Only the telecommunications and IT industry can get away with selling junk

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gerryjoson

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Topic # 4308 29-Jun-2005 20:40

Telecom harrier,what a mind f***
I bought mine about 6 weeks ago,also bought a telecom recommended bluetooth incar kit that plugged into the lighter socket.
The incar kit wouldn't stay connected when the harrier went into sleep mode,so would have to reconnect it or leave the harrier turned on all the time,then it wouldn't even connect so I took it back to the nice telecom man who said a couple of days later that it would not work for him either and he would get me a replacement,great !
Then a couple of days later the harrier speaker all but stopped working,couldn't hear the phone ringing and could just make out what someone was saying if I put it on speaker phone and put my ear right up to it[but only in a perfectly quite room]
So back to the Telecom shop again,I was told that the repairer normally takes 3 weeks,but as these are data business devices it would probably be quicker.
Three weeks later I got my harrier back [still no sign of the BT car kit,the one he was going to replace mine with was also an out of the box failure]apparently the repairer replaced the mainboard,speaker,qtec level 2,and the lcd??
All was well for a day and a half then I noticed that familiar sound breakup and by the end of the day was back to a near inaudible device again.
Back to the telecom shop again today,the guy said,oh no we'll have to send it back for repair again,I said I don't think so,I refrained from jumping up and down and suggested he get the manager to ring me at work tomorrow as I'm going to ask for my money back for both devices.
I can't believe a repair turnaround time of 3 weeks for these devices which telecom would have you believe is almost a laptop replacement,if my dell M70 laptop craps out,a tech will be here tomorrow to fix it.
I've noticed that compared to my telecom falcon,this pda is very slow and buggy,frequently mixing up outlook and texting messages,not letting me delete messages,activsync taking about 5 minutes to establish a bluetooth connection and so on,telecoms rom upgrade dated 12-10-04 appears to me to be really old compared to imate and others .
comments?

freitasm

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Reply # 16161 29-Jun-2005 21:06

The last upgrade available from Telecom should fix the Bluetooth problems - or so it seems by the reports of other users around here.

As for the phone speed, remember this is a computer - you have to think of things like memory, other programs, etc. For example, it's a good practice to install programs on its flash memory (called Storage) instead of the main memory. Also, if possible, add a SD card to it and install programs on this card.

The objective is to leave as much main memory available as possible so programs can run smoothly.

Today plugins are a CPU use that sometimes is not needed. The default ones are ok, but some (like weather and battery plugins, etc) can consume CPU withou being of really use.

Then there's the thing about how the OS manages active programs. When you tap the (X) you are actually "minimising" the program, just sending it to the background, not closing it. The memory is still being used. It's a good idea to install a program that changes this behaviour and let's you manage active programs. I use mbutton, which is small and simple to use - make sure to configure it to start wen you soft reset the device.

Another tip on memory: if you use Pocket Internet Explorer, its cache can get quite large, taking some megabytes. Make sure to clear te cache (on PIE, tap Tools | Options | Memory | [Delete Files]). Or try a program like Memmaid to automate this task.

I have a Harrier Pocket PC Phone Edition, an HP iPAQ h3970 and h4150 and can't really say the Harrier is that slow when compared with the HP models. I like it and use mainly as a cellular data connection for my tablet PC.

Mauricio Freitas (Geekzone Admin, Devil's Advocate, my blog, technology disclosure)

tonyhughes

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Reply # 16166 30-Jun-2005 12:26

I use a Harrier all the time, and have no speed issues. I find it to be more responsive for most things than the Falcon, and certainly much faster than my h5150.

A 3 week turnaround time is not a Telecom issue - its a repair agent issue, and you would likely experience the exact timeframe with an 021 or 029 device.

If you were told the time was normally 3 weeks, and it took 3 weeks, then I dont see a specific issue there - at least you were given correct info, and the timeframe indicated wqas kept to. In general though, a 3 week turnaround is too long, and its clear they need to hire more techs or put in more capacity for processing repairs.

If I was in your position, I would probably also be asking for a refund.

Good luck with whatever you decide, and let us know how it goes...

P.S. I have not installed the ROM update, I am having no issues without it.

And plenty of other industrys get away with selling junk - just take a look at the electronics sections in kmart/warehouse or anything at the $2 shop...

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Jama

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Reply # 16169 30-Jun-2005 15:09

Same here, I use one all the time and don't really have many issues. My gripes tend to be about limitations of the OS rather than the device itself. After owning quite a number of MS devices I can tell you that they all have quirks.

Overall market feedback on the Harrier is very positive. I do agree that 3 weeks for a repair is unacceptable.

gerryjoson

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Reply # 16383 8-Jul-2005 21:13

Update.
Yes I have returned the harrier for a refund and bought a Ipaq 6365 with NBD exchange warranty,I guess the difference between buying from a telecommunications company and a computer maker is that they offer more in the way of upgradeable warranties.

