:?:
I am just about to purchase a new PDA. I am deciding between the Wizard (o2 xda mini s) and Universal (o2 xda exec).
The universal seems to have everything I want, but I am scared by the posts here.
So I have one basic question for you guys:
Do you think:
1. There are basic hardware problems which can't be resolved until there is a new version
2. It is just a buggy software/firmware issue, and this will be fixed by the current and future firmware upgrades ?
If it is 2, I will not mind buying it ?
thx
Only a personal viewpoint, but my view is that most of the problems are being caused by software that claims to support WM5.0 - but the reality is that although they do support it, not all software is as robust as it should be. I have installed and uninstalled a whole range of applications (purchased and trial versions) - and found that many cause lock-ups etc. After trial and error I have settled on a PIM (Pocket Informant) and a closer/launcher (GSPocketMagic) that work reliably, do not cause my Universal to lock up and do not seem to have any effect on system speed. Others I have tried may cause lock-ups or at least really slow the system performance down significantly. Not sure if others have found the same - just what I have found by trial and error. Hope it helps
that is a very interesting point. I was very influenced by this article:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=35177
Also it seems if you read aximsite re: dell x51v, that Wm5 is not as compatable with wm2003se software as people think.
What also seems to be adding to the issues is that the service providers (o2, orange, etc.) are NOT aware of this and are installing applications as standard (e.g. battery meter) which actually cause lags in answering phone calls as they are not correctly for Wm5.
I guess the question is now, does the jasajr work fine when all bad the sowftare is uninstalled, and is it possible to uninstall monitoring software that service providers have installed ?
I just bought mine on Monday... great piece of kit!
If you are just going to use the software that came with it you shouldn't have any problems at all (i haven't anyway) all is working well.
I think as soon as WM2005 becomes more established and more developers cater for it the glitches will go, like NH said, it's more 3rd party software that's causing the problems
hey budo, which service provider did you buy from ?
how is surfing the internet using 3g (the real reason I want to buy it, as I will keep my normal mobile for phone calls)
rgds
My position is clear. WM5 itself has bugs and does things you don't expect. Here are just four examples of WM5 probelms which are nothing to do with third-party apps:
- If the Camera app is left on it heats-up the devices as it drains the battery
- On downloading email over GPRS/3G the Messaging app can freeze
- Media stored on the SD card when used by apps when the "suspend" option is used can cause the app to fail when you re-start your device
- WM5 can report it has insufficient memory even when it has 20MB of RAM free
- Memory leakage means you need to reset the device daily
- If you do reset it is possible to loose settings and data if this data has not been written back to the persistent storage from the real RAM
O2, and they give you 3 options for "install type" so if you want all the bells and whistles you can switch it on, or if you want just the basic software you can switch that on lol...
I have to sort my internet out for 3G, needs to be config for some reason.... but from what i have seen from GPRS it's top dog esp with sites that cater for mobile internet....
this is not good jah, i am put off again. although this could be fixed with a firmware update if htc provide that kind of thing. Anyone know their record on this for other devices ?
hey budo. If 3g is turned on, it should use it automatically for connection, even if it says gprs. that is normally how all my 3g phones have worked when 'bluetoothed' with a pda.
Colonel
I assume you have seen this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=33871
I am not trying to put you off but just want to make sure you have a balanced perspective. I have an Exec and all I can say is that it is "high maintenance" like all M$ based systems
thanks, i'll read.
I'm not sure I totaly agree with you about M$ stuff. I had a dell x50v and currently have an orange m500, and they are perfectly reliable and low mainentance. It does seem however that the hardware people have rushed out wm5 systems without really doing their research and I am sure M$ is responsible for a load of bugs. Roll on WM5se ......
colonel said:
hey budo, which service provider did you buy from ?
how is surfing the internet using 3g (the real reason I want to buy it, as I will keep my normal mobile for phone calls)
rgds
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sux. This pixel doubling issue means that you don;t get anywhwere near the estate you expected. U can switch to Oz VGA but that costs a 5 min reset either way - easier to get to a PC! The other issue is that the IE browser is SO bad that 3G surfing feels like GPRS - in fact I used to fire up my laptop just to check that I had a good 3G signal in the area and was indeed surfing on UMTS!! Issue is that browser renders slowly, and cache's so badly that it actually reloads the whole friggin page when u go 'back'. I could have my laptop working on a 3G card right alongside my JJ on 3G, type in xda-developers and press 'go', and my laptop would give me the screen in seconds, whilst my JJ would take a full minute!! We're taking over 10x slower. Also, many sites do not render in PIE - blank drop boxes etc. In SA that's movie booking gone, not a SINGLE TV guide site works, and altho my private bank works, my company bank does not. However, terminal services in VGA is awesome...
craigiecraigie4
I don't really have problem with 3G and PIE. I use T-mobile and o2 in the UK and the rendering etc is reasonable given that I did not expect laptop like performance on my Exec. The Exec in corp mode with GSPMagic+ is very quick.
In fact, it's a 400 bucks piece of utterly unreliable, useless crap.
Since I got my device back from "repair", it's been a mixed experience. Most things work, some make me cringe in despair.
Today is a bad-TyTN day and I'm really, really <expletive/>.
After the repair, I thought my "No GSM" problems were gone. But today, the first time I really couldn't do without it, it crashed a couple of minutes after I unplugged it from the USB-ActiveSync 4.5 link and told me again "No GSM".
And of course, the result being:
- All POP3 accounts lost, and now I lost all emails and have to use different account names to set them up again
- Network connections credentials lost, even built-in. No I can, again, connected by other means, go figure out how to set these up or,
- finally, hard-reset the device, which is a pain in the neck because I have no out-of-the-box backup.
I'm not even running any third-party software on the device for fear of introducing non-linearities. I did not even install the brand-new TomTom 6, also since nobody seems to be able to sell a sufficiently large MicroSD card at this time.
Who's to blame for my bad experience?
Did I do something wrong? Setting the lock-timeout to 2 hours instead of 12, so it locked during the ActiveSync session?
Did HTC screw up so it would reset some "protected storage" when the GSM card is not detected for some magical reason?
Does Windows Mobile 5.0 AKU2 just have too much bugs to be reliable?
Does my provider E-Plus Germany suck for confusing the device with poor, unreliable UMTS coverage and internet connection problems?
It's a mixture of all these things, I guess. There are too many moving parts, most of which aren't sufficiently documented by Microsoft, or kept up-to-date software-wise by HTC and the service providers.
Examples:
- Messaging that unrecoverably screws up my POP3 accounts and there is no documentation in the SDK about the setup to fix it myself.
- The worthless MediaPlayer, that abandons it's meta-data when the storage card is released.
- The HTC phone software that at times wouldn't let me hang up on occasions, or doesn't start, or keeps using a bad UMTS connection even if GPRS is available and good.
I thought the TyTN would make a great every-day device for a phone and a software development platform for new-class applications.
So far, it's been one of the greatest time-wasters I've ever acquired.
Just like any other toy.
Useless crap.
Not had anything quite as bad as that. Never had to hard reset due to irreversible problem. But, yes quite a few soft resets and in a way although I want to disagree with you I think the device is cutting edge and could easily have been held back a year to iron out some problems. However as you say some of these problems are down to WM and telecoms providers. For business I would not get one of these but probably something with fewer features but high reliability.
For trying out the new or new combinations of features I would still buy a TyTn in preference to anything similar and yes a large part of this is about experimentation and an acceptance that if this were not cutting edge in some ways then reliability would not be acceptable. As it is though my business use is low on TyTn having "Fun" and experimenting is high. My rant is about releasing the device with obvious hardware irritations, the software.. well that can always be upgraded.
Mike
HB_TyTN said:
Does Windows Mobile 5.0 AKU2 just have too much bugs to be reliable?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Surely not - the problems you've listed (particularly the stale e-mail accounts) are not MS-related problems but because of stale WinCE database entries.
Next time DO run SKTools 3 to clean up the mail databases instead of hard resetting your device.
Furthermore, it's a very bad a idea to send a device in for service that still has data on it. You should have wiped it before sending anyway...
