Using the HD in the third world - Touch HD General

I am a complete newbie and I am going to be spending the next 6 months in southern Laos. I need to use my HD as my primary internet communications device. I know that GPRs signal there is good and Edge services have just begun to reach the area I will be in.
Does anybody have any good recommendations or suggestions of programs that are stable they would load to the HD before going?
If I completely screw my device up what do I do? does clearing the memory take care of everything like it does on an iPhone? Is it possible to brick the HD easily?
I will be using the HD as a stand alone internet device as well as tethering. I will also use it to try to show the locals I little bit of tech. I know as stupid as I sound now you could question what I could even teach them.
Even so some of these people haven't seen a computer before. So some very basic stuff will go a long ways. I wish somebody better was going to go do this. I am not perfect for the task at hand but will try my best.
What sort of things would you do if you couldn't get more than GPRS if things went wrong? Are there any programs that could be used for educational purposes on this device? Bear in mind there are no projectors or anything else of that nature.
I have a Windows PC and a Mac to use and around a TB between internal and external storage. I am not even sure of what I am asking for here but what would you bring if you wanted to try to show people some basic things.
Some of the things I do include small slide shows (wghich sometimes do to no constant source of electricity can't be done on the laptops) for children which can be done on the HD or my iPhone. I also design buildings so people get a picture of what they are building and have helped draw out a bridge that spans the Mekong.
I forgot to add that there is only electricity there 3 hours a day if that adds some perspective. If this is the wrong place to ask for help then I am sorry.
I know my questions are a bit unusual but I am trying to make sure I am not missing some thing obvious. Is there something you would bring in addition to the items I mentioned. What am I forgetting?

I've never heard of Laos but I assume from your description that it is somewhere in Yorkshire, right? If so then I suspect that the HD will be so far removed from the locals' normal frame of reference that it'll only confuse them. You'd be better off trying to introduce something more basic and useful like running water or nylon.
Interesting situation though. I didn't realise the UK carriers had signal in such remote and backward places.

Just keep a backup of your contacts/messages etc with some backup tools you can find around, if anything goes wrong you can simply reset the device to its ex-factory settings.
For the other questions.. since I still haven't get my HD I don't have a clue yet
For battery issue, if the electricity supply is limited, I recommend you to turn off the mobile at night and try to make minimum usage of the phone since such a big screen, fast processor, loads of functions will drain the battery quickly with intensive usage.
By the way, Laos is a country in Asia.
Greets from China.
Maddie

Ryaniuk,
I suggest that you buy along a few spare battery and have them charged up during the hours when the generators are up, so that you are able to swap them in to last the whole days. Of course it should also take care of the situation when there is unexpected failure of generators, etc.
Also, not sure if GPS could be of use to you. The most popular GPS software in Asia is MapKing. Not sure they have a Laos map, but I'd check if I'm you. If you are going to a remote village, I'd look for some traking type GPS software to ensure I can get around, and get out if needed. Bring with you all your spare batteries.
One of the areas you might find important in such an environement is access to news. Make sure you're happy with the RSS features. If not, install a third party software that you could be happy with before going.
I'd also install a paint program ( or just use Notes that come with the HD) , in case you need to get a local to scribble some local words that you critically need (e.g., where is the toilet?, can you take me to...etc). I assume the standard keyboard may not be able to enter local language, that's why a good paint program on the HD with stylus would come in very handy.
If you need to write any report, do any planning etc, I suggest you get SoftMaker, which gives you exactly the same desktop functinalities on your HD, without having to use your notebook.
Then, come to mobile phone signal. Well, we do not know if you 'll have 3G coverage. However this would only affect your speed. It should still allow you to keep contact with the rest of the world via email, surf internet to keep with with things etc.
As for program, you should try to download the cab files of all your program and save them into your storage card before hand. Make sure that your registry value is set to NOT delete these cab files after installation. This is to allow you to reinstall these third party software in the event that you need to do a hard reset. I do not know your need to recommend any software to you, unless you let us know what you intend to do with your device.
There is no way you can brick your device by a hard reset. You will brick it only if you try to flash your device with a wrong ROM without first do a CID unlock of HD. Check under the section on hard spl once in a while to see if this unlocking tool is available.
Not sure of your mission in Laos. Is that related to education? Some years ago, I donated some old notebook to a missionary in one of these Indochina countries. He was actually there to create a written language for a minority tribe. He tried to teach the local some computers, and charged them a nominal 10 to 20 cents fee (to cover electricity etc), to let them learn to type. Eventually his aim was to create a local langauge Bible for them. Not sure how far he's achieved by now. In his case, he did need lots of computer, as it was also a way to build relationship with the locals. People were in awe with such a thing.
As for children, I recommend some paint program or similar, some simple children game if they have not been exposed to computer before.
I salute you for volunteering your time to good cause. Hope my suggestions helps, and let me know if I can be of any further help.
Cheers.
P/S Just curious. Did'nt you return your HD? Are you getting it again?

Related

what absolute crap

i have had a few gadgets, mobiles and electronic stuff in my time, but to this day have not heard such a stupid thing as if i leave my phone untill the battery goes flat, I LOSE ALL MY DATA??!! this has alreeady happened to me after 1 nite i forgot to put the damn thing on charge, somebody should tell the makers of O2 XDA that some people have a life that does not revolve around constantly checking if your damn phone is about to wipe out all your data everyday!...also I cant seem to switch the damn thing off, by that i mean, there are times when you dont want people to call you, so you switch off your phone the normal way, by pressing the off button, was this too hard to incorporate????!!!!
...phew, feel a little better now, thanx guys.
i was worried about the Switching it off thing aswell at first.
Awnser is "Turn Wireless off" tap on the signal meter and the option is there.
also about saveing battery life, remember to allways press the power button on top when your not useing it
and to stop all sound, mute it
thing to remember is..
its a PDA with a phone built in.
not
a Phone with a PDA built in.
there is a diffrence as i say to ppl who tell me "man why d'you want a phone like a brick"
p.s. back up all data to your pc now n then
battery life never been a problem to me so far
and i can leave it days without a recharge.
anyway, it switches itself off as a failsafe if power gets too low.
obviously you need to go back to an organizer on paper. :lol:
The XDA /MDA is more a computer that a phone.. :shock:
Over 23 years of computing an ppl still think backup up is not needed.... :roll:
Hey dont knock rai. Its peeps like him that keep us IT'ers in a job :lol:
stryker said:
Hey dont knock rai. Its peeps like him that keep us IT'ers in a job :lol:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL!! :lol:
granted that the XDA is more a computer than a phone, but i dont lose all my software and my documents if my laptops battery goes flat.
im not aking to have the wheel re-invented (honest), just expect a simple "OFF" switch to "switch off" the device and to have my data and contacts still there, should i sacrilegiously forget to charge it.
rai, there is an option to write your contacts and other data to ROM, thus preventing loss of contact and appointments or all data if you have enough space.
rai said:
granted that the XDA is more a computer than a phone, but i dont lose all my software and my documents if my laptops battery goes flat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ypu would if you had i lightweight laptop w/o harddive and everything stored in memory. :roll: And that's what the PPC is...
Ok, granted, you have got a SD card, so you can store data on 'disk' if wanted. I have everything synced, on SD backup, or on the SD card.
Worstcase scenario is i may have to wait until i get home to resore all data...
Practical: Just plug it to power in your car and and home at night, and you'll probably even forget it works on a battery that could go flat :lol:
Perhaps the only solution fro PDA is this :
"Toshiba announced that it created a hard drive the size of a coin targetted for the mobile phone sector. The drive can hold as much as 3GB of information and will start shipping in 2005.
Related Link: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20031215/ap_on_hi_te/toshiba_tiny_disk"
but unfortunately we have to wait till 2005 :lol:
hi Johan, how does it work in a SE p800, does that have a HD?
It's one of the fundamental differences between Symbian and pocketPC - Symbian specifies that the devices main memory should not loose its contents when powered down fully. WinCE takes the other approach.
A few years ago, WinCE was probably the best way to do things, as non volatile RAM (or rather RAM that needed /very/ little power to maintain state) was slow and expensive - it was one of the bug bears of the 9210 that it had too little RAM, and the whole system was heavily underclocked - down to 56MHz if my memory serves me right.
Nowadays, this type of memory is a bit cheaper, and certainly more performant (remember this is not your regular flash memory we're talking about - that would be just too slow and incapable of the write cycle demands). This means that Symbian devices now have comparable performance to the WinCE, yet WinCe is still burndened with the loss of memory on power out.
One thing I'd like to see is an automatic "hibernate" feature added to the core OS. When power drops below say 1%, all open programs are closed, the remaining critical RAM contents copied off to flash storage, and the device won't wake up again until it's charged. It'd mean that device manufacturers would have to provide enough built in spare space on the flash ROM for this, but the current situation of manually backing up the critical data with the *flashman utilities is a poor substitute.
I know several people who refuse use PPC/WinCE because of the total data loss on power out, but as with so may WinCE problems, it could be fixed quite easily with a bit of thought on Microsoft's part.
Thinking about this for a moment, it would probably be relatively easy to create a third party app to do something along these lines - we can get the battery power level, we can 'unprotect' the spare ROM space, compress and dump the critical files to it along with a 'reawaken mode' flag, and we could have a little app that runs on startup and does the reverse if the flag is present, followed by an automatic soft-reset so that all drivers etc can reload cleanly. The only tricky part is making sure that there's anough space available for the main data for contacts/diary/registry/etc plus any additionally installed programs - these could be prioritised by the user if there's some that are more critical than others.
All that sounds a little complicated for rai.
He could simply copy his contacts and save it onto the extended_ROM using a basic txt document, or save it on his SIM, which is what we all should do anyway. :lol:
Or...
he could go the long way and copy the actual file for contacts and the calendar, then paste it into a secure folder in the extended_ROM, and if ever the problem does occur again, copy and paste it again.
Either way, let this be a lesson to you all: WinCE gives you all the programs Symbian users can only dream about, but there are drawbacks - you've got to be just a little bit more responsible with their devices. Like one chap here said: It's NOT a phone.
I'm sure I've seen a prog that does automated backups to the SD card. So there is an ideal, non user intervention solution.
Also when the backpack comes out you could get a nice CF Flash micro disk. That brings all the joys of your laptop with mechanical hard drive..... hhhhm mechanicaaaallll.
oh here it is, the answer to your problems. Automated backup and low battery backup
http://www.spritesoftware.com/ppc/products.html
rai the reason your laptop's batt is soo big is related to the fact that it use a harddisk because harddisks are full of moving parts which spin at a pretty fast pase
this cost batt juice
so if the xda or p800/900 had a harddisk you would not have much time to put in your data before the batt was flat
Pocket Backup Plus from Sprite Software, like stricker said , is the solution to all these problems ... use it and ....keep cool ! :wink:
Thanks for the link, didn't know about this program (as I always back up to PC anyway). OEMs should buy it and stick it preconfigured into their roms.
I've seen that backup prog recommended by others and in interest of doing as I preach I installed it. However I found an issue.... may just be affecting me tho. See the other thread I started, "spritesoftware backup package".
XDA2 backup and restore
I use sprite's backup program and backup every day to my PC. I copy this backup and of course the program to an sd card, and my webserver. That way I can be reasonably safe. Mine went flat today, but used one of those emergency chargers(takes AA batts), and was back in business in a few mins.