I was a bit sceptical about buying this Ipaq after reading o'seas users bagging the problems it had when first released,that and the fact that it only has 266mhz processor but its actually not too bad speed wise,only really notice it with repligo drawing docs panning around the screen[screen takes longer to refresh than the harrier]also listening to music while trying to do other things seems to strain the playback a bit,but on the flip side you get twice the battery life.
I've updated to the latest rom [1.11.10] and bluetooth sync works flawlessly,although I will reserve judgement until I get some headphones or a car kit to try,although it seems this rom version has fixed a lot of problems people were having.

freitasm

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Reply # 16384 8-Jul-2005 21:19

Good on you... I do have a Windows Mobile Smartphone connected to GSM, as my primary voice media and Exchange ActiveSync OTA, but I use the Harrier for all other stuff (and I actually synchronise it to the account on my Exchanger Server, but on demand, not with AUTD).

If you use any data over cellular, you will be impressed on the speed difference between the GPRS and CDMA EV-DO, if you had the chance to actually explore that on your old Harrier.

Mauricio Freitas (Geekzone Admin, Devil's Advocate, my blog, technology disclosure)

gerryjoson

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Reply # 16389 9-Jul-2005 11:11

Thanks Mauricio,unfortunately I didn't have a working harrier long enough to explore the data speed of the device,I was quite keen on the Wmodem use for my laptop,oh well.
It seems quite well documented by yourself and others the speed advantages of EV-DO over GPRS,however the important thing to me is the cost of wireless data which at the present time is beyond most peoples justification,although I was told by a good source that vodafone is planning a fairly substantial pricing overhaul of data rates so hopefully they will chop the prices in half or something.

Tulip

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Reply # 16402 10-Jul-2005 18:46

I broke the screen on my harrier and it took 4 weeks to repair (chch-auckland-chch). Either the repair company or (b)leading-edge lost the case for the phone, so now i carry it around in a tacky sunglasses case. Atleast with mobile phone insurance it cost $80 to repair rather than $400+.

Then there is the joy that is MS Activesync - i've been using it for years, with ipaq's mainly, and it always craps out at some point - or bizarre usb error messages. I love how it doesnt sync new messages (outlook email) unless you remove and replace the harrier into the cradle. a known MS issue.

i've got a blue tooth headset (think its ericsson) which connects pretty quickly, but it pinches my ear and after an hour its too painful to use.

because its a touch screen, i've got into the habit of turning off the screen after i answer a call - because otherwise my ear activates the touch screen and goodness only knows what ends up changed, etc on the phone. (last time i somehow managed to change it to France time zone and couldn't understand why i had appoints at 2am)

The phone is a challenge and i would not recommend it to anyone who doesn't like mucking around with software and gadgets. because i can't access my email online (due to my company's exchange server configuration) one of the biggest reasons to get the phone is now redundant.

I haven't completely given up on it, mainly because of the cost, - but there is definitely room for improvement in hardware design, telecom "service", and software.

freitasm

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Reply # 16403 10-Jul-2005 19:07

It is a usability thing... If you need or want a voice device only, better using a feature phone or a simple phone. If you need a voice device with PDA capabilities, a Smartphone is better (no touch screen, smaller size, etc). But there is no Windows Mobile Smartphone on Telecom, only the palmOne Treo 600 and the old Kyocera Palm OS based one.

The converged device (the Pocket PC Phone Edition for example) has more emphasis on data than voice. Hence it's much better to use with a headset (corded or Bluetooth) - this prevents those problems with touching the screen, etc.

ActiveSync can be flaky, although I have been using this for four years and never had problems with USB or other stuff. However in terms of software, I did have problems with duplicate items, etc - until I started using synchronisation with an Exchange Server instead of Outlook. There's no errors, and it always work - no more duplicates or problems now.

Things are getting better. Take in consideration that these are devices for business use, and as such are getting more and more complex - like real PC in a pocket sized form factor. It is not a phone anymore, but a computer with built-in communications subsystem.

Mauricio Freitas (Geekzone Admin, Devil's Advocate, my blog, technology disclosure)

kiwiana

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Reply # 16429 11-Jul-2005 18:33

Ive had my harrier for about 6 weeks also. Ive had no problems with it, in fact I think its fantastic, just wish it was a little smaller so that it would fit in my pocket :-)

tonyhughes

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Reply # 16433 11-Jul-2005 19:23

Yeah - i would kill for my Harrier to be about 65-70% the size it is now. Do away with the keyboard and camera (or have the camera at the front for videoconferencing.

SNicolle

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Reply # 16436 11-Jul-2005 19:34

ev-do i-mate jam maybe?

tonyhughes

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Reply # 16437 11-Jul-2005 19:37

I should be so lucky. There are lots of new devices on the way though...

gerryjoson

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Reply # 16442 11-Jul-2005 21:12

You people must either wear very tight clothes or have very small pockets,I don't have any problem carrying harrier sized devices,in fact as soon as someone makes a 4'' or 4.5'' screened model,I'll be there ready to buy it,I just don't know how people input on a device with a screen as small as a jam.

tonyhughes

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Reply # 16444 11-Jul-2005 22:49

I input -very- little information, but retrieve a heck of a lot back out of it.

What little input i do do, is usually short handwritten notes (for which screen size is of relatively lower importance)