Related
I never thought id see the day I'd get rid of my beloved Athena, but yesterday I had an awakening.
Only a few days before i'd had a play on an IPhone and marvelled at its intuitive, smooth and just bloody BRILLIANT interface. it almost shocked me just how crude, ill-thought-out and unsatisfying windows mobile is in comparison. Now please don't baulk at this statement; i'm NOT going to buy an IPhone, it doesn't do enough for me and it's overpriced. But remember, this is Apple's FIRST. need I repeat FIIIIRRRSSST attempt at the mobile os market. how have they got it right so effortlessly while Microsoft, with all their years of experience in the field continue to make such crap?
I have shaken off my bias towards Microsoft and now simply resent their seeming inability to produce a mobile os that works well.
I don't wish this thread to be about the iphone. We all know its only 2g, can't do mms and doesn't have a particularly good camera. what it does do it does WELL though.
The same is true of Nokia's n800 and n810 internet tablets with os2008. they play YOUTUBE with flash 9. they render web pages smoothly and effortlessly. they look and feel nice. my n95 also - its web browser loads up data-heavy web pages PHENOMINALLY quicker than my Athena, despite its processor and ram spec being distinctly inferior.
why am I getting rid of my Ameo?
Put simply: it just doesn't work. it works a hell of a lot BETTER thanks to PK and the developers, but to all intents and purposes, when you really need it to work, it just doesn't. This is true of ALL windows mobile devices.
How often have you needed to use Internet Explorer to check something on the fly and been frustrated by a constant 'connecting' or 'opening' message for no apparent reason? How often has your windows mobile device crashed, frozen or botched up for no reason? I could go on, but I prefer to give my own personal remedy to the situation, and here it is....
dig out my old Hermes, dust off the cobwebs. use this for all my organising, scheduling etc...
install WmWifiRouter so my Hermes acts as a perfect wifi access point when its HSDPA capabilities are required.
buy a shiny tiny black ASUS eee subnotebook for a little under 230 quid.
connect shiny tiny black ASUS eee subnotebook to Hermes access point when internet is required away from home.
sell Athena to anyone who hasn't realised Windows Mobile is crap yet.
it seems to me that Microsoft are about to fall under the shadow of Apple and Nokia quite abruptly. somebody tell me i'm wrong!
p.s. - Athena for sale if anyone wants one
sounds like you either did a bad flash or got a bad batch coz my athena has never crashed once or had any of the problems you described.never the less,how much are you selling it for?is it an x7501 or x7500?
i can see what your on about , but personally i find that my Athena(Ameo) ticks about every box i want it to.
I want an all in one device for browsing, streaming, phoning and texting and running some other apps and the Athena is the only all in one device that ticks all those boxes for me. I like the thought of the Eee PC but only if it can run XP properly but still you need 2 devices which isnt what i want to do.
Hi Leoni1980,
I think its a question of how you configure your device. I agree that WM6 in its native mode is crap. It takes too many strokes to start an applicatio. It does not tell you what applications are active. It is difficult to switch from one to another. Yes, the list could be long.
However, I also find that with WM6 there are so many good third party software to overcome these limitations. While it takes too many clicks to start an application, iLauncher allows me to put every single applications on the today screen. While Wm6 does not tell you what applications are alive, wktask puts every running application on the taskbar and let me switch to anyone easily. WM6 lets me multitask. While pocket IE is crude in its navigation, pieplus makes it all pleasant.
For me, everything works extremely well. Athena is almost perfect in terms of portability, battery life, screen size and connectivity..
However, I agree that internet browsing is too slow. Even comparing it with a dialed up connection on a pc, it is relatively slow, unless I use the "mobile" versions of webpages. With the mobile versions, everything is snappy and instantaneous. Is Nokia not like that? Is Nokia able to let you browse the desktop version of webpages without any response time delay? If it is, microsoft would truly got to wake up and do something about it. Another thing that we have to be careful is not to fall into the trap of thinking grass is greener on the other side. According to Nokia customer support the N800 does not support 802.1X authentication with EAP-TTLS and PAP. Also, despite being a Linux based device the N800 lacks out of the box support for Ogg format media files.
So, Nokia is able to play the desktop version of youtube. I agree that this is a glaring disadvantage of Wm6 at the moment. W don't have the latest version of flash. Why is this the case is hard for me to understand. Why can Nokia have it and not WM6? Now, the only way to watch youtube desktop version is to download the flv files. Would be nice to be able to watch them without having to first download the videos.
You're now carrying two devices. A subnotebook and an old Hermes. This is definitely not a good way for me, because the subnotebook is too big and too battery short for me to carry it with me all the time. Not to mention that now there are two pieces of gear to carry instead of just one.
Having an all in one requires some compromises. You won't have the best digital camera in the world with this arrangement. Similarly, you won't have the biggest screens to go with it. There is always room for improvement, but for now, I still think Athena is the best device available in the market.
if i had to carry the subnotebook about ALL THE TIME i would agree, however i have the hermes for when i'm unfortunate enough to have to use internet explorer mobile.
The EEE is not actually THAT MUCH bigger than the Athena, and has very good battery life- almost twice that of the Shift running Vista. It is also capable of running full Xp. there are lots of videos on the subject and the EEE manual even tells you how to do it. Although on paper the EEE has a poorer battery life it is also far more responsive and thus allows me to do things in a quarter of the time it would on the Athena. As such battery life is not really an issue.
With regard to the N95's ability to display full web pages - I promise you this is the case. I've even found it capable of accessing sites the Athena was not capable of.
I initially wrote this off as perhaps a better 3g transmitter on the N95, but i tested my Athena over wifi for the first time the other day and still it rendered web pages in a painfully sluggish manner, despite our relatively fast broadband connection. The same was true when tested with Opera. This makes me believe that there is an inherent problem with the architecture of windows mobile which even the greatest developer couldn't overcome.
I wholly disagree with shortyboy's bad flash assertion - I've owned windows mobile devices for years and this problem has always existed.
Nor is it a configuration issue. I spend most of my days off tweaking phones to improve their performance. The fact is that no amount of tweaking will make an Athena as good at rendering web pages as a nokia or an iphone. Once microsoft sees this they might (we hope) scrap their plans to release wm7 with (no doubt) its FEW performance tweaks, the cute little flag in the top left-hand corner and the new, hardly-improved I.E. and build a whole new O.S. from scratch which makes the most of modern mobile cpus, doesn't look 10 years old and does everything it should out of the box. That way stupid hybrid devices like the Shift would never get off the ground as there would LITERALLY be no need for them.
Yes the Athena ticks every box in terms of connectivity - unfortunately this fact clouded my judgment of its actual performance - and that of all such devices - yes you can purchase all the third party software under the sun to make windows mobile usable but this software only makes life a little better, it doesn't FIX the problems.
Just have a play on an n810 when it comes out this month and you'll see what I mean -os2008 is so smooth, well-considered and functional. Just try browsing the internet on it, or watching a video on it. It just WORKS and works well. Even OS 2007 outperforms windows mobile.
Cex sell n800s for 200quid. This month they will all be upgradeable to os2008. The pocket gadget side of me is SORELY tempted!!
p.s. its an x7500 t-mobile branded. It has the 4-in-one and lots of other bits.
I agree with many of your points on the Athenas lack of usability.
Mine is used for little more than a wireless access point these days, I'm in prison typing this on my Asus Eee pc running XP, which is much more of a pleasure to use for email and web browsing. (Not in prison as an inmate, I'm an officer...)