XDA Exec.....just returned mine!

Hi everyone,
I received my new XDA Exec last Friday and today (Tuesday) I just returned it!
I'm not here to try to influence anybody, but if you haven't bought one yet, you might find this useful.
Then it's up to you.....
I owned 6 PDAs until now, from an old IPAQ with B&W screen to this great XDA Exec piece of kit.
This to me is simply a fantastic piece of hardware, but unfortunately it is severely let down by the software running on it and comiing with it.
Here is what I found in the last 4 days before I lost my patience:
PROS:
1) FAntastic screen, great resolution, brightness and clarity
2) Very good keyboard. It might be too small for touch-typing, but it's great if you don't have to write a book with your Exec. Most of the functions on the screen are replicated on buttons on the keyboard, so you can use the Exec without a stylo pretty easily.
3) USB charging. Nice after the previous XDAs to have one with a "normal" adaptor.
4) Nice new processor. I know many people on this forum had problem with the speed of their JasJar, but I found my Exec very speedy. I personally noticed an improvement from my XDA II.
I'm sure I could have other nice things to say about it, but here are the CONS:
1) It says everywhere about its 285gr weight, but I don't know if you really realize what you're getting yourself into. If you're used to bring your XDA into your bag or your backpack, then no problems. If you always found a place in your pocket for your XDA, then you better tighten your belt because this baby is a real brick!
2) The hardware is probably the best piece of kit I came across, but the software is the worst ensemble of problems I've ever dealt with.
Activesync 4.0 is a bag of .... Both my tomtom 5 software and a flight planning navigation softare that were working to perfection on my XDA II, are not working on the new EXEC.
I know somebody has been able to install the tomtom by transfering the .CAB files directly to the Exec, but I'm one of those "unlucky" (or too stupid) ones that couldn't install one of the 4 .CAB files and therefore....no tomtom 5 for me anymore.
The other piece of software is a VB written software, I installed the VBruntime and I was able to transfer the .CAB files individually. I managed to install the software, but it then started to play havoc with the Exec (the keyboard light would not come on anymore and even after few soft-reset and unistalling the application, I could only bring the system back to normal throught a hard-reset).
3) I also had the soft buttons disappear on me, and had to reset the machine before they reappeared. By the way, please note that the soft reset on my XDA Exec, takes approx 1 min to take place and restart the system. It's a lot longer than on my XDA II and if you think of how many times you'll need to restart it in its life (thanks Microsoft for its well known stabiltiy).
4) WM Player has problem with its full screen funcition. Even if you select the box, it won't play in full screen. If you like me, have plenty of movies converted in a 320x240 format and you'd like to use them in the new Exec, then forget the WMP because they'll only play in 320x240. WMP will not "stretch" them and they'll only look as big as a stamp.
You can easily download a free software (Core Pocket Media Player) which is a great piece of kit, but this brings me to my next point,
5) Storage memory in the new Exec is not "plentyful". The system should come with 128Mb, but around 80Mb are already taken by the pre-installed software. When you first start the machine, if you look and the memory settings, you'll only have around 40Mb available, 20 for Storage and 20 for programs.....and you cannot bias the size from one side to the other. In this new software, it's done automatically.
You can probably download software to correct or improve the one that the system is shipped with, but you'll soon find out that you'll run out of memory.
I installed on my new XDA:
The PDF viewer,
The VBruntime,
Microsoft Autoroute,
Core Pocket Media player,
and all I was left were 6 miserable Mb to play with.
I know somebody said that the system is designed for you to install the programs on SD cards, but I found this whole thing a bit ridicolous.
BTW, Microsoft Reader is NOT included in the system, so if you, like me, like to read books on the go, you'll have to download it separately and utilize even more memory
I'm sure I could go on for another few pages but I'll better stop.
I'm not trying to change anybody's mind, but I'm trying to make a simple point.
If you're an expert in PC and PDAs and if you're ready to "play" with your exec for hours on end to reach a "usable" machine, then enjoy it. It's really a great piece of hardware, with almost endless potential.
If you are an XDA (or probably any other PDA) user and you think that you can get the new Exec and transfer all of your programs on it and have it working in a heartbeat......think again.
I'm no pro, but I'm not a complete rockie.
I don't want to spend my next 3 months downloading ROM upgrades and hard-resetting this beast, just to get out of it what I already get out of my old XDA II.
My final thought is that if you haven't bought one yet, you might want to wait a litte bit more, until microsoft or somebody else, sorts out some of these problems.
I Hope somebody might find this useful.
ps My apologies for the grammar.....
Wow...
I am really confused on what to do...
I'm just confused!
trendystyle, don't you already have a JasJar!?
And mig31, returning "a fantastic piece of hardware" because it's not running some old (and therefore not fully compatible) software properly seems a bit hasty, doesn't it?
I love my Exec. I have no issues with memory, except it is misleading how they publish.
And software does need to be updated to WM5, so patience. The rom works well.
Its a PDA with a phone and thats the best way to look at it.
Well i recieved my exec this morning. First impressions are that its not that big. If your used to and xda then there isnt a great deal of difference. Its quite heavy but not massivly so.
The screen is fantastic, as is the keyboard. So far i am loving it!
The box that it comes in is wroth the money alone!
I'm returning mine too.
This was my first PPC after years with Palm and the Pam interface just seems to come across as cleaner and friendlier.
I've had AS 4.0 hose the wireless connection on my laptop and no one seems to be able to help.
Another thing that bothers me is the need to pay for 3rd party programs to do just about anything to make it more usable.
Even something as simple viewing the list of programs as a list instead of as large icons need a 3rd party program.
Want to close a program instead of just puting it in the background, get a 3rd party program to make the close button work like a close button.
Don't even get me started about Pocket IE.
I've had to hard reset it once and soft reset the device 4 times in 2 days, this was before loading anything new on it. Just while using it as normal right out of the box.
Finally, it's really slow.
I did not mind the size as I knew what I was getting into. I wanted the larger screen and keyboard. It actually felt just fine as a phone in my hand.
The phone seems to be designed with PPC afficionados in mind. For a regular user who does not have the time or inclination to play around with ROM upgrades, tweaks, 3rd party programs, etc. this doesn't seem to work. If you want to spend hours playing with it, this just might be for you.
I'm going back to my Treo 650 for now.
Hi,
i can´t really understand some of your cons.
> 2) The hardware is probably the best piece of kit I came across, but the
> software is the worst ensemble of problems I've ever dealt with.
> ActiveSync 4.0 is a bag of ....
Active Sync works perfectly for me, no problems at all.
> Both my tomtom 5 software and a flight planning navigation softare that
> were working to perfection on my XDA II, are not working on the new
> EXEC.
Both programs aren´t designed for use use with WM2k5, so what do you expect ? Instead of blaming the device, go and ask tomtom for an update.
> 3) [...] By the way, please note that the soft reset on my XDA Exec,
> takes approx 1 min to take place and restart the system.
Ok, it´s 35 seconds for me, sure, that´s not really fast, but i needed exactly one softreset in the last two weeks .. so i can live with that.
(i don´t count resets after installing ne software)
> 4) WM Player has problem with its full screen funcition. Even if you
> select the box, it won't play in full screen.
Yes, you are right ... the WM-Player is really bad, but just download the free betaplayer .. works very fine and this problem is solved - 2 minutes of work.
> 5) Storage memory in the new Exec is not "plentyful". [...]
> I installed on my new XDA:
> The PDF viewer, The VBruntime, Microsoft Autoroute, Core Pocket
> Media player, and all I was left were 6 miserable Mb to play with.
First of all, the pdf viewer is already installed in WM2k5, so no need to reinstall it (at least it was on my machine).
I have the following programs installed on my mda pro:
- Total Commander
- Chess
- Betaplayer
- Registry Editor
- i-Mate backgammon
- weather plugin
- grps monitor (from the t-mobile cd)
and i have 32 Megs storage mem free and 29 megs program mem free.
But .. hey, if you install a routing software like autoroute and don´t install it on the sd card .. your fault.
Sure, your conclusion is not so bad .. the mda pro is no device for bloody novices, but .. a minumum of knowledge and understanding is enough to use and configure it.
- Superbowl
Read your comments, its a shame.
I am a power user, and I have used the Treo. The only advantage the Treo has is its simplicity and size.
WM5 and the Exec are a complex beast. It can perform loads of tasks. There is no need to always close apps. I dont use any task manager as I do not see the need.