If you view a PPC Phone as a primary data storage/communications center, then you're in for a disappointment. On the other hand, if you use it as an extension of your personal computer, then not only will you have a very productive device but you'll keep your sanity.
I've always used this strategy since my first sync experience on a Nokia 6210 six-years ago. Appointments and contacts all easily synced to my phone. Replaced that with grey t68. Then came the PocketLOOX 600 (touted as first convergence device - nice idea, poor execution). I tolerated the buggy loox for 18-months before trading UP to an h4150 running wm2003se. Great device. Kept a t610 for phone, ppc as outlook back-up.
Arrived in Taiwan for an extended business trip end of July -- immediately picked up the local version CHT9000 (aka Dopod 838pro). Through this forum, someone graciously made available the first English language ROM -- a tad buggy, but later upgraded to my current ROM (dopod 1.23) and in everyway it has exceeded my expectations. I take it to the US and it my t-mobile account with gprs keeps me connected. Recently spent two weeks in Korea and all over China -- again, UMTS available most places, GPRS/EDGE filled in the blanks. Mobile carriers everywhere will love HTC for bringing this device to the masses.
Don't have to, but it's prudent to sync the device at least once a day. In the event you lose the device, it's stolen, or you're forced to hard reset, because it's just a 'copy' of your outlook system, it's no big loss.
All that said -- I'd recommend this device to anyone with at least some technical savvy. Without this, they could never appreciate truly the first quad-band gsm/tri-band UMTS, BT2.0, WiFi G, PPC Phone with both a useable keyboard AND a real scroll wheel and would be better off owning a Chocolate or some other Nokia/SonyEricsson 'fashion accessory'.
Cheers
Menneisyys said:
Surely not - the problems you've listed (particularly the stale e-mail accounts) are not MS-related problems but because of stale WinCE database entries.
Next time DO run SKTools 3 to clean up the mail databases instead of hard resetting your device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why do I have to use 3rd-party tools to fix such a problem? Where is the KB article about it, either on Microsoft's or HTC's or on my provider's website?
goestoeleven said:
Furthermore, it's a very bad a idea to send a device in for service that still has data on it. You should have wiped it before sending anyway...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Before repair, my device had the "Does not reliably detect SIM card" problem, that clearly discouraged me to put any data on it.
As requested by my service provider, I sent in the device hard-reset, without SIMcard, SDcard, battery, or stylus. I even removed the screen protector.
So all that's lost now (EMail accounts, passwords, WiFi, and what not), has been set completely new AFTER repair.
aquanaut88 said:
If you view a PPC Phone as a primary data storage/communications center, then you're in for a disappointment. On the other hand, if you use it as an extension of your personal computer, then not only will you have a very productive device but you'll keep your sanity.
[...]
Don't have to, but it's prudent to sync the device at least once a day. In the event you lose the device, it's stolen, or you're forced to hard reset, because it's just a 'copy' of your outlook system, it's no big loss.
All that said -- I'd recommend this device to anyone with at least some technical savvy. Without this, they could never appreciate truly the first quad-band gsm/tri-band UMTS, BT2.0, WiFi G, PPC Phone with both a useable keyboard AND a real scroll wheel and would be better off owning a Chocolate or some other Nokia/SonyEricsson 'fashion accessory'.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I appreciated the great feature list of the TyTN by putting more than 400 bucks on the table and commited to an additional data plan as well as another 24 months of mediocre network coverage and service.
As I said, I planned to use it for developing pocket pc applications and little helpers to make my life easier.
I use it as an extension to my laptop, it is connected to it via USB most of the time, to charge and sync.
But feel like I could demand that it reliably keeps my data until I sync again.
If I have to always carry my laptop around to get that reliability, then it would have been way cheaper to go with a UMTS modem card instead.
If something is only useful to technologically savvy geeks, without reliability for the Joe Public every-day user, then I consider it a toy. Maybe a great, feature-overbearing, remarkably innovative toy, but nevertheless, something to play with, not to rely on.
Unfortunately, beside the technical problems that could be overcome by updates and repairs, it's a systematic issue that support is split across Microsoft, HTC and my provider.
