MDA Vario - New User in need of advice

[Guest SilentBob]

Hi,

I recently changed from a Smartphone 2003 device (SPV E200) to a WM5 device (MDA Vario). I have been using Smartphone devices for some time and was quite comfortable with them. However, I am still getting used to my new device (still love it though ;) ).

I have a number of questions regarding general use of the phone. I think that most of these are related to the OS & software rather than the device itself, but here goes:

1) It would appear that the device tries to run ActiveSync at regular intervals while NOT connected to a PC. This has become apparent, as whenever I go into the memory settings to "stop all running programs" ActiveSync always seems to be in the list of running programs. I have looked in the ActiveSync settings both on the phone and on the PC, but don't seem to be able to find anything to suggest that it is scheduled to sync every so often.

Anyone else noticed this? How can I stop this?

2) Still on the subject of ActiveSync, is there a fix for ActiveSync 4.1 that will stop me from having to close down my firewall before connecting the device to my PC? It is a tad annoying.

3) Is there a QUICK way of adding recipients into new texts? In Smartphone it was simply a case of clicking in the "to" box and selecting from a list. With WM5 it seems that I either have to:

i) Go to contacts, select a contact and choose "send text", then write & send.

ii) Start a new text and then, via the soft key menu, select "add recipient".

The Smartphone way (as described) was a lot more intuative. Is there a similar way of doing this in WM5?

4) Are there any plugins/codecs that can be added to Media Player to enable the playback of other media formats, such as MPEG? If not, can anyone suggest any good media players that do play a wider range of formats?

5) On Co-Pilot I have a male voice for which it is hard to distinguish what he is saying. I thought that a higher pitch (female) voice may be clearer, and therefore easier to understand. The options within CoPilot indicate only one voice, which is female. So it would appear that pocket speech overrides CoPilot, and this has a male voice installed.

I tried to follow instructions supplied by CoPilot t ore-install pocket speech, allowing the selection of voice. However, this option never appeared and the install didn't happen quite like described.

So:

i) How can I change the voice being used?

ii) Can more than one PocketSpeech voice be installed, allowing you to change between them?

iii) Where could I download new voices from?

6) It is quite a pain having to go through Start > Settings > System > Memory > Running Programs in order to see a list of running programs and t ostop those that are no longer being used. Is there anyway of adding a shortcut to the today screen or the start menu for this option? Alternatively, is there a memory management program that could be run from the today screen?

7) I have added system tones by adding WAV files to the Windows folder. I have added ringtones by adding MP3 files to the Windows/Rings folder. Can these be detected from any other location? I would rather keep them separate, for example in a subfolder within My Documents. This would make it far easier to manage.

Well, there's probably a few more, but I think that is MORE than enough for now. :P

Sorry for the essay, but any help would make me love this device even more.

BTW, I even managed to convert my wife. She now has a MDA Compact II. In pink of course! ;)

Thanks,

Simon

Edited May 17, 2006 by SilentBob

[Guest Tech]

Hi,

I recently changed from a Smartphone 2003 device (SPV E200) to a WM5 device (MDA Vario). I have been using Smartphone devices for some time and was quite comfortable with them. However, I am still getting used to my new device (still love it though :P ).

I have a number of questions regarding general use of the phone. I think that most of these are related to the OS & software rather than the device itself, but here goes:

1) It would appear that the device tries to run ActiveSync at regular intervals while NOT connected to a PC. This has become apparent, as whenever I go into the memory settings to "stop all running programs" ActiveSync always seems to be in the list of running programs. I have looked in the ActiveSync settings both on the phone and on the PC, but don't seem to be able to find anything to suggest that it is scheduled to sync every so often.

Anyone else noticed this? How can I stop this?

I havent experienced this ;)

Try doing a hard reset as generally this is what most MDA Vario users discover which clears up existing problems, if any even though its a new device... dont ask!

2) Still on the subject of ActiveSync, is there a fix for ActiveSync 4.1 that will stop me from having to close down my firewall before connecting the device to my PC? It is a tad annoying.

It's not a bug or a fix, its the natural behaviour. Put Activesync as an exception to the firewall, the XP/WS2003 firewall does this automatically for you however if you are using 3rd party firewall then please put Activesync in the exception list or trusted programs.

As for your question about placing the audio files else where, I think it can only be placed in the sounds folder or the root of the my documents folder, not in sub folders.

