New to MS smartphones, need some help.

[Guest kiaman]

First off, i have used symbian phones before, but not MS ones, and have a few questions for everyone. If i set the home screen to Orange one, when going back to it,everything is fine, but if I set it to windows default, there is a slight delay on the screen showing fully, and it seems to flicker down the screen it seems to do this on all but the Orange one. Next is the program memory, is low even though nothing is running on the phone. I select to end all, and it seems to do this, but the memory keeps dropping down, why is this. Also how do you do an updtae of the firmware, as I belive there is a solution for the alarm clock, being able to be displayed on the front of the phone in standby, but have no idea how to do this. I am using a C500 PAYG on Orange.

[Guest pisquee]

By having the clock to show on the screen when the phone is on standby? Do you mean instead of the screen turning itself off, you want it to be on all the time to show a clock? ... i don't see a reason why a program couldn't be written to do this BUT the whole reason for the screen turning off is to save your battery, if the screen was on all the time to show your clock then your battery wouldn't last very long at all.

[Guest AngelOfRage]

If you mean a method for showing the alarm time on the homescreen then im not sure, but it would certainly be useful...

[Guest chucky.egg]

If i set the http://smartphone.modaco.com/viewforum.php?f=43>home screen to Orange one, when going back to it,everything is fine, but if I set it to windows default, there is a slight delay on the screen showing fully, and it seems to flicker down the screen it seems to do this on all but the Orange one.

Some Homescreens take longer to load for the first time than others, but you should find that once it has loaded once it will reappear immediately (without that "flicker") when you go back to it by pressing the Home key.

Next is the program memory, is low even though nothing is running on the phone.  I select to end all, and it seems to do this, but the memory keeps dropping down, why is this.

What do you mean "low"? What amount do you have and how much does it drop by?

The point of the "memory" in that sense is to run applications, and it should close applications if it needs more memory when it needs to open another app.

The most effective way to use the phone is to let it manage the memory itself, and not to worry about how much memory you have.

If you leave your Internet session open, for example, it pops up instantly when you want to surf again next time, but if you close it you save some RAM but have to wait longer for the Internet app to open again.

Also how do you do an updtae of the firmware

There is no firmware update for the C500 yet AFAIK, but in due course you will be able to get instructions from the Orange site, and probably more helpful instructions from here!

I belive there is a solution for the alarm clock, being able to be displayed on the front of the phone in standby

I'm not sure I understand the question, but if you are asking about having the Alarm time (as opposed to the current time) on your homescreen then there is an Alarm Time plugin available. I've not tried it on my C500, but it's easy enough to find out if it works... try it!

[Guest Chaser81]

@chris.orton

I agree with your post, but I understand why it is necessary to sometimes "End Task" your open programs on the C500, as more than a few times low system memory has stopped the camera application from saving a picture I have just taken, and the OS doesnt seem to have the sense to close open programs to make the memory available, forcing me to do it myself. Sometimes in a situation like that, you cant leave it up to the OS to handle, as it appears inept at doing so.

[Guest chucky.egg]

@chaser81

Yeah I had that with the camera yesterday and I thought about my last post then!

Doesn't always work the way it should (that could be Microsoft's new motto!)