tp-x1 front

Some time after I posted this, I ended up getting the HTC Touch Pro, and so far I’m satisfied with it. Great keyboard, great screen, fast response (after flashing to custom made rom though). I didn’t choose xperia because I heard horror stories about them especially the build quality issues. The cracks, paint peeling off, etc has drove me away from getting the xperia albeit its $100 cheaper than the Touch Pro.

But few weeks ago I saw interesting offer on 2 weeks old SE Xperia X1 in black colour and I ended up getting it. I still curious about this device. I wanted to prove myself whether the rumors spreading on the internet is true or not.

tp-x1 keyboard

After getting it, I was very frustated with my X1. It was so unstable, random crashes on the OS and random signal loss. The build quality is far behind my TP. The sliding mechanism seems not too solidly built, a bit wiggle/play even when the slider is in closed position.  The back battery cover easily scratched. In short, I’m not happy.

I tried to fix the stability issues by flashing latest custom rom on xda-developers.com made by itje and the radio ROM. Currently I’m on Touch-IT 5.061 and now device runs very smoothly and stable. I already had the X1 for few weeks now and the speed and stability is similar to my TP. It has nice and sleek Touch Flo 3D 2 interface from HTC Rhodium (HTC Touch Pro 2) .

If I put aside the build quality issues on Xperia, the device performs quite well. I love the extra resolution on the X1. It has slightly larger resolution (WVGA 800×480) on the X1 compared with TP (VGA 640×480). Making scrolling through emails/documents, browsing the web, and watching wide screen movies better than the TP. I think I can’t go back to any device which has lower screen res than VGA. The difference is HUGE.

So in summary:

• Screen: X1 won, WVGA on X1 vs VGA on TP
• Keyboard: TP won, 5 rows keyboard is really useful, more comfortably and I had little issue with spacebar on the hardware keyboard on X1.
• Build quality: TP won
• Software: If using stock ROM, I prefer the TP. I hate the original SE interface, I hardly use the panel at all. But thanks to the chef at xda-developers I can get Touch Flo 3D on the X1!  So its a tie!
• Hardware: Both X1 and TP has similar hardware, 528Mhz processor, same GPS, wifi, gsm radio, etc. While TP has slightly larger ram (288MB vs 256MB), but in reality I didn’t found much difference between them.
• Extra features: TP has accelometer, useful for automatic screen rotation and some games. TP also has TV out feature, but shame on them they did not include the cable to use this feature. I’m thinking to hook it up to my car screen for GPS navigation. X1 has 3.5mm jack.

Conclusion? I ended up using the X1 as my primary phone, because I kinda liked the WVGA screen although it has crappy keyboard and the backcover scratches easily.

Currently I’m using it on my HTC Touch Pro, and I must say finally Windows Mobile have quite decent facebook client. Previously I tried to use another program (I forgot the name though), and never quite like it, mainly due to its performance and lack of features compared to iphone’s/blackberry’s facebook client. This one, is quite similar to the iPhone’s facebook client. The ability to see the news feed, friends list, status updates, message inbox, upload and tag photos/videos, photo/video/profile comments, phonebook, etc all here.

Dopod 838Pro (TyTN) vs HTC Touch Pro (Raphael)

Another one just happens yesterday, when my colleagues just got back from home leave in Jakarta. He just got HTC Touch Pro, which basically one of my most wanted phone  currently, apart from Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X1 and Blackberry’s Bold. He asks me to configure emails, install applications on the PDA, etc which gives chances to me to explore the device.

My few comments so far, nice shape and form, looks much slimmer and sleeker than my current PDA, a Dopod 838Pro aka HTC TyTN. The VGA (640×480) screen is so beautiful! The keyboard, finally they got dedicated number buttons on top, similar to the full size keyboard layout. Although the keys are little smaller, but still comfortable to use. The performance, noticeably faster, thanks to faster processor and larger RAM. Touch Pro has built in GPS too, and I was amazed how quick it was to get a lock/fix.