This nokia N800. It does not have a GPS, does it?
How about third party software?
I hope to check out on this myself. Anyone knows where in Sydney I could try out this device?
athena project need an athena
Midget_1990 said:
athena project need an athena
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its here if you need it Midget.
eaglesteve - the n800 has no inbuilt GPS receiver, although it is compatible with map software (including gmaps and Nokia Maps) and any bluetooth receivers. Many people prefer separate gps receivers as they can be positioned more effectively in the vehicle. It is pretty much identical in hardware terms to the n810 aside from the built-in keyboard and GPS. processor and ram are the same and it has two SDHC slots as opposed to the single one on the n810.
I think it's a bargain myself.
Took delivery of my black eee pc today and I'm so impressed by its size and performance. Everything works out of the box, from BBC online to divx stage six to youtube. It even picks up and syncs with my Ipod, and you can mod the look of the os to your heart's content.
ALL FOR JUST OVER 200 QUID!
It's bigger than the Athena, sure, but I had to carry the Athena in a bag anyway and the weight/mass difference is negligible in this scenario. The battery life is not technically as good either - but it boots SOOOOOO quick that this almost isn't an issue. I can fire it up and use it when I need it if I'm out, and merrily use my old Hermes for practical pocket pc/telephone duties - even Wifi access point functionality.
I literally don't need the Athena anymore.
I don't like a separate GPS unit. It means I need to carry two devices when I play golf, and can't get the fix prior to entering my car. Also, when I get off the train and walk, I can't use it to tell me direction to my destination as easily as Athena.
I still think Athena is the best for now. But I'm all ready to switch if there is a better product. I don't see such a product yet.
WM6 = WM5
Just think about that and try to realize that Windows Mobile 5 is A LOT OLDER than the OS'es on the iPhone and N800/N810.
WM7 will change a LOT on an HTC. (Different shell, different hardware)
And before you insult HTC, you need to wait on the new OS.
Agree.
WM6 is still based on ce5. Ce6 is about to be released. Looking forward to major major improvements
@ leoni's posts mainly
heh when i was in the US i had a chance to see the iphone. ... i was probably expecting too much, the crazy hype had me believe it had a truly revolutional interface and lots of amazing animations.
nope.
it was sorely disappointing... just a few ordinary tricks, nothing special or anything that would make the device more usable... for example, i prefer being able to multitask in a way i can see what apps are running without clicking anything, also a way to easily switch.. basically the good old taskbar
...so, i wouldn't be able to live without magicbuttons, or now, without wktask on WM6. yes WM GUI sucks out of the box at least as much as the iphone gui, but at least you can install these wonderful apps!
to be honest i still prefer plain CE because that has all this and more working out of the box - much nearer a real PC than the too much simplified down WM ... as i said only third party apps save WM.
where we disagree is i think the apps do fix most of the issues of WM.
my only problem with my athena is how it sometimes slows down if i type a lot on it. then i need to wait about 1 min, maybe close word mobile, then it is back to normal again. i sometimes use the wordpad i got out of platform builder, better in several respects than the sucky word mobile. that one app drives me crazy sometimes.
...though, i don't see how the iphone has any kind of word processor onboard.
i don't give a damn if it can't do MMS or 3G (i'm fine with gprs when i turn off pictures in the browser and i'm using vodafone's great APN which compresses data), and i don't care for the camera on any mobile phone so far.
what i need is just office and a proper browser and irc client and some more apps, and the iphone has NONE of those. crazy how limited it is.
oh before you start telling me how fabulous the browser is on the iphone ... it is not. it is slow loading pages, and the requirement of zooming in and out drives me crazy. and, the real deal breaker is how i could not open links in a new window at will. i do not mean opening a new empty window, i mean opening a link on an already loaded page, in a new window!! no one so far could show me how so i'm assuming it lacks this basic capability - for me, absolute dealbreaker, i cannot comfortably browse pages without that option.
i'd like to see the n800, though, the OS i hear is sluggish when multitasking. so i'm just curious about the browser.
200 quid.. hmm the 770 is only 100 : ) tempting yes, just no keyboard so that's a bit of an issue to me.
i'm not sure if your athena has no specific issues... i don't have the complaints on mine that you do... mine doesn't crash (except for above mentioned slow down but no reboot is required) and the browser is fast. but, i don't touch pocket internet explorer, i've never ever tried using it on the athena. opera is just so much faster and has none of the quirks of crappy PIE
so no, i don't have this "connecting" or "opening" message problem as i don't touch PIE.
also, opera here is quite fast! not sure what your issue is with it...
though maybe not as fast as the opera on my zaurus C760 pda linux does excel at browser speed options!
all in all... yes WM sucks, and microsoft should fix this, but until then i'm happy with wktask and the amazing hardware of the athena. finally a ppc that has a good enough (large enough) display which looks good in realvga too!! yeah realvga is again third party add on ... sigh! so to be really honest i wouldn't touch WM (except for hacking things! ), and would just use plain CE if it weren't for htc universal / athena (mainly athena!) and some essential third party apps. well CE is made by microsoft too so i don't understand how they got it so wrong with WM.
CE6 will be based on a different memory architecture and improved security (grr for hackers) and many other things, so i'm curious, but for me the GUI is the issue on WM and not really the kernel except for the couple of slow downs i mentioned. other than that WM5 and later seem to be exceptionally stable to me and no slow down just because i'm running several apps at once! i find that great!
so i'm hoping MS gets themselves together and improve on the GUI but please don't imitate the iphone - i like CE better. this is quite a personal view of course.
one last note.. as for the EEE, battery life and size is an issue for me. so sticking to athena (and my universals and my CE devices)
yes the EEE is that much bigger than the athena. :sigh:
also some of the tasks i use my devices for, cannot be done in a shorter time on XP, for example if i want to go online and chat for a few hours...good battery life is a must
ok i'll stop ranting here .. but this is such an interesting subject
p.s.: how is that i can only insert four smilies?! had to remove three because i typed seven of them, wtf
I saw an Asus Eee today in black.
looks very very nice for the money, the missus said she might buy it 4 me for xmas if I want it
hmm decisions decisions
spacecat said:
I saw an Asus Eee today in black.
looks very very nice for the money, the missus said she might buy it 4 me for xmas if I want it
hmm decisions decisions
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got the black one myself on thursday through Ebuyer, though I believe they're out of stock at the mo. I've installed XP on it just to test it and it works perfectly, even the webcam works fine. It boots up in seconds which is unfamiliar territory for me!
I quite like the Linux interface though so I might go back to it eventually. Everything worked out of the box- youtube, stage 6, even Ipods. Only real prob I had with Linux was that I couldn't use Activesync but I liked the amount of tweaking you can do to it.
