Database Users

First impressions

Just got my XDA today, and I thought I'd give some feedback as to what I've experienced so far, and mabye throw in a few questions to help me get more out of it Hope you guys dont mind.
First of all, goddamn its slow. I think my pentium 200 runs windows XP faster than this thing runs windows mobile. Its a 200mhz risc processor and it struggles to run an embedded OS. Mabye the bloated and slow windows mobile wasn't the best choice to run on the slowest of the XDA family, although I'll bet the bigger and faster models have exactly the same problem.
Secondly, how the hell do you close an application, because the 'close' button at the top right certainly doesn't do that. I send some texts, add some reminders and calender entries, close them, go back to the today screen and what do you know? the task manager tells me that they're all still open. I installed Magic Buttons and that helps a lot.
The dialer screen. Whenever I call someone or receive a call, thats it. Game over. The dialer screen wont close, minimise, go away or bugger off. If I want to see the 'Today' screen, I've got to restart the device.
Sorry for all that ranting Just one little question if I may.
Is there an addon for the the today screen that will collect the calender and tasks and birthdays and all that stuff and display them all together (in order)?
Also some desktop icons would be nice. My device spends most of its time displaying the today screen, I'd like some desktop icons to launch my most used applications, since my start menu can only display 7 (plus a few last-used applications)
Sorry if I sound like a moaning old git, but I expected a lot more from this device. A 200mhz processor running a streamlined (what a joke) embedded OS.

Old gits are perfectly allowable..
I use iLauncher and PocketBreeze. Check them out at http://www.sbsh.net ..
I don't think that the device is that slow personally. Although, I won't argue it is slow. I think some of it is the customizations that also get thrown in. I wiped out mine and didn't do any of the customizations, and it's much faster. (I have a Cingular 8125.)
The closing program is a common issue. The basic reason behind it is often times people want it out of sight when they close it. By it still being open though, it allows it (naturally) to load faster. Of course, opening too many apps, and you have the slow down issue.
It almost sounds to me like there may be something wrong with the phone though.. I have had no problems with the dialer screen. And you definitely shouldn't have to restart the device every time you use it. Perhaps a hard reset might be in order? If it still does it after that, maybe reflashing the device would be in order then.
Anyway, good luck with the phone!

Thank you very much for letting me know about those programs. What a difference they make, the device is a pleasure to use now
Need to sort out a 2gb mini sd card now, any idea where I can pick one up? I heard a bad story a while ago that ebay was flooded with cheap copies and bad quality storage cards I'm kinda scared to buy one now.

That I wouldn't know. I have a 1 GB card which is generally more than enough for what I need it for.
Glad to hear you liked PocketBreeze and iLauncher. I absolutely love 'em..

sk0t said:
That I wouldn't know. I have a 1 GB card which is generally more than enough for what I need it for.
Glad to hear you liked PocketBreeze and iLauncher. I absolutely love 'em..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll second that!! I coulcn't live without them!!

Such a let down..

I've had this phone nearly a month now and it's been pretty rubbish! It's done a couple of cool things, but nothing has been great. There's been bugs in absolutely everything. I'm on T-mobile (MDA Vario II) and running the 1.21 ROM Version.
Firstly, the active sync is rubbish! On Windows XP. It's extremely tempremental.. Some days it'll work fine and connect, others (most days!) it won't work. Windows will make the "doo-doo" noise to say that a device has been connected, but active sync won't connect. What rubbish.
It decides to not receive messages, until I open the Messages app. Also, it sometimes likes to send a message, then when I open the Messages app later on, it'll resend the last sent message and notify me.
MSN Messenger. Buggy! I hate the fact it tells me whenever someone comes online, flashes up while I'm in the middle of typing and I have to click Ignore to get it to go away. But there's no way of turning this off (to my knowledge!). Also, it sometimes likes to randomly open the on-screen keyboard, or only show messages in a tiny amount of the screen.
The camera is disgraceful. It's so slow that its basically un-usable. You have to point it at the object and wait quite a while for it's sensor to pick up the light, and most of the pictures come out over-exposed anyway! Also, the lag on the photos is so long most photos blur or the subject has moved by the time it takes it!
Sounds. The fact that I can't have it not beep every time I send a message, but have it so it makes a sound when my alarm clock goes off! That's stupid. Also, it's rather difficult to hit the button to bring up the box for changing the volumes. And why isn't there a seperate ringer volume and a phone volume? I'd like it so I can have a low volume when I'm playing games like Worms, but still have an ok ringer volume!
It likes to randomly connect to GPRS. Good thing I have unlimited data usage!
Today Screen. I can't really put anything on it. It's decided it won't let me put much on it except Calendar, Tasks and a couple others. Why can't I put Pocket MSN back on the today screen?!
It's stupid that to actually make this a decent product, you have to use so much 3rd party software! spb pocket plus sorts quite a few issues with the phone out, and gives a much more usable today screen, but I really don't want to pay 20 dollars for it! (But I guess I'll have to..)
The phone needs so much work on the software to get this up to a good standard. It has the hardware there, just wm5 for it is rubbish!
Sorry about my incredibly grumpy post. I'm just a bit annoyed with my phone today! Am I actually able to upgrade the ROM Version to something higher (1.35?) but on a different network other than UK T-mobile and it'll still work alright with the sim card? I may try it on the next time active sync decides to work!

