yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[General Questions and Answers] lie_ui:
I am, too, waiting for the next version of the Magician/Prophet form factor PPC. I had two candidates, the Prophet and the Mio A701, but after doing my research, I pulled my self back from both.

Prophet:

+ Nice camera (very splendid :), nice hardware button layout (I like it has complete WM5 keys), and SDIO slot, and integrated Wifi

- 200Mhz OMAP processor, and no integrated GPS

Mio A701

+ GPS integrated, nice looking, and above all, it comes with complete accesories (car holder, screen protector, car charger, etc).

+ Fast processor

- Poor hardware button lay out (it does not even have a power button, no WM5 softkeys, no Start and OK button).

- No Wifi

Vijay and his friend solved the power button thing (I believe by using one of the other button, the camera button? I guess? but I still consider this really stupid. No hardware button for WM5 means you're pulling stylus most of the times, or use your finger on the screen directly.

I will wait until the next Prophet that has the GPS built in (I read a bit about it, and it seems to be the Trinity?). I hope this time they will put a full size SDIO slot, and that's my dream PPC, and my search and wait is over.
[General Questions and Answers] dwd:
yes it seams like Trinity might solve all our problems :wink:

if all the roumors are right then trinity will be the next king of PDA/Phone.

but untill that one is released i think perhaps mio is a better solution than the prophet?.

have you guys seen any performance benchmark on the mio a701?
[General Questions and Answers] lie_ui:
I wanted to get the Mio A701 so badly. I wanted to complement the Mio with a Wifi card, but when I saw the picture of the Mio with a Wifi card, I pulled myself back. The Mio has the rubber cap in the SDIO slot on the right so when you need to insert a Wifi card it looks really bad.

I also compared the picture taken by the Mio and those taken by the Prophet. Prophet's ones are a lot a lot nicer, perhaps it could replace digital camera in some occasions. Not the Mio.

I would rather wait for the Trinity, hope they do not do such stupid things like replace SDIO with micro/mini/piko/nano SD =)

One more stp thing they did with the Hermes, they also took away the audio jack and combined it in the same USB port. Ohhhh...
[General Questions and Answers] dwd:
you mean like this pic? http://www.pdagold.com/img/articles/en/large/0000000281_MH5S221037200642494154.jpg

but an ordanary SD card must go the whole way in?
[General Questions and Answers] lie_ui:
Pretty much. Yes, a normal SD will go in and that rubber cap will close and protect the SD to come out.

A Wifi card since its longer will come out like the picture above. (The picture above shows a normal SD card that half way inserted)

The Wifi card combo (Wifi + flash memory) will be even longer. I used to use the San Disk Wifi +256MB combo with Magician. That's long.
[General Questions and Answers] lie_ui:
vijay, you're not only smart and friendly, but also... funny. :)

I like your Uni as the anchor of the ship, it really looks like it :)

My Uni is the anchor on my belt.
[General Questions and Answers] vijay555:
A standard SD card doesn't stick out. A non sandisk Wifi card doesn't stick out much. But if you're going to use a bigger wifi card, just trim off the rubber cover if you think it's ugly. The magician doesn't have a rubber cover for it's slot, so I doubt it's any more dangerous. And you can always get SD slot blanks to protect the slot when not in use.

V
[General Questions and Answers] lie_ui:
vijay, IMYO, do you think the Trinity will come with a normal SDIO slot?

I'm the same like you, I hate to re-invest on mini/micro/piko/nano SD, therefore, I only consider PPC with SDIO.

Because of you :) my requirement list included built in GPS in addition to SDIO, Wifi, and fast processor, in the Magician form factor.
[General Questions and Answers] dwd:
vijay: hahahhaha thanx that was a nice review!.

i thougt how many times i used my wifi and my bluetooth-gps. and frankly .. i use my gps alot more than i use my wifi.. so hmm might just buy an mio instead..

.. if u have any more photos taken on pink. u are most welcome to post them! :lol:
[General Questions and Answers] vijay555:
lie_ui: I'll have a look into the Trinity. However, given that the Hermes and StarTrek have mini SD, I think mini SD is the way htc is going to go in the future. I don't see why they would need to help us old SD card users. I like SD though, I don't want to pay a premium for mini sd, and they're so tiny :(

dwd: NSFW

The following are not safe for work!:

http://www.bestweekever.tv/2006/08/07/pissler-pink-yellow/

http://www.thevelvethottub.com/2006/08/hollywood-travel-brochure.html

I have written many RSS news scrapers on my new website; there are 13,744 news items to read, 1,182 of gossip and celebrity news... sigh, my secret taboo! I read 500 items a day, just to keep my brain fresh :shock:

I hope you find the review useful. I think the Hermes is great. If only it had a VGA screen. But - if you want GPS, Mio is well recommended. Ask yourself how much you use wifi vs GPS.

