If you follow my other blog as well, you might have noticed that I've posted about a new firmware update for the other phone - it was the first to offer UDP as part of the firmware update.
What is UDP? UDP stands for User Data Preservation - basically it means preserving your data in the case of an update. If you do recall, whenever a new firmware appears for the Sony Ericsson P1i, you'll have to back up all the data within the phone to PC, save everything you want, then run the update - which erases everything on your phone, and finally reload all your information back in. Tedious and mindblowing - which is probably why many users don't bother to update unless some new spectacular feature or application is included (I'm guessing something the likes of Opera Mobile 9.5).
So, Nokia's been rolling this out on their flagship products for a while now - the N95, N82 and the N81 all have implemented UDP in the firmware updates, meaning users no longer have to back things up; the firmware is updated, and nothing else is deleted. When are you going to follow suit, SE?
I think it's time for a petition to the SE Headquarters.
What's your take on this?
UIQ 4.0 running on a prototype unit aboveIn a shocking statement released today, Sony Ericsson has announced that all SE P1i users will be offered a free upgrade to the next generation, UIQ 4.0, when the operating system will be released.
The announcement comes after many users of the P1i (including some from this blog as well as major forums) have complained that the P1 is essentially "a P990i with a new shell and an extra 64MB of RAM".
UIQ 4.0 is widely expected to be a major rival against Apple's iPhone after the iPhone's debut to the smart phone market last summer. It's touted to be far more stable than the current generation of UIQ phones, and includes a host of features to mirror the user's desktop experience. Screenshots were released at the press conference as well.
The Sony Ericsson spokesman declined to comment on the additional features that will be coming up in the new platform, but laid down an expected 2008 Q3 release of the new platform for the P1i. Additionally, the spokesperson also added that WiMax upgrades will be offered to users who will still be under the 1-year warranty when the new platform is released.
The new OS and WiMax upgrade will only be available via the service centers.
With this in store, I honestly cannot wait for 2008 Q3 when all these cool stuff finally descends on my P1i.
(I hope I didn't dash anyone's hopes. Have a happy April Fools everyone!)
First off, Happy Chinese New Year to everyone. It's been hard studying for my upcoming exams, the holiday traditions of visiting others, and updating this blog, so I apologise to everyone for those slower-than-usual updates.
Down to business - a new P1 firmware has been announced, due to come out in the next couple of weeks, according to sources on the Esato Forums.
This follows the R9J005 update which was released for the World 1 region phones back in last October.
No solid details of what was upgraded is available, although on the My-Symbian forums, there was a claim that PROFILES were implemented in the UIQ 3 system. (If SE did indeed did that, the day the firmware is available would be one of the days in UIQ 3 history :)
Other rumours include that photos taken will be of a higher quality, a faster user-interface response, faster focus for the camera, as well as a 45 second boot time.
Only time will tell for what this updated firmware promises. Stay tuned for more information!
MyPhoneExplorer is a freeware phone manager that allows you to access and synchronise the address book, the phone organiser, your SMS and other messages, file browsing, and many more. Well, unless you've been a dedicated SE user, you may never have heard of it, because it never supported Symbian. Until now.
As of the latest version - 1.6.6, released on January 20th, 2008, Symbian UIQ 3 has been unofficially supported, according to the forum users on My-Symbian. Users claimed that they can only synchronise the SIM contacts, messages, and call register. Clicking on any of the other tabs, such as phone organiser, will result in a crash in the application.
Apparently on the website the author claims that UIQ phones aren't supported yet - I assume that he wants to deter UIQ users from excessively crashing the application, and so he hasn't made it public yet.
Might I also remind readers that this application supports synchronisation with Outlook, Sunbird, Thunderbird, Rainlendar, Lotus Notes, Google and net shared calendars (WebDAV, FTP, local). So let's all hope for a complete Symbian support in the next release.
It seems to promise more for users that the official SE PC Suite. Sony Ericsson should pay this guy for making this software free for all of us.
Just to inform everyone, the newest firmware does have an annoying bug. Up until today, I happen to use the theme default wallpaper image, so I tend not to realise the problem. However, if you like to use your own images, then this bug does concern you.
In the past firmware, you could drag an image in the wallpaper and apply a zoom on a specific section or part of the image using the slider. In the latest firmware R9J, only the slider is working - the drag is unavailable, despite being an image larger than the resolution size.
These chaps on Esato also seem to be having this problem too.
Seems like the only way around it is to crop your images in advance and resize them to 320 x 240. Not very convenient if you'd ask me...
The R6F firmware has already been released for a whole month - and finally Sony Ericsson decided to take note of its business users to release a Blackberry client for the new updated firmware.
I'll be updating as soon as I get home to review the new firmware myself, now that my Blackberry woes are over.
Be careful when updating your firmware though - remember to back everything up, as a firmware update is equivalent to reseting your phone. I've heard many positive things from this new firmware, so it should be worth the update.
You can get the new Blackberry client here.