Then please get rid of the device and stop bugging us...
I'm very happy with my Hermes and I'm keeping it.

jamiepyrite said:
I've had this phone nearly a month now and it's been pretty rubbish! It's done a couple of cool things, but nothing has been great. There's been bugs in absolutely everything. I'm on T-mobile (MDA Vario II) and running the 1.21 ROM Version.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow! It sounds like you're really having an awful time trying to keep up. It's really too bad the telco providers don't let you know the level of technical expertise you will need to be able to master the various devices out today. My Cingular 8525 does need some constant care and feeding, but being somewhat of a techie, I actually enjoy this kind of activity ... look at it as playtime, and wish I had more of it. I've looked through your previous posts, and I see that you haven't really been having any fun with your device. What a shame!
jamiepyrite said:
Firstly, the active sync is rubbish! On Windows XP. It's extremely tempremental.. Some days it'll work fine and connect, others (most days!) it won't work. Windows will make the "doo-doo" noise to say that a device has been connected, but active sync won't connect. What rubbish.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds to me like you have a bad sync cable ... at least that's the first thing I'd look at.
jamiepyrite said:
It decides to not receive messages, until I open the Messages app. Also, it sometimes likes to send a message, then when I open the Messages app later on, it'll resend the last sent message and notify me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm. I've had mine for about two months now. It's my first PDA device since a PALM V about eight years ago. I have never experienced this. Might be due to some conflict between apps you might've installed/uninstalled, or other toying around with things that are not completely understood. Maybe it's time to do a hard reset (hold down left and right softkeys and press the stylus into the hole on the bottom, then open the slideout keyboard and press R and then SPACEBAR) and see if that fixes things. Then read the manual, and be very careful about what changes you make and software you install.
jamiepyrite said:
MSN Messenger. Buggy! I hate the fact it tells me whenever someone comes online, flashes up while I'm in the middle of typing and I have to click Ignore to get it to go away. But there's no way of turning this off (to my knowledge!). Also, it sometimes likes to randomly open the on-screen keyboard, or only show messages in a tiny amount of the screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't say I actually played with Messenger that much. I must admit that I LIKED when it told me that a friend had logged-in, but I guess this is a subjective thing. There are other options to using the installed MSN Messenger, though. You can use one of the online versions and see if those are more to your liking, or you can DL several other options. You just need to look around the Internet. There are free ones and ones you need to pay for.
jamiepyrite said:
The camera is disgraceful. It's so slow that its basically un-usable. You have to point it at the object and wait quite a while for it's sensor to pick up the light, and most of the pictures come out over-exposed anyway! Also, the lag on the photos is so long most photos blur or the subject has moved by the time it takes it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well ... yeah .... it's a 2MP phone camera. As you can see in my signature, I typically use a digital SLR for serious photos, so I didn't expect much from the onboard one. Still, using some common photography techniques and a bit of practice, I thought the darned thing did pretty well ... better than an old Oly digital I used to use.
jamiepyrite said:
Sounds. The fact that I can't have it not beep every time I send a message, but have it so it makes a sound when my alarm clock goes off! That's stupid. Also, it's rather difficult to hit the button to bring up the box for changing the volumes. And why isn't there a seperate ringer volume and a phone volume? I'd like it so I can have a low volume when I'm playing games like Worms, but still have an ok ringer volume!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine doesn't beep when I send messages, and DOES make sounds when I set my Alarm Clock. It even reminds me to turn up the volume if it happens to be off when I set the alarm. Again, maybe it's time to hard reset, or maybe look through the manual.
jamiepyrite said:
It likes to randomly connect to GPRS. Good thing I have unlimited data usage!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, Unlimited Data Plans are great with these phones, especially for when the phone automatically determines that it can give you a high-speed connection and seamlessly turns those connections on for you. If you don't like this feature, there are FREE programs you can get from this very site that lock you into GSM mode.
jamiepyrite said:
Today Screen. I can't really put anything on it. It's decided it won't let me put much on it except Calendar, Tasks and a couple others. Why can't I put Pocket MSN back on the today screen?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't see how this relates to the phone, frankly. This is WM5, and ANY phone sporting that OS is going to be the same story. Maybe you'd prefer something Symbian, or maybe something more RAZR'ish. But the beautiful thing about WM5 is the fact that you can add on other apps to configure it the way you choose, which is more difficult in Symbian, and impossible with RAZR's.
jamiepyrite said:
It's stupid that to actually make this a decent product, you have to use so much 3rd party software! spb pocket plus sorts quite a few issues with the phone out, and gives a much more usable today screen, but I really don't want to pay 20 dollars for it! (But I guess I'll have to..)
The phone needs so much work on the software to get this up to a good standard. It has the hardware there, just wm5 for it is rubbish!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, yeah ... hmmm, you might have to pay for some of the nice add-ons. I guess PC's and laptops are also guilty of this, in that, if you don't like the way they come out-of-the-box, you MIGHT need to buy something else.
In my own opinion (not that it matters much), I plunked down $499US on the phone, which represented a significant markdown because I agreed to have it sport Cingular logos. If I could afford such a device, paying $20.00US for a decent piece of software to go with it isn't going to kill my budget. It's one of the things that should have been considered prior to purchasing the phone, I guess.
jamiepyrite said:
Sorry about my incredibly grumpy post. I'm just a bit annoyed with my phone today!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seeing your posting history, it seems that this forum is the one you dump on whenever you're having a day like this. Maybe you should email HTC, T-Mobile and M$, instead, since they seem to be the source of your wrath. The folks on this forum attempt to help people (and very often succeed beautifully). They don't make the devices, the plans, nor the OS's that seem to be giving you problems.
jamiepyrite said:
Am I actually able to upgrade the ROM Version to something higher (1.35?) but on a different network other than UK T-mobile and it'll still work alright with the sim card? I may try it on the next time active sync decides to work!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Jamie ... no offense, but if you can't figure out how to make your alarm clock make sound, I don't think you should be toying with upgrading the ROM stuff just yet. Maybe, as I said earlier, this just isn't the device for you. RAZR's are really cool looking, and you can probably find some games and ringtones for them, if you're willing to pay some $$$.
Kindest regards,

