TMobile BlackBerry Pearl - problems with Google Applications

Yesterday, a Google applications pack was pushed to the device. After the items arrived, it asked which applications I wanted to install, with the default all items checked. After I pressed ok, the device hung. No keys would work, and after about 10-12 minutes, I had to take out the battery in order to restart the device.

Randomly today, device locked up again, to the point where I was unable to recover without pulling the battery. Normally, I just get a error or error. This time, no keys worked.

Problems with SmartDial Phone application on 8525 Cingular

Very annoying. If you are dialing via the default phone application on the Cingular 8525, any contact entry that you have that has a '.' or period will fail.

A lot of my contact are delimited by a '.' meaning:

+1 (408) 555 - 1212

is entered in Outlook as

+1.408.555.1212

then when you press the green 'send' button on the 8525, and enter the letters either through the on screen dial pad or via letters, it will review the phone number as "+1.408.555.1212". however, once you press talk/send, it will fail as it dials the number as:

+1 040 805 5512 12

Replacing all the '.' period with a 0.

This is running the HTC phone application 2.5. It does not do it on my Cingular 8125 which dials fine, nor does it do it on my Motorola Q or BlackBerry Pearl. All these are syncing and sharing the same Exchange/Outlook Contacts.

HSDPA Speeds

I have been getting 700 to 900k speeds with HSDPA around the SF Bay area, when I can get that service. Many times, it will unexpected switch to GPRS. I wish there were a way to lock it into 3g when watching MobiTV or doing data centric applications. Or locking to GPRS when you need a reliable phone call!

This has been with the Cingular 8525 / HTC Hermes.

Also, under Phone->Options -> Network. The option to select other networks is now gone. On the 8125, you could manually select other networks.

BlackBerry 8100 Pearl - Crashes

The javascript errors, etc continue to plague the Pearl. Often times I wake up to find that all the chat applications (GTalk and the built in IM app) have both crashed. However, it does seem the Pearl does some sort of auto recovery on the BB application so that emails continues to come through. Battery life has improved after cycling through several charge cycles. I can use it for a typical full day now including instant messaging, email, and talking maybe 15-30 minutes total. Don't expect to go out that evening and have power to spare!

Postives?
1. Charges FAST. Very nice. Seems like it can fully charge in about 1 to 1.5 hours. (Moto Q seems to take about 4-5 hours, and the HTC Wizard -aka 8125 about 1.5 to 2 hours, while the HTC Hermes or 8525 takes about 2-2.5 hours to charge). Note these are seat of the pants numbers. The E62 seems to take about 3 to 3.5 hours, but it has the biggest battery.
2. Small. Can barely feel in my pocket.
3. Light. Can barely feel in my pocket.
4. Good bright screen.
5. Easiest of all the devices to dial a phone number.

Moto Q Battery Life - Standard Battery

The Motorola Q RazrBerry ABSOLUTLEY SUCKS with the standard thin battery that it comes with. Not using the device, and with it on ActiveSync, I get about 12 hours of battery life with minimal usage. Maybe 2 minutes on the phone, and surf the web for about 5 minutes. That's not completely dead, but down to the last bar. It also charge excruciatingly SLOW.

The keyboard is useable, but I find the 8525 keyboard faster. Though I HATE how HTC has moved the $ symbol off the keyboard and now you must scroll through the symbols page to find it.

Cingular 8525 annoying power on delay and other - Also HSDPA!

After a couple days, I have found some quite annoying quirks with the 8525.
a. After the unit is in sleep mode (screen off), when you press the power button to wake it up, it takes about 3 seconds before the screen turns on. If you're on a phone call, and you've muted the conversation, it'll take 3-4 seconds for you to unmute as you wait for the display to light up.
b. The screen backlighting randomly turns off. This happens mostly while you're typing. The backlight turns off for a second and then comes back on, sometimes 2 or 3 times in a row.
c. Alt Lock - the ALT key to get to the symbols sometimes toggles on unexpectedly. This happens when typing email address and such, so that when you press the ALT then press another character, you get the @ symbol, but then all characters after that will have ALT locked so that you get a bunch of symbols. I thought it was my mistake, but it's happened over a dozen times now, and I'm quite used to the keyboard on my 8125 that I've used every day for the past year or so.
d. Constant key. If you happen to switch the screen orientation at an inoppurtune time, the enter key will continue to add until you either press the key again or re-orient the screen several times.
e. Call Drops - I've gotten many more dropped calls than on the Nokia E62 (cingular) or 8125 (cingular). it appears that this occurs quite often when you've locked onto a HSDPA/UMTS/3G signal, started a call, and it tries to hand off to GPRS.
f. Inconsistent keyboard backlight - the 8525 now has an ambient light sensor. When there is ambient light the keyboard doesn't light up. However, it can be fooled when there is not enough light to see the keyboard but a bit of light on the sensor. When this happens, no keyboard backlight. I guess I can tape over the sensor!