Just a quick note for those who require Chinese writing capabilities on their P1i: firmware R9J005 is now available for the Hong Kong region. Seems to me that the Hong Kong firmware update lags behind the World Generic about 2 - 3 weeks; however, if you really need to have Chinese on it, its a good idea to flash it to Hong Kong region with XS++ or davinci.
So far there's been no Blackberry support for this new firmware, which is the only reason why I still haven't updated yet.
It was only a matter of time before someone would have been done the conversion successfully - however this conversion was done before the W960 was even released! This was done by Martin Vagner from uiqmania.cz, who made his name when he completed a successful conversion of a M950 (M600 to a W950).
So far the QWERTY keyboard and the M2 isn't recognised yet. However, bear in mind that it was Vagner who tweaked the M950 to recognise the QWERTY keyboard and the M2 slot, so I'm pretty confident it will be pretty soon when a stable, working "P960" firmware would be available.
You can check out more of Vagner's screenshots here.
It seems that the World Generic 1 versions of the P1i are privileged enough to receive the 2nd firmware update so far for the P1i. Here's some information on the version numbers:
Phone: CXC 162037 R9J005
Bluetooth: CXC 162143 R1D
Organizer: CXC 162108 R6F41
CDA: 162022/1 R6F38
I'll give more information about the firmware as soon as I receive more information on it.
If you're adventurous and want to change your firmware to the World Generic 1 version, you can try Davinci. Please note that I'm not endorsing anything here, and if your P1i screws up when you flash it with Davinci, I'm not responsible for it.
I'm still stuck on the default firmware, as I'm on the Hong Kong version. So much for supposedly having the "newest" firmware out there :(
Edit:
You can check the firmware version you currently have on your phone by going to "main menu" followed by "More" and "System Information". This list displays the latest firmware for your P1i, so if you see that the one on your phone is different from the one on the list, chances are your phone is eligible for an update.
Here's a rundown of some of the new stuff in this new firmware (the good and the bad)
- New build of Opera v8.65 Build 701 - Hopefully its more stable than the previous build. But I'm still waiting for that Opera 9 for UIQ.
- New camera layout! Loads of people said it was nice; again, loads said 'twas ugly. Your pick.
- File Manager now loads faster, much much faster.
- Drastic increase in menu navigation speed and transitions - whoa, this is like a miracle come true! Either SE had s**tty programmers to start off with when they released it or some SE executive snapped when their phone lagged on them. Or maybe both.
- When using dark themes, handwriting now have white borders to differentiate your words from the background. This should have been there when the phone was released.
Some SE enthusiasts in the community have already started discussing the firmware flash - the W960 isn't even released yet. And I'm pretty sure a lot of people will actually risk voiding their warranty to give it a try.
Here's why: Some like the design of the QWERTY keyboard over the traditional keypad (me included). There's also a InfraRed sensor on the P1i, which the W960 doesn't have. The M2 expansion slot also allows for memory expansion (16Gb and 32GB M2 sticks in the "near" future). And the price of the P1i will definitely be cheaper than the W960, owing to the fact that flash memory is still more expensive to be implemented in devices.
Looking back at the attempts when some smart guys figured out how to convert their M600's to W950's, so there was room for memory expansion via M2 sticks and a nice QWERTY keyboard, its probably worth flashing the phone. Afterall, apart from the "minor" risk of turning your phone in to a nice brick, you gain a nice Walkman Player, as well as the ability to watch movies at 30fps.
But at the end of the day, I really want to retain my warranty. Who's with me in praying for someone to crack Walkman 3 for the P1i?
After viewing Youtube videos of other users convert their shiny M600's to W950's, one can't help but wonder: is it really worth it for the Walkman player?
Apparently, with the exception of the FM Radio (which is non-existent on the M600 but is in the W950), the converted "M950" can function properly, including reading from M2 sticks (surprise surprise).
Which brings me to the main talk point of this post. Is there anyone out there going to convert their P1i to a W960, solely for the Walkman player?
The Sony Ericsson Update Service has been updated to version 2.7.9.14, with official Vista support added. Good news for the P1i users with Vista out there :)
Recommended system requirements:
- Intel® Pentium® 4, 2.0 GHz or higher, AMD Athlon
- 300 MB free hard disk space.
- 512 MB RAM
- 1 USB(2.0) port
- Internet Explorer™ 4.0 Service pack 1, or later.
- Adobe® Flash Player 8, or later.
- Microsoft® Windows™ 2000 with SP4 or later.
- Windows XP™ (Home or Professional) with SP2 or later.
- Microsoft® Windows Vista™.
To check the firmware version of your P1i, press "More", then "Status" in the standby screen. It should show the firmware version for your Phone, Bluetooth, Organiser, and CDA. To check whether you have the latest version, you can consult this page.
I wonder when will Sony Ericsson ever provide support for their Mac users...
Hello all! If you have a problem or any queries about the P1i, post it in this page, as it's open to all readers of the blog; so if I can't help you on it, I'm sure some other helpful member of the UIQ and P1i community and give you a lift.
Better than just emailing questions to me, as I don't always have to time to reply all of the emails (in fact there happens to be a huge backlog right now that will take me days to reply to all of them).