I've had this phone nearly a month now and it's been pretty rubbish! It's done a couple of cool things, but nothing has been great. There's been bugs in absolutely everything. I'm on T-mobile (MDA Vario II) and running the 1.21 ROM Version.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've also got a Vario II and I'm running the same ROM and Radio it came with.
Firstly, the active sync is rubbish! On Windows XP. It's extremely tempremental.. Some days it'll work fine and connect, others (most days!) it won't work. Windows will make the "doo-doo" noise to say that a device has been connected, but active sync won't connect. What rubbish.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ActiveSync has always worked fine for me.
It decides to not receive messages, until I open the Messages app. Also, it sometimes likes to send a message, then when I open the Messages app later on, it'll resend the last sent message and notify me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never happened to me. I receive all my messages perfectly normally.
MSN Messenger. Buggy! I hate the fact it tells me whenever someone comes online, flashes up while I'm in the middle of typing and I have to click Ignore to get it to go away. But there's no way of turning this off (to my knowledge!). Also, it sometimes likes to randomly open the on-screen keyboard, or only show messages in a tiny amount of the screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The contact online alert is annoying, I agree there but as for the random opening of the keyboard and it showing messages on a tiny amount of screen...well it's never happened to me and I use it all the time.
The camera is disgraceful. It's so slow that its basically un-usable. You have to point it at the object and wait quite a while for it's sensor to pick up the light, and most of the pictures come out over-exposed anyway! Also, the lag on the photos is so long most photos blur or the subject has moved by the time it takes it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True...although HTC aren't known for their cameras.
Sounds. The fact that I can't have it not beep every time I send a message, but have it so it makes a sound when my alarm clock goes off! That's stupid. Also, it's rather difficult to hit the button to bring up the box for changing the volumes. And why isn't there a seperate ringer volume and a phone volume? I'd like it so I can have a low volume when I'm playing games like Worms, but still have an ok ringer volume!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't get any beep when I send a message and my alarm goes off fine. And maybe I've misunderstood here (sorry if I have) but there are two seperate volume controls...one for the system and one for the ringer and you can set their levels individually. Sometimes the program takes over all of the volume controls together...but's that's a gripe with the program not the device.
I always keep my system volume low but my ringer volume on medium.
It likes to randomly connect to GPRS. Good thing I have unlimited data usage!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only time it has ever made a connection whatsoever is when I have told it so through my Google Mail account retrieval settings. Otherwise mine has no reason to connect and doesn't.
Today Screen. I can't really put anything on it. It's decided it won't let me put much on it except Calendar, Tasks and a couple others. Why can't I put Pocket MSN back on the today screen?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No idea but it all works fine for me.
I love my baby...

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Your points are well made.
What I like about this forum is that folks who disagree with another poster, take the time to to explain why they disagree. Of course the original poster was good enough to go into detail about why he was feeling "grumpy" today.
Keep it up guys. It gladens my heart to see how much more civilised, we are, compared with the drivel I see on some other sites.
Mike

Jamie, there are lots of people on here ready and willing (and some even able) to help you sort your machine out.
What I would suggest, is that you do a hard reset to get back to a clean machine, and then every time you get a problem, search this forum to see if it has come up before. If not, or if you're not sure on the solution, post up and people will help you. I know it's a bit of a pain if you were hoping for an 'out of the box' fully functioning machine. PPCs are just not like that, but they are incredibly versatile and powerful, there's just a learning curve to them.
Start again.

I have a Vario II with the same rom and my experience with the phone is exactly as per Athiqueahmed's post. I haven't experienced the problems you have at all and I have had my phone several months now.
The only time my phone has gone wrong is when I have decided to 'tweak' things with my limited tech knowledge and ultimately done it wrong or installed buggy 3rd party software
Assuming you are operating the phone correctly and not creating these issues yourself by adjusting registry settings etc.. then, if a hard reset does not solve the problems, I would suggest that you get T-mobile to look at it to see if it's faulty and do it quick because as far as I am aware T-mobile UK do a straight swap within 30 days if your phone is faulty, after that it is standard repair service.

I'm not going to list all your complaints but I can say that the Cingular 8525 I have has a really impressive camera for a cell phone!
Not that I think that's the most important feature for a phone. It just happens to be the best one I've seen to date.
And I've had tons of fun looking for and installing all sorts of Apps. I do like this phone.

Wow, thanks very much all of you for the excellent responses! This really is an incredibly helpful and friendly forum here
Reading back on what I said, I think I came over rather harsh about the device. I do love it to pieces and it's a fantastic piece of equipment, I'm just having a bit of a hard time adapting to it from being so used to Nokia Symbian.
I've now got spb pocket plus 3 and it's great. It's making me much happier about the phone, being able to do everything I want from the today screen!
About the alarm clock, etc. problem: When I go into Settings>Sounds & Notifications, the third tick box down is Notifications (Alarms, reminders). If I have this unticked, it disables sound for when it says "Message Sent" but also disables the sound for the alarm clock. I just tried disabling it then going onto the alarm clock and checking the ringtone for the alarm clock and it said it won't sound unless Notifications is enabled. But, if you go into the Notifcations tab, there isn't an option to change the tone for Text Message Sent. Only MMS Message Sent.
I'll look into 3rd party applications more when I have the time, I'll also try a different USB cable to see if it makes a difference
And as computer illiterate as my first post makes me sound (I'm quite good with computers, honest!) I can manage flashing the ROMs. I've done it alot with my iriver H320 I'm just curious as to whether it's ok to use a ROM that isn't made by T-mobile with the T-mobile SIM. Flashing a fancy Mp3 Player is a bit different!
Thanks
Thanks for the advice guys. It's a great help!

Before you purchase a new cable, you might want to try Activetweak, a free application, which, amongst other things will entirely stop activesync processes and then start them again. This seems to have resolved my occasional sync will it/won't it problem.
I noticed that if I soft reset the device, and rebooted the pc, waited for them to 'settle down' and then sync'd it would always work. The above app means I don't have to do that anymore.