Standard MS apps can be closed with ctrl q on the SIP keyboard.
The device is new. You havent given it anytime to really understand it. It takes at least a week - a month to learn about it.
All of these 'issues' could have been identified before purchasing the Universal with just a tiny bit of research!
Again, it sounds like people are rushing out to spend their money on the latest greates device without the slightest idea of what they're getting themselves into. (I got a proper mauling for suggesting this a week or so ago in another thread, but I still firmly believe this to be the case)
I'd suggest a lot of people around here would be more comfortable with the far less threatening new P990. Looks like a decent 3G smartphone, and would be easier for a newbie. Perhaps get to grips with something like that before moving on to an XDA device when you've outgrown Symbian? (That route worked for me, anyway!)
If only I'm staying in UK.I don't mind buying a set from u guys . :wink:
Many thanks to mig31 for a useful guide to others thinking of buying this device. I do think though that as most of the Cons highlighted have been discussed at length in previous threads, maybe you should have held off a little longer before buying one.
As a first time poster, mig31 may have an excuse as indeed would any unfortunates who have walked into their local 02 shop and bought one on the recommendations of the sales teams. But surely, all regular readers of xda-developers forum should be well aware of the pros and cons of the device. I am also fairly sure that like me, most will be subscribed to many other sites as well.
I would therefore have to agree with sub69, (incidentally, I also agreed with your comments on the earlier thread but refrained from joining for fear of receiving similar irrational abuse). :roll:
Thinking of getting an Exec...
Greetings to all!
I'm new here, just recently registered. I've been doing some background research on the Exec and it seems reasonable. However, I am finding more mixed reviews about it.
I'm currently on the II and I am thoroughly enjoying it! Prior to switching to the II, I entrusted my mobile needs to my good 'ol 6210 and Vx which I do not miss at the very least. Those two served me well.
I am thinking of getting an Exec, do you guys/ gals think it would be a worthwhile investment? I use my II almost exclusively for work and I plan to do the same with the Exec if ever. I hardly get to use the camera and MP3 on my II, but I adore it for having access Word and Excel. The Exec currently isn't available in Manila, hence my search outside. Being behind the curve (in Manila) would guys/ gals know of any hitches that I might encounter by trying to operate my unit here in Manila (phone function)? Are there language settings to choose from on the Exec?
Lastly, by any of you might know of a user/reseller planning to dispose of their Execs?
Cheers!
gavinfabl said:
WM5 and the Exec are a complex beast. It can perform loads of tasks.
...
The device is new. You havent given it anytime to really understand it. It takes at least a week - a month to learn about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with you. That's why I'm going to try it out for close to the full 14 day trial period. Then, if it's still not for me, it goes back.
sub69 said:
I'm just confused!
trendystyle, don't you already have a JasJar!?
And mig31, returning "a fantastic piece of hardware" because it's not running some old (and therefore not fully compatible) software properly seems a bit hasty, doesn't it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Obviuosly I have it!
I am confused, cause I don't know what to do, and time is running out(1 month for refund...), should i keep it, hoping for a new update, or sending it back, and waiting for real and mature super device?^??
I've had AS 4.0 hose the wireless connection on my laptop and no one seems to be able to help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm while you don't specifically state the problem here I think I may have one possible solution...if my hunch is correct.
When you connect a WM5.0 device using ActiveSync 4 Windows creates a Network Port for it.
Now Windows uses a series of Metrics for all networked devices, whichever device has the lowest metric becomes the default. It is possible that Windows is assigning a lower metric to your XDA's network device then your Wireless network, hence it picks that as your default device screwing up your wireless connection.
For more detailed information on metrics see this article
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns/cableguy/cg0405.mspx
You can however over-ride the default behavior.
Go to Start>Control Panel>Network Connections
Right click your wireless network connection and choose properties. Select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) from the list and then click the Properties button
From the properties window click the Advanced button
In the advanced settings window at the bottom there is a tickbox which says Automatic Metric. Untick this and assign it a number, say 20
Click ok and close all the windows till you get back to the Network Connections Window. Do the same for the network connection assigned to your XDA but assign it a HIGHER number then you did for the wireless connection.
Your wireless connection should now be the default!
If it doesn't work then you can just simply put things back as they were and everything will be ok
trendystyle said:
Obviuosly I have it!
I am confused, cause I don't know what to do, and time is running out(1 month for refund...), should i keep it, hoping for a new update, or sending it back, and waiting for real and mature super device?^??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ohhhhhhhh, I see!
Well, if you return it for a refund you can always pick up a subsidised Exec or Pro later on for much less money, or you could stick with the JasJar and update as you go along.
Either way, you'll be waiting for a more mature device, just a matter of whether you want a less mature device while you wait, or no device at all?
mjames_84 said:
I've had AS 4.0 hose the wireless connection on my laptop and no one seems to be able to help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm while you don't specifically state the problem here I think I may have one possible solution...if my hunch is correct.
......
If it doesn't work then you can just simply put things back as they were and everything will be ok
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the input.
Here's a more detailed description of the problem:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?p=168289#168289
See my followup post in that thread for more info as well.
sub69 said:
trendystyle said:
Obviuosly I have it!
I am confused, cause I don't know what to do, and time is running out(1 month for refund...), should i keep it, hoping for a new update, or sending it back, and waiting for real and mature super device?^??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ohhhhhhhh, I see!
Well, if you return it for a refund you can always pick up a subsidised Exec or Pro later on for much less money, or you could stick with the JasJar and update as you go along.
Either way, you'll be waiting for a more mature device, just a matter of whether you want a less mature device while you wait, or no device at all?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, as you might know, as you purchase a new device, there are always bacos, problem, or maybe bad firmware:
I prefer maybe to see, if in the next 4/6 month they will come out, with an improved Jasjar(at SW or HW level), maybe at a fair price, not at thieves price, that will allow me to do all the things I was doing normally with much cheaper and obsolete devices (like installing 3rd party applications, games, etc.), without rebooting every 20 minutes
I understand the post on the Treo 650, is by far much better delivering its mission, it goes smooth, never reboot, and cost the half!
trendystyle said:
Well, as you might know, as you purchase a new device, there are always bacos, problem, or maybe bad firmware:
I prefer maybe to see, if in the next 4/6 month they will come out, with an improved Jasjar(at SW or HW level), maybe at a fair price, not at thieves price, that will allow me to do all the things I was doing normally with much cheaper and obsolete devices (like installing 3rd party applications, games, etc.), without rebooting every 20 minutes
I understand the post on the Treo 650, is by far much better delivering its mission, it goes smooth, never reboot, and cost the half!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can see where this is going, so lets just agree to disagree now, shall we? :wink:
sub69 said:
trendystyle said:
Well, as you might know, as you purchase a new device, there are always bacos, problem, or maybe bad firmware:
I prefer maybe to see, if in the next 4/6 month they will come out, with an improved Jasjar(at SW or HW level), maybe at a fair price, not at thieves price, that will allow me to do all the things I was doing normally with much cheaper and obsolete devices (like installing 3rd party applications, games, etc.), without rebooting every 20 minutes
I understand the post on the Treo 650, is by far much better delivering its mission, it goes smooth, never reboot, and cost the half!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can see where this is going, so lets just agree to disagree now, shall we? :wink:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right!
It's a way of fact: TREO 650, at the moment works much better than the Jasjar: let's hope for the future!
1) Or I-mate solve a lot of problem
2) I will buy the new Treo 700, on Windows mobile 5.0

Newbie: It all got so complicated, so quickly

If you'd be so kind, just to clarify the following.
I've got an Orbit II, with Copilot. Yes it does feel as if one is part of a club, but there's the topset and the thick kids... I'm the latter.
As I understand it, the Hard SPL unlocks the phone, from it being tied to a mobile network, right?
The O2 II isn't locked so then I don't need it, yes?
Therefore, I can either install all the tweaks and tips thus keeping Copilot, or put another ROM, (is this a type of disk image?), with all the tweaks and tips built in, on it.
In which case I'd lose CoPilot, for I'd have written over the device and voided the warranty, to boot, right?
What actually is the difference between a ROM and all the 'tweaks and tips'.
Is it because if you need to Hard SPL (ie unlock a phone from the network), then you don't have any built in functions left, so you couldn't install the Tweaks and Tips, which would in effect bring all the same advantages.
Look, I know Bebe has managed to do a version of WM6.1 which features threaded SMS and everthing, but I'm still not quite with it, I'm afraid.
The wiki entry for "What is a Hard SPL", just says it's one way of not trashing your phone. Not trashing your phone before you attempt what though?
For I've seen mention of the SIM/CID unlocker as if it's a separate entity, indicating they are two distinct things, created for two different tasks.
I like the idea of the phone looking funkier and working better (God knows what the AMMD is for the Video, but I know there are issues with the video, so having that sounds like a good idea as well. Right?)
Whatever it all is, it sounds like it's been a mammoth job/labour of love and has involved the purchase of two new Polaris phones, but beyond that, I'm all at sea.
(Dons bullet proof vest and climbs into protective Pope Mobile)
I think the fact you are asking all these questions juxtaposes that you should not flash your ROM. I myself am in your class and just look on with admiration. With that said, there are many things that you can do to your phone to "spice" things up. I have bought a couple of programs, Astronavigator II, (tells you what the sky at night is above you, My Girlfriend loves it), Fun contact, much more finger friendly than wm6. I also have PZP program. It automatically sets my phone to do things at certain times of the day, i.e at night it switches off, emails and phone calls then do not wake me and GF up, much to her relief! So there you have it, oh btw I have tomtom as have the TC.
The phone works quickly, efficiently and never have to soft reset. 5 years of using WM devices, I have found that idiots like me should just live and let be and use the phone as it is.
This should anser none and all of your questions
Kind Regards,
Will
unfortunately you have discovered HTC
Hey,
I hear ya. I am fat boy too. lol
I can't keep up and these forums use a form o speak, and implications that are not clear. I have no idea of why one of the cubes is called a bunch of letters for instance. unfortunately, we want our phones up to date, and the fastest they can be. But it is not that simple. I agree, I am lost on the spl thing and the sim, but then ??? it is not that clear to me.
Here is how I understand it. It may not be right, but it is an analogy that seems to work. A soft reset is reboot, a hard reset in a wipe/reinstall. As I understand it, the rom is the basic operating system, meaning when you hard reset, that is what loads into memory. Once it is loaded, it can be soft reset ie rebooted without harm. The rom is kept on the device, so when you hard reset, it can reload/reinstall itself without needing to be connected to anything. Disk Image? I guess. If your original rom, from the manufacturer installs copilot with a hard reset, then you will keep copilot. When they cook a rom, they change those installation files permanently. They adjust things, and remove things. they alter hardware drivers per say ie the radio patches you get. If Copilot is not in the cooked rom, then you would lose Copilot. You would need to buy it or download it and install it yourselft. You would have to use a restore disc, hooked to a computer and mobile center, to overwrite a cooked rom back to the original rom in this cases wm6. ROMS are much more of a big deal, as there are bugs and some things don't work as expected. They are faster tho, imho. Tips and tweaks are just that, certain replacements and other alterations. I woul think most tweaks I have seen generally do stay with the device thru soft resets, some don't if you have to hard reset. I keep my tweaks and settings/programs on the storage card incase I have to hard reset. Hope that helps, it may not be correct, but it works for me as a basic understanding level. There is a way to chose what you install as the rom (ie operating system permanently on the phone for hard resets), and i think the term they use is the kitchen. Using the kitchen, you chose this piece of a rom, and that one, etc....all that goes to the permanent part where a hard reset tell it what to read and install. I am not too clear on that one myself. I find using a kitchen fightening and wrought with risk at bricking.
Will has summed it up pretty well.
We buy these phones for what they can do, and they are just not supported by manufacturing like they should be. Our expectations are flavored by the continual upgrades from things like MS and windows upgrades fixing and patching things. I have had two pda (one previous phone). Either manufacturer was the same, limited upgrades and basically no further development on the devices.
It was a harrowing experience to upgrade my phone/pda to wm6 out of fear of bricking it. My phone came with wm2003. Bricking if you don't know, is leaving your device in an usable state...it is caught in limbo somewhere, and will not work.
Advice, wait a while, keep reading. Since things are hard to understand, keep reading and don't be in a hurry. Eventually someone will ask a question, in one forum or another, that inadvertanly answers one of yours. Check out the hacking forums, nice tweaks in there. And yes, they kinda of leave out steps. Keep Pocket Controller, it lets you tweak the registry, and see your device on your desktop. Even MS was impressed, troubleshooting a bluetooth issue. MS loved they could control the pda themselves using remote desktop. MS sent the name of that progie up the chain of command. They loved it. You can screen shot and all sorts of things. It come in handy trying to explain things. Once you feel you can risk losing the phone/device, then consider upgrading to new rom and try some of the tricks/tweaks. I know I don't want to waste 700.00 or more dollars to brick something. I think most of the time, they can get the bricked phone back, but not 100% certain of that. I study the reset and etc procedures and print them out, before I muck with the rom. I consider what I do to the phone very carefully. I was so scared I would ruin my phone.
And the other thing i say, is if you tell people you are a noob at this stuff and have a hard time understanding, they generally won't flame you too hard. Really. Just explain yourself, and give your disclaimer, and they won't be too hard on you. As you have seen, they may not fully explain things as clearly as you like, due think that is just the nature of the people and the way they think, not a personal attack or lack of anything, but they won't be rude.
As you said, this forum is run by the topset, and we are thick ones. They do astounding work and some of us just look up at them and admire. But they will help you. Keep reading, and keep trying to understand, it gets better with time. And don't be in hurry either. I see two post already of people bricking their devices already. And one guy seriously bricked his to the point of no return it seems.
ukdutypaid said:
Therefore, I can either install all the tweaks and tips thus keeping Copilot, or put another ROM, (is this a type of disk image?), with all the tweaks and tips built in, on it.
In which case I'd lose CoPilot, for I'd have written over the device and voided the warranty, to boot, right?
For I've seen mention of the SIM/CID unlocker as if it's a separate entity, indicating they are two distinct things, created for two different tasks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I understand it (and I've loaded HardSPL + a modified ROM on my Polaris), the SIM/CID unlocker is for those devices that were purchased from a telco and therefore locked to that company (pernicious behaviour, btw, but they offer low purchase prices to tie customers in). If your device was unlocked at purchase, then this issue doesn't bother you.
The HardSPL load is designed to prevent you bricking your device with a crook modified ROM - this obviously pre-supposes that you will load modified ROM's. If you want to do this (ie. try modified ROM's), then loading HardSPL 1st is a no-brainer.
Why would you want to load a modified ROM ? The short answer is that the marketing depts of the manufacturers load the devices with all sorts of fluffy software crap. They do this in the released ROM. So to remove this junk - and have the device fast, responsive and with enough room left to do what you want - the gurus here modify these ROM's. [Of course, some people like the fluff]. The manufacturers also occasionally release ROM upgrades, but development is done mostly in forums like this.
CoPilot 7 ? Yes, flashing a new ROM will kill this, because the DeviceID changes when a new ROM is loaded. But if you visit the CoPilot website before loading a new ROM, you can deactivate your current license and then reactivate it after installing on a "new" device. In fact, CoPilot is one of the few commercial apps to cater for ROM upgrades with honour. CoPilot doesn't care how many devices you install on, just that only one at a time is actually capable of running.
Here are your acronyms to understand what they are doing and talking about. This may not be right, but alot of this came from the Hermes. It seems someone was looking to run linux on his hermes i think. I am still kind of digesting this information now. Remember I told you look around?
Here are your definitions to help you understand.
AKU - Adaptation Kit Update: they usually patch up existing bugs and enable several new features. Each newly released AKU pack retains fixes found in previous versions of AKU
CID lock (aka vendor lock): put on your device by the manufacturer to prevent installation of a ROM not released by them. CID is a vender lock, the post above talks about that. It is placed on you phone to deliberately prevent you from changing the rom. It is vender specific it seems. I assume the Super CID tells the device to ignore that lock or overwrite the vender lock all together, or it might just tell it to ignore the error code. That is what I am seeing. This seems basically related to full administrator priviledges account for the device. it seems the CID was located on a secure area on the radio. People had bad flashing to the radio upgrade and corrupted their CiD essentially bricking some of their phones.
RIL - Radio Interface Layer.
RUU - ROM Upgrade Utility: Its the s/w used on your PC to do a ROM upgrade for your PPC. I assume this can be the default utlity or a kitchen program. The default you can find pictures of, it is generic and just tell you are flashing. The kitchen program, i canceled once, had options to choose.
IPL - Initial Program Loader: Its the bootloader for PPC. It boots up SPL. Bootloader. Basic operations.
SPL - Secondary Program Loader: By inferenece only? Hard SPL then stands for a forced control over the secondary Program layer. You can make it load something else when it boots. It seems the newer factory SLP would want to reference the CID or only properly signed files, thus limiting what you could actually do with your phones.
WWE Edition - World Wide English Edition
XIP - Execute-in-Place
It seems while trying to unlock the Hermes, they were using a radio upgrade and somehow got this Super CID. See above about CID. So it seems there was a reverse engineer done with a legitmate unlocker program. This unlocker program was installing certifcates and changing the device to a lower bootloader it seems. That bootloader ignored the CID or converted it to full priviledges. they also figured out, some bad flashing can be undone....the CID was stored in a secure area on the radio. A bad radio flash corrupted part of the CID. Once they converted to a different bootloader, they could reflash radios...thus unbrick some phones. They have replaced the bootloader with this Hard SLP. The new SLP converts or tells the phone to ignore the CID when upgrading a ROM or other things. It appears HSPL v1.13 also keeps track of bad blocks of memory. That version also reflashes bad blocks or corrupted files with fresh versions as well. It also respecs completely bad blocks, i am thinking that means, the os is not allowed to write there. The you can reflash anything to the device. Or so it seems. But again, depending on how bad you muck up your phone, some things are not repairable.
That is what I am seeing right now. Still reading. It is all out there. Just google the terms above, and slowly you will find the threads and start piecing it together.
Seems this Hard SLP is important for ROM ugrades. Still reading about it. I am post like 500, out of 1000, and trying to keep track of it is difficult. Lots of interjections of what people did wrong. Very confusing.
I did tell you read, read read, and you will find the answers to your questions, it just takes awhile and it hard to understand becuase of the lingo.
v nice. u guys need to read som basic stuffs. it will help u, & u don't have to worry about u,r phone. u can upgrade, u can change things with full confidence. xda-developers have wiki pages, i think it will help much. keep readingggggggg. soru 4 my english
You won't lose your copilot if you use the original HTC ROM....I put the original HTC ROM (which is much better than the O2 ROM)...added a few standard registry tweaks..runs NICE..reinstalled Copilot7 (from the 2577 folder on the SD card) reactivated it..(did not need to deactivate it) and everything is fine. If you need to got back to the original ROM for whatever reason...reflash it and then flash with originalSPL file.
You can reactivate copilot as many times as you like (the only thing I do before reflashing...mor as a precautionary measure...is backup the SD card)
If you use a cooked ROM ..then I think you have to deactivate Copilot and reactivate it on the new install.....but I'm sure the experts will know better.
pistonripper said:
If you use a cooked ROM ..then I think you have to deactivate Copilot and reactivate it on the new install.....but I'm sure the experts will know better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed - I've had to do that a number of times, from both modified ROM changes and device changes, but it's easy and painless.
Thanks for the indulgence...
People, I'd like to thank you for taking the time and trouble to provide your very useful responses. One does read of course and things like lego bricks begin to click into place. I don't even have a car, so quite why I'm so obsessed with CoPilot, I don't know. Okay I giggle when listening to one of the ladies (through headphones), on the bus, but other than that.. lol.
I didn't know you could actually download CoPilot from the site though, I'll check that out. I've 'funked it up' a bit using the HTC Home cab and Slideunlock. Tempted to play with one of the Cube .cabs...(The one it comes with is pretty rubbish if you can't change what the cubes link to and the icons)
Yes, Yes I'll search for the original O2 rom, before I play anymore...
The actual HTC rom, sounds like a safe bet though, cos then you get the proper funky screen..
Don't want to clutter (anywhere actually) the hard core threads with stupido questions. I'll look, I'll read, I'll learn...
As one of you has said, these things aren't toys (lol) and I don't want to be left looking at a $700 £350 quid (non contract Orbit), that I can't use...
I think Bebe wm6.1 is going to stay undownloaded for the time being!
I'll leave the topset, to carry on.. Wouldn't mind getting rid of the "Streaming Media", program mind. Errr, it does/streams what exactly, anything at all?

