Nottach has covered the 6.1 issue many times, he has a topic here that you can check out and there's plenty of posts here in Modaco about it. I think they keep pushing the release date back. If you're looking for some cooked roms for the Tilt (which is really easy to re-flash, I had it's older cousin the HTC 8125) head over to the forums at xda-developers for some more info and roms. Most/all of the cooked roms contain unlicenced software, therefore against Modaco rules.. If you just want to get rid of the ATT crap on your Blackjack, there's plenty of info here on how to do it. Mostly, it involves editing the Windows Mobile registry in various ways. CeRegEditor is available here, and is free... it's also easy to use.

I had the same issues at first. It was easy to fix.
1.) On your phone: go into activeSync and click Menu then go down to Options.
2.) Here you will see one or many of the relationships that your phone has with various computers.
(I have 4, but you might have 1)
3.) Select them one by one (they might have names such as "Windows PC1" through "Windows PC4" or whatever you named the conection in your phone)
4.) most important part. Click Menu and Delete.
This will delete the conections with your PC, and you can start fresh with WMDC6 or whatever. Don't worry, it won't delete any real data from the phone just divorce it from the computer so it can marry your new Vista.


[EDIT] By the way, you can repair your connections with Outlook and Notes using the same method, that is if you use those to manage your contacts and notes...

Update: I tried a ton of different setting for Windows Media Player to get all the lag and de-sync out. Even with settings way too low for acceptable quality, I couldn't get Windows Media Player to agree with me. I have given up on it.... I tried to help. It works great for audio, but for video you really should get something else.

I use the Divx Player which I linked to above. But you gotta use the DivX codecs, so I just encode to it with TVC.
Alot of users like CorePlayer Mobile, find it here for free but I didn't care for it. Good news is it will play many/most video codecs.

You can disable the startup and shutdown animation, and you can set IE to go to a different homepage other than ATT's MediaNet.

That's about as close to "de-branding" as it gets I think.

I was working on a custom animation for days but couldn't get it to work. Not sure why either. I had it completed and repackaged, but no luck getting it to actually run, so I gave up for now. Here's a copy/paste from the post I had going on it:

[Paste]
...the startup and shutdown animations are quite rediculous. The sounds are awful too, but are easy to replace (see my other post). If you've spent much time poking around the phone, these forums, or a registry editor, then you will know that the file which contains this goofy animation is OemAnimationsDll.dll

This is a Dynamic Link Library which windows will report as an "application extension". It is fairly large, at about 1.9 Mb. Now to open it up take a recource editor, and I'm using PE Explorer. Inside is 40 images. 20 for the startup and 20 for the shutdown, all in PNG format.

So far, I've openend it up and exported all the image files. Having experience with animations, I had no problem making a good looking animation to my liking. After backing up the original of course, I replaced the 20 startup and 20 shutdown images in the .dll file with PE Explorer. Then I recompiled it with PE Explorer, keeping the right filenames of course.

That's about as far as I can get. I've put it back on the phone, but it does nothing at either startup or shutdown. I know the filename is right. With the file in Windows, you can right click on properties and after a few more clicks it becomes clear that there is a Samsung security certificate installed on the original file... This is where I think the problem might be.

Obviously mine doesn't have the Samsung security certificate... but I was able to install one from the original, supposedly.

[edit] I put the factory AT&T animation back on it, and that works fine, so at least I know I didn't "break" anything.. [/edit]
[/Paste]

Correct. There is a port for one, underneath the battery cover and under the round black cover (which is, apparently, just a stupid sticker..) The Samsung seems to use the standard FME type port. All you would need to do is modify your battery cover. Basically this means drilling a hole so you can keep your battery cover on/closed while still using the port.

Here's some good links I found on port types and connectors:
Cell phone antenna plugs types / locations.

The website also has plenty of things to buy, but I wouldn't buy there. If I find a halfway inexpensive one, I'm buying it. It shouldn't be more than $20.

Thats what I do too. I'm not sure what he means by "auto lock" but I never used the BJ1, which he says has this feature...??? Is it a feature that locks the phone automatically when it sits idle for a set time??? In my opinion, that would be more of a pain than usefull.