As I said, it's terrible hard to figure out if a problem is caused by my fault, inappropriate settings, too little or too much tweaking, mediocre network coverage, hardware faults or software problems.
I wouldn't mind hard-resetting the device every day, if there was something resembling a simple backup _out-of-the-box_.
By backup I mean settings, including personalization, network connections, email accounts, sms/mms, custom ringtones, etc.
And that's exactly what I'm into finding to buy or writing myself.
Finally, again
Hang, bang, gone. "No GSM" again.
This time not recovering.
The new thing this time: My service provider E-Plus doesn't accept it for repair.
I should quit my day job so I can fully concentrate on the struggle with this heap of crap.
HB_TyTN said:
In fact, it's a 400 bucks piece of utterly unreliable, useless crap.
Since I got my device back from "repair", it's been a mixed experience. Most things work, some make me cringe in despair.
Today is a bad-TyTN day and I'm really, really <expletive/>.
After the repair, I thought my "No GSM" problems were gone. But today, the first time I really couldn't do without it, it crashed a couple of minutes after I unplugged it from the USB-ActiveSync 4.5 link and told me again "No GSM".
And of course, the result being:
- All POP3 accounts lost, and now I lost all emails and have to use different account names to set them up again
- Network connections credentials lost, even built-in. No I can, again, connected by other means, go figure out how to set these up or,
- finally, hard-reset the device, which is a pain in the neck because I have no out-of-the-box backup.
I'm not even running any third-party software on the device for fear of introducing non-linearities. I did not even install the brand-new TomTom 6, also since nobody seems to be able to sell a sufficiently large MicroSD card at this time.
Who's to blame for my bad experience?
Did I do something wrong? Setting the lock-timeout to 2 hours instead of 12, so it locked during the ActiveSync session?
Did HTC screw up so it would reset some "protected storage" when the GSM card is not detected for some magical reason?
Does Windows Mobile 5.0 AKU2 just have too much bugs to be reliable?
Does my provider E-Plus Germany suck for confusing the device with poor, unreliable UMTS coverage and internet connection problems?
It's a mixture of all these things, I guess. There are too many moving parts, most of which aren't sufficiently documented by Microsoft, or kept up-to-date software-wise by HTC and the service providers.
Examples:
- Messaging that unrecoverably screws up my POP3 accounts and there is no documentation in the SDK about the setup to fix it myself.
- The worthless MediaPlayer, that abandons it's meta-data when the storage card is released.
- The HTC phone software that at times wouldn't let me hang up on occasions, or doesn't start, or keeps using a bad UMTS connection even if GPRS is available and good.
I thought the TyTN would make a great every-day device for a phone and a software development platform for new-class applications.
So far, it's been one of the greatest time-wasters I've ever acquired.
Just like any other toy.
Useless crap.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the first BIG complaint i have heard about the product.. Second, wow, what did you do to it that it had to end-up in repairs? (fiddler??) Third, if it does give this much problems, then there was something wrong with it from the start, but you didnt take it back an did not insist on a swop?
Look at this app, install it and see if your gsm still is disabled?
Also check your settings again to make sure all is set to the right ones! Else you got a big problem or just dono how the thing works(just saying this coz 80% of all problems are caused by the user him/herself!! See it everyday then they blame me!).. RTFM
Or it could be a virus!! hahah That would be funny!!
OH, your rom version!! Wow dude!! Update the thing!! ROM Version: 1.18.257.2; ROM Date: 05/30/06
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=Hermes_Upgrades
HB_TyTN said:
Hang, bang, gone. "No GSM" again.
This time not recovering.
The new thing this time: My service provider E-Plus doesn't accept it for repair.
I should quit my day job so I can fully concentrate on the struggle with this heap of crap.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just as testing purpose: superCID it and try to flash with HTC South African 1.35 Rom
The ROM update worked for me. It took a lot of work to get mine running how it should after that, 3rd party software, reg settings, and I must admit it runs beautifully now. But when it came out of the box it was bloody awful, wouldn't turn on, take 5 seconds to hang up, freeze etc.
