Dominic Wu’s blog

The Centro saga, much to my chagrin, continues...

Hard resetting the Centro which was an interesting excercize in and of itself (remove battery, re-insert battery while pressing the green or was it red button will perform a hard resert, again my preference for the WinCE design here shows, a reset button that needs an extra tool would have been much easier usability wise).  After making sure my prestine Centro is back to factory default and devoid of my personal info, off it went, into the return package Sprint was kind enough to supply and (hopefully) into the next user's hands who can appreciate it more than I can and the waiting game begins.

And more waiting.

And even more waiting.

A letter came from Sprint telling everything is fine and that I should be expecting a credit soon.

And more waiting.

Finally decided to call Sprint today after over two months from the initial credit card charge to see where my credit is becuase it sure didn't come to me.  I was told I was credited the full amount to my account, which, ironically, was cancelled so as to enable the credit in the first place.  Sprint game me credit and I have no way to access to it.  Huh?

Well, the phone rep was nice enough to request a check to be sent to me after my question of exactly how that is a credit and now I need to wait 2-3 more weeks...  Sprint should have allowed me to return it to the store.  That would have saved them both time and effort.

The constant daily battery charge finally got the better of me.  I called up Sprint and complained about the battery life.  I was told about charging the battery over night, which I did initially and do so every day.  I was then told that my account has been cancelled.  I had to ask about dropping the phone off at the store before an offer to ship me a return kit was made.  Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.  The eqbiquitous internet connection is almost good enough, especially when the signal is good.  The 30 day evaluation is definitely a good idea because I really got to test out the coverage of the network (being a GSM only customer since the early PacBell days) which was decent in my normal travel.  It really is too bad about the Centro battery.  To its credit, the standby time is really good.  I left it in my car over the weekend and when I looked at the phone again Monday morning, it still had enough to make a call or two.  But with a phone like this, what's the point?  So without an offer for a free extended battery, or at least a car charger from Sprint, this baby is going back.  I now must return my Centronaut badge and await for the next best thing.  Perhaps a 3G iPhone is now a worthy acquisition.  May as well download the iPhone DevKit and check it out!

This Java VM that gone MIA on my Centro has bugged me enough to motivate me try to trace it down further.  The previous half-hearted basic searches turned up a few loose odds and ends and a couple of installs later Java was still not working right on my Centro.  Here is what I found.  At the Palm website, they say basically:

As of January 12, 2008, Palm no longer has rights to distribute the IBM WebSphere Micro Environment Java Virtual Machine (JVM - info) to our customers. JVM allows users to install and run Java applications and games on Palm OS® devices.  Here is a direct link: Palm.

That's fine and dandy (well, not really, but I digress).  I thought I'd go to the source and maybe IBM had it available.  Turned out, there is an interesting twist to it all (and why Palm took their cryptic stance I don't understand).  A few links and clicks later, I ended up writing an email to IBM because a link on their site directed me to basically ask if (or where) I could get the JVM for my Centro, half expecting not getting anything in response.  A few days later, I had a nice little email from Fred Gnuechtel, IBM's OEM Client Technologies Program Director that gave me additional clues.  Appearantly (and unbeknownest to me), Palmsource did the port under license was acquired by Access (ding ding ding, that's what the whole hubub on the Centro is all about (note both the Powered By Access on the back of the phone as well as the boot up screen).  A few more searches and clicks later, voila!  I found the JVM on Access' website.  You have to register as a developer to download it though it sure beats a poke in the eye.  Here is the LINK.

Now my Golf Midlet runs correctly which I believe means all the other Java apps should work, as well.  Now I need to track some down!

Took few pictures at the cabin for the weekend. Coverage was spotty here so picture mail took a while to send. Roaming kicked in a few times, too. Now that ubiquitous is available, sensitivity to signal and coverage area is more of a conxern.

3/2/08 @ Big Bear Lake

So, this whole business with Java supported or not supported by the Palm Centro...  Even with first hand testing, I cant honestly tell.  Some Java apps seem to run fine, others don't.  And usually, when I'm doing anything Java (ala non-Centro built-in apps) the handset is just crashy.  I must have crashed more times tonight then I have ever crashed in the past two weeks combined!  All because I was getting a little bored and wanted try something new.

