Hi - same problem here exactly (French phone, French ROM). The BT Activesync connection won't work if you've connected the phone previously to the GPRS network. The only work-around I've found is to go to flight mode and then back again (to turn the 'G' symbol off in the top right corner), then it'll work. Altrernatively switch the phone off and on again, and connect to Ac tivesync before making any data connections using GPRS.
Cheers,
Nick

Many thanks for this lead, Aenikata. I agree, from a hardware standpoint it has the necessary elements (except the memory size is a bit small) and all it needs is some software development and enhancements to get it functioning as I have suggested. I'm passing this tip on to the developers, again many thanks.
Regards,
Nick

Hi Fatman, yes you're right, trying to get an extrenal device all-singing and all-dancing is going to be tricky, and I think any initial release will concentrate on the simpler task of data storage. The idea was to get the device working as an mp3 player indepentently of the phone, either with plug-in stero headphones or bluetooth ones. This isn't interfering with the phone functions, the phone isn't concerned with this configuration. It's just a stand-alone option to sue the device as a regular mp3 player. Obviously, if you're using the headset to listen to the stereo you can't use them for phone calls at the same time. I hadn't thought about the idea of using the device as a handsfree centre for the phone, but this wouldn't solve the bluetooth switching problem, as the device couldn't use the headset connection at the same time as the phone connection.
Any initial release, if we get that far, will start with just a giant external 'storage card', with some added software for the Activesync replacement/enhancement.
Nick

Thanks 35fan,
I tried this program, but it has the same problem as the others: you can't highlight the text using shift/arrow from a keyboard, you have to first choose "select mode" from the menu options.
I think the problem must be somewhere in the OS of WM Smartphone 2003, as a keyboard connected to a regular WM2003 PDA supports shift/arrow highlighting with just about any text program.
Thanks anyway,
Nick

Thanks for the comment: that's the difficulty, I don't know how many people have/want to ditch their laptops like I have (I have PC's, but they're hard-wired desktops). The problem with a laptop is that even a small one weighs 1kg: I'm looking at a device that is the size of an iPOD and a battery life of several days between recharge - and you don't have to take it out of the briefcase except to recharge it. I'm waiting to see what the market research result brings, but your reaction is going to be quite typical, I think.

Perhaps I should start with just the Activsync replacement software, which will work between a PC & a PDA/phone as well as the hardware device I have proposed?

Nick

Many thanks for the tip, Helio, I'll have to buy this as it seems the only viewer around for fax format.

First of all I should thank Garth for such a thorough job in assuring that we can all connect to Activesync via bluetooth. It's certainly 'bullet-proof', but you have to jump through hoops to get there. I must have been lucky: I have an XP SP2 and a C500, and got connected in seconds by following the instruction on the phone, starting at Activesync/menu/Setup BT ActiveSync...and just following the prompts. There was (and still is) no need to activate the Configurations/BT serialPortSetup (inbound port com 6). However, the big difference may have been that I had already used the PC before to make a BT Activesync connection to my iPAQ. I can now connect by BT to either the C500 or the iPAQ, with Activesync listening on com 4. I do actually have com 6 inbound port active on the phone, but this is reserved for Pocket Slides so I can use the phone as a remote control for powerpoint presentations on the iPAQ.

Now to answer Zerod's question:
Two devices with one PC works fine, but 2 PC's with one device is tricky. Yes, it's possible, but you have to go through what I've explained above each time you switch from one PC to the other....it seems the phone can only handle one PC identity at a time. It isn't very practical, so I use BT at home and the cable for for the connection in the office.
I'm sure some clever spark could write a piece of software to do this for us......who is going to take up the challenge??