Have you seen this:

http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/08/sony-launches-mylo/

V
[General Questions and Answers] dwd:
hehe had to check it up.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSFW

thanx for the link's! :lol:

i think i will skip the hermes.. if it was without the qwerty keyboard it would have been much better.(smaller device)

also i like SD cards.. and i love the new sandisk SD plus cards that can connect directly to the usb on the computer.(2gb soon to be released)

lol.. sony.. wonder if the will allow 3d party programs to be installed. :roll:
[General Questions and Answers] TheBrit:
Hi

The Prophet will do everything you want, provided you overclock it.

My recommendation for the overclock is the Battery Status Plugin.

It runs TomTom just fine but then so does the Mio. A friend has one.
[General Questions and Answers] dwd:
let say if i would buy a Prophet, and i get a lucky one that is oc stable on 240Mhz, would that compare to an intel 300mhz?.

as i have read in the forums an OC Prophet on 240Mhz(omap) is slower than an non OC Magican on 416mhz(intel).

im not blaming the omap processor design but it seams that it isnt alot of programs supporting the omap cpu for the benefits it has as a "muti" cpu.

i had the Tornado, and that one had a omap 200mhz cpu in it. and tomtom wasnt as smooth as it was on the magician.(mayby not a fair comparison)

i was pretty sure to buy the prophet and OC it.. but what happens if i get one that doesent OC aswell as yours. and i have read some disturbing news about skype and movies etc.

so why not the Mio, it got an Intel 520mhz cpu. and maybe its possible to OC that one aswell. thou i dont know the need for it.

found this one.. dont know italian =) ,, but check benchmarks numbers.. look beeeeeeelow the a701 to find the prophet

http://www.pocketpcitalia.com/Recen.../Recensione-Mio-A701/Prestazioni-e-autonomia/
[General Questions and Answers] TheBrit:
Why not indeed? My friend is happy with his. No WiFi though but that depends on what your needs are. You will not need to overclock it - it's already very fast. TomTom seems to have an issue getting it's initial connection to the built in GPS. He runs a freeware app called VisualGPSce which seems to "wake up" the GPS then TomTom connects just fine.

I run my Prophet at 260 and it's fine. (omapclock reports this as 240 because of an error in its speed calculation) TomTom works just fine at this speed. The high CPU version of Skype will also work just fine. The problems seem to be with the low CPU version.

A friend with a Charmer - same hardware as prophet minus wifi in a magician casing - has found that his device is unstable at 260 and scaled it back to 247. Another friend has a Wizard and runs that at 273 without issues! So not all OMAP devices will OC to the same extent.
[General Questions and Answers] dwd:
ask your friend to check this out forum regarding to the gps problems

http://www.fourpages.co.uk/mioA701/viewforum.php?f=11

think if htc had put the samsung 400mhz in the prophet! =).. wow!

i think i will wait for htc's trinity.. and settle with the mio untill they release it :wink:
[General Questions and Answers] lie_ui:
dwd, we're friends then, :) we'll wait for the Trinity. If you get something before the Trinity, share your experience, as I have been waiting kind of long as well.

The Trinity is better come with the full side SD. Almost everywhere predicts it will come with Micro SD (not Mini SD, but worse.. Micro SD, like the Hermes). Argrrhhh.. a..ya..ya....

When its fully confirmed it does not come with full size SD, then I would give up. But before that, I will still put hope in it, that the folks in HTC will put a full size SD.

If they don't, hope the Mio will come out with a better design, that they will convert the Mio big text into useable WM5 keys, power button, and they will find a way to include the Wifi on-board.
[General Questions and Answers] vijay555:
Regarding the Mio's GPS issue - fourpages.co.uk is a great site, I'm on there from time to time (how long will it take me to get >3,500 posts on there?):

TomTom takes quite a while to load up. It can be configured to bypass the Ephemeris data (which is used to get a fast satellite lock, but requires an internet connection every couple of days), and it takes the standard couple of minutes to get a good lock.