TyTN vs Raphael (opened)

The big question is, should I upgrade? Since I installed Windows Mobile 6.1 on my TyTN, the interface is quite similar, from software point of view, maybe the difference only on TouchFlo 3D because TyTN does not have the 3d hardware to support it. From hardware, it improved from almost everything, QVGA vs VGA screen (love it!), 7.2 mbps vs 3.6 mbps hsdpa, 400mhz vs 528mhz cpu, 3D hardware, GPS, accelerometer, etc.

For Blackberry users, can you elaborate why I should get Bold than Touch Pro or Xperia X1? Most people has converted to Blackberry or wanted one, from who really use his/her BB to its original intended use (work), as gadget addicts/hobbyists who use it to fullest potential, to who just bought it just to really following the trends.

As for iPhone, I really don’t have any desire to get one. Sure it looks good, but lack of physical qwerty keyboard is a big minus for me. I have the iPod touch, which has same interface as the iPhone. First few days of use I was really impressed, with its multitouch, beautiful interface, cool factor, etc. But after a while I got bored,even after I jailbreak the iPod and install hundreds of useless applications on the iPod. I tried to type an emails with it, it was really a painful experience. Now I’m barely use the iPod, and only use it if I’m traveling on the plane.

]]> http://tesna.net/2009/01/21/upgrading-touch-pro-xperia-x1-bold/feed 0 http://tesna.net/2009/01/14/free-push-mail-alternatives http://tesna.net/2009/01/14/free-push-mail-alternatives#comments Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:00:21 +0000 Tesna Rafinari http://tesna.net/?p=192 I’ve posted on previous post that I’ve been using mobipush service for quite some time, and it worked quite reliably just until recently.  I noticed I no longer getting new emails pushed to my windows mobile 6.1 device this past few days. I was previously thought the problem caused by some error in my provider’s GSM network, since I’ve experienced more than one week of total signal blackout on one out of two GSM provider available here on remote area in Indonesia. But when I tried to browse some sites using my PDA, it worked! So I assume the problem is from mobipush. Its time to looking out the alternatives.

I tried to delete my account then recreating it again, that trick usually worked, since I’ve experienced my PDA stopped syncing emails several times, especially after long period of inactivity due to GSM network problem. I searched on mobipush’s forums and it seems several users did experience this.

Therefore I tried to search for another push mail provider which supports Windows Mobile devices.  Since I’ve tried mail2web’s service in the past, and don’t quite like it especially it does not support push mail from 3rd party mailboxes outside mail2web domain. So today I decided to try free service from SEVEN. Currently SEVEN supports several mobile plattform, from Windows Mobile 5/6, Symbian UIQ/S60, Sony Ericsson/Nokia J2ME, and Palm devices. Depends on the version you download, SEVEN supports fetching emails from regular IMAP/POP accounts, Exchange and Lotus Domino.

I did not try SEVEN in the past because it needs additional software installed on my PDA to enable email push. I really prefer  WM’s built in Outlook mobile compared installing additional email client. But since Outlook mobile only supports push mail for Exchange Mail servers, I don’t have much options. It’s a shame that the built in client does not support IMAP idle.

After installing and configuring SEVEN application, I was surprised that it integrates nicely to built in Messages Application. In Messages Application, now I have additional folders for each email account(s) configured in SEVEN in built in Messages Application. So, it has same interfaces with Outlook Mobile. This is a plus, since mobipush consolidate all my email accounts on one folder. So far I don’t have any problems using it, the emails arrives within seconds.

Currently the service still free, but it does not guarantees the services will stay free.

After some googling, I found a bash script on ameir.net, which I thought it would be perfect for the job. But unfortunately gmail refused to receive the backups emails since its larger than 20MB/message. Then I modified the script to allow the backup files compressed using tar.gz format (previously its using .zip format), automatically splitting them every 15MB, and finally sends each individual attachment. Just put the code somewhere in your server, then configure cron to execute it how often you want your files to be backed up.