Nick

Thanks awarner, but I should have said: if I change the input method by pressing * , as soon as I hit any key on the keyboard it flips back to "123" mode. Perhaps the manufacturers, Chainpus, will be able to sort it out (waiting for a reply), but I think the best solution is to kill the predictive software in the phone. I don't understand why "123" is programmed to be predictive - I thought this was reserved for "t9" and "T9" options?
Nick

Hi can someone please help me to disable the T9 function on my Smartphone? The problem is that I have a Chainpus BK600 bluetooth keyboard, but in most text programs for some reason the keyboard defaults the phone into T9 number mode ("123"). This is fine for text, but when I type in a number, the T9 function screws up my text entry by asking for possible combinations based on the previous history. Normally, it results in the numbers being reversed, and if I continue typing the text appears between the digits.
Thanks in advance for any possible help,
Nick

Hi, can someone help, please? - I quite often get email attachments into my Pop3 email account on my Smartphone (Orange SPV C500) in tif image format (fax format). I can't find any software to read tif's...it's not supported by Westtek, and most picture viewers I've looked at also can't handle tif. I would appreciate some guidance - thanks.
Nick

Many thanks for the tip, Pete. I don't think I can trust myself to remember to do this each time, but I'll give it a try.
More & more I'm finding Profimail a more practical solution for 'heavy' email traffic: yesterday they released a new version that now has a cc and bcc field for new mails, but it still doesn't show the addresses of copyholders or co-addressees, and still has no "reply to all" ability.....I will switch 100% to Profimail once they fix this, as in all other respects it's so much better than the MS version. It's not a particularly cheap program ($26 after you've paid the tax), but considering the extras you get (storage card memory indicator, GPRS counter, reflow doc viewer, txt viewer, html pages fully rendered) and the functionality (handles multiple attachments for sent mails, easy to switch automatic email box update on/off, ability to check all email accounts in one sweep, progress bars to tell you what's going on, easy removal of mails from the server, integrates well with Contacts & Wesstek ClearVue for reading attachments), it's worth it.

Nick

Hi Vrylakos,

Here's my list: I've tried quite a lot of programs for business use when on the road (just boring stuff, emails, writing reports, etc), and it boils down to this:

MUST HAVE
* Westtek ClearVue Suite (to read email attachments)
* ProfiMail (...to read more attachments: it will handle Word documents in reflow (word-wrap) mode [ClearVue Suite doesn't] and you can view txt files [again, ClearVue doesn't]). ProfiMail is actually an email client with its own file explorer.....if you just get the trial version (free) the mail part stops working after a while, but you can keep using the explorer part - really useful for doc and txt viewing.
* Syncdata's SmartPhone Notes. This is for writing reports, and it has an Activesync plug-in so all the notes get synched with Outlook Notes. You really need to buy a keyboard, too, if you want to turn your Smartphone into a real mobile office - I suggest the Chainpus SmartphoneMate BK600 or one of its clones (e.g. Proporta Freedom Keyboard). Works a treat and its wireless (bluetooth).
* SBSH's Papyrus calendar replacement - this software is just brilliant.

USEFUL if you're in to Bluetooth.....
* Ruttensoft's disconnect Activesync if you like connecting your phone to the PC via bluetooth (Microsoft forgot to include an OFF button with this feature)
* BlindLemon BT-Toggle, if you use bluetooth a lot but also want to get a good battery life by quickly turning it off when not being needed.

I hope this helps, good luck with your phone set-up. I haven't included any web site information, but you'll easily find all these programs using Google or a similar search engine.

Cheers,
Nick

Hi,
I've got three pop3 accounts installed and any of them can occasionally give problems. The symptoms are always the same:
* your receive an email with an attachment, or a long email that's been truncated
* you click on "mark for downloading"
* when it's done, the body of the email changes and repeats the text of the preceding email, or sometimes it just disappears completely.
* the only way to access it is to use another email client or use another pda/PC/phone
Other people have had the same problem. When I'm on the road I get around 20 emails per day, about one-third having attachments; this problem doesn't happen too often, but it's a damned nuisance when it does.


Thanks, I would really appreciate this: I heard that X-Bar can somehow give copy/paste functionality, but there is no trial download to assess it, and I don't want to pay for something only to find out it doesn't do what I expect. (In fact, I wouldn't buy it on principle now - after you install X-Bar, unless you buy the registration code it blocks the phone: this is a nasty trick and I don't appreciate sofware designers with this sort of attitude).

