Mixed opinion for telephony - JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro Software Upgrading

Well, there are pros and cons.
I'm rather unhappy with the basic telephony subsystem :
- no automatic redial
- no callers groups
- ringtones are erraticly working (I use a basic 16 track midi file) especially whith the lid closed
- the hang off is slow, even with the hardware buttons
- the phone starts to wake up at the third ring, so if you're not fast enough, your caller gets directed to the voice message box.
On the other hand, I'm VERY pleased to be able to use softwares on my phone, on one my favorites beeing "smartfilter pro", which allows me to filter callees based on various criterias - an UNVALUABLE pro if you work in my field, when people don't bother waking you up in the middle of the night, or bothering you during lunch.
Truly, this was a feature I always dreamt of.
Other things terribly missing on this phone :
- a real alarm system (my T610 was better)
- chronometer, countdown, time sync.
- better sound handling
I know this has been a long and old habit for MS to deliver its OS with only crap utilities, but beeing acustomished with more "polished" quality on my previous devices (T610, Samsung SGH, CliƩ, Palm Vx), I'd expected a higher quality level with my Universal.
Plus.... it's big and heavy !
Gael

Related

((((9 REASONS WHY PDA2K IS A TERRIBLE MACHINE! ))))

THE PDA2K is a TERRIBLE MACHINE!
SSSoo many bugs....
1) BLUETOOTH JUNK
Bluetooth (after their so called patch), still headset causes it to turn on repeatedly draining your battery in no time. So unless you are connected to a powersupply, the bluetooth headset is useless cause I have to turn off the bluetooth anyway (if I want battery). Yes, I know it's been discussed many times, it still amazes me everyday.
2) ALBUM MOVIE PLAYER DOESN'T WORK AFTER BLUETOOTH PATCH
yep, I've made many tests, clean hardreset machine with no bt patch = I can record video and playback video (MP4) with no problem. Now after installing the BT patch, clicking on the ALBUM app or clicking on PREVIEW after fliming a video in mp4 will freeze the machine for about 5 seconds, and then soft reset it automatically. I've hard reseted twice to check and it's obvious the BT patch ruins it. Mysteriously, it sometimes does work even after the patch. I just wanted to show off my machine today and got laughed at (with good reason!) by a P900 user.
3) CASE IS USELESS
The case that comes with the machine is a joke, it pressed all the buttons even if you almost don't touch the case. They should have left alittle padding. Locking the keys is a must.
4) MORE BLUETOOTH ISSUES
I get repeatable bizzare errors of "memory problems" with bluetooth, and I need to reset the machine (ain't it great?). I also got twice a message about my BT expired.. LMAO. more resets. I actually thing about mapping one of the primary front keys to do a soft-reset.
5) BUILT-IN FAX SOFTWARE IS RUBBISH
A friend of mine tried it numerous times with no success. At clubimate they told him it doesn't work properly. (So why the hell did they put it there?)
6) POWER BUTTON TOO NEAR THE STYLUS
Happened to me several times that when I try to pull out the stylus, it pressed the power button and poweroff the machine. (bad human engineering here)
7) MORE BLUETOOTH MANIA
Amazingly the BT Headset (I tried 3 different models) cannot function for voice recognition, recording or hearing prompts. Seems the driver doesn't support it. If it did, the voice recognition with my Logitech new headset could have been better. Car BT hands-free also don't work for anything else than strictly during a conversation. I almost purchased a Motoroal Handfree BT Car set because I thought I could also use to hear navigation with my GPS Navigation software. I can't gear prompts cause again, it only functions during the conversation, lously.
8) TERRIBLE MICROPHONE DURING CONVERSATION
I've had several people complaining about not hearing me at all while I use the PDA2K directly (no BT headset). I have to should and hold the machine funny close to my mouth. Oh, and setting the microphone AGC gain control to Enable, does NOTHING for increasing microphone sensitivity, it only works for voice recording/notes taking.
9) OK, SO AT LEAST SET THE MICROPHONE AGC ENABLE FOR NOTES TAKING RIGHT? WRONG!
For taking voice notes or recording conversation, setting the microphone to AGC is a must or else you will hear almost nothing. So you Enable it out of no choice... But OOPS.. Now you find out the Voice Recognition software (Both Microsoft Voice Command or Fonix Voice Central) will disable it back, voice recognition software don't work well with the AGC gain enable. So.. you have to choose here Notes taking? Or voice recognition?
I have the machine just about two weeks and already got tired of it. It is a game, it's not a professional machine that you can actually work flawlessly with. Like a delicate toy, far from being a sturdy trusted pocket pc. Don't get me wrong, I'm a gadget freak, and I am willing to 'eat it up and shut up' but this is just to much. I've had a Cassiopeia E-125 for 4 years !!!! And Wwoooff.. ONLY now I can truly appreciate the Casio, 4 years and worked perfectly even though I dropped it many times, slept on it once, hit it by mistake and so on. Never failed me, and I didn't even knew what the Reset button looked like!
I'm truly disappointed... You get many features, but you pay the price of total instability and absolutly horrible amature like support from the HTC guys. No matter how many bugs other can find on iPaqs such as the 6315, I doubt it can reach to the extent this machine has.
:evil: :x :roll: :?
you are the weakest link...
goodbye