If you need any pics, comparisons or whatnot I can post them or forward them. I won't be looking back. It's a brillliant bit of kit, especially for the money.
p.s. you can even install mac osx on it, though the procedure is a tad complicated for me.
cmonex said:
@ leoni's posts mainly
heh when i was in the US i had a chance to see the iphone. ... i was probably expecting too much, the crazy hype had me believe it had a truly revolutional interface and lots of amazing animations.
nope.
it was sorely disappointing... just a few ordinary tricks, nothing special or anything that would make the device more usable... for example, i prefer being able to multitask in a way i can see what apps are running without clicking anything, also a way to easily switch.. basically the good old taskbar
...so, i wouldn't be able to live without magicbuttons, or now, without wktask on WM6. yes WM GUI sucks out of the box at least as much as the iphone gui, but at least you can install these wonderful apps!
to be honest i still prefer plain CE because that has all this and more working out of the box - much nearer a real PC than the too much simplified down WM ... as i said only third party apps save WM.
where we disagree is i think the apps do fix most of the issues of WM.
my only problem with my athena is how it sometimes slows down if i type a lot on it. then i need to wait about 1 min, maybe close word mobile, then it is back to normal again. i sometimes use the wordpad i got out of platform builder, better in several respects than the sucky word mobile. that one app drives me crazy sometimes.
...though, i don't see how the iphone has any kind of word processor onboard.
i don't give a damn if it can't do MMS or 3G (i'm fine with gprs when i turn off pictures in the browser and i'm using vodafone's great APN which compresses data), and i don't care for the camera on any mobile phone so far.
what i need is just office and a proper browser and irc client and some more apps, and the iphone has NONE of those. crazy how limited it is.
oh before you start telling me how fabulous the browser is on the iphone ... it is not. it is slow loading pages, and the requirement of zooming in and out drives me crazy. and, the real deal breaker is how i could not open links in a new window at will. i do not mean opening a new empty window, i mean opening a link on an already loaded page, in a new window!! no one so far could show me how so i'm assuming it lacks this basic capability - for me, absolute dealbreaker, i cannot comfortably browse pages without that option.
i'd like to see the n800, though, the OS i hear is sluggish when multitasking. so i'm just curious about the browser.
200 quid.. hmm the 770 is only 100 : ) tempting yes, just no keyboard so that's a bit of an issue to me.
i'm not sure if your athena has no specific issues... i don't have the complaints on mine that you do... mine doesn't crash (except for above mentioned slow down but no reboot is required) and the browser is fast. but, i don't touch pocket internet explorer, i've never ever tried using it on the athena. opera is just so much faster and has none of the quirks of crappy PIE
so no, i don't have this "connecting" or "opening" message problem as i don't touch PIE.
also, opera here is quite fast! not sure what your issue is with it...
though maybe not as fast as the opera on my zaurus C760 pda linux does excel at browser speed options!
all in all... yes WM sucks, and microsoft should fix this, but until then i'm happy with wktask and the amazing hardware of the athena. finally a ppc that has a good enough (large enough) display which looks good in realvga too!! yeah realvga is again third party add on ... sigh! so to be really honest i wouldn't touch WM (except for hacking things! ), and would just use plain CE if it weren't for htc universal / athena (mainly athena!) and some essential third party apps. well CE is made by microsoft too so i don't understand how they got it so wrong with WM.
CE6 will be based on a different memory architecture and improved security (grr for hackers) and many other things, so i'm curious, but for me the GUI is the issue on WM and not really the kernel except for the couple of slow downs i mentioned. other than that WM5 and later seem to be exceptionally stable to me and no slow down just because i'm running several apps at once! i find that great!
so i'm hoping MS gets themselves together and improve on the GUI but please don't imitate the iphone - i like CE better. this is quite a personal view of course.
one last note.. as for the EEE, battery life and size is an issue for me. so sticking to athena (and my universals and my CE devices)
yes the EEE is that much bigger than the athena. :sigh:
also some of the tasks i use my devices for, cannot be done in a shorter time on XP, for example if i want to go online and chat for a few hours...good battery life is a must
ok i'll stop ranting here .. but this is such an interesting subject
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't deem that a rant. Some very fair points very well put.
I must admit my experience of the Iphone is not as extensive as yours so I'll have to capitulate on that one. Though it seems to ace out windows mobile in terms of user input (on screen keyboard) and generally usability - takes a long while to get used to windows mobile if you've never experienced it.
I never experienced any slowdown on the n800 and i tested it a fair bit. With the os2008 upgrade things should only get better. It's a lot more user-friendly and the new os includes Firefox (which I prefer) instead of Opera.
I appreciate that the EEE is bigger than the Athena. when I said 'not that much' I meant that when carrying the EEE in the supplied case in a bag, compared to carrying the Athena in a bag - which I used to do in preference to cramming the device intpo my pocket - the difference is negligible.
I used to carry a bt keyboard and mouse with it also. Now compared to carrying a separate keyboard and mouse AND an Athena the difference is CERTAINLY negligible.
I can do everything on my old Hermes that I can do on the Athena - yes chatting and PDA stuff - and it has a better battery life. It also fits in my pocket nicely when I'm out and about.
For when I need full browsing, multimedia and office capability I've got the EEE - which is VERY portable, very rugged and even has a webcam if you want to do slightly more advanced chatting!
This is why I'm happy with my current setup.
leoni1980 said:
I didn't deem that a rant. Some very fair points very well put.
I must admit my experience of the Iphone is not as extensive as yours so I'll have to capitulate on that one. Though it seems to ace out windows mobile in terms of user input (on screen keyboard) and generally usability - takes a long while to get used to windows mobile if you've never experienced it.
I never experienced any slowdown on the n800 and i tested it a fair bit. With the os2008 upgrade things should only get better. It's a lot more user-friendly and the new os includes Firefox (which I prefer) instead of Opera.
I appreciate that the EEE is bigger than the Athena. when I said 'not that much' I meant that when carrying the EEE in the supplied case in a bag, compared to carrying the Athena in a bag - which I used to do in preference to cramming the device intpo my pocket - the difference is negligible.
I used to carry a bt keyboard and mouse with it also. Now compared to carrying a separate keyboard and mouse AND an Athena the difference is CERTAINLY negligible.
I can do everything on my old Hermes that I can do on the Athena - yes chatting and PDA stuff - and it has a better battery life. It also fits in my pocket nicely when I'm out and about.
For when I need full browsing, multimedia and office capability I've got the EEE - which is VERY portable, very rugged and even has a webcam if you want to do slightly more advanced chatting!
This is why I'm happy with my current setup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
like i said wait till dual comes out. the team had a breakthrough yesturday and a new app will be in dual.. more details when rom comes out.
cmonex said:
@ leoni's posts mainly
my only problem with my athena is how it sometimes slows down if i type a lot on it. then i need to wait about 1 min, maybe close word mobile, then it is back to normal again. i sometimes use the wordpad i got out of platform builder, better in several respects than the sucky word mobile. that one app drives me crazy sometimes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wonder what your thoughts are on Softmaker office Textmaker, which should be superb on the athena in 96dpi? You may not even get the slowdown that you describe in Word. I use PlanMaker (their spreadsheet) and it works quite well in (96dpi) on my athena.
leoni1980 said:
Got the black one myself on thursday through Ebuyer, though I believe they're out of stock at the mo. I've installed XP on it just to test it and it works perfectly, even the webcam works fine. It boots up in seconds which is unfamiliar territory for me!
I quite like the Linux interface though so I might go back to it eventually. Everything worked out of the box- youtube, stage 6, even Ipods. Only real prob I had with Linux was that I couldn't use Activesync but I liked the amount of tweaking you can do to it.
If you need any pics, comparisons or whatnot I can post them or forward them. I won't be looking back. It's a brillliant bit of kit, especially for the money.
p.s. you can even install mac osx on it, though the procedure is a tad complicated for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my current thinking is to get one and leave it at work, which is where i do most of my 'ATHENAring' ...is that a word !