One word ... iPhone, hmm.
Hallo HB_TyTN
Like you I am on the E-Plus network (at Hannover), and use a O2-branded Tytn, same firmware. However, I never experienced problems like you, and like us others got used to occasional soft reset requirements, mainly related to the 3rd party Today items I use.
Now that HTC is in the retail market by itself it is certainly not wise to buy their wares over service providers (unless like you one buys on contract), since HTC for machines bought with them will go to greater efforts to repair or exchange machines. Eplus will not repair your Tytn, but usually just send you another "refurbished" one from the same batch they got from HTC.
For the moment you seem stuck with E-Plus, and you can attempt to pressure them into proper service according to German law. Another possibility is in fact to try the South African ROM, and see if it improves your machine. Third option is to beg HTC for direct repair, maybe with confirmation from E-Plus that they cannot help you, and send the machine directly to a HTC repair centre. If you send in your machine, please mail a copy of your attached letter to Fred Liu, HTC COO office, 23 Hsin Hua Rd., Taoyuan 330, Taiwan, R. O. C.
He is the COO of HTC and the top boss of HTC Europe. Coming to Germany soon, he will not want to make enemies here ))
Now after 10 hours it booted just fine and I'm just rapiconfigging back my email accounts and networks.
Reestablishing Bluetooth pairings and TomTom actvation is still manual.
I'm not fiddling. First time it failed right out-of-the-box. After repair #1 I only installed SKTools and TomTom Navigator 6.
ROM upgrade is no option, E-Plus/Brightpoint have not published an update. So there would be no way back.
Last repair the device wasn't switched (same S/N, IMEI, ROM version), so I guess they couldn't repro the problem (that would also explain their refusal to repair it again).
Next time I'll rush to an E-Plus shop as soon as it happens.
lol < well this sucks. cant use less than 10chars.. > lol
My first experiences with the TyTn also were disappointing. It took me weeks to get it more or less useable, and even now some things are not as convenient as they were on my Symbian phone. Here are the things that bother me (some are solved by 3rd party applications, others are not):
General:
- onscreen keyboard pops up even when one is using the hardware keyboard
- no way to backup all the settings
- often hard to navigate when not wanting to use the stylus
- only one language for text entry (word completion and transcriber)
- no data counter (gprs traffic)
- wordcompletion intervenes too much (when I type a Dutch word "wel", after typing the space after the word it changes it to we'll, no way to prevent this)
- wordcompletion only shows one possible next word (no way to scroll between different candidates)
- any setting that is slightly more advanced or deviates from tradition is either hard to set or impossible
Messaging:
- no way to specify the imap-root folder
- not possible to switch SMTP servers (even the from field cannot be chosen when sending a mail, nor can mails be moved from one outbox to another) (other mail clients I tried have problems with my VPN)
- cumbersome downloading (headers only: one has to open a mail and then choose to download it, then click send/receive; why not download it when this is chosen? or even when it is openend?)
- many notifications for sms (sent notification in messaging client, sent notification from network, receipt notification) when sending messages (and one cannot mark them as "read" from the todayscreen)
- applications are not very well integrated (e.g. file explorer cannot send a file via bluetooth)
Calendar:
- always opens on day view, would like to change this to month view (but is not possible)
- day view should be scrolled down to show the start of the day (e.g. 8.00 at the top of the screen), now I have to scroll from 00.00 down before I can see stuff)
- cumbersome entry of time (esp. when entering times that deviate from the time slots)
Phone:
- no support for different call profiles (where a profile is essentially a call filter)
- when one contact has multiple numbers, the phone application only shows the last used one
Network:
- when you add a VPN server, then delete it, you can't add one with the same name (even though it has been deleted)
- wifi starts detecting all networks, and does not necessarily start with the networks one has been connected to in the past
Bluetooth:
- limited profiles
- sometimes counterintuitive
ActiveSync:
- sees the device as new every now and then (causing it to say it conflicts); I have to delete the device on my PC and let it find it all over again
Programs folder:
- is alphabetically, would be nice if one could order this to his own liking
Alarm:
- no snooze function
- unnatural way of entering time and repeat options
File explorer
- no way to view extensions of files
I've learned to live with some of these problems, but I would have expected Windows mobile to be a more mature system. I had to choose a WM5 device (so I new I had to compromise), due to the fact that I wanted to run some specific application (PocketFMS), but didn't anticipate I had to compensate this much. (of course, no of my issues is purely HTC related, but will be present on all WM5 devices)
In total, I personally consider Symbian (Series 60) to be more efficient, better customisable (one is less forced to do things one way) and (never thought I'd say this) more stable.
