Ex-Windows Mobile Users... Help a brotha out!

O

Odeline

New member
So Ive been using Windows Mobile/Pocket PPcs since the HP Palmtop Windows CE devices. Other than a short stint with a Samsung Instinct, Ive been happy.

Now it seems (or atleast its finally getting through to me) that windows mobile is just too behind for the times. HTCs TF3D helps but Im tired of the crappy 3rd party software, and having to bandaid the OS just to get it to look nice and behave like I want. Im currently using a Touch Pro and after about 8 months with the phone I need something else. I REALLY like the Touch Pro 2 but refuse to pay the $350 sprint wants for it.

So this brings me to the HTC Hero. Im very happy with sprint and do not want to leave. I am awaiting the 10/11 release. Im a very tech savvy person so the more complicated the better Im aware of the problems already about the Hero but for $180 I can deal with it.

So my main point of this post is to ask those of you who were windows mobile users, either the "casual" phone user to the hard core phone geeks... how was the transition to android? What do you miss most about the windows mobile OS that android may have left a void (tethering, outlook integration etc) What was your FAVORITE feature of android that windows mobile just couldnt touch.

Thanks for the input!

Sorry for the spelling errors Im typing this on my TP.
 
In my opinion, Windows mobile needs a complete rewrite from scratch. It was such an awesome platform back in the day, and its so damn powerful and customizeable, but right now, Android is just a superior platform.

There are some things I miss from Windows mobile though when I moved to android, and these are mostly things people hate about Windows Mobile lol:
1- Stylus: I'm sorry, but I loved the stylus. I dont like finger-touch-based stuff as much as I like stylus stuff. The stylus is just more accurate, and makes things like web browsing much nicer. And frankly, handwriting > onscreen keyboard.

2- The calendar: there are some things I miss about the calendar, mainly the ability to cut and paste appointments into different times so easily. But the Android calendar is almost as good, if not better due to the sync feature.
 
The only thing I miss is the RAM that kep web pages available without auto refresh for days, and the way I could copy and paste text.

But the phone was generally the most boring thing I've ever had, was stock, no applications, but I was a kid so eh.

I like the g1. it's different.
 
i was with winmo for 3 years , absolutely loved it . i got the g1 when it came out in october of last year , and have never looked back since ! this android just BLOWS winmo out of the water . i was even starting to get bored with my g1 around december . it was new , didnt have too many apps and games , was on an older os . so i took the plunge into the world of modding . i "rooted" my g1 .(if youre unfamiliar with the term root , its similar to jailbreaking an iphone). it was like bringing my android to life ! all of a sudden , the world of android was different to me . custom roms , themes , wireless tethering , overclocking , backups/restores of the whole os , overclocking , and much much more . not to long after i rooted my phone , cyanogen came along . he is the greatest active rom cooker . what he does with the rom in a month , google probably could never do ! luckily , i jumped on board his bandwagon when it just started , because its been a hell of a ride since . i have probably updated/changed my rom( the whole os) at least 60 times or more in the past 6 months . and the thing is , cyanogen is the only one . there are multitudes of custom roms already ! the hero will not be an exception . we are already using the motorolla blur ui on some of the custom roms for the g1 . i wouldnt listen to much of the bad stuff you here about the hero , the lagginess is in all the stock firmwares for android . there are ways to take care of it ( cough , cough ... cyanogen ) . i really do believe it will be worth the wait .
 
you're kidding,right? the amount of software available is incredible. tf3d on the touch pro 2 is nothing less than amazing and super smooth. have you tried it? i'm coming from android g1, i switched back to winmo only because of the tp2. yes,winmo in itself blows, but the tp2 makes you forget you're using winmo for the most part. i miss absolutely nothing about my g1 or android. i can play various format videos and audio with ease. i can view my geovision security cameras online with ease from anywhere in the world. please do yourself a favor and go play with a tp2 if you get a chance. the phone is a beauty and a beast. the hardware keyboard is nothing short of perfect. android is still in it's infancy and will eventually blow away most of the competition. i hope. but the tp2.....nothing android can touch it at this point. go read the xda forums for rhodium. atomang is making a cydia like app where we'll be able to customize our own roms from different chefs, being able to "cook" our own custom roms. it's a time you won't want to be missing out on. theres nothing like this for android currently and probably won't be for some time yet. unless cyanogen has some crazy ideas up his sleeves hehe.
 
