This site is dedicated to the Axim X51v experience, and what the folks in Redmond left out of Windows Mobile 5.
I am a new Axim X51v owner, and have spent the past 3 weeks working to customize my Axim to attain the same level of function I grew to take for granted owning 4 Palm OS PDAs. What I miss the most is a decent replacement for the plain vanilla calendar applications provided by both Palm an Microsoft. Having been a user of the DateBook line of Calendar (or Datebook, in Palm parlance) replacements, I came to appreciate the custom colors, icons, and alarm sounds, each assigned by category, that I was able to create and use.
I regained most of that for my new Axim by acquiring Pocket Informant ver. 4. But they left out the ability to assign alarm sounds by category. So my search continues.
I have been testing a possible contender, but it is still in BETA release for Mobile 5. 'alarmToday', a WM5 Today screen plug-in, was designed to give just that level of alarm customization, with other added benefits, like having your alarm volume override the main volume setting of the Axim.
But it has not yet proven itself reliable; at least not to me. So I am still vigilant for something that can fill the void.
I have also faced and defeated the evil that is Outlook and ActiveSync, and made them peacefully co-exist on my system. After a lot of browsing, and reading postings from a great many X51v newbies , as well as other PDA and SmartPhone owners, some of whom gave up in disgust, the common thread to any solution found was in Outlook. It seems to be most guilty in the issue.
For me, a complete and thorough rousting of all files, folders, and things related to both Outlook and ActiveSync, followed by a fresh re-installation of the two, brought them into harmony. I firmly believe that most of these folks had an Outlook installation that was somehow flawed, and that is why they failed. Outook is very persistent, and will hang on to every shred of information it can find. It will actively hunt this down when reinstalled. So if you leave behind traces of the prior installation when you are installing it anew, there is risk of "re-infestation" of the problem.
===================================================================
Shortly after I got the Axim, I was transferring some files over from my Palm OS PDA by Bluetooth. After that, I wanted to use the built-in Wi-Fi feature again, having already set up the wireless access to my LAN, but found that it had now been disabled. Not being able to get it to come back on, I chatted with an online Dell technician for about an hour, while trying his suggestions. Finally, he said I had to Hard Reset the device. I did that, and got my Wi-Fi back.
Later on, I turned on Bluetooth again to transfer more files. My Wi-Fi got disabled again. Looking for any possible way around another Hard Reset, I hit upon a discovery that immediately fixed the problem.
Being new to the Windows Mobile OS, the concept of tapping and holding an icon is something new to me. In the Palm OS 5 I had been accustomed to using, you generally tapped an icon and got a result or opened some file, and moved on. But in the WM5 OS, tapping and holding something can get you a dropdown menu, a text balloon popup, etc. So out of curiosity while exploring the new Axim, I had tapped and held on many icons and links just to see what lay underneath them. I remembered having done this on the little tower icon you see when you turn on the Wireless Power with the Axim’s side button. You get a text balloon when you tap and hold the tower icon, telling about Connectivity. In that text balloon is a blue underlined link labeled “Turn on flight mode?”.
As I searched the Axim for possible remedies for my lost Wi-Fi, I tapped and held the tower icon (now indicating disabled wireless) and the balloon’s link wording had changed to “Turn OFF flight mode?”
What? How did it get turned ON? What IS flight mode, anyway?
Figuring it had to be better than no Wi-Fi, I tapped the link, and my Wi-Fi immediately resumed!
Thirsting for more info on this, I poured over and searched through the following resources:
The printed Axim User Guide
The online PDF Axim User Guide
The Dell Support website
The Dell Forum
Microsoft’s Windows Mobile website
Microsoft’s Knowledge Base
(At that time, I didn’t know any of these Axim blog sites existed.)
Unbelievably, I found not a single reference to the words “flight mode”!
What was this “feature”, and why had Dell technicians known nothing about it? For that matter, why was it not described somewhere? I wonder how many unsuspecting Axim owners have wasted countless hours Hard Resetting and reinstalling all their files when all they really needed to do was click on a link?
When you do click the link that turns Wi-Fi back on, it also turns the Bluetooth feature on. The LED in the Axim’s upper right corner clues you in to this. It flashes blue for Bluetooth, green for Wi-Fi, and alternates blue and green if they are both on. I figure it would save a bit of battery life if you turned the Bluetooth feature off when not needed, so I tap the Bluetooth symbol in the lower right corner of the Today screen, and it opens the Bluetooth On/Off dialog.
