As promised in my previous article, I’ve taken a deep look at the latest Windows Mobile 6.1 upgrades for the Dell Axim x51v, HP iPAQ hx4700, HTC Universal and HTC Wizard. All the reviewed ROM versions are based on Windows Mobile 5.2.19209 (Build 19209.1.0.2). I run some VERY thorough SDHC conformance tests because, unfortunately, most (as far as the reviewed models are concerned, all – note that, in this regard, I haven’t tested the Universal) plain WM5 / WM6 devices can NOT be easily made SDHC-compliant. This means you MUST upgrade these devices to some of the newer ROMs (including the ones I’ve reviewed) in order to gain SDHC support. Note that I’ve devoted a separate section (at the end) to my test results showing the results of my trying to “hack” the non-WM6.1 ROM-based devices to accept SDHC cards with the latest hacks available.

As was reported by the excellent XDA-Developers folks, T-Mobile Germany has just released the first REAL and OFFICIAL AKU3.3 ROM for the HTC Wizard we’ve been waiting for half a year. It’s indeed great news that operators do release AKU3.3 ROM’s for the “outdated” Wizard. Frankly, I wouldn't have thought they would.

A quick glance at the operating system version (as can be seen, it’s indeed AKU 3.3.):

(And some other, related screenshots: A screenshot of the desktop installer; the Device Info screen with the ROM versions)

The direct download link to the file is HERE.

No, if you don’t speak German, don’t run to download it – it’s all German. However, if you DO speak the language, and want an official 3.3 ROM, you may want to check it out.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=285696

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=1024503

When the first WM5 devices hit the shelves, people found them very slow to boot in compared to even the (compared to PPC2k/ PPC2k2 devices, which booted in after a reset almost instantenously) already "slow" WM2003/WM2003SE devices.

Fortunately, the situation has, in cases, dramatically changed with the later released ROM upgrades, which is best seen on the example of the HTC Wizard. All the measurements have been made on freshly hard reset devices without installing anything and just measuring the time it takes from resetting the device to opening the Start menu.

I’ve constantly been receiving requests (see for example this thread) to publish more and more power consumption measurements of current Pocket PC devices. Here you are :)

First, please read at least this article (if you haven’t already done so) to understand what this article is all about. I also highly recommend the other articles I’ve linked in from the Recommended links section.

This is a continuation to my previous article on how much power the Bluetooth / infrared units in the HTC Wizard (a.k.a. imate K-Jam, T-Mobile MDA Vario, Qtek 9100, MDA Vario, XDA mini S, SPV M3000, VPA Compact II, Dopod 838) consume.

Now that I don’t really use my HTC Wizard (official i-mate AKU2 ROM version 2.16.9.1 WWE), I have time to run some really lengthy power consumption tests (with the Wizard being uninterruptedly suspended for even days) to properly measure the additional power consumption of the Bluetooth (including it being discoverable) and the infrared unit. Note that, during this, I’ve kept (I’ve just switched it off in the wireless manager) the GSM radio disabled to keep out the “random” factor of the measurements and also keep down the overall power consumption so that the results can be measured with more confidence.

I've just updated my article discussing Windows Mobile Team's article on power consumption issues.

I've tested the power consumption of my HTC Wizard (which I, currently, don't actively use and, consequently, can long-lasting tests like these on it) with disabled radio, enabled Bluetooth (without being discoverable - I'll run some checks to see whether enabling it will result in a more pronounced battery consumption) and enabled infrared auto-receive (as I've pointed out in my previous battery con

If you haven’t heard of this really great application yet, make sure you download it from here (alternate download here), unzip it and read the readme.pdf inside. It’ll explain what to do.

http://www.wincesoft.de