HTC TyTN II Is Pants

[Guest Techy]

I use my TyTN II frequently during a day ... I got mine from Orange and am using it as stock with only a few of Paul's tweaks and a new homescreen. No problems at all, orange does bulk ware it some what, but it's an issue that I dont find too bad as what i use it for does th job. We all know the video codecs are gammy, but again ... it has 2384794534 tricks. I use mine on tour alot :D

[Guest qed]

Heres a copy of the email I have just sent Orange Uk regarding my brand new brick

Anyway anyone looking at this phone after having two of them within the space of a month I would say STEER well clear

i'd have to agree mate.. i've had this thing three months now.. my stock answer to the usual questions like 'whats it like etc' is usually.. its ok for most things except phone calls' in actual fact its crap at everything.. it may be an orange thing i dont know..

1. calls go off.. tum te tum.. .. orange solution.. take out battery.. reset..hmm technical :-/

2. thing constantly locks up and won't go back to start menu

3. loses tracks from wmp (usually favourite ones).. keeps needing resync

4. never even got a cd! never mind tom tom.. d/l'd version gives incorrect rom version

5. infuriating screen goes off (how dumb is that? ok so its tweakable.. pathetic)

6. does anyone know of a decent (branded) setof headphones with mini usb socket.. (not the adapter POS please)

i spend most dinner times reading all of this stuff bout roms and what have you in fact i've probably done more than for my masters thesis.. there is too much information and none of it is useful and is usually inaccurate .. people forget to include 'ALL' of the steps.. there are simply too many cracks to fall through, i've ben in most of them, so don't send me there (been there).. its like a linux forum no doubt i'll be bombardedwith the same evangelical bleating).. answer me this..

1. can you upgrade the rom on an orange branded device or does it have to be unlocked first.. most info is for voda or tmob.

2. can it be unlocked (see 1)

3. is it ok to flash to win mob 6.1?

4. how do you get round the tom tom rom problem (never seen a solution for this).. get earlier version isn't solution unless url included btw

5. what is the difference between hardspl and softspl.. what does spl mean?

6. does touchflo work with this POS at all?

that'll do for starters.. as a gesture of goodwill i will create a 'how to make your orange htc kaiser work properly' page if i get the right information.. i suspect there's plenty of folks out there who daren't stick their heads up above the parapet

yes i know this thing will be a brick if i mess up..i don't care.. its a brick if you can be bothered to post, post a solution, not half a page ofbleating about read the faq yadda yadda.. i've read them all.. six times..

thanks for your patience. i'm really pissed off with this thing.. i'm sure there a decent piece of kit in there.. peace

[Guest jimbouk]

1. can you upgrade the rom on an orange branded device or does it have to be unlocked first.. most info is for voda or tmob.

Yes - OS only roms will flash fine onto your orange device. This doesnt require any unlocking at all. Some even contain the HTC connection setup application so the orange data/voicemail etc settings are automated. If the rom you choose doesn't have it, then there are various cabs floating around that set your new rom'd device up to work immediately with orange.

2. can it be unlocked (see 1)

Yes. Orange can sim unlock it for you or there is the paid for unlocker from imei-unlockers or there are two free sim unlockers over at xda.

3. is it ok to flash to win mob 6.1?

Yes - except you will need to sim unlock for this - as you would need to flash a wm6.1 compatible radio (and its the radio rom that is sim locked).

4. how do you get round the tom tom rom problem (never seen a solution for this).. get earlier version isn't solution unless url included btw

The current version of tomtom works fine with all the roms I have seen.

5. what is the difference between hardspl and softspl.. what does spl mean?

Effectively it is the bootloader. It is the most baisc level of OS for the device and it is used to allow access to the rom memory so that the new os can be flashed to the chips.

6. does touchflo work with this POS at all?

Yes.

If you really want the best experience with your device, then I would recommend installing hardspl, running Jockr's sim unlocker and flashing Dutty's wm6.1 rom and then flashing a wm6.1 radio. All the info you need is over at xda-developers and as long as you spend about an hour reading, it will only take you an hour to then do all of the above.

