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I am a new 8525 owner as well. I love it so far but am struggling a bit to understand the relationship between logically defined connections under Windows Mobile 5.0 and the two modes of network access: GPRS and WiFi. Has anyone figured it out? I searched but didn't turn anything up. I have been able to connect both ways but more through fumbling and stumbling than understanding and skill. BTW, if you haven't tried the Opera Mini Browser, do so. I think it does a phenomenal job of rendering web pages.
Hi. I'm new also - got my 8525 a few weeks ago. Having major growing pains going from Palm to Windows. I'm hoping to find some help here - my very first forum! Thanks and be gentle!
Hi GinBin33. I'm a new forum member too, and a new convert to WM5 from years of PalmOS. I've also chosen the Dopod 838 Pro (what they call the 8525 here in Australia). Here are my observations on the conversion process. Everybody else, please excuse the huge post!
1) Remember that clicking the OK or X button doesn't always close everything, just minimises. So that means it is consuming RAM in the background.
2) The built in Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, etc are pretty easy to pick up, but navigation is a bit different. Setting times for appointments is a more difficult process than recent versions of PalmOS. Tasks doesn't seem to have as flexible display options as PalmOS. Contacts is definitely better - lots more flexibility in Windows Mobile.
3) Phone app is a little less intuitive than that of the Treo650 but not too bad. Has a few nice additions like Call Notes.
4) The Notes app sucks. What's the use of having combined text and sketches in a note, if there is no way to export them, or even categorise them? Microsoft really messed up here in my opinion. But I've got a partial solution which I'll tell you later.
5) Pocket Word, Excel are better than Documents to Go in my opinion. Use is simple and transfer to laptop/desktop easy if stored on a storage card. Don't expect them to support more complicated formatting, but they do quite well for me so far.
6) Email is a delight! I sync over the air with the uni's Exchange Server. Took me very little time to set it up, and then it worked pretty well. I like a 15 minute scheduled sync rather than DirectPush, put that's just me. I prefer it because if I make changes to my InBox but it is a quite day and I don't get any emails for hrs, then if I use Direct Push those changes aren't reflected on my desktop computer for hrs. At least with 15 minute syncs I know that any changes will be sync'd very soon.
7) I love the free Windows Live app. I put it on storage card and it runs really well for finding street maps and even satellite imagery!
8) WiFi is useful - once set up it runs smoothly in my experience, automatically logging on if the device is in range of a known wireless network and WiFi is turned on.
9) Get yourself some good apps to help make things even better:
10) Agenda One is my favourite. Integrates Contacts, Calendar and Tasks, and is a lot simpler and easier to learn and use than Pocket Informant. Also faster and less clutter on the screen. It has fantastic one-handed support throughout the application. If you are coming from PalmOS I highly recommend it - combines the best of the PalmOS (ease of use, navigation, etc) with the best of WM (more power, better display of stuff, etc).
11) I like Pocket Plus, and indeed the other main Spb apps like Weather and Time. Time is a bit funny - really cute interface at the expense of simple and one-handed use - but it is reliable. I tried using the built in time and alarm clock once, and had a nightmare of alarms not stopping for hrs, even after soft resets! Pocket Plus allows me to have icons of my main commonly used apps on the Today screen for easy access (a bit like the Palm launcher), and a tab for Weather in various cities, a tab for the Time including time in other cities, little widgets to display how much RAM I have left (if it drops below 8Mb I soft reset cause I've found it slows down a bit), and allows the option of actually properly closing apps to save RAM.
12) Spb Diary is great. I use it as a tab in PocketPlus on the Today screen, and have disabled all but the Special Events and Notes sub-tabs (I prefer to see the larger display in Agenda One). The Notes tabs is great. You can use it to put Notes in folders within your My Documents folder, and see the list categorised by folders (like with PalmOS). You also have a series of tabs at the bottom of the Notes display labelled "abc", "def" etc. You can use these to search the text or title of notes a bit like doing an SMS on a normal phone keypad (eg. if I was searching for "cafe" I'd tap the "abc" tab twice then the "def" tab twice). The display changes to show matching notes. Cool!
13) GPRS Traffic Monitor is great to make sure you don't go over your data plan limit. It tracks daily and monthly data use and can display this on the Today screen.
14) Keep your Today screen as simple as possible - more plugins mean more RAM eaten up. I just have Owner, Messages, PocketPlus (with 4 tabs - apps and widgets, Diary, Weather, Time), GPRS Traffic Monitor, and the Device Lock plug ins. Works well, keeping it simple but powerful.
15) If you used something like Bonzai on the Palm, I have found the closest is TreNotes. Not quite a good generally, but close.
16) 1-calc is a great calculator if you need things like scientific functions, financial functions, currency conversion (today's conversions are automatically downloaded), etc.
17) If you used iSilo on PalmOS it is also available for WM and reads all of the docs you'd have installed in iSilo for PalmOS. Great.
18) File structure seems odd on WM. Similar to a desktop system (much more so than PalmOS) but some programs cannot seem to see documents if they are a few levels down in folders. For instance if you file a Note in a folder within a folder within My Documents, the Note app can't see it. Odd. Try to keep your folder structures simple and not deep.
19) As you feel more comfortable I'd also suggest fit4cat Hermes - a program which allows you to simply and safely modify some system and application preferences which you normally can't get to. Also SKTools is great (was the only thing that stopped that psycho possessed alarm clock!) but not very intuitive - so tread carefully and only when you are feeling a bit more comfortable. But it can certainly help with housekeeping which does noticeably improve stability and speed in some cases.
