[jsconyers]

No. Just use the loader.exe file.

[plainman007]

Ive completely uninstalled the BB desktop and Device Software Updater. So all folders from programs are removed. I tried running the download you pointed me to. I think its not an os updater. Its the application loader. Youve told me to run loader.exe but thats been uininstalled from the programs folder. Where do i find it.

I even uninstalled everything and tried running the same updater which i did for the previous device. That is a 15 mb file which seems to be dedicated to OS updates but that still reports this device as latest software onboard. Running the exe file which i downloaded from the sticky thread you gave me only installs a software and then goes to the application loader. And finally stands at the add screen (which asks for .alx files to be added for install, i think i need to give it the actual files containing the OS files ??) with everything else greyed out.

:(

[jsconyers]

Did you click on the .exe file and install it to your PC. If you go to Add/Remove programs you should see the OS listed there.

[plainman007]

Scratch That. Ive got it running. But the phones screen is off and non lighted. PC screenis in 3rd stage and shows loading JVM and system software. Is that normal please ?

[jsconyers]

Yes it's normal. Just be patient.

[plainman007]

Hi JS,

Sorry i couldnt post back last night. I have finally update the OS and it shows 4.5 in the OPTIONS > ABOUT screen. Thank you very much for guiding me every step of the way.

I now also have DocsToGo on the home screen. But when i go in. It only shows 2 apps WordToGo and SlideToGo. What about Excel files ? Not supported is it ?

Also can i get some simple free PIM software (similar to the palm desktop) which will work with the BB Phone ?

Thanks

[jsconyers]

Register Word To Go and Slides To Go and you will get Sheets To Go for Excel.

DM is what you will need for PIM Sync. You will need to sync with Outlook or something of the sort.

[plainman007]

Register as in, I have to go online and register ? i dont have such a service here. I use a pda primarily only for my personal business data such as contacts etc and maybe some little bit of excel and i dont know how on earth to surf using a pda such as BB, have never done so with my palm either.

Or can this be registered from my PC internet connection as an alternative ?

Thanks

[jsconyers]

Open up the applications and it will prompt you to register. When you do so, you will see Sheets to Go installed.

Check the FAQ's for more info on how to use the BlackBerry.

[plainman007]

Sure ill check the FAQ section. Thanks again.

[plainman007]

I just noticed some dust particles settled on my lcd screen. Watched some Youtube videos on how to clean the lens glass and did it successfully. Removed off the front lens and cleaned it off. Has anyone else here done this and does the gumming paste inside tend to wear off if opened a few times to clean the lens ? Also in case i get a replacment in the future to change the lcd lens glass, where do i get that special gum that they use inside. Some are selling the lens with 2 side sticky tape is that the way it works ?

Also when playing videos on the BB media player. It plays only 1 video and stops and i have to go back into my videos and play the next one. Or just found out that if i press n it goes to the next video, Of course it refuses to do this at times and is very choosy about when this works. What i want is to play an entire list of videos one after the other on its own. Thats a basic function. Isnt that possible ? I also think theres no fast forward or method to jump to a point on the video.

Thanks

[Trimix]

Originally Posted by plainman007

It plays only 1 video and stops and i have to go back into my videos and play the next one. Or just found out that if i press n it goes to the next video, Of course it refuses to do this at times and is very choosy about when this works. What i want is to play an entire list of videos one after the other on its own. Thats a basic function. Isnt that possible ? I also think theres no fast forward or method to jump to a point on the video.
Thanks

After you press N give it a second or two. Especially on an older device the action isn't instant. If you're impatient and press N again, you might jump ahead two videos.

As for fast forwarding, yes it is possible. You need to scroll to the horizontal scroll bar below the video itself. Once you see the bar highlighted, press the trackball and you should be able to move the progress forward or backward to where you want to jump to.

[plainman007]

Hi,

Thanks for the heads up on the scroll bar thing. But im still wondering doesnt it automatically play one video after another in a sequence ?

[Trimix]

Wirelessly posted (L'neuf trois)

On my device (OS 4.2, yea I know it's old), it does not. It only does it automatically for music. Why that is I'm not exactly sure.

Not sure if it's different for devices with OS4.5 or even newer OS versions.

[plainman007]

Mine is running the new OS 4.5 and it deosnt play a sequence. In fact ironically, the word "playlist" is used in several of the media menus, giving one the impression of an actual playlist. I think the BB isnt really cut out to handle media too well.

Ive found it coughing and stuttering on videos, especially if you hike the volume while its playing. I found another huge and i mean really huge drawback. When i go into the advanced sound profiles to choose ring tones, It just gets frozen when scrolling down the ring tones. I found out by trying this for an hour that it wants to finish playing the ring tone in its entirety before it can handle the next ring tone. Really irritating when you want to pick an apt ring tone. The entire concept of a drop down ring tone list is that you'd listen to probably a sec or 2 and move down to the next ring tone. This BB cant handle that. I have never ever seen a phone stutter on ring tone previews. Including a cheap 20$ mobile phone that i have here at the office which previews polyphonic and mp3 ringtones in the bat of an eyelid.

[Trimix]

The ringtone-lag issue may sometimes be dependent on how many ringtones you have and where they are saved. I think if they are on the media card as opposed to on the device, there is a bit more lag in accessing. However, I have all my ringtones (longest is 30seconds long) on my 4GB media card and I have no issues going through my ringtone selection. I can scroll to one, let it play a few seconds or however long I wish, and then scroll down to the next ringtone. Max lag is probably a second, no more than two.

