Related
Can these people be so stupid as to ship a device with third party software like Skype, pre-installed and yet it doesn't work and crashes non stop? Could that be? Did they ever think of checking it before shipping out thousands of duds?
Guys, I sent my Imate Jam back and traded it for a T-Mobile Rom, best thing I ever did, a bugless product.
No wonder Imate is proud of their tech support, they can't build the damn things right the first time???
Seriously, if they don't have a fix for in the next three days, I'm sending this back and picking up an XDA Exec. I have twrlvr days left and I have not time for this sh*t.
JusJar skype....
Why getting so upset...., just remove the Skype from you extended rom, use the Total command explorer (you will have to delete it twise.. once for the file and 2nd time the scratch file...) and it will never show up again until the next upgrade...
There are some more serious issues with the machine that we should worry about , but givven that it is a new product, I built the expectation that it take a while to resolve all issues... so far HTC products are the most stable PocketPc products, very flexible and with some guidance we can change alter modify them easily.
In general, I was suprised after 3 days that I bought the machine to land in Japan and this is the first time in the last decades that I land in this coutry and feel very connected. Vodaphone populated their network here it's very high quality voice and GPRS connection (U connection which is 3G). The machine is a bit Bulky relative to my other XDA mini machines, but does the work.. and I would consider it as working .... hop that in the near future we can (with the help of Imate, T-mobile... etc) resolve all other issues.
Genius,
If you read the known issues for Jasjar at www.clubimate.com you would see that skype is listed as one of them. Sometimes a little patience pays off
Hi all,
i read more and more people wanting to sell their brand new exec, BARELY USED... Are people disappointed by it and think it doesn't worth the money ???
I am really wondering what is wrong with it... and i don't have one yet, but i am thinking about getting one... now reading more and more bad reviews on it, dispointment and people selling it after less than a week of use... i am really hesitating to buy it, even though i ve waited it for many months !
What is your opinion about it and do you think it really worth 1000 € ??
Thanks,
Mike.
I would NEVER recommend it for a housewife, but if you are just a little bit tech savvy, AND have a weekend to spare setting it up according to guidance on these forums, it's great. If you do not, you could be extremely miserable with the speed and unacceptable bugs such as BT turning off.
I think a lot of it is people hoping to make a quick buck. I mean, £229 + £8 x 12 = £325 total outlay. People are selling them for upwards of £400 pretty much the same day with just about no risk and keeping a free 5mb/month sim card. Either that, or they just don't need a new handset and are taking advantage of the demand for Universals.
As a phone its no good for me just too fiddily, i use it as a data centre and pocket pc with a seperate phone, for this it is perfect
I think its a great little device. Don't get me wrong, if you expect it to have no bugs you will not be happy but as with all new technology, it will take time to iron them out.
In the meantime, I am happy to live with the minor glitches. It wont take long until the Exec is supported better (and also WM5) and this should be when this device comes into its own.
As for the functionality as a phone - I really am getting used to it
xiasma said:
I think a lot of it is people hoping to make a quick buck. I mean, £229 + £8 x 12 = £325 total outlay. People are selling them for upwards of £400 pretty much the same day with just about no risk and keeping a free 5mb/month sim card. Either that, or they just don't need a new handset and are taking advantage of the demand for Universals.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is spot-on. That's exactly what a few people are doing. Sure there are some people who have been disappointed with theirs, but honestly, what were they expecting? Most people who are complaining are either newcomers to the PDA/Phone world, or they're installing every damn WM2003 software they've ever bought and killing their machines with incompatible software. IMHO
I couldn't ever personally justify €1000 for any phone/PDA device, but for €500 it is an excellent machine. I love mine. Perhaps I'm biased. Just remember that it's an early release of WM5 and there are a few bugs. They'll be fixed in time though and they're not fundamental IMHO.
@xiasma, which tariff is £8 per month? Can you purchase this online?
I agree with what's been said so far. If someone came to this even from a Nokia smartphone I think they could be disappointed, as they are phones first and pda/gadgets/whatever second whereas the Universal is more like a high-end pda with a phone that happens to be built in. Even coming from a non-phone PDA (as I did) takes a little getting used to imho, since I used to have a far more cavalier attitude to installing stuff on my ipaq whereas now with the Universal I need to consider "will people still be able to ring me if I install this shareware demo?". Stability and reliability is very important for a phone, but for a small portable computer I tend to think that features and what-can-I-install-next are key. These are almost mutually exclusive characteristics and so finding the right compromise is a fairly personal decision I think - although it will probably divide into those two camps.
Going off-topic a bit, it would be nice if there were a 'phone only' kind of safe mode on the Universal, so if you do get something buggy going on you can set it to phone-only mode until you get round to sorting the problems, safe in the knowledge that at least the phone will work.
What do you think?
jah said:
@xiasma, which tariff is £8 per month? Can you purchase this online?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's the Data 5 tariff - purchase from an O2 shop, not online. You maybe able to buy it over the 'phone.
I think people are after quick bucks as well, to me the Exec is buggy, not because of the device but rather the reliablities of WM5. Performance wise it's decent even with O2 active, my major issue is I can't get most of my most often used softwares to work properly in WM5.
Size wise, I was really surprised as it's not nearly as big as I originally imagined, it's only slightly bigger than my old IIs. I think couple ROM upgrades, I'd love this thing
I am glad you guys started this thread. I too want to purchase an HTC Universal, but was having second thoughts because of the bad comments I read about it.
