As an aside, I’m really liking the Treo Pro a lot. The BlackJack II is a great phone, but I didn’t realize how much I’d miss the touchscreen. The Treo Pro is great on many levels: very thin, hardware keyboard, and touchscreen. And the Opera Mobile 9.5 beta, which didn’t work on Windows Mobile Standard, actually makes Web browsing enjoyable again. I do wish mobile device companies would back off the current trend of making everything glossy, though. Not only is this thing (and the BlackJack II, for that matter) a fingerprint magnet, it feels as if it’s going to slip out of my hands. I may get an Invisible Shield for the back just to make it less slippery in my hand. I can’t see using that with a stylus, though, given the tacky, slightly rubbery feel.

I discovered that Iambic’s registration method is rather convoluted. You must first install the software on the device either from the desktop or a CAB installer on the device, get the Device ID from the About box, go to their Web site (on a desktop PC) and enter that ID into a form to generate your registration code. You must then type that code into separate boxes on the device as show here.

I keep all of my software registration codes in another program on my device, so I always have them with me if needed. The annoyance with this registration method is that if I’m installing while not near a desktop PC, I have to switch back and forth between Vehicle Manager and my registration code list. (That’s assuming I already had the code and wasn’t trying to fight with their Web site in IE on the device.) Why? Because I can’t simply copy and paste the entire code due to the separate boxes.

Don’t the developers actually use handheld devices and realize how awkward and inconvenient their registration system is? Sure, it’s a one time process for most people, but it makes the software seem unnecessarily unfriendly.

The solution I found was to disable automatic time synchronization with the cellular network. Apparently every time the PDA is powered up it syncs the time with the network and that process causes an occasional hiccup if a reminder is what woke up the device rather than the user pressing the power button. Disabling the time sync feature has completely eliminated the problem I was having where I could not dismiss reminders and the reminder sound continued to play over and over until I soft reset.

Here is how to disable the time sync feature:

Tap Start, Settings, and tap the “Phone” icon on the Personal tab.

Tap the Services tab and scroll down in the list to “Time Synchronization.” Select that item then tap the “Get Settings…” button.

Uncheck the box labeled “Time synchronize with mobile network automatically.” Note that you can always come back to this dialog any time and manually sync by tapping the “Update Now” button.

After doing this, my reminder problems disappeared completely and my XV6700 has been problem-free for over two months! I don’t know if a similar fix is available for other models. Please report back if you have any luck with models other than the XV6700.

