I really wanted to like this phone, but I find that while it has a couple of nice features, it just gets in my way more than my old phone did (a non-smart LG-VX8100). The hardware I think is capable, but Windows Mobile hampers it. I'm on Verizon BTW.
I have spent more time Googling for fixes/workarounds/usability improvements on this thing than I have for any device I've owned in recent memory, but I still can't get it to be comfortable for me. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but thought I'd post here and one or two other boards to see if I am just missing something.
Things I like: calendar with lookahead is great, and at least one 3rd party utility can make it even better. I don't use Outlook, so for me the whole ActiveSync thing is a neutral (I just want to be able to back my phone up and enter information from a PC, which I could do with BitPim on the LG). Voice dialing is fantastic, so accurate that I rarely use the number pad anymore.
But maybe my expectations were too great. I figured I would be able to customize it to fairly great detail, but I'm finding that the opposite is the case. On a whole WM5 is rather poorly documented for advanced users (though I haven't downloaded the SDK yet, but then again I shouldn't have to). There are lots of 3rd-party apps out there, though the $10 here/$15 there to get everything you need is a bit disappointing. But I could live with that, if those programs could fix the things I really find irritating, such as:
Contact list flash-by while dialing a number: I don't want the on-the fly lookup of contacts when I dial. The Processor load, though the Pantech is a pretty powerful device, causes the phone to occasionally miss button presses. I found out that I can use voice dialing for this too, but I still need to use the keypad sometimes. How do you turn this off?
Tethering to a PC: I use the cell phone to get on the Internet from my laptop 3-5 times a year. I was able to do this with the LG, with some mods to the phone, for the $5 a month Mobile Web and airtime. I now have the "unlimited" data plan with the Pantech, which I seldom use (browsing from a cell phone is painful, even with Opera), and can apparently no longer tether (I'm not even sure I could if I paid the extra $15 a month for Broadband Access, but I can't justify that for only occasional use). I saw the PDAnet software (another $35), but I increasingly use non-Windows OSes on my laptops and PDAnet is Windows-only.
Missed call list: My old LG showed me the missed calls only, with separate menu items for received calls, sent calls, etc. Windows Mobile shows you all calls, with no apparent option to see missed calls only. I then have to guess which ones were missed, as I don't always look at the missed calls before dialing anew. I looked at the shortcut for Call History, and Googled for the command line found there -- turned up no info I could use to filter the list.
Lockups: I've had about 4 in the 4 weeks I've had the phone. One was bizarre; the screen just faded to black while I continued to press keys; the phone responded, at least while I could still see the results, but quit when everything went black. Another lockup left the screen on, leading me to believe my phone was functional, but after the third person that day told me he tried to call me, I pressed the Start key and nothing happened. I had to pull the battery to recover from all of them. I know, it's still Windows, and probably has no business running on a phone regardless of what Bill says, but my LG _never_ locked up on me -- in 2 years.
Anyway, if anyone knows any tricks to address these issues, I'm all ears. Otherwise, I think I'm going to swap it for a Moto Z6c.
Tethering, get vzAccess manager it's free, still windows, but you baught a windows based phone, otherwise bluetooth might work with other os's
Crashes are usually either a sign of a bad application installed or your phone is dying, Mine started that last year verizon replaced in 2 days. I've run my phone without powering off for several months now with no crashes.
Sweet! Thanks. I missed this in my reading of the manual, obviously.
Quote:
Tethering, get vzAccess manager it's free, still windows, but you baught a windows based phone, otherwise bluetooth might work with other os's
I'm not sure it's free. From what I'm reading it's $15/month extra to tether, but I'll check. [That's in addition to the $40 for the unlimited data. And that's only because I have a WM phone; Blackberries get off with $30 for unlimited data. I'm not eager to pay any more for this.] Besides, I hate software like this, which is to say, stuff that replaces built-in Windows components (like networking) and usually does a poorer job.
As for the phone running Windows, to me that's immaterial; it should be able to talk to anything that supports the requisite Bluetooth profiles, regardless of OS. My Windows PC can talk to Linux, BSD, Sun, HP-UX, programmable logic controllers, you name it, all because they support the IP protocol. My old LG did it just fine, and it ran BREW, not Windows.
And the Bluetooth OBEX on this phone (once I enabled it with a registry edit) works with my Linux setup and friends' cell phones on other carriers; it's just ActiveSync (on Windows) that I haven't gotten to work yet over Bluetooth. And finally, if I could get it to tether over the cable, that would be fine, too. I have just had better luck with getting Bluetooth to work without doing anything else (like installing drivers for the phone).
Quote:
Crashes are usually either a sign of a bad application installed or your phone is dying, Mine started that last year verizon replaced in 2 days. I've run my phone without powering off for several months now with no crashes.
This crossed my mind as well, and I spent last night cleaning off several apps I had tried but was not using. I then got into Google Maps today, and several hours later, the phone gave me a bunch of "there was a problem with this program" messages (all with the built-in software, not Google Maps, which I had long since exited). I finally pulled the battery to get it to shut up.
This concerns me, though, as I will likely have to run several add-on apps to make the phone usable for me.
I also noticed today that my ringtone, which seamlessly looped on my LG, has a 1/2 second gap on this phone. Guess I'll hit Menu in WMP to see if there's a loop option (I presume WMP is used to play ringtones).