Well, since 3 of your 9 are bluetooth and 1 is the case, I think that says good things for the phone that you couldn't come up with any more...
I have the Sprint PPC-6601, which is basically the same phone with no wifi, but with fast 'vision' internet access...
I notice the bluetooth issues too. I have the zenphone profilier, and only turn bluetooth on when I am actually using it, in the car, for instance...
Other than that, I haven't had your issues. Power button seems fine to me. Callers report hearing me loud and clear, and I can hear them extremely well (it's the first phone I've had that can be made 'too' loud...)
Fax/Album/Recording. Haven't tried the fax. I use Resco for Album and recording, as the internal apps are really just 'lite' programs.
For my money, this is a great phone, and I'm very happy. Will be 100% when the get bluetooth working properly..
- Regards,
Ben
ben1000 said:
Well, since 3 of your 9 are bluetooth and 1 is the case, I think that says good things for the phone that you couldn't come up with any more...
I have the Sprint PPC-6601, which is basically the same phone with no wifi, but with fast 'vision' internet access...
I notice the bluetooth issues too. I have the zenphone profilier, and only turn bluetooth on when I am actually using it, in the car, for instance...
Other than that, I haven't had your issues. Power button seems fine to me. Callers report hearing me loud and clear, and I can hear them extremely well (it's the first phone I've had that can be made 'too' loud...)
Fax/Album/Recording. Haven't tried the fax. I use Resco for Album and recording, as the internal apps are really just 'lite' programs.
For my money, this is a great phone, and I'm very happy. Will be 100% when the get bluetooth working properly..
- Regards,
Ben
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, I found dozens of similar complaints at the clubimate forums (as well as here) In particular, the so many BT complaints, microphone. I've used WINCE ever since it was version 2 16-gray scal on an old casio with 8mb of ram (gee that's history), I just wish HTC could have made a good job of actually making all the features work. The potential is super, and I guess (and hope) that most of the bug can easily be fixed with a decent programmatical procedures. You'll see dozens of complaints at the clubimate forums, lots of disappointed customers. Only HTCs fault for not making enough QA (or some say none)
To use the fax you have to have it enabled by your mobile provider (if they provide it at all)
You sound frustrated....sell it now and move on... Oh thats right there is NOTHING else like it out there.
When they get the bluetooth issues solved (and Im sure they will) you can then rebuy it.
BlueTooth is going to stuck until Microsoft can integrate a decent stack into the OS. It shouldn't be the job of the phone manufacturer to have to do that.
But it should be their job to properly QA it prior to selling it to their customer base.
Hi
I see all your issues and a load more. This device has the capability to be excellent. I hope that they fix the bugs promptly, and that the manufacturers take the bug fixes, and release appropriate updates shortly after.
Currently, O2 are sending out standard replies to all queries regarding this device (O2 XDA IIs) basically they say 'if you're not happy, send it back for a refund'. This is exactly the same as I got when I phoned them.
They keep offering to replace it, but that will not help to solve a software issue!
They did (eventually) fix most of the issues on the XDA II (although bluetooth still does not work correctly on that device either). I hope that the IIs gets the same treatment (with working bluetooth as well!)
Perhaps we should just ignore new releases, run 1 release behind... When the XDA 4 comes out, buy the 3, buy the 4 when they ship the 5 !!
We, the consumer are partly responsible for the manufacturers rushing products to market well before they are ready I suppose.
I checked out the reviews of the XDA IIs (and its friends) before I bought it, they did not have a bad word to say about it. All I can think is that the reviewers, either A) never even clapped eyes on the device, or B) never used it in anger, or C) were only allowed to review it if they said nice things about it. If I had seen a review that listed all the problems, then I would have waited a while --> and probably bought the Motorola MPx instead (which is probably just as bad, and ships with a *stupid* 32MB memory!!)
Nigel
I wish more companies were like Nebula-Electronics.com They released a freeview card 2 years ago, and have been improving upon the software ever since and offering it to customers for free. Their releases are spot on, they respond to bug reports, and they *beta* test the software with end users before they actually release the new version.
The nebula is is the best bit of software/hardware that I have ever bought... Unfortunately, most companies are not like nebula and simply move onto new hardware products without first having fixed the issues in old products.
Nigel
I bought a PDA2k from eXpansys USA, and was NOT able to repro the problem with the video camera. I was able to take video and play it back without any problems at all.
Perhaps you have a truly defective unit. Can you try returning it under warranty?
When the MPX finally ships, (which must be soon as Motorola have finally officially announced it last week and said it will be available to Asian markets this month and Europe Q1 2005) I think we're really going to see what a buggy device can be. I can't see that it's possible to run any software concurrently with wifi or bluetooth with only 32Mb of RAM and wm2003se taking up more than a third of that from bootup.
Still, the form factor is the appeal of the MPX and I can't wait to get one.