Not quite sure why you're having so many issues with your phone. But again one of the things to check for is to make sure you don't have too many unnecessary applications running in the background. That will definitely contribute to an overall sluggish performance on your device.

[plainman007]

Hi Trimix,

Yes as you mentioned. Im having 8 sec lags. Sometimes its just silent and wont even scroll to the next ringtone. Even escape wont work to leave the ringtone panel. Then after about 15 seconds. It will execute all the pending keypresses that you were waiting for it to do and then exit. Ive tried everything and there happen to be only the webbrowser. Phone app. Phone log. Home app. These just dont seem to go away. The rest are all closed. To be frank the BB is way way behind the palm in effecient menus etc.

In my palm if i wanted to play a video. I just select video player from home screen. And hit play and my default selected playlist will start playing. One video after the other. No Lag. Never once a jitter. And will accept much more file types than the BB. You can adjust color, brightness, saturation etc. Left n right balance. Almost as many controls as you see on windows media player. And everything hidden but accessible with one key press. Then the best thing is, when you quit the player. Everything quits. No background apps running or anything like that.

In the BB. I have to 1st go into media. Then choose videos. Then choose now playing then select a video. Then it will play. With lag ofcourse. Then if i pause the video anywhere it will go out of sync. But in the BB i have to close each layer i opened Right backwards to media section. Or else :( background apps running = Batt flat. I dont think this is effecient design. Its horrible design. But i bought it and i cant send it back. And i regret buying it. But for the small fancy niches like trackball etc. Theres nothing advanced in these phones.

Trimix, is there a shortcut to get to menus without scrolling ? Like if u press t on the home menu will at least tasks highlight and then one more t press will highlight the next program on the home screen that starts with t ? Any freeware that allows fast access to apps.

Thanks

[Trimix]

Wirelessly posted (L'neuf trois)

Ok sounds like you've closed down all unnecessary programs. The ones that you listed are ones that help run the device and cannot be closed/exited.

Do you have a lot of ringtones or videos saved on your media card? Also, how big is your card? I had another BB user tell me once that the size of the card sometimes made a difference in accessing speed (smaller cards are quicker than larger cards). Don't know how true this really is but I did notice my 4GB Kingston card was slightly slower than his 1GB card at the time. But it wasn't a drastic difference.

BlackBerry devices are advanced. But their claim to fame is email and other more business oriented features. Multi-media is adequate in an all around device but it can be improved (browsing experience included). That's why there are a lot of devices out there -- to suit different needs and requirements. BB is a business device that added consumer features to expand beyond their original customer base. Most other devices are consumer devices primarily.

As for apps: not that I'm aware of. But then again I haven't had the need to look for anything like that so I really don't know. Check out the aftermarket section of the forum.

[plainman007]

No. In fact its a brand new unit. Im just learning to use it and ahave not loaded any ringtones etc. Im talking about the factory included ringtones which are part of the os and on the main rom. I have a 4 gb card. I think thats the max you can have ? And i have about 5 videos totallying 50 mb on it. .

Your right about card speed though. I think we ought to find hi speed media cards. If im right they sell cards with higher read/write speeds ?

Yes ive heard a lot about blackberry's email features and that they cant be beaten. A feature i NEVER use. Even if i wanted to, i dont know how i can access my email via gprs only, because my emails are from my own website and its not a wap enabled site. If i have a site mysite.com (ordinay flash website, non wap) and i want to download and check my emails like etc is this possible using the BB and just the GPRS service ?

The BB is aimed at corporates and business users, but today video and imagery is such an integral part of every business. With product demo videos, Introductory videos, Training videos, and the like floating around. I assume a large amount of businessmen need good video facilities on a pda device. And a phone taht cant even play a playlist is a loser. Still nonone can answer why the menu says playlist if it cant offer a true playlist. I have so many training videos that i would love to have on one mobile device so that when im travelling i can keep completing work based technical videos etc. Leave alone watching your own inflight entertainment.

But this has been an allround good discussion. My opinion is its a limited business device. With its plus points in just a few areas. But id prefer a phone thats a jack of all trades than a king of one / or two. . Having a variety of skills is better for survival anyday than being a master in just a few areas. And im talking areas that common idiot phones offer. Its not that they cant modify all this in their OS. I hail from a programming background and these things are not all that tough to do. Especially for a company selling millions of phones.

Even the build quality perfection of the plastic moulding etc is nowhere close to the palm or sony cli units etc. It looks like a cheap chinese phone if you look closely. Seriously. Look at the battery. I have a cheap dual sim card chinese phone (which incidentally responds faster in menus than my BB) and the battery is the same shape and quality and breed. Hold a palm battery and you will know from the finishing what kind of a superior product it is. And an interesting point is. Even the china phone doesnt hold for a long talk time. I think my BB is in the same league and family. Poor position to be in. I thought id be a proud BB owner, like i was with my palm. But now i think ill keep the phone tucked away to avoid embarrasement.

[Trimix]

Wirelessly posted (L'neuf trois)

I believe memory cards come in different classes (2,4,6) that correspond to faster read/write speeds. With OS4.5, the largest memory card you should be able to use is 8GB. I know max for OS4.2 is 4GB.

It seems that you are a content Palm user -- so why the switch? Even if the current device isn't suiting your needs, you could maybe try to sell it, or get out of the contract. Yes there might be fee$ involved, but seems like it would be a smaller price for the lack of hassle you're experiencing with the device right now. A BlackBerry may not be everybody - so maybe just chalk one up to experience?