I do have one question though, "Is it plague with soft resets?" How often do you have to perform a soft/hard reset?
First, my hypocrisy: I have an XDA Exec, I've let the opportunity go by to return it and I'm probably going to persevere.
Next, the rant...
I think it is a complete disgrace for this product to have been released as it currently is. It shouldn't be necessary to spend a weekend getting a consumer device up and running. The bugs in the software are not "kinks", they are key pieces of functionality that simply do not work. Microsoft, O2, Vodaphone would have picked up these within 1 day of normal operation without installing ANY other software and yet they release the product and charge you for it.
Here are some of my most obvious examples:
* The phone pad T9 entry method does not work. On a clean O2 active install, this works until the first soft reset and then no more. Using the corporate mode, it works for a while and then stops.
* Microsoft Voice command, which has a link for purchase displayed directly on the Windows Mobile 2005 MS website does not display contact information when dialing a contact.
* About the first thing you have to install is an app to properly close applications because the memory management is so poor that you're constantly having to soft reset, or go into settings and close all programs. Ok, perhaps not a bug, but surely within a day of using a beta of the device ANY MS employee could go "oh, well, I guess our backgrounding method of memory management doesn't work".
I have hard-reset my device many times and yes, it's possible to make it work provided you put enough attention into it, but it's supposed to be a productivity tool and yet it's taken many more hours to use than it's saved.
This is the kind of experience the world had to put up with when Windows 95 was launched and I thought Microsoft had finally reached a point where they were able to release decent software (like Windows XP), but clearly they're still happy to release rediculously low quality products.
What I do plan to do is to harrass O2 as much as possible regarding this. Make them wish they'd never sold the product because of what it's costing them to support. As MS now have OEM resellers carefully positioned between the end user and themselves perhaps doing this will eventually put pressure on MS to stop insulting us.
What's sad, is that they're doing it again - Palm have just decided to start running Windows Mobile, so it's only a matter of time until the Microsoft monopoly has been extended to PDAs as well. And the crazy thing is that this isn't because of it even being a nice product to use (bugs aside). How can MS (who have been developing software for such a long time) be so completely clueless when it comes to software design. Reading this site confirms that I'm by no means the only one complaining:
* Nice, expensive crystal clear screen, brand spanking new OS and web browser. Oh, you can't browse in 640 X 480. Never mind...
* No full screen terminal services. Never mind...
* Let's not bother with a task switcher. It's much easier to go through the menu every time.
* Why provide a decent file explorer, people will never use it.
Every time, the support community comes up with nice freeware apps that fill all the holes and on the next release of the OS, all the same holes are there. It's like MS lock all the app designers and developers in a room and don't let them near an end user.
Believe it or not, this post not from an old Microsoft hater, but I'm surely becoming a new one.
There, I'm done...
Dave
It is better than the BlueAngel!!!
I received mine in from O2 the other day and from just running Win2005 and included software, this device really seems to be an improvement over my MDAIII, which I have never yet been able to work solidly in a years's time of playing with it. The build quality is very good. However, my 2 primary 3rd party applications - Goodlink push email and Tom Tom Navigator 5 - do not intall and work. I have been told that the Tom Tom will work if the CABs are transferred in manually, but I have not yet tried that. My Dictionary and Bible programs installed and work fine from their SD chips. But the only thing now is to wait for everybody to tweak apps to Microsoft 2005. This device should start to take off after that starts to occur. However, once HP with their iPaq 6515 upgraades to 2005, then that should be major competition to HTC - even though HTC makes those as well :lol:
There are absolutely, catagorically, 100% certainly, no arguements, LESS BUGS in my brand new WM5 JasJar than any WM2003SE device I've owned previously.
I agree with some points made though, software which works on WM5 is few and far between, and even if you find some which says it works, it may still cause problems...Look at SPB Pocket Plus which slows the JJ to a crawl if you put a storage card meter on your today screen.
My advice is to be patient and accept that because you've bought the first WM5 device, there will be some time to wait until there's software available that's not only "Compatible with...", but actually "Designed for..." WM5.
Very pleased I didn't own a WM2003 device older device then. It still doesn't change the fact that they've released a product with full knowledge that it doesn't work.
In terms of other applications, I completely accept that installing old apps on WM2005 may cause problems. I'm refering to the product "out the box".
daveb1976 said:
It still doesn't change the fact that they've released a product with full knowledge that it doesn't work.
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Click to collapse
What "doesn't work"?
Everything that came with my JasJar works perfectly.
Your t9 problem is not something I've heard anyone mention before. If you've done a hard reset and it still doesn't work, I'd send it back to O2 and get them to replace it?
I've already taken it back twice and it's been swapped out both times. There are a number of people on this forum who have had the same problem. Here's one posting.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=30591&highlight=
I guess it's possible that if I were to flash to the imate ROM it might work, but then I lose my warrantee.
TBH, I disagree with just about EVERY point on your list
I'm certainly not aware of glaring bugs or omissions. Quite the opposite, in fact. I'm using an MDA Pro - perhaps the XDA Exec's extra software is the cause for most gripes.
daveb1976 said:
* The phone pad T9 entry method does not work. On a clean O2 active install, this works until the first soft reset and then no more. Using the corporate mode, it works for a while and then stops.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hate T9 so I've never tried it on the Universal. Then again, with a full keyboard, why would I?