Jörg
hmmm.... the fact that I'm listening to mannheim steamroller over A2DP at Las Vegas airport while typing this reply on my TyTN is evidence of my disagreement with the OP. This device has done incredibly well at CES. unbelievable functionality in tough tradeshow conditions. i'm really happy with this little gizmo!
Nevermind, I really love it, too. Otherwise I wouldn't spend so much time with it.
But posting in a stable network environment (I'm on home WLAN right now) is not really a proof.
Try this when moving in a crowded area with weak 3G coverage, say on the subway. Add sensitive hardware and a mediocre provider and things go south.
It's unfortunate your having so many of these problems - my Hermes has been excellent! I haven't had any of the issues you listed. In fact, mine has only locked up once, and that was today (and I use it religiously). I've had it hard reset on it's own, but that was caused by Hackmaster. You should definitely try a ROM upgrade, if you haven't already.
At CES, I was using my TyTN on Cingular's network with 110,000 other geeks (kudos to Cingular btw... coverage was great!). Even so, my device was handing off between GSM and UMTS constantly and Cingular experienced at least one major data network meltdown that I could detect. Perhaps it was the combination of 1.35 & the 1.20 radio that made mine work so well.
The worst problem I had was A2DP, but after the first day I found out it was because so many other people had bluetooth going that there were simply not enough available frequencies to support A2DP's high bandwidth demands. All the vendors were bemoaning the fact that their A2DP stuff "just wasn't working right"....
hello,
first of all let me thank you for a brilliant forum. I was looking for a forum with loads of information on pocket pc phones and i guess i found you guys.
Okay I'm a total newbie and I need help with choosing between three phones and i'm extremely confused as to what i should choose.
I'm with orange and they are offering me:-
1. NOKIA N95 (Not the black edition, but does come with 8gb) - Has all the features, but i've heard these are very buggy and slow
2. TYTN II - Has all the features that i need, except the keypad is eithier virtual or i have to pull out the keyboard to make calls, which is a NO NO
3. TOUCH DUAL - Now this phone is the dream i was wishing for..i.e there is a keypad which exists, allowing me to quickly make calls, but then it has NO GPS and NO WI-FI .
My problem is that all phones have their advantages and disadvantages and therefore make it difficult for me to choose. Here is what i'm looking for:-
1. The phone must have a hard keypad (Not a keyboard or virtual keypad) to make immediate calls.
2. GPS is not immediately needed, but i hope that i can add it in the near future
3. WI-FI again is not urgently needed, but i hope that it can be added later in future
4. The phone software must be very adaptable software wise
5. Must be unlockable to all networks
6. Needs to have a decent battery life
I especially want to know about the Touch Dual..can this give me what i need?
2 & 3, u'd better assume a "no" in touch dual forever. if finally a brilliant brain solves it, it's a bonus. better not assume you can get it in "near future". meanwhile, you may have interest on this thread
4. Windows Mobile is an open platform that allows installation of the millions of programs in the market. meanwhile, pls be prepared that "soft reset" is unavoidable for the M$ product, just like reboot upon "blue screen" in win98.
5. see this
6. it's very dependent on personal habit. e.g. how many phone calls a day? how much data connection? how much online/offline content browsing? how much game playing? the word "decent" is very subjective as well. in general, if you work in office for most of time, it's not a worry at all, as you can easily recharge your WM devices from a pc using a standard usb cable.
hope this helps
many thanks pp18 your reply has been very helpful.