And use my athena as an HSDPA modem for the Eee with XP installed on it.
I would then keep my Athena for when im out and about and NOT at work, hence keeping the full Athena mobility including the important ability to make calls and send texts.
Im not in a terrible hurry to do this and i understand that Asus are going to bring out upgraded versions of the Eee.
Bigger drives , 10 inch screen etc. Mind you its the small form factor that interests me esp as i may want to carry the Eee at some point.
I am however still well into my Athena and by the rom updates, looking forward to the DUAL rom which sounds exciting but im clueless as to what it can do more than PK3.0
In the past, I was always using 128 dpi and never really gave 96dpi a chance.
This morning, I accidentally discovered that my favourite car navigation GPS actually works in 96 dpi, although I had always thought that it only works in 192dpi. The only flaw is that I must use it in portrait mode, as it still does not work in landscape mode.
Like I mentioned in several post, iGO is my most preferred GPS software primarily due to the unbeatable visual beauty, speed, ease of use, and most importantly the ability to warn me if I exceed the road's legal speed limit. That has saves me hundreds in traffic fines and risk of license suspension.
Looks like enough reason for me to move to 96dpi, despite the more challenging font size. In a way I love the amount of real estate I have on my today screen.
I'm now officially a 96dpi convert!
Sorry, I'm just so excited about this. The more I use this device, the more "novelty" I get! I'm getting more excited with Athena the more I use it. Learning new things every day! The best toy I've owned in my life, yet so essential, and I feel I can no longer live my life without it. .
I have to test this, but it's extremely poorly distributed in France, alas. I don't even know if it IS distributed in France, actually... :-S
TomTom was my satnav solution of choice since I've been upgrading the same license for the last 5 years, but I'm getting tired of its many shortcomings... :-S
Good to know it works at this resolution, since it's the reason why the Athena rocks imho.
HeartOfDarkness said:
I have to test this, but it's extremely poorly distributed in France, alas. I don't even know if it IS distributed in France, actually... :-S
TomTom was my satnav solution of choice since I've been upgrading the same license for the last 5 years, but I'm getting tired of its many shortcomings... :-S
Good to know it works at this resolution, since it's the reason why the Athena rocks imho.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is speeding fine hefty in France? Do you have some sort of demerit point system where if you exceed the quota in a given period your license is suspeded? Here in Australia, I somehow had managed to attract speeding ticket very often despite trying to be very careful. So I'm very sensitive to this issue. I just had a suspension slapped on me not so long ago. That's why iGO is my preferred GPS. I just let my Copilot's license lapse. I also have Tom Tom which I use less frequently. Tom Tom is okay, except it does not have audio warning for speeding. I understand that one of the versions (which might be on dedicated GPS device) allows users to add and delete roads as well as to enter in the missing speed limit. I don't know if it has audio warning or still only display by color if your exceed speed. Do you know anything about this?
Yes, you can also do that on the Navigator 6 version, either paying a yearly service for radar notification, or for free by adding specifically designed "POI" (Point of interest) including radar positions, that are freely available from websites (as least here in France). But there is no real "warning", so it's not really useful.
In France, we use a separate software called "Vitesse limite" that provides iGo-style warnigs, I guess, but does not have other satnav functionnalities.
Yes, we also have a "point-driver-license", as we call it, here, and stricter and stricter legislation about speeding. And having the satnav solution on the Athena warn me about incoming "boogies" while providing regular satnav functionalities really sounds good, so I guess I'm gonna have to find a way to try it.
HeartOfDarkness said:
Yes, you can also do that on the Navigator 6 version, either paying a yearly service for radar notification, or for free by adding specifically designed "POI" (Point of interest) including radar positions, that are freely available from websites (as least here in France). But there is no real "warning", so it's not really useful.
In France, we use a separate software called "Vitesse limite" that provides iGo-style warnigs, I guess, but does not have other satnav functionnalities.
Yes, we also have a "point-driver-license", as we call it, here, and stricter and stricter legislation about speeding. And having the satnav solution on the Athena warn me about incoming "boogies" while providing regular satnav functionalities really sounds good, so I guess I'm gonna have to find a way to try it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The POI fixed speed detection camera is a feature present in almost all GPS software. It is the speed on regular road which is a concern as cops here do surprise us regularly with their mobile radar, which cannot be handled by the POI method.
I think you'll like it after trying it.
eaglesteve said:
In the past, I was always using 128 dpi and never really gave 96dpi a chance.
This morning, I accidentally discovered that my favourite car navigation GPS actually works in 96 dpi, although I had always thought that it only works in 192dpi. The only flaw is that I must use it in portrait mode, as it still does not work in landscape mode.
Like I mentioned in several post, iGO is my most preferred GPS software primarily due to the unbeatable visual beauty, speed, ease of use, and most importantly the ability to warn me if I exceed the road's legal speed limit. That has saves me hundreds in traffic fines and risk of license suspension.
Looks like enough reason for me to move to 96dpi, despite the more challenging font size. In a way I love the amount of real estate I have on my today screen.
I'm now officially a 96dpi convert!
Sorry, I'm just so excited about this. The more I use this device, the more "novelty" I get! I'm getting more excited with Athena the more I use it. Learning new things every day! The best toy I've owned in my life, yet so essential, and I feel I can no longer live my life without it. .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you get this to work. I have tried this without success. Could you possibly post a copy of your sys.txt.
By the way, as I understand it, the next Igo woll work perfectly in VGA - about time too!
apd said:
How do you get this to work. I have tried this without success. Could you possibly post a copy of your sys.txt.
By the way, as I understand it, the next Igo woll work perfectly in VGA - about time too!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While using the USB mass storage thingy, somehow my device triggered the autorun program in my iGO and did a reinstallation while I was in 96dpi. I think it is the reinstallation while in this mode that fixed it. It was previously installed in 192 dpi. Make sure you're in the portrait mode when you reinstall.
Let me know if this works because I would also like to know why out of a sudden it started working.
Cheers.
eaglesteve said:
While using the USB mass storage thingy, somehow my device triggered the autorun program in my iGO and did a reinstallation while I was in 96dpi. I think it is the reinstallation while in this mode that fixed it. It was previously installed in 192 dpi. Make sure you're in the portrait mode when you reinstall.
Let me know if this works because I would also like to know why out of a sudden it started working.
Cheers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ta - I'll try that tonight.
Glad you got it working eaglesteve.
In the UK most speeding offenses are caught by cameras but the only time I have been caught (so far) was a video camera in a police car, luckily I had just slowed down so was only doing 94MPH - that was 3 years ago and on fast roads I still drive fast but usually in the UK apart fromn the cameras, they don't seem to worry to much if you're driving safely.
What's the betting I get done for speeding now I've said that!
Got it working without having to re-install !
I can provide info on how to do it, depending on the version (modifications change between iGo, iGo Plus and iGo8).
eaglesteve, do you alos have a kind of "flickering of the screen", also, with parts of line that flicker on the screen here and there ?
HeartOfDarkness said:
Got it working without having to re-install !
I can provide info on how to do it, depending on the version (modifications change between iGo, iGo Plus and iGo8).
eaglesteve, do you alos have a kind of "flickering of the screen", also, with parts of line that flicker on the screen here and there ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I get about four flickeing lines that move upward.
Please share with us what you've learned concerning things needed to happen for it to work?
