Vetran PPC user with basic Smartphone questions

[brianchris]

Although I'm a veteran PPC user (including using the new and spectacular 8125), my wife has purchased and is really enjoying the 2125 Smartphone. She expects me to know a lot about the device, as she doesn't understand they are different operating systems.

So, I'll use this thread to ask some (shockingly) basic questions, starting with:

-Can you have a permanent shortcut on the home screen (say, to the calculator)? I know the home screen lists the last five or so apps used, but she wants a permanent shortcut or two on the home screen....is this possible?

-Homescreen designer looks awsome, but it doesn't seem to be compatible with WM5....any alternatives?

-Ringtones CAN be stored on the storage card, as long as they are placed in a user created directory called: \Storage Card\Application Data\Sounds.....correct?

-I know there is a dock with large speakers that is said to be compatible with the 2125 ( http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=66585 ), but is there a smaller, more traditional cradle for this phone yet? If not, any hope of one becoming availible?

-How about the avabilility of a car charger? I've heard chatter that the SMT5600 car charger should work fine, but I'd rather have some consensus before I risk frying her phone.


That's it for now, but I'm sure there will be more questions soon....thanks in advance!

[Mike Temporale]

Although I'm a veteran PPC user (including using the new and spectacular 8125), my wife has purchased and is really enjoying the 2125 Smartphone. She expects me to know a lot about the device, as she doesn't understand they are different operating systems.

Your wife has a great phone there. Some would say it's an amazing phone, what with the hump and all. ;)

-Can you have a permanent shortcut on the home screen (say, to the calculator)? I know the home screen lists the last five or so apps used, but she wants a permanent shortcut or two on the home screen....is this possible?

The best solution for this is speed dial. I use it for all my favourite apps. This was written for WinMo 2003, but the steps should be the same. http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/articles.php?action=expand,5880

-Homescreen designer looks awsome, but it doesn't seem to be compatible with WM5....any alternatives?

No, as of right now, there is no home screen creation program that handles the QVGA screens. :( There are plenty of really amazing home screens out there for you to choose from, and the best ones are free.

-Ringtones CAN be stored on the storage card, as long as they are placed in a user created directory called: \Storage Card\Application Data\Sounds.....correct?

That may be possible, but I wouldn't do it. I have never tried. The main reason is that storage cards are slower than normal RAM. So it can cause problems in the form of delays when you're receiving an incoming call.

-I know there is a dock with large speakers that is said to be compatible with the 2125 ( http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=66585 ), but is there a smaller, more traditional cradle for this phone yet? If not, any hope of one becoming availible?

Lots of hope, no word as of yet. :(

-How about the avabilility of a car charger? I've heard chatter that the SMT5600 car charger should work fine, but I'd rather have some consensus before I risk frying her phone.

You should be fine with the 5600 one. In fact, any USB car charger should work. I use one that I got a while ago for my iPAQ 3650. Seems to work just fine. Mind you, I don't often find myself out of charge while I'm in the car. ;)


That's it for now, but I'm sure there will be more questions soon....thanks in advance!

Hey, no problem. You know where to come to find the answers. :D

[Sven Johannsen]

On the calculator (or other) icon question. A great option is Facade. It was a front page post yesterday. I haven't loaded the latest but have been running Beta's since it started. Seems it may help on two fronts. You can have a launcher option which will allow a number of quick icons on the Home screen, and it seems to have some capability to re-arrange the screen a bit.

Check out Juni's designs here too fo the QVGA home screen. Just search on Juni.

[racerx]

On the car charger question, you can use a Motorola RAZR charger. Both car and house chargers work great on my 2125. You can get them relatively cheaply from www.eforcity.com.

[brianchris]

Three more questions:

On the PPC, there's a setting to automatically save email attatchments to the storage card, but I can't find a similar option in the smartphone...does it exist? If so, where?

On the PPC, there's a way to check memory stats (total vs. used), but I can't seem to find THAT setting either.

A syncronization issue happened last night that may (or may not be) related to the Smartphone platform: A couple days ago, my wife deleted at least 20 contacts on her phone, and her phone is set to auto-sync every 4 hours. Anyway, a couple days later, she noticed the deleted contacts were back, and now she doesn't believe me that its a true two way sync. I'm at a loss to explain it as I can't even think of a scenario were that could have happened, but it did happen.....any theories out there?

Thanks again!

-Brian

[brianchris]

No replies yet, but I think I've answered some of my questions....if I'm wrong about any of these, please correct me:


On the PPC, there's a setting to automatically save email attatchments to the storage card, but I can't find a similar option in the smartphone...does it exist? If so, where?


My research indicates this feature does NOT exist (even in the new WM5), however there are registry hacks that may work.


On the PPC, there's a way to check memory stats (total vs. used), but I can't seem to find THAT setting either.


I found a static reporting of these statistics in the ABout option under settings. 17MB total storage with 8MB free (with no apps installed to main memory)....does that sound about right? Or is that low?


A syncronization issue happened last night that may (or may not be) related to the Smartphone platform: A couple days ago, my wife deleted at least 20 contacts on her phone, and her phone is set to auto-sync every 4 hours. Anyway, a couple days later, she noticed the deleted contacts were back, and now she doesn't believe me that its a true two way sync. I'm at a loss to explain it as I can't even think of a scenario were that could have happened, but it did happen.....any theories out there?


Still don't have an idea of what happened here. One more thing I didn't mention is, at the time, I was syncronizing a laptop AND a Pocket PC of hers that likely hadn't been synced in awhile. As far as I understand though, that shouldn't of mattered, becuase the deletion timestamps on the items would have been the newest change to those items, over-rulling any other changes.

Any thoughts on any of this would still be appreciated, and thanks for all the help offered so far!

-Brian

[Jerry Raia]

A syncronization issue happened last night that may (or may not be) related to the Smartphone platform: A couple days ago, my wife deleted at least 20 contacts on her phone, and her phone is set to auto-sync every 4 hours. Anyway, a couple days later, she noticed the deleted contacts were back, and now she doesn't believe me that its a true two way sync. I'm at a loss to explain it as I can't even think of a scenario were that could have happened, but it did happen.....any theories out there?

Thanks again!

-Brian

Not sure if this applies but I don't think it's just a time stamp issue. If it appears that the item was changed in two places it will stop and ask you what to do. If it is an automatic sync it might just do nothing. Try doing an active sync on your PC.

[Jerry Raia]

Some would say it's an amazing phone, what with the hump and all. ;)

HEY! :twisted:

[Mike Temporale]

;)