I use the phone 90% of the time to make outgoing calls..so battery life is fairly important
Regarding GPS...for the time being, can Touch dual work with a GPS receiver?
if you're very worried about the battery life, you can always bring a spare battery with you. can't share much on this, as it's always easy for me to find a usb cable to charge up my device even i forget to do it the night before.
re gps, yes you can use an external gps module and let it communicate with touch dual through bluetooth. you may have interest on this.
hi pp18.
I rang orange yesterday and after having a long chat with them, they backed off the n95 and tytn II as they said that the person who offered the mobiles made a mistake. I only had a choice between a nokia 6500 classic/slide or the Touch Dual II. Hope i made the right choice as i chose the Touch Dual II.
I thank you for helping me with all these questions and definately have interest in using an external gps receiver.
As a total newbie and after reading your links, can you clarify the following questions i have please? :-
1. If i use the recommended GPS receiver with the t-dual, is it as accurate and speedy & reliable as a general tomtom device would be? What i'm trying to say is that are there any known issues with GPS receivers and a phone? For example does the phone regularly lose signal and can't tell where i'm going.
2. Can i install tomtom software on it?
3. From your experience, has the guy who charges £5 to unlock this mobile, messed up anyone's phone?
4. I live in an urban area...Is it true that this phone has serious signal issues?
5. Lastly i have heard that the orange installed software is slow, drains the battery and unreliable. How difficult is it for a novice like myself to install a new rom that is faster and better than orange? Also what is the best/reliable rom going at the moment?
Many thanks for your very helpful info.
regards
newbiefone
in general, bluetooth communication between an external gps module and a WM device shouldn't be a problem. for details and specific to your area, i suggest you ask in the Niki Accessories forum so that your neighbours can offer better help.
for flashing cooked rom, i personally not recommend it to newbies, as the worst case for a wrong operation is "brick" the device. and, a device with cooked rom will void the warranty as well. you'd better find a friend to help. for choice of rom, suggest you read the great articles in the Niki Upgrading forum.
i had pretty much the same options as you. and i went with the touch dual. it kind of puts a dampner on it not having gps or wifi inbuilt like the other 2, but wifi isnt really that big of a deal, internet surfing on a phone screen is pretty worthless - if need be i just use gprs, its fine for my needs (i bearly ever used wifi on my old tornado). i already had a bluetooth gps reciver so gps isnt a problem, i just leave it in my car.
the touch dual is by far the most attractive out of the 3. the only thing i dislike is the camera, its not as good as the n95s. and i'd love tv out like the n95 has. i wouldnt want a tytn ii though. they're bulky and heavy and there is no need for all the extra weight just for gps and wifi.
thanks pp18 and ducamie.
From what you guys have told me so far, it sounds like i've made the right choice. Would you kindly help me with my remaining questions:-
2. Can i install tomtom software on it?
3. From your experience, has the guy who charges £5 to unlock this mobile, messed up anyone's phone?
4. I live in an urban area...Is it true that this phone has serious signal issues?
Thanks So Much!!!
tomtom installs great.. version 6 is pretty awesome with touch screen.
if you need it unlocking, i'd deffinatley use olipro's simunlock, its £5, its very safe, and your only other option is to pay £20 at imei check. with olipro's it cid unlocks your phone too. i wish he'd brought it out sooner.
ive never had problems with signal, its always been fine, if youre living in an urban area i wouldnt worry about it.
thanks so much ducamie!!! i look forward to seeing my phone.
Btw, do you have an orange dual? If so, have you updated it with another rom or have you left it as it is?
hey. yeah, got an orange branded niki.
i flashed tom_codon's rom after flashing the hardspl to get rid of the orange stuff on the phone more than anything but its a good rom generally, i'd upgrade it if i were you (once youre familiar with what youre doing ofcourse). might aswell.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=364335
I accidentally posted this in the wrong forum, this one seems more appropriate.
First of all, this forum has been very helpful. I almost find that there is too much information available here, boggles the mind.
In any case I have just upgraded to a Touch HD from a Touch Cruise (the first edition). The Touch Cruise was a Great Phone, still is – I was just looking for an upgrade (upgraditis). The model I supposedly obtained (EBay Auction for $161) is the T8285, which is perfect as I am USA bound on the AT&T Network. For all intensive purposes the Phone is working as expected, looks great too!