[Guest Brins0]

6.) I have recently managed to extract the O2 Task manager form my friends device, it's included towards the bottom of >THIS;)

EDIT: Hmmmm... MDA Compact II in Pink, wonder if I can convert my mother? She has a horrible phone history, has an E1 atm!

Edited May 17, 2006 by Brins0

[Guest Laser_iCE]

Hey! You're not the only person that went straight from the e200 to this beauty ;) It's really quite easy to get used to once you've played around with it for long enough...

In regards to Question 3, you are able to start typing the contact's name and it will have an auto complete drop down box :P

And for #4, TCPMP is highly regarded as probably one of, if not the best media player out there... It handles both audio and video files with great ease, and has a lot of options to boot! A quick google will bring it up ;)

I hope these two answers have helped ;)

[Guest mandt]

Hi,

My Active sync also starts on its own and a hard reset hasn't stopped it from doing so, I wouldn't worry about it as it doesn't seem to cause a drop in performance

If you install ppcprofiles pro (search modaco for it) you can choose any location for your sound files including the storage card

HTH

[Guest Jasonkruys]

if you start to type the name of the recipient in the 'To:' field, it will look up your contacts, and give you some to pick from....a bit like the T9

Edited May 19, 2006 by Jasonkruys

[Guest Brins0]

In regards to Question 3, you are able to start typing the contact's name and it will have an auto complete drop down box ;)

I never knew it did this, that's so useful it's untrue, thanks a bunch :P

[Guest Jandy]

I never knew it did this, that's so useful it's untrue, thanks a bunch :)

I can't help but wish for a quicker way to insert multiple contacts. Remember on the old Nokia phones you could use the "Send to Multiple" option, and select loads of contacts. Is there anything like this available? It takes ages if you want to contact a whole group of people.

[Guest chucky.egg]

Agreed, that would be handy

[Guest whaleyboy]

Hey there! Regarding adding contacts to new text messages...if you click on the word "To:" (as apposed to the to field) it will bring up the contacts list and you can click to add new contacts. Is that any help?

[Guest Jasonkruys]

Hey there! Regarding adding contacts to new text messages...if you click on the word "To:" (as apposed to the to field) it will bring up the contacts list and you can click to add new contacts. Is that any help?

Sadly not, it is the selection of multiple contacts at once that is wanted. ie.. Click contacts, select Jim, James, and John..bosh, bosh, bosh...then send...done :)

[Guest SilentBob]

Hi,

Original poster here. :) Sorry for no replies, have been very busy, but have been keeping an eye on the replies. Thanks to all for their tips. To summarise:

1) ActiveSync starts in background when not connected - Still not figured out why this happens. Have not yet tried a hard reset as suggested (haven't fancied going through changing all settings and re-installing apps just yet), but maybe when the ROM update is available this may be sorted. As a further point, once the update is released and installed, presumably a "hard reset" will restore to that updated ROM and not the original? (sorry for being a dummy)

2) ActiveSync 4.1 & Firewall - finally fixed this through help via my firewall's user forum. It was more than just setting the ActiveSync apps as trusted. Had to set some other "network rules". All OK now though.

3) Quickly adding recipients to SMS - Thanks Laser_iCE for your tip regarding the autocomplete. Wow! How great is that. Also, thanks whaleyboy. I discovered this too completely by accident about 5 days ago. Clicking on "To" brings up the contact list to select. In answer to the question regarding multiple contacts: after selecting the first, click "to" again and select another contact and keep repeating for all recipients. Quite simple.

4) Media Player - Thanks for the tip. Admittedly I have not tried TCPMP yet, but most likely will. What I have used though is the "SOMPY Media Player" (from www.sompy.com). This, along with the "SOMPY MovieEncoder", seems quite adequate.

5) CoPilot voices - Still no joy with this. Any help appreciated!

6) Stop/switch running programs - Been to busy of late to spend to much time on this. Have tried a couple of memory managers, but these had been designed for PPC2003 and didn't work properly on WM5. Re-reading this topic, I had forgotten about the O2 Task manager. Will have t ogive this one a go.

7) Ring tone & system sound location - I was aware of the "normal" locations for these. I.e. "Windows/Rings" for ringtones and "Windows/" for sytem WAVs. "My Documents" (or even "My Documents/My Tones") on the storage card seems to work fine. However, it does not appear to pick them up from the device's "My Documents" folder? Again, re-reading this post I have discovered that I had not yet tried using "Application Data/Sounds". Just tried this. Works for ring tones, but not for system WAVs. Is there anywhere, other than the "Windows" folder, that I can store system WAVs. I would really like to keep these separately. It would make it easier to manage. Welcome to suggestions.

I gotta say, I still think that this is a great phone. I have a couple of issues, but when the ROM update finall appears then hopefully these will be fixed. Certainly sounds like it from reading the topics on this forum.

Thanks for all your help so far.

[Guest Laser_iCE]

Okay, in regards to number 7 and the placement of ringtones ... Obviously you want to add in a few .wav files for Message tones or alarms, etc. ? If this is the case, then you are actually able to change the location of where the phone looks for its tones... Now I don't know what the registry key is exactly, however I'm pretty much 100% sure that it appears on the forums here somewhere, and if not (god forbid I send you to another site), check out XDA Developers, as I know for a fact it is on there :) So you could change the default location to, instead of /Windows/ you could make it /Tones/ or /Storage Card/Tones/ and then put your ringtones in the /Tones/Rings/ folder, and your message tones in /Tones/.

Hope this helps out a bit :) Oh, wait, and number 6, check out SPB Pocket Plus if you want to switch between apps as well as shut them down completely ... Works wonders, especially when you can set up exceptions. For example, I like to close everything except my media player of choice, so when I choose Close All, it closes all of the apps and leaves my music running ;)

Enjoy !

[Guest Laser_iCE]

Wow, I'm too lazy to edit (that and I want more post counts :))

So, also, when it comes to Active Sync running in the background, it's a common thing to do with WM5 as far as I know. From what I can gather, it has something to do with waiting for it to be connected to a computer or even a device with Active Sync on the other end... This could purely be to increase efficiency, however, how much it would increase it is another question... Perhaps it has something to do with syncing with remote servers even if you don't? Could be just a default setting in there somewhere being prepared for it? As far as I know, it doesn't take up that much memory anyway, so it's not really an issue :)

Laser_iCE

[Guest Tech]

T-mob ROM update WILL be available in the UK in the next 2 weeks.

[Guest chucky.egg]

For "task management" (that's running tasks, not "To Do"-type tasks) I use Smartskey and a shortcut to the Memory app

PocketPlus is great and everything, but it's getting more and more bloated, and it costs money. This setup is free

Use "Buttons" in Control Panel to assign a hardware button to the Memory shortcut (in the attached ZIP file). I use a long press on the Voice Recorder button for this, and I keep the shortcut in \Windows\Start Menu

Smartskey lets you assign a long press to the two Soft Keys. I have the left Soft Key set to open the Start Menu and the right Soft Key set to close the application.

Smartskey lets you specify apps that you want to minimise, and closes everything else. I've attached my Smartskey config file so you can see

Memory.zip

smartskey.zip

[Guest Pondrew]

T-mob ROM update WILL be available in the UK in the next 2 weeks.

Tech, have you got any clue when the HTC Charmer/MDA Compact II UK rom might be released?

[Guest waynepyrah]

I'd recommend the imate rom update for sure made a huge difference to my t-mobile vario immediately. no more activesync issues or random crashes... also noticed messenger now works on wifi :-)

[Guest mandt]

Gotta go with chucky here, smartskey is great. not only for easy closing of apps but it makes the wizard soooo much easier to use one-handed (which for someone moving from a smartphone has got to be a good thing!)

[Guest peekie]

There is no reason to play with the registry to get the ringtones to work , its very simple store them all on the sd card in the my documents map and they all appear in the list of sounds, without using the phones memory :)

[Guest SilentBob]

There is no reason to play with the registry to get the ringtones to work , its very simple store them all on the sd card in the my documents map and they all appear in the list of sounds, without using the phones memory :)

It's not the ringtones that's the issue, but the system WAVs (to be assigned to new messages, etc). Currently they live in the Windows folder.

[Guest luvmynewVario]

There is no reason to play with the registry to get the ringtones to work , its very simple store them all on the sd card in the my documents map and they all appear in the list of sounds, without using the phones memory :rolleyes:

Hmmm - this doesn't seem to happen on mine. I just get the default tones in the Phone Settings list - despite having an sd full of mp3s.

Just thought it was how it was spozed to be!

[Guest pdtp]

Hmmm - this doesn't seem to happen on mine. I just get the default tones in the Phone Settings list - despite having an sd full of mp3s.

Just thought it was how it was spozed to be!

if your wanting to store ringtones on the SD card then they need to be in the ROOT of the SD card. not in any forlder.