[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] VinceInSeattle:
Newbie flasher

Hello all, thought I would report on my experience flashing the Epix. I previously flashed the ID1 update, which was my first experience flashing a phone. I was unaware of the GPS issue and in fact, do not understand what the issue is. I did notice that after flashing, music would pause intermittently when I was out running while using my GPS running app. Is that a symptom?

Anyway, I ran Grandprix on a Vista 64-bit laptop. Followed the instructions earlier in the thread to set up Grandprix first, click Detect, then plug in the phone and turn it on. Removed the SIM and SD cards, just in case. Used the 15MB page pool version. Saw the Download Progress bar go to 100%, then it seemed to hang on "Writing dummy CSC header...". Left it for about 25 minutes, then pulled the plug and rebooted the phone after replacing the SIM card. GrandPrix complained - "Checksum Failed!! Download Failed" - but there was nothing else to do. Took a long time for first bootup, but went into Align Screen and worked fine thereafter with WM 6.5.

First, great thanks to trashcan for his efforts, and for the many comments and tips here. Anything negative I write, I blame on MS and ATT.

I do have the mouse cursor bug, which is annoying but not fatal. I generally like the Zune-inspired design of the home page - I have a Zune and used it until I started running with the phone. But I don't like the inflexibility of the layout. In one respect, it's even worse than 6.1 - with 6.1 you could click the Windows icon and get about 6 small icons for the last used programs. Made it easy to switch between Windows Media Player and my GPS running app. Now they are only available on different screens. Media Player is buried under the "Multimedia" folder, where I would choose to make it a primary app. And I would demote or delete many apps and utilities. For instance, Mobile Banking and Fox Sports Mobile. There are numerous items under Settings that are mysteries to me: Certificates, Managed Programs, GPRS Authentication, ACL Service among others. I'm sure they're important to someone, just seems this kind of thing could be installable for people who need them.

I did not like having to monkey with Proxy Settings to get IE to work with non-ATT sites, but seem to have figured it out. IE is better, looks more like Opera, works OK if set to show Mobile websites. The Desktop setting is too small.

I was disappointed that Windows Media Player has not been updated. The Zune player is very nice, and should have been the model. WMP looks ancient. One baffling aspect of it is that clicking on a song in the library does not play it - you have to press Play below. For 25 years MS has been teaching us that clicking on a file will open the file. Not here though. It's also clumsy to change albums (yes, that's how old I am, I listen to a whole album at a time).

I am having a hard time scrolling through lists w/o clicking on stuff, but with a combination of fingers and mouse I'm getting better.

I general I must say I regret buying this phone last year, and should have gotten an iPhone. The user interface is superior; icons can be moved readily; the screen is better and larger. It doesn't come with all the ATT crapware, and as far as I know, my wife never had to set proxies or any of that nonsense. I have never really used Office Mobile - I found it would not faithfully go back and forth to desktop for the kinds of files I use in my work. I hoped to use it as a notepad in the field, but the handwriting recognition was not reliable enough. One big reason I bought it last year is that it was widely reported that Zune and WM would be married. The Zune subscription service is great, and not available on iTunes. But it's a year later, and it doesn't look any closer.

I may try out SPB Mobile Shell and Kimona and see if I like them. Might also wait until my year anniversary this fall and see what my contract situtation is, and maybe jump to iPhone. Just my opinion, I'm sure many here have totally valid reasons for sticking with WM, and I don't like Apple to have too much pricing power. I would like to see a strong competitor to iPhone but WM 6.5 isn't it.