I'm starting to hate the HD

it cost me €650
its buggy, hangs sometimes, I keep having to reset
keyboards sometimes dont popup
wifi is very weak (they used a cheap Texas Instrument chip for wifi that under lab tests runs at about 2/3 the performance of the Marvel chip in the iPhone). Again I remind you that I paid €650 for this thing.
ive owned the phone 6 days and already had to do 4 hard resets
cheap crappy speaker
camera lag 3 seconds to take photo
have to use virtal button to take photo
gps lags
cant assign / customise soft buttons (without installing third party cabs)
to do any customization on the dam thing, you have to install 3rd party cabs, ends up with a phone cluttered with all sorts of stuff most of which was not originally written for the HD. Phone gets unstable and starts hanging even more than usual.
touch screen is often unresponsive, the majority of dialogs put the ok button in the top right hand corner where it is least responsive. I often have to tap the buton 5-6 times to get it to respond
have to install everything on storage card as there is very limited storage built in
TouchFlo 3d has lots of bugs (have a read of the forum)
have to use headphones to get radio to work (be nice not to have to, id like to be able to demo the radio and use it in high strength signal areas w/o having to carry headphones around).
radio is noisy with poor reception
cant record radio
browser stops working at the drop of a hat. i.e. you manage to get a wifi connection, you use the web, leave phone for a minute, come back, hit power button, wifi wakes up, browser more often then not will no longer work (cannot find proxy server, no network, dns not available). I have to resolve with another soft reset
browser is a pain to use, it does not zoom intelligently, the amount of time I spend trying to line up after a zoom, then hitting links by mistake or trying to hit links and wondering wtf they do nothing.
the wifi on my unit is poor. i have written to htc and expansys and as of yet (a day and a half later) i have had no reply from either. sickening and worrying!
im in the middle of another hard reset right now after the phone screwed up yet again
doesnt lock properly (when a call comes in)
you have to install .Net 3.5. For god sakes its late 2008, could they not have shipped the rom with it already on there. not only that but you really need to install it onto device storage rather than card storage for performance so it takes up valuable space (of which there is not much to begin with)
battery lasts a day at best with light use. if you use wifi and browse for an hour on the train you can reduce that to 3 or 4 hours. pretty lousy
lousy (and I mean LOUSY) video playback. You need a degree in computing to go and encode videos in specific ways to get them to play reasonably. Even the demo video that comes with the phone plays poorly.
hard to scroll through lists on screen without invoking the items on the list. i.e. scrolling the programs list I always end up running unwanted programs
when you send a text message, the phone does nothing, no "sending message" status, no confirmation that message sent. You have to fix with a tweak. again to fix, you have to install schaps config tool that clearly is not written for the HD. Its brilliant and I am not having a go at all but its anothe rlarge cab u have to install just to do the most basic things. jesus a "sending text" status is the most basic requiremt surely to god!!!
very hard to figure out how to disable 3g (cud be real expensive unless u have ur wits about u)
gps is very slow initially and weaker than on normal gps devices. I have had it unable to detect gps signals when my mate beside was using another device and getting signal - just like the wifi.
not possible to edit/customize TouchFlo 3D. You can't put an shortcut to a program on its home page for eg. You have to scroll along the awkward scroll bar to get to programs.
TF3D completely takes over the Today screen so customizing the Today screen is absolutely pointless unless you remove TF3D from it.
screen protector is crap and difficult to install.
finally for now . . .
it cost me €650
I know a lot of you are gonna hate me after this post. I dont blame you. I am dissing your beloved new toy, the toy that you paid as much as I did for, the toy that you dearly wanna love cos it cost so much. the toy that you dont wanna hear a bad word said about cos it cost so much.
I'm starting to hate this dam thing.
think you have a defective HD
gt112 said:
it cost me €650
its buggy, hangs sometimes, I keep having to reset
keyboards sometimes dont popup
wifi is very weak (they used a cheap Texas Instrument chip for wifi that under lab tests runs at about 2/3 the performance of the Marvel chip in the iPhone). Again I remind you that I paid €650 for this thing.
ive owned the phone 6 days and already had to do 4 hard resets
cheap crappy speaker
camera lag 3 seconds to take photo
have to use virtal button to take photo
gps lags
cant assign / customise soft buttons (without installing third party cabs)
to do any customization on the dam thing, you have to install 3rd party cabs, ends up with a phone cluttered with all sorts of stuff most of which was not originally written for the HD. Phone gets unstable and starts hanging even more than usual.
touch screen is often unresponsive, the majority of dialogs put the ok button in the top right hand corner where it is least responsive. I often have to tap the buton 5-6 times to get it to respond
have to install everything on storage card as there is very limited storage built in
TouchFlo 3d has lots of bugs (have a read of the forum)
have to use headphones to get radio to work (be nice not to have to, id like to be able to demo the radio and use it in high strength signal areas w/o having to carry headphones around).
radio is noisy with poor reception
cant record radio
browser stops working at the drop of a hat. i.e. you manage to get a wifi connection, you use the web, leave phone for a minute, come back, hit power button, wifi wakes up, browser more often then not will no longer work (cannot find proxy server, no network, dns not available). I have to resolve with another soft reset
browser is a pain to use, it does not zoom intelligently, the amount of time I spend trying to line up after a zoom, then hittig links by mistake or trying to hit links and wondering wtf they do nothing.
the wifi on my unit is poor. i have written to htc and expansys and as of yet (a day and a half later) i have had no reply from either. sickening and worrying!
im in the middle of another hard reset right now after the phone screwed up yet again
doesnt lock properly (when a call comes in)
you have to install .Net 3.5. For god sakes its late 2008, could they not have shipped the rom with it already on there. not only that but you really need to install it onto the device for performance so it takes up valuable space (of which there is not much to begin with)
battery lasts a day at best with light use. if you use wifi and browse for an hour on the train you can reduce that to 3 or 4 hours. pretty lousy
lousy (and I mean LOUSY) video playback. You need a degree in computing to go and decode videos in specific ways to get them to play reasonably. Even the demo video that comes with the phone plays poorly.
hard to scroll through lists on screen without invoking the items on the list. i.e. scrolling the programs list I always end up running unwanted programs
when you send a text message, the phone does nothing, no "sending message" status, no confirmation that message sent. You have to fix with a tweak. again to fix, you have to install schaps config tool that clearly is not written for the HD. Its brilliant and I am not having a go at all but its anothe rlarge cab u have to install just to do the most basic things. jesus a "sending text" status is the most basic requiremt surely to god!!!
very hard to figure out how to disable 3g (cud be real expensive unless u have ur wits about u)
gps is very slow initially and weaker than on normal gps devices. I have had it unable to detect gps signals when my mate beside was using another device and getting signal - just like the wifi.
not possible to edit/customize TouchFlo 3D. You cant put an shortcut to a program on its home page for eg. YOu have to scroll along the awkward scroll bar to get to programs.
TF3D it completely take sover the Today screen so customizing the Today screen is absolutely pointlss unless you remove TF3D from it.
screen protector is crap and difficult to install.
finally for now . . .
it cost me €650
I know a lot of you are gonna hate me after this post. I dont blame you. I am dissing your beloved new toy, the toy that you paid as much as I did for, the toy that you dearly wanna love cos it cost so much. the toy that you dont wanna hear a bad word said about cos it cost so much.
I'm starting to hate this dam thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your HD is defective
wfhowell said:
Your HD is defective
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
or perhaps its just not fit for purpose. if it is defective, then wouldn't it be nice of htc or expansys to respond to my email ?
defective
gt112 said:
or perhaps its just not fit for purpose. if it is defective, then wouldn't it be nice of htc or expansys to respond to my email ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldnt email. I would call them if its defective...Or talk to the place where you got it for a refund.
I dont think its defective, I think it is a poor product
His soounds about the same as mine. It isn't defective that's just how they are.
Looking at your post history I can only see *****ing and moaning during the past few days.
You are just trolling now.
Is this your first WM device...
I've been using WM pda for 10 years now...the first 2-3 years..some devices are like you describe..but not nowadays..
It's either you have defective unit or you just dont know how to optimize it..
It is not like Iphone that works perfectly out of the box..
I will say no more. However the browsing and freeze ups and difficulties in using it are what I have experienced. So far my wifi works though. Most of the things I was *****ing about is what the OP is talking about so... go figure.
MAK
I'm *****ing and moaning as you put it because I have spent a lot of money on a poor product. Thus this post.
I am sorry if you think it a troll. If people want this thread removed then please feel free.