PS: on ameir.net I’ve also found a script to dump mysql database and sends them to email. You should check out the website.

#! /bin/bash# Ameir Abdeldayem# http://www.ameir.net# You are free to modify and distribute this code,# so long as you keep my name and URL in it.
# Last modified: August 1, 2006
#-------------------------------------------------------------
# your server's name
SERVER=servername.yourdomain.com
# directory to backup to
BACKDIR=~/backups
# date format that is appended to filename
DATE=`date +'%m-%d-%Y'`
# directories to backup, separated by a space
# if this script is a level above a directory you want to backup,
# you can simply enter its name, otherwise, type the absolute path,
# with or without a trailing slash.
DIRS="/your/directory/"
# set to 'y' if you want to backup all your folders. this will backup
# all files and folders in the script's parent directory
BACKALL=n
#----------------------Mail Settings--------------------#
# set to 'y' if you'd like to be emailed the backup (requires mutt)
MAIL=y
# email addresses to send backups to, separated by a space
EMAILS="youremail@yordomain.com"
# email subject
SUBJECT="Directory Backup on $SERVER ($DATE)"
#----------------------FTP Settings--------------------#
# set "FTP=y" if you want to enable FTP backups
FTP=n
# FTP server settings; should be self-explanatory
FTPHOST="ftp.server.com"
FTPUSER="user"
FTPPASS="password"
# directory to backup to. if it doesn't exist, file will be uploaded to
# first logged-in directory
FTPDIR="backups"
#-------------------Deletion Settings-------------------#
# delete old files?
DELETE=y
# how many days of backups do you want to keep?
DAYS=3
#----------------------End of Settings------------------#
# check of the backup directory exists
# if not, create it
if [ -e $BACKDIR ]
then
echo Backups directory already exists
else
mkdir $BACKDIR
fi
# This is a list of folders to be backed up.
# You can add more entries if you want more
# directories to be backed up. The ${PWD##*/}
# from the first entry gets the base name from
# the current directory and uses it in the filename.
# Format: zip -9 -r (where to save) (what to backup).
# Be sure to include $BACKDIR/ in the beginning
# so that the file is saved in the backup directory.
if [ $BACKALL = "y" ]
then
echo Backing up entire parent directory...
tar cfz $BACKDIR/${PWD##*/}-backup-$SERVER-$DATE.zip ./
else
echo Backing up selected directories...
for directory in $DIRS
do
DIR=`echo $directory | sed -e 's/^\///g' -e 's/\/$//g' -e 's/~//g' -e 's/\.//g' -e 's/home\///g' -e 's/\//_/g'`
echo Backing up folder named $directory as $DIR...
tar cfz $BACKDIR/$DIR-backup-$SERVER-$DATE.tar.gz $directory
split -b 15m $BACKDIR/$DIR-backup-$SERVER-$DATE.tar.gz $BACKDIR/$DIR-backup-$SERVER-$DATE.tar.gz
done
fi
if [ $MAIL = "y" ]
then
BODY="Your backup is ready!"
ATTACH=`for filea in $BACKDIR/*$DATE.tar.gzaa; do echo -n "-a ${filea} "; done`
echo $BODY | mutt -s "$SUBJECT" $ATTACH $EMAILS
echo "Your backup part 1 has been emailed to you!"
ATTACH2=`for fileb in $BACKDIR/*$DATE.tar.gzab; do echo -n "-a ${fileb} "; done`
echo $BODY | mutt -s "$SUBJECT" $ATTACH2 $EMAILS
echo "Your backup part 2 has been emailed to you!"
ATTACH3=`for filec in $BACKDIR/*$DATE.tar.gzac; do echo -n "-a ${filec} "; done`
echo $BODY | mutt -s "$SUBJECT" $ATTACH3 $EMAILS
echo "Your backup part 3 has been emailed to you!"
ATTACH4=`for filed in $BACKDIR/*$DATE.tar.gzad; do echo -n "-a ${filed} "; done`
echo $BODY | mutt -s "$SUBJECT" $ATTACH4 $EMAILS
echo "Your backup part 4 has been emailed to you!"
fi
if [ $FTP = "y" ]
then
cd $BACKDIR
ATTACH=`for file in *$DATE.tar.gz; do echo -n -e "put ${file}\n"; done`
ftp -nv 