By the way, the reason it is jumpy is because your settings are actually too high! LOL now I know this is counter-intuitive, but just remember, your phone has a tiny processor that has to process all this audio and video. When the FPS and especially bitrate!!! are too high, then your phone has a hard time processing it all successfully, thereby causing audio/video lag and audio de-sync with the video. The lowest settings for audio and video quality that you can deal with and be happy, the better it is for your phone to process.

It's like trying to watch a high definition video on an old old computer, it will be choppy and out of sync.

Also, if the video does fall out of sync (often happens after about an hour straight of a long video) then the Divx Mobile player has an adjustment +/- for video sync. It's in the Menu under Settings.

One more thing, having a bunch of other programs running on the phone will guarantee a huge lag and de-sync. The phone keeps lots of apps running untill you end them with the Program Manager. Hold down the Home button to bring up the Program manager and stop other programs.

Ahhh finally something I'm an expert at lol. Total Video Converter is one of my favorite programs next to photoshop and firefox. I've been using for years.

Here's what I do to get 2-hour movies and smaller to play well on my phone.
1.) Download and install the Divx Mobile player to your phone, It's free. (you need to make a login, though)
2.) Drag and drop your video file into TVC and click on DivX/Xvid Avi, and from the drop down list select DivX Mpeg4 Avi
3.) now when the video is loaded into TVC, click on "lower quality" and click on Settings.
4.) input the following settings and click "Save and Apply" (don't forget to do this or it won't convert using the settings)
_____________________________________________
Audio:
Sample rate: original sample rate (usually 44,100Hz or 48,000Hz)
Bitrate: 112 Kbps (slightly less than cd quality of 128)
Channels: Mono (stereo is unnecessary since the BJI/BJ2 has one speaker.. use stereo if you really want..)
Codec: mp3

Video:
Frame Rate: 24 or 25 Fps (frames per sec. ok quality)
Bitrate: 200 or 225 (ok quality.. don't go below 200 or quality suffers)
Codec: Mpeg4
Size: 320x240
_____________________________________________
5.) click Save and Apply, and convert.
6.) drop the video into your phone...
7.) start Divx Mobile on your phone, click Menu, click Refresh List.
Voila!

If you really want to use the Windows Media Player (which unanimously sucks for video), you will have to use one of the MS Mpeg Avi formats.. But you can still use the above settings.

Another thing to try: the older unlock method (which I successfully used many times) which involves provisioning the security policies through your connected PC. It is outlined here, yes the instructions are for the Moto Q but applies to the Blackjack also. This should allow you to tweak and install with no problems... just a thought.

By the way, my device has all the same versions as yours. But I have not tried Surreal App Unlock since the provisioning method worked fine.

lol yeah that's what I was thinking.

Exactly. Basically you have to backup your entire ROM (standard and extended rom) and My Documents and whatever. Then you can reflash back to 6.0 with most or all of your original stuff. Might have to resinstall some programs, but no big deal.

If I find a good, reliable ROM backup program then I'll post it. I had one for my HTC but can't find it again and not sure it would work..

Big suprise lol. Windows is good at releasing product that hardware cannot run well. My brand new top of the line HP laptop came with Vista, and runs slowly, even with additional ram (maxed out). My HTC Wizard came with WM 5.0, ran good. Upgraded it to WM 6.0 and ran slowly.

Isn't there a WM 6.1 for the BJ1? Probly runs slow as _______. I'm still working on a good solid backup method for my WM 6 Blackjack before I go loading WM 6.1 on it.

This is a pretty cool program, since I have to commute a long way to my colleges (at "highway" speeds). I got it working right away no probs. Still trying to get it to work with my Google Maps mobile. That would be awesome.

LOL geez man that was rough.

Still looking for a decent ROM backup utility... grrr.. Can't find the one I used on my HTC..

Nottach what did you use to do a backup?

I found a couple 6.1s that I thought about trying... there are a couple on xda-developers and I found one on ther torrent sites. The one on the torrent sites seem unbranded, but who knows if it's clean.

I'll probly give it a shot.. but of course I'll make a backup before I go flashing away..

Yup, just like I thought. If you delete the registry entry and try to set a ringtone, you will get this error:

"The file size cannot be larger than 0 KB"


I just tried it..

lol, you can't just go deleting registry entries. It's not like deleting a program. From what I know, if you delete this registry entry, you will not be ably to use ANY size file for a ringtone. You will get an error.