I've had my Dopod since Dec 1 and I really love it. I can now say that I am feeling very comfortable with it in the last week, having spent many hrs getting a feel for the device, reading forums like this, mucking around with it, and just generally experimenting. What I can do with it far exceeds what I could do previously with my Treo650, and after adapting to the different operational mindset, I find it is pretty easy to use overall.
7) I love the free Windows Live app. I put it on storage card and it runs really well for finding street maps and even satellite imagery!
Can someone please show me where I can download this Windows Live Application? All I can find is the live.com website and everything I can find there is site driven. I am looking for an installable application.
i just bought a 8525 2 days ago and this thread has been very helpful. i used a treo 650 for 2 years (and a blackberry before that).
there are certain features of the 650 that i wish i could duplicate on the 8525 (and i didnt have many things on the 650 that i really liked)... for example:
text chat: the 650 had chat logs so that all text messaging exchanges with an individual were stored under their name. once you selected their name, all of the exchanges with that person appeared (as if you were using IM). The 8525 stored each indivudual text exchange in the SMS view. That is tough to navigate when you have many exchanges going on at once.
is there a 3rd party product to duplicate this feature?
Thanks Ian, that was a great post. I am getting a Cingular 8525 today (a US carrier branded TyTN) and your suggestions are great. Do you have a microSD card installed, and if so, how big? Also, what browser are you using?
Thanks for the link! That is an awesome program! I've been lurking here for 3 days and you all are the best at teaching a Palm switcher what he's been missing!
Couple of things about the site fellas - Welcome to the noobs out there that have posted on the site, and feel free to contribute to the site when you think you can.
Ian - great post bloke. Explination was well laid out for those who have seen the light and converted from the darkside (LOL). Your first point about the X button can be fixed with an app called X Button that will close the programs like your old Palm. There are also emulators out there that run some of your simple old Palm programs, but I felt not very well (could be cause I'm not that familar with Palm OS).
I can't strees enough but fellas that the biggest thing is to keep trying different stuff to find out what fits your use best. Sites like Pocketgear, Freeware for PPC, FreewarePPC.com, Smartphone and Pocket PC mag site, and PDA Essentials site are some great sites for info. When you get more experienced and comfortable with the device XDA Developers is a good site to answer questions about changing ROM's to Crossbow (WM6) which can be found for the 8525, Dopod 838, Imate JasJam, Hermes, etc (all the same device).
Can't strees enough what Brian said - check out the search facility and then if you can't find ask. It may take a few days, but you should generally get an answer.
Enjoy your device and welcome to the real OS for those who have seen the light - LOL (Mates and I are continually joking about both OS' at work to joke around)
__________________ Tack My time is coming... one day I will get it right first time... hopefully.
When you get more experienced and comfortable with the device XDA Developers is a good site to answer questions about changing ROM's to Crossbow (WM6) which can be found for the 8525, Dopod 838, Imate JasJam, Hermes, etc (all the same device).
Can't strees enough what Brian said - check out the search facility and then if you can't find ask. It may take a few days, but you should generally get an answer.
Enjoy your device and welcome to the real OS for those who have seen the light - LOL (Mates and I are continually joking about both OS' at work to joke around)
I work at ATT now and they have graciously given me a 8525 to use and run. I've become the new expert in the sales office of 12 on PocketPC's and I love this thing. The girls in the office looked and me when I told them what phone I wanted like I was and crazed masochist (they ALL have a blackberrt pearl, bleh). I personally love this thing. HTC has quickly become my favorite phone company in less than one month.
I have already downloaded the update for the change over from Cingular to ATT and got the PTT (push to talk) function to now work and "X-button" came with that update. It's pretty scary all the warnings they give about not doing anything else other than watching the screen for the ten minutes or you will fry your whole PocketPC. But it all turns out fine with a little patience.
My questions will be many I'm sure since I've only had it for a couple of weeks, but my first being is, would I want windows mobile 6? Does it come with the push to talk function for this phone? I understand a ROM wipe will take out everything off the internal HD of the phone when you do that swap. So PTT and a few other programs would be gone that were not included with the windows mobile 6. So again, is it even worth worrying about getting WM6 on this guy?
Thanks for all the posts everyone. I found the site yesterday and have already tripled my knowledge about my new 8525.
It doesn't take away from the messages that come in the data package and has a nice IM interface, you can log into MSN, AOL, Yahoo, Jabber/XMPP....you have to pay..but to me, it's worth it
Sorry it has taken so long to answer Opiumbrl, but I've been travelling a lot for work.
I'm not sure about your Xbow updates containing PTT features as most of them are specially "cooked" ROMs which have been created with specific programs in them unless you would like to download a kitchen and cook your own ROM with the features in it, but it takes some patience and better understanding than the average Joe Citizen has.
Other than speed for my K-Jam (8125, Wizard etc) there are no real great surprises in Crossbow for you, and a lot of people on this, and other forums, refer to it as WM5 v1.1 really and I agree. Just some improvements which you wouldn't see on the JasJam (8525) in speed. There are some registry edits around that make your device fly instead of ROM upgrades.
Unless you're really into the latest and greatest guys and girls, or there is a real benefit, enjoy what you have and go with that.
__________________ Tack My time is coming... one day I will get it right first time... hopefully.
Hi I Just Got My 8525 And I Unlocked It Because My Network Carrier Is T-mobile. So, Can I Still Connect To The Internet With Wifi..if Yes Than Can Someone Pls Show Me..
Tack 
Linear Mode