Unless you ignore some of the steps or try to flash with a laptop on batteries that run out half way etc, then the chances of bricking are less than 1 in a 1000.

[Guest WearTheFoxHat]

Jimbo ... thank you for that excellent reply.

I've been meaning to flash the ROM on my device, and realised that I needed to do some of the steps. But wasn't unsure what the various pre-reqs were.

I've got a much clearer idea now.

Just need to pluck up the courage to flatten this device first!!

[Guest qed]

thanks jimbo great reply to an admittedly fractious post.. ( i want mine to look like the one on duttys site.. meh)

i was thinking about thiis post this morning.. the problem is that its a bit li ke making an apple pie, loads of recipes all slightly different..all over the place.. you read the recipe.. 'make an apple pie its easy''.. instructions..

1. read monkey faces faq on how to collect apples (30 pages long.. but your apples aren't specifically mentioned)

2. in the middle jump out to hack boys 'pastry making faq' which undoubtedly useful contains inaccuracies and areas where you can fall beween the cracks.. and so on

i'll have a go at this and put it all in one place.. it should be a cut and paste job from one document imo.. onwards and upwards

one pedant.. whereto get the latest tom tom or at least its name so i could run a search

cheers

[Guest jimbouk]

The best place to get Tomtom is from tomtom themselves...at £67 quid for the software on storage card including 99% of GB and major routes through europe.

You can download the tomtom home "taster edition" from various places which includes one free city map - and then purchase the full map for your country. The version that I know works is 6.0.32

[Guest qed]

The best place to get Tomtom is from tomtom themselves...at £67 quid for the software on storage card including 99% of GB and major routes through europe.

You can download the tomtom home "taster edition" from various places which includes one free city map - and then purchase the full map for your country. The version that I know works is 6.0.32

yeah that seems the best solution i don't mind paying.. thing is i suppose i won't be able to listen to music etc if i change the rom.. may buy the dvd version of navigator instead.. i take it this works..

anyways.. update.. followed instructions (it was much easier with 'your' simplified version.. thanks.. and now the thing is rocking.. no radio i don't think (don't care i didn't know there was one anyway).. i'll post my experience later as it wasn't 'entirely' straightforward..

relevant parties duly paypalled.. nice work and karma airmiles for you

any tips for the camera in low light (gigs etc)?

[Guest varioIII-lover]

Why wouldn't you know? Flashing the rom is dead easy and I'm sure one of the members (I can if you want) will go through it with you. It takes about 5 minutes max and the difference is phenomenal. Let me know if you want me to go through it in a PM.

hi there .. could you help me on how to flash the rom for my t mobile branded vario III

thanks

v3L :D

[Guest varioIII-lover]

tytn2 IS definitely pants. had to make an emergency call and couldn't even do that without soft resetting and waiting for it to reboot ..

v3L

[Guest jimbouk]

yeah that seems the best solution i don't mind paying.. thing is i suppose i won't be able to listen to music etc if i change the rom.. may buy the dvd version of navigator instead.. i take it this works..

anyways.. update.. followed instructions (it was much easier with 'your' simplified version.. thanks.. and now the thing is rocking.. no radio i don't think (don't care i didn't know there was one anyway).. i'll post my experience later as it wasn't 'entirely' straightforward..

relevant parties duly paypalled.. nice work <ale> and karma airmiles for you

any tips for the camera in low light (gigs etc)?

Radio refers to the cellular radio not a music one.

There is an official HTC camera "fix" that does make the camera a lot better ---- not perfect but better.

[Guest jimbouk]

tytn2 IS definitely pants. had to make an emergency call and couldn't even do that without soft resetting and waiting for it to reboot ..

v3L

Do you not think that your device is the only one that is exhibiting that behaviour? If all Kaiser's were unable to make a call then no-one would own one.

[Guest varioIII-lover]

lol .. i just think that there are too many people with the same kind of problems to not justify it being looked into by htc/t mobile ..

screen redraws, freezes, soft resets aplenty, and much more ..

i would dearly love to be one of those to have a trouble free ride with my vario3 because it's pretty much essential to me ..