First foray was getting Opera.  By going in on the mini.opera.org site and allow the site to determine my handset compatibility, I was advised to download Opera Mini 3, which I did.  It loaded and saved and installed just fine.  However, it wont do anything past loading the first page.  It looks good until you try to do anything with it.  It starts bringing up some kind of license agreement thing but before I can agree to it, poof.  Red Palm logo, then Orange Palm logo, and Welcome to Sprint...  Tried that twice just to make sure I'm not crazy and when the result was the same I figure I get a little more bold and adventurous.  The website indicated that Palm755p can support Opera Mini 4 so I jumped to the version 4 download page, bypassing the autodetect.  Downloaded it and the same painless install occurs.  Opera Mini 4 also loaded up the front page just fine.  That's a good sign.  I was able to bring up the entire front page of NY Times (not that I read them, really, it was just a default link at the front page and I wasn't in the typing mood).  The zoom in and zoom out feature was really neat.  Read a few articles like how the stock market was falling today (bleh) and looked at the front picture.  That move, though, may have proven to be a poor choice.  When I then tried to bring up a few more pages, first I was flashed wtih a not enough memory error and then a harder crash after another move.  So, in short.  Opera isn't all that stable on the Centro, yet.  At least, with what I have done with it so far.  Of course, the phone is getting warm and now running low on battery so off it goes to its charger for the daily charging routine.  Really, I don't remember this bad a battery performance since my Startac slim battery days...

Now that I have received my first bill, twice, I guess I officially qualify for membership into the club and wear the title.  For some reason, Sprint felt compelled to send me two identical bills, I suppose they covered two pay periods, one to catch up to their billing cycle and another one for a full cycle.  It's not due for another 3 weeks though.

At this point, it's more down to the mundane and the ordinary as far as a PDA/smart phone is concerned.  Syncing with Outlook, got all my contacts in just fine.  Played Sudoku for a while last night.  Why is that game even remotely interesting anyway?  There must be an interesting case of game/human psychology study in there.  Why do people like to rearrange numbers and letters for no other appearant rewards and/or satisfactions?  Oh, I digress...

Back on the topic of all things Centro.  With lower usage, the battery is surviving the day.  I think the trick with battery life on Centro is that it basically shuts down as soon as it could, if not sooner than usual because of such a short battery capacity in the first place and it must have a really good sleep mode because the battery bar does stay up for a long time if you don't use the thing.  That's just it, though, Centro designers...  You may have given the user the impression of a (still not so) long standby time.  What good is a phone like the Centro if it's put in standby all the time?  It's a phone that is begging to be used, with the plethora of apps available and many new ways of tapping into this ubiquitous always-on internet connected life.  I know, I know, it will kill the battery even more.  So that's just it, isn't it?  The battery life is the bane of the existence of the Centro.  We really do need an extended capacity battery.  I know if I really utilized the Centro the way I could imagine it to the fullest extent, the standard battery wont last a complete session...

While technically not included with the plan, I did try out a little app called PDANet for the Centro.  It works as advertised. 

Tethered today. Fast 1.5Mbps down and 128Kbps down. Battery is still requiring daily charge. Even with reduced usage.

Reboots, battery hot...

Likes: touch screen, almost always on

Dislikes: almost always on, java vm? reboots

The battery problem continues to cast a cloud over the future of the Centro.  It would appear that the battery heats up to something I have never experienced on an hand held device in the past during more heavy usage.  This might be one of the reason the battery life is short.  I wonder if it is a defective battery or just a design flaw of the hardware that at some point the system is drawing more current than the battery is able to provide.

Another Palm "artificat" is starting to bug me slightly.  It would appear that PalmOS doesn't not multi-task, at least, not too terribly well.  I always scratched my head why there wasn't a back button like the Dash had or if there isn't a quick way to switch between tasks.  Turns out, most things I am doing with the Centro I'm only doing a single application at a time.  How could this be a "feature"?!?!?  In 2008!?!?!  On a phone with EVDO Rev.A braodband wireless access to the entire world!?!?!

I sincerely hope this doesn't mean that what I may be doing on the phone could be interrupted when a call comes in and I pause to answer it.  I just cant fathom if it doesn't work well the phone would be even considered useful.

On a positive note, I was able to watch video for almost half hour straight (when I noticed that the battery was getting hto to touch), check the weather while I was eating dinner at a resturaunt, update my facebook status, IM a friend and discussed Apple TV, and discovered that Noggin isn't very mobile phone friendly, I guess my little 3 year old wont be getting a Centro any time soon now, even though he would probably be the next in line for the Centro as soon as the contract is up! :)  I haven't checked it out yet but looks like I'm outgrowing the built-in web browser.  Time to check out Opera.  And there's something wrong with Flash being an older version too.  More investigation to be posted.