* Microsoft Voice command, which has a link for purchase displayed directly on the Windows Mobile 2005 MS website does not display contact information when dialing a contact.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use voice command all the time and it works PERFECTLY for me. That's well beyond my expectations. Now I can't say I've noticed your issue with contacts, but then again, when I use voice command it's when I'm not really using the screen or keyboard.
* About the first thing you have to install is an app to properly close applications because the memory management is so poor that you're constantly having to soft reset, or go into settings and close all programs. Ok, perhaps not a bug, but surely within a day of using a beta of the device ANY MS employee could go "oh, well, I guess our backgrounding method of memory management doesn't work".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Totally and utterly disagree
First of all, MS are trying to get people away from traditional Windows thinking of starting and stopping applications. They want to give the perception of everything just always being there and ready. This wasn't an easy decision for them, but I believe it was the right one. OK, for all us techies and PC-savvy types, yeah, we know what's going on in memory. But lots of consumers (your mum, for example) don't. And this is actually a behavior of the APPLICATIONS, not of Windows Mobile. Take a look at the developer's guidelines and you'll see.
Also, if you want to *terminate* an application that was not designed to be terminated using the (X) button, go to Settings, Memory, Running Programs. You can close any or all applications there. And that's been part of Windows Mobile since at least 2002, if not sooner.
I have hard-reset my device many times and yes, it's possible to make it work provided you put enough attention into it, but it's supposed to be a productivity tool and yet it's taken many more hours to use than it's saved.
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Click to collapse
That's your experience, but so far removed from mine it's untrue! Then again, I've installed almost nothing extra on my Universal.
[snip]
* Nice, expensive crystal clear screen, brand spanking new OS and web browser. Oh, you can't browse in 640 X 480. Never mind...
* No full screen terminal services. Never mind...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah, I'm in 100% agreement on these two.
:evil: :evil:
* Let's not bother with a task switcher. It's much easier to go through the menu every time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See my comment about Settings/memory/Running programs. You can use this as a task switcher too. But the idea really is to discourage this kind of Windows NT/XP mindset.
* Why provide a decent file explorer, people will never use it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Another brave decision for MS is to try to make files easier for consumers to understand. The idea is
"I don't really understand file systems. Why can't I keep all my documents together? In fact, why do I even need to know where my documents are kept? I just want my spreadsheets to be presented to me when I go to Excel; I want my pictures to be presented to me when I go to picture viewer; etc"
MS had a stab at this with Windows 95 and "My Documents". They have abandoned this in Windows Vista in favour or something more like Windows Mobile's "show you what you need when you need it". All these utilities really will become obsolete for all but the most techie users. My companies products are following the same ideology in desktop and mobile software.
sub69 said:
daveb1976 said:
It still doesn't change the fact that they've released a product with full knowledge that it doesn't work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What "doesn't work"?
Everything that came with my JasJar works perfectly.
Your t9 problem is not something I've heard anyone mention before. If you've done a hard reset and it still doesn't work, I'd send it back to O2 and get them to replace it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The T9 PhonePad bug is described in other threads on this forum and I've found that my device has the same problem. However, I don't personally find this in any way restrictive since the Universal has ...umm... a full, usable, hardware keyboard.
All these PDA/phone machines have been best after several experiments with their configuration. I did a hard reset this morning so that I cleaned off all my experimental applications' legacies and now I'm running trusted, tested apps that work well and bring huge positive benefits.
However, people who just want a machine to work out of the box will find Microsoft's core applications are crap and empty of features. I fully agree with daveb1976 about that. I disagree that they're particularly buggy though.
Fortunately I (and many others on these forums) actually enjoy messing about with the configuration and tweaking the machines to get them working 100% the way we want. It's part of the pleasure of owning them IMHO. Not everybody will share this pleasure, though, and so some frustration is understandable.
SiliconS said:
However, people who just want a machine to work out of the box will find Microsoft's core applications are crap and empty of features. I fully agree with daveb1976 about that. I disagree that they're particularly buggy though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Again, I completely disagree. In fact, of almost ALL the 100s of computers I've used and owned, I'd say that it is less true of the MDA Pro than it is any other computer (maybe except the Z88)
Fortunately I (and many others on these forums) actually enjoy messing about with the configuration and tweaking the machines to get them working 100% the way we want. It's part of the pleasure of owning them IMHO. Not everybody will share this pleasure, though, and so some frustration is understandable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll agree with all of that though
Hmm I'm not sure if this is just my experience or not but I have never had a contract mobile before ..
Always suspected they were a bit of a con/rip off/customer service black hole.
So anyway, I finally decided I need a personal organizer/pda for work and since my employer gets a 50% discount on o2 I figured why not splurge.
Ordered my XDA Exec yesterday on 400 mins cross network tarrif (£15 p/m) and the handset was £149.
It arrived 48 hours later!
Only it came by DHL in an obviously re-sealed box. The unit was inside, no cellaphane in sight. The battery was charged already and despite the courier listing a simcard in the box inventory there wasnt one in there anywhere.
I am pretty deflated by this rather awful service so far .. is this normal?
Anyway I figured, this does not prevent me from firing it up and playing around on the WIFI networks at work.
I have played with this thing for a good 6 hrs today at work and here's my first impressions...
1. Asthetically its lovely but the buttons are easy to press while getting it out of the leather wallet. Camera is always on when I open it up .. grr.
2. My screen has a yellow tint to it. Is this normal? Seems kind of like a crap TFT panel used to look on earlier laptop units.