Occasionally, I have a little trouble getting Wi-Fi turned on and Bluetooth turned off when returning from flight mode. Some times I have to tap on the “Turn on flight mode” link again, and then go back and tap “Turn off flight mode” a second time. But then it usually settles down and works OK.
I have to assume that flight mode has something to do with disabling radio transmitters on aircraft, probably in compliance with some regulation.
Since that time, I ran across a blog site describing someone’s intent to pioneer a requirement that new mobile devices include the ability to be forced into flight mode when you board an aircraft, by the device receiving a kind of radio signal from the aircraft. Interestingly, they go on to say that the device would also have to flash a green LED so airline personnel could tell that flight mode had been enabled, and any internal wireless transmitters were turned off. That would be a problem on the current Axim, which flashes a green light to indicate the wireless transmitter is ON.
==================================================================
I welcome any comments or suggestions from fellow Axim-ites.
I am a new Axim X51v owner, and have spent the past 3 weeks working to customize my Axim to attain the same level of function I grew to take for granted owning 4 Palm OS PDAs. What I miss the most is a decent replacement for the plain vanilla calendar applications provided by both Palm an Microsoft. Having been a user of the DateBook line of Calendar (or Datebook, in Palm parlance) replacements, I came to appreciate the custom colors, icons, and alarm sounds, each assigned by category, that I was able to create and use.
I regained most of that for my new Axim by acquiring Pocket Informant ver. 4. But they left out the ability to assign alarm sounds by category. So my search continues.
I have been testing a possible contender, but it is still in BETA release for Mobile 5. 'alarmToday', a WM5 Today screen plug-in, was designed to give just that level of alarm customization, with other added benefits, like having your alarm volume override the main volume setting of the Axim.
But it has not yet proven itself reliable; at least not to me. So I am still vigilant for something that can fill the void.
I have also faced and defeated the evil that is Outlook and ActiveSync, and made them peacefully co-exist on my system. After a lot of browsing, and reading postings from a great many X51v newbies , as well as other PDA and SmartPhone owners, some of whom gave up in disgust, the common thread to any solution found was in Outlook. It seems to be most guilty in the issue.
For me, a complete and thorough rousting of all files, folders, and things related to both Outlook and ActiveSync, followed by a fresh re-installation of the two, brought them into harmony. I firmly believe that most of these folks had an Outlook installation that was somehow flawed, and that is why they failed. Outook is very persistent, and will hang on to every shred of information it can find. It will actively hunt this down when reinstalled. So if you leave behind traces of the prior installation when you are installing it anew, there is risk of "re-infestation" of the problem.
===================================================================
Flight Mode
Shortly after I got the Axim, I was transferring some files over from my Palm OS PDA by Bluetooth. After that, I wanted to use the built-in Wi-Fi feature again, having already set up the wireless access to my LAN, but found that it had now been disabled. Not being able to get it to come back on, I chatted with an online Dell technician for about an hour, while trying his suggestions. Finally, he said I had to Hard Reset the device. I did that, and got my Wi-Fi back.
Later on, I turned on Bluetooth again to transfer more files. My Wi-Fi got disabled again. Looking for any possible way around another Hard Reset, I hit upon a discovery that immediately fixed the problem.
Being new to the Windows Mobile OS, the concept of tapping and holding an icon is something new to me. In the Palm OS 5 I had been accustomed to using, you generally tapped an icon and got a result or opened some file, and moved on. But in the WM5 OS, tapping and holding something can get you a dropdown menu, a text balloon popup, etc. So out of curiosity while exploring the new Axim, I had tapped and held on many icons and links just to see what lay underneath them. I remembered having done this on the little tower icon you see when you turn on the Wireless Power with the Axim’s side button. You get a text balloon when you tap and hold the tower icon, telling about Connectivity. In that text balloon is a blue underlined link labeled “Turn on flight mode?”.
As I searched the Axim for possible remedies for my lost Wi-Fi, I tapped and held the tower icon (now indicating disabled wireless) and the balloon’s link wording had changed to “Turn OFF flight mode?”