When I found mobipush.com this is quite a good candidate to solve my problem, as they offers retrieving emails from all imap/pop email accounts and push it to your windows mobile device using Microsoft Direct Push technology. Here’s the features offered:

Features & Benefits

• Push eMail for IMAP and POP3 (Including Gmail, Yahoo!, AOL, Exchange…)
• Compatible with all DirectPush devices, including Windows Mobile SmartPhone and PocketPC
• No software or Hardware installation required
• Use your existing eMail account
• Synchronize Read/Unread Status and eMail deletions
• Secure communication using SSL encryption
• Synchronize up to 5 personal and/or business eMail Accounts
• Remote device wipe in case your device is lost or stolen

The good thing is, when you replied an email, the email will appears from original to: email address from sender, not from the default email account, which is not offered by mail2web.com. The only negative I found is only lack of syncing contacts, appointments, calendar events etc compared to syncing with real exchange server. But hey, currently I only need it to sync emails.

If you configure the push mail to access IMAP email accounts supporting IMAP idle commands, your email(s) will almost instantly delivered to your mobile device. But if it does not suport IMAP idle or only support POP access, is not as instant as it’s a pull email. Usually it checks for new emails every 5 to 10 minutes for POP emails.

The only driver I download just the nvidia graphics driver, but that’s only took few clicks away and you only need to download it if you want to enable 3d and desktop effects. To be honest, I kinda like desktop effects/eye candy, multiple desktop + 3d cube, wobbly & 3d windows, etc. Two of my friends already asks me to install ubuntu on their notebook, just by looking ubuntu’s visual effects. Apart from visually appealing, multiple virtual desktops proven really useful for me.

To install additional things such as codecs to play various type of audio and video files, flashplayer, java virtual machine, etc also relatively easy, all the guides can be found on ubuntuforums.com . Maybe I will compile all essential guides on my blog sometime later.

Performance wise, it does boots faster than my windows vista x64 sp1. But since I got quite large amount of ram, running applications such as spreadsheets, email client, internet browser, etc feels the same on both OS.

Stability wise, both os has similar results on me. I never got any unexpected crash on both OS.

Security wise, it seems ubuntu is the winner. I don’t need to use any antivirus software, since most viruses and malware are written for windows systems. This not means that linux is not vulnerable to malicious code though, it’s just got much less chance to get infected/compromised.

Office Application wise, this one windows seems still the winner. Altough there is OpenOffce suite installed default in ubuntu, I still have not found replacement for Excel 2007.  I need this for work, as I’m using some functions which only available in Excel 2007.  To overcome this I’m installing Windows XP and install Excel 2007 inside Vmware in Ubuntu. I tried to install Excel 2007 on wine, it does run, but the excel often crashes, especially when I clicked on save. One more thing, I have not found a way to sync my Windows Mobile 6.1 PDA with linux, so I still need Windows in Vmware to sync my contacts, appointments, etc.

UPDATE: I got Office Word & Excel 2007 instlaled in linux using wine! The guide can be found in ubuntuforums.org. But when working on large excel files, sometimes the application just crashed.

Games wise, of course windows still the best, but I don’t games often so it is not a problem for me.

Value wise, ubuntu is free with open office installed as default, in my opinion it’s comparable with Microsoft Office 2003. Ubuntu also has large application repository, with access to thousands of free and/or opensource applications. Just enable the additional repo, browse using synaptics, select, install! So ubuntu is the winner.

In addition, I’m also found a way to sync songs my jailbroken iPod Touch in linux wirelessly using rythymbox, something you can not do yet on windows (or mac maybe?) I found the guide from the net, with few modified lines in the scripts to allow passwordless mount.