3. Anything network related seems to frequently cause the unit to hang. Checking my mail .. downloading 500 mails from IMAP took 15 mins and eventually crashed it.
MSM seems to crash a lot.
IE on this thing is quite simply poor. This may be biased by the fact I am a firefox developer .. but it is clunky, slow to respond, PHP sends it into a catatonic state and secure websites just plain confuse the thing.
Lots of crashing. No flash support??
Not impressed.
4. Software. Like, where is it? WM5 has next to nothing useful thats free. I don't believe in shareware at all .. where's the OS stuff? Where's the PDA port of this and that? Very dissapointed that all the stuff I found was win 2003 se only and that was that.
This alone renders the thing a waste of time .. sadly ..
5. Keypad is just useable but I hate the feel. Keys are flat and the rebound is so firm you frequently have to go back and press it down harder to get the right chracter to appear. Its hard work tbh.
Oh and the most annoying 'bug' of all ..
When the thing turns the backlight off to power save, it doesnt seem to come back on at the same level it was at before going into standby.
It comes on so dark you have to tilt it to the light to get through the menus to turn it up.
Annoying .. but fixable I'm sure ..
Anyway, some thoughts.
Generally I think this has potential but it clearly hasnt got enough memory to run smoothly .. 49mb of useable memory? Pah! It reminds me of the kind of things you see on ebay where someone is selling a p4 laptop with 64 mb of ram installed. Waste of time.
The cpu is either crap or scaled so far back to save power it crawls. Jury is out on that for now ..
Summarizing, I DO like this .. but the lack of good free software and the diddy memory and seemingly bloated and clunky wm5 + bugs ruins it totally.
I will probably be trading this in for an XDA IIi next week.
That is if O2 sort me out. As it is, I am frankly disgusted with their approach to new customers! "Lets send em a refurb and see if they notice ..". I even told the guy I was a customer relations rep for a large corp. Like I know how it works .. bah.
That said, am getting 50% discount over Mr. Public. So can't complain TOO loudly ..
- Deleted -
This is the most useful review I have read. Thankyou.
TBH, its windows. It's gonna be buggy. I think they just send these out untested, safe in the knowledge that:
a) Buzz or Mamaich will inevitably patch, repair or find awkward ways around 90% of the bugs.
b) The average XDA user is a nerd and will probably follow those instructions/patches and *happily* put up with the buggy features.
c) Joe public isn't clever enough to operate a PDA properly. The average person is too stupid to realise that their PDA crashes itself. They think they're making it crash and are too proud to ask for help/consult the internet. They want a PDA 'cos all their work buddies have them and it makes them look important, using it for little more than checking emails occasionally.
d) Microsoft/HTC know that the kind of person who buys these PDA/phones is the kind of person who will always want the newest gadget, and so will forget about the bugs/issues as soon as the new XDA is released (with its own host of problems). Why bother fixing it when in a few months it will be old news and people will have something new to complain about.
PS, 02 gave me a refurb XDA2s when the insurance replacement they sent me was faulty. It works fine which only around 25% do so I'd rther put up with a refurb than complain and have a 75% chance of the brand new one they send me being faulty.
Sending this on the exec ..
I kinda figured o2 would be light on customer consideration. Hehe.
The phone I got appears to be alright now tbh. I have hard reset to corporate and it is light years smoother. In fact it hasn't crashed once in the last 4 hours!
Performance is fine now too. Still not as fast as you'dd like but it certainly feels more responsive.
I AM A DUMB ASS. The sim was in the box, it had been tossed in loose and was wedged between the user manual compartment lid and the inner structure of that fruity pandora's box.
I'm VERY impressed with the battery life so far.. Talking hours. Neato.
Of course the complete lack of developer interest/support in this version of winblows means i'll still not be keeping it unfortunately. Only Microsoft would release a next gen pda os and NOT include binary compatibility either natively or virtually.
So far haven't found a good free irc client that works. All either pay-for-fun or 2003se only. Bummer.
I have now decided the keyboard is useless. That + the wm5 software absentism means I might either trade for a 2003 xda or buy an IPAQ. Since they seem to have a vast quantity of stuff available: Including a LINUX distro.
With regards the keyboard.. Why the f00 they didn't consider half the number of keys correctly aligned and reasonably proportioned ... who knows. Maybe its like you say, this technology is just blingware and nobody seriously expected people to sit down and type a post like this one. Which, incidentally I am doing with the stylus!
Anyway my hand/neck/wrists hurt already.
Must decist for now.
gubbs said:
Hmm I'm not sure if this is just my experience or not but
3. Anything network related seems to frequently cause the unit to hang. Checking my mail .. downloading 500 mails from IMAP took 15 mins and eventually crashed it.
That said, am getting 50% discount over Mr. Public. So can't complain TOO loudly ..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
500 mails.. Wow!
Huib
My JJ crahes when downloading POP email, usually when I am using 3G.
I have to say the ergonmics of the JJ/Exec are mixed. But for me the keyboard is fantastic; typed for 2 x 30 minutes on the train.
for it is great
I have had mine three weeks and it is excellent.
The screen is clear and all functions work great.
I did not load the standard settings as this gives all the o2 stuff that slows it down.
Loaded spb pockect plus which gives as many features as i need.
i believe you have a returned unit.
I have purchased three phones from o2, the XDA, XDA11s and now the Exec and i have always had everything boxed and sealed the battery is normally partialy charged which is standard these days.
