yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Motorola Photon 4G] Eric.b6996:
out of curiousity i've gotten the 198 7 installed on my phone and lose the root like it says but i also lose my unlock and when i do it thru rsd with derplunk it takes me back to 154 any suggestions.....
[Venue Pro General] MJCS:
I am preparing a class action lawsuit against Dell for their disabling of the Compass. The compass was included in their spec and was enbaled since purchase. Dell was given the solution to fix this (rename a darn dll) and has so far refused to do so. Dell has in bad faith disabled and willingly refused to fix this. Please provide me your comments, suggestions, recommendations, etc.
[Venue Pro General] M3r71n0:
where you sign?
[Venue Pro General] tbvnz:
Avid cyclist wants to know where to sign. Please keep us posted!
[Venue Pro General] MJCS:
Ignore this specific post...meant to post elsewhere
[Venue Pro General] snailium:
wow, wish I can join...
[Venue Pro General] raiderfan247365:
ill sign.....
[Venue Pro General] MisterPhilleh:
Don't you think jumping straight into a law suit is a a little much? Have you gathered a petition with X amount of signatures saying "We want this to be done, or this as an alternative, OR ELSE we will sue you"? The Venue Pro user base isn't exactly gigantic to begin with, so you've already got a disadvantage. Best case scenario, you spend a a bunch of time and pay a bunch of lawers and court fees only to have Dell send out a little 5 minute fix. Worse (and most likely, to be honest) case scenario, you'll get laughed out of court.
[Venue Pro General] dilzo:
True, but a petition needs alot of people and you know, the DVP isn't that popular.
[Venue Pro General] abowlby:
I'll sign, but what stops the community from developing a driver. (Curious)
[Venue Pro General] M3r71n0:
And if we send it for repair?

Moreover, we are geeks, but for a normal user this is a malfunction.

Nor may require money to fix it, the fault is theirs.

They wanted to use a closed source software, well, they do work.

Once all back for repair, maybe DELL is convinced to put Android, or give us a chance to change it from us. :-D
[Venue Pro General] dilzo:
I don't think they can change a phones os just like that. Also they either fix it or let us fix it.
[Venue Pro General] blackmamba:
Add the Tethering support for Mango and I'm in as well.
[Venue Pro General] MJCS:
Tethering was never a promised feature...the compass was.

Anyways you can still usb tether you phone
[Venue Pro General] ducttape36:
interop access would be needed. dev unlocking isn't enough.
[Venue Pro General] blackmamba:
Agreed. But tethering is part of Mango. Not having the ability to get that functionality means that the device is not future compatible - especially on full price paid up unlocked devices.

Yes I can USB Tether to a Windows machine - not to my Macbook Air.
[Venue Pro General] MJCS:
WTF:

While the Mango OS offers magnetometer and compass support, it is optional for OEMs to support via software #dellvenuepro

Dell will not be providing compass support for the #dellvenuepro. I will clarify more details via a Direct2Dell blog post later next week.
[Venue Pro General] MJCS:
I just sent Steve Ballmer, The head of Microsoft's Windows Phone department, and a few members of their board of directors an e-mail saying we want this fixed. I now await their reply.
[Venue Pro General] dilzo:
This is just ridiculous they can't even fix a small compass. Well this is the end of dell for me never buying any of their products again.
[Venue Pro General] HRQ.SLV:
I don't understand much about laws, but what I know is that Dell sell me a smartphone and in the specs sheet they said that it had a compass!

So I truly hope they fix this, or send me a partial refund because I've paid for something that Dell didn't deliver!
[Venue Pro General] MJCS:
If someone is willing, can you provide me with a video showing the compass working during Mango beta or prior?

To do so dial ##634#, go to RD Test (type qwertyuiop if you dont see that option), enter in *#6336# and click on ecompass.

