Toshiba e800 Windows Mobile 2003 SE Update Released on Toshiba.de Site

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.mobilegadgetnews.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1482&mode=nested&order=0&thold=0' target='_blank'>http://www.mobilegadgetnews.com/mod...order=0&thold=0</a><br /><br /></div>Sean from MGN has a pleasant surprise for you e800 owners: Toshiba Germany has posted the Windows Mobile 2003 SE upgrade on their site, and strangely enough, it seems to work on North American-SKU'd devices. 8O Sean installed the update onto his North American e800 device, and it seems to be working. It's in English, VGA is active across the entire device, WiFi is working, and no Bluetooth software was installed. This is risky stuff though folks - ROM upgrades aren't to be fooled with, so you may want to wait a bit before taking the plunge. This makes me think this is a worldwide software package that installs only what's needed for that particular device.<br /><br />From the Toshiba page: "This Windows Mobile SE Update (Pocket PC 2003 SE Update) includes all necessary file for the Update. Also a Upgrade Guide is included with detailed instructions how the upgrade must be done.NOTE:Some programs may not run , or run only limited, under this new Operating System. In this case please ask the vendor of this program for an Update.To use the new features of WM2003 SE, the software must be designed specially for WM2003 SE."<br /><br />Makes me wish I had an e800... :D

[mf24]

I hope Toshiba are still planning to offer free SE for the e400.

[JTEK]

Lots of little caveats with this upgrade. For instance,...

Recording using the Record Button
This PDA does not support the "Stay in the current program" option of Notes that allows recording in the background. To make a recording, you must close the current program and then launch the Notes application. If you change program, Notest will stop recording.

Auto launching function
Even if "Detect digital camera storage cards" is checked for Options on Pictures, the auto launching function is not available on this model. You will need to launch Pictures manually and select the storage cards.

Limitation of Video Out function
The IA-Mirror function int he ATI Presentation pack and the Wireless Projector Utility are not available with teh Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition for Pocket PC Operating System.

Bench mark data
Benchmark data may differ from previous updates.

Windows Media Player
The screen size for video files is one-fourth of the size from previous file updates.

Microsoft Reader
The Microsoft Reader application is not included on this model. If you wish to use it, be sure to download it from the Microsoft web site and install it onto your system.

ClearType
When you enable ClearType, the screen's display color may be slightly altered.

Battery Life
In some case, the battery life is a little shorter than the before update. [sic]


As I said, lots of caveats. As an e805 owner, I'm concerned that I might be downgrading my unit instead of "upgrading". I'm also concerned that the U.S. site doesn't have its update-ROM available yet either; I wonder if some of these issues won't be present in their upgrade.

[JTEK]

I hope Toshiba are still planning to offer free SE for the e400.

They are. In the PDF file, it mentions the upgrade as being available for e400/e800 models (no mention of it being "free", though). Here's the quote:

Status after Update
Toshiba Pocket PC e800/e400 is updated to Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition for Pocket PC, it also includes Adaptation Kit Update 1/2 of Pocket PC 2003 and improves some issue. [sic]

I have a feeling they're going to use the same PDF file they created for the e800 once the e400 upgrade becomes available.

[DarkHelmet]

Hmmm - first OEM with an SE upgrade.

Count yourself lucky - if you get it to work...

At least Toshiba owners are getting upgrades (at any price) - anoyne else being offered upgrades - ViewSonic? HP?

Anyone?

Oh yeah - I forgot - we're supposed to buy new Pocket PCs...

Bleh! Pit-tooey...

[JTEK]

Oh yeah - I forgot - we're supposed to buy new Pocket PCs....

Duh. :)

[Garry [WMA]]

Ok I've tried this. Firstly I have to say Iwas amazed how good truetype looks on all the screens - really wasn't expecting that improvement - very impressive.

On the downside I've been trying reader and appear to get a lot of lock ups.

[JTEK]

]Ok I've tried this. Firstly I have to say Iwas amazed how good truetype looks on all the screens - really wasn't expecting that improvement - very impressive.

On the downside I've been trying reader and appear to get a lot of lock ups.

Wha? Microsoft's own Reader (for .lit files)? You had to download it from the MS site after upgrading, right?

[Garry [WMA]]

Yes. I had to redownload Reader from Microsoft's site and re-install. It comes up with the caveat that this program may not work properly as its designed for an earlier operating system. So far it seems to work fine if you navigate using buttons but tapping on the screen seems to have very long delays before anything happens - indeed so long I'd though it had locked up. I'm just uninstalling some other software to make sure there isn't a conflict somewhere.