Your comments are the same as a friend of mine who ordered the T mobile option and his arrived like yours i told him to return it that day.
He contacted T mobile and his replacement arrived today boxed correctly and perfectly happy with it.
You have a 14 day return policy which some people seem to find a good way of ordering the phone playing around with it and then sending it back under the policy. This then will go back out to a new purchaser as O2 believe it is just a return as the customer did not find it to be what they wanted.
My advice would be return it now, tell o2 you are not happy as the box was resealed they will send yoiu a replacement probable overnight.
clive
How on earth did you get that Tarrif??
'Ordered my XDA Exec yesterday on 400 mins cross network tarrif (£15 p/m) and the handset was £149.'
I have not seen this anywhere and iot sounds great?
Hmm ok, well I'll get on to o2 in a few mins. Have a cup of tea first - has been a long morning.
Reg. the tarrif it's o2 200 + free double minutes for six months.
It would normally be £30 a month but my employer staff contracts afford a (generous) 50% discount.
The handset is marked the same on the public o2 website ... £149? I don't think I got any reductions on that.
BTW I am typing this on the keyboard today and would like to admit as long as the surface you have it on is very level and very firm (ie not your knee or briefcase lid) then its not so bad.
I also need to google and find out what spb pocket plus is ..
Also you know, I am a pda n00b. I'm sure a lot of what I have said is entirely because I haven't sufficient experience with this technology. I don't pretend to be giving anything more than as-is impressions.
Ok. Spoke to a nice lady at O2 - I think we had chemistry or something - cos she called me 'hun' and arranged for a replacement (new) handset straight away and bunged me £10 off my first bill.
Sweet.
I took it to my manager at work today who I know owns an XDAii and who is a SUPER Geek (tm). He informed me I am not using the keyboard right .. you have to hold it in your hands and type using your thumbs.
Doing this, with autocomplete by tapping the screen with a thumbnail produces some pretty impressive and speedy typing.
I also compared the screen to the one on his XDAii and frankly, it is noticeably smoother. Also in comparrisson the unit weighs in it's case practically the SAME amount as an XDAii (in real world tests not on paper I'm sure). It also found more networks on wifi, quicker than his XDAii and he has announced he wants one. Which would suggest, from a long term XDAii user, that these are a step up from that model. Well either that or he's viciously insecure, competative and fickle. I did say manager didn't I?
All in all, its OK. I seem to get it very grimey tho. Must get some wipes.
I'll be posting a proper, intelligent, considered, non-reflex review on here next week when I get it up and running. I'll also be taking the pictures with the camera and what not ..
Thanks, helpful opinions and info. Ordered mine from O2 on Friday, just watiting for it to arrive
M.
I've had mine about 2 weeks now and at first I wasn't that impressed. It was mainly that speed that annoyed me, but that's sorted now.
I did a basic install and removed all the O2 crap, well, I tried but it failed on the remove, so I deleted the relevant program from the startup and it's all good now. I went back to the Windows default theme as well.
I've got Resco File Explorer, MagicButton running and GSPocketMagic++, though all the features for GSPocketMagic++ are turned off (just having it installed makes it quicker, which is odd).
Screen flips are now down to under 2 seconds, which I think is reasonable. It now responds instantly to screen taps, whereas before it would have a delay of a second or so.
I installed spb pocketplus for a while but found it really slowed my system down. I think it was the battery monitor on the today screen that did it. It's now uninstalled and the thing flies.
All I need to do now is get some kind of navigation sorted and I'm fully happy. I think it's way better than my old XDA2.
So, which install should I do then, basic or corporate?
Thanks
M.
lol gubbs @ your thoughts and experiences.
The sad truth is that many of us get so much pleasure out of just owning a machine like the Exec that we're prepared to overlook its flaws, of which there are (to be honest) many. I love mine, but you're right: there's sod-all software available yet that is 100% compatible (and I mean properly compatible, not just "well, we think it works but it might slow your machine down a bit: try it and let us know how you get on"), and WM5 is horribly crippled by a lack of feature-rich functionality.
There is a halo effect on the Exec caused by its position at the cutting edge of Windows-based phone/PDA models. We think we have the best machines available.
IMHO there are three groups of Exec users:
- technologically ignorant users who use it exactly as O2 intended. Will be either happy or ambivalent about it
- geeks who love to tweak. (I'm in this group.) We, with this website, will work on the damn thing until we're happy with it, and this is part of the satisfaction and pleasure of ownership. Are already happy with their Exec because it's the best money can buy, and we overlook its little faults.
- newcomers who've previously owned a Palm/Treo/whatever. Will generally be disappointed with the Exec because it's different from what they're used to and will seem slow/crippled/buggy. Might become happy in time, but more likely to return unit and swear they'll never touch Windows Mobile again.
gubbs, I'd guess you were in the third group when you first posted here, but now you're moving towards the second group. I reckon you'll be a-tweakin' and a-moddin' with the rest of 'em within weeks! Then (and only then) will you love your Exec.
I agree.
After spending 10 months with the XDA 2s I couldn't go back to a "normal" phone. I've had PDAs since before they were called PDAs - this was my first one - http://tinyurl.com/cyhjo
Yes, I have to reboot it most days, and yes it does some odd stuff, but in general it's been an amazing device.
It's in for repair (lose keyboard) and I'm using an old Nokia 6600 while I wait for my Exec to arrive. I've only been without of for 3 days and it's been like losing my right arm!
