[Sable] hipppo:
Hello everyone.

This is my first post. Actually, I added this as a reply on a thread but it's so long and covers so many areas I thought I'd create a new thread from it, if that is ok.

Here are some answers to people's questions on various threads about the 614c ROM images, and my comments particularly on the various ROMs out there.

Here's a link to the latest WM6.1 ROM from a Russian gentleman yevg001 who creates them.

Here's a link to the latest hp official WM6.0 ROM.

1) Yes, you can flash to yevg001 israpda WM6.1 ROMs and then back to the hp WM6.0 ROM from the hp website as often as you like. Flashing from an SD card (not SDHC) has worked reliably several times on my three 614c phones, and flashing using the hp software also works fine (it's much slower because it loads the ROM down a USB cable).

2) The big difference between the yevg001 ROM and the hp ROM is that the hp ROM contains an update to the device firmware, to v0.88 (the latest version). This is of interest if you still have firmware v0.77 (the previous and originally released version). The yevg001 ROMs do not affect your firmware version.

3) If you apply the hp ROM, you cannot get back to v0.77 firmware - I don't think the hp installer will downgrade you, even if you have an old hp ROM image.

4) Why might you want to downgrade to v0.77 device firmware? Because v0.88, while better in numerous ways, has one critical defect: it does not properly support call waiting. When a second call is received (and you hear the beeps in your ear), the active call is affected in that the person you are talking to cannot hear you - and usually hangs up because he/she things you have lost the line. It's very annoying. Other than this, the firmware is better and more stable, due to various minor bug fixes. Fewer missed calls, fewer crashes.

5) Ok, putting aside device firmware and thinking of software... the latest yevg001 ROM is based on hp software image 1.01.04, the latest image at time of writing. yevg001 has also added a few little software applets into the image, but you don't need to use any of these. Obviously, you cannot uninstall them as they are in the ROM, but they also therefore don't take up any usable space.

6) The touchFLO interface is optional. You can easily deactivate it. It looks quite pretty but I have to say I don't like it, so I've deactivated it just by unchecking it in Today settings.

7) The yevg001 WM 6.1 build (I'm using his v1.6) is very good. I have only noticed one major problem with it. The phone is faster than ever before (and I've tried a lot of ROMs). It is quite stable - a couple of crashes but not noticeably more than the hp ROM. The WM6.1 ROM is entirely in English (with the exception that Yevgeny has added in Russian T9 support - not much use without Russian character set). English T9 works as normal.

8) I have also noticed improved battery life. With the latest hp 1.01.04 WM6.0 ROM, I usually get through four fully charged batteries in 24 hours. With the yevg001 v1.6 WM 6.1 ROM, I only get through three. Yes, I'm quite a heavy user but this is a good improvement.

9) The major problem I mentioned in point 7, which won't affect everyone, is that yevg001's ROM does not allow concurrent voice and data usage on a 3G or HSDPA network. How bad is that? Not all 3G phones support this and it is one of the best features of the 614c... My guess is that yevg001 does not even realise this because there is no (or nearly no) 3G in Russia - at least there wasn't last time I was in Moscow in April/May. Basically, if you have any data connection active at the time you place or receive a call, the phone just abruptly drops the data connection. It re-establishes it fine after your call, but no concurrent usage. **If any Russian forum user is reading this, please could you post to yevg001 and ask him if he can address this?**

10) Other experiences based on my regular usage:

a) Bluetooth works fine, neither better nor worse than the standard HP build. I use several BT headsets for calls and also listen to music using A2DP. The A2DP connection seems more stable under WM6.1. In general on the 614c the BT sound level is too low, it does seems a bit lower still with the yevg001 ROM but it was a problem already.

b) Wi-fi works fine, no problems at all with b or g networks.

c) The PIE browser seems to have been slightly improved under WM6.1.

d) The threaded SMS is fantastic! And better than the iphone too because it allows you to delete and to forward individual messages within the thread. The email client seems to be unchanged.

e) I use tomtom navigator 6.3 (western europe) a lot. It works well.

f) Getting a GPS fix can take more than five minutes from cold. If you've used it before on the same day, it's usually less than a minute. I have always found that the 614c is slower to get a fix than the old 6915 which I believe many 614c users upgraded from.

g) Google Maps also works really well, with GPS, and using HSDPA the 614c is fast enough to keep up with your position on a zoomed-in satellite photo while travelling in a car at 30mph (no I wasn't driving!).

h) The media player is ok, I do wish it would read the album artwork out of the mp3 metadata, but that's a slightly off topic observation.

i) The camera is shockingly slow. I use it rarely. The autofocus works quite well.

j) I've had no problems with lots of 8GB SDHC cards.

k) Battery life battery life battery life. The Achilles heel of the 614c. See point 8 above.

m) Activesync seems to work more quickly and more reliably under the WM6.1 ROM than previously.

n) Voice Commander is rubbish. Why do they bother? It takes ages to start up, only works from American accents, is generally slow and intrusive (over other open windows) and is unreliable. MS Voice Command was much better.

Hope all this is interesting! Let me know what you think and if you've got any questions I'll do my best to answer them.

Cheers,

hipppo

p.s. Update as of 22 December:

In case you are looking to download the very latest ROM from the Russian expert yevg001, here it is:

http://rapidshare.com/files/174859341/614c_WM6.1_20270_v1.4_rev1.1.rar.html

The password is "israpda.com" (without the quotes).

Yevgeny only created this ROM in the last couple of days and I believe it is based on the latest hp build - he says it is his newest and most stable WM6.1 ROM yet.

I haven't tried it yet.

Merry Christmas

hipppo