Cheers,
Nick

I checked in my laptop years ago in favour of travelling with an iPAQ as the sole source of professional data storage, email correspondence and report-writing whilst on the road. I'm now in my second month of having chucked away the iPAQ to try out the same style of working using an Orange SPV C500 instead. Astonishingly, it works, given a few minor gripes that I'm sure will eventually be put right. Here's my account so far:
1. Type of work.....if you're heavy into Excel charts (even small ones) then forget it. You have no chance with the screen size, stay with your laptop. Otherwise, if you have already adapted to a PDA screen, it isn't a giant leap to go to the Smartphone. For emails, the inbuilt inbox on the WM2003 Smartphone system actually renders bigger text than that of the Pocket PC version!
2. You will have to buy a keyboard: text entry on the iPAQ was slow enough by any method except a keyboard, and the Smartphone is no different: even with "T9", you don't stand a chance. Chainpus's BK600 Smartphonemate keyboard (and its various clones, such as Proporta's 'Freedom' keyboard) is an excellent product and a MUST HAVE if you are seriously using a Smartphone as your travelling workstation. This particular keyboard will work with most PDA's and bluetooth-enabled phones, but it actually works better with a Smartphone: why? - because a PDA has a touch screen and some functions are not accessible except via the stylus: in contrast, the Smartphone can be operated competely "hands-off" with this keyboard.
3. Third party software:
a. email
The WM2003SE for Smartphones platform has a bug which leads to POP3 emails disappearing when you try to download attachments. I and other people have bitched about this in many forums, but I've yet to see any action from Microsoft. It's a big problem if you want to do serious emailing using a POP3 or IMAP account. As an alternative, I suggest ProfiMail, but you will need to first unlock your phone if it's an Orange C500 like mine: the other problem with ProfiMail is that it doesn't allow you to see the cc or bcc fields, and you can't "reply to all".......otherwise it is much more fully-featured than the MS Inbox software that comes with the phone.
b. viewing email attachments
For pdf, ppt, doc and xls files, as well as the common image formats, then you'll need Westtek's ClearVue suite. This is currently the only comprehensive program that allows you to look at newly-arrived email attachments; it has one big drawback: no reflow for pdf and doc files (no word-wrap), so you are constantly having to scroll around to read the text. It also curiously doesn't support the simplest text format, the "txt" file. However, ProfiMail comes to the rescue here: it includes its own explorer that opens doc and txt files in reflow mode. Even if you don't want to use ProfiMail for the email client, get the free trial version so you can use the Profi Explorer: after the trial version expires, the Explorer part still works!
c. Writing text
The easiest I've found is Syncdata's Smartphone Notes, and you've got the added plus of automatic synchronisation when you dock with your PC back at home or the office. For a two or three page report, this method works very well. All the software I have tried for text entry doesn't support shift/arrow highlighting and cut/copy/paste functions with ctrl X,C,V, which is a great pity. This works fine on just about any text program with the Chainpus keyboard linked to my iPAQ, so I think the problem must be some limitation on the Smartphone WM2003SE operating system. Can anyone out there help on this point?

Conclusions:
* Yes, you can replace a laptop with a Smartphone as long as you only need to do email correspondence and short reports: anyone currently using a PDA in this manner will find it easy to switch.
* Bluetooth keyboards work better with MS Smartphones than with Pocket PC's, at least this is the case with the Chainpus model.
* The smaller size of the Smartphone screen compared to a PDA isn't the big disadvantage that I thought it was going to be.
* The SPV C500 has a serious bug in the email client software - it probably also applies to other phones running the same OS (WM2003SE for Smartphone).
* I'm still waiting for some serious document viewing software: there is no reflow on the principle contender, Westtek's ClearVue suite. For the moment, supplementing it with ProfiMail's explorer program helps a lot.
* Text editing on a Smartphone, no matter what program you use, doesn't support highlighting/copy/paste with any input method...I don't know why, but I hope someone can put this right soon.

