Related
Use an XDA II at the moment, still stuggling to get it to upgrade to SE at the moment. Sort of an intrim measure, untill I decide what to uprade to next. However because I use it with a WiFi card & pocket Skype, my upgrade options are limited.
Have always loved the I-Mate Jam, since its launch, especially its looks & size. However here in Great Britain O2 in all there wisdow decided not to launch the XDA mini so ended up sticking with my XDA II.
Now O2 tell me they will not be providing the XDA mini at all & instead they will be launching the I-Mate Wizard instead late in October or early November.
My thoughts on this go like this, don't really need the keyboard but I can take it or leave it, as long as it is well made & does not make the whole unit excessively fragile.
Built in WiFi, brilliant as I now don't have to have a half inch of my SD card hanging out of the top of my phone, great.
The CPU speed, this is the killer for me, Pocket Skype requires 400mhz or more according to the Skype website, & life without pocket Skype would be unbearable & needlesly expensive .
Does anyone else like me think tbere is a conspiracy going on with the providers strategicly selecting hardware to in one way or another stop us using Pocket Skype. Either the unit is to big to be comfortable & fashionable (the XDA IIi), No WiFi & two littfe memory (the I-Mate Jam), or worst of all not enough CPU speed to run pocket Skype (the HTC Wizard.
All this has firmly made me believe that the Holy Grail of PDA/Phones that I believe we are looking for is:
The Current I-Mate Jam with the following updatey:
128 Megs Ram
Built in WiFi
Windows Mobile 2005.
Wlth two added small hot keys
Slightly faster CPU.
No added keyboard to keep slze as small as is possible.
I am sure I am not the only one wbo feels this & I am sure I would just be one of the many tbousands in the stampede to get hold of this mythical but oh so wanted Devices.
So what is what is left for me to do, keep using my XDA II, hopefully managing to upgrade it to WM2003SE, in the meantime.
And if there really are no CPU upgrades when the Wizard is finally released, hock & sell all I can find to buy a. sim free 128 Meg I-Mate Jam, begrudgingly.
Love to hear other peoples comments on this matter jost to assure myself that I am not the only one who feels this way, or who can give me the dowload address of the combined WM2003SE ROM.
Kind Regards all, Ash'e
PocketPCItalia reviewed the Wizard on their site and were able to use Skype on it, they said they had no problems running it. I don't know the link to the article, but you can find the link on HowardForums somewhere in the Wizard/Qtek9100 threads.
Even someone on the WIKI has reported Skype works (though you need to turn off echo cancellation since this takes a lot of processing power).
ShALLaX said:
Even someone on the WIKI has reported Skype works (though you need to turn off echo cancellation since this takes a lot of processing power).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Linky ?
Terran
Is this our Holy Grail.
Thanks guys it gives me some hope, but when push comes to I still feel we are all being asked to compromise, the XDA mini was an awsome bit of kit, in many ways far superior to the wizard, in size & processing power, I now have to take a cut in CPU power on my new upgrade phone instead of getting more power, which you would expect with the march of technology & all that.
So I ask the question again, I really do feel we nearly had our holy grail in the XDA Mini, & where left short in the last furlong, when a well thought out upgrade as descríbed in my previous posting was all it would have taken to produce what I feel would have been a benchmark style icon & a runaway sales success even more than it is anyway,
I really do feel that the HTC are trading of with the air time providers to delay Skype becoming the runaway cost saving mobile call preventing success it is going to be.
Kind Regards
Ash'e
My god someone with my same thoughts. I want a SPV M500 (XDA mini, jam etc) for the size but a slower processor ? and Orange want £180 to upgrade!!!!
Don't start me with that treating exsisting customers like new ones come on i've been with Orange for 10 yrs. But take a new contract and you get the phone for £80 or free! depending what traffic you choose. Stinks !!!!!!
WIKI: http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=HTC_Wizard
Also... someone posted on a forum about how much more efficient the OMAP processor is compared to the Intel series: http://www.smartdevicesdirect.com/forum/showpost.php?p=127&postcount=3
Very encouraging!
I've found my Holy Grail!
Well what a difference in I.T. life a couple of days makes, Two days ago I was panicking about having to upgrade to a HTC Wizard with all it's underlying, associated buíld/development problems, and now I am sat here with my own & what I feel is many other people's PDA Holy Grail in my hand.
In my hand I have a I-Mate Jam, but with a couple or three big differences:
One it has 128 Megs of Ram.
Two it has built in WiFi
Three it has a 2 GIG SD Card plugged in that works.
Now I might add that this is not my Jam, However the little known about UK based company that has produced it are quite willing to customise one for me if I can lay my hands on one in the next week or so.
They will also be offering it as a commercial service over the net as of November this year.
So my dear friends, fellow bookworms, frustrated burglers, affronted policemen or city gents with titly furled umbrella's, I am glad I have joined & listened to you all so many times but I am afraid I won't be joining you just yet in your wizardly new worlds now that I have found my own personal PDA Val-Hala. Long live the 128 Meg WiFi enabled Jam, who knows we may even be able to get WM2005 on it yet, that really would be something, & a right kick up the hind quarters for HTC.