List updated 2004-10-25
List updated 2010-04-12

PDA and Organizer History

• Sharp 128K Wizard (Gave to a former girlfriend)
  OS: Proprietary
  CPU: Unknown
  RAM: 128 KB
  Screen: 16 character, 4 line black and white display, no backlight
  Misc: Keyboard input, clamshell case
• Casio 256K B.O.S.S (Stolen)
  OS: Proprietary
  CPU: Unknown
  RAM: 256 KB
  Screen: Black and white, EL backlight
  Misc: Keyboard input, clamshell case
• Texas Instruments Avigo 10 (Sold)
  OS: Proprietary
  CPU: Unknown
  RAM: 2 MB
  Screen: 160×240 (I think) 4 grayscale, EL backlight
  Misc: Built-in protective flip cover, touch-screen stylus input, on-screen keyboard, and T9 predictive input
• Uniden Unipro PC100A (Sold)
  OS: Microsoft Windows CE 2.1
  CPU: 33 MHz MIPS
  RAM: 8 MB
  Screen: 240×320 4 grayscale, EL backlight
  Misc: Built-in 28.8 Kbps modem, CF II slot
• Palm m505 (Sold)
  OS: Palm OS 4.0
  CPU: ?MHz Dragonball
  RAM: 8 MB
  Screen: Reflective TFT, 160×160 16-bit color
• Casio Cassiopeia E-200 (CompUSA warranty exchange for Toshiba e740)
  OS: Microsoft Pocket PC 2002
  CPU: 266 MHz Intel ARM
  RAM: 64 MB
  Screen: Reflective TFT, 240×320 16-bit color
  Info: I went through four defective units before finally deciding to make use of my CompUSA TAP to get a different model Pocket PC.
• Toshiba e740 (CompUSA warranty exchange for HP iPAQ h5455)
  OS: Microsoft Pocket PC 2002
  CPU: 400 MHz Intel Xscale
  RAM: 64 MB
  Screen: Reflective TFT, 240×320 16-bit color
  Info: Two defective or malfunctioning units made me use another CompUSA TAP to get the following Pocket PC…
• HP iPAQ h5455 (CompUSA warranty exchange for HP iPAQ hx4700)
  OS: Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC (Upgraded from Pocket PC 2002)
  CPU: 400 MHz Intel Xscale
  RAM: 64 MB
  Screen: Transflective TFT, 240×320 16-bit color
  Info: The first h5455 I bought had a defective touchscreen, but the second one performed virtually trouble-free for about thirteen months. It developed a problem with the charge/sync connector which I lived with for nearly another year. When plugged into a PC, Windows would display an error bubble which stated “Unrecognized USB Device.” I tried three different cradles on four different PCs with both Windows XP and 2000 with the same results. Additionally since the connector was damaged, I could no longer charge the device in a cradle. Instead, it had to be placed flat on the desk with the charge cable plugged directly into it. In order to make contact, something had to be placed under the charge connector to hold it up at an angle. Aside from that problem, I loved owning this device and had no complaints whatsoever. To date, I owned that Pocket PC longer than any other PDA.
• HP iPAQ hx4700
  OS: Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition for Pocket PC (Later upgraded to Windows Mobile 6 via cooked ROM)
  CPU: 624 MHz Intel Xscale
  RAM: 64 MB
  Screen: Transflective TFT, 480×640 16-bit color
  Info: Wow. Just wow. This is, by far, the best Pocket PC I have ever owned or used. The large VGA-resolution LCD is simply stunning. The CPU is speedy and for everything that’s crammed inside, it’s remarkably thin. It’s also nice to have dual card slots back so I can use large CompactFlash cards again.
• Palm Treo 700w (Sold to former coworker)
  Carrier: Verizon Wireless
  OS: Microsoft Windows Mobile 5
  CPU: I don’t remember
  RAM: 32 MB
  Screen Transflective TFT, 240×240 16-bit color
  Info: Aside from the front-facing keyboard, this phone was very disappointing. Not enough RAM and the tiny screen really killed this one for me. Simply loading a Web page in IE would consume so much RAM that all other apps running in the background would quit.
• Verizon xv6700 (Still have, but never use.)
  Carrier: Verizon Wireless
  OS: Windows Mobile 5 (Upgraded via cooked ROM to Windows Mobile 6, which really revitalized it and got rid of a lot of the useless Verizon crap. I used this phone for almost another year because of that upgrade.)
  CPU: Don’t remember
  RAM: Enough to get by
  Screen: Transflective TFT, 240×320 16-bit color
  Info: Slide-out keyboard. Very brick-like, even for its time, but a very capable phone. The keyboard backlight was blue, and very difficult to see. I believe the Sprint version had a white backlight, which would have been much more usable.
• Samsung BlackJack II (Still have, use for testing.)
  Carrier: AT&T Wireless
  OS: Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard Edition
  CPU: Don’t remember
  RAM: Don’t remember
  Screen: Non-touch transflective TFT, 320×240, 16-bit color
  Info: Probably the best non-touchscreen Windows Mobile device made. Lack of touch really got frustrating, though.
• Palm Treo Pro (Sitll have, use for testing.)
  Carrier: Unlocked, use with AT&T Wireless
  OS: Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional Edition
  CPU: Don’t remember
  RAM: Don’t remember
  Info: Best. Treo. Ever. (In my opinion.) Still like this phone, but finally so frustrated with Windows Mobile that I felt I needed to move to something else…
• Google Nexus One
  Carrier: Unlocked, use with AT&T Wireless
  OS: Android OS 2.1
  CPU: 1 GHz Qualcom Snapdragon
  RAM: 512 MB
  Screen: AMOLED 480×800, capacitive touch
  Info: My first non-Windows Mobile Phone in almost twelve years. I was expecting the transition to be painful, but I miss only two things about Windows Mobile: seamless Exchange support, and S/MIME support for e-mail. Seriously, that’s all I miss. This is one amazing phone. It has some growing pains to get past which I hope will be addressed with a future software update, but I really love this phone quite a bit.