Good luck to those of you embarking on a similar method of working, and I really appreciate any help anyone can give in sorting out the current deficiencies and problems.

Nick,
Paris, France.

Hi Ste Lin,
If you find it comforting, I have exactly the same problem........I have four pop3 accounts in my C500 and they all can suffer in this way. I've posted it on the C500 bug list, but it doesn't seem that HTC or Orange are in too much of a hurry to fix it. What it means for me is that I also have to carry my iPAQ with me when I travel, as the Smartphone is just not reliable for email attachments. It's a great pity, and is a major drawback.
Can anyone out there fix this, please? As far as I'm concerned it's the ONLY problem with this phone, but it's fairly major.
Nick

Thanks for the reassurance - yes, of course the link would have to be a secure paired one.

Nick

Thanks Poderr,

On the hardware front, I've been tipped off that Toshiba tried a 5Gb version of a portable HDD called 'Hopbit' in 2002. It was only for the Japanese market, and the publicity on it seems rather confused about the purpose of using it....they plug the mp3 player angle, but I don't think this in itself is enough. I think Toshiba were too early for the idea and it lacked focus. Anyway, the fact that the hardware already exists is a good start. You lost me with the tech language as I'm a biochemist by training and I'm approaching the concept with a Taiwanese developer who I hope understands these things. They're pretty hot on Smartphone and bluetooth technology, so if they decide to do it I have no doubt that they have the capability, both the hardware and software. All I know is that I'm pretty clear about what I need, and I'm sure I'm not unique in my requirements.

Interesting comments you make about VoIP: I've got another 'concept project' on this, another battery-powered box that is a BT-WiFi bridge. This will allow any BT-enabled phone to use a Wi-Fi hotspot, but I'm not sure if the Bluetooth link between the box and the phone will be fast enough to enable VOiP....there's a lot more going on in the background as I understand it, it's not just an audio gateway: you can see this for yourself if you load Skype, for example, into a PDA - it works fine using a direct WiFi link, but try going via a BT connection between the PDA and an internet-connected PC and it won't work. The only way round this would be to put most of the VOiP software in the box as ROM, and just leave the BT link to handle an audio gateway to the phone. I don't think Skype or other VOiP providers will go along with this idea, as they seem frightened of upsetting the mobile phone providers; in Asia there is already a lot of contention about using 3G phones for VOiP because of the threat of loss of revenue by the mobile phone network providers.

Nick

Thanks for the feedback! - I'm glad you like the idea: all I've got to do now is find someone who can sling together a prototype.....any offers will be gratefully received.

"Blue-jacking" - I guess this is a threat, but the same in principle as when you connect to ActiveSync using bluetooth in the office or home. The risk will be higher because more data is potentially accessible, I suppose, and the user may be out in public places.

Streaming music: since the storage device is also an MP3 player, you don't need the PDA - just a set of bluetooth stereo headphones!

Battery life: bluetooth is not too thirsty - the battery life should be as good as (...as bad as...?) an iPOD.

Nick

Is anyone interested in the idea of an external Bluetooth wireless HDD (Hard Drive) for memory storage for Smartphones and PDA's? I'm in discussion for possible development of this, but any feedback would be appreciated.

CONCEPT
* BT-enabled Hard Drive to connect to any BT-enabled Smartphone or WM2003 PDA - 20Gb. Battery operated, matchbox size.
* Also doubles up as a stand-alone MP3 player.
* Acts as mass memory storage, showing up as a storage card on your device
* Includes software to replace/enhance Activesync
* Enables synchronisation of ALL Outlook data, all email sub-folders, all attachments (within the limits of 20Gb available).

SOFTWARE
PC module - allows shared files to be selected, records file changes made, updates by overwriting changed files in direction of PC or direction of device (you select).
Device module - synchronises Outlook entries (Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, Favorites, Notes). Allows all files on the HDD to be accessed, change & moved. Allows all PC email accounts to be viewed/replied to via a 'virtual account' interface (similar to the default 'Activesync' one).