A youtube video will work.
[Venue Pro General] macjr82:
I'll get on board with this, if this is moving forward. Any updates?
[Venue Pro General] JaimeE2011:
You have almost no chance here- Unless this is something that was adverstised with the product either in writting or on a web site from Dell, they don't have an obligation to do jack just because it is physically possible. Sorry, not trying to defend Dell but being realistic.
[Venue Pro General] MJCS:
It is STILL listed on their website.
[Venue Pro General] xpmymob:
Yes the website still mentions

G-sensor, e-compass, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, FM radio, GPS, micro USB I/O and hence it should support all the features without which it means they are mis-leading the buyers
[Venue Pro General] aleunge:
I'm always all for it when someone is willing to do something against the big man. I don't really see it as a matter of having something small like an e-compass working, but more like a reminder that as customers, we won't just deal with whatever we are dealt. Ultimately, I would like to think they should care about their customers even after making the purchase :(

Thanks for the effort man. And add me to the list when it's time!
[Venue Pro General] MJCS:
I will be having a phone converstation with a law firm sometime tomorrow.

The ball is now rolling.
[Venue Pro General] notebookgrail:
That's good news..Keep us posted.
[Venue Pro General] peeps:
DVP page on Dell no longer has e-compass listed. Worthless *****es...
[Venue Pro General] xpmymob:
as i had expected. after I posted specifications from Dell site in my previous post someone seems to have taken note of that and removed it
[Venue Pro General] Plazma1:
No doubt you grabbed a screenshot before it was taken down?

My sister and I both have DVPs - she doesn't care about the compass much, but I'm still a bit miffed about the whole ordeal.
[Venue Pro General] xpmymob:
yes i took a complete specification page print out so have kept that for records on 29/DEC/2011 so post that they have removed it from their websites after I made a mention in this forum
[Venue Pro General] MJCS:
I filed a complaint with the BBB in Texas where dell is Headquartered and I got a response from Dell the next day. The product team is "looking into a solution". :)

There may be hope. As for Internet Sharing @LionelatDell just tweeted that it will not be coming to the phone. This is no supprise as it was NEVER PROMISEd so stop complaining about it guys :).
[Venue Pro General] dilzo:
So it's a no...
[Venue Pro General] exchequer598:
You've done it!

YOU ARE MY HERO!

If Dell really is looking into fixing the broken compass, this is great news!
[Venue Pro General] MJCS:
I can only hope they do. I'd like this to be solved before I need lawyerd
[Venue Pro General] MJCS:
got a call from dell at work just now. Not looking good.

Lawyer time :'(
[Venue Pro General] dilzo:
I'm so glad we have people like you in the community, most people like me would have given up ages ago.
[Venue Pro General] Krad:
I am sure there are a million more productive things you can do... Especially since even if you win, Dell will probably have to send everyone a coupon for $5 off a new phone.. And it will probably want to make them leave the mobile space altogether.

I could understand antennagate.. but a compass? wow.

You guys ever heard of the Samsung Galaxy S? That came loaded with a busted GPS. It never worked... Did they get sued? they had over 10million units sold... and yet we are on the Galaxy 2 line, soon to be 3 line.
[Venue Pro General] MJCS:
Just because the Android community failed at doing it dosen't mean I will. Dell will pay for this one way or the other.
[Venue Pro General] raiderfan247365:
there is no reason for skepticism. If you dont have something productive towards the cause then just dont post :)
[Venue Pro General] exchequer598:
What did they exactly say? And how can we help with the lawyering?
[Venue Pro General] Krad:
So i feel this cause has real backing... What will you call it? Occupy Venue Pro? OVP?

lmao
[Venue Pro General] MJCS:
A certain 4 letter word starting with F ending in k and then Dell.
[Venue Pro General] MJCS:
BBB Response from Dell:

Funny thing is they said "they have no plans to udate it". So I don't think anyone in dell know what is going on.
[Venue Pro General] exchequer598:
That much has always been obvious. Can we forward this response to Lionel and see what he has to say?
[Venue Pro General] samsabri:
Any updates guys?
[Venue Pro General] MJCS:
I now have someone looking into if this would be a viable case or not.

Updates to follow later.
[Venue Pro General] E-Ster:
UK - Sale of Goods Act

Mainly for interest and to provide insight with regards the various tacks taken by Dell on the compass front.

I lodged a case with Dell asking, if in light of their refusal to address the compass functionality, they'd honour a full refund in the UK on the grounds that the device sold to me was not 'as advertised' and as such was covered by the UK Sale of goods act enititling the consumer to a full refund without question.