Well, actually, there's quite a lot of things to do and modify in configuration files. I think the best would be that I provide "ready to work" config. files to insert into the data.zip file for the people who need it.
So if you want your iGo to work @ 96 dpi, simply PM me.
I did it for iGo 2006 Plus and iGo8 (the MioMap version).
HeartOfDarkness said:
Well, actually, there's quite a lot of things to do and modify in configuration files. I think the best would be that I provide "ready to work" config. files to insert into the data.zip file for the people who need it.
So if you want your iGo to work @ 96 dpi, simply PM me.
I did it for iGo 2006 Plus and iGo8 (the MioMap version).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good job!
Does yours flicker? Can you get it to also work in landscape mode?
I wonder why mine started working although I did not touch the data.zip file???
WOWEE - you have iGO 8?!! Is it good?
I am really curious on how can I make my iGO work on 128dpi or 96 dpi
tomcat1974 said:
I am really curious on how can I make my iGO work on 128dpi or 96 dpi
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It won'twork in 128dpi.
For me,it seema that all it takes is to install igo in 96 dpi portrait mode.
after reading this thread I retried using igo2006se with real vga and I can load and use in 96 dpi.
it will load but the buttons dont work in 128 dpi
the trick is to have portrait selected in the settigs for igo before changing the screen resolution
The only setting to work in landscape is 196
cheers
I too love iGo 2006 plus, but on the Advantage, the default screen size shows only a small portion of the map that shows on my Wizard.
Meaning th Wizards default view shows me more streets around me. The Advantage seems to be "zoomed" in on its default screen.
Would this process you are speaking of show more of the map on the Advantages default screen?
sdl said:
I too love iGo 2006 plus, but on the Advantage, the default screen size shows only a small portion of the map that shows on my Wizard.
Meaning th Wizards default view shows me more streets around me. The Advantage seems to be "zoomed" in on its default screen.
Would this process you are speaking of show more of the map on the Advantages default screen?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It should show you as much streets, whether you're on 192 or 96 dpi. The differnce between Athena and the other device is that Athena show it on a larger screen, that's all, if the zooming level, etc are set to be the same. Different device per se should not affect the zooming level, I think.
lakeman said:
after reading this thread I retried using igo2006se with real vga and I can load and use in 96 dpi.
it will load but the buttons dont work in 128 dpi
the trick is to have portrait selected in the settigs for igo before changing the screen resolution
The only setting to work in landscape is 196
cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It would not work in 128 dpi. Only 192 and 96 dpi would it work.
Does anyone have the cab of the Sprint Nav from the new Rom?
Thanks in advance
Ok, I guess not.
Ok, so still no one has this I assume. It seems to be a bit different than the version I'm running.
Can someone point me in the right direction to where I can find how I'd be able to extract it from the stock rom?
Any help is appreciated.
Here's the latest..
indagroove said:
Here's the latest..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a million
how does this compare with google maps or tomtom ?
SyXbiT said:
how does this compare with google maps or tomtom ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have TomTom, so I can't compare. But compared to google maps, I think it's 10x better.
I like the voice directions, as well as 1 click traffic re-routing. This new version, also has a manage contacts feature, although I haven't tried it yet. There is however a monthly fee for the service ($9.99/mo),
steb0ne said:
I don't have TomTom, so I can't compare. But compared to google maps, I think it's 10x better.
I like the voice directions, as well as 1 click traffic re-routing. This new version, also has a manage contacts feature, although I haven't tried it yet. There is however a monthly fee for the service ($9.99/mo),
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol...9.99? thats pointless...why would you upgrade to a custom titan rom, to get free gps capability, then put on a program that you have to pay for anyway? lol.
tomtom is MUCH better. 3d maps, voice navigation (custom i might add, for example i have yoda telling me where to go), reroutes in half a second, can get directions without having gps lock..like if you want to type in a strating and end point it can get directions without a connection, just does it internally. tomtom is way advanced.
If you have TomTom and maps and didn't pay for it, then you got it illegally, not quite fair to compare that to him talking about a legit cost for a program. Check out the costs of TomTom nav for a cell phone and maps and updates and all that...
Besides, aside from the Yoda voice, which is annoying as hell after about five minutes (I have it and Darth Vader on my TomTom One), Sprint Navigator does all the same stuff, but seems to have A LOT more POI's.
No other GPS program gives me traffic in my area, but the Sprint app. TomTom is expensive. But it also has 3D maps, etc. It actually is a very good app and works perfectly everytime and is fast. Plus the app is small and doesn't take up a lot of space. No need to download maps, etc.
I use other features of the custom ROM, FYI; it isn't about trying to get everything free. I'm not too cheap to pay for something I can't get for free.
If you know of a better option for free, then I'm all about it. I guess I could get a copy of TomTom, but with the small amount of RAM on the Mogul, and my small SD card (512MB) for maps, it's a bit of a hassle
crobs808 said:
lol...9.99? thats pointless...why would you upgrade to a custom titan rom, to get free gps capability, then put on a program that you have to pay for anyway? lol.
tomtom is MUCH better. 3d maps, voice navigation (custom i might add, for example i have yoda telling me where to go), reroutes in half a second, can get directions without having gps lock..like if you want to type in a strating and end point it can get directions without a connection, just does it internally. tomtom is way advanced.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use sprint's Telenav because it's included in my everything plan. For driving directions it's way better than google maps or live search.
Are there any other programs that stream the map data?
I don't have an everything plan, but this thing isn't asking me to sign up for anything. Any idea if I'll get charged?
TomTom only cost $120 one-time cost .. you just buy the software no service fee,
and you don't have to buy it from Tomtom.com .. you can buy a real copy
used copy with real activation key from tomtom for $50 off ebay .. thats
what I did .. $50 one time cost .. and get the best Phone Nav software!!
also Tomtom don't download maps on the go like the sprint, google maps,
Verizon, windows live etc.. Tomtom maps are all stored on the local mircoSD card ..
I used all them Nav software and TomTom 6 dvd so far hands down is the best!!
you can buy it for $50 or less on ebay or $120 sale price ($149 reg. price) from
bestbuy or other stores, one time cost ..or free with limewire lol...
x2 TomTom FTW!!
BTW has anyone used iGO 8?
VulnoX said:
If you have TomTom and maps and didn't pay for it, then you got it illegally, not quite fair to compare that to him talking about a legit cost for a program. Check out the costs of TomTom nav for a cell phone and maps and updates and all that...
