Related
i have read the postings on the upgrade of WM5 on the Blue Angel device..
what i would like to know is what will WM5 do for me that WM 2003SE won't... are there any real benefits.. and do all the functions still work... wifi, gprs, phone etc..
i'm using the 1.40 ROM and don't really have that many problems..
every now and then the device resets by itself.. if i open the inbox, or change the phone on/off... otherwise it seems to run great.
is there any speed increase in using WM5 ??
any benefits in wifi or GPRS and emails ??
thanks..
hi
I had the opportunity to test WM5 in my himalaya device...
It wont be so different than yours but here is my 2 cents:
-Slower than WM2003SE
like 80% of WM2003 speed
-sometimes the cellphone rings once but for the other party is the 3rd or 4th ring.
-Lot of software bugs and incompatibilities.
bugs with camera and MMS
Camera= worse than the WM2003 one
MMS= I can send but when I receive, the page is blank (no objects, sounds, pics)
I just return to WM2003SE
Yes, is ugly than WM5 but is better, bug-less
hope this helps you.
Anyway, you can try WM5 and If you dont like it, go back to WM2003SE again, well at least work for me that way.
Same 2 Me...
I just get back to 2003SE...
But I miss the look of WM5
I'm back to 2003SE too!
The only thing i miss of WM5 is the Persistance Storage.
2003 gets my vote for now
I'm back to 2003, I ran several versions of the WM5 roms from Maimach. I can say that WM5 is fun, cool and all that but I didn't see any reason to stay with it. The persistent storage thing can be solved for me by backing up my contacts and appointments to a SD card along with the main apps I use on a daily basis on my SD card. Then when I lose power, I just reload the backup of my contacts database, re-load the apps from my SD card and I'm back up and running in just a few minutes. The speed and reliability were the two main reasons I came back. I ran WM5 for at least 6 weeks so I know I gave it a fair shot. I've found that I only use my phone for a few things:
1. Email
2. Phone (duh!)
3. Mp3 player (TCPMP)
4. Limited internet (google/froogle/weather/movie times/news/etc)
5. A few games when I'm stuck in traffic. =)
None of these functions were necessarily performed better in WM5, most of them actually were quite a bit slower but I decided to live with it because I was on WM5!!!
After going back to 2003 (1.42 rom) I was SHOCKED at how much faster it was. I had gotten so used to the sluggish performance of WM5 that I had forgotten what it was like to answer the phone on the first ring, watch outlook email open immediately instead of "within a few seconds" and not have skips when I listen to mp3's. Don't get me wrong, I TRULY appreciate the work Maimach and others are doing to get wm5 on our devices but it's more of a developers toy right now than an actual OS replacement for our devices. When they get a version of WM5 that's written for the xScale processor I think we'll see a HUGE difference.
For now, I'm back to 2k3 and not dissappointed at all.
Me 2
I am also back to 2k3 three weeks ago after 1 morning running 2k5.
Re: 2003 gets my vote for now
dmelton75 said:
For now, I'm back to 2k3 and not dissappointed at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which version of ROM 2k3SE did you use...
I'm using 1.42.... Some times when someone call me, the name not show...even that number already in my phone book....
Thanks
i have used windos mobile 5 since the first version on this forum (yep with all bugs and no camera) i have tried all upgrades and versions. and i have all most satisfied with the wizard version (v2) its really more faster. but i onlgy have no problems if i dont use my BA . some times i don´t have fone, other time don´t have sms, mms. lots off crash, with gps and tomtom navigator very instability, every time i put some software in today screen, the BA crash.. etc. etc..
now i have finaly go back to 2003 (version 1.42) and use wall memory (like wb5) use the wisbar advance 2 and my Ba its great.. but i still come here to see if there is some advance in stability on the wb5 .
when the ppl off this forum "bill" a windows mobil 5 running at 95% i reflash my rom again
thanks guys for everything
I must say after months of flashing and upgrading to a zillion new WM 2005 romz, I'm so happy i went back to 2003 SE. (no disrespect to the fine work of all developers here)
I almost forgot how fast my device could be. And do we really need all the extra applications wm 2005 has to offer? Seems most people just want a fast device that lasts 2 days on battery.
