Update the Pantech Duo to Windows Mobile 6.1

Well,  my daughter finally got her replacement cell phone. She is so in love with this phone type because it meets many of her criteria. I asked her once, why do you like this phone so much. She answered that its fun to play with and I guess she is right. I love my iPhone, but windows mobile has a lot going for it as well. She loves the dual slider action, I see her flicking her phone from mode to mode every day. It does make for great, one handed operations. With the right programs, she is able to copy over downloaded You-Tube videos and play them nativly, without any conversion.  Now that she has the replacement phone, the first thing I noticed was that it was still running Windows mobile 6.0, and that software just felt so… antiquated. We needed to bring the phone up to the latest software and fast.

Problem:

My daughters replacement cell phone has the stock Windows Mobile 6.0 operating system running on it. Since she was use to the last update from her old phone, I will need to update it to the latest Windows Mobile 6.1 software.

Research:

Since I’ve already done this before, I have all of the files downloaded and ready to go. I will go over the steps involved in getting the software needed to make the upgrade for all of you that are interested. This is not a HACK or Jail Break or anything like that, so you don’t have to worry about voiding any warranty you may have. This is perfectly legit firmware update from Pantech and AT&T so feel free to update with confidence. What you will need is a USB data cable and two main software packages. You can get the data cable at your local cellphone store or off of Ebay if you are feeling frugal.  On the Software side, one item is the new firmware package from Pantech that you can get here. Then you will need Microsoft’s Sync software, if you have Windows XP you can get Active Sync here. If you are running windows Vista, you can get Mobile Device Center 32bit here and 64bit here. Sorry, I haven’t found any Windows 7 support yet.

Installation:

The software package that is provided by Pantech is very self explanatory, but I will give you a quick rundown of how it goes.

1. You unzip the “DUO_Update.zip” folder to your desktop. Once done, you double click the folder and double click to read “Pantech DUO – Re-flashing Wizard Manual.pdf”. If you need a PDF reader, here is my recommendation.
2. Next, you change the Active Sync/Device Center settings as described in the PDF. If you don’t already have Active Sync/Device Center installed in your computer, you need to install it.
3. With the phone turned off, you set the phone to the proper mode by holding tie 2 key and power button. Now you connect it via the sync cable to the computer.
4. Next you run the update software “Duo_Update_10032008.exe” and you follow the step by step instructions, which is basically clicking next, next, next…

Conclusion:

The whole process only took me about 10 minutes, so its really fast. However I did run into a problem that you should be aware of. For some reason, my computer kept loosing the USB connection and the process would fail. To solve this, I disconnected the phone from the USB during the “Searching for phone” stage and then reconnected. I know there are several warnings all over the place that warn if you disconnect the USB, you may not be able to recover your phone. But I was pretty certain that if the software was searching for the phone, then it wasn’t doing anything to the phone and I could disconnect and reconnect to let the USB find it. And I was right, once that was done, the software found the phone and began the update immediately.

Now my daughter is happy again, and I am happy for her. Windows mobile 6.1 offers a lot of more modern features that can be accessed right from the home screen including, scrolling through pictures, scrolling through emails and calendar events and accessing the music player. I’m sure she will totally customize it with personal backgrounds and crazy ring-tones, and many other things I can’t do on the iPhone.

iPhone 3GS battery life good? Yes or No?

You can find blogs all over the internet  talking about how crummy the battery life is on different cellphones. Especially the smart phones such as the iPhone, T-Mobile G1 and the Palm Pre. But believe it or not,  I actually have something positive to report on the issue. I’m well aware that the battery life of most phones will take a great hit as the functions and features increase. The other cell phones I use to have got up to a complete week without ever having to recharge them. But when I look back and see what those phones did compared to the phones we have now, I realize that, Well… they only made phone calls and kept an address book. The more complicated the phones got, the more I held it in my hand using it, the more shorter the battery life got. My iPhone’s larger screen, slimmer design and constant use makes me need to keep at least three charging stations ready to use. I have one at work, one in the car that’s also is a FM transmitter and one at home that acts as the alarm clock and radio amplifier so I can blast my tunes throughout the bet room. All of this was my answer to what I believed would be short battery life of my phone. Especially since it has been pounded into my head from all the media sources for months. I really thought that my great and wonderful computer like phone would not make it through the day if chargers were not constantly available. But the day finally arrived that I would not have access to any chargers what so ever.

