)various wifi scanning type programs (I'm a computer tech), a bluetooth neckset, not headset/earpeice and misc. other GPSDash type apps.
Added to this I'm trialling some VITO (navigation/remote/voicedialler) apps and about 300MB of MP3's on a 1GB Sandisk SD card.
My Rom versions are the same as tauria's -- I guess we should all have the same -- there aren't any upgrades/mods yet are there?
The only thing I don't use is GPRS -- don't need it!, otherwise its straight out of the box and saturated in utils and mahjonng/solitaire ( a techies life is sometimes a solitary one :wink: )
I can't offer any advice or help with your problems because I'm not experiencing them, just wanted to add my experience to yours as a sort of balance.
Is it possible you have a couple of rogue devices? or is it possible someone just crayoned an 'i' on mine before sending it out :lol:
Me again, I have rememebered that I performed a hard reset and opted for a corporate install, based on some posts relating to the O2 Active software causing problems -- do you have this installed?
I seem to recall there were several thread on this issue, so I went the corporate route to minimise problems.
Maybe that's an area you could look at?
blackfoot I was wondering if you could answer a question.
I just got my mobile phone number transferred to my XDA's SIM today so have used it as a phone for the first time, if i switch off the device (so it's a black screen but phone still active) and it rings it switches on but it just freezes (this only happens with pocketbreeze on the today plugin) I see the fact that the phone is ringing but the box doesn't pop up.
Is there anyway to make pocketbreeze not refresh its data when a call is incoming ? Or does anyone have the same problem?

does your universal hang

does your universal hang, grind to a halt or become unresponsive when you leave the device for long periods of inactivity?
If anyone has any suggestions other than just about every hack currently known please post swiftly !
i'm sorry to say you're not alone, but i'm happy 'im not the only one...i tought i was goiing crazy
see my thread :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=32688
The only issue I have found is that the backlight does not come on at the level it was at prior to being left ..
Its often on the absolute lowest setting and stays there.
I suspect this is a design feature/flaw to prevent the battery running down in your pocket ...
But it is very annoying.
Other than that, in corporate mode, with all the chuff pruned out its stable, quite smooth and fairly snappy all said ..
*touch wood
In my case the Jasjar is quite stable. But one thing that is driving me crazy is that it occassionally hangs when I receive a new SMS. This is not all the time. About 90% of my text messages are received correctly but for the remaining 10% it hangs. The worst part is that when it hangs on a new SMS even that SMS is lost so I have no clue if I even did receive a SMS. Even worse since I would not know that the device has frozen and so if during this period somebody tries to contact me on the phone I will remain unaccessible. This makes the whole thing so unrelible and is spoiling all the fun.
Regards
SMRZ i feel ya on this
My device is very stable and works swiftly with the numerous tweaks ive done but all it takes is one silly crash over an sms or a hung pda when trying to bring it out of standby and all the goodness and riches that this device brings just get washed away.
I dont think we are asking for much, why dont things like this happen with any other phones like nokia or sony's or even a £25.99 phone.
Why dont the accepatnce testing people in these companies do their jobs propoerly and test the phone to the hills beofre they let it leave the labs.
I've always been at the forefront of cutting technology and there's a heavy price to pay for this. Companies shoould not release anything until it is 100% tested.
I would rather wait another 3 months for something to have all the bugs ironed out then released into the marketplace than to have a device thats so new that it doesnt even work properly
C
@cpascal
I'm in total agreement with you. I look at the stability of my wife's SE K750 and cry sometimes. My Nokia 9500 (Commi) is also very stable but obviously does not have 3G.
I found the XDA Exec has been more stable than my now sold-off JJ. But I am using a Data only SIM so perhaps this is why.

My 8525 lasted one week

I'm looking for advice. Should I stick with the 8525 or get something else.
I'll return it for a new one, but now I'm getting nervous as I read about folks having similar problems with freezing. I do need a reliable phone / pda. While it worked, I liked it, however, the 8525 froze at least once a day, would, at times, balk at making calls, and finally had the phone / internet functions die. It was never dropped nor abused. I did the fool active sync. fix and installed a task manager and a program to re-map the ptt button to voice activated calling. Those are the only changes I made. I am trying to figure out if my bad phone is an exception or the rule.
So, from the standpoint of reliability, would you recommend to stay with the 8525? I do have a choice, and I can change my order from the 8525 to almost any phone. I am considering a downgrade to an 8125. Two of my collegues have them and they are reliable. Any thoughts?
All I can tell you is I have not had any of those issues with mine.
d
I'm probably jinxing myself, but I've had mine since mid-January and so far all is great. I power it off and on each day, maybe it helps, who knows. I've also had the occasional freeze and boot-up sometimes freezes but I think those are normal pda things that you just learn to deal with. If you are within your 30 days and you think it's unstable just swap it with a new one.
Did you install your task manager to a storage card? That was a very common problem of freezing for me... two to three times per day. Since I moved all critical apps to the internal memory I've only had two freezes (this was 3 weeks ago) and they were because I was messing with apps.
i had my 8525 for 2.5 weeks and it works great. i have the same hacks plus a few more, especially the bigger button dialer. I did update the ROM to 1.34 (september 2006 version, latest official) from HTC america's official website. Oh, by the way it's an unlocked version using T-Mobile. My biggest complaint is the not-so-firm keyboard. It's ever so slightly slides out in my pocket... Maybe you should flash yours too...
My Out-of-the-box experience was similar to yours. It froze, the bluetooth didn't work at all, ugh. I upgraded to HTC ROM 1.35 and now my Hermes is pretty stable with only one freeze.