Kind Regards Ash'e
Re: I've found my Holy Grail!
sion said:
Well what a difference in I.T. life a couple of days makes, Two days ago I was panicking about having to upgrade to a HTC Wizard with all it's underlying, associated buíld/development problems, and now I am sat here with my own & what I feel is many other people's PDA Holy Grail in my hand.
In my hand I have a I-Mate Jam, but with a couple or three big differences:
One it has 128 Megs of Ram.
Two it has built in WiFi
Three it has a 2 GIG SD Card plugged in that works.
Now I might add that this is not my Jam, However the little known about UK based company that has produced it are quite willing to customise one for me if I can lay my hands on one in the next week or so.
They will also be offering it as a commercial service over the net as of November this year.
So my dear friends, fellow bookworms, frustrated burglers, affronted policemen or city gents with titly furled umbrella's, I am glad I have joined & listened to you all so many times but I am afraid I won't be joining you just yet in your wizardly new worlds now that I have found my own personal PDA Val-Hala. Long live the 128 Meg WiFi enabled Jam, who knows we may even be able to get WM2005 on it yet, that really would be something, & a right kick up the hind quarters for HTC.
Kind Regards Ash'e
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As per the other thred, contact details, pics, website ?
Terran
I've found my Holy Grail!
Well what a difference in I.T. life a couple of days makes, Two days ago I was panicking about having to upgrade to a HTC Wizard with all it's underlying, associated buíld/development problems, and now I am sat here with my own & what I feel is many other people's PDA Holy Grail in my hand.
In my hand I have a I-Mate Jam, but with a couple or three big differences:
One it has 128 Megs of Ram.
Two it has built in WiFi
Three it has a 2 GIG SD Card plugged in that works.
Now I might add that this is not my Jam, However the little known about UK based company that has produced it are quite willing to customise one for me if I can lay my hands on one in the next week or so.
They will also be offering it as a commercial service over the net as of November this year.
So my dear friends, fellow bookworms, frustrated burglers, affronted policemen or city gents with titly furled umbrella's, I am glad I have joined & listened to you all so many times but I am afraid I won't be joining you just yet in your wizardly new worlds now that I have found my own personal PDA Val-Hala. Long live the 128 Meg WiFi enabled Jam, who knows we may even be able to get WM2005 on it yet, that really would be something, & a right kick up the hind quarters for HTC.
Kind Regards Ash'e
I'm torn. Really torn.... anyone else facing this dilemma?
1) Do you want a keyboard? Yes->Question 2, No->Athena.
2) Can you wait until sometime in 2006? Yes->Hermes, No->Wizard.
That would be my logic.
I haven't heard about the Hermes......
I do want a keyboard. I bought my BlueAngel for that reason. However with the advent of the I-Tap input thing I would prob be ok without one.
Suppose I now have a third option to contemplate.
Hermes?
Lewis
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=730935
Some information for you:
Athena: XScale processor at 400Mz, EDGE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, FM Radio, and a 2.1MP camera. No keyboard, just like the Magician, but it will be slimmer than it.
Hermes: just like Wizard, but has UMTS, front-facing camera, and a 2.1MP rear camera.
Not sure if they're dropping EDGE to put in UMTS, or if it will be a USA-friendly UMTS (unlikely, since we don't have our act together yet).
So, the Hermes is the Wizard's answer to the Universal, and the Athena is the sequel to the JAM.
I am unfamiliar with what EDGE and UMTS are..
However i gather they are some kind of 3G based technology, which I am not all that interested in.
I gather the Hermes will be a sort of 3G version of the Wizard. As I said i am not interested in 3G yet as i can't really see a use for it. As for an FM radio thats outdated now anyway! Surely it should have been a Digial Radio!!
In light of this I'll probably end up buying a Wizard. it suites my needs (because its basially a new Blue Angel) and I could do with a phone soon as my BA has almost toally packed up. But theres still nagging part of me that says may-be hold on for the Hermes.
Slightly off topic but I also breiefly considered the Universal. Until I realised it was THE single most ugly thing on the planet... seriously.
Lewis
Its not ugly, just huge!
I think it's both!
Especially when it's closed. Theres too much blank space around the screen....eww.
But anyway tis only my personal opinion ;-)
Lewis
Is there any hope Athena will be released before the end of the year?
O2 Said the Athena would be realeased about the 30th of October
O2 Said the Athena would be realeased about the 30th of October
BigDamHero said:
O2 Said the Athena would be realeased about the 30th of October
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You mean O2 Asia? This is good news, but I was rather referring to the release of a US or Europe model (SIM-unlocked). Any announced release date?
Decions,.Decisions.
The release of the news about the Athena, or XDA Atom, has completely confused me to.
However I have managed to rationalized it this way.
With intellipad, quickwiting, software, (especially quick writing, once you get used to it) and my think outside blue tooth fold out keyboard. don't really need keyboard.
Besides which it looks pretty fragile and it is just another thing that can go wrong or brake.
Without the keyboard I also get a smaller slimmer far more pocketable device to boot with a much stronger all metal case to boot (shame they did not keep the silver brushed aluminium).
What else do I gain, well a much faster CPU, a far superior camera and a proper SD card slot over the wizard, ard 128 Megs of ram, the long awaited in built WiFI, a built in radio and of course WM2005 over the Magacian,
So the choice for me will be to hang onto my XDA II for now and hang on for the XDA Atom to arrive in the UK, I just hope it does and I can get one on 02 contract to save myself a few pennies.