M.
Hi All,
This phone seems to be developing more problems every day! Perhaps it is because I have loaded Voice Command 1.6 but it now randomly (or so it seems) shuts down bluetooth without a warning so that I can't receive calls on my headset.
Add the screen alignment issue which I tried to fix unsuccessfully with the business card, still no bluetooth for voice dialing with VC 1.6 and the following and I wonder is it worth it at all?
Only some names are displayed when calls come in. Many callers only have number displayed even though they are in the phone book.
Phone is often very slow although I don't have a lot of programs loaded. Soft reset seems to help but I haven't tested it extensively. Most annoying is dialing as a 1 second lag while dialing numbers becomes very irritating after a while.
I can't get it to synchronise with my laptop even though both are enabled and it goes some way towards it.
I had my first handheld nearly ten years ago. They really haven't moved on enough in that time I think. Is it acceptable for a company to put out a product that costs megabucks but still requires one to be a geek and spend hours on the net finding solutions to all the problems on it?
broadband155 said:
Hi All,
This phone seems to be developing more problems every day! Perhaps it is because I have loaded Voice Command 1.6 but it now randomly (or so it seems) shuts down bluetooth without a warning so that I can't receive calls on my headset.
Add the screen alignment issue which I tried to fix unsuccessfully with the business card, still no bluetooth for voice dialing with VC 1.6 and the following and I wonder is it worth it at all?
Only some names are displayed when calls come in. Many callers only have number displayed even though they are in the phone book.
Phone is often very slow although I don't have a lot of programs loaded. Soft reset seems to help but I haven't tested it extensively. Most annoying is dialing as a 1 second lag while dialing numbers becomes very irritating after a while.
I can't get it to synchronise with my laptop even though both are enabled and it goes some way towards it.
I had my first handheld nearly ten years ago. They really haven't moved on enough in that time I think. Is it acceptable for a company to put out a product that costs megabucks but still requires one to be a geek and spend hours on the net finding solutions to all the problems on it?
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Click to collapse
Neil
Whilst there are elements of truth in what you say, I think the lesson here is - if you want stability and reliability and don't have the time for patience or the "developers" instinct, then steer clear of cutting edge technology or the latest gasgets combining a variety of technologies.
I could certainly say I'd be guaranteed a more reliable simple and straightforward phone if I used my old nokia 3100. I would probably say a paper notebook would be quicker on occasion than whipping out the old PDA. If I want to do something on Excel, I'd be better advised to wait 'til I get to the office and so on. BUT for a mix of entertainment and a range of features to help me out from time to time, along with the enjoyment of trying out new things, I'd go for Hermes. In 6 months things will have moved on again, many things will have been sorted out for Hermes but some new gadget will be out next season along with a whole new set of issues. You either enjoy this and don't expect things to ever achieve perfection, or you opt out of the technology race. Change it seems to me is now so rapid, many will question whether it's worth buying the latest technolgy cos before it's even on the shelves it'll have been superceded by the next pre-release models. I can see the rate of customer disatisfaction with new technology rising and rising as companies are forced to release things far too early in order not to loose the superfast moving market. Sky digital being a case in point in the UK with thousands of digital boxes being returned as not functioning. Some folks now being on their 5th or 6th digibox already in the space of a couple of months.
Nuf said
Mike
Hi Mike,
Thanks for your reply. I hear you and I do agree to an extent. The problem I have with it is that it isn't only guys like me who buy these devices. I am somewhere in the middle, between an early adopter and a neophyte. I know lots of guys who are neophytes and have bought these things over the years. They don't come with a geek warning nor do they offer any sort of solution in many cases to the operational problems. The guy who buys a device like this does so because he thinks it will work. It is enough of a challenge to figure out how to use the basic functions. He isn't interested in becoming a technology guru in order to solve the problems.
As I said before, I bought my first handheld a long time ago. (HP 620LX) While the market moves on very quickly, I believe there is still a place for mature technology. The 620 was buggy then and the TyTN is buggy now. What about a device that does the fundamental things well? Perhaps they are all over the place and I bought the wrong one. I still think the screen alignment issue is unforgiveable though.
I agree with what Mike said about staying out of the firing line or the cutting edge as he put it. I believe I am more neophyte than most people here, yet I buy into these things for the enjoyment of having to find solutions to the now expected problems with cutting edge all-singing all-dancing devices...or maybe I'm just a masochist?
broadband155 said:
Hi Mike,
Thanks for your reply. I hear you and I do agree to an extent. The problem I have with it is that it isn't only guys like me who buy these devices. I am somewhere in the middle, between an early adopter and a neophyte. I know lots of guys who are neophytes and have bought these things over the years. They don't come with a geek warning nor do they offer any sort of solution in many cases to the operational problems. The guy who buys a device like this does so because he thinks it will work. It is enough of a challenge to figure out how to use the basic functions. He isn't interested in becoming a technology guru in order to solve the problems.
As I said before, I bought my first handheld a long time ago. (HP 620LX) While the market moves on very quickly, I believe there is still a place for mature technology. The 620 was buggy then and the TyTN is buggy now. What about a device that does the fundamental things well? Perhaps they are all over the place and I bought the wrong one. I still think the screen alignment issue is unforgiveable though.
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Click to collapse
I certainly agree with you regarding screen alignment problem, that's unforgivably poor design as is the loose stylus and loose keyboard.