What? How did it get turned ON? What IS flight mode, anyway?
Figuring it had to be better than no Wi-Fi, I tapped the link, and my Wi-Fi immediately resumed!
Thirsting for more info on this, I poured over and searched through the following resources:
The printed Axim User Guide
The online PDF Axim User Guide
The Dell Support website
The Dell Forum
Microsoft’s Windows Mobile website
Microsoft’s Knowledge Base
(At that time, I didn’t know any of these Axim blog sites existed.)
Unbelievably, I found not a single reference to the words “flight mode”!
What was this “feature”, and why had Dell technicians known nothing about it? For that matter, why was it not described somewhere? I wonder how many unsuspecting Axim owners have wasted countless hours Hard Resetting and reinstalling all their files when all they really needed to do was click on a link?
When you do click the link that turns Wi-Fi back on, it also turns the Bluetooth feature on. The LED in the Axim’s upper right corner clues you in to this. It flashes blue for Bluetooth, green for Wi-Fi, and alternates blue and green if they are both on. I figure it would save a bit of battery life if you turned the Bluetooth feature off when not needed, so I tap the Bluetooth symbol in the lower right corner of the Today screen, and it opens the Bluetooth On/Off dialog.
Occasionally, I have a little trouble getting Wi-Fi turned on and Bluetooth turned off when returning from flight mode. Some times I have to tap on the “Turn on flight mode” link again, and then go back and tap “Turn off flight mode” a second time. But then it usually settles down and works OK.
I have to assume that flight mode has something to do with disabling radio transmitters on aircraft, probably in compliance with some regulation.
Since that time, I ran across a blog site describing someone’s intent to pioneer a requirement that new mobile devices include the ability to be forced into flight mode when you board an aircraft, by the device receiving a kind of radio signal from the aircraft. Interestingly, they go on to say that the device would also have to flash a green LED so airline personnel could tell that flight mode had been enabled, and any internal wireless transmitters were turned off. That would be a problem on the current Axim, which flashes a green light to indicate the wireless transmitter is ON.
==================================================================
I welcome any comments or suggestions from fellow Axim-ites.
posted by Zoandar at 5:01 PM
2 Comments:
Another issue I just dealt with leaves you staring at ActiveSync while it spends several minutes in the "Looking for Changes" phase of the synchronization.
Each time I would come back to the cradle after being away for awhile, and dock the Axim, the first sync would be "Looking for Changes" for as long as 6 minutes. It would eventually sync, and each successive sync would then happen fairly quickly, as long as I did not take the Axim out of the cradle.
Remove it from the cradle, and put it back in, and the same thing would happen.
I chatted with a few others here in cyberspace to see what I could learn about this problem. One suggestion was that, since I have all but the Favorites checked ON in the ActiveSync settings, there was a lot of data getting sorted through, and it would take longer. That seems logical. But when the problem started, it was a sudden leap from spending about 5 SECONDS "Looking..." to 5-6 MINUTES looking.
I tried de-selecting the entire checklist, except for Contacts, and then started syncing while adding them back in one by one. I would remove the Axim from the cradle in between each sync. Doing this, the "Looking for Changes" phase lasted about 4 seconds each time. When I got to back down to including "Files" the looking started taking 4-5 minutes again.
In the process of continuing this test, and trying to determine if it were a specific number of files, or specific files themselves, I finally hit upon the culprit. I had purchased a 3D Icon pack for Pocket Informant from WebIS. These files consist of a Small Icon Pack and a Large Icon Pack, which in turn consists of 2 very large CAB files.
Now, the difference between "small" and "large" to WebIS is either 12x12 pixels or 18x18 pixels. Either way, the icons are still very tiny when displayed on the calendar. But there are so many of them, you practically need to pack a lunch to get them installed! Each CAB for the Large Pak takes several minutes to transfer to the Axim.
By uninstalling this 3D Icon Pak, the "Looking for Changes" phase returned to under 6 seconds. And that is while syncing no less than 375 items in the "Files" section of the sync. So long icons!
So if any of you are staring at the Looking for Changes screen like I was, you might want to re-evaluate what kinds of files you are syncing. I couldn't find any way to tell ActiveSync to ignore the icon files. The dozens of icon bitmap files did not even show up in the File list.
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