Thank for the chat guys
Regards Ash'e.
arg0 said:
You mean O2 Asia?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope this what what I got from O2 UK. They said it was the tennative release date.
Lewis
Re: Decions,.Decisions.
Hey Sion
sion said:
The release of the news about the Athena, or XDA Atom, has completely confused me to.
However I have managed to rationalized it this way.
With intellipad, quickwiting, software, (especially quick writing, once you get used to it) and my think outside blue tooth fold out keyboard. don't really need keyboard.
Besides which it looks pretty fragile and it is just another thing that can go wrong or brake.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I completely disagree. I have had my Blue Angel for a year and the keyboard is invaluable. I can type rediclously fast on it ;-)
Intelipad and Quickwriting etc. will never compare to an actual hardware keyboard. I use my phone to send 100s of SMSs a day (no really). Could NEVER do that without a proper hardware keyboard.
sion said:
What else do I gain, well a much faster CPU, a far superior camera and a proper SD card slot over the wizard, ard 128 Megs of ram, the long awaited in built WiFI, a built in radio and of course WM2005 over the Magacian,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The processor in the Wizard has actually been benchmarked to be quite good. As someone else said in this forumn one day people will realise you cant just measure processing speeds in clock cycles. Take it from an Athlon 64 owner!
As for the camera they tend to be sh*t on all pocket pc devices becuse of the lense they put on them. Resolution doesnt come into it most of the time.
For me wanting a keyboard I think I'll probably get a wizard because it's a smaller version of my Blue Angel. Though it'll probably be on ebay when the Hermes comes out
Lewis
Have you tried Quickwriting Yet!
It may seem strange but I can beat most people on a slide out keyboard using quickwriting, it takes quite a lot of getting used to but once you get the knack it is unbelievabley quick.
You never take your stylus of the pad and it very quickly forms a highly efficient shorthand as you start to use it properly.
give it a try, don't try to rush & practice a litte bit each day and I guarantee that you will be pleasantly surprised within a couple of weeks plus because you don't take you're stylus of the pad you can use it on moviny London buses, whilst you are stood up in rush hour traffic between stops like I am now..
Regard Ash'e
BigDamHero said:
Nope this what what I got from O2 UK. They said it was the tennative release date.
Lewis
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It has not even been announced yet by O2 UK: will they really release a phone less than one month after announcement?
Are O2 phones sim-locked?
They Want it, just can't get it.
Just finished having supper with an O2 UK director (not marketing Dept), it appears that they do feel that that the XDA Atom, is going to be the ultimate lifestyle device & accessory, and a little more robust & a tadge more pocket friendly than the wizard & they are going to eventually add it to there UK product portfolio.
However with the device not even released yet & no real UK release dates truthfully on the horizon, & in there words: "our current XDA range is becoming slightly dated & cumbersome", they need to do something, and the Exec & Mini Pro appear to be the temporary solutions, until the Atom is released that is.
So I will forgoe the Mini Pro for now & stick to my dated XDA IIs in the hope that they secure some Atom stock and release dates soon, also have spoken to people who already have their Wizards and the general concensus is that the slide out keyboard is very fragile, so I think it is time to start investigating when & how to lay my hands on an XDA Atom. I still want that holy grail of smartphones & I think the Atom is going to be pretty damn close to it so.
It always taken more courage to dare to be right, than fear to be wrong.
So by hook or by crook Atom it is then.
Regards Ash'e
Hmmm.
I remain unconvinced by the Atom/Athena.
If I wait for anything I'll wait for the Hermes. It actually brings something new to the table.
Decisions Decisions!
Lewis
ATHENA
THE GODDESS OF WISDOM WHO WILL REIGN OVER ALL.
BLESS-UP.
Things look clearer now
After reading the reviews other people have given about there Recently purchased Wizards on the other forum I passed this comment:
Fantastic reviews chaps, everything I wanted to here, so in light of all that when and how can we all get our hands on HTC Athenas or XDA Atoms, it would appear every gripe here would be answered quite easily by purchasing an Atom, better size, lack of keyboard, faster CPU, more robust and ergonomic build and feel, 2.0 camera, these are you're thoughts not mine, all we all really wanted anyway was a HTC Magician with Built in WiFi, 128 megs of ram and WM2005 and in the Atom were getting it and a few extra bits all in that Magician size we new & loved.
As I said in a previous post: It always takes more courage to dare to be right, than fear to be wrong.
Regards Ash'e
First of all, just want to take a moment to introduce myself, this looks like a great community.
I just bought a 8525 from Amazon (its being shipped now), I am a programmer (web developer, database guy @ work, and lots of java, C# and C++ for projects I am working on) This will be my first PDA phone (my current phone is an SE s710a, for which I downloaded the sdk, and used it to make some simple java apps, but became board with it, as it was pretty limited) and I am very interested in getting into programming for the neat little device that will be in transit to me shortly.
Anyway, before all that I have to get the right hardware, I am pretty sure from what I have been reading and searching through that the max microSD card size currently available is 2 GB. And I know the Hermes supports it (with possible slower speed / boot time, yadda, yadda) however in everything I have read, I have not seen one place where a max supported (architectural) size is listed for the microSD slot.