The single problem 2003 has is the bluetooth issue, which still exists in some way in all WM 2005 versions. Isn't there a way to just fix the BT issue in 2003?
grtz
let just say ppl have different preference.
do u have the latest BT stack from widcomm ie ver 3900. It works OK for me(running WM2003SE)
actually no, i don't. I just have the standard rom. (140.556 i believe) Were can i get that? and can i install it separately?
nijhof said:
I must say after months of flashing and upgrading to a zillion new WM 2005 romz, I'm so happy i went back to 2003 SE. (no disrespect to the fine work of all developers here)
I almost forgot how fast my device could be. And do we really need all the extra applications wm 2005 has to offer? Seems most people just want a fast device that lasts 2 days on battery.
The single problem 2003 has is the bluetooth issue, which still exists in some way in all WM 2005 versions. Isn't there a way to just fix the BT issue in 2003?
grtz
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would agree, I have a BA with 2003 SE, a Wizard WM5 and a Prophet WM5. The BA certainly seems to run much faster.
nijhof said:
actually no, i don't. I just have the standard rom. (140.556 i believe) Were can i get that? and can i install it separately?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am talking about BT stack(and not ROM version)
You may check the FTP site for it
sorry i'm kind of a newbie, but I have bluetooth version BT-PPCE/PE 1.0.0 (www.broadcom.com) Build 3900 with ROM 140.00WWE and radio 1.1300 (1.15 did not work also)
is this the widcomm you mean?
if not, i could not locate it on the ftp site.
help is much appreciated.
for me, the most important beside having this BA as a phone is handling emails (in Vietnamese, a typical non english character set). 2K3 sucks a lot in handling this, and I still don't find any application which can substitute this UTF-8 in 2K3 outlook. With 2k5, life is much easier, but sucks in another aspect: cannot handle many emails (say - I am synchronyzing at only 1 week latest emails, while with my previous 2K3, it was 1 month without any problem).
Any suggestion to handle UTF-8 in outlook under 2k3 environment will make me coming back to 2k3 IMMEDIATELY!
Thanks for reading
I would like to see this thread filled with more info and turned into a wiki page comparing BA+2003SE vs BA+WM5...
Some things I would like to have better explained:
STORAGE - I have read that 2003SE divides its ram to be used as, well, ram, and the other part to be used as storage (like a ramdisk). So the is a backup battery to keep this ram alive if the main battery gets exhausted, but if you don't recharge for an extended time this battery could die too and lead to data loss and a hard reset.
In contrast, there would be no mode 'ramdisk' in WM5. This would solve the data loss issue, and have an impact on filesystem performance which is understandable. Well, BA+2003SE has 128MB of ram dived 50-50 by default between actual ram and storage and 96 mb of persistent storage, 40something available to the user. How does it change while using BA+WM5?
BATTERY LIFE - does it improve? if we have no more ramdisk, and thus no risk of data loss, do we have backup battery + main battery juice to chug along happily with our BAs?
PERFORMANCE - Do WM5 apps perform better than 2003/SE? Do they use more or less memory? the filesystem performance drop should affect apps differently...
STABILITY - How often do we need to soft reset with WM5? On my BA+2003SE, for example, I have to soft reset before using my GPRS. it connects once, and keeps happy until I stop using the connection for some time. After that it gets lost and I have to soft reset the machine to conect to GPRS again...
Persistent Storage
The reason I use the WM5 rom is the persistent storage.
I realize that not everyone runs their phone battery down or changes the battery (and I don't do it that often) but it's a nice not to have to do a backup everyday (ok I should but why) just because my battery might run down.