If you don't mind losing the message sent notification altogether, the Wiki page has instructions on how to do this <<<Click Here>>> (you might want to read through the Wiki, it has lots of good tweaks etc.. on it which might interest you)
I find having delivery reports switched on, so I get a text when it has reached the recipient, is all I need. I don't need or miss the 'Message Sent' notification at all.
Hope this helps

The most useless phone I have owned
Hi Have to say I am hugely dissappointed withthe Hermes.
I have the Vodafone version (V1605) and it is totally useless.
If I am on a call and get another incoming call it freezes.
Worldmate Pro cannot connect tot he internet but TrafficTV and IE can.
My computer cannot use it as a modem.
It frequently freezes.
Is it just me?
Robin

Robster said:
Is it just me?
Robin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yep!
sorry, couldn't resist...
From a previous post a few weeks back,
smads said:
I use my TyTN every day.
I have a HTC644 which is rid of the SA issues
I use the Dan Herrero Bandwidth switch which stops it serching for 3G signals.
I get at least 2 days out of the unit.
I have push email which works flawlessly.
I take about 2hrs of calls a day.
I use Pocket Informant 2007 which is excellent and work well in the project managment job that I have.
I use Listpro for my project lists
I use eWallet for all my sensetive data
I use PocketIE for Traffic updates while on the road in the UK but I have Opera if I want a more rich internet experience.
I use Coolcamera which has improved the out put of the camera no end and photo blog to my splashblog account.
I use resco pocket radio over wi-fi for internet radio.
I use Resco audio recorder for meetings which stores audio on the storage card.
I log into my home system with Logmein, and control the device while docked though active sync using SOTI pocket controller.
This is without doubt THE most versatile phone I have ever had and I could not live without it... ok I could but I'd really miss it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

My JASJAM is by far the best phone I've had so far. Wait a minute! I said that also about my previous phone, the P990i. And I kept it only three months. I better keep this one longer, otherwise dishum-dishum from my wife . . .
The worst one was probably the Siemens MC60. What a piece of trash!

Robster said:
Hi Have to say I am hugely dissappointed withthe Hermes.
I have the Vodafone version (V1605) and it is totally useless.
If I am on a call and get another incoming call it freezes.
Worldmate Pro cannot connect tot he internet but TrafficTV and IE can.
My computer cannot use it as a modem.
It frequently freezes.
Is it just me?
Robin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Robin,
I have to admit that I have had my share of glitches and things not working right, but I don't agree with your overall assessment, and am loving my 8525.
But as this is my first PDA phone, Maybe it's my own ignorance that gives me this bliss.
From my experience, which compares this phone to a bunch of crappy Motorolas that couldn't do more than act as a phone (and sometimes failed at THAT), my device plays music, gives me 800-900+ KBps throughput on the Internet (unless I click it into wi-fi, where I get 1.6 MBps) ...and this is full Internet ...not some cheesy t-zones type of sub-sub-subset. I can get maps and directions, take and view photos and videos, attach to my desktop and laptop computers, configure almost anything I want on the UI, create, edit, view and share Word, Excel, text and other types of documents, retrieve and organize email from all of my accounts, play games, manage my contacts and my calendar, and it seems, a gazillion other things. This is all not even mentioning it's use as a phone/speakerphone.
All this, and a zippy processor, in a package that fits in my hand or shirt pocket, I find astonishing!
If this is 'the most useless device you've ever owned', I for one would love to hear about the devices to which you are comparing it!?!?!
Anyway, that's just my $0.02.
Best regards,

Well I am glad other people are having a better experience.
But my K-JAM seemd far more stable, never once froze on me when I got a second call and actually felt faster than this phone!
Unless I have a dud?
Robin

4 Marissa
marisa4755 said:
Before you purchase a new cable, you might want to try Activetweak, a free application, which, amongst other things will entirely stop activesync processes and then start them again. This seems to have resolved my occasional sync will it/won't it problem.
I noticed that if I soft reset the device, and rebooted the pc, waited for them to 'settle down' and then sync'd it would always work. The above app means I don't have to do that anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try the fit4cat hermes tweaker. You can disable the msg sent notification with this app, and not do a manual regedit.
Hope this helps,

jamiepyrite said:
Wow, thanks very much all of you for the excellent responses! This really is an incredibly helpful and friendly forum here
About the alarm clock, etc. problem: When I go into Settings>Sounds & Notifications, the third tick box down is Notifications (Alarms, reminders). If I have this unticked, it disables sound for when it says "Message Sent" but also disables the sound for the alarm clock. I just tried disabling it then going onto the alarm clock and checking the ringtone for the alarm clock and it said it won't sound unless Notifications is enabled. But, if you go into the Notifcations tab, there isn't an option to change the tone for Text Message Sent. Only MMS Message Sent.
I'll look into 3rd party applications more when I have the time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are always welcome! In regard to your trouble with alarm software, you may consider checking out WAWA alarm software from noviimedia - this application does really a lot, but it's main and unusual feature is to let your handheld turn on your home theater (TV, DVD-player, etc.) to wake you up in the morning. (http://novii.tv/pocketpc/wawa) I purchased it yesterday and now I recommend it to anyone - it's great!

AggravatingSync
To be fair, ActiveSync is a Micro$haft application, I have the same problems. My best luck occurs when I launch AggravatingSync, right click on the icon in the lower right hand corner of your Windows PC, click Connection Settings, uncheck the Allow USB Connections (so as to not allow them), then click OK.
Then, unplug your USB device from the computer, wait 5 seconds, plug it back in, wait 5 seconds, right click on the icon in the lower right hand corner of your Windows PC, click Connection Settings, check the Allow USB Connections (so as to allow them), then click OK.
That has worked for me so far when AggravatingSync is on the fritz.
I am T-mobile US customer but I supercid/unlocked the phone and run the HTC 2.05 rom. I would recommend unlocking the phone (I have the Cingular 8525 flavor as T-mobile US does not have the Vario II).
Good luck.
jamiepyrite said:
Firstly, the active sync is rubbish! On Windows XP. It's extremely tempremental.. Some days it'll work fine and connect, others (most days!) it won't work. Windows will make the "doo-doo" noise to say that a device has been connected, but active sync won't connect. What rubbish.
It decides to not receive messages, until I open the Messages app. Also, it sometimes likes to send a message, then when I open the Messages app later on, it'll resend the last sent message and notify me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

If your PC has Bluetooth, try ActiveSync over BT - that way, you might be able to isolate whether it's an ActiveSyns issue, a Hermes issue, or a sync cable issue.

