[Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III Windows Mobile ROM De] Travito:
Clarification: Smartlock, is not the lock itself, or at least i'm pretty sure about that. Smartlock makes the lock activate on sleep / startup. The lock itself is a Windows Mobile 6.5 component that has been in just about every 6.5 build released.

The lock component of Windows Mobile 6.5 itself is the issue, not the smartlock app.

This could mean that it is easier to fix than if it were an app, as Parley is much more familiar with the workings of the OS than an individual application, it could also just be a glitch that anyone outside of the 6.5 development team can't effectively fix without completely reverse engineering. I'm not saying that parley couldn't do that, I'm saying it would be a huge pain and there's probably not any tools in existance for ripping apart 6.5 components yet, it would take a large community effort, i'd imagine.

Parley reports that Alpha 40 has the fastest graphics of any build we have ever put out. My little "Manila Carousel" in the teaser video I made for Phoenix I (Omnia video driver and ROM Base) pales in comparison to Phoenix III.

I am going to finalize the Phoenix III theme monday and e-mail it to Parley.

People have been getting impatient a bit (not here, on PDC there was one issue which I hope is resolved). You have to realize that there's two of us, and only one of us does any active work on the ROM itself. I handle PR/Crowd Control, site mantinance to a degree, and idea control / organization, Parley is the one doing the actual building.

We both have lives. His is much busier than mine. That's why I can post more often than he can in a lot of cases, and that's why I'm the one that handles crowd control.

He's got a ton of responsibility on his shoulders for his job, he develops Phoenix as a hobby to blow off steam/relieve stress after a long day. He does this because he likes it and wants to make something that he and everyone else will enjoy that is based on user input, and not just something that he on his own will enjoy.

Also let it be known that his phone is a critically important accessory in relation to his job, and yet he still runs experimental Phoenix builds just so he can test them properly.

All of this leads to three major points I'd like to leave to both the patient community and unpatient community, and especially to the silent "Lurkers" who just download the ROM and don't really care to contribute.

Point one: As stated above, Parley and I have both discussed that this ROM has evolved from the completion of MBVarian's Solace 2 Omnia Build that we were both testing around the time that MBV's phone died a long time ago (though he's working on a new release of Solace now I think) into a community project. Please let me emphasize community. We, (more him than me) decided that this wasn't going to be another ROM in a sea of ROMs that cater only to the chef's personal desires. While that's fine, and many of those ROMs are teriffic, there's the old saying that XDA members use with Newbies to flash different ROMs to find the one that has the closest to what they want on it. We decided that we wanted to make one based DIRECTLY ON what people said they wanted. If someone doesn't want to participate in telling us what they want, fine. But those people don't really have that much of a right to complain when a release is made if they knew that community-based development was going on before the release was finished.

Point Two: Parley's real life responsibilites come before Phoenix responsibilites. Thanks to the ones who are patient. To the ones who are not, please understand that this policy will not change just because you want it to.

Point Three: Though development takes a long time compared to other ROMs, we like to not have to turn our users into flashaholics. That's one of the reasons that Parley develops on his Kaiser despite him needing it for work all the time. If he can't stand to use it as often as he has to use it, you won't have to stand it either. Though I don't know specifics, I can imagine that he uses his phone more often than about 75% of our users. Also, given the industry he works in, he knows better than to release poor quality software.

In short, thanks to our patient supporters, and I hope that this post clarifies things for everyone else, (and our patient supporters too).

Additional Clarification: Scowultra, MSD, etc; I am NOT criticizing you for being excited/eager, the issues I mentioned are not you two, and I want to add that I'm eager for A40 or a Private beta as well. I think we should leave the public hanging until we have a final release ready, that'll keep the "Brand New ROM" bug reports to a minimum.

Additional Teaser Info: Parley says the Landscape/Portrait switch on A40 is lightning fast.