[MDA III, XDA III, PDA2k, 9090 Software Upgrading] Tuatara:
TuMa v1.3 ROM Issues ...

OK - HERE ARE MY REPLIES ...

Watch out for the "new device syndrome". By this I mean, that when a device is freshly formatted and booted, there is no "crap" installed, and no applications, tasks, memory allocations, registry junk, file system fragmentation, compaction requirements, etc.

Obviously having a "fresh" device will ALWAYS run much faster than a "well used" device. It's always easier to "add" stuff to an empty FLASH disk, than to have to figure out what isn't being used anymore, erase it (slowly), then write the new data into that location, and then continue.

Right ... having said that, I'll continue ... 8)

This performance difference is due to internal differences in the ROM architecture, and the feature support available in there. Ivan's ROM is entirely unchanged from the original compile (mamaich's v3.1), and contains none of the D3D extensions, or other WMA enahancements. Unfortunately the ability to play all the new media types, classes, and DirectX elements (like games) comes at a performance cost. There is little which can be done about this right now.

What is this 'WiFi' issue you're talking about? More description is usually required. :-)

The Himalaya Port would be MUCH better to have, however both mamaich and I are unable to proceed at the moment (due to time required) - and this is due to a fundamental difference between the XIP boot time DLLs required between the two devices. In a nutshell there are functions required in the Himalaya XIP boot sequence which we are unable to replace/replicate (as yet) for the Blue Angel boot sequence. Until we can resolve these 'unavailable functions' the furthest both mamaich and I have been able to get the devices is functionally to "coldinit", and mamaich has managed to get to the "today screen" - but no further.

I believe I've improved this in v1.4 WITHOUT costing more than about 1/3 second (or so) in the ring delay time. TuMa v1.3 was delibrately trying to get the RING TIME reduced as much as possible, because waiting 3 seconds (or more) for the d**m phone to ring was just TOO LONG!

The picture quality should be entirely unchanged, since both ROMs are using the same drivers. There may be some differences in the default settings, and you may need to adjust the "brightness/contrast/gamma" settings to compensate for differences in your camera.

Otherwise, the problem of recording in MPEG4 formats is a KNOWN BUG, and there is a fix for this in the forum posts. Look for it in this thread. (don't have time right now - sorry). This is entirely fixed in v1.4.

Most of the core elements are compatibly compiled for XScale and OMAP (they are nearly the same processors), it's just that the OMAP has an additional DSP which can off-load a lot of the work involved. The XScale has to do these operations 'manually'. Until the Himalaya Port is working, there will always be some OMAP code in the ROM. TuMa v1.4 is still based on this, but a number of the elements (incl. colour conversion, and scaling functionality for video/etc.) has been replaced with XScale compiled optimized versions.

For this you NEED to turn on "Receive all beams" in your device. By default I will be leaving this option "DISABLED" for those who do not require it, since having it on will increase power usage (not by much, but it does).

This is a KNOWN bug and has been addressed in the forums. You can avoid this by deleting the "handsfree.lnk" file from the Startup Directory on TuMa v1.3. This has now been properly fixed in TuMa v1.4.

I believe that TKIP encryption is properly supported (that's what I use). Any other encryption method may be a little 'flaky' and/or not implemented in the same way. MS has a habit of defining their own standards which everyone else has to adhere to ... later. TKIP works, and appears to work well for everyone. Stick with that.

TuMa v1.4 is predominantly a "bugfix" ROM, in that it is attempting to address the problems, performance, stability, and other issues which people have raised. TuMa v1.4 does also include a LOT of enahcements and utility functions (including graphical and usability enhancements), but these are just additional elements added to the ROM, and don't change how you can use the ROM as a base for your applications.

For those holding their breath ... TuMa v1.4 WILL be released VERY shortly ... in fact, it could even happen later TODAY! 8)

So if you can wait another 1/2 day or so ... I believe v1.4 will be released to everyone. I'm just waiting on a bit more feedback from Alpha Testers. You know who you are, so PM me your findings ASAP!