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I just got my phone flashed/Firmware upgraded yesterday at CPW.
Here's my view on the T-Mobile branding:
Good
====
The T-Mobile branding (Firmware) is actually on appearance, and potentially far nicer than the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) version of the Firmware.
What they have done is something akin to Handy Day and Tracker, i.e. created a Desktop with icons.
In fact ALL of the icons use on the T-Mobile Firmware look much nicer than the SE OEM versions.
The desktop in principal, and I stress on principal, is way better than the original.
The T-Mobile desktop is nice because the icons are in fact categories, for example Media and Business. You click on say Media, and then you get a little menu list which you can scroll down to pick Camcorder, Video Player etc. This is superior to the standard Applications desktop which has the icons in a singular fashion i.e. one icon per program.
However,
Bad
===
What the idiots have done is like making a Rolls Royce and then fogetting to put in the leather interior and wallnut dash and trimmings i.e. they have not gone as far as they should.
For example, on your P800/P900 on the far right hand corner there is the Applications folder which acts as a sort of "home page" from where you can launch your programs.
Stupidly,T-Mobile's Firmware leaves that in place and in ADDITION to that they have created there own home page folder on the left hand corner. So now you have two folders that are fixed and cannot be changed.
When you open the phone in flip open mode the phone automatically goes to the T-Mobile desktop/home page.
If you click on ANY other folder on the top row and try and exit the folder by using the JogDial .... you simply cant because the phone automatically leaps to the T-Mobile home page/desktop.
The idea of having icons on the desktop that represent categories instead of single programs is a good one. But stupidly, you CANNOT edit these icons to add additional programs to each category. So if you install say a photo editor program, when you are at the T-Mobile home page/desktop clicking on "Media" will not help you because your program will not appear on the list of options; you have to fiddle around to go the Applications list to select your program.
Furthermore, if there are programs in any of the categories that you hardly use or need, there is now way of removing them from the pop of list available from each category icon. Being able to do this would make the categories more efficient as there would be less options to scroll down.
Even more stupid is this. In flip open mode you have a row of folders at the top. There are six of them. Now I have already said that you have lost two because they are fixed, namely, the T-Mobile desktop/home page in the far left, and the SE OEM Applications folder in the far right. Well guess what folks. You have lost yet another one because T-Mobile have added a folder that takes you directly to their T-Zones website (it replaces the original browser folder) and this T-Zones folder is fixed and uneditable. Now why this is exceptionally stupid is because on their desktop/home page there is already a link to T-Zones!!
It seems that having been part of a gang of stupid networks who paid up to £22.5 BILLION pounds for their 3G licenses T-Mobile are doing absolutely everything they can to make you use their data services (and at the same time pis*ing people off).
So all in all what could have been quite nice turns into a damn hinderance.
Benefits of flashing
==============
By flashing your phone with the generic/OEM Firmware you are getting the latest firmware AS SOON as it becomes available.
With a netork's firmware you will have to wait for the network to issue their own version of the new firmware, which could be months after the updates for the phone were available. Any problems with a particular firmwared reported by users may not be addressed by the network in a speedy fashion which could mean that it never gets addressed if they take so long that a new version of the phone comes out and the network's priorities have thus changed.
So there you have it.
I hope the info I have given helps.
My advice? As soon as you get the T-Mobile phone get it flashed BEFORE using it.
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Posted: 2004-11-14 15:26:13
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OK folks I have something you may be interested in.
As you know, from my post above, I have installed the original SE Firmware.
However, I found their default phone Theme appalling.
I managed to save a copy of the T-Mobile Default Theme before having the phone flasherd. The T-Mobile Theme is O.K. and I have now installed it on the phone. So at first sight you wouln't even know that the the T-Mobile Firmware had has been removed
My phone is now identical to how it was supplied by T-Mobile except for the following items: (a) it doesn't have the T-Mobile Startup and Shutdown videos (which I actually thought were quite nice) and as far as I am aware the Startup and Shutdown videos CANNOT be changed by the user on the P9xx phones (b) the browser home page is set to Sony Ericsson - I couldn't be bothered to set it to the T-Mobile one as it looked a bit too fiddly and I am not entirely sure it can even be done.
In addition to the above I have downloaded the settings for SMS, MMS, CSD WAP, GPRS WAP.
And finally, I have installed eight of the most useful programs from the Content and Application CD.
After having done all this, and WITHOUT adding ANY of my own personal data or settings preferences, I created a BACKUP.
The Backup file is about 6MB.
If anyone wants a copy I am quite happy to send it to them.
It will be useful if your phone crashes as it will set the phone up in a very short time to the "out of the box" settings; and it will be also useful for you if you wish to sell the phone as you can restore it to a virgin state with all netwok settings.
Please note that the SMS, MMS and GPRS settings in the Backup are for T-Mobile UK.
Best Wishes
.
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Posted: 2004-11-15 22:22:37
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