A1000blog

Repaired and upgraded

A little more than a month has passed after I repaired and upgraded my A1000. I wanted the set to be in a nice condition, since I plan to sell it soon. The only real damage was the lost joypad button. The first fix, the store just put a new button in place, worked for less than a day. Then the button was gone again. In the 3 store (Stureplan, Stockholm) the customer service guy said the set had to be handled over to their repair shop. It would take about 24 hours. Well, it took three (3 :-) days. Then the button stayed for about four days until it popped off again. Actually, I find it easier to navigate without the button. The phone just does not look as nice when it is off. One bonus is that I got a new front shell - so the phone shines!

At the time for the repair I asked them to upgrade the software if there was a new version out. Of course I first used the Motorola Desktop Suite (MDS) to make a backup. Took about five minutes to Bluetooth it over to my laptop in the store cafeteria. After the upgrade I was nervous when I restored the backup. First I made sure to select the same language in the phone as in the backup (English). Then I downloaded and installed the most recent version of MDS.

To my pleasure the backup-restore process went rather fine. In sum:

1. The ringtunes, Phone skin and lock settings were lost (but the tunes was in the phone). I was a rather simple thing to redo the settings.
2. Now Guru (positioning service) works with the in built GPS, pretty well actually. Tried many times before but never got it to work.
3. All my installed applications (e.g. Tracker, Stacker) were automatically restored and worked just fine. The Tracker "Web shortcut" function does still not work. The same goes for my attempt to modify the default browser settings on the Home screen. Although the the icons I made are displayed, but the links are to 3:s portal, not where I want to go.
4. All data (contacts, calendar, mp3-files, downloaded songs, etc) came back and the first sync with Outlooked went smoothly.

Now the phone is as good as new. Well, maybe the battery is loosing its condition a little bit. I am not sure, but it seems that way.

Italian firmware uproar

The Italian forum a1k "Tutto sol Motorola A1000" has started a petition directed towards Motorola for their ignorance to provide an updated firmware. Without knowing any Italian, I sort of grasped the idea as it arrived through e-mail. Then a friend of mine read the petition and we found the following.

The initiatiors of the petition (a1k has almost 8000 registered users) are, mildly put, annoyed. Many A1000´s has been sent for repair, but the operators outsourced repair shops can't do anything because the problem is in the firmware. And Motorola does not provide any new versions. Quote from the petition (hastily translation by my friend, excuse me for any errors) which is very well formulated:

"It is amazing that a producer of Motorolas dignity cannot release a new firmware where at least some of the most common bugs are attended to".

Needless to say - I agree. Viva Italia. And by the way, Italy is a very important market for 3, with many video users and lots of interesting 3G cases.

A button gone is not alone

3G Forum features a new poll that asks visitors if they have lost a button on their A1000. As of today there are only 57 votes. But, nearly 30% of these report a missing button. That´s bad - for us users and the Motorola brand. Even though the repair shops might enjoy the situation.

Battery life in the wild

Last weekend I hiked with 15 scouts at our sections cabins located in the Tyresta National forest. Of course, the purpose of being there was not to listen to podcasts, surfing the Web or watching videos. Rather I brought my A1000 in case any of the parents wanted to call us, we had do make an emergency call (which we never did) or simply stay connected with the other leaders.

To my surprise the battery was almost dead after the first night, even though I turned the phone of during my six-hour sleep. At first I could not believe it. Then I realized that the reason must be the extremely bad 3G coverage in the area. That probably made the phone use extra power to stay connected (which by the way did not work that well).

Swedish recycling

I am with a group of executives at Ragn÷Sells preparing for a discussion about the future. At our feets reside a beautiful dam, full of fish. Life is nice...

"Free" 3G TV

Yesterday Tele2 (a Swedish telephone operator) announced that they offer TTV "the first free global TV-station for 3G phones (Swedish press release). Well, it may be free for their customers, the rest of use risk up facing quite large data communication bills. Luckily enough 3 Sweden offers free data this month (sources tell me this is because their billing system is buggy) so I have actually enjoyed a piece of the take for free.

At wap.ttv.lu you may see and hear the program. In addition the site offers traffic camera images and other content as well. It´s all in French. The fixed Internet address is www.ttv.lu

A couple of weeks ago I started listening to radio. TV here I come!

It takes three to thrive

Whenever 3 (the operator) figures in main stream media they claim that their initial troubles with the 3G network is over and that it is running smoothly. From my (and many other's) point of view that is far from the truth. For us a running network means being mobile and stay connected.

One, of course not all problems are related to the operator. Second, you need a terminal (in my case the A1000) and an operating system (here Symbian UIQ). I truly believe that that link in the chain is not perfect either. Third, the applications tend to have bugs as well. All three parts are rather complex systems by themselfes. Together the complexity increases by magnitude.

So, they way I look it is that whenever all three parts work smoothly together it is close to a miracle. And quite often that is what I experience. Then, on other occations one or more of the links fail - which is annoying. But generally, it is getting better and I do not regret stepping up to 3G and the A1000.

Forums slowing down?

Occasionally I take a look at the forum threads listed in my blogroll (left column here). Recently I have come to wonder if the activities in those forums are slowing down. It's just a generel impression. Of course it would be possible to analyze if my hunch is right (sort of doing some statistics). If I'm right, then I have three possible reasons. One, forum activists are mainly new early adopters - and by definition the new&early stage has passed. Two, a number of A1000 related sites have sprung up, and people go there instead. Three, A1000 is not selling very weel, so very few newcomers visit the forums.

Linked by Virgin

Today I learned that my posting about Virgin Radio's mobile show has been recognized by them. That is, there is a link to my review at www.virginradio.co.uk/thestation/mobile.

Search A1000blog

A couple of days ago I added a search feature  in the left sidebar of A1000blog. It is using Google's engine, and the default search is within A1000blog. I found that necessary as I can no longer remember by heart what I have posted.

p.s. As you may also have noted there is a link to the wireless mobile version of A1000blog just below the search area in the sidebar. d.s.