Not to argue, but im going to haha. My touch pro 2 is much better then the G1. Although i am dying to get back to android, maybe gunna get an android tablet along with my phone or something. My touch pro 2 can tether wirelessly, overclock, it has themes, and different roms. Its got great 3d games and syncs easily with windows media player, not to mention the multitude of codecs it supports (more then android) thanks to core player.

I miss the market, but hey one is coming on the 6th of october with winmo 6.5 apparently, so who knows.

Also icerberg, its not the ram that causes the page to reload, its just the way android is written.

my 2 cents.
 
But you don't have a cute little green android logo.
Last winmo device I had was a Blackjack 2, great phone but not enough to hold my interest. The TP2 looks great,I do love the design, but you can do anything it does with an Android device.
 
Well I just pre-ordered my Hero today! Ill be there sunday first thing to pick it up.

I hate that Im going to be a complete noob once again... Learning curves are a b*tch. Ive been browsing the forums here.... you all seem like a good bunch of guys... Take it easy on the n00bs

I hope the chefs cook up some good stuff for this phone. Im over at xda always waiting to flash the newest rom they've cooked up over there. I know XDA is a HTC oriented site but do they do alot for android or primarily winmo?

Look forward to joining, learning and contributing to the community!
 
not really. you don't know what you're missing! lol. i have absolutely no regrets whatsoever purchasing the tp2. i know android is going to eventually take over. winmo's day's are very numbered unless htc continues to hold them up with touch flo. if the keep improving it, people won't even realize they're using winmobile.
 
Nothing special there.... My touch pro does all that and more already.

I like the flexibility of the Sense UI and widgets...

Sure you have apps like SPB mobile Shell but that's still a bandaid not a better UI.
 
The TV out and fm radio are interesting, but those are hardware limitations, not the os. And the rest of it are available as apps. I'm not bashing the TP2, I gave it a long, hard look myself. Still thinking about it really. I may be on here in a couple of months saying I just got one. I'm just saying that apps don't really differ, if you have one thing on one platform, both Android and WinMo, odds are you'll find a parallel on the other.
Damn, that TP2 is nice though, but I still think our little green mascot makes it win.
 
Anyone want a Touch Pro II for FREE??????
I wanted to post this earlier but it has been a crazy day for, don't know how long this offer will last, might only have 50 mins to jump in lol.

http://www.wmdeals.com/
 
I've used Windows Mobile for about 2 or 3 years and even modded my Windows Mobile phone with custom themes.

The thing I miss most is the smart dialing (which can check contacts by first/last name and by phone number). Star Contacts can search by first/last name so that comes pretty close.

Miss Windows Media player but the stock music app isn't too bad.

I still like syncing with Outlook, which Android lacks unless you purchase third-party software. I'm using CompanionLink and it works like a charm. Syncs contacts, birthdays, and calendars without a hitch.

All in all, the transition is painless (as long as you have software to sync Outlook, otherwise it's painful to get all of your contacts to your Gmail account by hand if you have a lot). I love the apps and ability to customize your phone (especially if you root it). I probably won't switch back now.
 
@crazythunder
"i can view my geovision security cameras online with ease"

I also have been using ""Geovision" for a number of years and I use a program called "view commander mobile" to view my cameras
Ive been using windoes mobile since the "htc wizard" and "eten" days but TP2 was my first experience with wm6.5

I flashed my TP2 phone (the minute I got it) with the valkyrie firestorm ROM from here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=569507&highlight=view+commander

the problem im having is as follows (im including my posts I made on "xda-developers" site) here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=4939358&highlight=view+commander#post4939358