New home plugin better than htc home plug!

I was searching around over in sprintmogul.net and i came to this forum that had a link to this home plugin it looks really cool but costs money i was wondering if anyone could rip it? or something?. here is the forum link http://www.sprintmogul.net/Default.aspx?tabid=54&ptid=370&threadid=3241&forumtype=posts
and here is the link directly to the plugin http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/mobileshell/?en

thats mobile shell. its not a today plug in but a whole new interface. i didnt like it b/c it screwed up something with my ability to tap the screen. was all messed up. it was a cool setup, but didnt DO anything i didnt already have

Its a great program, the strange thing is my battery lasts about 60% longer.. yes 60%. I guess HTC home was a real battery hog.

ilogik said:
Its a great program, the strange thing is my battery lasts about 60% longer.. yes 60%. I guess HTC home was a real battery hog.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ha! i thought i was trippin out about that but it is confirmed here.i use this and pocket plus however i am a noob so my opinion may not matter much

spb home 2.0 - blah blah blah
I have given the new spb home 2.0 plugin a shot. It is very nice. But, because it is not editable (yet) it should take a seat in the back. My two cents.

Nice but expensive
I really like the spbmobile but the cost is prohibitive. {the online discount is $40 and it's still 50 bucks!)
I will continue to use the freeware available here and other places until the cost comes down more.

$29.95 is the price I'm seeing...?

Yeah, it's $30 for me too. Where are you seeing that price tag??
I love MS2. I've gotten rid of a bunch of other plugins since installing this. The only problem I have with it is the no voicemail icon kills me.

ilogik said:
Its a great program, the strange thing is my battery lasts about 60% longer.. yes 60%. I guess HTC home was a real battery hog.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried Mobile shell 2.0 and liked many of its features but just the opposite on the battery life
It sucked mine down twice as fast

I am using Mobile Shell 2. 0 and i absolutley love it.. I can make it through the entire day on one battery charge, with active sync directly to my exchange server about 5 times per day.. the interface is extremely customizable and you can create your own menus, display, etc... it has a terrific sliding cube interface, which reacts just like an iPhone.. everyone i show mine to instantly starts to drool..
i'd recommend you pick this up. it's well worth the money.

How did you get the cube interface? Are you using the Beta still?
Something is draining my battery, I can't put my hands on it. At first, I thought it was SPB mobile shell, but others are reporting that they are having battery issues without MS2
The program is great. It does not mess up your screen tapping abilities. The finger gestures are very quick and easy to do.

I liked Mobile Shell 2.0, had it on my device a couple of days. It looked sleek but my device is sluggish. Not sure if Mobile Shell was the cause but I didn't like it at all.

1999TL said:
How did you get the cube interface? Are you using the Beta still?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not using the Beta.. full blown version 2.. you can download it here. http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/mobileshell/download.html?en
The cube interface isn't actualy part of the Today screen, rather, you have a separate menu called 'SPB Menu', which i made as my right selectable hot key. this takes you to the screen where your SPB 'Home', Programs', 'Internet', and other layouts are.. and it's within these menus, is the cube layout.
you can assign as many things as you'd like, for example, in the 'Programs' menu.. then when you open it, you simply swipe the screen to the left, to scroll through the pages.. you can have the programs listed on a grid view, or a list view.. as well as you can assign the motion of how the cubes slide (transition effects -- folding, sweeping, etc.. )
you can then make the 'Mobile Shell' part of your Today page, and it will then display just those icons, which when clicked, will take to those menus..
check out the web link for them. view the screenshots.. it's awesome..
When i started using this and saw how vastly customizable it is, i uninstalled HTC Home right away..
I can't speak to the battery drain. I am on 80% life right now. and it's 5:02 pm.. turned my phone on this morning at 7:30am..
some light internet browing while in the john, and periodic email checks with exchange, and some texting with the wife.. still going strong..
using EVDO network, and WiFi and Bluetooth turned OFF.
http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/mobileshell/download.html?en

nvm I misread

Theres new one has anyone tried it?

After looking at it on spb's website this shell looked like a good deal, but it's not what it seems to be as displayed on the site. As stated above, to have the "now" screen up, you have to map it to a button (or make it so it comes up everytime the phone wakes up. Personally, I don't like this. I'd rather have the "now" screen as the base screen and get to other places on my ppc from there. Is this possible?
I've only been playing with it for twenty minutes or so and I've had no luck finding anything yet. Probably doesn't help I've been writing papers for finals all night and my contacts are friggin dry. Meh, it's a livin.
**Edit**
Yeah, I'm an r-tard. I got version 1.6 something...guess I'll have to go back and find 2.0...................
*Found it, and it ROCKS.
As far as looks go, it's not very customizable; but I love how it functions. There's no real way to set it to the today screen, but like was stated above, you can set it to a soft button and it will stay up as long as you don't close it out. I'm pretty happy with it over all. It's pretty sweet.

There are a few that have created some nice themes.
There is s new version of MS2 out, 2.1.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=389106
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=380103

Need help with the following issues...