Mike
mikechannon said:
Neil
Whilst there are elements of truth in what you say, I think the lesson here is - if you want stability and reliability and don't have the time for patience or the "developers" instinct, then steer clear of cutting edge technology or the latest gasgets combining a variety of technologies.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uh, no. No, no, no!
Sorry, that's not how it works. Nope! No siree!
You sell a device on the open market, and it had better be reliable, bug free, and within a certain reliability matrix. A lot of devices are falling outside that range, and the manufacturers are finding themselves in court as a result.
For example, Palm is currently in the middle of a class action lawsuit, over the poor build quality of their Treo 600 and 650s.
Caveat emptor? Sure, but only to a point. Every single democracy in the world has some form of judicially established, and in many cases legislatively established, understanding of quality as a requirement.
BRad Barnett said:
Uh, no. No, no, no!
Sorry, that's not how it works. Nope! No siree!
You sell a device on the open market, and it had better be reliable, bug free, and within a certain reliability matrix. A lot of devices are falling outside that range, and the manufacturers are finding themselves in court as a result.
For example, Palm is currently in the middle of a class action lawsuit, over the poor build quality of their Treo 600 and 650s.
Caveat emptor? Sure, but only to a point. Every single democracy in the world has some form of judicially established, and in many cases legislatively established, understanding of quality as a requirement.
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Click to collapse
I know what you are saying but it IS what is happening as you acknowledge (despite the "Sorry, that's not how it works. Nope! No siree!") and indeed there may be quite a few legal cases brought as a result - but note it still carries on so it is the way it works. In fact, I believe things will get worse with the exponentially increasing speed of technological development.
I stand by my advice stay away from the leading edge devices if it's stability you want and I don't think any amount of cases brought in the courts will change this. I wholeheartedly agree with you as regards any hardware issues - Screen alignment, loose this and loose that, but software has always started out buggy and developed and to some extent, at least ,for those here that's part of the challenge - even if I don't say enjoyment!!
Mike
I've seen the bluetooth stack shutdown issue on my TyTN too. I'm currently testing the 1.35 TyTN ROM to see if it fixes this problem. In my case it was related to using the bluetooth stack for other purposes (bt keyboard, A2DP). It seemed to me that my car handsfree would work just fine until I used bt for one of the above then I'd see the random bt radio off issue. Sometimes this would even happen while driving after a successful pairing with my car.
Hi guys, there are more news on the HTC shift, it has been official presented on the 28th in Taiwan by HTC. This is the official retail package and it's 100% what you will get in retail store.
Here is a link for some picture: http://www.mobile01.com/topicdetail.php?f=224&t=508252&last=4825702
For those people who can't see the picture, see my attachment of how to show the picture.
My HTC contact was there and he has tested the device, i specific ask him to test on phone and gps function, he report back saying that there is 100% no phone and GPS inside the Shift.
I know a lot of people will say they seen photo of GPS or phone, but that me remind you this, this is the latest official retail version, all device before are prototype. Yes, i have also seen the picture on FCC website showing there is GPS inside, that's the reason I asked my friend to test it! And let me say this again, there will be no GPS or Phone out of the box.
Our hope will be for the developers here in XDA to crack the function to enable full windows mobile, phone, and GPS.
p.s. Another news i got from my friend, HTC is saying the SD slot will only support up to 2GB.
can you getem?
Hi Wu, how are you doing, just wondering like you got me my Dopod, can you get hold of a shift for me? Thanks Dude
faisal.husain said:
Hi Wu, how are you doing, just wondering like you got me my Dopod, can you get hold of a shift for me? Thanks Dude
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Click to collapse
Hi Faisal, i am fine thank you. I hope you are doing well too.
Yes i can get the Shift for you, it's currently on pre-order and the device will be available on the 4th of Feb. Price is a bit lower then anywhere else and you will get bonus with it such as GPS and extra battery....etc.
If you are interesting in getting one, please PM me and we can discuss more there !
Hmm.. i´m ordered a sample from our german distributor but now i´m thinking about to cancel the order. We thinking long time ago about a integration of the shift in our company network for our VIP customers. But without gps, without Mobile and without LAN (or can i install Windows over netboot over WLAN??) i should search better for a other solution. there is not really a innovation inside. maybe the better solution with same features is a Toshiba Portégé R400 Series laptop..
but we will see the next on cebit i hope. maybe a other manufactor. we support htc from scratch with their first devices. after over 7000 devices and the problems within it´s time to test a other manufacor i think. maybe asus, samsung
Pre-Order all gone
Please do not ask me any more for HTC Shift, all the 200 unit for pre-order is gone already, first shipment will be on the 4th of Feb, if there is any more stock available, i will let you all know asap.
joy.d said:
Hmm.. i´m ordered a sample from our german distributor but now i´m thinking about to cancel the order. We thinking long time ago about a integration of the shift in our company network for our VIP customers. But without gps, without Mobile and without LAN (or can i install Windows over netboot over WLAN??) i should search better for a other solution. there is not really a innovation inside. maybe the better solution with same features is a Toshiba Portégé R400 Series laptop..
but we will see the next on cebit i hope. maybe a other manufactor. we support htc from scratch with their first devices. after over 7000 devices and the problems within it´s time to test a other manufacor i think. maybe asus, samsung
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weird comment .. I don't see any device being a half of what the Shift is ... and even without GPS, without Phone, without LAN and without full WM6 .. the shift is still the best device on the market for my needs.