[JTEK]

Garry:

Cool. Thanks for the update. As a constant user of MSReader (I love reading on my PDA), I was becoming concerned. I guess I still am. 8O

Let us know how other apps fare under the upgrade. Haven't had a chance to update the ROM yet, but am (sort of) looking forward to it.

Really curious if Dashboard and WisBar Advance work on it.

[Fishie]

Updated a moment ago.

Played around a lil bit.

Reason battery life might be shorter is becouse the machine ALWAYS runs in VGA mode.

Programs that didnt stretch acros the screen(like the Toshiba world clock) in the past now do so and the text in it looks really sharp, the graphics tough off course are still for the old resolution so those are not as sharp as the text.

Really nice colours and damn its sharp.

Landscape works nicely and now I will try some of my old favourite programmes.

Strangely a lot of the programes that used to be included no longer seem to be(the Clearvue suite for instance) which leads me to believe that this is a standard isseu MS update with very little Toshiba customisation.
Toshiba says these programmes can be downloaded from their site or from the CD.

You win some, you lose some.

Did I mention things look really sharp yet?

[Marcel_Proust]

Garry:

Cool. Thanks for the update. As a constant user of MSReader (I love reading on my PDA), I was becoming concerned. I guess I still am. 8O

Let us know how other apps fare under the upgrade. Haven't had a chance to update the ROM yet, but am (sort of) looking forward to it.

Really curious if Dashboard and WisBar Advance work on it.

You may want to look at the discussion at pocketpctools.
Most Toshiba have been enjoying the power of vga fully released with a free hack called myvga. For many, this upgrade will be a downgrade, as many apps have been locked from using vga, ie, ie. also, many programs are still not updated at all for se. reader is beautiful with e800 and myvga.

[jpjehu]

does the update keep things either big and pixelated or small and hard-to-read - or can you have VGA-type resolution in normal QVGA-type screen sizes? I'm very curious.

[jahloysius]

I've posted some early impressions and screenshots if anyone wants to take a look.

http://thinkbox.finalverdict.net

[Robert Levy]

does the update keep things either big and pixelated or small and hard-to-read - or can you have VGA-type resolution in normal QVGA-type screen sizes? I'm very curious.

For the most part, things in Second Edition are the same size but appear clearer and crisper. For those that want to take advantage of the resolution to fit more on the screen, there is a control panel you can use to adjust the font size. However, it is up to each application to decide if/when it will pay attention to this control panel setting.

[jpjehu]

sounds great - thanks for the answer!

[HTK]

I've posted some early impressions and screenshots if anyone wants to take a look.

http://thinkbox.finalverdict.net

That was fast!
too bad the screenshots are not full resolution :(

[Deralict]

I've posted some early impressions and screenshots if anyone wants to take a look.

http://thinkbox.finalverdict.net



I can't get that link to work...anyone else having problems?

[bitbank]

I just did the upgrade and it looks SHARP. The hi-res soft-keyboard looks especially great. Microsoft did a great job on the hi-res versions of the text and icons. So far everything seems to work fine (including my Wireless LAN).

L.B.

Update... GAPI is broken - all of my game software which uses GAPI has stopped working. GDI works fine, but I need to debug what broke with GAPI. Also toolbars with buttons seems to be messed up as well.

L.B.

[Mitch D]

I did the upgrade on the display unit here at work and all I can do is :drool: . I love the built in screen orientation ability, especially on the E800! Makes me want to replace my X3i right now but I am going to wait for the new ipaqs to come out in July.

[Kacey Green]

Windows Media Player
The screen size for video files is one-fourth of the size from previous file updates.
Isn't this to be expected when quadrupling the screen resolution without increasing the size?

[Jason Dunn]

Isn't this to be expected when quadrupling the screen resolution without increasing the size?

Correct, good catch - people forget about this part. 320 x 240 video will no longer fill the screen - you'd need to encode at 640 x 480. Unfortunately, even the SE version of WMP doesn't have a "fit to screen" function. WMV files scale up to 200% quite nicely with little distortion, so this makes more sense than doing 640 x 480 encoding (although that's obviously the best decision from a quality standpoint). Hopefully the next version of WMP will be improved...I just wish they had included it in this version. :evil:

[Kacey Green]

what if you switch to full-screen mode, does it still stretch? or did they take that out? (like when you define a button for full screen?)

[enemy2k2]

In support of another posters caveats: http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/103/C2868/

[Jason Dunn]

what if you switch to full-screen mode, does it still stretch? or did they take that out? (like when you define a button for full screen?)

It doesn't stretch now - the current version of WMP has no "fit to screen" function that goes UP. It will crop a bigger video, but it will not take a 320 x 240 video and zoom it up to 640 x 480.

