[HD2 Windows Mobile 6.5 ROM Development] RolandCruise:
Official 3.14 ITA update report (well, sort of...) :D

Dear Sir Sternas and fellow Artemis and HD2 users,

I was just too curious to check how this last official update works and what they really updated in this new rom, so I flashed this 3.14 stock rom with the following procedure:

0. I was coming from Artemis 36.0 ITA with HSPL 1.66 and radio 2.15.50.14 (I'd just like to mention that I'm an "Artemis only user" from v8.0);

1. First step was the HSPL removal and I proceeded through the HSPL2_RUN software that let me easily and safely choose the desired stock SPL (I've chosen 1.66 SPL);

3. From this point (Artemis 36.0, radio 2.15.50.14 and SPL 1.66) I flashed the stock 3.14 rom thorugh the standard official RUU procedure after having removed my sim card and my microsd;

4. After the first boot (maybe for an excess of care...) I hard resetted and then began the first boot settings procedure;

5. After the usual needed time to restore my contacts, sms etc. via MyPhone and to install my favourite apps, I could begin to use my HD2 and I am (still) trying to use it with the most objective purpose.

My opinion:

as a general point of view this rom seems to be very stable and fast enough (even if very far from the speed I got used with Artemis) to be used without any problem. The only reason I can imagine for this "controlled speed" is the battery drainage, so this is the crucial aspect I willl check during the next days. Artemis has always been good with the battery and it is so faaaast, so in order to accept this relative slowness (just to be clear, it's not slow, just slower than Artemis) battery life MUST be just great.

On a little more detailed point of view, I must say that wm6.5 compared to wm6.5.5 is much more obsolete, but not so insupportable as I thought before using it again.

I like the "step by step" start menu scrolling feature, it is much easier to use in order to find the desired app when you have a lot installed (talking about the stock experience so without any CHT or whatelse).

The phone calling procedure is much faster (it has no lag) than the one I was experincing with my last Artemis setting, with which I had an annoying lag when I wanted to start a phone call and sometimes when I had to close the call. I never mentioned this fact because I think nobody could be sure whether it was related to the rom or to the radio...and because I could live with it in the end.

The touch screen response was a lot harder as soon as I began to use the rom right after the update (yesterday night...it seemed that there was something in background that was "entertaining" the cpu...). Today it is better but always less responsive to the touch of the fingers than Artemis. I still don't know if this is god or bad...now I would say it is good because it prevent unwanted touchs while typing an sms for example. The next days will show me the truth.

On the preinstalled apps point of view this is what I noticed so far:

MyPhone had to be updated at the first launch;

Copilot is at a new verion: 8.0.0.793 (I'd like to find a cab for it somewhere when I'll return to Artemis :D);

Google maps wasn't even taken in consideration for an update, it's still at v3.2.1!!!;

I don't know how to check the office suite version, but it doesn't seem to be the last one...;

HTC Peep and twitter tab behaviour, especially scrolling, is better than the Artemis one (the first thing I noticed is that when I update the tweets in the twitter tab it goes automatically to the last tweet at the top, while in Artemis I had to scroll up to reach the last one at the top of the list).

Well, I think I've been verbose and boring enough.... :D

I'd like to finish with one thought:

If this is the official rom, with all its good and bad aspects, I just can't imagine how good will be the next generation of Artemis roms with Sir Sternas erasing the bad things and potentiating the good ones ;)

Keep up the good work Sir!