[XPERIA X1 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] vratner:
A couple of "newbie" questions...

I recently became a proud owner of a brand new Xperia X1(a) phone, and have a couple of questions (please, excuse my ignorance in advance if any of these have been answered some place already).

1. When I bought the phone (it was brand new in the box), for whatever reason it came with a Spanish (maybe Portuguese) version of Windows Mobile 6.1. It took me some time, but I was able to switch to English by flashing a generic North American ROM found through one of the links on this website (many thanks for that). My first question is How do I know if it's the latest ROM, and when/how should I update? I downloaded Sony Ericsson Update Service software, but I don't think it reflects the "reality" of things. Is this true? Is there a better way to keep track of firmware changes?

2. I come from a symbian environment, so this whole Windows Mobile thing is new to me. So my second question is: Should I upgrade to WM6.5, and why? Also, what are the main differences between 6.1, and 6.5?

3. From what I understand, there is no "official" 6.5 upgrade for X1, is there? In that case, which custom ROM is the best? OK, I know I'm going to get bashed for this question, but quite frankly, I got a bit lost when I found out how many of them are out there. And even though I really have the desire, I simply don't have the time to try them all. So let me explain what I'm looking for here: First, and foremost, I'm looking for the WOW factor. It has to look cool, unique. Secondly, it has to be "bug" free, meaning I don't want it to crash on me every our or so. And lastly, I need a good performance - I mean, it's nice to have all these cool/fancy features, but if it takes an hour to boot up, and then another hour to switch from one program to another, then I'll pass on this ROM.

4. Any more cool new themes, or as they are called here, panels out there? I stumbled across a tilewave panel, which I installed, and which I have to say was one of the coolest I've ever seen. BUT... The darn thing is 1 hour ahead in time for some reason. I installed a time patch, but that didn't resolve the issue. Any advice on that? Perhaps they need to be installed in a different order? Patch first, and then the panel, which I haven't tried. The time thing bothered me so much that I actually uninstalled, but if someone can point me towards an easy solution, I'm all ears. Perhaps it would work better on 6.5? I also tried SPB Mobile Shell 3.5 panel, but I can't start it up. It doesn't show up in the list of available panels, and if I click on its icon in the Programs list, it starts for a split second, and then shuts down. Is it not compatible with 6.1? Another question about panels - is there a BMW one? I'm just a diehard fan of these cars, and would've loved to have a BMW theme, or a nice wallpaper/screensaver, or something like that on my phone.

5. Another question related to panels - no matter which one I choose, upon phone reboot it changes back to Xperia default one, the one with a multicolor stripe in the middle. The fact that I have to change it every time I turn off/on the phone drives me nuts. Is there a way to permanently set the panel to the one I want? I read something about a software called XperiaTweak, but first of all, I can't find it anywhere for download, and secondly, I can't believe there isn't a way to do it easily, without having to install a 3rd party application.

6. Touch (virtual) keyboard - Is it me, or does this thing suck big time?! I don't have the largest fingers in the world, and I'm having a real hard time pressing the right buttons. Once again, I did some research, and came across a couple of 3rd party apps - Blackstone, and FingerKeyboard amongst others. My question is which one is preferred by majority of this community?