Man am I confused - New S620 owner

[jethro10]

Well, I'm totally lost. Probably my fault for not researching deep enough and making some assumptions. I have just bought an unlocked S620, do you lot call it an excalibur?

I have had a lot of experience setting up various Dell Axim PPC machines at work and assumed It would be broadly similar, and setting up activesync, bluetooth etc is a breeze. Anyhow My research showed it is a WM5 device.

However NO software at all for WM5 devices install that I can find. Is there a problem with the HTC brand or have i missed something.

Also bough this specifically cos of WIFI as I use it on the Dell's to map to a share on the server for quickly copying files too/from the machine. Is it right this facility has been removed from WM5.

And finally no Pocket word/ excel ? Now I wouldnt do a lot of editing but I did use excel for simple lists.
And second finally. there seems nowhere to edit simple notes and sync them to outlook notes?
and third Finally. Whats this about not getting a repeating apointment for every day? I need 2 to remind me to to take medication. (man if I dont get much further i'll need more medication :D )

Oh man what a shame cos the machine look beautiful. Previously had a Treo 600

Jeff

[Mike Temporale]

Well, I'm totally lost. Probably my fault for not researching deep enough and making some assumptions. I have just bought an unlocked S620, do you lot call it an excalibur?

The code name was Excalibur. The device can be called any number of things. Currently being sold under HTC as the s620, or T-mobile as the Dash, and O2 has a version with a different name as well. ;)

I have had a lot of experience setting up various Dell Axim PPC machines at work and assumed It would be broadly similar, and setting up activesync, bluetooth etc is a breeze. Anyhow My research showed it is a WM5 device.

Ah, I see where this is going... :lol:

However NO software at all for WM5 devices install that I can find. Is there a problem with the HTC brand or have i missed something.

Yup. Here's the issue. There are two kinds of Windows Mobile 5 devices. There are Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC (and Pocket PC Phone Edition) devices and there are Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone devices. You just bought a Windows Mobile Smartphone device. Software that was written for the Pocket PC will not (for the most part) install and work on a Smartphone device. Mainly because Pocket PC software expects a touch screen which it won't find on the Smartphone. Now, sometimes there are exceptions, and that's basically the developer making sure that there app is cross compatible. However, for the most part, you need to check with the application developer for a Smartphone version. Most have one. ;)

Also bough this specifically cos of WIFI as I use it on the Dell's to map to a share on the server for quickly copying files too/from the machine. Is it right this facility has been removed from WM5.

No, again this is part of the difference between a Smartphone and a Pocket PC. The file manager on the Smartphone doesn't really have a way to map drives. I would look around at some of the third party file exlporer's and see if they can handle it.

And finally no Pocket word/ excel ? Now I wouldnt do a lot of editing but I did use excel for simple lists.

Microsoft has not released Office Mobile for the Smartphone. :evil: No idea why not. We've heard rumors that they are working on it, but that was a while ago and nothing yet. :( There are some 3rd party viewers, but they don't offer the editting that you're looking for. :?

And second finally. there seems nowhere to edit simple notes and sync them to outlook notes?

Nope, another thing they pulled from the Smartphone. Althought there are some great 3rd party replacements like Smartphone Notes.

and third Finally. Whats this about not getting a repeating apointment for every day? I need 2 to remind me to to take medication. (man if I dont get much further i'll need more medication :D )

Huh? You should be able to do this. Just create the repeating appointment in Outlook and it should be fine. No?

Hope that helps! Welcome to the site. 8)

[jethro10]

Thanks for the help, I quickly found out where this was going too !!
It seems like a Treo 700w would have been a better bet, these WM5 phone dude are seriously crippled.

About the apointment, I dont really want to sync alarms/calendars with Outlook, and it seems you can't set daily repeats, or workday repeats on the machine. but you say it works if created on outlook? strange world we live in.

so why are WM5 machines so limited in functionality, touch screen aside?

thanks again
Jeff

[Jerry Raia]

so why are WM5 machines so limited in functionality, touch screen aside?

Think of it like this, Pocket PC Phones are Pocket PC's first. Smartphones are phones first. Phones are generally designed for one handed operation even though this is starting to blur a bit. A touch screen pretty much rules out one handed operation for the most part.

[jethro10]

I think my biggest mistake was to thing WM5 was WM5 and that was that.
When I looked at the range of third part S/W available I thought "That will do me".

When is a WM5 not a WM5. When its a WM5.
damn. And the phone itself, especially the keyboard is spot on.

I was gonna use sprite backup and WIFI to copy my backups to a linux box via a Windows (samba) share and not use my PC at work for syncing. I definatly can't have personal alarms stacking up on my PC screen at work

oh well.
Jeff

[Mike Temporale]

I wouldn't say the Smartphone is limited. It's very powerful, but it does have a different focus from the Pocket PC. And there's plenty of software available for the Smartphone. Just check out our affilate store - http://software.smartphonethoughts.com 8)

[stereoroid]

And second finally. there seems nowhere to edit simple notes and sync them to outlook notes?
That was a bit of a surprise, but there's a semi-secret weapon for this job: MS OneNote Mobile. I'm running Office 2007 Beta 2, including OneNote, which recognised that I had attached a suitable device (HTC S620) and offered to install the Mobile version. The documents are synchronized with OneNote on the PC, the only gotcha I can see is that you have to close the page on the SP or you get a sync error.

About recurring appointments: every day is the one thing that doesn't seem to be available that way, but it is available in the Alarm...

I'm also a little disappointed that there is no Excel in particular, I'll have to look in to that. The absence of straight file sync means I can't use CryptoCard either (wallet software).

[voodoo]

I'm also a little disappointed that there is no Excel in particular, I'll have to look in to that.
I was also disappointed about this. I don't have a smartphone yet, but i came across this spreasheet software. Perhaps someone who's used this would care to comment?
http://software.smartphonethoughts.com/product.asp?id=7426

[deavod]

Check out ClearView Suite, it includes an Excel viewer. ClearView suite came on my i-mate Smartflip. I haven't used it personally but PTab Spreadhseet is available (http://software.smartphonethoughts.com/product.asp?id=7426)

For a notepad application check out this link: http://software.smartphonethoughts.com/product.asp?id=5723 ;)

For file sync there are tons of solutions available either free or for a small fee. One example is Rubber Stamped Data Sync.

I also heard that Office 2007 will include some WM5 Smartphone support but naturally I don't have Office 2007 :cry: