Friday, October 12, 2007

Hi, I've been away from the blog for awhile. First I had a bout of illness, then I was in Barcelona, Spain for about a week (where I had a horrible experience syncing my 7501 with my Sony UX UMPC with Vista, more later). Next week, I'll be in Berlin most of the week, but I'll try and work on the blog over the weekend.

Today, I received a fantastic response to the Blog, I'll just post it below, and try to get to some of the specifics later:

Hi George, I'm interested in the HTC Advantage. I found your fantastic blog today, although I thought I'd discovered all sites that refer to the Advantage. What I really like about your blog is exactly what you yourself put in the heading - it is made by a real user, who paid for his device and who's going to keep it for a while. This makes it much more interesting to read about your detailed experience of using it - all the little ins and outs. I do not (yet) own a Windows Mobile device. I've been using a Symbian based SonyEricsson P800 for the past 3-4 years or so. And prior to that I was using a (non phone enabled) Palm V. If I get the Advantage I'd be getting the X7500, simply because I'm based in Europe, and that front cam could be fun to use in a video call. When I first saw the X7500 I thought - "Wow it's got everything I need including the webcam!" However I've since learned the webcam is blocked by HTC unless it's opened specifically for the mobile carrier (such as T-mobile who sells the X7500 under the Ameo name). I had fancied using the cam with Skype, calling my three year old when I'm out travelling on business. BTW I was in Prague all last week. What a beautiful city it is. Are you looking for stuff to report on for your blog? You're a photographer, I'm a management consultant. One of the reasons I'd be getting this device is the VGA out - the ability to show images through a projector onto a screen. No one has yet been able to show that - only on computer screens or TVs. To be able to judge the quality I guess your video cam would need to be pretty high resolution. And perhaps you could also pass judgment on the quality based on your discerning eye, if you have access to a projector+screen. If I get the device I'd actually be looking to use it without the keyboard. I would like to use an on-screen keyboard. If you are looking into that area, I'd be curious about a comparison between Teksofts Fingertouch http://www.teksoftco.com/; Tengo (check out their video -the typist is typing 75 WORDS a minute albeit with a stylus) http://www.tengo.net/tengo_videos.html; and finally the new entry, cootek's touchpal http://www.cootek.com/. Just a thought in case you are looking into this stuff. A couple of other minor comments: I believe it would have been easier to find your blog had you used the word "Advantage" in your X7501 title as well, since I've been searching for the X7500 I have not come across your blog until now. Your review of the keyboards, I would have liked to have seen more of the smaller one as well, and what would it be like to put the X7501, without the magnetic keyboard, against the little support that is provided with the igo stowaway smaller keyboard? Finally, a couple of thoughts. I read about your having to soft reset the device every now and then. You can program both hard and software buttons for this using for example AE Button Plus software. Are you familiar with http://www.xda-developers.com/ ? You'll find a whole thread there dedicated to the Advantage/Ameo/X7500/X7501. Looking forward to reading more on your blog. Very best regards, David

Hope to post more at the weekend and below is my quick response to the comments above:

Hi,

Thanks for this fantastic post. I've been busy with work and haven'tbeen able to work on the blog for awhile. I'll try to devote severalhours to it this weekend before going to Berlin this weekend.I want to address several of your questions on the blog. Some of themare beyond me.I'd like to say in this short note, I've changed the name of the blogto reflect your suggestion. Very good idea.

Next I highly recommend the HTC 7501. I am writing the blog in hopesthat HTC will market future versions of the 7500 and not abandon the platform.

I have a really wonderful camera, the Sony R1. Apparently salesweren't good enough on this model, and Sony stopped making it after a year. I rushed out and bought six of them. But I will always be stuck with old technology.

I think the 7500 is aimed at a niche market, serious people, not at kids who want toys like the IPhone. Hopefully, I can help to pointout the advantages of this device so that HTC will continue to upgrade it in the future.

My advice is to buy the 7500, but try to make sure it has WM 6.0 not 5.0. WM 6.0 is much better than 5.0. I had 5.0 on my Qtek 9000.

A colleague has the Nokia E90. IMHO the 7501 runs circles around the E90. I like the 7501 so much, I've quite carrying my equally tiny Sony UX with me except when I travel. The 7501 is so much faster than the Vista machine. I'd like to do a speed test for the blog sometuime. Ido find the UMPC to be better for surfing the web than the 7501. Opera works very well on the 7501, but it is still not as good as a desktop browser, especially when you have to fill in forms and passwords. I bought the 7501 because it was first out with WM 6.0. Otherwise, Iwould have gotten a 7500 here in Europe. HTC has since released an update for the 7500 to WM 6.0. I bought m7 7501 from Amazon in the USA and had someone mule it over to me. Guess what?, it came with pre release software, and I had to reflash it here.

The 7501 is not perfect. After all it is a phone. But I've gotten used to it's drawbacks and have found workarounds for most of them. That's something my friend with the E90 cannot always do.

Again, thanks,George Fisher

HTC 7501 Bluetooth Keyboards

Hi, I've been away for awhile with a bout of flu. Below are two videos on using the HTC 7501 with Stowaway Bluetooth keyboards.



And Part Two:

HTC 7501 Using the Camera

September 5, 2007

Here is part of a question I received yesterday:

"I like the text and the movies.couple of questions--- my exterior camera button won't start my camera. Must go to start menu and proceed from there..."

I must admit I haven't previously successfully used the camera on the HTC 7501, so I decided to do what everyone hates: RTFMS. I went back to the manual. The camera takes a little bit of learning, but once you're comfortable with it, I believe it is a very useful tool.

I've prepared a video tutorial on the camera which is split in two parts because of the time limitation on YouTube:

Part One:






Part Two:





Please send your comments or questions to drakeseu@gmail.com or post a comment on this blog

Sim Card Contacts

Today, I received the following comment:



"What a great blog!I just bought my 7501 on 8-31. Got the "beta version"and downloaded the new Rom. I have replaced a phone, pda, camera and Ipod. My purse is feeling pretty light right now.I like the text and the movies.couple of questions--- my exterior camera button won't start my camera. Must go to start menu and proceed from there. Also, do you know a way to separate my sim card contacts from my outlook contacts. I don't want them to come up together. I have several hundred contacts in Outlook and don't want to scroll down thru all of them to find my brother's phone #.Am loving my new toy. Just need to get used to it. Already used some of your tips. Keep up the good work"



I spent a little time and researched Sim Card Contacts. Below is a small YouTube video on how to make calls using contacts on SIM card. I have a very nifty phone management program, and I'll do a video on that soon.



I must admit, I'll have to research the camera question.



The direct link is:






If you have questions about the 7501, please send them to me at drakeseu@gmail.com and I'll do my best to answer them.

Second Hard Reset

05:30 Friday, August 24, 2007
Yesterday, I did a hard reset on the HTC 7501.
When the phone first arrived pre release software was installed. After consulting the HTC website, HTC service, and receiving an email from Amazon.com recommending the reinstall, I did it.
With this reinstall, Opera did not install. I just changed IE to the default browser. There was no TelNet GPS software, and I couldn't set up a hotmail email account.
On the 21st I installed a Newsreader program from an extremely trusted source. It wouldn't download it's catalog, and my internet connection stopped working. I installed the software, and deleted the internet connection and set it up again. The Internet worked for awhile, and then stopped working. Redid the connection again. It would work for awhile, and then stop working. When I did a backup, I noticed the backup was saving some files from the uninstalled reader program.
That did it. Time for a hard reset. My only question: Would the pre-release software come back? I thought, If so, I'll just reinstall the updated OS from HTC again. Fortunately, the pre-release software didn't come back.
I spent all day yesterday reinstalling and tweaking the HTC 7501. For some reason, it seem to be working smooth as silk now. There were a few glitches with the first re-install.
I've been busy working all week. Hopefully, on Saturday and Sunday, I'll have time to prepare some mover YouTube videos on this remarkable phone

Switching between open programs

August 20, 2007

I've done another YouTube video on how to switch between open programs in the 7501 using SPB Pocket Plus, can save a lot of time.



Here is the direct link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1K9azei8R4

Next, I'll post some other reviews of the 7501 and one of the HTC Shift and make some comments on them.

Setting up Email on the HTC 7501

August 19, 2007

I've seen posts on forums from folks who are having trouble settng up email on the HTC 7501. Couldn't be easier, at least for Gmail.

I've done a little YouTube video showing how:

The direct URL is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLlCOpkiFsE