Database Info

WM2005 for E-ten M500, Maybe this could be modified for us?

E-TEN Information Systems today officially announced the Windows Mobile 5.0 upgrade program for its current E-TEN brand M500 Pocket PC Phone Edition.
And you have got to admit that both device bare many simularities. So what im wondering is if we can get a hold of thier rom and mod it, or even place some
preasure on I-mate / HTC to give us a little x-mas present early for being such good custome and devoted Imate jammers. I think this path of getting WM5
is a little more feasable than waiting for some of the other solution posted on this forum.
Donno what do you guys think?

No, for a number of reasons.
1. The hardware is different between the E-TEN M500 and the HTC Magician. From processor to memory configuration to video display to camera, there's just too many variables that would make it futile compared to attempting to make a build from another HTC device, if that is even feasible.
2. The WM5 upgrade for the E-TEN M500 will be available no earlier than December 2005. I am hoping that someone would have provided a hacked WM5 build for the Magician before then.

I think the second solution is first to try. Please give us the link of the source of ur news, and should one of our members who speak english natively start to suggest a letter pushing of CDL (carrer devices company, the owner of imate) to develop a new wm2005 rom for JAM. After getting the email of CDL CEO (I think it is easy and avaialible somewre in the forum) we start all to send that letter. I think CDL should respons, or all of us will forward to Eten company as it respects its customers rather than CDL.

The site where the new was found is:
http://www.etencorp.com/presscenter/press.php?pid=45&tid=0
whats getting to me is that Eten , a crappy novalty Pocket Pc company has an update compiled form Microsoft, why cant Imate get them to do us one. This is the 3rd time this has happen to me, I mean when I got my first pocket pc (F-S Pocket Loox 600) the support team alienated its customers and lost many of us even though it later PPC releases were of better quality. HP has done this too with the 19xx series and 63xx series. But from what iI heard Imate had regular updates and free firmware. Looks like they going to follow the same path.

I think all of the distributors of this device, CDL, QTek, Orange, T-Mobile et-al should be pressed for a WM5 upgrade for the magician. Also we should press HTC who actually manufacture it.
That way the distributors and mobile operators might apply thier own pressure to HTC as well as ours. If HTC are being pressed from both sides then maybe they will do something.
In the meantime we await buzz's unofficial version.

Theres a way of starting an online petition we did it to Fujitsi-siemens for the loox and suprisingly it work. Took some time but they went back on there word. But we need on of Admins here in forum who have a little more pulling power than me. I have been read about Buzz's cracked version but i havent put too much faith in it, I guess just preparing for the worst I guess. Any one want to take the responsiblity for it???

Best way is to vote with your wallets and dont buy HTC products and switch to Eten. That is the only language corporations understand, money. If they see their customer base switching they will MAYBE think twice.

Why don't we just start to hit their boards to release the magneto for us at [email protected] ? Or else someone has a better way to contact a CEO :lol:
Blueangels, Magicians, Alpine can handle the magneto and even the Himalayas, any suggestions are welcomed..
Damn, ETEN is a crapy ppc and they are releasing the Magneto!!

efjay said:
Best way is to vote with your wallets and dont buy HTC products and switch to Eten. That is the only language corporations understand, money. If they see their customer base switching they will MAYBE think twice.
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the folowing is my history:
Wallabay------> Qtek for one year
Himalaya------> imate (2 different devices as one was stolen) for more than 2 years
Magician-------> Imate Jam Currently for around 6 months
Eten-----------> near future after throwing away CDL products for ever.
I usually don't respect any one does not respect me. CDL is not respecting us, while eten respecting their cutomers, so i think i should switch to eten. From the commercial point of view, i think that it is more benifitial to CDL to release a wm2005 for their old products (not ancient one like wallabay or himallaya) as they will gain the following:
1- they will be respectable from us as this will raise their cutomer support score very much, and will attract new customers as it will be known that the post sale support of CDL is perfect.
2- Their new devices such as JasJar is going will by self pushing power as a new product and will attract the valuable richer customers even old devices such as JAM supports wm2005 or not. In the same time the JAm which is still present in stock with a huge quantitiy start losing attractiveness and its sale curve will decline so much. While there is a large slice of cutomers who cannot afford for JasJar but can afford for JAM but only if supports wm2005 and will go to nokia or sony erricson instead of JasJar, so why not to attract them to Jam by adding wm2005 to it.
3- I am sure that the profit from selling JasJar may be less than Jam as the technology of jasjar is more advanced, so if CDL sells 100 piece of jasjar it will gain for wxample a 10% profit, while if sells 100 piece of Jam it may be 15% profit, especially if we consider that the stock of jam is dead and it is a potential loss and will go to rubbish. So adding wm2005 to jam will revive it and not affecting the sales of jasjar in the same time as it is a new coming product and has its attractiveness.
Finally i hope that CDL, or all HTC affiliated companies rethink regarding this issue and try to continue competeing in this market that of course the winner is the one who respects his customers.

The rumoured xda atom lookslike the magician with WM 2005. Maybe once this device is widely available, someone can hack the ROM.

Greets.
I'm sorry that I'm not with you when you try to boycott HTC.
Eten sold his M500 with the wm5 upgrade clearly advertised. It was a sell point, so, they sold more M500 because ppl were expecting WM5.
HTC did not advertise any of his S1X0 with wm5. If they were to give away wm5, they would advertise at least S110 to be wm5 ready, and it would be a sell point too. They would win money because of the addded value of wm5.
None of us were ripped-off, and, as they keep supporting in a good way our magicians, they are doing their work. They care for us, as they give us rom updates. Not giving us something that is not free, does not turn them bad, or does not mean they don't care about us (well, of course no corp cares for ppl, they care for income! eten does too). Remember, if they give you WM5 for free, they need to support it, and develop some specific things for it. And ppl will keep magician for a longer time, and will not buy theyre new products like the 9100 and so on.
They will in fact loose money. Do you loose money when you work? I surelly don't.
One possible pressure is for us to call our network operators, and start complaining with them. And better, if companys start blaming for not having WM5 for a so much hyped (by operators) product.
Operators themselves are incredibly more powerfull that any of our petition, IMO.
Even that way, I really doubt that we will see WM5 for S100 (it is my opinion, not a rant). Maybe for christmas, with santa giving it to us.
I am looking forward for the new Mitac Mio with gps and wm5. Now thats what I call a all-in-one

I'm waiting for the Mio as well. My only reason for trading the Magician is .... WM5!!
And guess what, my next device after the Mitac Mio would probably be .... another Mitac!!
So yes, HTC will probably lose money in the near future. Keeping your existing customers happy is much easier than getting new ones!
On the other hand, if a WM5 ROM (hacked or not) becomes available before the Mitac launch, I'll stick to the Magician (my preferred option).

rjtd said:
Eten sold his M500 with the wm5 upgrade clearly advertised. It was a sell point, so, they sold more M500 because ppl were expecting WM5.
HTC did not advertise any of his S1X0 with wm5. If they were to give away wm5, they would advertise at least S110 to be wm5 ready, and it would be a sell point too. They would win money because of the addded value of wm5.
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Great point I agree but Imaging how much more love we would have for our babies is the have a face lift. I mean think of sending you girlfriend to get a new set of boobs. You would play with then all day!!
Anyway lets hope they give us the option if its possible, instead of only making it available as a selling point for there next device which is more probable. Even if we have to pay and ammount say $40 for the upgrade it would be great!!
Cheers all

kta said:
I'm waiting for the Mio as well. My only reason for trading the Magician is .... WM5!!
And guess what, my next device after the Mitac Mio would probably be .... another Mitac!!
So yes, HTC will probably lose money in the near future. Keeping your existing customers happy is much easier than getting new ones!
On the other hand, if a WM5 ROM (hacked or not) becomes available before the Mitac launch, I'll stick to the Magician (my preferred option).
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Just to consider from the money point of view, in either way, you stay with Magician or purchase a new Mio, HTC is not going to make new profit. Then the question arises: why do they need to endeavor to make you stay with Magician?

zenkle said:
Just to consider from the money point of view, in either way, you stay with Magician or purchase a new Mio, HTC is not going to make new profit. Then the question arises: why do they need to endeavor to make you stay with Magician?
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No Zenkle, i am not agree with u, if i bought MIO, so, i will try a new handset and a new company with a new style and post sale support, so may i found them better and will stick to them and don't use HTC anymore. But if i have an upgraded magician the next step will be JasJar or whatever HTC. Second, if i bought a MIO now, so i will upgrade after 1-3 years from now as i will have a brand new device, but if I ve an upgraded magician , i will upgrade for JasJar after 6 months to 1 year at max.

That's exactly the point. Keeping your customers loyal to the brand is all part of the business.
In addition to this, HTC or the carriers of this brand, will soon get the reputation of not releasing OS upgrades, while others (Samsung, ETEN, etc.) may be getting a more favourable reputation of releasing OS upgrades for their devices. This would sure help the latter increase their sales.

Trust me, if they do not give us WM5.0 is that because they would, in the end, loose money with it.
I bet they have ppl doing all the calculations for them.

Trust me, no calculations were required. They simply said, "we'll make them buy something new" and that was that.

BeyondtheTech said:
Trust me, no calculations were required. They simply said, "we'll make them buy something new" and that was that.
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And why not say that. Sure, people on this forum may not go back to HTC devices, but there's millions of others that will due to I-mate, O2, Orange and all the others selling these devices. And the profits made from these devices far outweigh the measly profits made from releasing a WM5 rom for the Magician.
My opinion, I want WM5 to play with, and I have no doubt it will eventually come out once someone gets their hands on a decent version (I'm not bringing up the whole other thread to do with buzz and raptorz). But, by the time I feel it's absolutely necessary to upgrade, not just because I want to, there will be some really beefy PDA phones available and my Jam will be obsolete anyway. Hence, a new phone. Maybe an HTC, may not be. Whatever's best for me at the time. And when I do get WM5, I wouldn't mind having official upgrades and support available for it.
Just my 2 cents worth. :lol:

So companies like HP, ETEN, Samsung and others did not do their calculations? Or they don't have new products in the pipeline? All of these companies are releasing an upgrade, and I'm sure they're thinking "customer service" and "returned customers".
Immediate profit vs long term investment in the brand ... look at o2, they're releasing the ATOM, a COPY of the HTC Magician with WM5 in December, I bet HTC will be losing on sales when this comes out. Had the Magician had a WM5 upgrade and being slightly cheaper than the Atom, the Magician would have a longer shelve life thus paying more for its R&D, etc.

MS could invest in XDA Developers!

I guess if M$ is being so cheeky by enforcing tight string on XDA-Developers site, then I suggest they buy it out for not less than 10M$ and invest in is so that it brings them cash in return on their investment!
This site has been a refuge for many of the pda users for not less than 5 years! It has helped many and many have even mastered the PDA tweaking and rom cooking for only and ONLY one reason (i.e. developing) the PDA technology.
If M$ has not learnt anything from this site and perhaps will never learn, then it is their own problem and they are shortsighted!!
I personally believe that XDA-Developers has helped the industry a lot and no one can deny this fact whereas others have just kept waiting and perhaps were left behind…
Com'n guys, it say "XDA-Developers" and it is only meant to develop and enhance by making our lives much easier not as M$, make it more miserable!!

few if any sane company would invest on something as free and "opensource" as this place
nobody here get paid and everybody could leave never to return
from an economic perspective it would be way risky

Rudegar said:
few if any sane company would invest on something as free and "opensource" as this place
nobody here get paid and everybody could leave never to return
from an economic perspective it would be way risky
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Click to collapse
I tend to disagree, you would get a few people turn and leave if this place was affiliated with MS, but at the same time SOOOOOOO many people would stay and even get more active if all our efforts were recognised by them. Im in no doubt that ALOT of people from the operators and HTC are silent members (or even active members) in this forum. Opensource is not always a bad thing but its not as if we are actually changing the WM core system, we are adding to it and tweaking the hardware we have.
The actual investment in our devices is another reason, some of us have paid a HELL of alot for these devices and arent willing to sit back and wait for the next ROM to appear a year after we bought them! Im YET to see a genuine ROM update from HTC, yet over the phone the guy did tell me about Xda-devs and the recommended ROM to use!