Also my BA battery would come loose at times and the phone would reset. With WM5 I only have to reset the date.
That's my major reason. Persistent storage. Otherwise WM5 brings no benefits as far as I can see.
I've been trying a week of wm2003 after using ivan and tuma (1.3, 1.4) for a month or 2.
All WM5 builds gave me these problems on-and-off in everyday use :-
Slow phone app response (answering on wakeup and dialing particularly)
Laggy UI response normally, sometimes crawls along for 30-40 seconds.
WM2003 gives me these :-
Tap-screen goes dead on wake up. Powering off then on fixes this.
Quick UI response normally, sometimes crawls along for 30-40 seconds.
Audio fails totally on the phone sometimes, reboot fixes this.
Crazy battery use compared to WM5.
(I don't have a BT headset, so I'm immune to the famous problems that brings)
To be honest I find as many, if not more problems with 2003 as with the recent WM5 releases. It's a huge credit to those brave guys hacking the rom in their spare time that their ROMs are more or less as robust as the official builds.
On balance I'd have to go for WM5 for its tight Messenger/hotmail integration, more efficient battery use and the more intuitive UI, even if it does respond slower.
Right now I'm checking regularly for the release of TuMa 1.5, at that point I'll be compelled to re-upgrade to WM5.
half your problems can be silved by using radio 1.12 or 1.13, 1.15 has a never ending list of problems with WM5. Downgrade and you will be fine
I'll copy your approach and go for 1.13 then, thanks for the help.
Hi all,
Just got myself an O2 XDA(ii). I have heard people banging on about WM5 and how I should upgrade the OS.
However, one question - why do it?
What will I gain by doing the upgrade?
Will it consume more system resources and therefore have an overhead performance?
What woes will be introduced by upgrading - will it break anything?
Is WM5 really as stable as WM3?
I hope I can get answers to these questions!!
Many thanks!
why use windows when dos works fine?
Windows is a GUI, dos is a CLI.
Both human interfaces are radically different.
The questions I posed are reasonable.
Try this..
borrow a WM5 device from someone for a day and dont use ur WM2003 device.
If u like something in that device, install WM5 on your BA and test it, try it
I thought that this was a technical website for developers - I had hoped for some slightly more in depth answers, like contrasting for example:
consumption of system resources
bugs
reliability
speed
new system features
security
power management
etc...
WM5 VS WM3
Hi,
It is a true question,
- I have just used WM5 a week. So I hope my experience will be useful for you.
Fist, the WM5 store all data on it's ROM so you won't lost you data example: instaled program in device, contacts, SMS, MMS... if it run out of energy, hard reset... But, that causes the speed is slower than official WM2003 Version 1.42.
It still remain some bugs example: sometime freeze when you turn it on, BT and wifi sometime need a softreset to turn on.
The energy consumsion is the same (waiting phone mode). Others depend on backlight, % CPU usage.
Certainly WM5 have much more feature. I really don't known what I should advice you now because I still often reset 1-2 time/day like my laptop. But I don't like thing which is the same forever expecialy softwares.
I hope you can have your answer.
Daeljan said:
I thought that this was a technical website for developers - I had hoped for some slightly more in depth answers, like contrasting for example:
consumption of system resources
bugs
reliability
speed
new system features
security
power management
etc...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much for that answer!
To be honest, I got the XDA because I need something to keep me organised time-wise, so I'm more interested in stability than eye-candy. I don't want to fall behind the times either, but I may hold out untill WM 5 matures a little more. What you said about hanging when you switch on is off-putting enough - I had heard similar things about WM5 related to connectivity, but I've never had the chance to hear about it first-hand.
If anyone else would like to add something of similar content to this thread, I'd be very happy to read about it.
Cheers.
This is xda-developers so the question of why use WM5 on BA sort of answers itself by the simple fact that M$ has not given it to us in the first place (well this could also not be true as M$ did make a copy but none of the providers gave us a rom so that we all go out and by a new WM5 Device).