...I have been using the HD2 for a little over three months now. While I really enjoyed the phone and all its gizmos in the beginning, I am becoming more and more disappointed by its performance in everyday life:
SMS:
HTC can say what they want, there still is some kind of bug with the SMS texting. Replying to someone's message will miraculous highlight the last received message. You always have to select the texting area before you see what you are typing.
Twitter:
This is currently one of my biggest gripes. The built in twitter client is a major pain...it will repeatedly ignore my settings and download twitter messages whenever it wants and how many it wants. Sometimes I end up downloading some 200+ twitter messages at a time. During the downloading process, the entire phone will start to lag - to the point where I have to wait up to a minute before I can use the phone again. I really wished that there was a way to replace Peep with another twitter client, while maintining the SenseUI interface tab. Also, an option for "push"-twittering would be nice. The 5 minute refresh rate just doesn't cut it for me; not that I have gotten the phone to actually refresh twitter every 5 minutes. And as I think of it, the twitter alarm tone also goes off whenever it feels like it.
Online Updates:
The settings I have made for updating the Stocks, Twitter and Weather tabs all get ignored by the phone. For instance, I have set the weather tab to refresh every 3 hours... Just checked the phone - last refresh was over 23 hours ago. Same with twitter. Twitter is set to update every 5 minutes. Last update was about 2 hours ago. Not sure what's going on here!
Bluetooth Devices:
Even though I love SenseUI, getting to the Bluetooth device list is just hideous. You virtually have to click and swipe yourself through several screens, just to get to the settings. Why couldn't they just activate the Bluetooth icon on top of the screen to directly take you there.
Volume Settings:
What's with that weird "three-steps at a time" volume slider when pressing the volume sidekeys? Isn't there a more sensitive way to adjust the volume using the sidekeys? I do realize that I could fingerswipe the screen, but I really don't want to get the phone out of my pocket everytime I feel like adjusting the volume levels.
Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to trash this phone! I just think that these are some fundamental problems on a 600€ phone that HTC should have worked out before release. Would love to hear some feedback from you guys!! Appreciate any help you can give.

bashulaojia said:
Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to trash this phone! I just think that these are some fundamental problems on a 600€ phone that HTC should have worked out before release. Would love to hear some feedback from you guys!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well actually they are fundamental problems Microsoft should have sorted out, Windows Mobile 6.5 is an absolutely ****e OS, and I think HTC did a bang up job modifying it for the HD2. What with all the cabs flying about here it doesn't take much to get your phone working well.
Although I will say, the SMS thing would be one of the few grips I have,

To be honest I think that HTC serious believe that what you call the SMS bug is a "helpful" design feature (I'm not kidding). It is a pain in the arse, along with vidually counting every yexy in the conversation.

Kalavere said:
Well actually they are fundamental problems Microsoft should have sorted out, Windows Mobile 6.5 is an absolutely ****e OS, and I think HTC did a bang up job modifying it for the HD2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Errr... every single issue he raised is with Sense. Not one single issue there is related to WM.

New Android User Questions

Hi everyone. I just purchased my Droid X last week, and I'm having some migrating pains coming from Windows Mobile 6.5 (HTC Touch Pro 2, Mighty ROM) over to Android. I'm wondering if the fine folks here at XDA can help me ease into the Android OS a little easier.
Here are the things I miss most about WinMo, maybe you can tell me some viable alternatives.
1) The Dialer. - Skip the next 3 paragraphs if you're familiar with HTC Sense on WinMo.
The dialer absolutely sucks compared to the TP2. Having to click different tabs juts annoys me. In the TP2, the dialer and recent calls were displayed in a single window, so if I wanted to dial Steve, I had 2 ways of doing it.
The first way was to dial 7(S), 8(T). The phone would recognize I am spelling out Steve, and list everyone who fits the ST criteria sorted by most recently called. The more I spelled out his name, the narrower the results got.
The second method was to dial his number. Pretend Steve's number is (123) 456-7890. If I dialed 123, it would sort all contacts with numbers who matched the area code, and it would narrow the results as I typed more of his phone number.
I really hate having to tap between Contacts (there is a contacts soft button next to the dialer anyway), I would just click that if I wanted to from the beginning.
Are there any dialers out there closer to the HTC Dialer?
2) Contacts.
There has to be a better contact manager. Not being able to quickly tap a letter to get to contacts is really dumb.
3) Ninja Applications.
Why do I keep seeing applications running that I never started when I load Advance Task Killer. It's really annoying when I load up an App, and go to close it, and see Skype and CityID running when I never launched either of them. I'm almost afraid to set up AIM on my phone at this point.
4) GPS.
If I keep my GPS on, my battery gets killed. With my TP2, it would only use the GPS when it needed it, so for weather updates, and Google Maps, otherwise it stayed off (or was in a suspend state). I turned the GPS on my first day and had 0 battery by around 2 (left the house at 8). Is there any way to set the GPS to only be used, as needed?
5) APPLICATIONS EVERYWHERE.
Is there anyway to sort these into folders? Also, is there anyway to add an X to the application so I can close it when I'm done with it rather than having to launch an App just to close the App I just used?
I really liked the Sense way of doing it, where I had an X in the Application, and a drop down on the home screen that would list the open Apps so I could close them 1 at a time.
6) MotoBlur.
Ugh, I really hate this UI. Has anyone had any experience with SenseX?
7) Custom Roms.
I've seen a handful of Custom ROMs, and I'm planning on putting one on when I have some time next week. I need a good way to backup contacts, after I just spent an hour linking everyone, but I'd like to know if there is a decent Apples to Apples comparison of the ROMs. They don't seem to be outlines as detailed as I'm used to.
On this topic, are there any problems setting up things like MMS once you install a Custom ROM? It was a nightmare on the TP2, but those ROMs were also made for multiple carriers, which isn't a problem with this phone, so I imagine it shouldn't be an issue.
----------------------------------
Thank you for taking the time to read this wall of text.
Other than the 7 things listed, I love the phone. Finding MortPlayer for Droid made my day. I'm looking forward to unlocking it's true potential, and I hope my list isn't a bunch of things I'm just going to have to adjust to.
Thank you again, have a great day.
EDIT:
Also, it's really annoying that every time I connect my phone to my PC, it launches a Verizon web site. Is there anyway to disable this?