I went on a trip to Six Flags Magic mountain with my daughter and some friends. I like tho get in early and be one of the last to leave, so we arrived at 10:15am before the park opened. When I got out of the car, that was the last time my phone saw any juice from the charger. I was well aware that I would need to go a long time without the ability to charge so I turned off the unnecessary features like Blue-tooth and WiFi. But since it was a bright day and I needed to see well, I did not adjust my screen brightness at all. From earlier experiences I knew that it was not a good idea to have the phones brightness all the way up. Doing so would not be good for the phone or my eyes. So I always leave it on about 50% and let the auto dimmer do its job. I will not go into all the activities we did, but I will give you a highlight of what was done with the phone.

• I took lots and lots and lots of pictures.
• I took lots of video, about 1 hour (tried to keep them less that 2 minutes each).
• We watched about 45 minutes of Rush hour 3 while waiting in line.
• I talked on the phone for a total of about 30 minutes.
• I played 7 full length music videos (Between 4 – 5 minutes each)
• I sent and received dozens of text messages.
• I answered and sent several emails, including photo attachments of the days events.
• Constantly checked Facebook and made updates.
• Searched on the internet for answers to questions the group had.
• Played 3D games on the phone during bathroom breaks (Girls go a lot!)
• And let everyone oggle over the phone (They had to see their pictures constantly!)

When all was said and done we left the park at about 11:30pm. That’s over 12 hours of constant use before I got to the charger in my car again. Don’t get me wrong, the battery meter on the phone was at about 15% and it probably would have died completely withing the next hour, but it made it!

So after over 100 pictures and videos (not including deleted) and all of the other things listed above, the iPhone gained a new respect from me. Its battery life was much better than I was led to believe,  But I won’t be taking it for granted…

Here we go again! Another cellphone gone!

Well, she broke her phone again! My daughter (intentionally or unintentionally) fell asleep with her cell phone. When she woke up, the phone didn’t turn on. The screen turned on, but the phone didn’t boot. Basically it was just a techno brick and useless. After moving her SIM card back to the, cheep free backup phone, I asked her what does she want to do? Her response was, “I want the same phone!” of course. I asked her if she remembers when the contract was up, but she didn’t know. A quick look on AT&T via the iPhone told me the sad truth. We could not get another phone without paying outrageous prices until the end of August.

Now, I did what any dad would do (Well…maybe not any) I told her that she was stuck with the cheap phone till the contract runs out. She looked at the phone and sighed deeply. She told me that she could not text message well and that the phone didn’t let her take notes, and rattled off a long list of inadequate, non-features of the temporary phone. All I could tell her is that I can see what I can do.

So I looked on eBay and I found several phones. Some were pretty beet up, some were brand new, but she got a chance to pick the one she wanted right from the website. Now we just need to wait till it comes in the mail. Its good to know that she still has faith in this little phone. I’ve seen so many comments on the internet that complain about its failings. If it were me, I would never get this type of phone again.

If there is a bright side to this, it would be that I will have another upgrade available soon, just in case.

Will Windows 7 Support my HP printer?

“Windows 7 is the best widows ever!” I’ve heard this statement from several blog sites and pod-casts throughout these last several months. And believe it or not, I tend to agree. There are too many things to list about Windows 7 that I like, so i wont go over them in the short blog post. But lets just say that I like it so much, I installed the Beta and the Release Candidate on all of my home computers. But there is one thing that I don’t like is the fact that I will probably need to upgrade my printer again.

(Flash Back) The last jump I made was to Windows Vista, and while there are many people up in arms about its performance, I actually found it to work very well and never had any issues with it outside of one major qualm. My printer was not supported! I had a Brothers MFC520 all in one printer that I loved. It was low profile and it allowed me to scan in all of my receipts and bills to quickly organize and store. Worked on the network so everyone could print to it easily, so forth and so on… My home was becoming paperless. The only time the printer let me down was when I printed photos, and I know it was not meant for that. When I updated to Windows Vista, the company did not offer drivers for the printer. Yes, I was still able to get the basic printing functions with Vista’s generic printer drivers, but I lost all the functionality of the MFC device. So I dual booted with windows XP so I could keep the printer working and in full use. One time I wanted to give my mother a 8×10 photo of the family for her birthday. Well, that was the last straw! The picture took about 30 to 45 minutes to print! That’s outrageous!. So I needed cough up and upgrade the printer anyway.