Using Ephemeris is faster, but you need to kickstart your GPS first by starting some other GPS app first. It's not a problem, but I just skip Ephemeris and wait the minute or two it takes to lock on. Once it's locked on, it's fine.

lie_ui: my mistake, yes, I think you're right, it's likely they'll settle on Micro, not even Mini SD. Micro is about the size of a contact lense :(

I'm content with the Mio. If it had been out at the time, I would have considered the Hermes. If you can wait, I'd probably wait for a good HTC device too, but it depends on your immediate needs and availability.

V
[General Questions and Answers] dwd:
lie_ui: i havent read anything about speeds on the micro SD cards.

if the speed on the micro sd cards are bad(?) then the performance of the trinity accessing the card will also be slow. (but as i said .. dont know the access time and mb/s for micro card).

as for the mio.. i cant find any better phone(thanx to vijay :wink: ) at the moment that is the same form factor as the prophet/magician and with good speed.

if trinity comes out with lets say a micro sd card and wifi but without a proper GPS (a-gps). and with a samsung processor 400mhz.

then its back to the desicion .. what do u use the most? gps or wifi. witch is more troublesome to carry with you.

and the SDIO has radio cards,tv cards etc.. does micro sd have all that?.

maybe this "fight" will not settle with trinity(if it releases at the end of this year).

if HTC release a new magichian with an proper SDIO,GPS,WIFI,3mpix camera,3" vga-screen and a intel 1ghz cpu, would you buy a new pda for some years then?.

i think they dont want to release everything in one package. :cry:

vijay.. its good that u are on that forum aswell! :D
[General Questions and Answers] :
He probably did because he's using the method described in the "Instant Fix" thread. :)
[General Questions and Answers] dwd:
ok first impression..

got my A701 in the mailbox today. unpacked it. plugged it to my laptop so i could play and charge at the same time :)

the 0.1" smaller screen i didnt notice.. it looks perfect and really bright.

i felt that the phone was fast!. but didnt know how fast yet...

installed tomtom5 nav. started it and configured it. went out to the balcony.

waited for a gps signal. tomtom was in 3d mode. and when you stand still with the gps and have tomtom in 3d mode it will sometimes turn the whole view from the right to the left. on my tornado it went as smooth as a powerpoint presentation.. ie 2sec per frame. :roll:

on this one,, it went like a smooth flight simulator at 30fps/sec.. holy shiit.. zoomed out and it did the same thing. :twisted:

browsing the maps went real fast.

the performance settings for the cpu is auto,low,high,super. havent changed this yet, so it stands in auto.

the wm5 os is snappy and fast. nothing to complain about.

the stylus is some kind of akward as it is like a telescope,but it works fine.

the hardbuttons is to few and i will reprogram them.

i will miss a real powerbutton.. on this one u have to push the red button(hang up) for a few sec to get the 2 options sleep/turn off.

the phone feels good but i dont really like the black plastic around it .. will get dirty fast.

as i was playing with it, a friend of mine called me.. and i was supprised that the volume was so high,, i had to turn it down.

will call some more people to morrow and see if the speaker is as good as it seams. the reason i brought this up is because the magician volume was to low sometimes.

one thing im missing is T9.. i really hope it can be downloaded somewhere. (pref swedish)

will try my sandisk 256mb wifi tomorrow.
[General Questions and Answers] lie_ui:
wow, thats fast. Post some pictures pls.

Picture of the phone with your 256 wifi.

Pictures taken with the 1.3MP camera in different styles: panorama picture, and some close up objects if you do not mind (and also text from name cards).

Later also post how you tweak the buttons and the software involved. Vijay should be able to give some insight.

2 softkeys.

Power button.

Start and Ok button.

My simple thought, may be like this:

the 2 lower application buttons become left and right softkeys.

The volume up button become Start key.

The volume down button become ok button.

Where the power button should go then?

Remember Vijay said he used one of the app button become power button...

If you really feel as content as vijay, you both might drag me into the same group finally. :)
[General Questions and Answers] vijay555:
Good stuff guys - like I said, Hermes is out, and looks tasty, but the Mio has gps...

I forgot to mention guys: I loved the Magician screen, and with VJLumos II it was super brite. The Mio is brighter then that!

However - it doesn't have as wide a viewing angle, but it is bright and sharp.

dwd: DO buy a screen protector, don't use the free ones in the box. They're worse then nothing at all. Like I said, I worked with Martin Fields to prepare the Mio A701 protector, so mention my name if you buy one from them :) There's no commission for me, but just sounds like I knew what I was talking about then.