Ok... I will take a stab at this.
FIRST, You DO NOT have to settle for the apps that come preinstalled on your phone! Just had to clear that up... Ok, here we go:
Check an app called "Dialer One" and see if that fits your needs... I haven't used it in a while... but heard it still a great replacement for the stock dialer.
Searching for a better Contact Manager is on my To-Do list.. hope someone comes in and help out a little more with that one
Don't worry about the "ninja" apps TOO much. Android Froyo has an amazing task manager and even though you SEE the apps as "running applications", they are not really RUNNING. They are more like... in a queue.. so they are ready for whenever you come back to them....but you still have to watch what the apps are doing. Some do not play nicely and hog memory. I'll link a good post here in a minute explaining that a little better.
There is a widget that can help you out here.. it's called "Power Control" put that bad boy on your homescreen and the option to turn on/off wifi, bluetooth, gps, etc is at your fingertips (for even more controls... check out "Extended Controls" in the market. It cost like $1 and some change)
I'm... not really following this one. For one.. you CAN use folders on your homescreen and put whatever your heart desires in them.. and label it accordingly. I'm not sure what you mean by the "X" in the app
SenseX?? What is that?? Anyway.. as you will find out soon, 99% of the Droid X community despise MotoBlur!! You can use a different Home Launcher and not use Blur. Two of the major Home Launcher replacements are Adw.launcher & LauncherPro... which one is better is a whole different story. They are both great and only YOU can choose which one is best. There many threads comparing them and they run neck to neck mostly. I'm on LauncherPro personally
Custom Roms?? Eh.. I personally do my own developments and theming on my phone and do not use them... there not really all what they cracked up to be because whatever they have on them... I can do myself. So I'm not much of an help on that one... Somebody else maybe will chime in.
P.S-To fix the Verizon thing, go to the "M" in the taskbar at the bottom of your screen by the clock on your PC and right click it.. there should be an option saying to tell it to NOT send you to the Verizon site when you connect your phone. I don't know the EXACT wording of the option menu.. I'm on a mac

Thank you for your reply.
I will check out the Dialer. Thank you very much.
Darn!
A friend of mine told me that, but it's hard for me to not be a bit OCD about background Applications. I've been a Windows user most of my life, and coming from WinMo, background apps really kill performance.
More than anything, my issue is with things like Skype loading when I do not want to be signed in. I want auto-login when I launch the Application, but I don't want the application loading when it feels like it, and me getting a random IM or call from someone when I didn't even tell it to log in.
It also bothers me that Amazon MP3, something I've never even loaded, has turned itself on. It makes me feel like I don't have control over my phone.
I do have a widget that lets me turn these things on and off, I was just hoping for a way to set it up so that the GPS is "pinged" and only used as needed, and turned back off. My TP2 did this, and was a great battery saver. Having to turn the GPS on and off just to get a weather update based on location is a bit annoying.
I didn't mean on the home-screen, I meant in the application list. So when I hit the application list, I can sort them by "Games", "Google", etc.
For the "X", what I mean is in reference to closing an App. In WinMo, the top right of the screen had an X, and if I touched that X, the app would close. Now, once I exit the App, I need to use an application killer to close said App.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=764840
Looks like Sense for the Droid X. In Beta now, so I'm waiting for a stable release.
Really, it's just to get rid of bloatware and take advantage of some performance optimizations that have been made.
A couple of other things that have come up.
I need a better keyboard. One with arrows so I can navigate text. Touching isn't precise enough, and I don't have a stylus with this phone. Today I voiced a text message, and I went to correct an error, but I couldn't get the curse to go in the exact spot I needed it to go into. My old OSK had arrow soft-keys I could tap to navigate with.
Also, I notice when I pull my phone out of the leather pouch I have, when I hit the power button it comes up in landscape, and the accelerometer doesn't pick up on the turn. I need to turn the screen off and turn it back on.
Finally, I'm having extender issues, but I think I need to call VZW for that. When leaving my house, I can't reconnect to Data without a power-cycle.
Thank you for the reply.

my .02
3. Break yourself from the taskiller need. If you have programs allways running that you dont need, ie skype or city id. Root and delete those SOB's. you can look around and there are plenty of articles of why not to use them. Android is a linux based os. Linux is far supirior to Win in memeory management. You dont need task killers.
4. if your gps is turned on its not always running. It only runs when needed. Is by chance your wifi on? that will run all the time by searching for access points. if not you might have maps running, make sure to always back out of maps and not just hit home. That way it closes and doesnt just run in background. (actually goes for most apps)
5 organization- you cant sort the app drawer, you can hide apps (just the icons) using launcher pro, not sure if ADW has that option. Useing folders or the app "app manager" is your best bet
extra. swype has arrows. swype from the swype icon to abc and it will bring up a new keyboard.

I came from winmo- so I know all about your "X" pains. But I say forget about a task killer or even killing tasks (except maybe maps and navigation). I did a little reading about pros and cons and decided to try the "no task killer" approach. I haven't had any problems. the task killer is a pain anyways. you can kill apps all day long and there are a bunch of them that are just going to repopulate themselves in like 5 minutes. I just said, "fegetaboutit". My phone runs great.
if you open the dialer and are on the contacts tab just long press the menu button (the physical button) and your keyboard will pop up. start typing and contacts will appear.
I like "Zeam Launcher". There is a thread here on XDA. I have Launcher Pro+ -but actually liked Zeam so much I use it. Just different preferences though.
that's all i got for now.

Thank you for your replies.
I will try to be a bit less OCD regarding my tasks. I did kill a couple of services of applications that kept starting, like Skype.
I'll check out those launchers and see if I like them better.
Any good stock widgets?
EDIT:
So I just tried to check my location on Google Maps with GPS turned off, and it says I need to turn it on.
How do I set it up to use the GPS as needed?