Review: Blue Angel vs Magician

Blueangel Vs. Magician
I am very lazy when it comes to writing or posting on this forum but finaly I decided to do it because I lost too much money on selling jam and getting Blue Angel.
I bought JAM after selling my trusted Imate (XDA II). JAM looks very smart and lite weight to carry around. But It has following deficiencies:
1. Its singal reception is not good as I live in an area where 50% singal comes and I had tried many sets before but no problem with Nokia or my previous imate. But with this phone I had to go outside so that other party could listen to me. The main reason for selling this phone was its signal strength which is not up to the mark.
2. The second is its voice quality. Although I tired various radio and rom upgrades to update its phone voice quality but I succeeded marginaly. Although its speaker phone is very good and loud. You can hear mp3 songs play through its speaker better than blueangle becuase they are loud.
3. The screen size is reduce so you need very good eyes. This means you can not run Internet Exploere is small size text font becase it gets very small to read. Also I usually manged to click some thing with my finger printer with out removing styles but this is definitely not the case with JAM as icons get smaller you may end up clicking other objects, You have to do this with stylus. This is not the case with Blueagel who has a wide screen. If you read books on it small screen does soar your eyes.
4. Its onscreen keyboard is also small and it is by default set to big keys which mean that you don't have number row on the top. But if you set it to small keys then you will again find trouble in typing text because you need to be very accurate with stylus.
5. Its stylus is by far very low quality and lite weight and very small, difficult to hold in your hand. If you are custom to imate XDA II stylus you will find it very cheap and hard to get hold on.
6. Memory of JAM get quickly filled in, you need to mange it more cautiously. For example my favourite program like MS Voice COmmand 1.5 run only in memory so you can not move it to Storage Card. I tried to move some DLL and ringtones to Storage Card but it again does not make much of a difference.
7. No WIFI. If you have WIFI at home or in office you should not buy JAM.
8. JAM camera sucks. Tried various methods to improve its quality and adjusting its sharpness and brightness. Little imporvments but definitely not the quality of 1.3 megapixel.
BlueANgel
1. Its extra weight causes me problem.
2. I have not used its slide out keybard, Because on-screen keyboard is more easier to type and give you suggestions also. HTC could have reduced its weight by removing slide out keybard.
3. Its 4 buttons below screen are excellent. You can just simple press the OK button in response to Dialog or when you want to close application window. I have configured one of the button to switch it to landscape mode.
4. Media Player 9 is included not 10. This is shame.
5. I like the approach of JAM using simple USB cable as its provides both functionality (charging and cradle). It is also easy to carry. The imate cradle is definitley can not be tugged along. You will need to buy sync + charge cable from brando or other store for travelling purpose.
6. My bluetooth headset Motorola HS 850 works excellent with Blueangle. It has 8 hours of talk time and when you close its boom its automatically switch off, when call arrives you open its boom and viola you are connected with in seconds. You can use it for week without charging.
7. I have cooked my own extended rom and have removed the arabic stuff. I have included latest caller ID and Smart Dialer as it came with JAM by default.
8. WIFI is excellent, althought its signal strength indicator has some flaw becuae it never exceeds more than 50% even if you are one inch away from your wifi access point. But it does not matter I can room in my office and home and I always get good wifi transfer speed. Simple no comparison with Bluetooth as you can create a share folder on your pc and access it on your Blueangle. Also VNC, Remote desktop connectivity and internet speed are all very good.
9. Its battery backup and standby is also better than JAM. It give me 2 to 3 days of backup including wifi browsing and Bluetooth headset connectivity.
10. I have shot some videos with pda2k and they record and run quite smoothly on my mmc card. This is suprise as my previous imate does not record them so smooth, their were pauses in movies. I am using the same mmc card on both devices.
FYI:
PLEASE DON'T RELAY ON FORUMS THEY GIVE YOU INFORMATION BUT THEY CANNOT SUBSITITUE REAL DEVICE EXPERIENCE. I LOST AROUND 120$ BECAUSE OF IT. (THAT IS SOLD JAM AND BOUGHT PDA2K)
Important Suggestion about PDA2k (Blueangel)
Don't upgrade to any ROM unless you have problems. I have stick mine to latest pda2k ROM upgrade avilable from clubimate. I tried to upgrade my radio to 1.08 and found out that after connecting with bluetooth headset, Wirless lan does not turn on. I switched back to radio 1.06 and everything is working fine again.
Asim A. Ghafoor
hi
forum.xda-developers.com