So why not? In the long run its more of a matter of taste, some have gone for and stayed with the WM5 on a BA, others have gone back and others have gone and brought a REAL WM5 device.
Its up to you, if you read the threads (of which there are many) you will find reasons to stay away and reasons to install it. Like I say its sort of personal.
Oh yes DOS was and is cool, still to this day I use it.
Dude
why don't you just flash to WM5 try it out
Dude
why don't you just flash to WM5 try it out, and if you don't like it go back 2k3, makes the most sense. You seem like a smart chap i'm sure you can figure it out, no harm to the device, and you'll get all your answers bra
My two cents if you like command line and stability learn linux, bash away!
Daeljan said:
I thought that this was a technical website for developers - I had hoped for some slightly more in depth answers, like contrasting for example:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Daeljan,
Welcome to the community! I'm sorry if some of the guys answered like that, but you have to understand that this question pops in from newbies every couple days "Why shall I do it?", "What's the difference", etc... So some of us just get tired of answering!
I am sure however, that you'll find many extremely interesting, highly technical threads.
So, to answer your question: WM2K+3 vs WM5
- I believe that part of doing it was actually to try to see it could be done, I mean the operators left us with an exceptional device (the BlueAngel) without upgrade, so many of us felt "betrayed" and wanted to get the latest, and greatest despite the lack of official support for a release.
- The LATEST version of WM5 (Helmi v3.2) is much more stable that the early versions, I'm currently running it and never think about downgrading back to WM2K3. Amongst the things I find interesting:
- The OS is almost as fast as WM2K3, in fact I run all most of the new versions of software flawlessly.
- WM5 has flat memory and no sharing between the "Storage" and "Execution" spaces (Which is something you will immediately notice on your old OS), so you get more running memory for your applications.
- Because of the above, WM5 has "resilient" storage, i.e. a reset will not erase your data, that alone is a great advantage.
- Some apps that do not run anymore on WM2K3 are now accessible for our community.
- Some applications are natively available on WM5 (Like Mobile PowerPoint) for example, and are not there on WM2K3.
- Better synchronization with your desktop device (You can, for example see your contact pictures directly synchronized, whereas with WM2K3, you can't).
On the other hand, we have a few issues (That are getting fixed with every new release), like:
- Slightly higher power consumption.
- A very, very ugly bluetooth protocol stack... People are doing an amazing job there, and the problem is almost over.
- Other minor issues that you'll discover while browsing the links.
Hope this helps,
Cheers,
W.
1) click search, type an abbrevieted version of your first post in it.
2) be swamped with a massive amount of posts ABOUT THE SAME THING.
3) repeat in future.
(sorry if im being a bit harsh but i myself have awnserwed this question many times before, just search in future!)
Thank you all for your answers, and sorry for making you repeat yourselves.
I suppose that this is an obvious topic for discussion that many people naturally want to know about.
So why not post a summary of it all somewhere where people can find it without having to mine the forums? I searched the FAQ for WM5, Upgrade, Windows Mobile 5, in various combinations and nothing came up.
The bluetooth problems are a little scary though if the XDA is to be used as a GPS, connected to the antenna via bluetooth.
Anyhow, thanks again.
Hic
You can try, it is easy to downgrade, not compelex as in the instruction.
1. Change to bootloader mode, connect USB run Ship file,
2. After the instaltion procces finished, softreset your BA.
3. The first start maybe get mistake, cause ExtraRom could be changed, softreset again, your BA will run in a pure state, unhide ExtraROM-softreset, copy all files in the ExtraROM of Ship file (extract from Ship file) to the ExtraROM, you can also change ExtraRom as you want.
4. Hardreset---everything is OK.
Wzaatar
Very nice post you did there old chap, thanks. You almost got me to try it all over again.