So, does anyone know if the memory address bus on the Hermes will support more then 2 GB if such a card is (or already is) made? (I am truly sorry if I missed an obvious place where this information is offered)
Thanks,
Brian
i had read that the max possible on a micro sd would be 12gb, but I don't remember where I read that.
I would expect to have MicroSD the same limitations as SD cards, since it has only a smaller footprint. This would mean 4 GB for standard MicroSD (as in Hermes) and up to 32 GB for SDHC (not for Hermes, needs a special hardware). I'm not sure though.
Thanks for the responses, at least I feel better that I was not missing the obvious. Seems odd to me though that the information is so elusive. Most other phones I am aware of make note of the max supported card size, but I am new to HTC products, so maybe they just don’t.
Thanks,
Brian
Hello fellow Uni users,
I could see quite a lot of people referring to them using TomTom 6 (and yes it also is listed on tomtom.com in the list of compatible devices). However I preferred MN5 over TomTom earlier on due to refined interface and NAVTEQ maps (which are so much better than TeleAtlas, in my opinion and from my experience of course).
My grudge against it was that it consumes lots of RAM and can't free it up easily (except Quitting and restarting software). But I managed to get it working all right on my Universal.
I waited for MN|6 for PDA's quite a long time. They have released PNA's with MN|6, then a version for Symbians, but no luck for PDA. And recently their web site began to take preliminary orders for VERSION 6, T.B.D. on December 28th.
Imagine my disappointment when I saw that the website lists no Exec under O2 brand, and if you select (similar) MDA Pro, it says "this model is unsupported!"
Well... AA Navigator was also unsupported under XDA II, but I made it work.
=========================
* I wonder if anybody has used NAVIGON Mobile Navigator|5 on their Universals?
* I would appreciate if anybody who gets their paws on MN|6 (may be for their other PDA's) would let us know their experiences of using it on the Universal. Don't want to waste £100 on something that most probably won't work or will work with limitations...
* I wonder if the reason for no support is because Universal is low on available RAM? In this case all you need is just to soft reset your PDA before going somewhere. IF - that's a big IF - MN|6 just needs more RAM in which case... TOUGH
* I would appreciate if you note which Sat Nav software do you use for your Universals - I can guess TomTom 6 will be in the list.
But, any others?
I tried running this PNA version on my Qtek 9000, but it didnt work at all. used tweaks i found somewhere, but never passed the startup screen...
Was there a release planed for PDAs?
Dunno if the navigon 6 maps work on navigon 5?!
HansiHusten said:
I tried running this PNA version on my Qtek 9000, but it didnt work at all. used tweaks i found somewhere, but never passed the startup screen...
Was there a release planed for PDAs?
Dunno if the navigon 6 maps work on navigon 5?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, MN|6 for PDA's can be ordered from Navigon beginning on 28th December. The b***ers delayed the PDA release so they could crop the PNA market and then Symbian Mobile phones. Now looks like the time has come.
The problem is, they say MN|6 is not supported on MDA Pro - a similar class device and since I think that may be due to enormous amount of RAM it uses while running (MN|5 kept drawing memory with each search or map zoom, so it was best to quit after you got there and start anew - that somehow reclaimed the memory) and lack of RAM within Universal.
Anyway I am not ready to pay £100 for upgrade before I know for sure it works on Exec. I own MN|5 but upgrade incentive is disappointing -- just £25 off the regular price...
If MN|6 requires more memory even and doesn't like the Exec, I'll have but three choices -- drop it altogether and move to TomTom (likely) or CoPilot (unlikely), stay with MN|5 (bo-o-oring! ) or get myself a new XDA Orbit (unlikely )
Mhh.... ur sure it will use much more RAM?
Lets just wait and see, i´m optimistic Navigon 5 with latest update runs realy great and i wont stop trying V6 until i get it to run, awesome app, better than tomtom imho.
HansiHusten said:
Mhh.... ur sure it will use much more RAM?
Lets just wait and see, i´m optimistic Navigon 5 with latest update runs realy great and i wont stop trying V6 until i get it to run, awesome app, better than tomtom imho.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with you that it's better made than TomTom. You can see all signs of a luxury sat nav system -- and TomTom is deffo lacking refinement. Voice destination entry is just awesome, very convenient and people's jaws drop.
Navigon 5 ran more or less OK, albeit after you finish your destination it always failed to release memory - it requires lots of RAM to operate, so if I were going somewhere far away, I'd always softreset my system beforehand.
I tried to think why would it be incompatible, and some cheaper WM5 models would be. Definitely not CPU. Hardly also incompatible due to Bluetooth issues, even though for some models you'd see partial compatibility -- as in "incompatible with BiCeiver". I doubt they'd screw up Bluetooth stack from a perfectly working version in MN|5. So for now I'd blame it on MN|6 requiring more RAM to run -- and the Universal is famously low on memory especially in standard setup (non-Corporate mode), but that's only my guess. If that's the case, in Corporate mode there should be no problems running it.
Anyway, I've sent a message to Navigon asking why exactly is MN|6 not compatible with Universal. Hope to get an enlightening answer.
