AKU2 From i-mate - Was it Worth the Wait?

[Mike Temporale]

i-mate released their AKU2 ROM (http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10691) (with MSFP enabled) for their Windows Mobile Smartphones SP5 and SP5m, in late March. The ROM included had numerous bug fixes and enhancements, most notably is the addition of the Messaging and Security Feature Pack. But, is the upgrade worth doing on your beloved Smartphone?

http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/Temporale-20050914-imatelogo.jpg

One of the best undocumented features I have stumbled across in this ROM is the super fast scrolling in Pocket IE. Not only have they mapped the #2 and #8 keys for paging up and down, but they also fixed the really annoying slow scroll. I love the new experience. I'm not fond of the keys they selected for paging, but I know how to change (http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10102) those values. ;) <!> Another change that I really like is the improved storage memory management. Before I flashed my device, I could not free up more than 7 meg of storage memory. That is after I removed all my applications and emptied the cache on Pocket IE. After flashing the device and reloading all the same applications and data, it now says 10 megs free, and it hasn't moved much from that spot (Surfing aside). I don't know what they changed here, but it certainly seems better. :D

So, with all that good, there has to be something bad, right? Right. Unfortunately, i-mate managed to break some things in the process of fixing others. My Reminders used to loop until I acknowledged them. It would play, and then a couple minutes later, it would do it again. Until I got so annoyed that I ran over the phone to shut it off. But don't get me wrong, this is the preferred behavior. I want my reminders to remind me. Now, for whatever reason, reminders either fire once, or not at all. That's right, sometimes I don't even get the reminder on my phone. What good is that? :(

Over the weekend I noticed so more odd behavior. My phone was trying to ring, but the ringtone could hardly make it out of the speakers. It keep cutting in and out. At first, I figured that some other program must have been running, so after the call was done I checked the task manager, and guess what, nothing else was running. Another broken experience.

I've seen some posts in the forums, and it looks like I'm not alone here. I was extremely happy to see a ROM upgrade released for the Smartphone platform. That is such a rare thing to see. Now, I stuck with the decision of keeping the latest, or going back to the better ROM. It's just so frustrating knowing that Microsoft released this AKU back in August of 2005. HTC and i-mate have had this to test for 7 months, and it still has bugs in some of the most commonly used areas of the phone. Come on i-mate, who is running your QA department? Have they actually used the phones, because it doesn't look like it to me. :evil:

[jfreiman]

I changed but then changed back to the posted Cingular ROM.

I did see speed improvements, but I also saw that my phone locked up much more frequently and would require me to remove the battery to recover.

Was it worth it? Sure, I enjoyed the experience but I want a stable phone, not a faster less stable one.

It's interesting that other phone carriers around the globe have released this ROM version for their customers given the fact that, for me, it was less stable.

Let's hope that Cingular and HTC can come out with an updated ROM which gives us the speed, bluetooth stereo and stability in a timely fashion.

[Sven Johannsen]

I haven't even bothered to load it. Hints of undocumented gee-whizzes, and reports of perceived speed increases do little for me. MSFP does nothing for me. The disappointment with the lack of any improvement in the BT experience (read no A2DP) leaves a bitter taste.

You know, a list of 'here's what we fixed, or improved', would go a long way towards making the upgrade something to look at. As it is, all we know is that "Hey, we are more like a BlackBerry now, isn't that great." Never got the draw there in the first place. I've always been able to GET my mail in a timely manner. I refuse to be a slave to it. If someone sends me something they need me to look at right away, they can darn well call me, or even text me, and I can retrieve it. This is a phone after all.

I run an exchange server, but I never even set up exchange sync. Why?, I loose to much. No notes, files, favorites, databases (oh yea, that's gone now too anyway), etc. Used to be able to sync all that stuff with my desktop remotely. Can't do that anymore..not safe..but I could get my SPAM real time now.