:D

[Guest pd.ryder]

tytn2 IS definitely pants. had to make an emergency call and couldn't even do that without soft resetting and waiting for it to reboot ..

v3L

I was about to suggest there just *might* be something wrong with it - but jimbo beat me to it!

There are a lot of these devices around, many of their owners posting here and on other forums. If they couldn't make phone calls, we'd have know about it long ago.

Get it checked out by the gadget-rat you bought it from. Something is most definately not right with it :D

:(

[Guest pd.ryder]

lol .. i just think that there are too many people with the same kind of problems to not justify it being looked into by htc/t mobile ..

screen redraws, freezes, soft resets aplenty, and much more ..

i would dearly love to be one of those to have a trouble free ride with my vario3 because it's pretty much essential to me ..

:D

What software do you have installed? It might be related...

[Guest varioIII-lover]

vanilla hard reset.

damn this is the 2nd vario i have had from t mob!

i agree there must be good ones out there ..

:D

i really love the phone tho .. couldn't live without it ..

:(

[Guest varioIII-lover]

i would just like to remove f secure at the moment, but it's removed it self from the remove apps list but it's still there running happily!

[Guest Bainsyboy]

Well i see I opened a can of worms, After removing the orange gump as suggested on here my phone does seem to be running fairly ok it has seemed to slow down a bit since i installed windows messenger ( havent got a clue why though ) I reckon i will be keeping it BUT thats only because orange havent got anything else on there range that tickles my fancy. The TyTN II though is lets be honest pants, it has a faster processor than all of my old phones BUT runs slower :( I can be typing away on the qwerty keyboard with nothing else running in the background and i can type faster than the phone can keep up, thats got to be wrong.

As for the video issues, who in there right mind will show there friends any MMS messages that they have recieved as they will just laugh at you, it reminds me of the video downloads of sky news bulletins that I used to do on my old orange spc c500. My spv m600 played video effortlessly in fact i would say it was the best video player that i have seen so far, is video that important on a mobile phone, no not really but why make a sexy looking phone if it cant even play mms messages that people send you.

I honestly cant believe how HTC have just washed there hands on this handset and like I have posted elsewhere i would be thorouhly peed off if i had paid top dollars for this device.

Internet browsing though is top notch if the phone isnt on a go slow cycle.

Overall though I think i would still say steer clear of this phone as theres always going to be something else around the corner as for HTC im sure they made my c500 which although one ugly phone was and still is a joy to own, the c600 was absolute pants, better looking phone but i went back to my c500, my m600 was good apart from the bluetooth not working correctly, one minute the BT would want to work and the next it didnt. So not sure if i will ever get a htc phone again but who knows.

My scoring

Appearance 8.5 out 10

Battery 6 out of 10

Qwerty keyboard 9 out of 10

Video playback 0 out of 10 ( Its 2008 HTC not 1950 )

Internet browsing using onspeed 9.5 out of 10

Overall for the phone and only because of the internet browsing 6 out of 10, Steer Clear

THanks for the people that have given hints,tips and advice much appreciated and keep up the good work.

If anyone knows of a good widows phone that orange stock please let us know because if you ask there sales team they havent got a clue usually just telling me what million pixels the camera has :D

P.S I have only used f secure once on a phone and it was pants

Edited March 21, 2008 by Bainsyboy

[Guest jimbouk]

If your device's response to typing is slow... then try changing the autocomplete options. Drop it down to suggesting two words after you enter three letters.

[Guest Bainsyboy]

If your device's response to typing is slow... then try changing the autocomplete options. Drop it down to suggesting two words after you enter three letters.

Cheers Jim, I'll give that a go

[Guest Yammeh]

Just want to say thank you for the hint, jimbouk. I don't use autocompletion and totally forgot that there was an option to take it off.

[Guest robertmoir]

lol .. i just think that there are too many people with the same kind of problems to not justify it being looked into by htc/t mobile ..

screen redraws, freezes, soft resets aplenty, and much more ..

i would dearly love to be one of those to have a trouble free ride with my vario3 because it's pretty much essential to me ..