Who's been eating my battery?

When I first got my TP2 the battery life was great. Then I started adding tons of applications and tweaks and then suddenly one day the battery started to go crazy, it would drain in under 4 hours, with absolutely nothing running.
I started trying to track down the culprit. One thing I noticed right away is that my data connection would come on randomly. I'd shut it down, then a little while later is was on again. I turned off all the automatic updates I could think if (email, weather, stock, Windows update). With data, BT, wifi all turned off, screen off, nothing running, the battery would get hot and every minute would lose a few more percent. The phone was at this point basically useless. Because task manager showed nothing running I figured the battery had gone bad, or horrors, some fault maybe in the TP2. I took it to TMobile and got a replacement.
On my new phone, battery life seemed OK again. So, I did my Resco restore but it didn't work because I had password protection on the phone when I did the backup (not the TMobile password, but the one before that you get during boot up), so on restore it wouldn't let me into the phone saying the password was invalid (apparently something I should have known. grrr, bad Resco!).
So, I manually reinstalled everything again, not thinking to do it one piece at a time because I thought my battery troubles were over. I was wrong. Once it was all loaded up again, the exact same battery sucking began, and the data connection coming on again.
One thing I had noticed is that if I turned off TF3D I could see the icon for ESET virus protection running (it doesn't show in task manager). I knew I'd installed it, but because the TouchFlo screen hid the icon I'd forgotten about it. So, I went to that and clicked 'update' wondering if it was automatically checking for updates and so accessing the internet. But 'update' just gave an error message. So I figured the anti-virus wasn't going to be much use to me until updates were working, so uninstalled the application. BAM! (c) Emeril, battery problems ended!
I did a little googling and saw a couple of other references to ESET and battery drain on other phones, so I think that's been the problem. I don't know if the problem was the software itself draining the battery in its normal state, or if it was maybe constantly trying to make an internet connection to check for updates (but because that feature wasn't working it just kept trying).
I'd like to point out that I am in no way maligning ESET, it's totally my fault: 1) they do not yet claim compatibility for the TP2 ( http://www.eset.com/products/mobileantivirus.php ), and 2) I picked up the .cab from a link from one of the phone forums (not sure where or how any more, I have loaded up so much stuff), not from the ESET web site, so I could well have an older or bad version. I thought the software was freeware, but looking on the site I see it's just a free 30 day trial, so it's quite possible I had a cracked version. Their official version may well work with no problems.
But I did want to post this warning in case anyone else runs into battery drain issues.
Hi Iam an official reseller for the Eset antivirus. Just installed a version on my phone, will report back if drains my battery. How quick did it drain. If any probs i will report back to eset, to get sorted. Could just be the patched version. Funny enough the very firts pc version i got was a pirated version. Liked it so much much i thought sod it and paid for it.
Let me know if you wish to purchase it I can do a bit of a forum discount for you. same goes for pc version.
Hi, thanks for helping to try to get this resolved. The software ran very fast and I think could become a valuable addition once the WM6 viruses become more prominent.
The drain was *rapid* I'd say from 100 to 0 in about 3 hours, so if you do have the same problem, you should know right away. Also, the battery got warm to extremely warm, I might even say hot to the point that it was getting uncomfortable to hold. That certainly leads me to believe there were possibly two problems. One being that the software was for some reason maybe running aggressively in the background. The other that it appears to have been trying to connect to the internet every so often. I'm not sure exactly how often, it seemed somewhat random, but I'd say at least every 15 minutes (I would keep turning off the data connection whenever I saw it running). So I don't know if these are one and the same problem (that the software was trying to update and that was the code that was going out of control). Now that I have the phone working well again, I can have the data on constantly without anywhere near the drain I was experiencing, so the data alone was probably only a minor part of the issue.
When I tried to 'update' I got an error (I can't remember what it said). Is this still the case with the current version? If not then I can assume I have an old version and maybe the battery issue is gone now.
If you like I'd be willing to dl the 30 day trial and see what the latest version does.
Several hours later no battery drain. The software should only update itself 1 a week by default and at most every 3 days if set. Download the trial give a whirl. PM me if you want to buy and I can get a cuople of quid off, same goes for pc based one. This is extended to anyone else aslo.
Don't use any antivirus program on your phone. I've tried several antivirus trials on several htc phones (s620, s710, touch pro) and they all showed extreme battery drain. Since then I've stood clear of any antivirus program on my phone.
Well nearly 24hrs later and no significant bettery drain. I even ran a couple of scans. There is no reason why an antivirus should drain a battery, otherwise no one would have them on laprops either. It was probably down to the pirated version you had.
Let me know if you have any probs.
I never used a pirated one, I only used trials (that's why I tried so many ).
Maybe it's a different story these days, might have to try one again some time...