Besides, aside from the Yoda voice, which is annoying as hell after about five minutes (I have it and Darth Vader on my TomTom One), Sprint Navigator does all the same stuff, but seems to have A LOT more POI's.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mr-free said:
BTW has anyone used iGO 8?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have and it's too ram intensive to work well on this phone. It's all but impossible to get text to speech working at all. I've also used TomTom off and on for 5-6 years on various devices. I always had a problem with TomTom's lack of street first search, but it's been a while since I last used it so that may have been fixed. My preference for PDA based nav has been iGuidance, mainly because of its text to speech and simple interface. TomTom and iGO have slick interfaces that also slow them down and especially on this ram starved phone, can lead to instability. Fancy graphics are all fine and good, but you're supposed to keep your eyes on the road. TomTom up until recently has suffered from really old incomplete maps, though that's been rectified as of late. One problem and possible added expense with stand alone nav software is that the maps and poi's age as you own it. If you want to keep up to date, you'll have to pony up for regular updates (never free) or regularly replace the program. That subscription price may not be as expensive as you thought. Another issue is that stand alone nav software takes up significant storage space and uses a lot more system resources. I used to be skeptical of the Telenav/Sprint nav, thinking it overpriced junk. Since it's been included with my plan, my opinion of it has changed dramatically. The traffic function is a killer feature and because routing is done remotely, the app uses very little ram. To date, it's never crashed or quit on its own, not something I can say about TomTom, iGO or iGuidance. Because you never purchase maps or poi's, they're not aging on your phone and are more likely to be up to date. There are downsides. If you have prolonged data signal loss (you don't need 3g!) you will loose map detail and re routing, though your current route will remain so you should get where you're going to . I've never had this happen in real world use. It also lacks street first search, requiring you to know the town you're traveling to. The voice entry which is done via a phone call is slow but accurate via the handset and bt but not so much via speakerphone. The online component of the program is a bit lacking. I can run iGO or TomTom fine on my $99 hacked Pharos AIO with a big screen and loud audio, but find myself using Telenav on my Mogul because of the traffic and superior poi data. In the near future, the choice between stand alone software and supscription based will be moot as the stand alone software is being rapidly phased out due to a shrinking market. Phone subscription based (especially when the iPhone gets true nav) and AIO's are the present and the future until they figure out how to implant the gps in out brains.
Delete this
jph8tr said:
I have and it's too ram intensive to work well on this phone. It's all but impossible to get text to speech working at all. I've also used TomTom off and on for 5-6 years on various devices. I always had a problem with TomTom's lack of street first search, but it's been a while since I last used it so that may have been fixed. My preference for PDA based nav has been iGuidance, mainly because of its text to speech and simple interface. TomTom and iGO have slick interfaces that also slow them down and especially on this ram starved phone, can lead to instability. Fancy graphics are all fine and good, but you're supposed to keep your eyes on the road. TomTom up until recently has suffered from really old incomplete maps, though that's been rectified as of late. One problem and possible added expense with stand alone nav software is that the maps and poi's age as you own it. If you want to keep up to date, you'll have to pony up for regular updates (never free) or regularly replace the program. That subscription price may not be as expensive as you thought. Another issue is that stand alone nav software takes up significant storage space and uses a lot more system resources. I used to be skeptical of the Telenav/Sprint nav, thinking it overpriced junk. Since it's been included with my plan, my opinion of it has changed dramatically. The traffic function is a killer feature and because routing is done remotely, the app uses very little ram. To date, it's never crashed or quit on its own, not something I can say about TomTom, iGO or iGuidance. Because you never purchase maps or poi's, they're not aging on your phone and are more likely to be up to date. There are downsides. If you have prolonged data signal loss (you don't need 3g!) you will loose map detail and re routing, though your current route will remain so you should get where you're going to . I've never had this happen in real world use. It also lacks street first search, requiring you to know the town you're traveling to. The voice entry which is done via a phone call is slow but accurate via the handset and bt but not so much via speakerphone. The online component of the program is a bit lacking. I can run iGO or TomTom fine on my $99 hacked Pharos AIO with a big screen and loud audio, but find myself using Telenav on my Mogul because of the traffic and superior poi data. In the near future, the choice between stand alone software and supscription based will be moot as the stand alone software is being rapidly phased out due to a shrinking market. Phone subscription based (especially when the iPhone gets true nav) and AIO's are the present and the future until they figure out how to implant the gps in out brains.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well thats ok info. but IMO out of date in a major way!! TomTom 6 only been out less
than 2 years, (well just about 2 years now..)
you most have used some old version of TomTom .. I have been using TomTom
for sometime now and it never crashed on me, plus it do NOT take up much memory,
its loads very fast and text to speech talk voice is very clear, the on screen street
finder is VERY sweet and fast .. all you need to know is the area and you'll find any address ..
again base on your statement you most have used a very old version of TomTom ..
cause none of that is true for TomTom 6 or 7 ..
However you are correct on the maps, I got my TomTom 6 and it came with (late 11/2007 maps),
the new 2008/09 maps you have to buy, New 2009 US/CA maps cost $69 at bestbuy .. (or FREE using LimeWire lol)
Also mircoSD card is very cheap $4 for 2GB cards and $7 for 4GB cards
so you can't even say thats an issue ..
Plus any nav. software that download maps on the go (e.g. MS live, Google maps etc..),
when driving there is a major street update delay and it gets worst if your data service speed is slow,
TomTom 6 or newer don't have any of that issue .. granted I don't look at my phone screen
"much" when I am driving .. but I do quickly look at it when I am getting closer to a turn ..
or in areas that have a few turns at the same spot .. 95% of the time I just listen to TomTom
cool voice direction via my wireless bluetooth headset .. but still always good to have realtime update on screen!!
So yeah!!
* Memory is not an issue with TomTom 6 and my vx6800 titan PDA.
* TomTom 6 never!! Crashed or close when I am using it!! Hours or driving!!
* real time update on screen
* TomTom 6 menu is very very EASY to use, to setup and find new destination!
* TomTom traffic re-route is very cool, even when you miss a tune, re-route is done,
Very fast ..
As I said TomTom hands down is the BEST!!! And so what if I have to drop $69
Ever few years for new maps.. hell I still have the option to download maps using
LimeWire for FREE
BTW to do the math .. when I used to pay for Verizon Nav service $9.99 + tax .. about $135 per-year with tax
even if I have to buy new maps each year from TomTom it would still cost me a lot less!!
and having the options to download FREE maps is also nice ...
Also I have use Nav .. not only when driving .. I have use it many times when walking looking
for an address or POI .. just hanging out with friends etc.. in the city etc..
mr-free said:
BTW to do the math .. when I used to pay for Verizon Nav service $9.99 + tax .. about $135 per-year with tax
even if I have to buy new maps each year from TomTom it would still cost me a lot less!!
and having the options to download FREE maps is also nice ...
Also I have use Nav .. not only when driving .. I have use it many times when walking looking
for an address or POI .. just hanging out with friends etc.. in the city etc..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm glad you like TT so much, enjoy it. I agree that $10/mo is too much, $5-6$ is a better price point. The ONLY reason I tried Telenav is because it was included in my plan. As for the stability statement, it comes down to how you use your phone. I tend to have a media player in the background , usually mortplayer . TomTom + Mort+ incoming phone call = locked up phone (this was using a DCD 2 series ROM). Even without the crash, the media player will be forcefully quit by winmo eventually. iGO will not coexist with any other program running and may be "quit" for lack of mem anyway.
Please, don't include software theft as any part of your cost equation! For the legitimate buyer, the price difference between buying a legal copy of the software and legally keeping it up to date is not tremendously cheaper than the $10/mo subscription price. Throw in traffic and automatically kept up to date map and poi's and the choice between the two becomes even less clear. Though I have tied turn by turn software for pedestrian uses, I prefer MS live and Google maps for that purpose. The new MS live with follow me turned on is particularly good!
Just looked at your first post, the traffic re rout on TOMTom, iGuidance or iGO is not the same as the real time traffic alerts on Telenav (or high end AIO's with traffic subscriptions).
Since we're doing multiple non reply posts here, I'll add-
I did some additional research, I have used the "latest" TT software(v6) which is almost 3 years old now (I was also wrong about my past nav experience which is more like 7-8 years, getting old is a *****). When TT6 and iG4 came out I made a choice to go with iG because it had text to speech. Though TT have updated the maps which was necessary, there are no new features and v6 is the end of the line for their stand alone software offerings.