I've noticed that when you're stationary, the GPS can get a bit confused and start swinging around (on TomTom). Not a big deal, since you're generally moving (and there are bad signals in Central London, too many big buildings).

I tried Igo yesterday. Lovely interface, better for one handed use.

The buttons: Using VJOkButt and AEButtonPlus, you can replace the red key with a red key and application close/task switcher.

I agree that it makes sense to use the lower keys as soft keys, and volume up/down for apps etc - I use smallmenu.

The power key - you can hack the Camera key into use (I've got the registry keys somewhere, but just follow the example from the thread on hacking the Universal's backlight key), and use that as a power key.

I use VJDeviceLock to lock the keys and power off at the same time, so I don't need any other power button. Assign this to the camera and it'll be much safer - automatic key lock is useful because reminders seem to leave WM5 on for quite a while.

I think that's it. There are some updates that to the ROM that should be coming out, that make it slightly better... but it's cute, compact and functional enough.

V
[General Questions and Answers] vijay555:
Wow!

Guys, I made a curious discovery with the mio, this is going to make you lol.

As we know, the mio lacks dedicated buttons for the softkeys, but as a plus, has a 1cm high advert for mio where they could have gone. Again, thanks Mio!

The Mio's screen has a tiny border of around 2mm around the edge, that is dead, ie black. However, I found that if you click on the tiny border just under the softkeys, it responds as a click on the softkeys.

Anyway, on my Mio, clicking on the edge of the Mio's black case/advert with your thumb will be picked up as a click on the softkeys (normally).

What this means is that you can use the black plastic as softkeys! It takes a little practice to figure out exactly where to click and with what pressure, but it kind of works.

Let me know what you think.

Apologies for this crap image. I'm at work, no PhotoShop here :(

V
[General Questions and Answers] lie_ui:
Vijay, the pic is not so clear. But I examined my Universal instead as I do not have a Mio yet. Do you refer to the screen itself (the dead/black pixels around the screen) or the plastic frame of the Mio.

In my Uni, there is about 1 mm or smaller wide dead/black pixels around the color screen and yes, when I hit the small area below the softkey menu on screen, it does pick up as the click on the softkey itself.

Is that what you trying to say, or actually you can press on the plastic underneath it (not the screen). I do not like touching the screen somehow.

The big space with the Mio text could be easily converted into at least 4 buttons: Windows ----- Left softkey -- right softkey --- OK.

Or, at least, they make the two silver things in between the four buttons to really functions as the softkeys.
[General Questions and Answers] vijay555:
lie_ui: reading my stupid post, it does sound unclear, but yes, as you discovered, clicking the "dead" pixels still clicks the softkeys, and as a result, clicking on the plastic near the screen edge clicks the softkeys as well.

That still sounds unclear: pressing down on the plastic writing above where it says Mio clicks on the softkeys, almost like they designed it that way.

I don't think Mio were that clever, or expceted me to be so stupid to try it :), but it works on mine.

V
[General Questions and Answers] dwd:
lie_ui. mio a701 with sandisk 256mb wifi, works without any problem!

http://dwd.pir8.info/mio/frontside.jpg

the SD cover isnt a problem with the big wifi card!.

i loooove the performance on this pda!. its fun to use it.

vijay: the little plastic that covers the hole for a antenna on the backside. i cant press it in the firmly.. i think something is in the way. look at the backside picture, do you also have that thing in the antenna hole.

http://dwd.pir8.info/mio/backside.jpg

will check out your programs and the screen protector!.
[General Questions and Answers] vijay555:
Dwd: can't see anything in the antenna slot. Was it like that when you bought it? I've never opened it before, never use an external antenna.

Image has been photoshopped to remove my webbed fingers from the image at the top.

This is using the safecom wireless. Not much sticking out.

V
[General Questions and Answers] dwd:
i fiexed it .. it was just some rubber that was there from the making of the phone..

Guess what i did.. i streamed tv from my computer using VLC and then i picked upp the video on the mio(wifi) using vlc for pocketpc.. hahah fu....ng amazing!! it worked.. im so glad that i didnt take a phone with lesser cpu.

this is soo cool

:lol: 8)
[General Questions and Answers] lie_ui:
i was browsing today to find the mini SD Wifi card, and it seems there is only one available, made by Spetec. From the picture, it looks as if it will fit inside the miniSD/SDIO slot with adapter without any part coming out, but indeed it comes a bit, may be about few mm.