Any one single issue that may stop me buying?

so, i've no doubt that many of you have been using your HD2's for a while now, during your experiences have you noticed any one significant problem? For example, the SMS sending issue or maybe with push email on the battery life is awefull?
What is your single biggest issue with it?
The biggest issue for me was the SMS problem. Now fully corrected by HTC. I'm proud of my little Leo I use mine with email in push all the day, and I've about 30% at the end of the day, using my phone every minute
My only real issue is the ultra slow messaging system. Not the sending bug which is apparently fixed. This is just where it takes forever to load your messages making you wait before you can type and send your message!
Very irritating problem but not a show stopper! Still loving the phone
I get 2-3 days of light use(Dont use it much at work just texting) and at least 1 day of heavier use(sitting browsing the web, playing music etc on the weekends). I have a second battery with me most of the time just incase i let it run out
There's tons of information already on here to help you make your own decision.
The question YOU have to answer is whether there are any deal breakers for you from the stacks of info that is already on here. This thread, for example, is a good place to start...http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=583638
There are just so many threads on here now where people are effectively asking others to make a buying decision for them/asking exactly the same thing. The unique features of the HD2 will remain the same no matter how many times this question gets asked.
At the end of the day, whether you buy or not is entirely down to you.
WB
i've read that thread, usefull but far from concise. I am of course reading taking particular interest in this sub-forum, reading much of it but....
I'm not looking for what "most" people are looking for. I've left this fairly open ended question in the hope(?) that someone will mention what is a fairly unobvious to the masses issue but is a serious issue for them.
I'm looking for something that might be silly and therefore probably not mentioned by most of you but could stop it for me. I don't know what "it" might be but for example it could be that you can't put delivery receipts on a text message ....
I will be using ALL the functions of this phone and I wan't to try to eliminate any suprises!
Power hungry!
For me it's the power hungry nature of this beast. You can actually watch the battery draining right before your eyes if you are using it to surf or watch movies. I was shocked just how fast it drains.
Got a second battery now which I keep with me at all times. Batteries are the achilles heels of these powerful mini devices and I am very much looking forward to the new 3D lithium ion batteries becoming widely available as this will surely revolutionise mobile phones. Sorry going off topic there!
Can't say there's one MAIN problem, but it takes a lot of work to get it set up and running how you want it to, especially if you are unfamiliar with Winmo as I am
Hello again,
I quite understand where you are coming from but the approach I would have taken would be to make a private list of all the functions the device absolutely must have for you to be happy with it then confirm there aren't any issues with those functions through the info on here, sufficient for you to say no.
The key thing you have to remember, which new adopters from other devices don't realise, is that the HD2 isn't really a phone in the traditional sense. Its more like a small computer with telephony and messaging capability added on.
It therefore has much in common with the behaviours of a Windows computer (not surprising really as the OS is a "miniturised" version of windows). What kills it for a lot of people is that they expect it to behave exactly like a Nokia phone which it won't.
For many of us who have used winmobile devices for years, the things that may well be deal breakers for you just would not come up on our radar, hence my suggestion above of a different approach from you to get to a decision point. Being able to tweak the device, for example is a major plus as this gives great flexibility to customise the device. That attraction for me is a major deal breaker for others.
I would wager that there is a direct correlation between the numbers of people new to the winmobile platform and the number of posts on here expressing dissatisfaction with the device in one shape or form (SMS issue aside, of course).
Hope this is helpful.
WB
Indeed it is WB! very welcome and very helpfull.
Been in WinMo for years and very skilled with it so its not a new device to me.
Also spent many years in support roles so very adept at extracting relevant info from a mass of other stuff.
Monty Burns said:
so, i've no doubt that many of you have been using your HD2's for a while now, during your experiences have you noticed any one significant problem? For example, the SMS sending issue or maybe with push email on the battery life is awefull?
What is your single biggest issue with it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont have these issues at all. As long as you dont mind tweaking things here and there, I think you will enjoy the experience.
Monty Burns said:
...
Been in WinMo for years and very skilled with it so its not a new device to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And here was I , thinking you were a mere babe in the woods.
WB