[whydidnt]

I gotta be honest. I was hyped to buy the first 2nd Edition E800 I found. However after reading how not even the Microsoft apps are VGA aware, I'm thinking that I'll save my $600.00 and wait for the MPx to come out.

I'm very surprised that MS announced VGA support in this release, but doesn't even enable VGA support for the core apps such as IE.

Hats off to Toshiba for being the first to release an upgrade, but Boo to them for not providing any real VGA benefit with the release. Text is plenty clear on most QVGA screens I've played with, why have 640 x 480 resolution if you don't get to see more on the screen? :evil:

whydidnt

[bitbank]

VGA support works well in most apps (including IE), but there are still some bumps in the road (such as video playback). I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the "ozone" release of PPC. Patches will be released to fix the things that they missed.

L.B.

[Kacey Green]

what if you switch to full-screen mode, does it still stretch? or did they take that out? (like when you define a button for full screen?)

It doesn't stretch now - the current version of WMP has no "fit to screen" function that goes UP. It will crop a bigger video, but it will not take a 320 x 240 video and zoom it up to 640 x 480.

so if I take this and map button 3 to "toggle full screen" it will do nothing with smaller res video? but if I do it with a larger than VGA video will it be cropped or shrunk? I know during regular mode you can have it crop the video to fit the skin. I guess the best way to ask this is, "when you push the aforementioned button 3 will the smaller than VGA video have a black box around it?"

[whydidnt]

VGA support works well in most apps (including IE), but there are still some bumps in the road (such as video playback). I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the "ozone" release of PPC. Patches will be released to fix the things that they missed.

L.B.

Are you sure about this? Everything I've read so far says that "VGA Support" is really just pixel doubling (in MS apps, including IE). This means we have 320 x 240 pixels of information, but the text, images etc are drawn twice to use the 640X480 resoultion of the device. It makes the text very sharp, but you still have to side scroll, etc. to see the information displayed.

[Marcel_Proust]

VGA support works well in most apps (including IE), but there are still some bumps in the road (such as video playback). I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the "ozone" release of PPC. Patches will be released to fix the things that they missed.

L.B.

Are you sure about this? Everything I've read so far says that "VGA Support" is really just pixel doubling (in MS apps, including IE). This means we have 320 x 240 pixels of information, but the text, images etc are drawn twice to use the 640X480 resoultion of the device. It makes the text very sharp, but you still have to side scroll, etc. to see the information displayed.

As much as I love PocketPCthoughts, the Toshiba e800 community isn't well developed here so is a lot of misinformation around.
Please go to the pocketpctools or the brighthand forums to understand the situation.
In brief - as is e800 + myVGA hack = everything then is in VGA and beautiful. some system text, small, and difficult to read. difficult for some people, great for others.
new SE upgrade - not everything in VGA anymore, notably ie. systemtext always good. this upgradeis good for some, a definite downgrade for others.
The ROM Flash is reversible.

[bitbank]

Yes, let's clarify what you're getting with SE. Everything runs in VGA hi-DPI mode. Internet Explorer shows a 480x640 display with good looking text. So do the other built-in apps.

The only apps which will run in pixel-doubled mode are apps not market "SE-aware". I tested some of my software and pixel doubling mode looks ugly because it really doesn't just double the pixels. Things look kind of blocky and crooked.

Microsoft appears to have marked all of their built-in apps as SE-aware, so they all look good and use the full resolution.

L.B.

[alex_kac]

VGA support works well in most apps (including IE), but there are still some bumps in the road (such as video playback). I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the "ozone" release of PPC. Patches will be released to fix the things that they missed.

L.B.

Are you sure about this? Everything I've read so far says that "VGA Support" is really just pixel doubling (in MS apps, including IE). This means we have 320 x 240 pixels of information, but the text, images etc are drawn twice to use the 640X480 resoultion of the device. It makes the text very sharp, but you still have to side scroll, etc. to see the information displayed.

No, the core MS apps are all VGA enabled. I've been using a SE enabled PPC now since January and the only things that weren't VGA enabled then were OEM stuff. By now, even the OEM stuff is VGA enabled (well most of it anyhow).

[Marcel_Proust]

VGA support works well in most apps (including IE), but there are still some bumps in the road (such as video playback). I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the "ozone" release of PPC. Patches will be released to fix the things that they missed.

L.B.

Are you sure about this? Everything I've read so far says that "VGA Support" is really just pixel doubling (in MS apps, including IE). This means we have 320 x 240 pixels of information, but the text, images etc are drawn twice to use the 640X480 resoultion of the device. It makes the text very sharp, but you still have to side scroll, etc. to see the information displayed.