Bizarre decision
I can only imagine they are under pressure from the device manufacturers : You;re not going to buy a new device as quickly if you can get the latest OS to run on your existing machine.
Unless they have plans to retail windows mobile operating system, in which case the roms here would impinge on those sales.
Otherwise, it makes little sense : communities help make the market for these devices and often show technology leadership : from Win95 to XP, look how many community innovations made it into the OS : media players, codecs, compression tools, IM, etc etc. None these innovations are born in Microsoft labs. They're born in the community.
More specifically though, their actions will cause all those people who are smart enough to double and triple their effort to get open source operating systems for the hardware, leaving them out of the picture all together.
Linux and the entire open source community was born, grown and raised because of actions just such as this and I said as much in my petition comments.
JJ

Allow open source or buzz off!
MS has been acting weird lately which I reckon they would go out of business if they continue though.
What they've decided to do will certainly lower their market acquisition and customer loyalty, dono man!!
I mean think for a minute, what if they MS tomorrow tills you to buy a new PC everytime there's a new OS?! Get new hardware everytime they release new platform! Would that be kind of an insane strategy?
I paid about 1K$ for my universal and feel itsn't enough, which I should get better support and even have full right to any update and upgrade too, don't you think so?
What MS wants us to do, everyone who has a PDA to replace it with a new one so that they generate more money out of us! Tough man. I know a friend who's fighting big time for Vista Enterprise version and you know what? He's getting nowhere!!
It's left up to you gentlemen...

why would ms invest when they are already reaping the benefits of the tweaks and fixes from a source that has people doing it for free.

i renember windows 3.0 it sure come along way
but think about it are we comparing pda/smartphones too much with pc's ?
how many palm and nokia owners ever get new firmware ?
why should one expect to get newer os's for a pda/smartphone at all if the one it came with dident have any bugs ?
it's a full solution we buy not hardware and then get the software we pref
like on pc's
not that i object to the oppotinity of upgrading a dusty old device with new software though

ms wont be getting anymore of my money,
You buy a pc with windows what everinstalled ,nothing but crashes and hassle
if you do get a virus or have to reset you loose word etc,and if you didnt get a reinstalled disc your screwed
as for pda's,totally unsupported they just hope by the time updates come youll buy a new device and live with teething problems
hand on heart if it wasnt for this site my exec wud be 10% of what it is now in terms of vaule to me ,useablility
IMHO the out of the box devices are total dog sht,
they dont live up to the hype ,its only thru tweaks,added software and places like this that make the devices
that being the case i wont get a windows device next time around,its either symbian or treo for me and ive already order a new computer and its a Mac
microsoft thanks for nothing.places like this site make there devices crediable and what they are,in return some openess or investment are due from microsoft
my bottom line is they bring out new op systems,but wont let us upgrade free or cheaply,but if the softwares .op sys,worked as they claim we wouldnt want to upgrade
sell me a half baked set up ,then relase somehting improved but make me pay all over again,nah for me enough is enough
micorsoft have the vast market place,but this has turned then arrogant and feel that they can do as they wish ,but to many people we have had far to much and there offerings arent worth the hassle
you can get customers but the market has grown wiser and the compation stronger,menawhile microsoft sit back and only think of money,play on nero
im off to get me a Mac

"Legal" apsects to WM6

Hi there,
I just want to find out really, if it is legal by running WM6 on my device? I mean it is a WM5 device afterall, and much like with a PC you'd have to purchase a licence for new software, does the same principle apply with these devices and WM6?
I have heard that apparently one can buy WM6, is this true? If so, where from?
Thanks.

ChildOTK said:
Hi there,
I just want to find out really, if it is legal by running WM6 on my device? I mean it is a WM5 device afterall, and much like with a PC you'd have to purchase a licence for new software, does the same principle apply with these devices and WM6?
I have heard that apparently one can buy WM6, is this true? If so, where from?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The issue is highly debatable. OS for Mobile devices come preinstalled and can not purchased separately for upgrading. this is quite unlike the OS for desktops where you can readily buy a new OS or upgrade an existing one. Your new device comes pre installed with an operating system so you have initially paid for it. therefore it is safe to say that only in case of mobile devices 100% buyers have paid for their OS. This is not so with desktops. Now comes the tricky bit. Do you have the legal right to upgrade? Since M$ does not sell an upgraded OS for such devices, they are infact not incurring any loss of revenue if a user is upgrading. If he can not upgrade it is wrong to suppose that he will rush out to buy a new one. However it appears that it is the cell cos who are behind M$ move. When people who upgrade seek tech assistance it does creat problems.... they do not have the expertise to handle these issues neither are they interested in upgrading the devices themselves!

Ok, I just don't want some MS agent to some and fine me for some rediculous reason or another....
Thanks.

There are rumours that M$ will be selling WM6 as an upgrade... which would give a reason as to why they waited til now to ask us to take down our ftp.

Well, as said here
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/02/27/windows-mobile-6-free-to-pda-manufacturers-issuing-upgrades/
MS is giving manufacturers free license for the upgrades, which may or may not means we get a free license?

hanmin said:
Well, as said here
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/02/27/windows-mobile-6-free-to-pda-manufacturers-issuing-upgrades/
MS is giving manufacturers free license for the upgrades, which may or may not means we get a free license?
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Click to collapse
Hmmm... v interesting article, thanks

Ya, the worst they do, only if your hosting the files, is send an email. (trust me, I know) They will not hunt you down!

hahahaha, trust you. Remember theirs always a first time. hehehe

f??k em
this what i think of ms... hehehe

Our devices come with a licence for "Windows Mobile".
WM6 clearly comes within this

hanmin said:
Well, as said here
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/02/27/windows-mobile-6-free-to-pda-manufacturers-issuing-upgrades/
MS is giving manufacturers free license for the upgrades, which may or may not means we get a free license?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only with couple of OEMs. I checked with Imate but they have no intention of providing upgrades. Thats it.

I paid my Qtek 9000 about 1.000 Euro,and I think that it is my decision what I want to do with it...maybe install Symbian on it..? I think that nothing is gonna happend so far as WM6 stays "open source"..Difference about upgrade and new Jwrightmcps platform is evident...I downloaded Jwrightmcps WM6 from here and it is totally new platform..with some bugs which will be solved,but beautiful and rich functional,..If they in Mics...attempt to make update that would be just carefull minor upgrade of WM5...isnt it? Any problem what potentionally could be is about using their name so I suggest to rename new platform in something different...XDA 1 perhaps...

oh...and I forgot...looking from point of view from legal aspects I am wondering is there any possibillity to remove WM player (and replace other mic...stuff) because it is not worth it to be in state of the art Jwrightmcps Universal 6 platform...I think there is a lot of open source solutions and so "they in mic.." really would not have any reason to complain...This WM player is simply..."unfinished" as everything from them is..we still have BetaPlayer ..or something like that...

tin2404 said:
oh...and I forgot...looking from point of view from legal aspects I am wondering is there any possibillity to remove WM player (and replace other mic...stuff) because it is not worth it to be in state of the art Jwrightmcps Universal 6 platform...I think there is a lot of open source solutions and so "they in mic.." really would not have any reason to complain...This WM player is simply..."unfinished" as everything from them is..we still have BetaPlayer ..or something like that...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try mortplayer. Its good. Google it and you will get it.

The Symbian cellphones seem to be so legal that you can never upgrade them to the new OS version or modify the ROM.
But M$ knows how to deal with the market.M$ disregards whether WM6 upgrating is legal or not.So more people will buy WM phones instead of buying Symbian ones.
Almost 90% of computers in China are running illegal Windows because of the M$'s neglect of them.No computers are running Windows in developing countries will be a real disaster to M$.

symbian & UIQ does not have a ROM...it is completly based on JAVA platform....and...yes....there is a plenty of programs ( .sis) for upgrading platform.but it is not an issue here...the issue is that should we be concerned about MS policy to prossecute everything and everybody..we can see,Universal 6 and Linux platforms grows day by day...and differences becomes bigger and bigger...Developers here are running "light years" infront of MS and they in MS will "fight back"...Linux is not a problem...Problem is (or will be) "Windows Media Player"..."Outlook"..."Internet Explorer"...etc.etc...because these names are licenced by them and they WILL focus on that fact...and China is special case...it is potentional industrial giant and it is the biggest future market so it is normal that if you want success on that vast market you will "blink on one eye"...(Yahoo and Google did that as we saw in near past when they agree to give Chinese goverment all data which they collect..remember...internet is not free in China(!))..but this is out of this topic..I think developers here should first do renaming applications and further developing them independetly..Indeed,technology and behavour is similar to all specific applications and there is no any philosophy (for example : IE and Firefox are similar browsers for one purpose and based on one technology,and differences are "slight" , but because of that,MS does not have right for any complain...)...I think here we should go that way...

There's a hole in your rom, dear XDA User, dear XDA User!

Leaked roms:
Have a look at this thread on Pocket PC Thoughts:
http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/for...48&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=
It discusses this question:
Are you desperate enough to try a "iffy" ROM on your device just to get to Windows Mobile 6? And Does Palm have any of the blame resting on it's shoulders for bricked devices given their non-existant communication with users regarding the timeline for this upgrade?
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Should we use leaked roms? Why do we use leaked and cooked roms?
V

My reply to that thread. And as I said to my soon-to-be-disappointed wife on my wedding night: it's a big one.
I tend to live most of my online life over at XDA Devs, but this is an interesting question for all hackers and tweakers:
As enthusiasts, we spend an enormous amount of time introducing instability into our systems, tweaking, refining, rebooting, registry editing, hacking, reverse engineering, re-writing, reflashing, pleading to forgiving better-halves and generally suffering from trichotillomania.
Why? So that at the end of the day we can come out with a new tweak, or a new rom, that's 0.01% faster, has a shinier bar at the bottom, tweaks the carrier logo, or whatever's your poison.
I'm a little bit of a PPC nerd, but I have the enormous pleasure of rubbing shoulders with some of the smartest hackers I've ever known. We all work hard, doing a job that we should not have to do: we spend our hard-earned time to improve the device that we've spent our hard earned cash on.
In an ideal world, Microsoft would have made the operating system perfect, and would merely push improvements to us, over the air, transparently, every week, and our WM2003 devices would have self upgraded themselves to WM6 by now.
However, due to the agreements and the way that most of the Mobile Phone Operators operate, any build improvements from Microsoft, the manufacturer (eg HTC), or indeed the phone company (eg Orange) must get pushed to the Operator, who will then rebrand it, test it (because of course, we never want buggy upgrades), decide whether to charge for it, and finally get around to releasing it some months later. Or: maybe they will just decide to sit on it and never release it, as it will impact sales for the devices that have become more relevant in the intervening period.
I love my phone (HTC Hermes), as an extension of my daily life. I like to tweak it, here and there, there and here. I know I waste a disproportionate amount of time doing so, often for little practical gain. But why then? Because we're enthusiasts, and that's what we do.
So, if Microsoft dangles a carrot in front of our face in 2005, and tells us they're going to release WM6 to manufacturers, that's great news! And if they tell us, it's hardware compatible with WM5, that's even better news! Now we just have to wait for HTC and Orange et al to release it to into our outstretched hands.
But.... sometimes, things don't work like that. It requires effort to rewrite drivers for the new OS. To test compatibility with the new upgrades. To ensure nothing crashes, or is less stable, or won't randomly drop calls. This requires investment. And investment demands cash returns. So, it only really makes sense for the operator to release a tested, substantial upgrade if they can get something out of it: whether that's improved goodwill, or just a a few dollars/pounds/won... and you know: sometimes, it makes sense not to release it all!
Why upgrade the HTC Wizard to WM6, when it will cannibalise sales from "true" WM6 devices like the Keiser? So, commercial decisions may just come down to the hard truth: they're not going to upgrade your phone, even though it can, because it's not commercially sensible to do so.
Understand: I have absolutely no problems with that. Our phone manufacturers are in Business, so random acts of generosity are few and far between. It makes sense to sell a million new handsets, then to allow the last million to upgrade.
However, if we can upgrade, should we not try? Should we not try to get the most out of the hardware we've spent our money on and are happy with?
So, speaking for the xda guys and gals, we are, as lawyers would say (and I am a lawyer, so I say it), somewhat reckless as to the consequences of our actions! We dive into the latest upgrade, take it apart, strip it down, build tools to decrypt, decompile, recompile, reflash, and ultimately cook your own DIY rom. The guys (and gals) are enthusiasts, and will try to tweak and refine. It takes time for us because often we don't know what we're doing, and have to do it all from the ground up [and don't forget: support your local rom chef. PLEASE don't complain and curse, advise and help. They work hard! And we're all people with feelings: if you prick us, do we not bleed?]
In a very very roundabout fashion, I hope I've explained a little of my personal motivation for jumping on the opportunity to upgrade. Now that doesn't always mean that I will. A brief segue, and a funny story:
I have been asked to be one of the "experts" on the Pocket PC Annual Awards. One of my perks is that they send me the latest edition of the Smartphone and Pocket PC magazine. It's HIGHLY recommended. Buy a subscription now. You will get to see a photo of me, and that alone makes it worth it.
So anyway, on the cover of this month's magazine, it proudly proclaims:
"Windows Mobile 6 phones are HERE!"
I chuckled when I saw this.
I am far from the most connected guy around, but let's say, I know "friends" that were running WM6 for getting on close to a year. Very stable, very usable versions of WM6, for various devices. These friends are generally very very careful about who has access to these leaks. And they are very concerned about the risk to the leak-er, the person giving them access to leaked roms, because people shouldn't lose jobs because of this.
So, if the "public" is wondering why leaked roms don't always get released to the masses, it's because sometimes they don't want to risk anyone getting into major trouble.
But, when possible, they try to share with the public, and to feed the useful, stable parts back into the community. And yes, cutting edges can make you bleed, sometimes. But caveat emptor.
If you do not know how to reflash and repair your phone, don't risk pre-release roms.
But, if you like to live on the bleeding edge, sometimes it's a real revelation.
The Hermes was a much better device with WM6, and the Universal suddenly became much more usable.
In fact - some of the pre-release roms were, from experience, better then the current "official" roms, which have slower bells and whistles, and are generally more bloaty.
So, again, caveat emptor, but if you're prepared to take the plunge, and know what you're doing, sometimes, it's worth it.
V
PS Obligatory iPhone reference: Apple once again raised the bar with manufacturer controlled upgrades - they can upgrade the phone directly through itunes, rather than waiting for AT&T to get around to it in their own time. And as iPhone hackers have seen, they pushed upgrades through very quickly. Compare that with the sporadic and tardy fashion in which the Windows Mobile community receives upgrade love.
PPS Illegal rom updates: if anyone finds anything illegal on XDA devs (or indeed this forum), let your local moderator know. I'm always happy to receive posts from concerned xda devs users.
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Vi -- EXCELLENT!! Now, where's that newest edition of Pocket PC mag??