And yes, I'll be willing to try it all right and if it works properly after my tweaks, just buy it like I did with MN|5. Right now, a Torrent with what poses as "MN|6 für PDA" is stalled at 94% working since 20th...
Merry Christmas!
Official answer from Navigon support team
"Dear Mr. <EastExpert>,
thank you for your request and your interest in Mobile Navigator 6.
We regret to inform you that none of the following HTC Universal clones
is compatible with NAVIGON's latest PDA navigation solution (MN|6):
- O2 XDA Exec
- Qtek 9000
- T-Mobile MDA Pro
- Vodafone VPA IV
Whether the incompatibility of the HTC Universal clones is due to there
hardware architecture, their ROM image or both is unknown to the support
team. Sorry.
With kind regards
__________________
Navigon Support Team
A. M*******" (name provided)
So, they are SORRY.
For feck's sake, is it not enough that Universals cost about £600, must I buy again - some PNA - just to keep up with new version?!
Hardly.
I call bullsh*t. I'll believe this when I'll install MN|6 onto my device and it refuses to work outright. Before that, the question will remain open as to whether it works with Universals.
I'll have a look on TomTom 6 and CoPilot that will come with XDA Orbits... only CoPilot is nowhere to be found for trials... more work to do therefore!
Just to let you know, MN|6 for PDA's is now available on the markets (white and black as well).
Now I gotta find somebody to test MN|6 on their Exec to prove or disprove the "not supported" claim.
I have been waiting for Navigon MN6 too, since Navigon MN5 has the best street coverage in Sweden where I live.
I have also been testing TomTom 6 and I-Go 2006 and I am very satisfied with I-Go when it comes to speed and flexibility. Simply the best navigation solution right now.
But since the street coverage in MN5 was really good I had to test the new MN6 and went out and bought it to day.
Just as I thought MN6 was compatible with my Universal. It would install and start well and the interface is clean and easy to navigate.
The street coverage is also very good as I thought it would be.
BUT, and there is a big BUT, the SPEED! MN6 is painfully slow, the animated menus and especially when browsing the map. Sometimes you have to wait seconds for things to happen. I dont know if this is a problem with the Universal, but I dont think so, it has enough processing power and memory.
Speed was one of the disadvantages with MN5 when I used it on my WM2003 PPC, and speed is why I will go back to I-Go today. I-Go is so much smoother... Sorry MN6!
dape16 said:
BUT, and there is a big BUT, the SPEED! MN6 is painfully slow, the animated menus and especially when browsing the map. Sometimes you have to wait seconds for things to happen. I dont know if this is a problem with the Universal, but I dont think so, it has enough processing power and memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That, my friend, is what I suspected... The program itself would run, but Universals are famous for their lack of RAM to operate programs. Even MN|5 required so much memory, it would leave 4-6 out of 22-24 available... shame actually, 'cause the program was really lovely and had that "luxury" feeling oozing from it. I guess MN|6 requires even more, probably as much as 20+MB. This makes a lot of swapping and this is probably why you experienced such slow operation... -- and why the NAVIGON decided to deem Universals incompatible. The processing power in Uni is abundant - Bulverde 520MHz is not bad at all!
For comparison, TomTom 6, which I decided to try as an alternative, happily lives in 6-8 MB (not forgetting to give the memory used by it back at the end of the session). Having seen this, I reenabled PocketBreeze on my XDA Exec and it still has plenty of memory to operate -- I feel so much happier after these few months... I intend to try playing MP3 while navigating and see how it fares along. Pure tests
Also TomTom showed Tunnel mode, availability of TomTom Plus service where you can subscribe for ~£33 for a year of Traffic updates (via mere GPRS - no need to buy yet another £170-210 TMC-enabled receiver!) and Speed (err, Safety) Camera updates... that's nothing if you ask me Operated very fast in my tests, 2-3 seconds long route recalculations, convenient & configurable menus (yes, you can make your own ONLINE!).
You also get camera data freely available from the Net if you don't feel like paying for TomTom Plus subscription. Other things I liked about TomTom is gradually increasing precision as you approach the maneuvre point (.1 miles then .05 then 50 yds then 25 etc... till 5), Race Against Time mode where you enter time you wish to be at your destination and it shows you how are you faring on it! Also very sensible routing algorithms (btw compared to MN|5 -- I just get there faster!). What totally killed me was Full UK Postcode search that just required me to copy a few files into installation directory and it worked straight away! Only AA Navigator had a comparable Full UK Postcode database... the problem is, it didn't support Address search (as in "Town/Street/Number" mode). So TomTom won here as well.
Re: iGO 2006, some colleagues of mine have tried it and have split feelings: 1) the program they say is just excellent, but 2) the map coverage in the UK where we are is disappointingly incomplete. I guess this is just a teething problem (growth problem) since iGO was designed in Hungary, so they say its Eastern European coverage is much better. And I think iGO definitely has future. I read the manual and was pleasantly impressed by amount of features available. (And a bit disappointed by reviews that said UK coverage is currently far from perfect).
In other words, I now have moved to TomTom 6 for now.
As for MN|6, seems like while we retain our Universals, we're in the ditch with it. Oh, tough. Until there's a comparable device (VGA and Phone and GPRS and 3G and WiFi and even GPS may be) -- I'll cling to my Universal.