I use the ROM in my signature and I find it great apart from the odd problem but that could be from the 50+ apps I have on it.
Go for it...
Daeljan said:
Thank you very much for that answer!
To be honest, I got the XDA because I need something to keep me organised time-wise, so I'm more interested in stability than eye-candy. I don't want to fall behind the times either, but I may hold out untill WM 5 matures a little more. What you said about hanging when you switch on is off-putting enough - I had heard similar things about WM5 related to connectivity, but I've never had the chance to hear about it first-hand.
If anyone else would like to add something of similar content to this thread, I'd be very happy to read about it.
Cheers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, I'll try to give you a different slant on things....
WM5 utilises persistent storage (as stated above) which means that, should you find yourself in the unfortunate position that your BA has run out of juice you'll retain all your data (even the RAMDisk contents contrary to some other peoples posts). This is not the case in WM2003SE. If you let the battery run down in WM2003SE it's adios amigo! And start all over again.
WM2003SE while quite stable, is not perfect, especially once you have several apps installed and use it aggressively. WM5, while technically only in beta for this device (as they are mostly hacked/patched/ported ROM's) can prove to be a very stable platform. I have used nearly every version of WM5 on this forum to try and find the 'right' one... and I use my BA constantly, for business purposes and satnav guidance.
Comparing the 2 OS's is like comparing Windows XP and Vista... XP is a proven system, Vista is not, so direct comparison would be unfair to either... as for performance, with the tweaks now found in the newer WM5 ROM's I find my BA responds as well, if not better, than with WM2003SE, battery consumption is a little higher but that can be resloved with any of the CPU throttling apps available...
I wholeheartedly recommend the AKU 2.6 version of Helmi's ROM. I went away on business recently with WM2003SE installed and while away flashed this version of the ROM. My reason for being back with WM2003SE prior to this was the sluggishness of my BA after a while of running WM5. During my absence the Page Pool fix reared its head and all seemed to be good in the world. While AKU3.2 is the newest version of WM5 it has inherent compatability issues with much of the software available for WM5, even Microsoft's own such as Voice Command (an app I actually make use of!). The AKU2.6 ROM doesn't have these issues, and with the paging fix does not become sluggish at all.
9 weeks on and my system has only frozen once, and that was with a 'hacked' piece of software so I don't blame the system... I have not had to reflash once, and I honestly don't remember having to soft reset... I have yet to find a WM5 compatible app which doesn't work with it, and I use it day in, day out.
In short, I jumped on the WM5 bandwagon some time agao and was very disillsusioned at one point, so much so that I returned to WM2003SE... However I missed the smoother GUI, the much better handling of popups and alerts, the tighter integration with Outlook, the better operation of ActiveSync and so forth, so I came back to the fold, and I will not be downgrading again...
If you use Push Email anything after AKU2 (or is it 2.3?) is a Godsend, and believe me, the overall feel of the OS is much smoother, it feels like a 'pocket pc', rather than a really gucci phone!!
I use my BA to play media, read newsfeeds, browse the web, check/send email, and all the other stuff my mates do on their laptops, and if you have the right settings for your provider there should be no issues with connectivity... I have A2DP set up as well so I have a stereo BT headset for music/video etc... I run TomTom, Garmin Que, OziExplorer...
Oh! And I use it as a PDA/Organiser, my life is on that brick, and believe me, it gets hammered!!
I also have an XDA Exec now and to be honest I prefer the BA... although I do love my IQ (but Smartphone is a whole different kettle of fish)!!
I hope this gratuitous plug of WM5 helps sway your decision
I personally like WM5. The issue for me, and the reason I bought the SX66 in the first place, was screen size and muscle. Alot of the affordable WM5 devices out have small screens compared to what I am used to in a PDA. I cannot afford and Jasjar (wish I could) so I looked for something with a decent screen size and processing power.