Below is the response, as I say just intended for reference in case the differing responses might lend weight to any arguments elsewhere, I myself will continue to pursue through UK Trading Standards.

Kind Regards, Euan.

Re: Case #: 20120215051748166 - Customer Care - Other (KMM41537856I57L0KM)

Dear Mr. FIELDING,

Thank you for contacting Dell's email smartphone support. Can I know if the device is running on WINDOWS PHONE 7 or WINDOWS PHONE 7.5? In case the device is on WINDOWS PHONE 7.5 the e-compass feature will not work as this feature is not available in Dell venue pro for WINDOWS PHONE 7.5(and will not be available in future as well) . In this case if you still want the e-compass feature we can provide you a replacement of the device with a Venue Pro running on old WINDOWS PHONE 7 but in order to use the e-compass feature on the device you'll have to use it only on WINDOWS PHONE 7 it will be solely at your own discretion if you decide to upgrade it to 7.5 afterwards. I am afraid refund is not an option as the device was as described when purchased, but later modification of firmware can cause certain old features to be removed while adding new ones & it is upto the user to go through the details as to what features have been added & what features have been removed in the new version of the firmware & decide accordingly wether to go with the update or not. Kindly let me know if you want me to book a replacement. Kindly give me the address details as well.

Thanks & Regards
[Venue Pro General] MJCS:
I need everyone with a DVP to file a complaint with the BBB and do not accept their response untill Dell gives us the compass. Maybe a lower BBB raiting will force them to give it to us.

http://centraltx.bbb.org/
[Venue Pro General] raiderfan247365:
just sold my DVP as I was sick of getting my device replaced (most recently it was a massive amount of particles/dust under my screen), but I did just file a complaint and everyone else should too. This is garbage, and maybe nothing happens because of these complaints, but I KNOW FOR SURE if no one complains that NOTHING will happen...
[Venue Pro General] benjaminries:
This is a good argument, and I see no reason why it ought not apply generally across the common law of contract throughout North America and the commonwealth countries. Unfortunately, disappointed customers does not equal meritorious lawsuit.

People, Dell has good lawyers. If they thought they had any liability here, they'd just task a developer to fix the compass issue in a couple of days.

Your money is better spent on homebrew development of a compass fix (i.e. through a hacked bootloader and custom ROM) than on any legal fees. And that's coming from a lawyer ;)
[Venue Pro General] raiderfan247365:
Sometimes complaints are all we have... Yes, lawyering up is probably not pheasible but if 1,000 people filled complaints for the same issue i bet something would happen....Just sayin. Ya Dell has lawyers but does that mean end users should remain slient? How would any status quo be changed that way?
[Venue Pro General] efjay:
I dont think there was ever any warning about the Mango update for the DVP removing the compass feature in any of the release notes in Zune. Dell would have a point if they had given users warning that this feature would be removed but it was only after the update was released and people discovered the compass had been disabled that a response on twitter from Lionel was posted. There was never any official notification to users of this.
[Venue Pro General] MJCS:
I will give this a month and if this dosent bring us anything I will start filing complaints with the Texas attorney general and the federal trade comission.

What I don't get is in the BBB complaint they replied with

But they flat out said "we are not going to support compass" during my phone call and on twitter. I love how they lie to the BBB.
[Venue Pro General] Homedesigner:
That's OK, I've stopped recommending Dell to my clients for anything several years ago. The only reason I purchased a Venue Pro was the rave reviews and uniqueness of the form factor when it was first released. I'll move on to a better phone after the market shakes out the rest of the inferior manufacturers. Also, all of those early rave reviewers have lost all credibility with me. They'll (Dell) eventually start feeling the bite as many other "disenfranchised" customers realize that Dell is a third rate company and will go the way of Coleco and Commodore, et.al.
[Venue Pro General] Krad:
very interesting read... So your all for more free upgrades.. but when something is removed to bring you better features, you cry foul. I could understand if they just came out with an update that removed the compass by itself with no new features... then you would have a case.

whatever happened to Sony with removing the linux option from the PS3?

What i find comical about this whole scenario is that Dell and most of the other phone producers don't even make their own phones, they are purchased from companies in taiwan and asia and are just branded. This happens alot more then you think with all oem providers.

I still think the dvp is a solid phone. I use navigon without issue on it and it gets me to where i need to go everytime.
[Venue Pro General] endGameXIII:
The class-action suit against Sony for removing the PS3 "Other OS" option failed, on grounds that the user had a "choice" not to install new firmware. (choice, as in, you'll never play any online games from the PS3 ever again, should you go that route) Personally I think they just didn't have a good enough lawyer to pull it off; the reason for the dismissal of the class-action suit was weak at best, but it still worked.

From a common sense point of view, "altering" (read: changing existing) functionality without prior notice is grounds for complaints and suits. Adding features is different as a whole; if it was taken away in the future without prior notice, you bet people would get riled up. It's not about a compromise of adding/removing feature, it's the fact the act of altering without prior notice occurred.
[Venue Pro General] xpmymob:
Feature removal is only subject to informing users that the feature wont be available in future. Even post mango update Dell website clearly mentioned that Compass was available on Venue Pro and after I posted here that I have a screenshot of the complete web page as of December 29, 2011 which clearly states features

G-sensor, e-compass, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, FM radio, GPS, micro USB I/O

The mango update killed the compass and that update was around End September / Start October. The compass dll was basically renamed and I believe it could be reversed. I have also heard that the compass feature was working fine during Mango beta testing so not sure what went wrong between the Beta and Final Release.

Coming back to the point if Mango was released in Sept / OCT which killed the compass, why was this feature mentioned on their websites even in end December if the feature was removed / not available on Venue Pro?
[Venue Pro General] TheManii:
Keep in mind there's a much more powerful group willing to put up with that specific case of shinanigans, the US military.

A while after launch the army(?) bought an entire pallet of them to make a supercomputer cluster, they rely on otheros as sony wasnt willing to provide special certs to directly use the hardware.

They're stuck in the same boat as when replacements need to be made they must have one with other os to power each node.

Yet they didnt bother sueing sony over it, mabye they made an agreement to supply them with back stock or something, but that's just idle speculation.

Though just as much sony made it very clear when otheros was removed, doesnt make it right though.

In both cases, the feature removed wasnt a core feature, if sony removed gameos or dell removed cellular data, then there would be a winnable case, but otheros and the ecompass are not required for the operation of the respective devices. (doesnt make you feel any better about it though)

More food for thought: unless someone can confirm/deny, the assumption is that the V and VP are more or less identical hardware wise, and the V has a working ecompass under android. Though it doesnt have a working fm radio while the VP does.

All 2nd gen devices (S5/S7/V/VP) have consistantly shown that qisda (ie the OEM of all 2nd gen devices) are really incompentant with the software aspect of mobile devices. Jury's still out on the Streak Pro, the S10 has only a fraction of the issues as it's OEMed by a different company.

Dell Venue Pro Smartphone - Windows Phone | Dell doesnt list the VP as having an ecompass anymore though. It did prevously, but not anymore. They likely only updated it after the TMO VPs finished recieving 7720, as it was dead last (?)

I would imagine that dell cant even offer a utility to manually downgrade your device, as MS would likely block it due to old versions not recieving security updates. Most they could do is offer to exchange your device as reciving a device with a lower os version isnt unusual at all.

It could also be something as stupid as they merely havnt noticed it's disabled, the Streak5 has a critical bug in the bootloader that was never fixed, even though most knowledgable users knew about it over a year ago (it was about march 2011 that I plastered it all over the S5 forums and wiki as I documented it). I definitely wouldnt put it past them that they didnt notice a major feature was forgotten and dell is just covering their bases.
[Venue Pro General] jhoff80:
I really hope it's as simple as that, but isn't it possible that they got rid of the dll because it was no longer compatible with the Mango APIs for accessing the compass?

I'd love to see compass support at some point, and I hope the hacking currently going on leads to it, but I don't think that Dell would change it even if every single person who bought the Venue Pro complained. They discontinued their line of phones, they have zero reason to keep supporting them.