Seems like I was wrong about the compatibility after all...
I have done some more testing here and it seems like it is the Universals lack of RAM thats the problem.
When I tried to do some door-to-door navigation with MN6 the Uni gave me memory allocation errors or it would simply freeze.
I have Helmis AKU 3.5 ROM and about 22 MB RAM free after soft-reset. Maybe I should try with Ivans, I read in his thread that with his ROM you start with about 30 MB free.
But I am not sure that would solve the problem, I found this thread and some people there have been testing MN6 with Ivans ROM.
http://www.ppc-welt.info/community/showthread.php?t=102846
By the way, I cant belive that MN6 is eating so much RAM. They have had a couple of years do redesign MN5 but still it needs more then twice as much as TomTom.
Since Navgions maps are the best where I live, I am thinking about trying MN5. EastExpert, did you get it to run well on your Uni? Was it compatible with VGA?
My test with MN|6, wasn't encouraging.
1st Out of memory.
Reset. Next 3 or 4 goes, it was very slow and lagging in switching between dialogue boxes to the point were it would be doing the same thing 3 times because you thought you had not pressed the on screen buttons.
It looked very nice and certainly more polished than TT, but certainly not something to use for your daily business unless someone comes up with a superROM with a large amount of free mem and no leakage.
You can use it, but you need to be really careful, press a button and sit there, wait for the result, then do the next thing. I'm going to try i-Go next, to see if it fits my needs better than TT.
Shame; MN|6 looked pretty cool.
Cheers
Fish
There is some interesting info at the thread I linked to earlier, some guy saying that according to Navigon support the Universal will be compatible with the next update for MN6. Exciting!
dape, yes I used to run MN|5 on my Uni. Granted, it wasn't without problems. When I went somewhere far away, I always soft reset the beast, otherwise it could easily run out of memory somewhere on the go.
Another thing that really peed me off was that if I tried to do something beyond usual navigation (i.e. enter the address and press go), like select a car park nearby, or a petrol station, it would start to mix new screen on top of the old one... same would happen if I were to enter next destination after having arrived at the first one -- clear signs for me (a long-ago former software developer) that there's not enough memory.
It was a properly bought version (used an upgrade offer from AA Navigator I've been using before) and I lived with it for several months, but never was quite content with the fact I hadn't free memory enough to run the program -- this could build an inferiority complex in some other person! . Then eventually I've gotten sick and tired of it and decided to seek for alternatives.
I dropped the forum link you provided into Babelfish to translate into English, and there was an interesting phrase there -- the sense was that there will be an update to MN|6 that will make it compatible. Hmm. That could be interesting! I guess I'll keep watching the arena!
UPDATE: You have just posted the same and you were faster
fishtastic, looks like your findings actually corroborate the theory of MN|6 being all too big for the usual memory amount in Universal.
One can't really work like that -- not freely using all the MN|6's advanced features and having to wait and soft reset without end.
iGO seems not an option for me yet -- all the reviews I've read mention far from ideal coverage of UK where I dwell. Nice software, though, I'll give it a go when the next version arrives.
O2 UK is now providing XDA Orbit (= HTC Artemis) and recommends ALK CoPilot 6 with it. I wasn't too impressed by its screenshots, looks like TomTom and iGo are better. Haven't got my mitts on a version of CoPilot I could install and try though. May be O2 had their reasons when selecting CoPilot for their XDA orbit.
P.S. I wonder what happens next -- me finding anything better than TomTom 6, or me moving to a next BMW with in-dash Sat-Nav support?... LOL
EastExpert said:
P.S. I wonder what happens next -- me finding anything better than TomTom 6, or me moving to the next BMW with Sat Nav in the dashboard?... LOL
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are these BMWs that you speak of more or less expensive than a universal? And do run WM5? ;-)
Er, seriously, a lot of guys in work, have beemers and several use TT-ToGo, the only guy with dashboard satnav drives a Jag. Me being the poor IT guy doing the essbase and SQL Server stuff surrounded by these rich accountants catches the train to work. Boo.
I suppose the thing with TT is that it works fairly well. I just wish they would tart it up a bit and tidy the interface.
Oh well,
Good Luck to anyone else trying. Oh, I should have said before that I'm using the original shipping Rom on an O2 Exec from Nember 2005.
Cheers
Fish
Being in IT myself, and not a sales, solicitor or accountant, I think the first is more likely to happen and my next BMW would probably cost about as much as a new Universal...
Err... but I digress.
You're right about TT - it "just friggin' works", period. You just start it and it does what's on the tin. And compared to version 3 it's really a much better product (that was my previous experience with TT).
I'll be watching the space though - the hint about potential update that will support Execs is taken. Next iGO will be worth trying, I guess. And that's about it -- sometimes you just want to have something that works for a while
Many thanks to you guys for your feedback. Now, we know
Small addition:
MN|6 appears to switch off the power management i.e. the turn off the backlight after 3 mins bit. Confused me when I opened it and it was on.
Also, anyone with the problem with their battery is getting a bit old and turning off at 30odd%, if you have installed MN|6, at what point does it now do it at? Has it changed?