TT6 lacks text to speech, acceptable in 2006 but not in 2009, having Ozzy curse out turn by turn directions only goes so far. Even my cheap $99 (now $79) Pharos AIO has text to speech. Saying TT6 is the "best" is like saying a car audio system lacking a ipod/mp3 player interface is the best. To get traffic info (not simple traffic re routing!) in a TT device, you need to pay for plus services and connect via bt with your cell phone. They do a good (sneaky) job of keeping the plus service cost from perspective buyers by requiring a service number to view the price. If you don't already own a TT device, I guess they feel you have no right to know. The best I can find is that traffic will cost ~$60/yr additional on a TT AIO running v6 or newer, but isn't offered at all on phones running v6(?). What I don't like about TT's method is if you don't have your phone with you, no traffic. After years of using separate pda and gps recievers, I much prefer a 1 device solution. Other mfg have built in or cable mounted recievers to get traffic info.
If I were BUYING a new AOI I would consider TT with newer software, if I had to have standalone software on my phone I'd go with iG 2009 and live with its restrictive DRM (locked to sd card) for newer maps or the older iG4. iGO isn't really an option as it isn't legitimately offered in the US and doesn't function well with this phone. Personally, I think that the majority still using stand alone nav on a WM phone either bought it years ago or frequent bittorent (or limewire, usenet, etc). With basic AIO's (PNA's) going for less than $100, there's little reason to use a small screen low volume phone.
OTH, if you want traffic avoidance and have a Telenav equiped phone, it might actually be a cheap alternative considering that traffic costs $5/mo or more on other devices. I still think lowering the price $2- $3 would get a lot more subscribers than the current $10 price.
Demo works better than the read nav!!!
http://www.diginetlink.com/iGuidance_mapping_software_p/igv4.htm
Greetings all,
As stated above I have a 6800 running a DCD ROM on VZW now and am looking into going up. I use a lot of apps and push the thing to the max and am pretty happy with it in all, but the low amount of RAM and slowdowns and glitches when it has not been re-booted in a while, you know I just think it is mostly the lack of RAM issues and how hard I push it. I use Garmin MobileXT for navigation, Resco Radio and SelectRadio for internet radio and bluetooth it to my Kenwood car stereo, and generally bog it down. So what I would like to know is if this unit with the more robust memory, processor, and graphics chipset works better than my Titan and / or would I loose stuff that would no longer function ? Can I still enable the GPS chipset for use with the Garmin software ? Just anything at all that I need to know to help make the decision would be nice, thanks ;-)
I will give this a shot since this is so vague. If you are wanting to go to Verizon Touch Pro with TF3D disabled running the older apps the phone flies. No memory issues if you wish to stick to the old setup you are using. If you unlock your phone you will indeed unlock the GPS using Boreds patch or Scrosler rom witch has it built in.
yes, even the verizon touch pro is better than the titan. In almost every way except GPS accuracy and lock speed (my opinion). Its an upgrade.
No need to post three or four different threads in different forums, this has all been asked before.
It's a shame, but I have been visiting this forum for a year or two now and must say - this forum is dead. It's a shame because , looking at new tablet pcs and similar devices entering the market, I think athena still is a good device, offering a lot of possibilities. Unfortunately I know nothing of ROM cooking and all the cooks have left us. Too bad
mietulo said:
It's a shame, but I have been visiting this forum for a year or two now and must say - this forum is dead. It's a shame because , looking at new tablet pcs and similar devices entering the market, I think athena still is a good device, offering a lot of possibilities. Unfortunately I know nothing of ROM cooking and all the cooks have left us. Too bad
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, this is the way with all devices these days..... I still use my Athena as a backup unit in case I muck up one of my other units....LOL
Later........... B)
I also think the HTCx7500 continues to be a good device. The things that is attractive with the new devices is the advancement of touch screen technology. Cypress true touch technology for example offer not only multi touch but also the ability to do hovering because the screen can sense the finger as soon as the finger is near the screen.
Undeniably Nice to play and might offer conveniences to a certain degree. But unless there is a way to browse the net as fast as a proper laptop or a way to do document processing or powerpoint slides editing 70% as efficiently as a desktop, what the newer device can offer as compared to HTC x7500 is just cosmetics. I can get the same job done with not much of a problem with the Athena as compared to the newer devices.
So, the things that will attract me to newer devices will be
1. Faster internet browsing
2. Document processing / slide editing
3. Looonger battery life
4. Snappiness of the operating system even after installing many programs
5. softwares availability - not specially controlled by a central "market" and all software makers have to pass their work to them and let their work be distributed by one central point where users can download and use free or paid.
Zooming with 2 fingers or 5 fingers is interesting but zooming by just pushing my athena directional buttons up and down isn't such a difficult job either.
Special today's page / Home menus like the ones in Androids or iphones are also not something difficult to reproduce or customized under windows mobile.
Athena still rocks!
Glad I chose to sell mine when I did. It was a device that was ahead of its time. Shame Android never took off on it.
Something different
The prices of these babies have dropped so much that I just bought one recently... after using various newer HTCs, etc, that are all basically the same, this ancient gadget was actually a breath of fresh air. Besides the marginal interior updates, OS versions, and the gradual screen size upgrades, I really can't figure out what's inherently different with almost all smartphones today... although using the athena needs somewhat of a change in mindset (especially of what is a phone), having something different to play with is already a big plus and an actual experience.... please phone makers, lets make the effort of trying to do something different and not just marketing something as different.
I want to browse the internet, do some emailing, write something in my blog, check auction sites, watch youtubes, can the HTC x7500 handle that? (YES - Opera mini, streaming player, etc)
I want to do some word processing, write a novel, edit some documents, and make sure the work can be in sync with my laptop/desktop. Can the HTC x7500 handle that? (YES - pocketword. document2go, softmaker textmaker, pnotepad)
I want to go through my powerpoint slides and rehearse, re position/re sort the slides, correct a few wordings and make sure i can keep both the slides i have in my desktop and my pocketpc in sync, can the HTC x7500 handle that? (YES - pocket powerpoint, clear vue slides, ...)
I want to enjoy listening to some mp3, can the HTC x7500 handle that? (YES - tcmp player, coreplayer)
I want to watch some movies in avi, wmv, flv, rm, mp4 format, can the HTC x7500 handle that? (YES - tcmp player with the correct codecs)
I want to do some voice recording, can the Athena handle that? (YES - resco audio recorder)
I want to share some photos album with friends sitting together in a restaurant, can the Athena handle that? (YES - resco picture viewer)
I want to connect to internet using 3g/ HSDPDA, because WIFI is unavailable, can the ATHENA handle that? (YES - just make sure 3G services in my data card is active)
I want to transfer file from pc, mobile phone to Anthena or transfer from my athena to my friend's mobile phone without using wires, can the Athena handle that? (YES - bluetooth connections, mocha ftp server, ...)
I wan to play some games, ?? (YES - gba emulator, nes..., playstation 1 emulator, Java, Just games made for pocket pc, etc)
I don't see what the other devices (androids or Ipods) can do that i cannot do with my ATHENA. Yes, I would love it if there is a way to try out putting ANdroids os in my athena but it will be just for fun and to know that there is one more choice of os i can use if i feel like it. Honestly, if there is a 7 inch windows mobile device, I might consider.