Basically, the only reason manufacturers give old devices updates is because it breeds goodwill for their products in the future. Since Dell isn't making any more phones, even a lot of complaints isn't enough of an incentive, and clearly as mentioned above, Dell feels covered legally since otherwise they'd just spend a few days fixing it.
[Venue Pro General] xpmymob:
From what I have heard, its not a compatibility issue at-all. If it were because of the compatibility issue with Mango none of the mobiles post Mango upgrade should have spotted the compass. I had read somewhere that the compass was working fine up to the Mango beta on the phone. Then while upgrading to Mango final, while upgrading the compass dll is being renamed by the installer and thats why the compass no longer functions.
[Venue Pro General] alodar1:
I find it hard to reach that extended point. I do not find it hard to accept the compass is no long available because of compatibility issues. It far easier to accept and believe that, than they fully intended to defraud you and others.

When the dell launched there were many comments about the lack of testing. Consensus was, dell should have tested more, and shipped less. Yet, when they remove a relatively minor feature based on incompatibility, we see law suits?

Finding a bug, and shipping it, is not good, we all agree. But we see it everyday. Yet removing a feature because of a bug, or such, is not acceptable? With the vp at end of life, there is no reason to fix the bug in their minds. That needs to be OK. We all can't get our cake and eat it too. And on such a minor feature, I'd give it to them as OK.
[Venue Pro General] benjaminries:
Can I make a suggestion? Instead of pursuing a claim that has little or no legal merit and proposes to punish Dell for developing software/firmware updates unless they can guarantee 100% perfection, how about doing the following:

Petitioning Dell to allow interop unlock on the DVP, to any owners who are willing to pay extra and/or void their warranties.

With what may be a simple little bit of code, this community could probably fix the compass issue themselves - and much, much more. The answer to our concerns is not to ask Dell to do more - it is to ask them to do LESS, as in, less locking down of their hardware. An unlocked bootloader is probably too much to ask, but just allowing this simple change? That would clear out their remaining inventory of the DVP, if and when they want to finish it off.
[Venue Pro General] TheManii:
Is dell even legally allowed to do that? They could be breaching their contract with MS if they allowed that couldnt they?

MS only nomally offers interop/full unlock to manufacturer/debug level devices I assume. Users are only supposed to get up to dev unlock by paying for it (officially, 3rd party unlock tools do not count for this specific case)
[Venue Pro General] benjaminries:
Possibly. But in the very least, Dell can start by offering interop unlock to people who pay for the developer unlock - like all the other OEMs do.
[Venue Pro General] TheManii:
Some manus offer to upgrade your dev to interop unlock?

Huh havnt heard that before, but I dont pay very close attention to WP7 news.

That's pretty cool if true, if that is the case then dell could legally offer it.
[Xperia Play Themes and Apps] :
ANDROID MARKET LINK

A new FPS was released on the Android Market recently, The Dead: Chapter One. The game is yet another attempt to replicate the COD: Zombies formula(hurray!:D). Although not explicitly mentioned in the Market description, this game is fully Xperia Play optimized! :D The analog sticks and buttons all work perfectly, and the touch controls disappear when you slide the gamepad out! I have played with the touch controls and they remind me of the controls for FPS games on Android before Gameloft. The Xperia Play saves the day once again. :cool:
[Xperia Play Themes and Apps] TLRtheory:
Awesome! I was wanting a third person break from all the two stick zombie shooters.

I'm hoping this is more like L4D than COD:Zombies though :S

Jesus... I'm officially 20 games behind on updating my Xperia PLAY game list now :p

EDIT: Looks like they didn't add R800a to the device check -_- doesn't show up in the Game Launcher or work with the gamepad controls for me.
[Xperia Play Themes and Apps] Rogue Leader:
Controls are great... game is a bit boring after a while though.....
[Xperia Play Themes and Apps] thatsupnow:
This game is awesome the controls works really good for it too
[Xperia Play Themes and Apps] krisdee:
Controls does not work.

800i UK Device 2.3.3fw.
[Xperia Play Themes and Apps] metcard:
Controls dont work here either.

R800a 2.3.4

I go into settings and select Xperia play but when I start a new game the controls revert back to touch screen.
[Xperia Play Themes and Apps] Nabeel_Nabs:
Same thing on rooted r800i 2.3.4 stock
[Xperia Play Themes and Apps] CapNM77:
Controls work good. Thanks again for another good heads up on the games.