The SX66 was the only choice for me, EXACTLY because I could flash it too WM5 Haven't looked back since. I run my games (Morphgear - SNES), work with my files without having to squint too much, play my music and get phone calls. Coolest thing in the world.
I have compared it side by side with the 8125 and the windows Treo, it kept up easy enough. Out did them in some area's, lost in one (no camera)... but in the end its just as functional as the new ones.
Flash it and see!
Daeljan said:
Thank you very much for that answer!
hi Daeljan,
Just reiterating what people has said before
To be honest, I got the XDA because I need something to keep me organised time-wise, so I'm more interested in stability than eye-candy.
-- if this is what you need, then you definitely need to upgrade to latest WM5 (Helmi, Xplode - both are great). The sole idea of "persistent storage" itself is a must to upgrade. I am using IIs (Helmi's rom) and I actually found my BA is more stable than when I used 2003SE. I had this hard reset issue when I pressed the green button to receive phone call. It annoyed the hell out of me. It happened to me about 3 times... Now this problem is gone. Just imagine yourself is out of town for a business trip and suddenly our "stable 2003SE" hard reset by itself and the back up file is at home in your pc... what a bum huh? it happened to me.
I don't want to fall behind the times either, but I may hold out untill WM 5 matures a little more. What you said about hanging when you switch on is off-putting enough - I had heard similar things about WM5 related to connectivity, but I've never had the chance to hear about it first-hand.
-- This is a subjective comment from me, I think the current version of WM5 out here are good enuf. I dont think it will "mature" too much cause people WILL be busy playing with WM6. As far as I know, more and more developers make new softwares for WM5/6 and less make them for 2003.
Yes, WM5 still has some issues now, but I have not found 1 piece of software that is perfect. even 2003SE had issues. However, these are acceptable issues (for me anyway).
Just a happy user of WM5 and I would never go back to 2003SE (unless I want to sell my beloved BA, then i might have to flash it back to factory rom ).
If you want to wait, dont wait for WM5... wait for a more stable WM6.
Like other happy users, I still have hopes the geniuses from xda-dev would find a way to make WM6 work on BA... whatever solution that is...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WM5 allows me to install apps to my storage cards - very useful! There is also the "device lock" feature which has saved me $$$ in phone bills from calls I didnt make.
Performance for a device that runs in flash memory has to be lower performance than one that runs in ram when doing any writing so as long as you do backups just in case then the other benefits are marginal. I dont see any pont in upgrading if WM6 were available for the XDA 2i. With the right configuration and software the XDA 2i is still as good as any of the new PDA Phones around now apart from the camera resolution. It has a fast processor, good helping of ram, large screen, supports 4Gb SD cards and has a large user base. Work with what it offers !
I Agree
It could not be said any better.
I Agree...
I agree I only got my XDA IIi a month or so ago in a deal for upgrading somones PC for them and they offered it in PX I tried it for a few days and found it well worth while it will run TT6 no problems and in fact picks up changes quicker than a Navman iC520 I have personally all I really want is a car harness for it and I will be sorted
if you look at all the new applications that runs under wm5 & wm6, you would change your way of thinking... have a fast look at the himalaya (that has lower specifications than our phone)...
..
Also consider the vast number of applications available for WM 2003 and the small number that are WM5 only almost all of which have 2003 versions anyway. I honestly cant see anything that only runs only on WM5 or 6 that I would miss. There are versions of new software but almost all of these dont realy offer any new functions just re written for wm5/6 big deal. Having had a go on a couple of WM 5 PPCs I cant see any great benefit and performance seems worse than the Alpine generally.Because the majority of WM users are on 2003 still software houses would be mad not to support the main market. This will change in time but like so many new software releases there are few with real innovation, maybe the IPhone in an exeption but I will wait until there is actually something worth having before I upgrade. If you always hanker after the latest model you will not be happy for long as there is always a new model round the corner.
I reason was for the new built-in Exchange email connectivity with html email, which allows for instant email with out setting an activesync of every 15 minutes or so. My Phone will get email before my Computer does.
-Polen
i have an Alpine and a Trinity and use them both for different things, so far i have only found one app that was WM5 only, and have found a similar app for the WM2003 instead. The Alpine does have a tendency to get stuck more than the Trinity but it's the work of moments to soft reset it, and it doesn't suffer with the periodic lock up on receiving a text that my Trinity does.
Not sure i could actually pick one ove the other if i had to, and i may well have to as work may be reclaiming the Trinity when its current "test and evaluation" period ends.
I'm a Himalaya user. I used WM2003 till quite recently. I'm now a 100% convinced WM6 user. In WM2003 I had to constantly use the stylus, in WM6 I use my index finger most of the time. I still have a thumb keypad to click under my Hima, I believe it also fits on Alpine. Anyone wants to buy it?
Sorry about the length of this but I thought my request might need some explaining to get the scope of what I am looking for across.
Is there a recommended ROM that turns this thing into basically a media device and not a phone? Let me explain:
I've had this phone for about 3 or 4 years now but have recently gotten a new phone ("dumbphone") and carrier as ATT coverage was no longer working for me and I really was not using enough of the "smarts" to justify buying another smartphone AND paying for the data plans (I am almost always in a WiFi spot).
I was loathe to just throw this thing away and after looking at how much used Tilt's were going for I figured I'd be better off just keeping the thing - it's been sitting in a desk for the past few months. Now I am finding myself in the market for a media player and have been looking at the new iPod Touch but then remembered this old phone and thought I might try to re-purpose it to be more economically and socially responsible. I've loaded the Sense UI before so have some experience with this and thought there might be a new ROM that basically turns this into a more media centric device and less a phone.
Some things I'm looking for:
More speed
Stripped Down OS - Really all I would like on this thing now is media player, camera, and a Browser (not sure if GPS will still work)
More finger friendly UI
Long Battery Life - I've taken out the SIM and have turned off the phone/bluetooth (except for WiFi) to save on battery power as I remember I went through the battery in basically a day.
Any help and/or guidance is appreciated
well, that's more/less how i use my tytn ii as of lately, it is in a cradle by my bed, running Skype and MSN Messenger 24/7 (and few other things).
Just get the EOS FIRE 888 ROM
here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=432707
it is barebone WinMo 6.1 OS, and EVERYTHING works/runs on it, no matter what I throw at it for past 2 years. You won't regret once you set everything.
I have currently installed:
Google Maps
uBook Reader
MS Reader
AOL IM
Google (today/mail/maps/info)
Windows Live
Skype
PIE Plus for IEM, comes with EOS ROM (truly greatest app for WinMo - you get tabbed browsing and much more, but need to buy it or find for keygen. Don't open more than 10 maybe 12 tabs or you'll run out of RAM, unless all are truly small "mobile" pages)
Opera
Mobile torrent (make sure to have 16GB card, haha)
Card Export
FTP Server (excellent to get into your phone's files remotely when on home network)
Resco Radio (great app - buy or find keygen)
TCPMP player with all plugins (with it you will play almost any kind of audio/video files, including original youtube videos, not the 3gp "mobile youtube" crap versions)
and much more, basically leftovers from when I was using it as my primary phone few weeks ago, like GPS software, AstroNavigator or iGO and others, NoData, BBConnect, tons of today plugins for weather and such.
I have about 70+MB on the phone and almost 4GB of installed software on the card, granted half of it are maps for iGO, but anyways it is still a lot of apps and everything works
One more advice. Forget WM6.5 ROMs, in past few months I was trying hard to make it work as good as this old WM6.1 ROM, I have tried ALL of the ROMs available on xda, and sadly none was even close in functionality and stability. Just recently I simply gave up on WM6.5 ROMs, decided to flash back good old EOS 4.888 Fire WM6.1 ROM and never been happier