I thought he was saying I am a troll LOL Gt mine has many of the same problems don't worry about it.
I think there is a bug somewhere which hangs the device frequently. It need to be solved. If you're patient and wait, I'm sure the XDA community, with all the talents around, will solve it one day. Of course, we should also report to HTC (which someone already has, and provided the links here to them) and get a firmware update from them.
Hopefully, you also look at all the good things: your wide choice of GPS software, the fantastic office applications, the wide choice of software keybaord, etc.
If you're new to the Winmo world, I understand it could be difficult in the begining.
In you want to get away from the winmo world, your choice is iPhone, Nokia, Blackberry and the like. You need to know what your requirements are. Do not jump from one imperfect solution to another imperfect solution. Sit back to define your requirement before making your next purchase. Otherwise you will have many many more €650 down the drain.
Do you have an Hd now Steve? Also in another thread I asked if Hd will improve the software, now that it is out only devs here will fix it? That's sort of sad. I don't mean anything against the devs here I am sure you guys do a great job.
thanks to everyone who replied, god I really have started something here havn't I.
I know, be patient, its not all bad, etc etc.
But hey, look at the WiFi issue for example.
This doesn't mean I have a defective phone, It means I have a poor product.
Theres a cheap crappy chip built into the phone. That cannot be fixed with a hack or software update or a replacement
Some of your complaints such as freezing and lagginess I have also experienced. The zoom not centering and links not being clickable are certainly valid concerns. My HD behaves exactly the same. I can understand that maybe you have a bad chip as well. In another thread here some people couldn'y understand how frustrating that can be.
Great Post Eagle
eaglesteve said:
I think there is a bug somewhere which hangs the device frequently. It need to be solved. If you're patient and wait, I'm sure the XDA community, with all the talents around, will solve it one day. Of course, we should also report to HTC (which someone already has, and provided the links here to them) and get a firmware update from them.
Hopefully, you also look at all the good things: your wide choice of GPS software, the fantastic office applications, the wide choice of software keybaord, etc.
If you're new to the Winmo world, I understand it could be difficult in the begining.
In you want to get away from the winmo world, your choice is iPhone, Nokia, Blackberry and the like. You need to know what your requirements are. Do not jump from one imperfect solution to another imperfect solution. Sit back to define your requirement before making your next purchase. Otherwise you will have many many more €650 down the drain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ive had a lot of WM devices too...THis one beats them all. Daughter has iphone. CUte phone, good for talking to others and music. Win Mobile is far from perfect, but its like Eagle says, weigh what you like and dont like, dont shift to another pda without counting the cost and research. Go and research some of the other phones too. Visit the forums, they have their share of problems too. For me the HD doesnt do everything i would like, some i wish improves. But there is no phone that is the perfect phone anywhere. Hope you find what you like. Not easy in the PDA world. Good luck!!
ryaninuk said:
Do you have an Hd now Steve? Also in another thread I asked if Hd will improve the software, now that it is out only devs here will fix it? That's sort of sad. I don't mean anything against the devs here I am sure you guys do a great job.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My HD has not arrived yet, but I hope it's either today or tomorrow. The ebay seller which claims to be based in Melbourne, is apparently shipping out of Hong Kong.
There is a thread on the device hanging that I'm watching. Hopefullly someone nails the bug. I'm sure there is a bug somewhere.
When I started using my Athena, hanging was a common problem. Now it is gone. Sometimes it is due to defective storage card, sometimes it is wrong formatting parameters being used for the storage card, sometimes it is lack of optimization in the ROM... but eventually it got fixed.
gt112 said:
thanks to everyone who replied, god I really have started something here havn't I.
I know, be patient, its not all bad, etc etc.
But hey, look at the WiFi issue for example.
This doesn't mean I have a defective phone, It means I have a poor product.
Theres a cheap crappy chip built into the phone. That cannot be fixed with a hack or software update or a replacement
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried changing the setting to have best performance instead of battery life? It might just help to keep the WIFI signal a little more stable.
gt112 said:
it cost me €650
its buggy, hangs sometimes, I keep having to reset
keyboards sometimes dont popup
wifi is very weak (they used a cheap Texas Instrument chip for wifi that under lab tests runs at about 2/3 the performance of the Marvel chip in the iPhone). Again I remind you that I paid €650 for this thing.
ive owned the phone 6 days and already had to do 4 hard resets
cheap crappy speaker
camera lag 3 seconds to take photo
have to use virtal button to take photo
gps lags
cant assign / customise soft buttons (without installing third party cabs)
to do any customization on the dam thing, you have to install 3rd party cabs, ends up with a phone cluttered with all sorts of stuff most of which was not originally written for the HD. Phone gets unstable and starts hanging even more than usual.
touch screen is often unresponsive, the majority of dialogs put the ok button in the top right hand corner where it is least responsive. I often have to tap the buton 5-6 times to get it to respond
have to install everything on storage card as there is very limited storage built in
TouchFlo 3d has lots of bugs (have a read of the forum)
have to use headphones to get radio to work (be nice not to have to, id like to be able to demo the radio and use it in high strength signal areas w/o having to carry headphones around).
radio is noisy with poor reception
cant record radio
browser stops working at the drop of a hat. i.e. you manage to get a wifi connection, you use the web, leave phone for a minute, come back, hit power button, wifi wakes up, browser more often then not will no longer work (cannot find proxy server, no network, dns not available). I have to resolve with another soft reset
browser is a pain to use, it does not zoom intelligently, the amount of time I spend trying to line up after a zoom, then hitting links by mistake or trying to hit links and wondering wtf they do nothing.
the wifi on my unit is poor. i have written to htc and expansys and as of yet (a day and a half later) i have had no reply from either. sickening and worrying!
im in the middle of another hard reset right now after the phone screwed up yet again
doesnt lock properly (when a call comes in)
you have to install .Net 3.5. For god sakes its late 2008, could they not have shipped the rom with it already on there. not only that but you really need to install it onto device storage rather than card storage for performance so it takes up valuable space (of which there is not much to begin with)
battery lasts a day at best with light use. if you use wifi and browse for an hour on the train you can reduce that to 3 or 4 hours. pretty lousy
lousy (and I mean LOUSY) video playback. You need a degree in computing to go and encode videos in specific ways to get them to play reasonably. Even the demo video that comes with the phone plays poorly.
hard to scroll through lists on screen without invoking the items on the list. i.e. scrolling the programs list I always end up running unwanted programs
when you send a text message, the phone does nothing, no "sending message" status, no confirmation that message sent. You have to fix with a tweak. again to fix, you have to install schaps config tool that clearly is not written for the HD. Its brilliant and I am not having a go at all but its anothe rlarge cab u have to install just to do the most basic things. jesus a "sending text" status is the most basic requiremt surely to god!!!
very hard to figure out how to disable 3g (cud be real expensive unless u have ur wits about u)
gps is very slow initially and weaker than on normal gps devices. I have had it unable to detect gps signals when my mate beside was using another device and getting signal - just like the wifi.
not possible to edit/customize TouchFlo 3D. You can't put an shortcut to a program on its home page for eg. You have to scroll along the awkward scroll bar to get to programs.
TF3D completely takes over the Today screen so customizing the Today screen is absolutely pointless unless you remove TF3D from it.
screen protector is crap and difficult to install.
finally for now . . .
it cost me €650
I know a lot of you are gonna hate me after this post. I dont blame you. I am dissing your beloved new toy, the toy that you paid as much as I did for, the toy that you dearly wanna love cos it cost so much. the toy that you dont wanna hear a bad word said about cos it cost so much.
I'm starting to hate this dam thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
grandma?
ops, sorry, you sound just like her...
wfhowell said:
Ive had a lot of WM devices too...THis one beats them all. Daughter has iphone. CUte phone, good for talking to others and music. Win Mobile is far from perfect, but its like Eagle says, weigh what you like and dont like, dont shift to another pda without counting the cost and research. Go and research some of the other phones too. Visit the forums, they have their share of problems too. For me the HD doesnt do everything i would like, some i wish improves. But there is no phone that is the perfect phone anywhere. Hope you find what you like. Not easy in the PDA world. Good luck!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never had any illusion thinking that HD is a perfect device. I already made a lot of noise about the small screen size (I wanted a 4.5 inch), lack of D-pad etc. But hey, we do research first, and go in with our eye open and not have false expectation.l