"???????????? ????????????????13th November 2009, 02:29 PM ???????????? ???????????? ???????????? ????????
???? ???? ???????? ???????? ???????? ???????????? ???????????? ???????????????? ???????????????????? ????????????????????spiro ???????????????????? ???????????????????? ???????????????????? ????????????????
????????????????Member
???????????????? ???????????????? ???????????? ???????????? ???????????? ???????????????? ????????????????????Join Date: Mar 2006
???????????????????? ???????????????????? ???????????????????? ????????????????????????Posts: 59 ????????????????????
???????????????????? ???????????????????? ???????????????????? ???????????????????? ????????????????????
????????????????
???????????? ???????? ???????? ???????? ???? ???? ???? ???????? ???? ???????? ???????? ???????????? ???????????? ???????????????? ????????????????update ????????????
???????????? ???????????? ???????? ???????? ???????? ????Quote:
???? ???? ???????? ???????????? ????????????????Originally Posted by spiro ???????????????????? ????????????????
????????????????Im using the tp2_valkyrie_4.6.504LEO rom
I use "view commander mobile v4.11" http://www.ivimg.com/products/vcmobile.htm to log in to a couple of "Geovision" web camera servers and also a panasonic webcam and watch live video feed from the security cams.
The program would work good as soon as i installed the rom, but by the time I was done installing my programs and doing the settings it wasnt working anymore for the Geovision servers (connection failed error), but it works for the panasonic webcam
After a series of painstaking hard resets and installing programs one by one while checking for errors on my webcam program I think I have pinpointed the problem.
The minute I start "internet explorer" for the first time, thats when my webcam program stops working.
This has been a 6 hr process, and I was hoping that it was some setting or a program that I had installed -which would be easy to fix-, but at this point I dont know what else to do
I suspect that it might have to do something with the active x controls but im not sure (I actually dont have a clue) how to go about troubleshooting it.
I tried it again on my previous phone which runs a wm6.5 rom and it works great
Can anyone help?
can i uninstall and then maybe reinstall ie ? reinstalling the webcam program doesnt fix it....
???????????? ???????? ???? ????

Ok its obvoius no one cares about this but I will update the thread with my findings in case its of some use to others in the future.
I tried lots of things (different connections wifi-3G-gprs etc, disasble/enable 3G, registry edits, install-uninstall, different versions etc) but nothing worked
I then connected my phone to the PC through active sync and launched the program from there which still didnt work but it didnt give me a "connection timeout" error.
I then proceeded to disconect from active sync and re-launch the program on the phone one more time.THIS TIME IT WORKED!
I dont know exactly why it happened but as soon as I launched Internet Explorer again the program stopped working once more so Im gonna try to maybe compare the registry before and after to try and make some sence of it

I thought it might be the ROM so I re-flashed this ROM |R|6.5.3|WWE| ★ EnergyROM "Leo" 28011/21885 |Dec 17| ★ Sense 2.5/ MaxManila /Dusk ★
from here:http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=562773

The problem is still here, so now I m inclined to believe that it may be a wm6.5/Geovision issue vs wm6.1 in which it works flawlessly on any ROM
A new observation I was able to make is that now its working intermittently, but the only way to fix it when it goes out is to wait untill night time when I go to bed and plug my phone in overnight.
When I get up in the morning -----IT ALWAYS WORKS!!!---- but only until it

I dont know anyone else who is using "geovision" so I would like to ask you to offer your thoughts or suggestions on how to fix my problem, since it seems that its working for you

BTW i tried the g-view application but it also doesnt work and anyway it doesnt have the capabilities of the "view commander mobile" application


Sorry for the long post
I wish you a happy new year! and will look forward to your reply

Spiro
 
I was a loyal WinMo user for years, and looking back now it's amazing the things we had as much as 7 years ago - voice command, VGA screens, GPS navigation, etc.

Eventually though I just got fed up with it - the daily reboots, random slowdowns and unresponsiveness, and the fact that the OS just wasn't going anywhere. My Touch Diamond was pretty horrible and I couldn't wait to get rid of it.

I got a G1 just as a stop-gap, thinking I might get a Pre or something, but I ended up loving Android. Never looked back. Now I've got a Nexus One and compared to the old WinMo experience it's just incredible.
 
Back
Top