It's a great device, but before buying one, I'd suggest to test it if you have the possibility...
In eastern Europe there were very many faulty devices; was unlucky to get one myself...
thanks but won't have that issue, we are very well protected in the UK when buying from a shop.
If you have experience with past WM devices, then the HD2 will blow your socks off!
I've had WM since my MPX200 back in 2004, and the HD2 is by far the best WM device ever, even with it's few minor niggles (and be realistic, what phone doesn't have niggles?).
Well, my main issue was the crappy messaging but with the latest sms-hotfix that is also corrected! No more issues now... loving it every single minute!
No Voice control over bluetooth
Have had an HD2 for a few weeks now, and while it’s a great machine in most respects, the main deficiency for me is the lack of voice control over bluetooth. It's mentioned in quite a few other threads.
I ride a motorcycle and have used a helmet mounted scala-rider headset with a Dopod 838Pro for a couple of years (mostly for initiating and receiving phone calls, but occasionally having messages or calendar entries read out).
The lack of this function on the HD2 is a major drawback for me, and I imagine anyone for whom voice control is important (eg. if you drive/ride a lot).
Have had WinMo since before there were WinMo phones (HP 620lx, then XDA II, then JasJar, JasJam and now HD2) and I bought an iPhone 3GS (surreptitiously for my girlfriend) to see what all the fuss is about and to see for myself if the device is as good as the fanboys in my office gush on about.
I hate the way it's all locked-in to iTunes and you can't really tweak things to the level we're used to with WinMo, but everything "just works" (wi-fi, voice control, SMS conversation mode etc.)
If the voice control isn't enabled in an imminent ROM update I may have to consider selling my HD2 and begrudgingly keep the iPhone for myself.
Just my opinion – hope that helps with your decision.
For anyone with a previous satisfactory experince of winmo it's a no brainer...go for it! I personally had all sorts of problems years back with an Orange MDA and was slightly nervous about going down that road again but so far my HD2 has lived upto and exceeded all of my expectations. My requirements boil down to:
Must work well with a bluetooth headset in a noisy place (I drive a truck)..it does!
Obviously must function well as a phone..it wouldn't be any good if I couldn't speak to anyone but no problems whatsoever on that count!
Must have decent internet access...it does (grabbing e-mails and surfing all day)
Must let me tweak it to add various apps..it does (6 sat nav progs and still adding them!)
Texts I use very infrequently as its easier just to speak but the texts I send and recieve seem to be fine (and thats without any hotfix applied!)
My only slight concern is battery life but as I'm near a charger all day long its no biggy and I've yet to address this with any of the tweaks floating about.
thats my twopenneth..
just seen the post above me...I use Cyberon Voice Speed Dial which works fine for me but as I have to tap a button on my headset to fire it up I guess it's not much use for you (unless you drill a hole in the side of your shoei so you can prod a button)
Retraction time...owing to a PM from Lordbowl I've just checked and it would appear that CVSD actually uses the mike on the HD2 and not the one on my bluetooth headset to obtain the info about which contact I want to call so it's not much use if you are wearing a helmet!
bzdemes said:
My only real issue is the ultra slow messaging system. Not the sending bug which is apparently fixed. This is just where it takes forever to load your messages making you wait before you can type and send your message!
Very irritating problem but not a show stopper! Still loving the phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This was fixed yesterday!
Monty Burns said:
so, i've no doubt that many of you have been using your HD2's for a while now, during your experiences have you noticed any one significant problem? For example, the SMS sending issue or maybe with push email on the battery life is awefull?
What is your single biggest issue with it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To be honest, if you are lucky you may end up with a zero faults device, but you my also consider,that you may have the sms problem which is not solved as many here seem to say.
Also you may get the pink spot that even with htc fix it will still there but not as ovieuse.
Also you must take in consideration that you cannot trust your future phone for making calls, because some times he does not wake up.
And must take in consideration that you may end up with the noise bug while in a call. plus many littel other bugs that you can live with (extrimily difficult to type,with out faults) the screen is over sensitive......Hope it helps for your desition
Audio Booster
Since the SMS outbox bug was fixed yesterday there is only 1 bug that irritates the crap out of me... Audio Booster needs to be re-enabled for every song that is played using Audio Manager unless you want untouched EQ.
I have tried setting AB & hitting "Done"/Home/Back but whatever I do it still dies after 1 or 2 tracks.
HTC reassure me this is to be fixed in a future release otherwise I would be looking for other alternatives.
I think the HD2 is a fantastic piece of kit but let down by HTC's bugginess.

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