One of the MOST important thing that keeps me monitoring the android development is actually BATTERY LIFE (7 hrs with wifi on) and fast zooming.
Many people who try to impress me with android will show me how smooth the screen scrolls here and there with just a flick of the finger. Impressive but when i stop to think over, I realized that i am not going to spend my whole time flicking the screen here and there and just for the thrill to see how the screen can actually change simply by a flick of a finger.
What i will do mostly is click on a program i need to use and start typing or imputing. Scrolling and panning is only useful when i am reading long documents like webpages or ebooks. That is why i like isilo because it allows you to scroll without the need to use the scroll bar.
Fast zooming is another thing that i would like to see on mobile devices. The kind of fast zooming used in opera browsers and netfront browsers are heading in the right direction. FAst zooming is already something that is fast developing even under windows mobile environment.
So, in the end, it comes to a matter of which operating system uses less battery power and will allow longer battery life.
My Athena is going on ebay this weekend because I have one of these now, might be something to look into for the rest of you, as there is an active hacker community too:
http://www.slatedroid.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pandigital_Novel
I only used the Athena as a nightstand emailer/websurfer/weatherchecker, so I have no use for a phone. It worked well enough for that, but the PDN is even better for my needs, and now works with android market. Very cool not to have to activesync to move downloaded cabs to the athena, plus there won't be much activity for winmo anymore since everything is incompatible with wp7 as I understand, while android market is just beginning. Just found a solution that works for my needs, and thought I would share it. Athena was good to me, but it's time for her to move on about her life's work.
Fashion
It does seem a shame that just as big screen devices like this one are coming into fashion this forum has fallen into disuse. It doesn't stop it from still being a very good device, and still very usable in my view. Plus with the amount of ROMS to choose from on this forum there must be one to suit most people. You never know, we may get another cook some time.
regards
Jay
Yes, the Android os is very interesting to look at. If someone created a 7 inch - 10 inch screen tablet with windows mobile 6.1, (or even wm5,6), I would seriously consider but of course the battery life must be good and the processor and ram should have enough power to improve internet experience.
I've used all sorts of devices, from Psion to OQO, Everun, Zaurus, HTC BA etc etc. Recently I bought the Ameo and I can say that after some customisation this little device fits my bill perfectly.
The Ameo has been more flexible (keyboard/Tablet, case, landscape/portrait, 3G/WiFi) than the Archos 5IT it replaced. Sure, Android is nice and iOS is fluid and modern, but the Ameo kills them all with a large 4/3 screen.
I'm using it right now with a Logitech wireless mouse, it's been on all day with a 30% battery drain, browsing with Opera Mobile 10 over 3G.
I wish manufactures would revisit the 4/3 aspect ratio, not everybody wants to watch widescreen films all day, and books look terrible in portrait on thin devices.
Many thanks to the members of these forums for all the tweaks and custom ROMs. this Ameo isn't dead yet.
Last week I bought one of the android tablet made in china. It is called APAD 7 inch styleflying.
The android os has somethings going but I have a number of complains. One of them is why did they do away with "scrollbars." While it is true that Many many people enjoy swiping the screen up and down and feel the screen moving at the command of the finger but it is also true that SCROLLBARS do make sense. Without scrollbars, i believe that many users have experience accidentally opening a program while they were trying to flip the screen up and down. android wants to do things differently I guess but in the process, they took away something very practical and useful. Just my personal opinion. If they want to do something that appears different, they can do what HTC hd2 did. When I look carefully, i realise that in fact, HTC hd2 has a kind of scroll bar on the main screen. It doesn't look like the traditional scrollbar but it does the same job. It allows the user to accurately move from page to page by pushing a slider. And who said programs in Android doesn't crash or hang or stop responding. In my experience, they do.
Anyway, it is a free operating system and it is open source so I hope it will improve in time to come.
Meanwhile, my Athena HTC x7500 rocks! If only I can wake up one morning and find my 5 inch screen Athena grow up and become 7 inch screen! Heh Heh!
5 inch is good size. But i would surely not mind having a 7 inch screen HTC x7500 in my collection.
I am new to the Athena myself by just having bought one for about 200 USD - and it was a great find as it is in perfect shape, looks brand new, no scratches whatsoever!
I sold my Acer F900, as I am through with touchphones, I hate them - it's too bulky and smart for a phone, but too little to do productive work (for me that's office and remote computer administration, mainly). So I decided to scrap the smarthphone, and go back to the roots: buy a small and light cellphone with physical buttons and a PDA.
So I went for the x7500, and I love it! It's 3 years old, and still getting the job done!
My only complaint now is with WiFi: it seems to 'forget' the passwords for APs for some reason...
Btw I use an extra light Taxist WM6.1 ROM (42 Megs), as I have my own proven programs I am using for years, so everything except the OS is unnecessary junk.
it is a shame it is not popular.
I have this device since June. I guess I am getting old, and the little screen of my Polaris was just not fun anymore. The screen of the Athena and the real keyboard were really the 2 attractive points before I touched the beast for real.
So here we go for a search and I found one almost new 5 months ago over the net for 200 Euros.
That's probably the best deal I have done.
I have the device at work and at home, also at customer site. I receive my calls (through Bluetooth), while taking notes or making reports. Even camera pictures are good to fill in reports. WM6.5 works great on this fast device, the only thing I miss is the letter recogniser mode when I have to take notes not seating somewhere. But vocal notes do the trick.
i check my mails both personnals and professionnals, review a presentation in the plane, give free phonecalls to my family while travelling, and finish by a good movie or the news on streaming TV.
It is said to be big, but in fact not bigger than a decent leather covered organizer.
So bad they stopped it...
And so bad there is so few brands believing in this all-in-one concept !!!
does anybody of you have a decent, stable ROM for it?
most of the links here are dead and trying the ROMs i was able to find was a great disappointment...i tried them all, even the Wm 6 ones.
thanks!
KukurikU said:
does anybody of you have a decent, stable ROM for it?
most of the links here are dead and trying the ROMs i was able to find was a great disappointment...i tried them all, even the Wm 6 ones.
thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For dead links to ROMs, the trick is to Google the exact name and see if some kind soul has uploaded them somewhere - try it, it sometimes works.
I am using AGB 3.0 - to be honest, the device is slow by modern standards, and it not really finger-friendly, it takes quite a tap with a finger to get the thing to respond.
However, yesterday, a young American looked impressively at it as I used it in the train, and asked if it was a phone or a tablet - and what OS it ran. I told him it was old, several years old, and ran WM (albeit a new version). OK, he was disappointed - but that is it, this gadget was way ahead of its time, if they did it again, it would succeed with a few tweaks (modern CPU, faster and better battery).
rjstep3
KukurikU said:
does anybody of you have a decent, stable ROM for it?
most of the links here are dead and trying the ROMs i was able to find was a great disappointment...i tried them all, even the Wm 6 ones.
thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check Michy's sigs in any of his comments - there is a link to all of his ROMs, he removed it from rapidshare.
I recommend his Clear Edition 6 R1 or something version - I found it quite usable as I wasn't able to revert the WM6.5 start menu, found in the AVG 3 rom, to 6.1.
Nah, not dead, still in daily use by many. My Athena was 3 years old last month and I still haven't found a phone that I might want (the HD2 is close, but I got one for my wife and the screen still just feels too small). Still carry it every day.
Me too! I have tested HD2, tested Androids but the Athena is still amazing!
help making it alive agine....
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=849080