I got those pictures from the http://msmobiles.com.
[General Questions and Answers] dwd:
nice!.. i think the rubber cap infront of the SD card slot on the mio can be removed.. will check if its easy to put it back once removed. :roll:
[General Questions and Answers] lie_ui:
so, dwd, can you remove the cap and easily put it back on?

I noticed in the A701 today's plug-in, there is a power button icon.

This icon when tapped, does it bring it to sleep?

Can you assign this icon/function to a hardware button directly without any additional software?

dwd, have you tried vijay's VJDeviceLock? How do you power down/sleep your A701?
[General Questions and Answers] vijay555:
The tray icons are kinda useful, but are linked to the today plugin,

MioMenu Today plugin

which is quite useless, since you can't configure the icons it points to.

You can get direct access to the shutdown app, just by launching it, but it doesn't lock the keys, just gives option for standby/poweroff depending on your rom version.

V
[General Questions and Answers] lie_ui:
Which Wifi program the mio uses?

See the attached picture, it shows the Mio with the WM5 Wifi icon!

(this is somehow misleading... as the Mio has no integrated wifi).

When the Mio is used with a SDIO Wifi card (for example, the Spetec Wifi card or the SanDisk Wifi card), which wifi program it will use? Is it the default built in WM5 Wifi utility or the third party Wifi utility?
[General Questions and Answers] vijay555:
My safecom shows the same icon, but I installed its supplied drivers before use, using the same drivers I used with my Magician.

V
[General Questions and Answers] dwd:
lie_ui: ihavent taken out the rubber to see if it goes back again, the rubber cap isnt a problem for me.

also.. have u seen this? SD wifi card 1GB that doesnt stick out. http://www.eye.fi/

lie_ui: for my Sandisk 256mb wifi card i use the drivers supplied for pocketpc 2003, and that works.

lie_ui: i have tried VJDeviceLock, and it works.

vijay: regarding VJDeviceLock, locking the device works without problems but the poweroff does not work, got a white screen when using that one =).

i thought that perhaps removing the todayscreens lock button would work but VJDeviceLock cant find the shortcut then so that didnt work.
[General Questions and Answers] vijay555:
dwd: VJDeviceLock currently still needs the today plugin to be on, but it's easy to rewrite to work without the plugin, but due to family circumstances/illnesses I've not been able to program for several months.

<tale of woe>

I'd intended to rewrite it this weekend, but I had a horrendous time:

Basically - some time ago I installed Windows Vista. This buggered my Program Files\ to high heaven. I spent a long time rebuilding that, subsequently reinstalled XP, and then rested on the 7th day.

Yesterday I decided to start programming. Then I remembered activesync didn't work, reinstalled that, still no, then realised I had to install Outlook. I found an old copy, Outlook 2000, and installed fine. Then I realised it moved my entire Documents and Settings\ folder off the planet. Then I spent 14 hours rebuilding that.

At around 12.30am this morning, I wasn't in the mood to program, so went to bed frustrated :(

But activesync, windows and Outlook are now working. Next step, Visual Studio. Yeah :shock:, that's the easy bit, lol

</tale of woe>

I think I've rewritten the VJDeviceLock I use, or maybe you're unlucky. Very occassionally it locks the keys but doesn't power off, but that's very rare, on the copy I use. I'll try to rewrite and repost this week, God willing, all being well and no one getting ill or giving birth in the family!

V
[General Questions and Answers] dwd:
no worries mate!.

"and then rested on the 7th day." lol.. like GOD? hahaha

that activesync program.. M$ should fix that program.. it so baaad.

i reinstalled it on my computer, can get it to sync. i connect my a701, and the green circle starts to rotate, but nothing happends.. and after a while it gives a big errormessage.

so i have to get activesync working, and then activesync over Bluetooth.(yea right.. ).

and you gotta love that rapidmgr.exe woohoooo,, 50% cpu, and my computer sounds like a vacum cleaner.
[General Questions and Answers] vijay555:
On ActiveSync, redownload, reinstall, and then ensure that you don't have the WM5 network connection blocked by your FireWall. I had to go into ZoneAlarm and turn it into a trusted network to get full sync working, otherwise mine was sticking on "Syncronising" for a long time, no progress :(

V