I leave location services on (GPS)
My theory is that applications will only enable GPS when they need them, so if you have a application running that wants GPS, it will use it.
The GPS icon appears in the notification bar when I'm using something that is using GPS, so I assume its only actually on when this icon is present. Leave it on in settings just makes is available.
Any widget or application that has a setting for manual location (Weather, IMDB) I use it, and disable GPS location, to keep GPS from running all of the time.
To exit an app you are using, either hit the back button or the home button.
If you are worried about "ninja" apps using cpu and memory, you can try a minfree adjustment application such as AutoKiller Memory Optimizer. It fine tunes android's inner memory manager to be a bit more aggressive in closing applications.
I use another Rom (rubiX, link in sig) that already has minfree adjusted (according to the author) and it does help in keeping the X smooth. It also removes all (well most) of Blur and default installed apps as well, so you start with a very clean X.
The default home screen (blur) is crap. I would also suggest replacing it with LauncherPro or ADW
For removing the pre-installed applications. Follow this guide
http://www.droidxforums.com/forum/d...ta-3-ways-super-easy-safe-safe-easy-free.html
Some apps in /system/app/ are not named what they are
(IE. mynet.apk = 3g Hotspot)
For a keyboard anywhere, you can hold the menu button, and it will pop up.
Swype is really a few keyboards. Swype from the icon to the SYM button, it will give you the edit panel (arrows, home, end, copy, paste, etc...) press the ABC button to go back.
Swype from the icon to the f key, it will turn into a number pad. Press the ABC button to go back to the normal keyboard.
Run the tutorial on Swype too, it will give you some very nice pointers on it's use. I used Swype on windows mobile and I found out a few things about Swype I never knew.
Also, as for touching where your cursor is in a text field, if you press and hold, and magnifying bubble will pop up. This makes moving the cursor easier

Did you find a dialer yet? I saw these posted and thought about this thread...
http://www.appbrain.com/app/kz.mek.DialerOne
http://www.appbrain.com/app/acontacts/kz.mek.aContacts
Haven't had a chance to try them yet.

bad4u6669 said:
.... swype has arrows. swype from the swype icon to abc and it will bring up a new keyboard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OMG. thanks. been loving swype but that has been driving me nuts. Thanks for the info.

Thank you for the replies.
One of the things I liked about my TP2, is I could leave location services on, and it used very little battery.
I guess Weather Bug just SUCKS battery out like crazy. I turned on the GPS last night for something, and decided to see how well it did with battery today. It turns out that some grocery shopping app I wanted to try was sucking my GPS dry (no idea why)... yet another "ninja app" that just started up because it felt like it (this kind of **** really makes me , programs should only start up when I tell them to, not when a component of my phone turns on).
I live in an apartment that has really bad signal (I actually have a Network Extender), so that might be my GPS constantly trying to update when I'm at home killing my battery.
WeatherBug is set to update every hour, so I'm going to see what happens tomorrow with the GPS turned on. It would be nice if I could just set it and forget it, not need to turn it off every time I come home.
Thank you for the contact program, I might check it out. I've been pretty content since I got DialerOne and found out I can get the keyboard up by holding the options.
I tried LauncherPro, and I LOVED it at first, and my phones performance was fantastic!
Then I found out it charges me to resize widgets... WTF is that crap?
I'm going to try some other launchers and see what happens. I'm getting the hang of it, but I still do not like things starting up on their own. Regardless of memory management, my phone should not just decide to boot up programs on it's own.

the phone only does what the app or the user tells it to do. If theirs an app that you don't like, delete it.
And complaining that launcher pro charges for every thing it offers is ridiculous. Every thing it offers for free already ( 7 home screens, 10 rows and columns, unreal speed improvement, etc. ) then to get the extras its less than most people throw away on a daily basis. Where as this three dollars its money that pays off on a daily basis
Adw and lp should be paid apps from the start for all they offer.
You have 3 options, write your own program, use the stock launcher, find a free one.
-end rant
Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

I usually leave my location setting on "Use Wireless Networks" and don't bother with GPS other than for maps and navigation. Works fine for all of my other apps that need a location (e.g., weather).
There are apps out there that can turn GPS on and off automatically when you run a particular app, such as Tasker (which can do a whole host of things, but that is one one of them). Tasker is a paid app, but there might be something free out there that does something similar.
Also, I agree with the previous poster re: Launcher Pro. It's really a fantastic home launcher and well worth a few bucks to support the developer. The LP Plus widgets are also a lot better than any of the Blur widgets.

In the end, I probably will buy it, but I'm going to play around with some of the free ones first.
Tasker sounds like it might be worth it for that feature alone (being able to turn the GPS on and off at will). I'm just surprised a feature like this wasn't built in to begin with, considering WinMo has had it for years.
On an unrelated note, can anyone recommend a good media player? I'm going to be flying soon and want to test the battery out on Airplane mode while watching a movie from the SD card. I need something that can decode a variety of formats, mostly XviD for stuff like digital movie copies and TV shows.

EtherBoo said:
In the end, I probably will buy it, but I'm going to play around with some of the free ones first.
Tasker sounds like it might be worth it for that feature alone (being able to turn the GPS on and off at will). I'm just surprised a feature like this wasn't built in to begin with, considering WinMo has had it for years.
On an unrelated note, can anyone recommend a good media player? I'm going to be flying soon and want to test the battery out on Airplane mode while watching a movie from the SD card. I need something that can decode a variety of formats, mostly XviD for stuff like digital movie copies and TV shows.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You might want to look into RockPlayer. That's the only one I found so far that decodes ALMOST anything on the spot.

The "Ninja Applications" are running because Android is a true multi tasking OS.
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App

I hope necromancy isn't frowned upon on this board, so my apologies if it is.
I found a new problem because I had the nerve to attempt to update a contact photo after Facebook had saved it's picture to it.
This is especially frustrating because I'm going to want to override a lot of these photos very soon.
Apparently, updating the photo updates the Google Contact photo, but the phone only displays the Facebook photo. This is a bug confirmed by Moto that will be fixed in a future update.
This leaves me with 2 options.
De-Sync FB, which I'm not thrilled about only because I like getting the most recent status update prior to receiving a call, and There is a lot of info that FB fills in for me.
Copy down all the FB info, and fill it in manually. With Google Contacts not being the best contact manager (I'm very OCD about uniformity in the way things are formatted), I really don't want to do this.
So I figure I need a new contact manager. I tried AContacts, and it crashed every time I tried to edit a contact.
I would love something like the HTC one that comes with WinMo, or maybe even the iPhone one.
I would be willing to pay for this.
P.S.
I'm now rooted and running a custom ROM (zapX I think it's called). I'm loving my phone much more now. My battery life has skyrocketed, and my performance is amazing now. Very iPhone smooth (one thing I was always jealous of, and I hate the iPhone).