Geekin’ IT Real

Issues with new TELUS HTC Touch Diamond firmware

No sooner that I get new firmware, I’m now finding bugs in the new firmware for my TELUS CDMA HTC Touch Diamond.  What are these bugs you may ask?

1. The phone loses it’s password for the EVDO data network randomly (this has happened twice over a two week period).  The solution funny enough is to just put ANYTHING in the password field.  It seems there is something up with authentication…  Though the screen for this doesn’t seem the same as the screen in the setup wizard for the connection.
2. I’m not sure if this is actually a bug or a “feature” of ActiveSync, but when an alert goes off, the phone tries to synchronize with your ActiveSync partnership (in my cases, OTA to Google Sync).  I found this out when I set ActiveSync to manual so that I’d avoid having my phone prompt me for a password every few minutes….  Yeah, still got prompted when an alert went off.

Good news is, once you get something in that password field, it works.  For how long is another question…  I may be calling 611 in a week….

Troy-out!

New Firmware for TELUS HTC Touch Diamond!

So, the job hunt is slow going. But all hope is not lost!  Today, when I called up Telus to remove some services for the impending possiblity of a decrease in my income, I was informed there was an update for my HTC Diamond cell phone.  I was ecstatic!  New firmware?  Could they finally be releasing Telus-branded firmware that ISN’T based on a beta?  With a working copy of Opera Mobile (that doesn’t crash if you give it a dirty look)?  So, I went to the URL they provided me with, it re-directed to http://www.htc.com/us/SupportDownload.aspx?p_id=176&cat=2&dl_id=446 and provided instructions on how to complete the firmware update.

You can see if you go to the link, that following the completion of the firmware update, that you have to call a programming number to complete the setup.  Follow the simple instructions and TADA, done!

Well, not quite for me, for some reason, the first attempt to program it Over The Air (OTA) didn’t quite work, so my high speed EVDO wasn’t configured with a username and password.  So, I ended up calling Telus, speaking to a very friendly woman and she reset a password.  The catch was, she reset my email password, not my internet password.  So, after a few attempts, no banana.

I called Telus back from my land line to ensure that I could test while speaking to them.  I ended up spending 15 minutes on hold (which is apparently 10 minutes longer than their 5 minute guaranteed answer promise, so now I get 10 minutes in overage coverage if I go over on my next month’s bill of talk time), anyways, when I did get through, we spent something like 20 minutes trying to get the password properly set on the phone.  In the end, the gentleman I spoke to had a final suggestion, try calling the programming OTA number again and see if that resolves it.  I had thought about that before, but figured I should seek help, go figure   Anyways, we did that and it worked like a charm!  Now my Diamond is working just great.

Some of the new improvements are:

• Increased default font size in the contacts application, unlock button
• Increased stability
• Updated to release version of Opera 9.5 Build 2392
• New HTC Streaming Media application (uses Real Time Streaming Protocol)
• Added ringtones
• Now compatible with Microsoft’s MyPhone service for OTA synchronization
• Improved streaming video performance (for YouTube)
• Under System in the Settings Panel, you now have a G-Sensor application that can show you the status of the accelerometers
• Under System, in the Settings Panel, when in screen, you can adjust the size of the default font on your system (Text Size tab)

So, other than that, right now I’m waiting on one possible employment opportunity.  Keeping my fingers crossed on that one.

I’m also putting down my Head First C# book for a while, to focus on going through the Head First HTML (CSS & XHTML) to brush up on my admittedly old knowledge of HTML and to finally get a proper understanding of CSS (instead of just forcing my way through it).  After that, I’m going to move to Javascript, then jump back to C#, since it isn’t the easiest thing for me to wrap my mind around right now.

That’s it for now for blog posts, later!

Windows Mobile 6.1 & Windows Live Messenger

I’ve been tardy with posting!  Well, today will probably be a land-slide of information, since I’ve been busy figuring out and learning some very handy things!

First up….

Windows Mobile 6.1 + Windows Live Messenger + Recent changes to the Windows Live/MSN network = Inability to see contacts online!

Last week, I started noticing that none of my typical contacts that are always logged into Windows Live Messenger were online on my phone (Telus’ HTC Touch Diamond).  But when I logged in on my desktop, they were logged on.  So this got me thinking….  I had actually experienced a similar problem on my laptop a week or two back and the fix I found involved clearing the temporary files that Messenger creates (since it seemed one or a bunch of them prevented me from receiving status updates upon login).  So, using intuition and some searching on my phone I found the location of the temporary files @ ’/My Device/Application Data/Windows Live/Tiles‘.  Now, you can delete all of the files EXCEPT the me_xxxx.tmp file as this is your profile picture (which will clear it if you login on your phone and you will have to reset it on either your phone or PC to get it back).

Now, you can get back to chatting on your phone!

I figured I’d leave you all with this wonderful photo from my recent visit to the mall with my family to do some Christmas Shopping!

This was kindly taken by the Author of a book series about a cat who doesn't remember he is a superhero.