Cheers
Fish
The battery problem you mention is quite strange, because my 5 months old Uni suddenly started to turn of at about 30% power...
I can confirm that this is a battery problem, it has not anything to do with ROM version or something. Only a new battery solved my problem.
dape16 said:
The battery problem you mention is quite strange, because my 5 months old Uni suddenly started to turn of at about 30% power...
I can confirm that this is a battery problem, it has not anything to do with ROM version or something. Only a new battery solved my problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it's well known that it's a battery problem, but mine went from 30-odd% to ~90% just after installing, that prompted the question. Personally I believe it's a coincidence that it changed so dramatically. My battery is 1 year and 3 months old and I think it's heart just gave out. I ordered a new battery a few days ago, before MN|6, and so hopefully it won't be too long before the new one arrives.
I was just wondering if anyone had experience such a jump? I'm guessing it is my battery's particular circumstances in this case.
Cheers
Fish
The whole thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=267448 is dedicated to Exec battery problems. I have added my 2p there recently, too...
In a nutshell, it looks like even the original batteries have only about a year's life and then start to suck big time. And replacements from third parties are rare sh!te, most displaying problems with short life, having not enough energy to operate Exec's parts like phone or SD card too early, some always displaying charge at 100% and all of them not even approaching the stated capacity of 1750 mAh...
Only a few people tried to generalize, but I'd say: some report problems starting when they installed AKU 3.x from this forum, some blame charging via USB connection to PC, some blame just abysmal quality of batteries (probably true for 3rd party replacements), and some blame age (probably true, too - 1 year and then you gotta replace your battery or it gets less and less capacity until you get something like I have... unable to support phone already at 92% by meter and turning off at 85%...)
One day I'll just peddle it off eBay. I had many, many problems with this device. XDA I and II were (and II still is ) flawless and fast. I don't know what's wrong with Exec, but it was problems from the very beginning.
Good news!
With Ivan's new Rom (AKU3.5 beta 2), MN6 is working!!!!!
I installed MN6 to storage card, not to main memory.
I'm testing it for two days now, no problems at all.
I'm using Navigon's Trireceiver with tmc and even tmc works.
YOU SHOULD GIVE IT A TRY!
Best regards, Leo
It's been 10 months since I bought my Athena. I was invited to do a review on it on the Mobilehornet site.
Here is the first installment of my review, hot from the press today.
http://www.mobilehornet.com/archives/962
Enjoy.
Nice Start
nice review, looking forward to reading your later installments
nice review ... i have mixed feelings about the md ... sureley 8gb ssd is doable and i would prefer that...
but the thing that initially set microdrive apart from the standard CF card when it first came out was the fact that it had immensly more storage compared to CF cards at the time..
so what you have to ask is why choose to only put in a 8gb when higher capacities are doable ?
These are all the five parts of the post review on Athena. Enjoy!
Part 1 - U1000 STORAGE
http://www.mobilehornet.com/archives/962
Part 2 - THE 5″ VGA SCREEN
http://www.mobilehornet.com/archives/1011
Part 3 - THE KEYBOARD
http://www.mobilehornet.com/archives/1031
Part 4 - AS A PHONE
http://www.mobilehornet.com/archives/1063
Part 5 - MULTIMEDIA POWER (You are here.)
http://www.mobilehornet.com/archives/1148
I fully agree, nice review, the best part is the ending:
"In fact, this is probably the best single device in the market today that does it all."
YES!
P.S.
Have you tried to use it connected with TRUE CONNECT 3.0 ? http://www.raspberrysoftware.com/
Full SMS integration with Outlook, a small powerfull laptop, and a WM phone wirth true connect. WHO NEEDS A SHIFT?
sergiopi said:
I fully agree, nice review, the best part is the ending:
"In fact, this is probably the best single device in the market today that does it all."
YES!
P.S.
Have you tried to use it connected with TRUE CONNECT 3.0 ? http://www.raspberrysoftware.com/
Full SMS integration with Outlook, a small powerfull laptop, and a WM phone wirth true connect. WHO NEEDS A SHIFT?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great software. To bad it isn't free...
sergiopi said:
I fully agree, nice review, the best part is the ending:
"In fact, this is probably the best single device in the market today that does it all."
YES!
P.S.
Have you tried to use it connected with TRUE CONNECT 3.0 ? http://www.raspberrysoftware.com/
Full SMS integration with Outlook, a small powerfull laptop, and a WM phone wirth true connect. WHO NEEDS A SHIFT?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info. Will try it out.
sergiopi said:
I fully agree, nice review, the best part is the ending:
"In fact, this is probably the best single device in the market today that does it all."
YES!
P.S.
Have you tried to use it connected with TRUE CONNECT 3.0 ? http://www.raspberrysoftware.com/
Full SMS integration with Outlook, a small powerfull laptop, and a WM phone wirth true connect. WHO NEEDS A SHIFT?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you want a free program that does that without the outlook integration
http://www.mymobiler.com/
i use it ... love it
very nice review, i'm glad i was able to read it.
i am planning on buying one, i'm just waiting for hands on review of the x7510 then i'll decide between the x7500 or the x7510.
i want to know more about the new web browser on the x7510.