WLAN will replace LAN over the time.. so I don't think it is a big mistake, but it could have been great
GPS "should" be in the SHIFT but not in WM6 (GPS in Vista).. but the choice is not perfect (who whant a GPS that is working only 2 hours..)
The Shift is not the perfect device, for everyone, but we have to see the real potential of the shift before crying for any lack of feature.
HTC has announced a "shift" like device with 5" .. maybe it will have GPS, Phone, etc.. we will see
weird - yes of course.. ;-)
i´m think it´s a new strategy of HTC to make devices without completly knows features.
maybe, LAN is only for Enterprise Customers like us with over 200tsd Users worldwide interesting, (automatic Software distribution) but Phone Functionality is interesting some more users. Is not really practicable with a 7" Device, but with BT Headset and Speak Control - why not. GPS is only a nice Addon for freaks like me, they travel around the world.
But overall: you´re need really a device like this? (i call that "the innovation factor" inside ;-)
But it´s really needed? Sometimes i think about Asus EEE PC, there a many Websites with modding this mini laptop, it´s crazy. when i have a look to this modding sites I see one:
they have much fun with modding her cheap Asus EEE Laptop.
But after 6 Years with HTC devices in all colors I ask me sometimes:
where is the fun - as i start with it..
;-)
joy.d said:
weird - yes of course.. ;-)
...
But overall: you´re need really a device like this? (i call that "the innovation factor" inside ;-)
But it´s really needed? Sometimes i think about Asus EEE PC, there a many Websites with modding this mini laptop, it´s crazy.
...
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Well well well .. yeah I really need a device like this. I hate laptop (it's almost like bringing my desktop tower ...) because it's too big for me (even 11" ones). The shift has the perfect size for being a good laptop to use everywhere (including when travelling, when being on the bed, ...).
A laptot is not silent at all... mine is making too much noise.. almost the same as my desktop ! And it's warm.. warm... too warm ! I can't keep it on my knees more than 10 minutes ... WAW ! Totally useless to have a laptop.
The shift is quite, cold (not warm I mean ) and I can put it in my pocket (yeah I can... really ... I can ! .. have I tried... not yet.. but I have look the size and it fits well in my pocket... yeah.. really !).
I have bought an HTC Touch to work without any computer with me ... and .. ouch.. impossible to work with the Touch ! No real application on Windows Mobile .... Mobile Office? NOOOO it's too horrible ! On the shift I can use Windows Vista to work .. mmh so nice !
And what about the size .. 40Go is enough to work everywhere I want .. i can plug a VGA cable to my TFT to have a real screen .. and I can do this in so many room (I'm a student, so believe me... I do see a lot of monitor that just want to put their VGA cable in something !).
The only thing that can be bad was the keyboard, but I have tried it.. and WAW it worked well ! Not as well as my own Logitech Media Keyboard with about 80 words per minute... but I can type about 60 words per minute... enough when I'm not @ home.
I do believe the shift is the only solution for me right now, and I'm waiting a little to see all the real features available on the "retail" shift.. but I have great hopes in it !
Supposedly the Shift has the Qualcomm MSM 7200 chipset in it which has voice and gps built in. I can not see them "removing" that from the chipset. It's just a matter of time before this device get's "unlocked" to it's fullest potential.
I still do not see the marketing strategy of HTC leaving these features "out"... You would think that every device you release you would want to sell the hell out of it no? Are they that cocky that they believe they will be around forever to keep selling up their products to us?
i.e. Model Shift II including GPS!!! More money!!!
juiceppc said:
Supposedly the Shift has the Qualcomm MSM 7200 chipset in it which has voice and gps built in. I can not see them "removing" that from the chipset. It's just a matter of time before this device get's "unlocked" to it's fullest potential.
I still do not see the marketing strategy of HTC leaving these features "out"... You would think that every device you release you would want to sell the hell out of it no? Are they that cocky that they believe they will be around forever to keep selling up their products to us?
i.e. Model Shift II including GPS!!! More money!!!
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hard to know... but it's sure that the strategy seems completely wrong .... maybe they want us to buy a Phone and a GPS ... but it's not the right choice.... many people will not buy a HTC device because of it...
It is an odd strategy but not the first time they've done this stuff. Still I think most people who are inclined to buy Windows Mobile devices usually research them. A WinMo device is alot more advanced than your cpl hundred dollar nokias, I think when people are spending over $500 on a phone they are pretty inclined to do some research.
With that said im pretty sure HTC know if they release a shift w/o GPS or phone enabled, good people here can hack it and enable (remember the P3600) and then its on the users onus if things mess up. Actually sounds like a good strategy when you think about it, they only have to meet target "X" in terms of standards for "X" features. If end users decide to try activating features "Y" then they do so at their own risk...
Osir1s said:
It is an odd strategy but not the first time they've done this stuff. Still I think most people who are inclined to buy Windows Mobile devices usually research them. A WinMo device is alot more advanced than your cpl hundred dollar nokias, I think when people are spending over $500 on a phone they are pretty inclined to do some research.
With that said im pretty sure HTC know if they release a shift w/o GPS or phone enabled, good people here can hack it and enable (remember the P3600) and then its on the users onus if things mess up. Actually sounds like a good strategy when you think about it, they only have to meet target "X" in terms of standards for "X" features. If end users decide to try activating features "Y" then they do so at their own risk...
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i don't think it's smart.. because about 50% of intersted people will not buy the shift only because of missing GPS and Phone.