My first question (I know asked before) is that the phone says it’s a T8282. I realize that any past ROM updates can do this – I do not have a clear history of the device. Looking at the Phone Network selections I have four choices (see below). It does show the UMTS Bands AT&T Operations on, so can I assume that this is an T8285?
• Auto
• GSM(900+1800)+UMTS(900+2100)
• GSM(1900+850)+UMTS(1900+850)
• UMTS(2100+800)
Next: I do not have the Data Plan, nor do I want it. It’s just too pricey and I really do not need it (I have WiFi available at home and work, which appears to be working great). A lot of Forum advice here goes into available Programs to shut off/block the Data from working. Right now I have only two options selected (Turned On) under Connections, the Phone and WiFi. There is a Tab for Data which I left OFF. This seems like a no brainer but as it hasn’t been discussed as an option to the No-Data desires, am I just simply missing something?
I know this is purely taste, but is there a “widely” preferred Screen Saver out there? I have had my Touch Cruise for three years and the Screen is Immaculate due to persistence/diligence on protecting the Screen, but I have noticed that there is differences in quality – LARGE differences! The one I liked the most was the HTC Branded Screen savers. They resisted scratches while not effecting operability. I am now using “Fellowes” Generic savers, which scratch relatively easy.
Of course I have other questions, but I will continue to work them out searching the forums for answers as needed. I know there are people who hate when questions are asked that have been answered before – I did research the above but either found not enough or too much contradicting information.
If you look under the battery, the model number should say BLAC100 or BLAC120. BLAC100=T8282, BLAC120=T8285.
Even if Data Connection is OFF in comm manager, the phone will still connect to the internet as needed. You'll need an app to prevent the data connection from starting, or put an invalid APN in connection settings.
But a large pack of the cheapest screen protectors off ebay and replace them as they get scratched?
Waaaah: It appears I have a T8282, not a T8285 as described in the Ebay Auction. It clearly has the BLAC100 identifier under the battery. However, this may be OK as I never intended to opt for the Data Plan anyway. Other than not being Data accessible for AT&T is there any other differences between the phones - even ever so slight? Like I said I am surfing the WEB via WiFi, making and recieving calls, and accessing the other programs without issue.
I am finding that obtaining a "non-Data-Plan" GPS program for these phones is difficult (obviously my only option now). I like TomTom (had Navigator 6 on my HTC Cruise) but the Nav 6 is not "fully" compatible. The Nav 7 is compatible but does not have available USA Maps. CoPilot Live V8 is out there, but Web reviews leave less-than-desireable reports for the Maps - but the program itself does gets high marks. If TomTom does not give some indication for getting the Maps I will most likely go with CoPilot.
I like the phone and plan on keeping it (I did reply to the EBay seller to see if he can do anything, but do not expect much if any). I see a french site referenced in these forums with a large list of compatible Software but can not current register to his site for the links (others are apparrently having the same issue right now).
If there is any advice/information out there I might find interesting please feel free to feed it back.
Thanks.....
There's no difference between them apart from the addition of different 3G bands, the T8282 came out first in Europe and has the European 3G bands, the T8285 is the 'rest of the world' version with more frequences available.
The T8282 will still work on GSM in the US, but you won't get any 3G, which will only be a problem for voice if you're in 3G-only area. Seems it's been flashed with a T8285 ROM which shows the US 3G frequences, but they won't work on an T8282 as the hardware isn't there to support it.
There's quite a few sat-nav programs available, off the top of my head, there's TomTom, iGo, Route 66, Destinator...
That's what I fugured. However now that you mention it - is AT&T (or will they) be going toward a 3G Only coverage phylosophy. If that is (or will be) their intention this phone will eventually be useless. I find it hard to believe that a changeover like that could take place overnight, but it does make business sense (kind-of). Why maintain multiple systems (in this case Bands) when just your top-of-the-line one will do. They also in turn force the populace to keep upgrading phones pleasing the manufacturers. Kind of a Software thing - only supporting the latest product, forcing upgrades.