I bought the HP Photosmart C6180 printer. Wow, what a dream! This printer gave me the same 8×10 print in about 10 seconds with much better color accuracy. And the document feeder was faster and better, and it mad organizing my scans fun, not a chore. It said it was certified for windows Vista and they were telling the truth. The drivers were available for 32bit and 64bit Vista as well as XP, but I like moving forward not backwards so goodbye XP. Fast forward 2-1/2 years later to today, and here we go again. After updating to Windows 7, I saw the same thing happening again. I originally chocked it up to Windows 7 being in beta, but all the information I read stated that W7 would work with all of Vista’s hardware. Well, that’s not entirely correct. The scanner software is not supported in Windows 7 although I am able to do basic printing. Even then I was still a little optimistic. I figured that when W7 was near shipping, surly they will have the drivers ready. Well… W7 has been released to manufacturing or RTM and nothing yet from HP. This statement is what is on their website:

“If your operating system is not listed, HP does not currently have software or driver downloads available for your product for that operating system, or they are not available in the language you have chosen. To look for a driver in another language, change the software/driver language by clicking the “Change your software/driver language:” link on this page to see what drivers are available for your operating system.”

This is unacceptable! Do these companies actually expect me to upgrade my printer again, just because they don’t want to support their legacy products! As much as I like W7 I may not upgrade my household. Now H.P. is causing Microsoft to loose a little revenue from this potential customer just because they wont update their printer drivers.

I hope HP will get it’s act together and release updated driver by the time W7 launches, but I’m not going to hold my breath…

Selling my Cell phones

My wife said to me one day, “You always by new cell phones, that must be expensive!” to which I replied “Not really, I haven’t paid for a cell phone in many years!” the thought puzzled her for awhile, and she changed the subject. I explained that I bought a cell phone about 10 years ago, and I always sell the older phone to cove the costs of the new one. Somehow this seemed to confuse her a little more. So I went through the thing that I do and she was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to do. I thought I’d share my experience with you all.

Many people don’t want to go through the hassle of finding someone that will actually buy a product of theirs. They may think sometimes, it’s just too complicated or risky when dealing with strangers. And I would completely agree. However there are several things you can do that are easy and simple that will help you sell you cell.

Problem:
A new cell phone comes out with all the features that you “need” but you are stuck with your old phone till the contract runs out, or these new phones just cost too much to be spending all of this money on year after year.

Research:
I could always go to friends and family and see if they are interested in buying my phone, but if that option were to fail, I would need to have another plan. Actually, cell phones are so personal now, with all the fancy colors and styles, it’s unlikely anyone in you family will have the same taste as you do. So, I looked online and found many different solutions for selling things. There are many sites that are very similar to the old classified newspaper you were use to. Sites like kijiji.com or the more popular craigslist.com allow you to place an add and people will call you inquiring about your phone. You will either have them come to your house or you can meet them in a public place. But even that seems like a little too much trouble unless you always go to coffee shops. And I have heard too many stories about people getting their phones snatched out of their hands and the thief running off with it. No, I don’t want to deal with people directly in this case.

The other option that I found was Ebay.com or another popular auction site. i hear both positive and negative things about eBay, but you have to agree that it is still the number one online auction site, and that’s exactly what you need to get you item sold. The more eyes you get, the better!

What I do, is I search for the exact make and model of the cell phone that I want to sell, and I take a look at what others are asking for theirs. I also take a look at the completed sales listings, I want to see what people are actually paying for theirs. Its easy to ask for $1,000, but its just a waste of time if people are only willing to pay $150 for the phone.

Solution:

With this new knowledge, I create a listing detailing exactly what features or problems my phone may have. (It helps a lot if you take care of the phone to begin with!) It is very important to list any blemishes the phone may have, especially if you bumped or dropped it and it receives a little body damage or scratches as a result. What I have found, is that the more honest you are, the more people are willing to pay. People want to be able to trust you, and trust that they are not getting riped off. When the phone sells and they have paid for it. All I have to do is place every thing in a bubble pack envelope that I get from the Post Office of the local office supply store, and ship it to them. The buyer even pays for shipping in most cases.

Conclusion:

I can’t go into every detail that is required to sell your cell on eBay, but I have been using this method for many years and it has never failed me. I started with the old Nokia 3650 that I actually paid for, then I went to the Treo 650, then the Cingular 8525, then to the iPhone 2G, then the iPhone 3G, then the iPhone 3GS. Each time selling the previous phone to reimburse me for the next phone, sometimes at a small profit. I also have a family plan, so I’m doing the same thing for my family members, but they beat up their phones so bad or they loose them, that this plan doesn’t work out so well. However, something is better than nothing – One persons junk is another persons favorite phone…