Gimmie a minute and I'll try it.

I think there are some 6.1 ROMs floating around, but as far as I know they are unofficial. And installing new ROMs means it wipes eveything off your phone, including all the Samsung stuff and any AT&T stuff you might have. If you don't care about that, then you can find a 6.1 over at xda-developers.com

I'm waiting for the official Samsung release.
Who knows when that will be... and you can look all over the web and see different rumors and dates.

EDIT: Thanks Nottach, I've bookmarked it. This should help settle the confusion.

My understanding was that SDHC support was incorporated into Windows Mobile 6, and didn't have much to do with the device specifically. Someone tell me if I'm wrong...

Yeah it should be as easy as adding any registry key. Using your favorite registry editor, I use CeRegEditor, it's easy and free, go to HKEY_Current_User > ControlPanel > Sounds. right click (or whatever) on the Sounds folder (not any of the subfolders) and make a new REG_DWORD with the exact name "FileSizeLimit" and a really big Data Value like "10007200"

Screenshot:

First...Opera Mini and Opera Mobile are two different applications. Opera-Mini is free and their are endless complaints all over the web about it. It seems to be fairly complete, but the interface is confusing and clumsy. I use Opera Mobile, which is a full IE replacement, costs $24USD and does everything in speed and style. According to Opera, both are the most secure of all browsers... but ask any company and they will say that. Opera Mobile uses real, complete web pages (full web is the default, but you can switch to the mobile version if the site has a mobile version, such a MoDaCo, Myspace, or Google.)

Opera Mini claims to speed up browsing by "compressing" the web pages before sending them to your phone. This screams proxy and security-issue to me. I have no security issues, since I'm smarter than to be doing complex shopping and banking from my mobile phone... or go browsing some pron sites for that matter. I don't think there is anything to worry about with security on Opera Mobile, and I'm pretty certain that it is a real Windows Mobile 6 application, not a Java app. I would drop the $24 if you're worried about security.

Everyone knows IE kinda sux.. I don't use it because it's ugly and the PC version has been plagued with security issues since day one. I won't even login to my colleges with it. I also do not believe it is a Java app or proxy squeezed.

Firefox Mobile was announced last October I think, but far from done. They have started up a Wiki page for people to keep up with developments. Right now it is going in two direction, touch-screen and non touch-screen. If it is anything like firefox for PC, then there will be alot of people switching to it and never looking back. Opera can keep my $24 but I'm switching.

Don't get the upcoming Firefox Mobile confused with Minimo. Minimo came out some time ago and probably has the most complaints on the web. It came out around the time of Windows Mobile 4.0 and never really took off. I think it's dead today.. One cool thing is the tabbed browsing.

Not that I know of... Signal strength is one of those things, ya get what ya get. You could try one of those crazy looking metalized stickers

that supposedly boost cellphone reception. I just did a quick google search.. some products going from $165 to $499. ZOIKES!!!!! Somebody here has got to know of a way to boost cheaply.

Correct.. sorta.

$199 refurbished with contract. Click here to check it on the AT&T site. If you want the HTC version because everyone hates all the AT&T crap, don't worry too much, after you cid/app/sim unlock the ATT version then you can reflash with a clean release of Mindows Mobile 6.0 or 6.1 when it's out. Surprisingly, these HTCs are really easy to unlock compared to some of the last generation Nokias.

Likewise, if you wanna buy on ebay, rest assured that even a trained monkey can unlock the HTCs and like jimbouke said, if you mess it up, you can just start it over again no problems... And yes the unlocking is permanent.

Wierd.. I would back up whatever you need to and take it back to ATT immediately. You're gettin close to the 30 days probably (the 30 no-questions-asked days). Of course you still have your 1-year Samsung warranty, but stick ATT with the problem while you still can. If you don't want to do that, at least call Samsung and see what they say.

[[I doubt it's your PCs, and you ruled out the cable, so it must be the phone]]

Oh and before you take it back, do a hard reset so the next schmo isn't reading through your texts and selling your friends numbers. The hard reset erases everything and takes it back to "like-new"... to do this, turn the phone off. then hold down the UP direction of the scroll pad while turning it on. it will ask you twice if you're sure you wanna erase everything..