The nominal 1Mb/sec bandwidth of bluetooth means that transfers of large files is going to be slow, but the HDD will have a USB cable when connected to the PC. Synchronisation is really eliminated by this idea, as you simply carry around the data with you - the HDD can even stay in the bottom of your briefcase or deep in your pocket. No synchronisation means no file version conflicts, no deletion of data by error, no duplicate files. If you have both a Smartphone and a PDA, you can read the same data on both devices. In fact you can access the data on any number of BT-enabled devices without limit.

Interesting? -....... or plain crazy?

Nick

I agree, they are really giving the service - I've still had the occassional phone lock-up problem with the new AZERTY driver and they sent me another driver today which completely solves the problem.
Sorry about your keyboard, Smeg, sounds like the left part of the board it loses contact when you move it across. I hope you get a replacement quickly.
I've been travelling for three days and managed to clear about fifty emails and write up a 3-page report only using the keyboard and my Smartphone. I actually think the keyboard is more suited to the phone than the pda, as you have access to ALL commands via the keyboard for the phone, whereas with the PDA you can only access some functions by touching the screen. The only thing you can't get the keyboard to do with the SPV C500 is to select a contact (this is automatically locked onto t9 text entry) and change between text-entry using the *T9 button (not that you need to do this if you use the keyboard). Everything else can be done via the keyboard (even its own disconnection!) - pretty impressive.
I've only one thing on my wishlist for the software (I've already mentioned it to them), and that is to enable some of the Fn-number keys to pre-assigned text phrases rather than to open programs...this would be the icing on the cake.

Good luck with the exams, Squall!

Nick

Yes, please - I would very much like it to stop at all-day events: perhaps I'm being an "awkward customer", but what I would really like is for it to stop at the first event, whether it be a timed one or all-day. The way Microsoft have set up the Calendar generally, in Outlook on a PC and in PocketPC/Smartphone, is quite odd, I think - what's the big deal between all-day entries and ones with times beside them? - I can't understand why they are treated like two competely separate beasts.

Nick

Thanks - just tried the 'no-event = false' additon, but it ignores all-day events and goes to the next timed appointment. Is there a way of it settling on the nearest event be it either all day or timed, please?

It's good that there's support for the showing the weekday - I hope you can find a way to do it (obviously for events over several days, the day of the week isn't needed, and anyway I don't think there will be enough space).

Nick

Thanks, Patrick, your suggested code works just great...... it snaps back to the current day when you're through scrolling about and it stays there.
Is there a way of making it snap back not to the current day but to the next forthcoming event? This would be really great because sometimes I have no appointments at all, and a screen telling me "no upcoming appointments" isn't that useful.
If this is possible, plus a fix for the several-day events, then I'll definitely buy it to get rid of those nasty pink stripes!
Nick
PS minor point (won't stop me buying it), but can the day of the week (Monday, Tuesday, etc) be added to the top date line somehow?

Yes, I've tried both scroll speed and timer at 0, it still scrolls, albeit very slowly.
Anyone know how to stop it completely? I've tried removing the whole "scrolling-speed" & "scrolling-timer" phrases, but that just makes it scroll fast.
The other thing is that, if you have an appointment that lasts over several days, you have to click for each day in order to move forward - is there any way of jigging it so that a block entry like this is regarded as just one appointment?
Nick

Hi, Sullivanpt!
I tried your scrolling appointments plug-in - it's really great because it allows me to see upcoming appointments as well as giving me the flexibility to go to Papyrus rather than the awful MS calendar program -well done.
But honestly I find the scrolling function awkward and too difficult to set the right timings - I'm not sure if the scrolling concept is the best way to find quickly a future appointment....you have to wait too long for it to come round. Is it possible to have a version that doesn't scroll at all? - one that stays at the nearest upcoming future appointment, and where you can simply use the joystick to jump to further appointments in the future? This would be the most practical for me.
Thanks,
Nick