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cktlcmd said:
very nice review, i'm glad i was able to read it.
i am planning on buying one, i'm just waiting for hands on review of the x7510 then i'll decide between the x7500 or the x7510.
i want to know more about the new web browser on the x7510.
---
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would love to get my hand on a x7510 too. ATM, all I know is that
1) it has 16GB SDD memory instead of the 8GB Microdrive. The capacity per se is not really an attraction for me, and I suspect for most users, as most of us are still prabably not using up a small portion of 8GB, given the ability to have large capacity microSDHC. But the fact that it is SDD is an attraction, abeit not a strong one, from the viewpoint of battery life, and hopefully reliability (an assumption at this stage, from my viewpoint). Currently I install almost all my programs on the microdrive (about 70 active ones and over 100 in total if I include those which I have uninstalled), and use only about 1 GB out of the total 8GB. All my big consuming files are in the microSHDC. This offers me the advantage of being able to change my storage card without affecting the device function, and offers unlimited logical capacity.
2) Better keyboard but losing out 4 hardware buttons. This to me is the real deciding factor. For those who prefer to use it notebook style, then the absence of hardware buttons is not an issue. For those who prefer to use it tablet style, however, the keyboard does not come into the equation while the lost of hardware buttons is a very serious concern. There are just too many things that you need the hardware buttons for. Just to list a few here:
- moving from one email to another.
- changing from one email account to another.
- changing the volume in MP3
- Go to next and previous songs in MP3
- blank out the screen or bring back the screen in MP3
- Pausing and resuming in MP3
With the hardware button, I could put my Athena in the pouch and never have to take it out while using the MP3. Without it, I need to take it out just to do simple thing like pausing and resuming.
The list goes on...
For me at least, x7510 is a significant disadvantage compared to the X750X, for reasons listed above.
eaglesteve said:
2) Better keyboard but losing out 4 hardware buttons.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I agree about the buttons. I guess whoever designed it does not own one.
But the memory form (SSD) is another factor for me. Being 16 GB is another plus.
I intend to use it the same way as you do. Install all capable apps to the SSD 16 GB and all songs, movies, files, etc... to the micro SD.
I have a question, does the X7500 support SDHC? Is there a limit?
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cktlcmd said:
Yes, I agree about the buttons. I guess whoever designed it does not own one.
But the memory form (SSD) is another factor for me. Being 16 GB is another plus.
I intend to use it the same way as you do. Install all capable apps to the SSD 16 GB and all songs, movies, files, etc... to the micro SD.
I have a question, does the X7500 support SDHC? Is there a limit?
---
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not SDHC. Only supports Mini or Micro cards due to the slot size.
eaglesteve said:
Not SDHC. Only supports Mini or Micro cards due to the slot size.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe it DOES support SDHC MiniSD cards - but I could be wrong.
Thanks for the replies. So I guess for now, were stuck at 8GB. I read somewhere Sandisk is releasing a 16 GB micro SDHC this summer. The problem is it's not gon'na be cheap.
I saw this: http://www.supermediastore.com/sandisk-8gb-microsd-transflash-memory-card.html It's 8GB and SDHC, will this work?
Provided I am right (I believe I am but not 100% certain), then yes it would, but isn't it cheaper at Amazon?
http://www.amazon.com/Sandisk-Micro...M?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1207398928&sr=8-2
cktlcmd said:
Thanks for the replies. So I guess for now, were stuck at 8GB. I read somewhere Sandisk is releasing a 16 GB micro SDHC this summer. The problem is it's not gon'na be cheap.
I saw this: http://www.supermediastore.com/sandisk-8gb-microsd-transflash-memory-card.html It's 8GB and SDHC, will this work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your link shows a microSDHC, not a SDHC.
To summarise,it would not supper SD and SDHC, but would support microSD, microSDHC, miniSD, and miniSDHC.
To use micro sized cards, you need an adaptor.
There seems to be a slight misunderstanding of terms here.
Strictly speaking, you are right eaglesteve but I believe cktlcmd was using SDHC in the more generic term as just the HC part of it and was fully aware of the physical siuze differences and was asking about the Highr capacities so was really asking
does the X7500 support MiniSDHC?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Confucious said:
Provided I am right (I believe I am but not 100% certain), then yes it would, but isn't it cheaper at Amazon?
http://www.amazon.com/Sandisk-Micro...M?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1207398928&sr=8-2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the link.
eaglesteve said:
Your link shows a microSDHC, not a SDHC.
To summarise,it would not supper SD and SDHC, but would support microSD, microSDHC, miniSD, and miniSDHC.
To use micro sized cards, you need an adaptor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for not clarifying, it was my mistake...
Confucious said:
There seems to be a slight misunderstanding of terms here.
Strictly speaking, you are right eaglesteve but I believe cktlcmd was using SDHC in the more generic term as just the HC part of it and was fully aware of the physical siuze differences and was asking about the Highr capacities so was really asking
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I was refering to the generic term. Thanks for clarifying.
---
No problem mates. Whenever SDHC is used, I have a very specific size is mind, but I know sometimes it is used loosely which creates confusion in communication. Anyway, glad that your question is fully answered. Cheers.
I think there is one more big 'advantage' of x7510 over x7501. x7510 offers USB 2.0 so can now think of using it as PMC. Not to mention the great reliabilty of SSD