Comparing SPV m2000 to m1000

I just upgraded from a SPV m1000 (Himalaya) to a SPV m2000 (Blue Angel). I know I'm a little late to upgrade but I just thought I would share what I thought of it:
PROS
- Navigation pad - it's a lot better, with the m1000 I kept hitting the wrong direction because it was small and circular. The 4 buttons above the navigation make one-hand operation more possible.
- Bluetooth: It now comes with Widcomm BT as standard so you can send files and join a BT network. I tried getting the Widcomm stack to work on the m1000 but I couldn't get activesync to work. On the old MS BT stack activesync kept failing for some unknown reason, on the m2000 it works fine.
- Built-in Wifi: A lot more convenient than having to constantly swap SD cards. Also I suspect using the Socket BT driver pushed the m1000 too near the 32 process limit so Skype's VoIP didn't work properly. While voice quality on Skype on the m2000 isn't perfect the other person is at least comprehensible.
- 43MB flash RAM: The m1000 only had 14MB which was probably enough. It only occured to me recently to store all my documents in this area to avoid data loss if the main RAM was wiped.
- Slide down keyboard: Should make writing emails faster, though I'm still getting used to it.
- Higher capacity battery: gets you through the day. Sometimes I would be out of juice by the end of the day on the m1000.
- MMS is built into the email application.
- Pocket Internet Explorer now renders pages without horizontal scrolling which reduces the need for alternative browsers like NetFront.
- Screen Rotation: While there was quite a good utility for screen rotation available on these forums for PPC 2003, the one in SE is faster, the apps re-render better and the navigation pad is also rotated.
- The audio socket is on the top of the device, though there is an awkward rubber "stopper".
CONS
- It's slightly bigger and heavier but you get used to it.
- The email application takes a little longer to load which can be annoying when you want to quickly see the last couple of SMSes.
- The power button is on the right hand side which is a little more awkward, though it does stop you from accidently pressing it when you shove the device into your pocket.
- The volumn slider isn't as easy to use - it's nearly flush with the surface.
- Case: Isn't very good - you have to take the device out to use it. The m1000 case fits the m2000 but you will still have to take it out to use the slide down keyboard.
- Headphones: Has only one button to answer calls instead of answer and reject buttons on the m1000.
OTHER INFO
m1000 PPCTechs Sync n' Charge cable should work with m2000 though you will need to get a new audio adapater if you want to use 3.5mm headphones.
Thanks for your comparison,
Was thinking about upgrading my M1000, but I think I'll wait for the SPV 3G to come out unless it's going to be ages! I do love the M2000 though, my mate has it and he loves having a better phone than me...
I upgraded from the M1000 to the M2000 about a month or two ago, and im very happy, there are a few "CONS" as with any device you buy, but i think the "PROS" totally see over this and make it a much better PPC than the M1000....
Markh - just one thing, about the headphones(handsfree) only having one button as apposed to the M1000 having two, It actually is a whole lot better in my view, cos now you dont havr to look at which button you pressing to pick it up, there is now one button to "pick up" and the same button to "put down".... no more worries about pushing the red one when u want to pick up...
Pros:
Keyboard
Wi-fi
Looks better
Specs look better on paper
Cons:
Battery is appauling
Appaulingly slow and unstable
Rarely works for calls (in a variety of ways ie you won't even notice it's crashed as it looks fine and the PPC functions work, but you get home at the end of the day and have tonnes of messages from people saying your phone's turned off / the no sound (no connection) problem experienced by 77% of users.)
SPB Pocketplus (the only 3rd party app I really used) makes a bad phone perform worse
Most of the extra features make it crash (ie. the screen rotate)
Almost anything makes media player skip as the phone can't handle it
Screen has a yellow hue
Crappy headphone adapter
Getting your sim out is a b!tch
Volume slider is awkward
IR port is on the side so IR keyboards won't work (even if you rotate the screen) so I need to buy an expensive BT one
Disabled BT in 'beam' option: although BT 3900 fixes this for file manager, the pictures app suffers. You can no longer choose the picture to beam by looking for the thumbnail.
Hard Resets at random
Soft resets at random

[Q] Android voice actions and Bluetooth

I just got a galaxy nexus a week ago, this is my first android phone coming from an iPhone so please excuse my ignorance if this a basic question.
I quite like the voice actions when you hit the microphone icon, however when I connect to Bluetooth and initiate the voice calling through my Bluetooth device, the voice action doesn't activate, but some other voice dialer that is nowhere near as accurate as the voice action starts up.
Is there a way to get the voice actions to work with Bluetooth. This is rather frustrating as I really needed the usability of this to work while I'm driving. I don't need the voice actions when I can type.
Please help....
Many thanks
This is the same as in Gingerbread, I wish they'd use the same voice search for both, the non-BT one is much more capable.
Thanks that really disappointing, seems like a rather obvious function to have. All the capabilities are there , yet now the hands free system is not usable. Still don't understand why google didn't put this in place.
Seems like bluetooth fixes and modifications are coming with 4.0.3 update (which seems to be coming soon). Hopefully these issues will be addressed.
Still nothing...
I'm on GNexus 4.0.4
Nothing!
I CANNOT believe that something I could do on Windows phone 5, before the G1 was released, is still not available in Android.
Love Android, love my GNexus, HATE the fact that they still can't get voice command/dial to work over the bluetooth mic.
I've been fighting with this for quite some time. If you're willing to spend some for a solution, try checking on AVX on the market. It's paid, and kinda high, but it has a longish, fully functional trial, and it works flawlessly with Bluetooth. It also uses Google's voice recognition engine.
I haven't fully tested out how it voices dials, as I got it to interface with Tasker, but it might do what you need, and a fair bit more. After installation, the first time you hit the voice recognition button on you Bluetooth, you get the "open with" prompt on your phone which will let you choose to always launch AVX with your button.
Kinda stinks to not have a free solution out there, much less built in to android, but for now, this works for me. (It was completely worth it to start my car from the middle of a store by touching my ear and talking to my android. )

Parrot Minikit+ and SG2

Hi all
Bought the above BT unit for my car and plant vehicles yesterday and thought I'd give you the heads-up on how it's going. I needed something that easily transfers between vehicles, so didn't want a wired solution.
Well, in a nutshell it's perfect for my use. The unit downloaded my phone book (792 contacts in 11 groups) in a matter of 15 seconds. I first paired with my Sg2 after a little bit of fiddling, I had to hold down the red and green buttons together first - nowhere in the supplied or online manuals does it say to do that first but, there ya go.
In use.....
1. Audio is extremely clear, although scrolling through the contact names with the centre dial is laborious and the robo-voice is pretty bad, but then again the voice dialling works great so there's really no need to use the scrolling method at all. For instance, I press the green button, the unit says " Who would you like to call", I say " Jane mobile" and voila, it dials instantly and extremely quickly. No errors.
2. Likewise with pickup of calls. The phone rings followed by the unit. I say "answer" and boom. Incidentally, if the caller is in your phonebook the unit says the name of the caller. Also, if you update your phone's contact list at any time, the Parrot automatically updates it's contact list to match the phone at the next time you turn on the Parrot and pair with your phone. Brilliant.
3. Using satnav ( CoPilot Live and a couple of others) the audio is sent out throught the Parrot automatically. The phone has priority over the satnav, naurally.
4. Using the music player, the audio also comes out through the Parrot. Not a great sound but good enough for most purposes, especially if you're listening to something like Tune In Radio. So if your listening, for example, to Tune In whilst running satnav at the same time, the radio dims for guidance audio then comes back up, and if the phone rings whilst your listening to the radio and using satnav, then they both dim until you finish your call.
Excellent stuff all round I reckon. By the way, I'm nothing to do with Parrot, but I think praise where praise is due.....
Using KL1 Frankenstein with stock kernel, courtesy of Intratech. Thanks bud. You ARE the man.
Greetings from sunny ( but darn wet and windy right now) Cornwall.
Regards
Phil

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