Anyway, thanks for your help. I'm going to go check out a RIZR Z6c tomorrow. If it's really nice, I'll probably give this one back and wait until the VZW network opens up and I have more PDA phone options. If it doesn't, I'll hang onto this one, pay the $50 or $60 for add-on software I will need to really get this phone like I like it, and go on down the road.
UPDATE: Google has been better to me tonight. Found a program called "USB Modem" from MobileStream. Similar to PDANet but does not seem to require Windows on the PC side, at least for Bluetooth. Works great, and $15 cheaper. I may keep this puppy after all
Last edited by bluetooth_decay : 12-11-2007 at 03:33 AM.
Dude....I have been on this forum for a while now...but not w/ the 820...I have a 6700...ohhh so customizable.....but the wife is no frills and likes the clams...so she wants this phone..so lookng through the posts....if you do give up on this phone...check out the mogol (6800) its my phones latest release...havent played w/ it since my suites me just fine but if you want customizable...this thing is the bomb...at least the 6700...they are cooking new stuff for it regularly...
just .02
__________________
Rom: WM6 AKU_070 Little bit of this and a taste of that!
I really wanted to like this phone, but I find that while it has a couple of nice features, it just gets in my way more than my old phone did (a non-smart LG-VX8100). The hardware I think is capable, but Windows Mobile hampers it. I'm on Verizon BTW.
I have spent more time Googling for fixes/workarounds/usability improvements on this thing than I have for any device I've owned in recent memory, but I still can't get it to be comfortable for me. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but thought I'd post here and one or two other boards to see if I am just missing something.
Things I like: calendar with lookahead is great, and at least one 3rd party utility can make it even better. I don't use Outlook, so for me the whole ActiveSync thing is a neutral (I just want to be able to back my phone up and enter information from a PC, which I could do with BitPim on the LG). Voice dialing is fantastic, so accurate that I rarely use the number pad anymore.
But maybe my expectations were too great. I figured I would be able to customize it to fairly great detail, but I'm finding that the opposite is the case. On a whole WM5 is rather poorly documented for advanced users (though I haven't downloaded the SDK yet, but then again I shouldn't have to). There are lots of 3rd-party apps out there, though the $10 here/$15 there to get everything you need is a bit disappointing. But I could live with that, if those programs could fix the things I really find irritating, such as:
Contact list flash-by while dialing a number: I don't want the on-the fly lookup of contacts when I dial. The processor load, though the Pantech is a pretty powerful device, causes the phone to occasionally miss button presses. I found out that I can use voice dialing for this too, but I still need to use the keypad sometimes. How do you turn this off?
Tethering to a PC: I use the cell phone to get on the Internet from my laptop 3-5 times a year. I was able to do this with the LG, with some mods to the phone, for the $5 a month Mobile Web and airtime. I now have the "unlimited" data plan with the Pantech, which I seldom use (browsing from a cell phone is painful, even with Opera), and can apparently no longer tether (I'm not even sure I could if I paid the extra $15 a month for Broadband Access, but I can't justify that for only occasional use). I saw the PDAnet software (another $35), but I increasingly use non-Windows OSes on my laptops and PDAnet is Windows-only.
Missed call list: My old LG showed me the missed calls only, with separate menu items for received calls, sent calls, etc. Windows Mobile shows you all calls, with no apparent option to see missed calls only. I then have to guess which ones were missed, as I don't always look at the missed calls before dialing anew. I looked at the shortcut for Call History, and Googled for the command line found there -- turned up no info I could use to filter the list.
Lockups: I've had about 4 in the 4 weeks I've had the phone. One was bizarre; the screen just faded to black while I continued to press keys; the phone responded, at least while I could still see the results, but quit when everything went black. Another lockup left the screen on, leading me to believe my phone was functional, but after the third person that day told me he tried to call me, I pressed the Start key and nothing happened. I had to pull the battery to recover from all of them. I know, it's still Windows, and probably has no business running on a phone regardless of what Bill says, but my LG _never_ locked up on me -- in 2 years.
Anyway, if anyone knows any tricks to address these issues, I'm all ears. Otherwise, I think I'm going to swap it for a Moto Z6c.
Thanks in advance.
Where did you find all your hacks? Perhaps we could trade. Thanks.
Well, this thread's ancient now...but I thought I'd post some updates.
Lockups -- apparently caused by an otherwise very cool add-on called SmartToolkit. I down-versioned, up-versioned...to no avail. I'll miss it, but my phone has gone for 2 months at a time with no lockups.
Tethering -- someone reminded me in that this phone is still based on a Qualcomm chipset. Hmmm, so was my old LG, and QPST was very good to me with that phone. So I fired it up on this one. Same old "dun.vzw3g.com -> vzw3g.com (no .dun)" hack worked like a charm. You have to put the phone in modem mode, but I can live with that. And it works on Linux and OpenBSD, too.
Played with a registry hack for the contact list on-the-fly search. I don't remember where it was, and I didn't totally remove it, but I made it somewhat faster (it doesn't search as big a list or something). I can live with it now, especially since I primarily use voice dialing.
Call history filtering works as noted earlier in this thread.
Biggest remaining gripe is poor received sound quality. Most people sound like Charlie Brown's parents, and it's almost impossible to hear people when I'm in a high-noise environment, or with one good friend who talks very fast. I doubt that is hackable, unfortunately.
I found most of this info courtesy of Google, here, and on pn820wiki.com.
/Missed calls
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