Anti-Theft software for TP2

Hey guys,
This is my first ever thread on the XDA forum.
After saving up for a long long long time, I am now a proud owner of a TP2. And now, I am constantly worried about it getting stolen(my past two phones were stolen).
I know this topic has been discussed for other phones before. But is anyone using a good anti-theft software on their TP2? Are any of the softwares recommended for other phones in this forum giving any errors with TP2?
I dun mind spending a bit on it. I read about the Ultimate Theft Alert v3.5 and the Sprite Terminator. The sprite guys are having some promotion for HTC owners. Does that mean it is highly recommended for HTC devices?
I am not a developer and is pretty dumb about flashing roms and all that (even though I cant wait to learn more. Expecting all your help and co-operation). So please provide me a simple solution for this.
Thanks guys
koopharaoh said:
Hey guys,
This is my first ever thread on the XDA forum.
After saving up for a long long long time, I am now a proud owner of a TP2. And now, I am constantly worried about it getting stolen(my past two phones were stolen).
I know this topic has been discussed for other phones before. But is anyone using a good anti-theft software on their TP2? Are any of the softwares recommended for other phones in this forum giving any errors with TP2?
I dun mind spending a bit on it. I read about the Ultimate Theft Alert v3.5 and the Sprite Terminator. The sprite guys are having some promotion for HTC owners. Does that mean it is highly recommended for HTC devices?
I am not a developer and is pretty dumb about flashing roms and all that (even though I cant wait to learn more. Expecting all your help and co-operation). So please provide me a simple solution for this.
Thanks guys
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do not think that will be easy that an anti-thief fully protect your investiment:
Normally first think every thief does is shutdown the equipment and remove the SIM Card. After that he could simply Hard Reset the equipment, returning the equipment itself to factory specs, so the anti-thief software is deleted. He can also change the IMEI in a relatively simple way.
Main tactics:
Never show your equipment if you are in a relatively empty street, train station, etc;
Always use the equipment with a firmly grip on it and always watching the surroudings;
This is simple common sense...
I know, that is going a little paranoic but some care is always a good thing.
Good point!!
Hey Black Phoenix,
thanks for the reply. for some reason, I didn't think of the possibility of the thief doing a hard reset.
But, I feel it is still worth investing on a software like Ultimate Theft Alert coz there is still a chance that the thief might not do a hard reset. So can you recommend a good software among the popular ones that works for TP2? I forgot to mention that I am from Singapore. I dunno whether my location makes any difference?
I still have not played with my phone a lot. But i believe TP2 has GPS? So doesnt that mean some of these softwares can give me the coordinates of my phone? Will my location matter for this feature?
koopharaoh said:
Hey Black Phoenix,
thanks for the reply. for some reason, I didn't think of the possibility of the thief doing a hard reset.
But, I feel it is still worth investing on a software like Ultimate Theft Alert coz there is still a chance that the thief might not do a hard reset. So can you recommend a good software among the popular ones that works for TP2? I forgot to mention that I am from Singapore. I dunno whether my location makes any difference?
I still have not played with my phone a lot. But i believe TP2 has GPS? So doesnt that mean some of these softwares can give me the coordinates of my phone? Will my location matter for this feature?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I told, first thing that any thief does is shutdown the phone and trow away the sim card. With the phone shutdown, no gps coordinates or remote lock. And believe in me, the ones that steal know very well to cover the tracks, so for sure they know how to hard reset a phone (I'm still looking for my Asus P535. For sure is now hardreseted and IMEI diferent, and also had GPS. It was stealed 1 year ago).
Install this. It's FREE. If a theif changes the sim card, you will automatically recieve an SMS to the numbers you have configured in the software. You will recieve his phone number + IMEI details. Configure your e-mail address and atleast 2 different phone numbers in the software so once you recieve the theifs new phone number or if he has not changed the sim card then you can send a special text message (read software tutorial) to you sim card or theifs new sim card which will activate the gps and text the co-ordinates to the nominated phone numbers you would have configured and an e-mail with link to google maps showing exactly where the phone is.
This thing works 100%. My house was under google maps with the right house and street address. I was stunned.
Also a thief is not literate enough to jump aboard XDA forum and search "How to hard reset a Touch Pro 2". They don't have time and most don't even know that technology like this exists.
Also once the Hard SPL comes out for TP2 and Cooked roms start releasing, you can either cook your own ROM with this software pre-installed with the right settings or request someone to cook a ROM for you with the right e-mail and phone number settings you want so even if a theif does a hard reset, software will still be installed again with those settings.
And to uninstall this software, theif needs to enter the password which you need to configure. I recommend you go through the tutorial.
oh and IMPORTANT. Install this to device memory because if he takes out your memory card and it's installed on the memory card then everything will be useless.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=394203
wow powersquad.. that's sick software.. curious though if it works..
maybe that new 'phonecreeper' that the xda-member wrote could have possibilities of tracking your phone after theft when installing it on your own device?
Jeroen
Great!!
Wow.. That is infact real cool. Just wondering whether there are any advantages of using your software over, maybe, Ultimate Theft Alert.. Except for the price.. Just curious.
Thanks a million for this.
It works 100%. I have tried changing sim card and I got the text of the new card's phone number on my 2 nominated numbers straight away. GPS Co-ordinates were both e-mailed and texted to my nominated number and e-mail address.
In order for e-mail to work you need to have an e-mail account configured on your phone already like hotmail or gmail.
Ultimate theft alert is paid. This is free since made by xda devs.
I use smartphonetracker, veryeasy to use and very reliable, works for a year now and just fine
powersquad said:
Install this. It's FREE. If a theif changes the sim card, you will automatically recieve an SMS to the numbers you have configured in the software. You will recieve his phone number + IMEI details. Configure your e-mail address and atleast 2 different phone numbers in the software so once you recieve the theifs new phone number or if he has not changed the sim card then you can send a special text message (read software tutorial) to you sim card or theifs new sim card which will activate the gps and text the co-ordinates to the nominated phone numbers you would have configured and an e-mail with link to google maps showing exactly where the phone is.
This thing works 100%. My house was under google maps with the right house and street address. I was stunned.
Also a thief is not literate enough to jump aboard XDA forum and search "How to hard reset a Touch Pro 2". They don't have time and most don't even know that technology like this exists.
Also once the Hard SPL comes out for TP2 and Cooked roms start releasing, you can either cook your own ROM with this software pre-installed with the right settings or request someone to cook a ROM for you with the right e-mail and phone number settings you want so even if a theif does a hard reset, software will still be installed again with those settings.
And to uninstall this software, theif needs to enter the password which you need to configure. I recommend you go through the tutorial.
oh and IMPORTANT. Install this to device memory because if he takes out your memory card and it's installed on the memory card then everything will be useless.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=394203
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I love that one, so thiefs are stupid... OK, nice one... Maybe one day you will became suprised...
Tracking software can work
I know it's about an iphone, but it proves that these services can work sometimes!
http://mashable.com/2009/07/28/find-my-iphone/
Gordon
hey... i agree with black phoenix completely... u never know these guys are too quick...
not unless the theif is some corporate theif, who wants ur data... i don't think he will leave ur phone without a hard-reset...
but for the first 10-20 minutes before he figures out how to do it.. i think a better solution than Ultimate Theft Alert is Maspware's Guardmobile
here is a small list of its features
* You can initiate an alarm and lock the device
* You can locate your device (GPS receiver is required)
* If your stolen device contains top secret data, you can do a hardreset remotely to erase all data!
* You can initiate a callback to overhear the thief
besides the above.. it also tells u if the sim card has changed... - which btw no foolish theif will do without first doing a hard-reset...
all the best...
mirage22 said:
hey... i agree with black phoenix completely... u never know these guys are too quick...
not unless the theif is some corporate theif, who wants ur data... i don't think he will leave ur phone without a hard-reset...
but for the first 10-20 minutes before he figures out how to do it.. i think a better solution than Ultimate Theft Alert is Maspware's Guardmobile
here is a small list of its features
* You can initiate an alarm and lock the device
* You can locate your device (GPS receiver is required)
* If your stolen device contains top secret data, you can do a hardreset remotely to erase all data!
* You can initiate a callback to overhear the thief
besides the above.. it also tells u if the sim card has changed... - which btw no foolish theif will do without first doing a hard-reset...
all the best...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Finnaly someone that supports me. I was thinking that I were the only one with the idea that most think that are strange. Looks like lot of people in this forum still believe in Santa's or in the Easter Bunny.
If it was a hardware solution, directly solded in the Phone PCB, OK, that way I may garantee that you can return your phone, because his hard to bypass (if done correctly), but even those ways are bypassable sooner or later.
powersquad said:
a thief is not literate enough to jump aboard XDA forum and search "How to hard reset a Touch Pro 2".http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=394203
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think they would do it to be honest, it would take ages to delete all of the contacts etc. A google for "reset touch pro 2" is all it takes.
However, once we have HardSPL we'll be able to burn these utilities into the ROM so that they survive a hard-reset. Thief has to be aware of this and know how to re-flash. That raises the bar considerably.
lol, some people are just giving waay too much credit to theifs here. if they were literate and could afford an internet conncection to jump on google, they will not be theifs in the first place. all they care about is booze and drugs...
powersquad said:
lol, some people are just giving waay too much credit to theifs here. if they were literate and could afford an internet conncection to jump on google, they will not be theifs in the first place. all they care about is booze and drugs...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you must have some really nice thieves in Europe. i've seen lots of things stolen for no other reason then to just steal something.
I recently had my phone (xperia) stolen. I had only recently flashed a new rom so it had wiped my anti-theft software. I bloody wish I had put it back on now.
Saying that I was abroad with no-data running, but at least I may have got a phone number by text. Then again the number to text to was my girlfreinds phone which was also taken. Oh well!
It is very likely a thief will reset the phone ASAP, but some thieves will be opportunists who see something shiny and expensive looking to steal and wont be that technologically savvy.
In that case the software may well pay off (ignoring my senerio above).
mirage22 said:
* You can locate your device (GPS receiver is required)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We all know the issues (time lag etc.) with the GPS on the TP2. Why a thief would put a new simcard in the phone outside. Probably he/ or she will be inside, where no GPS signal is available.
What about "W.I.M.P" (where is my phone) ?
http://www.wimp-software.co.uk/
powersquad said:
lol, some people are just giving waay too much credit to theifs here. if they were literate and could afford an internet conncection to jump on google, they will not be theifs in the first place. all they care about is booze and drugs...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And some people thinks that just because they are thiefs that don't have internet connections and not literate. That they do not think, they aren't smart... Come On...

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