Great post.

Would you pay for an upgrade of WM if you could ?

It is intruiging that Microsoft does not offer their mobile OS for sale. Today's flashing possibilities would make it perfectly possible to provide upgrades to WM, even if users had to pay for them. Ok, you always have the specific hardware driver issues but there could be solutions to that, if the possibilty to upgrade would exist at all ...
Imagine Microsoft were releasing payable upgrades to a higher OS version (e.g. WM 6.5) of their mobile OS, would you go for it or would you rather buy a new phone ? How much would you be ready to pay ? Do you think that OEMs would embrace such an approach ?

Firstly all the phones are very sensative to changes, that is why you cannot install a rom designed for a different phone. MS would have to create a different update for every different phone, this is also evident with the windows update app build into windows. MS doesn't post updates because all the manufatures build the hardware and use the software in differnent ways.
Secondly why would you want to pay for an update when you can get an even better cooked rom for free?

tvrtim said:
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Secondly why would you want to pay for an update when you can get an even better cooked rom for free?
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Because if MS did start selling the O/S in a box like normal Windows, they would then be much stricter on sites like this as they would be protecting revenue. You would have only purchased windows 3.1 and not the upgrade to Win 2000 so you would not have a legal license to use Win 2000 - bye bye cooked roms!
Like you say though, I doubt very much we will be able to buy Windows mobile 7 from our local shop, too much bloat would be needed (imagine all the diferent drivers!) to make it multi-phone capable out of the box. This would all eat our valuable RAM very quickly!
As to the question though, I might pay but that would depend on price and features..... its a very open question.

I would if it was a real upgrade
imho then wm have not really got a real upgrade since wm5
wm6 wm6.1 wm6.5 are more in the bug-fixes and skins category as I see it