:D

There does seem to be something odd going on. I <3 my one. It's an HTC branded phone with no network rubbish on. It's fast, it's reliable, it doesn't hang all the time (or even at all, to be honest). It's a great improvement over the T-Mob branded (but flashed with a XDA-developers ROM) TyTN I had previously. I can't comment on the video thing. It's clear that the phone isn't being all it can be while that remains unfixed but I didn't buy it for that myself and haven't really messed with it, the one video I have on my memory card seems to run ok, TomTom maps seem fine to me, etc... *shrug*

But all the posts here from people with Orange and T-Mobile builds can't be ignored. My chiropractor also has a TyTN II but from Orange, and comparing his phone to mine it does seem to behave rather differently.

Software on my phone:

3gVision i-nigma

Aspecto WiFiFoFum

Cambridge vxUtil

T-Mobile customisation (an XDA-Developers cab that loads t-mobile phone/MMS/Data settings)

HTC Home Customizer (not that I use it)

Google Maps

HTC Camera Patch

Microsoft .Net 3.5 Compact

MS Live Search

MS Live services (Mail, Messenger, etc)

MMetrics Meter

MoDaCo NoData

My Mobiler

Nadavi HTC GPS Tool

Newsgator Go

Opera

RARLABS Pocket RAR

Salling Clicker

SPB Backup

SPB Mobile Shell v.2.0

SPB Space Calculator Skin

Thunder WM5torage

TLR Large Start Menu

TLR Large Title Bar

TomTom Navigator v6

Yahoo! Go 2.0

I've got quite a large mixture there, lots of different things, lots of different versions of software, I've got 89.18Mb of Storage space and 58.62Mb of Program space free and my phone runs really very well indeed. I've also ran S2U2 on here in the past and it did slow things down a little bit and needed a few resets while setting it up and "playing" with the settings but the slight slowdown aside was OK for day to day use too. As I use SPB Mobile Shell, I've removed the HTC Home plugin from the Today screen.

As I said to Bainsyboy, I don't doubt people are having a bad experience at all, but I can't reconcile those experiences with the one I'm having.

So there's something odd going on. Are HTC using a different "build" of WM6 for OEM devices vs. the ones they sell themselves? Is there some common item being loaded by all OEMs that isn't on my list above?

Am I just lucky? Am I one click on the wrong program away from starting to have problems myself? Are you guys one button click, one startup menu item deletion or registry hack away from a device that runs as well as mine? Or what?

Maybe if we can answer those questions, if someone else running a HTC-branded phone rather than an operator one can chip in to say how their phone runs, we might start to figure out what is going on and maybe you guys can get a phone that behaves how it should do considering the price of these things

[Guest varioIII-lover]

i think the phone has issues when running off the battery. it's fine again now when plugged into usb.

also, i think it's time we invited HTC to look at these threads, the amount of users with problems, the issues with these phones with branded roms and to comment, because these phones are truly wonderful, and would be even better if they worked reliably for those who are having troubles.

v3 x

[Guest Bainsyboy]

i think the phone has issues when running off the battery. it's fine again now when plugged into usb.

also, i think it's time we invited HTC to look at these threads, the amount of users with problems, the issues with these phones with branded roms and to comment, because these phones are truly wonderful, and would be even better if they worked reliably for those who are having troubles.

v3 x

Thats my thoughts on the issue, Ive manage to slow the phone down again bu loading the kaiser phone and calculator skin, hand on herat it took roughly 10 seconds last night to open one programme, i know that i had hit the right key because i had the programmes name at the top of the screen.

I keep looking at the orange web site to see if there any new phones coming out because I cant see me living with this phone for 18 more months.

Vids not a major issue but if people send you a MMS message you do feel a bit stupid showing the clip to other friends because the qulaity is so bad, I used to have feature films and tv programmes running on all my old devices with no hiccups at all, friends used to ask how the hell have yoou got all of those films on your phone and they used to say how good the quality was, now though its not worth putting anything on the kaiser, so my 8gb memory card will have to wait for another phone to come along.

[Guest varioIII-lover]

i can't seem to send an mms video to anyone at all ..

:D

[Guest varioIII-lover]

my final word is that i am going to try tlr's 6.1 rom and if that doesn't work then they can have it back. soft resetting all the time isn't my idea of fun.

v3