No, the core MS apps are all VGA enabled. I've been using a SE enabled PPC now since January and the only things that weren't VGA enabled then were OEM stuff. By now, even the OEM stuff is VGA enabled (well most of it anyhow).

I'm not sure Bitbank, how you're coming up with this information, but it simply isn't true. IE is not VGA enabled with the SE update.
Opinions are fine, but they don't change the truth.
I would encourage people to check out the forums in pocketpctools.

[huangzhinong]

It's updated, but not as you expected: PURE SMALL FONT AND ICON 480*640 IE.

A lot of people in PocketPcTools are spoiled by MyVga and they expect a mini-Tablet, not a USABLE pocketPc.

[bitbank]

The situation with IE is a bit different than other apps. It is HI_RES_AWARE, but still stretches bitmaps to 2x2 instead of letting them display at their native size. I'm pretty sure that this was on purpose because at 192dpi, the web images would look too small. But you still get the benefits of the hi-res display for lots of clear text and desktop-like formatting. Here is a screen shot:

http://www.bitbanksoftware.com/downloads/ie_vga.jpg[/img]

[Jon Westfall]

Wish I spoke german... :(

[bitbank]

dadarkmcse,
The German Toshiba site is hosting the update, but they have ENGLISH ROM images.

L.B.

[whydidnt]

The situation with IE is a bit different than other apps. It is HI_RES_AWARE, but still stretches bitmaps to 2x2 instead of letting them display at their native size. I'm pretty sure that this was on purpose because at 192dpi, the web images would look too small. But you still get the benefits of the hi-res display for lots of clear text and desktop-like formatting.

Sorry, but I don't think that screen shot shows a VGA image. I ran Nyditot on my 2215 at 480 X 640 to compare and I was able to see a much larger portion of the screen - though the text was admittedly difficult to read since the 2215 only supports the 240 x 320 screen. The text at the largest setting was easily large enough to be read, but was blurry.

MS may have "enhanced" the applications for the VGA screen, but it doesn't look like they really enabled true VGA support the way some of us hoped they would to take advantage of all of those extra pixels. Right now my opinion is that all VGA is doing in IE is making the screen refresh slower and burning the battery faster.... :cry:

[bitbank]

Update... I've got the GAPI issues resolved and it requires a small code change to all of my apps. This is not a big deal, but the screen orientation seems to be a real bad kludge (on Microsoft's part).

On my e805 when working in landscape mode (either left or right), the display update performance slows to a crawl. Based on what I am observing, it appears that windows is drawing the display at its normal orientation to an internal buffer, and then rotating it 90 degrees onto the display. You can see a "wave" as it paints the display which would indicate it is not drawing the text rotated onto the display. It really looks awful. I'm not a big fan of landscape mode, but this looks like someone took a shortcut to make it work.

More observations soon...

[Marcel_Proust]

It's updated, but not as you expected: PURE SMALL FONT AND ICON 480*640 IE.

A lot of people in PocketPcTools are spoiled by MyVga and they expect a mini-Tablet, not a USABLE pocketPc.

Well what's wrong with being spoilt? We paid a lot to have the supreme machine.

Anyways, the usual suspects are busy with patches and hacks, so soon I expect it to be more usable:

http://discussion.brighthand.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=105601

[pivaska]

I just downloaded SE and I am loading up the important things first however has anyone found out if WisBar Adv works with it or not?

[Fishie]

I just downloaded SE and I am loading up the important things first however has anyone found out if WisBar Adv works with it or not?

Nope, I had to soft reset whenever I tried to get it to work.

[pivaska]

I just downloaded SE and I am loading up the important things first however has anyone found out if WisBar Adv works with it or not?

Nope, I had to soft reset whenever I tried to get it to work.

I got most of it to work except the most important item which is the close all when trying to tap and hold the date/time. I have to access the settings by going to the file explorer and reach them from there. If anyone gets the "close all" to work please post.

[pivaska]

Concering WisBar. I had to uninstall the advanced version and reinstalled the older version. The older version works. The only thing is that it can't be skinned.

Does anyone know if the Spb Pocket Plus 2.0 works or not?

[Deralict]

Spb Pocket Plus 2.0 does NOT work (not entirely at least). Spb is aware of it and are developing an upgrade which was supposed to be available for beta testing this week (which BTW it's not)

[pivaska]

Has anyone figured out to get Media Player to show movies at the right size? Is there another player out there that can do the job? 20 fps at 640x480 just doesn't do the trick with a 400 processor.