[P3600 Software Upgrading] chimpsinties:
Wow, that's a big post. I'll try and answer it all as best I can. :p

To start with, it's very important to know if you have a P3600 or P3600i. The P3600 has 64MB RAM and 128MB Flash, the P3600i has 128MB RAM and 256MB Flash. The upgrade ROMS are designed to work specifically with each version of the phone.

Tomme45i's ROM I link to in the tutorial is definitely for the P3600 (SPV M700) because I had it on my handset for weeks and it worked perfectly.

I don't know what a G3 or G4 device is? Sorry :confused:

Your radio version looks very old. I would get that upgraded to the 1.56.70.11

Regarding unlocking. It is probably worth doing the 1st step anyway. Even though you're phone might be SIM unlocked to use any provider, it might still be CID locked, which means it can only use the stock ROM that came with the device. You might need to CID unlock it to allow you to change your ROM.

That way, if you do the first step, you will get used to the ROM Update Utility screens and it won't matter that they are in Chinese for the 3rd step.

I would recommend OliPro's v1.20 of HardSPL. It is virtually impossible to brick you're phone using this and you will really struggle to get the 1.56.70.11 Radio on there if you use anything else. It's the only one I found that would allow me to upgrade the Radio.

As mentioned above, I've tried lots of combinations of software and the steps in the guide were the best way to get it all to work perfectly for me.

Windows Mobile 6.5 is much better for finger friendly use. Windows 6.1 still uses a lot of the old menu styles which you usually need a stylus for. I hate Windows Mobile 6.1 now and would always look for a 6.5 ROM. When I say that these devices are not made for 6.5, I only refer to all the extra really fancy bits of the software like TouchFlo3D, CHome etc etc

Some of the 6.5 ROMs are very fast and very clean (no extra fancy bits) especially Tomme45i's. I would strongly recommend you go for a 6.5 ROM and not a 6.1. Even the 6.5 by Nashorn I recommend in a later post is very fast and looks great with the Manila2D. I use it now instead of the more plain Tomme45i ROM. You also get the gestures support so you can sweep your finger across the screen to move menus (like the iPhone) which is very cool.

Regarding the technique used to flash the ROM, I can't comment. I've never used the SD card technique. I have flashed my phone over 20 times using the USB cable and never had a problem. What could be easier than plugging it in to the PC and double clicking a program. :confused: :D

I like the way with Opera you can scroll around a bigger page by dragging you finger and zoom by double clicking, however I found that Opera does not support online streaming video. I now use IE8 which is included in the Nashorn ROM. It's very nice. You can even choose to browse as a desktop device (so you get all the pages rendered normally) or a mobile device ( so you get the reduced size pages) which is a very nice feature. As you experiment with the software, you find what you like and what you don't like. It's all personal choice, what is good for me won't be good for everyone. It's just a guide after all :D

Of all the ROMs I've tested I've never found any of the basic things that come with Windows Mobile missing. They all usually have Office, Windows messenger, Media player etc etc. I've never found myself having to sacrifice anything to run a new ROM, you usually just find extra things you didn't know you needed :D

I would say, a finger keyboard is very important, the combination of a 6.5 ROM and finger keyboard means you never have to get your stylus out any more. Both the ROM's I recommend come with a Finger Keyboard included.

It's just a case of finding Cabs for the things you want extra, S2U2, GAlarm, TomTom etc.

I hope I've been able to answer all your questions. Most of what you're asking is just a question of what you like. This is why they always say, 'Just try things until you find what you like'. I wrote this guide so that people who didn't really know what they were doing could get a feel for it and then experiment on their own.

Best of luck, and don't forget to donate to a chef if you like his cooking. :cool: That way they will continue to cook for us on this old hardware. :D