On a positive note, the device is MUCH QUICKER (except during power on) than the 8125. Also HSDPA allows you to make a call and use the data connection simultaneously AT THE SAME TIME! wooo hoo!

Battery life with ActiveSync enabled, 1 IMAP account sync every hour scheduled, and bluetooth on with about 15 minutes of talk time and about a dozen emails or 2 has so far been about 16 hours or so. Kinda disappointing. I will report after several cycles to see if it improves. Also, battery charging seems to take longer than the 8125. The BlackBerry Pearl absolutely ROCKS and charges FAST.

Cingular 8525 Quirks

1. You no longer see the active sync icon/symbol in the signal strength area when the unit is going through the ActiveSync DirectPush process

2. E for EDGE never shows on the signal area. Only G for GPRS. Also, 3g is U for UMTS and doesn't show H for HSDPA. It doesn't differentiate between the two.

3. No standard 2.5mm headset jack. They've removed it and you now must use the mini USB jack to use a headset.

4. Keyboard no longer has the symbol "$" and you must go into the symbols mode to get a $.

5. Very easy to inadvertently change the volume with the jog wheel during a call.

6. Jog wheel implementation is poor, just like in the Motorola Q. Sometimes turning the wheel fast will cause it to go the opposite way you want and sometimes it advances a page, sometimes a line. (Motorola Q has the same problems.... maybe issue with Windows Mobile both in Smartphone and Phone editions and a jog wheel?)

Good Qurks!

1. However, good things is the unit is noticeably faster.

2. It also has a "windows" and "ok" button now (well, it has 2 ok buttons now).

3. Jog wheel, though the implentation is quirky in that sometimes one click goes a whole page and sometimes one click advances or goes back 1 line.

4. Job wheel doesn't adjust volume. From the home screen, you can no longer push the job up and down to adjust the system volume. You must touch the on screen speaker in the menu bar.

5. No problems with bluetooth handsfree so far. Haven't tried a2dp yet. Though a2dp works well on the Moto Q.

6. Number pad is in the shape of a phone pad, which makes dialing much easier than the 8125 layout spread across the top.

7. the quick dial from the phone screen seems smarter.

Macro Shots with Cingular 8525

Finally, a macro mode for the built in camera. The 8125 couldn't take any closeups. Making it useless to document certain things. Now with the macro mode on the 8525, you can actually read a barcode! See attatched.

Also, the outdoor pictures appear to be much improved (note that indoor pictures still aren't that great and you have to hold the phone still for about 2 seconds from the time you press the shutter button otherwise it will come out blurred).

Forgot to Mention about the 8525

It now has a job wheel like a black berry and the power button has moved to the side of the phone which is taking some getting used to.

Cingular 8525 aka HTC Hermes

Initial thoughts on the HTC TyTn / HTC Hermes / Cingular 8525.

It is slightly thinner than the 8125, a little more square, and maybe 1 or 2 mm larger in foot print. Out of the box, I am having problems connecting to HSDPA/UMTS. It keeps connecting at GPRS and not even EDGE. Also, you can no longer manually select a network as you could in the 8125 in the phone settings.

Another annoying thing is out of the box, it will not work with Cingular MediaNet. Even the links in the Explorer browser don't work. Instructions don't tell you anything. What you need to do is go to the Settings/Network/Connections and change it from MyISP to MediaNET before any of that will work. Not documented anywhere that I can see.

Also annoying is that the keyboard no longer has a $ and you need to go to the 'symbols' menu to get to it. The camera now has a MACRO mode which is AWESOME. Half the time when I was trying to get information down with the Wizard/8125, it would be useless and fuzzy. No you can almost read a barcode if you put it into macro mode before taking the shot with the 2mp built in camera.

Why can't HTC standardize on a memory standard? I had the HTC BlueAngel (SX66) which used a SD card. Then with the HTC Wizard (Cingular 8125) I had to go and buy mini SD cards. Now with the HTC Hermes (Cingular 8525) I have to go out and get Micro SD. Ahhh... the quirks.

The battery is NOT interchangeable between the 8125 and the 8525. They are a physical different size. The 8125 has a 1250mah battery while the 8525 has a 1350mah battery.

Also gone on the 8525 is the standard 2.5mm headset connector. Now you need a USB connecter stereo headset (which it comes with one).

I will have to see if the 8525 supports it, but the Moto Q support A2DP so you can play music over a bluetooh stereo headset. Interesting on the 8525 is that when you press the 'PTT' button, a popup says this feature is not yet active. In the docs, it says sometime in 2007.

Also added is the much needed "windows" and "ok" keys. Very nice. Device does seem to be snappier. However, there are still some quirks with Java which appear to be related to the midlet that it's using. It will run java apps, but they are very slow. Google Local doesn't work well, as you cannot display satellite images just like the 8125 (error says device does not support jpg). Also GMail client is funky. On the flip side, Google hosted mail works, but Google hosted calenader does not (both via the web browser).

Both devices can play shoutcast streams (very good).

Motorola Q Battery Life and Pearl Crashes

The Motorola Q running Windows Mobile Smartphone (not to be confused with Phone Edition) so far has been an ok device. The form factor is slightly wide, and the battery life is much too short. I can get almost a day of battery life out of the device when using the extended thick battery (1650mah if I remember correctly).

Usage of the device is reading/replying to emails with ActiveSync DirectPush running (latest firmeware). This is talking on the device for a total of 20-30 minutes and emails read/checked/replied about every 30 minutes or so.

If I use the device to stream music across EvDO, you can physically feel the device getting warm and the battery getting warm.

Also, the Moto Q takes LONG time to charger either the standard thin battery or the extended thick battery. Seems like it takes at least 2-3 hours to reach 50-70% and about 4-5 hours to fully charge. The BlackBerry 8100 Pearl seems to take about an hour to reach 80 % and then maybe another 30 minutes to hour after to fully charge and same with the HTC Wizard aka Cingular 8125.


On a Pearl note, the device seems to be crashing more lately. It will recover, but you never know. the IM application that it comes with and GTalk seem to crash the most. This could be due to Calendar Sync as well. I also think it has to partly to do with the spotty coverage of TMobile in my usage area.

Dissappoint Verizon EvDO Speeds

Lately, I've been having many problems with the Verizon EvDO service with both the Kyocera KPC650 PC Card as well as the Motorola Q phone. Service drops, high latency, rerequests, and stuck network appear to be happening to both devices.

This happens in Fremont as well as Mountain View. As a note, in Mountain View, a Samsung Blackjack (Windows Smartphone device) was able to obtain 390k or so of data throughput (the device is 3g/hsdpa capable), while the Verizon device (also Windows Smartfone and also 3g EvDO) was getting 112k or so. This was consistent +/- 30k or so on each devices across several attempts.

I have a feeling the Verizon EvDO, though it has better coverage, is reaching it's saturation point. No longer can I get the 1.1-1.4 mb/s speeds I getting @ SFO airport before the launch of EvDO in the SF Bay area.

Lake Tahoe North Shore Wireless Coverage @ Olympic Valley

Well, it seems that the best coverage in the Tahoe Squaw Valley USA ski resort area is TMobile and Sprint, followed by Cingular. Verizon Wireless seems to have the most limited coverage in this area. The same goes for the Northstar resort area. Verizon service was very weak if at all available around the circle to the resort/village area. TMobile and Sprint had strong coverage. Cingular was ok, and showed only GPRS coverage and not EDGE.

In the Squaw Valley area, at the PlumpJack restaurant, Cingular had spotty coverage, Verizon had even spottier coverage, and TMobile and Sprint worked fine. In the Village registration area near the conferencing services, same story. Same was repeated at the Resort @ Squaw Creek.

Note that Cingular HSDPA and Verizon EvDO coverage was not available in this area.